Euro Trip Begins - 1

After much wait and anticipation, we finally set off for mainland Europe.
Trip# 1: Amsterdam, Brugge and Brussels.
Duration: 4 days (Thursday night to Tuesday morning)

We took an Easy Jet flight from Edinburgh, £70pp return trip. We started Thursday afternoon, drove till Edinburgh airport, parked Lucy at low cost car park (£22 total) and made it to Amsterdam on Thursday night.

We stayed at Karo's B&B, a contact forwarded by fellow couch surfer. Karo was nice, the place was OK. There was a Argentinean chic staying at his place already. Karo briefed us with enough information to visit and see places in Amsterdam.

We started right away, ended up in internet coffee shop, encountered 'Shiva' and lost in the town totally ! After revolving around the town at least couple of times and asking way to about a dozen people, we finally managed to make it to Karo's place at 3am, lost and defeated.

30 days

Couple of 30 days challenges that I am holding at the moment started from 11/11/12 onward :

- No youtube.

- read at least 10 pages/day of any book.

I have this Bin Laden book to complete at the moment and then Problem Solving 101 coming on the way.

Party Time, Walk to Remember.

Today we are hosting a party for her new job. Lot of people are coming, we will try to play games and have fun.

Last weekend we went for a walk, it was our first way. It was about 3miles along the coast. On a way we reached to a ruined castle. It was beautiful. We thought of giving it up in between but we carried on anyways and felt really good after we finished.

It was a good walk.

This is high time. I received my long awaited job offer from UK just last month. I have been waiting to apply for the visa now.

Last couple of weeks:
My manager asked me to travel to Egypt to help out on an offshore operation. Although I work for Europe and Sub Saharan Africa region and Egypt falls in MENA region and I can very well say no to this assignment, I displayed my good guy attitude and accepted it.
Now that operation in Egypt got cancelled and I had to spend stupid couple of weeks there doing nothing. Visa application got delayed.

Next couple of weeks:
My manager has asked me to travel to Norway to help out on another offshore operation. I am not sure when will that happen so I am sitting at home on standby mode. I can not apply for the visa as my passport will be retained at the embassy once I have applied. It'll take 3-4 weeks before I'll get my passport back. I am being very nice and very patience these days, which is not usual me.

I just hope it'll all work out fine. If it'll not, it'll be a BIG mess. I'll create it for them.

Scotland

We have moved to Scotland. She is joining her new job from Monday onward.

Not sure how this new step will work out in longer term but we are looking forward to it. Hoping things will be great and we will be able to make the most out of it.

If things work out well then we both will not have to look for another job for the rest of our lives. This could mean less opportunities but good life.

Day# 2

We started the day with the best breakfast in the world. We ate till everyone else was done and hotel staff started staring us. Those hash brownies and pancakes had something supernatural into them!
We had this plan to go for whale watching to Kaikaura. The place was 170kms from CHC. We had a car and a GPS, nothing can stop us. I reached the car and Hello! I am not able to start it. This is embarrassing. I went to call the chauffer and he started it at once. I asked him to let me try once and I couldn’t do that again. Even more embarrassing!! Later I figured out the use of breaks while starting the car.
We started for the whale watching center. This was probably the best way I had ever drove a car. Rail track follows all way long. Grass everywhere. Even the mountains are covered with grass. There are cow, sheep and deer farms along the way. The cows are so beautiful. The sky is clean and sun is bright. We are not feeling cold anymore. I felt like I have achieved my ultimate honeymoon driving destination. Soon the vast lands would finish and here come the much awaited ocean. Shades of blue in the water! Now one side was the water and other side was the mountain.


We reached Whale watching center wondering how someone can possibly track a whale down in the wide deep ocean. The group before us came back happy; they claimed to see couple of whales and few naughty dolphins. Impressive!
We started for the trip. I asked the guide for the best seat in the boat. I was determined to take that one. She said her seat is the best!
We saw Tiaki the whale with all his glory. He was 21m huge and really massive. There was a strange excitement in the air around him. There were two more boats other than ours. He doesn’t seem to care about any of these. He came on the surface to breathe and returned back in the blue ocean. Tiaki was on surface for about 10 minutes, giving everyone sufficient time to zoom in and zoom out.


We saw couple of groups of the dolphins too. They are naturally naughty animal. They were following the cruise, bouncing and jumping in their own way. It was certainly joyful to watch such a cheerful animal.
We then return back to the land satisfied. There was a train track right behind the whale watch station and the train timings were according to the trip schedules- or may be the other way round. We went to grab lunch. That was a handsome burger we had.
We drove back to the town and had the dinner at Two Fat Indians- they changed us $3 for the pickle!! Food was Okay.
We came back to the hotel, saw the pics we clicked that day and prepared ourselves for tomorrow’s big journey.

Day# 1

I asked her a night before and she said she can’t imagine how that would be like. I asked myself to have the same answer; I can’t imagine how that would be like!
Butterflies in stomach!!
We woke up 0630 to start at 0800 from home to catch the flight at 1155. We had no idea where we were going and what we were about to experience.
We started clicking random pictures as soon as we reached the international terminal. We have 2 complete GB pictures to click. We got the lounge access coupons. I handed them to her as we lined up for security check in.
After the security check in we find our way to the lounge when I asked her for the coupons. Instead of coupons she found a used boarding pass in her pocket. The name was Malvendra Chanani. We were completely stunned and laughing like hell. We anyhow went to the lounge and managed (of course) our way in.
Inside was beautiful. All different types of cornflakes, fruits, juices, beers. It was too early of the day for a beer. I opened a pint and started to swallow Kingfisher. She had flavored yoghurt. She liked it.


We boarded into the flight and being tired from last night, slept immediately. It was business class, nice and comfortable. We decided to keep the blanket and traveler kits. I wanted to keep those headphones too but she said a no. We woke up and had the lunch. It was not too bad. I started with the champagne. The only fact I know about champagne was they charged it $8 a peg when you travel in economy class. So no matter which brand it is or what time it is, when it’s free, just drink.
The airhostess asked for the blanket on our way out. I said, ‘Yeah, we have decided to keep it!’

We landed Thailand International airport and ran to our lives to catch the connection to Sydney. We realized that Thailand airport is really huge. We boarded into the flight and crashed straight away. We grabbed two more traveler’s kit and now no more space was left in our bag.
The Sydney airport is beautiful. It’s a strip extended into water. We saw the lonely planet outlet at the transit. We clicked some other pictures and sat by the side of the departure gate, we were too tired.
We slept as soon as we boarded the Sydney- Christchurch flight. It was economy class for her and upgraded to business for me. I gave my seat up and went to sit with her. A man was really happy to be sent to business from economy. We were happy too.