How many of you remember your first flight experience or for that matter your first long journey outside your home on your own?
If I am not mistaken, all you have to do is close your eyes and it all comes back to you with crystal clear details.
My first flight was when I flew to start my first onsite assignment with Nokia in Finland.
There was a fear mixed with anxiety of going away from my home for a long period and also a sense of adventure about visiting a place which I had never heard of before. I was also curious how any place on earth could be covered in darkness for 6 months and that the sun never set during summer. The only information I had was from my geography lessons from school and from my stamp collection hobby as a kid. I didnt even remember where exactly on an atlas Finland existed! I guess my family was as shocked as I was when they heard that I was going to Finland. They were curious too and my dad actually looked up an atlas to tell me it was between Russia and Sweden.
Few months later, I took my first step when i entered the Air-India flight bound for Frankfurt. The first take off experience was amazing and I was wonder struck at the ingenuity of mankind. I felt like I was a school kid all over again trying to comprehend how on earth could such a massive thing keep afloat in the air. After these pensive thoughts, I had my dinner and dozed off dreaming about the "land of thousand lakes" and all the things that I would do when i reached there.
When I opened my eyes the pilot was showing us the snow clad Alps on our way to Frankfurt.
There was more in store for the kid in me when I reached Frankfurt. Coming from a small place in Southern part of India, I had never seen the huge infrastructure in place!
The sky train in particular made me feel as though I was in a futuristic movie, then onto my connecting flight to Helsinki which was smaller than the earlier plane. While waiting in the boarding queue I got a glimpse of the people I would later interact in the course of my 18 month stay in Finland.
The flight route to Helsinki was very scenic. I had slept very well during my earlier flight so I was looking through the window through out the flight. Also on the way to the plane I picked up a Finnish newspaper (think it was
Helsingin Sanomat
) and I was surprised that it is written using English alphabets (except for few specialise alphabets). Also I was quick to observe the very long words they had!
Breakfast was served as it was a morning flight and here is where the vegeterian confusion began when I asked for a vegeterian option. I was given a baguette which was supposedly vegeterian and I started eating it only to realise after the first bite that it contained cold smoked salmon ! I was pretty angry and I told the hostess that I asked for vegeterian breakfast to which she argued it was a vegeterian and that she had nothing else. I finally had to eat some peanuts and orange juice
For Asians, vegeterian means "no fish, no eggs, no meat, no sea food".
My tip for people travelling to Europe, pls specify what vegeterian means, else you will definitely get a sandwich with fish or seafood.
The view is very beautiful from the air over Finland, you start to clearly understand why Finland is called the "Land of thousand lakes". As it was summer, it looked very green and covered with lots of water.
The plan landed and when I got out the plane I enjoyed the cold breeze and the taste of fresh air. When I left Bangalore, the temperature was around 39 degrees celsius and here I was in Helsinki with temperature measuring 2 degrees celsius, what a contrast!
Another interesting incident was when a colleague flew from Chennai to Helsinki during peak winter(January). He had to suffer a massive temperature change, from +40 degrees in Chennai to -30 degrees in Helsinki!
