Ok. I have been waiting to do this post for a long time now. And i’ve pushed it far enough (for the fear of jinxing the trip) just till everything fell into place. Which it almost did – until it fell apart this morning. Hehe - so much for waiting for the perfect moment huh? So no better time like now.
In a few hours, I leave for Prague with my friend (yeaaay!!!) – which is where our official Europe trip starts. I’ve been researching Europe for a while now, and somehow after always finding reasons to push it out, this year I thought I have to make it happen. I was contemplating travelling alone – but I doubt I would have really done that. And so, when my friend also joined in, there was no turning back.
Czech had caught my fancy at a time when it was still offbeat. And though it is definitely mainstream now (I personally have heard of quite a few people who have been there this year), it hasn’t lost its sheen in my eyes. I can’t remember how I zeroed in on Croatia - probably when my other friend said that she finds beaches more exciting that architecture. Vienna was added in because it was on my friends wishlist and Bratislava as a transit point.
So, it came together as Česká republika, Österreich, Slovensko and Hr̀vātskā. (Don't you love the way the names roll off your tongue???)
We were tightly timing our visas and it seemed every possible delay was going to happen to our visas. The schengen which should have been a cake walk, took a few days longer. Every extra day the schengen took, meant lesser days for the Croatian. The Croatian – well, what should have happened on Monday, was magically pushed out by another day and another day. Finally – yesterday we were relieved. The Croatian visa had been stamped. Only, to find today, when we got our passports in hand, that our Croatian visa falls short by 2 days!@#$%!!!!
Our final flight is from Croatia to Mumbai – and so now we have to rework that. Most of all – of all the places, I’ve been really excited about Croatia and i had almost transported myself to its beaches and it seemed like a fitting end. Now the visa not only cuts our time in Croatia from 6-7 days to just 3 days, but also messes up our last few days.
The entire day, I don’t think i really believed this was happening and expected that magical last-minute-things-fall-into-place-end would be the end. But that isn’t our end and I am a little upset. Still - on the brighter side, I cant wait for tomorrow to start when I will finally land in Prague - (touchwood)!!!
