AmreekaTrip [One] Always remember all your bags. Seriously, check again.
[This one is for those of you who told me you were expecting Blahber to be updated when I told you about my summer vacation plans. Those of you who have some lingering faith about my teeny non-lazy side when it comes to writing. :)]
That's how I imagine I would start this series about my Summer of '15 trip to the USA, if this were a novel or a book. Or something like that. And sure, perhaps a blog could also begin like that too. But honestly, I don't trust myself to go on chronologically about this trip. In fact, I have been sorting out categories, in my mind, about how to write this one out, for a whiile. Talk about the (mis)adventures in one go, the food in another, the places in yet another? I don't know what would work out best. And since, this trip (and life) have taught me that the best laid plans often don't go down the way you want them to - I'll see how this rolls. I have now written a whole paragraph in my characteristic irrelevant rant form. I can safely move forward now.
A little bit of background for those who're unaware about the happenings of the past month or two. I finished my Master's degree. I think J(aa)NU and I are done for now. Maybe we'll pick up where we left off in a few years, or many years or perhaps not at all. I mean, academically. Otherwise, J(aa)NU's still around the corner from my home and it's gates are always open, as are it's dhabhas and island-like feel. My cousin Archita is still finishing up the last bits of her degree at Madras School of Economics. However, she had about a month-long gap between classes and finals. Our brothers have been living in the US for close to six years now. They were amazing enough to gift her and me this trip! (Shout out to sponsors? Check.)
Since both of us had been to the US once before, this trip wasn't going to cover too many places - primarily based around our brothers (West & North West) and New York (East), because it is New York. I really don't need to say much more.
Plan of Action:
We would land in New York, stay with cousins (thanks for having us, Divija, Arun, Hamsa and for meeting us, Jonathan) explore the city for 4-5 days. We would then head to Mountainview in California, about 6 hours away to the other coast, to Akshay Bhaiya. This involved visiting the bay area (San Francisco) and around (Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz). Final stop was Seattle and staying with Anand Bhaiya & Susmita (or rather, Bellevue, east of Lake Washington). While at Seattle, we would go for a weekend trip to Lake Chelan - about three hours away from Bellevue. While I would stick around for an extra week at Seattle, Archita would back home. You know, to um, take some finals and finish a dissertation.
I'm not sure what I headed out expecting from this trip. While I wish we could have done more - perhaps covered a few more things in each city, planned more effectively - I'm glad I got to do this. However, we must get back to Minnie and the first of our adventures in Murica.
Also, I'm going to backtrack to Munich, before Minnie and Murica.
Our flight from New Delhi to Munich was uneventful and pretty comfortable. Archita and I had this amazing moment when we looked out of the window in the middle of the night, right after watching The Theory of Everything, to gaze at the stars looking at their prettiest, most mesmerizing best. Since the Lufthansa ad with the little boy and his grandfather tipped us, we didn't panic and wonder if we were on 'thee wrong plane'.
We landed pretty early in the morning at Munich. This meant that most things were shut in the airport. Which was disappointing - I had actually looked this up before leaving India about what a vegetarian could eat. I made notes, about the airport. Seriously. "The airport provides free WiFi for 24 hours - you only need to register with your email ID." - that turned out to be correct. We sat around at empty gates, walked around a bit and freshened up. Then we finally saw this cafe-like establishment open up. Breakfast time!
Minnie was a sweet, middle-aged, United Airways rep sitting at the baggage services counter. We explained what had happened. She asked for the baggage tags and looked it up. Which is when she told me that my bag was possibly still in Munich. And that the earliest it could reach me by was on the next flight, perhaps a day later. Our hearts sank. Archita kept persuading her to check again. It took a while before she found out that it was in another terminal altogether. She was really motherly through the whole process, actually. She explained that customs had a schedule for clearing out bags like this and that it probably wouldn't be out till later that day. It was already 3.30 PM by then - we had cleared immigration at around 1.35. She asked for a description of the bag and our local address. She promised to have the bag sent to our local address the next day - a complimentary service, because she didn't want us coming all the way from Brooklyn to pick it up. But honestly, I would have come wherever I needed to as long as I was getting the bag. Once that was sorted, we finally relaxed a bit. There was some technical loophole that seemed to allow Archita to log on to their WiFi for another free 30 minutes and got in touch with Divija. We decided to give the sim cards another go. Some international sim card for 20 dollars seemed like the option we understood the most at that point - the options printed on the vending machine and the ones available seemed to be contradictory. Anyway, we had data to get us through.
We did the air train again. And then, the train to New York Penn Station. When we got off, it reminded me of an underground railway station. Luckily, there was an elevator and so we didn't have to carry our luggage up the stairs. We waited around for Divija. Amazing people watching opportunity, by the way. There were trains going to different cities as well as different parts of the city. A whole bunch of people could be seen gathering around the TVs displaying train schedules. Random musicians. Tourists. And this one old guy who passed us by and said to us, "how's it going ladies? don't worry, it gets better." It was oddly comforting, apt and creepy - all at the same time.
We finally met up with Divija and her roommate. I was starving at that point. If I didn't have some food in my system, I usually have immense potential for turning into a A-one mean, cranky jerk. After getting a hummus roll and just chilling for a bit, we finally decided to take the last leg of the journey towards Williamburg - our home for the next few days.
It was incredibly unfortunate to carry all that luggage up and down staircases. But I have to admit, there were helpful strangers. One guy was coming down the stairs when he noticed me lugging this huge suitcase up the stairs. Before I could protest or politely decline, he quickly said, "Let me help you" and carried my suitcase super quick. What he didn't realise was that one of my fingers was still hanging on to the bag kind of got crushed by the time we reached the top of the stairs.
Williamsburg felt like walking through a TV show or movie set. It felt surreal and pretty amazing walking to Divija's apartment - which was a beauty. I managed to stay up till almost 9.30 on my first night and then had the most satisfying sleep ever!
More to follow.
"So, I've looked it up. And I think your bag is actually still in Munich.", said Minnie at the United Baggage Services at Newark Airport.
That's how I imagine I would start this series about my Summer of '15 trip to the USA, if this were a novel or a book. Or something like that. And sure, perhaps a blog could also begin like that too. But honestly, I don't trust myself to go on chronologically about this trip. In fact, I have been sorting out categories, in my mind, about how to write this one out, for a whiile. Talk about the (mis)adventures in one go, the food in another, the places in yet another? I don't know what would work out best. And since, this trip (and life) have taught me that the best laid plans often don't go down the way you want them to - I'll see how this rolls. I have now written a whole paragraph in my characteristic irrelevant rant form. I can safely move forward now.
A little bit of background for those who're unaware about the happenings of the past month or two. I finished my Master's degree. I think J(aa)NU and I are done for now. Maybe we'll pick up where we left off in a few years, or many years or perhaps not at all. I mean, academically. Otherwise, J(aa)NU's still around the corner from my home and it's gates are always open, as are it's dhabhas and island-like feel. My cousin Archita is still finishing up the last bits of her degree at Madras School of Economics. However, she had about a month-long gap between classes and finals. Our brothers have been living in the US for close to six years now. They were amazing enough to gift her and me this trip! (Shout out to sponsors? Check.)
Since both of us had been to the US once before, this trip wasn't going to cover too many places - primarily based around our brothers (West & North West) and New York (East), because it is New York. I really don't need to say much more.
Plan of Action:
We would land in New York, stay with cousins (thanks for having us, Divija, Arun, Hamsa and for meeting us, Jonathan) explore the city for 4-5 days. We would then head to Mountainview in California, about 6 hours away to the other coast, to Akshay Bhaiya. This involved visiting the bay area (San Francisco) and around (Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz). Final stop was Seattle and staying with Anand Bhaiya & Susmita (or rather, Bellevue, east of Lake Washington). While at Seattle, we would go for a weekend trip to Lake Chelan - about three hours away from Bellevue. While I would stick around for an extra week at Seattle, Archita would back home. You know, to um, take some finals and finish a dissertation.
I'm not sure what I headed out expecting from this trip. While I wish we could have done more - perhaps covered a few more things in each city, planned more effectively - I'm glad I got to do this. However, we must get back to Minnie and the first of our adventures in Murica.
Also, I'm going to backtrack to Munich, before Minnie and Murica.
 |
| Lufthansa - more Indian than we thought |
We landed pretty early in the morning at Munich. This meant that most things were shut in the airport. Which was disappointing - I had actually looked this up before leaving India about what a vegetarian could eat. I made notes, about the airport. Seriously. "The airport provides free WiFi for 24 hours - you only need to register with your email ID." - that turned out to be correct. We sat around at empty gates, walked around a bit and freshened up. Then we finally saw this cafe-like establishment open up. Breakfast time!
I think we had a couple of moments which reminded us that we were outside India for real. People drinking beer at 7.30 AM. And tipping. We were to pay by card and there was an awkward moment when we were wondering why he kept offering us a pen when clearly we had signed. We had to fill an amount for the tip. We took a while to process this - even googled up how much was appropriate to tip. However, since the server was hovering around, we filled in some amount and paid up before finding any decisive search result.
We headed on for boarding a little while after - roamed the terminal a bit. If I'm not wrong, that was the first of the series of delayed flights on that trip. Unfortunately, we were seated in the row right before the toilets. Very very unpleasant. You're about to fall into sweet sweet sleep on an 8 hour long flight. And then, someone flushes in the toilet right behind your seat. Or someone gets pushed to your row while making space for another to pass. It felt like the longest flight of our lives. The landing was insanely bumpy - possibly the most bumps ever.
After what felt like the longest, sleepless, exhausting flight, with the most flush sounds and the bumpiest landing, we were obviously thrilled to see the long line at immigration. Waiting for an hour in the line felt like icing on the cake. Clearly, we had jumped to conclusions too soon. Our tryst with the immigration officer lasted about 15 minutes. We had been worried about worst case situations with the immigration officer not allowing us to step inside the United States because we're in the age-group which is looking for employment, after grad school. I was ready to engage him/her in an existentialist discussion when he/she would ask, "Why are you here?" with the reply "Why are any of us here?". My brain however, was on vacation after the wonderful trans-Atlantic journey. Clearly, the immigration officer didn't see us as a threat to the American job market when he asked us what we majored in. Honestly, I have known that look since age 16 when I told uncles and aunties I was studying social sciences/humanities/sociology. Of course, 'actuarial economics' was backed up with I have a job offer back home. So, all good.
Newark Airport has free WiFi for only 30 minutes, after which there is a fee by the hour. We decided to use the WiFi in turns. I went off to the restroom, leaving Archita to pick up our baggage. Divija was supposed to meet us at New York Penn Station. The way to get there was to take the air train from the terminal we were at to the New Jersey Transit Station, and then a train to Penn Station. Sounded simple enough. People did travel these distances in the pre-mobile phone and pre-internet/WiFi era.
We crossed customs - even helped an old Indian uncle with translation from English to Hindi and back. We first looked at vending machines selling sim cards. A friend of mine had warned me that while they may seem like an economic, attractive option at the time - but really, they turn out to be the opposite. So we decided to head on to the air train and decide to go old school and meet Divija at some place at Penn Station, given some time estimate. All this while, I wondered if something is missing from the trolley.
We reached the last air train station, the NJ Transit station. After a point, we couldn't have taken the trolley any further and had to purchase tickets. And while offloading the bags, it hit me. My bag was missing. Archita didn't register when I asked her where my smaller bag was. Thorough, meticulous Archita forgot to pick up my smaller bag. Clearly, that was some tiring journey. We had a mini panic attack. I was worried they may destroy the bag given it was unclaimed - since paranoia takes the form of security there. Not that I can blame them for it.
As our luck would have it, the air train got suspended right then. And WiFi coverage didn't extend to that last station. We were worried that Divija would have started for Penn Station by that time. I was hungry and cranky. Archita was exhausted and apologetic. And the air train just wasn't working. It didn't help that the air train attendant we explained our problem to didn't seem optimistic at that time.
About 20 minutes or so later, we reached the terminal. After asking around, we saw the baggage services counter. That's where we met Minnie.
Minnie was a sweet, middle-aged, United Airways rep sitting at the baggage services counter. We explained what had happened. She asked for the baggage tags and looked it up. Which is when she told me that my bag was possibly still in Munich. And that the earliest it could reach me by was on the next flight, perhaps a day later. Our hearts sank. Archita kept persuading her to check again. It took a while before she found out that it was in another terminal altogether. She was really motherly through the whole process, actually. She explained that customs had a schedule for clearing out bags like this and that it probably wouldn't be out till later that day. It was already 3.30 PM by then - we had cleared immigration at around 1.35. She asked for a description of the bag and our local address. She promised to have the bag sent to our local address the next day - a complimentary service, because she didn't want us coming all the way from Brooklyn to pick it up. But honestly, I would have come wherever I needed to as long as I was getting the bag. Once that was sorted, we finally relaxed a bit. There was some technical loophole that seemed to allow Archita to log on to their WiFi for another free 30 minutes and got in touch with Divija. We decided to give the sim cards another go. Some international sim card for 20 dollars seemed like the option we understood the most at that point - the options printed on the vending machine and the ones available seemed to be contradictory. Anyway, we had data to get us through.
We did the air train again. And then, the train to New York Penn Station. When we got off, it reminded me of an underground railway station. Luckily, there was an elevator and so we didn't have to carry our luggage up the stairs. We waited around for Divija. Amazing people watching opportunity, by the way. There were trains going to different cities as well as different parts of the city. A whole bunch of people could be seen gathering around the TVs displaying train schedules. Random musicians. Tourists. And this one old guy who passed us by and said to us, "how's it going ladies? don't worry, it gets better." It was oddly comforting, apt and creepy - all at the same time.
We finally met up with Divija and her roommate. I was starving at that point. If I didn't have some food in my system, I usually have immense potential for turning into a A-one mean, cranky jerk. After getting a hummus roll and just chilling for a bit, we finally decided to take the last leg of the journey towards Williamburg - our home for the next few days.
It was incredibly unfortunate to carry all that luggage up and down staircases. But I have to admit, there were helpful strangers. One guy was coming down the stairs when he noticed me lugging this huge suitcase up the stairs. Before I could protest or politely decline, he quickly said, "Let me help you" and carried my suitcase super quick. What he didn't realise was that one of my fingers was still hanging on to the bag kind of got crushed by the time we reached the top of the stairs.
Williamsburg felt like walking through a TV show or movie set. It felt surreal and pretty amazing walking to Divija's apartment - which was a beauty. I managed to stay up till almost 9.30 on my first night and then had the most satisfying sleep ever!
 |
| In Williamsburg. |
More to follow.
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