The Journey begins...
The waiting for Visa killed my patience. I thought I would loose an opportunity to visit because of Visa rejection. But before few days of departure, I got it confirmed. The dreams of my trip has already taken off. The Air India flight depart from New Delhi to Madrid (Thrice in a week) at 4 pm. After completing the boarding procedures, I moved to Boarding gate no. 4. Flights to Dubai was also leaving from there. But for me, it was surprising that the the departure gate was less crowded and more passengers were foreign citizens.
The boarding time was given one hour departure of the flight. This buffer time include an extra verification procedure by Air India staff to make sure that passengers to Spain are holding proper documents including visa.
The Air India flight was parked at the parking bay, the bus carrying passengers moved to the aircraft, and my mind was filled with lot of thoughts and bit of tension that I am leaving India, even though it is for a short period. Out side temperature was about 43 degrees while moving towards the ladder to the flight.
The aircraft is Boeing Dreamliner. My seat was in the second row of the economy class and a window seat (thanks to Aditya who did my booking). The aircraft has all latest features, but as a government carrier, I found that:-
The TV screen was not working,
The Window glare control switch didn't work
The remote of the screen was damaged and some of the buttons were damaged....
The crew welcomed the passengers and a smooth take off took us to the heights..
The directional map showed that the flight route is over the airspace of Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and the Eastern Europe.
The flight was less crowded and the passengers seems to be enjoying their trip. My next seat was vacant. The passenger next to me introduced himself that he is a professional advocate working with American Express in Delhi. I didn't initiate much discussions as I had a lazy mind to talk with him.
The flight crew helped me to reset the entertainment system, but it didnt worked. My window opened my world to the beautiful landscapes of Afgan, Iran, Caspian Sea, Armenia, Ionian Sea.
View of the Mountain Ararat border of Turkey
Since I was travelling to the west, the day prolonged and there was no darkness outside. After a sumptuous meal, I went to a nap. Around 9, local time at Spain, I woke up with an announcement that we are reaching Madrid. The flight was about to land in few minutes. The view was amazing. Lot of small patches of farm areas.
After the longest flight in my life (around 9 hours), I landed in Madrid. It is 9.30 local time, that is 1.30 am next day in India (Time difference 4.30 hrs). The summer day didn't end and the sunlight appeared like a sunny evening of India at around 5.30 pm. While stepping out of the flight the cold wind was striking heavily. The shuttle took us to the terminal arrival point.