What a journey!!!Came to Madras airport at around 10:00 in the night with all my folks.. Needless to say that some of them were emotional.. The date was aug 19th.. the flight eventually took off by 2:30 Am late by almost an hour... So the journey was kinda different being surrounded by strangers from different countries.. As the journey went on, I grew impatient. The food stuff n all was too different and I was watching how the others were taking their food. It was seriously an embarassing position to be in. Eventually I managed to have my dinner... So much for relative relief.. I thought was done with .. But nope.. That was my first hurdle.. Finally the plane landed at frankfurt...was expecting it to be cold but it seemd jus like India.. Took 3 hours to get past security though.. Then finally boarded the US airways plane to charlotte.. The take off for some reason seemed quite jerky.. And then the plane crossed UK n must have flown for an hour over the atlantic ocean n all through there was jerk when the pilot announced that the plane had a problem and that we had to make an emergency landing at london. people got quite jittery n started to panic a lil bit.. Initially i was excited cos I was going to London!!!But then I guess i picked the wrong time to go to London.. Finally the plane made a decent landing in London airport but we wernt allowed to go out.. after waiting on the plane for an hour and a half, they finally let us out.. then i went n got my UK visa stamped on my passport.. this was getting tooooo exciting at this stage.. They gave us vouchers for 20 pounds to spend for dinner and checked us into "The Hilton" which was top class.. Then we shopped bigtime and bought anything and everything that was vegetarian... Went back to the room and found that i didnt have enough room in my stomach for three fourths of what I bought.. Then threw those out and went to sleep after making a call to home and asked them not to worry... So far so good.. Then I got up at 5:30 in the morning and ate some corn flakes.. Went to the airport to check in the baggages onto the plane that was supposed to leave at 11:00AM.. There was already quite a queue thanks to the increased security in that area. then after waiting for some half an hour, i found out that I had been standing on the wrong queue.. So next I moved to the "correct" queue. All of a sudden there was a huge inflow of passangers who had jus flown in and we were trapped right in the middle.. We actually feared for a stampede.. the police stepped in and tried to do something but by then we were squeezed by the crowd and somehow me and my travel partner were lost in the airport. GOD what an experience. then we somehow identified a Canadian who was travelling with us to Charlotte and asked him for help. He then allowed us to cut into the queue even as the rest of the passengers were throwing silent curses on us. God it felt happy to screw so many people. Half an hour later I realized that it was me how was getting screwed cos I was standing on the wrong line again. Damn It... what a day that was.. the canadian who let me in had actually changed his travel plans to catch a plane straight from london to canada. So then somehow after much deliberation I identified a Sardharji who was on board the Frankfurt to Charlotte plane. God!!!What a mixture of emotions. Then after clarifying with him if he was standing on the correct line I cut into that line again and once again earned the silent curses of people standing in the line behind me... The line actually strecthed for miles together but actually I was the one who had actually come first in the morning ahead of the rest. After reclaiming (self-claiming) the moral highground again, I finally reached the check in counter at 10:45. Then I was told that the plane from London to Charlotte was delayed and that it would take off only by 2:00 and that I could check in my baggage only after 11:30.. God what a way to get screwed all over again!!! i refused to leave the line and come back again and I sat in the US Airways office itself for some 2 hours again. Finally I went to the heck in counter again and again there was another surprise instore for me. they told me that I had to check in my carry on bag cos it was too large... Phew!! i pulled out the certificates that i had kept together anyway and checked in my baggage again. Finally I boarded the plane only by 3:00 in the evening thanks to another delay.. We got decent lunch on the plane and finally landed at charlotte at 8:30 Charlotte Time.. After going through the customs check and documentation done, i thought I was all set to take the plane to Minneapolis. But as if I hadnt had enough through out the day, there was yet another dramatic twist to the tale. The plane from Charlotte to Minneapolis had already left and so we had no choice but to spend a night at Charlotte. What a long day!!!! It wasnt jus that but the ladies at the US Airways counter jus gave us a voucher asking us to stay at "AmeriSuites Hotel" and $10 worth breakfast voucher and arrange ourselves the pickup and drop... If you wanted to know what I was going through at that point then imagine yourselves right on the other side of the earth in a land u know nothing apart n someone asks you to call up the hotel n make arrangements urself for the transport after having been through a severe loss of appetite and a mechanical failure on a plane half way across the atlantic. We wandered around the airport looking for a free call phone with wierd people throwing wierder looks at us. finally we managed to find a phone and made the phone call. the lady on the phone asked us to come outside the hotel and wait for a courtesy call- pick-up van. We waited for the van with the "Amerisuites board" for some half an hour n finally found one only to find that it was another branch of the hotel where we were supposed to go. We then had to wait for another 15 minutes and finally we boarded the van and got down and checked in at the hotel.Then we wanted to make phone calls to our house and so we had to use a credit card. After making 2 ISDs for some 20 minutes in total, we were handed a $170 bill. Man what a day!!! we went to sleep anyway and fresh from our london experience, we got up at 4:30 AM only to find out that there was no van to transport us back to the airport. The bill for $170 also had the room rent included in it and so since US airways had to pay for it, we got the bill reduced to $105... We then took a cab to charlotte airport for which we paid $20 after serious negotiations with the driver. We checked in our baggage at the airport and reconfirmed our tickets and slowly moved into an eatery. We got some water,milk and cornflakes only to find out that the $10 voucher was over already. After having the same milk+cornflake combo for the second morning in a row, we were proceeded to the gate where we were supposed to Minneapolis. By now, our luck had turned and had a smooth ride to Minneapolis and reached here by 10:30 AM Aug 21st. Then we look the super-shuttle to take us to our temporary accomodation and after reaching there, took a bath and made a hone call to home!!! what an Experience!!! while it was a pain in some places, I got to meet a lot of different people and it was a good learning experience!!!Phew!!So finally I am done with this huge post!!
