Bratislava, Slovakia. Wednesday, 10th May 2017
Etihad Airways' flight EY-71 from Abu Dhabi was losing height, as the pilot prepared to land. As the aircraft cleared the clouds and came lower, we were met by the now familiar sight of vast, alternatingly green/brown/yellow patches, interspersed with red and brown roofs and the outstanding church turret, on the ground. The sight was not just familiar but extremely soothing. It meant that we were about to land in Europe!
The feeling of being in Europe is indescribable. We were relieved too, as this time we were coming from the furnace called Abu Dhabi. As we disembarked from the aircraft, the feeling could best be described through the old Hindi adage about "Subah ka bhoola...". Europe puts us at ease and warmly welcomes us each time. Even the chill winds seem to blow from familiar territory. This time we can say that we have visited one new place - Belgrade, even though we were only transiting to Vienna through Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport. We exited the aircraft in a hurry (did not have too much time to catch the onward flight to Vienna) and soon located Gate no. 35 and the Serbian security. The procedures completed, we boarded the aircraft of Air Serbia - a tiny one still using propellers!
The flight lasted an hour and twenty minutes during which we were served snacks and beverages. The snacks were in the form of a sandwich wrapped in transparent plastic. As I was about to open it and stuff the inviting sandwich into my mouth, I happened to glance at the ingredients. One of them read 'beef salad'! Had we bitten into it, our next trip would have been to Kashi, Mathura, Dwarka and Jagannath Puri rather than to Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg!! We had to go without a snack, as the myopic Serbians had failed to equip the flight kitchen with any other eatable. Contented myself with red wine, while Urmila consoled herself with a cup of tea.
