Touring Europe – A Flight of Fantasy

In the year 2018, before the pandemic hit us all, when travel din’t involve RTPCR , when we only had to deal with visa and figure out what to see , we were eyeing Europe for a vacation. After a little bit of looking around and talking to few tour operators, we realised we simply cannot afford it!

I was hyper-ventilating to Mr.Husband,

Me: “By the time we save enough to travel, we would become too old!... I don’t want to go to Paris in our 50s!...What do we do??... I don't wanna thrifty backpacking trip either… I wanna savour the Europe experience... I wanna see the flying buttress....”

Mr.Husband: "See the flying What???!"

“Flying Buttress!"

(Hahahaha!....He was laughing hysterically)

"Don’t Laugh! It’s not what you think it is. It’s an ancient structural system used in Notre Dame! You are supposed to be the structural engineer here! Google it if you don’t believe me!”

“Ok Ok! but let’s wait for few more years & save up... The kids will grow up a bit too...then we will see the Butt-ress..." (Still giggling)

“Nothing is gonna change in few years… you are just saying these to appease me…”

“See,...For Europe we have to use a good tour operator for planning… they'll ofcourse charge a premium… maybe it’s too soon for us to be thinking …”

I interrupted.... “ORRRR … I’LL BE THE PLANNER!... we will simply cut all the middlemen costs & directly hit the source. That's it!”

At this point, Mr.Husband has had enough. I was at the peak of my annoying unrelenting mode. He knew exactly what to say, as always! - “Okaayyy… Let’s see how your fantasy pans out…” But he said that with an ain't-gonna-happen straight face.

Still, I was sooooo excited!

AND he was sooooo relieved that the conversation was finally over!!

I don’t blame him for the straight face, even I wasn’t sure if I’ll be able to pull it off.

But, I happily drifted onto My Flight Of Fantasy . That teeny-weeny possibility was enough to get me going.

Planning EuroTrip was No Joke.

Next few months, I distilled tonnes and tonnes of research to figure out what was logistically feasible, lite on the pocket and medium paced. I shortlisted cities, attractions and prepared different itineraries. It started out as a wishful idea out of nowhere, but the more I was planning, the more I was glued to that idea!

On Sat, Jan 5, 2019, 3:50 AM

Mr.Husband was fast asleep & I tried to wake him up.

Me: “Where is your Citibank card?

Mr.Husband: “What? What time is it? What are you doing with laptop?

“The Sale is On! We need to book!”

“What Sale? Book what?”

“Our flight to Paris!”

“Are you crazy?”

“After so many years , you still have doubts??”

“Not funny. Let’s discuss tomorrow. Now, go to sleep.”

“No!! The sale is on! The direct flight to Paris is 15k! … we are not gonna get such a deal if we wait until tomorrow!… I don't have a Citibank card, I need yours to book...”

“Wait what?! Did you just say 15k for a Direct International Flight to Paris from Chennai?!”

“Really! Look for yourself!”

And…

On Sat, Jan 5, 2019, 4:16 AM,

We really booked our Flight to Fantasy-Land

Surreal, But True!

PS: To cover the tips on what worked and what didn't in our trips I have created a Category “Travel Musings” . Watch out for the series - “Europe Cheat Sheet"

Bookmark it for future reference; Trust me, it’ll definitely come in handy!

A Flight Of Fantasy - Is an imaginative but unrealistic idea.

Flying Buttress - It's an arch that extends (“flies”) from the upper part of a wall to a pier and carries the thrust of a roof or vault. The flying buttress evolved in the Gothic era.