Around Scandinavia: Part One
In which I got readied to travel Europe again!
When I completed the Western Europe tour of May 2019,
I had a planned schedule to tick off more European countries in coming years. Little
did I knew that the pandemic of 2020 would change everything. Travelling so
many years now, I believe the destination chooses you. Finally, after six
years, got a calling from Europe for May 2025. I chose the Women Special
Scandinavia. I booked the tour, now starts the process of document preparation
for Schengen visa.
Schengen Visa
I had already done it once so this time it saved my efforts.
I submitted the documents at the Vasai Booking Office: six months’ salary
slips, six months’ salary account statement as well as personal account
statement (balance in personal account should be equivalent or more than the
tour cost), last three years ITRs, documents showing good amount of funds in
bank, leave sanction letter from office, photo as per specifications, etc.
Glevin from the visa team had already prepared the remaining documents: cover
letter, visa application form, appointment letter (booked the VFS appointment),
hotel reservations, flight bookings, itinerary, travel insurance, printout of
each page of passport, etc. I had to sign on few documents and hence my visa
application kit was prepared. It’s a folder in which all the documents are
placed in order. I had an appointment on 25th Feb, 2025 09:30am at
the VFS Global Bandra Office. Since it was 15min away from my office in
Santacruz, I did not take the day off but informed that I will be out for an hour.
I reached the VFS at 09:15am, appointment letter was checked at the entrance
gate, they asked us to wait at the sitting area, reached the ground floor of
VFS, passport was checked, proceeded to the 2nd floor, cleared the security
check, created a token on the kiosk and waited for my turn. Visa application
was through Norway consulate. It has to be either the first country to land on
or the country with maximum stay (Norway in my case). I was working from my
mobile till the time my token was called. All documents were checked and the
official was ticking off the same on the first page; she asked a few questions
related to the tour, asked to fill in a form for the courier address to send
the processed passport. Now wait for the biometric. Again, I got back on my
work on mobile. The biometric was done, few questions were asked, photo was
clicked and she sealed the envelope with my documents and passport. I got back
to office in 15min and was waiting to receive the visa stamp on my passport. I
received the passport courier at my office after few weeks and was very happy
to see the visa stamp. Finally!
Since the prerequisite for the tour is sorted, I
purchased euros from the Vasai Office. We received a voice call as well as WhatsApp
message from Tour Manager Vihar Thakur. There was a pre-departure zoom meeting
as well which elaborated the tour sightseeing, weather conditions, food,
currency, dos and don’ts, etc. One duffel trolley bag 10kg, one handbag 4kg,
one sling bag, was my luggage. I always pack as much as I can pick up on my
own. Well, the packing style varies from person to person. The most important
thing to be packed was the PASSPORT. I gave one set of passport and
visa copies, flight details, hotel details and itinerary to Mummy. So, in
this way I got tour ready for the next 10 days, make new friends, get to know
more about the places I would visit, capture memories in my camera and my eyes
and have loads of fun.
Departure from CSMIA (Chhatrapati
Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai): 26.05.2025
I reached the airport a night prior at 11pm. There was a lot of rush at the Departure gates, two gates specially reserved for Haj passengers. I walked till Gate 9 to avoid the queue. Passport and flight ticket were checked and I entered the airport. I had to kill time till 2am for the check-in counter to start. I queued up for the boarding pass at Gate 2 for the Turkish airlines, checked in my duffle bag, got two boarding passes: Mumbai to Istanbul and Istanbul to Copenhagen. I reached the security check counter at 02:30am, again there was a long queue. I reached the Immigration counter at 3am and the long queue continues. At 03:30am, I received the departure stamp and off I went to McDonalds for my airport breakfast for years, fries and pizza puff, only to be disappointed to hear that the counter is closed till 4:30am. My hanger made me lookout for another food joint. I ordered garlic breadstick at Pizza Hut at 4am, observed other passengers. I came back to McD to pick up chocolate muffin and water bottle and walked straight to the Gate 78, traversing through arrows and travelators. I had seen Swarnalata with a group of friends, we had travelled on the May 2019 Western Europe tour. But I wasn’t sure if it was actually her as I was drowsy. There is always a wish to meet someone from earlier tours and till date it never happened. I was quietly eating my muffin and praying for the boarding to start. It started at 6am as per seat zones.
The Turkish Airline TK0721 had seat arrangement as ABC | DEG | HJK and my seat was 37K. There was a lady on 37H, had a connecting flight to Mexico, she got a job there, and the middle seat was vacant. I put on the seat belt and slept, did not hear anything till the take off at 7am. Again, I slept till 08:30am, to be woken up by the flight attendant for meal.
After eating the meal, I spent some time talking to the lady and then we got busy with our screens. This is my first tour in which I had a movie watching marathon. Finally, the flight landed at 01:30pm IST in Istanbul which means 11am local time (TRT). So, we were 2 hours and 30 minutes behind India time.
It took 15 mins to alight from the flight, get in the bus, to the airport terminal. Here I met Vihar and the group, most wearing yellow. We entered the airport. More on this in next post.
