Back in Toronto!!!
So, I made it back to Toronto!
Our last few days in Kochi were no picnic. Gerda was sick (at one point so sick she needed to be rehydrated intravenously in hospital for a few hours) and so that's no good end to a great holiday. However I think she's doing ok now.
We traveled back to Pune no problem. It was good to be back at Sangam, but odd since the other CVPS weren't there, and there was always this overarching sadness since Gerda and I were both painfully aware that we were going to be parting ways soon.
Gerda left on the 19th. I saw her off at the Pune airport. There were many tears, but we did it and she made it safely to Delhi and met with her family. they're now on a whirlwind three week organised tour group tour of Northwestern India. She'll be back in Sweden mid-January.
I left Sangam 6 pm on Dec 20th. I was flying from Mumbai to Toronto via London - you know how London HEathrow and most of northwestern europe is paralysed with snow? I wasn't optimistic about my travels going smoothly...
I had first a 4.5 hour drive from Pune to the Mumbai airport. Once at the Mumbai airport I found out my Mumbai-London flight was delayed 3 hours (from 2:45 am to 5:30 am). I considered seriously getting a refund on ym ticket and rebooking on another airline so I didn't have to fly via Europe. However the BA rep talked me out of it and assured me there was no danger of me getting stuck in London - that Heathrow was operating at 100% capacity once again and everything was ok.
So I spent the night in the Mumbai airport and caught my flight to London. I slept a fair bit on that flight which helped me get onto the Toronto time zone sleep schedule - nice! That flight landed in London at 10 am London time. My flight out of London was at 12 noon London time and I needed 20 min to get to my new gate and 45 min for my luggage to be transferred (according to the BA agent in Mumbai). However Heathrow is still a mess - we sat on the tarmac 2 hours waiting for a gate to de-plane at - so by the time I got off the plane it was the time my next flight was scheduled to depart! I was hoping it would be delayed like everything else. I ran into the airport when we finally got there and asked the first BA rep I saw about my flight. she said ti was delayed until 12:40 and I might still make it but I should run. So I ran through Heathrow as fast as I could - still had to go through two more security checkpoints - but I made it to the gate and onto the flight - one of the last people on the plane! I spent all of 15 min in Heathrow airport when thousands have spent days stuck there and may not yet get where they're going by Christmas. I feel guilty for that for sure.
The flight to Toronto was uneventful. Upon arrival I found that my luggage hadn't made it onto the second flight - but BA assures me it will be delivered to my house here later today.
I'm home and looking forward to Christmas - thank you Universe!
Our last few days in Kochi were no picnic. Gerda was sick (at one point so sick she needed to be rehydrated intravenously in hospital for a few hours) and so that's no good end to a great holiday. However I think she's doing ok now.
We traveled back to Pune no problem. It was good to be back at Sangam, but odd since the other CVPS weren't there, and there was always this overarching sadness since Gerda and I were both painfully aware that we were going to be parting ways soon.
Gerda left on the 19th. I saw her off at the Pune airport. There were many tears, but we did it and she made it safely to Delhi and met with her family. they're now on a whirlwind three week organised tour group tour of Northwestern India. She'll be back in Sweden mid-January.
I left Sangam 6 pm on Dec 20th. I was flying from Mumbai to Toronto via London - you know how London HEathrow and most of northwestern europe is paralysed with snow? I wasn't optimistic about my travels going smoothly...
I had first a 4.5 hour drive from Pune to the Mumbai airport. Once at the Mumbai airport I found out my Mumbai-London flight was delayed 3 hours (from 2:45 am to 5:30 am). I considered seriously getting a refund on ym ticket and rebooking on another airline so I didn't have to fly via Europe. However the BA rep talked me out of it and assured me there was no danger of me getting stuck in London - that Heathrow was operating at 100% capacity once again and everything was ok.
So I spent the night in the Mumbai airport and caught my flight to London. I slept a fair bit on that flight which helped me get onto the Toronto time zone sleep schedule - nice! That flight landed in London at 10 am London time. My flight out of London was at 12 noon London time and I needed 20 min to get to my new gate and 45 min for my luggage to be transferred (according to the BA agent in Mumbai). However Heathrow is still a mess - we sat on the tarmac 2 hours waiting for a gate to de-plane at - so by the time I got off the plane it was the time my next flight was scheduled to depart! I was hoping it would be delayed like everything else. I ran into the airport when we finally got there and asked the first BA rep I saw about my flight. she said ti was delayed until 12:40 and I might still make it but I should run. So I ran through Heathrow as fast as I could - still had to go through two more security checkpoints - but I made it to the gate and onto the flight - one of the last people on the plane! I spent all of 15 min in Heathrow airport when thousands have spent days stuck there and may not yet get where they're going by Christmas. I feel guilty for that for sure.
The flight to Toronto was uneventful. Upon arrival I found that my luggage hadn't made it onto the second flight - but BA assures me it will be delivered to my house here later today.
I'm home and looking forward to Christmas - thank you Universe!