The first entry in my travel diary
When I was going on my first trip outside Europe I decided to buy a notebook and write down experiences from my travels. This is my first diary entry ever where I am relating how the first big journey of my life started. I was going on a business trip to India where I also travelled for fun. The original text is in Slovak.
March 23, 2013
‘It’s five o’clock in the morning. I am setting out on my first journey to Asia. I got up at half past three after mere three hours of sleep. I took a taxi to the airport. It was freezing cold. The taxi driver told me it was four degrees below zero. I am looking forward to warm and sunny weather. I hope I won’t be fed up with it after one week.
I am flying with Lufthansa with a stopover in Frankfurt. The plane departs at 6.10 and arrives in Frankfurt at 7.30. I am going to wait for more than two hours for the connecting flight. The flights are supposed to take thirteen and a half hours altogether. It will be shorter than my train journey from Sarajevo.’
The entry goes on but I would rather write about what happened after the plane had landed. I still remember the feeling I had as I was leaving the plane. The hot and humid air hit my face. There were different people all around me. I think I was tired. For one split second I asked myself: ‘What am I doing here? Is this for real?’ But then I pushed these thoughts aside.
Here is a part of my next diary entry.
March 24, 2013 – Chennai
‘I arrived yesterday at night. The plane arrived on time and I went through the usual formalities at the airport without taking too much time. But I waited for my luggage for quite some time. There was an Indian waiting for me at the airport entrance, presumably an employee of the hotel, and he took me to the car where there was a driver waiting for me. The ride took about 20 minutes. Roads are not as busy at night as during the day when the ride could take as much as 45 minutes. I have been told the traffic in the city is not good also because a new underground system is being built. It seemed to me that the underground was mainly being built over the ground.
[some part is omitted]
The view from the hotel window wasn’t worth much. There is one of the main streets on the right, Anna Salai, which seems to be quite busy. Loads of cars, motorbikes and auto rickshaws, which I have just seen for the first time in my life, are rushing by. They drive here on the left and everybody honks like in Italy. I can also see an unfinished building construction, which will probably never be finished. I see a high building in the distance which looks as if it was rusty. And there are two smaller blocks of flats on the left.’
I still remember what the traffic was like. Utter chaos. Loads of vehicles. And everybody honking like crazy without any reason. When I came back from there I really enjoyed the silence we have here.