My trip to US of A (part 1)

I have never traveled outside India all my life and there was no burning desire to do so. I guess I have missed out on quite a lot. I am starting feel that not pursing higher education was not such a great decision (of course sify was a great place and so is Amazon.com bangalore).

So this is how the 15 days trip started.. I had a visa interview last Friday and was expected to travel this Wednesday (6th Feb). Since my passport took sometime to be delivered, my travel plans where confirmed till 5th Feb. With super efficient support from office, we were able to get forex, tickets (had to go through a confusing itenary) and insurance. I also had to buy loads of warm clothing and shoes, as I have never seen temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius( Weird that here people use Fahrenheit , miles, pounds.. I am so bad at converting all these and cannot comprehend without converting).

So this is how the trip started.. I had a flight to Heathrow airport at 7.00 AM for which u need to start at 3.30 AM ( I know insane). So I met my friend who was traveling along with me at around 4.00 AM. He has traveled before to US of A and was very helpful through out the journey( I wouldn't know stuff like online check in, change the food menu on board to asian vegetarian).

The flight was delayed by one hour. We feared that we might miss our connecting flight in Heathrow. So we finally boarded the flight (Boeing huge aircraft). Seeing an onboard entertainment system, were you can actually stream movies I went berserk. I started watching Shawshank Redemption. But then, they had issues with the system and the movie was interrupted. So I ended up watching friends, two and half brothers.. Food was not very bad.. certainly not great..

We managed to reach Heathrow airport in time for the next flight with around an hour or so in hand. Since it was week day, lot of seats were not occupied. I had the aisle seat and there four seats empty next to me.. I just pushed the hand rests up and slept 8 hours straight to be woken to have food. I survived on orange juices in these flights.

So we finally reached Seattle at around 6PM.. drizzling chilly.. Immigration and baggage collection took about 1 hour or so.. Finally we were out and was picked up by my manager. Being my first time here, number of things hit me hard..
1. Freeways, the traffic is so disciplined. I, for the first time, see people sticking to their lanes and being extremely careful when they had to switch.. If you had to park the other side of the road.. you would have to circle the block.. Because the pavement is always on your side parallel parking seemed lot more easier.
2. Huge and deafening freeways.
3, Seattle is a very scenic place. The night line is marked with skys scrappers and lights blinking everywhere.. beautiful lake.. well maintained footpath awesome!!
4. Cold.. If we had not gotten into the car in another 2 minutes I would have froze.

We decided to grab something on the way and then check into the hotel.. We went to this place called Serious Pie and had some really nice pizzas.. and I had white wine for the first time.. I think it had very little alcohol content. I was not even close to getting on a high. Then we checked into this hotel Marriott spring hill. nice comfortable... good net connection..

I always teased my friends who complained about jet lags. I would try to pull their leg calling them show offs.. Well now I realized what they actually meant. I was wide awake, extremely hungry at 2 AM in the morning (silly me .. I should have slept in the first leg of the flight and stayed awake on the second).. I brewed myself coffee.. (I don't like coffee) for the first time and it turned out to be yuck. I probably dint add enough creamer. We had breakfast at the hotel and booked a cab to my office. Holy lord, the cabs are so expensive.. it takes 12 dollars plus tips to travel a distance of say 3 kms (not converting to miles). Despite serious warnings, that I shouldn't multiply every time I spend into Indian currency.. I cant help wondering how expensive it is... We can't even walk as the weather is so chilly and with strong cold winds..

I had neat morning work and lunch. Post lunch I was seriously jet lagged. Around 3.30 PM local time, my body was at 4 AM felt like a night out. My eyes started drooping.. I caught myself sleeping when typing a word... So left office little early... got dropped by my friend's manager. I had decided to splurge all I could, at dinner. We went to this pizza place called Romeos. I cannot believe I am saying this.. but in a couple of days I might get bored with cheese... I also had red wine(marlot something). By the time we left the place, it was around 8.30. I was little shaky because of the drink. I spoke to a close friend here for about 40 minutes and slept like a baby. But wide awake at 3.30.. Could not stand to be in bed by 4.30, typing this blog for the past one hour...

Lets see how the rest of the journey is..

I have not yet clicked a single photo yet.. so no photos to upload..