The travel - Reaching there

After a few minutes and when fully awake I headed to freshen up myself, yes with the kit of course. Once back to my seat, the next service! Breakfast!! Started with a serving of fruits and continued with the Masala Omelet that I had ordered when we took off, which I washed down with a good cup of coffee. Still some more time to land… my watch was still set in IST (~11.00 am) So, turned back to the entertainment… watched a nice interview of Sunita Willams about her Space endeavor and stay!

In between

Finally, the time had come for me to set foot on the European soil. The aircraft landed 15 minutes behind schedule owing to a queue on the air. Collected my belongings and headed out to catch fresh air through the aerobridge that took me to Terminal B at Brussels Intl Airport. Once into the terminal some ladies were asking everyone coming out of the gate, “Were you flying Business class?” and I happily said “Yes. I did.” One of them accompanied me to the next lounge at the airport… now this is an exclusive Jet Airways B Class lounge at Brussels. You can relax, watch TV or read magazines or get freshened up or browse internet (chargeable) or as always have some refreshments. There was a good collection of croissants, pastries, cookies, and fruits. Coffee, tea, Milk, Yogurt! Sausages, cheese… lots more!

After thanking the lady who accompanied me, I checked with the receptionist at the lounge about my connecting flight to Helsinki. Got the information that flight is scheduled to depart from Gate 56 of Terminal A. She also added that it is quite far and a complicated walk and offered to send me an escort till the gate. I accepted the offer with a thanks and a sigh of relief. Went ahead to relax, which I didn’t know would be costly, as I had around 4 more hours for the next flight. Had a cup of coffee and was browsing through the Times of India. At around 10.00 CET, started towards my final destination at Brussels – Terminal A. As promised one of the lady accompanied me towards the terminal.

As told to me, it was a long and confusing way to walk through. I reached the Immigration department of the Schengen area and a little trouble started here. The official wanted to see my invitation from McK HEL and the letter which stated that my expenses are taken care by them. Unfortunately, I did not carry any copies of these letters. Then he wanted to check my Credit card, then my ID card from office – which I had, a different government issued ID card – I gave my Driving license. Still, the official was not really satisfied with them. He asked me why am so late in moving to the other terminal – I told I was resting in the lounge. Finally, he said please wait at that corner and a his colleague would come to see me!!!!!!! Well, true, in a couple of minutes another official from the Brussels Immigration Police took me to an office and asked me to wait in a hall! My escort left me with the police and left after giving her mobile number – thank you Jet for the care.

After a tense 10 minute wait, a different person came in to call me for “enquiry”. I went ahead, I was nervous, and answered him with courage (!) I told him I did not carry any of the documents, as everything was given to the Embassy when applying for the visa. I offered him to produce an email which confirms my place of stay in Helsinki. So, opened my account and showed him the email, explained him about it. This person looked satisfied and voila! Stamped entry into Europe for me! Really an eventful and unforgettable entry!

By the time I was finished with all these, it was just 20 minutes for the departure of the flight to Helsinki, and honestly I did not know how far I am from the gate!!! Anyway, with a blind courage started walking towards what I thought was the way to the gate… and after around 100 meters realized I was heading out to the city of Brussels and not to HEL! Traced my way back till I found the way to Terminal A! I walked along till I reached the Security check point!

Here, it was really amusing when they wanted to remove my belt for scanning!!!? I placed everything, my purse, emptied my pocket, but forgot to remove the headphones around my neck. Next test to my patience, another officer appeared before me and said he wants to check me! No options but to comply went through with it and he understood that it was just the headphone and nothing else… he let me go!!! Now I added pace to my steps and was kind of dashing towards Gate 56. Yes I did start to walk with good pace on the escalator which moved on the surface, and had a shock when I disembarked… I was moving faster than I thought… I could feel some “g” force when I suddenly slowed down! and Gate A56 was at sight!!!

Onboard Embraer E190

With big relief of seeing the gate where an aircraft is waiting to take me to Helsinki, I rushed towards the gate to be asked by one of the airline crew “Where is your boarding pass?” Now that was a real shocker for me as all through this ~20 minute walk through perhaps the entire airport’s floor area, I never saw a check-in counter for Finnair!!! Howzzat now? But luckily, B Class came to rescue as the seat number is already blocked for me… she printed me my boarding pass – which she took back in just a couple of minutes when we boarded the aircraft Finnair AY 812 Brussels to Helsinki leaving @ 11.40am CET.

Now this aircraft is probably just a quarter of the size that I flew overnight… pretty small but looked clean… 2x2 rows and all seats looked the same no visible difference that I could see of. We headed out of Brussels 2 minutes behind schedule and queued up to take off. When we were waiting I could see 5 different aircrafts from 5 different airlines and mostly different variants as well take off before us. Finally, the captain revved up the engine and took off to take a steep u-turn and sky so clear, I was able to follow 2 other take offs after ours… and one of them a big aircraft. I had the first experience of hearing the “Finnish” language. They speak really fast and it is very difficult to differentiate words… as of now!

After a few minutes we were served the “savory biscuits” now that really did not suit the B Class. I was offered something to drink – Wine, Champagne, Beer, and Juice – I chose Water. We were served food – Asian vegetarian meal for me – a kind of flat noodles with steamed vegetables and salads to accompany. This time I washed them down with a cup of lemon tea. Now I was getting desperate to get off the plane. With 15 more minutes to land, our captain announced that we were put on a holding pattern again a queue on the air.

When we started the descent, we entered a cloud cover which in my estimate extended to at least 5000 feet. That is, when I finally could see the ground – which was covered with snow – we were just a couple of hundred feet from touching down! That’s really a BIG cloud cover. There was a little drizzle when we touched down, and the outside temperature read 2 degrees below zero! Cool huh! The runway looked soaked but the landing was smooth and finally we came to halt at Gate 23 of Helsinki-Vantaa International airport.

Disembarked the aircraft and took a walk to collect my baggage which I last saw when I checked-in at Chennai. Waited for my baggage to reach the conveyor belts at the ground level and there were 2 flights before ours’. One from Milan and one from Amsterdam, so there was loads of skiing equipments that landed into Helsinki. I collected my baggage and headed out to meet Netta Hiiros – my first contact in Helsinki