John Sebastian
October 16,00:00 am. The long wait was finally over. Though I had been to many places outside Kerala this was the first time I could call myself a foreigner. The previous night was busy as I had not packed anything yet. Choosing what to take was difficult because we could only bring 25 kg in our check-in luggage and 7kg in our hand luggage. Moreover I also had to keep some extra space to bring back sweets and other stuff from there. Our fight was at 3:45 am. It was an Airbus A321 of Qatar Airways(QR 507). We were asked to report at the airport by 1 am. All twenty of us managed to make it in time with jam-packed bags .after a couple of photos, hugs and goodbyes we checked in. For some of us, it was the first time travelling on a flight. The travel time was about 5 hours and we reached Hamad International Airport, Doha, Qatar by 6:05 am. Though we travelled in the economy class the food and flight crew service was exceptional. The ORYX ONE inflight entertainment system kept us engaged throughout our flight. We were also lucky to witness a high altitude sunrise.
We had a three-hour stay in Doha as our next flight was at 9:10 am. The Hamad International airport is an extraordinary airport being the sole international airport in the state of Qatar. It even has a metro for travelling within the airport. Our next flight was an A350-900 of Qatar Airways (QR 95). It was a huge flight with 9 seats in a row. The flight was about 6 hours. The ORYX ONE inflight entertainment system kept us engaged throughout our flight. The Qatar Airways flight services are commendable. They brought regular refreshments and had special cuisines for each flight. We reached Zurich airport by 1 pm and met the swiss teachers and the two students who had come to pick us. We then took a two-hour train to Fribourg. Honestly, Switzerland was not as cold as I was told it would be. At Fribourg, we were welcomed by our host families. My host had even prepared a welcome card for me and my friend. As Switzerland is three and a half hours behind IST none of us had jet lag and we were too excited to sleep. It rained a bit but all of us left for our homes soon.
