My First Foreign Trip

         I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to do a summer internship in Heraklion, Greece for a period of two months and I thought my experience would be a great idea for my next article. Let me get straight to the trip and cover each leg of the journey one-by-one. 

The cotton candy clouds

         The first flight was at 4 am in the morning from Kochi to Bahrain. It was my second flight experience and my first international flight. The whole journey involved a triple connection flight with 8h layover at Bahrain, followed by a 4h flight to Athens and then half an hour flight to Heraklion which is the capital of the island Crete, located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. initially, I was very apprehensive of my trip since I had no idea of immigration, customs, etc. and though my father had explained to me about it, he gave me all the necessary warnings which as a first-timer freaked me out.

Somewhere between Bahrain- Kochi

While I was collecting my boarding passes, the woman at the counter enquired if I was traveling alone. To my surprise, on saying yes, she called up a person just to lift and place my luggage on to the conveyer belt. Although it was a sweet gesture, I don’t know if I should have gotten offended. After that, I went in for the security check, where I had to put all my electronics stuff onto a tray along with my watch and belt (Terribly bad that they did not give women a separate area given that they had to remove their belts). After collecting my stuff, I found a nice spot and settled in since I had more than an hour to board. Without anything much to do, I did what any other teenager traveling would do, announce it on social media. A few clicks, a few edits later, I was satisfied with the picture I had taken and up it went on Instagram and Whatsapp along with the mandatory status update on Facebook. The boarding went smooth and after destroying my four-hour flight with a two-hour-long Devdas (Don’t ask me why it was the only suggestion I liked to watch in the wee hours of the morning) and some good food (Decent menu which consisted of upma, sambhar, fruit cake, khuboos, butter, and coffee), I slept like a log only to be woken up by sun hitting my eyes. The view that beheld my eyes were just surreal.

The beautiful sunrise

The golden rays of the sun hitting the cloud producing various shades of yellow were something out of dreamland. Eventually, the sun rose up to give way to white cotton clouds. As we neared Bahrain, it got cloudy and the view below consisted of only water.  

The Persian Gulf on the right

I reached at 6.30 am Bahrain time sharp. After finishing off my security checks and doing a few calls, I realized too late that the free Wi-Fi was only for 45 mins and I had around 7h more to spend K. I decided to eat something first, I bought a salad. Now, being a vegetarian, I was afraid I might end up buying some meat which was the sole reason for me to buy that salad. It was a really colorful salad and I finished off the carrots and noodles before I mixed it and to my horror, I found stuff that is a nightmare to any vegetarian if found on the plate (Chicken, of course!). With a heavy heart, I threw it away and bought myself a small apple tart and soda while consoling myself I will get good food on the flight.

The salad that turned into my nightmare

         After roaming, window-shopping, and reading for the rest of the time, I boarded my next flight to Athens. I was damn hungry and my joy knew no bounds when I saw the air hostess serving food. Imagine my condition, when the air hostess informed me that vegetarian food was served only in the Indian sector and I had only an option to choose from chicken or beef. Fortunately, the air hostess gave me all the compliments, which included a pistachio soufflé, bun, butter, and some cold pulses salad. She was sweet enough to provide me with a second helping of the compliments since I could not eat the main course. 

The "compliments only" food I got

Nevertheless, the whole flight, I nearly broke down assuming that I was going to live in a place where the term vegetarian does not even exist. However, for a large part of the flight, the view was mainly desert (The Arabian Desert) with some picturesque places where the desert met the sea. By the time we were near Athens, the view changed drastically to beautiful green islands situated in the middle of the sea which was dotted with a large number of cruise ships. 

 

Somewhere near Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
 You can check out the place on Google Earth, you can find those circular objects

The Gulf of Aqaba

The end of the Gulf of Aqaba

Gulf of Aqaba, a close-up.
The Aqaba town is visible

Approaching Athens, late evening from Bahrain, hence the blur.
A white trail of a cruise ship is visible

Finally, I reached Athens and it was like the biggest airport I have seen. The airport had like three Starbucks shops within it. It was split into three sections: A wing (I assume to non-European countries), B wing (European countries) and the third central area into where you take the entry from outside. After spending a lot of time looking around, I realized I had only 20 mins to eat something (and boy! Wasn’t I ravenous) and board. Imagine to my delight, when I found there were so many vegetarian options. And the idiot in me wasted half of my time deciding on what to eat.  I finally settled on a mushroom pizza and it was the most delicious pizza in my life (obviously, because I was hungry!!!). I quickly gulped it down and went on to board for the final leg of my journey. 

The pizza that saved my day

        The next flight to Heraklion was at around 20:00hrs. Of the six plane flights (3 to and 3 fro), this short 35-minute flight was the most memorable. I was not fortunate enough to get a window seat and by the time the flight took off, it was dark and raining and the pilot announced that they expected turbulence. And one turbulence it was!!! The whole journey, the air hostess had to sit in their seats and the seatbelt sign was on throughout. The plane dipped and shook and me, the great me, who could not sleep much on the two smooth earlier flights, half slept through this one the whole time. Well, I finally reached Heraklion in one piece and it was dark. I collected my luggage and my Ph.D. scholar was there to pick me up.

Approaching Athens, early morning from Heraklion

Somewhere in between Heraklion-Athens. A cruise ship is visible 

How beautiful that place was is a completely different article. Maybe if I get time, I will write about it and post it soon enough. I took all the pictures posted above through my not-so-great camera so I really apologize for the quality. And note that I have included some pictures which were taken on my return journey (Since those were better :P). Until then, peeps!!! See you soon.  

The island of Crete, off to Athens early morning. The Mediterranean is visible

HIDE AND SEEK – P.S. BROWN

‘Hide And Seek’ by P.S. Brown is a crime thriller. One thing to note about the author is that this is his first book. However, for a first attempt, let me assure you that this is not going to disappoint you. The book has a 200 page beautifully carved plot. Let me warn that this review has spoilers. :P So you should stop here if you are going to read this book. 

          The story begins with Gavin who is murdered by forcing him to drink glasses of sleeping pills dissolved in water so that it looks like a suicide. There is a conversation between the murderer and Gavin, which includes a mention of Excellent Eight. We realize that both the murderer and the victim are a part of this group and that the culprit is expecting the rest of this gang to arrive for the funeral so that he can finish them off too. Then, the story is skipped to the funeral scene that is described through the eyes of the protagonist ‘Peter Stevenson’ who also turns to be a member of the Excellent Eight. We get introduced to the other members of the group which include Laura – Peter’s childhood sweetheart; Michelle Heron and Colin Clark  – who are a couple; Steve Jenkins; Peter Perkins - who was referred to as Cas to prevent confusion and whom the protagonist is close to and Cheryl Stimson – who is a gorgeous woman. The protagonist has a wife Jannie and a son. Suddenly, we find the protagonist sleeping inside an empty cabin in the woods on the outskirts of the city. Despite his throbbing unusual headache, he manages to escape the cabin. He finds himself in the woods where once during hide-and-seek he had gotten his leg stuck inside a hole and had to wait for hours till a bearded guy rescued him. He reaches Michelle and Colin’s home, which is empty. None of the beds had been slept in and he finds a note from Colin asking him to call on a given number when he reaches home. The Sheriff, Michelle’s father makes an entry here enquiring about his pregnant daughter and ends up pointing out that the number on the note is not Colin’s neither is the note handwriting. After he leaves, Peter gets a phone ringing, which shows his name on the caller ID.

          The caller identifies himself as Celo and informs him that the members of his gang including Peter were drugged the previous night. The rest of the gang were tied up in various spots across the city and Peter had to find them on time if he wanted them alive. As proof, he had chopped off Colin’s arm and kept it inside the oven along with a bunch of keys. Peter was warned that if he involves anyone else in the game, he will lose all his friends. Celo would be providing him with clues, which only the members of the Excellent Eight can solve to find a particular place. Each place has gotten that particular member trapped there which was a bad memory in their childhood. Celo gives Peter his first clue for Colin, which was an apartment where the group used to go and shoot gobstoppers. Colin had injured his leg in one such excursion. He goes to the said apartment but he was too late and Colin was thrown out of the 10^th floor of the building right in front of his eyes. The people in the apartment complex spot Peter and believe that he was the culprit. Peter manages to escape and gets the next clue. It was for Cheryl in a bakery near their school. They used to buy cakes and other goodies from here and she used to buy the most. Here she was discovered packed naked into a hot burning oven. Luckily, she is saved on time and Peter calls up an ambulance. Due to his break-in in the bakery, the police get a silent alarm and arrive pretty early. However as Peter couldn’t waste his time explaining to the police, he had to escape from the police again making people believe that he is the murderer. The next clue is for Michelle in a firework shop where they were once caught shoplifting. They had stored the fireworks in Michelle’s coat and she had gotten the most scolding. Here, Michelle was bound to a chair and when the time was up, the plan was to shoot fireworks on her. She was saved on time but like in the previous case, the police are tipped off and they start ransacking the shop. Michelle doesn’t buy Celo’s story and gives up on Peter which results in another chase. Again, Peter escapes and he gets the next clue for Cas which is his school sports room where Cas had once injured his leg. Peter breaks into the school and is attacked by Cas who mistakes Peter to be the attacker. Peter is blown unconscious and an hour later gets woken up by Celo’s call. He was informed that Cas had attacked Peter and hence Celo had to intervene and kill Cas. Much to Peter’s horror, Celo announces that he has ten minutes to save Laura who is in a pet store which was her favorite as a kid. Peter had to steal a car to reach the store very late. Laura was kept in a tank that got filled with water in due time.

         The last clue was for Steve, which was a car junkyard on the outskirts of the city. Steve had once nearly fallen into the machine as they were playing unknown that somebody had forgotten to switch it off that day. Steve was tied up inside the crusher and luckily gets saved. Unlike Michelle, Steve believed about Celo and advised Peter to inform the police. But Peter was waiting for the final call where Celo had promised he will reveal himself to Peter. As Peter gets his final clue which is the cabin in which he woke up that day morning, Steve had gone to the city and blurted out everything to the cops. Peter, notices a trap door in the cabin which he had ignored in the morning. He goes down into the basement, where he notices the complete setup of the cruel game he had to play. Something seemed familiar about the place but he couldn’t recollect it. He also finds a medical certificate and a hospital badge in his name. The police arrive and he gets arrested for the murder. Later on, a psychiatrist talks to him at the police station. He was asked about the incident in the woods and gets informed that instead of hours, that man, Robert Paulson had kidnapped Peter for fifteen days and had kept him locked in a cage. Peter was suffering from dissociative identity disorder which made him behave as two personalities, the other being Celo. Peter was reported missing last year, and his wife and son had died before that in an accident. Robert was released from prison that May and they believed Celo had killed and buried him under the same cage. For the past six months, Peter was living as Celo in the cabin, which belonged to Robert and had planned out all these murders. There was no SIM in the phone, thorough which Celo had contacted Peter. It was just Peter talking to himself. The story ends with Peter regretting everything.

         Ok, so I kind of gave my best in giving you a pretty short review of the book. Though the idea of a Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is not a new one, overall, the book was a good page-turner. I recommend this book to people who like short crime thrillers and do not expect a heavy plot. Please do not pick this up if you are expecting a Dan Brown kind of thing. Kudos to the author!!!

My rating: 3.0/5.0      

Cheers until next time sweethearts!!!