(Filip)
Travelling from my place to India took around 30 hours, including stops at airports. Coronavirus was slowly taking over Europe. Regardless of that, I still went to Vienna for my flight to Delhi. My mom drove me from home to the bus station, where I took the 8-hour bus ride to Vienna international airport. I had to wait around 6 hours at the airport and after that a 7-hour flight to Delhi.

When I came out of the aeroplane in Delhi (in the picture), everybody was like crazy – running, writing papers, rushing. I was so stressed. My very first flight internationally, and I’ve got covid info papers in my hands to fill up. I needed to write a detailed description about for example where I will stay and everything. They would not let me go out of the airport without filling them. I didn’t even have a pen. Everybody had a pen except me. Interesting 🤷‍

So, someone lent me a pen, and I filled them up. I continued out of the airport and went to the toilet. And guess what. In the restroom, there was one open door. I am like – ok, this one is open just for me. I went in, and there was just a hole. (Asian toilet) I never saw such a toilet in my life. I looked at it for like 10 seconds, thinking what should I do because I already closed the door. It would be weird to just come out like 10 seconds after, and everybody would see me 😄 So, I told myself there is no way I had to go out for a usual (Western) toilet. I went out to wait for another door to open, and I pretended as nothing happened. I desperately needed to go after 7 hours of flight. I was like laughing but also stressed out. Everybody was like crazy because of covid. Even the toilets were different. 😄

Never mind, my motivation to see Lakshmi and have some experience out of Europe was a lot bigger than some covid or Asian toilet. 😄 After the toilet fiasco, I ran where others were running and couldn’t believe what I saw – temperature measuring of the whole body. Yes exactly. Temperature measuring after my big run, sweating and my heart beating rapidly? Seriously? I started calming myself down to have a required body temperature. 😄 Seriously. I am laughing now, remembering how I was stressing. But I told myself – everybody was running, and they are all letting the pass. So, they had to let me pass as well, right? I came through without any problems. I gave them the papers and went to the immigration part of the airport.

There I waited in line for about 30-40 minutes. There were extremely long lines, and my second flight was just an hour and a half away. Still, without baggage, I thought. What if I get stuck in Delhi? Will I miss my flight? So, I met some people (foreigners) and asked them what to do. They told me to go, ask one guide person who was standing there. Weird right? Was I supposed to ask him to move my flight because I’m not going to be able to make it in time or what? Where is the system? How does it work around here? I went to ask him about it. He told me to overtake everyone in the queue. I’m like, seriously? There were a bunch of people. Chinese, black, white, sheikh. And me? A young white guy with a tattoo should overtake them all? He told me: It is ok you are allowed to do so. If I hadn’t asked that guide person, I would miss the flight. Delhi has such a chaotic airport. So, they took all my fingerprints, my face, my papers. Finally, I was allowed to go and get my baggage. My baggage was just thrown on the floor in the middle of the hall as no one cared. What if somebody would have stolen it? So, my first impression of India – chaos. 😅

Don’t take me like I am complaining – not at all. I was taking it all as an experience out of Europe and laughed at many things. I took it all as a part of my journey. I respect Indian culture, and the people were very kind and helpful. I was just shocked that many things didn’t work as they usually should in Delhi. (Maybe also because of covid? Who knows, right?)

So, I went on my second flight to Bengaluru, which took about 2 hours. I have to admit, the food (in the picture) was delicious on the plane, and I felt like I was getting tired a lot already after 28 hours of no sleep. But that Indian food woke me up. I arrived in Bengaluru and took my baggage. In Bengaluru, I felt like it worked a lot smoother than in Delhi. I had no problem with the airport in Bengaluru. I finally made it out of the airport. But then I realised that I forgot one crucial thing – I have no signal, no sim card, which I couldn’t get due to missing my photo. It was one of the requirements to register a new sim card (Weird. Why did they need my photo?) My last connection with Lakshmi was in Delhi. Then my data went off. I was worried about not being able to contact Migi so, I started thinking. I have no internet, what should I do first? Suddenly, I saw a title on the side of the airport saying – Tourist help centre – I was like, yeah, they could help me, I guess. One guy made a hotspot for me to contact Lakshmi. I texted her about where she was. I also asked her if I should go to the hotel by myself or if she’s coming with me. Honestly, I was exhausted. My consciousness was around 40% at the time. I finally made contact with Lakshmi – and she was coming to pick me up.

Yes! I was so happy when I heard she’s coming! At least some good news after 30 hours of travelling. Then I realised – wait, she is coming. OMG! I will see her for the very first time! I was tired, sleepy, stressed, excited, happy, nervous. So many emotions to process at once. I started overthinking things. What if she doesn’t like me? What if something terrible happens? What if, what if. I told myself – let it flow. Calm down. Just be yourself.

That moment when I saw her coming for the first time in my and her life. After 2-3 years of chatting. It was an incredible feeling. She came closer and sat next to me. We said hi to one another. My mouth was wide open from all of the excitement and mixed feelings, but after a while, I was able to close it. I can tell you we were both extremely nervous and excited at the same time at that moment. I told her still, with disbelief in my voice, ”I can’t believe you are here”. She replied with a smile. I felt like we were in a positive subconscious connection. No rush, no big moves. Good energy vibes. Just from sitting and a bit of talking, I can tell you she was a beautiful girl! 😍 In a million years, I wouldn’t think I would meet such a girl. I thought she would look like in the photos, but no. She was like two or three times as much attractive then I thought. How is that possible? I don’t know. But one thing I knew was that I liked her a lot. In the first moments, I felt like she is a good girl. Like from our years of chatting.

(Lakshmi)
Mix emotions of excitement and nervousness was what I was facing that day when I was going to pick Filip Farkas, my virtual friend since 2016. 🤭 I was going alone to airport that I don’t even knew where it was (I was never staying in Bengaluru before getting job). Will he recognise my face? will he be expecting attractive girl picking him up and get disappointed with my appearance? But why will he get disappointed I’m just his virtual friend don’t overthink… I was telling to myself. I had a fear that Filip might have went already to Hotel from airport while I am in bus because I was really late. But “coincidently” his flight was delayed and I reached there at time. He wrote me he is near Subway. I was walking around airport in search of subway and my mind was blank. And I saw this white tall guy sitting there and looking really exhausted. 😮 I confirmed myself this is him with his tattoo on his hand. Then this nervousness came over my body yet went straight to him: “Are you filip?” He slowly see my face. No reaction and I’m like should I handshake, or greet him “namaste” or “Tashi delek”? instead I sat next to him, trust me I was sweating like river flowing through my forehead. He then slowly started talking and the more we talk the more comfortable we were feeling. I had good feeling from him. ☺️ We went to Hotel and I gave him fruit and biscuit because I know he will be tired a lot and will not prefer food after travel. In india we usually welcome guest or friend or visitor with something even if it’s not big but at least fruits or vegetable things. Then I went back to my PG. Was this all a dream? I was not believing my virtual friend is in india. 🤭

(Filip)
Then we left the airport and took a taxi to my hotel (on the featured image of this post), which was near Lakshmi’s PG. In the cab, we talked, laughed, got to know each other. I was excited from the road. So many new places. New people. New culture. Lakshmi was explaining to me things like how it works in India. She talked about the people, the culture and much more. After 1 hour and 40 minutes of drive, we felt more comfortable next to each other. I already felt peaceful and less stressed in comparison to the first meeting at the airport.

After a while, we arrived at the hotel. The hotel looked great. It had good looking services, and there was also a restaurant under the hotel. We came to the reception area, and I asked about my reservation. Lakshmi was there to help me in case of not understanding the staff. Thank goodness she was there. Because when that moment came – blah blah blah blah blah. I didn’t understand a single word from that Indian guy at reception 😄 Lakshmi helped me and translated what the guy was saying. I was shocked – I knew nothing from “Indian accent” 🤭 Lucky, I found out the next day that it was only him talking like that. Because another person working in the hotel knew regular English – or maybe I was just super exhausted.

Lakshmi and I came to the hotel room. While I was unpacking, she pulled out bread, apple juice and some jam. I was shocked. 😮 She thought about me, knew that I would be tired. I completely forget about food. I thought she was like an angel or something. I told her she did not have to bring anything. That I could have bought something for myself and that she didn’t have to care so much. But obviously, I liked it a lot and was surprised 🤭 because I was starving. We said good night to each other, and Lakshmi went back to her PG. Then I ate that bread 😄 and fell asleep like a bear.

Before falling asleep, lying in bed, I looked at the top ceiling and told myself:

Shit I am seriously in India……………. YESSS 😁😁😁