The Jouney Begins - Day 0

Hello all. Currently typing this while sitting on my bed in the rather lovely air-con room of the Sea Palace in Coloba, Mumbai, India. I've just woken after 5 hours sleep and decided no time like the present to get blogging.

We began our journey, well I began my travelling a bit ahead of the lads. I left Villa Bochella, Ponte a Moriano, in Italy at 8am Sunday morning. I then got a lift to Lucca train station. A two hour journey to Florence. Then a train to Rome. A metro to Angina. A bus to Ciampino, Rome airport. A flight to Dublin. I was met by my beautiful boyfriend João and by one of my travelling buddies, Eoghan, at 7.30pm. Eoghan dropped us back to my house in Kimmage. (first trip 2,422 km) I spent some final quality hours in Dublin. I was about to leave my amazing partner for the next 6 months, so I was really valuing every moment of the time. Something we appreciate more, when time is short.

Myself and João headed to the airport in a taxi at 2am. I remember as we were driving through the city taking it all in, as this was going to be the last time, for over 365 days, I'd see the streets of Dublin. A rather beautiful city, when you look up at the variety of buildings and diverse architectural styles. When we got to the airport we had our final dinner together for some time. Everywhere we looked, the airport was filled with unconscious bodies. Lying on any square inch of soft furnishing that could be found. We resided to the floor of the rather alien-esk interior of the Aer Lingus check-in lounge.

After taking a small nap in João's lap, Eoghan and Aidan, my second travelling buddy arrived at 4am. Both of the boys looked as shattered as I felt. Eoghan brought along a miniature guitar. That's going to be fun. We did our last hugs and kisses goodbye. Its a really strange feeling leaving someone you love for something like 6 months. Even though you know your going to see them again, its quite a shock to the system. Obviously much harder for the person that is not heading off. As you are going to be distracted every moment by new experiences. I'll miss my sweet heart insurmountably. XXX

We took our first flight, Aer Lingus LR125 to Heathrow, UK at 6.40am. On time. Rather comfortable as they gave us three seats each. Emergeny rows at that. I fell asleep before take off and woke 30mins later flying over the UK. We landed, rather roughly, on time in Heathrow. (279 miles) We then took a 1 hour journey, of walking, bus, multiple security check throughs, to Terminal 4. For anyone that goes through Heathrow, buy what you need in Dublin duty free. Its at least 30% more expensive in LHR. Thats across the board. We boarded our flight BA139 to Mumbai, India at 11.05am. A Boeing 747-400. I chanced my arm at the BA desk for an upgrade although to no avail unfortunately. We were herded into the back of the plane. 10 seats across. We were placed in a rather Ryanair styled seating arrangement together. This was quite amusing as the three of us are all rather broad and tall. With Aidan bashing our TV controls with his elbows, sandwiched in between me and Eoghan. We asked the stewardess if there was any chance of an upgrade. God loves a trier :) The plane filled quickly and took off on-time. The nice stewardess offered us a free row and Aidan, moved giving us that much needed extra bit of room for our elbows and shoulders. The flight was going to be 9 hours so I planned a mixture of sleeping, eating and some movies. This was actually very pleasant. I took some photos as we flew over North Africa. The food was top grade. The TV screen in the seat infront of me was a nice distraction.

We landed in Mumbai, India, 20 mins late, not bad for a 3,400 mile journey. The heat really hits you when you get off the plane. Thankfully the week in Italy had helped a little, I think. We passed through immigration without any delay and collected our bags as quickly as you would in Dublin. We had gotten advice and orderd a pre-paid taxi in the airport. As you leave the airport you are greeted by a sea of indian faces, waving name signs. The air is thick and moist. There is a barrage of taxis parked higgly-de-piggdly all over the place. There's a constant sound of beeping horns. People approach you to offer their taxis. Aidan lead the charge and found a porter that lead us to a small blue car, where he awoke two men sleeping inside. Bags were packed in the boot and we piled in. The man barely awake, began to drive off without his headlights turned on. I mentioned this to him three or four times, before he worked out what was going on. The journey began with a similar feeling to a bumper ride in a fair ground. Thankfully not too many bumps, although he was going around 15 miles per hour and swerving all over the place. Cars were beeping him from the left and right and pushing him all around the place. We kept mentioning our destination, as he spoke about us being his God send and something about his memory. His English was not the best although pretty good for someone that had only gone to class for 3 months. We seemed to be driving for quit sometime and I started wondering did this guy know where he was off to. He just didn't come across very confident.

Its a real eye opener as you travel through Mumbai for the first time. Supposedly, India most westernised city. Many of the street are lined with people sleeping in them. Black and yellow taxis are everywhere, with their drivers asleep in the back, with the doors open. A lot of the buildings are run-down and shack-like. Bizarrily, amongst this you keep seeing shop shutters with the Vodafone logo printed on them in large. The streets are in a dire state, with numerous craters in the middle. Piles of bricks lie all over the place, on the side of the road. Traffic lights are only for decoration. And here we are with this lovely indian man, can't remeber his name, pottering along with us all crammed in his tiny car. We realised quickly, he had no idea where he was going. We stopped around 20 times to ask directions to Colloba. He kept getting directions and driving off in another direction. Driving the wrong way down one way streets, with cars racing at him beeping their horns. We were wondering whether we ever going to get there or perhaps get mugged before we even got to our hotel. After around an hour and a half the poor man finally found the hotel. The Gods had sent us a good one because he genuinely was a lovely man that just didn't know where he was. It can happen to the best of us. We got into our hotel. Paid our 7295 rps for one night, €100 approx for the 3 of us, in one of the better hotels a few minutes from the Gate of India along the sea front. We found two of our Irish buddies, Ian and Peter had booked in a couple hours before us. After unpacking in our air-con room we met the others and ordered some food at 5am in the morning.

So, if you got this far well done. This will prob be the longest post, on our journey, so my apologies for the length. Some will be very short and there may be a week without any. Make sure to leave us your suggestions of what to see and do. Keep safe. Sam signing off. Sleepy hello from Aidan awaking beside me now and zzzzzz from Eoghan.