Some holidays are break from monotony, some are a learning
experience, some are just too much fun but only few trips are all this and
more. The east Europe trip that we did last year was one such amazing trip.
The three protagonists – Tauseef, Rohan and Me. All three are boring bankers, tired of their daily office routine and looking for a break in the most literal sense.
Prologue – For Tauseef and me, this was not our first brush
with Europe and we both had seen a lot of the west European countries. So we
decided to go off the beaten track – an East Europe trip, covering Poland,
Czech, Hungary and Romania. But Romania visa turned out to be an issue. Considering
the hassle of flying to Delhi for interview at Romanian embassy, we dropped
Romania from the itinerary. Now suddenly 5 days opened up in our 15 days plan.
After poring over political map of Europe for hours, we were
still undecided. We picked Istanbul for two days, the reason was our cheap
flight to Europe with a transit at Istanbul. This meant that we just needed to take our
Istanbul to Mumbai flight 2 days later and spend two days in Istanbul. Also,
Turkey provided Visa on Arrival for Schengen visa holders. But 3 days were yet
unaccounted for.
Then Tauseef's boss, troubled by his googling in office for “European best places to visit”, decided to assist. His suggestion - Croatia. We googled and were impressed in minutes. Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Hvar, Split and Plitvic – all perfect places to go. Also, while he was talking to his boss, a colleague (Rohan) of his overheard and came asking to join. He checked with me and I thought – the more, the merrier.
Then Tauseef's boss, troubled by his googling in office for “European best places to visit”, decided to assist. His suggestion - Croatia. We googled and were impressed in minutes. Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Hvar, Split and Plitvic – all perfect places to go. Also, while he was talking to his boss, a colleague (Rohan) of his overheard and came asking to join. He checked with me and I thought – the more, the merrier.
Flight – Turkish Airlines (Go - Mumbai to Vienna via
Istanbul; Return – Zagreb to Mumbai via Istanbul)
Plan – 2 days in Krakow, 3 days in Prague, 3 Days in
Budapest, 3 days in Zagreb/Dubrovnik and 2 days in Istanbul
Visa – Initiated through VFS. We had selected Austrian
Embassy for our Schengen considering it was our port of entry but turned out
that visa application has to be processed through the country with longest stay
– Czech Republic in our case. We had to show a longer stay in Vienna (thanks to Hostel
Booker, we booked cheap stay for the same) to get the process done through
Austrian Embassy. This was important as Austrian Embassy is in Mumbai. Though
later we realized, we were not even required to visit the Embassy for the 15
days tourist visa. The visa came in ten days and we were all set to go.
