Melancong Ke Eropah Musim Bunga

Assalamualaikum...

For this year annual family vacation, me and my husband had planned a special treat for the kids. So, during mid-year school holiday baru-baru ni, our family telah melancong ke Eropah!

Hoorayy!! (mak dia yang over-excited nampaknya ya)...

However, merancang trip kali ni sememangnya agak mencabar. Daripada awal lagi dah mula timbul masalah-masalah yang tidak diduga sehinggalah beberapa hari sebelum berlepas. Normally, I will finalized the itinerary that I make a month before the trip. Tapi, kali ni on the day kita bertolak pun I still making changes to it here and there. The reason? Nanti I ceritakan...

Initially ingat nak plan sendiri je our trip kali ni, macam biasa. Tapi En Husband tak berapa agree sebab kita nak travel to several countries, banyak benda nak kena arrange katanya. Lagipun ini first time kita travel to Europe so better go with a tour agent. Next time dah ada experience boleh la plan sendiri. Betul jugak tu. So, kita pun contacted satu tour agent ni untuk ambil ground arrangement sahaja, which offer tours of London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Paris. Great! Setelah agree with the dates yang diorang provide through email, kita pun bayar deposit.

By December 2014, I dah mula survey flight tickets untuk check harga. Looked for return flights KL-Paris which is much cheaper than KL-London or multiple city stopover. Luckily, top airliner of 2015 - Qatar Airways ada promotions time tu untuk flight dari Kuala Lumpur to Paris i.e. RM2,400+ untuk adults dan RM2,200+ per child. Not bad, cheaper than MAS. Furthermore I hate direct flights yang terlalu lama hingga berbelas jam, rimas! Qatar Airways ni ada transit in Doha so boleh stretch my legs sekejap. After further discussion dengan En Husband, kita pun booked the 3.00am flight 28th May 2015 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) and ETA in Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) at 2.10pm the same day.

Immediately after, we seached for Eurostar train ticket online pulak. Nampak murah, harga untuk 5 orang (2 adults, 1 youth and 2 children) cuma 154 pound sahaja, lebih kurang RM800+ bila convert. So, tengok harga ok kita pun terus booked 4.10pm train.

However....!

Setelah booked Eurostar I baru teringat sesuatu. Sempat ke nak catch Eurostar ni within 2 hours? So I start googling... OMG, most reviews kata 2 hours dari CDG to Gare Du Nord (GDN) train station tempat Eurostar tu depart adalah terlalu suntuk! Alamakkk x3!!!  I tak ambil kira kalau flight tu delay ke, nak lepas custom pulak ambil masa berapa lama? Then dari CDG naik metro to GDN tu je mengambil masa dalam 40 minutes. Lepas tu, baru tahu we have to be in GDN 30 minutes before the train departure time! Haru!

So bila tanya En Husband, dia kata takpe la maybe sempat. Nanti kita fikir option lain - private coach transfer maybe. Ok lega dah ada solution...

For the few months before the trip, I pun mula booked the hotel in London (since kita hanya akan join the tour on the 3rd day), Paris hotel (for the final day as our flight is in the morning. Tour guide tak boleh hantar pepagi ke Airport, their flights in the afternoon) and entrance tickets online. So far so good, at least most items yang boleh book online dah settled. Tinggal yang kecil-kecil je takpe dah sampai sana baru beli. One major thing to do, by end of April kita pun make the full payments to the tour agent.

Tapi, something happened which I tak tau samada nak menjerit marah ke atau later anggap blessing in disguised. Guess what? 20 days before the trip, the tour agent contacted us and came up with a NEW ITINERARY! The tour date have been moved over to the next day. Huh?! Which means we have an extra day in London! Tapi of course it means kena book hotel lagi sehari. Tambah duit lagi! And to add insult to injury, we will missed the last day tour which is Paris since our flight home follows the end of the original tour date. Alahaiii!!!

So itu lah pasalnya I bagitau tadi I still making changes to the itinerary until the departure date... ada 20 hari je nak kena fikir itinerary baru, banyak nak kena tukar. For example, 1st day tu kita decided untuk tukar plan and jalan-jalan di Paris sebelum ke London. Alang-alang dah macam tak sempat je naik Eurostar tu, tukar je lah terus pada train malam. Bila check FAQ kat Eurostar's website, kita still boleh tukar ticket tu until the departure time. Tapi bila nak amend time untuk existing ticket tu kat online macam tak boleh pulak. Seems like there's something wrong with Eurostar system, kita tak boleh amend anything except for seat number je. Hmmm...

So malas nak serabutkan kepala ni, beli je satu lagi ticket Eurostar pukul 8.40pm. Yang earlier ticket tu kira burn gitu je la. Harga new tickets : 359 pound convert dlm RM2,000+.  Adusss!!!

So itu saja mukadimahnya but the drama didn't end there....Noooo...!!!  banyak lagi tapi nanti I cerita kat next entry..

Trip kali ni memanglah best tapi bila belum pergi lagi pun dah banyak sangkaknya, rasa berdebar-debarlah jugak. Tapi kita tawakkal ajelah. Ada few incidents happened along the way, some of them rather scary. Well, I guessed no matter how well-planned a person can be, at the end kita hanya manusia biasa yang hanya mampu merancang tapi Tuhan yang menentukan segala-galanya. So, redha aje lah dan bersyukur banyak-banyak that everything turned out fine... Alhamdulillah...