Vacations always fly by faster than you think they should.  It was a whirlwind of a trip through 4 countries in 3 weeks, but even in hindsight, I don’t think I would have changed my itinerary (which I will be posting in case you ever get the itch to go to any of these cities). It was a great trip with great company, great food, and great activities.

But all things do come to an end, so we said farewell to Brussels and headed to the airport. We once again found ourselves in the Brussels train station, and once again the Brussels train station provided us with a headache. Our first train was cancelled and then we had a goose chase around the station to finally catch a train. You would think that they would at least try to make trains to the airport be on time!

We then had to wait in line to check in with an agent because Nisheet wasn’t able to check in online, but the line was only around 10 people deep. Not bad. When we arrived at our gate, we found out why. Nisheet had been randomly selected for extra security! He said it wasn’t bad though. They just patted him down and took everything out of his bags. No biggie since he had nothing to hide. And to compensate him for his time, he got to board with zone 1 while I stood in line with everyone else from zone 2.

We had a delta flight from Brussels to Atlanta, and I have to say, it was nicer than my delta flight from JFK to Barcelona. The seats were comfortable, and all of the entertainment systems had a USB port so you could charge your phone or iPad. There was also a ridiculously huge selection of movies and tv shows. I watched  and entire season of Big Bang Theory, several TED talks, Hot Pursuit, and Cinderella. Yes, the flight is long enough to watch all of that with time to spare… And, the best part of the flight was flying with Nisheet.  You might be surprised to know that this was our first international flight together! We have always flown separately for one reason or another.

Shortly after takeoff, they came through with free cocktails, pretzels, and peanuts. I had a rum and coke and Nisheet had a whiskey and ginger. Great way to start the day if you ask me!

About 2 hours into the flight we were served another round of cocktails and lunch. There were 2 options for lunch, tortellini or chicken and rice. I was skeptical of the food since it wasn’t that good on my flight over, but both dishes (we both ordered a different one) were pretty darn good for airplane food! They also came with a side salad, bread, butter, crackers, cheese, and orange chocolate mousse.

Right in the middle of the flight, they fed us again. This time it was just a snack pack and consisted of olive crackers, cheese, chocolate, and mentos. We were still pretty full from lunch, so we just split one of the snack packs. We could have gotten yet another cocktail at this point, but the flight was becoming turbulent so I decided against that.

In case we still might be hungry, towards the end of the flight we were served another lunch. This time we had a choice between a meatball wrap and a roasted veggie pastry. I opted for the roasted veggie pastry, and it was delicious! I unfortunately couldn’t eat more than 2 bites though because I was becoming very nauseous from all the turbulence by this point. Nisheet said his wrap was good, but the veggie pastry was better. The ice cream was also quite yummy! They definately kept us well fed on this flight! And, yes, you could get another cocktail now if you wanted.

All said, I would definately recommend Delta for international flights. My flight on the way back was just as good as my previous favorite, Virgin Atlantic.

Once we arrived in Atlanta, we were herded through immigration. Several flights had landed at the same time, so the line for US citizens extended down a very very long hall. Fortunately, the line did seem to move quickly. The first stop in the line is an automatic machine that they have been introduced to various airports over the past couple years. I went through it in Chicago last year, but Nisheet (along with most others in the line) had never used it before. Personally I think it slows everything way down.. but that topic is for another day. When you walk up to the machine, you put your passport in it and answer 4 questions and then the machine takes your picture and prints out a receipt. You then take this receipt and stand in another line to talk to the immigration officer. I got through quickly, but the immigration officer stopped Nisheet for no reason what-so-ever. I tried to wait for him but was of course yelled at, so I went and picked up our checked bag. Around 10 minutes later, he was walked out with the officer and led to another room. I refused to leave him, so they also confiscated my passport and was told to sit in the small room along side Nisheet. I tried to demand a reason for this, but was flatly and rudely refused anything by multiple people. Another officer (with a bullet proof vest + guns) then started interrogating us (did we break any laws, were we hiding anything, where did we work, what was in our bags, etc, etc). We had nothing to hide and did nothing wrong, so they couldn’t hold us. I again asked for the reason we were being questioned and was only told “this could happen to anyone.” So after that ordeal, we put our luggage onto the transfer belt and went through another security screening to get our connecting flight. Nisheet again got pulled from line and went through a pat down.  But, we finally made it to our flight, made it to the Tampa airport, and then finally to our apartment on the beach. What a welcome home!!!!