Booking Tickets
Booking tickets can be freaking scary. Booking a one-way ticket can be terrifying. Even if you know, you’ll be buying the return ticket at some point.
Let me explain; I’m not scared of tickets for holidays or the likes but when I’m booking a single one-way plane ticket is different. Even more so, because I need to travel entirely on my own. I’ve never flown on a plane without people I know. I’ve always travelled with my family or my class.
Last week, I booked at train ticket to come spend a few days in Jutland with my grandmother. I was booking a one-way ticket for this as we’re driving back in her car together as she’s to take part of my little brother’s birthday celebration. So, in a sense that wasn’t really a one-way ticket. Furthermore, I’ve done that journey every summer, always on my own, for as long as I can remember. I even did it when I was just a child, although a staff member checked up on me during the journey back then.
The ticket, I was scared to book, was my plane ticket to England. In the last year, I’ve been filling out numerous applications and applied to go on exchange for my fifth and second-to-last semester of my bachelor. I’ve been approved, both by my home university and the university I’m coming to, and I’ve gotten a room (plus paid full rent for the duration of my stay) in campus accommodation. However, I had put off buying the plane ticket.
The plane ticket somehow made it all feel real.
I’m leaving my native country to spend three months in England and going back for a month after Christmas to take the exams (haven’t booked any more tickets as of yet). The longest I’ve ever been away from Denmark was when I spend two months in Chaing Mai, Thailand when I was seven. But back then I had my parents and my little brother with me. This time I’m on my own… and I’m an adult now. Or so I should be.
When I graduated "ground" school at the age of 15, I felt sort of grown up. Even more so when I began gymnasium after the summer. I felt it even more intensely when I enrolled at university at the age of 18. At that time, I was an actual legal adult although still so naïve and inexperienced when I looked back. But all the while through my three educations, I’ve had my home and my family. I kept choosing schools not based on knowing people who’d go there but on the schools itself and my gut feeling. I used the same approach when it came to choosing the university for my exchange.
However, when I leave I won’t be coming home to my family every day and I’ll move out for the first time too. I’ll be so far away from them. At the same time, I’m so excited to see what these months abroad can teach me and although I’m sure I’ll be extremely overwhelmed, I’m also pretty sure I’ll have a great time.
In a sense, my one-way plane ticket isn’t one-way at all. I’m coming home for Christmas and in the spring I have two more courses and a bachelor project that awaits me back home at my university. That project will be my next big academic focus after the completion of my exchange stay. *sigh*
Also, how weird is it that a train ticket from Copenhagen to Jutland costs 354 DKK while a plane ticket from Copenhagen to London costs 399 DKK? Blows my mind to be quite honest.
Another weird thing about booking tickets, is that now I’ve actually got the ticket, I can’t wait until the trip. I have loads to do before I leave and will undoubtedly be busy but now I know when exactly when I’m leaving and when I’ll land. Hopefully it’ll be without delays but as every plane I’ve taken this year have either been delayed or cancelled, I do now know how to handle that if worst comes to worst.
I’m equally terrified and excited to discover what’ll be at the end of my one-way plane ticket to England.
Let me explain; I’m not scared of tickets for holidays or the likes but when I’m booking a single one-way plane ticket is different. Even more so, because I need to travel entirely on my own. I’ve never flown on a plane without people I know. I’ve always travelled with my family or my class.
Last week, I booked at train ticket to come spend a few days in Jutland with my grandmother. I was booking a one-way ticket for this as we’re driving back in her car together as she’s to take part of my little brother’s birthday celebration. So, in a sense that wasn’t really a one-way ticket. Furthermore, I’ve done that journey every summer, always on my own, for as long as I can remember. I even did it when I was just a child, although a staff member checked up on me during the journey back then.
The ticket, I was scared to book, was my plane ticket to England. In the last year, I’ve been filling out numerous applications and applied to go on exchange for my fifth and second-to-last semester of my bachelor. I’ve been approved, both by my home university and the university I’m coming to, and I’ve gotten a room (plus paid full rent for the duration of my stay) in campus accommodation. However, I had put off buying the plane ticket.
The plane ticket somehow made it all feel real.
I’m leaving my native country to spend three months in England and going back for a month after Christmas to take the exams (haven’t booked any more tickets as of yet). The longest I’ve ever been away from Denmark was when I spend two months in Chaing Mai, Thailand when I was seven. But back then I had my parents and my little brother with me. This time I’m on my own… and I’m an adult now. Or so I should be.
When I graduated "ground" school at the age of 15, I felt sort of grown up. Even more so when I began gymnasium after the summer. I felt it even more intensely when I enrolled at university at the age of 18. At that time, I was an actual legal adult although still so naïve and inexperienced when I looked back. But all the while through my three educations, I’ve had my home and my family. I kept choosing schools not based on knowing people who’d go there but on the schools itself and my gut feeling. I used the same approach when it came to choosing the university for my exchange.
However, when I leave I won’t be coming home to my family every day and I’ll move out for the first time too. I’ll be so far away from them. At the same time, I’m so excited to see what these months abroad can teach me and although I’m sure I’ll be extremely overwhelmed, I’m also pretty sure I’ll have a great time.
In a sense, my one-way plane ticket isn’t one-way at all. I’m coming home for Christmas and in the spring I have two more courses and a bachelor project that awaits me back home at my university. That project will be my next big academic focus after the completion of my exchange stay. *sigh*
Also, how weird is it that a train ticket from Copenhagen to Jutland costs 354 DKK while a plane ticket from Copenhagen to London costs 399 DKK? Blows my mind to be quite honest.
Another weird thing about booking tickets, is that now I’ve actually got the ticket, I can’t wait until the trip. I have loads to do before I leave and will undoubtedly be busy but now I know when exactly when I’m leaving and when I’ll land. Hopefully it’ll be without delays but as every plane I’ve taken this year have either been delayed or cancelled, I do now know how to handle that if worst comes to worst.
I’m equally terrified and excited to discover what’ll be at the end of my one-way plane ticket to England.
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