The Path that Leads to Norway

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All of my friends know that I love to travel & photography. Close friends would observe loads of my pictures in flickr and facebook on my latest “adventures”. From the bustling China, to the tip of picturesque Hokkaido, the pre-9-11 US cities, flying high up above Cappadocia Turkey and even to a remote mirror lake in New Zealand. But only a handful of my friends know the painful reason why Europe was not on the record yet.

My Schengen visa was rejected in 2009. I couldn’t believe despite of the complete documents, a fat savings account and a fancy multinational company cushy job – they still suspect that I’m a “terrorist”. They kept me in the holding room for 7 hours, interrogate whether that is my real husband (despite of my wedding certificate in hand), why I have so much money (what???), how many years was college (??) and even question “is this your real picture – your face looks different” (of a picture that was taken like 2 days before). It was ridiculous. Why? Just because I’m a muslim with a headscarf? And no, I’m not interested to disclose which country exactly rejected me.

And I felt the deepest heart break when seeing the rejection stamp at the back of my passport. I howl for weeks, and weeks. Cry my heart out every time I see Europe in the TV travel channel. Curse silently every time some random Indonesian that I know gets to go to Europe.

I know for those of you readers who have the privilege to own “developed-countries-can-go-anywhere” passport – you may not understand how it feels. But if you LOVE to travel, and someone is preventing you from doing so, it’s like someone’s putting a chain up your leg & throw away the keys; or like if you’re a bird and some bastards snaps your wings so you can never fly.

But then again, I never stopped dreaming. And never stopped trying. I actually made a deliberate move to request to my company to assign me in Singapore; so I can apply for visa from Singapore instead of Jakarta (and of course there are other reasons why I chose to move to Singapore, so not only about visa). I started to build a master plan to build my travel portfolio. Carefully plan where to go, which quarter and match it with the time of passport renewal. I scoured literally different forums & embassy on visa application. From forum in Africa, India, Philippines – I did all I can do to really make the “next time” as bullet proof as possible. If all goes well according to my master plan, I should be able to apply again for spring 2013. It will take 5 years of effort – but I’m up for it. Why not immediately reapply? Because, if you got rejected 2 times in a row – it will be a liability for future visa applications to other countries. Nothing written on that, but it is what it is. They literally stamped the back of your passport; so you can’t hide the fact either.

According to my master plan, this summer we’re suppose to go to Russia. Planning stage is almost finished, hotels have been reserved, itinerary is in place. Then out of nowhere, my gut feel is saying otherwise… I’m sure Russia is beautiful. But there’s just something not right with the combination of place & time. It’s just doesn’t feel right. And for some reason, the crazy gut feel of mine is telling me to apply to Norway instead. About a year sooner from the master plan. Logically, I knew it’s a bit crazy because at this time – I just changed my passport and it’s still blank. I know that I can always bring my old passports but still, the risk is higher.

But then one thing leads to another. The thought of Norway – came a bit random. But then after further researching; things started to fall in their own place. Apparently in Singapore, Norway’s schengen visa is handled by Danish Embassy. And their office happened to be across my office. A discount ticket popped out in Finn Air. And before I knew it – I’m already at the embassy door pressing the bell to enter their office.

And this time, there’s no 7-hours hostage fiasco. It was just a brief 13 mins end to end – and I got my multiple entries Schengen visa by end of that same week. Just like that. My supporting papers was considered more than necessary as the lady gave back many of them back ha ha ha… (hey, better be safe than sorry). Right before my 30^th birthday – God gave me the nicest birthday present ever. A sparkling Schengen visa! Yayyy!!!! It took 4 years to fight for it – but I made it!!! That’s all that matters.

So where am I going? I’m going Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria with a stopover in Finland! Sounds nice? You bet! Why not the “usual suspects”: France, Italy, etc? Well – if you read above, my gut feel specifically told me – Norway is the way to go. And apparently it is right. So we’ll focus on Scandinavia and Central/Eastern Europe for now. I’ll save Western Europe for another trip.

I’m grateful. I’m thankful. And I’m so proud of myself for not giving up!!! Cheers for the girl who never gave up her dreams!

PS: Hmmm, perhaps I should make another entry on visa tips in case it can be a help for someone out there. We’ll see.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Wow, what a great story
Perseverance has paid off! A good idea to take it slow and see the Northern ones first. Remember not as many people have explored those areas so you will be blazing a new trail!

[dibya kusyala]

keep your dream alive and be the one who win at the end. hehe..
ti.. i actually have quite similar experience this year, after wait for so many years, this upcoming birthday i will travel to tokyo and kyoto. God has plans. the airlines suddenly suspended all the flight that will go to india, that i've already purchased the ticket. they called and offered some choices i got a chance to reroute my trip for free. Suddenly Japan popped out in my mind, a place that i have so many rejection before hehe.. (from scholarship until seminar that i could not attended). glad to read your experience, may be my destination after this will be europe, can't wait your eastern europe travel journal yanti..