Europe,

before i was in Bhutan i got my conformation of the scholarship from spain and i had only a week to preapre myself, i was given visa only a week beore my flight, it was too rush and i left Nepal on such rush.

And thus I started a long journey from kathmandu Bangkok to Madrid. I had a transit in bangkok for five hours but the plane from kathmandu flew too late and we took almost the whole time of transit of bangkok in kathmandu waiting for the plane. In bangkok I arrived just one hour earlier before to board the next plane to Madrid. Finally I got into the thai airways boeing 747 I was luckily seated next to a spanish couple who had visited Nepal thirty years back, they were amazed to hear me speaking spanish with them. Then the plane took off, in plane I am always intrested to know about the countries which we will cross enroute, people after getting into a plane for a long flight mostly wait for meals to be served and large drink then take out a book for a while and try to sleep but I have different idea, why not try to see the world from the window of a plane ? and now in the flight they have large screen which shows where we are flying at what altitude and which is the place below our plane, Thus I was awake and trying to see under the window, fastly we crossed into myanmar, into dhaka, and delhi. These places were familiar to me but when the plane flew above lahore and afganishtan I tried to see more of these hidden lands but I couldn’t see anything but I guess I saw some deem lights somewhere in afghanisthan. We crossed afghan territory and now in the airspace of turkmenistan, I thought of the powerful USSR days, we crossed turkmenistan and we were flying above turkey, the ancient roman city the constantinapole, I think we flew over the port of Istanbul,I saw long port lights and guessed that was Istanbul.

I was hoping to see Iran the old persian empire from the plane but the plane was not taking that route. It was dark night and we were flying over mediterinnean sea and dark light of the night was slowly turning into light red thus I guess we were near to the dawn but europe was still dark because asia had seen dawn behind us and europe was still waiting for the dawn. I was excited to know from where the plane will get into europe, was it bulgeria because I thought it is near turkey, was it romania ? but we get into europe from Greece, the old ancient land of alexander and plato. Now we were flying over europe, I tried to see from the window but the dawn was still approaching and there were clouds in greek territory, thinking of their beautiful city Athens we crossed greece and now where ? now we were flying over mediterrinean sea, the sea was visible from the plane, the dark blue mediterrinean sea, what next ? then I was amazed to see on the screen that we are now above Naples Italy, and Italy was totally visible, I saw few villages of Naples, the great Roman empire.

The people were sleeping in the plane now started getting up and wanted the breakfast to be served, Thai served a nice breakfast, by the time we finished our breakfast the plane had almost reached spanish territory it was now flying over Valencia, the spanish city where I had to go and live for next one year. I tried to see my location, I saw from the plane, it was exciting to get into the land which you have imagined so many times, and now the plane was approaching the Barajas airport in Madrid.

I took my camera and took pictures of approaching Madrid, finally at nine past two we landed in Madrid. Madrid the city of movement, night life, the city of art and culture, the city of bars and bullfight seemed quite in the morning. Now we were in Madrid, as we were about to board off from the plane we heard and announcement that we must carry our passport in our hand, we followed the rule thanked thai for their great hospility and came out. In the tunnel gate there was a whole regiment of police force as they were searching for a convict. Everybody passed when my turn came I handed my green Nepalese passport to the police officer he threw me a look from top to buttom and just asked me to stay in a corner, I followed. I waited for a while and he came to me I asked him in spanish “is there any problem” amazed, he asked me do you speak spanish ? I said yes, perfectly. Then he said are you here to work ? I said no I am here to study, then he said you can go. I came out and waited for my luggage but it was missed, they said they will send by next flight.. Then I came out of the airport, the city was new for me but not the people. Working with spanish for a long time I have made so many friend in spain who were more excited than me about my arrival.

Two of my friends were waiting me at the gate, they at first couldn’t believe that I’m there, I now believed that I’m in europe, at least now I can see few famous places here. We then started our drive from airport to home, the city is amazing, organized, the nice public buses, not like ours where a “khalsi” is shouting and almost pushing the people into his bus. Within ten minutes we were in the house of my friend, in kathmandu that same distance would have taken forty five minutes because of wild traffic, but here you can hear the sound of speeding cars but no sound of horns, blowing horn is offence here but in kathmandu it’s a matter of pride. Kathmandu should learn from the system of europe, off course our politicians and beurocrats who come to europe and take photos with their wives, at least they should try to make a good syestm. Seeing roads and informations of madrid I feel india has something common, slowly I came to know the road signs in Delhi ( written in blue board) are similar to Madrid’s, that means the planners from delhi had done research in europe, and they are now making Delhi beautiful.

But we nepalsese are always involved in politics, the congress, communists, maoists, all fighting and not taking responsibilty and the local people aggressive, always ready to fight, if something happens they first destroy the railings of the street and while the people breaks railings there is like a celebration, they smile and shout and take out the ralings and nobody will repaire those, the tendency of cheating has increased a lot in Nepal. You are cheated everywhere even the government offices tried to cheat you, the shopkeeper tries to cheat you, the same packet of biscuit you can find for ten rupees in one shop but two meters away another shop has a different price fot the same biscuit. I bought a kilo of peach in madrid it was two euros per kilo, the same I bought in valencia for same two euros per kilo, had it been in nepal it would have definitely be different. When we will learn these, the public buses in Nepal stop in the middle of the road to take the passengers, if a traffic comes and takes the licence they creat a havoc by blocking the way in the middle, nobody is procupied. Here it is different they are prepared for everything, for an example: if a handicapped person wants to board into a bus in Spain, the the bus has a hydrolic system, the whole bus gets down and a plate rolls out from the door making the pathway for that person to get into his/her wheel chair inside, its amazing, have we ever thought of these ? to get into metro there is a lift for handicapped, old and pregnant women, all the bus stations are made by crystal clear glass, nobody takes enjoyment by breaking the glass. When we will learn to respect our public properties ?

Thninking these I came to valencia, it is almost four hundred kilometers from madrid but we took only three hours to reach, a friend took me in his car, in Nepal four hundred kilometers is a long distance, it takes a whole day, but here in special road which even absorves rainwater reduced it into just three hours, they are not even satisfied by this, they are building the fast railway track which will take only two hours.

The second day of my arrival I went to see the old part of valencia, was amazed to see hundred years old bulidings in the same and more beautiful condition than before, in Nepal people watch and celebrate while they bring down a centuries old building and creat an ugly concrete structure, people think renovation is only for temples. All the old houses are restored to their own glory, if looks beautiful with beautifully made street lights. Thus these are my first impressions of europe. Next I have to travel as many countries as I can and collect more ideas about the development.

Barcelona

The name says all, the famous city of spain I always wanted to visit, luckily I got five days of holidays and I was in front of the raliway station, I got my first eurail ticket from valencia to barcelona. I knew much about barcelona but yet to visit the city. I called one of my spanish friend and he was waiting me at the railway station. The railway from valencia to barcelona goes by the sea shore and almost the whole route it follows the sea which was a brilliant scenery, crossing big orange fields, small hills and sea after three hours I was in barcelona. The romans had the original name for barcelona, it was called barcica, from barcica it became barcelona. The first day of my arrival I went to my friend’s home, his parents welcomed me with an open heart, then the same day we started the tour of barcelona. We visited the famous street called la rambla, which is roughly a kilometer long footpath between the road, it is a place where most of the tourists start their tour, rambla is full of immigrants, specially the pakistani immigrants, at some point it looks like islamabad, there are shops and bars on the both side, people normally walk through rambla to the port. The port of barcelona is one of the busiest on the mediterrinean sea. The very first day I had a clear picture of barcelona,


We walked the whole street, we saw the old church, the time stops in europe specially if we are walking into the narrow allys of the church. We also saw the very famous food market in barcelona where they sell most of the food at one place, like our ason but highly organized. I saw people begging too but with dignity, a man was playing violin, the sound of the strings of violin was so powerful and the echo was helping the sound to come like in a concert, he looked like a man who plays in opera but he was a beggar, I asked my my friend how we see beggars in europe ? the highly developed world, he replied me that this happens everywhere, he also told me an intresting thing, these musicians beggars have to get a permission from the municipality to play their music and collect money, they have to give the proof that they have nothing but the skill of playing instrument, when they are cleared of this the municipality grants them a special place where they can play music and beg,

This was the height of control, even the beggars are granted permission to beg. Traveling like this we can get so many informations like this. The second day we visited a famous mountain of barcelona where the virgin of the province is situated, the mountain is called montserrat. The route is almost like going to nagarkot but there is a special train to carry the passengers there.

Train in such mountian, yes it is possible. Our leaders in Nepal say it is impossible to make a railway track in mountains like nepal, but here infront of me there was a long winding railwaytrack which took us on the top of the mountain. There is a church dates back to tenth century.

On the same days we visited a small village of the same province, my friend took me to his old house in the village, the house is three hundred years old.
Most of the spanish villages are reknowned for their authenticity which they bear even this period. It was a small village 100 kms away from barcelona with population of only 80 people, the tranquility in the village was amazing, it was so peaceful like the meditation room in a tranquil monastry. I also wanted to visit some old spanish villages and I was totally satisfied of the visit. The four days in barcelona I was fully occupied, the city is happening and beautiful. I came back to valencia with a desire of going back to barcelona.

Sleepless Spanish Nights

The spanish time table is strange, they work from eight o’clock in the morning to two, they take rest of 2 hours, and from five to eight they come back to work again. While in the other part of the world people are going back home happily after five the spanish are running again for their work, this time table is now a part of their culture and nobody seems to be protesting for this.

After coming to home at eight what do we do in Nepal ? it is too late to go out neither we have nightlife, Here in spain people come home after eight, take some rest and go out again then the next arrival is ancipated more or less at twelve or little bit more. If it is a weekend then coming home is at five in the morning or later then sleeping whole day and coming out in the evening. Non of other european countries have such schedule.

The food is another pride of spain, there are hundreds of varieties of meats, vegetables and breads. What do you want ? its all ready for you, the normal is TAPAS which means snacks, if we go to the bar we can choose our snacks which are already prepared. Wine plays another great role in spanish culture again, there are many bars where we can see wine barrals, all these barrals has taps, we can open the tap and fill the wine in a glass as if we are drinking water, early morning in the bar we can see people drinking wine. The drinkers are not alcoholic, they are normal drinkers and satisfied after one or two drinks.

Comida means food in spain, the food is served properly everywhere in spain whether we are in a big city like madrid or a very small remote village. The same quality of food and drinks are maintained. After seeing this I would like to recall our eating scene in Nepal: we mostly say this restaurent is good that another one is worse, “kya jhur khana dinchha tya, tya hoina hya jane, we have to go through a heavy discussion in Kathmandu if we are preparing to go to a restaurent. If the discussicon goes long then someone says “ lets prepare and eat in home” then we land up in a kitchen of someone and enjoy.

This is because nobody thinks that fooding means hygiene, people do so many tricks with food in Nepal, they put colours, they mix powders, they try to cheat the clients by cooking left overs but here in europe if we go to the smallest restaurent which sale food for one euro or sometimes less than one euro, the place and food are fully hygenic, these smallest shops are also under full control, fi somebody is hungry he/she can get into any of the restaurents.

So much we should learn, more than the government of Nepal I think the public should be aware of their responsibilites.