September 25, 2016: Getting lost can be just awesome when you are traveling Europe for the first time. A day in Venice when disconnected with all electronics, maps, not knowing where I was heading to, and cannot understand a single word on the road boards, travelling alone was just awesome. I am a person who hates walking but I walked all the way from San-Marco to Rialto which was fantastic. After all the tiredness, pleasing view from the white canal bridge at Rialto, Venice was mesmerizing.
I was fortunate to be selected as one of the participants to attend Global Entrepreneurship Summer School (GESS) in Munich, Germany. The Invitation arrived to me in May 2016. After all the formalities for the Visa, had the tickets, my journey started with a flight to Munich from Kathmandu having a transit at Abu Dhabi on 9th September 2016 and reached Munich on 10th Morning. The language, only few people understand English and I didn’t know how to head to my hostel as everything on the boards was in German. Somehow I figured out, took a train to Resiemer Paltz and walked to reach at the hostel. I rushed to the room, threw my baggage and started off to get to the classes- GESS 2016. An awesome experience with 35 other amazing starters from different nations was yet to be discovered. Meeting all of the participants, sharing experiences and learning was just as fascinating in trip I had. Walking down the streets in Munich at night (because that was the only time free from the classes), thirst for chilies and spices was just getting to its fullest. Finally found few Indian and Thai place but they did not satisfy me. The whole week was about to get over with these awesome people and I now wanted to take a week more just to roam around Europe. Williheam Bichale, An awesome person to be friend with, helped to get all my travels planned and confirmed. Thanks Man!
After completing the course at Munich with fabulous team work, highly motivating and knowledgeable learning, and talks on possible collaborations, it was now time to roam around Europe. It started raining and I have to catch a bus at 7:00 AM from about 1 hour far, where I stay. I tried getting a taxi. The driver arrived somewhere near but could not get through due to language issues. I started walking, took a metro and then the bus. The Journey to Prague has now started. The duration was around four hours of bus travel to the city. I don’t know why Prague has always been on my back head, “I would like to go thereâ€. However, I had never looked up how it is. It was awesome and would call it my favorite destination. I was here for the whole day so started exploring with my luggage. Prague is really a beautiful city with beautiful and helpful people.
Next destination to Venice started with a bus ride with only 3 passengers from at 7 PM for 13 hours. I have always heard a lot about Venice, about its beauty and romanticism. The breeze has them all and you could feel it right after getting off the bus. The awesome reality about Venice is that you don’t get motor vehicle apart from boat after this point. The only option is Walk or Sail. I had made an Air BnB Book for the first time, figured out the place, dropped my luggage, and went on the getting lost journey. I got totally exhausted and came back to the room and slept for few hours to be ready in the evening and see the real beauty. The Rialto Bridge and its surrounding takes all the tiredness from your body, it is just pleasant. Italian Pasta is must when in Italy.
Next Day, the journey again begins 7 AM train to Milan, and after that to Zurich, Switzerland where the visit was very short just for a collaboration meeting, which really went well. Finally, the last destination to Paris by flight from Zurich was landed at 10:20 PM. The Next day, I woke up late, tired and started walking on the streets of Paris. Fortunately, found something called BatoBus, a boat journey which takes you around Paris and stops at different destination, and we can use it till 7 PM, hop in and hop out anytime and anywhere you like, this was just awesome. I took the ticket and started my journey. I got the chance to see different attractions and monuments in Paris and finally at the end to Eiffel Tower, one of the 7 Wonders. Taking a selfie with it was an awesome experience. Most fortunately, I was able to see the sparkling Tour Eiffel, which was the glory in the end.
The Last day in Europe and my Money Card stops working while I am shopping. I contacted the bank through a Messenger to Messenger to Phone call ( I called Cajol, a friend of mine on messenger asked her to call Standard Chartered bank Kathmandu via another phone and put both the phone on speaker and they say me your card is all right, But it’s not yet working.) . Â No cash in Euro, card was not working so I terminated buying the thing I selected. Now with no money walking on the streets of Paris and I have a night to spend there. Thankfully my hotel charges were paid previously. So what was next? I was clever enough to also carry some US Dollars with me. Eventually, I returned back to hotel walking for 2 hours and then took the USD and exchanged it to Euro.
Now, when I am currently writing this, I am at Mumbai for a day where I have landed at 2 AM at night, and the airport is astonishingly busy. I will meet my dear sister here and leave back to Kathmandu. The journey of Europe has been remarkable. It was great learning experience with all 35 different entrepreneurs from different countries along with organizers and coaches. Apart from learning, great collaboration to come up around the world is the biggest opportunity and I love doing this.
I won’t say Europe as a continent is super developed. Some of the roads are dirty, somewhere its broke, a lot of things are under construction, homelessness, crime, difficult to get places, and what not. But what I liked about Europe is mentality of people where everyone is working to make this place better by working for themselves and not pointing towards anyone. I guess this is a culture of development that they have and we need to have for development, else everything thing can be mend.
Thanks Europe for those awesome learning, fun, adventures and experiences. See You Soon!
