The Journey abroad

It was a long flight from New Delhi to Paris, I was thinking that I’ll be feeling really emotional while leaving my home country but nothing of the sort happened, it was not much different from any other travel of mine, the only thing that was different, my worry of losing my documents. International flights are much more spacious than the domestic flights and it looked even more spacious due to fewer passengers in these corona times. As soon as I boarded, I took out my notepad and started filling the pages with what I was experiencing at that moment, to be honest, it was going to be so new that I couldn’t even imagine anything, no thoughts were popping in my mind and quite to my surprise, I was not at all anxious about the upcoming events. Looking out of the window really felt like peeping into heaven, altitude was high and pollution was less. I couldn't get the clear sky shot but here's one of France from the sky.

France

Paris airport

We landed at 6 AM local time at Paris airport and I would say it was really not at all impressive architecturally or maybe I missed the impressive section, hardly anyone spoke English at the airport, policemen were looking like a beast (One whack of theirs is enough to kill people like me) and we just got saved from missing our train to Brussels, Belgium. It was quite surprising to know that people didn’t know even the basic English at Paris airport. We traveled through TGV France from Paris to Brussels, one of the fastest trains in the world. Along the way, there were so many windmills and on the roads a lot of delivery trucks and Omni like vehicles. Looking outside the window I could think of only one thing, why there is so much disparity in terms of resource allocation? On average they have 10 times bigger spaces than what we usually have in India. There were huge fields all along the way stretched for tens of kilometers, hardly there was any human activity outside the train window.

Windmills are a common sight in France

TGV France

From Brussels, we boarded the train to Leuven and it was empty like Delhi Metro on Sunday mornings. And yes, people do beg here in the train just like India, but they do that in a more civil manner. People usually come to the station on their bicycles and board with it. So, traveling from one place to another is quite convenient once you have your own cycle. From Leuven to my hostel it was around 2-3 km and still, it took us around 1.5 hours because you don’t know how to buy the ticket and where to get off because there is no conductor in the bus to whom you can pay in cash or ask anything. Lastly, we figured out how their buses operated and still got off on the wrong street, I had to walk 1.5 km with all my luggage, I couldn’t even pronounce the name of my street and no one around knew the name of my hostel. At last, a Chinese guy showed me the way to my residence and here I was thinking ‘Chinese maal nhi lenge ab se, just kidding’. For those who are wondering the name of that street, its Ijzerenmolenstraat, Heverlee. Public Wi-Fi is shitty here and there are so few people that it’s a real trouble to find even a single soul who can help you navigate. I’ll write another blog to describe what are the things we can learn from these guys and what can we teach them, there are many systems in India which are far better than what they have. Their entire systems will collapse if a 10^th of our populations come to these countries. Back to the journey, I reached my room and requested my neighbor to share his Wi-Fi password so that I could inform my parents that I have reached safely. To my surprise the guy refused to share his password despite being an Indian, another Indian guy also responded to me in a very unwelcoming way. On the other hand, there was a Belgian girl who walked 2.5 km with me only to drop me off at the correct address. She was not even heading that way, she herself didn’t know the way but she came with me because she understood that it’ll be tough for me to ask people in Dutch. The next day, another girl walked a kilometer or so to drop me off at the right address. I can’t understand why Indians start feeling themselves as sophisticated people once they reach to place like this or a higher position. Fun fact, here also gender ratio is skewed just like our college but it's on the opposite side here. It's around 60% girls and 40% boys.

Graffiti is quite common here, even on rail coaches

Belgian domestic train

Outside of Leuven train station

Now coming to the problems I faced after reaching here, I’ve been on bananas and milk since the day I arrived, I couldn’t figure out what was what in the supermarket because everything is in Dutch and net is shitty so I can’t use google translator. I went to buy a cold cream and a shampoo but ended up buying a body wash and a conditioner because I couldn’t figure out what was what. Only after 5 days, I got any Indian food through one of the tiffin services provided by a Kerala guy. It took me 6 days to get my router and 5 days to get my SIM card. This city is really beautiful, the closest things I’ve ever seen to Hogwarts, but man its dead quiet. Except for the city center, there is no place where you can hear any noise or see any activity. The amount of activity we had in our college is more than the entire town of Heverlee, its 1.5 km from the City center and there only you’ll see some activity. It's eerily quiet here, it’s more like what we used to feel at 2 in the night at our college bridge. It’s like that entire day, in the past 5 days I’ve not heard even a single horn from any vehicle. Leave that aside, in the last 5 days twice only I’ve seen people in my corridor, its nothing short a scene from a horror movie. Sunrise here happens around 9.30 in the morning and sets around 8.30 in the evening, it’s really weird, you won’t be able to tell time by looking outside your window. Let me emphasize a little more on how quiet this place is. So, I was walking down the street and I can literally hear every dragging sound of my slippers without any conscious effort. I don’t remember when was the last time I heard the sound of bicycle tires rubbing the ground. You can hear every damn sound and if you’ll sit for a while, you’ll start hearing your own heartbeat. There is absolutely pin drop silence at most of the places. I was feeling really weird and lonely initially and to exacerbate the matter someone told me that it’ll get even more quiet and lonely in winters. On the first day itself, I was thinking of returning back to India, but suddenly I put a brake on that thought as it was too risky to even think about returning back without completing the degree. Silence haunts you here, once you are here, you’ll start hearing the sound of silence itself. Luckily my roomie arrived after 2 days so I guess I can manage it for now. This place is a heaven for those who have a girlfriend and want some privacy along with good scenic beauty but for a social guy like me it’ll take some getting used to.