A Journey to my Dream Land ~

Travelling alone was not new to me but traveling to a place I had always dreamt of since a kid was. Two months ago, I had literally screamed with joy when I had been informed about my selection to attend a training course in Geneva, Switzerland. Switzerland, seriously Switzerland I had repeated several times and my sister had re read the email and re confirmed me again, yes Switzerland, she said. We both hugged merrily.

On January 17, 2015 when my family came to drop me to the Airport (a tensed journey it was by itself, I had to reach the Airport by 9:40 AM and it was already 10:10), I was sad for the first time about the trip when I realised it meant being away from home for a long long time, a period of 2 months. I have this inborn disease of home sickness. I was scared. Hiding my tears, I hurried to the entrance quietly bidding farewell to my beloved ones. I saw my worried mother crying. My heart sank again.

I had a hell of a heavy luggage, I sure knew it crossed 20 Kgs but when the crew weighed, it was 32. I didn’t speak; the pretty lady in the counter smiled and gave me my boarding pass. I didn’t have to pay a penny for the extra baggage. I smiled back and thanked her :). Next, my flight got delayed for almost two hours.

While in the Airbus, I was seated with a middle aged couple. The husband asked me if I was studying and I said I am on an official trip after which he started addressing me madam. Within conversations, we found out that we were actually neighbours, Surely Bhutan is a small place, I thought. A under 18 tennis team of Bhutan was flying with us too. They occupied the seats before us. I silently watched a boy so courageously flirting with a girl, the girl had gone all red blushing, and she was hiding her face with her hands. I smiled as I thought about puppy love. When I woke up after an hour, the boy was seating with the girl. He had changed his seat, I laughed out loud. My seat partner signalled me what, with his head, I signalled back saying nothing. 

After approximately, 3 hrs 30 mins we landed to the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, I didn’t have a halt in Bangkok, I had a transit flight to Istanbul at mid night. After exchanging some ta-ta words with my neighbours, I went to the transit gate. For no reasons, I was tired and I didn’t want to check the duty free area in the Airport. I sat on the bench and waited. I thought about home, I missed them already; the feeling of living alone scared me again. My excitement for getting to visit my dream land was gradually fading with fears, worries and emotions I was attached with that time. Tears started rolling down.

Uhmmm, this is not happening, I said to myself, I got up of the seat, went to the wash room, cried all I wanted to, got up again, wiped my tears, applied some eye colour, smiled and said to myself, you should consider yourself lucky, you are getting to visit your dreamland without needing to pay a penny, you are getting to learn, your family is always yours no matter where you are, your home will always be there, your friends will always remain your friends no matter how far you travel, so live the moment so that you don’t regret anything later. With that consoling advice I gave to myself, I cheered myself on, went back to my seat, read, watched people, smiled at them, I felt happy and grateful from within.

After 6 hrs of waiting, I boarded a Turkish Airline this time for a 10 and a half hrs flight to Istanbul. This time, my seat mate reminded me of Elizabeth Gilbert`s Eat, Pray, Love. She resembled the character in too many ways. I can’t explain everything here but, she laughed alone but she seemed lonely, she watched a lot of movies, she ate a lot, she smiled a lot. The entire 10 hrs and 20 mins, apart from thank you and sorry, we didn’t exchange any other words but smiled at each other a lot. While, I slept and ate the entire time. 

In Istanbul, I was interrogated for not having a Schengen Visa (a visa required to enter Europe). I hadn’t taken one because Switzerland had recently signed an agreement with Bhutan, saying Bhutanese with an official Passport won’t require a visa to enter Switzerland. Weird, they work for immigration and they don’t know what they have to. Honestly, I didn’t like the people in there, most of them looked like they hadn’t eaten for ages, they seemed too angry to be full. 

Thank god, I didn’t have to stay there for long, after 3 hours flight, I was in my Dream land. A dream had come true. The people were like I imagined them to be, the place was as beautiful as my imaginations. A senior colleague had kindly come to pick me at the Airport, I had reasons to be sad (my luggage bag was all broken, all wheels were no where to be seen), yet I chose to be happy instead.  The streets looked so clean and beautiful. As the icy winter wind blew on my face, I realised I am actually living my dreams. 

My fav Picture of Geneva  ^ - ^