Schengen Staaten

Warning – Long post….

Actually I wanted to shorten this one so that readers are not bored. But then I realized that I am writing more for myself rather than the reader, more so to cherish every moment I enjoyed. Still I am very much indebted to the few people left on earth reading this blog to actually take the pains reading this. So screw it, this one’s big.

The view from the window presented a magnificent sight. As the fading orange ball sets lower in the sky, the clouds turn glorious shades of pink and purple. Then an amber colour line formed on the horizon. A glance at the watch showed 11.30 pm. Wonderful sight of Helsinki city beneath and Orange and Amber colour light spread on it. Beautiful Scandinavian country with the Baltic sea. Thank you very much Lufthansa, you made a wonderful sight on my dreamlist come right in front of my eyes, in a very beautiful way.

Coming up next were 6 different countries with 6 different languages and 5 different currencies and with no plan or Hotel booking either. The route of Helsinki - Tallinn – Riga – Jurmala – Vilnius – Warszawa – Berlin – Frankfurt. It may not have the fame that western Europe has but still I liked it better than the west. We travelled by almost all modes of transport in Europe. Be it the cruise, ship, plane, bus, tram, train, trolley bus, metro, taxi, car, bicycle everything.

Cruise in Europe is a terrific experience. Helsinki to Tallinn by superfast 2 hour cruise is an amazing journey. I always wanted to experience it once and this time got the chance. Watching 20 to 30 Seagull’s on the ship deck is a splendid sight. A wonderful bird, but so many of them were in Sight that we almost lost interest in clicking photos after a while. Bird watching is like that you see, rarity has value!!

I’ve heard about Gothic, Teutonic, Byzantine Architecture from the game Age of Empires. It was very nice to actually see them. The Teutonic Knights whom the British called the best cavalry in the world made a graceful sight. Especially Vilnius city is very classic. Half the city has Old Gothic architecture and the other half has Renaissance, Baroque style buildings. This difference presented a pretty view.

The Geographical centre of Europe is located at 19 kms from Vilnius. It is a beautiful park called as Europa Parka with over 200 great works of art from over 100 International Artists. A must see place.

Festival time shows you a very vibrant side of any city. We were very lucky to be in Tallinn for the National Song festival. A parade with 26000 music performers went around the Tallinn city main street singing local songs and moving towards their National Stadium in a very organized manner, parading. Such a wonderful sight, I can never forget rest of my life. More than a lakh people gathered around the National stadium to see them perform. All over the city, big screens and television were telecasting it. Amazing is the only word that describes it.

People had warned us not to visit these Baltic countries terming them unsafe. I do not regret not listening to them at all. Like us, they have had to fight for their independence too. Infact some of these countries have gained Independence not just once but twice. The Baltic nations, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, took part in a memorable protest against Soviet rule on August 23, 1989, which helped pave the way toward their renewed independence.

The “Baltic Way” was one of the longest human chains in history, organized by leaders in each of the countries as an act of protest. Roughly two million people from the Baltic countries formed a massive human chain that spanned 430 miles through all three nations. They held hands and carried signs during the peaceful protest. Going through the same route by bus, it took me six hours and also a small tear in the corner of my eyes. How proud each one of these two million people feel knowing they were the ones who had given their country Independence.

Interaction with locals was another good experience that came with the tour. Two Swiss couples who were on their vacation met me in a Polish train. They were college buddies and meeting up after 10 years of college, all doctors, but very down to earth. One guitarist and one vocalist and I joined them. Singing Bryan Adams, Green Day, Linkin Park, Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys, Oasis and other great song in a European train that too out loud was great. They also sung some famous German songs and made me sing some famous Hindi songs in my pathetic voice. It just felt like friends from my college and me were going together in a train. They asked me a lot of things about India and told a lot about their European and African experiences. Got to know many things in Polish language from a Polish student over there enroute to Berlin. Her experience in a winter which was fierce as the temperature went upto -40 degrees were thrilling and fearful.

Sight of Indian Peacock in Warszawa was great. Here around five peacocks move around freely in the garden nearby the famous Palace on water. I’ve never seen such a free peacock anywhere in India. So many people looking around when it was showing it’s beautiful feathers in the gentle rain. What a pretty sight. I was actually very lucky to click an Image of the Peacock fly. A very rare sight and a beautiful photo!

Riding a bike (or the bicycle as we call it) was also a Great adventure. Riding a bike once in Europe is what I feel a must do thing. There are special lanes for bikes and no cars can ply on it without paying a hefty fine. Even the bicycles follow lane discipline. There are different signals for trams, cars, pedestrians and bikes. 25 kilometer journey from city centre to Berlin wall and back with a Mercedes Bike was cool. On my way, standing on the signal with a map, I saw some Korean students also with same map headed in the same direction. I spoke to them a few Korean words that I recollected from my previous journey back there and they were so happy hearing that. We all rode together to the wall.

Berlin wall was all I knew about Berlin. Actually a very small portion of this wall remains which was brought down in 1989. The eastern side is covered in graffiti that did not exist while the Wall was guarded by the armed soldiers of East Germany. Nearby are remains of Nazi Concentration Camps. A place were Hitler tortured the Jews. There actually they have set up a live demo show in the dark basements of these camps using men dressed in skeleton structures coming from all around threatening us. They also show a movie with special effects like vibration under your legs and other spine chilling effects to showing how the Jews were tortured. Very painful to even see it, what must have it been to experience it? Many people walked out after seeing half the movie.

I’ll end this post on a very positive note I thought. There can’t be anything more positive than the sight I saw at the Berlin main square. Preparations for the Paralympics games was going on there and in a very different way. Disabled people who were to participate in the Paralympics were made to play against people from the crowd that had gathered to see them. There was blind football where blind people were playing against blindfolded people. Them the basketball match where people from audience were playing on wheelchairs against their Paralympics team. Then there were other games such as Table Tennis, Running , Judo etc. Such a nice way to prepare them I felt. Maybe India should introduce such a thing and people will participate for such a good cause. I played 10 minutes of blinded football there. Felt so nice after that. Maybe I’ve contributed in whatever small way I could to help them. Amen.