Milano - the charmer!

Milano. If there is one city very close to my heart in Europe, it's definitely the charming Milano. Before I lived here, I always thought Duesseldorf is the most special for me and I cannot like any city more in Europe. But Milano proved it so wrong. I loved Duesseldorf, because it was really very beautiful, a picture perfect city. But Milano taught me, its not just the beauty of the city, but the people make it more special.

I went there to study MBA in SDA Bocconi School of Management. I still remember the first time I saw my school. I was checking it on the road view of Google Maps. I zoomed in at the address, but somehow could not locate the school building. It is only after I reached there, I realized the building I thought as a residential premise was our school. It was quite a disappointment for people like me who arrived with great expectations of some grand Italian architecture. Nevertheless, the MBA experience was incredible. More than 30 nationalities, professors with their strong Italian accent, teams, assignments, a super-fast and super-challenging year.

But the memories I want to cherish here are more of Milan, than of my MBA. Because my Milanese life was more outside than inside the school. 

It feels so unbelievable that I hated this city initially so much. Leaving away from the family for the first time was a dreadful experience. That too in a country where I couldn't speak the language and rarely anyone spoke English. Even at Linate International Airport, people could only speak Italian. Then some series of events followed with finding an apartment, having to live alone, in an apartment of a scary (literally!!) landlady far away from the school. But it was only a month before I found another apartment right on the street of the school. This apartment on Via Balilla, ohh, I loved it so much. My small room with colorful and functional furniture, a pretty kitchen and to top it all, a cute Italian flatmate - Valentina. I couldn't have asked for more!!

If I have to choose one thing that I adored the most in Italy, it is the Italian accent. Nothing can match the way they speak, or in fact sing. They have a lovely tune to almost every word. Valentica would talk in her room in an Italian pitch, while I was stuyding. And it never disturbed me (which so unusual, because I am easily annoyed). In fact, it was like listening to some music while studying. The way she said "Mamma" or "Perche" (cannot unfortunately remember more words, because hardly understood any) was very melodious for me. The word that amused me the most was "Pratikamente". At least thousand times I checked for it's meaning and I forgot. Probably, my mind didn't want to remember the meaning, but only that tone "Pratikameeente". Foreign languages could actually be very musical (definitely no doubt about Italian!), because one understands nothing and it turns even normal words in to a sort of music. And it wasn't just my flatmate, but on weekends I could hear children playing around or someone playing a piano. Some signs of liveliness around, unlike elsewhere in Europe where I only experienced pin-drop silence at home.

But my two lifelines here were my two friends - Ashna and Aruna. There is no count to how much we loved, danced, quarreled, fought with each other. Our relationships kind of presented the level intensity of our studies. Funny to remember it all now.

The two places where I really met amazing people outside school was Goethe Institute, where I learnt German (yes, ironically I was learning German in Italy) and Banca Patrimoni, where I did my internship.

A tram would take me to the heart of Milan and then I would walk a bit along the magnificent Duomo. The city center of Milano flourishing with people, colorful people, stylish people, lively people. There there was a great sense of freedom in the air, color in the scene and music in the breeze. I would take a deep breath and keep walking. I would pass classy restaurants, hep shops, grand architectures, cobblestone streets, trying to consume as much energy as possible. In few minutes I would reach an elegant building (the kind of one I had imagined for my school) where the Goethe Institute was located. It was quite a surprise for the students (who were obviously all Italian) that an Indian girl is there to study German. It was because of me, they were kind of compelled to speak either English or German. In spare time they also tried teaching me some Italian. A very adorable person - Veronica, a stunning girl - Gloria, a dudette - Tamara, a courteous guy - Marco, they are all unforgettable friends. Once we went to a Bavarian style restaurant. As expected, there was almost nothing suitable for a vegetarian me, but being with them was lots of fun.

The most amazing of my Milanese experience was my internship. I wanted to do an internship in some other country, but luck by chance I ended up in a small Italian Bank - Banca Patrimoni. And then I actually experienced Milan, saw the Italian family life from very close and collected the greatest of my Milanese memories. But of course, one evening is simply too short to talk about it all. So more to come in my coming posts...

Tenerife - Feeling the Enormity

"Isn't it a wonderful island?" a British accent interrupted my sleep and without feeling irritated, I secretly agreed to the lady, sitting behind me in the bus to the airport, for two reasons.  One, it was indeed a wonderful island. Two, listening to English was music to my ears!!

Tenerife..when I first heard this name, it felt like a name of a beautiful girl..like Nilofar or Senorita. And in the midst of so many things happening in my life, I got a chance to go there. Unfortunately, our trip was shortened from 7 days to 5 days for some reason and then again to 4 days because of flight cancellation. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our short stay there to the fullest. 

Tenerife is the biggest one of the Canary Islands. While our plane was landing, I noticed that, the inhabitation was primarily at the seashores and not much inside. Inside, it was a completely hilly terrain. As we came out of the Reina-Sofia airport, we realised, why it is called the 'the Island of Eternal Spring".  It was beautifully sunny and warm even at around 7 o'clock. We took a bus to our hotel, Los Gigantes and our tour in Tenerife started.

What was most noticeable for us in Tenerife, was the life style there. The houses, the shops, the hotels and even the people were so much like in India. The similarity was too surprising. The outside structures of the two storey houses were exactly like what we can see in cities like Solapur or Nashik. The open hotels and the signboards displayed on them made us pinch eachother to confirm that we were not in India. Even the people talked pretty loudly. The bus depot, where we changed the bus,  resembled Thane bus depot. Can you believe, I once saw the bus-driver spitting outside his window?!? 

Since it was a Sunday, we did not get a fast bus to our hotel. Our bus visited even the smallest village in Tenerife. In the first ride itself, I realised that I had badly underestimated Tenerife. I thought it will be full of hotels and tourists. But, to my surprise, there were quite a lot of residential areas. Our bus crossed one mountain after another. I remembered, when me and my sister were kids, we were going through a zigzag mountain road with our parents in a car. After travelling for some time, my little sister innocently asked, "Why are we travelling on the same route round and round?". It was a hilarious moment for us. Anyways! Many times, we felt that we have almost arrived our hotel. But I was still waiting for the beautiful picture of Los Gigantes I 'd seen. At the back of it was huge mountain and immediately in the front was enormous Sea.

 

Finally, after travelling for around one and half hour on the zigzag mountain roads, we saw this view in real and then within minutes we were at the hotel reception. It was already 8.30pm and the hotel manager told us that, the dinner was only till 9.30pm. So we decided to freshen up fast and come down immediately. Whole day we were starving vegetarian food. Tired and exhausted, we opened our room and then the first thing I did was to open the curtains...

Oh my God!!!! What I saw then, was completely astonishing, overwhelming, thrilling, fascinating..ufff...the words are just not enough to describe the feelings. It was just roaring blue water till my eyes could see. I was thrilled with the idea of spending 3 full days here. I could have just sat in the balcony to see how this scene looks in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, in the night. I always love to just sit on the seashore and look at the Sea. I feel, Sea is someone to whom I can talk for hours and trustfully tell all my secrets. 

While I stood stunned & bedazed, my stomach continuously disturbed my thoughts for some substance that can be metabolized to provide me some more energy to keep cherishing that beauty. And I had to obey his orders and proceeded to dinner. The restaurant manager welcomed us and showed us a nice place to sit, from where we could see beautiful scene outside consisting of a well maintained lawn and garden and ofcourse, the Sea. 

It was a buffet dinner and to our surprise, there was separate section of vegetarian dishes. The restaurant manager told us, the different kind of food that we can get there. As he came to know, that we are vegetarians, he asked us, whether we would like to try Canneroni (which I guess is a Spanish cuisine). I had never tried it. But on Amit's strong recommendation, I decided to taste it. We took some other vegetarian dishes. The menu was wonderful and the Canneroni was absolutely delicious. The deserts were outstanding. Frankly speaking, it is so rare for Indians (especially vegetarians) to get some food of our liking in Europe, that I never keep lot of hopes. Normally, there are options like salads, fruits, breads and at times, the deserts work like the maincourse. But in Los Gigantes, we indeed got delicious vegetarian food to eat. 

So as our stomach got some work to do, we decided to take a walk around. Los Gigantes is a beautiful hotel surrounded by mountains on the back and sea in the front. There were two beautiful swimming pools overlooking the sea, squash & tennis courts, massage facilities, hairdressers and two bars, one with orchestra and one quiet.  

   

We stood beside the swimming pool and could hear the orchestra. It's a different feel to see the sea in dark. Its outrageousness is even more intense in the night. It looks so mysterious and so entrancing, that its difficult to take the eyes off him. I thought how it must be when people thought that, the Earth is flat, her edge is at the end of the Sea and one will fall on crossing this edge. For a moment, I imagined going to that edge and looking down where exactly one may fall. The sky was full of stars. I remembered, when I was child I thought, we stay inside the earth. When I came to know the reality, I was suddenly scared of being exposed. But then I thought, it's okay, at least I am covered by the sky. But when my Grandpa cleared that misconception too, it was tough for me to believe that, sky was nothing but an empty space. Looking at the stars that night, I thought, when I believe Earth is just one small planet in this universe, I am supposed to believe what I am seeing in front of me, the ginormous sea, to be tiny!!! Then what should I think about me? And what about small insects? I am so hugely insignificant!! Once again I suddenly felt exposed. If someone looked from above, I was on a miniscule island of a small planet...surrounded by thousands of stars and planets. I couldn't see all of them. But they all could see me. I could understand why Yashoda fainted to see the universe in Lord Krishna's mouth. 

Phew!! It was too much to think about. But I had a very calm sleep that night.

Via Brussels - The Early Days

Brussels is all about its experiences. I am obviously going to share my experiences & perspectives about this city. And trust me, I indeed had so many experiences in last 6 months, that I totally changed my opinion about this city.

6 months? It still feels like I came here few days back, like I was in Germany just some days ago. But no, today is indeed my 170th day in Brussels.

Anyways! 

So our apartment was pretty compact. But the surrounding area was quite nice. From the 6th floor, we had quite an wonderful view from the terrace & living room.

(And probably from bedroom, which we could not see, because the curtain could not be opened.)







In the afternoon, I could take beautiful pictures of Sun from the terrace (I am mad for shooting the Sun. It's an amazing experience)

But I missed my neighbors in Germany. We had a wonderful landlady, Ms. Ingrid. Quite an talkative and cheerful person. A person who gave me an inadvertent support when I was newly away from my family. And here, I didn't even know, who stays in my neighborhood. A typical metropolis feeling.

We stayed just behind the Jubel Park. Whenever I stood in the terrace, I saw someone jogging. I always wondered, how these Europeans could run in such a chilling & windy weather. I would have stood frozen, had I come out in the jogging attire. I many times wandered in the Jubel Park. And it was just...a park! With some greenery & 2 museums. Again(!), I compared it with Nordpark of Duesseldorf. It was so huge and so lovely. I absolutely loved spending time there and photographing around. But comparatively, I didn't find anything much appealing about Jubel Park, except it's huge big gate with great architecture. But then good architecture is not something exceptional in Europe. Even small old buildings in Europe have very good architecture. I definitely liked the Jubel park. But at the back of my mind, I constantly thought about Nordpark & missed it. 

Poor me, who did not know this gate was entirely going to change my opinion about it in coming days with its beautiful stunning looks, which couldn't be noticed in one go...

Via Brussels - The Welcome

The more I see Brussels, the more I feel like writing about it. It is one hake of a city with it's own colors and attitudes. It has always surprised me with it's versatility.

In May 2009, when I first visited this city, I didn't like it at all. The background was something like this...at that time I was staying in a small town of Germany, Oberhausen. And I was thoroughly impressed by the discipline, timeliness, cleanliness, mannerisms of Germans. On the contrary, Brussels was a typical metropolis. The mannerisms were same. But for discipline, punctuality, cleanliness...oh God, I felt Brussels could give a good competition to Mumbai. I love Mumbai irrespective of her problems, because it's my city. But I had some different expectations from the capital of European Union. I felt I was badly mistaken. I could not imagine shifting here for a longer period. 

I visited quite a few places during this trip. La Bourse, Grand Place, Royal Palace. The architectures were outstanding. Out side the royal palace, there was some small event going on. Some enthusiasts were demonstrating various activities of Europeans in summer. It was quite a fun to see that. 

But I don't know why the city didn't appeal me. May be, I loved Oberhausen too much at that time (and I still do!) or may be the metro stations in Brussels were too stinky. But while coming back, I was feeling relieved...

Well, time flew fast and soon that day came when I & Amit (my husband) permanently left Oberhausen, left Germany to shift to Brussels. It was quite an painful experience. We had spent wonderful days in our beautiful house in Oberhausen. We thoroughly liked the surroundings, the people. We absolutely loved Duesseldorf, which was just an hour away. We had so many good friends there. It was almost like leaving India. 

While leaving all this, we did not even know in which kind of apartment we are going to stay in Brussels. We had searched for apartments vigorously & later frantically! But could not find a single one of our choice. Because inadvertently every apartment was being compared to the one in Oberhausen and none matched. 

Finally, we decided to stay in a temporary apartment for some time and search for better apartments then. 

That journey from Oberhausen to Brussels was an nightmare for me. We lifted so much of luggage that day, that even a coolie on Dadar station wouldn't agree to lift. When we reached Brussels Midi, there was no escalator, no lift. How we brought down our luggage from the platform...well, I leave it to my reader's imagination..

When we came out, it was raining beautifully. I felt as if we were being welcomed in the city. We took a cab & started to end the horrible journey. I was still missing Oberhausen. The feeling of never being able to see that house again was sore. We reached our destination. Amit asked me to wait downstairs while he shifted some of the luggage to the apartment at the 6th floor. I waited. It was one of the typical old renovated buildings of Brussels. Not so bad. 

I was anxious to see our temporary nest. Amit looked agitated as he came back. 

I asked him, "How is the apartment?"

He said, "There is only one single bed to sleep!!!!"

......to be continued