I made it to the train station and my compartment in time but I was so tired after carrying my luggage all the way that I had to sleep for at least 15 – 20 minutes each time I carried it for a certain distance. So I went from the taxi to the terminal lounge and slept a bit … fortunately I had the time. Then I went from the terminal lounge to my train seat and slept again.
When I woke up we were outside the city, and the views were different. Fields of gold welcomed us on every side … some would call them fields of dirt but not me. I would like to believe these are fallow farms (that sounds cute, fallow farms) … Anyway it’s sort of non-interesting landscape and my mind drifts back to Madrid …
It really depends on how long you stay in a new city … how much, and how well you get to know it … for me it was fine to walk twice through each of the 4 – 5 major streets or plazas of Madrid that I walked into … the area around Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, my lovely soulful Sol and hostel Los Amigos Sol, the area around Museo del Prado and Reina Sofia … those will form my memories of Madrid.
I may get back home and people may ask me ‘did you see this, did you go to that place’ and I may say ‘no I didn’t’ and they may exclaim ‘Whaaaattt? How could you?’ … but I couldn’t be bothered.
I realized that for me, whilst travelling, the idea is to attain objectivity on a very subjective journey. I chose my destinations and I want to see them well enough but there is only so much that time, my budget, and most importantly my body will allow … I need to listen to all three. It sounds a bit difficult to achieve and be objective on a subjective journey but there comes a point when one sees the light … and I have, oh yes sir!
Soon my mind drifts back to the scenes outside the train … I can see in the landscape the face of the beautiful middle-aged gentleman who helped me keep my luggage in the upper luggage compartment … I was struggling with it … he appeared out of nowhere, said ‘tranquilo, tranquilo’ and sweeped my heavy bag effortlessly onto the compartment … : )
Breathe …
Now, the landscape has become a mélange of various types of vegetation … green, red, multicoloured farms, tree plantations, train tracks, misty patches (I’m travelling in the afternoon by the by) , lonesome houses, factories, beautiful breathtaking patches of green, followed by lifeless ones of gold … solar panels, strange complicated looking farming equipment … Yann Tiersen is still serenading me with his Tabarly symphonies … and I feel like singing ‘All is full of love’ … (stop barfing, you guys are absolute idiots)
I think my hands smell European by now … it could just be the phirangi perfume Nidhi gave me as a present … whatever it is, it’s going well with the location … its going well with me …
I wish you could see all this with me …
There is an old woman in the same train compartment as me and the criss-crosses of years that define her face tell me that she is my maternal grandmother’s, my nani’s age … this woman is travelling with another woman who looks just like her and is wearing similar clothes as the first woman, just in a different colour scheme … they could be sisters no?
I can never imagine my Nani being these women … they are travelling ALONE by train, answering their phones with youthful dexterity, and not displaying any signs of pre-destination paranoia … my Nani is not capable of such feats … she is ill and spends all her time in the one room of her studio apartment, with my Nana … I feel like people in our country age too soon, I am not judging anyone or anything, I just wish things were different …
Ting Tong … “Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to reach our final destination Sants Estacion, Barcelona. Please remain seated until the train comes to a complete halt and then indulge in strange histrionics to get your luggage off the compartment above your head …” … OK may be she didn’t exactly say it like that :P
So I am out of the station … P.S. I have finally learnt how to use one of these damned trolleys … you stick a euro coin into the slot and it disengages itself from the chain of trolleys, press the bar, roam around … outside the station, escort your trolley back to the chain of trolleys, engage it with the others and ‘pop’ comes out your coin … the first time I realized it cost a euro fifty to use them trolley, I was like No way José! Over maah dead baady! … but now that I know the coins come back thoo yaah, its all gooood!
So I am lugging my bags to the taxi stand, which is quite a task in itself … I know my hostel isn’t far from the station but I DO NOT want to carry my luggage even over a short distance … ‘come mr. taxi man, take me to my hostel’ … What the fish!!!!!!!!! Mr. Taxi Man say, he no take me. He show me direccion and tell me to walk it … what the …
I walko but somewhere in the background Paulo Nutini singo ‘my little fish don’t cry, my little fish don’t cry …’ Sniff. Hic.
Huff. Huff. ‘Donde esta carrer de Melchor de Palau’ … Aqui … Aqui … no aqui … no a la izqierda … no a la derecha … no no no …
10 minutes of walking around with 23 kilograms on my 53 kg body … I stop a taxi, put my luggage in the boot, and just tell the man to drive … ‘donde’ he asks me … I show him a small hand drawn map … he doesn’t throw me out of the cab, and drops me to my hostel … alberguinn! Nice man, I say ‘gracias Señor’ to make the 2 euro trip worth his while …
Enter hostel, room is pink, couldn’t give a damn …
Tour of the hostel … And Behold !!!!!!!! There is a laundry room … Bhagwaan ke ghar mein der hai par andher nahin …
Visit the ladies room and dash into the laundry … Err! Please go buy detergent first. Ok! Run to reception, buy detergent for 1 euro (what the …) just buy it, and run back … When you’re carrying 5 pairs of clothing and have already used four, a laundry machine is a miracle …
Sigh! So it cost me 3 euros to wash my clothes, 3 euros to dry them, and don’t forget the 1 euro I paid for the detergent cakes which you crush and put into the machine … That’s how much Rampal earns for washing my family’s clothes back home for a WHOLE month … I’m feeling it Rampal, you’re da Man, maah brother maan!
For some reason I am feeling at home in Barcelona. No its not because I was able to do my laundry as soon as I landed … Its because my friend from back home lives here, he is doing his MBA here at the University … I am happy to be able to meet him … give him a call and he tells me another friend from back home is in town so we could all go out later in the evening … which by the way in Spain means like 11 o clock … that’s when people step out for a drink or ten … the real partying starts around 12:30 and beyond …
But whilst talking to Varun I begin to realize that I am feeling a bit dizzy, so I tell him that I will have to see him the next day …
Back to my common room routine … I go and buy some food first … and voila! I couldn’t have possibly bought a shittier Pizza … Yuck with a capital Y! And some even shittier sweet, fried Spanish desert … OK Fine! The sweet thing was all right.
My bad luck with food has to end at some point!!!
With a large map of Barca replete with bright red circles around all the touristy spots I am pacified that the next day is going to be all right …
In the meantime whilst I sit and upload photo etc. in the evening as per my common room ritual three very interesting (linguistically) girls ask me which language I would like to watch the film Moulin Rouge in. First they ask me ‘Would you like to watch Moulin Rouge in English’ and I say … ‘Whatever, its fine by me’ … Then one of them asks me ‘Parle plu plaise plaah Moulin Rouge bleh’ and I say ‘Hain?’ … then they ask me ‘¿Te gustaría ver la película Moulin Rouge en español?’ and I say ‘Erm! I’m leaving in 10 minutes’ …
Finally they do put on the film. Thank you lord!
A few minutes into the film ‘Voulez vous’ picks up pace … and I smile an all knowing smile … Some more minutes into the film and I am still smiling … I really like the way I smile here … Since I spend most of my days alone wandering, thinking, taking pictures, writing … I smile all knowing smiles or virgin smiles only … depending on the freshness of the event that induces the smile … and so my smiles are beautiful, genuine and not solely practical or practiced …
I do believe I’ve seen this movie before but the kind of emotions its inspiring in me at the moment are magnifique …
No, I am not feeling or feeling for romantic love, which would usually be the case when I watch such a film … it’s a feeling of complaisance, a feeling of pleasance, a feeling of something more fuller than romantic love … something more … something else … its something I rarely feel and I must say that I like it … and I hope this feeling lasts longer than this journey that I am on … this journey of growing a little, of finding something, of finding the world and something else … I hope this feeling lasts … and …
8 comments:
hmmm.... you make me want to take a journey of my own.....
niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice account senorita...
thanks for the window on your thoughts, Shruts... Not sure I'd want to let people inside my head... too many dark places. Perc x
Sim - glad you like
Ankit - muchas gracias hombre! (they use that word a lot in Spain ... Hombre!!! Man!!! :)
Perc - everyone has dark places inside their head ... Since I want to make this business, i chose what to light up so people see only that when they take a peek... Not saying that this account falls into that category ... but its true that I don't bare all, all the time.
Where else did you travel in Europe?
I spent my last summer in France and got to travel around to Italy, Belgium, and Netherlands too :) Its just awesome.
Traveling alone can be fun, but unfortunately, I got mugged in Paris and from then on I got a little paranoid about my luggage and stuff and never quite felt at home in Europe after the incident.
Hi G2 aka Jayant :)
I went to Spain, France, Switzerland, UK.
I had a good time, like you, and almost got mugged like you ... but best was when I missed a train ... in switzerland ...
However, there was no Raj (Shahrukh Khan) to help me out! :)
Brilliantly written...did you find Doug (from Vicky Cristina Barcelona)..:)
Vishal,
I am not sure I was 'looking' for Doug ... I was certainly looking for the Javier Bardem type character ;) :D
Glad it made a good read.
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