My journey in this world is unplanned and never have I ever
thought that I would be able to travel alone in Europe, hopping on different
buses and trains, getting confused by the worthiness of different European
languages and getting lost in the beauty of the countryside. My history with
Hungary is a bit stupid and speak of my naive teenage. I fell in love with a
girl, over the internet, and she wants me to meet her in Budapest. We planned
that someday we will do a combine euro trip but before that, we broke up. I was
a teenager who had no money in his pockets, that’s why I curse myself sometimes
that when we are young we have more energy and passion but we are always short
of finances. Years passed and in 2017, I
started travelling, one country to the other and fast forward to 2019, where I
thought it’s time to break the shackles. It is not easy to apply for any visa
from Pakistan, you had to submit a plethora of documents but fortunately, I got
my Italian visa in 7 days.
Couchsurfing has helped me to make social acquaintances all
around the world. Travelling helped me
understand, that whenever I took a leap into the unknown, I found a connection
and it was natural. Before my travelling days, I thought of my country as the
worst, I hated it and I simply want to leave my country and live somewhere
else. But today my perception is changed, when I saw people thinking and
worrying about the same things that I do, even in the first world countries
then I realised we all humans are same. We are never satisfied we always want
to grab a better opportunity and we can never be satisfied when it comes to our
needs. I realised that I need to be humble around people, talk to them
politely, should be thankful for their services, greet them in a good manner
and all of these etiquettes that’s what travelling has taught me.
After landing in Rome, I ultimately booked a plane ticket to
Budapest. Watching a Telenor sticker on
atm, was a “dejavu”, I asked my self, “where am I”. But I realised, it’s a
Norwegian company since I use Telenor sim in Pakistan. When I walked out of the
airport without a stamp on my passport, I was shocked again that if I missed
the immigration and I am fucked up but then I realised someone telling me that
travelling by plane in Europe is domestic travelling, so no stamps on
passports. Now, the bus ticket was my next plan, so I got one for my self but I
saw a lady being stuck on the vending machine. I asked her if she needs my
help, she spoke Spanish, I asked you need help with the ticket, she nodded. I
got her two tickets to the city centre with my converted forints and I just realised
that I am short of the currency. All of us know, that so-called, currency
conversion outlets that charges “0 per cent” are not true to travellers but I
need to have some cash, so I exchanged only some of my euros. Anyways, I went
around Budapest and took some insightful pictures on the Hungarian parliament,
just that time I received a call from home that my father is being hospitalized
and being operated.
My dream came true but with huge consequences, I had to
change my whole plan. But for now, I had to go to vereb to my couch surfing
host. Google maps fooled me around the whole, I can never forget the name
“Kopalnasnyek”, that was my stop and my way to Vereb. At midnight I was sitting
ducks in a no man’s land, and my couch-surfing host said the next bus will be
at 4 a.m. But somehow I reached my stop after changing the old regional train,
where there was no GPS signal and there was no led display reminding you of
your stop. She told me once you reach the bus stop, you got to say “Vereb” to
the taxi driver and his response should be “Iger” (yes). That’s exactly what
happened when I found a bus waiting for me on the bus stop and I took my leap
into the unknown.
