My Traveling Tales

We had reached Heidelberg in the evening on 27th November, 2016. It was a Sunday. We checked in the Tourist Hostel and kicked off to roam around the city. To our initial surprise –contrary to Pakistan – all the market and food points were closed at that time and later we got to know that the shops and food points remain closed on Sundays in Germany in particular and Europe in general. As an exception to this generality, we could see two points still open. One was the Thai Massage Parlor and the other was Punjab Curry which provided traditional Punjabi food. To have first interaction with some South Asian, we entered the latter point. There was only one guy behind the counter. “We have just arrived in the city and glad to see a South Asian doing well here” after formal greetings I said. The guy was quite polite. His name was Gurpender Singh and he was from Patiala, India and his boss was from Amritsar, India.

As we had very less time, we decided to head back to the hostel. The guy showed traditional Punjabi hospitality and offered us Lassi –the traditional drink of India and Pakistan made of Yogurt – but we could not accept that then and promised to visit them again and went back to hostel. 

To keep the promise, we visited the place next day. There were two men this time with no customer inside. After exchanging formal greetings in Urdu, we asked the person about his native place. “I am from Lahore” the person lied, probably to attract us which of course disappointed us. He told his name to be Ali and introduced the elder person as his boss and uncle namely Naveed, of course from Lahore. We had been told by Gurpender Singh about the Boss. We had gone there to meet Gurpender and have dinner but this concealment of truth and lie about their nationality and religion disappointed us so much that we left the place forever and started finding some Turkish Restaurant where we could have Doner Kebab. 

After a long flight of six hours, the plane finally landed at Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul. Right after stepping out from the plane a cool breeze kissed us and we felt the traditional hospitality of Istanbul. We walked to the terminal to relax a bit and then catch next flight to Frankfurt. Right at the gate stood two young men from the Airport Security who commanded us all to show our passports to them. I was just behind my friend who handed his passport to the officer. The officer started examining the passport like an over cautious and miser shopkeeper does with a 5000 bill in the local market in the streets of Pakistan. He, first of all, threw light with his torch and looked very carefully to the VISA and finally put the passport in his pocket and directed my friend to wait a side for a while. “We are all the same” said my other friend pointing me as well and consequently we had to experience that painful time waiting at the bench and watching people going upstairs. 

As Ataturk is one of the busiest European Airports, when the officer was done with the passengers from our flight a new plane would land. We were impatiently waiting for the officer to get free and give our passports to us as the next flight was about to be announced and we had to go to restroom before boarding for Frankfurt. Finally after restlessly waiting for about an hour the officer turned to us and without saying a single word handed over our passports to us and directed to go upstairs. 

We could not figure out what was the purpose of this weird behavior of the officer with us. Perhaps the green passport, which has become quite an infamous at airports across the globe, was the reason behind all this. Some greedy, manner less, untenable, in-docile and uncivilized criminals have brought discredit to the whole Pakistani nation who are, as a collective society, civilized, educated, honest and law abiding people. This incident made me think again and again about my passport and it for a short time eclipsed the excitement of the trip but I could get over it pretty soon. 

Our first impression about Istanbul –particularly the Turkish officials– was quite bad but our impression about these beautiful people changed after our stay in Istanbul.

It was a pleasant evening of October when I, as a casual activity, signed in to my email and there was that great surprise which prompted me to say “Hurraayyyyy, I did it!!” I was selected for the 2 weeks study and research tour to Europe. This would be the first ever in my life that I would fly abroad. I was overwhelmed with enthusiasms and excitement. We had to catch a Turkish Airline’s flight for Frankfurt via Istanbul on 27th November, 2016. All the Schengen visa formalities went quite smoothly and we all were set to leave on time. Our journey back to Pakistan was routed through Frankfurt –Istanbul –Islamabad and me and my friend decided to stay in Istanbul for some more days and got Turkish E-Visa on the bases of Shengen. 

We had taken our flight from Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad at 6:00 AM and landed in Istanbul at 10:30 AM local time. We stayed two hours at the Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul –where we had faced some weird behavior of the airport personnel –for two hours and took the next flight for Frankfurt at 12:40 PM and landed there at 2:00 PM. 

At that very moment the Azan (calling for prayer) for Maghrib Salah was being made back in Pakistan at 5:00 PM. We had reached Frankfurt after a long journey of 11 hours all the way from Pakistan but the clocks there showed us 2:00 PM and the sun was peeking out behind the clouds showering its warm rays in the Frankfurt city in that very cold day. This meant that we had lived more than what we actually lived though we paid the extra time back, in two installments, while our journey back home. 

Some clicks from 40000 ft above the land during our journey might be of interest to you.

This is Khan, with love from Pakistan. My destiny has smiled on me when it catered me the opportunity to visit some beautiful and historical places within my home country and travel abroad to some half a dozen states. I had, initially, an idea of publishing a travelogue but later decided to create my travel blog instead.

So, here you go. I am sure you would love to see the world from the perspective I have seen it. 

With love!!

Khan