Since i am bit late on starting this blog . let me recount my experience of my day in Portugal. it was Oct 14th i landed on Portela Airport, Lisbon . my intial feeling was odd. i never felt that i was in Europe. Although i was in awe of Lisbon when the flight was descending .. the sight of Rio Tejo joining Atlantic Ocean,Ocean itself the connection of Lisbon with Setubal with the longest bridge of Europe.. Vasco Da Gama Bridge.. it was all stunning overview from 1000 ft above the ground .. but the moment i landed . it felt an odd feeling that Lisbon was unlike of what i had in mind.. It pretty much resembled Delhi.. and NCR region a bit , probably because the airport was on the modern part of city .. Airport itself was not very big .. and unlike Milan it was also not crowded.. the first thing i noticed was .. there was no security personnel in the whole airport!!! .. was i dreaming ? is this an international airport or a shopping mall?everyone was moving so freely.. there were no security checks.. no stoppage of baggage at all and withinseconds i was out of airport .. waiting for Antonio ... it was in complete contrast with Delhi Airport where i was standing in line for hours in the middle of the night . Maybe thats why this country is ranked one of the safest and peacful countries in the world...
Newayz.. coming back where i left i was out of Airport waiting for Antonio to pick me up.. It was all arranaged.. AIESEC would be picking me up at tha Airport and then we head to coimbra directly to my accomodation , which was also arranaged... thanks to them it all went hassle free.. newayz.,..soon Antonio and Hugo picked us up .. me and Sridhar ( other trainee from Hyd .. who came wid me ) moved seperately as Hugo´s car did not have enough space to put our luggage..and so we split.. me and Antonio went near the taxi stand and soon a merc came in .. yes. merc are taxis.. here...the meter starts at 2€. and it changes to 15 cents .. it was expecting we were going to Bus station (Alto Carro) or Train Station . but i was wrong .. we were travelling across the streets of Lisbon.. and soon entered the University of Lisbon and tats when i came to know AIESEC was having a Natl Conf today.. and so my first day itself.. i met all aiesecers from portugal . they came from porto, coimbra, other aiesec lcs of lisbon, faro .. it was nice experience.. i would say breaking the ice with the people arnd. Noticed the spirit of AIESEC is same just it as was in India.. i called back home to my parents and bro to say i reached safely.. and then i just sat in @ office.. using net and meeting other @ers who were busy in their conf..
the conf ended late at 10pm ..then all @ers left to their respective places.. we and @ers from coimbra headed towards Bus station as bus is one of the cheapest options to goto Coimbra.. It was literal running with luggage as the tat was the last bus of the day.. we managed to catch the bus in time.. bus journey was boring.. could not see any landscape of Portugal as it was nite .. just noticed.. lisbon shines at night and its quite beautiful city..tried to sleep in bus but could not .. by the time we reached coimbra i was completely exhausted.. started at 8.30pm the day before from Noida,, and it was midnite GMT time.. completely tired wid journey.. met Luis at the bus station .. he is my landlord and my buddy .. took to our room.. it was grt apartment fully furnished ..nice and cosy..the first thing i did was hit the bunk.. it was 12.30 am .. and the next day at 9am i was to be at office.. It was amazing first day in new country .. loads of experiences.. meeting people.. it was great exp overall..
No comments:
Post a Comment