Have you ever dreamed of travelling the world? I have. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to get out of the 200 mile radius Kathmandu Valley where I spent almost 19 years of my life, waiting patiently for an opportunity. Luckily, I was one of the few from Nepal that “make it”, all thanks to Rollins College and the generous Alfonds scholarship that has made my dream come true. I had been already studying abroad in the United States for about 2 years when I made my way to Jacobs University, Germany.
To many the choice to travel is an option, a leisure, to me and many other from the so called “third world” countries, it is a conscious decision that involves countless visits to the embassy, paperwork ranging from plane tickets and itinerary to travel plans for each day, wait times for visa ranging from a week to a month, and of course, the daunting visa application fee which feels more like a lottery. Needing a visa to travel almost anywhere in the world is a dream breaker for someone like me with a not-so-powerful passport. Nevertheless, there are ways and Rollins had one for me. For the study abroad program in Germany, I had to apply for a Schengen visa that allowed me to travel to 26 European countries.
Apart from Germany which was my second, the third European country, or rather the city, I travelled was the city of Prague in Czech Republic, which is the most beautiful city in the world if you ask me. The Gothic art and architecture – palaces so grand that make your problems go away, make you feel insignificant yet keep you in awe of appreciation of the human kind that once built it. I will be writing more about my travel to three cities in Europe in the coming blog posts.