EuroTrip - Day 55

L.O.S.T.

I have lost a couple of KGs since the start of this trip. The reduced waistline should worry me a little as I had done a lot of shopping for clothes just a couple months back before the trip. But I am the least bothered about it. Ghar jaakar I can makeup for it. What is worrying me now is that I seem to have lost my purpose. I stayed at home for a couple of days (that is apart from the Tuesday and Wednesday when we have our classes) to take a stock of events in my life. It has been two months since I am away from home. It's been two crazy months filled with hectic travel (and some customary visits to college stuffed in between) in length and breath of Europe. I call it my EuroTrip. Filled with its lows and highs, this trip has indeed been a good experience. However, it seems to lose it charm now. I am finding it difficult to prepare myself for another journey following the mundane routine that I have been using so far.

The news from the campus is that the Summer process has been really impressive this year. It's a good sign. Our Laterals and Finals should show a similar trend, we are hoping. My preparation for this 'most important element' of my MBA course is absolutely off the track. I am scared now to think that the decision that I took to enjoy these three months in Europe instead of toiling back there to improve my resume (and ofcourse knowledge) might be a big blunder. I am missing crucial months of my life in IIMA. They could make or break it. If I see the expectations that people around me have placed on me, I really feel now that I should have stayed back there in India.

I have seen a couple of failures in last couple of weeks. In some cases it was a couple of decision went sour while in others it was my own wrongdoing. I have a clear idea about my mistakes now but somehow the corrections required seem to be elusive. There are certain basic changes required in the way I live my life. I am finding it difficult at this moment to think of ways to achieve that. I wonder if some more introspection could help.

I am on my way to Munich now. This time I am traveling alone. That's the best thing that can help me at this moment. I should get some time to retrospect too. There is no fixed path in search of Peace.

EuroTrip - Day 54

Behind the Lens

And I am back in form. Same old form. A thousand shots and I am there in - well almost none. A total contrast to what others in my gang here would say. I am in search for those picture perfect moments. To convert them to postcards. Nature, history, arts, culture, people - there are so many things to capture. And then if I think of myself, I see only one role - that behind the camera.

Well, I did get a complaint or two that I could not be found on any of my EuroTrip photos. So people do expect to see me once in a while. How do I convince you that I am the same old stuff that you had to see in last 24-25 years of my existence and there is no change. At this moment, I might be sporting a fake looking french beard and wearing a headgear to look a bit more Italian - but then you can guess it well. It's all fake. My skin color is as brown as it was back home (my mom would say as Black as I was in India) and I am the same Indian who likes his chai with lot of milk and eats his meals with his hands and licks fingers sometimes.

As I was browsing through my photos from the start of the trip, I realized that I was doing lot of spy photography (candid sounds a better word though). I have captured so many local peoples in their natural pose. Their expressions are varied and very interesting. I wanted to do a collection on people when they are smoking. I wanted to capture them when they were talking on phone. But then, as time progressed, I realized it was not the right thing to do. Ethical and privacy concerns (there are so many so called private things are well in public here) made me stop doing it. I am still thinking if I should post the collection with the existing photos. Let us see.

My collection of buildings, cars, bikes, doors, windows, railway stations, street artists etc are seeing a good progress. So expect to see a glimpse of a different Europe soon on my picassaweb page.

For now, I have uploaded photos from most part of my EuroTrip. These are the best shots that should give a good idea about the places we have been to. As usual, you are welcome to comment on the photos. It is a really nice experience to read someone else's view on your take on something. Here is the link : http://picasaweb.google.com/8priteshj

FYI, recent updates include - Dachau, Back to Munich, Bruges, Luxembourg, Antwerp, Rome, Milan, Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Annecy, Aix Les Bain, Chambery, Diwali celebrations, Salzburg, Salzburg Ice Caves, Strassburg, Berline, Manheim etc etc...

EuroTrip - Day 53

Kakke pass hone ke lale pad gaye hai...

That's exactly my situation right now. We had the mid term exam of the International Finance course and now I am praying to god to pass me this time. It's not that I had not prepared well for the exam - I had devoted half a night plus half a day just for the preparation. But then, in such a short duration you could not expect one to read a full text book (that too in a course in Finance). Half hearted measures you know! So now here I am, praying to godjee to save me from the misery. If I fail on the exchange term, that will be the biggest disgrace on my part.

There is one interesting thing that happened during today's exam. The exam was of two hours. But atleast 6-7 guys finished and submitted their paper within one hour. No need to guess the nationality of those quick gun murugans. The entire class was shocked when they saw that all the Indians have walked out as if it was their own parliament.

We are almost done with Tech Transfer Course. The global presentation that we prepared as our submission is supposedly going to be presented to Airbus in a meeting in the next month. So our professor made sure that we work some more on the presentation to make it look more insightful as well as beautiful. One more iteration that is. My affair with the world of Tech Transfer is not yet over.

It's time to take some rest now. I am about to start the process of cleaning up photos and uploading the best shots in my picassaweb album. It's a tedious process but worth the effort. If I don't do it now, I will never be able to do it. Next couple of days, we will spent in Paris itself. The batteries need to be charged, the maps reloaded and the clothes washed. Welcome to the world called homeliness.

EuroTrip - Day 52

Chai Chai Chai

I miss chai. Rambhai ki adarak wali kadak chai. For the people here, coffee is everything. One cup of espresso on-the-go and they are ready for the day. For most practical purpose, it is their cigarette and not this coffee which refreshes them for the hectic day ahead.

Chai, or thé as they call it in French, here is something totally different. It's more like the way Englishman like it - very little milk and almost no sugar. If you want to imagine what I am talking about, do this. Take a cup of hot water. Put a tea bag and make black tea. Add a teaspoon milk and half a teaspoon sugar to it. Stir it well and enjoy. Now, for kitli-types like me, calling this chai is like an insult to the magic potion.

I am really missing those golden days in campus when Bangiii or Dhruv would come shouting if anyone was up for chai. The short walk to gate and then long discussions over chai at the kitli in front of the gate made it a special day everyday. Just a few days more and I am going back to this routine. Guys at GMBC, you still are doing those rounds right?

You might ask how come I recalled chai and decided to write about it. The answer to your question is that it was the lady that we met on our train journey from Strasbourg to Paris CDG who made me do this. Miraya (I am not sure about the spelling) or Mira as she is known as when in India, was on her way to catch a flight to Delhi. She came from nowhere and amazed us in the next two hours with her hindi and amazing knowledge of India.

Mira has traveled to India multiple times in last couple of years. She has traveled to -hold you breath- Mandu, Dwaraka, Puri, Gokarna (plan for this time) and places like this. Amazed right? No Goa, no Mumbai, no Delhi etc. For most of the foreigners, knowledge of India starts at Bangalore (The IT hub, city where most of their jobs are going) and ends at Goa (cheap daaru and dawai). They might also know about Mumbai. But that's it.

For the traveler kinds like Mira, it is something different though. She did her first trip back in 2003 with the help of Lonely Planet. But instead of going to some popular destination, she went to Mandu and stayed there for a couple of month to get a hang of India. In return she taught French to the owner of guest house where she stayed.

Her next trip was off the routes given in LP. Those places are too much touristy kinds, she complained. Incidently I had similar complaints for some European cities. So it was Dwarika, Puri and other such places. She found 'peace' and loved the beauty of Indian temples. Before you think, let me clarify - she is not a volunteer with any missionary. She went to these places out of her interest. To keep herself going, she took up teaching jobs and helped poor students with her english (A french lady teaching English in India!). She learnt Hindi to be able to communicate with those students.

Indian railways gave her comfort of cheap travel as well opportunities to see India from close. She learnt to travel like we Indians do. The sound of 'chai chai chai' and the 'chane jor garam' is what she missed the most from her train experience in India. We couldn't have agreed more. It is just too silent on these European trains.

And the next two hours, it was like going through a list of things that we have been missing and have been wanting to do as soon as we reach India. Idli sambar, Samosa, Chai, Mohan-thal and what not. She knew ilaichi and besan. We could not have asked for more. There was no way we could not get nostalgic. We really miss home now.

Now coming the most important part of the whole episode. Today a french lady came and told us about our culture. Will we be able to do a similar thing to some French person? I wonder if our answer can be in positive. We have not yet explored anything beyond the 'bonjour - long legs short skirt - always cigarette' culture in France. We better not dare to say this to anyone.

EuroTrip - Day 51

Bruges Once More?

It was a long night. Italian, Swiss and German police do not leave anything for chance. So you go through passport checks at least three times in one night. If you are lucky you might get more of such encounters with the police (even if you had not asked for it).

Roma to Munchen is a busy train so our 9 euro reservation was worth every penny (or should it be cent?). We did have a place to sit this time. It's ironic that so far whenever we traveled without reservations, we got more than one seat per passenger and the journey was full of comfort. However, last night we just had to sit in a jam packed compartment (i.e. all the 6 people present).

There is nothing more interesting for me these days than to put on my ipod and write my blog while in train. Sleeping, of course, is favorite too but comes handy only when either me or my mobile is tired: Today, I was too tired to miss an opportunity of a long sleep. So I slept. A long, but not so peaceful sleep. It was a night filled of realizations. To know a lot of new things and to think about some of them. Reality check in my dreams? I don't know. What I know is that I am well on my way to change certain things. It's inevitable now.

Our bad luck with reservations on train to Paris continued and three of us (Me, PooCh and HotTiii) got stuck in Strasbourg. Instead of reaching at 2pm, we were now to reach only by 9pm. That too by changing a couple more trains. Nothing can beat luck and some hasty decisions. Suffering was inevitable.

With five hours to spare, we decided to do some random sightseeing in the town. The old town of Strasbourg has done well to preserve its heritage. Houses there are a testimony to the rich culture that this city inherits from the past. There are a couple of canals that flow through this side of the town. The beautiful reflections (of the buildings and the trees) that you see in the clear water of these canals should be a photographer's delight. It so much reminded me of Bruges. Calm and serene.

As typical with any city in Europe, there is one big cathedral in the center of the town. If you want to take a wild guess on the name of the cathedral, place all your bets on Notre Dame. You have very high chances of winning the bet. Inside, it is like any other cathedral. But with one difference. It gives a very good description of the paintings and art work. The emphasis is on linking those to the teaching of Jesus. Interestingly, this is the first cathedral, that I have seen in Europe, doing that. The cathedral has a giant astronomical clock too. There is a documentary on the same shown every day around 11am followed by an opportunity to see the clock in action at the noon time.

The time seemed to have slowed down a bit. We were still left with more than two hours before our train to Paris CDG. I saw a Virgin Megastore and remembered my SRM classes. Prof PK Sinha had done an amazing job teaching us that subject. This was the opportunity to see some of those learnings in action. Virgin Megastores are huge shops selling everything from Music CD/DVDs to computer accessories to Books to stationary. It's a whole world out there and you can spend hours browsing along those endless isles. Guess what did I find? They had K3G playing in one of those terminals for listening. SRK and Yash Chopra rocks, I must say. :-) With their scale and format, it was very difficult to soak up a lot about the retail aspect of their business in just an hour or so. So after putting some effort, I had to give up and resort to the window shopping mode. The new compilation 'This is it' on Michael Jackson's work is superb. Do give it a try if you are an MJ fan.

The journey back home was to be done in two phases - first a TGV to Paris CDG airport and then an RER from there. Thanks to our EuRail, we won't have to pay anything for the RER. We reach home in night. Hopefully warm homely food will be waiting for us at home (thanks to TARDi and Bansi).

Let us see if we are really that lucky?

EuroTrip - Day 50

The Roman Story

I don't know why the day started on a low note. I had a really long and comfortable sleep and got up refreshed. Still the feelings were quite mixed up. I vaguely remember a dream from the last night and it might have the clue. I spent a lot of time wondering about it and ended up calling home. There are some days when I miss my family badly. Today was one such day. Talking home did help a bit but then I think I need something else. It's been a long trip to say the least and may be a break is the need of the time. Tomorrow we reach home. I am looking forward to it.

I have started predicting things about what we would do and why we would do it. I tested my skill once more today and it worked perfectly fine. With the kind of mood I have been today, I could not have done anything better. Rome is not the right place to be in such a mood. There is so much of history in Rome that if you hit any stone on the road it will start telling its Roman story.

My love for history does not go beyond last 100 years or so. So while in Berlin I loved the stories and really cherished it, here I got bored with Roman history very soon. It's too old and too complex for me. I had to find a better way to get myself going for the day. The respite came in the form of the sunny day with a beautiful blue sky. So while others saw history and architectural marvels, I cherished the colors in the sky. The interplay of sunlight and shadow with these buildings was a treat.

For record, we walked through the Roman Fora (Forum) and saw the Palentino. Just across the road we saw the Capitol. Later taking the same short route as last night, we reached the Pantheon. Once a pagen temple, this place later become a church. With the biggest un-enforced (totally no support except at the periphery) dome, this church is an architectural marvel. One would wish there were a little less tourists so as to have some peace at places like this. Sometime I think I am the only one looking for some peace.

HotTiii's guided tour continued covering the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Presidential Palace and a couple more towers and historical churches. There are just too many of those big churches in this town. You take any road and you will see one big church there.

Now we are on our way to Munchen. We reach there in morning and then try our luck with the train reservations for Paris. Praying to god that we get some way. The exam on Wednesday requires preparation of more than a day. :-(

EuroTrip - Day 49

Rome Was Not Built In A Day

The bad thing about gambling is that you are bound to win in the first chance. The beginner's luck is a very strong force. The second attempt is your own luck. It is the third game where you actually face the real odds.

We had never faced any issue of trains running full till now in our trip. So the new rule of the game was to just board the train. If the reservation is asked for, we get it done on-board (it's possible in most of the European trains). Or if the TT is generous, we do some saving.
Our just-take-it-easy-train program has worked for us every time with an exception of the last night.

What a night it was! The early sunset meant that we had less things to do in evening except taking a good long walk along the canals and then take some rest. The train-train game killed another two hours before the mid night train.

The real pain started in the night train for Roma. To our bad luck the second class seating was almost full so me and TARDi were left in the corridors to spend the night. It was long and chilly night. With people entering and leaving the train at every hour or so, there was no sleep. The broken door didn't help either and kept the so called 'air-conditioned' coach a lot more chilled than the usual. The six hours that we spent sitting and standing were the longest in the recent history (that night in Oslo was another such night). What a respite it was when the train reached Roma Tributina. We were the most happy people in the town then. :-)

Outside India no city wakes up at 6am (heard this from a christian Benedict today - 'why should I get up at 6:30 when the God himself has not bothered to switch on the lights!'). So we had to play one more round of train-train game. This time the trick failed. The train we boarded lacked all the amenities and that meant we had to get down from it at the first possible chance. We did it at some random station with a plan to take the return train. The free WC at the station came out as a boon and we spent more than the intended time at the station. End of it, we were all set to roam in Roman roads.

Roma Termini station, like any other station in Italy, does not have left luggage lockers so only affordable option is to carry your bag with you everywhere you go. We decided to check in the hostel that we had booked for night and leave our luggage there. The hostel looked good. Hopefully we would have a long relaxing sleep end of the day.

The first few things that will come to your mind when you think of Roma will be the Colosseum And the Vatican city. Our itinerary for the day included both.

The Colosseum is as beautiful as you have seen in the pictures. Grand and magnificent - this building was kind of an entertainment place for Roman kings and the public. A must visit destination if you come to Roma. However I really did not find worth the money (it costed a full 16.5 euros for the entry ticket and the audio-guide). The audio-guide is rather short on descriptions and the directions inside are confusing. You can never be sure if you are standing at the right place that is being described on the audio-guide. A good watch of the movie Gladiator should be a better way to know about this place. So my suggestion is to take a picture outside and proceed to next place on the list.

Vatican City as you know is a country in itself. However you don't need to go through any passport check to enter here. Just walk in. The handsome Swiss guards (damn!! they can any day model for any fashion brand) won't bother you unless you are really off the track. The historical St. Peter's Basilica in the center of this Roman Catholic world is free for anyone to enter and is a good visit. They have put descriptions for the paintings and the statues and they serve as a good guide to understand the significance of the artifacts. The Sistine Chapel, the Dome, the Vatican Museum and couple more churches - there are too many things to do in The Vatican. Did I mention it's all about 'him'. And we already had enough so the troupe marched for our next destination.

Thanks to PooCh's 'initiative' we were to visit a pizzeria called Pizzeria da Baffetto that he had read about in LP. From the first look itself, the place looked like an old-timer's love. People came and were rested by a proud owner in his 'friendly' way. The highly cramped pizzeria was center of activities for rebels during the war time. Now it's a mecca for pizza lover who swear by its super thin crust charred from side pizzas. Mind you this was our first chance to dine in a restaurant so we were quite apprehensive. The menu had decent choice for vegetarians at affordable prices. So we placed our orders and waited to be served. Like other popular destination food joints, people come here to belong here (or to say they come here just for that been-there-done-that feeling) and of course for their food. The pizzas arrived in more than hour. The wait was a little longer to my comfort (I had not slept the previous night) but then I had chance to do my favorite pastime - watching people. Families on their dine out Saturday with kids for whom it might be their first visit. They will come again and again in future. Or the couple on their first or second dates who had to share the tables with other elderly couples. The elderly couples were surely reliving their old days. And there were many more like them. Amongst them were we five Indians. One of us said 'let's play cards.' Other the Yes-man guessed the single and family pizza size won't be a lot different because their price differed by only 0.5 euro. The third one liked the place as soon as we entered and the forth one was busy reading something from his mobile. And the last man sitting - me. I was sitting silently. You might have guessed it long back. :-)

Unarguably one of the best pizzas we have had so far. LP's promise holds on one more time. And then there was the feeling of having been there. The queue that had lined up outside the restaurant boosted our ego. We were there. The return journey was bound to be pleasant.

There is one thing we all have learnt by now. When the map is in HotTiii's hand, all the monuments in the city tend to fall on the shortest possible route to our destination. Tonight it was turn to see the best of Roma. We saw the Capitol, the Pantheon, the Castel Sant'Angelo and numerous other churches and historical Roman buildings 'on the way'. Keep walking - that's the mantra when HotTiii is leading your way. We cannot complain here because with his map skills, sense of direction and his never ending enthusiasm to do guide-giri has been a boon to our EuroTrip. Give him a map and he is all set to rock. The trick here is that the map also keeps him busy to an extent so you can have some quite moments around.

The hostel room matched the image that we had formed in the morning. With 2 bunker beds and one normal one, it was like a gift from the heaven. I did not bother to wasting anytime and slept off immediately. It's going to be a bathing day tomorrow. :-) I am so much looking forward to it.

Roma has been a good experience. A lot of firsts - first dine out in a restaurant with service, a night stay in hostel, authentic pizzas and a chance to visit the center of a religion. I am looking forward to date with some more of Roma tomorrow.