To Venice (via Bergamo & Milan)

At 4.30 am we got into the bus and reached Milan and got a bullet train (Bullet train was not in our plan, but got a chance to travel in the bullet train too :) ) and then a local bus to reach Hotel Palladio. 

 We went to our rooms to refresh while Sunitha’s brothers’ family joined them. We got fresh and then the six of us headed to explore the city of Venice – one of the most beautiful cities that is shown in movies and hurray!!!!!!  I am getting a chance to visit this place in reality :) :) :). I was little tired but really excited to see the city on water. We found that traveling by bus is the best way in the city. There was a bus stop right opposite to the hotel and from there we got a bus and went straight to the Venice central place. There was a bridge connecting the road to the water. We had a few snaps near the bridge and started our voyage. 

It was really a beautiful place, true to the style depicted in the movies.  We actually wondered about the architecture of Venice city – the city on water. Imagine the engineering abilities in those days itself if a major part of the city was built on water.  There were many buildings out there and a huge open area for small stalls. There were squares at a few places which serve as good shopping arenas. Around mid day, we thought of taking a ride on gondolas which I will cherish for the rest of my life.

I don’t know why this reminds me of a song in Telugu – ‘goruvanka vaalagane gokulaniki…’ starring the great ANR and Mohanlal. I always loved watching this song and the least had I expected that I will have a wonderful opportunity to go on a ride on gondolas and see the places that were shot in this song. Of course, there are other movies that are picturized in this area like ‘Nenu, naa rakshashi’, but this is a very special song from my childhood memories. After this experience, we stopped at a few places for shopping and bought a beautiful mask as well :). When the sun was setting we had snacks at the bakery adjacent to the bridge. And then went to the hotel by bus.

Next day all of us started to the water area again after having our breakfast. I should say we were damn lucky this day… why?? You will know in a minute. We boarded a bus that goes to the water place and somehow bought tickets though for a while we felt it was not necessary because the previous day the driver himself was not interested in issuing tickets and told us to board the bus and sit, but this day we had our guiding angels with us who prompted us to get tickets. On our way, suddenly some official got into the bus and started checking tickets. We had ours, so we had shown them. There was only one lady in the entire bus who did not take the ticket. She almost cried and was pleading him to let her go and she would pay for the ticket. But that guy was very adamant. Guess how much he charged her as fine??? 200 Euros!!! And we were 6. Had we not taken the tickets, we would have to pay him 1200 Euros!!! We were still not out of the shock of losing 200 Euros per person while coming to Venice. This actually proves we were not all that unlucky :D. So remember guys – when in Venice, buying tickets is mandatory if you are traveling by bus!!!  This day Koti & gang did not have many plans as Sunitha’s brother was leaving for London that day, so they chose to spend some time together and relax. We had been to a glass museum. There were mirrors worth a few lacs there. So we did not dare spending much time there as a small mistake could cost really huge!!(This reminded me the quote we generally see in the Archies - Good to see, nice to hold, once broken considered sold ;) )

Then me and Vamsi roamed around the place and had good site seeing. Now starts the adventure part. We boarded a bus which is supposed to go Hotel Palladio. But the driver forced everybody to get down from the bus saying the bus will take a different route. Then we walked to the next bus stop and waited there for some time. But I was really afraid of the place as there was not a single person around and the place was very bushy and it was already getting dark. So we decided to walk further as Vamsi was very confident about the route as he always is and I doubted the route as always. After a while I could successfully convince him (with my fear, hehe) that we were not heading in the right direction. But we had no choice but to go to the next stop. This way we had walked for about 2-3 bus stops and the bus stops there are not as near as they are in Hyderabad!!! I was going into a panic mode now as it has turned completely dark and there was nobody seen on the roads. Sparsely, a few vehicles passed by. Finally, we thought of waiting for a bus and got one after a long time as it felt. And guess what!!! We were actually going in the right direction and the next stop was Hotel Palladio. We were totally exhausted and decided to go to bed very early as we had to leave for Florence the next day.

Next morning Vamsi, I, Sunitha and Koti started for Florence/Firenze – the city built by Michael Angelo.  The stay was a different experience for me here. It was not a hotel. It was something called a “bread and breakfast”. That means apart from accommodation they also offer you breakfast but this will be prepared by you only. We had our breakfast and started exploring the place and got into a hop-on-hop-off (see my previous blog to know what it is) again. We stopped at places where many wonderful statues were built. We had seen a few and bought a few souvenirs and started for another place. We were in the travel bus for most of the time as we thought there were not many places worth spending time. But the travel itself was really beautiful mainly because of the path the bus took. It was very green and flowery and the atmosphere there was very mystic. The road was not plain. The final point was on a higher altitude and so the bus was going up. Added to this, there was a very fresh breeze and we felt rejuvenated by the time we were back.

My Experiments with Cooking and Flights ;)

We were back to Nijmegen by Wednesday morning. We were supposed to leave for Venice on Friday. So I had two full days of leisure.  We went for a little shopping on Wednesday. Then we visited Vamsi’s Netherlands office and met all of his colleagues. They were very friendly and I found their working environment a little different from ours. All of his team was sitting in a big room on an elliptical table with their machines on it. There were no cubicles. You may talk to your colleague any time you want to. But there is draw back with this setup – everybody will know what you are up to ;).

Thursday was the day when I was supposed to cook for Vamsi’s Dutch colleagues. So that was a big day. I was not prepared for this but was little excited as I had to cook for 9 people – Me, my husband, 2 of his roommates and 5 of his colleagues. That was a moderate figure for a beginner like me. We have decided to make tamarind rice, brinjal (eggplant) curry and dal. By the time Vamsi came back from office, I made the tamarind pulp ready and had cut the vegetables. Ravinder – Vamsi’s friend prepared dal while I made the tamarind rice and the brinjal curry with Vamsi’s help. This was in presence of his colleagues. That was the toughest part –preparing dinner under the strict supervision of your own guests. (Just kidding – they were actually very much keen on knowing what all ingredients I was adding to the dishes.) So, they were asking me each one of the ingredients I was using. I had trouble recollecting the names in English as it was a little while since I had experimented anything @ home too!! And when I was preparing the tadka, they were calling it fireworks :D. I had to explain them that it is an integral part of everything that is made in India.

They enjoyed the tamarind rice the most (though I made a mistake in its preparation. I added the tadka with ghee instead of oil as an experiment - I now know this in fact is a blunder ;). But good I did that, because the ghee reduced the spice which is generally caused by adding chilies and so they could actually enjoy it. I was glad I could prepare meals for 9 of us (my husband must actually have got surprised with this accomplishment!!). 

The next morning I made the two minute Maggie but yeah!! Certainly not in two minutes :) - I have my explanation though as I had to add the tomatoes and the onions but my husband and his roommates had the patience to wait till I finish preparing it even when they were getting late to work!  After they have left I had to finish the little packing that was left as we’ll directly go to India after our Venice, Florence & Paris visits. Then came the cooking part – I made the tamarind rice again with husbands’ orders and this time it came out really nice(but for the tadka part which I fail to manage till date – I somehow make sure that the ingredients turn black instead of brown. If it is brown I somehow get the feeling that its half done :D).  I had packed it in a huge box as we had no time left to eat it. I prepared a huge quantity of this (which actually helped us a lot – reasons will be disclosed soon!!) and left some of it for our roommates also – see I am so generous!!

The taxi driver was little grumpy which costed us really huge. The place we stayed is closer to an airport in Germany than going to Amsterdam or any other airport in The Netherlands. Here comes the twist, there are two airports in Dusseldorf itself – 1. International airport and 2. Weeze (The domestic airport). We were supposed to take a flight from Weeze to go to Venice and according to our calculation we should reach the airport much before the departure time. Sooooo, all of us were relaxing and soooooo my husband took a short nap. The rest of us were passing time looking at the beautiful view outside as it was drizzling a little, not knowing where we are heading to. My husband woke up after a while and BANGGGG!!!!!! – He realized that the cost to his nap is a whopping 440 Euros. We were heading to the WRONG airport… man!!! –there was some miscommunication and the driver was taking us to the Dusseldorf international airport. We knew we were to miss the flight for sure and none of us had any idea how to reach Venice on time (we actually didn’t know if we’ll be able to make it to Venice at all and if that doesn’t happen our entire plan will go for a toss – a holiday for fun was actually unfolding into a disaster or may be an action packed adventure soon). We headed back for the right airport after confirming with the driver that we were actually going to the wrong airport and after he confirmed with his colleague that he was taking us to the airport which was communicated to him but of what use?????? – we saw our flight leaving the airport even before we reached but were only hoping that it is some other flight and ours somehow would get delayed for some unknown reason. I should mention an important point here. In Europe, traveling by flight is cheaper than traveling by train or any other mode of transportation if planned properly. (And YES!!!! – Only if you don’t miss your flight :D:D:D ). The flight that we missed, the fare per head was just 9 Euros.

We reached the airport and for our own satisfaction, confirmed that the flight we were supposed to take has actually flew and then my husband and his colleague – started making calls and inquiring to know what is the best option left to reach Venice in this situation and finally came up with the only option left – take a flight from Weeze to Bergamo (nearest airport to the fashion capital of Italy - Milan) and then…..go there first and then think how to reach Venice(they actually confirmed that this place is only 267 kilometers  away from Venice and hence we can reach Venice somehow by road – this revealed another loss – the payment made at the Hotel in Venice for one full day is lost plus we had to spend the day and the night that followed at do not know where!!). This flight was after some 6 hours and so we had to spend the rest of our time in the airport. As they say in telugu – ‘batuku bus stand ayindi’ – we had to say ‘batuku airport ayindi’ – you know, there has to be some richness even while sharing your sorrows ;). After shredding (actually losing) so much money, one will surely think of saving money wherever possible (actually become greedy:)). So, now came the part where my pulihora (THE tamarind rice) was really helpful as there was not much choice in the domestic airport. Four of us survived on that for that whole day including the night and to my husband it tasted its best at the moment (because it saved a small hole to his pocket – I am not boasting you see!!).

 After a 6 hour wait at this airport, we were glad it was time for the flight. We took the flight and after some 1.5 hours we reached the destination and then realized that the bus to Milan will start only after 4.30 AM. We had to spend a few more hours at the airport again but a different one this time as there was no hotel or a place to stay near by.  More in the coming episode ;)…………..

Barcelona - a city conceived by Antoni Gaudi

We set off from Nijmegen, Netherlands to Barcelona, Spain by flight on Sunday afternoon and got off at the Girona airport, Barcelona. From here, we went to the central bus station in the pickup bus of the airport and then to the nearest metro station but could figure out nothing about how to reach the hotel. 

Arc-de-triumph, Barcelona

Being a Sunday, there was no assistance at all for the tourists in the metro station. So we moved out of the station and adjacent to this railway station is the Arc-de-triumph of Barcelona. We got a few snaps there and started off in search of Tryp Hotels, Condalmar - the place where our stay was pre-booked. We walked for some distance and decided to have something to eat but all we could get there were French fries. We could find places which serve Beer/Liquor far more than places which serve food and being vegetarians, its little difficult to find proper food while traveling. So we had to eat what we got and we again started searching for our Grande hotel based on the inputs from the lady in the bar. We were walking and relaxing in between. There was one tower which could be seen from any place in Barcelona. We realized it’s called Torre Agbar later on. After walking for some time, we took a train from a metro and got off at one station which we thought was close to our hotel. We had asked a few regarding the hotel but nobody seems to know where it is located. We might have walked for about an hour and a half then we found a small stall of Pakistanis to our luck. They had a vague idea of where the hotel was and assured us it was close by and also called up to the hotel to confirm the address. We bought some water, biscuits from them as a token of gratitude.  With their guidance and also with the help of other locals, we could finally reach our hotel after two long hours of walking and inquiry. (Had we got down at the next station, it would have been much easier for us to find out the hotel :() The fun of finding something after so much of search is inexplicable. 

Our stay in Barcelona was here

The hotel did not disappoint us in any way. Maintenance was first class. Our room was in the 5^th floor and Koti’s was in the 3^rd. We got into our rooms, got fresh and headed out in search of some hotel to eat. But we stopped at a bakery and bought some French fries (again!!). There was a Chinese fruit/vegetable shop right opposite to it from where we bought cherries, albakara, watermelon & pine apple. We went back to the hotel and all four of us took the Barcelona map out and started marking all the popular places that we thought we should cover, eating the fruits we bought. After deciding the places to be visited, we called it a day.

Next morning we started exploring the city of Barcelona. We decided to buy tickets for hop-on-hop-off buses. These are typically open top Double Decker tourist buses. I liked the way they operate. They cover all the important and famous places with in the city. There were two different services in this city - the red and the blue colored ones. We opted for the red one. Within each of the service, there will be 2-3 different lines. For eg., green line covers 10 destinations where as yellow line covers 10 other destinations which may be in a different direction of the city. Once we get into the bus, each tourist is given a set of ear phones and he can choose a language of his choice to listen to the commentary about each of the historic places. If you find the place interesting based on the comments, you can get off at the designated bus stop. You can spend as much time as possible at this place and once you are done, you can get back to the same spot and get into the same colored bus again and head to another place. There will be quite many buses operating in both the routes and the frequency is about half-an-hour or so which should be sufficient to enjoy the place. We were on a mission to cover as many places as possible. 

Me & Sunitha

Our first halt was at Sagrada Familia, a Roman catholic church under construction from over a century (1882) and it is expected to be completed by 2025. The original architect to this was Antoni Gaudi, a marvelous architect. Most of the prominent buildings in the city were designed by Antoni Gaudi and they are really beautiful. Barcelona got the fame because of his unique structures. Coming to Sagrada Familia, it is a very tall building and the architecture is so intricate that you keep staring at every detail of the building on all sides with great admiration. The view from outside is very different from that of inside. There are various sculptures on the outer wall, a very big prayer area inside and the walls and the ceilings are designed very differently. A very good experience overall. You can donate to the cause of construction if interested. 

Then we went to Park Guell, a garden which was designed again by Antoni Gaudi. We get a full view of the Barcelona city from this place. There was a lady dressed like an angel in the park who was blowing life size balloons which takes us back to the childhood fantasy days. 

After this we saw the Olympic stadium (geeeeee) – my god!!! this is so huge. Our wide angle lens could not cover the view of the entire stadium. One would have to rotate his head at least 180 degrees to get the complete view of the stadium. We simply loved it and imagine how it would look when it is completely filled with people. 

Then we saw the foot ball court of Barcelona :). World’s most favorite and renowned football team originates from Barcelona as you all know. We also saw the world trade center of Barcelona from within the bus. We also visited Casa Mila, another unique structure by Antoni Gaudi and the University of Barcelona which Vamsi considers the most important view point of Barcelona.

We had been to boating also. There was a collapsible bridge there. When the boat was about to start, the bridge was closed and our friends were on the other side, so they couldn’t come to the side where boats start. But luckily the bridge was opened on time and we could enjoy boating as well.

Our last stop for the day was at a casino, yes you read it right – we got free entry tickets from the tourist guys to visit this casino ;). We met Vamsi’s friends who already visited the casino, so they said they would wait for us and we got in to the casino. I never thought I would visit a notorious place like casino. We saw many different games that would typically be seen in a casino and played by cowboys etc. This also was a very different experience. After spending about 10 minutes there, (my heart was thumping in these ten minutes as the atmosphere there was as typical as would be shown in movies) five of us started walking to the place where his friends stay, in hope of finding something good to eat as there was a Pakistani restaurant nearby. We started walking along the beach eating the chuski that we bought in one of the stalls and I saw a foreign couple walking along. The woman was wearing a white Indian kurti and she smiled at me probably recognizing me as an Indian. I felt very glad. We walked very long – it was as if we were walking to digest the food we had rather than eating (as Venkatesh says in Malleswari – idi tinataniki nadustunnattu ledura, tinnadi aragataniki nadustunnattu undi). 

We stopped at the La Rambla Street to decide if it is worth walking farther. We somehow decided to go have the food there. This hotel is another kilometer from there. We managed to go there finally (It should actually be – I managed to walk so far…). The people in this hotel were very pleasant and also we got to hear Hindi in the Spanish land :). We ordered veg biryani there which tasted pretty decent. The owner of the restaurant guided us to the nearest metro station which will go the Diaogonal Mar(The nearest land mark to the Tryp Hotels). We thanked him and headed towards the metro. Vamsi’s friends came to see us off till there. In the metro we met Imran, a Pakistani plumber(Hindi again :)) Vamsi started some conversation with him and soon he got to know that we were worried about going back to the hotel as it was very late. He assured us that there is nothing to worry about and gave us his mobile number and asked us to call him at any odd hour if needed. He said he would accompany us till our hotel and then go back to his place. His place was again some one hour from the place where we stayed. We appreciated him for this kind gesture. Vamsi calls him “Zinda dili insaan”. Trying to help someone not considering things like ‘they are strangers’ or ‘why should I care when it is already too late for me’ or ‘what if I get trapped while helping them’ clearly showed that there was no pretense or hypocrisy in his words. We could only sense honesty, kindness and brotherhood :) . It was around 12.00 am by the time we reached Diagonal Mar station. Added to this, we had to find the way back to the hotel. The roads were deserted but for a very few people and I started panicking. Again with the help of some locals, we found the way to the hotel and without a word retired to bed.

The plan for the next morning was La Rambla Street. So, we got fresh and started for that place. On our way we saw many bicycles parked at a place by name Bicing. Bicing – that’s the name of the bicycle rentals in Barcelona. It is a very nice concept; if you are registered with them, you may take the bicycle for rent from one bike station & park it at any other bike station in the city. You can find a bike station at every 800-1000 meters.

At the La Rambla Street, we did some shopping and roamed along. This place has many different stalls displaying all possible things including clothes, gifts, plants, watches etc. Towards the end of the street is a metro from where we can go to the airport. We took this metro and reached the airport and back to Nijmegen on Tuesday evening.