An Evening In Paris

So we headed from Portugal to Paris on a 22 hour train journey to catch a concert by “Lifelike”. He is a French House musician, I’m not really a fan, but my brother is, so we booked his concert.

We had already crossed France once during the trip and didn’t like it much there, so we weren’t really willing to spend much time in Paris either. Both of us had already seen it and we thought that a day should be enough. The plan was to reach at around 8 at night and then catch the concert at 11. The concert was to end at 6am and we thought we would go back to the hostel sleep a bit and then move on to the next city after visiting the main sites like the Eiffel tower and Champs Elyse.

Now first of all, getting to Paris itself was a pain. The French make life as hard as possible for you. There are only a few seats that are reserved for Eurail pass holders and if those are exhausted, then you have to buy the full fare ticket! If you think you can manage without a reservation, you cant. Almost all the trains going to Paris are TGVs and hence require it. However, don’t think that since they are TGVs they will go fast, no. In our 8 hour journey across France, most of it was at a speed of 150 Km/hr in the TGV. The TGV part is just to make u pay more, not reach faster. So we got a reservation on the train, but since the cheapest were not available, we had to go for a reservation cost of 18 Euros each!

When we finally go to Paris, we took a metro to our hostel. With some difficulty, we found it and guess what, it was closed! We were left stranded at 10 in the night. We decided to just go to the club and since it was an all night concert, we would figure out what to do in the morning. So we got to the venue and that was closed as well. As it turned out, since the concert was from 11, the club would also open at 11 (this wasn’t a normal concert, since it was a DJ, it was in a club). So we went for dinner at whatever we found open and at 11 we were able to get into the club. The cost of a hostel would have been around 15 Euros each and the cost of just keeping the bags in the club cloak room turned out to be 11 each! It was so expensive! Even a small bottle of water was 5 Euros! And by small I mean 330mL.

The night had 4 performers and the one we were waiting for was the last one. so we basically got a couple of places to sit and started to rest and wait till our time came. It was going to be a long night. We didn’t even have any water, since if we took out our bags to get water, it would cost us the same amount of money once again to put it back. So we just bought 1 bottle and waited. By the time Lifelike came, we were really tired and worn out, but Bharat was extremely enthusiastic once the guy did come on stage and it was nice.

The crowd had also reduced significantly and he was playing music that I also could tolerate. So basically we went to the front and watched the show. At this point we realised what all was going on in the club. Before this point, we were just sitting bored waiting for Lifelike. Now suddenly being in the thick of things, we saw how drunk people were and how guys were constantly trying to pick up chicks. Frankly it was a bit weird, random guys would start dancing with random girls, start making out suddenly and leave and all this in just 15-20 mins! It was a bit of a culture shock, but anyways, we just saw the show and were eager to get some sleep. We had decided we would go to Frankfurt from there. It was a weekend and we would be a lot more comfortable there.

At 6 am, we finally got out of the club, drank lots of water and headed to the metro station to get to the train station. Finally we got on to the train and we had opted for a direct train, since we needed to get some sleep. So we got on and went to sleep. Suddenly after a few hours we were woken up frantically by a DB staff member asking us where we wanted to go. We said Frankfurt, she told us to go to the train on the opposite platform immediately. We realised the train was stationary and empty. We just grabbed our stuff and boarded the other train. Before sleeping we had put our phones on charging and had basically spread out our luggage a bit. So we got on in a pretty bad shape. In any case, we were able to get to Frankfurt and finally get some sleep.

Portugal

The train from Madrid was a overnight one, so we could get some sleep on it, which was nice. On reaching Lisbon, we followed the shots I had taken from Google maps to the closest hostel, which was in the Alfama area (the old town area of Lisbon). The hostel was really nice, I mean really nice. It was a very small hostel, which was a little tough to find, but had a nice outdoor sitting area, a patio on the roof and as soon as we got there, we got breakfast, in which they had pancakes! Cinnamon pancakes in fact! Out of politeness, I had only two of those (along with lots of other stuff obviously) and then we hit the town for some sightseeing.

Lisbon isn’t really a typical tourist destination. As in you won’t find anything spectacular there, but the city is really nice. It’s been built over several hills and has very nice architecture. We went to the castle and the cathedral etc. etc. frankly apart from the view from the castle, there was nothing that was exceptionally good to be honest. It was all very nice, but not brilliant. We decided to walk to the town of Belem, which was close to Lisbon. It’s not very far, but the weather was quite bad and we could have either taken the train (which was cheaper) or the tram. The train is relatively cheaper, but we thought we would walk it, so we went ahead and we had almost reached Belem (about 2/3^rds way) when it got too much for us. We had to take the tram and as it turns out the distance doesn’t matter when u buy the ticket. So we paid almost 6 Euros to cover very little distance.

Belem basically has the tower of Belem and a ship shaped monument to the discoverers who made Portugal rule so many countries. Once again, although both are quite nice, neither is spectacular to be honest. Also, the timings for entering the tower are till 5:30 pm, but we got there at 5 and they had already closed it. So we went to eat some local delicacies. The most famous shop there is Pasteis de Belem. It’s also the name of the main dish there, which is basically a custard type thing in a tart type setting. The shop is HUGE. I mean you enter from one room into another, into a third and then a fourth and then there is a massive kitchen which shows the pastry being made. The pasteis de Belem were being made by the hundreds and being ordered at the same rate. Everyone would order 3-4 and they would order nothing else. They were pretty good to be honest. I think this was the main thing you had to check out if you did come to Lisbon. Anyways, we took the tram back, since there was supposed to

be a traditional Portuguese dinner at the hostel and we wanted to be there on time. Unfortunately, the cook had fallen sick and there was no such dinner. We just had cookies and went to sleep.

The next morning, we had another lavish breakfast and took the train to Porto. The hostel this time was practically behind the station, just about 100m from it. What’s more,  it was owned by an Indian (Gujju of course)! But in terms of infrastructure and everything, it was the best hostel we had stayed in. Once again, we headed out for some sightseeing and once again we were stopped in our tracks by the rain. We still managed to do a little bit, the old town, the river and the church. Lisbon had a very Indian feel to it. The river was not blue like most European cities, it was greenish brown. The hills had moss all over them and the houses weren’t all standardized to look nice and similar, everyone made whatever they wanted. So we just went back to the hostel to chill due to the rain.

In the night, we had the local speciality, Francesinha, which is a 3 layered sandwich with 5 types of meat in it, two fried eggs (one on top and one at the bottom), then wrapped around completely in cheese and served in a sauce which is made of beer. It’s basically a heart attack in a bowl, but its pretty good. Frankly I’m not a fan of the sauce, but the rest of it is pretty awesome. It’s another thing that reminded me of India. I mean it’s as Punjabi as a sandwich can get isn’t it? You can practically hear the Sardar going “hor chicken paa de” “ik kaam kar, ande vi daal de” “ chal cheese vi” “beer kyon nahi beer vi”. 

The next morning, we went for a wine tour. Porto is basically famous for Port wine, this is where it all comes from, not just where it started, it’s all still here. Although I’m not a fan of wine, its something we had to do. We took one of the lesser known smaller tours, because all the big ones were closed for a 1.5 hour lunch! No wonder the economy is in shambles. In any case, the tour was like 30-40 mins and was actually pretty good. shockingly we did learn quite a bit (although for a short while). I think that the most important thing was that Port wine isn’t just fermented grapes, its actually partially fermented grapes with alcohol, so it’s sweeter than regular wine. So when we did the wine tasting at the end of the tour, I actually liked the wine (generally I don’t like it at all). Bharat also liked it. Both of us liked it so much, that we bought a vintage port wine for Dad. This was actually an award winning wine (yeah they have awards for wine as well). It was the best vintage port wine for the vintage year of 2003. It’s not a very old vintage, but it was the best in the world for a vintage year, which is pretty important, apparently.

We walked around a bit more after the wine tour. We went to have some more Francesinha and also visit the town centre. There is also a library, where J.K. Rowling wrote some of the Harry Potter books and in fact once of the sets (Diagon Alley) in the second movie was modelled on that library. Once again, its has a very nice small town feel and the most interesting part was the mix of people over there. Basically people from all the Portuguese colonies from all over the world had come to live in Porto and Lisbon. This gave it a very different atmosphere. All in all, I think Portugal is a very nice destination for someone who is just looking to chill. Not really for the typical tourist. We didn’t do much in the 3 days there, but we still enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

Madrid

We totally fell in love with Barcelona by the time we left and expected the same out of Madrid after hearing so many good things about the city from many people. The train from Barcelona was a bullet train (the ones like a TGV), so it was just 3 hours to get there, which was good since we had to catch the bull fight in the evening. We had tried to book tickets online, but site was quite useless and after several attempts, we still couldn’t get tickets. That again was good because it’s actually cheaper to get them at the stadium. It’s practically 50% cheaper and they are almost never sold out, because it’s not really that popular with the locals anymore because of the animal cruelty.

The fight was a different experience altogether. The crowd was very sparse and mostly tourists. The few locals there were very enthusiastic about the sport. The parade came out on horses saluting to the stands where the royalty used to sit. After the ceremony, the first bull came out. It was brownish and not as strong as you would generally see. This was a Novillada fight, with bulls that were about 3 years old and matadors who were not very experienced. The bull came out confused and wanted to go back to the door through which it had entered. It kept going back to it. It was almost as if it knew what was about to happen. Soon the matadors started attracting it and the bull as per its training came after the matadors and missed them on all occasions.

In the start the bull is fierce, but that would mean it has a fair chance, which obviously it is not going to get. So to weaken it, men come out on horses with spears in their hands. They attract the bull and as the bull rams the horse, they drive the spear into the spine of the bull from above. This is done twice. Then matadors come with other weapons (some sort of a hook at the end of a long handle)and between some matadors dodging the bull, a couple of them start putting the hook into the back of the bull. They try to put 6 of those hooks in its back!

After getting the bull to bleed profusely, then the main matador comes out (this guy changes every fight) and dodges the bull for some time. This is just for the crowds entertainment and the crowd love it as well (at least the locals who are used to this). We frankly were feeling quite weird. It’s a very gruelling sight watching any animal being tortured and murdered in front of you. After toying with the bull for a while longer, the matador gets his sword. This is to deliver the final blow and after more torture, he drove the entire sword straight into the back of the bull. A meter long sword was completely inserted into the back of the bull, only the handle was left outside. Then more matadors came out to make the bull move about, so as to allow the sword to move in his body and cut up all the organs and within a matter of a few seconds, the bull was down and out. It dies there in front of us. It really feels very weird watching that and honestly you don’t know how to react. The crowd was cheering, but we were just sitting stunned.

After a few minutes another bull came out, this one was much fiercer and the routine followed. This one took down one of the horses (which was blindfolded the whole time), but it was irrelevant as the bulls have to die. They are trained to die. The second fight ended in the same way and the third started, this matador was very courageous and was taking a lot of risks. He even got knocked down by the bull a couple of times and every time that would happen, 4-5 matadors would come out to distract the bull and allow the matador to move to safety. Basically all the matches are fixed and it’s just watching a bull die. It has no chance of survival. Frankly after the first two fights, we were also immune to it and weren’t cringing when we saw the bull die.

The bull fight is something which you have to watch once in a life, but I don’t think I will watch it again. There were 6 bulls that died, we left after the 5^th one itself. We went back to our hostel and kip for the night.

The next day, we had to get our American Express Travellers cheques changed. What a farce the entire thing is. First you get the TCs and have to do it at their exchange rate, then you have to find locations that accept it or banks that will change it. In all of the places we visited, there was only one American express bank at the Madrid airport that would change it at a reasonable price. We changed 1400 euros and had to pay a fee of 21 Euros for it. Anywhere else, it was a massive commission. We were getting only 165 Euros for a TC of 200!! The concept of TCs is to prevent theft, but what’s the point when you’ve already been robbed! 

Anyways our entire morning was lost in getting the money and after that we took a “free” walking tour.

The “free” walking tour is something you will find in every European city and it really depends on the city as to whether its good or useless. The one in Madrid told us about the city and the relevance of some of the places there. The guide told us about some Spanish history as well, but frankly it was nothing that was extremely interesting and I would have found out a lot on my own also if I had put in any effort. the guide spent most of his time taking us around and telling us where we should eat food or Tapas. It was almost as if he was getting commission from every restaurant in town. It ended and we had to pay him a tip of course, so we ended up spending 5 Euros each. After that, we just roamed around the city, going to the palace, the main church (there is always one in all European cities) and the main plazas. Frankly we were quite disappointed with the city. Madrid doesn’t have much of a culture to offer and at no point did we feel connected to the city. Maybe it’s because it’s known for its nightlife and we really aren’t the type of people who would be out all night partying. So maybe its not for us, but frankly it was quite boring and we left that evening for Portugal

Barcelona

Spain. I love the feel of this country, love the concept of siesta, love the fact that everyone is so chilled out, love the fact that in the middle of a financial crisis also they manage to party every night (I'm not the party types, but I just love the fact that they can do it without caring about logic). 

As soon as we got out of the metro station at the Plaza de Catalunya in Barcelona, we could feel that the city is alive! Our hostel was very close to the main street, Las Ramblas and walking to the hostel, it really reminded me of India and how there are just so many people there, working, partying, shopping, eating and eating some more. It just has a very nice feel to it and frankly trying to do Barcelona in just 2-3 days is not fair.

The day we reached, it was already quite late, so we just went out to have some Tapas and then catch a pub crawl. Tapas is an interesting concept. Basically they drink a lot in Spain and the poor who can either afford a drink or food also choose drinks over food. So at some point of time the king ordered that every bas has to give some “Tapas” (or small dish in a plate covering the bottle or glass) with the drink, so that they don’t drink empty stomach. This reduced the number of drunkards and improved productivity. So basically this started the concept of a small dish called Tapas. So tapas can be anything, fries, fish, prawns or whatever. Anyways the pub crawl was a different experience altogether. Ideally its supposed to have loads of people going from one pub to another drinking together and getting to know each other. The pub crawls of Barcelona aren’t really famous, but its night life is so we went for it anyways. It was a small group, probably because it was a Thursday night, but we liked it nonetheless. We got to meet some interesting people and ended up spending quite a bit, cause well, u get free shots, but courtesy sakes you also have to buy some booze in these bars. So we went to 3 pubs and ended in a club. Frankly, I wouldn’t do it again, but then I’m really not the clubbing types.

The next day, we decided to walk around Barcelona, just like we did in Rome. I generally like walking cities and this turned out to be one as well. We went straight for Las Ramblas, since we had to cross it every time we went to our hostel, we didn’t bother to spend time there, it was more of a get the feel of the place type thing and that either takes 10 minutes or 10 days. So we went to the Bucharia market, which was pretty good. It’s a bit like the INA market in Delhi, only better and smaller. You get everything from fish to chocolates to juices. You can buy it and take it home or you can eat it there as well, there are many small shops for that. It’s a busy market in the heart of the city and although it might be a tourist trap, I guess it’s ok to just go there and have a small meal once.

We didn’t have a small meal there however, this was because one of my friends had suggested another place, Irati, close to Las Ramblas. So we headed in that direction, but before going there, we went into the Bari Gottic area. Honestly, at the time we didn’t know that was the Bari Gottic area, we just strolled in the place and kept looking at the architecture. It’s supposed to be gothic in style, but we didn’t really know what gothic was so didn’t really try to think about it and we had no research on our side either. We walked around and ended in the restaurant, Irati. It was a Tapas bar and was very good. It had a lot of variety and was on the expensive side, but frankly was worth it. I really liked the concept of pay per toothpick that they had used. It allowed for variety and also offered very good Tapas. After a light lunch, we headed towards Sagrada Familia. On the way we had a good look at many architectural marvels by Gaudi. I’m generally not the least bit interested in art and all this stuff, but it was genuinely different. Gaudi was inspired by nature and you can actually see that in his work. It’s very unique and the common theme of nature runs through it all.

Sagrada Familia is also designed by Gaudi and is really quite amazing. It has been under construction for god knows how many years and probably will remain under construction for long. When you think about it, Gaudi designed it such that it would never be completed in his lifetime, but still went ahead with it. It’s kind of weird starting something and never getting to see its end result. In any case, the structure is grand and the church is made like a forest, with the pillars designed to be tree trunks and fruits at the top which can be seen from the outside. It really took us by surprise, since it’s not a church that is talked about a lot, but is much more important than what most people think.

After the church, we walked to Parc Guell, this is on the mountains and once again, designed by Gaudi. This is where he gets to combine architecture with nature completely and does a good job of it too. But the main point of the park is not that, it’s the views that you get of the city. You can get to the top of the mountain and basically it’s just a nice place to sit and it sort of divides Barcelona into 2 parts so you can see the other as well on the other side. When we got out of the park, it was getting late and the rain was getting heavier. We rushed back to the hostel and basically that was it for the day.

The next day, we headed off to Montserrat. This is outside Barcelona and takes about an hour to get to the base by train, if you don’t miss any connections. As it turned out, we watched our train leave in front of us, we missed it cause the station is a bit confusing and you need an extra buffer of 10 minutes at least to get to the platform. Anyways, from the base it’s another 30 odd minutes to the top. Apart from being a nice natural structure, it also has a lot of significance when it comes to Catalan culture. In the days of Franco, the Spanish dictator, Catalan intellectuals used Montserrat to sustain their culture when Franco was trying to suppress it. It’s the home to the Black Madonna, which is inside a church. We actually managed to see a Christian wedding at the church, this was a first for me so was quite nice. Another interesting part is that you can trek around the area and that is quite nice, if you have time. We didn’t have much time, so we went on the shortest trek there to a small house and since we were doing it in a hurry, we were sweating like pigs by the time we finished. The trek was actually quite a tough one and ideally we should have taken our time with it. Anyways, when we got back, we had a shit lunch at the cafe on Montserrat and headed back to the city.

Once back in the city, we had to check out the magic fountains and the village that they had made in 1929 as a showcase of an ideal Spanish village. But we were late and the entrance fee for the village was like 7-8 Euros. So we didn’t go in, cause we would have only got like 10-15 minutes there. We went to the fountains at 7pm though and although they were nice and different, they weren’t as large scale as we had hoped for and it was more of a Disney showcase. As in it was nice, but is probably targeted towards kids.

After the fountain, we headed towards Camp Nou to watch Barca in action against Mallorca. We were quite enthusiastic about the event and went in thinking its the largest football stadium in the world (we later found out that the largest is in Calcutta!). The atmosphere was quite nice, but Messi was not playing, which was a disappointment and then even Xavi was out. Nonetheless, Barca scored 5 goals in 46 minutes! .. and then pulled out all their star players. They didn’t score after that and although the crowd was enthusiastic, I was expecting more. Frankly, I felt that cricket fans make more noise than that. Maybe it was because the match was not really a critical one. Frankly, I would say, chuck the Camp Nou experience, just go for a good match if you want to watch crazy fans. The stadium doesn’t really matter as long as people are shouting like crazy and if they are doing that in an AC Milan match, then that should be the one to watch.

After the match ended, we headed towards the metro expecting chaos, because well that’s what these fans are known for, but we realised that it was all just too organized, everyone in queues and just very dull. Maybe its because Camp Nou is just full of tourists and its not the fans anymore. Anyways, it was still quite nice and a fitting end to our short stint in Barcelona. 

Back to Italy

Milano! The fashion capital of the world, a lively bustling city, the business capital of north Italy! Bull shit, it’s a shady city with no one on the streets, you feel like you’re about to get mugged almost all the time, you see none of the Italian culture and architecture there. The worst part was that when we got there, none of the hostels were free, in fact there are very few hostels, most of them are just hotels, you are better off booking a hihostel in advance, because once you get there, its all a mess. The tourist office is never open, its there and it has some timings, but we went there during those timings quite a few times and always found it to be closed.

Nonetheless, we got some accommodation and we planned to spend a day checking it out and the main city centre is fairly decent. It’s basically built around the Duomo, which actually is quite a grand structure and was definitely worth the visit. The structure was not like the Roman Basilicas, it had more of a castle like feel to it. There was also a Ferrari store right around the corner, which was a bit of a treat ( since it had an F1 car replica and a couple of real super cars you could drive around for 30 mins for about 190 Euros, but no Italia, so I didn’t bother).

Apart from that there was a Castle, which was quite useless to be honest and that was pretty much it for the city.  Basically it all got over much sooner than expected, so we headed over to Lake como, which is just 40 odd minutes from Milan by train. Basically its the town of Como, which is where the lake starts. If you see the pictures, the lake side is absolutely brilliant, but Como is a city, a typical city, nothing really like those photos. Nonetheless, if you walk out of Como then you will find that scenery and the beauty. We reached there at around 3, so we didn’t have a lot of time to do much but we did manage to spend some time outside the city area and next to the lake. Ideally you should go to one of the nicer small towns such as Bellagio which are further away. But Como itself is quite nice and we actually spent a pretty decent evening there.

After Lake Como though, we had to go back to the useless shady hotel we had got at 30 Euros per person per night! Not only was Milan a hopeless place, it was expensive as well. Almost all the hotels were full and we were having a terrible time there. Fortunately we got a second hotel, which was for 25 Euros per person. Not a bargain, but cheaper nonetheless.

The next day, we checked the weather and headed off to Florence (the rain was becoming quite a pain). Florence was nothing like Milan, it was lively and beautiful. The architecture was brilliant, the small streets were nice and the food in the small bakeries was also very good (and cheap). The main parts of Florence are the main Duomo, the main square(with the statue of David) and the brilliant view from the top of the mountain just outside the city. The statue of David mind you is not the original, the original is hidden away in some museum in Florence itself, but the replica is out in the street for all to see. Its quite nice nonetheless. Apart from these 3 places, Florence generally has a nice feel to the town. Its full of life and lots of tourists as well.

The view from the mountain is very nice as well its the sort of place you would want to spend the afternoon, just looking over the city and having some tea or something. In any case, after having walked the entire city, it was time to head back and well back meant Milan and Milan meant more depression. We wanted to take the 5 o’clock train, but it was full and so were the 6,7,8,9 and 10. They were all full. Luckily we could take any train that did not require reservation. This did mean that it took us 5.5 hours instead of 2, but at least we got home. We reached at 11 and were totally exhausted.

The next day, we had to hit the road early, since we had to go to Venice and it was a long way from Milan (over 3 hours). Fortunately, this time there was no booking involved with the Eurail pass. Everyone had told us that its a useless city and that we will not like it at all. Surprisingly, we really loved it! Maybe it was because we were coming from Milan, or maybe it was just that our expectations were pretty low. The small gullies, the streams of water everywhere, it was all quite nice and once again, the Roman architecture was very nice. In fact, Venice had one of the best plazas we had seen in the entire trip. Not just that, it had a lovely shore and nice churches. We actually ran short of time. Most importantly, Venice had good food! We were able to get good and cheap Italian in Venice and realised that if you eat at the small bakeries in one of the gullies, you would probably have something you wont regret, if you go for a big restaurant with seating from many on the outside, you will probably end up being disappointed.

On the way back to the station, we also had our last Gelato in Italy and boarded the train back to Milan. We could have left that night itself, to reach Cannes the next day, but we took the safer option and stayed in Milan to take the early morning train the next day. Surprisingly, Milan is most lively at 6am and that was the only time it really felt a little safe. We took a train at 7 something to Cannes (although our initial plan was to go to Marseilles directly. We reached Cannes in the afternoon and frankly there isn’t much in the city if you’re on a budget. So we did what most budget travellers probably do. Sit by the beach for an hour and caught the next train out.

Marseilles, I think the defining moment would have been when we landed, went to the tourist office and asked for help. In English. What a mistake the guy almost shouted at us. How dare we speak English! They refused to help us with anything at all. Luckily we got a map and knew where to go for our hostel. We figured we will check out the city as we went, because we probably won’t have time after we reach the hostel. Another mistake, since nobody speaks English, you cant find anything and with 20Kgs (probably more) on each of our backs, there was no chance we were going to see the city and then walk another 7 km to our hostels after that, at least not before nightfall. We decided to ditch the touring and simply headed towards the hostel. 7Km was still too much and we decided to grab a bite at McDonalds. As it turns out, everyone speaks perfect English there. One simple reason, money.  As long as they have some work with you, they can speak your language, if not, get lost. Ba

sically, I zon laikh ze Fuench.

Anyways, we did manage to find some helpful people in France and made our way to the metro station. We got vaguely close to our hostel and then walked another 45 minutes. After getting out of the useless city area, we finally found the sea side we were looking for the whole day. It was a nice area with a park one side, the hills beyond that and the sea on another side. A very nice walk and frankly the Marseilles the rest of it also should have been. Once we got to the hostel though, it was all good. Hostels are brilliant places. Everyone is a traveller, they all understand your problems, they all speak your language and they all are willing to help (unless you’re in Milan of course). We were able to just hit the bed and sleep. We had really pushed ourselves today and Bharat almost tore a muscle in the night in fact.

The next day we had another early train to Barcelona. We had heard a lot of good things about Barca and were really hoping that the trip would look up from there onwards.

Scandanavia

After the Italian holiday, we head back to Frankfurt and met Vishal Chachu. There was a forecast for the Aurora Borealis for the next night and we decided to chase it down. The only problem was that the closest viewing place was in Trondheim and that was over 2000 Km away from us. What’s more, the roads got progressively smaller and slipperier as we went north. In any case we headed north and left at 3 pm to reach Gotenburg by the night. The journey was over 1000Km and it had a ferry in between as well. So by the time we reached the hostel, it was 3 in the night! But it was actually a nice drive, the unlimited German autobhans meant that I could drive at over 170 kmph! What’s more, it was quite scenic, we crossed wide open fields, mountain ranges and a huge bridge over the sea!

Although Scandanavia is very beautiful, it is too expensive and very different to other parts of Europe. First of all, the people are way too kind, we needed money in the local currency for a parking meter, so we went into a store to get some changed. One guy, instead of changing the money just gave away 10 Kronos (about Rs. 100) and then met us at the parking meter and gave 5 more(there are more examples as well)! Second of all, the service concept is very different, each restaurant will have just one waiter and even in the hostels, we had to get and put our own bed sheets unlike any other hostel in Europe (this despite each hostel bed costing us 40 Euros!)

The next morning, we had a discussion with the hostel attendant about the northern lights and our plan. Every local we met said we were crazy and would not be able to make it in time. We were undecided and so we made our way to Oslo in any case. Once there, we could either take a flight and catch the display in the night, or just hang around in the cities such as Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. We decided to stick to the cities because of the investment we would have to put into the lights and in case it’s not a clear sky, we would not get to see anything at all. By the way, in case anyone wants to catch them, this site predicts them to a reasonable amount of accuracy http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast so when the Kp factor is 3 or above, there is a decent chance for a display and 4 is a definite go ahead.

In any case, we hung around in Oslo and realised that the city had almost nothing to offer. Even in March-April, its cold and depressing and frankly apart from an outdoor museum (which was an interesting concept), there was nothing else to do. So we went into the city for some local cuisine and noticed that there was nobody there. The only people on the streets were the ones jogging. There were just too many fitness freaks and for some reason, quite a few Indians as well (not jogging though, obviously). In fact, the restaurant where we finally ate was owned by a Pakistani! We even got free desserts thanks to him (he wanted to even give the meal away for free). As it turns out, a lot of the restaurants were owned by Indians/Pakistanis and Indian cuisine is very common there. In any case, the next morning, we saw a dumb Viking museum and moved on to Stockholm

Stockholm was much more like it. The city is basically built over several islands and joined together by bridges. The city is much more vibrant and apart from the huge number of people jogging, it also had pubs and restaurants on the streets and all of them were full. After a nice dinner we hit the sack and the next day went to roam around the city. The city was quite nice, but we couldn’t cover all of it (we hung around the Gamla Stad area, which is the old city area). We were mainly looking for a smorgasbord, which is a buffet type meal with the local cuisine, but as it turns out it only happens during Christmas and midsummer. So we sampled whatever we could of the local cuisine and just walked around town. To be honest, Swedish cuisine is not my favourite, it’s almost like Thai curry in a lot of ways.

So on the way out, we also went to a local museum, which once again was completely outdoor ( I guess that’s some Scandinavian style) and this one had a few people and activities in the exhibits as well. It was a very different concept for a museum and I think it’s much better than the traditional style, since there is always someone to explain stuff to you and you get a true feel of how things work. In fact one of the people in the exhibits gave us a complete 30 minute lecture on the history of Sweden and how it became a rich country. One day isn’t enough for Stockholm really, we also wanted to see the archipelago, which is supposed to be very nice and also there is this hostel which is basically a jail and you get to live in the jail cells!

We left Stockholm and made our way to Denmark. On the way, we stopped by a petrol pump to grab a bite and finish off our Swedish money. However we were like a couple of Kronos short on our Swedish currency for what we wanted to buy and once again, the cashier just put in the required amount from his side! It was baffling, we couldn’t figure out why everyone was so kind!

We reached Copenhagen and although the temperature was a much toastier 2 degrees (compared to the -6 in Stockholm) the wind was so strong, all of us had running noses in just a few minutes out of the car. However we got to stay in Europe’s largest hostel and the next day we visited a few sights in Copenhagen like the mermaid and the palace(although none of them were really special). The only thing of notice was the Carlsberg museum, which took us into the brewery and told us about the history of the beer. It was interesting and we even got free beer at the end of the tour (some even in between) unfortunately we had to drive back, so we couldn’t have much (I had practically none since I was driving the first stretch.

On our way out, after spending 4 days in the cold, we finally got snow! I think it was the first time I had seen such heavy snowfall and it was actually quite a lot of fun. It wasn’t that cold, just that there was snow and it was beautiful. Obviously we had to make our way back though, we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us and this time we were not going to take the ferry. We decided to take a different bridge, this was 21 Km long! It was quite magnificent and frankly it is unbelievable to see some of the things that man has built!

So that was that for Scandinavia, I think it wasn’t the best time of the year to visit the place, but then again, I doubt it will ever get anything above 10 degrees at any time in any case. However I do think that the place requires more time. Scandinavia is not about the cities, but mostly about the countryside and the lakes and the treks and the nature reserves. It’s difficult really to do justice to it with anything less than 2 weeks. To really enjoy it, I guess I’ll have to plan a long trip including a cruise, the northern lights, ice hole fishing and similar experiences in the Lapland.