Back to School

We've been in US now for slightly under a week and I'm definitely happy about being back. Our move into our new apartment was somewhat of a disaster - Manish's flight in from Seattle got cancelled and I ended up having to deal with cranky movers all by myself, parts of our furniture were missing and couldn't be reassembled for a while, and some of our boxes are still not here. However, we have almost settled in - and even cooked dinner at home tonight! It's really nice living in an urban area. There are two Indian grocery stores within walking distance from our apartment!

I start classes tomorrow and I am strangely excited about that. Hopefully I will be able to remember this feeling when I am sleep deprived :)

Anyway, as you can see, Manish and I are thinking that we might continue this blog. Our updates will probably not be as exciting, but who knows, maybe they will :)

A Splash of Color

When we got to Santorini, we were surrounded by muted colors. Brown cliffs, hazy blue sea. Beautiful, in a calm way. As we explored the island further, we realized that there really were splashes of color everywhere. Red pebbles on the red beach. Whitewashed churches with gorgeous blue domes. Bright buildings every now and then that looked like they should be in Venice. And most amazingly, the incredible hues of the famous sunset. One evening, we scrambled over some rocks and found our way to the top of an isolated church - where we shared the sunset with a couple from Nice. The next evening, we joined the masses in Oia for a magical, if not peaceful, sunset. Really - people actually started clapping once the sun went down. All part of the touristy fun though :) 


Soon our vacation will come to an end, and I am already starting to get a little sad about that. However, we have one last hurrah before we board the flight home. We are heading to Central Greece tomorrow to check out Delphi and Meteora. Meteroa, especially is supposed to be quite hot, but extremely pretty. 

Wi-fi at Piraeus Port

We are waiting to board our catamaran to Santorini, and I discovered that the port we are waiting at has wi-fi! Of course, the boat itself is delayed by an undetermined amount. It was supposed to leave 15 minutes ago, but hasn't even arrived yet. Latest information (that is not broadcast, but can be found out upon asking) is that the boat will arrive here in 45 minutes, and will take off again whenever it is ready to leave after that. No wonder they make Internet available for free here :) 

Happy Birthday, Manish!

Manish turned a year younger today and we had a fabulous day in Athens celebrating this occasion :) Amit and his parents even sang "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese as we ate lunch in a Greek restaurant. 

I love Athens so far - it's busy and active and every so often one chances upon an ancient ruin. After dinner today we walked past an old-looking building. Anywhere else, one would wonder about the dilapidated condition of such a building; here we wondered whether it was something important a long time ago ... what a difference context can make! 

Crazy Train, Fancy Cars

We took the train from Prague to Munich yesterday. We were repeatedly told that we didn't need any reserved seats for this train - just our tickets. We showed up at the train station we were supposed to depart from, and were told that we needed to go to another train station about 15-20 minutes away by metro. Taken by surprise, but too sleepy to dwell on the strangeness of this, we headed to the other station. Our train was already waiting on the platform. We walked through a couple of carriages without finding any seats and finally found a compartment with four open seats. I grabbed it right away and beckoned Manish and Huat Chye to come over quickly.

Of course, we weren't the only ones who had to deal with this. More people found their way to the new train station as the train's departure time approached. A fair number got on the train, but a large number were left behind. For those who got on the train, finding a seat was quite impossible. A girl grabbed the remaining seat in our compartment, while her brother and all their luggage remained in the passageway (he had a pillow and an ipod - and made himself quite comfortable on the filthy floor :)). The passage was quite full; even the doors to the bathrooms were blocked by people on the train without seats. I hadn't seen a train like this in a long, long time - the last time was in 1992, when my family traveled in the unreserved coach on a train from Bombay to Ahmedabad for an urgent last-minute thing. It was quite the experience - and I was amazed by how people adapted to these circumstances. Tourists really are hardy people.

Of course, it was only fitting then to head to the BMW Welt (where they show off their new cars) once we got to Munich. Manish ogled at the cars, Huat Chye marveled at the design of the building and I got engrossed in their branding videos on a table top touch screen (yes, I was ready to go work for them as I finished watching these - good job, design team!). It really is impressive that BMW spends that much money marketing their cars - a whole museum for the new cars (in addition to one we didn't visit that housed the old cars!).

In these last couple of days, I have rediscovered skirts as the weather gets better - more airy than capris, more elegant than shorts. Of course there are some circumstances in which the skirt doesn't work so well - like when one is pretend-riding a motorcycle :)

After the BMW visit, one of my future classmates gave us a great walking tour of Munich. Today, we are in Athens - while we toured the Acropolis, we ran into Amit (my freshman dormmate, good friend, and future classmate to boot). The world really is quite small :)

Rain and the Food Tour

We know we've been out of touch for the past few days. We've been busy eating! Starting last Sunday, it has rained wherever we were. Much of our time in Salzburg, Hallstatt and Vienna was marked by rain (the curse finally broke today and we had a brilliant day in Prague). However, we are hardy tourists - and refused to stay at our hotel for even a day. The result - we found shelter in the many eateries around town! In Vienna, we sat around in several local cafes - where for the price of a cup of coffee, one can read the paper and hang out for as long as one wants. We also sampled the famous "Original" Sachertorte at the touristy Sacher Cafe. Sachertorte (dry-ish chocolate cake) is apparently Austria's largest export. Various types of pastries and Kaiserschmarnn (pancakes with plum jam) also made their way to our stomachs. I still salivate when I think of the chocolate mousse cake we had at a famous pastry cafe that Rick Steves claims is the place Viennese people go to get fat. We got to Prague yesterday and were immediately caught in a thunderstorm. Undaunted, we went and ate yummy honeycakes at a cafe that is quite far from the tourist beat. 
In addition to eating, we have been very social. Huat Chye is with us this week. We also spent time with one of my future classmates in Vienna. She invited us to her house - and we spent time in a real home for the first time in 6 weeks. It felt good :) One of my classmates from undergrad happened to be in Prague today and we toured the city with him and his aunt. It's been great seeing other people! 

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I have seen on this trip. I will be sad to leave it, but tomorrow we head to Munich, and from there to Athens on Monday. We hope that we will finally be far away from the rain! 

Jungfrau, Joghurt and Just Enough Time in Salzburg

Yesterday dawned bright and clear in the Swiss Alps, and we decided to seize the opportunity and head to Jungfrau - even though it meant delaying the start of our seven-hour drive to Salzburg by several hours. So, we climbed the steep slope of the Eiger on a train that was built a hundred years ago and reached the highest train station in Europe - JungfrauJoch. As we caught our first glimpse of the views afforded from Jungfrau, any doubts about delaying the long drive were completely dispelled. It really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Some of the pictures we took can be found below. I'm sure Manish will upload the rest at some point. I had expected that Jungfrau would be one of my favorite things about Swizerland, but didn't know beforehand that Swiss yoghurt would be a close second. The yoghurt in Switzerland is absolutely amazing. We were staying at a guesthouse in Gimmelwald, where there are no restaurants. Thus, all residents cooked their own dinner in a common kitchen. One night, we were having dinner with a few folks from Frankfurt who got to dessert before we did. They pulled out their cups of yoghurt and started making yummy noises with every spoon. They even offered to go back and eat the yoghurt in their room so that the rest of us wouldn't get jealous. A few minutes later I pulled out my lemon yoghurt and understood why the other travelers were so happy. The next day, I had strawberry yoghurt with coconut flakes and that was even better. After Jungfrau, I couldn't find yoghurt at the little store by our car, so I ended up buying pineapple-coconut lassi instead and that was great too!

We got into Salzburg really late - around 1 a.m. - after picking up Huat Chye from the Munich airport on our way here. We are glad that he is joining us for this phase of our trip. Salzburg itself has been underwhelming. The city is extremely touristy and doesn't have too much to offer. We watched a classical music concert today - and the organization, musicians and venue were all mediocre, especially compared to the Vivaldi concert we had watched in Venice. The day wasn't entirely a waste though - we did manage to connect with an old friend who currently lives in Stuttgart but was visiting Salzburg, and ate really good Indian food (almost tasted like a home-cooked meal!) at a restaurant called Spicy Spices.

Tomorrow, we plan to head to Hallstatt in Sound of Music country. That should be a fun break in the country before we hit Vienna.

Even When It's Bad, It's Good

Yes, the past couple days of our trip have been kind of like pizza (or other things, if you prefer). We're here in the Swiss Alps staying in a town called Gimmelwald (near Interlaken). The most notable activity here is to go up to Jungfrau, the highest peak in Europe. Unfortunately, the weather has bit quite cloudy and a bit wet, so we've passed on that because views of the clouds are quite good from our hotel/guesthouse. However, none of this prevented us from having a great time out here. Even the partial views of the mountainside are breathtaking and I would have no problem adding to the population of 100 (especially since they have internet). Gimmelwald is a pretty small town up above 4000 feet and we took a cable car up from the town below. They have several cable cars up here and I'm guessing some of them double as chair lifts (or rather, giant gondolas) during ski season.

Anyway, we spent yesterday hiking down into the town and finding shelter from the rain (sort of) at Trummelbach Falls. Basically, there are a series of 10 waterfalls, many of which are inside the mountain, that they've made accessible for viewing. With the glacier melt from three large mountains funnelling through here, it's amazing how much water rushes through in the summer. I couldn't help but think how much hydro-electric power they could collect from this place (at least I didn't see much evidence of it). Oh well, I suppose it's easier to charge admission instead.

Today, we had slightly better weather (well, less rain), but still not enough to justify the trip to Jungfrau. No worries, though. We just took a couple cable cars up a bit and did a nice, leisurely hike (mostly downhill). I'm sure pictures can't do justice to the wonderful feeling of being up here along the green rolling hills and mountain peaks (not that this keeps me from trying).

So, we've had a great, relaxing couple of days out here. We'll shoot for Jungfrau again on our way out of town. If that doesn't work out, we'll just have to come back. :)

-Manish

Too Good!

Okay, so it's been awhile since I (Manish) actually posted an entry. I also know that Wimbledon was a long time ago, but the men's final was so great that I still have to write about it. The match had everything -- drama, suspense, horror, the moral at the end of the story. No, wait, this wasn't (quite) a movie. It did have countless great points, rain delays, championship points saved, an excitable crowd, extra innings (so to speak), looming darkness, and two humble champions when it was all said and done.

Of course, as we were watching, we didn't imagine that people would later call it the greatest Wimbledon match ever. I remember watching last year's final on TV. At this point, it's really hard to compare the two since there's so much you miss either way. I definitely want to see the TV broadcast of the match (hopefully in HD), though I have no idea if that will actually help me pick a favorite. What I do know is that subsequent Wimbledons will have a hard time living up to this type of match in a final.

-Manish

A Sorta Fairy Tale ...

As we got into the car to leave Bacharach, I was quite sure that I had already seen the quaintest town on this trip. I was wrong. Three hours later we were in a walled medieval town called Rothenberg on the stretch of Germany known as the "Romantic Road" and i was amazed. The town essentially looked like a well-illustrated fairy-tale come to life! In addition to walking around town and eating a fabulous Italian meal (German food just doesn't do it for me), we spent some time in the Museum of Criminal Punishment and walked on the city wall containing the town. The museum was not very well organized, but quite informative, and the walk was wonderful.

From Rothenberg, we got into our little Citroen Picasso and sped to Bavaria. As we got closer to our destination we watched the temperature drop from 19C to 13C and I was quite sad. I then looked out of the window and was charmed yet again. I could see rolling green hills everywhere - with a variety of trees. The shades of green were dazzling and the Alpine peaks in the backdrop only made the sight more fantastic. Soon we were at our hotel in the middle of nowhere - the directions on the hotel website literally said: "Turn left after the school and find the hotel in the middle of the fields". Exhausted from our adventures, we ate our dinner and crashed.

Today, we woke up to a bright and sunny day - one which promised to be much warmer than 13C :) We hiked out to see the famous castles in Bavaria - Hohenschwangau where "Mad" King Ludwig grew up and Neuschwanstein, which King Ludwig built - and which inspired the Disney castle. Both castles were beautiful and we definitely got our exercise for the day with the hike between our hotel and the castles and one between the castles themselves. We had a really fun day!

Lake by Castles	Hohenschwangau Castle	Neuschwanstein Castle

We head to Interlaken tomorrow. Looking forward to more Alpine beauty :)

Beautiful Bacharach

We are in a little town about an hour away from Frankfurt. It feels like we are in the middle of nowhere - and yet we have Internet :) Bacharach has been a good break from large cities. It's a really quaint place on the Rhine with beautiful buildings interspersed with castles. We walked around some, took a short cruise on the Rhine and explored the Rheinfels castle. Apparently, a picture is worth a thousand words and I don't feel like writing too much today, so I'm going to let the pictures below depict what this area feels like.

View from our room	Castle in Bacharach	Rheinfels Castle	Beautiful Area

Here in Bacharach, we found out that some things don't change. I've fallen asleep on every river cruise we've taken on this trip, and today was no exception. I was oblivious to the medieval castles built along the Rhine a long time ago - for petty landowners to tax merchants using the river to transport their goods - because I was asleep. Luckily it was a round-trip journey and I got to see the sights at least once :) We also found out that some things do change. Manish actually read the guidebook today as he wanted to explore some tunnels that I was too claustrophobic to get into - and he needed directions to make sure that he didn't get lost down there. He also joined facebook and has been glued to it almost all evening.



Tomorrow we head down the Romantic Road into Bavaria. I'm excited about seeing more beautiful castles and scenery along the way. I should be awake as we are traveling by car.

Brrrlin

The bad weather from London followed us to Berlin, and it was quite cold and wet when we got here yesterday. However, the weather in Berlin is as inconsistent as it is in London - we got brilliant sunshine from 1 to 4 this afternoon and it started pouring just when we got back to our hotel room for our afternoon break. The weather is not the only thing that's inconsistent in Berlin - the whole city is still trying to figure itself out. The parliament building has a facade from the late 19th Century, but a dome built 10 years ago. The building is stone and the dome is all glass and mirrors (symbolizing transparency in government). The rest of the city is no different. On the eastern side especially, one can see old ugly boxy buildings with cute cafes and restaurants on the bottom floor. Old churches (some desperately in need of renovation) with modern H&M stores nearby. The inconsistencies make the city beautiful - and remind us that the Berlin wall fell only a couple of decades ago. The city has probably changed a lot since then, and will be quite a different city in 5 years' time.

Bricks marking location of Wall	Parliament facade	Parliament dome

As Berlin shapes up, my guess is that it will be more American than other cities in Europe. Already, we see Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger Kings and Dunkin' Donuts everywhere - far more American food chains than I have seen anywhere else so far. Of course, there are wurst stands everywhere too - yet another example of multiple cultures living together to form Berlin's own unique flavor :)

We've had a lot of fun in Berlin. It's a big enough city - quite lively and well connected by public transportation - but with far fewer crowds (and toursits) than London. Of course, since we were in Germany, we had to try out a Mexican (bad) and an Asian fusion (good) place for dinner ;) We also pretended to be students and had lunch at the Technical University Mensa (it was the Mensa that attracted me of course ... and then the extremely cheap food in the cafeteria!). Coffee seems to be a way of life here, and we joined the locals at the Einstein Kaffee (Einstein taught in the Eastern part of Berlin before heading to Princeton in 1932). And we discovered a sale going on at H&M :)

Tomorrow we head off to Bacharach, a small town on the Rhine. I'm sad to leave Berlin - not least because we have a wonderful hotel room here. We will spend the next few days exploring what is preserved of medieval Germany and hiking in the Alps. Internet access will probably be spotty, if it exists at all - so the next blog post may not happen until we are in Salzburg next Saturday.

It's not over until it's over ... (Lessons from Wimbledon)

We found ourselves at a sports arena for the second time on this trip. The first arena was the Colosseum - where gladiators killed each other for sport 2000 years ago. This time around, the contestants channeled their aggression through a racket at the All-England Club - and we actually got to watch rather than imagine the sport :) We were at Wimbledon!

The first complete match we watched was the Ladies' Singles Finals, and Serena Williams took an early lead - breaking Venus' serve in the very first game. However, she could not close out the set and Venus ended up winning it by breaking Serena's serve in the last game. In the second set, everything was fairly even until Serena was serving to stay in the match when Venus was up 5-4. Serena somehow seemed resigned to losing, played much worse than she had before and Venus won the set - and the 750,000 pounds awarded to the Wimbledon champion. It was then than I first realized that different players with the same skill level in tennis might get very different results based on their ability to wrap things up. I noticed this again in the ladies' doubles. This time Serena and Venus were on the same team, and both seemed somewhat tired after the singles final they had just completed. However, their opponents were not able to break their serve even once despite several opportunities to do so. Thinking back, I suppose that the end-game was even more crucial back in ancient Rome - leaving your opponent simply injured could cost you your life as a gladiator!

The next day we set off for Wimbledon while it was still raining, unsure of our chances of seeing the Men's Singles Finals - the Federer/Nadal match we had been anticipating. By 2:30 in the afternoon, the rain had died down (at least temporarily) and we hurried to Center Court along with everyone else who had been waiting out the rain in a lounge. The match began, and two hours later it seemed like Nadal was going to win the championship quite easily. A rain break at that point probably helped Federer steady himself, and he came out on court after the break to save the third set to roars of approval from an ecstatic crowd. The rain break itself was interesting to watch. First, a dark cloud was seen over the court, then ball-boys and ball-girls came out and stood ready to pull the tarp over the court. When it started raining, the court was covered in a matter of seconds, and the tent was inflated so that all water would run off the sides. The referee predicted how long the rain would last (and was correct!). When the rain break ended, security guards efficiently helped spectators back to their seats as the players warmed up. It was an extremely well-run operation.

Anyway, at the end of the fourth set, Nadal had two opportunities to win the championship. Federer managed to save both these points and went on to win the fourth set. At that point, I started wondering what makes a champion. Excellence, certainly. In fact it seems like excellence needs to be a part of muscle memory - not something one can learn to achieve at a critical time. Nadal's game in the fourth set was much better than Federer's - yet Federer had driven the match to a deciding fifth set. Clearly, excellence isn't enough. Is it hunger, tenacity, equanimity in a difficult situation, belief in oneself, maturity, experience, humility? To some extent I think that it is all of these things. Federer, the more experienced of the two players kept his cool, believed that he could win the set, willed his muscles to display the excellence that he knew they could and held on, preventing Nadal from cinching the deal in that fourth set.

Of course, the fifth set was simply brilliant - and ultimately Nadal did manage to seal the deal, but only a couple of hours after he could have sealed the deal had he been playing a lesser player. Unfortunately for him, he was playing a champion - and he himself had to be mentally stronger to win the Championship. The award ceremony was really beautiful with both players acknowledging exactly how worthy their opponent was. In addition to providing great entertainment, Wimbledon provided me with a valuable lesson - the characteristics Nadal and Federer displayed in the match are necessary in any difficult situation with good competition. I'll have to remember them the next time things get tough and the end-game seems to take forever :)

P.S. The rest of our time in London was great as well, even though it was quite wet. Yesh and I discovered that we liked Nico-D clothes a lot, much to the chagrin of our wallets. Manish and I watched really good improv at The Comedy Store . We miss Yesh and Pat as they left earlier today. We head to Berlin tomorrow and hope that it isn't raining there.

Firenze e Venezia

I must admit that I was somewhat underwhelmed when we got to Florence from Rome. Florence is a much smaller city, and there is far less to do there. However, it is the birthplace of the Renaissance and home of the best gelato in Italy. So, we ate gelato and checked out some art - most notably Michelangelo's David. There are several fake Davids around Florence, the biggest one where the original David stood for 300 years, but nothing quite prepared us for how breathtaking the original David was. David was extremely real - even the veins on his hand were sculpted! Also, David is the representation of the Renaissance man - symbolizing humanism, balance and beauty - and this definitely came across as we gawked at him. A photo of fake David can be found to the left - no pictures allowed by the real David. You can also check him out at The Digital Michelangelo Project, which was created by one of the CS labs at Stanford (my friend Jason worked there :)). Actually, a kiosk where you can play with the same visualizations can be found right next to David in Florence! Another wonderful thing about Florence was a bookstore called Paperback Exchange where you can exchange an old paperback for a discount on a new one, and they gave me far more for my book than Half Price Books in Seattle ever has.

Anyway, we spent a happy couple of days in Florence (our hotel had free wi-fi :)) before heading to Venice. Venice is magical. The medieval houses lining the canals are so quaint. What I appreciated most about Venice, though, was how pedestrian friendly it was. No cars allowed (actually, I don't think we saw a single bicycle either). The roads are five to eight feet wide - just wide enough to walk. It's harder if you have any sort of wheels (strollers, wheeled suitcases, etc.) as one needs to climb up and down several bridges. Once we were done with all the tourist sites that we wanted to do (we have started avoiding churches and museums unless they have something spectacular) and had even done our laundry, we decided to check out a couple of other islands around Venice. Murano is where all the glass factories are - so we watched some glass-blowers at work and checked out hand-made chandeliers that we can't afford. Then we headed to Burano, which is so much calmer than Venice. In Burano, we found lace and cut-work products, extremely colorful houses ... and Coca-cola flavored gelato (it really did taste like Coke).
We ended our Venetian trip with a concert featuring Vivaldi's compositions as Vivaldi is probably Venice's most famous artist. The group we watched is called Interpreti Veneziani, and they were extremely good - at the end of the show, the audience was enthusiastic enough that the musicians played two encores :) The concert was at a beautiful church, and that definitely helped add to the atmosphere. I even got to chat with one of the cellists in broken English and Italian while I waited in line to use the restroom - he was telling people to go back to their seats after the intermission, but communicated that I should stay and use the restroom. As I waited, we talked about the weather, and I tried to tell him just how much I was enjoying the evening.

Next stop, London! We are currently at the airport waiting to board our flight (although by the time I post this, we will probably be in London). The airport is crazy. The line to check in was ridiculous - trains are definitely the way to go around here. I'm really looking forward to the next few days - we get to see Yesh and Pat soon, and watch Wimbledon this weekend. Yay!

Coffee and Wine for Manish?

As many of you probably know, I don't really really drink any type of coffee or alcoholic beverages. There's no particular reason other than I just don't like them (note: coffee ice cream 1) is not a drink, and 2) has so much sugar and fat added to it such that it no longer qualifies as coffee). So, you may be a bit surprised to hear that, in the span of two days, I tried some wine and had part of a cappuccino. The wine (eluded to in a previous post), was at lunch in Rome and on the house. Since I wasn't paying enough attention to politely refuse it, I felt guilty about letting it go to waste and tried some. It was actually carbonated and tasted (to me) like champagne, which I really don't like. I don't think I made it through even half the glass before my guilt faded and I stopped drinking. The coffee was at dinner along with a slice of cake. Although it was actually Minal's drink, I had a few sips to see what all the fuss was about Italian cappuccino. Not being a coffee connoisseur, I couldn't really tell the difference from the stuff back home.

Alas, a trip to Europe may have increased my willingness to try these drinks, I have yet to acquire a liking of them. Maybe it's for the best, anyway, since alcohol is expensive everywhere and we're moving out of the coffee capital of Seattle. But who knows, maybe we'll go to a pub in London and I'll have a beer. :)

-Manish

"Sports Bars" in Italy

Minal says ...

Yesterday, Europe prepared to watch the Eurocup football finals. We decided to hang out in a sports bar to watch the match - and made our reservations at a bar close to our hotel ahead of time. Then, we went for lunch to a bar/restaurant frequented by international students in Rome on study-abroad programs - and watched as they prepared to air the match (see picture below). At this bar, we were perhaps mistaken for poor students and given glasses of bubbly on the house. Manish even took a few sips (I knew he would drink some day, but I didn't expect him to start in the afternoon!).





Anyway, I digress. When we arrived at our bar to watch the match, we realized that the TV was quite small and that there were at least as many women as there were men - not a ratio I had expected, given US sports bars. I started to wonder why - at first I assumed it was the sport. Maybe soccer is more enjoyable for women than American football - but that didn't seem like a plausible reason. I dismissed the matter until we chanced upon the "Friends Bar" in Florence tonight. We were on our way to dinner, and were drawn in to this bar because they were airing Wimbledon. At the bar, we had a salad, a fabulous pizza, a great cappuccino (how am I going to survive on Starbucks?) and some cake. We essentially spent the evening at the bar. Maybe more women are at sports bars in Italy because the bar is actually an enjoyable way to spend the entire evening - where you can get a good dinner and all sorts of drinks (caffeinated, alcoholic, fruity ...) at a lively place where the TV is just a small part of the landscape? It is really great that a bar here is not a place to go get a drink, eat greasy food and watch some sports, but a place to get a good healthy dinner and have the sport on on a tiny TV in the background. Maybe I would visit sports bars in the US more often if they were more Italian :)

Roma/Amor

There is a temple right by the Colosseum that used to house a statue of Venus and a statue of Rome. Amor and Roma, Goddesses with palindromic names looking over the Eternal City. A long time ago, newly weds used to come by to be blessed by these Goddesses, and even during our visit, we saw three June brides (and their grooms) in the area - although they were more focused on their photo shoots.

Speaking of love and Rome, I have realized that I have developed a definitely fondness for the city. The Riviera (both Nice in France and the Cinque Terre in Italy) was gorgeous and extremely relaxing, but Rome - Rome is alive! Rome is like Bombay or New York - there are people everywhere, and yet their presence is not suffocating. Vendors are seen selling all sorts of things on the streets - and today I finally engaged in some roadside shopping, buying a bag that Manish claims is a Lisa-sized bag. Lisa - apparently, the size of your bag leaves an impression ;)





However, the beauty of the city lies not only in its liveliness, but also in its history. Roman engineering was definitely top notch - it amazes me that the Colosseum was built almost 2000 years ago, that the Pantheon with its perfect 142 foot wide dome was completed more than 1700 years ago, and that the dome of St. Peter's was built 500 years ago and still bears the weight of the thousands of tourists who climb it everyday (I was both fearful and impressed as I climbed to the top). I love the fact that art created by famous artists is part of the city - Bernini's fountains are in piazzas in random places and of course Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel is absolutely breathtaking. This is not art that is brought in from elsewhere - it's art that was created for the city, that is still in the city!

In Rome, we also found our own little slice of heaven - not by the Vatican, but closer to the Pantheon. A gelato place with 140 flavors of gelato, 14 of which are different types of chocolate! Life really doesn't get much better than this :)



Tomorrow we leave for Florence. Travelling by train in Europe has become quite routine for us now. We got to the station an hour early for our first train ride from Amsterdam to Paris, but bought our ticket a minute before the train left when we were coming to Rome from the Cinque Terre – definitely forward progress, even though we almost missed that last train!

Dal Tarka and Naan - yummy!

Minal says ...

I finally realized that I needed to eat well in order to fight off my cold. The vegetarian food in Barcelona is quite unappetizing and as I took stock, it became quite apparent that I had been living on juice over the past 2.5 days. In order to remedy the situation, I convinced Manish to have Indian food for dinner tonight. He agreed and even searched Google Local to find the closest, best recommended Indian place. Off we went, and I finally ate a full meal.

The wait staff was all from India, and I ended up speaking to them in Hindi. This got me thinking about all the random Indian people we have seen on our trip (not the Indian tourists, who are outnumbered only by the American ones). In Paris, on the Champs de Mars, right by the Eiffel Tower, there are several young Indian men selling all sorts of alcohol. As Manish took a million pictures of the Eiffel Tower, I started to eavesdrop. There was a tourist uncle who was drinking a Heineken, and asking one of the Indian alcohol sellers (in Hindi), how much a bottle of champagne sold for. The seller answered - 15-20 Euro, except for "our people" who get it for 8-10 Euro. Similarly, there are Indian alcohol sellers on Las Ramblas in Barcelona - and one of these had a conversation with me in Hindi yesterday.

At the end of our meal today, we visited my favorite juice bar (yes, I've had enough orange juice to know the good places). There, we were once again served by an Indian man from India. He and I struck up a conversation in Hindi, and when I expressed my amazement at finding so many Indian people in Spain, he responded that there are as many Indians in Barcelona as there are dogs on the street in India! Of course, he followed that up by letting me know that several of these are successful businessmen.

As our time in Barcelona comes to an end, I have to admit that Barcelona reminds me a lot of Bangalore. There are old buildings alongside the new, middle class neighborhoods with clothes hung to dry on balconies, pavements with hawkers selling their wares, stores closed shut with metal shutters rather than fancy glass displays, a large number of people with dark skin, and a lot of energy in the air :) Anyway, next stop is Nice and then Cinque Terre - my guess is that we will not have Internet in those places, so no posts for the next few days :(

Pictures

By popular demand, we finally have some photos uploaded. Check out the various albums at http://picasaweb.google.com/minalandmanish or use the links in the "Pictures" section to the left.

More to come soon.

Trouble on the Train

Minal says ...

I must admit that I was somewhat apprehensive about taking the overnight train between Paris and Barcelona. The last overnight train that I had taken was in India. That was about 5 years ago - and I had a good friend traveling with me at that point who was more familiar with train etiquette than I was. This time around, not only had Manish travelled less on trains than I had, we were not even in the same compartment! Men and women are segregated into different compartments on Spanish trains (although this is apparently not the case on other European trains). So, as I always do - I planned ahead. I even brought the twisty bicycle locks with me as I knew that in India, one chains their luggage to the seats in the train to prevent theft.

Anyway, the train experience was extremely different from what I had imagined. First, the train compartment was divided into cabins, each housing 4 people. It felt quite safe. Space for the luggage was above all the beds, too high for a thief to grab without a lot of effort. Satisfied that I didn't need to chain my luggage, I focused on other things. I noticed that there was a boy in my cabin! The boy was another traveler's son - he was around 17 or 18 years old. As French trains allow mixed compartments, mother and son had been able to book beds in the same cabin. When the fourth person entered the cabin, she literally threw a fit (it was great hearing her angry French - very passionate!). She said that women need their space and that she was going to request another cabin from the attending train manager. I wondered why she was so upset, and found out the answer to that later. Next, the manager came in and requested the boy to go to a different room - another passionate argument ensued where the mother essentially said that she would not travel separately from her son. Anyway, at Lyon, another lady boarded the train and she was okay with the boy staying as long as she got one of the top beds (I ended up getting the other one).

We needed to step out of the cabin when the train manager came around to prepare the beds. Each of the beds was a stowaway bed, and when he brought them out, they were already pre-made. Linens, blankets - it was all ready! As we got ready for bed, I noticed that the lady from Lyon started stripping in the bed across from mine (if this is how French women prepare to sleep on a train, I could understand why the other woman had been so upset!). Down to her underwear, she put on a nightshirt and went to sleep.

10 hours later, we were in Barcelona. It's really hot here - especially after Amsterdam and Paris. I have a bit of a cold and Manish is a little tired too. So we are essentially going to rest a bunch in Barcelona, Nice and Cinque Terre, before hitting the crazy sightseeing in Rome next Friday.

3 Great Things About Europe

Minal says ...

While we have only been to Amsterdam and Paris so far, there are some things that I really like about the Europe I have seen:

1. The fresh food: I was pleasantly surprised to find amazing fresh orange juice and great freshly baked bread in bakeries dotting the city in Amsterdam. The trend continues in Paris - the bakeries are everywhere, there is fresh fruit displayed outside stores on several streets, and even Starbucks has fresh orange juice. Most wonderfully, though, are the crepe stands that make fresh crepes in front of you. If only Boston could have these stands - they would make great places for snacks as I burn the midnight oil :)

2. The liveliness: Yesterday was a beautiful day in Paris. In celebration, people were socializing in sidewalk cafes, sitting in the parks that seem to be everywhere, picnicking on the banks of the Seine .... there was life all around! Tonight, as we returned from the Moulin Rouge (which is admittedly close to the Red Light District), we saw many people milling around on the streets. We saw a similar trend in Amsterdam by the central station and the main social square - even though it was quite cold there.

3. The "make-it-work" attitude: The driving in Paris is great - there are no lanes, and people get where they want to get - even if they want to turn left from the rightmost side of the street. Maybe the Parisians took driving lessons from the Indians. I'm sure this is a nightmare to drive in (hence the many tiny smart cars), but it is great to watch. Another example of this attitude is the restrooms. Several restrooms that you need to pay for accommodate both genders for the stalls rather than creating a whole separate row of stalls for the few guys who need them. And sometimes they let women use the unused men's stalls: today, at the Moulin Rouge, they were directing women to use the stalls in the men's restroom when the ladies line was too long - I was told "No Looking" as I walked in :)

Alright - it's time for bed - almost 2 a.m. While this 'sleep late, wake up late' schedule has been great since the sun sets only at 10, we are getting on an overnight train tomorrow - which leaves here at 8:30 and gets to Barcelona at 8:30 Saturday morning. I definitely don't want to sleep through the stop in Barcelona :)

A Little Taste of Home

I'm not sure if this should make me more or less homesick, but just in the two cities we've been to so far, there are countless reminders of life back in the states. Here are just a few examples...

5. American food chains or american-themed restaurants -- It's hard to go too far without running into a Burger King or McDonalds. No, we didn't eat at these, but we did have lunch at a Starbucks (though it was in the Louvre... and overpriced). If it's not a recognizable chain, then it's a place named something like Cafe Americain. I also had a "hot dog" from a crepe stand on the Champs-Elysees (yes, I know that's wrong, but don't worry, I've had my share of crepes as well). It's actually been surprising difficult to find restaurants serving the cuisine of that country. To be fair, I've never seen a place in the U.S. named "American Restaurant."

4. Rainier cherries -- Really! Now that hit really close to home (err, former home).

3. Ford Focus police cars -- It was a little surprising to see any american cars zipping around the small European streets, but seeing a Focus (attempt to) drive through Paris traffic with its siren and lights on was quite amusing. Okay, I've never seen the police in the U.S. use a Ford Focus, but you get the idea.

2. Statue of Liberty -- I thought I had heard about this before, but it's still a bit weird to see. This one isn't green (yet), and it's quite a bit smaller, but at least it's in France. For those of you who preferred to sleep through american history (like me), the French gifted us our version.

1. Americans everywhere -- This is more true in Paris than Amsterdam, but you can't walk one block without hearing that horrible american accent that sticks out like a sore thumb (note: normally, I have no problem with the way americans talk, but it does sound out of place over here). I suppose this is why most merchants speak pretty good English, which has made it easier to get along than I expected (especially since my french is not at all coming back to me).

Anyway, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about american culture, but I didn't expect to find so much of it out here. Perhaps it's just a result of good old capitalism in that if something is successful enough in one place, someone's bound to try it elsewhere.

-Manish

Beware of Bicycles

Of all the things Amsterdam is known for, I didn't expect this to be one of the more memorable ones. Wandering around the city, one can't help but notice that the number of cyclists often outnumber motor vehicles (and sometimes even pedestrians). It's also fairly easy to be walking on what seems to be a sidewalk, then nearly trounced by a swarm of bikers, warned only by the friendly sounding bell equipped on most bikes. Luckily, we avoided becoming bicycle road kill, though we did see a near collission amongst a pair of riders. Perhaps they need traffic lights for them as well. It is refreshing to see so many different types of transportation being used effectively. However, it does make life interesting for a pedestrian crossing the street, having to look out for about 3 different speeds and sizes of traffic.

-Manish

And they're off...

Today our European adventure kicks off. We had a crazy few weeks leading up to this day, mostly involving the move out to Boston. One of our packer/mover people even commented on the fairly ridiculous number of clothes that I had (mostly t-shirts, of course). Anyway, we were lucky enough to also spend a fair amount of time with many of our good friends amongst the madness. Not so fortunate was the March weather here in June, but perhaps that's to discourage the influx of people to the pacific northwest. Well, the weather gods will have to try harder than that on me, because I still welcome the "crappy" weather and if we ever make our way back, I expect to be skiing in mid-June, and then playing baseball the following day.

Okay, enough looking back for the moment (there will be plenty of time for that later). Next stop, Amsterdam. Hmm, that's about all I know about that, thanks to broad gap in planning skills and initiative between Minal and myself. So, I don't have a great idea of what to expect, but I'll let you know how it turns out.

Stay tuned for future posts that are hopefully a bit more exciting, maybe even with pictures (isn't technology great).

Oh yeah... Go Celtics!

-Manish

Destination #4: Kirkland

Minal says ...

Both Manish and I quit our jobs around a month ago and are quite enjoying unemployment. In the past few weeks, we visited Philadelphia for my sister's graduation, then traveled to Hawaii - first for a family vacation in Kauai and then for a wedding in Oahu. Philadelphia was cold and rainy (hmm... seems like we took the Seattle weather there), but it was great seeing Hena receive her diploma. Kauai was fantastic - in between lazing by the pool and swimming in the sea, we kayaked a bit and zip-lined (is that the verb?) for the first time. In Oahu, we got to celebrate with Sandra and Wally at their wedding - and catch up with several friends. 

Fast-forward 2 weeks. We've been quite busy planning a move across the country to Boston - and today we hope everything will come together (the truck is being loaded with all our stuff as I type this). While our house is in a state of total chaos, we are staying at the Woodmark Hotel in Kirkland (which I highly recommend). As we live out of a suitcase, it almost seems as if we have started our European adventure right here in Seattle :) Tomorrow we leave for Amsterdam. More from across the Atlantic in the next few days!