Travelogue - Prague

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging so much recently is the crazyspringsummer travelling that has been undertaken. Finally, as I get some breathing space at home in Pune, here's a short travelogue I wrote on the Wanderers' blog recently on Prague.

Most people will tell you that Paris, London, Berlin, Rome one of the other well-known cities is the most beautiful in Europe. While it's not easy to make a categorical statement about it, my recent trip to Prague put it right up there with the best in the continent. (Disclaimer: I haven't come close to seeing all the cities in Europe, but have seen a few.)

Prague is a very underrated city in the sense that it's not usually the first place to come to mind when one talks about Europe. However, friends who had visited Prague vouched for it and this was my impetus to visit the city.

The municipal house by day

The beautiful ceiling of the municipal house

Once the center of the world, Prague today again is a bustling city. It has seen many rulers in its time, and it's only since 1989 - when Czechoslovakia became a democracy that Prague took off as a tourist destination. The city has some gorgeous monuments, great architecture and one of the most thriving classical music scenes in Europe. The gorgeous Jewish quarter, the old town square, the river side of Vlatva are just some of the main attractions of the city. I was also fortunate enough to to experience the exceptional Royal Philharmonic perform Mozart and Strauss at the lovely Municipal House. I'm no classical music afficionado, but these guys were real professionals. The ballet and singing also added to the experience, but for me the music was the standout aspect.

I'm reliably told that Prague has a great nightlife, but sadly that's not my thing. Whatever be the status of Prague the party place, Prague the city, is breathtaking at night. No photograph does justice to the skyline as you walk along the river - the castle on a hill in the distance, the illuminated buildings and bridges.

The Prague Castle by night

Pork Goulash with white bread dumplings

The food wasn't spectacular in the Italian sense of the word. But it was very good. We went to a restaurant named after Marie Antoinette's mother (go figure), which we were told serves traditional Czech food. Although we did play it safe by ordering pork goulash and a solid Czech beer, the food was wholesome, the meat tender, the service hospitable and the Medovnik (a honey cake topped with crushed walnuts) a delight. The white bread dumplings served alongside the bread reminded me of sannas served at Mangalorean dinners, to be had with a curry. There are also local liqueurs to be had such as the Becherovka flavoured with cinnamon, anise seed and more herbs.

Worm spirit (No, I didn't have any)

The people. Hmm... that's an interesting one. Perhaps because I travelled from the Netherlands, the people came across as not particularly friendly. They weren't courteous, but were never really rude either. They didn't smile so much, but the fact that they don't speak much English also adds to the distance. But at no point did we feel unwelcome or unsafe, even though we walked in the city till past midnight. I read only after my trip that the city has some problems with pickpocketing. Thankfully I didn't experience it first hand.

It's also a relatively cheap city as far as Europe goes, especially for food and drink, although I have heard of restaurants overcharging people by charging them double tax as well as taxi drivers taking tourists for a ride. One thing you shouldn't try to do in Prague is try to pronounce all the names. Many words and names sound like they are missing vowels, but don't tell the locals that. They probably know their spellings.

All in all, Prague's a gorgoeus city - worth visiting and spending time in. I know I'm going there a second time!

Travel photos from Holland and around

This is not the sort of thing I usually do on my blog, but given how quiet it's been in here for the past month or so, thought I'd upload some photographs which I've been recently been clicking on my travels.

Plus there's a BlogAdda contest going on. And to all those questions that have been flooding in, no this is not going to become a contest only blog.







Keukenhof in the Netherlands is known for its annual flower show, the highlights of which are the tulip gardens in all kinds of colours. These caught my eye, I found it hard to decide between the two. Which one of these do you like?



Aah. Barcelona. The land of Gaudi, sangria, Camp nou and Tapas. Here, an over-exposed shot nicely captures the night we walked there. It was bright, vibrant, colorful and alive. This picture is worth four adjectives. :)



When visiting the leaning tower of Pisa, Italy, many skip the Baptistry which is one of the monuments inside the complex. I found it to be very intriguing, especially the design which makes a single note sound like a chord. (Example) The structure is not round, but divided in eight equal parts, like the notes in a scale, and these blend with each other. Here, I used my (believe it or not) cellphone camera to capture light streaming in from two windows.



Among many things, Holland is famous for its water-related engineering feats, and its windmills. The dikes are present all over the country. This photograph was taken at Kinderdijk (translation: child dike) which is just off Rotterdam and has many such picturesque windmills. Everywhere you look in this world heritage site, it's a postcard moment.



Antwerp is just a couple of hours by train from where I live in Holland and isn't really known for its zoo. At least that's not what I went for. While inside, I found this interesting bit of art (?) in it. A tree with a bicycle for its eyes. What do you think?

These photos are also on my Flickr stream. Keep checking in, who knows, I might probably add more later.

PS: This contest is sponsored by pringoo.com, a site that lets you print custom t-shirts, stickers and more. Heck, who knows you could probably print one of my awesome photos from here. ;)

Travel safe

No, I'm not peddling travel insurance in exchange for consideration (although I wouldn't mind it). Today was a bad day in the history of personal transport / travel:

• President Patil's helicopter hit a shed
• Rahul baba landed in near zero visibility
• Bajaj announce plans to stop scooters production and more significantly
  
• I tripped while walking

It was best to stay at home. Any other scary stories?

Strange love's awesome story

As far as laws go, a couple of things need to change in India, especially the one regarding drinking in public places such as movie theaters. I know it's a big step, but then how else can one tolerate movies like Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani?

The day started off well enough, with a bike trip around Amsterdam which included a 12 km cycle route courtesy Mike's Bikes. This was followed by a leisurely stroll around the heart of the city and dinner at a Sports Bar with rowdy English fans falling all over the place. So since I wanted to end the day on a high, I really had to take some serious action. I'm not talking about something as pedantic as smoking a joint or having magic mushrooms. I'm talking APKGK.

Sometimes when things are terrible, you must be an optimist and look at the positives. So, since I'm feeling generous, I must say this:

• Ranbir Kapoor is so cute. and
• Beer makes a crap movie better.

These were the two factors that kept me going throughout the collection of super cliched jokes and situations including the mandatory chase sequences, 'funny fight scenes', corny love story, forced acting and ridiculous co-incidences like the hero and leading lady both being vegetarian and (horrors) stammering when they're upset.

Despite such ridiculous situations there was one brilliant joke in the movie where (Spoiler alert) Salman Khan (playing himself) gets introduced to Katrina Kaif and admonishes Ranbir for introducing her almost as though she was Sallu's own girlfriend. Very nicely done, despite Salman's accent.

However, the magic realism really became too much though when random pre-independence British authorities and Jesus Christ made their appearance to push the story line into oblivion. In terms of performances, Upen Patel gives a stellar performance in his role of irritating guy 1, Katrina Kaif still tries to act despite looking so good and did I say that Ranbir Kapoor is very cute? However, some of the supporting cast including Darshan Zariwala as RK's father acted as glue to keep the crap together.

Overall, I would say if you're in a theater filled with people who laugh at nonsenical jokes, have the permission or gumption to carry alcohol to the movie, or have just had a generally bad day, this might be a way of killing of some valuable time. For what it's worth, I would like my 3 hours back.

Final destination. Err... almost.

So after some dillying and much dallying, the wife and I have arrived in the Netherlands. There was much consternation on the way here what with me misplacing my documents and losing access to my Forex card pin, all of which I had neatly placed in the file of 'most important documents'. This file I promptly left at the Chennai airport, making the 'safe file' the single most foolhardy concentration of risk in my life.

In the weeks leading upto the trip, I was convinced many times that I was not supposed to arrive here. A-la the 'final destination' series, the signs were there all over the place. An autorickshaw driver almost getting me killed by going the wrong way on a one-way flyover, the Lufthansa person at the counter asking me to lose the luggage to arrive at the right weight, the attorneys screwing up my visa application, and upon arrival a coin being swallowed by a hungry phone machine when I tried to call the driver who hadn't arrived were just some of the events that had me convinced that this was not meant to be. Heck, every time there was a little turbulence, I found myself thinking, "This is it." However, wonder of wonders I have arrived to new experiences and challenges.

First impressions. Autumn is on. (View outside my house)

This place could sure use some of the Chennai sun. Heck, even 1% should do the trick. I was admonished by some of my friends here when I turned the heating in my home up to 26 degrees. They complained that my house was an oven and visiting us made their baby sick. And here I was thinking that 26 was cool, prime weather. Need to get the Chennai out of me very quickly.

Second impressions, there was most excellent girl-girl action at the airport arrival, and there are numerous porn channels on TV and nudie books on sale at the supermarkets. Yes, yes, there may be a lot more to experience in this country, but what to do, my mind is like this only. Also, people are generally cordial and everyone seems to have a dishwasher. Whether these two facts are related, I do not know.

Thanks to friends' advice, so far I have discovered gorgeous stroopwaffels and an awesome Italian place with the most indulgeous ham, egg and cheese pizza you could ever imagine. I intend to try the cumin cheese some time which, I'm told, rocks. Also, I have been warned of the perils of walking on what are dedicated 'cycling paths'. (There are no hawkers on the pavements!) I know, how stupid, right? I mean, you just cycle anywhere you want where I come from, and we fear not death, because travelling by any mode of transport is dangerous enough.

So anyway, I have now somewhat settled down and I will be kind enough to provide my reader(s) with some more of the entertainment that they have suffered from in the past. Heck, maybe I might even be regular. Who knows? It's a brave, new world.

The ten commandments of a visit to relatives in Kerala...

...esp. for the non-Mallus

1. Thou shalt not deny the booze. There is no excuse to say no to alcohol. Not after the uncle offering you the booze bought five bottles of whiskey on his way back home from a bypass surgery.

2. Thou shalt diversify. No edible item at the table is 'the best'. The moment you start stuffing yourself with fried fish thinking it's the yummiest thing on the menu, you discover the chicken curry. But you might just be a kilo too late.

3. Thou shalt extrapolate. Even if you don't understand the language, you shall do your best to reconstruct a coherent sentence from the 2 words you understand out of every 30.

4. Thou shalt not try fancy, new-fangled technology devices. Mobile signals are weak and the GPS thingy does not even connect to a satellite. Shame on you for fiddling with that fancy phone.

5. Thou shalt never ever, EVER travel by sleeper class. Whether it's the noisy guys on the way to Kerala or the ribald Romeos on the way back, you don't want to have to show your macho moves to save the wife. Mainly because you don't have any.

6. Thou shalt not accept gifts heavier than 1 kg. You now have enough rice flour and bananas to adopt a pet monkey who likes appams. And if it weren't for coolies, you would have lost a shoulder.

7. Thou shalt lose weight BEFORE thou travel(eth?). Because 3 breakfasts and 2 lunches and a smorgasbord for dinner everyday will push you over the quintal.

8. Thou shalt believe in a higher presence. Not because there are a large number of places of worship per area, but because you have travelled on a road not wide enough for two cars at 80 KMPH and lived to tell the tale.

9. Thou shalt respect traditional dress. The mundu is not only airy, but also customizable from long to short at a single flick of the wrist.

10. Thou shalt not state preference of food under any condition. Else thou shalt have to eat thy preference till thou loosen thy mundu, regain thy weight, and manage to speak the two words to communicate that you are done.

But seriously, Kerala is a beautiful place to visit especially if you have relatives there like my wife does. Despite not understanding the language, I really look forward to going because of the copious alcohol, the delectable cuisine, the fresh air and the warm people. What more is there to life, really?

Timeshift in a train

The vacation is over. But there are a few memories that need to be preserved. As and when they occur to the brain. For now, we present:

Memory one - Paper Sudoku man

In a country where people were obsessed with PSP's, mobiles and all things electronic, it was surprising to find a fellow train passenger playing Sudoku using pen and paper. This man of Chinese origin had scribbled over almost every page in his notebook and was on the verge of setting some sort of record when a seat behind him was vacated. He moved in to sit next to another, much older Chinese gentleman who was without electronic device or game. And then came the moment that had me and wife laughing for the next half an hour. The older man asked manual-Sudoku guy, "What's the time in China?".

Just like that. Out of the blue.

He asked with such sincerity that any Indian would have been obliged to answer. "What's the time in China?", the words were repeated, this time with frenzied pantomiming. The man who was visibly shaken out of his gaming reverie simply blinked at the older man like tears were about to come pouring out. He gaped for five or ten seconds. After which he eked out, "I don't know." He could no longer continue the Sudoku solving.

The train stared at the two weird, laughing Indians.

Back to basics

I'm back from vacation. Time to switch the out-of-office message off. Sample this:


Large presence in the center would be me. @ the reverse bungee at Clarke's Quay, Singapore.

Back to the routine now. No more octopus balls, shark fin soup, and fried raw oysters for snacks. No evening time Tiger beers by Clarke's Quay. Heck, no beers in public.

At home, it's business as usual: fog in Delhi, Income tax bribery case in Bangalore, burning buses in Kolkata and the union government 'pressurizing' neighbours. It's good to be home.

Blogging may be shaken out of it's holiday stupor. Let's hope.

Happy Holidays!

All right, blogging will be slow or non-existent till the first week of January as I will be exploring wild and wonderful places. Hope they don't jail me for my compulsive spitting and littering habits.

Take care and be good. No, I'm not bringing back any cheap electronics for you.

Merry Christmas and a Happpppy new year!