Switzerland, the costliest place in the world!!!

The trip started with uday coming to Stuttgart. Picking up sarang(colleague from behr India) and uday from the main station and taking the 3 day Swiss pass for a whopping 151 euro each, we headed home to see kunal prepare a Bakwas dinner for us. Irritated as always we slept to start off early in the morning next day………………

But before going to the details of the trip, I would like to mention the great confusion that went into planning for the trip. A week of continuous instant messenger chatting (a feature of lotus notes) in office by me and sarang to decide how to go, where all to go, how many days to stay etc etc.. it just went on for hours and hours. Finally when I found 2 places in the car pool and was happy, entered uday and said he would join. So the problem started again. Further investigations led us to plan for a 3 day trip with a swiss pass. Googling helped us decide a handful of places to visit. And a joke worth mentioning is when I forgot the Hindi word for miser..and the great hindi pundit uday says very confidently “Gharelu” and feels very proud of his hindi proficiency. And as usual the day ended with me and sarang confirming that it was Kanjoos and laughing for atleast half an hour.

The trip started at last………………….

We took a BW ticket from stuttgart to schaffhausen. A 3 hour long train filled with Indians and almost only Indians. We got down at schaffhausen and an Indian family asked us the way to the waterfalls, only then we realized that a waterfall existed there…and felt very proud of our exceptional planning and knowledge.

We headed to Zurich, found out the train to pfaffiken after a 30min search in the huge station and finally reached the Alpamare. The most famous water park of swiss was just awesome. Stupid brains of ours let us down once again as we had forgotten to take our swim suits. Tried to buy one at the counter only to find the cheapest one for 50 CHF(swiss francs). Using the typica Jugaad policy, we used our jockey and adidas shorts to get down into the pool without any more problems. And 4 hours it was all about water and sexy girls in designer bikinis!!!!!!!!!!!

The rides were adventurous, the climate was amazing and the pools were too good. Got our money’s worth at last. Felt very hungry after a whole lot of swimming exercise, but still wanted to go boating to make sure we used the swiss pass to its fullest. My idea of walking to the boating point was almost seeming to be ridiculous as it was too long for us, but the locations mid way where we clicked a lot of snaps encouraged us. Got back, had some food which was atleast double the times the cost in germany or else where in Europe and checked in at Lucerne youth hostel.

Next day it was time for the famous Mt.Titlis. and again as usual our uday’s conversation with the lady at the ticket counter was funny as he understood the cost of going uphill was 243 CHF. Absolutely amazed and disappointed at hearing the cost we almost cancelled the trip when just by mistake wanted to reconfirm it and found out that it was 43 CHF. Laughed at ourselves and went ahead. Again the train was filled with marathi and tamilians. Sarang found his way of passing time with marathi guys while me and uday chatted in telugu J the cable car, rotating car and the locations were mind blowing. Clicked a lot of snaps with the SLR and heard a woman rightly saying to her friend on phone that this was a place worth visiting in a lifetime. Came back late and went for a 2.5 hrs boat ride. The locations were scenic and very pleasant. Made us forget every bit of our exhaustion and frustration in life.

Meanwhile every time we felt hungry, noticed that we were falling short of money and the food getting costlier place to place. A lot of Indians kept asking us where they could find a cheaper restaurant, but it was a place where we couldn’t help ourselves, so it was difficult giving suggestions to someone else. Roamed a bit in Lucerne, visited the dying lion statue and finally after uday’s atm card worked, had our dinner at the burger king(of course we had all dinners at the same place, appeared to be the cheapest of the lot). Burgers seamed to be the food to forget after continuously having them atleast 10 times in a span of 3 days.

We decided that Interlaken would be the final place to visit on the last day. As the name suggest, it’s a village between two lakes and surrounded by mountains. Took the Harder bahn to go uphill and walked for a while, clicked some snaps and enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere. The climate also encouraged sexy girls to wear really small clothes…and it was a treat to our eyes.

As time was nearing for our travel back, we changed trains to Bern and then to schaffhausen. We found the ticket counters closed by the time we reached there, and now were in a fix how to buy a BW ticket back in the machine. A bosch guy helped us and it was a safe journey back to Stuttgart.

Came back had our dinner, watched some XXX in the german channels and went to bed.

Next day kunal accompanied us to the Max eyth see lake where we enjoyed a beer in the sunshine and girls surrounding us.

All ended well when uday also found his way to get back to aachen, and we as usual lazily strolled our way to the office.

Oberstdorf, a perfect place to Ski

Skiing is something which excites one as he enters Europe, and after watching our movie heroes do it with ease, we were awaiting a chance. Then came our Jaffa(Sandeep akkanapragada) to Italy again, don’t worry its just about a 2 week trip as usual!!!

So with the enthu of completing a whole eurotrip in just 2 weekends, he urged me and hari to plan something a Friday night. And being bad planners we couldn’t obviously decide upon a common place. Oberstdorf was far away for hari, Amsterdam was not feasible for either me or sandeep. So one weekend wiped out. So last weekend Jaffa was fired up. This time hari could not come because of a ‘On call’(wonder how people work in the weekends in Europe)

So time for uday to join us amidst his exams. The plan obviously finalized by me, was to go skiing to Oberstdorf on Saturday and to Neuschwanstein on Sunday.

After a long day in Pforzheim building EGR coolers, I went to pickup uday who came by carpool and Jaffa by Airberlin. So the old gang met again for a drink of Red label and a delicious dinner(I think it was dal rice…or kichidi???) made by me.

Generally people go very early in the morning when they decide to cover a place in one day. But being Bitsians it was next to impossible. So by the time we woke up it was already the time when people would have reached Oberstdorf. Nevertheless we waited for Uday to complete his makeup(all for his marriage) and boarded the train to Oberstdorf. The schones wochenende tickets are always good for people like us, and it certainly helped us this time as well. We reached Oberstdorf and were so excited to ski that we immediately approached a ski school, and then got the shock of our lives. The girl said skiing would close at 4pm and to our horror when we looked to our watches it was like 3.45pm!!!

After some internal discussions we decided to quit ski and look around some good places. We went to Breitach klamm. A wonderful place looks like a heaven on earth. Germany is so full of places famous for nature, waterfalls etc etc. The hills, crystal clear water flowing, snow slowly melting and lush green trees….it was some sight!!!

We had the SLR camera with us(of course uday did not know the various settings yet in it) and then started our photoshoot. And the as usual ‘on fire’ jaffa was so excited to see snow that he started playing with it like a small school boy. Anywhere there was some snow, he wanted  a photo. An hour long walk in the hills, tired but absolutely worth it.

Then started the dark part of the journey. We had to go back the same way we had come, but trying to be more adventurous we wanted to take a longer path to enjoy more nature. And we walked and walked and walked for atleasa and hour and half just to be terrified enough to hear wild voices from the forests than surrounded us. Thanks to a jogger, we accidentally found our way to the bus stop. 10 minutes later, after a comedy of errors in opening a restaurant door by uday, we were informed that the last bus would come 10-20mins later. We waited instead for 45 mins to find nothing that could take us to the main station. I found a family finally to ask them about the bus. And they simply answered that there was no public transport at that time of the night!!! Shivering in the cold and really hungry, we entered the same restaurant to have dinner. We called for a taxi and went to the station to find that our last train had left ‘ONE MIN’ before. Now it was time to find a hotel. The first one we entered – no vacancy. The second one – one night 250 euro( breakfast incl :)). Uday finally used his brain to call his friend and find a youth hostel in the internet. We found one and I talked to him on phone and when he said that he had a room vacant, we were over the moon. But he wanted a mail confirmation about our booking before we reached there. So it was time for udays jaffa na jaffda friend to write a mail. We took a taxi again to reach the youth hostel and then came the next surprise. The one who talked to us over the phone had mistakenly said that there was a room available. 5 mins we did not know what to do, we just stood there looking at each other…and sometimes to the guy at the reception. He tried to help us and found a hotel nearby just for 210 euro/day. Having no choice we decided to go for it, but when we came to the hotel, we were offered for 186euro, so a small discount at the end of an eventful day.

Next day we woke up fresh to have a good breakfast(except our jaffa, who doesn’t eat meat, bread and fruits..and the germans of course do not offer anything else)

We reached the ski place Sollereck. There were innumerable people from all Europe who had come to enjoy the holiday, and we couldn’t find a ski teacher. So first we planned to go on the rope way up the mountain to get a feel of what skiing is about. On the top it was so beautiful with loads and loads of snow, and jaffa was again so excited that…………………

We came down and decided we were going to ski on our own. First uday said No, and finally came along to rent the ski equipment. Took a while to put on the shoes and just to walk with them was like an IIT exam for us. Finally we reached the ski zone for beginners and got ready for the time of our lives!!!!!! And what happens……we fall a 10 times before even moving a metre. Then we went to a plain land, and again steadied ourselves. And the next hour was great fun, falling down getting up skiing for some time and it went on and on. We were sometimes helped by some Bosch tamilians as well :)

And while even children aged 3 were skiing, our jaffa who came about so excited from Italy to Oberstdorf, was afraid that he would fall down and break something that he stood and watched all the people as if it were a movie shooting. So many times we advised, suggested, ordered and finally even requested to ski, but in vain. I have never seen such a coward in my life, useless guy!!!

Uday and myself, we enjoyed a lot and finally wanted to go back. Then we went on a small roller coaster ride, and even there our jaffa was going like a snail. I liked it so much that I was speeding and there I find jaffa in front of me waiting for a collision. And it had to happen, I went and collided so hard, luckily nothing happened to us nor the hardware. And from then on I really made a lot of fun of jaffa.

It was time for a quick snack and we rode back in the train to have some more pegs of red label and a very bad potato fry, this time by uday and slept very tired. Next morning my friends went back and I as usual to my office.

Time for Spain

Time of christmas, and importantly a long holiday for all Europeans. so we decided this time it was time for Barcelona, to escape the cold of Germany and Belguim.
i took the eurolines bus for the first time, and after being so experienced in travelling by buses connecting almost all the major cities in india, this was just another one. i reached belgium early in the morning, hari came to pick me up and it was time to meet his new roomates. the day was a lazy one, taking rest rest and only rest.
next day hari, dutt and me took our favourite ryan air flight to barcelona, not before waiting for 2 hrs for the flight to start because the runway was so full of snow. after almost 20 years it was the first time there was so much snow in europe, and the time when there was a lot of delays in all kinds of transportation.
luckily we reached barcelona without much problem. we stayed at the Etap hotel, a room actually for just 2 ppl, but the world is always a place of adjustment, so all 3 of us just managed.
we decided to take the hop on hop off buses, which is actually a very attractive concept for tourists. the cute open top buses keep moving around the cities covering all points and there was an option to get down and board it anywhere we liked. so then started our trip, after our 1 hours long bus journey from etap, which was in viladecans, to the center of the city.
it was a cool day, just the climate we wanted, very comfortable.we covered a lot of places, difficult to mention the names(i have a bad memory :)

But looking at the wonderful pics you can get a basic idea of the scenic beauty and infrastructure of the city. it is actually quite a different city from the rest of europe, very busy with lots of people, and interestingly more 2 wheelers when comapred to 4 wheelers. the fact is that this is the place with the most number of mopeds in europe!!!
from the beaches, olympic staduim, the sea port to the sagrada familia....we had an awesome time visiting lots and lots of places till night. we also had the opportunity to taste some good spanish food and wine.
we admired dutt, who was our virtual guide come information gatherer. somehow is very patient and interested to talk to people taking the finest of details about any place we wanted to go. hari and as usual myself were sometimes frustrated, but he never was :(
the most important part of the trip came when we wanted to go to viladecans(which we later realised was another town in the outskirts of barcelona). we tried to be adventurous by trying out the metro instead of the bus. it was a break journey, and we reached the place we had to change. barcelona also has a different ticket system, where the ticket once taken can be used for only one journey, which is unlike germany or belguim. so we kept buying tickets, and once we were out of one station, we could not go in even for just getting information. so the break journey was getting more and more frustrating than adventurous. we did not understand where to go and the language barrier was an additional hiccup. finally dutt found some indians who showed us the way. we landed in viladecans, and by the time we reached the place was completely deserted. if you think we had reached sometime at midnight or even later, you are mistaken. it was just about 10pm, and not surprisingly on the highway we could not find a single guy whom we could ask the way to etap. we walked, saw boards, tried to get a clue....but all in vain. when our hopes were becoming fainter, as usual god proved he is great. we saw a man who came out for a walk with his dog, and it proved much better for us when he spoke ENGLISH!!! finally we found our way and got back. sometimes it feels like india is a better place where one can get help anywhere and at any time of the night or day.
next day it was time for the Tarragona beaches. Very deserted because of the rains which came in suddenly, but the nature was just awesome. we again walked and walked this time with much more enjoyment. i came up with a weird idea of taking a bus and just touring around till we came to the last stop. it was proving to be a good idea, when we got down at a place to buy some food, and from then onwards we had to wait hours before the next bus came in. so finally we reached the station and got back.
these kinds of trips indeed are adventurous and gives you a lot of maturity. there is linear growth in the general knowledge of a person, and it increases the dynamism of any person because of his thinking and planning to visit places and getting back safely.
Italy was for Michael angelo, this time it was time for Gaudi. his sculptures had some uniqueness, there were very comically constructed, and most of them he left incomplete, may be for the next generations to understand how great he was. He was a genius, and Europe had a lot of them. i think that is why a lot of importance is given for creativity and art.
we came back to have a good 4 days of laziness and rest once again in brussels. i enjoyed having the indian food which naresh cooked, and i can never forget he tandoori he made. it was awesome. but it has been hard for me to digest my hand cooked food since then. so its high time i stopped comparing and felt that i am the best cook again!!!

Taste of a german family

Its a thought in general of the young that the real enjoyment is possible or infact allowed when you are away from your family, and you can eat drink and do whatever you want. but the love that the family shows whereever you are is something which always drags you. and particularly out of the country, its a great feeling to spend time with families and think of your sweet memories

and it was time for me in germany to be invited by a colleauge to his house and spend some time with his family. it was jeurgen, a key account manager in behr, who invited me to his house in goppingen. he was always sympathetic towards me for being away from my family, which reminded him the days he spent in Brazil!!!

so it was a saturday afternoon when i took the train to goppingen where he was already ready to pick me up. i never dreamt that he had such a big family, and unlike the europeans there was such a good bonding between his own family, his brothers, aunts, parents and inlaws. so i was lucky enough to meet such a big family. 

he has a very nice house with 4 children, 3 boys and a very cute little girl. along with them stay 2 dogs and 2 cats :), so a big family of course...

we went to a mexican restaurant, and believe me, if you are longing for indian tastes, some mexican food can really satisfy your apetite. so all along the dinner time we had some wonderful conversation. it was basically related to india because their family was mad about our country. they travelled to so many places i bet atleast 90% of indians would never have been to. i am lucky enough to travel to a lot of places courtesy my job as a marketing engineer for behr. so i was the best one to challenge them in the number of places covered.

one situtation which they explained when they travelled from cochin to goa in a general compartment, sleeeping on a bag infront of the toilet......was good to hear, certainly was an awesome experience for them.

they love indian food, infact the younger bro of jeurgen, michael, makes palak paneer and gobi manchurian at home even today!!!

after the delicious meal, it was time to head to their house and take a relaxing beer. they even had a hindi songs CD, which i thought they played for me that day, but infact they were the favourite songs of the whole family. and the little girl was singing the songs and was giving a competition to whoever the singer was.

it was wholly a memorable experience. it was getting late and i had to go back.

it was an experience i cherished and will be remembered for a long time.......thanks again to the family.

Pisa, Florence & Venice......the start and end of the trip were most anxious

As the title suggests....our train from main stn was at 5:09 to frankfurt. our local train from feuerbach was at 4:56 and had to reach main stn by 5:02, so 7 mins is always more than enough to just go to the main platform and board. we were anxiously waiting for our train and min by min passed by and finally it arrived at around 5:01. we never really bother about these one or two mins when we tell the time to someone in real life. we just round it to the next 5 mins. but first time in life in understood the value of every min that was passing by. we reached at around 5:08, and we ran out our lives to catch our train. and the result....obviously shocking for us. the train left just a min before we arrived. we just did not know what to do. waited for the ticket counter to open. i said we had missed the train, and i explained to him how our local train cheated us :P but some more bad luck came our way. if we had to get another ticket without paying anything extra, the computer had to show that the lead time from feuerbach to main stn as 13min, and it showed 15!!! so he explained us how our planning was wrong, and we had to pay another extra 85 euro to get ourselves two tickets. a great start to a loooong tour.
all along the trip i found hari's expressions the most hilarious. you will find out slowly.......................
we took a ryan air flight(for 5.99 euro) to pisa. as we rode through the streets of pisa, the disgusted look on hari's face was wonderful. he was frustrated to see the dusty roads, a village like environment, and really after you have been in belguim and germany, italy known for its historical importance and tourism is not so advanced. so we reached our youth hostel to find no body there. the place looked a bit mysterious to us, so took a hotel nearby. we forgot to cancel the hostel booking and never really bothered about it, and we knew that they had billed us only after we had completed our full trip and came back home.
we saw the leaning tower of pisa and a couple of monuments beside it. there was a free tour that was planned by the hotel, and at 9.30 the next day we had a meet a lady at a clock tower. when we asked how we could recognise her...there came a very comical answer. the lady would have a sunflower pinned to her shirt, and we had to find her out by that. truly unvelievable. and of course the next day we did not find her even though we waited a long 20mins.

we then took a train to florence. even this is a small place same like pisa, and we can just walk from one end of a city to the other. all the monuments are so close by. we became experts in seeing the map and finding our way. we saw so many places in florence. i just dont remember their names to mention, but the beauty of the place is worth mentioning.

almost the whole week we had either beer or wine, with sphagetti or pizza, of course they are the specials of italy. da vince and michael angelo belong to this place, and so you can find so many artists and sculptors everywhere in the place. art is something which is given due respect, and that is a really positive sign for the future to come. the meuseums were also very good, informative and the paintings..just mind boggling.

i appreciated both pisa and florence, if not hari :) but venice was my best. shocked to come out of the station and find a pool of water, and i had to take a boat and not a bus or a train to reach my hostel...which was on another island called Lido...can you believe that!!!
i love water, right from my childhood i admired the vizag beach more than anthing else, and when i joined the aqua swimming pool, my love for water grew more and more. and i cherished my stay in venice. the love for water is now tooooo much.
we took a daily pass and took boats to everywhere and anywhere. we were there for a couple of days, and did not see the sun even for a second!!! water water water everywhere. boat taxis, boat ambulances, police on boats......just amazing how people there manage everything.
it was getting dark that day and we had to cover there ilands, murano, burano and torcello. by the time we reached burano, we did not find a single inhabitant, it was like a place ram gopal varma would love to direct a nerve shattering thriller. but it was a place famous for its glass factories and we visited a few shops where there were beautiful glass made articles...but of course far far away for our budget. so after the window shopping, it was time to go to torcello. this time we were the only people on the boat too.hari's expressions were worth seeing when we reached the island to find water and trees everywhere...and a black cat just passing by. he was ultimately frightened. on the board we could see a toll free no which we could call and ask for help...and to increase his curiosity, it did not work. he tried asking the boat driver for the isd code, but there was of course a communication problem, and the result, a big zero. i was laughing away at the sight of his face with lots and lots of tension. and he got info from somewhere that the last boat was at 8pm, and it was already 7.55pm. he rushed to the driver and persuaded him to take us back. he just could not imagine the scenario where we would be left alone on the uninhabited island...and then anything could happen!!!
the boat took us to burano, where we saw the boat timings. to ease a lotttttt of internal pressure, we found that the boats run all through the night :)
we came back to the Lido and had the same old italian dinner. next day hari was to leave early. so after seeing some more places, it was time for hari to go. and it was time for me to pass hours and hours just aloneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

i had lunch for 2 hrs, dont be afraid, i ate very less but just sat for a long time. then took to bus to the airport where i waited another 2 hrs. then the flight and the bus to frankfurt main stn were also ok, then started struggle. 2hr wait at the frankfurt airport, in the extremely cold weather....narakam kanipinchindi!!!

to add  to the woes, it was a break journey...and the break was just unbearable. i got down from the train at Bruchsal at 3:30am, and had to board my train to stuttgart at 6:21am. 3hrs at a village, no one in the station, no where to go, nothing to eat or drink, very cold weather................if u know something more than hell, pls let me know, i can use this term exactly here.

as the time got near, i became happier...but suddenly nature started calling me...and for 30mins i had to oppose nature in all the ways possible..........and as soon as i boarded the train, the ticket checking woman greeted me and was about to ask for a ticket when i fleed to the WC and that was a moment of my life. i came out extremely satisfied to show her the ticket and went home safely.

this weekend has been targeted only to take rest......i have been travelling too much, and of course my body needs some rest. so after two days of very good sleep, i feel wonderful to start afresh.

Finally a Zoo

When we missed out on going to the zoo in antwerp during our visit to belgium, we were very disappointed. so the wilhelma zoo in stuttgart was a must see for all of us. so the third day we started early to the zoo. as usual it was huge, and following the map, we made our way to see the ducks, birds, monkeys, tigers etc etc.
but the most fascinating view was that of the penguin and the polar bear. i never even dreamt in my dream that i would be able to see them some day. it was a memorable scene.

we were ultimaely tired as we came out...and even more hungry. so it was time for the konigstrase again to a posh restaurant. amidst all this was the tension for uday to head to porsche meuseum from where he had to leave for aachen by car pool. once again my favourite car pool turned out to be time and money saving :)
so we left the other guys to eat and took the train to my house to collect uday's belongings. never did i feel so lucky to catch trains without waiting a minute for them. we had to change a lot of trains, from main stn to my house, then to feuerbach, then to porscheplatz. generally a trip like this takes about 30mins in the trains, but a 15-20mins just waiting for them. but on this particular day, we finished it all in about 35mins. yes, god is great.
hari and sandeep were waiting for me to visit the rosenstein park, but unfortunately my train to main stn was scheduled only after 30mins........so by the time i reached them, it was already dark...and we had to go home.
that night was special again. sandeep was going away to italy...and we had to catch a train at 5:09 to frankfurt. so the adventure continueeeeeeeeees

Black forest

The second day we planned to make a tour of the famous Black forest. an advise from my friend to visit the Triberg and Titisee was a real good one. we started in the morning and we had to change a few trains to reach the small villages in the black forest. after we reached there we knew about the famous Cukoo clocks that are manufactured in Triberg and it was good to see some astonishingly huge Clocks. the train journey was equally amazing as it was the time of Golden October. its the time when the trees turn yellow from green and start shedding their leaves. truly amazing sceneries we could see from the train.

there was a nice waterfall at triberg, but was a long way to walk up the hill. it took a lot of time, not only because of the distance but because of the thousands of photos we clicked. a good chilly atmosphere, clean and green with zero pollution, it was a memorable stay. it was dark very early and then we started off for Titisee.
but advise from an old and very helpful woman there suggested that it was farther than we thought and the boards showed. so we dropped the idea and had a nice dinner at an italian restaurant. it was time to head back to stuttgart, and again it was a very tiring day....but we thoroughly enjoyed it.