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!!!
