Lapkook

Day 8 

Swedish massage is like Mysore Masala Dosa! Anyone who has gone to a dosa wala in Mumbai, he would get a concoction called Mysore Masala Dosa, which is not a bad thing to eat, but there is one problem with it. It's origins are not from Mysore. Imagine my surprise when I didn't find any Swedish Massage parlors in a place that it was supposed to have originated from! I would have thought there would be one on every street corner (ala Thai Massage in Thailand). Obviously I was wrong!!! 

First things first, we had to finish packing as the train to Narvik was later today. After cramming all the photography equipment we had carried between the 2 bags, we headed down for the same crappy free breakfast the hotel had to offer. We took the time to wash a few of the essentials in the common use Washer and Dryer the hotel had in the basement. And then it was time for the massage...which was ok ok at best. Nothing like the Swedish Massage I was expecting when I landed in Sweden.

Post checkout we headed to Centraalen where we realized that there was a storage locker crisis...we couldn't get a single decent free one. So while Praveen went to get our seats confirmed, I waited like a stalker to see if a locker opens up...which it did after about 30 minutes. We piled our stuff into that lone locker and then headed for some inner glove shopping at new intersport store. There was some sort of promotion happening in the store next to it, so there was a long queue that had formed with people just waiting to get in, despite the face that it was it's snowing outside, but that's normal for them I guess.

Around the back of the Pizza hut (where veggie lunch was possible for my partner in crime) we went, searching for Naturkompaniet which makes awesome cold weather gear, but the wind trousers were way too expensive, so I decided to ignore buying them and take my chances. Pizza take away was the only option for food in the train journey as we had to get going, but we were distracted by the Candy store bang opposite the Pizza Hut. So tons of candy shopping was done for the kids. Now the only thing left to buy was a few bottles of beer, so we would have to head to System Bolagade, knowing that we had to rush back to empty our locker locker. We realized that apparently u can buy booze & carry it on the train, but u can't drink it on the train...very different from our experience between Amsterdam & Copenhagen. Decide to ignore.

It was time to call my little princess to tell her that it's snowing & that I'm leaving for Narvik. After a lot of running around trying to get in time for the train, we reached Platform 4, bogey 14, seats 83 & 84. This time we didn't have the entire bogey to ourselves. We were seated with a gentleman from Kiruna, this huge guy who was a management executive, but who in his past life used to have snow mobile tours. It was an interesting series of conversations with him which ranged from his visits around the country, his hilarity at me being cold even in the train and finally his description of Raindeer blood soup (lapkook). That somehow didn't kill my appetite and I decided to dig into the take away pizza around 9ish

The next day, we would be at out destination. Spirits were high and it took me a while to drop off. But eventually, it was time to say good night!

Sambo

Day 7

The early morning brought me in touch with an old college buddy. Spoke to Dr. Dang and agreed to meet somewhere in the evening. Realized that there was a Thai massage place right opposite to the hotel, wo went there to check it out. They accepted only cash (which was a little bit of a problem cause neither of us was carrying too much of currency). So that was something we had to push to the back of our heads for now. 

After a relatively crappy breakfast at the hotel (it was included in the price, so we didn't want to spend outside for food), we headed to Slansen. As we walked from the train station, it was difficult to think of anything else other than how COLD the place was. We decided to take the ferry ride around the place and bought a couple tickets from the self help vending machine, only to realize that we paid for ferry by mistake...it was already covered in our train pass :(

The ferry ride was nothing to write home about and the sky was too overcast to shoot anything, so we decided to head back to Gamla Staan and walk around the place where the King's palace stands. Had it not been for the really dull grey sky, the pix might even have been nice! But all the walking around only got us feeling colder which meant we had to get into train station just for warmth. The good part about that was that the station we did get into was themed like a green grotto, so it was interesting to see how they had made up the place.

Now we had decided that we would visit every single Hard Rock Cafe (both of us have a penchant of collecting T-shirts with the logo and the place which has a HRC), so we headed to Centralen and asked for directions to HRC. We were told to go to the Rat station (Seriously!), but lo and behold, we actually were a short walk from the station to HRC. After a hearty meal and quite a few Euros spent on memorabilia (I got my John Lennon caricature charity band there as well), we headed back to Gamla Staan hoping that the skies would have mercifully relented.

What happened next was unbelievable! We walked along the side of the cathedral where the Royal couple had gotten married and onto the water reservoir behind it. As we were walking there, another lady (a tourist) was also walking around the same place. There was a lot of ice on the steps and in a tiny clearing, she was standing looking out towards the setting Sun. And as she stood there for some time, her shadow fell into the spot where the snow had melted a bit and so you could see it. This resulted in what I consider my best shot of the trip so far (and probably of my short photography career, if career is even the right word). 

Super elated with this achievement, but still cognizant of the super cold around us, we decide to head back, mainly cause Dr Dang hadn't called me yet on when to meet. Thinking that the meeting is off, we got into a train to head back only to get a call from Dang suggesting we meet him at Centralen. Supreme confusion reigned on where to meet as Centralen has way too many exits. So finally we met near the Ice Bar at the Nordic hotel. They told us that the slot is only available in 25min at 1915, so we waited around  discussing Dr Dang's Tromso visit and how he took great pictures of the Aurora.

When our turn was called, we were ushered into a place where we were given warm parkas which had gloves hanging off them and then asked to walk into this super cold refrigerator. Of course taking our cameras out and shooting meant that the gloves would have to come off. So after trying to take a few pix of a place where the entire room is made up of ice (a truly awesome place), we gave up and decided to just enjoy our drink out of the ice glass.

We couldn't stay there for long, plus the cold sure drove up the hunger. So we scouted around to find Sala Thai which sounded great for dinner. The conversation over dinner was pretty surreal, what with us discussing  Swedish relationships, Food habits, cross cultural interactions. Dr Dang sure livened it up for us.

Then it was the Tunnelbana back to Midsommerkransen and the long walk back to the hotel. The debate before we left the train station was whether we need to go for a massage tomorrow or not, cause that would decide whether we needed to withdraw money or not. Finally the decision was to go for it and so we wanted to avoid the long walk back just to draw cash. 

I was super excited to get back to the hotel to upload today's pix, mainly to see how my "greatest yet" pic had come out. It sure didn't disappoint!!!

On that high, it was a good day today and time to say good night!

Train Conversations

Day 6

The day started with the obviously first thing to do. The iPhone 4 was unlocked so that we could use it while in Copenhagen (the phone had come with a prepaid number with a bit of value). The net was down, then came up again and then wend down again, so activation of the phone was turning out to be a bit of a challenge. So we used the time it took for the net to stabilize to pack our stuff.

Once the net was a bit stable, the iphone was activated and we proceeded for checkout. Naturally, now the iPhone was acquired, it needed a cover and a screen protector, so back we were to the Apple store for some iPhone cover shopping. Now we had a train journey to look forward to, heading to Stockholm, so we made a beeline for Central Station, stopping only briefly at the McD to get a lunch to go. We catch the 11:39am train (as we had planned) with connection at 12:37pm from Lund and the plan was to eat lunch in the train. That's when the plan went off the tracks.

The train stopped at Hyllie and then just stayed there for a while. At first, it sounded like a great thing for smokers as they could enjoy a couple of smokes on the platform, but later it was announced that the train was having electric problems and that there was no way forward. We had to get out of the station to catch a bus to Lund, an additional unwarranted expenses of SEK 24 per head just so bus #170 would take us thro the city streets of Hyllie, the expressway connecting Hyllie and Lund & finally Lund station. 

We got confirmed space for the train leaving at 1445. All thoughts of food had been lost due to the train mixup, so we stepped into the coffee shop across from the train station. After a wonderful coffee and a banana muffin, we made our way to the train which left at 1500...wow a delay of 15mins. On the platform, we met Catherine and struck up a tiny conversation, mainly about her being a local and we so unbelievably not local. When the train arrived, we ended up sitting in same space as Catherine, joined by another older lady. The lady was going on and on talking to Catherine, something about Beatrice Potter. I slept for a bit and then woke up to find Praveen in conversation with the two ladies. All of us had a nice conversation with the older lady giving me a few recommendations for books that are traditionally Swedish that I can carry back for my little princess. The scenery rushing by the window was gorgeous as we saw snowed out landscapes bathed in sunlight.

We reached Stockholm at 19:45pm, said our goodbyes, exchanged numbers with Catherine and then parted ways. Our first priority was to book seat reservations for the train to Narvik...since the whole trip had been planned around that part and it would be a shame if we came all this way to find out there were no seats for us on the train. We also bought the Stockholm metro tickets, called our hotel and figured out that we had to take Fruengen line and get out at Midsommerkransen (I called it the Mid-Summer-Nights-Dream) station. After we landed at our designated station, we still had to call the hotel as there were no signs. We were told to take a left out of station and then continue a long walk under two expressway flyovers to reach the hotel. This looked more like a B&B rather than a hotel and so obviously there was no one at the counter and we had to ring the bell. After we checked in, we figured out that the place had no food. Lucky we carrying some, but just to make sure, we bought chocolate bars and coke and then proceeded to the room. It's a small room with tiny beds, but when we're on a shoe string budget, you take what you get! 

A couple of shots of the Absolut left over from the earlier train journey to sooth the snooze button and we were at the end of a relatively unproductive day, the first since we got on the trip. Hoping for tomorrow to make up for today. 

Good night. 

Thanx to the Mermaid

Day 5

I woke up with my phone ringing. I can write about this now, but could not have had I posted this earlier. The call was to let me know that Cisco had just sent me my offer letter post all the interviews that had been conducted. Yippee! The day had started in the right fashion. All I was hoping was that the offer was a good one. Now I couldn't wait for this blasted train to get to Copenhagen.

We were really going through Germany now. The train was rushing past signs announcing Dusseldorf, Bremen, Hamburg, Rutborg. That's when the Danish Immigration folks got on the train...and boy did my passport throw them off.

Firstly, my passport (having been issued outside of India) does not have the markings that are usually found on the bottom of the main ID page. Secondly, it was an Indian passport which was issued in another country. And thirdly, the Dutch embassy in India had given me a 2 year multiple entry tourist visa. It was this final point that had the Immigration folks completely baffled! They kept checking the passport and wondering how I had gotten a VISA with that kind of validity. My passport went up and down the aisles of the train bogey (with me following it dutifully) until they finally decided I was legit and they let us be. It is only after that did I go for my morning dump in peace!

We landed at Copenhagen 2 minutes ahead of schedule rather than the 6 minutes we were supposed to be behind. Despite the rerouting, the train had made up time somewhere and got us where we wanted on time. First order of business was to call the hotel and check where it was. That was Praveen's task. My job was to get some currency converted. After a little local currency had found it's way into our pockets, we took a train to Vesterport and walked the small distance to the Best Western and checked in.

My first order of business was to get onto the WiFi and check my mail for my offer letter. So Praveen was deputed to the bathroom for a shower while I perused the document. All was well, so I had a smile on my face which I was certain would follow me the whole day :) The hot shower only made the day better!

Leaving the hotel, we were greeted with a gorgeous site! The weather was perfect for photography and immediately the cameras came out. Here are a few that we snapped right away.

This last one is an HDR shot of the Centraal Station with the Sun setting behind it

Praveen wanted to pick up gloves for the cold, so we went glove shopping. That was right next to an Apple store where we found out that another store would be able to sell Praveen the iPhone 4 without a contract. The price sounded right for him, so we called up that place from the Apple store itself, took directions and then realized we had to hurry. That meant it was going to be a quick lunch, so we headed into HRC - which was right across the street - to grab a bite and we left the shopping at HRC for later.


Then we headed to the Central Station to catch a train to Islev where the store was. It was quite a long walk, but the weather was a gorgeous blend of cold air and harsh Sun, so I didn't exactly mind it. Got some nice pix along the way. Here are a few:

As is prevalent everywhere in Europe, Graffiti at the Islev Railway Station

After taking possession of the iPhone 4 (Praveen grinning from ear to ear and seriously resisting the temptation to take the phone out of the box), we headed for Nyhavn so that we could take a canal tour ride. A few more pix on the way:

After we landed at Nyhavn, we discovered the tours were not operating and that the harbour was frozen. That felt convenient as it felt like the time was right for a drink. A lovely bar right by the harbour provided both the external and internal warmth we so longed!

Across the harbour from the Bar where we were warming ourselves up a bit

HDR Shot of the bar with the Bar Maid :)

Sunset on a frozen harbour

We decided that Ameliaborg was right behind us and so a visit to the Little Mermaid seemed like an obvious decision to make. It would be cold tho. We would have to brace ourselves! Ameliaborg provided some nice pix, one of which is right below.

But we still had a long way to go and we were losing light pretty quickly. So on we went...and stumbled into some of best pictures of the trip! The colours were so good that we didn't mind the fact that we were having trouble pressing the shutter...it was that cold! And boy, was the wind blowing cold air from the Arctic circle. But at the end of the day, I got some gorgeous pix and wasn't that the intent of the trip in the first place? So no complaints.

It looks like the Chimneys are colouring the sky

The water is frozen!

Finally as we ran out of light and body warmth, we decided that it was better for our survival if we took a cab. It was going to be the most expensive cab rides we had ever taken, but at least we would survive to tell the story. After clicking pictures in sub zero temperatures for close to an hour, I would need to put my hands in a microwave oven for a few minutes to thaw them. The 95 Danish Kroner spent on the cab were a small price to pay to avoid frost bite!

So back to the hotel, a warm water soak to bring my core body temperature back to normal and then we were off to the Hard Rock Cafe for a beer (Tuborg Gould) and some food (onion rings). The guy waiting on us at the the HRC store (Wally) kept on talking about his time in India and how much he enjoyed staying there and how he dreams of going back. He kept going right up to the point where we had finished our shopping and were about to sit down for food. Nonetheless, it was a great conversation.

Now we had to hunt for an Indian restaurant as Praveen was fed up of eating bread based food for the last few days. A walk that led us all the way around the Tivoli Gardens perimeter and brought us right back to the HRC then led us to a street close to Vesterport station where we did find an Indian restaurant with fairly intricate decor. We were so pooped, we decided to take away the food to the hotel and eat there. Praveen wanted the Dal to be made extra hot, a decision he would later regret after he started eating when we got back.

Today had been a tiring, but good day. A lot of walking, very very cold, but some good pix. Tomorrow would be another great day (hopefully).

Good night!

Who is John Gall?

Preamble: I know it's been a while since I posted on this topic...call me lazy or pretty much anything else you want, but somewhere in the middle I just lost interest in writing anything at all. Now I think I should at least finish the series and who knows... I might start writing all over again. You're good luck might just be running out :D

Day 4

Aah, the day where we would walk around with our cameras and shoot all the things we scouted had finally arrived. It was also our last day in Amsterdam, so we had to get those shots. But first things first: we had to check out. Thankfully, the hotel had a fairly large luggage room where we could leave our packed stuff and head out. Packing our stuff was a whole different affair. After the impending acquisition of tulip bulbs and a bunch of Amsterdam souvenirs, our bags were only going to get bigger and bulkier.

And then there was the Anne Frank poster that I had picked up for my little girl. This was going to be really tricky. Anne was going to have to come all over Northern Europe with me and make it back to India in relatively decent shape. Wow, did I chose a mountain to climb on that one!

Ok, so after we left our luggage (and Anne) at the hotel, we were off to Centraal Station to book our berths for the evening train to Copenhagen. We were hoping that it would be relatively easy given that it was a Monday morning and that most people who had come to Amsterdam to enjoy their weekends would have left by now. Berths booked, we headed out to Daam and then on to the Apple store I had seen yesterday so that Praveen could pick up his iPhone 4. Pity they were out of stock and backed up for another 3 weeks after they got deliveries. So a lemon on that front.

But the walk was the same one I took yesterday to go to the Anne Frank Haus and so there were a few places for some nice pix. Unfortunately, the skies were overcast and so really bad lighting from a photography perspective, but lovely weather for a walk. The walk took us to Konigsplien where we headed straight for the flower market. Both of us picked up a few tulip bud packets and walked all the way back talking about how we were going to try and plant these back home in India and were going to be successful.

While we were shopping for refrigerator magnets and the like, we saw this:

I almost pee'd my pants watching it! So funny!

After a bunch of shopping done, it was time to take care of some other business. Food. So we were back to our favorite place in Amsterdam. Leidseplien! Looking around for places that serve veggie food for my partner in crime, we finally settled for Reyndors and Boy! were we glad. It was wonderful food for the both of us. Once our hunger had been sated, it was time to shoot Leidseplien in all it's overcast glory. We would have to use some serious techniques to be able to shoot it. Thankfully, we didn't have any techniques, so we would have to do with whatever we could. You be the best judge.

Now that our photographic urges had been sated, we had to rush back and leave so that we could catch our train to Copenhagen. Since the journey was overnight, we needed to arrange for food and some liquids that made the journey easier. So where can we find it? Thus started the hunt for Red October (Vodka). Walked around Hobben'straat and walked into a store called Dirk where we picked up some Chakna and stuff called De Reitjer which is stuff the Dutch use to sprinkle on their breakfast. I thought my little princess would like that very much. But no alcohol in that store. Asked a bunch of places and finally figured out that we would strike gold at a store called Gall and Gall which was at the Dam.

So we picked up the baggage from the hotel, got into a tram, landed up at Centraal Station where Praveen stayed with the bags and I headed towards the site of the Gall. Picked up an Absolut (€16.50) and then realized...we had not gotten anything to eat. Luckily, there are lots of food joints at the Dam. The McD there didn't have the Grount (veggie) burger for Praveen, so that option was out. So the only option left was Subway. Picked up a veggi footlong (with everything) for Praveen and a Meatball footlong for me. Then it was off to the races as I dashed towards Centraal Station. I reached just in time for us to put the luggage away and settle in as the train moved away.

I put up my Kodak zx3 on my Joby GorillaPod so that I could record our conversations during the journey. It would be hilarious to watch it sometime later in life. While I was putting it up, the Ticket Checker came in, verified our tickets and then updated us that there was an accident up ahead so the train was being rerouted and there would be a delay of a whole SIX MINUTES! Can you believe that? He told us about a delay of 6 minutes! How cool is that?

As soon as he was out of earshot, out came the Absolut with Coke Zero and Sprite. Unfortunately both of us didn't realize that we have accidentally picked up sweet popcorn, so that was a bit of a bummer. But since we had some Haldiram Bhujia left (thanx to Praveen), we were ok.

Sometime around 10pm, we polished off our footlong sandwiches and prepared for the first Immigration check. That was at Emrich where the nice folks of Germany welcomed us and bid adieu on our journey forward. The last town I remember seeing was Dartmond as I fell asleep awaiting new adventures for the next day.

Good Night!

Beda Gracht

Day 3

By the time I woke up, disorientation had definitely set in. This was the third different place I was waking up in in the last 3 days. It was going to be more of the same for the next week and a half. Despite sleeping at close to 4am, we were both up at around 9am, desperate to not let daylight go to waste.

We realized that we had not booked the room at the HEM hotel where the package included breakfast. For €12.50 per person, the breakfast was working to be quite expensive for someone traveling on a shoe string budget. But after facing starvation in the midst of gluttony of so many varieties, there was an urgent need for food in the body, that is if we wanted to avoid fainting in the cold. Breakfast was what you would see in any hotel: scrambled eggs, sausages, fruits, yogurt and assorted meats to stack your plate with. Believe me when I tell you that I made sure I ate my €12.50s worth. We made sure we inquired about leaving our luggage at the hotel the next day so that we would not have to suffer the craziness of check out time.

Then it was back to the Westlandgracht tram station and we were back to Leidseplien. All traces of the madness from last night had been removed and the place didn't look like a combination of a football party, a Vegas casino and a Columbian drug lord's harem any more. Today we had decided not to carry any cameras with us. I had been to Amsterdam before and so just wanted to relive the experience again. Pictures could wait until tomorrow after I had scoped the spots. Today was about walking around. And that is what we started with.

We walked to Koningsplien and the flower market. It was so interesting to see such vibrant colours and finally see the tulips that we had missed in The Hague the previous day. There were also a lot of the souvenir stores that you see everywhere in Amsterdam. I saw a couple of things I liked, but had to keep in mind the space I had in my luggage, not to mention the space that was growing with my wallet emptying faster than anticipated. The walk moved towards Rembrandtplien after we heard the chime of the clock tower announcing it was 2pm. Aah, what a sweet, melodious sound! But we quickly tired of Rembrandtplien and we were both curious to see stuff that was highlighted on the tourist map we were carrying. Again and again, the red light area would pop up on the map as if it was drawing us, so we tried to figure out where we were on the map and see if we can find it. Looked like we had to take a tram, which we did. After about 15 minutes on the tram, we realized that we were heading the wrong way, so the best way was to get back to either Daam or Leidseplien. We let chance decide. From the number of the tram that came first, it had to be Dam. Worked out well for us, cause we had landed about 50 meters from where we wanted to go.

It was a strange experience for me, what with all these scantily clad women making lewd gestures towards you and beckoning you to "come hither" so that they can relieve you of the heavy burden of money you carry around with you. What was also amazing was to see them all in one line, them displaying their wares in tiny windows. It almost made me laugh out loud, but I was quite successful in keeping my chortle down.

All this walking had made me thirsty (read beer time), so we headed into a british pub and had these large glasses of beer while staring across a canal at another set of quite pretty women displaying their flat tummies and surgically enhanced assets to prospective customers. Every once in a while, one or the other  would find success in ensnaring a helpless hormonal tourist and the curtain would close on that window. The weather meant that I did not have to wear too many layers and not zip up, so the beer and the entertainment across the street was just what the doctor told me not to do :D

But this entertainment kind of gets old on you rather quickly and the next destination was the Anne Frank Huis (that's how the Dutch spell the "ow" sound - with something that to me sounds like a "ooee"). This too was close to Daam, and so only a short walk towards Princengracht. While walking toward it, I noticed the Apple store (Praveen wanted to buy the iPhone 4 since his iPhone had conked off), but it was closed for Sunday (Lordag as they would say it).

I was greeted at entrance to the Anne Frank Huis with a big queue, at least 50 people trying to get in. And I later realized the number of people allowed in was based on the number of people leaving the Huis. I waited for my turn (not something I enjoy doing in the cold, but the weather was more my type, so I didn't mind), paid my €8.50 as entrance fee, picked up an information booklet and then proceeded to see what the fuss was about. A disclaimer here: I have read only a little bit of "The Diary of a Little Girl" and so was unfamiliar with a lot of her quotes. But I must say, I was blown away by the experience. How the secret annexe where they hid for so many months was so tiny, how the entrance to the hideaway was behind a bookcase which had been built specifically for that purpose so that it could open. But mostly, it was about the depth of this little girl's thoughts that blew me away. I was so glad my daughter asked me to come for this tour. It was definitely worth it! I bought a poster of Anne Frank for my daughter as a souvenir from the place and I'm quite sure I want to get her here one day so that she can experience what I experienced.

On the walk back to Daam, I was in a pensive mood, thinking about all the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during the Holocaust. How an entire country went mad. We can all blame Hitler for the crimes, and I know that monster deserves it, but an entire country was complicit in committing those crimes. Something terrible must have happened to make normal decent people turn to badly against a race of people and to treat them this way.

It was close to 4pm and my tummy had started to rumble a bit. Back to Leidseplien we went, and this time to the Hard Rock Cafe where we were quite certain we would get veggie food for Praveen. The Aussie stewardess made us comfortable at the table, chatted about how she loved being in Amsterdam and then brought us freshly brewed Heineken while we waited for our food.

There's a canal running right by the HRC (that's where the photo is taken from) and there were ducks and trash (surely from the night before) floating around toward some unknown destination. It was cold enough to not want to be out without our jackets and so back in we went, this time our food had already reached our table. After eating and feeling quite content, we headed to the HRC store to pick up souvenirs of our visit there. Praveen and I both have a penchant for collecting HRC shirts from all the places we have visited, but I already had an HRC shirt from there from my previous trip, so I passed.

By the time we were done, we struck up a conversation about the possibility to go to Rotterdam. It meant that we would probably get there by 8pm (not the best time to go to a European city on a Sunday) and we were ill-prepared for information on the destination. So we decided to give it a pass. More walking around and then we headed to the hotel unsure whether we wanted to have dinner or not.

At around 9ish, Praveen was feeling hungry, so we headed on the #2 tram line looking for an Indian restaurant (Praveen wanted to eat some dal chaval) and we ended up at this place called Moti Mahal. A crappy dinner later, we were both standing at the tram station cursing Indian restaurants for not living up to the standards of food we as Indians are so used to.

Back to the hotel it was, to recharge our phone / camera / laptop batteries, not to mention our own batteries as well. It had been a fairly laid back day with relatively few things actually done, but a lot of places seen which were prime candidates for photos. That would be tomorrow.

Right now, it was slumber time!

A useful detour

Day 2

Man, did I sleep well! I went to sleep on one side and woke up exactly that way. No dreams, no tossing and turning. Just a clean uninterrupted sleep...after soooooo many days. I woke up completely refreshed and charged up. Praveen had been up a lot earlier (he had trouble sleeping) and so was the first to head for the shower while I talked to his aunt and cousin. Like every other place on earth, the early morning TV programs were dominated by the Home Shopping Network. We spent quite a bit of time bitching about the programming.

Shower and thermals later, I had a "Dutch" breakfast of round toast sprinkled with De Reitjer, a dutch speciality which comes in quite a few flavors and varieties. It was so nice, I thought my daughter would love it and so was keen on picking it up at some supermarket before I left Amsterdam.

In last night's dinner table conversation, a few very interesting places had come up, especially one called "Panorama Mesdag" where the elders in the house were of the opinion that it was a fantastic thing to see and the younger ladies in the house thought that it BLOWS! We wanted to see which side we would fall on and so this one was first on the list. As we drove towards it, Uncle realized that today might be the day of the big Marathon and that a few roads might get closed for it. Turned out that it was going to be on another day, so we would have a pretty easy ride.

We parked around the corner from Panorama Mesdag and the first thing one would notice was these lovely flowers growing in random places on the grass. They all looked so gorgeous and made for some great shots. I think I clicked at least 20 just standing there :) Here's a sample:

Panorama Mesdag turned out to be quite a revelation! After walking into what looked like a museum, we walked up a narrow staircase and were stunned. We were standing on a platform which overlooked the ocean on one side and a city landscape on the other. It took us a while to realize that it was a painting! As we walked up the stairs, the landscape walked toward us, just like it would in a real setting. The effect was mesmerizing. To further enhance the effect, the platform built in the center had real sand around it that sloped down towards the painting and the colour of the sand was matched to the colour of the sand in the painting. There were ambient sounds that made me feel like I was near the ocean, what with the sound of waves crashing on the beach and the calls of the sea gulls.

The painting is 10m high and 120m in width, mounted in a perfect circle to give the illusion of watching the actual scene. What was amazing was that Herr Mesdag and his team took a mere 4 months to paint the whole thing. What's also amazing is that this work of art took 10 years to restore and come to it's current state. I would definitely recommend anyone visiting The Hague to have a look at this place. It was a truly absorbing experience.

From here, we walked to the UN International Court of justice. It was of course closed and therefore we could not have a look inside at the places where international disputes are settled. The building itself looked like an old church, but for the weather wane on top instead of a cross.

Near the entrance is the World Peace Flame. Surrounding it are rocks that have come from more than 150 countries. It was nice to see that the Indian representative (something that looks like a Shiv Ling) was front and center in the arrangement.

From here, we headed to Madurodam, a place for all things miniature. I marveled at the attention to detail in each building and structure built there, but that sort of gets old and we quickly tired of that place. We could have lived without having seen this.

What was coming next was exciting. We wanted to see the tulip fields and, while we were told that we were a couple of weeks too early, we wanted to try our luck and see if we could spot the things that inspired Van Gogh. We drove beyond Lisse and a few other place to see if we could catch a glimpse. It turned out to be a wild tulip chase and we had to eventually give up. At this point, we decided we should get some peptone in our bodies and stopped at a McD on the way.

What this little tulip chase had done for us was that it ensured we would be reaching our next destination, Kinderdijk, just around sunset. This was working out perfectly for us. Apart from the little episode of Praveen leaving his phone at the McD but realizing it before we left, we were headed for Kinderdijk (pronounced Kin-durh-da-eek) and on reaching that place, it did not disappoint!

The Dutch have preserved this little patch to showcase the old way of moving water between canals. The area had more than 10 windmills which presented a perfect place to take pictures with the sun setting behind them. This is where Praveen and I went shutter crazy! I can't even remember how many images I have taken at this spot. If only the skies were a bit clearer, we would have had some postcard variety shots. But I'm not complaining. I still got some great shots!

What was interesting to know was that the position of the blades of the windmill signaled from afar important events like the birth or death concerning the owners of the mill. You could also see if a mill was operational or not from afar. That was quite farsighted and a novel idea, I thought.

We were lucky enough to be at Kinderdijk the day they had opened for the season, but were late by 5 minutes to see the insides of a wind mill. When we arrived, one mill was clearly operational, but by the time we got to it, it had stopped moving it's blades. Damn you, punctual Europeans! Only then did we realize that we were 5 minutes past the 5:30pm closing time. Oh well! At least we had photos!

After a full day of taking some great shots, Praveen and I were quite happy on the journey back. We also saw an overhead bridge built specifically for cycles so that they could cross the busy crisscross of highways. This was definitely a country obsessed with bicycles. And it showed in the shapes of the legs of most women there :)

Back home, a quick dinner and a family photo and we were off to our next destination. Uncle was kind enough to drop us to the train station despite being tired from chaperoning us all day. Thanx to him, we had a great day! Now we were on the train heading towards Amsterdam, one of my favorite places in the world. My last vacation there (with Shesh) was still vivid in my mind. We landed at Centraal Station (pronounced Stah-soon) and took Tram #2 to Westlandgracht and a short walk later, we were at HEM Hotel. It was quite late in the night, but we had crossed Leidseplien, my favorite place in Amsterdam, on our way to the hotel and we had seen the throngs having fun on a saturday night. We hadn't landed into Amsterdam to sit in a hotel room. Leidseplien was just a few tram stops away and the cold was not going to stop us getting there.

People having a ball, drinking lots of alcohol and then passing out, either thro over consumption of alcohol or drugs looked like the norm at Leidseplien. We had landed late in the night, so no food was being served, so we topped up calories by consuming copious amounts of beer. Watching people around was the fun part. What was great was to see the Amsterdam police putting people into cabs so that they reached home safely after a night of debauchery. That was a nice gesture and only cemented my view of Amsterdam being the best place in world to have a good time.

We dragged our butts back to the hotel around 3am and, thanx to the beer consumed, dropped into the lap of slumber.

Today had been a good day!

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Day 1

The day started with our arrival at the Mumbai International Airport around 11ish. As you would have read in my previous post, we had bumped into our buddy from the office at the old watering hole and were well fed before we reached the airport. For obvious reasons, our spirits were high as we walked towards the Jet Airways checkin aisle. Since both of us are Jet Platinum members, we went to the Premier checkin counter, tossed in our bags and then checked for the possibility of an upgrade. We had to give 3 upgrade vouchers each and, lo and behold, we were flying into Brussels in Business Class!

After checkin, it was Immigration and Customs. Collectively, the both of us were carrying the following:

1. Three SLRs (2 D90s and a D200)
2. Five lenses (12-24mm, two 18-105mm, 50mm f/1.8 and a 70-300mm)
3. Two Video Cameras (Kodak  zx3 Sport and FujiFilm XP10)
4. Four Tripods (two Nikon, one Joby Gorillapod and one Sony)
5. Three phones (two iPhones and a Nokia)
6. One laptop (MacBook Pro)

Thanx to a suggestion by Abhin Patel at the office, we had taken a printout of a list of serial numbers for all our gadgets. The Customs officer was surprised to see so much equipment come out from our backpacks. It was interesting to note his expression as he asked us what we do and whether we were photographers by profession. Then it was the lounge and then time to board the flight and get our vacation underway.

Now you need to know this about Jet Business Class...it rocks! The seat flattens out like a bed, they give you a night suit for you to change in, there's a nice flat screen TV for you to watch movies (if you are so inclined), there's a plug point where you can charge your hungry iPhone. And they serve Glenfiddich. Perfect.

So I watched "The King's Speech" while sipping my scotch and then ate a bit, just enough to make me hit the snooze button hard. The flad bed seat helped to get me a decent sleep and I woke up completely charged and pumped to begin our journey within Europe. After waking, it was time to wear my thermals and get ready for cold weather.

Immigration within Brussels (or should I say, the EU) was a breeze. Just a stamp on the passport and we were off. We headed towards the place that has a train connection to Bruxelles Centraal Station. To our dismay, our Eurail passes worked for all the other trains but not the connection between the airport and Centraal, the thieves! So it was a small amount (rolling my eyes here) of €5.40 per person to get us to Centraal. The journey was a revelation in the amount of graffiti that exists in Brussels, especially around the train tracks. Not a single area on the trip was sans graffiti.

After arriving at Centraal, the hunt was first to get to a luggage locker. Obviously, we didn't want to lug our bags around town. To check on this, we went into the International trains reservations area where we got our Eurail Pass stamped and our passports checked and then were told that, thankfully, the luggage lockers were just a floor below where we were. So €4 for the locker and we had stowed most of our luggage and were free to roam about. 

As soon as we stepped out of Centraal, we were greeted by a nice Citibank logo. Cash withdrawn, we were ready for what Europe had in store for us. We had seen a (I) sign that meant "Tourist Information" which pointed down the street and gave as directions "right next to the hotel opposite Centraal". So we walked up and down the street, yeah the weather was cold but not that much, and couldn't see the (I) sign. The nearby coffee shop looked very inviting plus that seemed to be the best thing to walk around with on a cold day. Into the coffee shop we went where we got directions on where we "might" find the (I). And so we walked down that road and came to this place:

Can you see the (I)? We couldn't...and there were no signs. but the place looked very pretty, despite the muggy grey skies. So we stayed there taking pictures and during one particular composition, we saw it! The (I), in case you are going there, is on the ground floor of that huge cathedral like building you see on the left. So we got information about how to get to the Hergé museum, found out that Brussels has no Hard Rock Cafe (the pathetic city) and a set of maps we could use.

Back to Centraal to catch a train to Louvain La Neuve (or LLN as they mercifully call it) which we realized is a University town, 45 minutes by train from Centraal. This is where the Tintin museum is located and that was our first stop.

The tour was nice. They had these little iPod Touch based audio guides that explained the tour and the significant things on the walk. That made the entire experience very silent within the museum. You could see Hergé doing his earlier drawings, expanding his team when he started doing the books in colour and a lot of paraphernalia associated with the Tintin books. It was a nice thing to see for someone who has always been a big Tintin fan.

By the time we finished with the museum, it was almost 4pm CET and we were quite hungry. Hitch is that Praveen is a vegetarian, so we had to look for a place that served veggie food. Finally we zoned in on a local burger joint (called Quick) where I hogged down two large burgers to sate my hunger. Back to the station we went. On the station, as we were waiting for the train to take us back to Centraal, I looked across the platform and I could see Praveen's reflection on the train window. Moving a bit, I could see me as well. And I thought "hey, that's a cool picture", so I asked him to stay where he was and then after a couple of experiments, I got this shot:

 I thought it was quite cool!

In the train back, there was this lady sitting diagonally across from me who was sketching this wonderful superhero like character. She was doing a real good job, unfortunately I could not get close enough with my 12-24mm lens and could just about get there with Praveen's 18-105mm, but her hand would get in the way. I think Praveen still has a lot of those pix and I will put one of them up here later.

Back to Centraal and a bit of looking around. Clicked a few pix, but nothing great. Sat in a bar near Centraal having local beer and checking the next train to DenHaag, which was our next stop on the trip. The train was to leave Bruxelles Midi at 6:18pm and we had to make a call whether or not to take that one or to wait for the one an hour later. We decided on taking the 6:18 which meant it was going to be a mad dash. Rush to the luggage locker, flash the bar code receipt, take our stuff out, rush to the platform, board the train during what seemed to be rush hour, get off at Bruxelles Midi, rush to platform 8 (I think) just in time to see that the train is there and will leave in 7 minutes. Perfect! Only problem was, in all this rush we had forgotten to pee. So now the hunt for the loo was priority.

Every toilet we looked at was non-functional, which was soon going to pose a serious problem. On top of that, we were having beer that we bought on the train (Heineken and Palm) which was aggravating the problem. In some time, I was going to reach crisis levels and so was Praveen. Then an announcement came on the train's PA system telling us that only 2 toilets in the whole train were functioning and their locations were on the two extremes of the train. So we both crossed two whole bogeys (one at a time, of course) to relieve ourselves and return to the beer cans and the Bhujiya that Praveen had carried (lifesaver).

Now I know I have mentioned graffiti before, but you have no idea how much there was. The funniest moment was when Praveen spotted a train which had "???" painted right above the driver's cockpit! A train which doesn't know it's destination?!?! :D

In the same bogey, sitting on the other side of the bogey with two ladies was an elderly gentleman who started a conversation with us about photography. They too were taking the train to The Hague and were colleagues who had some business in Brussels. He was one boisterous guy, I should say. It was fun talking to him. Even while taking a picture of him, he insisted he wear his "signature" which was this black felt hat he wore. Time flew as we talked to him.

Two hours and a few minutes later, we were standing on DenHaag station, realizing that we were standing in the 3rd country that day! And right there on the platform was Praveen's cousin waiting to pick us up. Her dad had parked a bit further from the station and it was a short walk. I was pleasantly surprised to see him drive a Toyota Prius and was quite thrilled to sit in the car. The more I sat in that car over the space of 24 hours, the more I liked it. I think I will pick that one up as my next car.

We stayed that night with Praveen's relatives. They were very warm and made a lot of effort to make us feel comfortable. Both the daughters gave up their bedrooms for us, which must not have been a pleasant experience for either of them as they had to sleep elsewhere. To add to it, the mercury had dropped even further and the forecast of Amsterdam being at 8˚C looked completely wrong. I think it was closer to 0˚, but I really didn't want to check out the temperature scale. A light dinner, conversations about where we should go the next day (a lot of great suggestions), some freshening up and it was time for slumber.

It's so good to get into cozy warm covers when the outside temperature is so low. Was just hoping that I sleep well, mainly cause I had not slept well for a while. I didn't know the extent to which I would sleep.

It had been a fairly eventful Day 1.

Boulevard of A Broken Dream

As you would have read from the previous post, my buddy Praveen and I were heading to Northern Europe towards the Arctic region to see the Northern Lights. This was a trip 11 months in the making and was supposed to be one of the tick marks on our "Things to see in life" list.

The map here is an illustration of the ground we would cover in order to get to Tromso, the theatre at which we had bought tickets to watch one of the greatest natural shows on earth.

After a week of meandering through some of the nicest cities in Northern Europe, we would land in Tromso only to be greeted by foul weather that only got worse. Cloud cover everywhere, snow, rain, muggy climate and cold as hell. We wondered how we were going to get a glimpse of Aurora and her majesty in this weather. The perpetual optimists we are, we kept our hopes high. We had hired the services of an "Aurora Hunter", someone who knew the best spots around Tromso and the northern part of Norway to see the magical lights. All we could do now was to put our faith in the skills and the experience of this Aurora Superhero. In the end, the weather was this Superman's Kryponite! He cancelled the tour at the last minute citing bad weather and a mystery virus that he had contracted just that day. So we were left with nothing to gaze at but the cloudy evening sky from the confines of our room. We had braved bitter cold only to be left out in the cold when it came to the reason we were there in the first place.

This blog post marks the first in a series of posts (one for each day) on the things that we did, the places that we visited and the route we followed.

The only reason I am putting this up is that some people may benefit from our misfortune and find this information useful while planning their own trips.

I can Bore(alis) you all now :)

It's finally here. All the I's dotted and T's crossed!

Here is a trip the planning for which started eleven months ago, in the month of April last year. And the germ came quite accidentally, like all good things.

My buddy Praveen got a mail from his friend with a picture of the Aurora Borealis, a natural phenomenon which I'm told looks way better in person than it does in pictures...and it looks absolutely WICKED in pictures! So he turns around to show the picture to me (both of us being photography buffs) and says "I want to see this one day". And I reply "so do I". And right there began the plans to get here.

With research suggesting that the best time to see it is at the summer equinox, we had a date around which we could plan our schedule around. So the flight tickets were booked as far back as the 1st of June last year. And from that time on, a schedule & an itenary emerged.

After months of planning, anticipation, shopping and excitement, the day has finally arrived. Praveen and I are headed to the Northern parts of Europe for a trip that we have been waiting for for a long LONG time!

We are landing into Brussels (thank you Jet Privelege Miles), then it's all Eurail from there.

Brussels - Rotterdam - Amsterdam - Copenhagen - Stockholm - Tromso - Oslo - Bergen - Oslo - Brussels

Both of us are planning to take a whole lot of pictures and video and see if we can stitch a travelogue together, maybe even a trip video. What I will try to do is to post a blog every day or every other day to recount whats happened. So keep posted :)

That's all. Wish us luck. And hope the trip goes smooth with as much fun as possible.

Au Revoir!

Bandeau Aid

My buddy and I are planning a trip to a certain nordic country somewhere in the first few months of the coming year. Knowing the frigid temperatures in that part of the world, not withstanding the current snowed out conditions in most of northern Europe, I know that I have a tough time there, especially for someone who is not very fond of cold weather.

For most of my adult life (and a part of my childhood as well), I have had the tendency of my hands and feet getting cold with the slightest hint of cold weather. I'm not even talking snow conditions...even if the temperatures go slightly below 20˚ C, my hands and feet go colder than the ambient. Given this tendency, I prefer to be in places which are predominantly warm.

You would realize now that Nordic weather will be quite a challenge for someone of my body characteristics.

One of the big "To Do" items on the list is to buy warm clothing. This includes mostly inner wear, jackets, shoes and the like. I recently added another item to the list...and just got possession of it.

The place where I got it lists it as a "Bandeau Multifonctions" or Multipurpose Headband. It is also sometimes referred to as a "Buff" or a "Snood" (Samir Nasri of Arsenal wears one for every cold weather game, so if you see him play, you know what I mean).

This Bandeau / Buff / Snood is a tubular garment which is supposed to be worn around the neck or head to protect against the cold. The key character of this garment is that it stretches only sideways and not towards the edges. This allows me to wear it as a tubular neck scarf, a skull cap or a bandana. The most important way of using this would be where the back of the neck scarf is pulled over my head and the front is pulled over my lips, thereby shielding me from the super cold temperatures I will encounter once we get there.

My trip just became a little more comfortable...in my head. Hope it goes that way too :)