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| From October 9th - Jungfraujoch |
The swimming in the Dreiweiheren was a challenge! The buddy system guys went ahead with the plan because the weather forecast was good. But. The water was COLD! Yet, almost everyone who had come jumped in one after the other. And once inside kept saying to those outside -'Its not too cold!' hahaha....Dreiweiheren is a lake and they had made a diving board about 12-13 ft high. I don't know the right technique to dive from so high and preferred to jump from the edge. But the water was cold and swimming in it was a real confidence booster! But I had some people there telling me they had done it in glacial lakes and I was like yeah ok Tu mahaan but I come from India! Even my refrigerator has warmer water than this! Some of the girls just spent the entire afternoon sun bathing and we did that too after getting out of the water and 3 of us got into real deep discussion on..well... India, Ukraine and Singapore.I think we spent about 2 hours sun bathing and talking. We had a nice guitarist play in the background. I really enjoyed the outing. Its a place you must visit if the weather is good.
The next night was the night everyone was waiting for....it was the delicious sounding Fondue night! Since only the 4 buddy system guys were doing the event there was a limit to the number of seats. And it had gotten full really fast! A lot of people did not get to come. I was excited because I had heard a lot about Swiss Fondue and also I really love the Fondue I normally have at Relish in Mumbai (Bombay). So we had tables with Fondue, Bread ,White wine and the all important stick with which you dip the bread in the fondue...
The Fondue night had rules – If you drop your bread in the fondue the first time: you take a shot of kirsch (vodka) and its supposed to be strong!
Second time: you need to sing a song of the choice of the people who are sitting with you on your table.
Third time: Kiss the person on your left
Fourth time: Kiss the person on your right
Fifth time: Help the buddy system guys clean up the whole place!
I didn’t drop a single piece. I only had guys on both my sides.
The cheese was yummy and people started enjoying the fondue. Everyone was careful about not dropping stuff at the beginning. But then slowly, tables began to erupt and suddenly we see the buddy system guys running from table to table with the bottle of Kirsch. 15 mins later we see the tables forcing the buddy system guys to take shots! The next 90 odd minutes was total madness....all the rules went for a toss and everyone was being forced into shots....absolute pandemonium....more and more white wine kept on coming....there were tables shouting for more fondue coz it was over....buddy system guys already half drunk running in and out trying to get the next fondue pot.......people singing randomly and then all of us collectively banging the tables and singing ‘We will , We will... rock you’.....A lot of wine was spilled by the end of this song!
A lot of things happened that night...someone passed out in the room...loads of people moved to Trischily to continue the party....but all in all it was one memorable night....really crazy crazy night...
By the way, there was a notice before we had entered – ‘Puke fee - 50 CHF’
Every writer needs some motivation to write. For me, readership is important. I am one of those who write because someone will read what they write.
I need to thank Anuj Gosalia,Prasid S and Alpesh Patel. I know that they are definitely going to read (not only look at pictures!) whatever I write :P during this European expedition of mine. They have encouraged me at different times to write. I know people don’t like text heavy posts. But what the heck! I’ll do what I feel like. This post is text heavy. A little less than 1000 words.
Anyway, my first few days in St.Gallen were eventful yet in an extremely anti-climatic vein following my London trip. It all started with British Airways losing my baggage. I had two bags and lost one of them. It had a few essentials that vegetarians like me need, and some warm clothing which everyone needs in Europe in winter! Also I lost some very Indian cool stuff which I had thought I would gift interesting people whom I meet on this trip. Lost all of that L
Suddenly, I was in unfamiliar territory. Reason: Language. Suddenly it was all German. Announcements on rail platform at Zurich. Sign boards. Conversations in the background. At least in London, English made sure I was comfortable. There was a weird sort of uneasiness. I felt a little helpless as I felt I wasn’t comprehending the world as efficiently as I was a few hours back. Strange feeling!
Took a train from Zurich to St.Gallen. Double decker train and the great weather made sure there were awesome scenes throughout the journey. Both sides of the train, I just saw lush green meadows, gigantic trees and cattle eating merrily. Welcome to Switzerland!
So I got to the university, met 2 bachelor Swedish students who had come on exchange(they were also struggling with the german), got my welcome package and my room keys. Luckily my room is close to the station. So close that its bang opposite! But not to worry! Swiss trains make as much noise as earthworms do when they wriggle. The room is nice and I’m alone. So I get a lot of time with myself. So much time that it can become boring! But I’m paying a princely sum as rent for this place. So I better make good use of it :P
Now comes the tough part. No baggage. No essential items. No food. So began the tough job of figuring out where to go to buy stuff. What was even tougher was to explain people what I needed. Being a veggie, you can’t blindly pick up things. I spend painful amounts of time reading things here at the back of every food product in a supermarket trying to make some sense of the letters written. Some observer may feel I’m some illiterate simpleton from Asia who has landed in Switzerland. Well, I was actually illiterate in German a week ago!
I have never had so much problem communicating with people! I really admire all the people in the world who know multiple foreign languages well. Also, those people who settle in completely unfamiliar environments and adapt. I mean all those people who left India in the 70s and the 80s and have flourishing businesses in so many countries – hats off to them! I know necessity forces everyone to do stuff but still one has to DO it. I mean we have the internet and the mobile phones and various medium of information and communication. I wonder how they managed in those days. Settling in new environments must have been definitely tougher then. No Google translator, no GPS, No Google Maps, No Wikipedia, No Youtube, No facebook......
St.Gallen is beautiful city. It has rich heritage and the cathedral is a UNESCO heritage site. It is known as the knowledge city and it was a cradle of knowledge for centuries. However, St.Gallen is a quiet city. Definitely quieter than Mumbai and London – 2 cities I have been to in the last month! I am a people loving person and to see no one on the road on Sunday (5th September) was just weird! I mean I saw a few cars and a dad playing with his kid. It’s just different. Not that I have never been to quiet cities before but to suddenly see this after 10 days of people heavy London was striking. I did venture into a park where I saw a few people enjoying their Sunday and a few kids playing fussball (football in german). I also entered the tent of a visiting theatre group. There was stand-up comedy that night but they advised me not to waste my money as it was all in German.
The fight with British Airways and the weather just made me grumpy. It was an uncomfortable environment and I was not particularly liking it. I mean how can there be cities without people: P Everything shuts early in St.Gallen and for that matter everywhere in Switzerland. Only the bars and the restaurants are open. You almost feel no one works in Switzerland! Also, everything is mechanised.
The initial few days were also bad because of lack of good food. My happiness is totally dependent on whether I get good food :P One good thing that is happening is the discovery of the cook in me. Since I lost most of the basic veggie food I had got from India (thanks again to BA), I had to innovate. I had taken directions from my mom when in India and luckily I had the compact pressure cooker in this bag. Called up my Mom again and conformed the process.
So it all started with Pasta and then I made Paneer Makhani using Vanilla Yoghurt, and then Potata-Onion vegetable and some really fancy bread items. I mean all you need is Bread , Cheese, Mayonnaise, Chilli Sauce, Olives and Sun dried tomatoes! And I love Bread! I’m sure the creative side will take over and I shall discover new vegetarian recipes. I have to ensure though that I am not bored of it soon. I have a problem – Get bored with anything very soon. (Let’s see how much I write!)
Soon, things became much brighter and much more interesting. Met people and started discovering new things. So many parts in St.Gallen which I had not seen yet. As you shall see in the next post I have really started enjoying St.Gallen and Switzerland!
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| From Oxford |
Somethings one is just passionate about. You revere certain things to point of making them holy. Lords Cricket Ground is a holy place for me. I cannot explain the feeling when I first entered the stadium on 29th August 2010. There's one more feeling left though....the one that a player feels on laying foot on the holy grass......
If you cannot see the slideshow above right click on this album link below and open in a new tab:
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| Lords - The Home of Cricket |
I had made up my mind I wanted to see the England vs Pakistan Test at Lords irrespective of the ticket price. It was co-incidental that I was in London and a Lords test was on. It would have been unwise to miss it. Now, it turns out that I got a 30 GBP ticket which is one of the cheapest at Lords. They told me that an India-England test would be double the price and that an Australia-England cheapest ticket would not be available under 100 GBP.
The entire experience was completely different from an Indian stadium. Now I must confess here that this was the first test I was ever watching! Yes, a cricket freak like me had never seen a test match at a stadium before even in India. But I have limited overs cricket watching experience and it is just very different from this. Security checking is smooth here and you’re allowed to take most things innocent people would take inside including 2 pints of beer. It’s almost a family’s day out once you’re inside. So many small activities going inside and it’s amazing to listen to conversations of old Englishmen discussing cricket. Most of them with those hats and coats that you can see in the 1970s videos of tests in England.
What was also very new for me was the audience response. Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap and stop. Hahaha! No shouting, no hooting. A few young English supporters trying to start the Mexican Wave but the oldies not supporting them. A few really high Englishmen started singing but again the atmosphere didn’t quite match up for that to continue.
There was young Pakistani supporter Imran in our stand with 3-4 even younger kids who were trying hard to have fun. He kept on shouting “Do it, Do it Pakistan” and the kids would shout after him. And they made quite a noise. There was hardly anything to cheer about for Pakistan all day anyway. “Pakistan Zindabad” was equally vociferous and mockingly few Englishmen in the stand would shout the same when yet another Pakistani wicket would fall. I liked the spirit of the young Pakistanis. They shouted as long as their throats could manage. By the last session Imran had to take a lot of questions about Pakistan in our stand from Englishmen old and young. They really took his case!
For me personally it was like a pilgrimage. I don’t think I can put it in words and I will not. Watching a test at Lords and playing there has always been a dream. The first part has been fulfilled (though I would love to see an India-England or an Australia-England test) and the second part would happen too someday.......
Later, Parth and I went to Covent Garden. It is a beautiful place and one must dedicate an entire evening or even a day just roaming about in that area. The weather was lovely and I had a wonderful time roaming there all the way to Leicester Square. What I wonder though is weather the entire Great Britain just eats Italian food when eating out. Almost every alternate restaurant is an Italian restaurant here with cuisines from other countries interspersed in between.
Leicester Square is Hot!
Leicester is a happening place. It was a bank holiday weekend and parties had started very early in the evening. I saw some of the hottest women I have seen in London at Leicester Square. The men must be decent looking too, I guess.
I met a very dear friend Mr.Priyank Mahajan at Leicester Square. Parth and I waited for Mr.Mahajan at Chiquito, a Mexican restaurant chain (Finally I was not eating bread!) Chiquito food is excellent even for vegetarians like me and I would highly recommend it. The evening was spent reminiscing good old days and general catching up. Parth had to leave early and later Priyank and I ventured into ‘The Casino at the Empire’. I had quite a bright day at the casino J
I will now abruptly end this post as what happened for the remaining part of the night is not important J
Few images from Leicester Square. It was raining so best images have not been taken
Co-incidentally we also have CA Parth Sarda(NMite, Umangite and my Creative HOD) in London now who arrived 1 day after me. He is going to be working with Deloitte London now and he has a few days off before he starts. So he met us today at Waterloo station and joined us.
As soon as you get out of Piccadily Circus Underground you are greeted by World’s most expensive billboard(according to Priyank Mahajan) and an area thats bound have an effect on the aspiring soul in you. Life means more...
It is quite a spectacular sight in the afternoon/evening. Full of people, with brands being thrown at you from all angles and great places to eat around.
After a heavy lunch at Pizza Hut, Alpesh, Parth and I proceeded towards Trafalgar square. A lot of people find the place boring and say there’s nothing to do but I really liked the place. I believe such an area should be there in all cities. We spent about 2 and half hours there, capturing the world with the Nikon D80. The square had people from across the world and of all kinds. Lovers, families, friends,tourists,painters, performers etc. We’ve taken pictures of random people from a distance without their permission :P
The World at Trafalgar square(right click and open in new tab or see slideshow at the bottom of the post):
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| day4 london -alpsd80 |
The entire day was spent wandering around central London – London Eye pier, Westminster, around globe theatre and TATE Modern etc. laughing and taking photographs of London.
However, the WOW! Moment of the day was when a woman lifter a 85 kg Parth Sarda on her shoulders! Outside the National Theatre we came across a show the Strongest Woman show. We sat there watching it when suddenly the performer came in the audience and took Sarda to the stage. Next what we saw is best seen in the pictures.
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| From Day 4 - The world at Trafalgar Square and the strongest woman |
It was an evening well-spent and we rounded it off with an Italian dinner at Lizzi (so whats new! Pizza and pasta are Italian!) Well, this was marginally more authentic stuff. The photographs of today will do more talking. It’s a better camera and some of the pictures are by Alpesh, a way better photographer.
Day 4 - Slideshow
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| From Guildford Cathedral |
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| Guildford Cathedral |
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| London Day 3 |
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| Day 3 - Shakespeare's globe ,pizza express and waterloo station |
Woke up really early at 6 am. Moved around the house and went out and realised how cold it was. Took a few pictures. Alpesh and Harshal had to leave early for work and I told him I would leave on my own since he would not be back until 12pm. Next I remember I wake up to an empty room at 11.30 am and realised I had just slept off again.
Anyway, so we leave the house now at about 12.30pm walking in the light drizzle to Guildford station. We took a long route as Alpesh wanted to show me his former university of Surrey. Now most universities in this part of the world have great infrastructure irrespective of the location or the university’s reputation. I was amazed at the Performing Arts Studio in there. Let me not even start talking about the football grounds and other sporting facilities. I didn’t take pictures due to the rain.
Took a fast train to London-Waterloo via Woking. It takes about 40 mins to Waterloo. During the course of the journey we spoke about Alpesh’s experience here over the last 2 years. So the house is owned by a Pakistani and has been rented by all Indians – 2 Gujjus, 2 Marathis and 1 Sardar. It’s funny how Gujjus-Marathis stay together even in pardes. Natural affinity I guess :p It’s fascinating also to know what kind of people come here from India and for what reasons. But we’ll talk about that some other time. The quality of travel on Southwest trains is satisfactory and there are nice sights from the glass windows. Overall a great experience. They sell liquor and packaged foods and drinks on the train and I was trying to figure out what kind of sales must be made each day. I have not travelled yet in peak hours so would be difficult to know.
So we reach London Waterloo. Waterloo as you would remember is supposed to be historic. Alpesh showed me some famous clock at the station. In fact the remaining part of the day remained immersed in history. So we go to London Bridge station from there and Alpesh left me near the Queen’s walk start because he had to give a presentation in his college. Interestingly, his co-presenter was a Pakistani girl and she had made the entire presentation. Alpesh was free riding :p
So now I was alone. I had to decide where to go. Alpesh would meet me after 4 hours. It was drizzling and I spent time at the waterfront of the River Thames. From here on I shall let the pictures do most of the talking.
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| London 2010 |
It was the auspicious day of Raksha Bandhan that I was leaving for London. I had a sad and terrible night before which I will refrain from talking about here. I want this section to only speak of positive things. Last 1 month has been a month of deep sorrow and mourning. In many ways it’s changed how I look at life.
So coming back to London, both Meru and Mega cabs were not available for a short trip to the airport (they’re doing tremendous business) and I had too much luggage to be taken in a rickshaw. And lo! Anuj Gosalia comes to my rescue. He is my saviour. It’s funny that he CAN actually be useful to someone : P. On a more serious note though it was touching to have both Anuj and Dhruval Doshi wake up early morning on a holiday just to drop me to the airport.
Now I have about 45 kgs of luggage in 2 bags with me which needed to be checked in. Kingfisher was kind enough to allow me upto 50 kgs since I am a student. I must mention that my experience with Kingfisher has been very good so far and I have flown double digit times with them. This was my first International flight with them though. I had web checked in and had booked a window seat about 2 months back: P (People who’ve travelled with me know what a sucker I am for the window seat!) I had about 2 hours before the flight took off. Went off to sleep for a while and had a Multi-grain sandwich from Cafe Coffee Day. It’s the only real affordable place at the airport to eat food. Rs.90 wonly.... There was row wise check in for the flight which was a first for me. I have been to Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia and have never seen this before. It’s quite efficient actually.
On board my co-passenger was a young firangi girl with whom I didn’t strike conversation until very late in the journey. More about that later. Kingfisher is good. I loved the food served on board. Desserts, White rum, snacks.....no reason for me to complain. The in-flight entertainment options are very good too. I watched Wake up Sid again and liked it more now. Also, saw a little bit of Bollywood Calling (Om Puri, Perizaad Zorabian wala movie). Thought it was quite trashy. I also saw one whole part of a BBC documentary on India that I have on my laptop. Not much needs to said about the cabin crew J! I think they do well and deliver on most promises that they make. The flight was jam packed and not a single seat was empty! I have made some good money on the aviation sector in the stock markets and I see no reason to sell my stocks: P The only cause of discomfort for me was the space and the leg room in the economy class for a man of my size. Plus, since I was on the window seat, every time I got up my co-passenger had to move which is a problem in a 9 hour flight because that would happen often. I got up only 3 times though in the entire flight. There’s of course the perennial problem of the guy sitting on the front seat reclining by a few degrees. There are only 2 ways out of this. Either adjust your size to the seat or make so much money that you can afford the next level of comfort. I think I like the latter option better ;-) The Kingfisher First Class is something I specially went to check out. It is not difficult to imagine the kind of effect it has on an aspirer like me. I don’t care whether it’s worth it or no but there will be a time where I will have the option(affordability wise) of flying first class every time I board a flight.
After about 6 hours into the flight, I was bored. I was fed up of the in-flight entertainment; my laptop battery had given away and was in no mood to read. My co-passenger also seemed bored and so I decided to start a conversation. I asked her if she was a local in UK and she turned out to be one and that question led to about 2 and half hours of good conversation. She is an first year undergraduate student of English Literature in Manchester but a resident of London. She was in India just to travel around with some friends. She said she had some of the best and the worst times of her life in India over the previous 6 weeks. And btw, she also had very good words for Kingfisher AirlinesJ. We talked about a lot of things and what struck me was the maturity. I have met very few girls in India of a similar age who can talk about so many things with such a perspective. Time just flew by until when we were over London. Congestion at Heathrow meant our pilot was forced to hover over London and that was the best thing that happened. It was a clear day in London and the city looked amazing from the plane. And since I had the window seat I had an awesome view! Plus, I had a guide in her. She kept on showing me important locations which she could spot. It was weird for her to see London from the top. It was quite a sight to see the River Thames, the 2012 Olympics stadium under construction, London Eye etc. She was kind enough to offer her contact details just in case I needed help in London.
Too much congestion at London Heathrow...something I have experienced often at Mumbai over the last 1 year. It took about 20 minutes to get out of the plane after landing. My immigration clearance and baggage clearance was pretty smooth. Almost everyone around me was asked to open up their bags for inspection. I was just asked a few questions and was allowed to go. I had no pickles and dairy products and they were happy with that. The toilets at Heathrow were quite dirty.
At the arrival gate waiting was Mr. Patel! He called out to me and I saw Alpesh. Same. Untidy long hair and no change in body size or shape. Harshal Shah(another NMite and Umangite) had also come along wearing shorts in what was turning from clear skies to quite a chilly weather. First thing Mr.Patel does is hand me over a Nokia N93 with a Vodafone sim. He declares it is my phone and my number for as long as I want to use it. We drove back to Guildford, Surrey in a taxi. Technically, it was the first time I was sitting in an Audi. Alpesh and Harshal live in a nice house in Guildford with 5 other inmates. We ordered Dominos Pizza and it was great catching up with THE Alpesh Patel. Already discussions on whether he should come back to India have started and there is going to be more discussion in the following week.
The garlic herb dip is something which Dominos HAS to introduce in India. By the way, Dominos doesn’t give any 30 mins guarantee in UK : P. Full with great pizza and tired after a long journey I just fell off to sleep at 9.30pm London time.
(No pictures are available for Day 1 as the camera did not come out of the bag. Hopefully from next post onwards there will be lesser words and more pictures)
