Around this time last year i wrote a blog titled "From Wuhan to Velachery", this blog is a sequel to it but this time its my mother.
23rd April - My mother is sick with headache, body pain and mild fever, Day-1 she took the usual home remedies for the day but the body pain didn't reduce. On Day-2 my dad took mom to a general physician who on initial diagnosis said the symptoms are not related to covid and gave medication/antibiotics for 3 days. For the next 3 days she took the medicines, the mild fever subsided, her body pain too got reduced, as she showed signs of recovering come Monday morning she became dull again with body pain. Now i decided to go for covid test and informed the chennai corporation authorities who come for a daily home visit to check if every one is fine. I informed the corporation lady staff(jaya) who immediately arranged for swab collection at home. I quarantined my mom to master bedroom and didn't let her to come out for any reason. I was quite surprised, as initially i thought i would need to take her to primary health center to provide swab sample.
Within a hour the swab collection was done at home, this made me realize the stupendous job that chennai corporation is doing for the welfare of the community. We easily blame the government that they are not doing a good job without even experiencing what they are doing for the community. I agree that the government let loose during the election campaign 2021, hoards and hoards of people gathered in huge numbers without mask and social distancing was a joke then. We all knew the second wave is nurturing at those gatherings but less we know that it will hit us hard and right on head with a hammer in a short span of time. North India is worst hit, we see gory news in the news channels, Delhi our capital is lacking oxygen cylinders and people are dying at the hospital entrance due to lack of beds/oxygen cylinders and i see a news where a woman is trying desperately to review her breathless husband by giving CPR. 3.5 lakh cases is the daily count of covid cases in India and chennai is reporting 12k, 13k, 14k numbers gradually, an increment of 2k cases every 2 days and news that hospital beds are getting full.
Though my mom didn't have fever or cough or loss of appetite, her only discomfort is body pain and its totally not reducing at all, come Tuesday i started to call the corporation staff and they said it will take one more day for the result as the number of test samples are huge in number. My mom being quarantined to a room where we give food and other things at the door entrance without even entering the room, while my mom is hoping that she will be out next day and she many not have covid (our minds failing at accept the reality that we may covid is a concern in many families), but i am skeptical and i had a hunch that she has got covid. I had that hunch because my cousin brother who live next door is sick and lost smell sensation, my mom and us we daily visit them as it is just a cross over of a bridge between two buildings.
28th Apr; Come Wednesday noon, i got call from Chennai corporation that my mom is tested positive and i can choose to go the government route; which is, they will arrange ambulance to take her to a testing center and get CT & blood tested or i can choose the private hospital route where i take care of things myself. I decided to go the private way to take CT scan first and then consult with doctor via phone based on the result. By evening i got a doctors contact at global chennai and visited hospital at 9 pm. In the next 2 hours CT scan and blood test was done, along with me & mom, my cousin brother living next door also came for CT scan in separate vehicles. For my cousin lung infection is very mild and can be home quarantined as suggested by doctor. But for my mom its 30 to 40% impact and she requires hospitalization is what the doctor suggested, he also said that 75 beds at the hospital is currently fully occupied and may take another 2 days for a bed to be available, until then the steroid tablets should work but hospitalization is necessary is what the doctor advised. At midnight, i am back at home, gave medicines for my mom and for the next 1 hour till 1 am, i scanned through the government portal which list the vacant beds available across chennai. Contacting each and every hospital that showed beds available, the standard one statement reply i got from all the hospital is, all the beds are full and i need to call back morning around 11 am to check if any beds available. I slept through the night hoping everything would be fine.
29th Apr; Thursday morning i woke up early and my mom is fine, oximeter reading is normal no issues apart from the constant body pain. Many of my family relatives started calling and inquiring about the health condition of my mom and we started looking for vacant beds through our contacts. One such contact informed there is vacancy in MIOT hospital and in parallel i inquired about the government hospital bed vacancy with the corporation staff and i was told beds are available in KMC hospital and if i am fine then ambulance will be arranged. After consulting with my family members we decided to got for MIOT, i took my car wearing double mask and mom at the rear seat, reached MIOT at around 11 am. There is separate block in MIOT for covid patients; one hall for patients and other hall for their attenders. My mom was seated in a chair in the covid hall and i was asked to be in the attenders hall. I don't want to sit in the attenders hall as i know that place is heavily infested with corona virus, i refrained from touching things and add to my fear there is not even a single hand sanitizer bottle at the entrance or inside the attenders hall, such a irresponsible hospital management and throughout the day not even once the area was sanitized.
Its 2 pm, from 11 am onward no medication was given, my mom told she is hungry and when i told the doctors to give food they asked me to get from canteen and then in five minutes i was asked to pay 25k for further tests and when i paid the amount, there comes the food quickly. I was told that CT scan, blood test needs to be done and temporary bed would be given for which i need to pay 25k, i told i have blood reports available which i took just 12 hours before and i got reply that as per their hospital policy they wont accept test results done outside and the consider report only done at their own labs. I paid and asked them to go ahead with the process because i know if i ask logical questions i will get simple reply as mom is in risky condition and its up-to me to take the risk or not. Just imagine, same blood, same type of test which the hospital won't accept and this is case across all the private hospitals. These private hospitals try to capitalize on our fear to their benefit. I literally see that the hospital is sending away patients whose oxygen is 90 or below just by replying they don't have beds, only stable patients are screened further as the hospital know they can earn easy money from them. One patient who sat next to my mom was pretty stout and he looks very stable but the HOD told him test cannot be taken for him, i felt the reason was he might be a complicated case to be screened at hospital and not a easy money earning case. I literally heard the doctor mumbling to the security to pushing him out fast.
From what i see and what i hear is, COVID-19 is a boon to the corporate hospitals where they make hell lot of money, the media has instilled horror stories in our minds that we panic and are afraid to take bold decisions. As a son i want best treatment/medication to be available at any cost and hospitals capitalize on that.
Jan 2020 my father got hospitalized in Ramachandra chennai for a very minor issue, 2 days in ICU and 1 day in normal ward cost me 75000. Many such incidents i faced and many stories from friends, when you get admitted to a hospital they try to earn as much as possible capitalizing on your fear and we all know that hospital are commission based and doctors are given target like sales people. Private hospitals in India are becoming blood sucking parasites, any chance is capitalized upon by the bloody MONEY SUCKERS!!! Sometimes i feel why i didn't study medicine and if you don't have any doctors contact in family or friends then god save you from the parasites. I fear private hospital are becoming the new non-curable parasite, and i hope the government steps in and kills the parasite that is growing in our community. I hope i should never be hospitalized in any situation even while lying on my death bed.
On the contrary, so far the help i got from the government is phenomenal and got to know their care is pretty great at their centers, they pick you from home, cure you and drop you back at home all expenses borne by the government.
At 2 pm, I went to canteen and had food, that is the first time i removed mask and after lunch i sat under a tree opposite to the block refrained from going inside, penning down all these thoughts and happenings. I was told that it would take at least till 8 pm for the results to be obtained then a decision would be taken. At 5 pm, i went to have coffee and while returning back i saw my car tyre got punctured (i was like give me a break), i took the spare tyre and replaced the punctured one sweating out all the way. I hate being at hospitals and always refrain from going to one, this double mask elastic band is pulling my ear down inducing constant pain; my annoy meter is at the max currently(like anger character in inside out movie).
7.21pm; hurray, i was told my mother is in early recovering phase and the medication should cure her, the lady doctor with whom i spoke just now is sweet, she said not to worry and panic, that she is seeing patients who is panicking and staying in hospital and wasting money. I see many patients are going back one by home as advised to be home quarantined, at-least 10 in the past 3 hours; only stable patients are allowed to get down from the vehicle. When you come through reference, they tell beds available, 25k to 30k per person easily around 15 to 20 patients per day, do the math and you know what kind of business is being churned out per day and i was told if admitted it will be 30k per day. Just imagine the situation of people who are in middle class and getting into private hospitals.
We got out at 10 pm and i literally had to scold people to get my mom out soon as from 7.30 every 20 minutes when i asked they just replied another few more minutes, one hand they are taking lot of patients just to screen and earn and on other hand they are under staffed. I have made/receive 120 calls today from 12:00 am to till now, phone is running in ultra power saving mode at 9%, this ultra power saving mode saved my day.
From 11 am till 10 pm there was no medication given to my mom(not even a dolo 650 to reduce body pain), food was not proper and no hot drinks given in the evening. A co-patient near my mom asked for hot water and the nurses said they don't have hot water and they have only bottled water which is always cold inside the aircon room. I would have taken a good care of my mom at home and did a better job than the blood suckers. I spoke with a couple of patients attenders and all of them tell the same thing that they could have given better care at home and government hospitals are doing a great job than the private ones.
Everyone tells that if one person in a family is covid positive then by default the remaining ones in the family would also be positive and the government officials told us we need not worry and not to take test, if we don't have symptoms then it would mean our immune system is doing a good job containing the virus. Hoping to be fit for the rest of the week.
Currently situation in India is all hell broke loose, stay safe guys, stay away from corona and mainly stay away from the Money Suckers (AKA) Monster Suckers. #GoGovernment. I see many people refrain from taking covid test and they assume they wont get corona even if they have any related symptoms, key to get cured from corona is to act fast, right from day 1 of any symptoms. Corona can be defeated only in two ways; herd immunity or vaccination.
Though my father was frightened a bit, i was not, because i know, sometimes bad things may happen but at the end of the day good things happen to good people. Hope the "Wuhan to Velachery"series ends here and no more sequels to write.
I do travelling a lot and its been 4 years since i wrote my
last travelog, my last one was on Euro Trip. After relocating back to India from Singapore i didn't do much of international travel. Srilanka, Mauritius,
Thailand & Cambodia were the ones i did in the last four years. Srilanka
with friends, Mauritius was my honeymoon trip, Thailand & Cambodia was a
family trip with 21 of my family members. If anyone ask me to give example of
remarkable things i did in my life, i would for sure quote these two things,
first one is my trek of mount kinabalu (4096 metres high) and the second one is
the family trip of Thailand and Cambodia with 21 of my family members entirely
planned, organized and executed by me, everything from A to Z and by far
that trip took humongous amount of work than any other travel I organized so far.
So after four years why this blog, whilst half of the
world is under lockdown and travel is restricted, from/to india its
prohibited. And why the title from wuhan to velachery, as you read along the
blog you will understand and get a feel of my life.
25th April, i had a A/C service person to fix my bedroom
A/C as the drain water outlet pipe was clogged and water started to
drip inside the room, the issue was fixed by the person and he did full service
as well, removing all the dust from vents, filter panels. The next day i got sore throat, i
guess it might be due to the minute left over dust from aircon circulating
inside the room.
17th May 2020 (sunday) i started to clean my room as i was
elated to welcome my 5.5 months old son & my wife the next day from my
in-laws house, though i am heavily allergic to dust i made sure there is no stone left unturned. I completed cleaning activities in the evening and by the
time i took bath and got freshen up i started to develop runny nose, because of the dust that may have entered my nostrils evading through all my protective
gear. I am ecstatic by the thought in just few hours i am gonna bring my son home. Around
6pm i get a call from my father in law just to know that my son is sick, down
with fever. Well that's a bad start, the entire 2020 has been a bad year for me
right from January. I decided to sleep over at my in laws house for the night
and get my son home the next morning, i reached my in laws house and saw my son
so dull and my wife was a bit relieved seeing me. The night went by and next
day early morning at 6.30 am we left my in-laws home and reached my home around
7am.
My Son is so dull because of the fever and cried a lot but fortunately the
temperature is at 99ºF and didn’t go much higher, after talking to our
pediatrician we gave him all the medication that he needed. For the whole of
this week i took paternity leave so i can turn my house to a home for my son.
Monday passed and his temperature didn’t drop much, it fluctuated between 98
and 99ºF. Tuesday also he was sick but improved slightly, come Wednesday he got
cured and got smiles on his face and ours too. So, for the last 3 days I was
going to medical shop often to get his medication and organizing my room to
cater for his needs. In a small room that is already packed to the brim for two
person, i need to find space for one more and I did a pretty good job to
accommodate my son’s stuff.
Come Thursday, 21st May; the day has passed
playing with my son and my sister kids who came for summer holidays, this
morning I went to medical shop and later to buy sleeveless attire for my son. At 6 pm,
I went to rooftop with my sis kids and cousin kids to play football and that’s
my usual 6 pm schedule be like in the lockdown days, not even a single day has
passed without playing rooftop football in the eve. I got very mild headache
and sore throat, after football session me and the kids played Mario till about
8 pm.
I have never seen my son giggle, though he did a couple of times while he
was at in-laws house which I have watched through video but not in person. This
night, he giggled for me and it’s so vibrant to see it in person. At around
8.30 pm out of nowhere suddenly i got chills followed by fever and headache has
increased with body pain and I have got sore throat too. I decided to stay away
from my wife and son and went on to sleep in the living area for the night. My
parents said its hot outside and I better sleep in the room which has got
Aircon but I refrained and decided to sleep on the floor for the night and you won’t
believe I needed blanket to cover me from the chills I had, May month is when
the temperature is at its peak in Chennai, the day’s high was at 41ºC and
at the night it was at 32ºC and my body temperate is at 100ºF and I
still needed blanket.
As I was lying at one corner of my living area atop a mat, I
started to think, I have got fever, head ache, body pain, sore throat and
that’s pretty much the symptoms of COVID only thing missing is I don’t have
cough. Now all the weird thoughts started to flow through my mind. I used to
watch a lot of movies where the lead character gets cancer and how they live the rest of
their life before the end arrives and I used to think, if I ever get cancer and know
that my days are numbered that I would liquidate some of my asset and go on a
world tour like the Jackie chan movie around the world in 80 days. So, now I am
thinking is this an indication of the arrival of my end, my son’s giggle was it some kind of message, am I
contracted with COVID, there is very minimal chance that I am contracted with
COVID as I didn’t go out much and even if I did, it was only for essential and
that too with caution but a chance is still a chance.
Statistically, at the world level the death rate is at 13%
and recovery at 87% and my city statistics stands at 1.8% death rate and 98.2%
recovery rate. Well, even if 1.8% is at lower side but it’s still a probability of chance occurring and
I don’t know if I have any issues with my body that is unknown to me yet. From
the outside I may look I am a person who is very fit but only I know that I
have a damaged body, from head to toe I got some faulty parts. My wife came
down to visit me, I smiled and winked at her so that she won’t feel bad that I
am down, I said bye to my wife and continued to lie on the mat. A couple of my
friends flash through my mind, I started to think should I call them and speak. I had a friend, when that friend hoped something for me and things would always
happen in my favor, should I call that friend and ask to hope for me or should
I wait and ask for a bigger hope in case if I am COVID positive. Should I show the text file to my wife, which has all the details of my bank accounts and my
investment portfolio with passwords stored. As all the funny thoughts start to pour in,
the one thought that frighten me the most is that, if am COVID positive then there is a
100% chance that my wife would be positive too and my son would be too, well that’s
horrifying. I slept through the night, took a paracetamol tablet.
22nd May(Friday); At 7 am I woke up, body
temperature is still at 101ºF and I searched for the Chennai COVID helpline and
spoke with the support person and he advised me to visit prime health center
and speak with the doctor. At 9.30am, I went to the prime health center
accompanied by my father on a different bike, I spoke with the doctor and she
told me that direct COVID testing is not advisable and gave medication for 3
days (5 diff tablets) and asked me to take a viral test if the temperature
doesn’t go down and only after the viral test, the COVID test if at all
required will be advised by the doctor. First time in my life I went to a
government center for medical assistance and got the tablets at the facility
itself FOC.
I came back to my home and told my parents what the doctor told me,
I confined to one corner of my living area basically quarantine myself from my
family. I got a 5.5 months young baby at home and my sister kids 6yrs and 9yrs young at
home and I cannot afford to put them at risk. I stopped to touch the door
handle, used my feet to open or close the doors, I used only the common toilet
next to my living area, I avoided to touch anything with my palm or fingers
unless if something is specifically used only by me. I got a single floor bed
and a plastic chair and i didn’t move much, I was feeling tired that I almost
slept the whole day just woke up for food and tablets, the temperature
fluctuated between 100 and 102. This day is the first day since the lock down I
didn’t play football, my sis kids were at my parents room and didn’t come out
much and my son at my room didn’t come out at all. At night I saw my baby from
a long distance and waved to my wife, kind of silhouette image. I spoke to my
wife over phone and went back to bed, my mom noticed water dripping from my
eyes due to fever. That night my body temperate raised to 103ºF, I lied to my
family that it’s at 102 so as not to frighten them. I can feel I am literally
burning up, it felt like I am standing near a small sized hot furnace and would
need winter clothing (because of body chills) to stand near it. I dont remember being this sick before, bedridden for the entire day. I was in constant touch with my family doctor who helped me a lot over the phone.
23rd May(Saturday); My mom woke me at 7.30 am and
my body temperature has reduced to 100. I started to sweat a lot, the body
chills are no more. As I brushed my teeth I had vomit sensation but didn’t
vomit, I still feel the head is heavy and the fever is way less than the last
night, every one seems relaxed that my temperature got reduced. I had coffee
followed by breakfast then tablets then sleep. When I woke up for lunch my
temperature dropped to 99ºF, huff that’s a good sign, I still felt my head is
heavy and I am tried. My wife every now and then comes and checks up on me. My
sis kids talk to me from distance, I get to see my son in light at a distance.
It’s interesting, how a fever can turn you into an untouchable in your own
home, the steel food plate changed to paper plate and no one is allowed near you.
One of my sis kids was playing with a plastic ball at a distance and the ball
missed him and started to roll towards me, he started running towards the ball
as he know that he cannot come near me, hoping he could stop the ball before
it comes closer to me. But as the ball came closer to me he stopped a meter
away from me and turned back. Its kind off weird feeling, the kids who love to
spend time with you are now frighten of you. After lunch I slept again and woke
up at 5 pm and now my body temperature fluctuates between 97.5 and 98.5. My
fever is gone, tiredness also got reduced but my head still feels heavy though.
I didn't take bath for the past 2 days and badly need a bath but my mom didn't approve it, its always better to stick to your mom's advice at times like these, so i just cleaned myself with a warm towel. The kids call me for football, i told them not today, they plead me to atleast come and be refree but i said may be tomorrow.
I can feel I am recovering and family could feel it too, the kids also see that
I am recovering and started to come close to me but I tell them to stay away,
the kid who was playing with the ball wants to have a WWF with me. I told him
not today, that I will be recovered fully tomorrow and the fight can happen
tomorrow, to intimidate him I took 20 push ups (my average is at 80 to 100). He
intimidates me back by few push ups and some AB crunches and tells me that he
is ready right now and wants settles scores right away. I feel relieved that I
am getting back to normal, finished dinner and my wife walks to me and asks so
tomorrow I will be back to the bedroom and I replied, for sure with a smile.
24thMay(Sunday); As usual i woke up at 7.30 am and all the symptoms vanished just my head felt slightly heavy. The WWF kid woke up as well and came right to me and asked if i am cured and as i said yes he started hitting me, in a short duel i put him down and told him i am back. My wife walks straight to me and asks if my quarantine days are over, i replied yes with a smile and started to clean my quarantine things.
I officially ended my quarantine days, if the corona is not around it would have been just another needle in a haystack but the corona scare made a viral fever turn to a nightmare one for me. By now everyone knows we will have to learn to live with corona around but having baby in your home its really tough and you got to be super cautious.
I don't believe in god but i believe in the following quote;
Though some bad may happen, eventually Good things will happen to Good people.
1 continent, 6 countries, 10 cities, 6 friends, 11 days, 8 hotels, 3 world wonders, 1 snow mountain, buses, trams, trains, flights, boats, cars, cycles, cable car, singing/dancing on the streets, x no. of sandwiches, y number of burgers, z no. of pizza's, 4000+ photos that's a brief of our Euro trip, at the end of which i struck off the 3rd continent from my world map.
The full itinerary of Euro trip was formulated and booked entirely by ourselves, which took almost 3 weeks to finalize. A Lot of permutations & combinations and confusions ended up with a plan of 5 countries. Initial plan was to visit only 4 countries. After discussions and travel options, 4 countries became 5 countries and on the next day 5 became 6 and then on the next week 6 became 7 and it seemed never ending. After contemplating, considering our body fitness and time, we finalized these 5 countries; France, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland & Italy. Seems Vatican city in Italy is also considered a country; a country surrounded totally by another country, so technically that marks the 6th country of our trip.
That's the depth of planning
For Europe trip you need to get Schengen visa with which you can travel up to 25 countries in Europe. This visa is even more cumbersome to apply when compared to Australian visa, it requires a health insurance too. Venki, Muni, Senthil and I, the usual travelers from Singapore and Jack from USA and Muhil from Germany are the cast of Euro Trip.
From the past experiences getting visa is a hectic job for us. So, for the Europe trip we meticulously prepared all the docs required to apply at the French embassy Singapore and Jack has to apply in USA for the schengen visa. One fine morning we went to French embassy to apply for visa and got almost rejected at the application counter itself. We were told that as per our itinerary we stay longer in Italy and that we have to apply for visa at the Italian embassy. After persuading the personnel at the counter, he considered our application at the French embassy itself because our arrival and departure is at France and moreover we stay the same number of days in France and Italy. It was just that we stay few hours more in Italy than France. For Schengen visa, it doesn't matter where you land or where you depart, you need to apply visa at the country's embassy in which you would stay the longest as per your itinerary.
After coming out of the embassy we quickly called Jack and alerted him about the situation we encountered at the embassy.
Mr. Jack resides in North Carolina state and he is temporarily working in New York, so he booked an appointment at French embassy in New York. To his surprise after reaching the embassy, he was asked to go to Italy embassy in Philadelphia(his residing states consulate). Looks like in US there is a rule that you need to apply visa in a consulate in which your residing state belong. We also asked him to go to Italy embassy instead of French embassy in his residing state's consulate. To reach Philadelphia he had to travel 500 miles(8 hours by drive). After going to the Italy embassy in Philadelphia, the counter personnel asked him to go to French embassy, frustrated Jack pushed aside the chairs, slammed the embassy doors when leaving the embassy; it was the eve of Friday. At his home when inner peace engulfed Jack, he realized that the lady at the counter misinterpreted the itinerary, as he stays more days in France than Italy. So Jack booked an emergency appointment and went with a peaceful mind to Italy embassy again and explained the itinerary in such a way that the consul doesn't have any other option but to accept his application and grant visa. And guess what, he got his visa granted just one day before the flight departure. We got our visa stamped and jack got his too; Phew!!! Too much commotion for a visa.
30 Apr 2014: By 8 pm we packed our bags and got ready to land on the 3rd continent on our world map. Took taxi at 8.30 pm and reached airport by 9.00 pm, we were 2 hours before departure. Yes we don't want to take any risk, so we reached airport very early unlike the other trips. Got our boarding pass at Lufthansa airlines after which we went to take my traditional "travelog snap".
Last but 4 is our flight LH779
As usual we went to Anandha Bhavan but our usual's was not available so went for dosa and rava kichadi after which went to cheers mart for our usual drinks.
Wheels up at 11 pm, destination is Paris via Frankfurt with travel time of 15 hours, we boarded the aircraft early and we were the odd men out. Literally we four were the only Indians on-board A380; the worlds largest double deck passenger airliner; my first time on that mighty bird. Lot of movies was there for in flight entertainment and one of them was thala's Arambam.
01-May-2014; Landed Frankfurt at 5.45 am and our connection flight is at 7.15 am to Paris. This time clearing immigration was easy, we had just to show some docs. Everyone at the Frankfurt airport were gazing at us, may be our chocolate brown texture attracted them.
The connection flight took off on time and reached Paris Charles de Galle airport; one of the top 10 biggest airports in the world.
At the aircraft's airbridge we passed through the glass wall and saw that the sun was shinning very brightly at 8:00 am. Damn!!! it was supposed to be cold, we were dejected but not for long. Once we came out of the airport the cold weather embraced us, wow that was a huge relief. Jack reached the Paris airport before us and was waiting to welcome us.
Welcome jack
Took a 6-seater taxi for 70 euros from airport to our hotel; st. Christopher's inn at Garu de nord. Our rooms were very cozy for a budget hotel, we quickly got freshen up for the city tour.
Muhilan was on the way to our hotel from Germany, we got ready and were waiting outside for Muhil to join us at our hotel. By the time we met Muhil it was 12 noon and we saw Sujai on the way, who was travelling with his office colleague.
Tats our hotel
Welcome Muhil
Went to the metro, took a one day pass(€8.50 per day, per person) and headed straight to Arc de Triomphe. It started to drizzle right after we hit the streets, spent some time at Arc de Triomphe for the drizzling to settle down.
tats Arc de Triomphe
Our plan for the day is to walk down the long stretch to enjoy the scenic view of Paris. After the drizzling we started to walk and had food at a restaurant, damn it is really difficult munching those hard cold buns you can literally feel the pain in your mouth after eating those.
It was around 2 pm, drizzling started again, we bought an umbrella for €7 and started to walk again. As we walked down the straight road(Av. des champs Elyess), we saw old architectural massive structures everywhere.
Around 5 pm we started to search for toilet, half an hour past and we still could not find a public toilet. Finally when the tap is about to explode, we entered a restaurant had coffee and used the restaurant's toilet. One thing for sure that will happen to you in Europe is that, when you want to go for toilet, you always end up pursuing it; "The Pursuit of Toilet".
The above location is where the kamal song was shot, "Germany in senthen malare, tamil maganin ponne silaye kaadhal devathayae"
Then we went to louver museum, its where the famous Monolisa art is preserved. Since its 1st MAY most of the tourist attractions were closed and this one too. The buildings around the louver museum is an architectural excellence. Took lot of photos around the museum and spent some time there.
We were hungry so we started to scout for restaurants, as we walked, it started to drizzle again and then it turned violent so we had to go under shelter for a while. We slowly moved and on the way bought an umbrella, crossed few restaurants which were costly, finally ended up at subway with a foot long sub for each one of us. The branch had a pay use toilet for 50 cents per person but we used it as 50 cent per 6 persons. After stomach full we went out of the outlet and almost 70% of the people were gazing at us on the streets, the below photo would explain why...
The love lock bridge
the love lock bridge, eiffel tower behind
We went on to search for this canal cruise which goes around few important places including the Eiffel tower. After inquiring few people, we found that this cruise boarding point is very near to notre dam. The cruise departs at 8.20 pm and we were there at 8 pm but still we were not issued tickets because they have a cutoff time for each schedule, the next available one was at 9.20 pm. The cruise is an one hour journey and drops off at the same pick up location, no other choice, we had to go for it. Now, we got nearly an hour to spend so we planned to visit notre dam. We asked the cruise counter staff 'where is nostradamus?', he acted blur that's because we mispronounced notre dam as nostradamus. It is just opposite to the cruise company, we crossed the bridge and spent an hour at the closed church, just by chatting and taking pictures. Night at France starts only after 9 pm, which is good for tourists as you get lot of day time for sightseeing.
9.10 pm, we went to the cruise boarding point, the cruise was almost half empty. We went to the top open deck for better view, the wind was damn cold and freezing; probably first time in my life I am experiencing such freezing temperature. The main attraction of the cruise ride is that it goes very close to the Eiffel tower. After half an hour of the ride we can see the Eiffel tower approaching us gradually. In sometime, we were very close to the Eiffel tower and it was lit up with a luminous light. Such a pleasant view and it became mesmerizing for a minute when it was mixed with randomized flickering white light. We were very fortunate to take the 9.20 pm cruise to witness the beauty of the tower in night mode, if we had took the 8.20 pm cruise then it would have been day mode.
10.30 pm, we were back to the place where we boarded, from there we took the metro towards Eiffel tower. If you google for tickets to the top of Eiffel tower, 90% of the results would tell you to book your tickets online well in advance or else you will be stuck in the long queue if you chance it. We reached the ticket counter of the Eiffel tower at 11.30 pm and ironically there were very few people, hardly 20 in the queue ahead of us(may be it is because of late night).
We bought tickets to the top of Eiffel tower, there is a lift that takes you to the top. At the top it was very cold and there was this girl with mini skirt posing for photos in that bitter cold. You can see almost the whole of Paris from that height of 324 metres. The eiffel tower was constructed in 1889 and it was the tallest structure on earth when it was built with a weight of 10000 tons.
Watch it on the left
After 15 mins we climbed down and took metro straight to the hotel, reached around 1.30 pm. First day of euro trip and that was a long long day, our legs almost wept of exhaustion.
First sketch of Eiffel tower with comparison of height with other structures
02-May-205; 7.30 am as usual I was the first one to wake up, target was to get ready and finish breakfast by 10 am and we almost did it. Free breakfast at the hotel, nothing great about the food worth a mention. We did checkout of the hotel and dumped our bags at the hotel lockers. 3 of Jack friends working in Austria reached last night and will join us today for the sight seeing. We took the metro from Garu de Nord station to Chateau Rogue station and walked all the way to sacre coeur(Basilica of the Sacré Coeur); which is our first tourist destination for today.
The church is on a small hill, from its top you get to see the view of city. Reached there around 11 am, there are lot of souvenir shops in streets of this place and its very affordable.
There are two entrance to reach the top of church one is via on one side and other is to take the curved path(like in the above photo). Unaware of the trap at the other end of the curved path we started to climb up. We were a group of 9 people, at the end of the curved path there was a group of Black people standing in a straight line perpendicular to the pathway like a toll gate. When we reached the other end of the path, each one of the Black guys caught hold of each one of us and held our hands. Each one of them were well built and at least 6 ft high, even if you try to push through they wont let off your hands, yet 3 of us managed to slip through them. Quickly the black guys started to tie a small colored thread on our hand and started asking money for the thread; claimed to be ritual thread. Even if you give 5 euro they won't let you go, some of us even gave 15 euros to escape from them. One brave soul from our group just gave only 1 euro and manage to free himself from them.
The whole incident happened in a jiffy, at the end of which you find yourselves being robbed of X euros. So, in case if you ever go to this place and see a bunch of black people standing just take a big U-turn and take the other route. Such a cheap way to rob tourist and the government doesn't care or take any action about it. Spent about an hour at the church taking photos, searching toilet and wandering around. We saw the black guys again, now they started roaming around, finding tourists to tie the stupid thread and rob them.
Its was again the cold rough buns for lunch, after food we went for purchasing souvenirs.
We took the metro and went again to Eiffel tower to get a view of it in day light. Went there around 1.30 pm, on the way was this automatic high tech toilet. Few of us went to use the toilet, if you were a bystander watching us using the toilet, then definitely you would have had an outburst of laugh. For one person to use the toilet it would easily take 8 minutes, to cut short the time we tried lot of different stuff which resulted in the door being automatically opened midway, latrine been pulled in, two person using at the same time; loads of comic moments...
From Sacre Cour to Eiffel Tower
If you were able to find a correlation between the photos above at the first look then i have made a successful collage, i should pat my back.
This evening at 5.30 pm we have a train to catch from Paris de Nord station to Amsterdam, the paris de nord station is just few steps from our hotel. We went around the Eiffel tower and took lots of photos solo one's/group one's. Near the tower there were lot of people attracting tourist using the Cup and ball trick, you can see bunch of people being cleverly tricked and lots of euros being lost in the flick of an eye.
We didn't play the game because we have seen such things in our villages and there is no way you can beat the host. I saw a guy who easily lost close to 200 euros in a single attempt. We left around 3 pm from the Eiffel tower to the hotel; had some refreshments at the hotel's restaurant. Took our bags from the lockers and headed straight to the station.
We had booked in Thayls service provider, the max train speed of which is appx. 350 km per hour; my first time on a real super fast train. After we boarded, in less than 15 mins we headed straight to the cafeteria and spend most of our journey time in the cafeteria mostly chatting, eating, drinking & gazing at the cafeteria sales lady. The train had a heater and it was warm all through the travel time.
In the train, there was this TTE lady to whom we said "hi" every time she passed us, would have been at least 20 times in the whole 3 hours journey and she replied back with a big smile every time she crossed us. When you leave France, all that gloomy straight faces registered in your mind gets erased by the warm welcoming faces of dutch people; such a big difference.
Between Paris and Amsterdam is Belgium and our train crossed Brussels; got down at the Brussels stop and took few photos. We had Belgium in our first itinerary, since the transport timing didn't suit us we had to skip this country.
We alighted at Rotterdam station which is one stop before Amsterdam because our hotel is very near to Schipol airport(Rotterdam). Amsterdam was much colder than France, so cold that it forced our jackets to quickly come out of the bags and cuddle us.
Took this photo at a photo booth @ Amsterdam
After taking photo at the trademark "I Amsterdam" hoarding, we headed straight to Ibis Amsterdam; which is our stay for the next two days.
Our hotel is at least 20 mins away from the city by train, we didn't get any rooms near the city area; all booked even 2 months before. We checked in @ Ibis and in half an hour's time we left the hotel to city by metro and reached around 10.30 pm and it was freaking cold out there. Went to MCD for dinner which was just few metres away from the metro station, well MCD was a savior for us back to soft buns. After dinner we went around some of the famous places around the canal, spent some time around the streets and we left to hotel around 12 am, as we were tired and next day we have to get up early. There is Ibis hotel bus service from the metro station to the hotel; the last service is at 1.15 am. We missed one bus slot by just 30 secs and had to wait 15 mins for the next one in that freaking cold weather.
3-May-2014; Got ready around 9 am, our day trip for today is keukenhof; the famous flower garden of Amsterdam.
Took the 9.15 bus from hotel to schipol airport, since some of us didn't eat breakfast we had to find some food chains in the airport. To stimulate our frustration a few burgers ordered at burger king took at least 45 mins for takeaway. 10.30 am, we took the bus from airport to keukenhof and that's another 45 mins drive out of the city. As we had bought the tickets earlier clearing the entrance of the flower garden was easy, the garden was fully packed with tourists. You can see lots of buses, one behind the other dropping off hundreds and hundreds of tourists.
Inside the gardens there are huge varieties of flowers in different colors, so much colors that you think of any color in the spectrum of colors and there is one flower in the garden matching it. Yet, we were quite disappointed, as our imagination of kuekenhof was like the "kumari" song from ''Anniyan" movie; different colors of flowers in a long straight line parallel to each other extending up to 200m(The Tulip fields). After taking few pictures with the flowers at the garden, we went to food court and had some burgers for lunch.
One more beautiful flower spotted :)
Around 2 pm we left the garden, at the exit was this band which attracted people with their enthralling music and most importantly the band members were very energetic.
At the very exit there was this bicyclehiring service, at which you can pay and cycle around the small village. We took 6 cycles one for each, they gave us a map with different routes ranging from 5 km to 25 km. The bicycles had pedal brake and not hand brake; first time I am riding a bicycle with pedal brake. Since my fraternity is a bunch of lazy bums we took the 5 km route. The foot brake bicycle was a bit tough to control initially, Senthil rammed his cycle onto a professional cycler who came in opposite direction on his professional cycle. I had a long time wish that I should ride bike or cycle on a foreign country side farm land and it came true in Amsterdam.
Along the route we should see the Tulip fields like in Anniyan song, as per the map given to us. We indeed saw few fields but to our despair all the flowers had been plucked from the fields. Then we came to know that every year, last week of April is the season in which Amsterdam blossoms with colors to the fullest, we went at the first week of May. If we had went cycling on the last week of April then it would have been an unimaginable feat to our eyes. If you ever plan a trip to Europe then Amsterdam must find a place in your itinerary and make sure you plan in the second half of April. We cycled along our route on that pleasant weather in search of an Amsterdam's trademark windmill. We took an off-track route and found two windmills at quite a distance, spent some time there taking photos.
By the time we cycled back and were on course our route the boys got tired, on the map we spotted few restaurants at some distance and cycled towards it. Found few tulip fields along way but most of them already been harvested. We then found a restaurant, parked our cycles and ordered burgers and wine. The restaurant was very pleasant, the location of the restaurant made it even more pleasant to have dinner.
By the time we finished the meal it was 5.30 pm, since it was very late we cycled back to board the bus to our hotel. On the way back we entered one of the tulip fields for a photo session.
After lot of solo photos being snapped, we hit the road again and Muni boy's bicycle chain slipped. The chain setup is fully closed so we cannot put back the chain on its rack. We had to tow Muni boy all the way back; Venki, Jack & myself took turns in towing, actually Venki was the one who did most of the towing.
Human Towing
We reached the bus boarding area at 6 pm and there was a freaking long queue waiting to board the bus. Its one of the longest queues that i have stood so far; next to the tirupathi's devasthalam queue. The only hope in the queue was that it was moving at a good rate and in 45 mins we were able to take the bus back to the hotel.
see parallel queue at a distance??? This is a single queue, that's how long the queue was...
8.30 pm we reached the hotel, target was to get ready and board the 9 pm shuttle bus back to the metro, but we missed it and finally took the 9.15 pm bus. As you know our hotel is half an hour away from the city area, this night is the last night in Amsterdam so we want to enjoy the night life of Amsterdam. 10.15 pm we reached Amsterdam central and went straight to the MCD, had some burgers for dinner, then we walked straight ahead to the party area.
This night we went to the main party area where you can see different ethnic group of people from all around the world gather in the same area. The night was freezing cold and we went to wander around the streets, the streets were light up with lot of colors on all of the doors of the small houses, it was so colorful that it forces you to gaze at each one of the house. After spending some time at the streets of Amsterdam, we returned back to the central stationOn the way we went to MCD again; i guess that's fourth time we are going to the same MCD. After some burgers we left and took the train back to schipol airport, on the train we were singing tamil songs for the entire half an hour journey, lot of chorus songs(mainly "ippadi unnai yenthi kondu inthiralogam poividava; ratchagan song"), our music band woke up few passengers in the train. From schipol airport we took taxi back to our hotel, since few taxi didn't take us which forced jack to scold some of them in foul language. By the time we reached hotel it was 2 am, itinerary for tomorrow is not fixed; more like leisure time.
04-May-2014; The only fixed itinerary for today is Vondel park. Got ready around 9 am and took train to Amsterdam central, from there we took a short city tour by foot; first spot was Dam Square. Before the city tour we had to dump our bags at the station baggage drop, we had checked out of the hotel and our train to Munich is at 8 pm today. At the baggage section the lockers accepted only credit card, we spent half an hour at an locker trying to figure out how to pay and use the locker; finally came to notice that the locker that we were trying is not functioning; shit!!! It was heavily crowed in the locker section, quickly we found some lockers and dumped our bags at the lockers and left to MCD for breakfast.
On the way we bought some souvenirs, we reached Dam square but was still searching for it; had to convince ourselves that the place we are at is actually Dam square as our map gave us a different portrait.
Took some photos and we moved straight ahead to the Amsterdam National Museum. Since the ticket price for the museum was high, we didn't go inside the museum but took some photos outside.
After museum we went straight ahead to vondel park where muhilan had scheduled a visit with his friend(localite). At vondel park we met muhilan friend, who informed us there isn't much to see at vondel park and took us straight to the coffee shop for some coffee.
There was this famous coffee shop where we had coffee and some cake, then we went to have lunch at some noodle shop. This noodle shop was almost Asian style so we ordered extra hot chilli noodle for every one and it was damn spicy. After lunch venki started to feel dizzy and as time passed by muhilan felt dizzy too, everyone started feeling dizzy one by one as time passed expect muhilan friend. We were not exactly sure what caused the dizziness but muni boy had a feeling that his head was ice cold, each one of us had their own feeling because of the dizziness.
We were supposed to take the canal cruise after lunch, since most of us felt dizzy we went to the Amsterdam central to take rest. Muhilan friend offered to go to his house and take rest but we went to the station instead as the timing was tight. Can you imagine we went to the station 4 hours before our train schedule time just because we felt dizzy. There were many funny/crazy moments at the baggage section, super market, toilet and at the platform; i cannot elaborate those moment here as it would consume pages, call me or any of our boyz for the whole story :)
There was confusion if we are at the correct platform or not, but in some time it got confirmed and we are indeed at the correct platform. The confusion was mainly because the local and international train uses the same track and stops at the same platform. After some rest most of the dizziness faded away, at 6.30 pm Jack and i went to MCD to buy some burgers; MCD's in Europe are your savior its far better by tons than eating the frozen breads. Exactly at 8 pm the train reached and exactly at 8.30 pm we hit the beds and slept, train is scheduled to arrive Munich at 7 am.
05-May-2014; 7 am we took taxi to MEININGER Hotel München, got freshen up and started our city tour at 10 am. This day we framed a song for Muhilan as he used to spend a lot of time at the toilet, (song in tamil)
"Muhil hae, Muhil hae, vaa Muhil hae
Veliyae, Veliyae, Vaa Veliyae
Naan unnakaga than vegunerama kaathu rinthaen Vaaaaaaa Muhil hae"
in the lines of the actual tamil song
"Kuyil eh Kuyil eh poongkuyil eh,
mayil eh mayil en vaa mayil eh,
oru pooncholai yae unnakaga than poothaduthae vaa vaa"
For tourists there are loads of information about places of interest at Munich, i should say its probably one of best tourist friendly city even though nothing much to visit in it. You get everything at the hotel's reception itself, from city map to tram tickets. First we went to the Nymphenburg Palace, since we hadn't entered inside any of the palace so far in our trip, we went inside this one.
Not a majestic one, if you have time you can go to Neuschwanstein castle by skipping this one. Actually we hadn't planned well for Munich, the neuschwanstein castle takes close to 3 hours travel from the city, that castle resembles like the one's you see in those fairy tale movies.
Neuschwanstein castle from google
Guess we spent about an hour at the palace and then we returned back searching for tram stop; starring at the City map and street name. Our innocent lost faces attracted this old lady to stop by and guide us with the route. The old lady spoke good English, she too got lost from reading the map but after some time she showed us the right way. We then took tram to the Englisher garden; its a very big garden where you can find lot of tourists and locals.
After walking for sometime in the garden, our foot found the beer court. There were lot of people with big beer jugs and pork stick. The apt name for the garden would be englisher beer garden, as there a lot of beer courts and jugs n jugs of beers everywhere. We spent more time at the courts than at the park. We then took a exit from the park and struggled sometime searching for the bus stop to the market city. Reached the Marienplatz Square which is the city center of Munich, we spent some time roaming around and taking photos.
We then entered the Marienplatz bell tower, by then it was 5.00 pm and unfortunately the tower didn't have elevator, so you got to climb the steps all the way up and it was quite high. The boys were very tired by the time they reached top, at the top its a nice view of the city. After spending some time at the tower we then roamed around the streets.
One of Muhil friend told us that he will meet us at hofbrauhaus at 7 pm, in the mean time we had food and took a short city tour by walk. Before 7 pm we went to the hofbrauhaus which is a very famous beer brewery in munich. It's a very big place, you can see tons of beer jugs flying around being served and consumed. Muhil friend ordered a half jug and the waiter commented that half jug is for children and that we are adults and brought him a full jug. I guess this house has the most visited tourists in a day, a high class Beer house.
At 11pm we left hofbrahaus and reached our hotel early, as next day morning we have train to Garmisch at 6am. The top most point of Germany is the Zugspitze snow mountain, our first hit to a snow mountain.
06-May-2014; First time in my tourist life i had the luxury to wake up as the last person, usually i will the the first person to wake up and force the guys to get ready; thanks to Muhilan.
Boarded the train to Garmisch on time at 6am, its a 2.5 hours journey from Munich to Garmisch. The train route from Munich to Garmisch is a fantastic natural feat of mountains, houses and vast green fields.
Reached Garmisch on time as we didn't book any accommodation for the day, we went in search for the lockers so that we can dump our bags. We went a long way searching for the lockers following the sign board of Tourist info centre and its far from the train station. After walking for over 10 mins we finally reached the tourist info building to find it being closed. So we had to walk back to the train station, to our surprise the baggage section was at station itself and none of our 12 eyes spotted it. We dumped our bags at the lockers and went to buy train tickets to the mountain top.
We took the small train from Garmisch to Zugspitze at 10.00 am, the way to Zugspitze is even more appealing for our eyes. Vast greenish yellow grass with few huts spread out and mountain in the backdrop.
If i am given an opportunity to stay in Europe for the rest of my life then without a thought my choice would be Garmisch; such a pleasant village.
The train from garmisch stopped at a particular station and from there we took a bus, after the bus again we shifted to a different train; this is the actual train that goes to the top of the mountain. By 11.30 am we reached the mountain top, our first time on a snow mountain. There are few snow mountains in India but our first timer is bound to happen in Europe.
We expected freezing temperature on the snow mountain but to the contrary it was not even cold, mainly because of the sun light. The sun was scorching to a extent that we could not have a view of the landscape without coolers, the reflection from the ice was too bright to handle. We spent about 45 mins at that location mostly taking photos; solo, groups, coolers on, coolers off, scarf on, scarf off, jacket on, jacket off, t-shirt on, t-shirt off.
hero of our trip
Sun was scorching so hot, even with sleeveless it was not cold
We then took a cable car to reach the top most point of the mountain, where it was a bit cold and possible to get panoramic view of Germany. After sometime we went down to the restaurant to have lunch and it was a pretty heavy lunch that day and quite an experience to have at an ice mountain.
The train from the mountain downwards leaves every half an hour and we have a train to catch from garmisch to Zurich(Switzerland) at 6 pm. After few thoughts we took the train at 2.30 pm downwards, a tight timeline but if we stick to the plan we should be able to catch the 6 pm train. The return train stopped at its last station, from where we need to take a bus and then a train. But this spot is the place where Eibsee lake is located, so we took some time to wander around the lake. There was a restaurant, had coffee in it with the view of the lake by the side. This is the lake we saw at top angle from the top of the mountain(few pictures above).
Jack made friends with this old couple
We allocated only half an hour for the lake visit as the bus to the station is every half an hour, finally had to run from the lake to catch the bus, so that we could stick to our plan. The bus then stopped at the local train station, we spent some time at that location at the small village nearby.
By 4 pm we went to the train platform, where there isn't any soul and started to practice salsa dance with dance master jack.
Practice session:
Real Performance:
Took the local train to garmisch and got down 2 stops before Garmisch for a photo-shoot session at the greenish-yellow grass field. After photo-shoot session, dance session continued again on the platform till the next train.
By 5 pm we reached the garmisch station, that's about an hour earlier for the train to Zurich. Spent sometime at the station and the nearby shops buying souvenirs. Took the train to Zurich at 6 pm, this train crossed Innsburg (Austria), got down and took photos. Austria was also in our initial itinerary but was excluded because of the transport/timing constraints.
The above is the toilet facility inside the train...
At 11 pm we reached Zurich and took taxi to our hotel(Edwand lodges). In the whole of Europe, switzerland is the only country which doesn't use euro but Swiss franc. 1 euro is 1.2 Swiss franc, Swiss does accept euro but they take for 1:1. So when you ever go Swiss remember to get some francs, since we didn't have any francs handy, had to give euros for the taxi that night. The Edwand lodge is fully automatic, no receptionist nor front desk, there's a kiosk machine once you key in your booking number it drops you the room keys. Even for checkout you just have to drop the keys in kiosk; technology at its extreme. Since this is our only night at switzerland we went out for a short night walk, had some pasta for dinner.
07-May-2014; Next morning we went out for the city tour, took a bus from our hotel and went to the train station. We went to the tourist information desk at the station and i must say this, switzerland is by far the best tourist information country of all the ones that i have been so far. The information desk had 6 staff to serve the tourists, it had different kind of city maps, train/tram route maps, local tour packages, you can find any information for the matter. By far the costliest place that i have been too, with expensive locality i guess the government can afford to spend for tourism. After few options and with only one day at switzerland we fixed Rhine falls and Uteilburg mountain to visit for the day.
Exchanged euro to Swiss franc at the station itself then took the train to Rhine falls, reached the falls by 11 am. Rhine falls is a small falls more of a river, not a very great destination but can visit once, if you got time.
After spending some time at the falls we were back to the station where the dancing session continued till the arrival of the train.
Sleep wherever and whenever you can
We then alighted at the central for lunch and took another train to Uteilburg; top most point of Zurich. It was 3 pm, we took another train and reached Uteilburg, another 500 m trek to mountain top tower. The tower was swaying slightly, it is a great view from the tower which gives you a 360 degree of almost everything in Zurich.
We have a train at 7 pm from Zurich to Milan, so at 4 pm we were back to the Uteilburg station to get train to Zurich central. Again our dance session continued at the platform till the arrival of the train. At 5 pm we have reached the central, took our bags from the lockers, went for souvenirs and was waiting for the train. The train was delayed by 30 mins, bought some energy drink to boost up till the arrival of the train.
The train then arrived 45 mins late to its scheduled departure, our plan of city tour in Milan that night was not possible. One thing for sure is, if you are from India and when you reach switzerland you may feel totally different from what you have imagined; every Indian has a imagination of switzerland and when you reach you will see the difference.
By the time we reached Milan it was 11.30 pm, the Milan train station was itself an architectural excellence, stopped by MCD and packed some burgers for dinner. Our hotel Gonzaga is very near to the station, so we walked towards it and on the way Senthil almost got hit by a car while crossing the road. It was a fortunate night for us, else by now we would have been in some hospital finding a bed for Senthil. By the time we reached our hotel and cleared the front desk it was 12 am and we have a train to Venice at 7 am. Our plan is to leave the hotel at 6 am, it was a 3 per room type and Muhilan was the first one to wake up at 4 am to get ready.
08-May-2014; Milan was cold and very foggy in the morning, 7 am sharp the train took off to Venice.
Tats the metro station
It was a relief to be back in shorts
In our compartment, there was some school children who were off for a school trip to Venice. Somehow 3 of the kids liked us very much and we were playing games with them using hand signals, their school teachers didn't let them to move from their seats. We can see how eager they were to come and speak to us but since the teachers were strict we just have to use hand signals to communicate.
The kid replicating our dance moves
See the teacher signalling not to take foto??? Tats the strict teacher
At 10 am we reached Venice, the first thing you will notice in Venice is the climate; a drastic change compared to other parts of Europe, it was sunny and a bit hot too and the next thing that you would notice is the big crowd of tourist swarming in like files.
We took the water taxi ticket of 20 euros per person for one whole day. There is no land transport in Venice, everything at Venice is water based even the police patrols in a small boat. We walked to our hotel Ariel Silva and on the way we had our breakfast at a restaurant, traditional Italian food with wine.
By 11.30 am we had checked in and started for the self city tour. I found an one day itinerary in the internet posted in some blog, which is almost a perfect one for a days trip at Venice. First we went for the gondola ride, all of us in one gondola 20 euros per person for one short circuit. Well 20 euros per person is expensive but in Venice, gondola ride is one of the must do things.
I was very keen to visit all the places in Venice, i liked the place very much and it was in my bucket list. But Venki and Muni were not interested much so i had to force them to follow the itinerary, which is to reach Piazza San Marco at first. This place is a must go in Venice, where you can see a vast group of tourist from almost different parts of world at this place, lot of beautiful young girls too.
do you see me in the foto???
our first selfie - see random folks behind posing as well???
First we went to the basilica, a church that had golden mosaics. After the church we went to the campanile(bell tower), the top most point in Venice. Venice is a very small city surrounded by water and from that tower you could easily get a glimpse of each and every structure in Venice.
After spending some time at the tower we took the long walk on the Riva degli Schiavoni along the waterfront to find a pizza restaurant for lunch. It was 4 pm by then we found a pizza restaurant, ordered a full pizza one for each. It was a relaxed lunch by the waterfront, we left the place at 5 pm and took the water taxi to Rialto Bridge. The Rialto bridge is one of the famous place at Venice where you cannot miss to take a photo.
Venice Navy
Muhilan, Senthil and I was keen in finishing the itinerary while Venki and co. took off; we divided as two groups. We left the bridge, moved through different streets enjoying the beauty of Venice. It was a very long walk, we walked through almost most of the corners of Venice.
Campo Santa Margherita, the only place in Venice where the pubs are located, we didn't go inside any but just walked pass through the street.
At one point we lost ourselves wandering through the streets, one of the localite helped us to find the way back to our room. It was 9 pm by then, Senthil and Muhilan left to the hotel and i was going shopping to buy souvenirs.
By 10.30 pm, i was back at the hotel; night at Venice ends early by 10 pm itself. Venki and co. have not reached the hotel by then, we slept off early as we have a flight to catch at 6.40 am from Venice to Rome. There is a bus service that starts at 4.30 am from Venice to the nearby airport and we should board it without fail.
One thing about Venice is, it is a beautiful city which you can traverse in a day but make sure your partner would love such a place surrounded by waters.
9-May 2014: 4.00 am we checked out of the hotel and reached the bus stop on time and took the bus to venice airport. Actually we were like 15 minutes earlier to the bus schedule.
Sleep wherever and whenever you can...
We took the Alitalia airlines and reached Rome at 7.45 am, sharp on its schedule. Took a taxi service at the airport to the Romangello Hotel II, the taxi service was delayed by 45 mins that frustrated us, the drive to hotel was another 45 mins. By 9.30 am we reached the hotel, the first thing the hotel receptionist told us is that, beware of pickpockets and keeps your belongings safe. We took the local metro train to Vatican city, the smallest country in the world. Its a country surrounded totally by another country(Italy) with a very small population; the capital of Christianity.
After alighting at Vatican city we went straight to St. Peters Square where there was a extremely long queue to the Vatican museum.
The queue is very long and it was hot there we stood almost an hour in the queue, the sun was harsh and we were tired. After a tiring hour in the queue we finally made it to the museum, 20 euros per ticket. Since we were tired we didn't visit much of the museum, went to food court had some burgers, after which our energy level was restored.
ask jack about this statue...he would give some intricate details
Then we went straight to the St. Perters Basilia, took some picture and headed back to our hotel. St. Peters Basilia is where Mr. Pope resides and the major events happens in vatican. We felt that, we really should have skipped the museum and that would have saved a lot time.
Since we forgot to take the tickets to Colosseum, we headed back to the hotel, took the tickets and boarded another train to reach the Colosseum. The Colosseum is already half destroyed, you can even see the bullet marks on the walls, actually it looks better in the movies. There were three levels, we went to all of the levels and took pictures, since there was change of climate from cold to hot weather our faces turned very black.
At 5 pm we left the Colosseum, had some food outside of the museum then Venki, muni and jacki left to hotel to take rest. Senthil, Muhilan and I left for city tour, we have 3 more hours before it gets dark. For Rome you need two full days to visit all the places, but we have only 3 more hours left, so started to walk and covered almost all the major places in Rome. It was a very very long walking city tour for us, we covered Roman Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Castel Sant Angelo and many more in the 3 hours time. Along the way there were small shops where we bought souvenirs. Again we found ourselves searching for toilet and finally entered a restaurant order some cakes and used their toilet.
By the time we went to Trevi Fountain it was dark and beautiful as well, it is one of the famous fountains in the world. You can wish something and throw coins inside the fountain over your shoulder; which is a tradition, doing so your wish comes true. It is estimated that 3000 euros are thrown to the fountain, i guess every tourist who come to Rome will visit the Trevi fountain and throw some bugs. The place was very crowded and the fountain was lit with different colour, guess it is best viewed at night.
After spending some time at the fountain we left to our hotel, near to our hotel was this "Halal Indian Restaurant", where we had chicken biriyani for dinner, after nearly 8 days we are having Indian food and its such a relief for our mouth, relieved from those cold buns/burgers. Next day we have a train at 7 am to Pisa and so we slept early.
10 May 2014; Got up, packed our things and headed straight to the train station, our hotel is just across the station so it was easy for us. The train was on time and we reached Pisa at 9.30 am. Dumped our luggage at the lockers, took a taxi and went straight to Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We got less time at Pisa because we have train at 1.45 pm to Milan, Pisa was like a stop over destination along the way back to Milan. The leaning tower of Pisa was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it is more lovely to see it for real rather in movies.
The above photo might remind you of x-men, yes that coolers is very similar to the x-men character. There was a kid who literally starred at me, i guess he would have thought how come x-men is black.
Took lot of pictures at pisa and spent close to an hour at that place. Lot of tourist at this place too as this is the main attraction in the whole of Pisa. For climbing the tower the ticket price is 20 euros, since we had climbed lot of towers we didn't go for this one. At the exit of the Pisa tower complex is a streak shopping area for buying souvenirs and we did buy lot of things. At 12 pm we took taxi back to the station, had food at McDonalds and boarded the train to Milan.
Scheduled arrival in Milan is at 5 pm and we planned to go for a short city tour. Our hotel Cardano Hotel Malpensa is an hour ride from Milan central station, after reaching the station we bought a local train ticket from Milan central to Malpensa station. We inquired where to board the train and followed the sign boards and boarded the train. The train was very posh and we were amazed that a local train is such classy, found 6 seats for us and happily sat down. After the train started, few of our guys went to the cafeteria in the train to buy some coffee and food. The conversation between the boys and the cafeteria attendant goes like this...
Guys: How much time does it take to reach Malpensa?
Attendant: Huh!!! you are in the wrong train and this one goes to switzerland. The next station is only after an hour.
Guys: 6 coffee and burgers please. (Casually ordered)
We were not shocked or depressed that we boarded a wrong train as we know earlier that such a incident is bound to happen(Boopathi arrives just one day before the last day of our euro trip). It is a customary thing that a such an unforeseen incident happens to us in each of the trip that we have been so far, just that we don't know when or how it will happen but it will happen for sure and here it just happened.
See the GPS map above??? Tats straight opposite to milan
When the ticket checker arrived we explained our situation and she let us to alight at the next station without asking for any money. An hour passed by, we got down at the first stop, the station name is called Stresa. This station is a deserted one and seems like it rarely gets passengers, there was no one at the station and we didn't know where to buy tickets as all the counters were closed.
We went outside the station and found a couple, we went straight to them and asked them to help us. They were not able to speak English fluently but they really helped us, they took us to the area where we can buy tickets, explained us which train to board and when the next train arrives. In Europe, lot of people helped us in needy situation and this couple still reminds in my mind.
We bought tickets for the next train and it is at 8.30pm, 45 minutes to burn, so our singing and dancing continued with energy drinks. For Muhilan and Jack this is a new experience but for other 4 of us it is dejavu moment. The train arrived and we boarded the train, even the train was deserted only we were there in the entire coach, the singing session continued.
tats our ride back to milan
We arrived at Milan station at 9.30 pm and our actual train to Malpensa is at 10.30 pm. After inquiring many people we were at the correct platform waiting for the train, looked like this was the last train to Malpensa. After we took the train every one slept in the train and we reached at 12'o clock; the Malpensa station is at the airport itself. In Milan there are two international airport destination and we have flight to Paris only from Malpensa airport and that is why we booked hotel near the airport.There was no taxi at the station and we have to wait for 15 mins at the station for taxi. Finally we boarded a 6 seater taxi and reached our hotel at 12.30 pm, went to have spaghetti at the nearby hotels restaurant. Next day morning we have flight at 6.30 am to Paris for which we had to take the hotel taxi at 4.30 am.
11-May-2014: Our last day of euro trip, got up on time and boarded the taxi to the airport. We bid adieu to Muhilan at the airport as he had a train to Germany; his home. We didn't book for any extra baggage with the airticket, so we had to pay nearly 25 euro per person to carry our bags. There were lot of checks and long queue to clear everywhere and by the time we hit the airplane our thoughts were, never ever in our life we should buy a ticket with this airline; ironically the name of the airline is easyjet.
We reached paris de charles airport at 8 am in the morning, Jack had flight to USA at 11 am so after breakfast we bid adieu to Jack and dumped our bags at the airport baggage section. The baggage section was fully automated and very costly to use, we paid almost 25 euro for half a day to dump all our bags which is damn costly. Then we left to Versailles palace; the only spot left in Paris which we didn't cover in the first two days. The train ticket cost is 18 euro per pax and it took 1.5 hours to reach the versallies palace. When we reached it was around 11.30 am, went to MCD and had some burgers and coffee.
The sky was clear, as we walked towards the palace the climate changed drastically and it started to rain. We didn't have umbrella so we took shelter under the bus stop roof.
Once the rain settled down we went near the palace and took photos, due to time constraint we didn't go inside the palace. From outside it looked beautiful, inside should be even more appealing, the queue for tickets to the palace was very very long as well.
After photos we started back to the train station and the sky cleared again, became sunny. On the way we stopped by few shops and bought souvenirs, the items at this location was cheap and the quality was good compared to other places in Paris. We bought a big Eiffel tower souvenir for each of us and left to take the train back. We reached the airport at 3.30 pm; slept all along in the return journey.
Tats how sunny it turned in a moment
Took our bags from the baggage section, then we took the internal train to a different terminal to board our flight at 6.30 pm. Early for the flight, we went to the store and bought packed 'ready to eat' rice servings. After the food we slept for sometime till the gate opened for boarding, this day marks end of our 11 days trip of Europe. This day we didn't plan out well and ended up just travelling and roaming, we could have planned this day at different destination or different country.
This foto explains how big Paris de charlle airport is...
Europe is a very nice destination if you are a person who like architecture/history/nature. Amsterdam, Germany and Italy will awe you for sure. This is one of the trip in which we had planned a lot, spent a lot, traveled a lot and covered a lot of places with loads of memories. "naanga aadatha theru illa paadatha edam illa"
My collection of fridge magnets
I saw the kid in jack came out in europe and below is the collage that i dedicate to him.
With euro trip we have covered almost 40% of the main world destination, left with Africa, north and south america. I hope i can cover the remaining part of the world before i die :) Africa for sure as it is in my bucket list.
