Balestrand- Norway (Norge)

Balestrand- Fjord town

 Last summer my husband and I went to Norway, it was a well planned trip and me being the super planner /organiser I managed to find some awesome deals. Before I go any further I must mention that Norway is super expensive BUT if you dig and do your research one can manage it and stay within budget. Now summer in Norway is a busy time, flocked by tourist from all over the world finding accommodation within your budget could be a challenge (even Airbnb) and the only reason we choose Balestrand was because it was the only place we could find a decent hotel within out budget, fortunately it was a blessing in disguise, our Norway trip was spread over 10 days and Balestrand was the last leg of our trip.

We started our trip from Oslo, it took us just about 6 hours by bus from where we live the Swebus tickets were cheap and the bus comfortable. I will write about the Oslo-Bergen-Balestrand journey in another post.

If you plan to go to Balestrand by public transport that is by the Express boat and if you don't have a car it is best to buy the Norled Fjordcard, we bought the 5 days Fjordcard each costing 995 NOK ( 1250 NOK 2017 summer price) but it is an awesome way to explore the Fjord towns in Sognefjord. We bought the Fjordcard from Bergen and made full use of it. We visited  few other fjord towns and loved every part of the explore Sognefjord tour.

 Food in whole of Norway is expensive, I personally don't like burgers or Mcdonalds food but even the cheapest burger in Mcdonalds or Burger King will cost 99 NOK, so we decided to stick to normal food by paying a little extra. In Sweden I can except to have a decent meal in 100 SEK, I am not talking about donor kabab or falafel but a proper meal say a buffet in a good (not so fancy) restaurant, sometimes we can have lunch even in 65 SEK say at the small Thai-Chinese takeaway food kiosk/restaurant but in Norway that is just not possible. A decent meal will cost 200 NOK or more. So while selecting Hotel accommodation I was careful to book in hotels which included breakfast, in fact the hotel we stayed in Bergen (amazing location)  included even dinner.  So it is important to check what all are included in the price and select hotels carefully.

 Balestrand is a very picturesque town with just about 1500 inhabitants, perfect for a quite and soul searching trip. The view of snow capped mountains and the fjord was not just serene but had such a calming effect on me, the town is also know for some landmark places like the Kvikne hotel, the wooden structure with the view of the fjord I am sure will make anyone fall in love with this place.

Kvikne hotel

View from the balcony....breathtaking...oh yes

 The sunset was late and the sunrise early but when the view is as beautiful as this I was more than happy that the days are very long and nights short or rather very short. We stayed at this hotel called Mintnes and had the most amazing view from the room. The three days went so quick that I immediately regretted spending three days in Oslo. Norway just took our breath away and of all the countries I have visited I have to admit that its the most beautiful and wonderful of all. The mountain, fjord and nature everything was breathtakingly beautiful. I am a mountain girl, I feel most at peace and home in the mountains but the combination of the snow capped mountains + water made me  wishing for a trip to Norway every summer, we do plan to visit Norway as often as possible and we are yet to explore and visit more amazing places.

This does not need any caption

Europe on a budget

For the longest time I have been thinking to write this post, how to travel to Europe on a budget and by budget, let me make it very clear that I do not mean shoe string budget I mean a little over shoe string and not staying in hostels but hotels in good and accessible locations with breakfast, where to eat (cheap), tips to save money, what to buy as souvenirs and how to stay safe and out of trouble . 

Since I have traveled to many European cities alone,with friends and also with my husband I plan to cover these aspect of travel as well. Like if you are traveling with your friends, you may not mind staying in a hostel, in fact few of the hostels I have stayed were really good but having said that hostels have their own issues like the shared toilet being one of them which will be a BIG NO if you are travelling with you family, moving on as part of the Europe on a budget series I plan to cover  cities I have traveled  and enjoyed every moment of it. I will also be writing about day trips that can be done if you happen to live in a neighboring country. The following popular cities will be covered 

a) Paris

b)Barcelona

c)Lisbon & Porto

d)Belgium- Brussels, Antwerp & Brugge

e)Prague

f) Rome

g) Florence & Pisa

h) Venice

i) Netherlands- Amsterdam, Delft, Texel,Rotterdam & Den Haag ( Hague) of course

j) Geneva- Mt. Titlis, Interlaken

k) Germany- Cologne

l) Krakow & Warsaw

m) Luxembourg 

Keeping my target of writing 3 blog post a month I guess for the next 4 months this blog will be lively and I hope to write some interesting and informative post. 

Hagueover

Hagueover or Hague-Over and not Hangover, a new term coined by one of my batchmate from Philippines, explaining in one word how much we miss the awfully windy yet lovely city, we called  home for 15 and half months.  The city I learned to love...now that ISS and Hague is over I have to admit that I do miss the city but  what I miss most about the city now when I look back is difficult to put in few words or in just one post.

I still remember the first day in Hague, it was bright, sunny and a perfect day, 'Perfect Day' was not what we thought back then, only now I can say, it was indeed a perfect day. When the Admin person, told us to go out and enjoy the sun, our reply was "Oh! we come from a HOTTTT country so we do not appreciate the sun so much" , only to realise that we would regret what we said the very next day. Hague is awfully windy and I am not joking, the wind can sometimes blow you away like literally, but despite all the wind and rains, Hague is a lovely city to live. It's weird when I think, why I never took pictures of Hague when I have over 1000 pictures in Paris, and another 1000 pictures in Rome alone. I never took any pictures standing in-front of the   Nordeinde Palace or even the famous Peace Palace, both located 5 mins walking from Dorus.

Missing Hague, friends, ISS and the community we build!

Visiting Auschwitz from Krakow

Auschwitz Camp 1

Having seen many films based on the WW II holocaust and the atrocities against certain section of the people in Europe, esp. the Jews who lived in several parts of Europe during WW II, visiting Auschwitz and knowing/learning  about the concentration camps was not only depressing but I was amazed at how humans can be so cruel to each other and to even think that almost 11 lakhs people perished in those camps in the gas chambers is beyond words to express.

Auschwitz is 1.15 hrs by bus from Krakow, we went on a guided tour and I think it saves you time and it's not so expensive, we paid 90 PLN  per person (22.50 Euro) which included  travel in a very comfortable bus and an English guide. The whole tour takes about 6 hours ( we went at 9 in the morning), be ready to walk and wear comfortable shoes, for people wanting to explore in their own, the guided tour can be a bit boring but they  ensure that you don't miss out anything in the camps which is now more like a museum, the guide we had was really good and she managed to show us the whole place without tiring us, explaining and providing all the details possible. The whole place was packed with tourist and I saw that most people were on a guided tour in different language English, French, Spanish, German and even Polish. 

After the tour I wonder how SS and Hitler got all the horrible and inhuman ideas to torture people, I personally feel it's not human to have thought every possible ways of torturing people but Hitler and his people at SS did the unimaginable. The Holocaust and the camps at Auschwitz is a reminder that no living creature on earth is as cruel as humans are. 

ARD Dinner

We had our last dinner as the 1st and last batch of ARD as a group at our convener's place (  @ the very famous and the super star academician  SBJ's (Jun's) place), Jun's new house is really good, with front and back side garden, he has been growing potato's in the Garden, Agrarian Studies Professor but farmer at heart :). The dinner was awesome, a combined effort  by all of us, I made Butter Chicken and veg pakoda's, TK made Chappatis and this guy can make chappatis better than all the Indian's in our batch. Jun cooked this really tasty rice with black pepper, olive and grated lime cover,  which I plan to replicate very soon and also chicken, AC made the best Tiramisu for dessert, the best I ever had and the best part about the Tiramisu was the decoration, she wrote ARD with blue berries on top....super awesome. MJR got a lot of appetizers, MA ( Venezuelan but the wannabe Nicaraguan hahaha) bought yummy Macaroons form France and the new Phd guy B made some greek salad, which was also quite yumm. We all had a great time but sure missed our Pinky panda, Hilhil and Prof Vince. At the end of the day I realized what a great year I have spent in ISS with my classmates from all over the world, I am looking forward to going back home and getting back to work but I sure will miss the group a lot.

AC's yummy Tiramisu.....the best I ever had

In and around Paris

Notre Dame on a bright, sunny and beautiful day...

Yeah baby....Moulin Rouge

Eiffel Tower

Mona Lisa smile...finally saw Monu

Wish I had a lock too...

Another month and another country and this time it was France....Paris specifically. I was in Paris for the 2nd time but visited many places that I could not last time...going inside Louvre being one of them.  Last time it was Paris on foot but this time...it was Paris on Bus, all thanx to the Vannoord travels, the trip was arranged very well at super-reasonable price. I enjoyed the 3 day trip with my friends to the fullest. 

Paris....again

I will be Paris again after almost 3 years, last time it was with my BFF AN and this time I am going to CT, CD and CT's aunt. I will miss AN for sure but yes I will relive few more wonderful moments and visit places I missed last time.....La Louvre is in top of my list. More updates will follow once I am back. 

Day trip Geithoorn

@ The Steenwijk train station

@ Geithoorn

@ Geithoorn Village 

The Boat ride....

Day trip to Geithoorn to good but I felt it's a little over rated. 

Some French Cookies, Indian tea, Cheese Cake and Chinese food....my day was awesome

Cookies ready to be baked

The "Cheesecake"

Strawberry and Cream yummmmm

Someday's are just yummy  food day, like today. My day started and ended with some awesome food...it was our "baking day" as our honorary Indian but French fren Mr. TK, said he'll teach us how to make a cheese cake and help us bake some cookies too. It turns our Mr. TK is quite a chef, he made some nice cookies but it was over baked nonetheless it  tasted good. I was looking fwd to the cheese cake but it was unlike a cheese cake, okay I know I should not be mean and say it was not a cheesecake when Mr. TK and my dear fren Miss. CD worked hard but the cheesecake didn't tasted like Cheesecake at all. Sorry both of you!!!! after having the cheesecake at the Cheesecake company my taste-buds refuse to call it a  cheese cake what Mr. TK n Miss CD baked., okay I agree it was tasty but it was unlike a cheesecake. In Between the baking we had some strawberry and cream which....was heavenly. I realize I am happy and in a super friendly mood because of the food I ate today. For me Good Food = Happiness...

Palm Sunday at St. Peters Squire- Vatican

The magnificent Dome at St. Peter's Basilica- Vatican City  

The Roman Column @ St. Peter's Basilica 

I was one of the fortunate thousand in the whole world to attend the Palm Sunday mass at St. Peter's Squire- Vatican City, The Pope HH Benedict XVI addressed the mass and it was one of the best cultural experience I had experienced till now. I am not a catholic or christian and I am not a too religious either but I totally felt blessed to get an opportunity to attend Palm Sunday at the Vatican City in the mass addressed by the Pope.

All thanx to my classmate AC, she managed to get 20 passes for all of us from a French catholic church she was in touch with. The mass started at 9.30 am and went on till 12.30 pm. I bought some souvenir  and took hundreds of pictures. More pictures will follow. 

Trip to Viterbo-Italy

My fav. tree in the farm

Don't know the name but found it pretty 

Rosemary....alot of them at the garden.

Just love these flowers

Roaming @ Rome

Yes I am roaming @ Rome and absolutely  loving it. Today I saw the famous 'Colosseum'  though from a distance on our way to FAO office, we did not go inside as we had an appointment with one of the Departments at FAO.  We decided to walk till FAO and on our way I saw something which looked like the Colosseum and I asked one of my classmates, is that's the Colosseum? She was  like.... no it's not...its can''t be so close...but when we reached closer we all were shouting in excitement....it was indeed the "Colosseum" and we all went crazy taking pictures....m so loving Rome at the moment ...its bright, sunny and the weather is just waoooo.  More updates will follow soon with pics. loads of them and till then ciao....

The Colosseum from a distance 

Will be Roaming in Rome....

January was Spain and Portugal, Feb. was Luxembourg and this month its Italy. Yeah I travel again and this time to Rome starting tomorrow for a week....and I  will be roaming in Rome ....wao it rhymes hahaha. I plan eat loads of Italian Pizza and also visit all the famous places in Rome and I will definitely stay within my budget. More updates will follow next week . 

The best cheesecake in town @ Cheesecake Company

Lemon Cheesecake and Double Chocolate dip cheesecake......yummmmm

Last week I happen to visit this really awesome cheesecake shop with my food and partner in crime (for cooking and eating) fren 'CD'. It's called the 'Cheesecake Company', located very close to where we live, a small yet lovely shop near the centrum.  I had a tough time deciding which one to order but finally decided to have the Lemon cheesecake, my fren CD had double dip cheesecake and both the cheesecake were really yum. For the record let me put it that I've never had such yummy cheesecake ever  before and the best part is it's not expensive, it costs about Euro 4 a slice and the slices are quite huge. If you are visiting The Hague and love cheesecake this is a must visit and must eat place.....oh I am going there tomorrow to have some more cheesecake....happiness plan tomm. 

Address:

CheesecakeCompany

Torenstraat 32-2513 BS

Den Haag

www.cheesecakecompany.nl 

Sevinyan for dessert

Some real Sevinyan for dessert

Last week I invited some of my frens for dinner (I realized that inviting people & going for potluck dinner is my fav.social activity now :) hehehe). The menu was not very elaborate but it was yummm Prawn curry with coconut milk, Chilly Chicken, Aloo-Gobi-mattar ke subzi, Rice and Sevinya. I bought the real sevinyan like the one we get in India from a Pakistani shop near the open market, the 200 gm packet costed me just  75 cents and I think it was worth every cent. I tried making Sevinyan from the Euroshop vermicelli packet...which turned into a total disaster, two week back when me CT & SS had invited our frens for dinner, the food was really good that day but the dessert was a grand failure.  

But this time...all thanx to using the real sevinya it was really good. The best part about the dinner was of course the dessert and I plan to make  it again some other day for another grand dinner.

Spring is here....

and we are loving it. Hague has become almost a valley of flowers.

Finally found some snowdrops....

Kiley mei Fateh....

The "Kiley mei Fateh" joke between me, CT and SS started from Lisbon when we went to St.George Castle, our typical dialogue was "Sathiyon humme Kiley mei fateh haasil karni hai aur tiranga jhanda lehrana hai"...."Sathiyon maiden-e-jung ke tarah kouch karo...dushmano ko harana hai" and this has continued till Luxemburg, this time it was even more dramatic as I bought the Luxumburg city flag  and we used it to make our dialogues even more funny but the best line was of course "Maharaj ki jai ho". 

During our walk upto the castle we discovered that our fren from Kenya, 'J' used to watch a lot of hindi TV serials like "Ramayan, Mahabharat and even Ji Hanuman and she remembered the 'Maharaj ki jai ho' line from all these serials...we had so much fun at the cost of castle, talking in pure hindi  and our endless 'Kiley mei fateh' jokes. Luxumburg trip was quite fun and I plan to write some more post with details on how to travel and must see places in Luxumburg by end of this week. More trip post with pics. will follow soon :). 

Viandam Castle from a distance

A new country to travel...Luxembourg

 I am travelling to Luxembourg this weekend with my friends...yeah...yeah another new country. My depreciating bank balance makes me realize that every month since November, I've travelled to a new country which is not so good for my pockets but for the traveller in me, it's the ultimate thing to happen...I always end up travelling no matter what I do or where I live. January was Spain and Portugal and this month it's Luxembourg, and if you were thinking whether it's in Germany then I must tell you that no...its not in Germany, but it's another country in Europe, a really tiny country between located Belgium, France and Germany and the world's  only remaining  Grand Duchy. I think, I should update about all my travel in the blog....which I've not done since December but I should update next week once m back. 

As I like to travel prepared and knowing a bit more about the place before I leave, I checked lonely planet website to see places to visit in Luxembourg and this place looks interesting from the pictures and the other information available online. I am sure it will a fun trip and more updates will follow. 

Roger Federer Live @ Ahoy Rotterdam

Dreams do come true, and some time one needs to be super lucky for the dreams to come true  esp. when only few tickets out of 10,000 are left for booking ....and today my dream of watching Roger Federer live came true @ the ABN-AMRO Tennis Champion....was I excited! hell yeah I was super excited.

Me, CT &SS went early for the match as we could also watch the doubles final with the same ticket for the singles final, we were on time and took our seats....our seats were not so far as I thought it would be, infact the court was very clearly visible the only problem was the seats which were not too comfortable. We enjoyed watching both the match but the highlight of the match was  of course Roger  Federer winning the title.

Ahoy Rotterdam

Federer practicing just before the match began

Federer live n in the screen...

The final winning serve.

Federer throwing his wrist band to a fan...

The champ and the trophy...awesome match.

Winter update- Frozen lake and canals

Experiencing sub-zero temperature for almost 2 weeks is  not a pleasant experience but to see snow fall in real for the first time in my life, frozen canals and lakes and to walk on it is definitely and truly an amazing experience. I had an eventful day today, it started with a visit to Floraholland this morning...or rather very,very early morning, located at Aalsmeer it's world's largest flower auction cooperative with a turnover of 4 bn Euro. We went there to see how the flower auction happens and understand the value chain as part of one of my optional course with the LDS dept.

We had to leave really early to be able to see the auction and we were on time at  the Hague central station but damn 2 trains to Schipol were cancelled and we had to wait for almost an hour in the freezing temp. which was really annoying....Dutch winter ahhhhh m so not liking it.The route to Floraholland was via Schipol and this morning once we were out of the Schipol airport to take the bus, all of us almost froze, it was much colder than Hague and we were literally  foot tapping while waiting for the bus, it was so cold that I hated the LDS class for keeping the study visit during such miserable weather and at 7 am it was super duper cold. The visit was interesting and I did enjoyed touring it again as I had been there with my ARD class too.

On our way back from Alasmeer, I saw the famous canals of Amsterdam completely frozen and it was a site to watch, all the jetty's and boat were lying  still and the very busy & bustling canals  were not busy at all. I took some pictures and we rushed back to Hague. Once we reached Hague we decided to walk instead of taking the bus and the Lake next to Binnenhof was on our way, which is completely frozen we decided to walk inside the lake and take pics. It was really cold but inside the lake it felt even more colder....so many people were skating and I only wished to have known how to skate. We took some pics but as the temperature further dipped we came out of the lake.  My first winter in The Netherlands has been quite fun...I saw snow, frozen canals, lakes and the snow making the city beautiful first and than ugly  as it refuses to melt and turns into slug, mud and dirt.

The Frozen canals @ Amsterdam

The frozen lake next to Binnenhof @ The Hague

People skating and enjoying in the frozen lake...