La Paris Tour (12th- July Day 1)

When I was planning my Europe trip the city which came up in my mind was "Paris", the worlds fashion capital, the city of Eiffel Tower etc etc. I asked my frens who had been to Paris abt the city and how to travel around, I got a lot of info some useful and most not so useful. I did a lot of Internet search and found some really interesting facts abt Paris, the hostel booking was done through Internet and even the Euroline bus tickets was booked from Internet. Me and my fren "A" were so excited from the moment we reached Paris, and thanks to my fren AD for mailing me the metro connection we reached and found our way till the hostel very easily. The hostel was not as good as the pic. in the Internet but in 25 euro's I didn't expected much either, it was okay and I think that hostel "Aloha" was popular with many backpackers I saw alot of people from all around the world.

Getting around Paris was easy all we did was follow the Eiffel Tower and asked people if we were going the right way, I found most people helpful and on the way to Eiffel Tower we came across this flea market or like a Sunday market sort of place, that was quite cool , I bought myself a bag some souvenir's and we bought french beans...we found veggies were much cheaper in Paris compared to Germany and I must have ate 1 kg of cherries..it was yummm and too good.

I was busy scanning the market to the point that I almost forgot to take pics. (which is very unlike me) we really had a good time at the market. I went to a souvenir shop which belonged to an Indian guy and we bought postcards and a coffee mug, I was quite thrilled and 10 mins of this shop was Eiffel Tower. I can't explain my excitement in words when I reached Eiffel Tower, this is one place I had only seen in TV, pics and magazine's....seeing it in real was quite an amazing and awesome feeling. I went till the 2nd level of Eiffel Tower and mind you I paid 4.50 euro to claim the tower. The view from top was amazingly beautiful and I enjoyed every moment of it, the 1st level of Eiffel Tower has many eating joints, theatre, souvenir shops and much more for all tourists. It was quite an experience for me to go all the way to Eiffel Tower and chill for sometime, I took so many pictures and had the longest sandwich ever (in Paris what I know as sub is sandwich). After came down from Eiffel Tower me and "A" just walked around the city and we took the cruise ride at river Seine, that was 11 euro per person but worth every cent, we enojyed it so much and went crazy taking pictures. The river was clean and unlike rivers and the cruise ride was very relaxing. We ended the day after spending some time back at Eiffel Tower and we walked all the way back to the hostel.

Tour Amsterdam-10th July 09

Amsterdam was the 2nd destination in my “Tour Europe” plan. My fren “A” visited Amsterdam sometime back but the train got delayed and she spent exactly 20 mins in Amsterdam .This time we had the whole day with us. It was raining when we reached Amsterdam but than thankfully rest of the day it didn’t rained, as usual I was super excited…visiting a new place that too a city like Amsterdam, I was there to explore the city and enjoy every moment. We started with visiting the various souvenir shops and buying postcards, wooden tulip, fridge magnets and few other interesting(here interesting also means affordable) things. I was so busy clicking pics. that "A" commented "I know why you wanted me to some with you" I asked WHY? her reply " To be your official photographer" hahaha thats "A" and her style. I called everyone from Amsterdam mom, "D", sis & boss, the phone was of course expensive 1 euro for abt 40 secs but then I found 3 euro in a coin operated phone booth....I got so excited that I used up all the money...I was trying to call "D" and the line the engaged so I hanged up and put my fingers inside to take my coin back...and then bingo....not just the coin I had put but I found 3 more euro's....hahaha that was the beginning of my lottery which I realized much later....

We walked and just walking down the central Amsterdam area and visited the most interesting place " The Red Light District", the most popular item on sale was the male sexual organ made in many forms, coffee mugs, coffee mug handle, sale and pepper dispenser, fridge magnets..you name it they have made it. It was lil too much for me, never in my life I have seen such display of male sexual organ so openly...I took pictures and loads of it...at Amsterdam the coffee bars were marijuana joints where people can smoke marijuana openly...since I was told earlier abt all these I was not shocked. After staying in Germany "A" felt Amsterdam is not as "CLEAN" as Germany, which I also think is true but then every place has its own charm and I liked Amsterdam. The french fries or Frites as they call it was yumm...and I loved the croissants.

Amsterdam was affordable, I bought loads of wooden tulips, fridge magnet, postcards and yeah even a T-shirt.... sadly I couldn't take the canal ride and open bus tour but then I am looking fwd to visiting the city again next year. The 2nd destination in my "Tour Europe" trip was awesome.

Amsterdam in Pics.

Random shot of Amsterdam

Waterworld-Nemo

Madame Tussaud's Museum-Amsterdam

The Boats at Amsterdam's Famous Canals

Germany

I was super excited this morning when the flight was touching down for Frankfurt, the immigration process took exactly 5 mins, unlike aapna India where it took more than 30 mins y'day for some weird reason....the funniest part was this guy asked me WHY ARE YOU GOING TO GERMANY WASTING SO MUCH MONEY?? I mean hallooooo dude its my money and whether I spend it on travel or on charity whats goes of your father....lol...since my fren "A" is here it was very convenient for me in terms of travel tickets and basic info.I reached Bielefeld dot on time and m super impressed with the Bahn ICE trains,its super fast and very, very punctual unlike trains in India. I am exploring the neighbourhood and I must admit m super impressed . Bahut saare aur photo upload karti rahungi and more post will follow after this post.

The 2nd Udaipur

We all know abt the Udaipur in Rajasthan but I am sure very few know abt the other Udaipur, the district Head qtr of South Tripura District. I go to Udaipur very often mainly because of the famous Kali temple "Matabari" or "Tripureshwari Mandir", I am not a very religious person but I often pray to Matabari. The most wonderful thing abt this temple are the peda prasad, its an ancient temple and people from all communities pray, making it even more divine. The temple is also a picnic spot and even the Govt. here has created infrastructure for people to enjoy the area. Infront of the temple is a small lake or a big pukur, the pukue is full of HUGE fish which we can see everywhere and I was always told that their are many tortoise but never really got a chance to see anyone of the many tortoise but this time since I had all the time I saw the tortoise. It was very cute, people were feeding biscuits to the tortoise, which I do not approve of but then kya kar sakte hai. My sis. even touched the tortoise,something we had never done before. I had a good time out y'day...visiting the mandir and watching those tortoise....

Food bonding

I find it not so easy to communicate with every people I meet, sometimes I gel very well even with a stranger and many times I do not even say hi to people I have known for ages. But many times its happens that I bond well with another person because we like the same stuff and here I am talking only abt food....I am really passionate abt food...good food and equally passionate abt travelling and visiting places I've never been to. Y'day I was travelling with one of the consultant designer and the whole trip, all we talking abt was FOOD and only GOOD FOOD...we talking abt cooking different ways of Bhape Ilish(My real all time fav), I shared my way of cooking and she shared hers...the Cheese potato chips of Budhani's at Pune....Shrewbury biscuits of Kayanis'...various types of dosa's from all over the country, I told her of all the dosa's I had till now and my fav. are the one in Bangalore and Mysore....she told me some real simple recipes, I particularly like the chicken soup one with a whole chciken and loads of veggies....we talking abt Biryani's and the bengali style biryani with boiled egg and potato's...ahh I had such a wonderful trip to the centers and all the way back...talking abt so much food.....we ended the conversation with Bhape ilish and chingri lunch at Sankar's...yummmmyyyy