About “The” trip - Finally!!!

It’s been a while that I am back from my whirlwind trip so have finally decided to stop being lazy and write about it.
My trip started with a bit of adventure. After packing, repacking and checking my checklist of things to carry umpteen times, I still managed to forget my cell phone at the hotel and remembered when I reached the airport. I couldn’t take a chance traveling without my second love hence I asked people at the hotel to send my cell phone by taxi to the airport and requested the airport authorities to wait for my cell phone to reach. I got the plane to wait for me, boarded the plane, and got someone at the airport manager to come and give me the cell phone in the plane. I thanked my stars that it was Skelleftea since I don’t think I could have pulled it of in any other city. Anyways here a quick snapshot of the trip.

Rome : I fell in love with the city!! The feet are killed by the walks, thanks to the cobble stoned roads, but walking is the best way to absorb all that Rome has to offer. Walking through the streets of Rome to me was like walking in a place 200 years old. Each building seems to talk to you and tell you stories of its own. It almost makes you want to go back in time and see how Rome was in its prime. You can spend weeks in Rome, but since we had just 2 days, we decided to see the most important monuments and started our sight seeing trip by visiting the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
The Colosseum is an imposing structure, especially when you try and go back to when the gladiators would fight there. The Roman Forum which is right next to the Colosseum is basically the ruins of the old Rome. It’s magnificent to walk through all of it and just soak in the surroundings. The Pantheon is a beautiful monument too. It has been converted to a church now and I am sure mass there would be beautiful. Both these structures need to be visited during the day since they do not have any artificial lighting. My pick of Rome would be the Vatican Museum and St. Peters Cathedral. Apart from the religious importance it holds for me, the beauty of the place would mesmerize just about anyone. Especially the paintings at the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel would take anyone’s breathe away. The colours, detailing and the magnitude of the paintings on the walls and the ceiling are astounding when you think of the times they were painted in. It shows the passion and dedication that the artists had. It also shows the interest that the emperors of those times had in art, not to mention the money to fund it. The first thing that goes through your mind, when you see St. Peters is- is that a church?? The biggest church in the world is really big!! I attended the midnight mass on Christmas Eve and that’s an experience I will not forget – the church is beautiful under lights and it has a feel of a carnival before the Mass starts, not that I would want to repeat it, considering the crowd and the cold!!!
One of my “Rome moments” was sitting on the Spanish steps and listening to two Italians sing along with their guitars. I also realized that some of the more popular Hindi songs were lifted from Italian music!! Another one of my “Rome Moments” was sitting by the Trevi and seeing various people pose for pictures. I think we spent more than an hour there and had a good laugh
Rome reminds me of India in so many ways, the crazy traffic, small cute cars, the abundant use of two wheelers and the incessant loud chatter, maybe that’s why it worked its magic on me and it is one place I would want to go back again. I hope the coin that I threw in the Trevi works its magic….

Florence/Pisa: Florence is quite the opposite of Rome. It’s quaint, small and less crowded and very charming. To me however it’s a town which had some of the cutest streets and restaurants. We saw the Dome, which is the third largest church in the world. Again the architecture here was very different from the churches I had seen in Rome. We walked around the town savoring every bit of the place and looking through the windows of the all clothes stores (What can you expect of two girls). One observation – the Italians sure so have a sense of fashion!!
Florence can be combined with a visit to the leaning tower of Pisa since it is only an hour by train and definitely a must visit if you are in Italy. The leaning tower of Pisa is about a 20 minute walk from the station right through the town center and it truly is a wonder. You almost feel like it would fall on you any minute (it’s a wonder it hasn’t as yet). The work on the tower is worth a look, but what impressed me more was the cathedral next to the tower. It’s a beautiful church with some really delicate work done on the outside. I think in Italy I have completed my lifetime quota of visiting churches and yet each church had a completely different character.

Venice: Though Venice was very different from any other city I had seen, I was a bit disappointed by the city in itself. It highly possible because I had heard/read so much about the place so my expectations were hitting the roof. Having said that let me not take away from the city.
The charm of the city is the small streets where you will invariably get lost – no maps, direction sense would help you there. It is also nice to see how life goes about without cars and through the water. We saw some DHL people deliver couriers by water, also saw the water police, public transportation by water and even the post being delivered by boats!! St. Marco is beautiful and the pigeons there just really greedy for food :-)…We were in Venice right before the mask festival, so we got a chance to see the various colorful masks on display through the streets. I was amazed by the intricate work done on the masks; some of them even had Swarovski crystals on them. It made the whole place a lot more colorful. We also went to one of the islands close by, and thankfully enough it wasn’t as crowded.
My amusing story however is about a Indian- Canadian couple we met during dinner. They talked about bollywood, asked us what our opinion of the Abhi-Ash wedding was, and whether Shahrukh had back cancer etc etc etc. I think they were a wee bit disappointed that we weren’t all that updated…
Tips for Italy:
# Women please wear flats, and the most comfortable pair of shoes you can find. The cobblestones will really kill your feet.
# Take the tour to the Vatican Museum. It’s a little expensive, but worth it since the lines to enter are killing and you would want to know what to see and what not to.
# Be ready to spend much more in Venice. It is one of the most expensive cities in Italy and hence the prices are double as compared to the rest of the cities.
# Walk as much as possible, that’s how you would get to see the place much better
# Try talking in Bengali with the souvenir shop owners on the streets. Most of them are Bangladeshi and will give you a discount if you manage a bit of Bengali.
# Do not miss the yummy Italian food, whether it is the breakfast which consists of Chocolate croissant and coffee, or the yummy pastas and the pizzas along with some amazing Tiramisu not to mention the house wine. I think I need to stop now or else my mouth is going to start watering!!!

Amsterdam: The city is an eye-opener!! Drugs and sex is so out in the open that you wonder if it is such a big deal. The city sells on both of them, since most tourists go to Amsterdam to see the coffee shop and the red light area. Its quite a surprise to find the Dutch so open about subjects which are a taboo in any other country specially around Europe. I came back from my trip and discussed it with my Swede friends and they were shocked to say the least. I also had a rather interesting conversation with my Dutch colleague who told me why it’s all that open. According to him Dutch follow the law to the T. And if you ban narcotics, then it wouldn’t even be possible to use it in the hospital, hence its regulated. His explanation on prostitution as a business was that it happens everywhere, if it’s out in the open and made legal, at least these women have decent education, social security cover and a decent living – he does have a point there, doesn’t he? But apart from all the usual stuff, anyone visiting Amsterdam should definitely visit the Van Gogh museum. The museum has a collection from Van Gogh’s work from different stages of his life. His work leaves you confused in the end, since it varies so much from the beginning stages of his career to the end – its definitely a must see.

Berlin: We drove from Amsterdam to Berlin, and driving through Germany without the mention of the famed German roads and no speed limits. Just one word – awesome!!! You know when you get into Germany by the roads and the sudden speeding of the cars. We drove at and average of around 190 km/ph and we still had cars overtaking us at regular intervals. The view outside was beautiful too – from the flat Holland to the small hills in Germany, it was quite the contrast. Berlin in itself was an amalgamation of the old and the new. Its an extremely modern city with huge sky scrappers, but it also has the Brandenburg and a whole lot of history which goes along with it. The Reichstag is also worth a mention. I felt it was a little too beautiful to be a parliament house!! We saw it under lights and I think it just added to the beauty. Though Berlin is supposed to be the party capital of Europe we took a rain check on partying and settled for a good German dinner since all of us were just so exhausted and headed out the next day to London which was a 10 hr road trip.

London: The first two days in London were spent recharging all our exhausted batteries by lazing around and shopping!! And just went the relatives and friends thought that we would never head out to see London, Mona and I started the sight seeing once again. We started with the Buckingham Palace and quite frankly I don’t know what the big deal was about the changing of guards. I felt that the crowd in the Vatican was nothing compared to the one in front of the palace trying to catch a glimpse of the ceremony. From there we walked to the Trafalgar Square and visited the National Gallery. We did the whole touristy walk to the London eye, Big Ben and finally the Tower Bridge. At the risk of repeating myself the walk was really nice, though we had a really long walk trying to find a tube station – as usual we were lost!!! The next day started with a visit to Madam Tussads. We had fun looking at all the statutes and yes getting our pictures clicked there. From there the next trip was to The Lords – the Mecca of cricket lovers. The guide made the tour wonderful and interesting even for people who weren’t all that knowledgeable on cricket. Thanks to the impromptu trip to the Lords, we discovered Abbey Road and the famous crossing on the Beatles cover. I felt a bit silly clicking pictures while crossing that crossing and making the traffic wait – I am sure they are used to it though. I also liked Covent Garden a lot. The environment there was brilliant. The building had an old world feel to it. It had magicians, street musicians and whole lot of open restaurants – it was magic.

After a whole lot of traveling in the two weeks, I realized that I was looking forward to getting back to Skelleftea to my hotel and I knew that it in my heart I felt that it was home now. I also realized that though they don’t always show it, the Swedes are one of the friendliest and the most helpful people in Europe – well what to do, I have to be loyal to people who welcomed me and made me feel comfortable in an alien country.