Barcelona, Spain

Our trip out of Paris to Barcelona was through Port Bou at the border of France and Spain. We stopped at the train station for slightly over an hour and had arguably the worst tasting pizza imaginable. So much so that even Vilas (The Spaghetti Addict) commented on the poorness of his Spaghetti. We continued on to Barcelona where we stayed at Barcelona Mar Hostel. Nice place, but shady neighbourhood. but then again, the entire city of Barcelona was shady in my eyes. It's a weird city, with modernism and traditionalism mixed in together. We stayed about a 30 minute walk from the beach so as soon as we checked in, we got out in search of sand and saltwater. Walked through some of the historic buildings in the city. (no we did not go see any of the gaudi masterpieces since we were only in the city for the day)

The beach was colder than we anticipated. It was not the warm mediterranean waters we were promised but we jumped in anyway. How often are we gonna get a chance to jump into a beach in Spain? What threw me off guard was the number of times we were offered beer for 1 euro by people who looked Indian at the beach. I later found out that they didn't just look Indian, they really were Indian. (More on that later) After the beach, we decided to grab dinner at a local restaurant and the only one we found was definitely very shady.. we went in and ordered a plate of nachos and something else. (TERRIBLE FOOD.. UGHH) To make things worse, as we were eating, we noticed cockroaches crawling on the wall behind us.. but we had already eaten the nachos so if roach eggs were to hatch in our bodies, there was nothing we could do about it now.

We got out of the roach-infested hole in the wall as fast as we could and noticed a liquor store across the street and rushed in. After walking in, we find out that it's not a liquor store but a grocery story whose entire front wall was stocked with CHEAP CHEAP liquor. We ended up getting a 500mL bottle of Lychee Liqueur, 500mL of coconut Rum, 1L of Sangria, all for 6-7 euros. UNBELIEVABLE.. we took it back to the hotel and decided to head out that night to some bars. This was the first time in the trip when I really had too much to drink. I don't remember a whole lot from the night but I do remember walking to the club and walking back. EN route to the club, more desi dudes tried selling us beer on the street. When we got out of the club, we were quite tipsy and decided to ask one of the beer-sellers directions to our hostel. This was the conversation.

Raj: We're looking to get to carrer sant pau. (that's saint pau square)

Beer Seller: haan haan.. you speak hindi?

Raj: No, but she does. *pulls ashita to the beer seller*

Ashita: *Asks the guy in Hindi*

Beer Seller: *gives directions entirely in hindi and says* "When you get to that corner, you'll see another Indian guy selling beer. Ask him and he'll tell you the rest of the way"

Raj: *stares in amazement*

sure enuff, we followed the directions and reached the other indian guy, but luckily we didn't need his directions since we knew where we were at that point and just walked our way back.

The next day we shopped and learnt the value of bargaining and boy were we good. We used our desi instincts to get deals we never knew we could have. We started the day with a nice authentic spanish Paella meal. (no we didn't have tapas because it was full of meat) The Paella was tasty and was sure enough prepared by an Indian. LOL. (welcome to Barcelona) We then went to a few souvenir shops, and bargained our asses off. I think by the end of the day, we bought 10 shot glasses, 4 t-shirts and a bunch of keychains all for under 50 euros. (that's cheap for the place) The souvenir shops were all owned by Indians again and they certainly enjoyed talking to us in Hindi. After talking with one such souvenir shop owner for some time, we found out that Barcelona has more than 100,000 people of south asian origin (mostly indians and pakistanis). What's even more surprising is that most of them speak as many as 6 languages. The store owner we were talking to spoke English, French, Spanish, Catalonian, Italian, German, Portuguese, Hindi and Gujrati and was able to make sales in all these languages. IMPRESSIVE..

We decided to finish off the day by going back to the beach and just sipping some sangrias and sitting on the deck overlooking the bay. It was relaxing and peaceful to say the least. We slowly walked back to our schedule 7PM meeting point and found some members of our group were missing. We waited for about 45 minutes before realizing that we had to hurry in order to catch our Cruise to Rome. But luckily, en route, we met the other members and were able to give them their cruise tickets and they promptly took a cab to meet us on the cruise with more than enough time to spare.

Stay tuned for the Cruise.. :)

Paris, France, Part 2

I know it's been almost a month since I last posted but in my defense, it was a very busy month. So I talked about the first night in Paris and the beauty of the city. It was arguably my most favorite city in the trip as everything about it was just right. The perfect weather, the wonderful people, the delightful ambience all added to the charm of the city. The second day in Paris, we decided to check out the louvre and sight "la jaconde" (the mona lisa) with our own two eyes. I must say that I wasn't quite as impressed with the louvre as I was with the british museum but i think it's safe to say that it was still far beyond anything that I had imagined. Walking through the halls of the palace felt rather odd. it seemed in some ways as though we were transported through time to the 1500's solely by the art in the room. A story behind every painting.. a room full of nothing but portraits of Christ.. followed by one filled with pagan sculptures.. To think that these two worlds couldn't co-exist and tore one another down is a pity. To think that the last remnants of the pagan society can be found in a handful of museums like this is, to say the least, depressing. The audio tour at the louvre was definitely worth it although I must say that the mona lisa was a lot smaller than I had expected her to be.

After walking through the "largest" galleries in the world for 5 hours or so, we decided to head to the infamous Tour Eiffel with a brief stopover at the Notre Dame Basilica and the Tuileries. Parisien art and architecture quite simply blew my mind. There was art in every nook and cranny of the city. There was historical architecture on every road.. When we took the subway to the Eiffel Tower, it was already fairly late. Around 10 PM if i'm not mistaken because the lights were blinking as we got to the base of the tower. I have to say that a person has to see it to believe it. This was the second place that I got conned. I was walking with Ashita, Vilas, Meera and Maryam towards the tower. Ashita and I were slightly ahead of the other three. Sure enough, a guy walks up to us and tries to sell a rose, we casually nod our heads and say "non merci". but here comes the stupidest thing i did on the trip. 2 seconds later, I look to ashita and say "unless you want one." and i have no idea how this guy heard what I said he turns around instantly and starts walking towards us and harassing us to buy the rose. We say "non merci" a dozen more times. He leaves the rose in Ashita's side pocket and leaves. I walk about telling myself. "hey, free rose.. " LOL.. Guy turns around, and comes back and says "please sir" in english and puts out his hand. At this point, i'm a little embarassed so I pull out 1 euro from my wallet and give it to him, he laughs at me and signals for more money with his hand. Now this is when I showed my true brown instincts. I pull out a 2 euro coin from my wallet, take the 1 euro coin that I had put in his hand earlier and give him the 2 euro coin and say "you're welcome" and walk off.. I think his facial expression as I pulled away the 1 euro coin was priceless and worth the extra euro I paid. LOL. Anywho, we went up to the top of the tower, and the view was breathtaking. If paris by day was beautiful, paris by night was magnificent. Lit up from one end to the other, the view was breathtaking.

We came down and went to a nice little french bistro/cafe for dinner. It was family owned and had a flaming crepe on the menu. It was basically a sweet crepe sprinkled with sugar on top. When served, the waiter pours about 4 shots of grand marnier on the crepe and lights it on fire. It was bliss. Amazingly tasty, and definitely made us a little "happier" when we got out of the cafe at around 1 AM. At this point, it was just myself and Ashita as the other three had broken off to go somewhere else. We walk to the metro to find out that we were just in time for the last train of the day to get back to our hotel but as we waited on the platform, we were told to get out because the last train had been cancelled. We stepped out and decided to take a cab and found the nicest guy who quickly picked up that my french was not that of a local. We chitchatted for about 20 minutes on the way to the hotel as he complained about how the implementation of the Euro has made life miserable for the working man in France. How everything had suddenly become three times as expensive overnight. How he used to be able to buy each of his children 2 toys for christmas with a few hundred francs and now he is only able to buy one present for all his kids combined. He also gave us some cool tips on what to do for our next visit and suggested we stay longer and check out les miserables, or some of the other cabaret shows that play year round in the city.

We went to bed that night and woke up early the next morning to check out the church at Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). We then headed to Versailles which was almost a 1.5 hour metro+bus ride but it was definitely worth it. Only 4 of us managed to make it to Versailles that day. The gardens at Versailles were probably 60 times the size of the palatial compound, totaling 800 hectares, with 200,000 trees and 50 fountains. It pretty much housed french royalty at the peak of their power from Louis XIV through Napoleon. We got a glimpse of the hall of mirrors in which the treaty of versailles was signed which pretty much imposed reparations on germany for most of the 20th century, and ultimately one of the primary causes of the Nazi Regime under Hitler. Versailles was truly a palace in every sense. The immense size, the golden entrance, the large protective barriers at the entrance. It was strategic and grand, everything a king/queen would hope for and it was very clearly evident that it was built with that in mind. After Versailles, we came back to our hostel and just relaxed until it was time for our night train to Barcelona. Stay tuned and I'll try to keep it updated more often.

Paris, France

Before I talk about what happened in Paris, a very interesting thing happened on the way.. Me being the anal person I am, made sure that everyone in the group was aware that our train from Amsterdam left early in the morning and everyone managed to get up and get to the train station on time.. We got there about 25  minutes before our train so we felt comfortable but one member of our group (VK ROY) had some issues with his contacts and went to the washroom.. with 5 minutes before the train, VKR is nowhere to be found.. so we start wondering what happened to him.. we realize that Maryam (another travel partner) had VKRs passport AND train tickets.. and since we were crossing borders on train for the first time, we weren't sure what to expect.. the train arrives on the platform and still no sight of Mr. Roy.. so we delegate maryam to stay back since it didn't make sense for the entire group to miss the train.. we get into the train, after giving maryam all the contact info and other details she needed.. We see VKR running to the platform, grab his bags and run to the door just as it closes.. and we couldn't get it back open.. and we take off.. waving them goodbye.. luckily, they caught up to us in Belgium since our train was delayed and we were able to get back with the group..

So, we've arrived at city #3, the romantic capital of the world, La Belle Ville de Paris. And it certainly was love at first sight. It was beautiful in every sense of the word. I'm thinking i'm going to break Paris up into 2 posts as it's a city that just cannot be explained in one go.. I can't stress this enough but the beauty of the city is unparalleled.. We were lucky to get a hotel in paris instead of a hostel.. it was eventful because it was a boiling hot day when we arrived, and the gare du nord where we arrived was a 20 minute walk away from our hotel.. Ashita twisted her ankle coming out of the station so a few of us went to find the hotel and came back for the rest later.. We were exhausted with the delay but we wanted to get out quickly so we broke up into 2 groups.. decided to go check out the arc de triomphe..

The arc de triomphe was a moving experience. Just as we got there, there was a memorial for the soldiers who died during WWII and the architecture was brilliant.. The intricate artwork on every wall, and the stories that they said were incredible. I think what I will remember the most about the arc was getting there. The Arc is located in a concrete island in the middle of the city with nothing connecting to it..Being typical tourists, when we got out of the metro (subway), we saw people running across thru traffic and into the island in the centre so we figured that's the way to do it.. and when we did, we got pulled over by the cops.. Luckily Patrick and myself both spoke french so we were able to make small talk with the cops.. and they were uber friendly.. so much so that we ended up talking to them for about 20 minutes.. and they started suggesting places we should see locally.. One of the cops suggested we check out the cannes film festival to see stars like and I quote "jodie foster et tom cruise".. LOL.. the view up on top the arc was breathtaking.. personally liked it even more than the view on top of the eiffel tower.. not to mention, you have to work for it.. the arc does not have elevators so we have to walk up a few hundred stairs to get to the top.. but the view definitely makes it worth while..

I'm running a little late now, so i'll continue the rest of paris on my next blog update.. :)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Welcome to the sex capital of the world. No, that's not what it read when we walked out of the train station but I could definitely feel it. Before I talk about Amsterdam, I have to say something about the travel from London. We decided to fly from London to Amsterdam instead of taking the Chunnel across the English Channel... We fly the cheapest airline we could find and that was Ryan Air. Now for those of you that don't know about Ryan Air, it is incredible. We paid a grand total of 0.01 pounds for our flight.. That's right, a penny.. We only pay the taxes which was about 25 pounds.. But to check in a luggage, it costs an extra 15 pounds.. The flight was YELLOW on the inside with no in-flight entertainment and advertisements on every seat.. No Jokes.. It was a tiny tiny flight flying from London's Stansted Airport into Eindhoven, Netherlands.. and yes, it is pronounced AIND-HO-VEN.. and we took a train from Eindhoven to Amsterdam.. I think i just like saying Eindhoven a lot.. LOL..

So our first experience in Amsterdam was getting gypped.. Yup, we got gypped by a cabbie who took 40 euros from us and drove us around for 20 minutes to drop us back off less than 5 minutes walk from where we started.. so we eventually ended up walking around and finding our hostel which incidentally was at the heart of the red light district with a view of a beautiful woman, sorry, a beautiful view OF a woman with red neon lights surrounding her. The walk to the hostel was through a few sex shows, and pretty much the entire road of red light windows..

We got a 3 hour walking tour of the red light district by new europe once again. (same as the one in london with Anna) and found out about cool things again.. did u know that the red light district began because of and later sponsored by the church?? (explains the church bells every hour in the district) Sailors would come to Amsterdam's port after months in the sea and would rape the women in the city so the church apparently started sponsoring and delegating women to be raped by these sailors. It later started charging the sailors who didn't wanna go back to sea with sin in their hearts. So the church would forgive their sins for a price. After a while, sailors started prepaying for their sins and would invariably go beyond what they paid for and would pay again on their way out from the prostitute's house.

While on the topic of the working women, it's important to know that taking pictures in the red light district is frowned upon and don't ever get caught doing it. No, the cops won't come after you but the girls will. if you think that's not bad, they come at you with a cup in their hands. The cup will have their urine.. and they will not hesitate throwing it at you. These women stand up for each other, and they dont tolerate jackasses. A lot of them do this to pay for their schools, to pay for their families and do it behind their parents backs. (they are all licensed and are of age..) If i remember correctly, they can rent a window for 8 hours for 200 euros i believe. The rates go at about 40 euros for a simple S&F.. (if u don't know what that is, then that's ur problem..) If you want anything extra, it will cost you.. typically 5 euros for her to act like she's enjoying it.. 5 euros to call u by ur name.. 5 euros for any prop use.. u get the picture.. bottom line.. don't mess with em..

Did you also know that marijuana is illegal in Amsterdam.. (it's only decrimanalized so it's ok to carry it and even sell it as long as it's under 5 grams) Did you know that the biggest gay bar in Amsterdam is called the cockring? (women are not allowed in and men who go in typically do not come back out with their clothes on) Magic Mushrooms are no longer tolerated in Amsterdam which wants to change the worldwide image of the city being too open.. How about the fact that the city has a history of looking the other way anytime a topic of morality comes up with the ideology that "if I don't know something's happening, then I don't have to fix it." This even had good effects when Catholics were protected during the protestant reformation, or protecting the jews from the nazis even when Amsterdam was under nazi control.

Since we only spent 2 days in A-Dam, we cudn't resist going to the infamous Heineken Brewery and man was that worth it. We went through the entire beer making process, tasted the hops, and the barley water, and the raw barley.. Bottled our own personalized bottle of Heineken.. yes.. AWESOME SOUVENIR... (along with some stropwaffles.. ask for details..) chugged 3 pints of beer in quick succession (including one ice chilled.. it was soo cool taht they actually had the whole tap covered in ICE..) and got back to the train station very very tipsy.. too much fun..

It's definitely one of those cities that leaves a lasting mark in your mind. The contradictions going hand in hand is something that I just never imagined.. How could the church and sex go together? how are drug related crimes lower than in countries with less tolerance? How does teaching kids about sex at the age of 4 result in lower teen pregnancies? It's all weird but somehow it all works...

London, England

As promised, I'm back on the blogosphere and i'm going to take you guys through a journey, rather my journey. I wanted to write about my experiences on this trip rather than just highlight the places I visited. I wanna take you guys through what I felt, the people I met, the little things that I found interesting, the big things that overwhelmed me rather than just give the typical tourist spot shpiel that we run into all too often on the interwebs.. So here goes..

The moment I stepped off the flight in Gatwick, I knew I was in the UK by the sheer number of turbans at the airport. If you think the Toronto airport was bad, wait till you see Gatwick. I slowly realized that the more I explored London, the less indians I saw, which quite honestly surprised me. The majority of people I ran into were in fact English.. who'd a thunk it right? Anywho, we went off to a hostel (for the first time) and realized that there was one bathroom for 10 of us, but we did share a room with some interesting people. The first person was Sabrina, who was an exchange student from Brazil working in Madrid, visiting london for the weekend. Later that night we actually went to a pubcrawl with Sabrina and her two portuguese friends who were a treat for the girls in our party. (Gustavo and ...sorry.. can't remember the other one.) The second bar we went to definitely took the cake with an AWESOME Live Band and beer for just 3 pounds.. yeah that's $6 but apparently that's cheap?? I took a break between the 3rd and 4th bars to go meet a friend's sister and realized I NEVER WANT TO LIVE IN THIS CITY... It was sooo crowded, i felt suffocated just walking around, not to mention constantly holding my own bum to make sure I wasn't being pickpocketed.. It was a miracle that I was able to locate the person in the middle of Piccadilly circus without ever having met them before, that too on a friday night..

Our hostel was conveniently located in South Kensington, about 15 minutes from Trafalgar square. We immediately jumped at the opportunity to get on those double decker bus (on the upper level of course).. We also stopped and grabbed pictures inside the infamous red telephone booths.. (couldn't resist) We spent the rest of the day just going to Trafalgar square, which we thought was Piccadilly circus until the next day when someone told us the place we went to was not really Piccadilly circus.. We also managed to get the most breathtaking view of London that first day on top of the London Eye.. In hindsight, it was expensive (17 pounds), but definitely worth the view..

If there's one thing that we did a lot of in London, it was museums.. and after 4 days, we realized that 4 days wasn't enough to see the museums in London. We realized that we could have spent 4 days in JUST the British Museum with the breathtaking Rosetta Stone... We managed to get a look at the Museum of Natural History (with the blue whale that could fit a few dozen elephants inside it), The Museum of Science and Technology, ( with gutenberg's printing press) The British Museum (with far too many things to count)...

I think that we were very lucky to find a free walking tour very early on this trip. Our guide, (hot with a british accent) was a history student born and brought up right in London gave us a 3 hour tour focused mostly on british royalty and their absurd torture tactics.. I found out where the term "a stiff drink" comes from and why I will never order one again. The stories of Guy Fawkes (V for Vendetta), Henry VIII, Why the celebrate all festivals but one in Trafalgar square, and many many more.. Some of these stories are common knowledge but others blew my mind away. Let's just say I gained new found respect for the Geneva Convention.. This respect only grew further after our trip to the Tower of London and actually seeing the place of torture and the crown jewels (the latter made up mostly of stolen jewels)..

On our final day in London, we met Merve from Istanbul, our roommate who replaced Sabrina. Merve and her colleague were on their way to northern england where she was taking up a residency to become a doctor. Merve was nice enough to give us a Turkish good luck charm that she promised would keep us safe for the duration of our trip and that we should have it on us the whole time. Sure enough, I kept it on me and still get questions to date on what it is and where I got it..

London taught me two things.. One, horses and humans cannot press the same button to cross a street and two, we should not try to see everything there is to see in a city because it's just not possible. Luckily we learnt early enough so we adapted.. Stay tuned for the wonders of the sex capital of the world..

I'm BACKKKK...

Hey guys,

i know it's been a while but i'm back.. and boy do i have stories to tell.. i thought i'd resume this blog but enlightening everyone about my stories from Europe.. It shouldn't be too long i guess.. One city per post, i'll be done in 9 posts.. so keep ur eyes open.. :)