Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Down the bylanes of Montevideo

Today during lunch time, I got a chance to to walk down the bylanes of Montevideo,Uruguay. And probably for the first time I found that there is some similarity between a normal middle class life in India to that in here. The same small roads and houses by the side of them. Little children playing inside , doors open. Mom's cleaning the sidewalks.
I felt nice seeing it. A picture of India reflecting in my mind. No matter how far we are, the basic sense remains the same. This would be something that I would love to treasure for quite sometime.
Will try and take some pics, but I am pretty sure that the image will not really make justice to what I say, but will still try to.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

India Votes !!

I am going to miss it this time. Being here in Uruguay, I am going to miss this chance of voting. I had done all the hardwork and also got my Voters card this time, but I don't think I am going to get a chance to exercise my vote.
Its also being declared a holiday in Bangalore.
I just hope that there is a huge turnout of voters this time.

Montevideo, Uruguay

11th April, 2009
Reached Montevideo , Uruguay , only to find Jitesh and Abhijit waiting for me at the Airport. It was a pleasant feeling to see someone whom you can talk to after a long 46 hour travel.
I checked in at the Radisson Hotel and freshed my self and went straight to their apartment. Dal and Rice never tasted so good. Jitesh is indeed a great cook.
The weather was pleasant and beach was just 3 min walk from the Apartment. Since my benchmarking happens with Goa, when it comes to beach, it wasnt the case here. The weather was not at all humid as we find it in Goa, and that's something I enjoyed the most.
I currently have two homes :) . One is my hotel room on the 17th Floor and Abhijit's and Jitesh's Apt on the 10th Floor. I am enjoying the view from these sky risers after a long time, and trust me the view is simply awesome.

Will publish the photos soon on this blog.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

One day Trip to Frankfurt

Its was all done. I had to now travel to Montevideo , Uruguay on Thursday night. All packing done, documents collected, and all set to go. But yes, I had also spent a day last week in Chennai only to get a transit Visa to Germany. Now it all makes sense. I will be reaching Frankfurt on Friday early morning and my connecting flight is only at 10:20 Hrs at night. Reaching the new airport in Bangalore always gives me mixed reactions, the positive being the new look and the negative being the long distance that I need to cover now.
The Lufthansa flight reached Germany early morning 7:30 am. In the last one hour before landing I was lucky enough to speak to a gentleman sitting next to me, Sebastian who was from Frankfurt itself. He gave me a quick briefing on frankfurt and what i could do in this one day and what to see.

Once I got off the flight , I did the formalities and converted 100 USD to Euros. I thought that it should be sufficient for the day. Just down the aiport is the Rail station through which I took the RegionalTrains [ Mind you I was told not to take the fast trains , as it wouldnt stop at all the junctions] . Every point of time, I took help from different persons out there either to get the tickets or to ask for stop that I need to get down. I must say that most of them understood english and all were ready to help.

Once I reached the Hauptwache station, I was surprised by the loneliness at the station. I could hardly see anyone out there. Given the fact that it was Good Friday, it was a holiday and all shops were closed. But the lack of people on the otherwise roads made me a little uncomfortable, at the same time was a blessing in disguise. The clear roads made it convenient for me to travel as per my whims and go all over the road to take pictures.
This was the first picture that I took.


The deserted streets in the morning
From Frankfurt


From Frankfurt


As the day progressed the human traffic started to grow. I also took a small tour on the Cruise Ship. It was worth it and it kind of gave a complete view of Skyline of Frankfurt. I had only hoped that I could do that trip at night and take better pictures, but then there is always a next time.

From Frankfurt


From Frankfurt

From Frankfurt



The Skyline in Frankfurt, from the Cruise Ship
From Frankfurt


From Frankfurt


I particularly love this picture as it was wonderful to see one Ship overtaking another
From Frankfurt


Once the tour was over, Romerberg area, which was completely deserted in the morning seem to come off life. I suddenly felt better seeing the people, though there was none whom I knew, nor anyone knew me.
From Frankfurt


This is only picture that I managed to take of myself.
From Frankfurt


I kind of liked this table .
From Frankfurt


From Frankfurt


From Frankfurt


From Frankfurt


These are the cycle auto-rick shaws that one finds out there. The driver actually drive the cycles and take people on that. I guess this idea has been copied from India :)

From Frankfurt


From Frankfurt


Out this Ice Cream Parlor, I savoured the Ice-cream for a very very long time.
This is my favorite ice-cream brand.

From Frankfurt


After a few rounds of Romerberg, I decided to chose this place for settling down. Had an ice cream here again a Soda. It was indeed refreshing
From Frankfurt


I also started to write my blog here itself,pretending as if I am a traveler.


When I reached this placed, I really missed some company. It was a lovely place to sit and have a bite.
From Frankfurt


This is one of my favorite pics in Frankfurt
From Frankfurt


I guess this is the main office of DB
From Frankfurt


A lovely place to visit and knowing German is not at all a must to visit this place.
Though I was alone, I did have a nice time clicking all the the way to glory.