Story-of-Us

It was 3 days to take off, and Jai was getting super-panicky on the sheer number of things we had to do!!!!

http://story-of-us.com/2011/03/26/3-days-to-take-off/

It was a high-adrenaline period, when we said “We’re ACTUALLY going!!!!” to each other nearly everyday . Ofcourse, the ‘slight’ change in plans due to visas put us absolutely out of tune with what small amount of planning we had done in terms of our itinerary. We figured that we’d just land up in places and figure out what to do next (and that’s exactly what we did, by the way!)

Surrounded by things to pack... not sure where to start!!

While I was quite confident of tying up all loose ends before we leave, God alone knows how we actually managed it. By the end of it, the number of places we had put our various belongings, we were wondering if we’d have to put an excel sheet to ensure we don’t lose track of them by the time we’re back!!  And we obviously left behind a ‘small’ list of to-do’s for the family to tie up after we leave.

Meanwhile, we were still living on 3-hour average sleep-time !!! Now, the people who know Jai will realize it’s no small task for the guy who switches off at 11pm and needs his 6 hours beauty sleep each night!

Hello people…. We’re back !!!!

Yes, yes, yes… its been a VERY LOOOOOOOOONG while since we’ve put up anything on the site – and even that is an understatement!!!

Well, we figured since it’s been a year (a year and 10 days exactly) since we took off from work to go on our ‘Trip’ as we so unglamorously call it, we’d recreate the trip for you and for ourselves !! Right now on this day last year, having setoff a week of 2-hour average sleeping nights by sleeping for nearly 20 hours straight, we were chilling in the pool with a few cousins, enjoying the nothingness after a long week full of activity, fun, running around, dancing, planning, managing, socializing, entertaining, eating… had a blast though!

Meanwhile, since we did do a bit of writing last time, guess it’ll be a good idea to revisit the relevant posts on the way… Here’s the first few ones we put up..

http://story-of-us.com/2011/03/03/story-of-us-part-ii/

http://story-of-us.com/2011/03/05/the-plan-tentative-of-course/

In case you didn’t notice, a new photo-story has been uploaded. Hover the cursor over “Photo-stories” section in the top menu to view the new story.

This is a compilation of various Gods, Goddesses and other mythological figures that we encountered during our travels across Karnataka and Uttarakhand. There are several more in our collection (like the other avtaars of Lord Vishnu) but time and internet bandwidth constraints forced us to choose the best pictures. Would like to hear any nuggets of information that you have about these sculptures through comments on the page.

To state that we have been erratic with the blog updates would be a gross understatement. We had thought that we would be more regular during the India leg of our trip compared to the overseas part, but we were obviously not prepared for the surprises that accompany travelling in India!

Our last update, Motorcycle Diaries, which is close to 3 weeks old, did very little in describing our India itinerary. So this is going to be a summary of all that we have done in the last 4 weeks and what we are set to do in the 5 days from this morning till Friday, 1^st July 2011, when this ONCE IN A LIFETIME voyage draws to an end.

After the 2 days of minor jet-lag and more importantly unpacking, washing and re-packing in Bombay we headed to Kerala on 21st May for my cousin’s wedding and some family time. The wedding was solemnized in Kottayam followed by a reception each in Thiruvanthapuram (Trivandrum – for the uninitiatied) and Thrissur. In the midst of attending these 3 events, we also met up with folks on my side, spent time with my parents in Chelekara (a small town in Thrissur district), made a short overnight trip to Kanyakumari and spent a day looking around Trivandrum. On the 10^th day, we boarded an overnight bus to Bangalore. The pleasant climes of Bangalore were a welcome change from the sweltering heat and humidity of Kerala and we spent a day recovering from the rough bus ride. We set out the next morning and covered parts of South Karnataka over 9 days on the bike. The roughly-1000 kms that we rode on the Royal Enfield Bullet Machismo 500 went through Kabini, Kakkabe (Coorg), Dubare (Coorg), Hassan, Belur-Halebid, Mysore and Srirangapatnam before we got back to Bangalore. We spent 3 more days in Bangalore meeting friends over Dinners and coffee and also spent a full day with an aunt’s family.

We travelled from Bangalore to Delhi and moved on immediately to Dehradun after spending an evening with another aunt and cousin. We were hosted in Dehradun by the very warm and hospitable C uncle & M aunty in their very well-done-up home and they also took us around Dehradun. We drove out with their car to Dhanaulti for a night. On the way back we made a short halt at Mussorie as well. The next day we set out to explore parts of Uttarakhand in a hired cab. We spent a night each at Naukuchiyatal, Binsar and Haridwar and then 2 more camping by the riverside in Rishikesh. After a night again in Dehradun, we started yesterday with our entire luggage to Himachal. We arrived in Kufri last evening and would proceed to Shimla from here by afternoon today. After 2 nights there, we shall head to Amritsar for 2 days and then travel back to Bombay by one of the Rajdhani Express trains on Thursday, 30^th June, after spending just about a day in Delhi. After that, as I had put on a Facebook update – the wife goes to work on 1^st July, while I go to….. chill some more!!!

This is just a quick summary of the trip… we will continue with detailed posts with pics as we keep writing them…  Here are some snapshots from the last one week.

Enjoyed a hot maggi and pakoda snack sitting IN the clouds at Dhanaulti !!

Misty Woods....

Our load for the Uttarakhand trip

At the Club Mahindra resort in Binsar

Our sleeping quarters by the riverside camp at Rishikesh

Enjoying an early morning coffee by the river

Contemplating a dip in the river!

Our riverside camp - note the tents in the background

Splashing the cool water on my face

White water rafting in the Ganges... at this point we had jumped out of the raft for a photo-op !!

A larger than life sculpture of Lord Shiva at Rishikesh, with a beautifully done Ganga maiya atop his head

‘One state, Many worlds’… the tagline of the Karnataka State tourism ministry is alluring and also holds many promises. Not that we plan our travel based on snazzy taglines, but after some inquiry, web-search and discussion, we decided to opt for the state of ruins, temples, gardens, coffee estates, giant statues and centuries of history for our road-trip. Now, this road trip had been discussed on several forums for months together and at last count, we had at least 10 different recommendations on how to go about it.(A big thanks to everybody who chipped in; we hope to put all your tips to good use sooner or later). Due to lack of options during the month of June (which was the only time that we could do it), we finally decided to do the bike trip in Karnataka instead of the Himalayas. And on several counts, we are both glad that we made this choice. This is the first occasion that either of us has been on a bike for long drives (I’m deeply ashamed to admit that despite being the proud owner of a beautiful Bullet Machismo, I had not taken it out for a spin in the 4 years since I acquired it). It’s also shameful that our first long trip wasn’t on our own bike, but then it was this or never.

And so, we arrived in Bangalore all set to hit the road on the 1^st of June. R & S were good enough to not just help out plan the logistics and the equipment (more on the interesting equipment later!), but also allow us to dump our luggage at their home for the duration of our road trip. They have been on such trips themselves and R also has a good wealth of knowledge about Karnataka and its places of interest which has helped us a great deal in working out the details. The bike was hired from Indimotard, one of the main operators who organize riding trips to the Himalayas. A, who owns and runs indimotard, is a very chilled-out, unassuming guy and has significant experience riding and racing across the country. He has a wonderful treasure trove of bikes in his garage all the way at Whitefield from where we picked a beautiful Bullet Machismo 500 for our trip. He also loaned us a rugged riding jacket for me and a helmet for the wife for good measure. R & S lent us their riding bags, helmets, spare tube, even a couple of bandanas. Packed to the bare minimum (with some ‘interesting’ tips from R on minimal and optimal usage of clothing resources) we were all set for an early morning departure. Eventually, it didn’t turn out to be all that early and we saddled, suited up and took off by 7:00 am.

As the pages of these motorcycle diaries turn, besides the usual sharing of experiences, we have also listed information of roads driven on, distances, expected driving time, actual driving time, road conditions and other nuggets of information about the places that we passed and stopped at.

For the actual diaries, look out for a new page “Motorcycle Diaries – Karnataka pages” on the main menu… they would initially be listed in reverse chronology.

We arrived at the next short stop – STRASBOURG – on the same day that we visited Stuttgart. After changing 3 trains – one smaller than the other and the last one just 2 coaches long – we arrived in Strasbourg which is in the country of the French. Strasbourg’s claim to fame is that it hosts the European Union parliament and some other administrative offices of the EU. Unofficially, it is termed as the capital of the EU. The moment we stepped out of the station, all we saw around us were hotels, pretty much like the exit of the Delhi airport at Mahipalpur. Our walk to the hostel was rather long where, to our surprise, we discovered that it was more of a hotel than a hostel (We’re soon going to create a section called “Info-guide” (or something snazzier, maybe) and sub-pages providing ‘Lonely Planet’-like information and the sub-page on places that we stayed at would be called “Abodes across Europe”). We had a platform with 2 hot-plates for cooking in our room. We also had a en-suite (new term that I learnt during this trip) bathroom, a cabinet and a double bed… all in a room of barely 100 sq-ft large. Our 2 nights and 1 day in Strasbourg were spent on our feet around the small city. Since it was a Sunday and May Day (1^st May), more than 80% of the city were missing from the streets. I had mentioned in an earlier post titled “Random Musings” about the entire city being on hibernation mode including all means of public transport (unthinkable!!).

One of the main attractions in this city is the enormous, even gigantic, pinkish cathedral.

Intricate carving on the outside of the Strasbourg Cathedral. The inside, with large paintings, beautiful stained glass rose windows and intricately done up dome & altar, was equally impressive

Strasbourg has a river snaking through it, making an island of the main city centre where the cathedral and the major tourist hubs are located. The river goes all around and breaks up into rivulets in an area called Petit France – a beautiful pedestrian area, with alternating pockets of greenery and riverbanks. We chanced upon an interesting spot in this area where a few locals were playing a game of table tennis on a concrete table in the middle of a small park. Others chatted, read books or played with their dogs – 4-5 dogs were going crazy running after and around one another in a playful frenzy… Interesting place!

The Table Tennis "Table"

The boat ride through the serpentine river also had an interesting element to it. There is a part of the river which is at a higher level than the rest (don’t ask me how that’s possible). At that point in the river, the boat is enclosed between two gates and then the water is allowed to flow from the upper to the lower level. This takes the boat to a higher level on the river and then it moves ahead for about 5 mins. At the next point the same exercise is repeated and this time the water between the gates is drained out and the boat gets back to the previous level and continues its journey thereafter. All through this, the tourists are seated inside the boat, being first elevated and then lowered in the river.

The large tour boats were the only operating modes of transport – we opted to take the tour in an open-top boat (this photo shows you a covered A/C boat) to ensure optimum utilization of our camera. It also managed to give us a bit of the tan that we both sport.

Lunch was at a tastefully done-up Italian restaurant where we were attended to by a hostess who couldn’t speak or understand one word of English, but bowled us over with her warmth and energy. This was followed by a rather fascinating ice-cream. The cost of the ice-cream is determined by the size of the cone/cup that you choose for yourself. There is no limit to the number of flavours you choose so long as they fit in that cone/cup. Now comes the interesting part – the server shapes all your flavors in the form of petals of a flower. We chose Chocolate, Caramel, Coconut (for the mallu in me), Pista and Amarena.

Didn’t manage to capture the ice-cream flower photo very well – but you must try one if you are ever in Strasbourg.

We also chanced upon a couple of Americans on Harleys who had begun their road trip and were to ride across various countries in Europe. 

The Harley guys stopped to ask for directions... and guess who helped them out???

The rest of the evening was spent walking through the well-landscaped city. We walked back to the hotel along the river and under some nicely-lit bridges.

We did 3 back-to-back short trips – of 2 nights or less – which turned out to be quite interesting. One would imagine that these were quite hurried, on the contrary– these turned out to be quite relaxed due to various circumstances.

The first such trip was the shortest of the lot… less than 6 hours. This was the visit to the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart. We had taken an overnight train from Budapest to Munich. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bit painful since we did not get any reservation for a sleeping coach and had to do with seats (non-reclining, pls note) for the entire journey. So we were propped on our backsides all through the night, which is not a very happy position to be in for 9 hours (the wife still managed to twist her body and sprawled on two adjoining seats for a couple of hours… some time later another woman did the same thing while the wife sat up on her seat – I guess it’s a woman thing). Interestingly, we managed to watch a full movie on the laptop… Break Ke Baad – nice, breezy, easy on the eye & mind kind of cinema – with good music (Deepika Padukone can act at times!). And the movie has some good dialogue writing as well. We arrived in Munich and took another train to Stuttgart which was just over an hour away, where we managed to catch a little bit of shut-eye. At Stuttgart, we found out that 7 more mins of a third train ride would take us to the museum.

Since we didn’t want to walk around with our luggage in the museum, we deposited it in the lockers available at the station. Impressive arrangement, I must mention – almost like a Do-It-Yourself. You choose the size of the locker that you want – put your luggage in, lock it, pull out the key and take it away with you. The in-built clock starts ticking from thereon and when you put the key back in to open the locker, it displays the amount of money that you need to put in the slot to unlock it.

Mercedes Benz has a station named after it !!

You can see the factory/company premises right from the previous station spread out all the way till this one and even beyond. As you get out of the station, you see grey, dull, typically industrial buildings and structures all around.

The three founders

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The museum is a good 4 hour excursion by itself. Takes you back to the history of two different companies – the first founded by 2 guys named Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach; the other by a fellow named Karl Benz. It wasn’t until much later (i.e. very recently) that these two companies came together to form the entity as it exists today.

On display at the museum are life-size models of various cars manufactured by the company throughout its existence as well as various automobile components and simple explanations of how it works. It also traces the evolution of industrialization and a parallel timeline of world history.

The first motorized vehicle

One of my favorite points was that they openly admit to manufacturing as per the Nazi government specifications during the World War, but do mention that they did not have much choice in this matter. An interesting bit of trivia we learnt was how the Mercedes brand name originated. One of the largest dealers of the company was not satisfied with the products that were coming out of the assembly line. He demanded a faster and more powerful car that he wanted to use to participate in a car race. When it was manufactured, he suggested that it should be named after his daughter – Mercedes. And the company agreed – just like that. That’s how it happened – no link whatsoever to the founders, but a dealer who managed to get his way through… FMCG marketers could take a lesson from this story!!!

They also have a pavilion for their F1 and other racing models and a dummy car which is for tourists to pose in as well. Merchandizing is an art they have mastered and they sell all kinds of souvenirs – from smaller-size models, pens, jigsaw puzzles, coffee-table books, jackets, magnets, shot glasses – all of them marked with the famed 3-point star. Among the exhibits, they have ’33 extras’ – bits of trivia related to cars and driving history across the museum. We tried clicking as many of these as we could and would put it all together in a photo series – watch out for it.

We arrive in Mumbai tomorrow morning – the 50^th day since we left India on the morning of 30^th April…

We have passed through 11 countries – Oman, U.A.E., UK, The Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Turkey; spent at least one night in over 15 cities/towns/villages - Muscat, Dubai, London, Oxford, Bath, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Strasbourg, Lucern, Venice, Munich, Istanbul & Urgup; passed through 3 more locations without a night halt – Stuttgart, Stonehenge and Windsor. We’ve stayed in a B & B, a 5-star hotel, hostel dorms of 4-8 bed capacity, a service apartment, a cave hotel, a YMCA and most importantly with friends as well. We have traveled by flight, bus, train, tram, cog-wheel train, cable car, ferry, ship, cycle, metro-rail, water-bus and car – and of course we have put our legs to very good use!!!

This has been a once-in-a-lifetime trip. I doubt if we’d ever be able to do something like this again. And we’re very proud and thrilled that we had the guts and gumption to first imagine something like this and then actually put it in action…

I haven’t had a haircut in over 60 days (another record – the first being that this has been my longest stay outside India) and it’s on top of my to-do list within a few hours of landing in Bombay. We have clothes to wash and new set of suitcases to pack. We have a lot of posts pending to be updated on the site. The end of this leg of the trip doesn’t mean that we stop writing about all the locations mentioned above. As we set off on the next part of our trip, we might forget some of the details of our earlier locations. But the experiences and those WOW moments will remain forever etched in our memory and we shall make a strong attempt to share most of it.

We’ve completed the check-in procedures and await the boarding announcement for our flight at Istanbul airport. We’ll try writing about at least the last 15 days during our two flights from here to Dubai and thereon to Mumbai and then post it over the next two days while in Bombay.

Officially, this is the last post while we are actually in foreign shores!!! To capture the experience in a few words would be a waste of time and energy, so we shall not attempt it. Just as we’re sad that this trip is ending, we are as excited about exploring locations in our very own country… India, HERE WE COME!!!

We have just landed at Istanbul airport and are waiting at immigration for our ‘Visa on arrival’ to be processed. After some confusion thanks to a few clueless immigiration officials, we have found someone who appears to know his way around here.
As we begin the last week of our overseas trip, we are working towards completing several unfinished posts about our previous destinations. Hope to publish all of them before we leave istanbul 6 days from now.
As of now, hope to get our pasports back in hand, collect our luggage and head to the apartment asap!

We arrived in Munich this morning by an overnight train from Venice. It was 6:30 when we got out of the train and the sun was already high up and shining down brightly over the station – I still haven’t gotten over the day & night schedule in this continent. We had looked up a couple of hostels on the “Lonely Planet for Backpackers in Europe” and found one of them right across the station. Womnbat’s – a very cool and youthful looking place with a large, colourful reception and loads of pictures and messages across all the walls. Since the rooms are not going to be available till 2 pm, we decided to sit around and make use of the free wi-fi in the lobby area. We’re dumping our luggage in the locker room and then going to take a walk around the nearby areas and get some breakfast and maybe also go for a walking tour before we come back and check-in… I love this hostel-funda across Europe… very cool concept.  While we think of other posts, here’s one I had written earlier about our stay in Warsaw.

WARSAW

Here are some statistics…

1. Throughout the advent of time, Poland has been invaded by one country or the other. At one point, it didn’t exist on the world map cos parts of it were annexed by Austria, Hungary and Germany
2. Poland was invaded by Germany from the West and the Soviets from the East during the war – these 2 nations were among the big powers in those times.
3. Over 80% of Warsaw was demolished and a pile of rubble at the end of World War II.

Thought Warsaw might not have achieved the same scale of development like some of the German cities after the war, I doubt if any German city were so badly ravaged. And this is now the Capital of the country. Almost 95% of its historical buildings have been re-constructed based on memory and photographic records. So what you get to see in the city are not really 14^th or 15^th century structures but those that are just over 50 yrs old. The city is built over two levels. And we discovered this as we walked around the edge of the Old town – as we got to the edge– we suddenly noticed another level below us, with  buses, trams an cars running a few metres under our very feet!!  Some of the parks also have multiple levels.  There is just one big mall in the city. For those who didn’t see my facebook updates – it took us two days after we got there to see the first South Asian.  One of our major grouses against Warsaw was the language barrier – especially if you are speaking to an official at the railway office or in a tram. 1 in 10 of them would speak maybe a few words in English. The others just rattle off in Polish while fully aware that the other person is not understanding a word of what is being said. And then they nod their head sideways in great disappointment and disdain for not knowing their language… Hello, does the colour of my skin suggest that I am from Poland and doesn’t the backpack on my shoulders tell you that I’m a foolish tourist???

Our visit started on a rather amusing but tiring note. We had the privilege of staying at a 5-star hotel at Warsaw thanks to P & S (technically S & S!!), who gifted us reward points that he had earned at the hotel chain over the last few years. In the confirmation mail, he had specified that it is centrally located and very close to the Warsaw Central station. We came out of the station and looked around for The Hilton and did see some hotels around us viz. the Novotel among others. We made enquiries and were informed (in sign language) that we have to go in a particular direction. We started walking (all the while looking at the top of buildings – cos after all the Hilton would be a tall building, right?) and after 5 mins of pulling our luggage through the main road, we decided to ask again… the next person was not so helpful but a cabbie heard us ask for directions and offered to drop us… “10 minutes drive” he said and we obviously laughed at the offer cos we had read in Lonely Planet that cabbies in Warsaw can be out to make a fast buck and should be avoided. Besides, P had written that it was “very close to the Warsaw Central station.” We marched on for another 5 mins and then decided to check again at a café. The gentleman in there kindly drew us a map with directions and after another 10 mins of walking we finally saw the Hilton logo perched on top of a building in the distance. We huffed and puffed and pulled and panted all the way and finally walked into the reception looking like a pair of refugees seeking asylum. At the reception, the lady asks for the name in which the reservation has been made. I give her my name, the wife’s name and P’s as well. She doesn’t find either. We write it out for her just so that she’s not making a typo… she still doesn’t find it. She asks for a print of the confirmation and I triumphantly tell her that yes… I have a soft copy of it on my laptop. Switch on the laptop, open the PDF document and just turn it around to her in style without bothering to take a look at it. She goes through the document and I see a smile light up her face… aha, finally she’s realized her mistake, I say to myself…

She turns it back at me and says… Sorry, but this is a confirmation for the Marriott and this is the Hilton now!!! For some strange reason, I read Marriott as Hilton and all the while we were looking for the Hilton. We sheepishly asked the same lady for directions to the Marriott and she again drew us a map. She also offered to arrange a cab for us. Until we sat in it, we didn’t realize that she had arranged a Hilton cab which happened to be a Merc … the driver tells us that it’s just a 5 min drive and soon pulls into the lobby of the Marriott and guess what… Across the road is the Warsaw Central station!!!

Learnings for me

1. Read not just with the eyes, but also the mind – Hilton and Marriott are not even similar sounding or looking words.
2. Not all cabbies are out to make a fast buck – the guy was actually truthful when he said that I’s a 10 mins drive
3. When someone says that the place is “very close to some place” and you’ve been walking for more than 10 mins… something’s definitely amiss…

Anyway, the Marriott stay more than made for this goof-up. We had a splendid view overlooking the beautiful Science & History museum which had a clock tower which turned out to be our own personal clock. We didn’t need to look at our watches or mobile phones for the time… just look out of the window and there it was, towering above the rest of Warsaw for us!!!

Warsaw was in stark difference compared to London and Amsterdam for the space factor… ordinary roads in the middle of the city have 6 lanes for cars, plus 2 lanes for trams, plus 2 bicycle lanes and then a large pavement on either side of the road and another broad divider in the middle. We walked to the old town area in the evening and were again hit by the vastness and openness of the area. It had cobblestone paved walkways, had a very quaint and old-town feel to it and had numerous small restaurants which had indoor seating but also set up tables on the pavement as well. You’d be amazed at the number of small outlets selling ice-cream, we actually thought they were equal in number to the restaurants in the city. Our first dinner in Warsaw comprised of Pierogi (which is essentially the fried cousin of Momos) or steamed dumplings as they are described in English, the vegetarian versions could have a filling of either potato & cheese or cabbage & mushroom. This was accompanied by 2 small shots of traditional Polish vodka with about a litre of orange juice. And guess what – we paid as much for the orange juice as for the vodka. On the way back, we shopped at a kutti grocery store under the subway connecting the railway station and our hotel. I was also impressed to see a 24-hour internet café in the same subway. And the subway has a policeman standing on guard through all times of day and night. Has anybody seen a 24-hour grocery store / internet café (not in a petrol pump and not including 24-h medical stores) in Bombay?

We set off to explore other parts of the city the next day and again bought 24-hour travel cards which can be used on buses, trams and the metro – does such an option exist in any of the metro cities in India?  Our first destination was the Wilanow castle and we got there just as they were closing for the day. We had the attendants stare us down for keeping them back at work and also had the head of their security walk behind us throughout the tour to ensure that we didn’t backtrack at any point in time. Towards the end, they actually started locking up rooms as soon as we came out of them… Photographic evidence would be attached later.

The experience turned out to be better outside, in the lavish castle gardens and we spent a wonderful evening by a lake which flows next to the castle. We were back at the Old town square where the wife gave me a guided tour thanks to some reading up that she had done from a wonderful book called the pocket guide to Warsaw. The book identifies places of interest and historical importance based on the mode of transport and route that you are traveling by… one list for Bus No. 180, another for Tram no. 4, another for walks  and so on… We also went into the University of Warsaw which had an ongoing photography exhibition with some interesting clips on display. The Old town area is dotted with sculptures, churches and other buildings with interesting architecture… a photographer’s delight. We sat right in the middle of the Old town square and logged on to wi-fi which is made available free by the local administration for tourists and citizens. It’s the equivalent of sitting at a pedestrians only version of flora fountain and checking mail. We dined at a basement-level, quaint Italian restaurant which had portraits of Sophia Loren hung all around its interior…

We got out early the next morning (since we were done with the 2 nights package at the Marriott, anyway) and make full use of the 24-hour travel card that we had bought the previous day. We got on to a bus and just went up and down the city. We also visited one of the many parks which had a large sculpture of the renowned musician Fredrich Chopin (who is of Polish origin) being eaten by what looked like a dragon. By evening, we had figured out a way to head to Krakow and although we had booked a hostel in Krakow, I was more worried about the unreserved train that we had booked for the 4 hour journey. Images of a jam-packed train that stops at every single station enroute filled my mind. The Warsaw Central station was not really swanky like the other stations we had seen in Amsterdam or London, and my concern grew as we saw the crowd waiting on the platform. When the train pulled into the platform, there was a big rush to get in (of course – nothing compared to the rush at Mumbai CST station for unreserved compartments). I was overcome by a sense of relief as soon as we got in. Not only did we get good seats that were comfortable and plush, but the train hit a speed of 140 kmph within 5 mins of leaving the station.  How did I know this… it had LCD screens inside each compartment which indicated the speed, temperature – outside and inside the train, next station and expected time of arrival as well… Much like the new rakes in Mumbai but a lot more informative…

More about Krakow in a later post