Copenhagen - 22nd and 23rd October

Copenhagen was not the destination, but a much needed pit stop on a very long journey. We decided to rest and enjoy in Copenhagen for a day and then resume our journey the next day. It was Saturday and it was Halloween time in Copenhagen. What a time to come here. The atmosphere was simply amazing and we passed the most happening place in Copenhagen, Tivoli on our way to the hostel. 

Tivoli 

It was Halloween special today in Tivoli, which is a theme park with many rides and fun activities for people from all age groups. So, after checking in the hostel, we headed to Tivoli. What a place it was. Everywhere there were Halloween Pumpkins in different shapes and sizes and everyone was in a merry mood. There were rides, parades, games, dances, shops, food, like a typical theme park and we all had a great evening there clicking snaps with different Halloween Pumpkins, trying weird hats, getting lost in mazes, playing and losing by just a millimeter in a horse racing game, trying our hand at archery and lots more. An evening well spent and thoroughly enjoyed. 

Finally!!! I managed to copy a pose!!! (Some things come naturally)

Weird Hats (Part 1)

Weird Hats (Part 2)

The Horse Race I lost by an inch!!! :(

Gala Time at Tivoli (Halloween)

Bohemian Music Night 

At the hostel, we usually ask the people at the reception about some cool stuff we can do in the city. Here, the guy told us about a Bohemian World Music night at a place just a few minutes from our hostel. We were very tired but thought we would just go and see how it is. When we reached the place, it was a small room with small stage, a bar and a very simple ambience. The band seemed to be a local band and was tuning and setting up the instruments. We were in a dilemma as to stay or leave, we decided that we would listen to one song and leave as we had a very long day before as well as ahead.

Music at its Best

Till 30 mins, they were just setting up and there was no sign of anything about to start. There were around 30 people in the hall and everyone was enjoying their drinks and company and we were just getting more tired and frustrated and regretting our decision. Afterall, it was BOHEMIAN WORLD MUSIC!!! I know, even I had never heard about anything like this and did not know what the hell it was, was it fast music like rock or a slow opera type thing? I had absolutely no clue. I was just hoping it is something peppy and was praying that it not something slow as that was the last thing we wanted. But because of the escalation of commitment we stayed back. After an hour they started playing. A slow song with dead beats was playing and my reaction was exactly like Aishwariya Rai’s father in Hum Dil Ke Chuke Sanam,when Salman does that English jig (Nooooooo!!!!!). That’s exactly when the tempo suddenly picked up, and it did pick up. It felt so good. They were playing a fast song, a genre I had never heard, some instruments too were unseen and unheard, but the end result was something magical, yes magical is the word. I glanced through the faces of my friends and I knew they were equally mesmerized. Maybe it was the atmosphere, maybe it was the fun day at Tivoli, maybe it was just our frustration before, but the music was so good that I felt like listening to them forever.

Song after song, it was fast paced music, with a blend of old school and new school. Now, I am no music expert, but I realized one thing that day. There are somethings in life, which have no borders or limits. Here were 4 people from I don’t know which country, singing in God knows what language, but still, the music felt so peaceful, so good and so wonderful.

Music has no boundaries, limits or borders and most importantly, no language. It is just a thing from and to the heart. To communicate the language of music, all you need is a player playing with the heart and the listener listening through the heart and it is enough. That night, we all slept in peace and feeling so good after listening to such melodious music for 90 minutes.

Some things in life actually are priceless J

Rainbow Re’treat’

The next morning (Sunday) we were just roaming in Copenhagen. Sunday mornings in Europe are all the same and unlike India, they are extremely quiet. It felt good just sitting by the canal and talking and listening to music as we were all sharing our favourite songs. Then we went to a fountain and were just sitting and relaxing there too when I just saw a rainbow. The sun along with the water in the fountain had combined to form a beautiful rainbow, so near and so clear. We could also see it through the droplets of water deviating due to the breeze. It was just amazing. Never have I seen a rainbow so close, I could see all the seven colours so clearly and also could almost touch it. Nature was literally treating us J

Train Travel at its Best!!!

Getting Desperate ;)

The only productive thing I did on my journey from Barcelona to Paris was writing the last entry (The Current Affairs One). Rest of my time, I was just ‘zzzzzzz’ing. When I was going to Lille from Paris, I got a call from Varnika that the next train was in 15 minutes and I had to take a metro in between to reach the station from where the next train was leaving. It was practically impossible but I was reminded of the good old college days, when I used to catch trains running; always with a race against time (Raghav, my friend will surely agree). So, it was kind of a revisit to the past, only this time the stakes were much higher (I was travelling to a different country and this was the last free train for the day). 

A Typical Train Meal

So, me and Padosi ran our hearts out towards the metro station, only to see that the metro doors were closing. I don’t know what happened to me (probably the adrenalin rush or I don’t know what), but I instinctively put my hand between the doors; the doors opened just enough for me to take my hand out. As they closed again, I put my bag this time in between, again it opened only to allow me to remove my bag. I was just about to concede defeat when the doors opened fully suddenly and we were let in J. The race was half won, still we had to sprint for 5 mins from the metro to the central station in Lille. I reached 5 minutes before time. Padosi was in total shock at that time, he said he had never done such a thing ever in his life. For me however, it was like reliving my past. However, as luck would have it, the train got cancelled and we had a new problem on our hands. 

Liege Railway Station - The Most Beautiful Railway Station I've Seen

With the last free train cancelled, the only option was to go on high speed trains, which require reservations, even with a Eurail Pass we all had. So, we just decided to go ahead and and travel ticketless and deal with the TC. We knew that if caught, the fine would be huge, but it was a risk we had to take. Desperate times do call for desperate measures. When the TC came, we all gave him reasons of exams and so on and started explaining that we just had to get on the train and to our luck, he agreed. Second time lucky today...

The Surprise Evacuation from the Train

I was never used to sleeping while sitting, friends from XLRI will vouch for it. However, after coming here, I have had no other option. To enjoy cities during the day, we generally travel during the night and sleep in trains, which are sitting coaches many a time. So, this is something I have started doing now. Hopefully this does not mean I will sleep in lectures like my XL colleagues henceforth, something I haven’t done till now. 

So after another night in the train, in the morning I was woken up by officials asking us to evacuate the train. The destination was a few hours away so it was surprising. The train was stationed inside and within something; not a station. Wait a minute, we were inside a freaking ship. Yes. The train was inside a ship.  

The TRAIN Ride :)

We had to get on the top deck for the next 45 minutes, as the journey was going to be over sea. This was not at all expected and we were pleasantly surprised.The cruise journey was super fun, wind blowing and the novelty of the situation was something and all of us felt so fresh.

The Trip Far Far East - First Stop (Munich, Octobeer Fest)

It was now time for my first of many trips during these three months. Travelling has always been fun for me and since I have all weekends free, I travel every weekend. Since I have been to Europe before, I decided to visit primarily the places I had not seen before. Eastern Europe was something I had completely missed during my trip to Europe and I had also heard a lot about this upcoming part of Europe.

I had not planned anything at all. I just knew that some 15 odd friends from XL were meeting at the Octo(beer) Fest in Munich and that was my first destination. I booked my tickets to Paris and left Ram bharose, an adventure was truly about to begin. The route was a 24 hour journey from Barcelona to Paris to Munich with multiple (around 7 in all) train changes in between. Since, I could book tickets only from Spain; trains from Paris could not be booked beforehand. When I reached Paris, there were no seats left on any train to Germany as almost everyone was heading there for the fest. When you’re stuck in Paris, the only other option is take a train to Lille, a city 1 hour away from Paris, which has some trains to Belgium and then ahead and I had already missed the last train from Lille for that day. However, I am lucky to have two of my closest friends currently studying at Lille, Miss Singhal (Akanksha) & Hunter (Shringar) at whose place I stopped for the night. Since Miss Singhal was joining me for the Eastern Europe trip, she was kind enough to miss her train so that I would not have to spend a night at the station. After heading to her place, we decided and planned the entire trip ahead for 8 days. This unexpected event actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it helped us plan the entire trip ahead; something which was going to help us a lot in the coming few days. The plan was somewhat like this, Lille-Munich-Prague-Budapest-Bled-Soca Valley-Venice and then back. Phew!!! I know it was some travelling for 1 week, but something which had to be done.

So, after having a wonderful dinner with my friend’s super cool Land Lady Cecilia and her friends and planning the entire trip with hostels, trains, and flight bookings, we started on our memorable trip to the east next morning (25^th of September).

Train Travel

They say Europe through Trains is a completely different experience and I had already started experiencing it. We were travelling from 8 am to 6 pm that day, but I can’t remember being bored for even a minute. I have met so many different and interesting people while travelling and it is good fun sharing experiences and chatting to them. Today, we met an American from California. He was sitting ahead of us and I could not help but notice a very amusing travelogue he had. Instead of photos, he was actually sketching the places whenever he saw something truly unique and the sketches were so wonderful that we both were mesmerized. After just talking to him for some minutes about California and USC (a place where many of my friends study), I asked him if we could see his artwork and he obliged. While I was going through the beautiful drawings he had made, Miss Singhal had an agenda of her own. Along with the sketches, she also ended up reading some of the private stuff that guy had written about his experiences which involved things which he would obviously not have shared which were actually quite amusing when she told me about them later.

German Engineering

I have heard a lot about German engineering, today I experienced it. Our train was running 15 minutes late, and would have reached late for a very important changeover to a connecting train if that was the case. That is when some announcement came in German, after which the train started to pick up some speed. After 10 minutes or so, the already fast train was simply flying. Acres of flat land just whipped by and I could feel that this was some speed. That is when they suddenly flashed the speed on the indicator, a shocking 300 km/hr. It was the closest one can get to flying. The tracks were parallel to the German Highways (The Auto Bahns), which are some of the best roads to drive on in the world. I saw something very interesting on the highway. In spite of galloping at 250 km/hr, the train could not outpace some of the cars on the road.  Some of the cars were matching the speed of the train. Imagine driving at 250 km/hr, from Churchgate to Borivali in 12 mins J. The Germans truly are at a completely different level when it comes to these things; even from the rest of Europe.

The Octo(Beer) Fest

Just as we entered Munich, we could sense the aura of the place. The entire country is in a party mood for the entire 15 days and almost every German just drinks and drinks and drinks more during this time. They love their beer so much that they start drinking in the last two weeks of September in the October Festival; crazy isn’t it. The entire city was buzzing with almost all girls dressed in a traditional dress (I forgot what they call it), in which the bartenders serve the beer. If La Merce was the biggest festival in Spain, this was 10 times grander. The entire area is divided into many huge tents. Not the tents we know, these are huge houses which can fit in thousands of people easily. And there are many such tents. Freshly brewed beer is served in huge 1 litre glasses and there is superb music going on. Every few minutes, some random person takes up a challenge to complete it bottoms up and stands up on the table. The entire tent then starts cheering that person and the atmosphere becomes so electric and amazing. After a round of drinks, everyone breaks into a dance to the groovy music and the entire tent is filled with laughter, dance and colour. What an atmosphere. Every beer lover (Amit ‘Raging’ Bull  & Gajaa come to mind) has to and has to visit this place sometime and even if you do not drink, this is an experience worth savoring. 

Apart from the mind boggling atmosphere, another super thing was that now I was with friends. Meeting them after even 20 days, felt so good. They say you feel good if you meet Indians abroad. Well, if you meet Indian friends, the good just gets better J. Due to missing our train, we were late as everyone else had reached there early morning. When we reached, the people were already zonked out totally smashed out. I could see people just sleeping on the grass like they were already dead and random people just doing anything crazy. But all this added to the fun and craziness of this place. We friends entered a tent to just feel the experience and we also managed to get some free space at a table. As the music started again, we all could not help but break into a dance. No one cared what the music was, we did Bhangra steps and what not, forgetting about everyone else and just enjoying in that moment. I even danced for a while with some foreigners and joined them in a traditional German step, which I picked up pretty soon thanks to my sister back home. As I looked around, I could see thousands of people just dancing and drinking and having the time of their life, and couldn’t help but tell myself, Now that’s making it Large ;)

Night at the Station

We had an entertaining night at the Munich railway station, where our train was delayed indefinitely (German’s disappoint after all that praise earlier). The station was full of drunkards from the October fest and the waiting room was stinking so bad of vomit smell, that we just sat at an empty place in the station. There was a drunk person, showing an article printed that day saying German trains are always on time and laughing at the irony of the situation. After listening to some interesting stories by Neeraj and exploring the variety of mysteries within Karan’s bag, we boarded our train and all of us just collapsed on to the seats to grab some much needed sleep. In between, Miss Singhal, (who always ends up doing something weird) found out an open pantry where there were many cold drinks and juices, and all of us grabbed some much needed refreshments for the days ahead. Prague awaits :)

Current Affairs - 21st October, The Quest for Northern Lights beings

I know I’m running one month back, time does fly. Today, it is one month since I have been here in Barcelona (well, technically not). Even though it has been one month since I have arrived here, I have hardly stayed here. I’ll tell you one shocking fact, I have not experienced a weekend in Barcelona till now J (Surprising, isn’t it?). The thing is that winter is approaching and t will get very cold everywhere, except Spain of course. Being the southern part of Europe, it is comparatively much better and the weather here has in fact been just like that in India, well slightly better considering the ‘Atmosphere J’. Also, I had all my long weekends and breaks in the initial half of my term and henceforth, it will be only 3 day weekends, so I will leave Barcelona for then. Most of my other friends in Europe ask me about what to do in Spain and what not to do in Spain, and my reaction is like, “I’m in the same boat as yours, we’ll enjoy Barcelona together.”

So, basically what I have been doing in the past month has been travelling and more travelling. When I call back home, I generally do not like talking about the studies and other serious stuff, I feel like telling them all the fun parts of travel. However, that has really shocked Dad a lot, he always asks me the question, “Are you really doing an MBA?” Well, his question is totally justified as I have always been on the move; one of the major reasons I have not been in touch. So, the weekday is dedicated fully to lectures and cases and other ‘Ghar Ka Kaam’ (groceries, food, etc.) and planning for weekends and come Friday, I’m out of Barcelona, heading towards another “Must-Do”.

Today starts an unexpected vacation for us. The full time students have their Career Week and thus there are no classes for the entire next week. Combine that with the weekends and I have 10 days off. So, I head off to Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, etc.); the northern part of Europe. They say it is one of the most beautiful places on the earth and we all are really looking forward to it. Mostly, for the Northern Lights, a phenomenon which makes the sky so colourful and so beautiful, that it is considered to be one of God’s most wonderful painting. However, like all good things, this does not come easy. Distance wise, I have to travel 60 hours to the Northern most point of Europe and that in sub-zero temperatures; knowing that I still have only 20-30% chance of seeing them. But, some things are worth the effort.   

So, now I head from Barcelona to Paris to Lille to Brussels to Koln to Copenhagen to Oslo. (It is going to be one looooong ride, but some things are worth the wait.

You must be wondering about the jump from Day 4 to Day 31. Don’t worry, I have not eaten those days away. To make it more contemporary, the days in between will be covered in flash back. As it is, most of them were spent travelling, so I will cover them one by one.

P.S: Here is my (short) Travel Plan Barcelona Sants	Fr, 21.10.11	dep	09:00
Figueres Vilafant	Fr, 21.10.11	arr	10:42
Figueres Vilafant	Fr, 21.10.11	dep	11:06
Paris Lyon	Fr, 21.10.11	arr	16:45
Paris Est	Fr, 21.10.11	dep	19:05
Frankfurt(Main)Hbf	Fr, 21.10.11	arr	22:58	18
Frankfurt(Main)Hbf	Fr, 21.10.11	dep	23:24	4
Hamburg Hbf	Sa, 22.10.11	arr	06:51	11a/b
Hamburg Hbf	Sa, 22.10.11	dep	07:25	6a
Koebenhavn H	Sa, 22.10.11	arr	12:10
Koebenhavn H	Sa, 22.10.11	dep	12:33
Göteborg Central	Sa, 22.10.11	arr	16:17
Göteborg Central	Su, 23.10.11	dep	12:42
Oslo S	Su, 23.10.11	arr	16:45

Travel Summary:

Departure: 21^st Oct 9 am

Arrival: 23^rd Oct 4 45 pm

Total Travel Time: 55 hours (Northern Lights, if I don’t see you, Bahut gandha Katt Jayegaa Yaar)

Day 4 - Lonely Planet

ESADE

In all this madness, I almost forgot the reason  had come here, ESADE, my college in Barcelona. It is a super university which was recently voted the 19^th best university in the world for an MBA by the Economist. IIM – A was the lone Indian representative in that list @ Rank 78. So, it was time to visit college. My lectures were going to start on the 4^th of October, so I just went to meet our exchange coordinator and get a feel of the college. The college was pretty impressive, a super entrance lobby and high class infrastructure were there. We just saw the college around and got our time tables and everything. The college was just about 45 minutes from my place through a metro and then a bus ride.

Padosi

However, the most interesting experience was looking at my Padosi, a fellow student from XLRI who is pursuing a different course. Till now, he had been quite normal but the moment we entered college, I could see the same glee, excitement on his face as the one I had when I went to the beach yesterday. It is amazing how different things make different people happy. Rather than being amused and mocking him for being happy on seeing the university and not anything else, I was actually happy that he was happy because in the end, it is just about things that make you happy, isn’t it? I realized that when a party is going on and I am dancing and having fun and someone else is studying, maybe it is both of us that are having fun and are happy at that time. It is just that our definitions of happy are different.  

The ‘Load’

The evening was spent preparing for my Eastern Europe Trip for the next 8 days. There was one problem though, I had to keep my luggage somewhere. The house I had got was booked for dates after my return and it was becoming a major problem to store 45 kgs of luggage in an unknown country for 8 days. As I was wondering around thinking of options, my luck struck again and I met Angel No. 2. I went to a supermarket store nearby to buy some fruits for breakfast and I heard an uncle speak in Gujarathi. Surprised to hear I turned around and saw it was the owner of the shop. After talking to him in Gujarathi for a couple of minutes, he seemed to be a very nice person. After some more talks about Gujarat and Modi and many more, he asked me if I needed any help and I knew within myself that my problem was solved.

Lonely Planet

Unknowingly, I had reached Barcelona at the best time of the year possible. From the 23^rd September started the La Merce, the biggest party of the year all over Spain. People from Europe come to Barcelona during this time to enjoy the 3 day extravaganza which involves live music performances by the world’s most famous bands and artists. This does happen at one place only in Barcelona; it happens in multiple places across the city at once. There are thousands of people, young and old, who dance their way not only till the night, but till dawn. The party actually lasts till 7 am in the morning at some places; that’s how crazy it got here. Even though this was the best time to be at Barcelona; I still did not know people well enough and went alone to the party. I was just walking through crowds (even more crowded that a weekend at Sankalp Navratri by Falguni Pathak in Mumbai). Everyone was in a group, enjoying with their friends, dancing or drinking throughout the night and there I was feeling more lost than I have ever felt. I so remembered the parties I have had back home in Mumbai or in XL. I enjoyed them so much. I badly missed all my friends & family back home with whom I have danced at parties, especially the ones at XL with whom we always have a dance night every fortnight.

Bhaiyaa, I missed you so much that day as it has kind of become a habit to dance with you after the oh-so-many times we have done or had to do that in the last 15 months J. Without friends and family, even the best party and the best music and the best atmosphere becomes the most boring party of my life.

Day 3 - Barcelona Exploration Starts

Today was a free day. So, I decided to have a walk around the city. They have a nice system here of tours around the city called “Free Walking Tours”. Being an Indian and top of that a Gujarathi (:p), I had to try anything that is free. What they do is collect as many tourists from all the hostels and then show them around the central parts of the city. Traditional architecture is shown along with some stories about the history of the city. At the end, you can pay how much ever you like. If you do not like it, you can even not pay. Being the MBA man, I started thinking if such a thing could work in India, and that is when a fellow Indian tourist offered only 1 Euro for a very nice tour. I got my answer J

After that tiring yet refreshing tour of the city where I learnt a lot about the history of Barcelona (I would have told you but, you can just Google it up J) it was time to HIT the beach. Wooooooohhoooooo!!!!! While walking towards the beach, it somehow just struck me how used to I am to having the beachside just besides my house in Mumbai. I never loved the beach so much. However, one and a half year away from Mumbai has made me realize my love for the beach. The brushing of the cold breeze past your ear coupled with rushing of the waves is simply marvelous. It is amazing how distance makes things fonder. Until you lose some things, you never realize how important they are to you. One of my biggest lessons learnt after leaving for XLRI. Anyways, back to the BEACH!!! What an awesome beach it is. I just felt back home and was reminded of all the memories that I have with beaches, and let me tell you there are many of them.

I came to know afterwards that the entire beach is made of artificial sand from Egypt which was imported during the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. That was money well spent, whoever did it. I so wanted to swim in the beach, but did not have a towel or anything. It is one thing I will definitely do during my stay here.

After the beach, I was kind of on a high (these are some of the things that give me immense pleasure) and that’s when I saw another thing I love so much, an adventure park. There was one breathtaking ride which I saw. I have sat in many thrilling rides in Dream World and Disney World (Paris) and so on but this one was right up there among the best. To add to the fun, I just let me hands out as if I were flying and it was one of the most thrilling experiences for a very long time.

It was sort of a double bonanza with the beach and that ride. Exchange friends from Europe, this is one super evening that I promise you once you come here to Barcelona.

Second Time Lucky

Day 2 - 21st September

“TRING TRING TRING!!!!!!!”, the alarm went off at 7 am in the morning and I woke up hearing the murmurs of abuses received from my fellow dorm roomies (8 in all), some of them who had slept at 6 am or later after a night of booze and partying, something which Barca is so famous for. Like XL, the parties here start at midnight, but unlike XL, they go on till dawn, especially at the time I was there, because unknowingly, the week I had arrived here was the week of the La Merce, the biggest party of the year in Barcelona, for which people from entire Europe, forget Spain come to have the most rocking party of the year. More on the La Merce later on as first I need to go to the airport to figure out how the hell am I going to locate my luggage. So, Padosi and I leave for the airport using public transport, something we plan to use everywhere as it turns out to be much cheaper than taxi rides.

My First look of Barcelona

A Picture from the flight

The public transport in most of Europe is simply amazing and Barcelona is no different. With 11 metro lines and more currently being made, frequent buses, trams and ‘continuous buses’ (Yes, there is a bus every 30 seconds from the central place to the airport, talk about frequency). By the time people board the bus, there is the bus on the same route lined up behind, sometimes even two, something very amusing yet commendable.

When we reached the airport, we were in for a huge shock; something we never expected to happen. The lost and found baggage counter had not only put our request forward for the baggage claim, not only contacted the airlines and got my luggage tag numbers, not only located our luggage lying in some corner of Istanbul, but also had the luggage departed for Barcelona Airport via a flight which was to arrive in 30 minutes. All this without even a reminder; forget pleading, begging or offering money, something which we are used to and all of this within 16 hours, SHOCKING isn’t it? As said by the desk, the luggage arrived after half an hour and as it was approaching me on the conveyer belt slowly and steadily, the bags suddenly seemed like a Bollywood heroine running slowly towards the hero. The joy of getting more than expected is indeed something.

With the luggage sorted out, our next quest was sorting out our accommodation for the next three months. ESADe, my college for the next three months being in Barcelona, a metropolitan cannot afford to provide accommodation, and this was a huge task for all the incoming students. We had contacted a person through a website for housing searched when in India itself (Google rocks!!!) and he has a unique system which he runs here for providing houses on rent. I don’t know how many people he has under him, but he has a person running different streets who show you all the possible flats on that street and if you don’t like any if them, he will just ask you to go to another street where another care taker will show you around until you end up liking a flat. After looking at a couple of houses, we finally found a decent house where we felt we could survive. Not the biggest of them, but it was a good deal considering we only got it for 3 months. The location of the house is alongside a very popular street in Barcelona, Passeig De Gracia, which is among the central locations and also close by to college as well as the other fun places in the city.

The saying of a new day bringing a new beginning could not have been more apt. After the tremendous first day, the second day had almost been perfect.  With my luggage back and accommodation sorted, in one of my best friend’s words, I was now ready to HIT Barcelona and the other parts of Europe.

Lost in Transition....

Day 1 - 20th September

It has been 30 days since I have come to Europe and it has been an exhilarating adventure so far and I use adventure specifically because that is what I love most. They say, Europe is famous for its architecture and museums and I do enjoy them a bit, but a trip without adventure for me is like the Indian batting without Sachin Tendulkar. So, I have ensured that I get my doze of adventure in each place along with the bombardment of the European art and culture.

Not all adventure was planned though; when I arrived at Barca, my luggage did not accompany me somehow. It got “Lost in TRANSITion” and here I was without my check in luggage in a new city. The airlines office was shut too and there was absolutely NO one from the airlines @ the airport to help us except a Lost and Found Baggage Counter, where there was a lot of rush. (company in misery wasn’t welcome for a change) On top of that, my over smartness led me to lose my baggage tags, my only savior and proof in such times.

There are two parts of a boarding pass, a long and a short one. My tags were pasted in the short part, which obviously is the part taken in India by the airport authorities. I, being an MBA from XLRI, used my smartness to paste them on the bigger part of the pass so that they do not taken by the airport authorities. However, as it happens in Europe, they take away the bigger part of the boarding pass (Why can’t they have a standard procedure globally? and I thus lost my claim to my luggage and literally no one to help. Cometh the first of many ‘angels’ on this trip, an Indian living in Spain who made some calls and gave us his phone to use and some other useful tips. We (there was a classmate along with me in all this) then headed to our hostel for the night, hoping that the luggage would arrive soon, the only identification proof I had given them was the colour and the type of the luggage, something which would help them EASILY find my luggage among the thousands of luggage they were handling.

Something similar to what I experienced :)

The fun did not end there as thanks to some incorrect directions by the policemen of all people, a 15 minute walk became a 1 hour struggle where we also passed the ‘La Ramblas’, the most lively street of the city. I have so much to write about the La Ramblas, but I would leave that for some other time.

The street where my hostel was as it turns out is one of the most notorious in Barcelona. Famous for pick pockets, thefts, call girls, drugs and everything you can imagine. However, there were many Indian and Pakistani shops here and on visiting them, everyone gave us just one suggestion, “DO not carry more than 20 euros in your wallet, it will reduce the depression you will go through once your wallet is pocketed, something which is bound to happen. Even after those encouraging words from our people there, I somehow felt that I am vigilant enough to ensure that I do not get pickpocketed; something I have avoided in Mumbai too in spite of travelling by locals regularly since I was 8 years old.

So, with that first day in this new city, I slept that night with a conversation with God, my style of a prayer since the past few years. I told him that I knew I had asked for some adventure and thanked him for not disappointing me. Honestly, I had started to enjoy all this by then, as I knew that going by the start I have had, this trip was going to be ONE HELLUVA RIDE :) With this thought, I collapsed in my bed as passed into deep slumber hoping to find my luggage, but not wanting the adventure to stop.