Andalucia - Down Under

This trip started with the possible start. 4 of us were initially going to go on this one, but the other three could not make it due to separate reasons. All plans were disrupted, but I thought to myself; lgo ahead with this. Andalucia is something I always wanted to see and as I return back at 300 km/hr on this super train to Barca, I’m glad I chose to do so. Everything went perfectly and even though there were many instances when things could have gone wrong; somehow, everything got solved and fell into place.

I reached Malaga on Friday at 4 pm and headed straight to rent the car. Varnika had told me how parking was a huge problem and I soon realized that. I had no place to park the car when I needed to check into my hostel. The hostel was in the city centre where no car could go and thus I had to leave it somewhere. I found a paid parking whose rate was 2 euros per hour. If I was going to park the car here, it was going to turn out to be more expensive than the car itself. Still, I headed to the hostel. After checking in, I asked them a place for free parking and I was so happy when she told me about a spot where everyone parks their car for free except for some Saturdays or Sundays; the Estadio de Football J (Football to the rescue, again). This was 15 minute walk away from the hostel, the walk I was indeed happy to make. I quickly left the hostel, to take my car to the parking area.

Having your own car does have its benefits; no place is far away. So, I decided to go to the very famous botanical gardens of Malaga. As I headed there, I predictably got lost on the way and after asking for directions at every signal, I finally managed to reach the place. It was closed!! So, I made my way to a place just 5 minutes away that I had mistaken for the gardens before. It was a huge park with trees, jogging track, swing, kids play area, skating arena, benches to relax and a fountain as well. The place was so relaxing that I decided to sit there for an hour or so. Ate my food, made calls to pals and also managed to enjoy the swing for a few minutes (I remembered Dad pushing me on the swing when I was young in a park somewhere in Mumbai (do they exist anymore?). After that refreshing time, I headed to the hostel and checked in. Courtesy Lonely Planet, I searched and went to a vegetarian restaurant there and the ambience was amazing. It was a typical weekend at a European city centre (something I have witnessed for the past two months), with one difference however. Here, for the first time there were more locals and less tourists. The locals were having so much fun; singing away in restaurants, having a nice evening beer at the bar while watching Football, going to cinemas and so on. It seemed like the entire city had come out to one huge get together. So, after an amazing Paella (the most famous Spanish dish) and trying a dessert called Malaga (another specialty), I headed to my hostel at around 11: 30 pm.

Next morning was the visit to the Alhambra palace in Granada (some 140 kms from Malaga). Granada was first under the rule of Islamic rulers from Africa for many years befire it was captured by the Christians. So, this place has a wonderful blend of Islamic and Christian culture. And the main symbol  of this unique blend is the ‘La Alhambra’; the palace which was constructed by the Islamic rulers and then used by all the rulers of Granada henceforth. It is simply huge. The rulers actually built weekend getaways within the castle in the form of Gardens where they could come out to relax. The entire place is getting renovated and thus I could not catch everything, but it was a wonderful experience none the less which involved some other interesting moments as well with one of the longest and most thrilling parking I have ever made and also becoming a black ticket seller in between, etc. Remind me to tell you these stories when we meet. When reading about Granada on Lonely Planet, one place that had caught my attention was Albaysin. It is a place which supposedly had the best view of the Alhambra in the night and was also a place for Live Music, special Granadian Tea; a place where you could relax after walking the not so tiny Alhambra the entire day. My friends who had gone there last week said they had met a superb Spanish Guitar player when they had gone there and had also asked me to surely visit this place. I managed to find this place by luck, while searching for a famous tea place and once there, was just sitting there for the next hour. The Alhambra was fully lit by now and in the backdrop lay the amazing Sierra Nevada mountain range (gradually transforming from being fully snow clad on the left to the barren ones on the right) and coupled with the sunset. This definitely was the best sunset I have seen in a long time. Only thing missing was the Spanish Guitar, guess what, he had just arrived. The next hour was spent just listening to the wonderful music he was playing. However, I realized it was my day when he co-incidentally played the song that was playing in my head since morning, when I heard it in the car. Shit, I forgot to mention the road trip???

The car was even better than the one I had got in Norway, a gorgeous black Seat Ibiza. My friend Neeraj had burnt a CD for the road trip they had done last week and I can’t thank him enough for it. It had some of the best English songs of the past 30 to 40 years with bands like Pink Floyd, Oasis, Coldplay and the one and only, The Beatles J. I remember an uncle telling me that Beatles plus Road trip is the best thing that ever happened to him and I realized why. The songs were so amazing and they somehow seemed even better as I maneuvered my ride on the autovia (highway) at high speeds. They say Spain is one of the best places to drive a car, now I knew why. With the Sierra Nevada as a constant back drop and smooth roads with minimum speed limits of 120 km/hr, you know you are on some ride. The song I was telling you about was Imagine. When I heard it, I just kept on playing it again and again. Little did I know that my mind was going to set it on continuous play mode for the rest of the day; Kolaveri Di was finally out of my mind J

Back to Albaysin, as Andy (the guitarist) started playing Imagine, I could not even Imagine how lucky I was. As I sang that song once again in my mind, this time with real live music, my evening was made. Satisfied and somewhat lifted by that experience, I again got into my car and cruised gently back to Malaga. Scuba Diving was on the agenda for next morning and I had mailed the agency here before leaving to Granada. Being winter, almost all the water sport activities were closed and hopes of managing to dive looked slim. However, they did reply with affirmatively, quoting a very steep price, since i was alone and not in a group as initially promised. As it is, it wasn’t the best time to dive, so I decided to go enjoy on the beach rather than going Scuba Diving.

Back at the hostel, I had befriended a Brit from Sunderland and he too joined me to a beach on Torreslimos (a place 15 kms) away from Malaga, which had a bigger and a better beach (the car to the rescue again). This place was simply scintillating with one of the best beaches I have seen ever; very wide, very lively and the super shaded blue Mediterranean did make for an amazing combination. Add to that a sunny day and there cannot be a better place to be on. We walked and chatted (abusing our common enemy Newcaslte United along the way) and enjoyed the beachside. He had come all planned with a plastic bag as a seat, some fruits for food and a book for reading. I too had come planned, I had come in my shorts J. The waves were ferocious and the water temperature, cold but bearable. The moment I had stepped on the beach, I had made up my mind that I was going in. So, as Greg settled into his perfect beach mode, I settled into my beach adventure. The next hour was the best on this trip, maybe even the Euro Trip. I have done everything possible with the waves; swan against them, swam with them, jumped beneath them, across them, over them, sat facing the waves waiting for them to literally overwhelm me and also showed them by back, only to be taken in by surprise every 10 seconds. At that time, I was the only crazy enough person to go in what was according to them freezing water. But after half an hour, man others had too joined the party J. After that super Mediterranean bath, I started my walk back to the place we had parked our car, hoping that the sun would dry me on the way back. 10 minutes is all it took (2 minutes for my water proof hair). After an Italian lunch in a nearby restaurant, I headed back to the railway station, where I had to return my car and board my train back to Barca, my home, as of now.

This trip south of Spain had indeed turned out very well with amazing adventures and experiences. It would have definitely been much better if I had my friends along as originally planned but it was super fun none the less. As this Euro Trip nears its conclusion, my only hope is having the same amount of fun as I have had on this trip as well as this wonderful Euro Trip. 

The Quest for the Northern Lights

Now it was time to do what we had primarily come to Norway for, The Northern Lights. I’m sure many of you’ll are not aware of this phenomenon. Also known as the Auroras, this nature’s weirdness at its very best. Due to some ‘chemical locha’ in the sky at the north pole (it actually is due to severe magnetic force up there), there is a chemical reaction which causes results in the sky turning green or in some cases red. They say it seems like the sky is emitting light and when the activity is severe, the entire sky turns green/red and forms wonderful formations, making it an amazing sight. The catch is, you need thousands of things to be perfect and a huge huge slice of luck if you want to see them.

Firstly, the activity starts from October and a clear sky is required. If there are even 40% clouds in the sky, they block the view of the Auroras. On top of that, the temperature needs to be around 0 degrees Celsius and the wind speed should also be good. Then, there should be no lights around you as the lights beside you, will cause the lights up there to go faint. Sometimes, even with all these things going for you, it sometimes still is not seen.

Good things do come at a Price!!!

So, we had checked the forecasts and there were clear skies forecasted for 26^th October. All the other days, there were clouds forecasted, so this was our only chance. So, we set out from Flam for a 30 hour journey up top to the North of Norway. After some awesome sights, late night chats, music on phone and a lot of sleeping, we reached Bodo, a city in the northen part of Norway. We were in for a huge shock out there. The temperature was a freaking 15 degrees Celcius!!! In Mumbai, that would send a chill down the spine of most of the people, but for the northern part of Norway, it was a complete one-off. They said the temperature was less than 5 degrees yesterday and it was simply extraordinary for the temperature to be so high. We could not help but curse of luck. At this temperature, there was no chance of us seeing the Northern Lights. 

The tourist office was closed and we were asking random people on the street as to how and where could we see the Northern Lights. It was such a regular thing for them. They were all like, “We never think so much, we just see them when they come. ” finally, a person understood our desperation and helped us. He searched places nearby Bodo, where the forecast was favourable for the Northern Lights. The places where there was no cloud cover were very warm (yes, 10 degrees was warm that day, never thought such a day would arrive) and the places that were cooler had very high cloud cover. Finally, he found a place, it seemed to be the best option as the sky was clear and the temperature was much lower. Only problem, it was 60 kms away from there. What do we do now? Simple, we rent a car!!!

Isn't she stunning???

 Car rental is a very popular thing here and only for this purpose, I had specially got an International Driving Permit from home. Now, it was time to use it. We rented a Peugeot with a Navigator and the four of us, left for what was our one and only shot at seeing something for which we had travelled more than 50 hours for.

As I opened the door, I was surprised to see no steering, how the hell am I supposed to drive, that when I saw the steering, just lying there, on the LEFT hand side of the car. That is when I knew, this was going to be One Adventurous ride. It took me 5 minutes to get settled, getting used to changing gears with my right hand. Everything was just the mirror image, except the A-B-C (Thankfully J )

Once settled, it was a joy ride. Driving is one of my hobby and the roads, the car, the anticipation, the atmosphere, the challenge made it all even more thrilling. We reached the place after an hour and tried to get away from the lights. After an hour of ‘bhatakna’ here and there, we finally managed a good spot, just besides the road, on the extension. There was hardly any light there and the temperature sensor on our car, something which we had seen more than thousand times during the past hour, was showing a hopeful 6 Degrees. I don’t know why, but I just felt this is the spot.

It was 11 in the night and we were God knows which place, in complete darkness, with no man or woman other than us. All of us were just looking up in the sky, hoping to see something, looking in every direction for that ray of green rope, for that miracle, for our ultimate goal. We had all prayed a lot that night. I remember praying too, praying to God to just let us see what we had come so far for. Half an hour went by and we were starting to think if we did the right thing stopping here. Should we have gone further? Would the temperature have been lesser ahead? What about the cloud cover up there? As these millions questions ran through out head, Varnika and I just shouted at the same time. “UDHAR DEKHO!!!!!, our prayers had been answered.

Towards our far left, we could see Green Lights emerge behind the mountain. It was very faint but was slowly and steadily becoming more prominent. VROOOOOOOM!!!!, a car just went by flashing its head lights brightly, and the sky became black again, damn that driver, he surely had some sadistic sense of timing. As the car left, we again waited, our eyes again searching for the green ray of magic. This time, we were much surer as we knew it was a question of when and not if. The green light formed again slowly from the left. Wait a minute, it was there on the right too, said Padosi. Yes, slowly the lights at the two extremes started moving towards each other. It seemed like the arrows of Karana and Arjuna were approaching each other. Slowly, the black patch in between was beginning to illuminate. In 5 minutes, the entire patch was green, it was faint, but still magical. I cannot describe the feeling. Time had stopped, we were all in awe and hugged each other in joy as if we had just won the world cup. Yes, the dream had come true. We had finally seen them. What Bliss!!!! And as the clock struck 12, we wished each other Happy Diwali one last time. Yes, it was Diwali night. What a unique sense of timing God has. Northern Lights on Diwali night, God had just burst a cracker, and what a cracker of a cracker it was.

A Very very Faint capture of the Northern Lights; they were much more prominent to the naked eye

This truly was one of the most memorable Diwali ever, and by far the most different. We spent most of Diwali, the festival of lights, hunting for darkness. In the festival of awesome food, bread, butter and chips was our dinner. In the festival of togetherness, we were disconnected from our families, loved ones and the world, without any phone connectivity or internet connection. It was some Diwali J   

The show went on till late night. God was showing off now. The lights were playing games and forming wonderful formations. Sometimes, they felt like 10 to 12 spot lights coming from the sky, sometimes they all felt like a fountain of green light. And just when we thought we had seen it all, a green coloured light managed to breakaway from the sky and came towards us. It moved fast, zig-zag and it moved with a tail and whizzed by just over our heads. Yes, it was a falling star. Everybody closed their eyes to wish for something, I was asked to wish for something too. I closed my eyes, looked up in the sky and from the deepest corner of my heart I spoke the first thing that came to my mind; “Thank You”. 

We stayed there to watch the show for another hour or so and then moved to other places to see them from different angles. But, the cloud cover had increased, as predicted and it was becoming fainter and could not be seem after a point of time. The car was our hostel for the night, and one by one, we all closed our eyes, with the sight of the green lit sky firmly in our sights.

I woke up to my alarm at 6: 30 am as it was time to go for a drive. Our train back down was at 12 in the afternoon and we had 5 hours to go on a drive, and that is exactly what we did. We chose to drive by the coastline, and it was great fun. Empty roads, brilliant car, coast side, awesome mausam (Copyrighted by a friend back in XL), what more does a driver need. The best part about road trips is you can stop wherever you like. We stopped to see some Reindeers, stopped at whatever sights we liked to click snaps and took deviations into unknown narrow lanes, just to get right besides the coast. While trying such random places, we unearthed a gem of a place. I don’t know how to describe it but it was just an amazing sight. There were mountains in the back, with the river flowing, and we were just besides the river, on some superbly textured rocks. I don’t know who started it, but we all felt so liberated at that place, that we decided to symbolize it. I think the picture below signifies what I mean and how we felt then and there J

The Jump of 'Liberty'

We had overshot and needed to get back fast in order to catch our train. So, I stepped on the accelerator and started my race against time. I won’t say the speed I went at, that would give my father some serious tension, but it was the fastest I have driven ever. After 60 minutes of relentless driving, we were back in Bodo, 30 minutes before time. But that is when, something completely unexpected happened. A police car came right in front and asked me to come out. They were two of them and asked me about where had we gone yesterday night. I told them about the Northern Lights. They told me that they had got complaints from many Norwegians that our car was parked suspiciously and that some people were coming out of the window. It was actually the rest trying to enjoy the amazing breeze while I was driving. But, why the hell is that not allowed, I thought. Afterall, it was someone just trying to have some harmless fun. So, on this trip of many first, another first happened. My first alcohol test. I was asked to breathe out into a pipe. On the first occasion, my debut was showing, I did not breathe out strongly. That made them even more suspicious and they asked me do it again, in a stern voice. This time, I threw the kitchen sink and gave it may bloody all. The detector went green as a zero flashed on the screen. For the first time after my IIT mock tests, a zero felt so good J. Thank God, I don’t drink because the brandy bottle was out the night in order to warm my friends who were feeling cold. 

What a Ride!!!

Once I passed the test, the tone suddenly changed. They smiled and asked me if we could manage to see the lights. After a few routine questions and license checks, they let us go free; warning not to come out of the car next time. They said, “Once is okay; but the next time it happens, you are never driving anything again in Norway”.  Heaving a huge sigh of relief, we rushed to drop the car and then to the train station, just in time to catch our train back down.

As we sat in the train, the look on our faces said it all, we were just a drink away from jail, exodus from Norway, suspension from our schools in Europe, rustication from XLRI, and much much more. As I started to rewind the last amazing 24 hours in my mind and all exhilarating experiences and escapades I said to myself once again, “Thank God I don’t drink “ J. Norway was one of the best ‘trip’ I’ve ever been on.

Adventures in Flam

We were so much in awe of the fjords that we decided to spend one day there in Flam, a place very close to the Fjords. Flam is famous for hikes and treks that lead to awesome views and sights. Unknown to my friends, I was taking them on the toughest of the lot, a trek about 5 kms in all towards the waterfall, which was very high. As we left the main road and took a deviation towards the waterfall, some of my friends complained, but I must acknowledge their courage to come along with me on that amazing trek. 

We divided the trek into three Phases; something I usually do so that there is a sense of achievement at every milestone. Also, if seen as a whole, it can deter, and splitting the goal into smaller milestones always helps the psyche as the goal seems achievable. So, after a bit of forcing from Phase 1, I dragged my friends to Phase 2, but even after a lot of forcing, two of them were too tired to continue. So, me and Miss Singhal continued to Phase 3 and it was a tough climb. But, we somehow managed to do it and we finally reached the base of the waterfall.

Phase 1 - The Start if the Climb

Phase 2 - Getting Closer...

Phase 3 - Finally There :)

The View from the Top - We indeed had come a long way up

 When I looked down, we were indeed so high and this felt so good, especially since it was done on foot. When I went to the Eiffel Tower, the height was simply stunning, but somehow the height does not seem to be earnt as a lift had brought you up there. I find the feeling of heights much better when I have myself climbed the entire way. The feeling is just incomparable. 

The trek up to the Hidamba Temple in Sattal last June came to my mind. Sagar, Gajaa, Darshit, you remember that one?….It was some trek J

Apples

Apples here, Apples there, Apples everywhere. Our hostel in Flam was flooded with Apple Trees. We asked the owner if we could eat them and to our surprise, he agreed. Next minute, all four of us were on the tree, plucking apples. Everyone was so happy. I have never climbed on trees to pluck fruits before, but I wanted to experience that. So, I climbed on it and the moment I did that, 4-5 huge apples fell down because of the shaking due to my weight. One of them just missed my head; too bad, the world just missed another discovery J. After that close shave, I located two three apples I liked and them plucked them. What Apples!!! Like the trek up the waterfall, these ones seemed earnt and thus tasted juicier.

The Dessert Surprise

After having Bhindi for dinner (Ready to Eat packets rock!!!), I decided to make some dessert myself. I told my friends to wait in the room while I made some dessert from them. They got very curious and were trying to guess, but I sent them to the room and made some Kheer for us all. Yes, I made Kheer all by myself. Don’t be so shocked, Ready to Eat to the rescue once again J) The Kheer turned out to be awesome and the warm kheer in the cold, almost 5 degrees, seemed just superb. The satisfied look on my friend’s face, was so heartening. 

The Fast Cycle Ride

Next morning, we all decided to split up for a couple of hours and do things we liked to do. All of us, chose four different directions and decided to then tell the others about what we did. I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do, CYCLE.

Flam is a very famous spot for cyclists and also has a cyclist track which encircles the mountain and at the end there is a wonderful view of the Fjord. So, I hired a cycle and set off for the ride of my life. While going, I went easy, enjoying the views and just going easy on the pedals, not even crossing the third gear. It was simply superb, it was a challenge to concentrate on the road ahead as the sight of the fjord was so stunning. I reached the point, 8 kms from where I started in about 30 mins. I stopped there, sat alone and just enjoyed the view and just ran into some thoughts. Before I realized, I was already late. We had a train to catch and I also had to return the bicycle before that. I started my return journey and started pedaling hard. One by one, the gears rose as I went quicker and quicker. I started enjoying the speed and even though it was taking a toll on me, I kept pushing and kept on going faster. Then I saw the gear, I was on the top gear (the 8^th one) and was almost speeding at a very high speed. 

This return journey was the exact opposite of the previous one, no scenery, just the road ahead and my only focus was going faster. I reached my destination in 15 minutes. The feeling was awesome. As I walked back to the station, I could still feel my legs moving in circles and was still breathing a bit heavy, but I felt so so good J. I am going to do much more of this in the future for sure.

Being 'Weird' and 'Crazy'

After that serene yet amazing morning in Copenhagen, we continued our journey to Norway. Oslo, the capital was the first stop. Norway is a huge country but its capital Oslo is in its bottom right corner. Also, the different cities are connected to each other only via Oslo, so one has to come to Oslo to go anywhere. Oslo to Bergen, which is towards the south left of Norway, is considered to be the most scenic train journey in the world. However, we were doing it at night as we were going to do the reverse journey during the day.

We saw a huge group of Indian students and from the t shirts of one of the boys realized that it was a group of fellow exchange students from the IIM’s. We talked to them and asked them about their plans. After talking to them, we realized that we were the only fools who were going to travel to the north of Norway, which is about 30 hours up from Oslo, to see the Northern Lights. The rest were just going to be there for 4-5 days and return.

We were crazy, but sometimes in life, one should be crazy. Craziness can produce wonderful moments or even more wonderful disasters; but somehow I wanted to be crazy. I knew I had a chance to see the Northern Lights, and I was ready to take a huge crazy gamble to see them. I maybe was acting impulsive, but something from within kept asking me to go ahead, be crazy, and I followed the inner voice (Taking a friend’s advice)

Norway in a Nutshell

From Bergen next morning, we started a very famous day long trip taking us through some of the most beautiful scenes in Norway, called Norway in a Nutshell. It involves a bus ride, a cruise and a train ride and was very expensive but also highly recommended.


The start of the cruise - We were going to be blown away

The cruise ride was among the best rides of my life. Now, Norway is among very few countries in the world which has Fjords. Fjords are formed before hundreds of years. They are formed when a glacier cuts through a mountain and eventually melts. So, what it ends up in being is a huge water body between mountains, which forms a breath taking sight and the Fjords are said to be one of the most beautiful scenes in the world

I think rather than describing them, I think the photograph of this place is good enough as it will also help me save a thousand words of writing, which is important considering how behind schedule I am. Fasten your seat belts, you are going to be blown away.....

The First sight of the Fjord

Picture Perfect

The marks the cruise left back, there were deeper ones within me....

The Full View of the Cut Mountains 

I tried to capture this place from all the modes in my cell

However, I can’t help but mention one thing I liked the most. At one point of time, the mountain were so places that sun light could only come in through the part of the fjord. That, I think is THE most beautiful sight I have ever seen without a doubt. Here it is......

The Best Sight, the full view of multiple cut mountains and the Sun coming through.....The Waves meet the Rays...

I am no Photoshop expert and believe me that I have NOT used photoshop on any of these photos. Infact, I never will. these are straight from my mobile. 

When people used to ask me the most beautiful sight that I have seen in the world, I generally do not find an answer. Today, I found one :)