Hangout in Vienna and Germany

On one fine morning, I was informed by manager that I would be travelling to Germany for a ten day period.This initially didnt excite me as always a trip to new place would do and may be it was because I had to travel all alone and that would be a difficult task being a talkative gal I am :).

I had one weekend which I could use for sight seeing over there and suddenly realised I had a friend,Anil PJ in Austria who was eagerly looking for some company to roam around and discussed about a trip and finalised to visit Vienna where he stayed.
Finally the day came when I had to travel and I was praying and hoping to see some snow fall in Germany where the weather was kinda sunny and no signs of snowfall.But it didnt disappoint me for long as well :)

My stay there were filled with meetings and discussions and meeting the develpopers but the evenings were all for myself where I roamed around Mannheim city.

Mannheim is a central place with decent crowd and you wouldnt get bored once you enter the place called parade platz which is like quadrants and has all sort of shopping malls overe there.You could visit Galleria, a shopping mall there for all good stuffs at reasonable price.But make sure you roam around and check out stuff before you make a purchase as you might be tempted to spend too much on the variety of chocolates you see in various shops.

I couldnt resist comparing Germany with our own country, though I felt I shouldnt. The trains and buses, trams were so on time, with all details provided in the platforms.Though people dont look so
friendly to outsiders, they never hesitated from helping, if you went up to ask for a help.I realized it many a times while travelling in train.

Automobile is one thing which cannot stop talking about. You can find all makes of cars over here and the beautiful roads supporting them to glide thruogh.There are roads called Autobahns where you
can drive without any speed limits and there is cut off only on minimum speed you can be on that road which is 60 km (can u imagine such roads here in Bangalore??? :D )

My lonelyliness grew with days passing by and I was waiting for the weekend where I could meet my friend and started my journey to Vienna on friday evening.With lots of fears of traveling alone, I
set my step into the train in Frankfurt and I felt safe with company I gotto travel to Austria.It was nice to know that people there talked about our so called Bollywood adn spoke about the songs and dances in movies :)

On reaching Vienna, we set out to iceskiing spot,"Semmering" as planned by PJ. There was no sign of snowfall anywhere on the way and I was kind of disappointed.

Hoping for a snowfall, We put on those heavy gears for skiing and set to do some skiing(if at all we did!) falling and raising all through.... Suddenly I could see flakes falling on and Yes Snowfall had started and the first snowfall of my life left me thrilled and amazed.We spent our whole day there. the long walk in the snowfall was something which I loved a lot where we missed our way back and found it again, much before our departure train arrived.

The Next day we went to Schunnbrunn palace in Vienna. I will not write about the history of the palace but its simplicity. The palace looked very simple from outer view but was rich in interiors.I cannot provide the pics here as we were not allowed to click pics of the palace. One can see the King's simple life and the Queen's lavish and the craze for Chinese art.You can see couple of room walls all filled with the flower vases designed in Chinese art.The whole palace areas is so huge and beautiful with ponds inside and a view point to see whole of the place from a height.It has one big zoo with lots of animals which I hadn't seen back here in India. I loved the maintenance of the zoo and felt pity for the animals in our own Bannerghatta national park.I heard from my friend that the place is best visited during summer to see the plants and trees in full color.

The pleasant stay in Austria ended so fast with Vienna sending me off again with a snowfall.

Our team colleagues had arranged for a visit to Blackforest one day after office hours. The Black forest valley looked so beautiful in the evening and I thought of going back during summer.The drive was very pleasant with a drive in a 2km length tunnel which was built under the river Rhine and through the valley where many Russian families resided on  small hills with their big Bungalow kind houses. The view reminded me of the scenes from "walk on the clouds" movie.

On reaching the Black forest, I found a lake called mummelsee which was frozen due to the cold weather.My colleague helped me with the legend prevailing there about the place.It was supposed to be filled with spirits who helped the villagers and which the father of the spirits didn't like. Since it was late in the evening, we couldn't spend much time overe there and headed to a local restaurant ending the day with delicious food served.Also the place is famous for the kukuwah(kuku watches) and you could bring home one of it if you wish to listen to it every hour :)

Finally my days in Germany came to an end with lots of mixed kind of memories and chocolate shopping :)

Places visited: Vienna, Semmering
Famous for : Palace,Ice skiiing.

Blackforest: Hill station with view through valleys.
Shopping: Kukuwah

Shopping which is worth : Leatherbags,jackets,kitchen knives,chocolates.
If you happen to shop ni Galleria in Mannheim, make sure to collect a duty free bill/slip they provide you along with your invoice.This can be showed in Germany consulate to avail the taxed amount

back into your pocket.

Stay: My stay was in Mannheim in "Intercity Hotel" situated very next to the central station. The best part about this hotel was that it provided complimentary train pass which I could use to travel through that zone.

Places you could also visit:
If you have enough weekends ort free weekdays, you plan to see many places within or out of Germany.You should feel lucky to visit Germany as it is a neighbour to several beautiful countries that none of your weekends g waste, if you are one travel freak.You could choose to go to Heidelberg,Struttgart which are very close to Mannheim and as heard, have beautiful castle(Mannheim too has a castle and a museum )
If you would like to go further you have many other places within Germany or else you could also plan to visit Paris,Swiss,Prague,Venice,Rome or Madrid and have a splendid trip.

Adding some more pics clicked in the palace zoo and many others....

Beautiful railway stretch

Empty Vienna streets early in the morning

Wedding Tips : Tips to safegaurd your dress

Marriage is such an institution where you have to make so many preparations just to enter  it.I was making a to do list for the preparation activities so that everything is in place.Of all the things we had, there was this thing which always bothered me:
In most of the South Indian wedding or to be very specific, Kannadiga weddings,I have seen this one custom where bride and grooms will  be sitting opposite to each other holding a coconut in their hand and all the invitees come on to  the stage and pour milk on it and bless the couple. I dont know what is so exciting about  that act that I see some people puring a whole tumbler full of milk on the couple , not just on their hands but on their dress too. This might be their sign of affection but it surely spoils your costly silk saree or the dhoti for that matter. These are the dresses which you are going to remember for your life time and you defintely dont want to see it be spoilt.
There are people who wrap a cotton dhoti around their waist before sitting for this custom but how much damage  can a cotton dhoti save you from. It surely trickles down to saree/dhoti underneath it.
You can  never say a No to the custom and take all those scary looks from elders but go through it..... So i deviced a plan  to go through this yet saving our clothes from the milk stain....

Me scared that my saree will get spoilt :)


Here we go with it:
Things needed:
1) A long piece of rope to tie around your waist
2) A 2 to 3  meter long un cut plastic cover(all hardware or plastic s shops will be having this. You can relate kit to the quality of trhe cover you use to

cover your cars vehicles)
3) A clean neat dhoti
4) A friend to help you finish this soon :)

Steps:
1) Tie the rope to two ends(window/2 chairs anything) as if making it ready to dry clothesof some support
2) Now put the cover on the rope in such a way that you are trying to dry it... This will be like a fold on the cover with the rope in between.
3) Overlap this with the dhoti so that the cover is not seen from any  side.
4)Staple or pin the cover and dhoti to the rope, so that it doesnt get disturbed.
5) Now fold it and pack it with all your rest clother and make sure to wrap it just before that ritual starts and here you go... You respect your elder's custom as well save your so precious dress of yours :)
Please do let me know if this was of any help to you or to  your frenz. My frenz surely wanna make use of  this piece of info and I thought this infact could be useful to many soon to be wed couples :)
Good luck!!!

Finally relaxed with the dhoti covering around...

ನೂರಾರು ಮೈಲುಗಳಷ್ಟು ದೂರ

ನೂರಾರು ಮೈಲುಗಳಷ್ಟು ದೂರ
ಇದ್ದರೂ ಮನಸೆoದಿತು, ಕಣ್ಮುಂದೇ ಬಾರ...

ನೋಡಿದೆನು ಮಂಜನ್ನು, ಕರಗಿತು ಮನಸಾಗ,
ತಬ್ಬಿದೆನು ಛಳಿಯನ್ನು, ಮೀಟುತಾ ಮೌನರಾಗ
ನೀನೀರದೆ ಮನಸಲಿ ಕೋಲಾಹಲ,
ಕಾಣಬೆಕು ನೀನು, ಕಳೆಯಲೀ ಕಳವಳ....

ನಿನ್ನೊಂದಿಗೀನಾ ಪ್ರೇಮ ಮಧುರ,
ಗಾಢವಾಗಿದೆ ಹೋದಾಗಿಂದ ನಾ ದೂರ,
ಬರುವೆನು ನಾ, ಕಾಯುತಿರು ದಾರಿಯನು,
ಮುಗಿಸಿಬಿಡುವ ನಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರೀತಿಯ ವೈರಿಯನು....

ಮೂಡುತಲಿ ಬಾನಿನಲಿ ಹೊಂಗಿರಣ,
ಆಗುವುದು ಈ ವಿರಹದಾ ಮರಣ...
ಯಾನವಿದೆ ಕೆಲವೇ ಮೈಲುಗಳಷ್ಟು ದೂರ,
ಇದ್ದರೂ ಮನಸೆoದಿತು, ಕಣ್ಮುಂದೆ ನೀ ಬಾರ..!

Exotic Andaman

Soon after our wedding was planned and finalised to be in December 2nd week, we started our planning for all the arrangements to be made and honeymoon plan was one such thing which needed to be booked in advance due to the jam packed crowds in any beautiful spots during december, the holiday season.

Since me and Vineet both love travelling and discovring new places and for the love we have towards beaches, we decided on to go to some Island and Andaman was the one to which we found flight tickets,hotel bookings etc.

3 days after our wedding we started our trip as planned and headed to Chennai and from Chennai to portblair by a flight.
Soon after our landing, we were received by our agent to help us transfer to Hotel Sentinel where we had planned to stay.
Our visits started the same day from 2pm and I am going to write day to day visits details:

Day1 noon:
We sailed in a ship to Viper island which was an hour journey from PortBlair. The place as explained by the guide got its name due to the viper snakes which were abundant there and also for the bad memories of the independence struggle, where the freedom fighters were sentenced to death.We could only see the remains of gallow,a court and nothing much as most of it was destroyed by the earth quake which had shaken the place quite some years back.
At around 4.30 we were taken to the cellular jail for the very much talked light and sound show which showcased the struggle of the freedom fighters in those times and made me go back to those days. But I felt the effect would have been stronger of the length of the show was quite shorter as there was too much repeatation of the things. We couldnt see the jail as it was time for these shows and we planned to come back for the same later on.

In case you are short of time, avoid this show and visit the place in day.

The sun sets here quite early and by the time we came out of the cellular jail it was pitch dark outside although the time was just 5.30 pm!!

Day 2:
I was very curious to go to Havelock Island and we started off to Havelock island via Makruz a speedster which took half the time the govt ferries would take to reach the place.It was breathtaking seen to see the deep blue ocean on all the sides and the lush green islands which made me feel fresh.
Our stay was in Symphony Palm Beach resort which I loved to the core for the scenic beauty it provided and the clean beach by the side our resort. Altough it was sunny outside, our resort was very cool due to the coconut grooves it had and we spent our half day resting on the beachside and clicking some pics.
Post lunch we went to Radhanagar beach, one of the famous beaches of the place. I had read about this place before our trip and was expecting huge crowd over there. To my surprise it was so calm with hardly any people on the beach. I was happy to see the beach at its best and could click some pics of the place without any human being captured in it ;)
We enjoyed in the place till sunset and set off back to our room and enjoyed the beach side where the moon and waves gave us some company in silence :)

Day3:
Day3 was for some adventure which we were looking forward to. We went For scubadiving along with some experts. It was one of an experience where we saw school of fishes with amazing colors,sizes, clamp shells,sea cucumbers and many creatures which we had seen only in channels like discovery. No you dont need to know swimming to go for suba diving as you will be accompanied by a guide to take care of you.All you have to do is just relax as if in air and let your body free and go on admiring the fishes!
And by this time I was damn tanned and adventurer soumya hid and the girlie soumya started worrying about her skin! :D
The whole afternoon was for our relaxation and yeah do not miss the sea food over here. I just loved the marinated fish and went on hogging as if I had starved for quite a while!

Day4:
We visited a beach by name Kaala pattar(It gets its name for the black rocks it has on the beach ) and then after a feast of food, we set back to Portblair with lots of good memories of the place.
Day 5, 6 and 7:
We were taken to North Bay island whose picture can be found in our indian currency on 20 Rs note. Yes the coconut grooves amidst which stands a tall light house. The guide said it had the coral reefs and suggested for snorkeling. But I didnt enjoy snorkeling so much as the equipment given was not a good one and I would suggest you do it somewhere else and not over here.
Ross Island was one good experience where we strolled through whole of the island seeing the buildings,church constructed by the British officers then.The place looked so beautiful with lots of deers and peacocks,ducks at your armlength that I went on bugging Vineet comparing the place to one which I imagined to be like the place where Sri Rama did his Vanavasa(God knows why I felt so! )
The place is now being occupied by our Navy and oh yeah I forgot to mention one lonely beach(Ferrar beach) which is hidden here.

We had a visit to Corbyn's Cove beach on the way back to room and moon looked much brighter and beautiful spreading the milky light on the ocean.
The next day we went to Mt Harriet which was the highest point from where we could see North Bay Island and Ross island in a glance and also from another view point we could see some cultivation done by the localites.
Although we couldnt visit Baara taang to see the tribals,We had a visit to anthropology musuem and got a overview of their living style and wish to visit back to Andaman to explore more of Andaman s beauty which we missed out in our trip.

Some feelings are better felt rather than reading and so I would suggest you to chalk out a plan soon to Andaman and have some fun,peace,adventure and ofcourse sea food (yeah I tried lobster over here!).We made use of all means of transport in our trip(bus,train,flight and ship) and I am content that we planned a trip to this place and have come back with memories, sea shells, pearls,corals and a pledge to go back again! :)

PS: There are much more places to be seen and many more islands which could be touched but decide on time you have and what not to miss(definitely scuba diving is one thing you have to try).

Shopping: Pearls,corals and some semi precious stones.
Fruits available: Banana and Papaya.
Food: try out some Thai food in Light house restuarant in Port Blair and anything in Barefoot Havelock.
Must see: radhanagar beach(Radha Nagar beach),Cellular Jail(due to which Andaman was called Kaalapattar),Ross Island, Havelock Island,Baara Taang, Jolly Bouy, Mt Harriet...
Adventure: Scuba diving,snorkeling(wont be much of interest if you do scuba diving), speed boats.
Flights : 2 fligts from Chennai - Jet airways and Kingfisher.
Ship to havelock: I suggest Makruz to save time and for comfort.
Must carry: Camera,Sunscreen,Hats, Mosquito repellents if you plan some stay outdoors in the night for long), any medicines needed,adequate no of clothes.