Travelogue : Paris - Arrival

Last month when I was at the Mini Europa park in Brussels, while going around the miniature replica models of the European monuments, one city that caught my fascination was Paris. For past couple of summers, I had been making plans to visit Paris, but they never materialised due to some odd reason or the other - either not having an appropriate group to go around with or not having booked the tickets or accomodations well in advance. Over the last 1 or 2 years the cheap flight schemes have changed the way people travel and plan their holidays in Europe. Ryan Air, German Wings, Easy Jet and similar flight services have some good offers for backpackers and young travellers like me, who dont mind the absence of the occasional courtesy of the air hostesses or the free onflight beverages during the relatively short flights inside Europe. Though these cheap flying offers have become a phenomenon in the travel airspace, one has to take these offers with a pinch of salt. The reduction in the ticket prices is often offset by the extra travel one has to endure coming to the city center from the airports where these flights operate, because sometimes these airports are quite a bit far and wide away from the city perimeter. And in cases like Paris Beauvais airport, the travel in the shuttle bus from Beauvais airport to the city ring of Paris is almost as long as the flight duration from Venice Treviso. To add to my travel woes, my baggage arrived in a badly handled shape. Though I checked in my tripod as fragile baggage, it reached Paris severely demented. I am not sure if I could be able to use it for taking precise night shots as I used to before.

The Beauvais airport shuttle bus drops you at the Porte Maillot center. We had a booking in a hotel close to the metro station of Porte de Vincennes and so we took the metro line 1 directly from Porte Maillot which took us straight to our destination. As I had mentioned in my previous post related to travelling in Greece (about arriving in Athens), I am personally receptive to the general vibes of a city from the initial infrastructure the city presents to its visitors. I am a big fan of the metro services in cosmopolitan cities. Living in Munich, I used to enjoy the luxury of hopping around the city in a well connected network of U-bahn which would run late into the nights. Though the U-bahns in Frankfurt were not as clean and tidy as compared to Munich, they connected the city pretty well and helped thousands of commuters move around the city without much chaos. Among the metro networks, I rate the London Underground the best. I found it amazingly organised and well managed. Inspite of being a complex network, the Underground stations are built in a planned manner, helping a new commuter or a visiting tourist through simplistic use of colour codes for the various lines. The metro network in Paris (owing to the size of the city and its over 2 million inhabitants) is a similarly complex but well organised network. Since we were too tired with the exhaustive travel (spending the same amount of time in the very uncomfortable seats of Ryan Air and the very comfortable seats of the shuttle bus), we didnt have much energy or zest to explore anything that night and headed straight to the hotel room.

I had taken French as a subject during my college days. For two years we had read the story of the Vincent Family travelling to France from Canada and experienced their vacation in Paris through the textual description of the L'Alliance Francaise text book used in India to teach French language by numerous colleges and high schools. I salute my French teacher who had taken the effort to work on our accent and rectified our grammar. Being an Indian, we had a naturally heavy accent in the French we spoke in the class. I still remember the absurd manner in which our other friends (who did not take French as a subject) would pronounce the title of the ballad "La belle dame sans merci" (written by John Keats), during our English poetry classes. As a student back then I had sincerely hoped to visit Paris some day and see in reality the places and streets I had read so much about. Over the years, sadly to say I have lost my touch with the French language, but I can still manage to understand the written French and some tidbits of spoken French. After having learnt French and getting an interface with the French culture, it was a natural progression to take interest in anything related to or connected to France. When the "Les Blues" won the Fifa World Cup in 1998, I was the biggest supporter of France in my neighbourhood. Since then Zidane has been an idol to me and I have been religously following his matches. Though Zidane is not a Parisian and I don't expect to see any of the current French footballers in Paris, as a die-hard fan of the French team I was very much eager to see the most vouched city of all Frenchmen. As is my ritual custom of watching a movie or reading a novel based on the country or the city I am planning to visit - before departing for Paris, I had seen "The Da Vinci Code" and "Mr. Bean's Holiday". Though there have been some better movies and novels based on the city of Paris, I could only manage to lay my hands on these. With my mind virtually on the streets of Paris and refreshed with my petit French vocabulary, I was all very excited to see the city I had dreamt to see since my school days.

The Mahabharat between BCCI and ICL

The ICL kicked up a strom yesterday by releasing its list of players who have currently signed contracts with them. The list popped up some surprises - names like Dinesh Mongia, who recently played for India and some promising newcomers like Ambati Rayudu showed some growing unrest among Indian cricketers against the hegemony of BCCI. In my opinion the players have taken a bold but correct decision to join the ICL. Cricket in India is followed like a religon. You go to any city gymkhana, you would find budding cricketers toiling it hard to make an impression on the selecters and breaking into the team - be it at the club level, zonal level, state level or Ranjhi level. The path to the Indian national team is the toughest one - working hard, performing in each of the matches at each of those levels, then waiting to win some favor from the regional selectors. Without a god-father who can market you to the national level, its a very tough dream to come true for thousands of budding cricketers across the length and breadth of India. There have been numerous cricketers who spent their entire career playing Ranjhi games and other national leagues, without getting a single game for the country. The match fees of a game in any of these leagues is like peanuts as compared to the match fees the 11 players representing the national colors get paid. Imagine the plight of these players when they see their counterparts taking home all the money, limelight and publicity, just because they were not fortunate enough to get that single break into the national squad. And when an opportunity like ICL comes along, its natural for these players to grab it with both hands. BCCI has long maintained its monopoly on the game and has toyed with the careers of so many cricketers who could have had international careers were they born in other countries where the waiting queue is not so high. With this mass exodus of the players to the new league, the domestic cricket in India has recieved a major setback. Teams like Hyderabad, Bengal and Punjab have been severely effected. As a knee-jerk reaction BCCI has raised the match fees for the domestic leagues in a hope to retain the remaining players. But the ball has been set rolling by the ICL and we can surely expect to hear more news on this front about player defections.

Apart from the domestic players, each of the teams in the ICL are planned to have some international stars in their line-up. Some big names were doing the rounds for a while now. Brian Lara is a confirmed to play the league, while some big guns from the Aussies are still pondering the thought of taking the plunge or not. Big hitters from South Africa like Lance Klusener have already signed, while the erstwhile stars from the Kiwi-land, Chris Harris, Chirs Cairns, and Nathan Astle are showing some interest in the league. Players from across the border added some more excitement to the list. Inzamam joining the ICL was predictable owing to the rough path his career was heading after the listless and forgettable 2007 he has had. After retiring from the ODIs his Test career also looks almost over, with the PCB giving him a cold shoulder. Joining the ICL could have been the best option for him to derive benefit of the 1 or 2 years of cricket left in him - as they say make as much hay as possible while the sun shines! But the jolt out of blue which Pakistan cricket recieved was losing their most dependable player, their spine of the batting line up - Mohammed Yousuf. Yousuf recently had the best patch of form in batting, accumulating runs like a kid collecting pebbles on a sandy beach. After the World Cup fiasco, the PCB was sure to make changes to their team composition. But in the process of a giving a new look to their team, the PCB has lost out on its golden-egg-laying-hen. With Yousuf joining the ICL and if PCB sticks to its guns of not selecting him for the national team, then Pakistan will recieve a great setback. With its bowlers already struggling to remain fit or clear of any drug scandals, their batting line up sans the big Inzy, the inform-run-machine Yousuf and the maverick Younis Khan, Pakistan team would need to depend on prayers than ever before to give any kind of fight to the opponents!

Travelogue: Verona

While I was in school I had enacted the character of the judge in the play of The Merchant of Venice. Back then the names Antonio, Bassanio and Shylock were strange sounding to us. Later when I read other Shakespeareren works like Romeo & Juilet or The Two Gentlemen of Verona, I began to agnise the prominence of the city of Verona in the writings of this famous bard. Little had I envisaged then, that one day I could be visiting this city. Verona lies in the Veneto region of north-east Italy about 80 km from Trento, my current resident town. So on the sunny weekend last week, I decided to make a trip to Verona.

It is claimed that after Roma it is Verona that has the most number of ruins of the Roman era. All the major touristic sights are along the river Adige which takes a contorted path along the city. The Castelvecchio is an impressive 14th century castle, now hosting a great collection of the Renaissance era. On its exterior is the Ponte Scaligero offering great views of the Adige on either side. In its vicinity is the cathedral of San Zeno Maggiore. This ornate Romanesque church is adorned with an impressive rose window and a magnificent cieling resembling an upturned boat. The exterior walls are elaborately decorated with ivory-coloured tufa and pink limestone.

One of the major attractions of Verona is the massive Arena from the Roman times, which is still in a functional state and hosts plenty of events, orchestras etc. In its prime days, it could accomodate the entire population of Verona who would gather to watch the gladitorial combats. Now it regularly hosts plenty of operas and orchestras. Listening to a prima donna in a perfectly acoustic environ under the cool summer night sky with a pleasant breeze blowing is an experience worth cherishing with your loved ones.

Talking about love, Verona is hometown to two of the most famous lovers of all time - Romeo and Juliet. The house of Juliet, located at Via Cappello, is a major draw point for all tourists - young and old alike. Couples (females especially) love to stand on the small marble balcony, the famed balcony on which Romeo is said to have climbed to meet his love. There is a statue of Juliet in the courtyard and the rumour has it that if one holds his/her palm over her bossom then your love is deemed to succeed. If only Romeo had done this when required then probably they would have had much greater luck with their love!

On the gates you find numerous locks which people hang in to bind their love for eternity. The walls of the walkway are spangled with love messages written in all kinds of languages the world has known. Inspite of a heavy penalty on being caught people smitten by the love bug always find methods to make a statement of their love on these hallowed walls!

Travelogue: Belgium - Brussels, Antwerp

Belgium is a potpourri of various cultures like Dutch, French and German. Often termed as the "cockpit of Europe", Belgium is the center of government for the European Union and is theoretically the capital of Europe. The capital Brussels is home to several offices and commissionerates of the EU with striking buildings dotting the skyline of present day Brussels.

The lower part of Brussels is well connected with trams and Metro stations from the Gare Centrale (Main Railway Station). The Grand Place square, with Hôtel de Ville and La Maison du Roi is the historical and commercial heart of Brussels and draws huge amount of tourists. La Maison du Roi is now being used to host a museum of paintings, tapestries and a collection of costumes created for the Manneken Pis. The Hôtel de Ville, built in the 15th century, is elaborately donned with ornate columns, sculptures and arcades. There are tours avaiable to view the tapestries and art work decorating the lavish halls of this town hall. Around the city center you would find a lot of shops serving hot waffeln with various delicious toppings. There are several shops selling the world-renowned Belgian chocolates. There is the Tintin official store close by selling souveniers and comic books of this famous character created by Herge.

The Cathédrale Sts-Michel et Gudule is the national church of Belgium. The west door of the cathedral has a magnificent stained glass window depicting scenes from the Last Judgement. The Palais Royal is the official residence of the Belgian Monarchy and has beautifully managed gardens sprawling at its entrance.

On the city outskirts is another popular tourist attraction - the Bruparck. It has the Mini Europe park, which has miniature models of major buildings and monuments from the various countries of the EU. Towering in its backdrop is another distinctive landmark - Atomium building, which represents the atomic structure of Iron. The Atomium has restaurants and viewing platform on its top, which presents panoramic views of the city.

Antwerp is the second major city of Belgium and is famous for its diamond markets. The Grote Markt is located at the center of the old city. At the square is the Brabo fountain with the statue of Silvius Brabo. The ornately decorated facades of the Stadhuis overlook the city square which is always crowded with visitors. Around 70% of the worlds diamonds are cut and polished here. The city has a lot of museums like the Diamond Museum, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Koninklijk Museum etc, displaying an impressive collection of various artworks, paintings of the 16th and 17th century.

The Gmail Video

You never get bored with the Google guys, they keep popping up with interesting ideas every now and then. The Gmail page has this new link which invites you to join their collaborative video on the Gmail service. Its a very simple idea, all you need to do is download the M-velope icon print it and use it in your video. How, where, what to shoot in the video is completely your choice. But the M-velope needs to be present in the video and it should appear to float from the left to the right of the screen. Your videos have to be 10 seconds in length and can be submitted using your Google ID. The guys with the scissors at Google will then select the best ones to compile an interesting video. Aint it fun ?

Travelogue: The Netherlands - Amsterdam, The Hague

For plenty of reasons, both good and bad, Amsterdam is a popular attraction for any tourist coming to Europe. For young backpackers, this city is very excited thanks to the extravagant escapades described in the EuroTrip movie. Amsterdam has attracting events in small periods around the year. The Tulip Gardens are in bloom during spring and attract a huge crowd of photographers and nature lovers. The numerous parades during the remaining part of the year attract the relevant kind of crowds. As a city, Amsterdam doesnt have grandiose architectures or cathedrals on display. So people coming here after a visit to Rome or Florence would be disappointed by the very modern architecture. Personally I found the construction in Netherlands to be very modern and quite interesting in aesthetics. Driving around the cities you will see a lot of interesting looking buildings.

The Amstel river, from which the city derives its name runs around the southern part of the city. For seeing around the city, there are plenty of options - ferries ply on the canal area showing around some major attractions of the city, if you want to bike around the city there are some cheap deals on the bike tour of the city. There is a good metro running through the city as well as buses and trams. Each to his own taste! Since we were running short on time, we took a city tour on the ferries. Along the canal you can get to see some really old buildings of the city. One interesting feature of the buildings along the canal area is that they are very narrow in width. Sometimes such narrow that the whole house is split vertically, with drawing rooms on one floor, dinning on the other and bedrooms on yet another. Also all the buildings have a huge hook hanging from the top which is used to anchor the ropes to carry any furnitures above into the floors of the building. The actual reason most of the young crowd comes to Amsterdam is altogether a different one -though not a politically correct one in many parts of the world. The colored-district lined up along the canal jumps to life as the sun goes down. A glance at the crowds there, explains the empty streets in other parts of the city!

The Hague is the proxy capital of Netherlands. With around 100 consulates and embasies the city exudes diplomacy. The International Court of Justice attracts a large number of protesters apart from tourists. The city is well connected through trams running across its stretch. The Scheveningen on the northern part of the city is a popular attraction of the city. Windsurfing and Bungee jumping are some of the activities holding the young crowd on this beach facing the Nordsee.

Travelogue: Netherlands - Eindhoven

In the second leg of my summer vacation, I had gone to Netherlands where we had a small reunion of friends from my MSc days in Germany. Our host was staying in Eindhoven, so this small city was a rendevous point for all of us who were coming from different parts of Europe. When my RyanAir flight was hovering about the Eindhoven airport before landing, it was a deja-vu of sorts to me. Each time I have travelled to any city in North Europe, I have always been welcomed by bad weather. Maybe its a coincidence, but be it Eindhoven, Dublin or London, always its rainy clouds and grey weather welcoming me! As I had jetted from a hot (40-degree something) Athens to Netherlands, this change of climate and temperature was not a very pleasant experience.

Eindhoven is one of the largest cities in the south of Netherlands and is heavily industrialised. It is overshadowed by the presence of Philips all over. As a tourist, I guess this city has nothing great to offer and I believe had it not been for our friend none of us would have been there. However, I found it to be a good place to work as the city is quite comfortable and well maintained. The initial vibes I got about the Dutch people are that they are quite friendly people and very open to foreigners. The most striking feature about the Dutch is their height. The average height is quite above average from the other Europeans. While walking in the malls or streets I was often awed by the heights of the girls and ladies, not to mention the men. The Dutch are a very healthy looking, atheletic and fit people. I later realised one of the reasons is the regular cycling they do. All over the city there are well marked cycling tracks along with the driving and pedestrian tracks. Luckily, we were visiting Netherlands during the sale period. Couldnt get the reason for the sale in almost all the stores (not a Christmas or Easter period now), but there were some great discounts and all shopping-bees would have loved to be there during this period!

Travelogue : Athens - People

If you happened to watch the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", then you will know exactly what I am trying to say in the next couple of lines. The Greeks in general are not very different from the eccentric characters portrayed in that movie. The elderly Greeks are very socialising and you can always find them in groups chatting under the shades of a tree or at a cafeteria. They dont shy away from talking to foreign tourists, despite their lack of english vocabulary. I always found myself chatting to one of them at the restaurants or the train stops. Our conversations would start in English and when the threshold for English vocabulary had reached, they would switch to Greek without realising that I coulndt grasp a word (it all sounded Greek to me!). But they would make sure that you are able to follow them and their warmth would not put you off from that conversation of which you are not able to follow anything else apart from the emotions.

One interesting habit I noticed among the Greek men. Most of them always carry a string of beads in their hands and you can spot them playing around with it while at work, commuting, having a coffee or chatting with friends. I couldnt get the logic / science or legend behind this act. As I had posted before, the Greeks love their food (who wouldnt! with all those delicacies). While you walk around the Plaka, you are mobbed in a friendly manner by the waiters from the taverns, holding their menu cards and inviting you to dine at their place. Occasionally the wine/drinks are not charged along with the menu. While dinning you can sometimes listen to some pleasant Greek music played by a live band with their guitars and accordions.

The tourist crowd in European summer is as entertaining as the places you visit. A majority of the tourists are usually Americans. Some of them are families of European descent, visiting their motherlands along with their kids. But a majority of Americans are youngsters back-packing their vacation in European cities. Girls especially who love their shopping and naturally welcomed with beaming smiles in all the shopping stores. Among the younger crowds the Japenese also form a sizeable number. Usually vacationing in small groups of 4-5, the Japenese take their photographs with great zest and fervour. The Germans outnumber the other European tourists. You will usually find middle aged German couples having a quite summer urlaub in most of the places you travel. I havent seen many German youth in the tourist crowd so far.

An interesting point to be noted about Athens is the numerous stray dogs all over the streets. This is the first instance, where I noticed a sight common in sub-continental cities in a european city. The dogs are not harmful to the people, but when you are strolling around with a sandwich in hand, then for sure you are attracting unwanted attention by them. Another usual sight on the streets of Athens is the public street protests. They are as peaceful and orderly as they can be, but the size of the protesting crowd and their noise can sometimes raise an eyebrow. Walking on the streets of Athens, you would seldomly come across an unattractive lady, which is not surprising - after all this is the country of Helen of Troy. Remarkable beauty seems to be part and parcel of Greek genes.

Travelogue : Athens - Plaka, Syntagma Square etc.

Having seen the ancient part of the city on the earlier day, I decided to go to the Olympic stadiums of Athens. The old Olympic Stadium is located at the Arditos Hill on the south side of the ancient center of Athens. The new Olympic Stadium was constructed for the 2004 Olympic games and is located on the outskirts of the city. To reach the Olympic Village one has to take the Metro line 1 and get off at the Irini stop. Though the Olympic village now has a deserted look, its swimming pools and indoor stadiums are open to public use. The main stadium hosts football games and is well maintained. There are some interesting architectural designs in the campus, which are very photogenic. Unluckily, the heat and scorching sun was
unbearable for me, so I had to keep my visit there very brief.

The Flea Market in Athens is a happening place. Located close to the Monastiraki station, this is a very ancient market. Inside the lanes and bylanes, you will find numerous shops and naturally huge amount of tourists. The interesting thing about the market is that you find a series of shops selling the same stuff all lined up beside each other. Here you can find hawkers selling leather goods like Greek sandals and hand bags, jewellry, rings, stones, clothes, music cds etc etc. If you are strolling around with your girlfriend or your better-half then think twice before venturing into that zone, as it is difficult for the fairer-sex to resist the temptation of the goods on sale there.

The Plaka area also has plenty of shops selling souveniers, tourist goods, t-shirts, greek cotton clothes, jewellry, leather goods, antiques, etc. Plaka is also famous for its food stalls. There are numerous taverns and restaurants offering mouth watering Greek food. If you are the sandwich munching guy a-la Joey Trivianni, then you can lay your hands on loads of them here. For the food gourmet, then you can find many traditional greek restaurants having lavish menus filled with - mousaka, kokoretsi, paidakia, brizoles, meat balls etc. which you can have with psomis or spiced potatoes, gigandes (beans), revithia (chick peas). Greece is essentially a meat lovers paradise, but you can find a lot of grilled sea food and veggie stuff as well. Among sea food, kalamaris, sardines, tuna are just a few of the vast variety of fishes the Greek menu has on offer. The desserts are my favourite part. Baklavas and Kataifis are just irresistable to me. You can also find a wide variety of Gelatos (ice cream).

The Syntagma Square is the downtown of Athens in the right sense. Remember the "Down Town" song, I bet when Petula Clark sang those words she meant a place like Syntagma square. The place is always buzzing with people. On one end you have a bunch of youngsters zipping around on their roller blades. On the benches you would find some elderly people having a discussion among themselves. You could also notice a guy or two with their laptops, as Athens provides free WiFi in selected spots and Syntagma Square is one of them. There are a bunch of restaurants lined up on the periphery, offering sandwiches, coffees, ice creams etc. And just below the square is the Metro station, which is easily one of the biggest ones in Athens. One could never feel the time as it flies by when you are at the Syntagma Square.

Travelogue : Athens - Acropolis, Partheneon etc

If you plan to visit Athens, then make sure to book your accomodation closer to the Syntagma Square or in the Ancient Center of the city. The reason for this is that most of the important places to visit are in the vicinity, easily reachable on foot and hence you dont invest much time and money hopping from place to place.

The Temple of Olympean Zeus is located nearby the Hadrian's Arch on the Amalias Aveneu. This sanctuary is one of the most important of the ancient sanctuaries was built as a tribute to Zeus. The construction of the temple had begun in complete marble in the 4th century BC. The final completion however took place many years later by emperor Hadrian. The temple has undergone heavy deterioration by human and natural causes (storms etc). Some of its toppled columns lie still on the site.

The Acropolis or the City of heights is built on a hillock in the centroid of the ancient center of Athens. The entrance is to the west side. You first see the small Ionic temple of Athena Nike. There is the Pinakotheke which had frescoes on its walls. The most visible of the buildings on the Acropolis is the Partheneon, a temple dedicated to Athena. Its columns, walls and decorations are made up of white Pentelic marble. On the outside, the metopes were carved with the various battles between the gods and Giants, the Athenians and Amazons and the Trojan War. The Erechtheion is on the north side of the summit. Its an Ionic temple whose roof is supported by six figures of maidens, the famous Caryatids. There are many other sites in the campus like the altar of Athena, sanctuaries of Zeus and Pandion etc. On the southern side are the theater of Dionysus and the Odeum of Herodes Atticus (where concerts are held usually, the same site where Yanni had once played his concert)

The tickets to enter the Acropolis come in a booklet, which are valid for entering neighbouring sites as well. One good news is that there are discount on the prices for students and elderly people. Though the climb to the temples on the summit is tasking, you can always find bunches of tourists flocking by your side. Perhaps it was owing to the uncommonly hot weather in Greece these days, because during the climb one could feel the scorching sun burning down on you. I suggest to carry a heavy stock of water and dont forget those sun creams. At the entrance however, you can always buy a sluch of lemonade which is a good refreshment to your parched throats. If you need a guided tour of the whole place, you can hire a guide from close to the main entrance, who can enrich your experience with all the useful information and anectodes. One has to be cautious with the slippery marble in the Campus, as I observed many a unmindful tourists slipping around.

The temple of Hephaestos is situated in the Ancient Agora along with the Portico of Attalus. There is a museum in the same Agora, which has some good artifacts on display which were excavated in that area. The Roman Agora, the Library of Hadrian and the Clock of Kyristos is situated a couple of blocks away. Opposite to the Syntagma Square is the Monument of the Unknown soldier and the Greek Parliament. Infact the whole neighbourhood has a very diplomatic aura because of the numerous consulates and government offices. The National Gardens are to the south of the Parliament. The have good promenades in them, where you find a lot of families and senior citizens having an evening walk or sportsmen jogging around. Enjoying the cool evening breeze listening to the chirping of the various birds in the gardens can be very soothing after a stressful day. Further south is the building of the Zappio - which has a congressional hall and hosts exhibitions frequently.

Travelogue : Athens - Arrival

Whenever I enter a new city, I tend to grasp the vibes of the city in the initial experiences I face. When I landed at Athens, I noticed a feeling of warmth and homeliness. Maybeit was due to the Greeks who are very similar in their social manners to the Indians or maybe its the hot Greek weather which reminded me of the hot Indian summers. The other thing I notice while travelling to places is the distinctive color thats reflected from the public places. For instance, when I was in Dublin, one could sense the ominous green color (the Irish have a shade of green, in all their national icons) present everywhere. Similarly, within a few minutes at Athens and I could sense the ominous Navy Blue Greek color in almost everything - from Train stations to notice boards, to Airport Sign Boards etc. Well, the other major concern I had while coming to Athens was the directions to my hotel, where I had booked my accomodation. In normal circumstances, one would check out the Google Maps for the city map of Athens, search out the street and mark out the directions from the airport or the city center. But in this case, if you check out the Google Maps for Athens, you will be surprised to see everything in Greek! Agreed localisation of your product means to present the maps of Greece in Greek - I am sure the Greeks love to see that. But what about those tourists, who are visiting Athens and are in need of a map for directions, you cant expect them to read and understand Greek! A small option of viewing the Greece Map in English would make matters simple for the numerous tourists who could use the Google Maps for finding their way on the streets of Greek cities. Well the engineers in Google must have a reason for keeping it that way, but imagine if I plan to visit Beijing, then I would have to learn Chinese first in order to use the Maps from Google!

The Airport is situated on the outskirts of the Athens City and is well connected through Bus Service, Sub-urban Trains, Metro and taxis. A ticket on the Metro costs about 6 euro something to travel to downtown, while the taxis take about 20-25 euros. Through the Metro it takes about an hour to reach the central stops. The Athens Metro is well maintained and the stations are all beautifully constructed with a great sense of aesthetics. It was around 3 years ago that the Olympics were held here and looks like all the investment the city had put in its infrastructure, is well maintained. My hotel was somewhere close to the Syntagma Square. On reaching that square the first thing I did was to buy a street map with English transliteration of the street names. To able to understand Greek is a great thing for a foreig tourist, but to be able to read is an important thing. After getting my map, it did not take me much time to figure out my way and reached the hotel easily. Since I was too tired from the trevours of the day in Corfu, I could hardly muster the strength to go out for a dinner. I dropped to sleep like a log, hoping to revitilise myself for the next day.

Travelogue : Corfu final day

My flight to Athens was late in the afternoon, so I had couple of hours to walk around Corfu. If you are planning for a holiday in Corfu, then I suggest its best to navigate around the island in a vehicle. There are plenty of options available. One can easily rent a car, a motorbike, bicycles etc - depending on your tastes, preferences and age. Be prepared to travel a lot once you are here, because the good places to see are all stretched far across the island. The beaches for example are all spread around the coast. Interestingly all the sandy beaches are on the west coast while the pebbled beaches are on the east coast. A good prior planning and a vehicle at your disposal - then you are sure to have great fun while you are here. Not to forget the public transport, which costs almost peanuts, is sparsely operational but connects the major attractions pretty well. I managed to visit a beach and take a stroll along the New Fortress which is closer to the port of Corfu. Along the coast you can find several beautiful spots, which are occupied by a couple or two (sometimes with their children) - having the small beach and the entire sea to themselves. The other interesting observation I noticed was, among the tourist crowd, a majority of them were to the middle-aged or higher group. Maybe it was specific to the places I was strolling along. The crowd was evenly distributed, a vast majority of them were Greeks, then Germans and Italians. And as is natural, Corfu is well connected to major cities in Germany through German Wings and Air Berlin and it is well connected to major ports in Italy through a large number of Ferries commuting between them. Talking about the Corfu Airport, it seems to be in its most busy period of operation during summer. I could notice a flight landing or taking off every 10 minutes, indicating that the island atracts a large number of summer tourists (or maybe this anamoly was due to the weekend period). At the various places along the island you can see all the usefull information written in Greek, English, German and Italian - indicating the demographics of the tourist crowd the island hosts each year. There are plenty of Italian restaurants all around, howevere I did notice some Mexican and Chinese as well. The south Italian city of Bari is pretty close to Corfu and hence many of the Italian tourists come along with their cars, motorinos in the ferries. I also noticed a car with number plate from Berlin - that guy must be having one hell of a vacation going around Europe. During the day I felt immensely dehydrated and to supplement that I had to intake loads and loads of water. I never recollect having conciously drinking so much water before. In such a heat a tasty Greek salad with olives, tomatoes and feta cheese is the best refreshment for ones body.

My flight to Athens was late in the afternoon, and surprisingly got delayed only by 15 mins. I bade farewell to this beautiful island with the hope of returning back sometime again.

Travelogue : Corfu - Days 2 & 3

The Workshop was being held at the Holiday Corfu Hotel, which easily one of the best hotels in Corfu. The schedule was from morning 10-ish till late afternoon 5-ish. My talk was scheduled on the first day post lunch session. After the days proceedings completed, all of us headed to the beach close to the Hotel - some for swimming, some for sun-bathing, while some like me for photography. The organisers had held a dinner that day for us, so we had to re-convene around 8 at the dinning hall. Apart from the locales and the beaches, the other thing which is amazing about Corfu is the food. I guess its the same about the Greek food all over Greece, but since this was my first experience, my taste buds were enjoying all the exotic Greek dishes - grilled fish, roasted potatoes garnished with spices, olives, the various salads, desserts especially Baklava - its a food gourmets' paradise. Social dinners like these always tend to go late into the night. We had a good group on our table, discussing all types of stuff, sitting in the lobby of the hotel facing the Ionion Sea under the cool moonlight of a full moon. Then all of a sudden we felt the whole lobby sway for a few seconds and our perplexed looks were answered by the Hotel staff that its a mild tremor of an earthquake. Later in the night I had felt another such tremor in my hotel room as well. I dont know how normal it is for people in Corfu, but for me atleast earthquakes give a feeling of goosebumps. Well after all the topics in our minds were discussed we retired to our rooms.

The second day of the workshop was also too busy. After it concluded, we had not much time left to go to the beach we all were planning to go. Since most of us were flying out the next day, we all had plans of our own to utilize the evening in the best possible way. I was interested in taking the snaps of the famous monastry in the moonlight of the full moon. I collected my lenses and ventured out alone on the part of the town I didnt intend to visit the other day. I started to walk along the coast with the hope of coming across some photogenic beach or enclove. And I luckily found a small patch of pebbles and sand literally cut off from the road and hidden behind some large bushes. I spent some good amount of time there sitting all alone looking out at the sea. It was a great place to be - either all alone with yourself, or with someone you loved the most. The only noise one could hear there was the gently splash of the water on the pebbles. I love places like these - they present you moments of absolute calmness and serenity. On my walk back, I had some roasted Salmons with fried potatoes and bread. The night was a full moon night and the moon was a complete golden yellow rising above the sea. I have managed to click some snaps, which I would filter out and upload them on my Flickr gallery.

I have another complete day to spend in Corfu tomorrow before I leave for Athens. I plan to go to the Barbati beach and its neighbouring locales. Lets see how the plans finally end up in effect. So untill the next log of activities, I am signing out.

Travelogue : Corfu - Arrival

I landed in Corfu last evening to attend a workshop on Personalization in Digital Libraries. Corfu is an island in the north of Greece, in the vicinity of Albania and popular attraction among tourists who love the Mediterranean sea. If you are planning for a good vacation along with your family or your loved one and hoping to have lots of sun and sand then Corfu is the must-go for you. The island has some exotic beaches - sandy, rocky, pebbled - all kinds, with clear waters which are as pristine as they can be. I could'nt find a direct flight to the island from mainland Italy, so had to take a transit from Venice-Athens-Corfu. I hadnt flown out of Italian airports so far, so when I arrived at the Marco Polo International Airport at Venice, the chaos was quite out-of-normal for me. There was no information displayed about the check-in counters for our flight to Athens. And when we finally checked in our baggages and waited at the boarding gate to depart, we had to wait for an agonizing hour for the flight attendants to show up. On asking we were informed that the flight was delayed. The least they could have done was inform the passengers about it, rather than leaving them high and dry with no clue about whats going on.

I have had some bizarre experiences before in my life, but this one was out of the blue. My fellow passenger, sitting beside me was also traveling to Corfu to attend the same workshop. We were both pleasantly surprised. I mean what are the odds to meet someone like that. So we had both found good company, rather than having a boring flight. Athens Airport is quite good, but the first thing I noticed on landing in Athens was the immense heat there. Thankfully we were inside the airport and had to change our flight to Corfu. To our ill luck the flight to Corfu was also delayed. Luckily we both had enough things to talk about to keep ourselves occupied.

When we were airborne we learnt the reason for the delay was due to a fire in the woods on the outskirts of Athens. The flight to Corfu is small and sweet. The island looks great from the flight above. After checking in my hotel, I couldnt spend much time walking around the city, as I was having some body pains (owing to the tasking 8-hour climb on the Monte Bondone in Trento, I had done a day before). So I had some quick dinner in an Italian restaurant and went to bed early on a dose of pain killers. I saw some good restaurants along the coast close a historical monument. I hope to see around parts of Corfu in the evenings after the workshop proceedings close and am looking forward to capturing the beauty of the island on my lens.

A theory behind LOST

This one is for those of you who are passionate LOSTies. There have been numerous forums, discussion pools and conspiracy theorists trying to explain the logic and philosophy behind the concept of this show. Today I stumpled upon this good article explaining one possible theory behind the events of that fabulous island. We cant be sure, if its the exact thing running in the minds of the creators of the show, but in the absence of any refutations, we might as well agree with this line of thought. So, all those LOSTies amongst you, check out this good attempt to put together the events of the island from a different perspective.

Travelogue : Dublin

Last week I was in Dublin for a brief period on some official work. My first impression of the city was quite good. The day I landed there was a typical Irish grey weather with lots of clouds and heavy gusts of wind blowing. I found the people to be very fun-loving and jovial sort. The city as such is not that crowded, even though its a capital city, it has an ambience of a laid-back peaceful town, without any hustle-bustle. Weather wise I found it too windy, or maybe its because the most northern city I have been to I found it a bit cold for a european summer. As a photographer, I was not very much excited with the city architecture. The Irish landscapes are renowned, but the urban side of the city was not very photogenic. Food wise, there are plenty of restaurants to dine in and around the Grafton Street, Dame Street and along the Quays - predominantly Italian but there are quite a number of restaurants which serve Continental and Asian food as well. Well, ofcourse you have the traditional Irish pubs and kiosks where you could munch on some fish-n-chips or have a shot of Irish beer. Ireland is home to the Guinness brand and you see its prominence all around the city pubs. For shoppers in Dublin the major attraction is the St. Stephens Green Shopping Centre. There are plenty of shops on the Grafton Street and the O'Connell Street as well. Though my stay was for a very brief period, I very much liked the people and the general ambience in Dublin and I am looking forward to occassion when I could get a chance to see the beauty of the Irish landscapes. I have uploaded some of snaps on my Flickr page.

LOST ..... and Found ?

In a 2 hour finale, the third season of Lost ends with an interesting twist in the tale (as has always been the case in the earlier seasons). For the first time in the series we see flashforwards in parallel to the story happening on the island. We are shown events from Jack's life, which at the end of the episode give a hint that Jack and Kate have been rescued from the island, while the fate of the other survivors is not clear.

In the climax its revealed that Naomi is not a part of any rescue team. If she is not sent by Penny, then how does she have the snap of Desmond and Penny. The series did not reveal much of how she had got that photograph. There could be one theory that maybe her group had been sent by Penny's father when they realise that Desmond is alive and Penny who is searching for him, can actually locate him. Maybe this team was sent to find Desmond and execute him before he is found by Penny. Well if thats the case then Naomi had plenty of time on the island to carry out this task before getting back to her boat. This plot could only be revealed in the coming season.

We are not sure if Charlie actually drowns or whether Desmond saves him yet again from the flooded station. And what had transpired between the survivors and Ben, when the Naomi's people come to the island. Is everyone rescued or are some people left behind. From the communication between Jack and Kate, it shows that Jack had done something which he regrets doing. There are several open questions left unanswered. There was no hint about the identity of the dead person in the funeral. Obviously it was someone both Jack and Kate knew and someone whom Kate detested. There are hints that Jack's father is still alive, then how does one explain the coffin he was carrying from Sydney in the pilot episode of the 1st season. On the island, the coffin is shown empty with no justification of the missing body. Kate is supposedly living/involved with someone whom she has to return at the end of the episode. We are not informed his identity either. Obviously the love between Jack and Kate seems to have been missing when they meet at the end of the episode. The details of the rescue would clear all these doubts and for that we need to wait till the next season.

There was an announcement that Lost could run uptill 6 seasons, which means the scriptwriters look in no mood to end the mystery surrounding the island. Lets wait and see till the next season, to find out what happened to the survivors.

Hike in the Dolomite woods

A weekend before along with some of my colleagues at work we had gone for a hike in the woods of Madonna di Campiglio. Its about 70 km from Trento and has some beautiful waterfalls. The stream of Sarca runs through the forests and creates the gorgeous Nardis Waterfall, which is an imposing 120 meters high at a gradient of about 60 degrees. These woods are reachable from the small town of Carisolo and are located in the beautiful Val di Genova, in the vicinity of the Adamello-Brenta Nature Park. As you drive through from Trento to Carisolo, you come across numerous cliffs and ridges which are a ideal location for rock climbers.

A lonely walk through the woods, made us feel stranded like Jack, Sawyer, Kate et al. Though I am not an avid climber like some of my friends here, I tried my hand on some easier tracks that day.

Yahoo flips Photos for Flickr

Yahoo has decided that it will do away with Yahoo! Photos in favor of Flickr. It has announced that the transition will occur by the fall this year. The erstwhile users will be directed to other sites like PhotoBucket, Snapfish, Kodak Gallery etc. Yahoo claims that the transition will be smooth with a 'single-click' operation and will occur in a time frame of 3 months. This decision vindicates the rise in Flickr's popularity over the last year. further reading ...

iGoogle - Personalized Homepage from Google launched

Google in an attempt to re-invent its homepage has launched the personalized version titled as iGoogle. This one is similar to MyYahoo (the personalized homepage offered by Yahoo!) who is currently the leader of customizable Ajax-based homepages, in terms of user base. With iGoogle, its users can integrate a large number of Google services, content tabs from RSS feeds etc onto their homepage. Google can also recommend interesting items to you, based on your user behaviour it learns from the past queries made, results viewed etc. Google has also expanded its Web History tool, where it can keep track of much more information of your web activity and not just the search history. Although users might find it irksome and invasion of privacy when they notice the amount of information Google knows about them, however there are options where the user can remove any of their personal information and constrain the logging of the history data. The other good part of the new homepage is that users can now embed their self-made gadgets (similar to Yahoo! Widgets). The users can design their own gadgets by simple tasks like form-filling and file uploads without much coding know-how.

With this, Google wants to take the personalization of its search engine to the next level, by discarding the notion of "one size fits all" and contextualising their results to the user's needs by considering the geographic location of the user (specified by the user in his/her Google profile). At the moment, Google is offering this personalized homepage service to about 40 countries and 26 languages.

This kind of implementation is termed as a push-based recommender service, where the system is pushing or enforcing certain kind of results onto the user, as opposed to the pull-based recommender service, where the user requests for results. A push-based system may not always work optimally. For instance, an English-speaking person living in Italy will have his homepage interface and the displayed content heavily influenced by the regional considerations. An example would be the Google News feeds, which would by default display him news from Italian newspapers, unless the user explicitly selects otherwise. The same argument can be applied to the result ranking in their personalized search, which gives a higher weightage to the previously viewed results and typecasting the information need of the user, which may not remain static over a period of time.

There is a visible bug in iGoogle at the moment, because in my case I was already using the personalized homepage of Google. After this switch to iGoogle, I found much of my personalized content missing and being replaced by regional stuff. I used to have RSS feeds from some sites which I had found interesting, but to my shock I found them to be replaced by some regional content being extracted from Italian sites. I hope Google fixes this one soon and I get to view my favoured content soon. This glitch also raises the issue, of how dependent a web user can become on Google. How much we rely on it for our day-to-day web activity and any minor blip on Google's behalf effects the web usage of an ordinary user.