I am a Donut

Hey guys! This is my last day in Europa and it's bittersweet. Can't wait to come back but also super sadface to leave. But before I skip to the end let me give you guys a brief rundown of the past three days. 

Three days ago we took a flight out of Budapest to Berlin. Lindsey and I being the planners decided to get there 2 hours before takeoff. Sounds Gute Ja? Nien! There was a huge ass line of about 200 people waiting to check in. There were just 2 counters open for economy and it certainly didn't look like the line was moving. The American dude in line behind us( supposedly travels a lot on work and who has flown out of Buda quite a bit) was surprised as well! So we wait, and the line moves at snail's pace. The dude was getting antsy cos it was  20 mins before his flight and he was still in line! Finally we got to the counter, about 20 mins before our flight was to take off. I was paranoid about my bag being checked into a different flight and started making mental plans for when my bag gets lost(pretty typical of me to over analyze the sitch). So bags checked in we ran to our gates and made it on the plane! Phew!

Cut to Berlin, we make our way to baggage claim and surprise surprise, Charu's bag was missing. After waiting for nearly an hour at lost and found, here's what we know about her bag: Nothing! According to the Lufthansa person " it could be in Budapest, it could be in Berlin, idk"( think German accent). So our PoA? Take the female survival kit that they gave Charu, go to the hotel and hope that her bag gets in with everything Intact( you see, that wasn't a guarantee in Buda). This was clearly a mood dampener! But Charu kept it together ( we were in Berlin after all).

Oh Berlin! Why you so cold? It was windy and cold and def not summer-y! Still, we did what we usually do. Do a free tour of the city. This time around we got a Brit Girl. Not so exciting, but oh well! Turns out she was quite spirited and funny after all and knew so much abt the city even though she had been here for just 3 months! We saw some pretty interesting things: The Brandenburg Tor, Hotel Adlon where MJ dangled the kid off the balcony, the parliament, the holocaust museum, where Hitler's bunker once stood (now it's a parking lot), Humboldt university (where Einstein studied and lectured), lust gardens, Luftwaffe,checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin wall, pieces of the Berlin wall all over the city, some more platzs, museums and churches.

Interesting note on Dinner: the French in Germany weren't impressed by the beer and created a different kind of beer which basically contains beer plus sugar syrup: Berliner Weiss, sweet and totally doesn't taste like beer. Lindsey and I tried it and the Verdict: we quite liked it!

Day two started with a sumptuous breakfast at the hotel and a trip to the Deutches historiches Museum.OMG! It had German history starting from 800 going all the way to 1994. That, was a lot of reading. I was the speedster while L&C read everything! One of the cool things is that they let you take a break and come back to the Muzeum if you wanted to. That's what we did. Needless to say we still didn't get through everything. You see, one of my friends from grad school was visiting us from Nuremberg and we had to go get him. A little bit of info for those who don't know him: Hussain was in the PhD physics program at UVa when Charu and I met him. So good times and some great times! He finished his PhD and went to the Max-Planck institute to do his post Doc( I know, what a nerd!). N being a 5 hr train ride to B, made it convenient for H to come see us.

Right before Hussain joined us something awesome happened. Charu's bag was here and in one piece! Nothing short of a miracle. She was definitely in better spirit the rest of the eve.

After Hussain joined us we did something amazing! Ate the most delicious doner sandwich in Berlin. Mustafa's is a food truck outside a hostel that sells kebab wraps and sandwiches and is the best of its kind in Berlin! Guys, def go there if you ever find yourself in B. Next stop: East side gallery! It's where the Berlin wall stands but back in 1990 they let artists express their feelings via murals on the wall. Very powerful, very colorful, wayyyy diff from the other patch of the wall that was left untouched (very very gray). The wall itself wasn't very high, but the protection was tight, and that's what made it hard to escape( I'm sure you guys appreciate the history lesson). We also got our visas stamped at Checkpoint Charlie with the east Berlin, west Berlin, France, US, Soviet and UK stamps corresponding to each of the territories. Pretty neat stuff( look for a pick on fb)

Now, Hussain was traveling with a fellow max-Planckite who was in town for an interview. He was staying with one of his friends from Berlin and the two were out drinking at a Spanish bar since 7. Our plan: to join them mostly cos we thought the guy might be cute, yada yada..  It was a super long trek to get there. First of all, getting directions from drunk people is hilarious. Second of all, hussain's phone died so we were on our own. Third of all.. Actually there isn't one. So anyhoo, we make it out to the bar and it's pretty nice on the outside. Some things of interest: hussain's friend wasn't aesthetically pleasing, his friend in Berlin spoke perfect German and was quite a character( in a good way:) [ she did smoke like a chimney though]). You prolly know how the rest goes; deep profound convos and late night falafel sandwiches (this one had to be the hottest yet, I could barely feel my lips but the alcohol helped).

Day 3 was supposed to be concentration camp day. But we had some disagreements. Lindsey didn't wanna go, Charu did and I was in two minds. On one hand this would be something I had never seen or experienced before but on the other hand would end the trip on a really sad note. We finally decide not to do it and instead went to the Berliner Unterwelten Museum. It's an underground bunker tour of the bunkers they had in place during the cold war in case a nuclear war breaks out. It was a joke. I mean the bunker held about 3346 people and all of the bunkers put together would have only held 0.8% of the total civilian population. The conditions were bad(obvi) and depressing. It ne'er would have worked because it was barely nuclear proof! So then the question is, if you knew that a nuclear war was going to break out would you willingly enter a bunker you knew nothing about or would you rather sip on a glass of wine, all set to face sure death(something deep for you kids to think about).

Some things I learnt in Berlin:

1. Super frank people. They do not apologize ( to empathize) unless it is their fault.

2. They are friendly( at least to us). People gave us directions without us even asking them( I guess we must have looked really lost).

3. Not in German is not not! So something like "not Ausgang" would be emergency exit and not , not exit. Interesting Ja!?

4. Ganz Gute which literally reads "totally good" means "it's just okay, not great"

Anyhoo, back to the present. Can anyone tell me why the title of this post is such?

That's all for now. Be safe!

Much Love as always!

Sonali 

Hungarian Love

Leaving Vienna was bittersweet! We had a super early train from Vienna to Budapest ( I woke up at 4am). Let me tell you this: getting on a train while carrying a 50 pound bag is not as easy as it sounds ;p Took some team effort to get charu's and my suitcase on the train. The train ride was about 2.5 hrs most of which was spent talking about family, sleeping and watching the girl next to us do her makeup, nails and hair ( I know, she was way worse than me and was cheetaah-coordinated).

We were off the train and on the station platform in Budapest and it reminded me a lot of India. It was hot, humid, and the taxi guys were on the platform trying to get passengers faster than their fellow cabbies. The ride to the hotel was short but scary (we hung on to dear life).

In my earlier post I had mentioned my cousin's awesomeness. We got upgraded to a suite overlooking the Danube complete with a bottle of wine. I don't know about you guys, but in my opinion that's a vacation right there! I feel like we've been spoiled these past few days with tasty nom noms and delish wine. The best part: we get access to the rooftop executive lounge with Panasonic views of the city, an open bar and delish food. ( FYI, this post is brought to you by some very tempting Merlot). There's a good chance that I think this post is interesting for that very reason.

So day one, we climbed the st. Istavan Basilica ( we tend to climb a lot) and did a 3 hour free tour of the city( seem to do a lot of that as well!). The guide was Hungarian and very very proud of his culture. He was also full of business ideas that we could employ to make some money and kinda pay for our trip,; it mostly involved writing books, taking pictures and challenging locals on their urban legend skills of Hungary.

Couple of interesting things I learned!
1.Hungarian men were wussy and are controlled by the women. Although, if you can get the women liquored up, even the ugliest Hungarian dude would seem like a charming prince
2. They are super hospitable and pretty much let every invader stay for as long as they pleased.
3. Believe in Luck. There are statues all over the city that are supposed to bring luck to students and lovers. This includes whispering between the legs of the little prince and rubbing a horse's balls.
4. They have tons of thermal baths and no trip to Budapest is complete without a visit to the baths.
5. Hungarian men are "friendly". Hmm maybe, it was just us!

The high as far as I remember was 97 degrees and super humid too. So the roasting was in full session. Let's just say that I have some very interesting tan lines.

We ended the day with a Hungarian Dance Rhapsody and a dinner cruise. Hungarian dancing is mostly done in groups and involves a lot of jumping ( very folksy). After a thoroughly enjoyable dance concert( or dancert) we were taken to our ship for the cruise. Now, if you thought Budapest in the day was pretty you are in for a delight when you see the city in the night. So gorgeous! Although the food and wine did have a sleepifying effort on all of us towards the end of the night.

So day two I was fully prepared with an umbrella and a stole in case I had to mummify myself from the sun. Turns out, it wasn't necessary. The weather was pretty nice albeit a little bit too humid for me( Cali has clearly spoiled me). We visited "the hospital in the rock", the functioning nuclear bomb protected underground hospital during the world war. It was operational up until a few decades ago. The exhibition was pretty vivid complete with dummies to recreate the scenes. It also had some of the original equipment, surgical instruments and medical supplies.

Like I said before, a trip to Budapest is not complete without a trip to one of its numerous baths. Szechenyi, one of the larger ones was recommended to us. It was like Vegas except the architecture was amazing and the water thermal. I think I might have been cured of ailments I didn't know I had! Charu tried out the sauna and is a changed person. It was also really good for people watching; European and English kids( prolly just outta school or college), young couples, old couples, people playing chess in the water. You get the idea, if you don't ,check out the pics on fb.

And so here I am spending my last few hours in Budapest, blogging, sipping on a glass of wine and enjoying the sweet view from the roof.

Tom we head to Berlin. Our last stop on this trip.

Until next time
Much Love,
Sonali

Wein...

I realized that I hadn't updated the blog in three days and was beginning to get antsy. So I'm gonna try and cover a couple of days. So when I last left you I was in Vienna at my cousin's place. Now, he's pretty awesome! First off, he let us stay at his house( which is pretty btw). Second, he scored us some pretty good deals on hotel rates at Budapest and Berlin( yet to come). You see,  him being the CFO of the Marriott Hotels in Europe helps a great deal!! Also, I got to meet his wife Lisa and my niece, Savitha for the first time! It was very special needless to say. I also think my friends like my cousin as his family.

The first day in Vienna city was Rainy! That kinda sucked the fun out of it. We made the most of it though. We managed to see the main sites aka Shonbrunn Palace, the Opera House and the parliament building. A few interesting things:
1. We watched a Mozart and Strauss Orchestra performance complete with dancing ( Viennese waltz). We managed to score student tickets cos we can clearly pull that off.
2. We climbed 343 steps up the st. Stephan Cathedral
3. Almost got conned into cooking for a guy in his dorm room
4. I got offered a free concert ticket. Alas my friends were dragging me down.
5. Best of all, Vienna has this one day a year where they close out the main street opp the parliament and have a dance/rave party on trucks.  We happened to catch it and it was cray cray. So much techno in my life, remixed with Adele!

Day two started out windy, but progressively got better. We did a tour of Seegrotte, a mine that got flooded back in the day. So now it has the largest underground lake ever! For all you Harry potter lovers: it was how I imagined the scenes from book 6! For all you non Harry potter fans, don't hate. The three musketeers was shot at this mine, well atleast a part of.

One of the things we wanted to do on the trip was to borrow a Bavarian outfit, wear it and take pics( it's what we do). That kinda sorta happened in Vienna. At the amusement park in Prater we found a booth that let us do that. If you haven't already seen the pictures on Facebook, go see it. I look amazing:)

Moedling, the town where my cousin actually stays is a ston'es throw away from Gumpoldskirchen which has huge vineyards and quaint wineries. They also had a wine festival going on. I don't know if it's a thing but white wine with sparkling water sounds good doesn't it? It was and very refreshing too. We also got dinner at a Heuringer ( Weiner Snitzel at last). So good and yet so bad for you!

It was definitely a lot more relaxing than the usual go-go-go. In Budapest, but more on that later!

Much Love as always,
Sonali 

Towards Austria

I meant to mention this before but I guess I was in Denial. My point and shoot died back at the Bimmer Museum. It was one of those slow painful deaths, pretty hard to watch! Right now the lens is open and out and refuses to go back in( and I can't turn it on). So the pictures you've been seeing on fb are all taken by Javier. All things considered I think he's doing a great job!!

Two days ago( I know I'm behind), we left Munich and drove to Austria; Salzkammergut, a town outside of Salzburg. The weather continued to throw a hissy fit and so it was fairly deary outside. At times we had to resort to crooning to Adele to make us feel better, haha. However, we quickly realized that Austria is pretty despite the lame-ass weather. No matter where you look, the scenery is just breathtaking. We tried to imagine the same views on a clear day ( personally it would have been too much to handle). 

So there I was, making my way through Salzburg when we notice a cop right on my ass with his blinkers on. The phrase I was shit scared comes to mind. You see, Austria requires an international license to drive. I didn't have one. So I switched over to the right lane, getting ready to pull over and giving myself a pep talk. The cop drove right past me! I mean, I wasn't disappointed but what just happened? My guess, he had bigger fish to fry and I was clearly cramping his style driving at the speed limit. Deciding not to push my luck any further, I handed over the reigns to Lindsey.

Salzkammergut was the cutest town I've seen. It surrounds a humongous lake and the town itself was one of those quaint/charming ones with its narrow roads, small churches, lakeside cafes and expensive stores. We stopped by a cafe for some refuel before heading to Vienna. We did see Mozart's mom's house at S; I'm assuming little M lived there as a kid.

The rest of the 3 hr drive to Vienna was wet! Not very eventful, but we made it to my cousin's in one piece. 

We were greeted by my cousin's wife and kid., while we waited for my cooze to get there from the airport while we were talking and catching up, Lisa (my cousins wife) was making dinner. Super fluffy pizza was our dinner accompanied with salad and Austria's famous wine; red wine at Zweigelt! 

That was 2 days ago! More updates on Vienna to come very soon!

Much Love as always

Sonali

P.s: forgive me my spelling mistake/typos

Munich Munich

Day 2 in Munich started out with promise. Charu and Lindsey had signed on for a biking tour of the city while I decided to do the free walking tour. For reasons that might remain undisclosed to some, I chose not to go biking! We gathered at the Marienplatz(the old town square) outside the Glockenspiel for our respective tours.

Mine went something like this: I had two guides, one British and one German. At the beginning of the tour the two enacted the scenes in the Glockenspeil(it´s a humongous structure with bells and two scenes that play out one after another for about 6 minutes at certain times of the day). They then decided to divide us into two groups and I got the Brit (obvi I prayed for it). Turns out this Brit wasn´t funny :( I asked him a bunch of rando questions like I usually do and he didn't seem to keen answering them. But to his credit he did belt out all the stories and showed us the sites. It included some spectacular churches(like they usually tend to be in Europe), a beer hall(Hofbrauhaus),  a palace(Residenz), memorials,the  town square and some interesting statues. I was also forced to make convo with reluctant co-travelers. Yeah, it was one of those days, people just didn't find me amusing.

3.5 hours later I was reunited with my friends. (They seemed to have enjoyed their's having met an amusing Australian couple). We decide to go inside the residenz palace to have a look-see. I have some of the pics up on fb but yeah...gorgeous! We did the Cullives Theatre next, again gorgeous! We did however have an important appt to keep...

The Hofbrauhaus. Started way back when, it was a beer hall where men came, drank beer, peed some, drank some more and went home smashed prolly on horseback. Some things have changed since. The three of us got prime seating to watch the show aka the bavarian evening. It involved music and dancing bavarian style (as one would assume).  We tried the Hofbrauhaus Munchen Weisse which was light(just the way i like it) and the Radler(beer+lemonade = Just what I needed). So yes, a litre of beer was consumed and enjoyed. I hate to admit this, but Bier is pretty good as long as you keep it simple and light.

Day 3 was our "day outside Munich" day. That basically meant performing the circus act of getting the car out of the garage. Always enjoyable! We drove to Füssen to see the much famed Neuswanstien Castle( Disney castle´s inspiration). Nestled in the woods high on the mountain was this absolutely gorgeous castle! So like any and every person there we took pictures in every conceivable angle. The way down the hill was made entertaining by Nora & Nina (Mom and daughter horse-drawn carriage duo). 

The next plan was to get to Garmisch and ride the funicular to the top of the  Zugspitze (The highest mountain in Germany). What happened: Missed the last funicular by 10 mins. All was not lost! We saw the Olympic ski-jump and walked up to the walking trail of the Partnachklamm (Deep gorge that's 702 m long and 80 m deep). You see, it had started raining a few minutes before this and the rain was beating down on us pretty hard. Lindsey and I walked the trail of the gorge. So worth it! Except for a few portions of the trail (where i thought i might slip), it was pretty amazing. I mean really!

Again, original plan: Drive back and get to the Englischer Garten. What happened was a bit different. I mean, we did get to EG(Seehaus), wet (a little lost and braving the dark and whatever else goes with it). But sitting inside, warming yourself while it pored incessantly outside is not an ideal Beer Garten Experience. However, big cheers to L & C for coming with me on that wild goose chase:)

The day ended with Turkish Shawarma and Baklava, so I guess no one is complaining!

I´m in Vienna at my Cousin´s. But more on that later!

Thanks for reading

Much Love,

Sonali 

Beertastic!

Hola! It's me again. Thanks for reading if you are!

So, my feet hurt (I guess that was to be expected). I'm a little sore (again, expected). I'm still coughing and my voice is not back to normal(unexpected). But powering through, let me tell you about my adventures these past two days.

We left Prague early Tuesday morning for Munich(or Munchen as the locals call it). Charu started us off while I napped ( seems to happen a lot with me) for the first half. I clocked a 165kmph on the Autobahn. The plan was to go faster but that would have given my friends a heart attack. So stuck to my modest speed limits. As we got closer to the city we ran into a traffic jam; slow moving traffic, fairly annoying but fortunately lasting about 20-25 mins. Turns out, traffic in Munich is a clusterfuck! The drivers were either aggressive or just hated me. Either way, I realized that I had to drive like a San Franciscan to keep up. So my city driving skills kicked in so to speak. Our first stop was the BMW museum by Olympiapark.

For those of you who don't know, one of the things in my bucket list is to own a brand new Bimmer before I hit 35. Also BMWs are gorgeous ( I think most guys would prolly agree with me). I figured it would be fun to scope out the previous models, learn a bit about the history/ design and all that jazz. And good thing I did, cos it was amazeballs( I wish I could come up with a better word). We ran into an old dude from Kansas (a mechanical engineer in his time). Charu and Lindsey geeked out with him. You see, I drive my car like a toy and the mechanics behind it were an unknown to me. But now I know abt them "zylinders" as the Germans would call it. We also got a quick explanation of how they design those babies from one of the German dudes on duty. They have an internal design competition where you pitch your design and the winning design gets made. How sweet is that? The design involves clay and some motor parts to get as close to the model as possible. Pretty neat stuff! Sidenote: When we tried to book hotels in munich it was a nightmare because most nice places were booked thanks to an event going on in the city(No I'm not talking about Oktoberfest). So we found out from one of the tourists that there was a cardiology conference in town with 30,000 doctors!! I'm not sure if this is a good thing per se. I know, good story, 10 dollars, yada yada. 

Museum done, we were making our way to the hotel to check in. Now remember what I said about my city driving skills? The exact road we needed to be on was blocked on one side and so multiple round abouts had to be taken to get to it. Once we located the hotel, Charu got off to check in. While that was happening I pulled over and parked by a Turkish kebab place( the road we were on had a whole lot of those and seemed to be inhabited by a lot of Turks). On Lindsey's request I locked the car while we waited:) Charu came back in a bit explaining how we need to use the key card to open the Garage. So she went back in to checkin etc. Lindsey and I were tasked with getting the car back. So one of the first things we did? Turn into an Einbahn in the wrong direction. An old lady on a bicycle kept signaling to us that it was a one way which we realized as soon as we turned onto the road. Since I couldn't magically make my car disappear (I did try), I had to endure the mild discomfort that goes with being stared at when you are in the wrong. Sigh. Anyhoo, we got to the garage and the keycard worked (always a good sign). The garage opens ... Da da dan..

It's a two car garage! It took a lot of maneuvering to get it into the spot. The concierge dude comes out to deliver the good news that we can't park there. Turns out this garage opens into an elevator that you drive your car into and that takes you to the basement, where clearly all the cars were having a car party! I was excited to say the least. But it was short lived when I saw the super tiny ramp spot aka a ramp with railings to the side and little stop blocks at the bottom to stop the car from rolling. So with Lindsey and Charu's directions I parked ( wasn't too bad really, still so unnecessary). After squeezing myself out of the car, we got our bags and checked into what was a nice but small(by American standards) room. 

Next order of business: Go to Englischer Garten and get a brewski. There we were at the train station on the UBahn, when we realized that the train was going back to the station we came from. Now, you prolly won't be able to guess why or what happened! But if you wanted to guess I'll give you a few...

Nope? Here's the deal: they found a bomb dated back to the second world war near the Biergarten! True story! The specialists were working on diffusing the bomb and so no trains were going in that direction. Remember the NY shootings? And now a bomb discovery. Is it us? We can't possibly be bringing bad luck now can we? Anyhoo, we decided going to the Garten may not be the best of ideas and so we decided to just get dinner and call it a day. 

Very traditional food: traditional pork, potato dumplings and, wait for it.... Beer! We tried the Hacker Pshcorr Weisse and it was Perfect! No bitter after taste, light and just so good! So maybe not all beer is bad after all! 

I know I promised more, but this post has run long enough. Stay tuned for more Munich and potentially more beer:)

Much love

Sonali

Praha part 2

Turns out none of the pics render which is super sadface! So I might try something new with this one!

So continuing with Prague, we started off our day making our way to Petrin Hill( it's a tower which resembles the Eiffel Tower and prolly as tall if you include the mountain it's built on). Also you get to see a complete view of the Prague castle Grounds. To get to the hill we took a nifty little funicular. Once up there we did the usual( taking pics) and not so usual( climbing the tower instead of taking the lift). Although Charu was fairly skeptical about the climb( it wasn't bad even if we were a little out of breath).

The hill conquered we went on back to the Old Town Square to fulfill an important request. You see, I hate beer. The after taste is acquired I here and well I haven't acquired it. So some of my friends back home insisted I try some. I was feeling generous so decided to give it a go. We tried what the tour guide claimed was the best beer in Prague: Pilsner urquell. Pretty good with a very mild after taste. Still I'm not convinced that beer is my drink.

Of course in all the eating and drinking we lost track of time and had to make a beeline for our Castle tour. The guide was late, but more than made up for it with his British accent. His bits reminded me of Eddie Izzard. The Brits do have their own sense of humor; I do "fancy" it though!

The castle was also up a hill, so we did some more quick out of breath climbing. The castle grounds also includes St. Vitus Cathedral, a little bit gothic and a little bit Neolithic with some renaissance archi thrown in there. Everyone gazed at the church oohing and aahing when it was pointed out to us that the drummer of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers was standing just a few feet away! Now, I like the peppers just as much as the next person but I couldn't bring myself to go up to him and get a picture. I think it was mostly laziness. (FYI, I threw this bit in here for my RHCP fans; I know they would be semi jealous)

We missed the changing of guards. ( in case you are wondering why I'm talking about here's a little background info). The Prague castle grounds is the primary diplomatic area of Prague. That's where the prezi resides, the embassies are present and all the important gov buildings are situated. But I digress. We missed the changing of guards in front of the palace because we were late by 2 mins. Why? Because the guide was showing us something wayyy cooler! Get this: there is a small raised section of ground which acts as the podium and 4 steps surrounds it in a semi circular fashion.( think a very small amphitheater). When you stand on the raised platform and speak, you hear yourself 10 times awesomer( it is now a word). Basically sounds like you are using a microphone. But just to the speaker. Everyone else hears you just the same! Not impressed? Fine! It's one of those things where you had to be there!

Saw more pretty buildings and prolly the best view of the castle grounds! Tour done, we made our way towards the Charles bridge. It's pretty and has statues on either side of the bridge, tons of shops and people who expect you to pay them for drawing your portrait. I mean, come on! More pretty pictures taken we walked across the bridge for some yum yum time. Crepes in the Czech may not be a thing but were super delicious and exactly what I needed.

So yeah, nothin scandalous, but a whole lotta good times on day 2!

That's all for now,
Much love,
Sonali
P.s.: you'll notice I have no pics but look for it on my Facebook post of this link
P.p.s: in case you are wondering what i did after, I spent the night writing my previous blog!

P.p.p.s: I'm in Munich now