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

Prahafication!

Happy Monday! The last two days in Praha have been Amazeballs for lack of a better word. Right now I'm going through the "oh, I wish I had one more day" phase, so yeah, I'm a little bit of a sadface!

But pockat("wait" in czech sans some prolly critical accent), before I get super sadface I will try to recap my last two days

Day 1, started with bungee jumping,( it's true, that happened). Bob( my driver) picked me up from the hotel to get to Zlikov bridge to "do the deed". After driving for about an hour and the half( with me dozing off for half of it), we got to the bridge. Money exchanged hands and I was all harnessed up. While I was waiting my turn, I watched one of the Czechs jump off the bridge like it was no biggy! Anyways, my turn comes, the dudes stick around to see if I will actually make the jump or chicken out. So there I was, standing on the other side of the railing( pretty much like Kate on the Titanic, getting ready to jump). The bungee guy counted down to 1, and I was still holding on. I figured the only way anything was gonna happen was if he pushed me off the bridge. Bungee guy was more than happy to do so(unclear why). What happened next is semi hard to describe:) I was falling like I had never before while (I think) screaming a lotta "omg"s. I was super disoriented from being upside down and oscillating. Also, in my head the convo went something like this: " what the F did I get myself into". But all's well that ends well. I did find a focus point to concentrate on eventually. Bungee guy lowered the harness( by this time I was done screaming), I got myself all locked in and he pulled me back up. The first few seconds back on the ground felt a little weird but I quickly got over it when I realized that I was still alive :))

So anyways, bam!

I will get the actual pictures from the jump in a few days do look out for the updates to this post.

After making sure I was still intact, Bob drove me back to the hotel. I had about 15 mins to quickly 

make my way to old town square where my free Prague tour was to start. Actually, before I go any further let me tell you about the Sandeman's New Europe Tours. They operate in 14 cities including Prague, Munich and Berlin. Their basic tour is free., usually about 3 hrs to go over the highlights of the city. This is also when they try to promote their non free tours.

The free tour in Praha was really really good! I would recommend it if you ever happened to find yourself in Prague. The tour guide, John Paul Franca Shlum was pretty baller; For one he was half American and half German, grew up in 10 countries but never lived in the US but also freaking 6 feet 6 inches tall; here's a pic reference:

Some other highlights:
Defenestration( throwing some one out the window) was popular back in the day
The Czechs do what they do best in times of crisis aka take down their street signs to confuse the invaders
The Czech president Klaus is a pen thief.
The astronomical clock is pretty awesome if you know how to read the time

I have a super sweet pic with Kafka. But Javier doesn't let me copy and paste it. Will update this post once I figure it out!

We caught a concert at the Rudolfium( Concert hall). To say the musicians were very talented would be an understatement!

The day ended with an epic fail bar crawl. Long story short, people didn't show up and the dude returned out money.

I realize I haven't completed the story but I'm super sleepy. Do watch out for part two of Prague . Thanks for reading!
Much love as always,
Sonali

Brussels->Berlin->Prague

Obviously I need to work on my blog post titles( Do suggest one for this one). Assuming that has been taken care of, I'm going to proceed with my post. The flight to Berlin was fairly uneventful but I will share this gem


We rented a Ford hatchback to Dresden on our way to Prague( I started us off, Followed by Charu and l\Lindsey, and me bringing us to Prague {super safely})
Stopped at Drofkrug Alt Glasow for some Currywurst:

 Couple of lessons to be learnt;
1. When they say you can rent a Mercedes Klasse C, they lie. Instead you get a Ford of some sort
2. The autobahn is freaking amazing and if you don't go fast enough people will over take you while clearly startling you 
3. The ongoing traffic might sometimes come at you in the wrong lane almost taking you out
4. Driving after traveling for almost 26 hrs is a bad bad idea!

Quick highlights: Dresden is pretty, spacious with elegant buildings and at least 4 newlyweds doing a photo op..


We got to Prague, got some delish dinner which invoked fluffy tiramisu and hot wine!
And I'm clearly updating my blog as promised sitting in the hotel lobby!

Tomorrow is going to be eventful, stay tuned
Much love
Sonali 

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of?

We made it to NYC! And I figure now would be as good a time as any to introduce my co-conspirators on this trip! There's Charu, my friend from grad school and her coworker, Lindsey,who I hope to know on this trip :)

So that's us, Lindsey, Charu and Moi

Turns out today was also a good day for meeting up with old friends and rando shootings ( that's right, the typical New York welcome!)

Some of you might recognize my peeps, Adi and Dylan. FYI, that cuban place was right by the shootings, that's right we live on the wild side! The food was delish, totally worth the risk( I think)

More happenings of semi interest: manicures and full  body massages at an express spa, in-flight movies, food, yada yada.

I'm at the Brussels airport on not-so-free wifi waiting for my connecting flight to Berlin

Until next time, 

Toodles from Belgium

Sonali 

And off I go, but first...

So close and yet so far! I'm at SFO, 2 hours before my flight ( I'm cautious like that; Bad, Very Bad things happen when you're late). Anyhoo, I sat down and looked up to find an ad for Equinix (@D&P, Is that a sign??).

And so off I go, but first, a quick stop at NYC!

Much Love,
Sonali
P.s.: this was a super short post, more FYI than anything else

Almost There!

It was that time of the year again!(When the travel bug bites you and you gotsa do it). So back in Spring when I was clearly bored, I figured a little bit of traveling might be just what I needed (Seriously, who doesn't). It's already the end of summer (what?) and I'm making it happen. In less than a week I'll be en route to Europe with two of my friends. The purpose of this trip is like any other; to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Taking in the sites, meeting people, nomming some deliciousness and exploring ze places! With a gajillion suggestions from friends and family, I'm "almost" set for what I call, Eurofy My Life :)

Found this nifty site that creates my trip map. This is the general plan. We're driving for half the trip and plan on seeing smaller towns on our way.

View Larger Map

I'm not much of a writer or photographer(point-and-shoot FTW), but I am fairly interesting. So here's to my vacation and here's to you guys following my Amazeballs travel blog. 

Much Love,
Sonali

p.s.: If I don't update often, it's because I'm having way too much fun :)
p.p.s.: The plan is to change the background to reflect the different cities I'll be hitting. I might drop the ball on this one. just saying!