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