Amsterdam

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

So we reached Amsterdam unwell, exhausted and unable to think straight. After getting to the city center from our bus stop (20 minutes ride), we were again back on our foot. Lugging those backpacks and the stroller. Without any physical or mobile maps to help us, we started searching for the hostel with downloaded google images and asking the locals. We reached there so exhausted by the 15 minute walk that the sight of the really small entrance and congested check in area annoyed the hell out of me. Counting to 100, I let paglet do the talking. The volunteer at the reception told us our dorm was on the right just a flight of stairs away. If, taking right, then a flight of stairs, then another flight of stairs to the basement, then a right turn and then the finally reaching the dorm, is 'just on the right' then she was correct!

reality check!

By the curse of the seven, we got the upper bunk bed. There was no one in the room except for an Australian (he later talked and we exchanged the usual pleasantries) napping. We had packed our dinner supplies from Brugge, so I immediately tasked myself with preparing dinner and searching the kitchen, which was another dimension away. If I were feeling my normal self I would have loved the sneaky stairways and the hidden rooms and secretive passages of the hostel. But that night, my brain refused to appreciate it for what it was. Every new turn felt like an unnecessary twist to the evil joke that someone was playing on our sick bodies and tired, cough syrup addled minds.

Anywho.. I prepared an insipid meal with minimal ingredients and no oil. We sat for dinner. One thing led to another and we were arguing about silly things. Voices raised. A couple of chinese diners and english ones aside, we were the only two there. Having an emotional screaming match. With our sore throats. It felt so liberating to fight and argue in that hostel basement, with no one to understand or bother about what it was all about!

Silly fights with friend which ended in awkward 'so where do I get some warm water now' question. ✅

With 'no one really understands me', vibes we both went to bed. Woke up around 3 am to loud noises in the dorm. Thanks to being a co-ed dorm, all the other residents were back from their parties, only to disturb our slumber parties. We both shouted at them like grumpy old people with cries of 'guys please keep it down'. Most of them, even though inebriated, were nice enough to respect us oldies and kept quiet.

We woke up, had some breakfast, booked a shared car ride back to Cologne. In short our Amsterdam part of the trip with so many plans and things to do was completely washed out. A cruel joke of the shared car ride getting cancelled later, we had resigned to our fate. N booked our bus tickets for later that day. We wandered around clueless and finally sat down by the river, our bodies refusing to co-operate. At 1.30 PM that afternoon we finally boarded the bus to Cologne, hoping against hope for some comfort food and good sleep, at the end of the journey.

Alices in wonderland - caption courtesy Paglet

Moral of the story - I dont know, if there is any lesson to be learnt here. Except may be try not staying in a dorm when unwell ?

P.S. Expenses!!
Brugge - Amsterdam bus - 17 Euro per person
Amsterdam hostel - 70 Euro per person for 2 nights (We wasted this money)
Misc - 5 Euro per person
Amsterdam - Cologne bus - 20 Euro per person
Total - 112 Euro per person
Hostel website: http://www.flyingpig.nl/

In Brugge

Part 1 and Part 2 in case you are interested.

'Maybe that's what hell is, the entire rest of eternity spent in fucking Bruges.' - Stupid grumpy Ray from In Bruges (the movie).

Of course, for me replace hell by a good idea of heaven, please! I am like the good old romantic Ken from the movie who wants history, culture and a good time to be able to call it a good day. Good life even. When I watched the movie back in 2010, I knew I would visit Brugge one day.

the sight of the bed!

That day arrived in 2016 July. After the super flop journey to Brussels and making J and Paglet bear the brunt of my illness, I channeled all my inner will power and strength to go to Brugge. We left Brussels at a leisurely 11 am in the morning on the 21st of July. An hour long, uneventful (thank god!) train ride later, we were at the Lybeer Hostel, lugging those dreadful backpacks and that cursed stroller on the cobbled streets of Brugge. The pragmatic in me was cursing the romantic by this time. I made myself lie down as soon as we entered the room. This seemed to work for the pragmatic.

A bit about our hostel. It was 15 minutes walk from the railway station. We had a single room with 1 bunk bed and shared bathroom. It was clean and it also had a window which opened to the terrace! It also had an open kitchen, library with book exchange, open bar and lounging area. One hour rest later...

hostel terrace!

We were to take the walking tour of Brugge with cyhit the same day. We had already been  introduced to our tour guide Thijs, through his successful attempt to scare us. (He knocked on the door. I opened the door, totally unaware and he scared the hell out of me by presenting himself in one of those K3 type masks. He was apparently trying to scare Paglet, being colleagues. You know how it went). 

very very good!

The afternoon (3 pm) tour was supposed to start from the Charlie Rockets Youth hostel (another very nice hostel with a social vibe). A bunch of us 3 Peruvians, 3 Scottish girls and 2 Indian girls (us) were to be Thijs's party for the afternoon. The tour was filled with his antics! He made us touch and feel history, making us stand on the oldest bridge in Brugge for a few minutes. We made our way through Astrid park, walked through the prison which is now a residential area to the city center. Brugge is home to a very famous church which supposedly houses the blood of christ (in powdered form). No we did not go there. I am just sharing knowledge. After some more medieval stories and jokes, we came near the bell tower. The famous bell tower. I and one more girl from Scotland were the only ones who had watched the movie In Bruges. So we two were the only ones who got all Thijs' jokes and references. Pop culture FTW! He shared few more anecdotes from the movie and gave us recommendations about where to have the best fries and chocolates. (Belgium is the home of potato fries and some really good chocolates!)  We also did a secret pitstop at a very nice and old pub and had the most amazing local beer. I was unwell but I tried it a little. Belgian beer y'all! The beer stopover also gave us a chance to sit down and relax and get to know each other. Some fun exchanges later we started the part 2 of our walking tour. We also got introduced to the symbolic Brugge architecture and some flemish history. Thijs gave us some really cool and cheap references for food, beer shopping, ice cream and things to do. Thijs was a storyteller who made us time travel while narrating some of the incidents of the west flanders. The 2 hour long tour ended at the oldest hospital in western Europe. (I highly recommend it if you are interested in local culture, cuisine, history and fun :))

Tour group!

Brugge is really small. You can travel from one end of the city to the other in 30 minutes, 40-50 minutes if you walk leisurely. Paglet and I roamed around a bit. Had some delish fries and mayo, soaked in the sunshine. Surprisingly I was feeling sprightly again. We then bought some local beer and made our way back to the hostel. As soon as I was inside the hostel, the body pain and being unwell feeling was back. But we met some really fun people and the evening went on smoothly, with conversations. There was a solo traveler from Turkey who knew very little English (the language). I cannot tell you the pain I felt while trying to make meaningful conversation with him. 
We called it a night sooner than everyone else. 

Next day when we woke up Paglet was showing the first signs of being ill. I was slightly better. So we decided to have some breakfast and just take it easy, since we also had to leave for Amsterdam the same day. We went to Astrid park and sat around like bums, studying the city map thinking what next to do.
We decided to buy some souvenirs and found an interesting souvenir shop on the map. There is a very famous Sanskrit idiom which means something like this 'When your bad time is going on, you tend to think unintelligently.' Our walk to the shop was going to be something similar. Little did we know. We walked through the city to the other end for almost 30 minutes to reach the place only to find out it was like a huge super market of second hand goods. It had really great, kitsch stuff but there was no energy left in our sick bodies and fevered brains to sift through them. Each of us bought goods worth 25c as souvenirs to remind us of the death walk. By the time we reached the hostel, we both were feeling really really sick. We even got annoyed by each other and quarreled and fought and did not talk to each other till we boarded the bus to Amsterdam later in the day. Talk of ending a perfect day on a sour note!

Before leaving the hostel I bartered books at the hostel bookshelf. I had noticed 'museum of innocence' on the bookshelf the night before and could not contain my excitement. I had been meaning to read that book for a long long time. Meeting a traveler from Turkey the night before and seeing a copy of the book made me believe in 'a book finding the reader' theory even more. So I kept a friend's copy (which I had finished reading) of 'the man who knew infinity' with notes and picked it up. Verdict below!

Sad to report that halfway through this book and I am finding it insufferable. Need some cheer in life. pic.twitter.com/zr35N7oT6N

— Y (@yaymini) August 4, 2016

Anywho, Brugge was a dream come true to me. I really liked it. I wish to return to live there for a few more days. I leave you with a postcard from Brugge.

Beautiful Brugge!

P.S. So the essential part of the post. Costs!
Brussels - Brugge ticket - 20 Euro per head
hostel charges for a day (separate twin sharing room with shared bathrooms) - 59Euro (~30Euro per head)
misc - 20 euro per head
dinner - 15 euro per head
Total - 85 Euro 
Hostel link - http://www.hostellybeer.com/

Belgium

Post 1 about how and why my Europe trip happened

I need to report some drama that happened with us on the journey to Brussels.

So we left for Mumbai on 19th afternoon. I had a super important work meeting on 19th evening where I was supposed to give a presentation (My official vacation was going to start from 20th).  Thanks to incessant rains, our bus got delayed and I realized that taking that work call was going to be impossible. Thankfully someone else could present in my place, so I let go of it (I am a workaholic and this is a BIG deal). Additionally I had caught a slight cold and was generally feeling tired. BTW that's not how you are supposed to feel before embarking on a vacation. So we ate a good dinner with a couple of friends and took some rest at their home, before heading for the airport.
We boarded the flight to Brussels from Mumbai at 4 in the morning. We stopped over in Abu Dhabi for an hour and a half. Some coffee and more rest later, we were on board the flight to Brussels. I asked the flight attendant for a paracetamol tablet (my medicines sadly got checked in) and I went to sleep. So far so good. I woke up only to report uneasiness and extremely high fever to Paglet, who by this time became completely convinced that long distance travel was not my thing (insert laughing smileys here. Actually long distance travel is my thing and being part of interesting, bizarre stories is her thing. You see where this is going ?). Anywho, she then covered me up with as many blankets possible and made me go to sleep again. I was to sleep until my fever broke and I sweated.

Imagine being on a flight. Now imagine the AC and claustrophobic environment of the flight. Now imagine being covered with 2-3 blankets, on top of a leather jacket. And then imagine having your breath on fire because of a fever and shivering like you are north of the wall. Also imagine having a friend by your side to take care of you, even though they are shit scared themselves seeing what's happening to you. I know its too much to imagine.

Actually, now that I am back to my routine life and think about what happened on that flight that day, I can only smile. We have this inside joke where we tease Paglet about how everything that happens in her life is bizarre and has an interesting story going with it. She is well versed in how things 'normally' play out in her life. She even plays on us with us when we joke. But this, I am sure even she did not anticipate. I mean bad weather, unnecessary delays, immigration trouble, emergency landings etc were on our list of things that could go wrong on this journey. One of us falling this sick without any warnings or symptoms was not even on our minds. Which was silly, given how much travel and exertion each of us went through, before starting this trip.

Anywho, there was a very nice cabin manager Sophia (Etihad Airways) from Mumbai, who came to know of my fever and made me some amazing masal chai. Once my fever broke I was able to sit through the rest of the flight. Only to report piercing ear pain when the flight was about to land, due to change in pressure. I wanted to my trip to end and go back home. I kid you not. I even told Paglet that if she were not there, I would have done so or made them do an emergency landing somewhere. 

Brussels airport was swarming with Tomorrowland visitors. Once we had our baggage we made way to a friend's place (J). After lugging around the backpacks and a stroller with my fevered body, I was glad to be at home (even though it was someone else's). I immediately went to sleep. Paglet woke me up, convinced me to take a shower, made me some tea and I went to sleep again. J arrived in few hours and guess what it was her birthday! The poor girl then went to the kitchen and started making Rassam for me. Here's the most amazing part.

A girl from Poland, who lives in Brussels was making Rassam, a south Indian soup, for a girl from Maharashtra India. Amaze-max !?

Only picture memory from Brussels.

I woke up again around 4-5 PM to a bunch of people in the house who had come to celebrate her birthday. Among them drinking champagne, belgian beers and celebrating, I was drinking Rassam like a good girl. I have never felt this much gratitude as I felt that day for J and the Rassam she made. On her birthday. All you south Indian friends, it was the best rassam I have ever had (its not my fevered brain speaking). This world is so wonderful and kind!

Feeling a little energetic and guilty for making J do all the work on her birthday, I tried to be part of the celebrations. The girls were dancing to bollywood music and we exchanged many a stories about our cultures. I went to sleep by 10 PM and got up only after 10+ hours. Paglet and I had left the decision of next day's travel on my condition after waking up. Thankfully I woke up feeling much better and ready for Brugge.

Moral of the story : Paglet and J are the best. Not sure what I would have done without them around.

To be continued..

P.S. Since I stayed at a friend's place and was nursing my sickness, I did not spend a penny in Brussels. No costs incurred, nothing to report.

Europa!

'Europe is always a good idea'.

Let me begin at the beginning.
I have been traveling to the US a lot for work, over the past one year. Paglet moved to Germany last year. Travel planners that she and her husband (N) are, they immediately started asking me to do stopovers in Germany during my trips. I confess I tried 2 times and failed, for one thing or the other. Then we decided to plan my first full fledged Europe trip instead. That's how this all began.

N is really into small, indie music festivals. He was booking early bird tickets for a festival in Italy which was going to take place in July. I said yes without knowing much about the festival and knowing my borrowerd music history. 
My festival tickets got booked in Jan/Feb 2016. 
I booked my tickets to and from Brussels in April. 
My rough itinerary got designed in May. I included visits to some cities where I had really close friends.
I applied for visa in June. 
I received my visa in July.
I dropped a few places from my plan and re-did the itinerary. And I took off for 18 days of vacation in July/August.

check in done and ready to board! also diy #travelgoals tees :D

A lot apart from this happened in this short span. I was getting slammed at work. In July R got married for which Paglet flew to India. We booked her tickets so that we both (paglet and I) could fly from India to Brussels together. All this drama and planning! The month of July really was a whirlwind. We left for Mumbai from where our flight was on July 19th. It was the first time Paglet and I were traveling together. So we were both excited and anxious. Oh what a journey it was and what a blessing it proved to be to have her by my side!


To be continued..

P.S.  I plan to do the entire travel cost post as well. But I understand that you don't want to wait for it. So I'll do the costing at the end of individual post.

To those wondering, I used some of my miles accumulated from the work trips to book the Europe tickets. So here is the international travel cost
Pune - Mumbai return trip by Shivneri - 1000 Rs.
Mumbai - Brussels return trip - 24,500 Rs
Internal Mumbai taxi etc - 400 Rs.

Total - 25,900 Rs.