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5 random reasons why Hungary rocks!

August 19, 2011 / admin / One comment

As long as we had lived in Mumbai, the options for weekend trips were limited to Matherans and Alibaugs of the world. Of course, a day extra and we landed up in Goa. Having moved to Europe early this year, a world of possibilities suddenly opened up. Hop, skip and jump and we could be in a new country for the weekend. Having been to Germany (the obvious option for anyone in Austria) and Czech (another neighbour), I jumped at the chance to head out on a road trip with my girlfriends from the Capoeira group in Salzburg, Austria to Zalagaerszeg, Hungary. Well, for a first trip, people would normally head to the capital Budapest and not a small town in a region where it is difficult to pronounce any town names. But, a bunch of girls doing Capoeira can hardly be compared with the average tourist. : )

When I mentioned Hungary to a few people, they were asking if it was the Balaton Music festival or the Budapest Grand Prix that weekend. To me, a Capoeira workshop in a small town is larger than the Budapest Grand Prix. I did not try explaining that to Austrians. So, here are 5 random reasons why I fell in love with the place and can’t wait to go back -

1. This particular Hungarian food that I tried – Proza or something like that… reminded me of a Potato Uthappam with Cheese. Ridiculously fattening but had a beautiful Indian touch to it.

2. Hungarian hospitality beats everything. I stayed with this lovely family – Timi and her two kids. Not one second did we feel like a guest at their place. In two days, what this family showed in terms of hospitality, I don’t think I have felt the same way in neighbouring Austria in 4 months. I guess that’s why cultures are different and you learn to love each for what it is.

3. Simple joys of life. We had some of the best times sitting in this bench, sipping some beer or cola and singing. Whether it was Capoeira songs or Hungarian rap (the boy we stayed with was a killer rapper and he even had a rap name – Mr. Mafia), those bench times were amazing.

4. When you don’t know where you are going, that is the most exciting. And, when you can drive there, it is even better. With a bunch of girls, it is amazing. Hungary is a perfect destination for a road trip. With confusing town names, GPS directing you into national parks, its the cheap holidays plus adventure you did not bargain for but a perfect surprise indeed.

5. Finally, Hungarian cats keep to themselves. I was in a place which had something like 13 kittens. I did not even realise it in day 1 and that’s a miracle. I’m terrified of cats. Just when I was about to leave, I saw a whole dozen of them. Phew! Thank you Hungarian cats for not wanting to be friendly with me.

Category: Capoeira, Europe, Hungary / Tags: Capoeira, Hungary, Road Trip

Travel Bloggers and Powerpoint

July 28, 2011 / admin / 2 comments

This is a travel blog. Yes. But, this is also a travel blog run by a corporate slave.

The last two months have been about Powerpoint presentations more than anything else. And, I have done one presentation over and over and over again. So much that I don’t remember what was the story I was trying to tell in the first place. I don’t hate powerpoint. I hate it with all my life.

Don’t get me wrong. I really think it is probably a very cool invention. It looks quite beautiful – pictures, flying effects, transitions et all. But, in a nutshell, I think it is for people who lack the ability to communicate.

I still remember my Grandfather’s scribbles on my History textbook, drawing little maps of kingdoms and territories won over by kings. He was a super cool communicator. I remember my hockey coach showing game plays on sand. So on and so forth. They did not need Powerpoint to make a point.

All this got me thinking about why I hate it so much. Well, for starters, imagine I were to use Powerpoint as a tool to make my travel blogging or traveling better. What would happen?

Situation – My holiday to Egypt.

Step 1 – How I plan to take some cheap flights to Egypt. Show a slide with a faded world map with just your country and Egypt highlighted. Then, transition this to hundreds of colourful logos of various airlines around the world. They will slowly emerge from the map. Then, a bright colourful ugly chart pops up (graph ideally) showing the pricing of airlines. Then, out of all the logos, a few disappear (faded zoom) and the ones that are really cheap stay. Then, in a bright box, you type the key message – Such a long distance to go. But, very few cheap flights to get there. From that, you can switch slides and show a troubled backpacker with no money. That is me. Then, you switch pack to a the slide with minimal logos and knock them out one by one till the cheapest one stays on the screen. Point made.

Step 2 – Searching for hotels to stay. A creative presenter will go all visual and show images of the hotel rooms, facilities like swimming pools, sauna, beautiful balcony views, the food et all. The number cruncher will show the satisfaction graph on parameters like comfort, food, price, friendliness of staff, ratings. The combination presenter will merge graphs and pictures and highlight the key message with ugly bullet points. In my case, I would have probably shown one slide which shows the benefits of staying in a hotel and the benefits of staying with a family and quickly transitioned to a picture of a local family (very happy one with open arms welcoming me) and made the point – No hotels.

Step 3 – What to see in Cairo? Powerful images of Cairo zoom in from all corners showing the Islamic quarter, the Coptic area, the Pyramids of Giza… et all. They appear and turn transparent one by one, creating this crazy collage of faded pictures of a city. Then, in a psychedelic box, you have a key message about ‘So many places to see. So little time’. And, God forbid you want to run your idea past someone, it won’t be that easy afterall. They might have a say in the animation order or the fading effects. You get the drift.

What can make all this worse? If you write your story about Egypt, and someone changes it to look like it was a story about Venezuela.

It would take probably a couple of hours to put this presentation together and then many many variations before you can get the point across.

My readers would stop visiting my blog and if there was something on the internet available to block websites, they would do that as well. All this if they did not already fall victim to ‘death by powerpoint’.

In the end, I’ve made up my mind that Travel blogging cannot be enhanced by Powerpoint. This is compeletely my point of view. Infact, if you spend all day making powerpoint presentations, you can probably use the power of blogging to vent about it or travel somewhere to avoid it all together.

Please imagine the last paragraph is in font size 72.

Category: Africa, Egypt, Life, Not Just Travel, Work / Tags: Death by Powerpoint, Egypt, Powerpoint, Travel Blogging

Give yourself a break everyday!

July 14, 2011 / admin / 4 comments

I was on the phone with a friend last night. It’s been ages since I have been able to take a few minutes out to have a general conversation, which did not include work or the pain of living between two cities. We just caught up on stuff like how much I miss Kingfisher beer, wearing flip flops and how much she wishes there were better Sushi restaurants in Mumbai. So on and so forth. That’s when I realised that I’ve been holed up in my bloody cabin, forgetting the simple joys of life and that I need to get out more.

So, I made a promise to promise to myself. It’s not about killing yourself working for months together and then running away to a beach for 3 weeks. It’s about enjoying everything daily. It is so unfortunate I am bang in the middle of every British tourist’s dream destination, a pretty little lake town in ‘Sound of Music’ Austria and I haven’t made the most of it.

So, here are my 7 resolutions for the rest of the time I spend in Austria. These are not earth shattering things. These are simple gift ideas, ones that I would give myself. It’s all about giving myself a break everyday.

I’ll get myself a good meal everyday and try everything there is to try in Austria – From knoublauch soups to the wiener snitzels to the strudels of the world. More than anything, I’ll get out for lunch and get home in time for dinner and stop eating stupid vending machine stuff.

I will spend time outdoor. Need I say more?

Hell of high water, I’ll find a way to catch the bloody Post Bus and get to the city for Capoeira.Now, these are people I can call my family in Salzburg.

I will go swimming, even if I freeze my butt. If not, I’ll atleast capture the zillion shades of blue and green on my camera.

I will stomp on the grass, even better try to handstands or cartwheels when no one is looking. I don’t think the office allows people to walk on the grass. But, I shall be very non-conformist about this one, if you know what I mean.

I will buy myself a Deindl, this Austrian frock. Even if I look ridiculous, I need to own one. Shopping maybe therapeutic, if its for something as crazy as this.

I will find the time to write a song for Hotel Mohrenwirt, my home in Austria. I will put it to tune and play the Berimbau and sing it for the staff one day.

And, when I am done with this list, I’ll come up with a new list.

Category: Austria, Capoeira, Europe, Fuschl /

License to drive

June 17, 2011 / admin / 2 comments

Its funny how I miss my little red Zen. The one I took for granted all these years. They say you don’t know the value of something till its gone. So true. I have to admit I’ve never really been a car person. I guess that was because I lived in a city like Mumbai, where the last thing you needed was a car. Any Mumbai person knows that the frustration of trying to find a parking spot is lesser than the frustration of a bumpy auto ride to your destination. Either way, I still had the car in my garage, just incase I needed it. Having moved to Austria (Yes, I’ve started accepting that I moved to Austria and not the UK), I have managed to find myself in situations, where life without car seems very similar to prison life.

Situation 1 – Missed the bus to the city and got drenched walking from the bus station to my hotel, depressed over the fact that I couldn’t make it to Capoeira

Situation 2 – Missed the bus back to the village from the city, making me hitchhike till the motorway and walk 2 hours

Permanent Situation – Being stuck. No explanation required. The feeling of being stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Well, the issue here is not about the car. I guess I could get one or borrow one or rent one if I wanted. I don’t have a license to drive in Europe. I’ve been told that you can drive for the first 6 months with your Indian license, but honestly I don’t know if Austrians know that. I didn’t take an International license in India due to the bureaucracy. I haven’t applied for a driving license in the UK because I have to go back to driving school and write tests et all. I guess its the same story for Europe. Call me lazy or whatever, I just think I should be allowed to drive here.

What do you think I should do?

Should I try this story with a car rental and see if they will let me hit the road in Europe with my Indian license. After all, If I can drive in India amidst all the traffic and the occasional elephant, shouldn’t driving in Europe be a piece of cake?

Or, should I just accept the fact that from cars to bikes to scooters to bicycles, I’ve finally reached a situation where it will be me, my two legs and miles to go?

…… any other thoughts?

Category: Austria, Capoeira, England, Europe, Fuschl, India, London, Mumbai / Tags: Car Rentals, Driving in Europe, Driving in UK

The perfect weekend in Austria

June 12, 2011 / admin / 4 comments

This weekend, I decided not to go back to London. I can’t exactly remember why. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. I had the most incredible weekend in Austria and it hasn’t ended. A weekend indeed very indicative of the good life people lead here. The simple joy you get from the outdoor beauty, the sheer variety of sweet things to eat, the fantastic options of beer and wine, the perfect balance between tourists and people I can call friends, the drizzle and the sun, the church bells tolling at all hours, this and that……. and finally let me not forget, the endless capoeira moments.

Sun shining at something like 5 am. I am not sure when. I have to pull the comforter over my head and avoid waking up. It lasts a few minutes. Somehow, snooze doesn’t work here. I jump out of the bed and the first thing I do it step into the balcony to gauge the weather. Barefoot and without a jacket. You can sense the day. And, that’s the beautiful view. A room with a view indeed.

And, then I headed to the hotel reception to greet my closest friends Good morning. My day doesn’t begin in Fuschl without seeing Anna or Daniel. Guten Morgan.

I had been invited for brunch at my friend Gertraud’s place. An opportunities to meet some new people. I headed there picking up some assortment of bakery stuff from the little bakery in Fuschl. Look at the far end of the picture below (well, there is a mix of apple stuff, cream cheese stuff and chocolate stuff). And, Gertraud had a feast ready for us.

Breads and spreads… Love it.

Pretzels, sausages and hot mustard.

Never too early for Weisbeer or Prosecco.

… and the beautiful host Gertraud…

Met some delightful people. Gertraud’s kids Moritz and adopted kid (actually tenant) Florian, who is a freerunner. The ease with which he did a handstand from a sitting position shows core strength. He is a part time stunt man as well. Wow, I wanted to run back to the meadows and do my handstands till my body hurt. (And, yes I did that) Mortiz and Florian below..

Michael, a friend from Salzburg and his guest Michi from Brazil. I’m so happy I got to practice my Portugese in Austria.

And its not surprising that people who are crazy about travel have globes with them. Don’t you just love it. Even Michael’s dog was enthralled.

Brunch overlapped with lunchtime and pretty much became evening. Time to head back and have a coffee. Met 2 interns from Vienna. They are interning with Hotel Seewinkel, one of the hotels in Fuschl. Just chilling with some 16 year olds who are definite Red Bull addicts was an interesting evening. Daniel and Carina below…. we made a plan to meet every time they get a break.

A great Capoeira workout in the evening in the lawns behind the hotel….Desperately tried to hold the handstand, fell into bridges, what not. Super workout and then, the random old British tourists started to turn up and drink wine in the lawns. I slipped out of there earlier than I had planned to.

Sunday started with a lovely walk to the lake, just to spot this fishing all alone. Beautiful colourful boats. Blue green waters. Drizzle. Sun. Drizzle. Sun. I managed to finish a few chapters of a book I was reading. Soaked in the lazy life lying around the beach chairs by the lake.

After the lazy morning, I decided to play more Capoeira in the fields. With the trees. I saw all those cyclists wearing their gear, riding around trails. Then, those power walkers. Well, they sure don’t come back dirty and muddy and sweaty like I do after capoeira in the fields. After that, I decided to treat myself to great beer, food and dessert. I deserved the dessert.

Peter, the bartender at Hotel Mohrenwirt (home), always smiling and ready to serve you a drink. More than anything, I get to practice basic German and he gets to practice his English with me.