Mere saathi...

When I recall back all those things or people who were really of great help to me during my stay in Sweden.. First of all I can't forget to mention about my senior, Amit Singh, who left this place after 1 month of my stay..
Its really very touch living which I can see now, if he was not there to help me out..
To tell me from where to get stuff, what to get, even how to behave with people over here...

Like bad thing about Sweden being, there is NO MRP mentioned on any of the products, so its upto the superstore to sell them at whatever price they want... as they put their own price tags...
In the beginning I happend to purchase some really expensive food stuff, and then one day he took me with him to a really reasonable price supermarket *Willeys* and when I saw that same products which I was purchasing for much higher price.. aree available here at much lower prices!!!
After that, I knew from where to buy which stuff.. and I really thank him a lot even today.. for being great support for me! :-)

After that comes my bag.. my Cogni bag... which I never thought would be so useful to me.. :P
But now I have to admit it, it was of great help.. really
I have carried my lunch, some papers etc daily to my department in it..
Not just that, being sooooo light in weight, it has proved its great utility in all of my Eurotrips.. :-)

Next comes my mp3 player, Its almost daily routine for me to walk around 20 minutes to reach department from my apartment... and during that period, mp3 player is what I never forget to carry with me , listen to some of my favorite bollywood songs.. feels real good...
Infact I have carried my mp3 player in all the trips I have made, and it has been great tool for me.. not to get bored any time!!


Then.... there comes my headphone/microphne , having voice chat with family daily.. and with some friends really close to heart.. :-) Its what actually I should call the main thing which kept me connected to my home.. to India.. and never let me feel lonely...

But the headphone defintely means its utility when the person I want to talk to has also this facitiliy.. and thank God all of them had it... :-)
Love you all... By this hopefully I am ending my Sweden Blogspot.. *Exploring the world*
Really Explored a lot..... It has given me immense pleasure and lot of happiness to visit so many countries and see their culture.. some famous monuments.. But most importantly what I have gained is self confidence... confidence to go anywhere and still don't feel any kind of Uncomfort!! :-)

Eco Friendly Sweden...

There are some of the things which I observed and really appreciate those steps taken by Swedish government.. At first they might seem to be just another means of emptying your pocket... but actually they are very effective measures towards saving our environement!

Like first of all at all the superstore you go for purchasing any food stuff, cosmetics or whatever.. they don't provide you with a plastic bag free of cost.. Most of them charge around 2 SEK (15 INR) for each plastic bag you want to take for carrying whatever you have purchased!
In the beginning I was really shocked, 'Oh My God these people have gone crazy.. they will just make me go bankrupt in a few days like this.. :P'

But when you know that system is this, from next time you start taking some bag or infact the same plastic bag which you had to purchase last time along with you while going to a superstore!
This is really a very effective way of saving our environment from the use of these dangerous plastic bags!

Another appreciable thing is about Pant, no no I am not talking about Trousers :D
Pant is the Swedish term used for plastic bottle/liquid container.. as in cold drink bottles etc.. Yes, you are guessing it right.. they charge for that plastic bottle too...
Its normally different for differnet kind of bottles, depending on size, material (plastic or metal) and other such things..
For example, for 1.5 litre Sprite bottle I had to pay an extra amount of 2SEK (15 INR), but in this case good thing is, you get your Pant deposit back, as there is Pant Sucker Machines just inside every supermarket, where you can just drop your Pant and get your depost back!!!

Very nice naa..?? yup it is.. I now that and I really appreciate Swedish efforts!! :-)

Skänetrafiken (Swedish Bus)

Now when its time to go back to India, I would like to recollect everything different as well as appreciating about Sweden.
Amazing traffic sense i have already mentioned in one of my previous posts.. Now adding further to it... Lets talk about buses over here Skänetrafiken is the bus service.
Buses are all Mercedes Buses and when they move on the roads you can almost wonder are they actually made up of metal or rubber!! :D The reason being they are so much flexible, may be you can say because of very effective shockers, that it doesn't matter if road is slightly rough.. you wil just feel comfort as well as the flexibility of bus while sitting inside.. very comfortable.

The buses are all fitted with GPS and automataic display to guide you about the next stop coming, and with every seat of bus is attached a Stannar which when pressed, indicates to the driver that somebody wants to move out from bus at the next stop.

People with their babies in parambulator are also allowed to board in, and their is special section of bus where the parambulator can be placed comfortably..

There is no conductor in buses as you see in india, there is just the driver who also does the duty of a conductor too.. Just by his side is fitted electronic machine which accepts Rebate card, montly card and other such bus cards. If you don't have any card, you can purchase the ticket directly from driver as he has ticket issueing machine also with him.
Just one thing hurts you, is the cost! Travelling is really very expensive.. 15SEK (almost 100 rupees) for 1 hour journey... no matter how many stops or how may times you board in it!!

Drivers are dressed really as gentlemen, and sometimes you see ladies too driving :-)
WHenever they see zebra crossing, they give preference to pedasterians regardless of the time it takes... Hats off!! Also when there is a senior citizen OR person with baby in perambulator, they will tilt the bus (using shockers) so that steps of bus are just in alignment with the ground.. and the passengeres can board in/out very comfortably...

It is not possible to borad in the bus at any point on the road... :P you can only board into the bus at the bus stops. And once they close the door of the bus, they won't open it again for you if you are late and running after the bus to catch it, so don't try it ! :D

Thats it for now, really liked the traffic sense of people over here...! :-)

Awesome Paris..

13th - 14th July 08

Reached late night, 12 midnight 12th July to Paris city... Took single-journey ticket and boarded into metro.. to reach friend's apartment..
Luckily didn't have any problem reaching his apartment, and comfortably reached by around 1:30am
Next morning, here we come Eifel tower...
First view of Eifel was... Oh no man! its looking horrible... from distance...
certainly if you see in daylight and you have been so much exicted about seeing this wonder.. then you will say Oh no what is this yaar... :P
But once you reach just near to it, you will be amazed to see the beauty and great must have been the mind of the man behind it.. Mr. Eifel himself.. I mean its really incredible to think of building such an enormous thing!!

Well, we were there in the queue for around 2 hours I guess.. and finally got the tickets to go to the top of the Eifel... I was just wondering that moment.. Oh my God! How much is the government earning daily.. 12Euros per person.. and Tourists you can't even believe there were like more than thousands of tourists to get to the top of the Eifel!!
Millions of bucks flowing in daily.. or better to say hourly!! huff... No wonder the city has developed so much as government gets lots of money.. :P

Anyways it was really great to be at the top of Eifel... Feels like heaven.. would never forget this day ever....!! :-) Some of the most cherished moments of my life were they... 2 hours in the queue, and after that I guess 3 hours on the tower I spent..
There were many shops of souvenir , and restaurants etc.. you could explore the whole city through 3 floors...

Venice.. The Floating City

12th july 08

It was 6am and our train reached venice.. From the train itself one can see water n water everywhere..as the train passed a bridge.. Awesome view of sunshine was visible through the big windows of the train.. :-)

As soon as you come out of the station.. you can see the roads.. water roads.. i mean ;-)
There is public transport available for traveling in the city, ACTV is the service provider..
But the charge for using that transport was a bit thats what i feel..
They charged 14 Euors for 12 hour boat journey.. (no matter how many times and how many stops you change in between) Anyways.. it was fun to see the whole transport system coming to water..

The craziest thing being.. they have Taxi also.... certainly running in water... i.e. fast water boats named as taxi.. Too good.. Water going in all the streets.. Just imagined that like we think of going on our feet, or taking some taxi or personal vehicle... These people have their own private boats... which they need to board in as soon as they want to come out of their house..Amazing!!

Then we went to St Marco Polo Church/Square, and visited that famous church.. It was nice.. But more interesting were the pigeons just outside the church.. hundreds of them.. and as soon as you offer them any food stuff..they will just fly to your body to have a bite of it!! Enjoyed a lot feeding some of those pigeons.. with some left over chips which my friend had with him!

After some time headed for Glass factory on Murano Island , named Glass Museum (Museo del Vetro) , Venice is famous not just for being a floating city, but also for its glass work.. and visiting this glass factory was really interesting.. to see how they just molded old glass pieces into fine glass work (in the form of say boats, horses and other such showpiece which we normally places in our houses)

At the end of the day, Lido Beach was where we relaxed.. HUGE beach it was.. n Lots of people also there.. ;-) Didn't get chance to take a bath in morning, so just jumped into the see water straight away...
And finally headed for Treviso airport, venice.. to take flight for Paris.. dream city.. :-)

Vatican n Rome

11th July 08

In the morning.. after leaving from hotel we headed towards the Vatican City.. (Apne Pop Uncle ka Ghar). On reaching there, just amazed to see the beauty of that Grand place..or better to call it PALACE.. awesome..!!
What an architecture yaar... worth appreciating.. There was a long queue already as we reached to St Pietro Church, say around 500 people in queue already.. but the queue was actually moving fast enough so that we had to stand there only for around half n hour.. n then we entered the Grand Vatican Church... and mind you.. you should be wearing proper clothes or they will stop you at the entrance of the church.. (no sleeveless top and no mini skirt allowed inside) :D

Inside the church, the experience was definitely very nice.. amazed to see the beauty of sculptures and paitings everywhere inside the church.. It was really nice to be there...

Then we came back within the rome city, there are lots of fountains within the city.. which have actually become tourist attraction because of the beautiful sculptures placed along with the fountain.. Thing I like most about these fountains or you can say Rome is that drinking water is available almost everywhere , free of cost.. because of sprinkles/fountains present at small small distance along with these fountains...!!which is fresh spring water, safe to drink or else in that hot weather you will just go bankrupt purchasing water bottles itself... :P :-)

Fountain di Trevi was one of the most beautiful among this cluster of lot of fountains..
In the night then we headed for Venice.. the floating city.. definitely very excited about it!!

Roman Empire

10th July 2008

Early morning, it was 5:30am when our train reached Roma Termini... the central station of Rome city. Took rest for some more time on the platform as were feeling very sleepery at that time..
Around 8am got up and moved in search of washroom to get fresh.. but it was rather surprising to see the cost they were charging to use the washroom.. 0.7 Euros.. :P
Germany mein bhi kahi yaar 0.25 Euros se jyada nahi dene pade they... yaha toh hadd hi thi.. :P

So instantly Rahul came up with a suggestion 'aisa karte hai, pehle khaa pee lete hai... sab enquiry n all kar lete hai.. phir we'll use the washroom.. ready bhi isi mein ho jaayenge.. :P '
I definitely noded yes to his suggestion..
Luckily we got a Supermarket , CONAD was the name, at station itself.. and prices were reasonable too... felt great to get food reasonable prices.. ate some apples n all with some cold drink.. :-)
After using the washroom.. we went for the great monument cum Amphitheatre 'Colosseum', The symbol of Roman Empire's cruelness is what I would say. As criminals were thrown alive infront of hungry Lion n other such wild animals.. and they were supposed to fight.
If somehow Criminal beats Lion he is supposed to be freed (which definitely to me is like they were allowing dangerous and wild criminals to get free)

Anways there was a huge rush at the entrance of Colosseo, long queues to be seen.. But luckily we had purchased 'Roma Card' which includes the ticket to Colosseo (Ticket of Colosseo is 11 Euros) so we didnt' have to stand in the long queue of purchasing ticket , rather just go towrads smaller queue leading towards entrance.

First impression on entering Colosseo was.. WOW its amazing to see that amphitheatre of which I have read in my literature some years back, and infact a movie Gladiator also is available which also has the theme of this Colosseo.. Just imagined myself to be a part of spectator who used to watch this Barbarious game and felt happy as if it was great entertainment source for them..
However I don't think I would have been able to surive such an Inhuman fight if I was present in that Elite Spectator's place.

After Colosseo, there is Palatine Hill just infront of the place.. where we saw Roman Forum symbol of great Roman Empire.. You can almost feel it through the old buildings how rich the Roman Empire must have been..
There are lots of fountains all over Roman , with great architecture (statues n all) on each fountain , where you can relax for a while and appreciate the great artistic work of past :-)

On the whole its really very nice place to be.. n at the end of the day we headed towards our youth hostel cum hotel for night stay... And we were really surprised that they send a bus to station every 3o minutes to pick up their Guests (Room holders)
So it was around 11am we boarded in their bus and went towards our hotel.
Receptionalist told us that there is free internt access, swimming pool is also free to us... and Bar is open almost for the whole night..
Amazed to see the services present , and more importantly the place was very clean and well manaaged.... All this in just 10 Euors... (for 1 night stay)
HATs off is all what I said when i left that place next morning.. :-)