Trip to Spain - Madrid

The time leading in to any trip is the most exciting part for me, even more than the actual trip. All that anticipation - trying to imagine how a place would look like, what would you do when you get there, reading about local joints, thinking about interacting with the locals, browsing the web and seeing more pictures, reading about other’s experiences - that to me, is fun. And I didn’t quite get to do any of that for Spain. I was working till the minute I boarded the plane. I was in a meeting while V was sitting in the cab, waiting downstairs, probably watching the clicking meter and the time running out on us. Our flight was leaving at 6:30 and here I was still working at 4:30. Luckily, there were no delays for the flight and us.

Our friends had sent us a detailed email of how to get from the airport to the hotel that we were staying at. So we just followed the instructions, word for word. We did have an interesting encounter with a pickpocket man on the subway; he was trying to feel V’s pockets. V confronted the guy and said he would call the authorities (like we knew how to call the authorities), that guy threw some F-bombs at us and got off at the next stop. After an eventful subway ride, we got off at our station (Callao or Gran Via on of the two, but I am pretty sure it was Callao) it was well past 2:30 in the afternoon. It was a very busy intersection and a 2-minute walk to the hotel. We saw our friend in the lobby, we caught up with him while we checked in. We got rooms on the same floor as our friends and we even got upgraded in to one of their pricier rooms!

Let me take a moment to sing praises of the hotel, Best Western Atlantico. It was amazing! Everything about the hotel was good. Wonderful staff, fantabulous rooms and bathrooms and a breathtakingly beautiful terrace. I can’t stop!

Anyway, we freshened up - a long shower plus a little nap for me – and we were ready to head out and get some grub. The street outside was bustling with activity. We didn’t have a specific agenda other than getting food. V was very keen on trying out “Tapas” (he had a mental image of that “perfect Tapa” that he will savor while in Spain). After walking around a bit, we saw a small joint that looked appealing. We started with some good smoked chorizo and Cruzcampo cerveza (beer). With that I officially kicked off my vacation!



After that decent snack, we wandered around the city for a bit. We walked to small vegetable shops, eager to try out our broken Spanish. Spending a considerable amount of time walking, our feet was beginning to hurt, so we hopped on a bus and rode on the bus until we saw a stop that was appealing. There was a huge plaza with plenty of restaurants and large amount of people enjoying drinks and food after their siesta. It definitely looked like the place we all had in mind – lot of people and out door seating. While we eagerly waited for our seats, we couldn’t help but notice that we were the only group of people looking “young”. Rest of the junta was definitely in the above 60 category. There was even an old grandmother more like a great grandmother, in her wheel chair and a beer in hand and coughing her lungs out! The food wasn’t all that great and the constant cough was no fun.







We saw a pastry shop and they had a decent display of goodies… and for some reason unknown to me, things start looking a little extra tasty when we are on vacation. The guys couldn’t just let the pastries go, so we all piled in to the shop and it turned out that the tart or the cake they got wasn’t as tasty as it looked. Anyway, we managed to get a recommendation for dinner from the pastry shop guy. We followed his directions, when we got there we found out that the place was closed! It was growing late and all of us were hungry again and the neighborhood we were at didn’t have too many options. So we hopped on to a bus homeward (or hotelward).

After walking around some more in on Gran Via and neighboring streets and not finding anything really up-to our expectations, we settled to have our dinner at a local chain restaurant called Café and Te.

Later, we chilled on the beautiful rooftop of our hotel for sometime and called it a night.
In just half a day I felt like I’ve been in Madrid for a week.

Wait for an exciting Road Trip ahead...

Our Trip to Spain (Part 1)

I've been meaning to write this down for a long time. Now that I have a blog, I have no more excuse... so here goes. Presenting the first part of Our Trip to Spain.

Prologue

Spring 2007, we went on a vacation to Barbados and we’ll remember that trip for our lifetime. After spending 10 fantastic days with our friends, it wasn’t a surprise that we were looking forward to another vacation with them! It was just a matter of time…

To go or not to go

Summer of 2008, our friends were heading to the other side of the Atlantic for a brief assignment. Their plan was to go on an extended trip around Europe upon completion of the assignment; they suggested that we join them for a week at some destination of our choice (read: Spain). We were thoroughly excited, but just excitement wouldn’t help us. V’s parents were planning to visit us around the same time! Not just that, I had burnt a major chunk of my vacation days with our India trip in spring. As tempting as the thought of another vacation sounded, it was becoming increasingly difficult to work out the logistics.

Later in July, V’s parents’ visa process lost traction and summer was soon to be over… it was decided that they’d postpone their trip to 2009. One hurdle down, one more to go. I took a look at my remaining vacation days and found out that I had four days remaining. Combined with a long weekend that would be plenty.

Like they say, when the time is right, things just fall in place. All of a sudden we found ourselves busy planning a trip to Spain.

The Nitty Gritty

We were moving on a tight schedule. There was no time for thorough research, thanks to all our busy work schedules. Trip Advisor was our savior for this time. Here's how we worked,

1. Identify the place we are visiting
2. Identify heart of the town
3. Visit trip advisor.
4. Look at points of interests
5. How close the hotel is to our points of interest
6. Check for pictures.
7. Send out links to everyone.
8. Get comments and approval
9. Book the hotel.

Actually, most of the time it was my friend who did everything and we all came in to picture at #7 and then did 3,4,5,6, and then 8 as a review exercise only for the links that she sent across.

I should not forget the miracle; Vicky and Payal agreed about the places we wanted to visit – First shot. Identical itineraries. No back and forth. Boom! Madrid – Cordoba – Seville – Granada.

In about two to three weeks time, we had gone from, “Oh we are going to Spain, but we don’t really have a plan” to “Oh we are going to Spain, here’s our itinerary” including hotel accommodations, plane tickets, everything. It was some accomplishment!

Soon after we got our visas too. Ready set go.


To be continued....

The Blame Game

UPDATE: 

From WSJ online: 

" Pakistani officials said that they have identified the gunmen who ambushed the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, and that two Pakistan-based militant groups were involved in the attack, in which eight people were killed. 

Police said they have detained more than two dozen men in raids in different parts of Punjab...." 

Well, well well.... whodunnit... now, what can I say? Ha! Ha! Ha! 

End Update

REALLY? Is that all they've got and why doesn't it surprise me? This time I am not even angry! Usually my blood boils, but now all I can do is laugh at this poor b*stard (excuse my language). He'll chew on his own words in a few days.

'"It is a declaration of open war on Pakistan by India," said the minister'. How I wish!

Arey wah! They must have superb intelligence, that within a few hours they were able to determine, who did it and the reason behind it as well. They've not even given a chance for the group to own up.

What a bunch of losers!

PS: Before I have to chew on my own words... I am questioning myself if one of our Hindu activists group could've really pulled this off? I am not sure. We'll see how it develops in the next few days.

My latest infatuation

I'm in 'love' with the Apple. Not the fruit, the computer. My history with Apple started when V gifted me an i-Pod 3 years ago, the cool kind (then) which could play videos and all. i-Pods have come a long way from then, but I still love mine. Last year, before our trip to India, a cousin of mine requested me to bring her an i-Phone, remember the craze? There was so much demand and no phones in the store. I never really understood what the whole fuss was about. It's a phone after all...the oh-my-god-you-want-to-spend-so-much-for-a-phone phone!

(At this point, if you are wondering why I didn't just order it online?
Answer: You don't know me very well. Yeah, there's never enough time. I was in the store 2 days before my trip)

Anyway, that's besides the point. So, it was for the i-Phone that I stepped in to the Apple Store for the first time and that's when I saw it... the i-Mac. My heart skipped a beat, ofcourse that's an exaggeration, but I still like to think of my reaction that way. It was the sleekest looking thing I've ever seen! That's when I realised that I had met my next computer. I usually don't have strong desires, especially not for electronic goods... but this one was different, I knew I had to have it. It wasn't really difficult to convince V about the i-Mac, however, it wasn't as easy as I expected it to be. I had to present a solid case for choosing a desktop over a laptop. Finally, V gave in... let's say he had no other choice! All I had to do next was wait, wait for our old laptop to die. It was a long hard wait... and I think its fair to say that I played somewhat of a crucial role in the death of our old computer.

Then it happened, two weeks ago, we brought my cool gadget home! Our first few 'dates' have gone pretty well. I've realised that I have to make some adjustments, like I miss having MS Office... I know I can't have it all. With some patience and a CD with Office Products for Mac, I think we'll get there. For now, we are getting to know each other and I have a feeling that we are headed in the right direction and that we are going to have a long lasting relationship.

Who knew...

... that not taking pains to groom yourself can get you a record?

I say its a book of Weird Records or may be even eeewwwww Records!

¡Hola! ¿Cómo está ustedes?

YES! I am proud to announce that V & I are “estudiantes de español”. We’ve been trying to learn Spanish for a while now, mainly because it makes 'comunicacion' a lot easier with a lot of people around this area. Almost all the people who cook and serve food in both our office cafeterias are from Latin America. Agreed most of them speak and understand decent enough English, but there are some folks who… let’s say struggle with the language. Sometimes the whole conversation would just be vigorous head nods and lots of Yes and No.

Things started to change after our trip to Spain; we picked up some basic sentences from our handbook. Even with his broken Spanish V manages to get preferential treatment at his canteen (translation: more food). See, there’s a benefit right there. As for me, I wanted to learn Spanish for the love of learning a new language * cough *.

So we tried borrowing books from the library, checked some online resources, and even considered buying the famous Rosetta Stone – Nothing worked! Then one day we got a booklet from our county about their Adult Education Program. They had a pretty impressive (and some times eyebrow raising) line up of classes: Various ethnic cuisines * cool *, lessons in finance * ugh *, parenting * ignore *, pet training * ignore *, applying make up * laugh out loud *, international languages * YESSSSSSS *

Need I say more?

Our classes are on Wednesdays. It started mid-Jan and goes on till April. Honestly, after four weeks, our over all progress has been pretty slow, but it’s definitely better than not knowing anything. We are certainly enjoying the classes, our teacher is an elderly gentleman and he is really a lot of fun! These days we look forward to Wednesday evenings! And for me personally it comes with added benefits such as bunking gym and not having to think of what’s for dinner * smiles happily *

Now what?

When I started this blog, I was all excited about the inaugural events. Now that’s done with, I am not sure how I should proceed.

Well, there are lots of people maintaining blogs and I feel that all of them have some reason to keep a log. The ones that I read regularly, mostly fall under some of these categories:

1. People that love to cook and share their recipes (also post amazing pictures of the delicious end product)

2. Some love to travel and write about that and put up pictures too, so people like me can daydream about a vacation to exotic locations.

3. Others have their pregnancy stories, which later turn in to baby progress blogs.

4. Then some who I will call – writers - those that have a way with words… they can make anything as mundane as brushing their teeth sound really interesting.

Where do I belong? Let me see…

Category 4 – Ruled out. Who am I kidding, there’s no way I belong here!

Category 3 - May be I can write about all the times I freaked out when I thought I was pregnant! mmmYah, I don’t think so! Ruled out.

Category 2 – Barely belong. I don’t have too many travel adventures under my hat, but I definitely can write about the few places that I’ve visited in my adult life. Okay, so that’s about 6 to 7 posts.

Category 1 – I don’t think so! I cook, just so I can eat and survive. And, I can never write about it because I have no clear measurements… and honestly, I never use the same recipe twice, even if the dish is same I end up changing something or the other. However, if any one wants to use me as a guinea pig for tasting their treats, I can eat and write about that!

So what should I write about? Worst case, I can come up with a list of things that I can’t write about and write about it… that might work!

Now, I am going to try to take the rust of my brains and hope to come up with some interesting things to write about.