What I've been up to...

I can’t believe I have been such a slacker! Here are some highlights from the past two months:

- April started with a very good friend of mine from Hyderabad visiting. The two and half years that I spent in Hyderabad are so memorable because of friends like D and others who were my neighbors there. When in Hyderabad, we had spent hours together discussing politics, work out routine, healthy lifestyles, psychology and other various random topics. I bid adieu to Hyderabad in 2003 and hadn’t seen D since. Now, she is staying in Canada and training to be a pilot (she was always the cool one). So it was amazing to have her stay with us for a week and catch up with her. It was like I just saw her yesterday and we picked up our conversation where we had left it.

- We started watching Lost (better late than never) when D was with us and we are officially hooked. We are at the second DVD of Season 2 right now.

- Got to volunteer with an organization called One Brick. The event was bowling with kids and young adults with disabilities. I can’t tell you how inspiring each and every participant was. Their energy and their attitude towards life gave me a new perspective on things. Even today when I find myself complaining about some small thing in my life, I think back to that day and feel like I should be thanking the almighty for having blessed me with everything I have. Priyanka has written a wonderful piece on this event too.

- The month of April concluded with a couple of my very close friends visiting us. A & V had brought their parents along and we got to eat some yummilicious food that both mommies made. I’ve known A & V from college (under grad) days! It was so nice to have the fried rice and paneer curry that V’s mom used to make (that transported me right back to V’s house where we spent most of our lunch hours). And A’s mom’s awesomely awesome aloo parathas and dal and pretty much all what she cooked over that weekend was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. A fantastic weekend spent staying up late playing Uno, chatting and laughing hysterically, clubbed in with a bit of sight seeing around Washington, DC. We had such a blast with all of them!

- May was pretty much week after painful week at work. I had done nothing but work in May. However, Memorial Day brought some respite as V&I went on a trip all the way down to Hilton Head, South Carolina. A friend of ours had a time-share there and they were planning to use it for a week. They were kind enough to extend an invitation to us and we gladly took them up on that. Our friends were not reaching HH until late Saturday evening. We drove down on Friday, camped that night at Florence, SC and the next morning we drove down to Savannah, GA (which is quite close to HH). Spent the entire Saturday just walking around the Historic District and taking in festivities by the river front before heading to HH well past 9:30 that night. We spent the next couple of days golfing (the guys got to golf, while the girls got to drive around the course in the cute carts) and fishing (the guys got some sharks, while we girls hung out on the deck staying safely away from all the action).

- Past two weeks I’ve been have 3-day workweek. What a blessing! The first was after memorial day, I had taken Tuesday off, so that was a short one. This week, I had been to NYC for work on Monday & Tuesday… so there you go! I got to meet the above-mentioned friend of mine, V while I was there. I am going to have a tough time adjusting to the five days of work next week. :)

- We are off to Richmond this weekend, as the cricket season has started. Can’t wait to see our cricket buddies :)

Trip to Spain - Granada & Barcelona

I'm done with my Spain posts!!!! *whew* I never thought this would end!!!!
-------------------------------------
The next morning, we woke up and it hit us that V & I were on our own now. It’s always a sad feeling when your friends leave, even if you are middle of Spain on a vacation. Over coffee and croissant that morning V & I relived all the fun we had with Payal and Kapil… and then realized that we still have a few more days in Spain to look forward to and we don't have to be all mopey. However, we had a nasty money situation to take care of. Apparently there was a block placed on V’s Capital One Debit Card in Spain. Our sponsor K left us with some “pocket money” that was soon depleting. We really were desperate for getting money. Our call to Capital One gave us no hope. They said we’d have to wait another day before the block is lifted. I was getting worried then, but later as I started playing out worst case scenarios in my mind, it didn’t seem that bad. We’d become gypsies in Spain and travel the country… do odd jobs... may be we could even hop on a boat to Morocco if we get bored! Oh well, everything worked out fine and by 3 that evening we had cash!

Equipped with cash, we set out to explore Granada. We walked the streets in to local markets selling interesting artifacts. It came as no surprise to see most of these “interesting” artifacts were coming from India. I felt like I was walking through General Bazaar in Secunderabad. Some where close to dusk we went up to San Nicholas Square and watched the Alhambra lit up at night. It was really beautiful. We concluded the night by going for what was supposed to be a relaxing Arab bath… and Vicky had a massage included. The Arab bath was definitely an interesting experience… It’s a good “done that” activity and I don’t think I would want to do that again.

Here are some pictures from the land of gypsies...

Alhambra, Beer of Granada :-)

Plaza Nueva

Check out the wall hanging - Ganpati - in this guy's shop. It's not for sale, I believe the picture brought him good luck! And yes, he is Muslim.

Vicky inside a Teteria - Small tea shops

I lifted this off the net, as our camera didnt do justice. This comes close to how the Alhambra looked at night from San Nicholas Square

Early next morning we were on board our flight to Barcelona. Only after we reached the airport did we realize that we were actually in the Girona airport. It was a 100 km ride to Barcelona. We finally reached our hostel late that afternoon. We stayed at Plaza Catalunya, right at the starting point of Las Ramblas. It was LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!!!! ;)

With no specific plan of action, we walked around aimlessly, actually mostly on the Ramblas and streets flanking the Ramblas. Barcelona is a big city and we did what we do in big cities, we hopped on to a local bus. We met a very sweet and patient gentleman who was kind enough to give us a guided tour. We got off at the La Sagradia Familia bus stop. I wasn’t keen on taking a tour inside then, but in hindsight I regretted my decision of not having seen any of the Gaudi buildings from inside. On our way back we stopped at Passeig De Gracia, which housed some more of Gaudi’s buildings. Finally V’s search for good tapas ended at a restaurant called Tapa Tapa. After couple of good beers and food I was ready to hit the sack.

Columbus on Las Ramblas

Casa Batllo

Casa Mila

The man who volunteered to be our very patient guide! Mr. Rimbau

Incomplete work of Gaudi - La Sagrada Familia

Happy man with his tapas...

and the bloody Sardines.

Next morning, we enjoyed a fantastic café con leche with chocolate filled croissants… Park Guell was our priority for that day. Once again it was really a hot day and we had a lot to walk quite a bit inside the park…. Later that evening, V wanted to check a neighborhood restaurant mentioned in Rick Steve’s book. Only when I entered I realized how many people read Rick Steves, there were hardly any locals and the place was extremely crowded and it was really a rip off. I know I can't make a judgement based on one data point, but for now I am a little wary of his suggestions.

What’s a visit to Barcelona without a visit to one of the topless beaches? So we set out early next morning to experience just that… When we reached there it was teeming with people! Even though we brought our bathing suits, I wasn’t very keen on changing and getting on the sand. Somehow the crowds and the lack of an inch of space on the sand turned me off. I was happy instead to stay fully clothed and get myself a good beer and some munchies and enjoy the fantastic breeze. As I sat there looking at the clear blue sea… it hit me that my vacation was soon coming to an end. We had a wonderful time, enjoying a bit of Madrid, the old town of Toledo, the Moorish influenced culture of Cordoba, the chilled out Seville, the grandeur of Alhambra and finally the vibrancy of Barcelona! It was time for me to say Adios Espana!

Now the last set of pictures from Park Guell! Sorry, none from the topless beaches ;-)

Enjoying the posture friendly ergonomic seating!

The only way I can get to touch a lizard.

Trip to Spain - Granada

I am back after a hiatus. This post has been collecting dust in my drafts folder for quite sometime now.... So here we go, the last two posts from Spain. After that I can get on with my life :-)

--


When we booked our accommodations we had left an “open night”, meaning we’ll stay at some random place we find that night. Our plan was to drive down from Seville along the coast and stay in some of the smaller towns like Motril or Malaga,…

We were super excited as we started getting glimpses of the Mediterranean Sea. At the first possible opportunity, we pulled off the road and enjoyed the beautiful breeze. I had always pictured the Mediterranean Sea to have soft white sand and turquoise water… so it was sort of a disappointment when we stepped out at Motril to find a pebbly dark sand beach…nevertheless, it was Mediterranean and that made happy!

We spent about couple of hours driving from one small town to another in search of a hotel to stay that night. Finally we settled in for a pretty decent hotel in Torrox. In all the concept of “open night” was fun, although I have to admit that searching for the hotel got a little frustrating at times.

The Mediterranean

The next morning, we were off to Granada to see the Alhambra. We were not able to secure prior reservations for the Alhambra tour so we were on a rush to get to Granada and get the tickets. Luckily, everything worked out fine and we were able to get tickets for the same day at the counter. We had about an hour before our tour began… so we walked around the gardens. It was a really hot day and I couldn’t enjoy much as I was getting worn out. Granada and for that matter most of Spain has dry barren land… and that combined with the heat was not at all impressive. I am sure if I had toured the gardens late evening or at night and looked down on the city of Granada from the fort it would’ve been a beautiful sight… 2 p.m on a hot day is not the right time!

After the tour we had to drive around quite a bit to locate our hotel; the hotel was in a place called Plaza Nueva and all the roads there were blocked to regular traffic. We decided to drop our rental car and cab it to the hotel. Granada was the last stop in Spain for P & K, our combined vacation was soon coming to an end. One good thing about Granada was the free tapas you get with the drinks and we didn’t want to waste a minute. We had some bocadillos, grilled meat and we even tried the famous Jamon Iberico! For dinner that night, we were back to craving “real food”… as soon as we spotted an Indian restaurant, there was no looking back. After our dinner we said our good byes and bid adieu to P&K as they had an early flight the next morning.

The Gardens of Alhambra

View from the Bell Tower

The famous R rated "Sebbbiiyyaaaaa" Action

Vicky can't wait to bite in to the gross looking Jamon Iberico!

Spring is in the air

I am not always good about taking my camera for the right things at the right time. Yesterday happened to be one rare occasion. After nearly three years of living in this area, we finally managed to see the Cherry Blossoms in peak bloom! Last year we went two days too late...

Spring is hands down my favorite season. With winter being a thing of the past, with the days getting longer and with the colors popping back in to everything.... Life feels normal again.

Trip to Spain - Seville

Situated on the bank of River Guadalquivir, this energetic city is described as the artistic, cultural and financial capital of southern Spain. Seville (pronounced: Sevveeyya) is also the capital of Andalusia. Compared to Toledo and Cordoba, Seville definitely had a big city feel to it. Not in a bad way though.

We stayed in the heart of Barrio Santa Cruz – the historical downtown. The only downside to this location is that our hotel didn’t have parking, and even if it had, our car didn’t fit through the streets! So we parked at the nearest possible street parking and walked to our hotel. Not wanting to waste time, we dumped our luggage and set out in search of beer. Our timing was just perfect; the shops and restaurants were opening after siesta. We settled down for a beer in an open cobble stoned plaza over looking a fountain. The one thing that stood out was that no one was in a hurry to get anywhere… it was all leisurely. You walk up to a restaurant, choose a table that’s empty, you get what you want and then you can literally sit there for hours… and leave when you want. No one comes by to ask you for the thousandth time “how’s everything here?”

We walked through the meandering streets stopping at restaurants to taste some classic tapa dishes like Spinach and Chickpeas, grilled meats and the like. While we are on the topic of Tapas, let me tell you this, one cannot…. at least we found out that the four of us couldn’t survive on just tapas. It was just not enough food (period). We had seen some Chinese restaurants while ambled around the town… and we all were thinking about the same thing, but K was the only one with the courage to suggest “guys, we should have some good rice and chicken for dinner”. At first we all laughed and turned down the idea of eating Chinese while in Spain… but two hours and several miles of walking later, we were all cramming in to a Chinese restaurant. Rice has never been that tasty before!

On our way back to the hotel later that night, we stumbled in to a bar with live music and lot of noise, it looked like one of these old neighborhood joints… but the doors were sort of ajar… as we entered we realized that we were walking in to a private party. We were ready to apologize and set out when everyone there urged us to say… Well, if they insisted! It was the most fun thing we did… We hardly understood a word most of them said…. Especially this young chap who was giving us company most of the time… and in every sentence of his he would punctuate it with SEBBBIIIYYAAAAAA with hand movement to accompany that, which we found out was an R rated action!! From then, Vicky and Kapil got the Sebiya bug. Rest of the trip they kept saying SEBBIYAAAA and break out laughing. That night I realized that you really don’t need to know or understand a language to really have a good time! We watched some Sevillano dance, which until 3 weeks ago I thought was Flamenco. In all, I had a wonderful day. Seville was growing on me. There was a sense of being at ease when I was there… doesn’t mean that I didn’t like any of the other places that we visited, but I really didn’t feel like a tourist in Seville and I think that’s a really good feeling to have.

The next morning, we had some more time to kill until our tour of the Cathedral. So we took a horse carriage ride through the town.
After seeing the Cathedral and climbing the spiral ramp all the way to the bell tower… it was time for us to leave. I would love to go back to Seville and spend more time, not for the regular touristy things, but just to hang out and relax.

Now, here are some pictures courtesy: K

This big "bull" board was a common thing on the roads of South of Spain.

In front of our hotel

Tiny parks and Narrow Streets

People gathering at resaturants after their siestas

View from the other side of the river

Seville Cathedral

Plaza Espana

He wont have an issue finding a job, would he?