Today, I was most surprised to find the Metro train completely full with people packed-in like a can of sardines. Every single car of the 8-wagon train was packed with people. I hope to god that this is a one-off thing. Would hate to see this happening everyday.
I love my 6 minute travel to the office on the Metro. It’s one of a kind of experience. Every day, I run down the escalator, walk from one end of the station to the very end of the other, observing people absorbed in various activities. Most, poring over tabloids like ‘The Metro’ or ‘Stockholm City’, few talking over the phone (who do they call at 7.55 in the morn?), a girl doing her make-up, an old woman talking to her dog resting at her feet, an old man checking the garbage can to see if he can get any disposable bottles (you get money if you re-cycle it). I mostly pick the 2nd wagon from the front and still enveloped by this smug, comfortable, early morning stiffness that comes out of the fact that you have woken early, showered and breakfasted while the body and mind are still snoozing, I settle myself in a seat (yes, there’s always a seat available at rush hour 8,20) and get ready for the experience. Inside the train, it’s like a wax museum. It is quiet, well lit, print ads displayed on walls like paintings in a room and all the dolls.. er…people posing…er.. sitting, engrossed in their newspapers. You won’t detect a single movement - not even a twitch on the pale, perfectly formed, clear complexioned people. The stillness of the atmosphere is usually broken only by the announcement of the next station and the sound of doors opening and closing.
I didn’t get today’s dose of this daily routine and hope everything is back to normal on Monday.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Doors wide open
Aha!! So the immigrants are coming. Sweden is looking to tap into the Indian talent pool (You too Brutus!!). Click on report for the latest update. The entire speech of the Minister for Migration is here. Am telling you, if civilization needs to progress, we Indians got to be there taking care of the IT side of it!!
Now, you know why the Indian diaspora is almost non-extistant here (The IRF 2005 estimated only about 10,000 Indians of the nearly 2 million residents in Stockholm). Now that you can immigrate even if you are not a political asylum seeker, here’s to more Indian faces!!
Hurrah! Atleast now, there is hope of getting some genuine Indian groceries and restaurants. It’s amazing, misleading and even annoying to note that every Indian restaurant and grocery store is run by a Bangladeshi or a Pakistani. Food, at these restaurants, is super terrible and the stock at the grocery stores… don’t even get me started. If you are looking for South Indian stuff like MTR, rasam powder, sambhar powder, forget it! The only MTR item that I found in a Bangladeshi store (called ‘The Indian Food Store’ was Bhindi masala and Rajmah masala. Damn!! It’s a south Indian brand.. where’s the variety? Anyways, this is the only store that comes close to selling some genuine Indian stuff. So, go for it!
Now, you know why the Indian diaspora is almost non-extistant here (The IRF 2005 estimated only about 10,000 Indians of the nearly 2 million residents in Stockholm). Now that you can immigrate even if you are not a political asylum seeker, here’s to more Indian faces!!
Hurrah! Atleast now, there is hope of getting some genuine Indian groceries and restaurants. It’s amazing, misleading and even annoying to note that every Indian restaurant and grocery store is run by a Bangladeshi or a Pakistani. Food, at these restaurants, is super terrible and the stock at the grocery stores… don’t even get me started. If you are looking for South Indian stuff like MTR, rasam powder, sambhar powder, forget it! The only MTR item that I found in a Bangladeshi store (called ‘The Indian Food Store’ was Bhindi masala and Rajmah masala. Damn!! It’s a south Indian brand.. where’s the variety? Anyways, this is the only store that comes close to selling some genuine Indian stuff. So, go for it!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Vilnius
Imagine starting Europe travel with the Baltics. You would think it’s easier to start from Germany or Italy where it is easier and cheaper to fly. But then think about it. The Baltics is perfect. I can start from the farthest in the European Union on the Eastern side, and slowly cover central and then southern part of Europe. By December, the Scandinavia will be done, thus taking care of Northern Europe (Ofcourse Iceland and Greenland has to wait until summer). Western Europe is somewhat covered with footprints left in the UK, Ireland and Belgium.
Now then, coming back to the Baltics travel. While the idea was to cover Vilnius in 2 days and Riga in 2 days, I ended up spending 3 in Vilnius and 1 in Riga. But the experience was amazing. I guess there’s a reason why clusters of countries are called something, eg, Baltics, Scandanavia etc. They seem to have something in common. The most distinct and common feature about these 2 cities is the transport system. They have trolley busses which caught my attention. These are busses which run on electricity with 2 poles sticking out of their top and connecting to overheard wires pretty much like the Metro except that these run on the road rather than rails. You buy tickets from enclosed glass kiosks located at every bus stop. It was amusing to have the counter assistant (all of them women and all of them unable to speak English!) open the windows of the little kiosk, give you the ticket and quickly close the glass window again, before you think of a question. Once inside, you punch the tickets, using an old punching machine inside the bus. The more modern ones have ofcourse a boring, regular, computerised system that punches time and date on the ticket. It must have been one hell of an exercise to get all the maze of electrical wiring in place and another exercise to keep the bus from veering off the designated line!!
It was All Souls day that Saturday and DP decided that it was a good day to visit her family in the countryside. She was going to place some flowers in her grandmother’s and brother’s grave on her way there. The drive to the house was simply beautiful. Imagine rows and rows of apple trees on either side of the road. Trees that had no leaves but were laden with apples – red and green apple trees placed alternatively. There were apples in the trees, on the ground, on the road, on top of roofs of houses under them… they were everywhere. Nobody wanted them. There were just too many of them. It was like being in Kerala where nobody could be bothered to pick up the coconuts or the mangoes falling off trees!
Before we got to the house, we decided to do a small detour to the Trakai castle. Quaint little houses appeared as we entered the small town. And then I saw it. Right in the middle of a lake, straight out of a fairytale book was this magnificient red castel with stone turrents. The Trakai castle will 2nd in the list of the most beautiful architecture I’ve seen. The first place ofcourse still belongs to the Taj Mahal. Trakai is surprisingly well maintained and has some interesting exhibitions. Most interesting of them was the postmark or seal exhibition. Apparently each royal person had his her own distinct signature seal and they also came in different handle designs. Some of them were intricately designed images and were beautiful. They also had on display, several thousand coins set as if spilling out of an old earthen pot.
Btw, you can rent the concert hall inside the castle for weddings for a price. What a perfect setting for a wedding! I could have stayed on forever but there was a lunch appointment that was waiting for us. I left the castle with a sigh but kept looking back at it until I got into the car and we drove out of its view.
At DP’s parent’s place, a sumptuous lunch table was laid out for us. It was sort of a joint family with the parents-in-law, daughter-in-law and kids living together. DP, her cousin and me were the visitors. We discussed India, travel and plenty of other things over a lot of home-made Lithuanian alcohol. After that, we went to DP’s son’s farmstead where we saw him feed his big horses. All would have ended well, if I wasn’t daft enough to forget my camera at DP’s parents. I just hope the postal service delivers it in one piece. Fingers crossed!
Now then, coming back to the Baltics travel. While the idea was to cover Vilnius in 2 days and Riga in 2 days, I ended up spending 3 in Vilnius and 1 in Riga. But the experience was amazing. I guess there’s a reason why clusters of countries are called something, eg, Baltics, Scandanavia etc. They seem to have something in common. The most distinct and common feature about these 2 cities is the transport system. They have trolley busses which caught my attention. These are busses which run on electricity with 2 poles sticking out of their top and connecting to overheard wires pretty much like the Metro except that these run on the road rather than rails. You buy tickets from enclosed glass kiosks located at every bus stop. It was amusing to have the counter assistant (all of them women and all of them unable to speak English!) open the windows of the little kiosk, give you the ticket and quickly close the glass window again, before you think of a question. Once inside, you punch the tickets, using an old punching machine inside the bus. The more modern ones have ofcourse a boring, regular, computerised system that punches time and date on the ticket. It must have been one hell of an exercise to get all the maze of electrical wiring in place and another exercise to keep the bus from veering off the designated line!!
It was All Souls day that Saturday and DP decided that it was a good day to visit her family in the countryside. She was going to place some flowers in her grandmother’s and brother’s grave on her way there. The drive to the house was simply beautiful. Imagine rows and rows of apple trees on either side of the road. Trees that had no leaves but were laden with apples – red and green apple trees placed alternatively. There were apples in the trees, on the ground, on the road, on top of roofs of houses under them… they were everywhere. Nobody wanted them. There were just too many of them. It was like being in Kerala where nobody could be bothered to pick up the coconuts or the mangoes falling off trees!
Before we got to the house, we decided to do a small detour to the Trakai castle. Quaint little houses appeared as we entered the small town. And then I saw it. Right in the middle of a lake, straight out of a fairytale book was this magnificient red castel with stone turrents. The Trakai castle will 2nd in the list of the most beautiful architecture I’ve seen. The first place ofcourse still belongs to the Taj Mahal. Trakai is surprisingly well maintained and has some interesting exhibitions. Most interesting of them was the postmark or seal exhibition. Apparently each royal person had his her own distinct signature seal and they also came in different handle designs. Some of them were intricately designed images and were beautiful. They also had on display, several thousand coins set as if spilling out of an old earthen pot.
Btw, you can rent the concert hall inside the castle for weddings for a price. What a perfect setting for a wedding! I could have stayed on forever but there was a lunch appointment that was waiting for us. I left the castle with a sigh but kept looking back at it until I got into the car and we drove out of its view.
At DP’s parent’s place, a sumptuous lunch table was laid out for us. It was sort of a joint family with the parents-in-law, daughter-in-law and kids living together. DP, her cousin and me were the visitors. We discussed India, travel and plenty of other things over a lot of home-made Lithuanian alcohol. After that, we went to DP’s son’s farmstead where we saw him feed his big horses. All would have ended well, if I wasn’t daft enough to forget my camera at DP’s parents. I just hope the postal service delivers it in one piece. Fingers crossed!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
How it all started
It all began in Cambridge one warm summer in 2006. I had made an official trip to Norwich, a quaint little town, about 2 hours train ride away from London. I was to stay in this town for five weeks. After being stood up by evasive Indian colleagues who would agree to travel and then decide that saving money was a better option, I decided that I would do this on my own. I had only 2 weeks left and couldn’t go back to India without checking out Cambridge which was so close by.
It was one of the smartest decisions I had made. Cambridge was beautiful. It taught me that travelling alone in Europe for a woman wasn’t such a bad option after all. The concept of Hop-on and Hop-off tour must have been the best idea in the history of city tours. I discovered then, that there are always other lone travellers who you can strike a conversation with and can keep your company. That is how I travelled Brugges, Ghent, Cambridge, Riga and Dublin. And the journey continues…
Ofcourse, now that I stay in Europe, things have become a lot simpler for me in terms of travel. I now have the luxury of choosing one country a month, 2 or even more if I want to, and travel at leisure. I do not envy people who travel on a 10-day trip to Europe and try to cover as many cities as possible. God has been kind. And like Paulo Coelho says ‘When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true’.
It was one of the smartest decisions I had made. Cambridge was beautiful. It taught me that travelling alone in Europe for a woman wasn’t such a bad option after all. The concept of Hop-on and Hop-off tour must have been the best idea in the history of city tours. I discovered then, that there are always other lone travellers who you can strike a conversation with and can keep your company. That is how I travelled Brugges, Ghent, Cambridge, Riga and Dublin. And the journey continues…
Ofcourse, now that I stay in Europe, things have become a lot simpler for me in terms of travel. I now have the luxury of choosing one country a month, 2 or even more if I want to, and travel at leisure. I do not envy people who travel on a 10-day trip to Europe and try to cover as many cities as possible. God has been kind. And like Paulo Coelho says ‘When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true’.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Traveller’s bug
Travelling alone whether by air or by sea, seems to be such a pain. My head always aches, (I say these days, coz these are the only times, that I’ve travelled alone – gosh, it feels like I’ve let a whole lifetime pass by without doing much.), my eyes water and I constantly feel sleepy without falling asleep. Be it a one hour travel via plane or a 3 hour comfortable travel by a ship, it’s the same shit.
November is the month of travel for me. All the weekends of this month is filled with travel. I’m loving it! The variety is such mind-boggling! First weekend by air to Riga, then by bus to Vilnius; 2nd weekend to the island of Gotland via the biggest ship that I’ve so far been on;. 3rd and 4th weekends are on-board the super popular ‘party boats’ - cruises to Helsinki and Tallinn with a large number of friends; 5th weekend via train to Linkoping just to attend the house-warming party of a friend. Perfect round-up for a rather quiet 5 months spent in Sweden , don’t you think.
December is even more interesting. So far, the plan is to travel to Rovianemi, Santa’s land for Christmas and New Year’s to Kiruna. Hopefully New Year shold be spent at the Ice Hotel. Fingers crossed. That leaves me to fill up the 1st and 2nd weekends of December. The rest are full! Yippee!
Anyways, coming back to the travel plans, the GC is the largest ship that I have travelled on so far. Too bad, I couldn’t wander on the decks as the ship starts well after dark at 20:00. Travel by sea hasn’t truly hit me as yet. There is no Titanic-like scenes wandering from deck to deck, peering over rails at dolphins etc. I guess I have to wait until my trip to Greenland to do that. Do I see a question mark in your eyes, ma dearies? Yes, Iceland and Greenland are on my agenda for summer vacation. Tellin’ ya. Am catching up on lost time!
November is the month of travel for me. All the weekends of this month is filled with travel. I’m loving it! The variety is such mind-boggling! First weekend by air to Riga, then by bus to Vilnius; 2nd weekend to the island of Gotland via the biggest ship that I’ve so far been on;. 3rd and 4th weekends are on-board the super popular ‘party boats’ - cruises to Helsinki and Tallinn with a large number of friends; 5th weekend via train to Linkoping just to attend the house-warming party of a friend. Perfect round-up for a rather quiet 5 months spent in Sweden , don’t you think.
December is even more interesting. So far, the plan is to travel to Rovianemi, Santa’s land for Christmas and New Year’s to Kiruna. Hopefully New Year shold be spent at the Ice Hotel. Fingers crossed. That leaves me to fill up the 1st and 2nd weekends of December. The rest are full! Yippee!
Anyways, coming back to the travel plans, the GC is the largest ship that I have travelled on so far. Too bad, I couldn’t wander on the decks as the ship starts well after dark at 20:00. Travel by sea hasn’t truly hit me as yet. There is no Titanic-like scenes wandering from deck to deck, peering over rails at dolphins etc. I guess I have to wait until my trip to Greenland to do that. Do I see a question mark in your eyes, ma dearies? Yes, Iceland and Greenland are on my agenda for summer vacation. Tellin’ ya. Am catching up on lost time!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Observations of a city
November 6 marks the 6th month anniversary of my arrival here. Feels like it has been a long time and that I have stayed here forever. More so, coz I’ve never left the city much and if I travelled, it has always been inland travel with the sole exception until a week ago, of Ireland.
The Jante Lagen has worked so well for this Beauty on Water. The country has gone about developing its cities and towns in a quiet, well planned, non-pompous way. They’ve been so quiet that it had completely skipped from potential immigrant eyes of the Chinese and Indian community. Now, ofcourse with companies like Accenture, TCS and IBM having opened offices in Stockholm & actively doing business consultation for big companies, there are more and more Indian faces that one can see. Otherwise the predominant foreign population consists of non/semi-skilled Iranians. (By the way, why do they still refer to themselves by the country’s old name – Persians?) Or was it the cold weather and the tax system that has kept foreigners away?
I cannot recall a time when Sweden had done something to call attention to itself. If it had not been for the various UN world listings that constantly ranks Sweden as one of the top 10 countries to live in or one of the best 3 countries with man-woman equality ratio, you would not even have heard that this country existed.
Sweden, I’m telling you, is the future world. This is the country that you see in movies about travel into the future. This, is the futuristic, civilised, posh society that the world will soon progress to. Clean, green, technologically advanced, well-connected with picture-perfect beautiful looking people. What is it about Stockholm that has beautiful looking people with naturally blonde hair, flawless skin, slender figure and intelligent faces? What makes them read so much more and be environmentally conscious a good deal more than the rest of the world?
Here are some facts in brief about Sweden that would soon be the norm of the world in a few decades:
- People patiently standing in queues and waiting their turn.
- People are not distracted by your crotch or your chest when talking to you.
- Your word is never doubted
- You can be a girl in your twenties, get lost in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night and still feel safe.
- You mark a table as taken, at a public place, by leaving a cell-phone on the table and going off to fetch the rest of your family and still expect to find the cell phone when you come back!
- People follow rules.
- People want to pay taxes
Oh my god! Something’s actually wrong with this country!
The Jante Lagen has worked so well for this Beauty on Water. The country has gone about developing its cities and towns in a quiet, well planned, non-pompous way. They’ve been so quiet that it had completely skipped from potential immigrant eyes of the Chinese and Indian community. Now, ofcourse with companies like Accenture, TCS and IBM having opened offices in Stockholm & actively doing business consultation for big companies, there are more and more Indian faces that one can see. Otherwise the predominant foreign population consists of non/semi-skilled Iranians. (By the way, why do they still refer to themselves by the country’s old name – Persians?) Or was it the cold weather and the tax system that has kept foreigners away?
I cannot recall a time when Sweden had done something to call attention to itself. If it had not been for the various UN world listings that constantly ranks Sweden as one of the top 10 countries to live in or one of the best 3 countries with man-woman equality ratio, you would not even have heard that this country existed.
Sweden, I’m telling you, is the future world. This is the country that you see in movies about travel into the future. This, is the futuristic, civilised, posh society that the world will soon progress to. Clean, green, technologically advanced, well-connected with picture-perfect beautiful looking people. What is it about Stockholm that has beautiful looking people with naturally blonde hair, flawless skin, slender figure and intelligent faces? What makes them read so much more and be environmentally conscious a good deal more than the rest of the world?
Here are some facts in brief about Sweden that would soon be the norm of the world in a few decades:
- People patiently standing in queues and waiting their turn.
- People are not distracted by your crotch or your chest when talking to you.
- Your word is never doubted
- You can be a girl in your twenties, get lost in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night and still feel safe.
- You mark a table as taken, at a public place, by leaving a cell-phone on the table and going off to fetch the rest of your family and still expect to find the cell phone when you come back!
- People follow rules.
- People want to pay taxes
Oh my god! Something’s actually wrong with this country!
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