Exploring Europe: Part 1: Roma

Europe is for a reason a travellers paradise..A little bit of history on why we chose this continent and a small preface to Exploring Europe series..

When I was 8, I saw a movie where the heroine begs her father to allow her to see Europe before her marriage..that scene somehow dint get erased from my cerebrum even when I turned 24..Next reason being, Europe is full of history..something we studied from Class 1 to 10..Renaissance, French revolution, World war, paintings, sculptures, great structures etcetra etcetra..Next reason, we are single and earning and we will never ever have a chance like this to roam the world on our own again and we had to do it..A childhood dream successfully fulfilled..

My co-traveller: My friend from past 15 years..yet another techie in town..the same friend with whom I went to Big bazar, TV9 and Kannada movie director asking for job..those were our 3 most embarassing days i guess..The two of us have been planning this trip for more than 6 months..This trip was all we had in our life since then..

Destination 1: Roma

Eat:
Sadly both of us are vegetarians..Pizza, Pasta, Salad, Gelato, Pastry was all we could find..Trust me Pizza here tastes way better than its land of origin..Enter into any Departmental store and buy food to suffice your breakfast and snacks atleast..you can catch up on local speciality for lunch/dinner..A few packs of MTR bisibelebath, kharabath, pongal will come handy when you miss Indian food..

Sleep:
Book hostels online through hostelbookers.com. Go through the reviews and trust those reviews..Hostels usually provide you with free wifi, common computer, microwave, refridgerator..Trust me they are way better than any hotels which can only rip you off and charge extra for every little facility they provide..Another advantage of hostel is that you can meet people from different countries and share travelling stories as most of them will be holiday to explore..

See:
Rome was not built in a day and hence it can definitely not be seen in a day..Keep atleast 2 days to see Rome alone..Almost all tourist places charge entry fee..Colloseum, Palentine hill, Roman forum are all some tourist places which you have to visit for unknown reasons.., you must walk the city center from Fountain de Trevi to Piazza Navona..so Italian..Remember the true beauty of any place lies with..Markets in every city is not to be missed at all..Vatican should be another attraction in your list..

Travelling Around:
Most of them know English well and are helpful to guide tourist..Metro charges 1E for 1 way travel or you can take a day pass..Volvo buses/trams are better off it goes inside the city giving you a good view..

Buy:
Remember we are budget traveller and cannot afford any labels..Things that we could buy were soveniers, roadside dress, some woodden artifacts, chappals...There are some Italian artists sitting roadside who can make excellent paintings for 10E...If you are getting any portrait done, be sure about your artist..I got one of mine done and the portrait dint look anything like me..There are fake LV, Prada on roads..They are all made up of only 1 type of cloth and easily identifiable as fake..There is nothing expensive and worthy to buy especially if you convert..You can find the same here for much lesser price..

Safety:
Pickpocket capital of the world is an overrated title to this plain city..Its very much like India..you just have to be careful with your belongings..The two of us were so scared that we had stiched velcro pockets inside our pants which could hold passport and cash..It was useful but you need not take such extreme steps to stay safe..Lot of Bangladeshis with whom you can converse in Hindi..they are usually small store keepers..Dont give a damn to any teasers..

Some pictures from my travel..

Fountain de Trevi



Vatican





Colloseo






PS: Travelling on your own gives you an amazing feeling of independence, confidence and pride..I strongly recomment it for anybody who can afford..For any queries regarding Roma travel, drop me a mail @ sheelajv@gmail.com. I wish I had someone to tell me before we embarked..

Watch out for our next destination Amsterdam,Germany,Paris,Brussels

Random thoughts

I saw Raaj-The Showman a week back..First a quick review- extremely overhyped terrible movie...Nisha Kothari badly needs a portion from some yogic guru which can make her do something like acting..Power star Puneets close ups are shocking as usual..May be Prem deleted the scene during editing which said Puneet was a superhero..gets boring in between due to excessive fights..But I was having a laugh riot throughout the movie and I dint even walk out of the movie..More because I spent just 20Rs for the movie..Now if you are thinking where on earth will I pay this much for a movie..Let me tell you there still is a place on this planet..Its called "Sri Talkies"...Not in Bangalore but..Its in a town called Sagara..

The theatre has special facilities for women like direct entry to ticket counter without standing in queue probably due to the overwhelming response by women folk..No seat numbers..Rule is to hop on the seat top..Viewers can enjoy the fan which is in almost working condition..Unbroken chairs..Rats and mouses playing hide and seek in the huge unlit playground...My cousin and I were the lucky ones who not just watched the movie but also got out of the theatre uninjured successfully..All the fun and adventure for just Rs20 :)

Sagara is a small town about 380kms from Bangalore which happens to be my native..I have spent my entire vacations here right from my childhood..Its like my second home..A lot of places to see nearby, very famous being Jog falls..Sigandur, Honnemaradu, Holebagilu, Ikkeri, Keladi,varadalli are few others..It falls in the Western Ghats in Malnad region which is more known for the heavy rainfall..Though rainy season is the best time to visit Jog Falls, its tough to navigate places in this season..The roads get clogged due to rains and the rains here never stop..It sometimes rains for 3-4 days continuously nonstop..But thats the beauty here..Family bonding is at its peak here..I have had some of the fondest memories here :D

Delhi Chennai Trip

 

Ten days of sheer fun and bonding..From shopping in Sarojini, Lajpat and tachy chandni chowk at 41 degress to relaxing beachside with novel in hand at Taj Fishermen's Cove..Late night gossip with movie, exotic places, out of the world food, excessive shopping..The difference after arrival is an extra kilos only in me and extra baggage fare..

Wayanad

Its a perfect weekend getaway from bangalore..just 250kms away...can drive well within 6hrs..wayanad is a district in northern kerala..all the sight seeing places are around 30kms from the city..there are around 6-7 tourist spots..but we could cover just 5..

The bus arrived 1hr late due to the diesel strike and we finally left bangalore at 9pm in a so called 'executive rajahamsa' bus which took its own time, stopped anywhere and everywhere..and we 4 girsls couldnt ask for better seats than the last row for our so called 1day old planned trip...At 3am we reached our resort and surprisingly it was great...We took a short nap and started our day tour..Our first destination was Kuruwa island,a wonderful place where we spent a good 4hour trek..we had an extremely annoying and funny 'honeymoon couple' accompanying us...had yummy pucca malayali lunch and went to Banasura dam where we took a motor boat ride and captured great pictures..came back tired,sat by the poolside,played some silly games and soon fell asleep...

Got ready early morning, hogged on free buffet breakfast and left to Suchipara waterfalls...may be not the season and the falls looked like a culmination of water falling from 5-6 taps..but we enjoyed the journey to falls via harrison tea estate..Next was Edkkal caves which has rocks and some inscriptions on some rocks..a bit of trek to be done to reach there..since there was no guide anywhere,we had to assume our own history of the carvings..Then had a decent meal and left to huge 700sq ft Muthanga wildlife sanctury...it was a great dissappoint considering the amount we paid for the jeep ride inside...we couldnt see a single animal apart from a few deers...But you cant expect wild animals to come out and say hi to us in their natural habitat...then back to our rooms and packed our bags...The trip came to an end so soon...We did miss 2 more tourist destinations a lake and another falls..Nevermind..My dad always says that if you dont leave some places you will never have interest to visit the same place again...