Roland Garros

2017

Our maiden Grand Slam experience could possibly not have been better than Roland Garros. 

Starting off with some tips to ensure a better experience than what we went through:

1. Track and book tickets in wave 1 itself. Wave 2 gets expensive and limited on Round 4 and upward availability
2. Round 4 matches that fall on first Sunday of the 2 week tournament offer the best price/value/holiday tickets for the big star matches 
3. Choose Philip Chartier over Suzanne Lenglen court. Higher probability of big star matches here 
4. Draft beer is the only alcohol available at the Bar Lounge and makes the best place to dine and refresh during the day here 
5. Be prepared for rain. Always a probability of this happening during the match days 

Now coming to the day spent there. The seats were honestly perfect. A little lower and closer to the grounds may have been better, but these were nearly exactly the view you get on the TV and made it awesome. 

One peculiar thing about the spectators here are the slogans they have. One is a form of "alle" and the other a type of trumpet noise. Both these keep popping up in different parts of the court and keep the mood festive all through. 

While a lot of people visit the store here to purchase souvenirs in spite of their hefty cost, that translates even food and everything you purchase at the grounds, we decided not to as our souvenir was the photo we managed to take with Leander Paes. If it wasn't for Geet, that may have never happened. She even met Sania later on. She was just saying she wished she saw Sania too, and there pops Sania in front of her. Some luck she's got. And I ended up spilling whipped all over my shorts and shoes while entering the stadium. Seemed like all the luck has just completed tilted to her side. 

Luck favoured during the match as well, where the rains literally waited for the Wawrinka match to conclude and then came pouring down. So we got to see the entire match before leaving, and it was really entertaining because the opponent was Fabio Fegnini who looked more like a Kung Fu fighter with dragon painting on the back of his shirt and skull logo on bandana and shirt front. 

He was just pure talent and attitude and nearly nabbed the first set. But just couldn't keep it up and lost quite simply in three sets to Wawrinka. 

Overall the entire experience was really phenomenal. Just like Leander said when we met him, "enjoy the French".

2018

Used all our previous learnings to book semi final tickets in advance for this year. Roland Garros is also the one Tennis Open where you buy day tickets and not match tickets, and therefore you get to see both men's semi final matches with the same ticket on the same day. 

We had Thiem to catch in the first match and Del Potro Nadal in the second. 

The first match we had seats in the very last row of the stadium, and the second one would have been there as well if not for some of Geet's magic. 

Magnum was sponsoring the event for the first time, and we used their lounge, which itself was a great experience, but here Geet got talking to the head of sales in France and he actually managed to find 2 seats for us at the box. 

Next thing we know, we are one row from the front and got to watch Nadal in all his raw power bang in front of us. 

Making this the best ever live sport for me of all time. 

Lapping up Nordics

After Stockholm, Sweden last September and Tromso, Norway in February, we lapped up the remaining Nordic countries with Helsinki and Lapland in Finland, and Copenhagen in Denmark.

Helsinki

Resembled Tallin and St Petersburg a lot more than Stockholm, which I sort of expected in my head since Helsinki and Stockholm are part of Nordics.

But then again, makes complete sense given the geographical proximity of the Baltic City and Russia to Helsinki. 

The trams of Helsinki even give you a communist feeling with the no nonsense structure that seemed unchanged for decades.

There's the usual City square and cathedrals and waterfronts in Helsinki like any other part of Europe that could easily be covered in an evenings walk, which is exactly what we did on the one evening of April 17 we spent here. 

Vlog

Restaurant:

Muru

Rovianemi

This is now Lapland, quite different from Helsinki given its rural-rustic surroundings.

April however, is peak off-season given the following:

1. Nightfall is not more than 2 hours, leaving very little pitch black for the Aurora viewing. There was just one agency still operating this tour and we made it just 2 days before they closed down as well. Not like it made any difference, as there was simply no activity on the day, irrespective of how much Anthony from 'Lapland Welcome' tried to keep us engaged for the night. 

2. The day time activities of Lapland haven't begun in April yet. More importantly, these are activities like Moose Safari that aren't all that fun. 

3. The best activities to do here are snowmobile rides, Arctic ice breaker, or the husky and reindeer safari, and all of them happen in the winter season only 

4. The only single benefit I could find in visiting Lapland in April was catching Santa at Santa Village so 'vela' that he even recorded a message for Soha! 

Santa Video

It's the best therefore, to visit Lapland in Winters, better still around Christmas itself to soak in the best of Santa, the Reindeer's, the Elves, all the snow and ice, and maybe even a glimpse of the Aurora. 

The best activity we managed to do here though was ice fishing, and this turned out third time unlucky since we managed to catch the Piranhas in Amazon and Trouts in New Zealand. The pikes and perches of Rovianemi gave us a miss though.

We were definitely doing something wrong, since the locals besides us were catching really big fish by the dozen. Matt from 'Lapland Welcome' was as new as us to ice fishing, and therefore his company, some hot chocolate, and loads of photos and videos were all we managed on those 3 hours on ice. 

Vlog

Restaurants:

Xiang Long

Arctic Restaurant

Nili

Copenhagen

Little did I expect Copenhagen to be a twin city to Amsterdam, but it was exactly that. 

It’s filled with strip clubs, cyclists, boat canal tours, beer tours (just that Carlsberg replaces Heineken), raw herring, bright coloured buildings, and icy wind for eternal company. 

There are some subtle differences though:

1. The cyclists are polite. They aren't honking, cussing or even running over you like in Amsterdam

2. The strip clubs are not laced with windows (that remains unique to the red light district of Amsterdam), but what you find here are loads of nefarious activity in suspicious streets

3. There's Tivoli, the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken (also in Denmark), bang in the centre of the city making it a very easy activity to cover during your time here

4. Although the herring is common to both, the food, with the open sandwiches of Copenhagen, is at least healthier than the fried bitterballens of Amsterdam

Copenhagen is therefore a great place for stag-dos, very much like Amsterdam, and apart from the scenic Nyhavn, there was little else Geet enjoyed here.

What we took away from it was primarily catching up with Naan and A, and watching the first 2 episodes of GOTs season finale.

Vlog

Restaurants:

Fars Deng

Nytorv

Lele

Havfruen

South Indian

Breaching the Arctic Circle with Tromso

The trip has been summarized quite well in this vlog

But here is a quick snapshot of the top tips:

1)     Gear Up

a.      This one can never be overstated enough. When it comes to visiting places in colder climes, you have to pack a very different suitcase, and it when it comes to visiting a place in the arctic circle, the suitcase only gets a whole lot more serious

b.      Definitely pack in thermal inners and a ski jacket and woolen cap, but don’t overlook some of these:

                                                    i.     Shoes:

1.      You tend to take these for granted, and the regular shoes will just keep slipping on the ice

2.      Carrying snow trekking shoes are a must here as sometimes slipping on the ice can be really dangerous

                                                   ii.     Muffler:

1.      Again not something you think of packing naturally, but this seriously helps hold out the cold from your face

2)     Activities to be pre-booked

a.      While many of the activities can be booked upon getting there, the Husky sled ride is one that requires pre-booking as it is in very high demand and always sold out weeks before the visit

b.      The Northern lights tour is another activity that makes sense to pre-book, but usually there are many tour operators that can help with this from the Tourist center, and this is even recommended as the Aurora sightings are confirmed closer to time and not really predictable days in advance

3)     Eat and Drink

a.      Mack beer is very famous here, and it is really delicious and available all over the place. The most famous place to get this is the Mack Brewery, known as the Northernmost Brewery in the world

b.      Fish is the just delicious everywhere

                                                    i.     Try the Fish au gratin at Emma'sDrommekjokken

                                                   ii.     Try the Cod tongues (only available for 2-3 months in a year) at Hildr Gastro Bar

                                                  iii.     Try the Fish soup at Fiskekompaniet

Christmas in Prague

Prague is most commonly known as a destination party city, but here are some lesser known facts about this place:

1. Christmas markets are really popular here. In fact, I found the food and mulled wine here better than Strasbourg 
2. The Prague castle built in the 9th century and hosts the Czech President currently is actually the 2nd biggest gothic castle in the world, after the one in Achen Germany
3. There is an actually replica of the Eiffel tower in Prague, gifted by the French and portrays the exact dimensions of the original
4. Karlovy Laznê is the biggest club of eastern Europe with 5 dance floors where one even hosts a robot DJ
5. Craft beer is famous in Prague, but the most popular beer is Budweiser Budvar, prepared over 90 days using the water, barley and hope of the Bohemian region (instead of 72 hours typically used for mass produced beer) and the original inspiration behind the world's largest beer, Budweiser
6. Marionettes or Puppets are famous in Czech. Originated as a means of entertainment back in the 18th century and continues its craft to this day
7. Tea in Czech is called Chai, just written as Čaj 

Viking

Watch the kick-ass YouTube video here

Now for the synopsis:
It was just over a year back when we moved to Europe and did our first trip to neighbouring Belgium to mark my country #25.

However, it was only country #24 for Geet at that point, and we continued to be on different country counts until this trip to Sweden, which not only marked our very first visit to the Nordics, but also happened to be country #35 for both of us.


It's been a whirlwind of travel for both of this past year where we covered the following new countries:

Belgium S
Croatia SG
Malta SG
Peru SG
Bolivia SG
Ireland G
Hungary SG
Portugal SG
Russia S
Estonia SG
USA G
Sweden SG


What made this trip more memorable though was the fact that we toured with friends from other parts of Europe, Christina from Rome and Sabine from Belgium, and had Daniel from Stockholm to give us the complete Viking experience that just wouldn't have been possible without him.


We experienced some amazing cuisine that can be read in the TripAdvisor reviews below,  witnessed fascinating nuances that's on our Instagram TEN TALKS, and saw some unbelievable sceneries that's posted on our YouTube channel.


Looking forward to so much more there is to travel and see, and hopefully this gang lives up to the plans we've made to next have Sabine host us in Curucao, Christina host us in Naples, and finally Geet and I host the rest in beloved India.


TripAdvisor
Phil's Burger Stureplan
Scalas Bakficka
Cafe Sten Sture
Wilmer Kaffebar
Kvarnen
Den Gyldene Freden
Pharmarium






 

NY2.0 (second but different)

Visited New York twice ten years apart, and underwent a completely different experience. 

Statue of liberty

Visited the island in the last trip getting an up and close view of lady liberty and spoiled my passport at the time in the rain. 

This time around, took the free ferry ride from Manhattan to Staten island and saw lady liberty from the water. Completely different experience. 

Brooklyn bridge 

Landed up in a ghetto neighbourhood of Brooklyn after taking a wrong train from Manhattan, and quickly took a cab to get out of there which drive through the Brooklyn bridge. 

Crossed the bridge again this time, but from the level above, which is the walking path over seeing the vehicles below. 

Did this walk after capturing some great views of both the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges from DUMBO and eating at Grimaldi's. 

Times Square 

Literally lived in this Square the last time around. Eating, drinking and sleeping in the neighbourhood two nights in a row. 

Barely caught a glimpse this time after a drink at Three Monkeys, watching Chicago at Ambassador Theatre and finishing off with dinner at Halal Guys. 

Broadway 

Missed Lion King that only Bala visited the last time because I thought the tickets were too expensive, and caught Chicago this time at discounted fairs that are offered during Broadway Week that happens around labour day. 

Chicago is an out an out musical showcasing the pure singing and acting talent of the performers. The songs are all memorable, leaving you with a lot of nostalgia as you watch it. 

Niagara Falls 

Rented a car and did a tiring drive to the Falls, catching a glimpse from the top at dusk. Barely an experience worth remembering. 

Took the one day tour from Manhattan to Niagara, that could once again be termed tiring, but is actually pretty well organised to give you a comprehensive Niagara Falls experience. 

Take Tours is the agency that begins the bus ride from Times Square at 4am to reach the Falls by noon and resumes the return journey at 4pm to get back to Manhattan at mid night. 

In those 4 hours in between, you see the Falls from the top, bottom, sideways, everywhere, by doing the Maid of the mist boat ride and then visiting Luna island. 

Highline

Not sure if this was even around 10 years back, but is a neat walkway from 34th street to 14th which ends at the highly recommended Meatpacking district. 

Meatpacking was under construction, and probably too much in the middle of the day and burning hot to give a great experience, but will still remain memorable for the Apple Store and one of the few good meals we had over the trip at Dos Caminos. 

Rockefeller Centre 

Empire state building was the sky rise visited last time, but chose the less touristy and lower in height Rockefeller Centre for this visit and turned out just as if not more memorable since this is the place from where the famous workers on a bridge was shot and gives a really great view of Manhattan which includes the Empire state building itself! 

Top of the rock is the ride that goes up to the 65th floor in 40 seconds costing $40 pax. 

Central Park 

Remember this place pretty much to just go in and throw up after that 2 nights of partying in Times Square. 

Spent some leisure time after packing in an awesome breakfast of bacon, omelette and delicious coffee from the Wholefoods at Columbus Circle. So much better. 

Wall Street 

Spotted the bull here the last time, and caught both the bull and the fearless girl in front of it this time. 

Wrapped it up pretty quickly with a meal from the latest craze of Kati Roll Company. 

Macy's

Visited Target as if it was the thing to do among department stores the last time, and bought miniature deodorants and some shirts from there then.

Visited the much better Macy's and drowned ourselves in shopping bags given labour day offers and incredibly alluring prices when compared to European shopping. 

New Jersey 

Visited Hoboken (no idea why) and went to this bar where the Pirate Rum from the top shelf is etched in permanent memory. 

This and seeing Sanjeev were the top reasons of the last visit, while this time around, it was to see Shweta and eat at the picturesque Havens. 

Guess meeting people (Indians more specifically) is the only reason to visit New Jersey. 

One World Tower 

Probably the single most different experience, and for good reason. 

The previous visit involved the memorial at the grounded twin tower site, while this one showcased the new One World in all its grandeur, with impressive buildings and landscapes all around. 

Kudos to the spirit and engineering acumen of the Americans. 

Flushing Meadows 

Completely new experience, and the primary reason for this trip to begin with. 

Watched 2 matches here. One was a repeat of the same game we watched at Roland Garros; Nadal vs Del Potro semis, with only the result being reversed this time asNadal went out injured in 2 sets. 

The other were players we're seeing for the first time; Djoko and Nishikori, and a match that got over in as much time at the earlier one given how Djoko dominated over the highly skilled but totally inefficient Nishikori. 

Flushing meadows was really beautiful overall, but the spirit of tennis is still far more vivid in Roland Garros. 

Finally, it was delightful to catch up with Bobby and his family who we hung out with in Manhattan and even went to the match with. It was a short time, but time spent well nevertheless with visits to Asiate and Obao during our time there. 

In conclusion, while a second trip can be done with entirely new experiences in spite of spending a full week at New York, there are still so many more things to check out like visiting a speak easy (heard there's one inside the 5 guys burger chain), watching a show either at comedy cellar or of one of the guys we keep seeing on YouTube (Trevor Noah, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon), trying out strange cuisines like Ethiopian which only a city like New York can offer (restaurants like Sheba, Meskel, Cafe Wha, Jo’s ShangHai, Cats Deli and Woodbury were recommended) and maybe even visit Little Italy or Little China. 

So much to do still! 

Truly a place you can never get bored of. 

Switzerland

Swiss Parts

Part 1
Traveled on Geet’s birthday to Zermatt and Matterhorn via Zurich with the big gang of Parul, Shreyansh, Deepak, Supriya, Naan, Aanchal and us.
Zermatt is a fuel-free city as it is run only by electric cars and bikes.
The most ubiquitous sights are Omega clocks and the Matterhorn, the latter is literally visible from every part of the city, especially when you are trekking around as it gives you amazing views from all different angles. 
The Boat from Rasperwil to Zurich was an interesting thing we did since it was really scenic, as you see restaurants with tables on the pier, parks with slides leading into the lake, floating trampolines, kayaks, fairs, boat parties, et al
https://youtu.be/-uzO7GrO0jY

Did the cable car ride up and the hike down at the end of which Supriya announces her pregnancy.
https://instagram.com/p/BVwaMCdDWK4yNKV8rbagqQv-xSi2li7sdGP_m00/

Restaurants we ate at:
Seerestaurant Steinburg
Zeughauskeller
Walliserkanne
Waldhaus


Part 2
Took Geet’s parents to Lucern via Zurich, discovered Indian restaurant and bought loads of Swiss goodies like watches and chocolates.

Did the self manned boating at Lucerne Lake.
https://vimeo.com/240619646


Part 3
Visited Girish, Divya and Shreyas at Geneva.
https://instagram.com/p/BdE2zIxF3Rc/

Travelled to Guyers and visited the Cailler factory and Giger Alien bar.
https://instagram.com/p/BdwkFaWFF7G/

Mt. Blanc and Chamonix and tried out skiing for the first time.
https://youtu.be/EuYirNOe78M

Also tried out sledging with Girish and filmed some amazing falls.
https://youtu.be/XCJ3GcpbIxk
https://youtu.be/i_0YkPMJrIY


Part 4
Took my parents to Geneva and visited Montreux and Grindelwald.
https://instagram.com/p/BmVBUlPFty6/

Did paragliding for the first time at Grindelwald.