My Dream Euro Trip!

      It all started with the phone call at around 11pm on the 15^th of October, 2014 from my supervisor. This had been preceded by a usual period of uncertainty with a myriad of emotions swinging back and forth like a pendulum as has always been the case with me and my supervisor. Finally, with the registration for the conference being confirmed on that night, I was all set to embark on my dream Euro Trip enroute London (Paris missed out for the next trip inspite of having planned, reason you would know further on in the post.

                                                   Map of Europe with the places covered 

       

        First and foremost was the VISA procedures for the United Kingdom, which was indeed a pain. Not only do they charge you so heavily for the process, they take unnecessary time with the VISA being processed in Manila, with no mechanism of tracking the status. Finally, the mail from British Embassy did arrive on 4^th Nov, 2014 giving me the official license to setforth with the preparations for the tour. Schengen VISA at French Embassy was a breeze and I got it right away. This was followed by the detailed planning for the trip with feedback from friends, travel forums and various websites [Special Mention: Rick Steves forum, Trip Advisor, Pratik, Deepak (London planning), Achala, Pratik (Scotland), Aninda, Subhrajit (Rome suggestions), Vigil (Barcelona suggestions) and Paris (which never actually happenedL)]. The itinerary was planned, tickets booked, and I eagerly awaited for 5^th Dec to give wings to my dream. Come 5^th Dec, my excitement could not be curtailed. With all preparations done, I was eagerly waiting to execute the itinerary. The wings to my dreams at Changi Airport on 5^th Dec were provided by Emirates airlines which transcended me to London via Dubai. The effects of the London weather could be immediately felt with cool breeze gushing against the face, the weather and the dressing style immediately making me fall in love with the city of London. Followed by rest and chitchat with a wonderful new friend of mine, Gautam (my host in London), I set forth towards the first leg of my trip- Scotland. 

        Scotland: The start couldn’t have been any different (if I think now), giving me a flavour of how the whole Euro sojourn was going to be. It started with the bus getting delayed by 45 mins at Victoria Coach station, followed by further delay of 2.5 hrs on reaching Glasgow. This resulted in rescheduling of the initial itinerary and went to Edinburgh by train instead. Edinburgh welcomed me with its beautiful weather and hospitable Scottish culture. Exploring the whole city by foot has a charm of its own and visiting Edinburgh during Christmas time is special. The visit to Scottish National gallery, National Museum and Edinburgh Castle were indeed enlightening, but the highlight would have to be the evening Whiskey tour and the haunted tour to the old dungeons in Edinburgh, which mention about the history and how capital punishment existed till late 18^th century in Edinburgh. The next day, I embarked on the Scottish Highlands Tour with Haggins Adventure tours. It was a very well organized tour with our guide, enriching us with the rich history of Scotland, Scottish culture and various majestic locations in Scotland (where movies like Braveheart, Skyfall, Harry Potter, etc were shot). We visited Stirling Castle, Ben Nevis, Loch Ness (most visited and largest water body in UK), traversed through the Cairngorm National park which was fully covered in snow on either side of the road. Overall, it was a fantastic experience with wonderful families, me being the only solo traveler in the group of 11, and experiencing snowfall for the first time, along with the scenic road journey with snow on either sides of the road. Upon returning to Edinburgh, I returned to London the same following night.

                         

                                      Castle in Scotland                   Roads fully covered with snow enroute Cairngorm park

                                             

                                            Lochness                                        Edinburgh royal mile (at night)

         London: It was time for action now, with Monday being the first day of the conference. I registered for the conference and waited for my poster presentation at 4pm. Since the conference was being held at Canary Wharf (the business district of London) along river Thames, I took an afternoon stroll along River Thames visiting and taking some pictures of London bridge and Tower bridge (the most iconic structure in London, we all see while growing up), reminiscent to the first Nursery poem we learnt in school (London bridge is falling down…. Falling down.. ) . During the conference, I happened to strike an instant friendship with Quinton due to our apparent Singapore connection, he being Singaporean. We traveled to London eye together after the conference after having dinner, followed by a walk along river Thames from Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and upto Tower bridge. Every city has a charm by night time, so did London, and a walk along the river embankment with the cool breeze made it for a splendid evening with great company.

      The second day, I had my presentation at 5pm, so decided to use the morning time to travel together with Quinton. It started with the Hop on-Hop off tour in one of those buses, getting down at Buckingham palace to witness the Changing of guards ceremony at Royal Palace. It was a good experience, but reminded me of Wagah Border, which is much more magical than this. This was followed by visit to St Pauls cathedral on the way, getting down at Baker street. Then, we had the opportunity of knocking on the doors of Mr Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street and visiting the museum. It was an amazing experience in itself, posing for a picture at the address was a must. Next followed the must visit Lords Cricket ground, which is the mecca for all cricket followers. The group that I was in for the tour, comprised of 2 Australians, 2 south Africans, 1 British, 2 Sri Lankans and 2 Indians, indeed quite a unique mixture of people to represent the cricket fraternity. The visit included the history behind Ashes and seeing the famous urn, visit to the famed walkaway before a player enters the ground, the visitors dressing room in Lords (Ganguly's shirt waving pavilion and the records board at the visitors room) and last but not the least, the JP Morgan Media center. It was indeed an insightful and a must recommended visit for any cricket fan. The unique mix of people made it all the more interesting with awesome discussions. This was followed by my presentation at the conference, and the banquet dinner which included a mood conductor performance  [http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/acii/2013/5048/00/5048a726.pdf] (a young British band playing the kind of music, depending on the mood of the music the audience wants them to play). The food and the results for the best paper were a disappointment though, where I missed out on top two, after having been selected among the best five papers. I also happened to undertake a boat trip in river Thames in evening before the banquet started, which was a unique experience.

                                   

                                          Lords Cricket ground                                                Buckingham Palace

                          

                            221B Baker Street                                                Tower Bridge London at night     

                                                     
                                       London Eye                                                                       Big Ben

       Barcelona: Shrugging off the disappointment behind, I packed my bags to the much awaited entry into Europe mainland. First on list was Barcelona, where I reached in the afternoon. Barcelona is a unique city with a mixture of the old and new town, old comprising of the famous Gothic architecture and the new town, with the high rise buildings. I checked into my hostel, finishing off my lunch, before I set out on a free walking tour organized by Hostel World, with a new friend who reached Barcelona a day before, hitchhiking all the way from Belgium. We struck an instant connection, and was indeed amazing to know how people are motivated to achieve their aims inspite of all their hurdles. We walked around the old gothic town in Barcelona, exploring the rich history of Spain with our wonderful guide, who became a great friend in the 4 hrs duration of the trip. This was followed by a walk along the beach and sipping coffee in one of the famous locally recommended café in Barcelona. Then, we walked off to La Rambla (famous street in Barcelona) from where I parted ways with my new found friends to watch Barcelona play PSG at Camp Nou. The mere sight of Camp Nou is exhilarating, let alone the 80,000 people rooting for Neymar, Messi, and Suarez along with the slogans for Barcelona, football being a religion in Spain. Barcelona defeated PSG convincingly, with amazing strikes from the striking triumvirate at Barca. I struck off a conversation with a Brit Arsenal fan seated next to me, discussing EPL and prospects of Arsenal and Chelsea in EPL for some moments at a Champions league game. Following the game (a must recommended experience for every football fan (a game at Camp Nou)), I headed back to the hostel. I had a bath, and thought of taking a small nap, realizing on waking up, that I missed the night bus to the airport. This resulted in me resorting to take a taxi to airport (twice the amount of flight fare).
Note: Never ever sleep late for an early morning flight in Europe if you love your sleep :P

                                
                                 Streets in Barcelona                          My new friend and guide for the walking tour

                               
                                      Camp Nou                                              Bar vs PSG Champions league live \m/

      Rome: I managed it in time for the early morning flight to the most ancient historic city in Europe- Rome. Upon landing, I could feel a difference in the air. This was from where, the Roman Empire flourished and I couldn’t wait to know more about the city. I checked into my hostel, freshened up, and set forth to Colloseum. The magnificence and the size of Colloseum is breathtaking and the fact that gladiator flights took place there was fabulous. The stair cases where audience used to sit based on sections of society they belonged to, the arena for the animal and gladiator flights, the underground cages and the exhibition highlighting the emperors who built it and how it was once destroyed in a fire to be rebuilt, each aspect was fascinating. This was followed by the visit to Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, followed by Vatican museum and St Peters Basilica. St Peters Basilica 's architecture and magnitude is a sight to behold, and the climb to the top of dome at St Peters for a whole view of Vatican City was breath-taking. This is a must recommended for anyone, especially during sunset, which is when I happened to visit. Rome buses and metro are easy to traverse, there being just two metro lines well marked with attractions making things simpler. This was capped off by a visit to pantheon, Fontana Di Trevi(ensuring I drop a coin to visit Rome again), museums and exploring the city through the various Piazzas (squares). Rome is such a marvellous city,every nook and corner will have an awesome architecture, which is why I traveled the whole city in evening by foot. Ofcourse, with wonderful food including pizzas, pasta, panini and capping off the night with Gelato icecream (twice after I wasn't satisfied with the first one ;-) :P ).

                            

                                     Roman Colosseum                                            Fontana De Trevi

                               

                                          St Peters Basilica                             Top View of Vatican City

     Adventure yet again- The Rome Saga: Upon my arrival back to the hostel, I receive an email stating that my flight to Paris was cancelled. I had to go in to Ciampino airport early morning to reschedule my flight, but the earliest flight for Paris that I could get was Sunday morning (my return flight to Singapore, being the same day). None of the other flights flew in the morning due to a strike in Italy, and the evening flights in evening were over 250 Euros. Eventually, I had to cancel my flight with Ryan Air, return to city centre and take another shuttle to Fiumcino airport and book the next flight to London. Booking a flight 6 hrs before the scheduled departure of flight was some experience, I will never forget. Eventually, I had to cancel the Paris section of my planned trip losing all my money on connecting trains, booked tours and accomodation, with the hope of visiting Paris another time probably, the irony being the Schengen VISA was actually approved by the French Embassy in Singapore. :P

     London Revisited: With my return to London, started the final day of my first visit to Europe. With a wonderful breakfast to start off the day, I had decided to make the most of it. Starting off with Greenwich museum, which contains the world famous Prime Meridian line (separating the world into 2 halves) was quite an experience. How can I forget, the unique opportunity to keep one foot in both the hemispheres at the same time (even Tom Hanks got a picture clicked here, so did I :D ). This was followed by a visit to the museum demonstrating how time keeping has evolved over the years, starting from sun’s position, navigational tools and so on. In the afternoon, I happened to pay a visit to St Pancreas church, British Library and Welcome Trust museum, all located at Euston Road. An old pal and a college buddy Anjul then happened to come to London and we indeed did meeet after a long time. He indeed kept his promise of showing me London when I would there (the discussion when we started our PhDs). We spent away the whole evening visiting Kings cross station (not to forget, Platform 9 ¾ for Hogwarts express), sipping away coffee reminiscing our old times together at NIT Rourkela, followed by a sumptuous Indian dinner at Dhishoom (one of the most popular and highly rated Indian restaurants in London). Boy, I can vouch for their food which was yumm. I finally then happened to get onto the famous red buses in London (which we often see in movies) and ride onto the most happening places in London, being Piccadilly circus, Leicester square and Covent gardens. This wrapped off a wonderful day, before my flight next morning back to Singapore, terminating with it what had been a wonderful Euro trip.

                                   

                                 One foot in eastern and western           Boarding Hogwarts Express

                                              hemispheres (Prime Meridian)                (Kings Cross Station)

                        

                     With Anjul  ( my friend from Oxford) at UCL                      Leicester Square

      The last 9 days during the trip, I laughed (with newly made friends at London), I cried (during the verbal fight when I was tricked and asked to pay for shuttle to airport twice at Rome, after the flight cancellation), I shouted at the top of my voice (cheering for Barca) and I enjoyed (London bridge cruise experience, Basilica top for view of Vatican city) making it one of the most memorable trips of my life I have ever had, and one which I will remember for  a lifetime- my first Euro Trip (checked). As Raj says in DDLJ, "bade bade shehron me choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain", here quite a lot happened, apart from the fact that I was not as lucky as SRK to find "my Simran" :D :P.  Quoting Frank Herbert, “Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken”, here’s me wishing it is just the start of many more awesome trips with much more wonderful experiences.

Link to all pictures: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yjlaz4ujxuafb1i/AAAK7TOO6bsgNEfytkHB9U5pa?dl=0