Other short travels in Europe 2009

Some short trips made were to Gothenburg, Malmo, Copenhagen  and Oslo in 2009. A very brief summary of each of them is here..

The city decor

The Harbour

The town hall

Cathedral

Botanical garden

The City

An island in the archipelago

way to archipelago

the ferry to archipelago

After the first year of studies in masters Jeff and I planned a trip to Gothenburg, Malmo and Copenhagen for summers. We boarded the train on 29 June 2009 from Uppsala to Gothenburg, we were at our destination by evening. We went to the already booked youth hostel, checked-in, got fresh and went for the city tour. Its a beautiful city has biggest harbour in Sweden. We walked around to see the harbour, opera house, city square, town hall, churches, palace, beautiful parks and some more. Soon it was getting dark and we were getting tired so we returned back to the hostel. Next day we saw the botanical garden and took the ferries to the archipelagos (the main tourist attraction). The botanical garden was amazingly full of numerous kinds of flowering plants, show plants, green house, water plants and many more kinds of beautiful plants full of flowers. The archipelagos has rocky terrain with some greenery and were full of tourists sun-bathing and swimming. After spending the day in the islands we returned back as we had a train in the evening to Malmo.

Tivoli

The walkway

Gefion Fountain

Opera house

The little mermaid

Castle entrance

interior of the castle

Jagannath rath yatra

Show at the city square

We reached Malmo at night and waited for our bus for Copenhagen, we reached Copenhagen in the morning of 1 July 2009. The road way to Copenhagen was through a bridge over the sea, it was amazing. Once we reached we checked-in the hostel, got fresh and went for a walk in the city. We saw main tourist spots like church, city square, fountains, little mermaid, opera house, parks and the castle. To our surprise, we came across a "Jagannath rath yatra" a typical indian celebration at the city square in the evening. They were distributing bhogs, we queued up quickly and had it. It was just delicious, the feeling of having something of your country in a different continent is surprisingly amazing. We had a great evening that day with all the cultural programmes happening there. The castle was a huge one, we went inside for a tour to see the big paintings, decorated ceilings, huge dining rooms, courtyards and crafted furnitures. The city is beautiful and full of canals which is a great place to spend the evenings. The people are very friendly and helpful, much more talkative as compared to Swedes. Actually the shyness in people lessen when you travel from north to south in Scandinavia.

Oresund bridge connecting Malmo and Copenhagen

Sea front

Park

Turning Torso

After 2 days of stay in Copenhagen we went back to Malmo for 1 day stay as Malmo is a small city and can be covered in 1 day. We roamed around to see various places in the city and finally ended up at the sea front and spent most of our evening there. Next day we caught the train back to Uppsala, thus ending another memorable trip.

Frogner Park

Oslo

in the park

in the park

Frogner park

Christmas decorations

ice skating

Shopping centre

Soon it was December and was the time of Christmas vacation. I had a friend in Oslo who has invited me several times to visit him and I thought this would be a good trip to utilise the vacations. Boarded the train on 25 Dec 2009 in the afternoon in Stockholm to reach Oslo by evening. It was dark when I reached Oslo but Siddique came to receive me at the station. We went to his place, I got fresh and to my surprise he has already planned everything. That night we had dinner at his friend's place with other friends of his friend. We were 7-8 people. The food and the company made that Christmas memorable. We were talking till late at night and were planning for the next day city tour. Siddique and his friend were our guide next day, the snow made the day very very cold which is usual in Norway. We played Frisbee in the snow, saw some places in the city like parks and city centre. Shopping in Oslo is never a good idea as it is very expensive. In the evening we went to a bar that was hosting a live jazz band, I am not a fan of jazz music but I always enjoy with a good company. The city was decorated for christmas and looked amazing. Next day I had a train back to Stockholm, geared up for more lab-work and started planning for my next trip.

An evening in Paris, Dec 2009

I suppose everyone has a dream to see Paris, I had it too. Here is a brief description of my experience in that wonderful city.

Tanzila, Jeff, Prema, Sid (from left to right) 

Paris at night

Tanzila in love with the weather

The Court

The court of commercial issues

Notre Dame

Stained glass inside the church

Interior of the church

It was Dec 2009 when I got a message from my friend Jeff about the great Ryanair offer to Paris. He booked his and Tanzila's flight tickets for 28 Jan 2010 and was asking me to go with them. I asked Siddharth and then we booked as well. We booked our accommodation in Blue Planet youth hostel but Jeff and Tanzila were late to get an accommodation in that youth hostel so they booked in a different one. Soon it was the day to fly, it was very cold at that time of the year. We were five people - Jeff, Tanzila, Tanzina aka Prema, Siddharth and me. Our flight departed in the afternoon from Stockholm and landed in Paris in 2 hours. The bus trip from Paris airport to the city seemed longer that the flight trip. Finally we reached Paris in the late evening and parted our ways to our hostels. Sid and I were excited enough to rest in our rooms that evening so we went out for a walk and had some light dinner while walking. It was 1 am when we returned back and called it a day.

Pantheon

Luxembourg garden

The Eiffel beside the Seine

 

Champs-Élysées

 Place de la Concorde

The Louvre

The Louvre

Monalisa

Painting gallery in Louvre

La Défense

The grand arch in La Défense

La Défense

A view of Arc de Triomphe from La Défense

Arc de Triomphe

Next morning we all met as planned, bought 3 days metro pass and started our sight-seeing tour in The capital of France. Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements (administrative blocks) starting from the very centre towards the periphery like a snake. We started from the very centre and started walking along river Seine. We saw the markets, the Courts, Notre Dame church which is huge and beautiful decorated with stained glasses, University of Paris, Pantheon, Luxembourg garden, the Palace, Sorbonne. Next day we started from the point we left, we went to La Défense, to the Eiffel tower but didn't climb up as it was a long queue and we had a lot to see. We walked along Seine to the Arc de Triomphe then walking through Champs-Élysées to  the Louvre passing through  Place de la Concorde, it took the whole afternoon to see through the Louvre, its a huge museum with enormous paintings and sculptures, the main attraction was Monalisa painting but nothing was negligible. At the end of the day we went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed up to see the city and the Eiffel at night. It was just amazing to see the glittering light of the Eiffel and the busy capital of France. Next day we went to Père Lachaise the biggest cemetery witnessing almost 300,000 burials including the important people of Paris, it took the whole morning to see it completely, some graves are very elaborated and decorated with monuments. The afternoon was spent on walking through the market area finally reaching the Opéra Garnier. That was our last night in Paris, next day we were returning back.

Monumental decoration of a grave in Père Lachaise

Père Lachaise

Market area

Market area

A view of city from Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel from Arc de Triomphe

The Opéra Garnier

We

This was for sure not the last trip to Paris because I have not seen many places like La Sainte-Chapelle which is full of stained glass decorations and a Gothic architecture, La Madeleine church built to the glory of Napolean's army,  Montmartre, Moulin Rouge and Disney world. All these are a must-visit in Paris. We stayed there for 3 days and missed half of the places to visit so next time it will be atleast a five days trip. Paris is really the city of romance, the city of joy and peace. Apart from visiting the monuments, buildings, churches, a walk along the Seine is something not to be missed. The company of friends I had with me made this trip memorable. Those non-veg jokes of Prema, those comments on people and laughing like crazy, pulling leg of Sid over stupid things and making fun of "SID" (a hilarious personal joke), Jeff's french accent and the love of Tanzila for the cold weather.. Altogether the trip was one of the most cherish-able trips I have ever been to.