Trip to Bergen 26.05.2012 - 27.05.2012 in pictures

Hi all out there,

   The following pictures are from my latest trip to Bergen. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Norway. It has been sometime that I took this trip, but just did not get enough time to post these pictures as I have been terribly busy recently...but well, here they are now :)

The trip was a really amazing one - loads of sun and also met my friend and his family out there. Just perfect weekend it was for me...it is one of the recommendations for anyone who loves a walk in nature...

Enjoy the experience...

Trip to Ukraine - Good Memories...

Sorry for such a long delay in posting my bits from the amazing trip to Ukraine. There is a lot I have to say about this trip...it has been memorable in so many ways. For now, these are some of pieces of my trip...enjoy :)

And after this one trip, I am pretty sure that a return trip is on the cards as a lot is still unexplored, which I do want to see through...

So once again...Slava Ukrayini....


Good vibes to all...

Easter 2012 - Trip to Ukraine

As a part of my `not just sitting and facebooking´ initiative this Easter, I have made arrangements for a travel to Ukraine (Kyiv and Lviv). My first impressions: amazing cities with amazingly friendly people…and yes, these are based on the basis of my interactions with people I know from Ukraine here in Norway. All of them were more than ready to connect me to one or more people in Ukraine so that I can have a memorable time out there…! Very friendly people. It is just a small gesture, but it makes my life way more easier...and I certainly get to experience moments, not just as a tourist, but the Ukrainian way :)

I have been given tips over mail and personally of where to go and what to do. It just feels that I already have a blurry idea of how interesting this trip is going to be…! My trip last year during Easter (To Krakow) was filled with loads of great experiences and I am sure, so will be this one…!

Among this left to do, is to apply for a travel visa since Ukraine is not in EU (yet…!!!). But that should not be any issue since the fast track visa processing takes just 3working days it seems (though I need to shell out twice the visa processing fees…but then that is the way it is…!).

Another thing in to-do list is to fetch an English-Russian dictionary and learn some basic words :) Though I hope it will be somewhat better this time considering Ukraine is co-hosting the UEFA European Football Championship this year along with Poland…hopefully I am not just being overly optimistic…but yeah, it will be a funny, challenging...but interesting experience!!! Well, if I could manage in China, I am sure Ukraine would be a walk-in-the-park ;)

With these in mind, I have already started the countdown…and soon its gonna be the day...!!!

By the way, the trip is 5days long from 5th April 2012 till 9th April 2012.

Keep traveling…keep experiencing !!!


UPDATE: I applied for the Travel Visa to Ukraine today and I will receive the visa on Monday - 02.04.2012. So all in place now :)

Pictures from the trip to South Africa...

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Cape Town is an amazing place...there is enough for everyone out there...! Check out these pics to get a feel of what I want to say :)

I will next share my experiences about travel to Cape Town...(the posts will come as soon as I have some more time to sit down and write more...)

Trip to South Africa - A trip of many `firsts`

       After an almost disastrous start to 2012 (read my previous post from December 31st 2011 for my 2011 report card), the best I could have asked for was some timeout from a monotonous schedule and get some respite, before I get back to the same routine, but just with a new frame of mind and new found energy. I got the same in the form of a week-long travel trip to Cape Town, South Africa. The trip was almost cancelled for me since I applied for my travel permit on 03.01.2012, just 4days before the scheduled start of the trip. The South African embassy told me that it would take 10days for me to get the tourist visa, but then, to my surprise, I received a mail from them the very next day saying that my visa was ready...! So the issue was eventually a `no-issue` :) 

        I booked my flights with British Airways (primary reason being that this was the cheapest option available). The onward journey was fine but the return journey was not all that good. The flight from Cape Town to London was delayed, due to which, I could not catch my flight from London to Oslo. The next available option was the day after. But it was not entirely bad either since BA then gave me a complimentary stay at Hotel Renaissance for that night. The trip started on 08.01.2012 and I reached Cape Town on 09.01.2012. The trip lasted for 8 days and I returned to Oslo on 16.01.2012 (Scheduled return was 15.01.2012 night). In the next two posts, I will tell you more about my experiences in Cape Town. I will also provide links to some of the pictures I took over the course of the trip. So, keep linked :)

Good vibes to you...

Travel Diary to Krakow, Poland

Keeping up with my new year resolution to take up travels across Europe, I have kind of held on with it by starting my trip to Krakow (which follows my trip to Stockholm last weekend :) ). This trip will last for 5 days: From today i.e. Wednesday (20.04.2011) till Sunday (24.04.2011). I will keep on writing a day-to-day diary, each day as a new post, for all I experienced that day. I am really looking forward to this trip as Krakow hold so much history in itself.
Hoping to learn a lot and meet loads of new people.
And now another new journey begins.....

UPDATE: Sorry for the delay in updating my Krakow travel experiences as I have been very busy in the past few days. I will try to update it in the coming couple of days....happy traveling.....

Oslo - Lko - Oslo -- Life takes a full circle

Life has been nothing but a great journey for the past 16months...but today I won't pen down my experiences of my transition from an MBA student to a MBA graduate to a professional, but more about the my journey to India and how excited I am to be back to my India after such a long time...next month is going to be amazing for sure...

3rd September 2008, I put my first steps in Norway, for studies (of course...what else :) ) and then I learned, if not a lot, but at least something and I can definitely say that my stay here has been very instrumental in developing my thought process and approach, in general. What I am more excited about now is to analyse how my new learning can change my perception of those age-old things which we generally take for granted. Going back to India...will surely be a change...as both these cultures are two poles apart (well...not literally!!!)...say traffic...from a 20 cars/minute to 200cars/min...minimal to maximal honking...right-hand traffic to left-hand traffic...rare appearance of people unless there are any signs of sunshine to lots of people on road irrespective of the weather...organized to self-organized traffic...(and this is just the TRAFFIC...huh...) the list just goes on...

I am surely waiting to meet my family members...who themselves have been eagerly waiting for me for a long time now (It surely was a long wait) ...! Then there is my niece who would have grown up a year from the last time I saw her...ahhhh...how I miss her cute innocence...some more days and you will be able to see her...great isn't it...???

My stay here in Norway has been all experiences...small and big, good and not-so-good...! I have met people of all kinds, my first long experience being 'home, away from home' ! But then life takes you places and that's how grow your perception, thought process, looking beyond the horizon...! I know I still have a lot to learn, but one thing that I am sure about it...

"...But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep."

I for Imagination

Today morning I was really relaxed...getting up around 8:30 in the morning (its just a bliss to get up without an alarm ringing right by your side!) and then lazily getting off my bed. Then I prepared a cup of tea and sat by the side of my room window...having something I have termed as 'Window Tea' (a new version of 'Bed Tea')...!!! It so happens that I get all these strange ideas and weird thoughts sitting by the side of my window, watching the open skies and admiring the beauty of nature. Hmm...seems like I will have to do something about this habit of mine (sitting by the window...!) or...maybe I will just let it be...

So today I was in a small tete-a-tete with 'Imagination'...! I was actually wondering why 'Imagination', 'Ideation', 'Innovation' and 'Implementation' start with 'I'...!!! How come a person just come up with the concept like 'gravity', just watching an apple fall from a tree...(I would not have imagined anything about gravity even if I was in place of this apple)

I was still trying to gauge the importance of this tool when I saw a few birds flying by the sky...which made me think the freedom they have to fly when and where they want (lucky creatures...! Had I the power to fly, I surely would have took a flight of my life during the microeconomics class ;-)...Alas, we need to depend on aeroplanes for the same effect...) But all this reminds of a poem by Robert Frost - "Birches". These days I have been kind of nostalgic (well I know the reasons but I think that is out of the scope of this post and blog as well...!) and it seems it has somehow helped me to be more imaginative. I don't know if I have reached the stage of innovation yet, but certainly I am planning to provide food to my imagination by gearing up for some travel (like a swing to get away from the earth) and then be back to the normal routine (back to earth). I need to restart some old hobbies, T-Shirt painting being one of them.

Well I have been vague in this post...but then that's how things have been for me lately...vague...spontaneous...like thoughts, like imagination. It seems that I need to take a swing, but, just for a while, and be back to begin all over, once again......