Tag Archives: Europe

Europe, Travel Blog

Discovering Lisbon – Food and Sights

Image Leave a comment

The Spain leg of our Western Europe trip was done and we landed at Lisbon, the capital of Portugal (you can read the Seville and Barcelona blogs after this one). We left our bags at the airport itself and only carried the backpack. We had to get back by night for our flight to Ponta Delgada.

A short day in Lisbon

The plan was to spend the day in the Baixa area of the city. We took an Aerobus from the airport which is a convenient way to get to the city and got down at Martim Moniz.

First sights of Lisbon
First sights of Lisbon

The plan was to explore the district by foot. We saw the famous egg custard tarts (pasteis de nata) at one shop and tried it – it was really good!

Pasteis de nata in lisbon
It might look weird for someone who has never tried it. Once you try it, you’ll look at it differently

We continued walking and saw the old trams – a historical symbol of the city which started in 1873.

Another historic structure which is worth a visit is the Elevador de Santa Justa – an elevator walkway to negotiate the hilly terrain of the city. It was constructed in 1900 and originally operated using steam!

The giant old escalator of Santa Justa in Lisbon
The giant old escalator of Santa Justa

It was a cold, windy yet sunny day and the sun provided relief from the chilly breeze. As we reached the large town square at Terreiro do Paco, we saw that a music festival, Eurovision, was ongoing. On the other side of the square was the Tagus river.

We quickly grabbed dinner from a restaurant called El Rei dom Frango (amazing sangria and lasagna). Initially, we weren’t sure if it was a good restaurant – the tables were empty when we entered. But we finished our meal and stepped out to see a long queue of people waiting to get a table.

el rei do frango in lisbon
Apparently it was a popular place

In case you are wondering why we didn’t just check the ratings on Google Maps, we were travelling without SIM cards and going “with-the-flow”.

With happy tummies, we took the next bus back to the airport for our most unique experience in the Azores. We would be back in Lisbon for part 2 of discovering the city (below).

Another day in Lisbon

We were back from the Azores. The luggage we had left in the airport locker was still there. We unpacked and re-packed our stuff, took essentials for a 1-day stay and put the bags back. It was super convenient to have a system like this – all that lugging around had been prevented. This time we took the metro instead of the bus.

On the way to our guesthouse, we entered a cafe for breakfast – the worst food of the trip so far. We checked into our room and immediately left – looking for better food.

Continue reading Discovering Lisbon – Food and Sights →
Europe, Travel Blog

No Entry in Barcelona

Image 3 Comments

It was 5:08 pm and we boarded our train to Barcelona. We had just completed the France leg of our trip and got on the train from Nimes – a lesser known town in the south of France. The train sped along the coast as we passed the cities of Montpellier and Perpignon and we reached Barcelona at 8:45 pm. It was a trip unlike any we had done before.

Navigating a maze

There was a direct connection between the train station and the metro. However, it felt like an underground maze as we went up and down different floors, crossing platforms and getting into confusing lifts which had doors on multiple sides (you may enter through one door but exit through another one on the side). I had never seen such lifts before and it was very disorienting.

We got into the metro station of Sants Estacio and evaluated getting regular tickets vs passes. Among all the options, the T-10 ticket seemed best for us as we were only here for two days – we could use the same ticket for multiple people.

Our stay for 2 nights

Finally, we were on our way to our Airbnb which was on a street named Carrer del Camp – the closest station was called El Putxet. We checked into our apartment – an old Argentine lady owned it. She lived on one side of it while she had let out the other side – the entire place smelled of cigarettes. We quickly left our stuff and took the metro back to Catalunya.

Continue reading No Entry in Barcelona →
Europe, Travel Blog

Seville – Flamenco, Oranges and more

Image 2 Comments

The train sped past the sun-drenched landscapes of Andalusia at a jaw-dropping speed of 300 km/h. This was the fastest we had ever travelled on land! Despite the speed, everything was calm and stable inside. We were travelling from Barcelona to Seville in Spain for the next leg of our Western Europe trip.

Getting into the city of Seville

We exited the station (which looked more like an airport) and went on a short side-quest. We had to get our flight tickets printed for the next day and walked into the nearest tabac shop (yup – tobacco shops often function as multi-purpose outlets selling local transport tickets and printouts). Prints in hand, we took a bus to Plaza de Armas – the main bus station of Seville. Some of you may have heard of “Plaza de Armas” in Latin American countries as well. It is a common term used to refer to town squares and literally translates to “Weapons Square” (no weapons kept here in the modern times).

Seville is a very unique city – with architecture and culture that are different from the rest of Europe. Let’s take a quick look at its history.

Continue reading Seville – Flamenco, Oranges and more →
Europe, Travel Blog

Discovering Nimes and Pont du Gard in Southern France

Image 3 Comments

When we planned our trip to France, we were looking for places beyond Paris and Nice. If you read the previous blog on the Azores, you know what I’m talking about. One place that quickly caught our attention was Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy. From a commute and proximity point-of-view, it did not make sense, especially given our 2 week constraint. The next one was in the south of France – an interesting little city called Nimes (pronounced Neem). That’s the one we picked!

We waited for our bus at a junction in Cannes. The city of Cannes is most popular for being home to the international film festival as well as other festivals. We had spent half a day exploring the town, the Walk of Fame and cute cafes. There wasn’t a lot to do here and we had planned to take a bus in the afternoon to our next destination – Nimes.

The Cannes walk of fame
The Cannes Walk of Fame

Why did we pick Nimes?

If you check the map of the South of France, there are a bunch of cities lining the French Riviera- Provence-Occitanie region – Saint-Tropez, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Avignon and Nimes. Many of these places are famous for lavender fields. Some are resort towns. All of them are nice stops if you’re doing a slow road trip along the coast from Italy to France to Spain.

South of France map showing Nimes
Map of the south of France

We were looking for something unique however. Nimes had a bunch of Roman monuments – in fact, it was often referred to as the most Roman city outside Italy. The Nimes arena is considered the best preserved Roman amphitheater in the world. It is still used for concerts. The Maison Carree, an ancient Roman temple, is also considered to be one the best preserved in the world. The best part however was a sight just outside the city and was one of the main things which prompted us to visit here.

Continue reading Discovering Nimes and Pont du Gard in Southern France →
Europe, Travel Blog

Discovering Kazbegi: A Travel Guide to Georgia’s Northern Mountain Escape

Image 6 Comments

We’re on Day 4 of the trip. We just arrived at Stepantsminda in the northern part of Georgia (close to the Georgia-Russia border). Our stay for the next 2 nights was at the Mountain House Kazbegi, a beautiful property with a view of Mt. Kazbek and the Gergeti church standing in front of it. Wherever you stay in Stepantsminda, try to get a room with a view of the mountain – trust me, that will enhance your experience multifold!

View of the Gergeti church and Kazbek mountain from our room, Kazbegi
View of the Gergeti church and Kazbek mountain from our room
Travel hack (almost)

It was around 5pm and we decided to go for an early dinner. It was drizzling and there was a light breeze – so we couldn’t walk. We headed to the Rooms Hotel Kazbegi – the most luxurious and expensive hotel in the city. This is a nice travel hack which we’ve used before. Even if you don’t stay in the best hotel (to save costs), you can always go to the restaurant there for lunch or dinner and still experience the place.

Continue reading Discovering Kazbegi: A Travel Guide to Georgia’s Northern Mountain Escape →
Europe, Travel Blog

Three Small Countries – Part 3 (Liechtenstein)

Image 3 Comments

Welcome to Part 3 of our series, “Three Small Countries”. We continue our trip in Europe exploring the smallest countries in the world. We’ve already covered the smallest two countries – Vatican City and Monaco. We skip ahead a few spots on the list – number 3 and 4 are the Pacific Islands of Nauru and Tuvalu – hopefully, we will get to visit them in the future. This time, we explore the 6th smallest country in the world – Liechtenstein!

To continue the comparison trend of these countries to other popular places in India, let us pick the city of Mysuru (Mysore) in Karnataka. The beautiful city covers an area of roughly 160 square kilometres and can entirely swallow up the country we are visiting today – Liechtenstein. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you how to pronounce this!

Maps comparing the size of Liechtenstein with Mysuru in terms of area

Nestled in between Switzerland and Austria is the double-landlocked country of Liechtenstein (pronounced Lick-tahn-stine). The only other double-landlocked country in the world is Uzbekistan – hope you’ve already read those blogs!

Liechtenstein is a German-speaking country and is considered a “principality” headed by a Prince. The Holy Roman Emperor decreed this as a principality in the year 1719 and named it after the family that owned these lands – the Liechtensteins. After that, is a long and messy power struggle as Europe witnessed two World Wars and multiple changes of power. Liechtenstein was smart to take the route of its neighbour, Switzerland and adopt neutrality – a large reason why it is still an independent nation. 

That much history is good enough to get us started. Let’s dive right into the travelogue:

Continue reading Three Small Countries – Part 3 (Liechtenstein) →
Europe, Travel Blog

Three Small Countries – Part 2 (Monaco)

Image 3 Comments

Hello there! This is Part 2 of our series, “Three Small Countries”. In the first part, we visited the smallest country in the world, Vatican City. We continue our journey through Europe and move to the second country in our list.

This country has the highest population density in the world. The word “population density” always reminds me of Mumbai – especially Dharavi. Well, if we compare sizes, this entire country is even smaller than Dharavi and fits within 2.02 square kilometres. And it is in sharp contrast – being one of the richest countries (per capita) in the world. You may have guessed it, we’re talking about Monaco!

map comparing the size of monaco to dharavi

A bit of history to understand how this country came into existence. Monaco is entirely contained within France except for its Mediterranean coastline. It has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi since the 1200s. Given its location, both France and Italy had an interest in it – however, they mostly left it to be administered by the prince of Monaco – this makes it a principality (which it is to this date).

Size has never been a constraint for Monaco. It hosts the Monaco Grand Prix (Formula 1 racing) and is home to the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 (Tennis). It is also famous for the Monte Carlo casino, luxury cars, yachts and it provides a home to the rich and famous from around the world. One question that comes up – is Monaco the same as Monte Carlo? The answer is No. Monaco is the country, Monte Carlo is just one of the districts in the country.

monte carlo casino
The Monte Carlo casino

All you geography buffs would have noticed the flag of Monaco on the cover pic of the blog – it looks exactly the same as that of Indonesia right? Well, the main difference is the height to width ratio of the flag. Monaco’s flag is 4:5, while Indonesia’s is 2:3. Some people claim that the shade of red is slightly different – but tough for the average person to perceive it (I couldn’t tell the difference!).

Can you go to Monaco as a tourist? Yes! Getting to Monaco is quite easy. It is hardly 20 kms away from Nice, France. You can hop on a bus and get there easily. No additional visa requirements. You can also come in from Italy, which is also only around 20 kms away – but there is a higher chance that you’d be on the French side. The currency is the Euro itself. It is expensive to stay in Monaco and affording a hotel can be tough. So, it is advisable to stay in Nice and do a day trip.

And now, we go into the travelogue. After a really nice lunch of pizza and wine, we walked to the port where we took bus number 100. This would take us to Monaco.

Continue reading Three Small Countries – Part 2 (Monaco) →
Europe, Travel Blog

Three Small Countries – Part 1 (Vatican City)

Image 5 Comments

How large does a place need to be to be called a country? Well, apparently, size doesn’t matter when it comes to that decision. It is a far more complicated affair to define what a country is – we’ll probably not get into that in this blog. But what we will explore are 3 of the smallest countries in the world. We will try to understand a bit about how they came into existence and what life is like there. This is part 1 of my travels to these countries.

Do you know about Bengaluru’s Ulsoor Lake? It has an area of about 50 hectares and lies right in the middle of the city. At any point on the banks of it, you can clearly see every other part of the lake – so, it’s not too big. Can an entire country fit into Ulsoor lake?

The answer is Yes! We’re talking about Vatican City – the smallest country in the world.

a map comparing the sizes of vatican city with ulsoor lake

But how did this come to be? Time for a short history of the smallest country in the world.

Continue reading Three Small Countries – Part 1 (Vatican City) →
Asia, Europe, Travel Blog

Troy, a giant horse and forgotten Greek cities in Turkey

Image 8 Comments

(Image credits: most pics on this blog of Troy and the other Turkey ones were taken by my dad 🙂)

After almost 2 days of exploring Istanbul on our own, we joined our group – we had opted for a group tour for the rest of Turkey. My parents were also part of the group – a big reason why we went for this trip – it gave us more confidence to take Parth on his first international trip. As soon as we reached the airport and saw them, Parth jumped into his Appuppa’s (grandfather) arms and stayed there for a good part of the next 4-5 hours! We would be back in Istanbul for the last day of the trip. You can read about it here.

Our first stop in the trip was the western city of Çanakkale. It was a long drive – took almost 4 hours and Parth slept throughout the drive on Appuppa’s lap. On the way, we saw the Marmara sea, a sea contained entirely within Turkey and the one which connects the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea. On the Aegean end of the Marmara is the Dardenelles strait (Çanakkale is at the narrowest part of this) and on the Black Sea end is the Bosphorus strait which we had crossed in Istanbul. The Marmara Sea and the straits split Turkey into its Asian and European sides. The Marmara is named so because of the marble islands in it (the origin of the hindi word “sangmarmar”).

A map of Turkey showing the city of Canakkale and the route from Istanbul
The route we took to reach Çanakkale
Continue reading Troy, a giant horse and forgotten Greek cities in Turkey →