Reminiscing Pleasantries
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
A Weekend in Paris
"Awesome is an understatement"
I am in love…….with Paris!
Our first weekend outing away from Spain was to Paris and Nice and the weekend could not get any better. Still in the grips of the awesome beauty of Paris and fallen heads-over-heals for this enthralling city, I think Paris would be the best city ever that I have visited and probably would visit in the future.
Starting on the evening of Wednesday, 11th Oct from Barcelona, Pari, Rohit and I reached Paris on the 12th morning. We were lucky to accost Asim, an exchange student from IIMC and we were put up at his apartment, which was also shared by two of IIMB students but had traveled to Germany and one other IIMC guy called Arpit. The first day of Paris was meant for two wonderful monuments; The Church of Sacred Hearts and the Pantheon.
The Church of Sacred Hearts is a huge church built out of the contribution of many philanthropists and is encircled by lush green gardens. The elevation of this place is such that we get a bird’s eye view of Paris. We roamed around this place for quite sometime admiring the church interiors and the well-fed pigeons. Moving on, we visited the Pantheon where a guide led us through the historical significance of this edifice. This was a church earlier and then converted to a national monument and is the second tallest monument in Paris after the Eiffel tower. A unique process of “Pantheonization” is followed where French national celebrities are buried with national respect and there are a lot of criteria to be met before one is entitled for this. Personalities like Madame Curie, Alexandre Dumas et al are buried here. This also houses a long pendulum that is suspended from the roof with a golden ball weighing 47 kgs hanging from it. Atop from this building we could see the city of Paris and more importantly a wonderful view of the Eiffel tower. Both these structures were overwhelming in their architectural construction and left us overawed. The last of the destinations for the day was the Bastille, where we had a leisurely walk along the River de Siene and on the way back helped ourselves to some wonderful Pizza.
As we planning for the next day’s explorations, two other IIMB fellas, Abhi and Sonia, on exchange from Vienna arrived to Paris and it was more-the-merrier for us. Paris is filled with so many centers of attractions that we had to really pick the best of the best and we zeroed in on the world-famous Louvre museum and the Eiffel tower. Louvre museum has one of the most fabulous collections of artifacts and paintings that span across centuries and once has to see it to believe it. Sonia and I took the audio guide that had the excerpts of the famous movie “The Da-Vinci Code” and the guide, in the voice of the inspector, Bezu Fache, led us across the various points of the museums where the actual shooting took place culminating with the location where “the blade meets the chalice”. It was indeed an enchanting experience as we were tracking the ever-obscure professor Robert Langdon in the curvy paths of Louvre whilst unraveling the mystery of Da-Vinci’s wonderful paintings. The Louvre is so big that we could easily spend a couple of days exploring the entire museum. It has Egyptians relics, ancient Greek sculptures, French and Italian paintings and the royal artifacts used by the French kings including Napoleon the Great. Looking at these, I felt jealous of the pomp and glory with the kings of the yesteryears spent their lives. After spending about 5 hours, we were able to cover about 60% of the museum area and time was fast running out. After some quick looking around, we decided to move on to the Eiffel tower. It was a nice walk from Louvre to Eiffel tower. Standing at the foot of the tower, we realized that it was a dream come true for us to be alongside of this architectural marvel. We also took a ride atop this 320-meter high tower and it was a heavenly experience to be standing on top of the tallest structure in Paris.
The last day in Paris we visited the Notre Dame which is the most sacred cathedral in Paris and walked along the wide roads of this city sighting the innumerable palaces and cathedrals. The last of the stops was the Arc-de-Triomf, which is a gateway structure built to commemorate an old French king’s victory. This arc is at the end of an amazing walkway called “Champs Elysees” (pronounced as Shan-Elyse) which has showrooms for almost all kinds of stuff and their leading brands.
As we headed to Nice, it was time to bid adieu to Paris and we parted ways with Sonia and Abhi.
Arpit joined the three of us for the one-day Nice trip from Paris. The sight of the azure waters was a welcome sign for us to take a dip in the sea and the rest of the day was for loafing around the city at a leisurely pace. We went atop a small hill and had a stroll in a good park while enjoying French snacks. As it got darker, our journey through France was at its end and we returned to Barca with loads of sweet memoirs.
For fotos...click here... ¶ Tuesday, October 17, 2006 0 Comments
I am in love…….with Paris!
Our first weekend outing away from Spain was to Paris and Nice and the weekend could not get any better. Still in the grips of the awesome beauty of Paris and fallen heads-over-heals for this enthralling city, I think Paris would be the best city ever that I have visited and probably would visit in the future.
Starting on the evening of Wednesday, 11th Oct from Barcelona, Pari, Rohit and I reached Paris on the 12th morning. We were lucky to accost Asim, an exchange student from IIMC and we were put up at his apartment, which was also shared by two of IIMB students but had traveled to Germany and one other IIMC guy called Arpit. The first day of Paris was meant for two wonderful monuments; The Church of Sacred Hearts and the Pantheon.
The Church of Sacred Hearts is a huge church built out of the contribution of many philanthropists and is encircled by lush green gardens. The elevation of this place is such that we get a bird’s eye view of Paris. We roamed around this place for quite sometime admiring the church interiors and the well-fed pigeons. Moving on, we visited the Pantheon where a guide led us through the historical significance of this edifice. This was a church earlier and then converted to a national monument and is the second tallest monument in Paris after the Eiffel tower. A unique process of “Pantheonization” is followed where French national celebrities are buried with national respect and there are a lot of criteria to be met before one is entitled for this. Personalities like Madame Curie, Alexandre Dumas et al are buried here. This also houses a long pendulum that is suspended from the roof with a golden ball weighing 47 kgs hanging from it. Atop from this building we could see the city of Paris and more importantly a wonderful view of the Eiffel tower. Both these structures were overwhelming in their architectural construction and left us overawed. The last of the destinations for the day was the Bastille, where we had a leisurely walk along the River de Siene and on the way back helped ourselves to some wonderful Pizza.
As we planning for the next day’s explorations, two other IIMB fellas, Abhi and Sonia, on exchange from Vienna arrived to Paris and it was more-the-merrier for us. Paris is filled with so many centers of attractions that we had to really pick the best of the best and we zeroed in on the world-famous Louvre museum and the Eiffel tower. Louvre museum has one of the most fabulous collections of artifacts and paintings that span across centuries and once has to see it to believe it. Sonia and I took the audio guide that had the excerpts of the famous movie “The Da-Vinci Code” and the guide, in the voice of the inspector, Bezu Fache, led us across the various points of the museums where the actual shooting took place culminating with the location where “the blade meets the chalice”. It was indeed an enchanting experience as we were tracking the ever-obscure professor Robert Langdon in the curvy paths of Louvre whilst unraveling the mystery of Da-Vinci’s wonderful paintings. The Louvre is so big that we could easily spend a couple of days exploring the entire museum. It has Egyptians relics, ancient Greek sculptures, French and Italian paintings and the royal artifacts used by the French kings including Napoleon the Great. Looking at these, I felt jealous of the pomp and glory with the kings of the yesteryears spent their lives. After spending about 5 hours, we were able to cover about 60% of the museum area and time was fast running out. After some quick looking around, we decided to move on to the Eiffel tower. It was a nice walk from Louvre to Eiffel tower. Standing at the foot of the tower, we realized that it was a dream come true for us to be alongside of this architectural marvel. We also took a ride atop this 320-meter high tower and it was a heavenly experience to be standing on top of the tallest structure in Paris.
The last day in Paris we visited the Notre Dame which is the most sacred cathedral in Paris and walked along the wide roads of this city sighting the innumerable palaces and cathedrals. The last of the stops was the Arc-de-Triomf, which is a gateway structure built to commemorate an old French king’s victory. This arc is at the end of an amazing walkway called “Champs Elysees” (pronounced as Shan-Elyse) which has showrooms for almost all kinds of stuff and their leading brands.
As we headed to Nice, it was time to bid adieu to Paris and we parted ways with Sonia and Abhi.
Arpit joined the three of us for the one-day Nice trip from Paris. The sight of the azure waters was a welcome sign for us to take a dip in the sea and the rest of the day was for loafing around the city at a leisurely pace. We went atop a small hill and had a stroll in a good park while enjoying French snacks. As it got darker, our journey through France was at its end and we returned to Barca with loads of sweet memoirs.
For fotos...click here... ¶ Tuesday, October 17, 2006 0 Comments
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
First weekend getaway from Barca.....
Lifez been this....freak out...freak out and keep freaking out.... (atleast till now).....
Now that life is pretty much settled at Barca, we thought we should start exploring Europe and what better place to start than Barca. The first weekend here (Oct 7 n 8) was meant to be a seaside outing alongside of a visit to a couple of cathedrals around Barca. Dharini had left to France and so it was for the rest of us to getaway this weekend.
On Saturday, we decided to visit "Tossa-de-mara", a hot tourist destination which hosts a old fort and two enchanting beaches and this place an hour's drive from here. We walked around an old and dilapidated fort clicking our cameras all the way. Better things were to follow.
Deciding against dipping into the waters of the main beach, we took a boat cruise from the main beach to reach another smaller, nevertheless more serene beach. Along the way, the boat sneaked into few caves that were carved out of the behemoth rocks and it was sight to behold. The boat we went in had a glass bottom and we could see lots of coral and small fishes as we cruised along. The destination of this ride was the wonderful beach with its not-so-crowded sands.
Pari decided to stretch himself on the sands with the weather aiding his cause as he listened to his iPod. Rohit, Saurabh, Tarun and I decided to get a feel of the water, which was too tempting to resist. Lying in the cool crystal clear waters with the sun shining bright was heavens down to earth. We dragged ourselves out of water after around 2 hours of fun in the blue waters.
Coming back home, we had little energy for something more and all we could do was to hog and crash into our beds.
Sunday morning, we were up early to catch a train to "Girona", 1.5 hours by train. This city is quite old and has retained most of its antiquity thru its buildings. There are two monumental cathedrals, one of them dating back to 1733. We also visited a church and couple of museums and it was a good outing. One museum hosted the memorabilia that brought out the evolution of modern day cinema and it was an interesting sojourn along the memory lane.
Getting back home, Pari and Tarun cooked some wonderfully spicy Indian curry and it was a perfect end to our weekend revelry.
It's time for Euro-scan. We plan to go around Europe in the days to come and I am all excited about the upcoming prospects of visiting Europe's name-to-fame places.
For the fotos of this weekend, click here.
So long........... ¶ Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2 Comments
Now that life is pretty much settled at Barca, we thought we should start exploring Europe and what better place to start than Barca. The first weekend here (Oct 7 n 8) was meant to be a seaside outing alongside of a visit to a couple of cathedrals around Barca. Dharini had left to France and so it was for the rest of us to getaway this weekend.
On Saturday, we decided to visit "Tossa-de-mara", a hot tourist destination which hosts a old fort and two enchanting beaches and this place an hour's drive from here. We walked around an old and dilapidated fort clicking our cameras all the way. Better things were to follow.
Deciding against dipping into the waters of the main beach, we took a boat cruise from the main beach to reach another smaller, nevertheless more serene beach. Along the way, the boat sneaked into few caves that were carved out of the behemoth rocks and it was sight to behold. The boat we went in had a glass bottom and we could see lots of coral and small fishes as we cruised along. The destination of this ride was the wonderful beach with its not-so-crowded sands.
Pari decided to stretch himself on the sands with the weather aiding his cause as he listened to his iPod. Rohit, Saurabh, Tarun and I decided to get a feel of the water, which was too tempting to resist. Lying in the cool crystal clear waters with the sun shining bright was heavens down to earth. We dragged ourselves out of water after around 2 hours of fun in the blue waters.
Coming back home, we had little energy for something more and all we could do was to hog and crash into our beds.
Sunday morning, we were up early to catch a train to "Girona", 1.5 hours by train. This city is quite old and has retained most of its antiquity thru its buildings. There are two monumental cathedrals, one of them dating back to 1733. We also visited a church and couple of museums and it was a good outing. One museum hosted the memorabilia that brought out the evolution of modern day cinema and it was an interesting sojourn along the memory lane.
Getting back home, Pari and Tarun cooked some wonderfully spicy Indian curry and it was a perfect end to our weekend revelry.
It's time for Euro-scan. We plan to go around Europe in the days to come and I am all excited about the upcoming prospects of visiting Europe's name-to-fame places.
For the fotos of this weekend, click here.
So long........... ¶ Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2 Comments
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Ma life at ESADE....
Those first few days of Student Exchange I am so elated about this whole prospect of studying for my one term of MBA in a foreign university that it has taken me around a week's time to do a reality-check and start blogging.
Being a student of the non-residential MBA program, the opportunity to go on a student-exchange to Escuela Superior de Administration y Direccion de Empressa (meaning Masters' school of Administration) , in short ESADE at Barcelona, Spain was a welcome break from work and time for student life at its fullest.
Three other full-time MBA students from IIMB (Dharini,Pari & Rohit) and two from IIML (Tarun & Saurabh) thought we will chug along together in this newland of Barca. We arrived on the 28-Sept and stayed put in a youth hostel called alberguinn and this was a neat place for a make-shift home before we settled in our newly found home, away from our homes in India. The apartment turned put ot be wonderfully well serviced, spacious and also in the heart of the city. We owe this discovery to Tarun and Saurabh.
Although nothing major has transpired after our landing in Spain, we have tried to explore Barca a little. Barca is a pretty clean city with friendly people and we have not had any major problems with language, although English is not as wide spread as Spanish. Nevertheless, we are chilling out here. Few good walks in the many parks of this verdant city with a cool climate has been very refreshing. Our daily schedule is pretty much fixed; a quick break-fast in the morning with classes running to latest till 6-00 and then looking forward for dinner. Pari and Dharini do the bulk of cooking (Indian spicy stuff....my mouth is watering even as I write this) and it is alleviating our problem of missing Indian food to a great extent.
More interesting would be the weekends to come, when we plan to visit Madrid, Paris and other major European cities. So then I would have lots to write.
Before signing-off, a foto of all six of us....................:D
For more fotos of our first few days, pls check my online album.
¶ Wednesday, October 04, 2006 8 Comments
Those first few days of Student Exchange I am so elated about this whole prospect of studying for my one term of MBA in a foreign university that it has taken me around a week's time to do a reality-check and start blogging.
Being a student of the non-residential MBA program, the opportunity to go on a student-exchange to Escuela Superior de Administration y Direccion de Empressa (meaning Masters' school of Administration) , in short ESADE at Barcelona, Spain was a welcome break from work and time for student life at its fullest.
Three other full-time MBA students from IIMB (Dharini,Pari & Rohit) and two from IIML (Tarun & Saurabh) thought we will chug along together in this newland of Barca. We arrived on the 28-Sept and stayed put in a youth hostel called alberguinn and this was a neat place for a make-shift home before we settled in our newly found home, away from our homes in India. The apartment turned put ot be wonderfully well serviced, spacious and also in the heart of the city. We owe this discovery to Tarun and Saurabh.
Although nothing major has transpired after our landing in Spain, we have tried to explore Barca a little. Barca is a pretty clean city with friendly people and we have not had any major problems with language, although English is not as wide spread as Spanish. Nevertheless, we are chilling out here. Few good walks in the many parks of this verdant city with a cool climate has been very refreshing. Our daily schedule is pretty much fixed; a quick break-fast in the morning with classes running to latest till 6-00 and then looking forward for dinner. Pari and Dharini do the bulk of cooking (Indian spicy stuff....my mouth is watering even as I write this) and it is alleviating our problem of missing Indian food to a great extent.
More interesting would be the weekends to come, when we plan to visit Madrid, Paris and other major European cities. So then I would have lots to write.
Before signing-off, a foto of all six of us....................:D
For more fotos of our first few days, pls check my online album.
¶ Wednesday, October 04, 2006 8 Comments
