Back to school

Getting married in India is a stressful affair. My sisters wedding concluded recently. I played the host to 400 odd people and I was totally drained out arranging everything. Finally it is over. Nothing less than a feat. Good to get done!
I am back in Minneapolis and back to school. Slowly picking up on work. It is no summer in summer here compared to what was in India.
For some reason I feel more lethargic than I was feeling when I left. I wear out running only 2 miles, more mentally than physically. I think Im not doing much at work too. I also don't feel like going out much. Is this a hangover of the holiday time spent back home?

Eurotrip

I met several interesting people throughout the last eight days. A Romanian born college dropout running stock trading firm, small town Austrian dude living and working in Vienna, French-American couple expat in Czech, Polish lady born in communist era small town Poland and living in Krakow, two college kids passionate about studying physical therapy and self-proclaimed yoga-freak.

All this travelling only re-affirmed my belief that people everywhere in the world are same. All of us need love, acceptance and appreciation. And secondly that Polish women are among the most beautiful lot.

I was really haphazard in my planning and it only added more adventure to the trip. I had to run and dash to get to travel Vienna-to-Prague. Half of the journey done in a shabby car ride share and other half in a bus whose ticket I bought in 10 min before departure. For rest of the international travel I booked tickets on the fly. But it concluded well with me watching Polish animated movies in a park with two polkas. A friend of friend bid me farewell in Vienna before my flight. Now I'm in India facing the heat and waiting for monsoons.

Austria is a place which I think did not had much remnants of the forgotten war. Partly because most of it was destroyed in the war. I’m not sure of this but this is my guess. Even though in East Europe this part is quite well developed. There are a lot of other industries than the tourism. It was a busier town much like Delhi but with less people. Unlike US and like many European cities the public transport is excellent. But it doesn’t come really cheap in Vienna. I paid 2.10 euro for a single surface tram ride. The ticket cannot be used even if you get down the next station. Most of the Vienna’s population lives in box flats. I spotted very few houses with frontyard and backyard.

My host in Austria was a Mathematician working in IT field. He was in his own words pure authentic Austrian awesomeness. :) We exchange Indian and Austrian cuisines. I cooked mushroom masala and was served käsespätzle. It was one of the best pasta dish I had had!

Prague was even wonderful. I had a really comfy couch and blanket and I slept well two nights at my hosts. They were a couple and a kitty. The apartment building where I stayed itself had a medieval architecture. The whole of Prague is filled with architecture marvels, Prague castle being the most marvellous in town, and probably in the world too! One morning I was eating breakfast and the kitty was loitering around the house. She was really comfortable around me and accepted me as house member. Then all of a sudden she decided to jump into my lap and sit there :) Cute kitty!
I took a WW2 history tour in Prague by Marek and it was quite good. We learned a lot about Prague history. I also picked up strangers and started talking and hanging out with them. I met a guy from Hong Kong and we were in Prague together for half a day. Then there was this travelling musicians from Dutch and Canada with whom I hung out for a while. They were called Te (Traum-Tânz-Orkester). I took a lot of pictures of them playing on Charles Bridge. I promised to share the pictures with them. I didn't get their email but I finally hunted them down on facebook. They are difficult to find on internet!

Trains are awesome feature of Europe which I miss in US. I took a night train from Prague and Krakow. I befriended a German guy from train and we travelled in Krakow together for a day. Next day I hung out with my host. I tried a lot of polish food and drink with the help of my host. Naleśniki, pierogi and Obwarzanek and Orzechowka. If you get a chance don't miss naleśniki. 

The Auschwiz

I remember the winter when I watched the six part documentary titled “The Holocaust”. To tell you the truth I never watched all six. After fifth one I felt sick, depressed, suicidal. I couldn’t take more of it. Previous week I was there – The Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkinau. Among these two grounds there died more than one million fine young men, women and children. During the whole visit there were two places where which can give you shudders.  First one was a room in Auschwitz I where the hairs of actual victims are kept.

Before I go to the second one here are some facts. Most of Auschwitz was destroyed towards the end of war when Germans were retreating and Red Army was chasing them. In spite of this some parts remain in original and some of it is reconstructed to look like as it were. The hairs of female victims were stored in a room to be sold to German fabric industry at half price for recycling purposes.

Second place was the incinerator in the Auschwitz I which was mostly in its original form. The room looked similar to a bakery I saw once. It was the place where people were rounded up for the ‘shower’. Of course there was no shower, there was cyclone B gas, and there was fire. For once I wanted it believe it was all fabricated. I wanted someone to tell me that the whole thing was a bad bad joke someone was trying to pull on me and nothing of this happened. The entrance gate built by Germans read in German “Work makes you free” which was obviously a pretty bad joke.

It is quite hard to believe that there was a society which allowed this to happen. Like love, hate is also a very strong feeling. It can make people do devilish things.

Auschwitz II Birkenau, built later in the war, was a much bigger ground where Jews from all over the Europe were brought. Originally there were barracks for Polish army in these grounds. Each barrack, built for about 70 horses, was later used to house about 300-400 people in them. In these grounds everything that was in Auschwitz one was at a bigger scale. There were 4 gas chambers. Because of the large amount of population sanitation became a problem and threatened safety of Nazi officers staying there. There were several sterilization facilities built here.
I thought I would write much more about it. I remember most of it. I can create a virtual tour of Auschwitz but I think I better not. I don’t want to write about it and I believe you don’t want to read about it.
May be I will write about jolly days of my ‘holidays’. My flight is about to land in India and I am going to see family after a long long time.

Homeward bound

My nice little Euro trip comes to an end today. I'm in Vienna right now waiting fir my flight to India where I belong. Fir days in Poland and I know more about the place than ever. And so much in love with this country. It ended with me watching short Polish animation movies. And hanging out over beer and soc bananavoa with two sweet little polka with big hearts.

I had gracious hosts in all 4 cities and three countries I travelled. I loved them all. I will write about all of them soon when I'm at ease at home. For now it's bon voyage! I'll see mommy soon!

Poland

One week in Europe about to end. Right now I am in a not so known Polish town of Katowice. It is a town sprawling with college kids and two of them are hosting me. This is my fourth day in Poland and I am feeling really Polish by now :)
Earlier in Krakow I was at a CS party and I could make believe that I know Polish to many people. Just by using some common phrases. I was eating Polish food most of the time. I really like the Pirogis and Naleshniki. I was traveling in local transport like locals all the time. I even tried Polish drink called Orzechowka with a Polka in Krakow.

I really love Poland by now. Staying with Polish hosts only helped. It is like India in some aspects. Some of the photos look much like India. Other thing that I love about Poland, Europe in general, is the trains. They have good train network. They are cheap for domestic transport and they go everywhere. It coated me only 6 PLN ($2) from Oswiecim to Katowice. Funny thing is you can buy ticket only on board train. It took me a while to figure it out. I know more about Poland now than before. I want to come back here if I can. May be live here for a while.
I have so much to write before I forget about it.