HOPPING THE BORDERS PART-2

So now let’s move to our second destination Europe.

(refer to my 1^st blog for a better understanding of this one- namatmathur.blogspot.com)

 So the first thing which comes to my mind when I think about France is the beautiful countryside, cyclists wearing a plane black t-shirt, its rivalry with England (basically I am talking about history) and yes of course the unforgettable Eiffel Tower. The beauty of that country is really dynamic and ya of Course includes the bunch of arrogant people.

In the year 2014 my parents in all of sudden planned a trip to EUROPE for a week and it was really all of sudden and even it was surprise for me and after hearing that we are going to Europe, I was just jumping hoops all around the house and what else do you expect from an eight-year boy.

Finally, we boarded our flight from Dubai and had a 4-hour halt in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and finally after a 10 hour tiring journey we landed to Paris with our whole tour team. I loved the pleasant atmosphere there.

Then we went to our hotel Hilton Palace and had an amazing hot sumptuous brunch.

It was around 2 pm and we all met at the lobby to depart for visiting the Eiffel tower with our tour manager Arun Devlatkar. Finally, we reached that amazing place within an hour and was just amazed to see such an amazing sculpture and the worst part was when we needed to stand in a too long line in that scorching heat. I was shocked to hear that the lift of Eiffel tower goes in a diagonal manner. The view of Paris from the top of the Eiffel tower was just awesome.

 After seeing the day view of the Eiffel tower we finally went to one the most beautiful river Seine and went on a River Cruise and even saw the water view of Paris. Around 8pm we had our dinner and ended our exciting day.

For me the second day was the most exciting because we visited to Disneyland Paris and the most exciting part was that we were there for whole day. We steered many rides and best one was the Hollywood train in which you can really get the feeling that you are in Hollywood. I loved their infrastructure and the way the things were made out.  I till now can never forget that 360-degree roller coaster ride in which me and mother went in a follow through but on halfway we got to know that it gets turned 360 degrees and our reaction was just “why are we here”. That was a dangerous ride.

We had a pure French brunch there and enjoyed many and many rides there and finally in the evening we proceeded to the hotel.

And one small bottle of water costed around 160 rupees. (500ml)

Overnight we were at the hotel and next day in the morning we left for the city tour of Paris.

During the city tour we visited many churches and even there is a myth that if we keep our leg on the center point of Paris, then u will surely visit Paris once again and even I don’t know why but I kept my leg at that point.

 We again sat in the cruise and once again saw the Eiffel tower but actually it was night so we saw the tower sparkling with lights all over it. Paris is also famous because of its bridges and we saw approx. 15 different types of bridges and my favorite was the lock bridge in which if you put your name on a lock and key it on that bridge and throw the key in the water then your wish will be fulfilled.

Again overnight we were in the hotel and next morning we departed to Switzerland.

On the way to Switzerland we saw an awesome scenery of greenery all around, cow roaming all around with cow bells hung on them and those green hills. It was just awesome. During the journey we had a halt at a restaurant where we had some burgers and when we moved on our bus stopped and I asked my tour guide arun, that what is happening all around. He said this is the France, Switzerland and Germany border and I just rushed out my bus to see what’s happening down. It was awesome to see three countries in a same sight.

Finally, around 2pm we reached Albis, Switzerland and as soon we reached our hotel Holiday inn my brothers head just got banged on the wall of our room and had an injury on his head and after 30 minutes we had our gala dinner at the farmhouse. But it was all settled within 20 minutes and we went to the farmhouse that night.

The next day was very exciting as I was first time visiting a snow mountain in my life. It was Mt. Titlis.

We went to the top of the mountain in a slow moving train and the view outside was just awesome and finally reached the top.

I was shocked to see Shahrukh Khan and Kajols large posters there. Later I got to know that the film “Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge “was shot here.

We even played with snowballs. (what more do you expect from an eight-year boy)

The most amazing part of that day was riding on an ice flyer and having a snow view lunch.

Around 3 pm we departed for Lucerne, a beautiful city of Switzerland. We had got plenty of free time for shopping and enjoying the view of that beautiful place.

We returned to our hotel and had dinner.

Next day we again went to a snow mountain, Mt. Jungfrau where we went up in a ropeway actually a horror ropeway with all ice under you. Up there we enjoyed a lot playing with snow and while returning we had open ropeway which was more dangerous than the first one. Then we went to Interlaken (A city in Switzerland) and famous for shopping. We purchased many soigneurs like a cow bell, T shirts and mementos.

Finally, we had our dinner at the hotel and next morning departed back to Dubai.

This journey will always be remembered.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES TO HONG KONG, SINGAPORE, USA ………………………………………………………………………………………………..

  

HOPPING THE BORDERS

There is a certain thrill and excitement that comes with traveling to new places.

Seasoned travelers are familiar with the various regions, as well as the best strategy for packing for a trip of anytime. BUT YA, SURELY I AM NOT ONE OF A SEASON TRAVELER. I am just a traveler with a certain kind of thrilling experiences of different places in the world. 

But many families and young travelers may be overwhelmed, wondering what they’ll need to survive. But that is something kind of a old mentality which is certainly not used in this kind of era. Anyway let’s come to the main topic. 

         

   SO EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO CONVEY YOU IS MY EXPIRIENCE OF LIVING AND TRAVELLING DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

So let’s start with first country United Arab Emirates

The Emirate whose name gives me a lot of excitement. Ye its Dubai.

More than half of my life has been spent there. My memories with this country is just unforgettable. The culture of this country is its own pride itself. 

 In the year 2011, I first time went to Dubai, UAE and was stuck in a pure Filipino hotel with a damn pure Filipino cuisine. Yeah, it sounds interesting, but it's not. Me a pure North Indian 7-year-old boy sitting in such a situation staring that food which I never tasted. Something really new for me and my parents.

In Dubai more than people of 150 nationalities like India, Pakistan, Sri lanka , Europe, Yemen and etc. live together like a single family. Behind our society there was a sand area where we all friends from different nations play and enjoyed discussing each other’s culture.

UAE gave me a profit of learning a new language ARABIC. I first found it difficult but later I started loving this language.

The all seven years, having same schedule was never a boredom in such an exciting country. The skyscrapers were the main attraction of that country that to in a night time was just like heaven.  The Desert Safari was one of my favorite experience in Dubai where your car climbs on sand dunes giving you a roller coaster feeling and ya how can I forget the kanddora dance, one of the most famous dance of UAE in which a person dances and just revolves without any stoppage.

The country only did not have artificial beauty but it also included natural beauty like it had many parks, botanical gardens, beaches and main attraction of the natural beauty was the Miracle garden which I loved a lot. A garden full of different types of flowers made into different structures and though made it my favorite.

 There were malls like Dubai mall which was considered as world’s biggest mall and I have always enjoyed there and I used to go there with my family on Friday. The Mall of Emirates and many more malls have won my heart.

MY EDUCATION IN UAE

I used to go to one of the finest schools of Dubai ‘THE INDIAN HIGH SCHOOL’. I know it’s hard to believe an Indian School in an Arabic subcontinent. I made many and many friends there to interact in an unknown country. But I can never say this country unknown because this country has given me everything I wanted.

The Dubai Under Water zoo was an amazing place to visit where u can see many aquatic animals under aquarium and the first time I visited here was when I was in class 2 and finally the main attraction of Dubai, the tallest building in the world Burj Khalifa. It consists of approx. 170 floors where u can only travel till 124th floor. The view from Burj Khalifa during night time was awesome. The first time when I went to Burj Khalifa was a very frightening moment for me.

CUSINE OF UAE

There was a culture of drinking an Arabic coffee Kawa. It even became my favorite. People prefer food without much spices and preferred light food.

Dishes like humus, falafel, pita bread and etc. were preferred by the people and me too.

My favorite Arabic dish was Falafel which was a very prominent dish of UAE and ya how can i forget my favorite Arabic restaurant Aroos Damascus (Syrian Restaurant). It was one of the finest restaurant in Dubai and ya of course it’s hard to believe that a Syrian restaurant almost ruling the cuisine of Dubai.

The 7 years just passed in a blink of an eye, but yeah it was awesome.

The story is yet not over.... the thriller is left

The day we were saying final goodbye to Dubai was though very emotional but the chapter is till now not closed. The problem arrived at the airport where due to government issues my visa could not be canceled. We had around 30 minutes to flight take of but this horror thing made us blocked. We never even thought about this but ya at the last moment it was granted leading to a very happy ending

   GET READY FOR MY SECOND BLOG I WILL POST…………………………. Journey continuous..Europe,Far East,China, USA and many more