Travel Buffet

The only thing my husband told me on the day he brought us all to Trier was that it was the oldest city in Germany. That itself was enough to pique my interest in visiting yet another new place. This was the only new place I visited during my second Europe trip so all in all my excitement was way too high. En route from the train station to Porta Nigra Trier is not only the oldest city in Germany, it is also home to, not one, not two, but nine UNESCO world heritage sites; not one of which I knew prior to reaching there. I did not plan the trip so I guess I can be excused. Having been blindsided by my own husband, I regret missing the cultural drop-ins on the monuments. I did not realize the scale of it all until much later, after reaching my home country but it is too late now.  In retrospect, I did see a couple of these sites and admired them and remember wanting to go in some other day, leaving it for another day. The Constantin Throne from outside building; at the time we though...

The Harappan remains of Lothal is the only other (apart from Dholavira) Indus valley civilization archaeological site in India (as of 2018) leaving everything else with Pakistan. This is the motivation I had, to visit this site during my one-day stay in Ahmedabad while waiting for the train to Bhuj . This is probably the only thing that will urge me to visit Pakistan someday, if ever. The six of us had two options: Local sightseeing in the city or drive to Lothal. One couple chose the former and the other two couples chose the latter. Obviously, it was my decision to go to Lothal. The driver kept insisting that it was not worth the drive there but once I made my mind and prepared the itinerary, that was the way to go. The drive was two-hour long and the driver was grumpy about our choice. We were all excited as this was our first time in an excavated land. The place was a bit interior from the national highway and there was no one in sight. With hot air blowing in my face from the car ...

Konark Sun Temple, Orissa Orissa is one of the many states I have travelled in India. From what I heard from my cousin and folklores, I gather that this state is one of the first few states to be formed based on language. It goes without saying that their love for Lord Jagannath is deeply rooted and nothing can take this place and the people away from Him; not the imperial British colonization, not the Mughal invasions, not the innumerous infusions by foreign organizations. These people are so staunch in their beliefs that they pride themselves on it. I stayed in IIT Bhubaneshwar, which was moved to Jatani, 40-minute drive from Bhubaneshwar. The campus overlooked Barunei mountain. Legends have it that the first war against any invasion in India started from Orissa warriors. One more shocking news I learnt was that the warriors back then were actually women. As you can see from the souvenirs I bought , women soldiers of Orissa tribe led by the then Queen Baruni marched down Barunei moun...

After it stopped raining in Konark , we headed to Chandrabhaga beach in Puri. My cousin lowered my expectations of the beach, since we both hail from Chennai, the city with the second longest beach in the world. But he didn't do it well because I was totally unimpressed to see such a small beach. The distance from the road to the water was shorter than the breadth of the road itself. It looked more like a private beach. There was hardly anyone there when we went but that could be because it was the middle of a weekday, not that the beach looked like it could handle a large crowd on a weekend. Small beach for a small family Parking lot There is a time to relax and there is a time to click photos I wasn't in the mood for knee-dipping so I stayed on the sand, sucking in the calm salty air and the sea-breeze. I heard from my cousin that people were not allowed to go swimming in that particular beach anymore due to recent deaths there. The depth of the water is unpredictable apparen...