UK Excursion Part 1!!

Feels funny to write something on Last week after First months blog.. Many reasons among which most important one was my Laziness.

9 Months of my stay away from India is coming to an end. Glad this feeling crossed my mind to make at least few notes on what happened here. My pathetic memory would make me forget everything within no time otherwise.

Looking at the way my days were passing I could never really imagine I would struggle this much to spend my last one month here. Yes it was a little struggle really. In no time my first 3 months were gone, so as my first 6 months. Then... time halted. It was not at all ready to run fast. After struggling a little till Dec end I tried my best to finish January. After knowing that I would return back to India on Jan 31st the time acquired my laziness and stopped.

Started with the biggest trip in first month.Scotland. I had just heard from everyone that it is beautiful. But had never really imagined how beautiful it could be. Before coming here I had just imagined Scotland as only a cricket playing country who wear dark blue t shirts and win some surprise matches in World cups..
Thanks to my roomies that they were planning to go back to India very soon. They agreed to visit Scotland on May.
Bank holiday weekend was ahead and we started planning. I had a friend in Edinburgh so we decided that to be our base location. We had to book early as ticket prices were raising very fast because of long weekend. After long discussion we booked Train ticket to Edinburgh at 100 per head to and fro. That was the cheapest available at that time.
The toughest thing to do before travel was to convince our manager. Who was a typical manager for whom work was priority than anything else. I dint know that we are supposed to support compulsorily till 9 BST so convince my friend to book onward journey tickets at 7.30 in the evening. It would be too late to go on Saturday as the journey was almost 4 hours and we would waste a day. That plan was totally against my managers wish and we had to get a lot of scoldings before starting our journey. We had to carry out our laptop and secure id's in case there was an issue over weekend.
Our manager also warned strictly that, it is the last time he would allow both support people to travel together on weekend. I was almost convinced that my first trip will be my last trip. :P
We were almost late for the train so had to run to catch our train from Kings cross Station. I had always fancied about this station since from my harry potter reading days. So had planned to go early, find out platform 9 3/4 and take a pic there. But thanks to my manager I could only get one random pic on platform number 2 instead.
The train started exactly at 7.30, ran perfect and very fast till 8.30 and then stopped. The view was so great throughout the first 1 hour so I would have really not cared if the train had stopped in some good place. But it had halted on a pathetic place where I could see wall on one side and bush on other side. Reason was some signal failure. We finished all the snacks we had brought and hoped that train would move faster but it dint. Finally it reached Edinburgh at 3.45 AM in the morning 4 hours later than the expected arrival.
We were totally exhausted sitting for so much time and were looking to get back to my friends room asap, but still there was no end to our long night. We had to wait in the chilling cold for a taxi. Finally we reached my friends room around 5 in the morning and tried to catch some sleep.
I was very surprised and happy to see trains work the same way as Indian trains here. :P

As per plan we had decided to roam around Edinburgh on Saturday and had booked a small day trip on Sunday. The city was more beautiful than my expectation. Cleanliness and greenery was everywhere you see. We went to a famous park there from where the view of Edinburgh castle was very clear and wonderful. I could see the a very wonderful thing in that park which made me feel so good and jealous about people of that country. I could see the whole place full of people in weekend dresses with their kids sitting in the park. There were so free and relaxed and i can bet that they would do it every week. Children were playing happily around the park with other children or pets. Elders were sitting on easy chairs closing their eyes and relaxing. I thought I would pay any amount to have a life like that. Will I ever do that in my life?

After taking few snaps in the park near some fountain we started towards Art Museum. I had special interest in this museum just because my friend had told that it had a painting of Tippu Sultan. It was good like any other gallery. We went to see the big Monument built there for some poet. It was called Scott Monument. I learned that day the importance of Monuments and how much respect they give to the monuments. We decided to climb the tall Monument. Ticket was 4 pounds but my friend told that it will be worth.
I was almost out of my breath by the time I was on top, mainly because of the endless stairs. But the view from the top of that Monument blew out the remaining air from my lungs. That was by far the best sight I had seen till then.
We could see the entire city from that tower. It was a typical European city where one side was hill and other side was sea. The sea looked a bit far but it was so serene and blue. We stayed there for more than 30 minutes took hundreds of snaps from all sides and decided to give space for others and climbed down. as many were against visiting the castle we decided to go to a hill top area from where the sea side part of city was visible.
We walked all the way to that garden as we could cover most of the city by walking. We had to note our next day pick up point also. As expected the view from that park was also equally good. It was less crowded, mainly because it was already evening. I just slept on the green grass and kept on looking at the sky for long time. It felt heavenly to feel that fresh air on that hill top. I felt so refreshed that day. I slept that night thinking going to Edinburgh was not a bad choice at all.

The hairycoo trip was about to start at sharp 9 next day. We were already aware that they wont even wait a minute if we go late as timings are followed very strictly there. We reached 30 mins early to the pick up point and our Guide Don started the trip.
Hairycoo looked like a funny name initially but Don told us that it is a very famous animal to be found in countryside of Scotland. As our trip started he asked all our names, we were some 15 people in the mini Hairycoo shaped van. I will never forget one thing he told us after he introduced himself, his exact words were ' - My name is Donald, you can all call me Don, but please do not call me driver because I am a human too even if I am a driver'.
Makes lot of sense isn't it. His words made me think and I had definitely learnt one big lesson that day that, I should respect every work. How small ever it may be. I should never consider any job/person doing it small however small the work may be.
One more which I understood that day was nature of Scottish people. Very self esteemed and proud. Throughout the trip Don kept on telling us things about Scotland, how they became a developed country from no where, their Oil revolution, William Wallace, Anti English views etc.. Being an Indian the most important point among that was how much they hate English. I was surprised to hear that their relation was almost like India Pak even after being part of UK.
Learnt slowly that English had ruled Scottish also earlier and they had struggled hard to earn their freedom just like we Indians. Sir William Wallace was their national hero who had fought bravely against English rule. It could not be wrong if I say, half the contents of his speech was anti British and half was in praise of William Wallace. I felt so dumb for not knowing such a famous name before. Had never watched Brave Heart earlier but thought of watching it the first thing after I went back to London.

With all the stories of Wallace, we had reached first location of our journey, The Forth Bridge. The bridge was one of the oldest and strongest bridge ever built in the world as Don told us. It looked very robust and it was a pride of Scottish people. One of the main reason for building that bridge was to show the world how rich Scottish were in terms of their Metal power it seems. It was completely built using metal. We took some snaps and started for our next and most interesting spot of the day - the Whisky Distillery. :P

We had stopped to visit Tullibardine Whisky distillery. The owner explained us the way Whisky is prepared and showed us the barrels where it is stored for years. The oldest whisky available with them was of 65 year old. Which was supposed to be sent for packing in another year. It was very interesting to see those things. We got to taste a little raw whisky also in the end as it was part of the ticket price for Whisky tour.. :)

On the way to our next destination St Andrews we got a chance to visit Wallace Memorial situated in sterling. We dint have time to go on top of it but got few pics from below. As informed by our guide Don St Andrews was the birth place of Golf. Even before entering the town we could see many Golf courses along the route. Even though small, the Town was very rich. It had a lot of History. It also had a History on how Scotland got its white and blue Cross symbol National Flag.
St Andrews was a very small and beautiful city. Don said we could take a walk over the whole city in just 3 hours on foot. We clicked few pics on the main Golf course just beside the Beach and started our walk. We were not really interested in going inside any museums so directly went  to St Andrews castle. It was such a serene view from the castle as view on the other side was a light blue sea which never ended.
Adding to the serenity there were 3 St Andrews University students who were filling the atmosphere with their magical music tunes. That was arguably the best Music I had ever heard. 2 girls and a guy, guy playing Mandolin, 1 of the girl playing violin and the other girl was plating some musical instrument which looked like saxophone. It looked as if they were trying to challenge the beautiful sea in from of them with their music. travellers were confused whether to listen to their music or see the beautiful scenery.
We sat there listening to their music for at least 15 minutes and started our walk back to our base point through the sea shore. On the way we saw St Andrews University, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious Universities of UK. I was so jealous looking at the location of the Hostel and class rooms. the view outside their window was a beautiful blue sea. :)
One more surprise was awaiting as we neared our base point. Two couples were dancing their heart out in a small tent shaped open house. They had music playing out of a tape recorder. The music and dance was equally beautiful. I remembered seeing such dances in old English movies. We too sat down on the benches and watched them for 10-15 minutes and appreciated them. I had really loved the way these people spend their weekends it was so different from the weekends I had spent in my life in India. So fresh and feel good weekends.
We took some of the best snaps on the sea shore and got back into our vehicle return back to Edinburgh. One of the pictures taken on that place has remained my profile pic for at least 8 months now. :P

On the way back Don took us to a creepy looking old church as we had time. The church was very old and also a grave yard. But he took us to a place behind the church where many creepy rituals happen. The place looked very creepy. Although I could not understand everything he told us about the rituals, I got old the point that, people come there and tie different different things to the trees in that place when someone in their family is ill. We took some pics of that creepy place and started our journey back.

The last stop was some port area where nothing much special was there except hell lot of boats. My friends got to eat delicious Fish and chips and I ate only Chips.  :) We were back in Edinburgh by 6.30.
We visited Edinburgh castle after so much of discussion the next day, shopped few things and started our journey back to London.
One word for that trip - Beautiful Scotland!!!

First Month...

Time Flies.... This was the first Dialogue Ian Ramsay (Client Manager) told me when I went into the DB office for the first time. I had met him already when he visited India to train us. And time has really flown very fast in fact. Its been more than a month now since I came to London.

Monday morning rush at East Ham underground station was not surprising as I was told I was at the peak time. As I tried to take picture of East Ham station, my friend stopped me and repeated a dialogue quoted by another to her when she tried the the same six months ago, DON'T Take picture of East Ham and all. So as per advise I didn't take any picture of it, though I found it very exciting at the first look.
Morning chill was at around 5-6 degrees at 8.30 AM. I was very under-prepared for this kind of cold. Somehow managed to cover under my old jacket. It was good to see lots of Indian hotels in East Ham. I thought I wouldn't miss home food that much as long as I stay here.

I was hoping for a exciting day ahead as it was my first official day in London. Few things which excited me more are
1. Row houses : Every single house in the street was look alike. Although none of the interiors looked alike, still this thing surprised me. Why would anyone want the house to be same as other houses. This point never made any sense to me until I got to know from my owner that that is the tradition which has to be followed by everyone. Govt controlled that action. His exact words were 'Build a Taj Mahal inside the house, but exterior should be same'. Tough funny, it was very appreciable.
2. London Tube. It was really an amazing and unbelievable thing which they ever would have built. The tube was introduced 150 years ago in London and it had covered almost entire city. It had at least some 10 different lines throughout London. It was no surprise that such narrow roads do not have traffic jams anywhere. I could easily guess that most of the population travels by Tubes in London. Wondered how many years are needed now to construct such level of metro facility in Bangalore......
3. Discipline on roads. One of the clients who visited India for the first time some 2 years ago had only 1 complaint about Indian roads. She asked why do people honk so much while driving. That question was a surprise to me as until that point of time I always believed that is the way it is.. Honking is must to wake up sleeping drivers in the vehicles ahead in traffic jams. I remembered her words when I took a close observation of London roads. People don't honk here. I couldn't even hear 1 horn from any vehicle on the road on my 10 minutes walk to station. She had mentioned people honk here only when they are angry and it was true. I liked that point very much. How peaceful roads would be in India if this is followed there.....
4. Work attire. This was most amazing sight for me on the first day of travel. I remembered exact words of one of my manager from India 'Just observe the way they are dressed for work'. He mentioned it to me while advising me to be professional in my attire. It was so true. I understood the meaning of professional attire that day.

I had to get down at Mile end and catch central line train to Liverpool street where my office was located. I observed one more important thing while climbing up the huge escalators at Liverpool station, If you want to stand still on an escalator then stand on the right hand side. Else you will be knocked off. :) That was a practise all over London. :)

After much excitement one disappointment was on my way. My client office, where I would spend half of my stay in London was no where near to my imagination. I had imagined it to be on top floor of a huge building with nice view of London all around my work station. I was totally disappointed when I saw a 2 storied old heritage building. My office was in ground floor and dint even have many windows. Added to that was one more fact inside the office, there were no cubicles at all. Everyone, however bigger post they are in would sit on workstations without any walls between them. So there was no chance of watching live scores on cricinfo during work hours. :(

I went straight away to meet Ian as he greeted me with surprise. His surprise was that my friend had finished her term so fast and was going back in one week. 'Time flies' he said and introduced me to other clients who work in the same floor. I had conversations over phones with most of them and was glad that they too recognised me. Most of them greeted me well saying I was at right time in London. Although scary, the work place looked friendly to me. Most important reason for that was that everyone would mind there business and wont give a damn on what you are doing unless they need some assistance. That was a very positive thing. :)

I observed first signs of summer as I headed back home after office...Long days... It wouldn't get dark at least until 8.30 PM. I was sure it would confuse my dinner and sleep plans for few days at least.

Jet lag made me to sleep by 8.30 PM for first 3-4 days which was not a problem at all for me. The real problem was when I woke up at 3-4 AM in the morning. First week was almost same except that I had different variety of food everyday for lunch as I was trying all available Veg restaurants around my office. I made up my mind to the fact that all working day's of my stay here will be as same as everyday of that first week here. That was fine as long as I had wonderful 2 days of weekend free to roam around and explore as much as I can.

First(and Second) Flight...!!

Still cant believe I am so far from India in a foreign country... Its been 3 weeks and still not much difference...  Sounds strange but its the truth..
True that I'm missing many things from back home, but still this place is not so different from India..

But my First flight was really exciting and memorable.

Though the kid sitting beside me kept staring awkwardly as I kept on staring outside the window, though i got the most uncomfortable middle row seat in the flight, i still managed to enjoy the thrilling feeling of my first flight from Bangalore to Mumbai... The far away red sky among the otherwise dark sky, through the small JET airways window was by far the best sight to my eyes. The thrill was flight touching 300 kph in seconds, the elevation, the decline were all worth experiencing..

Unlucky middle row seat in JET flight again disappointed me as I approached the magical world which I had dreamed since long... I stopped watching Barfi and tried to peek into windows on both sides of my seat, but with little luck. Cant tell how much I was cursing the guys sitting on Window seats and snoring loudly in deep sleep. How can these guys sleep when the view outside the window is so breathtakingly beautiful... I cursed myself for ignoring to ask for a window seat while check in at Mumbai Airport...

Sadly I had to get my concentration back on the screen in front of me as I could not get much glimpse of outside on either side of my seat... I opened a flight information window tab and kept staring at it... That was the first time when I realized how fast I was moving... The screen was displaying I was 40000 ft above ground level and speed at which I was moving was 850 kph .. Outside temperature was an unimaginable -60 degree Celsius... Within seconds I had great respect and gratitude towards the person who invented these wonderful creatures called Airplanes... I wish I had got a chance to somehow go on top of that flight and experience the thrill of the wind and chilling temperature outside...

Coming back to reality...Screen was showing that I was flying above Germany, Frankfurt... I thought I missed a chance to count number of countries I had traveled over during the flight... :) Though stupid, this is the one thing which I would always do during any trip... Then it was cities and now it is countries.. Something big and different Huh?? The screen was also displaying I was approximately 1 hour away from My destination and home for at least next 6 Months...

It was being announced that we will be landing in another 10 minutes and I could see few glimpse of beautiful landscape through windows.. With a frightening shudder, the flight landed on UK land... Time was 6.45 AM (Tough my watch was still showing 11.15 IST :P ). The screen ahead of me was showing Outside temperature is 2 Degree Celsius!!!. I cursed all my friends who kept on telling its Summer in UK and I am going at the right time.. Some how Summer and 2 degree temperature doesn't really match for we Indians..

I could feel the chill of the cold only after I stepped out of airport after 2 hours in cue for Immigration and 15 Minutes of Q & A round with Fat lady immigration Officer(Had to make her understand why I am here...).
Before I could make any calls back to India to inform my safe landing, the taxi driver made me to get into taxi... If we had stayed for 4 more minutes, we had to pay more for parking..Everyone has their own problems you know...!!! The driver dint have international calling facility in his phone and international roaming was not activated on my phone...!!

My destination East Ham was at least 50 Miles from Heathrow Airport so I have to wait at least 1 more hour to call my parents and tell I have landed safely. I was not really surprised by seeing the well planned roads, greenery and pollution free atmosphere on the way home as I expected it to be like this. But most amazing part of that journey was that I dint see any human being on either sides of the road till the last 5 minutes of my journey in the taxi.... I understood the reason for that the moment I got off the car and the chilling wind laughed at my decision to persist with my old (Made for Indian winter) Jacket.
Friends welcomed me as I got down from Taxi... I was surprised to see the uniqueness of street full of row houses around my PG...

A thought entered my mind as I entered the PG - How many more such surprises await me as I begin my journey the next day in this new foreign country... !!!

And I was in London.... Finally... !!!!