It's all about Photos while you Travel !

This post was one of the winners at Blogadda's "Travel Photo Contest" .

-----***-----

A few things happened simultaneously...

- Thinking about next blog post.

- Sorting out my photograph albums. (trying to be a bit organised, you see hehe)

- Came across this e-mail notification from BlogAdda, this week’s contest called ‘Travel Photos’ !

Good huh? They say "A Picture is worth a thousand words"... so sharing 5 pictures means a post worth five thousand words... hehe :o)

The idea sounded exciting and thought why not to participate and make life more exciting !

But that thought lasted only until now when i visited their site to check the rules and came across a pull of entries participating.... great work, Ohhh gosh do i still want to participate?

Ohh yes, it might would have dampened my spirit for a moment but it is all about sharing...that's all what matters right?

So here goes my five pictures...

(Click on the image to see the bigger image)

1. Can you imagine past behind this colorful present ?

This is a click of Berlin wall. You might have known all the hitory it holds, you might have read a lot stories about it and you might would have seen thousand pictures of the Berlin Wall, but nothing compares standing there and looking at the contrast a city holds by dividing in East and West.

Imagine, how will you feel if you sleep today and wake up in the morning only to realize everything you thought yours, no more is yours... your business, your job, your family ! Nothing stands there anymore !

You stand at a tram station waiting for a tram to go to work and that tram never arrives... you realise you are never going to that work place now. You didn't even get to bid a farewell !

I wondered standing there... the color of the past of this colorful present !

2. Boundary-less Friendship.

This pic was taken somewhere in Highlands, Scotland. We were driving on this narrow roads in mountains, saw these beautiful horses and stopped there. As soon as they saw us they came running towards us. They looked at us with the eyes i can never forget.

May be they were feeling lonely, may be they wanted us to play with them, may be they thought we were their owners / friends... whatever it was they stood there looking at us till we stood there.

It reminded us how for them there was no boundary of friendship, how we all humans were same for them, their friends !

So is it that now only these animals left with this self-less, Boundary-less friendship spirit?

3. Co-Existence.

Every time there is a development which involves nature and construction there is this big debate over what is right and what is wrong... how we are polluting or damaging the nature.

This place reminded which we all know in our hearts.... co-existence.

Development doesn't have to be at the cost of nature, THEY CAN CO-EXIST.

While standing at this place at Fort Augustus, felt like can we be any less in the lap of nature here? So serene and beautiful !

4. Past meets Present.

Brugge is a beautiful city, walking in each street brings past to present.

This pic captures one such moment.... two modes of transport... doesn't it look like past is merging in present and present is following the past !

5. Nature at it's Best...

Whatever progress man-kind make, nature always surprises us with it's beauty.... Can this otherwise desert-like looking place look more beautiful?

It was a wonderful moment, close to our hearts as we actually witnessed building up this rainbow... we were driving and thought there it looks like a rainbow, then same appeared from other corner and thought ohh my god two rainbows at the same time !! Ccan we be any more lucky on this trip?

And before it sinks in, we saw both ends stretching towards each other and joining at the middle, forming a full rainbow... how amazing ! No words to describe the feeling.

If you look at the picture carefully, you can actually see two rainbows, one very colorful and other one above that like a shadow of this.

There was no way we could just drive away... had to capture this pic :o)

Damn only i knew, would have captured a video.... hehe :o)

I send this post entry to Travel Photos contest by Blogadda, sponsored by......... PringOO.

My Interview by Anita from Greetings from Holland

Anita is one of those first NL bloggers i started reading after moving to NL. She is originally Brazilian but now settled here in Netherlands with Dutch husband and kids.

When she asked me to do an interview for her Blog, it was really a honour. Thank you so much for that Anita :o)

She told me i can write as much as i want and as many of you know me how bad i am at short post i did write as much as it came to my mind at that moment.

I had given her a free hand to edit / cut whatever she wants but appears she didn't, so now bear with it guys ... may be a longest post on her blog ! haha

But then that is how I am, ain't i? Non-stop and un-edited :o)

You can check it out HERE.

Thanks once again for the interview on your Blog Anita.

How did you start Blogging?

Normally I don't do all the tags I am tagged for, but sometimes some tags are interesting, they come along interesting questions providing an opportunity to share and also award ! Can't resist them !

Like this award Alice from Alice in the wonderland bestowed me with.

Actually she gave the option to pick any award from the two, but I am shamelessly picking up both... hehe

1. Say why you made your blog and if you expected it to be popular at all.

Main reason I started blogging was an urge to share. I was missing my friends and family and time difference didn't allow talking with them whenever I had an urge to, so I started blogging.

Second reason, not having many friends or any family in a new country makes life boring, and to fight that feeling and for some good time pass I felt blogging was a nice way and then I can always go back and read them, it's kind of documenting life as it goes on :o)

Also because i had some wrong prenotions like i can write or i can be funny, which were obviously base-less and good that i started blogging, now know exactly where i stand !

I am so happy that I started blogging; it has helped me to get in touch with so many nice people. It is always nice when you get to meet people with similar wavelength and all of these are so talented; there is always some or other thing to learn from them. It's a great medium for fun plus knowledge sharing!

I didn't expect it to be popular and it is not popular.... hahaha but yes I would have loved and I will love if it is popular as that means only that I have a bigger circle of friends !

2. State the exact date you started your blog

hmmm... I don't remember ... as first few posts I wrote, deleted then imported-exported... and what not. But if I take this blog as it is right now and look at the date of first post available here... it is 14th May 2009.

Ooops it’s one year of this blog already, what a nice way to celebrate this realization with an award....awwww Thanks Alice :o)

3. Nominate 5 loyal followers !

Now this is really very difficult to pick 5 from 59, and there are obviously more than 5 about whom I don’t know how they started blogging and would like to know how they started blogging!

So I am converting this in a meme, and you who is reading this, I would like to know how it all started in your life, will you please share that with me? Amit, Krunal, Anita, Sagarika, Arwa, Isabella,Path Untaken, EFRUTIK , Sandra, Tiffany, Angela... any of you would like to take it up, tell me how?

Ok rules…

1. Say why you made your blog and if you expected it to be popular at all.

2. State the exact date you started your blog.

3. Nominate 5 loyal followers!

Ohh yes and if you are doing this meme, You can select one award as it was originally meant to or you also can be like me, picking up both of them... :o)

Do you speak Glaswegian?

There are something which you already know but still they make you feel happy when you encounter them. Felt same when we landed in Edinburgh. (Yes, I am talking about our last week vacation at Scotland)

Fact that we could actually understand all the announcements, notices, displays, adds...hahaha

We were so happy that wow, here we don't have to wonder what does that announcement or notice means or how to explain something to someone, here language is English !

We came out of Airport, it was easy to follow the instruction, kept walking towards car rental, picked up the car.

Talked with my sister (who is doing her master studies at Glasgow school of arts) in response to her inquiry if we were already there, safely.

I chattered happily ...

Hey wow you know what we love this place, it's so easy to communicate !

arrr...hmmm...likewise?

Everything in English feels so relaxing now !

Ohh ya, that way !

It's nice being able to understand everything.

Ohh wait until you have to communicate more with them.

What do they mean, Official language in Scotland is English, isn't it?

It is.

Then?

It's Scottish English, and wait till you are in Glasgow and you 'll know what i mean !

hmmm ok.

And we knew what she meant as soon as we entered Glasgow and all our first response ended up being same as - huh? sorry?

hehehe

But afterall it's English, ears gets acquainted with it after some time. And good thing, not everyone in Scotland speak that thick accented fast-paced Glaswegian English !

Yes in Glasgow they speak Glaswegian , not exactly English. ;o)

---***---

On the side note, While googling i came across so many website, offering help with Glasgow accent ! Amazing !

Look at this -

http://www.clyde-valley.com/glasgow/dialect.htm

http://glaswegian.info/Glaswegian-to-English-dictionary-Um-U-Urr-Urnae-Scottish-Words.htm

http://maryglasgowmagazines.com/students/features/8951?level=club

Back...

Ok so i am back to office and still quite cant make my mind to work, and so i thought to drop off a few lines.

Slept at around 4:00am last night and so still feeling dizzy, but there was no way i can skip the office, i wish i didn't have to do it yesterday either but that's different as there was no choice.

You know this Volcano... we checked before driving to Edinburgh airport from Glasgow and it did show scheduled. We returned rented car and walked to airport and whoaaa... it's cancelled !

There were lots many people taking bus and ferries, but considering 22 hrs and 15 hrs respectively which it was going to take, we decided to drive to London and take a train for that. I think which was a good decision as it gave us an extra evening which made it possible to spend some time with very good friends from good old days Dipali & Nik. I think it was the first time after graduation that we were meeting, almost after 8 years !

Dipali was my class mate, bench-mate and part of many mischiefs together at the engineering day. Great thing was that gap of time didn't feel a bit that may be due the fact we talk almost everyday online haha.

We saw their son also for the first time, but as he was seeing us for the first time he was shying away and i am hoping a better time playing with him next time. He is such a cute boy !

So it was not that bad that trip was extended. And yeah London, this was the first time and i had totally different image of it than what i saw there... but we only spent half a day there and i have to go back there again.

And yeah that hi-speed train through tunnel, it only took 2 hours to reach Brussels, Belgium from London. This was our first time with this train and this route as well and it was a pleasant surprise ! It made me think we don't have to take flight everytime, train is more convenient and we don't have to worry about what's in our hand luggage, what's in our checked-in luggage and they wont allow my water or juice bottle in hand luggage...hehe

Ok, i better get back to work now, it's already piled up and i don't want to work over-time. I want to go home and sleep well.

Ohh yes, and one more thing, i have a realisation that when i started this blog it was more like sharing as i liked to talk and share and know some other like-minded people, it was never meant to be a bit formal like it was getting lately, and i think that's the reason of posting not so often as well as i am getting so freaked out about everything being so perfect, with pictures and all. But that's not stress-relieving as i wanted it to be, that's more work and more stress.

I want it to be what i intended it to be, my open diary where i write what i think, some expediences i feel like sharing and would like others to know about it or want other opinions.

What does it matter that it doesn't look like an expat blog, it never was and I am not a writer !

See you laterz then if you are still here :)

A Visit to the Police Station.

Back in school days we wrote so many essays on visit to here and there and what not but imagine a visit to a Police station. If i wrote one essay back in school days and i write it now, there won't be any connection.
Okay puzzles off. Actually last week I visited a Police station for the first time here in the Netherlands. And first thing i could thought of was just the vast difference !

Being there felt more like standing at the reception of some hotel or at some service center for some inquiry.

Ohh wait, before there are some speculations on why we were there let me clarify to make it some sense.

5th May - Libration day holiday. (Only once every 5 years and this year being that lucky one). We were at SpuiMarkt, Den Haag. There was a big open air concert going on at same place but we didn't spend much time there. When we came back to underground parking lot after a few hours, front number plate of car was missing. We were not sure if we were allowed to drive without one and unsure where and how we lost it!

So we had some knowledge enhancement

1. We were allowed to drive as long as back number plate was alright.

2. Back number plate is more important than front one.

As soon as we were out of parking at the first turn we came across police who signaled us to stop. Before they say anything we tried explaining and before we explain that we already informed police and from here we were directly going to Police Station in our town he interrupted us with that's later first Alchohol test ....yeah that open air concert i mentioned, remember? which meant lots of beer flowing and also driving after drinking !

People you are allowed to drink, but you are not allowed to drink and drive and hurt yourself or someone else.

After the test he listened to our story and surprisingly he was too cool about it, saying not a big deal, it keeps happening but we need to go to Police Station and report. And that is for our own safety as if its not lost and stolen you have a proof and you can be out of any unpleasant experiences. Agreed.

So that is how we were there... got the story now?

Now imagine standing at a police station, what will you imagine? If i hadn't been here, from my past experience i will expect some noises, some criminal, some authority voices and a kind of atmosphere which makes you feel to run away from there at the first possibility.

But here, it was no where near to my image of Police stations from my experience back home. There was a big nice sitting / waiting area on the left side as we entered and a photo of queen in the front wall. On the right side there were desks like you will see at any reception. There were 2-3 people sitting behind those desks in their uniform behind the computer screens.

They listened to us, took all the required data, put into system and printed a report.

The police officer who was mainly communicating with us started chatting with us afterwards and we chatted about almost whole world. If it was possible we would have estalished the world peace and harmony after that discussion...haha
We talked about languages, difficulties about learning languages, mother/root languages like Latin or Sanskrit, Problems with India, edge which India has over other asian countries, how British colonisation helped India, IT in world and IT in India, technical education and scopes, humanism, gods, how one god or no god and only believing in one another will help whole world ! whooaaa...so you got the idea !

In the case, If you noticed more peace and harmony prevailing around you in last week don't forget to thank us ! hehe

But seriously, it felt like talking with a friend, a long lost friend. After sometime suddenly all of us realised why were we there and we came back to the real world. He explained us all the formalities (which was nothing, just contact your dealer with a copy of that report and they will take care of everything from insurance to new number plate)
And yes, now we know what those superceded small 1 or 2 on number plates mean !

When we left we were smiling and I couldn't help but to linger upon the difference what i saw here and what i grew up with !
In India, job in police department is more about "power" (which unfortunately not all can handle very well) while here it is more about "service". It is all about helping people and that is very clear from ambiance, smiles and friendliness of people.

I know everyone is not same, and all policemen here might also won't be same or like him but i would like them to, we liked him !