A travelogue: Carnival weekend in Venice

The Plan:

It was Wednesday evening, when thoughts of the weekend came into the lonely soul of mine. To be honest, I was tired of being tied inside the four walls of my room. I needed to breathe some fresh air and I needed to see some light .

Then I went online and discovered an inexpensive last minute offer to Venice for the Carnival weekend. I pinged Sai and Nilesha and to my surprise, both said "yes". On Thursday I booked the tickets and on the Friday evening we were on our way to Venice!

The Journey:

It was  a long journey, with many breaks. The travel operator had chosen the longer way via Stuttgart, Munich and Innsbruck (Austria) to fit in more passengers.

 

                                                Image: The route our bus follwed.

"Mira Mirano" was our first stop early in the morning in Italy. Then we took train to Santa Lucia, the main station in Venice. (Our small group had increased from 3 to 5 people by this time. New additions were Mayur and Pushpak from Mannheim, strangers by morning, they were friends by evening)

The experience:

Venice captured us from the moment we landed at Santa Lucia (To keep it cheesy, it was love at first sight). A wonderful sight awaited us at the entrance to the city along with the Carnival mask sellers and face painters. After a short breakfast and a shot of Cappacino, we decided to head for St.Mark's square, the most happening place in Venice.

                                    Image: The first view of the city of Venice in the morning.

The route was supposed to be simple; head to Rialto Bridge to cross the Grand Canal and head to St.Mark's Basilica. But once we headed through the most beautiful tiny canals and bridges spread all over the city, we just lost our way and started enjoying the beauty of the city.

                                           Images: A wonderful walk upto Rialto.

It was supposed to be a 30 minute walk to St.Mark's square, but it took us more than an hour just to reach Rialto bridge and the Rialto market. Then again, we were lost in the bridge and the market at Rialto, famous for it's fishes, shrimps and crabs.

Images:
Rialto bridge and fishes for sale in Rialto market

Finally we were at St.Mark's square, two hours after we reached Santa Lucia. The Carnival spirit was in the air and there were masks everywhere. Venetian Masks are very famous and the carnival is the best time to visit the city if do not mind the crowd.

After a brief visit to the Basilica, we spent most of the next hour just sinking into the Carnival mood and observing the mask and costume clad people grabbing attention of tourists and professional photographers all around the St.Mark's square.

A stage was constructed for the Carnival performances at the square, with the tower to one side and the Basilica to the other and all the carnival crowd in between, I was just awed by the whole atmosphere. (Coming from sub-zero temperatures of Germany, I was also enjoying the relatively warmer weather of Italy). In between, someone borrowed some rice out of nowhere and started feeding pigeons on their hand.(I did it too, pigeons are generally friendly, but here they were "extra" friendly. May be they are used to the tourists and the free food)

I saw they were selling some Venetian pancakes right in the centre of the crowd and decided to grab a bite. Also, to our surprise we had ignored the giant "wine fountain" right infront of us. They tap the wine straight from the wine fountain and sell it on the spot. (Cool thing! See the video)

Video: Wine being served directly from wine fountain

After the carnival fun, it was museum time and we headed for Doge's palace. 

(Info: The ticket covers the Palazzo Ducale and all of the museums in Piazza San Marco: Museo Correr, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Sale Monumentali della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. The ticket is valid for three months, but may only be used once for each museum).

Though we didn't have enough time to see all the four museums. We did enjoy the Doge's palace,  thanks to the audio guides, which I had downloaded onto my kindle in prior. (Info: Click here for Venice audio guides)

                                                      Image: Stairs to the Doge's palace.

Interestingly just after we heard about the legendary escape of Casanova from the prison of Venetia, we lost ourselves and kept running in the same circles of the prison from which he escaped! One should have seen our faces when we finally found our way to exit from those prison cells!

After running around, we were so hungry that even though we knew Pizza from Venice was way worser than Pizza from Southern Italy, we decided to give it a try anyway. After walking for a while and deviating ourselves from crowd and the main streets, we found a calm, narrow street to eat.

Pizza was bad (as expected), pasta was good and the coffee was excellent (Being a huge Coffee fan, I have to acknowledge the Italian coffee).

Next up, we had our return journey in the evening and we had to make most of the time we had left with. We decided to take a Gondola ride. On the way to find a Gondola, we came across a street performer trying to juggle on a monocycle. (Watch the video for the full act)

                                                    Video: "Maria!" ~ Street Performer

The Gondola ride:

Gondolas are the beautiful boats, the best option to explore the canals of the venice. They are the boats you see in every other movie shot in Venice. Like you do with a taxi driver or a rickshawalla in India, you have to negotiate the price. (Only difference is, if you turn off the Gondola guy, he may deliberately skip nicer parts of the ride).

We got a deal for 80 Euros (price per Gondola, not per person), which is expensive but the experience is certainly worth the money. It is an entirely indescribable experience when you enter the Grand Canal from the smaller Canals in the Gondola. May be pictures can solve the indescribable part!

                                                            Through the Narrow canals

  The Grand Canal: Our driver worried over something from phone

 (A text message from his girl friend to be precise)

                                                 Newly weds waving at us in Grand Canal

(Strange theory: Nilesha suspected, they might have "just dressed as newly weds" for the carnival)

Phew! It was evening already. We still wanted to go up the main tower, and we could have also taken an island ride. But we came on a short trip on a short notice, so it was time to run back.

On the way back however, we saw some performances on stage and kids skating and falling on the ice.

 

Video: St.Mark's square in the evening

                                            Kids skating (and falling at 0:21 and 0:37)

Small Shopping and "Made in PRC" impact:

Most Venetian producers are worried of cheaper made in China goods affecting their businesses. They also complain many of  these goods escape customs. Almost every product I saw had a small "made in PRC" sticker on it. (For those of you who do not know, PRC=People's Republic of China).

Selling special Venetian masks during Carnival is a profitable business with tourists willing to shell out extra bucks to keep a souveneir in the form of a mask that too of such a glorious old tradition. The local sellers try to grab attention and exhibit their "authenticity" by the following display boards. (See images).

Most of my fellow travellers decided to buy souveneirs in form of key-chains, t-shirts etc. Being a fan of Italian coffee, my shopping option was clear. I bought a Bialetti moka-express for myself.

The Journey back, An epilogue and An observation:

                                    Image: Journey back (From Santa Lucia to Mira-Mirano)

We literally ran to Santa Lucia train station in the last minute and got into our train. Due to Carnival it was very difficult even to get into the train. It was as packed as a regular Mumbai local  (while, I watched the annoyed American tourists, I said to myself, "looks like Ghatkopar is the next station,  home sweet home!")

After the a long journey back, I somehow found the spirit to invite everyone to a traditional South Indian breakfast: Rava Dosa and Sambar. (Yes, that's what I decide to cook after a journey of 12 hours back home)

The tour officially ended when Mayur departed to Mannheim. But before that, all of us sat together and went through the photos of the tour and were simply amazed to see in the pictures, what we had all experienced . 

It was a wonderful experience and it was very nice to have the guys from Mannheim to be met on a trip and to have gelled so well together in a short span of time. 

What was even more amazing was, all of us communicated with each other in Hindi through out the trip and never realised that, it wasn't the mother tongue of even one of us! (Mannheim folks -Marathi, Nilesha-Oriya, Sai-Telugu, Me-Kannada)

Damn, I felt so happy about my country when I realised it!

European food experience: Cakes,Pastas and more.

Being an Indian spices are almost a "must be ingredient" in food for me. Ever since I have been in Karlsruhe, my non-Indian food experience was very much limited to the mediocre Mensa food.

[Terminology: Mensa = Place of cheap food for people in the university. For the people who don't like to cook on their own and for the people who haven't had good food before, it can be a satisfying experience. There can be exceptions to the above sometimes, but exceptions are exceptions!]

                                 Image: The Exception-Pasta with Indonesian sauce at Mensa

Like many good things, this idea came to my mind when some stone hit my head. Though I am living in Germany, I am almost eating the same as in India, "Where is the damn experience I wanted?!"

Pasta Woche:
So began the Pasta week, where I tried different combination of Pastas and self invented Pasta-Sauces.
From regular Spaghetti, Penne to Fusili, I even had Bandnudeln (similar to Fettucine/Tagliatelle).
I invented a sauce made with Spinach,tomatoes, Tuna fish and Oregano as a major spice (No Indian spices!). One of my dorm mates even got the recipe from me! (This falls into the category of bragging, but it really feels nice when you invent something and one of the few ones to eat it wants the recipe already).

                                         Image: Pasta Fussili and the sauce mentioned above.

Kuchen:
Few weeks ago, I hardly had any idea how to bake a cake. The reason is simple, I had never used an oven before!
My cake experience started with baking simple cakes with borrowed recipe for my cousin's birthday and for my parents anniversary, and now thanks to Julia (a very fast baker!), I can bake four different kinds of cake.

                                   Image: Cake which looks like girl's hair tied (Before baking)

                                                               Image: Chocolate cake

Image: Apple cake (Before baking)

                                        Image: The cake I made for my Parents' Anniversary

Bayerische Fruestuck:
The traditional Bavarian breakfast includes Bavarian Bretzel, Weiss Wurst and a Bavarian Beer (Yeah, that's right, a beer for the breakfast!). Funny thing is I don't eat meat by choice (Weiss wurst is made of pork and/or beef) and I have stopped alcohol consumption (For more, read my earlier blogpost).
But Jonas made sure, not only the five folks who wanted to do a Bavarian breakfast turned up, but he also took care of my food preferences. He found vegetarian weiss wurst and alcohol free Bavarian beer!
So nice of him!

      Image: Bavarian breakfast (modified): Bretzel, Weiss wurst (Veg), Erdinger beer (alcohol free)

From Pastas to cakes and Bavarian breakfast, my food experience is growing from day-to-day. Just today, I made a multi-culti dish with Srilankan Soya, Greek spices, Indian Masala, Georgian alcohol, Thai sauces and other German ingredients. I had a real go at it after I fasted the whole day without any food. (It's Shivratri!)

Although the title reads European food, I also must add the three visits I had to the "Yang-Da" Chinese restaurant near Herrenstrasse Haltstelle. Despite being right in the centre of the city, it is only known to few people and has some authentic Chinese food, which you will be able order only if you know Chinese or accompanied by a Chinese because the menu is in Chinese!
[Tip: Eating with chopsticks is real fun once you learn how to use it.]

The fish which comes in a bowl full of spices has become my favorite there. All the three times I have visited, the restaurant has never disappointed me and has good value for money. (We were even offered complimentary Jasmine tea after the dinner).

My food experience doesn't stop here and will continue to feature in my future blogposts. It is only few hours from the next cricket match in Australia, no matter how the quality of cricket and players has changed over the years, the ardent cricket fan inside me still wants to wake up early and catch up with the game.

So,
Untill the next post,
Good bye.

Ajji and the birthday weekend

I share my birthday with my Ajji (grand mother), the most important woman in my life. Every year when one calls the other and says "Happy birthday", the other replies with "same to you too!". Many people share their birthdays and for me this is what makes my birthday special every year. Nothing compares to sharing a cup of coffee made by her when the clock strikes that hour.

This year have to say the day was gloomy for a number of reasons, nevertheless the weekend was a refreshing experience to visit a typical German family in Durlach.


How I got to know them is a story in itself. To keep it short, they are the Arheidts and I know them through their daughter Yvonne Arheidt, my penpal.


After a long night of cooking for the people who rescued me from being alone, it was very late in the night on Saturday that I slept after cleaning up almost half the kitchen vessels in the dorm.


I was supposed to meet the family for the breakfast on Sunday. The frequency of trams in smaller cities of Germany like Karlsruhe goes down drastically on Sundays. If you miss a connection, you have to wait in cold for longer duration. Thankfully I was only late by 20 mins and I had informed of this to them in prior.

Video: From inside the tram eins. (On the way to Durlach)

I used all the "ein bisschen deutsch" I knew and I am pretty sure Frau Arheidt did the same with Englisch. Somehow language was not a barrier, as I was helped with translation by Ralf (brother of Yvonne) and his friend Christian.

Image: Handball teams warming up

 
The day flew like an hour and by the end of it I had watched Ralf's handball game (helped by Olli with player stats), talked about pretty much about everything from Mysore to schooling in India, had breakfast, lunch and atleast five cups of coffee. The day which started gloomily, ended up on a very warm note, thanks to the homely family in a beautiful place called Durlach.

Image: Chocolates from Durlach (A gift from the family)