Bastille Day Fireworks

Bastille day is arguably the biggest holiday in France. It marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille which lead to the birth of the modern French nation. On Friday, there were fireworks about 2 minutes from our apartment in Levallois. In fact, it was a surprisingly good fireworks display (the best I’ve seen for a “suburb” for sure). However, it was the “big” fireworks the following evening at the Eiffel Tower that were particularly impressive. Prior to the show, there were hours of free concerts including Victoria’s own Nelly Furtado (which, unfortunately, we missed by just a few minutes). Following the concerts, just around dusk, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with lights and fireworks which lasted over half an hour. It was great. For me, it was particularly cool that they played the music from Star Wars during part of the fireworks - as a child, I couldn’t have imagined hearing Star Wars and watching fireworks under the beautiful setting of the Eiffel Tower. Impressive. In total, there were around 1/2 million people watching the fireworks.

Another highlight for me was that I was able to find a nice spot to set up my tripod and get some pretty good shots. Right next to me were some professional photographers, so I even got some free tips!

Southern Spain

Ross and Carlee were planning a trip to Europe, so we decided to take a trip together to the south of Spain for a week. It was an awesome trip, with lots of interesting and new personal news. Ross proposed to Carlee while we were in Gibraltar (she said yes!!!) and this was Nadya’s first trip pregnant, so all of those things made this a particular memorable vacation.

We rented a car, and stayed at a timeshare in a small town called Nerja. What a intriguing little town; the locals were extremely friendly, and they seemed happy and ready to party all the time. Every day, we took a trip out to a different nearby town including Malaga, Seville, Granada, Gibraltar and a number of hill towns.

Ultimately, it was a great trip. Lots of quality time with good friends, lots of sightseeing, and even a nice balance of relaxation thrown in.

Bruges

Bruges
Originally uploaded by SaurabhA.

Dates: March 24th to 26th, 2007

At the last minute, Nadya and I decided to rent a car and drive out to Bruges for a relaxing long weekend. After a few very exhausting weeks at work, this was a welcome vacation and Bruges turned out to be the perfect place to enjoy a relaxing, yet interesting long weekend.

We left Saturday morning for the three hour drive from Paris to Bruges. The drive was uneventful but it's worthwhile mentioning the very cool and very fast TGV, Eurostar and Thalys trains that sped by us at 300 km/h.

We arrived in Bruges and were immediately enchanted by this beautiful town, appropriately called the "Venice of the North". With its cobblestone lanes, intricate architecture, horse-and-carriages, old-style windmills and, of course, canals, Bruges was much more than we'd envisioned.

We took our time in Bruges and didn't try to pack too much into the trip. The goal was simply to relax and take in the beauty, which is exactly what we did. For both of our full days there, we spent the majority of our time wandering the streets and canals of Bruges. Of course, we also paid a visit or two to the numerous Tea Houses, Friteries (that would be French Fry shops/stands) and Chocolate Houses in Bruges.

New York

I had to make a trip out to New York, Oklahoma, and Houston for work so we decided to make a little trip out of it so that Nadya and I could spend some time with Aliya and Ameya in New York. This was my first time in New York since I was quite young, so even a few days of seeing the city and wandering around was welcome.

We arrived in New York on Friday after a relatively quick 6 hour flight from Paris. We only had three days before I had meetings, so we packed a lot into those few days. We did TONS of shopping (ironically - or by design - it was the Thanksgiving sales weekend), ate great food at an asian fusion restaurant, a Korean BBQ and, of course, fantastic hot dogs, pretzels and bagels.

Warsaw and Krakow, Poland

Wawel Hill Krakow
Originally uploaded by SaurabhA.

Dates: October 14th to 18th, 2006

Mom and Dad were on a trip to central Europe (Budapest, Prague and Vienna) so we decided to meet up with them in Poland for a fews days together touring the country.

The plan was to fly into Warsaw on Saturday morning, then drive to Krakow on Monday, and then fly back to Paris on Wednesday. Unfortunately, things got off to a tough start on Saturday. For one reason or another, our alarm clock didn't go off on Saturday morning, so we completely missed our flight to Warsaw. Normally, this wouldn't be a terribly big deal, but we had booked our tickets with a low-cost airline (Wizzair) so we knew that there would be no help in trying to rebook us on another flight later in the day (in fact, I don't think they fly between Paris and Warsaw more than once a day). I figured the only way we would get a decent flight on the same day would be though Air France. After a number of calls, one incorrect booking in French (from Warsaw to Paris) and a near-heart-attack at the 800 euro/ticket cost, I finally managed to get us a flight to Warsaw later in the day using my Air France points.

We arrived in Warsaw on Saturday afternoon and checked into our hotel (the Radisson). The hotel clerk managed to upsell us to an executive suite, which came in handy the next day when it started raining. The hotel was fantastic; in fact, so good that Nadya and I decided to just spend the next few hours in the hotel while we waited for my parents to arrive on a later flight.

Sunday
Old town
Uprising Museum
Best Pirogie Restaurant

Monday
Drive to Black Madonna
Auschwitz
Krakow - dinner in Old town square

Tuesday
Old town and Wawel Hill
Salt mine
Dinner at hotel

On Wednesday morning, we had a quick breakfast very early in the morning with Mom and Dad. They had an earlier flight than us so we said our goodbyes and then went to the airport a few hours later