Monday 14 October 2013

All the excitement during our trip to India

I count days to my trip to India every year as I get to see my parents, sister and rest of the family in Delhi. I crave home cooked Indian food and all the amazing mithai (Indian dessert). Its a trip during which I feel completely relaxed, blissful and at home! I love my family and miss them tremendously when Im in Canada.

This trip as every other visit to India was full of great food, meeting relatives and chilling out with my sister's friends (not my own friends lol!). But there were also some other non-usual events.

The biggest news of all, after dating for about 6 years, Parichit and I got engaged!!
People reactions: Finally! 
Family reaction: Its official!
Our reaction: Ah crap. It's official!

The great part about the engagement was that it was the day before my birthday (so a great bday gift). My birthday was celebrated with another event - Parichit and I participated in our first obstacle race- Devil's Circuit. Now as someone who is a runner and regularly goes to the gym for strengthening and conditioning, I expected the race to be difficult but doable. Little did I know what sort of hurt was in store for me.
The race was a 5 km run with around 15 obstacles in between. And these obstacles were extremely hard. It included some pretty long jumps over ditches, climbing up and down 8 ft walls, climbing up hanging ropes etc. The sheer number of people trying to complete an obstacle itself made the obstacle harder. Plus I was glad to be able to keep down all the food we ate during last night's engagement party.


Note to self: doing an obstacle race without any sort of preparation, the morning after an engagement party on 4 hours of sleep isn't the best idea we've had.


 Nevertheless we had a great time, lots of fun, my parents and Parichit's brother and sister-in-law were cheering for us and were a great support. I definitely tested our grit and toughness. The race ended with third place for both of us and we won our families a TV as a prize!!



 And of course there was some fame involved as well! (Got my name mentioned in the national newpaper!!)


Apart from the engagement, I also had my Indian racing debut in a Breast Cancer awareness running race - Pinkathon. I was pleased to see such a well organized event in Delhi, and got to meet my childhood crush Milind Soman (Bollywood actor, model) and the beautiful Gul Panag ( Bollywood actress, former Miss India). It was great to see celebrities become part of such great charity event/race.
I was expecting to do well in the 5 km race but given the fact that my racing season was technically over and I was eating/slacking off like a pig, I did very well - I came first! During the entire run through Delhi roads, I saw people either cheering for me or staring with the with expression thinking: "What is this girl doing running in the middle of the road?!". A lot of them didn't know about this race and it seemed like some of the traffic didn't know about it either! A bus was literally chasing behind me honking at me to get off the road and my dad (spectator) yelling at me to watch out and yelling curses at the bus driver. And when I did get scared and move towards the pedestrian path, to my bad luck it turned out to be the bus stop with me stuck between the bus and people getting on it. I think it must have made an extremely funny sight.
Now in most other races when you get a podium spot you mostly get a medal, congratulations and maybe a modest prize. But here in India, things are done big - so not only did I get my medal, congratulations from celebrities, I also received a giant trophy, Adidas running shoes, VLCC health and beauty package, a Suunto GPS multisport watch, a hotel gift voucher along with 15 seconds of fame on TV (via an interview) and several newspaper articles.




I felt like a famous person!!!


But the best part of the race is that my mom, sister, Parichit's mom and sister-in-law also participated in this event. It was great to see the ladies in the family become a part of this and do something they had never done before! Kudos to them!



Apart from all the fame, engagement celebration and birthday bash, the trip also had some usual funny and touching moments with the family.




I miss my parents and sister! Can't wait to see them again .

Friday 4 October 2013

Frankfurt, Liege and other random things...


Basel and Munich were the two main areas I visited during this little excursion in Europe. But I also stayed in Frankfurt and Liege for a few days.

First up, Frankfurt!
Just a few days before leaving Canada, I discovered that my cousin, Shuchita and her husband (Sunil) are temporarily calling Frankfurt home for the last year! Last time I saw Shuchita was sometime in 2004 when she and Megha (another cousin) visited us while my parents were still in Paris. They came for vacation and I got to be their tour guide for a few days…haha, I was majorly moody back then! ;)


Anyway, they graciously hosted me for a few days in their home and took great care of me in the days following Powerman Zofingen as my legs/back/shoulders recovered from the race and the crash. I was able to catch a few glimpses of this city and my cousins…



Liege

The journey from Frankfurt to Liege was stressful and awesome at the same time!
I had to make 3 train changes, with 1 change being less than 5 mins! When you have 2 large bike suitcases...


  
The train ride from Koblenz (intermediate stop) was one of the most scenic train rides ever:

The train ride to Koblenz had the most breathtaking views I've ever seen as the train traversed right next to the river

I decided to book a B&B on Shuchita’s recommendation via www.Airbnb.com , and found a great host in Alex/Gaelle in a nice corner of Liege. They were great hosts, very accommodating and easy to talk with! They definitely made me polish up my French! Here s a pic of their place:
 (More pics at: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1471243)

After I visited Munich, I came back to Frankfurt for a few days where I could’ve gone some other place in Europe, but really, I didn’t want to be a rush tourist, and just wanted to put my feet up and relax…the feeling of vacation was still kicking in! Even though I had been away from Toronto for 2 weeks by now, I only really switched to “vacation mode” after the race! So I didn’t bother seeing as much of Europe as I could have. 
 
 
 
 
Anyway, my flight back to Brussels was on 19th, and I had a few days to kill. So I stayed in Frankfurt till the 17th and then thought I could stop over Liege on the way to Brussels for a few days. I caught up with an old friend (Caroline!) from high school days after 9’ish years and to try out the fabled Liege frites, boules (meatballs!!), and waffles!
Frites tasting with Caro and Nico
Their pets are so much fun. Not sure I could live with 3 birds and 2 cats, though!
Most awesome meatballs I ever had!
...and more frites!
 I also explored the Liege university campus and a few of its attractions. I randomly walked into an engineering expo for clean electric engines for cars on their campus. With a bit of persuasion, they let me try out their 'raw' go-kart with a direct drive! Man, it was hard to turn that steering wheel!
I also thought I’d be able to get another nice run in Liege because it’s a city surrounded by hills in a valley and nearly every road goes either up or down. But the rain has literally followed me everywhere since Zofingen and Liege was no exception. It rained nearly all of the 36 hours I spent in this city! :(
This city is built on stairs, it seems! They're everywhere! And not just a few of them...I must've climbed a few sets of 500-1500 step staircases! The city is in a valley surrounded by hills, so every road goes either up or down. No flats.  My quads had forgiven me for the Zofingen race by now, so I really wanted to bike here, but cycling here would’ve been too much of a hassle to unpack/pack for 2 days, so maybe next time I’ll come with Garima and we can do the Liege – Bastogne – Liege! :D 

Keep pedaling.