On My Beagle

Stockholm..

2009-07-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

The next stop on my Beagle was Stockholm in Sweden. I was there for almost for a week attending a workshop. It was good weather according to most Swedes and other Europeans. But I found it quite warm. I thought it might be colder than Edinburgh (which was 14 degrees at that time). So, with a nice weather by my side, I did a little bit of roaming. I visited a number of museems (called museets in Swedish), roamed a lot on the streets, got on the ferrries quite a few times and enjoyed every bit of it.

The city is built on 14 islands connected to each other by some 50 odd bridges. There were boats everywhere and the clear blue water only made the city more photogenic. The city center is the old town called Gamla Stan (meaning the old town). The buildings are still so old that walking thru the streets makes u feel u are walking back in to the history. I visited the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan. I happened to be there at noon and so was lucky to catch the change of guards ceremony in the courtyard of the palace. It is a ceremonial event but is executed to perfection that makes it look exciting. Old guards are replaced by the new set of guards. And this is accompanied by a military band performance. The music was very good. Definitely unmissable. The Nobel museum, virtually next door to the palace was inspiring but was loaded with information.

My visit to the Rosendal palace was very informative. It didnt look like a palace, so I dismissed it and went around searching for the real palace. After some searching around, I came back to the same building which I thought was only a rich man's house. The guided tour was wonderful. I learned that it was a summer palace and was purposefully built at a lower cost by the first king of the current dynasty, House of Bernadotte.

I also visited the Vasa museum, the Nordic museum, National museum and the Music museum. But the best part is that I enjoyed walking around in the streets of the city walking on and off the bridges, from one island to another. The coastal line was beautiful lined with boats, both latest and some old ones with sails. There are several ferries that take you from the mainland to other islands in the archipelago.

Another major tourist attraction is Skansen. Its a part of the Djurgarden island and is basically a miniature sweden in term of time. Houses from 10th century onwards are on display along with a miniature zoo and a glass making workshop. Glass works at this workshop were amazing. One needs absolutely 4-5 hrs walking around Skansen.

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip walking around the Stockholm city but I did miss my chance to explore the islands like Voxholm in the Stockholm archipelago. May be another time :)

Seven days in Athens

2009-04-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

When my papers got selected for an EACL workshop in Athens, I jumped in joy, because, I get to see Athens. We got our tickets booked and hotel room reserved. When Prachya and I landed in Athens, I was so excited. I am gonna be here for seven days and had loads of plans. I have to carefully interleave my touring plans with the EACL sessions. I just didnt want to miss anything. Before arriving in Athens, I ordered a guidebook from Amazon and went thru it several times to prepare a list of things I must visit. My list had the Acropolis, the Archaeological museum, Plaka and Monastiraki. I remember having ordered some brouchures on Greece when I did my Masters degree in Brighton. :) Yes.. a long time dream come true. The day we arrived wasn't very exciting. I was rather surprised to see Athens as we travelled from the airport to the city center. It looked like Bangalore. Commercial business complexes with the same architectural features as we see is most cities. I expected it to be in the lines of Edinburgh and Paris, where the buildings have a different architectural style from others I had previously seen. We went to the conference center first to get registered and then we left to our hotel on the metro. Athens metro has three lines and not very complex at all. All the stations were labelled in English as well as Greek. So no problem in finding out our station - Omonia. We arrived in Omonia and lost our way to our hotel. Some of the streets werent labelled in English, you see. But with the help of some helpful Greeks, we reached Zinonos where our hotel was. We checked-in and retired for a while. Thanks to our hotel receptionist, we had very nice Greek food at Alexander, the Great restaurant nearby. Greek food was amazing, especially the Greek coffee. They don't filter the powder out so you have to know when to stop sipping to avoid the coffee powder gettin into your mouth.

Day 1: After a good night's sleep, we got ready to go to the conference center. We knew the way to get there. We took the red line metro to Syntagma square and from there the blue line to Megaro Moussikkis - just three stations in between. In the evening, we made an adhoc plan to roam around Syntagma square - one of the central locations in Athens. We exited the station to see the Greek parliament, The Vouli, right in front of us. Very greeky architecture. We went closer to see two soldiers marching in front of the building crossing each other and in various other patterns. They were wearing the most weird shoes I have ever seen. Then we decided to walk aross the National gardens adjacent to the parliament building. We walked past the gardens, and reached Zaphio - an yellow building that served as offices for the Greek EU presidency and the Olympics. Across the road was the Temple of Zeus. Huge columns in their ruins were all that we could see. It was closed at that time, so we walked past it. Adjacent to this was the Hadrian's arch, built to commemorate the arrival of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Through the entrance we could now see the Acropolis. We crossed the road and walked in to the neighbourhood of Plaka hoping to discover the interesting pedestrian streets with lots of souvenir shops. Guess what, we did. We first saw a Greek chapel. I loved the way it looked. It was very different from the chapels I have seen in the UK and in Paris. They had a cupola, hemi-spherical like the dome of St. Paul's in London. It was closed as well. So we moved past it. to the pedestrian streets. The streets were very small and no automobile traffic is allowed. There were restaurants where most customers are seated outside in the streets, in an elegant way. There were shops selling souvenirs like masks, marble figurines, painted cups, etc. What attracted me the most was how colourful they were. You can take a look at them in my album. Then we kept on walking along a street not knowing where we were heading. We reached another big church. And soon I discovered that we were in the Mitropolis church in the Mitropolis square in Monastiraki. We were hungry and were hoping to get some Greek food. We found a small restaurant nearby and ordered the Greek platter :).. Then we found our way back to our hotel. End of Day 1.

Day 2: I presented my poster and my talk at the workshop. They were both very well received. I got very good comments from other researchers of the field. I also saw Ion Androutsopoulos, whose paper on Natural Language Interfaces was responsible for my B.E thesis eight years ago. I wanted to talk to him but I couldn't. However I met him the next day and he recognised me by name. I told him how exicted I was to meet him and he appreciated the gesture. Prachya and I didn't venture out as we had dinner at the conference center that day. End of Day 2.

Day 3: I attended some of the morning sessions and then ventured out alone to see a couple of museums nearby. I went to the War Museum in Evangelismos, which was the next metro stop. The museum had free admission and displayed weaponry, uniforms, and even painting depicting wars that Greece had been involved in throughout its history. Strangely, there were also marble sculptures depicting battle scenes from Greek mythology. There were all types of guns, bomb shells, etc and models of Greek tanks, flights and ships. Outside the musuem, was a huge live size helicopter, a glider and four jet fighters. The museum was very impressive. Adjacent to the war museum, is the Byzantine museum. It displays the change in Greek character during the Byzantine period (3AD-16AD). This is when Christianity arrived in Greece. There were paintings (strangely two-sided), sculptures, and lots of articles from archaeological digs. I rushed back to the conference venue not to miss the poster session that afternoon. After the conference got over that day, we decided to climb the Lkyovitas hill, which is just behind the venue. We walked thru the Kolonaki neighbourhood to reach the bottom of the hill. It was a pleasant ascent and we did it in some 30 minutes or so. On the summit was a beautiful whitewashed chapel of St. George. Inside the chapel were wall paintings depicting the life of Christ. From the top, we had a nice view of Athens, which looked like lots of dominoes ready to fall over each other. Look at the photos in my album, you will agree. We had a nice view of the Acropolis and other monuments spread across the city. After enjoying the views we climbed down and we took a train to Monastiraki to continue our walk from where we left on Day 1. The square outside the station was bustling with tourists. We wanted to visit the flea market but we were too late. We roamed around the shops in the square a bit and had dinner at a family-run restaurant. It stragely looked like restaurants in my home town with lots of photos all over the walls. Then we walked around to get a glimpse of the souvenir shops. We walked around the Acropolis looking at the Erechtheion and other illuminated structures with awe. At the and then got back to the same station and enjoyed some music from the street players. video Some tourists were even dancing. Then we left to our hotel room. End of Day 3.

Day 4: After a few morning sessions, we decided to go to the famous Archaelogical Museum. We arrived at Omonia and followed our maps to the museum. When we arrived there, we found huge crowd of people waiting to start a demonstration. Yes, they were going to strike that day. We wondered if the museum would be open, because lots of people were gathered just outside the museum. We crossed the road thru the crowd and found the museum open. We were delighted to find that they would let us in for free as we were students. :) We went thru the vast collections of figurines, statues, clay pots, articles, etc that seemed to tell us the story of Greece. I was impressed with Cycladic art section, where the figurines looked like the Easter Island statues. They date back to 3rd millienium BC. In the evening, we went back to Monastiraki for a walk and surprisingly bumped in to our institute head and some other conference delegates. We all had dinner together in a wonderful Greek restaurant. The waiter also served us Ouzo on the house. End of Day 4.

Day 5: Day 5 was pretty easy. It was the last day of the conference. We had little to do there and lots of travel plans on cards. :) You know me.. We left after the demo session to climb the Acropolis. It is open only until 3pm and so we had to wait so many days to get some free time in the morning. On our way up we found a wonderful musician playing Santoor. I have a video of that for you in my album. We reached the summit in 15 mins. We visited the amphitheatre called the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the south slope first. We then went thru the entrace called Propylaea and there we saw in front of us, the much awaited Parthenon. Its a huge temple, built in 5th century BC for the Greek goddess Athena. Only the columns remain, as much of the scupltures that survived many wars are not in the British Museum. Next to the Parthenon, is another similar temple called the Erechtheion. It also has the porch of the Maidens, which is a set of statues of six women supporting the roof. Apart from these two monuments there is nothing much to see. After spending time around the Parthenon, we descended to a delicious Greek lunch. Next stop on our list was Cape Sounion. We took a bus to our destination. This was around 70 kms away from Athens in the south east coast of Attica. It has the temple of Poseidon. If not for the temple, you must visit this place to see the Aegean sea, that this temple is overlooking. The views were breathtaking. End of Day 5.

Day 6: By now, we had visited almost all the important sites and now we were confused where to go. We had a choice of going to Delphi, which is of archaelogical interest or one of the Greek islands. We chose the second option. We decided to go to Aegina, which is an island (inhabited) that is the closest to Athens. By ferry, we reached there in an hours time. We enjoyed every bit of the ferry ride. The blue waters with ships and smaller islands were a delight to watch. We reached Aegina to see a bustling town with lots of restaurants on the shore. There was a little chapel of a sailor saint on the pier where the ferry docked. It was whitewashed and looked amazing against the blue background. Inside the chapel were wall paintings, as you would have expected. We then tried to get a map of the island to identify some places of interest. We found out about an archaelogical site closeby and we visited the place. It had a museum housing artifacts digged out of the island and we learned that Aegina had once been powerful enought to challenge Athens. The site next to the museum was a small town in ruins. We could see organised houses surrounding a temple for Appollo. We had lunch in a shore restaurant. The food was amazing. Then I took off my shoes and sat next to the sea with my foot in the water. After a while, when I dragged my feet out, I saw a small red octopus coming towards me. It then returned back to the seabed and turned invisible in a few seconds. We then took a bus to a monastery called Ageious Nektarius, which took around 15 mins to reach. We were quite surprised to see such a wonderful building in the middle of nowhere. Inside the monastery, there were amazing wall paintings. They seemed to tell a story, I didnt understand. :( The ceiling was as usual painted with a portrait of Jesus, but this one was different. It wasn't the usual Byzantine Jesus but a more elegant one. After spending sometime in the monastery, we headed back to the beach. We roamed around the streets awaiting our ferry. Our ferry, Fivos arrived on time and we were on it sailing back to Athens. Goodbye Aegina. End of Day 6.

Day 7: We had to leave at 12noon to catch our flight. We packed our bags. I was watching from the sixth floor, the Sunday market down in the streets. There were lots of street vendors carrying their shops in a sheet on their backs. Seemed like a pretty busy junction, that these vendors were often scared away by the policemen. But once the police sqaud leaves, the vendors returned to their positions in no time. We left our hotel at 11am and arrived in the airport on time. Goodbye Athens. I'll be back.. End of Athens trip.. Awaiting ur comments..

Album

Falkirk - a perfect outing

2009-04-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Falkirk is a beautiful little town outside Edinburgh and is perfect for a day out. The major attraction is the Falkirk Wheel which is a remarkable engineering solution to unite two parallel canals (Union canal and Forth & Clyde canal) which are at two different altitudes. The difference in altitude is around 100 ft.The wheel literally lifts a boat carrying around 50 passengers from one canal to the other. At the same time, it brings another boat from the top canal to the bottom one. I didn't really like the boat ride so much but when I saw the wheel lifting the boat, I was amazed. Apart from the wheel there isn't much to see there. There were a lot of kids and the ride was all christmasy, singing carols and Santa Claus giving away presents to kids. After spending an hour or so, we left to the town center. It was long walk along the canal. The town center was bustling with Christmas shoppers and overcrowded malls. All we wanted was some place to dine. After a lot of confusions and shutlling between places, we settled down at Pizzahut. After a wonderful pizza meal, we all headed back to Edinburgh. album

Tour de Paris

2009-04-17T05:32:00.001-07:00

I was in Paris for a couple of days for a project meeting. Although official, I tried to get around the city as much as I can. I had half-a-day to spare to discover the beauty of the city. I reached Paris at around 1pm and was wondering how long it will take me to get thru immigration. Surprisingly, I was greeted with a Namaste and I passed thru the counter in less than 3 minutes. I knew Sortie means exit and RER means train station. I followed the signs and finally reached the station. There were ticket vending machines everywhere and a long queue to the human counter. I tried the vending machines. The tickets were confusing. Asked for help. Noone knew. They were all tourists. Dint want to take a chance. Followed the queue and got my tickets to the city - Ville de Paris. Boarded the train and was eagerly looking outside the window for a glimpse of Paris. The suburbs are not very attractive, but as we got in to the city I was amazed by the beautiful buildings. I had some trouble changing trains at Charles de Haulle. But I managed to reach the hotel at around 3pm. Dint want to waste my time. I started again on my tour de Paris. I wanted to visit all the places. I had a few in mind - Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc D'Triompe, Musee de Louvre and Sacre Coeur. Where do I go first? I wanted to really go to Notre Dame, for there are the most beautiful stained glass paintings. But what if cant visit Eiffel Tower then. So I was on and off on my plans to Notre Dame. But went first to Eiffel. I got down at the tube station and was wondering where the tower was. Being so tall, I wondered why it wasnt visible from where I was. It was round the corner. It was awesome. It was built in 1889. I cannot believe it. It was huge. I had elevators goin up and down carrying people. How could they have built it in 1889? It is really a wonder. Of all the pictures I took, I photographed the tower the most. Then I had to find a quick way to get to other places. I took the boat trip. I love ferry rides. I got a discount ticket, got on a ferry. I was taken along the Siene river and was shown the most beautiful buildings in the world. :) Almost all important places to visit are by the river. The trip took a U-turn at Notre Dame. But alas, you can only see from the ferry. It was an excellent ride. We got back to Eiffel. Then I walked opposite to the Eiffel to get it all covered in my camera. I took a few more snaps and then started walking along the river again. After a short walk, I reached the Grand Palace. It was indeed grand. But wasnt open to public at that time. Opposite to it was a smaller palace. It was grand too. Beautiful carvings on the walls and pillars. Then walked some more. I took a detour and walked in to the city. I saw the most beautiful buildings. Even the regular apartments looked splendid. Finally, I reached the most famous Louvre Museum, the Mona Lisa place. I didnt have the time to get in to it. So walked around a bit. It was so big and majestic. It looked like five times the size of the British Museum. Then I got a call asking me to return. :( On my way, I changed my mind yet again and went to Arc De Triomphe. I was there for a few minutes only. It was built to honour the martyrs of the Napoleanic wars. Now I had to really leave, but I promised myself - I will be back. album

Water of Leith

2009-04-17T05:30:00.000-07:00

Water of Leith is an unusual but an interesting name for a river. It is a river flowing from the Pentland hills, through the city of Edinburgh towards Leith where it meets the sea. It is the most wonderful walk we ever had. Arvind and I decided to walk from Stockbridge to Leith along the river. But then we decided to go the opposite direction. Walk against the flow towards the source. Stockbridge is midway between the point where the river enters the city and where it meets the sea. As we started walking, we could see the urban landscape with houses and buildings around the river. But as we moved on, they disappeared and all that we could see were green tall trees. We took unusual paths and found ourselves at deadends. We then had to jump the fence to get back to the path. The river runs so deep in a valley style with high covering trees providing a perfect camouflage. If u look at the satellite imagery of Edinburgh, u cannot find a river in that. Midway, we found a staircase leading to the city. It was like a million steps. Thats how deep the river runs. It was green green green. We spotted a flying duck in the middle of the river. But it was still, until I finished clicking. Good photogenic duck? No. It was a figurine. We walked, walked and walked some more. Over the bridges, under the bridges, saw a couple of tiny waterfalls and reached Dean Village. We then visited a gallery of arts that had quite unusual sculptures. The artist was obsessed with machines I think. All his artwork looked like robots. Then we returned the path and continued walking until we reached Roseburn. We had chinese food and took a bus back home.. :) album

Pentland Hills in Edinburgh

2009-04-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Pentland Hills is a range of hills just outside the city limits. Its a wonderful place for a nice long walk. There are several reservoirs that are hidden amidst the hills, therefore giving the walk a sense of treasure hunt. We started from Bonaly and walked up the hills for a wonderful view of the city. We reached the Bonaly reservoir which is the smallest of all the other reservoirs in the range. We took off our shoes and jumped in to water. You have no idea how cold it was and how insane we were to do that. This is the first time I did that in the UK. Quick snaps and we were back on the ground. Close to the pond, there was a plantation. Seems like light never touched the ground there, because of the high dense trees. After enjoying the place for a bit we moved on. We found a trail map on our way and explored all interpretations. We wanted to go to Glencorse reservoir but we missed it. We were supposed to go around the Harbour hill. But we climbed it. The ascent was good not tiring. We could see the reservoir we just passed. From the top, we could see Cramond, Inchcolm and the Forth bridges. It was wonderful. We also had a chance to see the sheeps. I saw twins. Promptly took a picture. :) On the top, we rested a while and climbed down. Then we walked to a village called Currie, thru the woods. It was lovely. On one side of the path, it was the woods, and on the other the never ending green fields. That was a wow. We were tired by the time we reached Currie. Water of Leith passed thru Currie and was inviting. But I said.. Next week.. album

Cramond - Is it an island?

2009-04-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

Cramond is an island in the Firth of Forth, very close to the city of Edinburgh. One can walk to this island on a high platform pathway from the mainland. When its low tide, this pathway is clear and visible. But when it is high tide, the pathway disappears leaving the piece of land look like a real island. It was a wonderful walking experience around the uninhabited island. There were abandoned buildings that were hidden all across the island, hopefully used as bunkers during the world wars. If you want to experience the serenity of the sea away from the hustle and bustle of the city, then Cramond is the place for you.. album

Inchcolm - An island in the Firth of Forth

2009-04-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Inchcolm is an island with a prehistoric abbey in the Firth of Forth. With just two people taking care of the island it wore a deserted look, but it was a wonderful day out. We took a ferry from South Queensferry and reached the island after crossing the Forth rail bridge underneath. On the way we were greeted by the lazy grey seals. The ferry ride was rejenuvating. The island has two parts. On one side is the ruins of the abbey and on the other is the bunkers once used in both the world wars. We explored the dark maze of chambers of the abbey and narrow spiral staircases leading to the roof from where we got a great aerial view of the island. Snippets of history here and there enlightened us with more information. Then we moved on to the other part where we found a long dark tunnel and a number of bunkers. Two officials of Historic Scotland, an old couple actually, lived on that island. What an opportunity? Photo Album

Whats a Beagle?

2009-04-17T05:13:00.000-07:00

'On my Beagle' may be a strange name for a travel blog for those who do not know Charles Darwin. Darwin is one of most influential thinkers of modern times, whose theory of Natural Selection is so far the best candidate to explain the evolution of species on our planet. He proposed this theory in his famous book, 'On the Origin of Species', in 1859. What led him to propose such a theory was a sea voyage he undertook on a ship called HMS Beagle in 1830s. This blog may not lead to influential ideas as that of Darwin, but I hope to discover the world around me as I travel and look at it from various perspectives and henceforth the name, 'On my Beagle'. It is my journey of discovery.

2009-04-09T02:30:00.001-07:00

First Post