Venice !! Here we come !!! (Part 4 of "The Backpacking Trip")

 After a gruelling overnight train journey, we found ourselves in Venice in the morning. Well, can't really complain, being graduate students, we'd opted to travel in the nights, so we could save up on our accomodation expenses.Venice was every bit as wonderful as we had imagined and even more picturesque than we'd thought of. The canals and the waterways, added their own charm to this lovely city on the water. Once, we got out of the train, we had to search for 'water bus' stop. Yeah, you read it right. Since most of the city is on the water and connected by small bridges and narrow canals, there's not much of what we can call roads to drive buses and cars in the city. But there's a lot of narrow lanes which can be walked through, bridges which can be crossed and of course there are the water ways. You had an option to ride in a Water Taxi ( way too expensive for us students ), A gondola ( still expensive, but worth the experience. more on this later in this post ) or the 'Water Bus'.  You can liken the water bus to the public transport buses in the city of Mumbai. 

Now, the only problem being, we knew where we wanted to go 'The Backpackers Hostel' in Venice ( We new the street address too ), but didnt know how and our dumb-charades started. VC having travelled in Europe before, suggested we go to a tourist information booth. So we started looking for one and finally found one. Somehow, with a mixture of our bad attempts at dum charades and the relatively limited understanding of English that the Venetians we met had, we were able to figure out the 'Water Bus Number' and the 'Color' which would take us to the boys hostel. Yes - there was a number and color to these water buses. Finally after about an hour and a half of being physically present in Venice, we found ourselves aboard the correct Water Bus, which was headed towards our accomodation. All these waterways in Venice are on the waters of the Adriatic Sea. 

Finally, we checked into our hostel. The receptionist told us, we had 15 mins, to avail our daily free breakfast. Not that we were planning on a breakfast that morning, but as graduate students at heart, anything free sounded like a treat. Instead of going to our rooms, we headed straight to the cafetaria for our 'free' breakfast. What we got was very much befitting what a free breakfast would be. VC and I, each got one buttered croissant, a satchet of creamer, couple of pouches of sugar and a cup of coffee. We weren't really complaining, but finished this up and went off to our hostel rooms. 

Well, when I say room, we went to this huge hall, which had 20-30 beds a few feet apart. VC and I were lucky to be placed side by side. But in there, we found folks of various cultures and nationalities. It was an interesting experience. There were no cupboards or cabinets next to the beds. You could either place the luggage under the beds or in the lockers. The reception gave each of us a locker in the hostel which was associated to the bed number. Now we wanted to have a quick shower, but wait a minute, what was this ? These were community baths here. There was this big enough room with 20-30 showers and a few hooks and benches in one corner. Thats it. To us Indians, this felt a bit strange. Culturally, we aren't necessarily brought up like this. So we just observed how others were going about their business for a few minutes. Once, we felt we were ready, we took the 'proverbial plunge' into the showers. Just did all things quickly and were out of there. 

Now that we felt we'd figured out the water bus routes, we took the water bus to 'Piazza St, Marco'. This place is more amazing than what it looks like in pictures. It was amazing. We were lucky, in that we were in Venice during the 'Carnival of Venice' or the Venice Mask Festival. There were beautifully dressed men and women with exquisite masks all over the square. We had carried camera rolls ( yes, we didn't have our own digital cameras back then ), so we were limited by the number of rolls we had. But we tried to capture the best sights that we could see. 

The next thing on our to-do list was the 'Gondola ride'. We had read that Gondolas were very expensive around St. Marco's Square and then prices we checked out, confirmed what we had read. We had also read that Gondolas are cheaper to rent in the smaller canals, as opposed to the bigger touristy places around the Grand Canal. Again, we were able to find a cheap Gondola rental in one of the smaller canals and he offered to take us round trip via the Grand Canal So here we were in this Gondola - which was a long black gondola, with red velvet seats. The 'Gondolier' was dressed in black pants and striped t-shirts and wore a straw hat. As is their wont, he was singing sweet Italian songs. As and when we passed by any monuments, he would try and describe them to us in his broken English. A little while into our journey VC noticed, that folks along the banks or over the bridges on the Grand Canal, were literally pointing at the two of us seated in the Gondola and taking our pictures. VC was like 'AK, dude, these people think we are gay !!! Noooo !!! Yikes !!!!'. He jumped across to the seats on the opposite side of where I was seated. And here I was, without a care in the world for what these people were thinking. After all they didn't know, that I had just gotten engaged in India, a month ago... But so be it... Once our gondola ride was done, we tipped the 'Gondolier' and were on our way. 

As was the case on our trip, our lunches were light on the pocket and the dinners were lavish. We were taking in all that Venice had to offer. The road side seating available at the restaurants and coffee shops was a lovely experience. The cobbled pathways, the different bridges dotting the waterways, it was an amazing experience. Two days in Venice flew by way too quickly. Now we had a busy travel day the next day. A bus journey to 'Rome' but with a 'pit stop' in Florence to get a glimpse of 'The Leaning Tower of Pisa'. More about that trip soon. Ciao !!!!

The Conference at Innsbruck (Part 3 of "The Backpacking Trip")

Finally, we arrived at the Innsbruck, Westbahnhof train station. It was around 6 in the morning. The weather was nice and chilly. The morning air was fresh and inviting. It was quite close the hotel we were put up at. We decided to walk it up to the hotel. Half an hour later VC and I were checked into our hotel room. With all the adventures of our previous night at the Milan train station, finally we made it to Innsbruck. For the real reason, why we planned our whole trip around this. But we were so tired, we decided to take a short nap.

We had to reach the Convention Center by 10am, to register our presence and complete the remaining formalities. Now, here's where the life event that had taken place in my life, started showing its colors. Eager to describe the experience to my fiancee, I rushed to the post office, so I could make the call and recount the previous night's experience.

I spoke to my fiancee and was donewith my call in 10-15 minutes. A relatively short duration for the kind of durations our calls would typically last. Then as I went ahead to pay for the call, I realized, I didnt have my wallet on me. I tried to reason with the clerk at the post office to let me go to the hotel and get my wallet. But he was in no mood to trust me. He needed something from me, which would ensure that I'd come back for it and come with my wallet as well. All I had on me, coincidently at the time was my passport. He saw that and asked me to leave it with him.

Without thinking too much, I left it with him and ran to the hotel room. VC saw me panting, as I entered the room. 'What happened ?' he enquired. I told him the whole story and also mentioned about the passport. 'Dude ! You dont do that, ever. Thats our freaking travel document. What if it gets lost ? You'll get deported man !!' he said. My stupidity had still not sunk in. But I picked my wallet and rushed back to the post office. 'Phew !!', I gasped. Finally the call was paid for and I had my passport. Now, I was thinking how foolish the whole episode was and what a crazy thing, I'd done.

Once at the hotel, we got ready for breakfast - that was on the house, courtesy the conference organizers. Now that was one meal which was sumptuous and we gorged on it, like there was no tomorrow. Once done, we went to the Convention center. Got our passes, the schedule of the conferences, the room assignments and all the other details. Our presentation was the following day at 11am. So basically, we were free to roam around town for the whole day. 

We learnt at our hotel reception that people drink water from the tap in their homes. The water's so pure. And oh boy, how true this was. It probably is one of the best tasting water, that we'd drunk in a while and that too from the tap. We were basically at the foot of the Alps. One of the major sources for fresh water to the town of Innsbruck. The streets were nice and cobbled, there were quite a few bridges, over the river in 'Inn' in Innsbruck. In fact, thats what Innsbruck means literally - 'Bridge over the river Inn'.

It started snowing by around noon and cut short our adventurous plans for the rest of the day. We retired back to our hotel room. After all, we had to be ready for a formal 4-course dinner at 5.30pm in the convention center, which was to be followed by a walking tour of the town. Tired as we were, we quickly fell asleep and didnt realize we'd slept for a good 4 hours. The fatigue from the previous night probably got to us.

What followed, was an amazing sit-down 4 course dinner and was accompanied by announcements around the history of the conference and the formalities about declaring it open formally. We had lovely soups, appetizers, venison meat and desserts. The entire conference hall was studded with chandeliers and we were seated at round tables with about 5-6 individuals from the fraternity at each table. It was a surreal experience.

Finally once the ceremonies were done and along with them our dinner, we were taken out for a walking tour of Innsbruck town by one of the funniest guides, I had come across. The lengths to which he went to describe one of the so many paintings on the walls in Innsbruck. Our tourist group had a good mix of tourists from across the world such as American, British, Spanish, Middle-eastern, Indian, Chinese etc. So, it made for a fun experience listening to their attempts to frame questions and our guide doing his best to answer the queries in his own English.

Once our tour was done, we got back to the hotel. Rehearsed our paper presentation a few times and went off to sleep. Though our time slot was from 11am - 11.25am the following day, we had to be in the assigned discussion rooms by 10am, listening in on the presentations of fellow presenters from the fraternity.

The next morning, we reached the convention center after our customary complementary breakfast binging session. VC and I took turns presenting our paper and shuffling through our transparencies. It was all going well. We then opened the floor for Q&A. We got a few questions, which we answered satisfactorily. As we were about to get done, we got stumped by our last question. We didnt have an answer at that moment. Just then, we remembered what Mark had told us. If in doubt or clueless, you can always say, 'I'll get back to you on this.'. We used this to our advantage and got through with our presentation. Exchanged emails with the concerned person and were done.

Our paper presentation done, We didnt have much stuff to do after our conference. We got back to the hotel and started packing our stuff.  We had another train to catch for Venice later that night. We were already looking foward to the next leg of our trip - Venice, Florence and Rome !!!   

On to Milan (Part 2 of "The Backpacking Trip")

Finally, here we were in the month of February, getting all prepped up for our flight and our backpacking trip to Europe. I had just returned from India after my vacations on Sunday. And, oh boy, what a fun trip I had. And, a life (changing) event had occurred in my life. However, my India trip and the life (changing) event, will be better off in their own post. 

We only had until Thursday morning, to get all packed and ready. We were going through our last minute checklist:

Passport - check

Schengen Visas - check

Flight tickets from Boston to Milan - check

Train tickets from Milan to Innsbruck - check

The invites to the conference - check

Copies of our paper to be presented at the conference - check

Train tickets from Innsbruck to Venice - check

Flight tickets from Rome to Boston - check

Clothes to last us for the duration of our trip - check

Warm clothing - check

Having all this stuff packed in 1 backpack and just a small size suitcase, so we could move relatively lightly and quickly from place was place was all done. 

Though, once we'd experienced the winters in Boston, and from what we'd read on yahoo.com on our firefox or netscape browsers (yep google was still in its infancy, and hadn't caught on like wild fire just yet), it was like, we could roam around in our fall clothing and not worry about Italian winters.

Finally, it was Thursday morning and the butterflies in my tummy, had grown into huge vultures. My first ever backpacking trip. How would it be ? VC, had done it once before, so he was cool about things. But, hey, there's always a first time for things.

We were mindful of the fact that we were still students and were travelling on a budget. But, who said, travel can't be fun, even on a budget. VC and I had decided, breakfasts were to be heavy in content but cheap on the pocket and the dinners were to be in the lovely roadside cafes, restaurants in the various squares in Italy, with all the fun that we could have. Wine and dine kind of places.

We were flying KLM from Boston to Milan. The moment the flight was airborne and the cabin crew opened the aisles for in-flight services, VC and I decided to celebrate with a bottle of complementary wine on the flight. The food was awesome too... It was all fun... Between watching movies, chit-chatting, celebrating with a toast, the 7.5 hr flight seemed way too short. Finally, we heard the captains orders, 'Cabin crew prepare for landing !'. I looked out the aircraft window. It was so foggy outside, I just couldn't see any land around. The inflight monitors were showing our altitude dropping from 30000 meters to within hundreds of meters and yet there was no sign of any land below. 'Where in Gods name was the pilot landing our aircraft ?', I thought to myself.

Finally, we felt the back wheels of the plane touch the ground.. and we were like phew... But hey... the nose wheel of the plane hadn't yet touched down and the plane seemed to take off again for a little bit and we were like - what the heck is happening ? Finally though, it wasn't a fly by or anything, the pilot did manage to land the plane safely in a short while... And believe me, all aboard the flight started clapping for the pilot and his skills and thanking God for our lives...  We had touched down with all wheels at Milan's Malpensa International Airport.

After we were done with our immigration and picking our baggage, we decided to take a cab to the bed and breakfast which we'd booked in Milan. We had checked at the information desk at the airport and roughly knew that a cab ride would cost us 40 euros. 'Via Giovanni Segantini 30 - pls' we told the cab driver. In about 45 mins, we reached our bed and breakfast place (B&B). Our landlord Mario Biscotti was waiting for us with his girlfriend Angela. Now to get from the ground floor to the third floor of this place was one experience.

We got into the narrowest of elevators, I'd ever seen in my life. There was enough place in it, just for me and my hand baggage and 1 suit case. VC had to wait it out and come in the next trip. It almost felt like the elevator was an after thought in that building and was fitted into a very narrow stairwell. Its dimensions were literally like (L) 4ft x (B) 1.5ft x (H) 7 ft. Anyway, Mario and Angela were kind hosts. They welcomed us with 'Italian Espresso coffee' and a bun. They helped us with instructions on how to get around the place, the closest Metro station, the eateries in the neighborhood and just about anything else, we had queries about.

We freshened up, took our passports and some euros and off we went to walk in the streets of Milan. It is a nice and clean city. Before we could do anything touristy, we wanted to find out how far away the Train station was from our B&B. It was a good 15-20 mins walk to the 'Porta Garibaldi'. This would be needed on Sunday, when we had to take the train for Innsbruck.

On Friday and Saturday, we walked around a lot in Milan. Saw the Milan Cathedral (the second largest cathedral in Europe), The Piazza del Duomo and can never forget the Grand Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II. The views around the city were fresh and breathtaking. We walked mostly, or took public transport wherever possible. To me, that's probably the best way to get to know a new city. 

Our train to Innsbruck was on Sunday night at 10pm. We figured, we ran into a lot of language problems, so might as well reach in the morning and confirm - where the train departs from and all. To our bad luck - there was a strike that day from 10am - 6pm. Can you imagine a railway workers strike on a Sunday ? This we came to know, after playing dumb charades with a helpful clerk at the station. We asked her, why do they have strike on a Sunday ? Her answer left us non-plussed and surprised. She said, this way, people are inconvenienced the least. I was thinking to myself, had it been India, a strike would be held right in the middle of the week, to inconvenience the rush hour traveller and hit them hard. But this was a nice lesson to learn from these Italians.

VC and I had thought, we'd do some sight seeing on Sunday, but now we were crazy scared, what if we couldn't get onto the right train out of Milan. We spent most of the day with Mario and Angela. They told us, things will be normal after 6pm, don't worry. Guess, just knowing how strikes went in India, we weren't too comfortable with this idea. Anyway, there wasn't much we could do about it.

We reached the train station at 7pm that evening. 3 hours before our scheduled departure. We were relieved that the strike was called off and people had started working. But this is when the language problem hit us hard again. We wanted to know from which platform the train to Innsbruck departed. And no one could either understand our question or make us understand what they were saying. We spent a nerve wracking 2 hours trying to talk to any Tom, Dick and Harry at the station, but weren't lucky enough. 

Finally, VC and I started looking at the departure boards, with some help from a helpful Italian who in broken English somehow told us, you can check the platforms based on the train number on your ticket and that big notice board on the wall. We also learnt that our train was a through train. So, Innsbruck was just an in between station and the train was to go to some other destination. Finally, with about 20 mins to go for departure, we learnt that we had to go to platform 10.

We were literally running like crazy people. Finally, we saw the platform and the train and heaved a big sigh of relief. Phew, we got into the train with 10 mins left and were panting and laughing like mad people. AK we made it finally, said VC. Just as I was about to respond, the ticket collector came by. He saw our tickets and guess what - we were seated in the wrong compartment on the right train.

Luckily, he knew English well. He said, this train has 8 compartments. After the next station, the last 3 will get detached and will travel to Lucerne, Switzerland. Then after 4 more stations, the first 3 will detach and go to Lyon, France. You guys need to sit in the compartment 3 compartments ahead. By this time, the train had started moving. There were no lights yet within the train as well. VC and I picked our backpacks and suitcase and started making our way through the moving train to the compartment, which would finally take us to Innsbruck.

Once, we reached there, we heaved a collective sigh of relief and were like, DAMN - we should have learnt ITALIAN in school. After catching our breath, the next question in our minds, sent a shiver down our spines. The train was to halt in Innsbruck for 2 mins only. Now in that compartment, we found people speaking AUSTRIAN - which is very close to GERMAN and they couldn't tell us which side of the compartment, the station would come on ? 

What if we overslept ? What if we couldn't get off at Innsbruck ? With these thoughts, we decided to stay up all through the night and keep checking with the ticket collectors about this query. Finally after 30-40 mins, our friendly ticket collector showed up. He asked for our tickets and nodded in acknowledgement. We asked him our questions and he FINALLY clarified, after 6 hours, the train will arrive at Innsbruck station, the platform is on the left hand side.

Phew... we could finally take it easy, but only just for the next 5 hours !!!

Wanna go to Innsbruck, Austria ? (Part 1 of "The Backpacking Trip")

It was almost the end of October. We were pretty much done with our independent research topic under Mark's guidance. He had already submitted a draft of our work to the registration committee for a conference in Austria. Mark had called VC ( Vicky ) and me ( AK ) to his office at 11am that day to discuss the next steps towards the completion of our independent study.

As VC and I entered Mark's office, he looked all upbeat and excited. 'Guys !! Our paper has been accepted at the conference. Its going to be held in Innsbruck, Austria, in February. I would have loved to go, but am occupied during that time. Would you guys like to go and present our paper ? I think one of you should definitely go !!'

VC and I, were surprised and stunned at the same time. Really didn't know how to respond to Mark right there. There was obviously the cost factor which was weighing in on our minds. The logistics of the travel, the stay and the conference itself, our pre-existing plans, etc. All of these thoughts were going through our minds, as though the vortex of a tornado. But Mark was a very understanding and sensitive advisor. He told us, "its a Friday, give it a thought and lets discuss on Monday. Meanwhile, I'll see, if the Department is willing to sponsor your travel for the conference.".  "OK !", we said and walked out of his office.

Fridays, typically were almost like the start of a weekend for us, grad. students. More so, for those of us, who were in the last semesters of their M.S. programs. We typically, had accepted job offers, or were contemplating between a few of them on hand. Life was good. I was looking forward to my India trip in December. That was going to be one time, when I could probably go on a vacation for more than a month, before I'd join the American corporate world. VC still had one semester to finish, as he was working on his M.S. thesis with his Graphics professor. 

Towards afternoon on that Friday itself, we had already received an email from Mark. The Department was going to fully sponsor the trip for one student with flights, hotel stay from Boston to Austria and back. We were excited as hell. But then we were thinking, which of us should go to present the paper.

That evening, over a drink, VC, always the more adventurous of the two of us, came up with a masterstroke ! 'Hey AK ! anyway the department is going to be sponsoring the trip for one student. Lets both of us go and we'll split the expenses for the other person in half 'n' half.' It was all fine until here. I was already visualising myself travelling to Innsbruck and back. But then after another drink or two, VC really came up with something even more adventurous. Mind you, we weren't drunk, just having a good time, celebrating the success of our paper getting accepted at the conference. VC said, 'AK - why not we fly into Milan, Italy; spend a couple of days, travel to Innsbruck, wrap up the conference in 2 days, then continue on our trip to Italy, we can then travel to Florence, Venice and Rome and then get back to Boston. It'll be the perfect backpacking trip !'. 

The idea seemed amazing, but I needed to discuss this with my parents back home, just so I had their go ahead, as this trip was bound to incur a cost for me and I wanted to make sure with them, that it was ok. VC was sure, he'd be able to convince his Mom and Dad for this trip. I was sure, my parents wouldn't object either, but still wanted to have the discussion with them. On Saturday morning, I spoke to my Mom and Dad and encouraging as always, they were happy for us and also fine with the travel plan. 'Just be careful and plan your trip, logistics, wisely they said !'. 

Since all was ok, we met Mark on Saturday afternoon in his office at the CS Department and said, that we'd agree to present the paper in Innsbruck, Austria. He said, 'Let me know, which of you is going. Prepare your itinerary, book your flights and the Dept. will reimburse you.'. Little did he know, what all VC and I had planned.

The rest of Saturday evening and Sunday, VC and I spent feverishly looking for the cheapest deals on everything. Remember, we were still grad students. So a penny saved, was a penny earned !! So we kept looking for the most economic deals on flights, looking for travel options from Italy to Innsbruck and back to Italy, our accommodations in Italy, Innsbruck and were all upbeat about the upcoming travel. By almost 1am on Monday morning, we had our entire trip planned and we were ready to share our itinerary with Mark in the day.

On Monday morning, we met Mark at his office. 'Ok ! Shoot your plan !' he said. We told him. 'Mark, both of us are going !'. 'You know the Dept. is going to sponsor only one of you right ?'. 'Yes. We'll bear the expenses of the second person amongst ourselves.' we told him. 'Fine ! ' he said. 'What are your travel plans ?'. 'Well !!! we fly out of Boston and land in Milan on Friday and 11 days later we head back to Boston from Rome'. 'Whoa !!! The conference is in Innsbruck, Austria - you guys know that right ?'. 'Yes Mark !' we said. 'We'll travel by train from Milan to Innsbruck on Sunday night. Get our registration done on Monday morning. Present the paper on Tuesday morning. Once thats done, we'll leave Innsbruck for Venice. On Thursday morning, we'll travel to Florence. Reach Rome by Friday evening. Depart for Boston on Monday'. 'That sounds like one wild trip around a technical paper presentation. Take care and have a blast guys !' said Mark.

Mark then told us what we needed to do to get reimbursed for the trip from the Dept. and the other nitty-gritty details about the logistics about registration for the conference and so on. More importantly, what else, we needed to do, to wrap our Independent study with him for our 3rd semester and get done with it.