Tag: Coffee

Italy & Swiss 2022!

Already been a week!
The trip was in many ways a Deja Vu experience.
Right from the moment, we landed in the city of Zurich! Seemed like time had stopped moving since we were last here seven years ago.
The roads, the streets, and the stores they seemed like nothing had changed.
We moved around here without google maps.
And since it was Sunday as we walked down the streets, we were predicting the stores that will be coming and just next to that is where we should meet in case we get lost.
As we continued our journey to explore the other side of Switzerland.

Thank God things were different. Else it would have been a crazy holiday experience.
We explored the Italian- Mediterranean side of Switzerland Lugano and Lausanne & Montreux.
Lausanne was known for the Olympic Museum, and Montreux was very much like Como and Lugano was like the typical European small-town charm.
These towns were in their way beautiful and as we travelled to each of them. We could notice many shades of blue water. The narrow streets with colourful structures were some of the things we missed about Europe and travelling in the last couple of years…
Italy – Milan Centrale station seemed to have changed a little. But the structure remained the same. Dumao the cathedral and the shopping centre both were nostalgic experiences. As it was a decade ago or the 1st European trip ever from India was to Italy. The Cafes, the tourist buzz and the stores in this hundred of years old architecture and space were worth revisiting too.
Venice: The Land of Espresso! And coffee for Italy. The San Marco square, the faint memory of remembering the Florian Cafe being a little around that particular column, the walk past the bridges and the boat experience that we did this time from the station that had gone through a complete makeover from the last time we were in Venice in 2012.
We did not do the gondola ride this time as we just had a day in Venice.
Quite a few new stores opened and many remained where they were!
I remember this particular store that would have Ferrari & F1 merchandise and this was the time I was more interested and related Italy with Cars like Ferrari that I wanted to just go and visit this store!
There were too many stories that I relived on this trip to Italy & Switzerland.

Planning to travel around Switzerland. Some of the cities around Zurich & Geneva are mentioned below.

Train Travel from Zurich:

  • Lausanne – 2 Hr 15 Min.
  • Montreux – 15 from Lausanne( 2 Hr 30 Min from Zurich)
  • Lugano – 2 Hr
  • Fribourg  – 1 Hr 30 Min.
  • Lucerne –  45 Min.
  • Bern – 1 Hr.
  • Basel – 1 Hr 10 Min
  • Zermatt – 3 Hr 12 Min
  • St. Moritz – 3 Hr 22 Min

Train Travel from Geneva:

  • Interlaken – 2 Hr 15 min
  • Montreux – 1 Hr 10 Min
  • Lausanne – 45 Min

Some More Writing- 2022

Kolkata – Durga Puja Festival!

Four Years ago… The First time we visited Kolkata for a Bengali wedding….In the heart of kolkata Park Street. We spent two days doing the most obvious kolkata things… Having the Kolkata Paan, Puchka and visiting the tourist attraction like Victoria museum besides attending the Punjabi- Bengali wedding… we visited Flurys one of the oldest Cafes in Kolkata almost 100 years old today.
To visiting a Chinese restaurant and having Indian Chinese since … Hakka Noodles we’re first discovered here in Kolkata. We also had the Rolls from Kusum .. Kolkata is popularly known for their Rolls!
While we had meals! How could we miss out on the desserts… Misthi Doi from Balaram Mullick one of the oldest sweet shop now has multiple outlets across kolkata. To having the Nolen Gur Ice cream & Paan ice cream from Pabrai to enjoying an Bengali-French meal at 6th Ballygunge restaurant.
Four years later…
We tried most of these things again … But visited places that we had missed Peter Cat & Mocambo known for their Chelo Kebab & Crab meat In Mustard Sauce & Pork Nuggets Both of these places are owned by the same owners, have same interiors but both offer a different menu… Besides the regular meal break we took.. we visited the Roastery House Cafe in Hindustan Park… A cafe done in an old bungalow with mustard colour walls and simple interiors.. Any place we visited Kolkata without booking we had a waiting for about forty minutes… but, Wait!
We did not just Eat & Sleep.
We also attended grand Bengali ceremony Durga Puja! One day we toured across the city visiting Durga Puja Pandal, that were beautifully designed keeping a theme & idea behind and with such creativity and deadlines…From Library, to the lockdown life to Football & Bollywood were some of the pandal we visited.
You keep wondering why isn’t Kolkata visited by Tourist or why don’t people from other states come here!! And why don’t travel magazines promote Kolkata as a destination… why just Rajasthan, Goa, Mumbai and Bangalore?
The visit couldn’t be more kolkata, when we met the Superstar of Bengali Cinema Parambrata Chatterjee who is a very popular face in Bengali Cinema and someone who acted in a Bollywood movie Kahaani! The film made me first want to visit Kolkata….

So Yes! I believe I have been lucky to have seen Kolkata like a local both times!!

Durga puja Pandal