London 20-23 of May 2010

Just after I defended my master thesis in May of 2010, I decided that I needed a small holiday. One of my friends from IIM C now live and work in London, and since I have only been there 1 time, even though it is very close this were a perfect oppertunity to go for a few days. I did not to that many things but I did a little sightseeing, and just spend some time with my friend. For me there is something about being able to relax and forget about all of the worries when I leave my home. I did not take a lot of pictures in those few days but here are a few from Hyde Park.

I had a great few days, the weather was nice, I did a bit of shopping and meet up with my friend.when he was done with work. I just really needed to get out and experience something after working for quite some months with my master thesis, finally handing it in and defending it. This was my gift to myself for finishing my master education at CBS.

Snow in Copenhagen

During the last few vinters we have had quite a bit of snow in Copenhagen, so here are a few of the pictures I have taken.
I am one of those people that like that the seasons change here in Denmark, but after some time I get bored with snow, and cold weather and start wishing for spring and summer. But here summer do not last for so long, and it can be a bit cold too. A good summer day here is around 25 degrees, sunny with out a lot of wind. A cold winter day would be a lot of snow and between -5 and -10 degrees, but here the chill factor playes a bit part of the weather, since we almost always have a wind and often a strong one. Here are the promised winter photos.

England 8-12 Swptember 2009

I decided to take a little break from writing my master thesis and go and visit a friend from IIM C in England. I had only been to London 1 in my life and never any other places in England, so the fact that one of my friends were living in the north of England, just made it easy to decide to go for a few days.
He has his won car so we had the oppertunity to drive a bit around and see different things, a few of the things we saw was, Lake District, Blackpool, Manchester.
I really liked the nature in Lake District, and at some point it could be fun to go back and do a bit of hicking in that area. Here are a few of the pictures I took there.

We also went to Blackpool, for me it is a bit of a strange city with the carnevals and all, but it was a fun experience to see all of it. Also since it was my very first visit I did not know what to expect. Here are the pictures I took.

All in all I had a great few days, where I were able to relax and get some energy restored before I went home and worked more on my master thesis. For me this was the time to do it since, I knew I would not have the oppertunity to take an impulsive trip when I first got a job.

Paris 8-12 of June 2009

Even though I have lived in Copenhagen my whole life, I have never been to Paris. So in spring 2009 I decided that it was time to go see Paris. Also because 2 of the girls from my time at IIMC were living in Paris, so it was a good chance to see the city and the girls at the same time. I spend the days walking around in Paris, seeing a lot of the tourist sights, and then meeting up with the girls in the afternoon and evening.
Here are a few pictures from my trip to Paris:

Hopefully I will get a second chance to go to Paris at some point, because as you can see in the pictures it was raining a lot of the time while I was there. But it was still great to experience Paris and see some of the places that my friends talk about. But next time I want to go with someone, because I find it much more fun to travel with other people. So that I have someone to share the experience with.

India 17 of April - 4 of May 2009 - Shimla

From Varanasi we took a plane back to Delhi. From Delhi we took a train to Kalka where we changed to a toy train, and took that the rest of the way. It was very early morning when we reached Kalka, and we had 1 or 2 hours before the toy train would leave, but not long after we arrived it was possible to get into the toy train and find out seats. Here are a picture of the toy train.

The next pictures are some of my favorite from the toy train ride.

We stayed in Shimla for a few days, like Gangtok in Sikkim, it reminds me more of an European city in the hills than of India. As a European that was struggeling a bit to get use to the heat, a trip up to the mountains was perfect, the weather was still warm, but now it was only around 25-30 degrees. So much more comftable for me. Below you can find a few pictures of the city and sights in the city.

One of the sights we went to see is the Jakhu Temple that is located on Jakhu hill. Here is a link to the story about Lord Hanuman http://hinduism.about.com/od/lordhanuman/a/hanuman.htm
If you choose to walk up the hill to the temple as we did you will come across this sign.

I must admit that according to this I am not fit at all, I think it took around 45 min to get to the temple. Below there are a few pictures from the walk to the temple and the temple.

After this we spend the next few days doing a tour of the surdrounding of Shimla and walking in the city, before the trip back to Delhi. And my trip home to Copenhagen.

India 17 of April - 4 of May 2009 - Varanasi

The morning between Thursday and Friday after the wedding. We were dropped at the train station in Jaipur, so that we could take a morning train to Delhi and catch our afternoon flight from Delhi to Varanasi.
Summer had really set in and it was just very hot as it had also been in Jaipur. Upon arriving in Varanasi I had never been in an airport that were so small, when the passengers from our plane, all got into the arrival hall it was filled. But luckily we quickly got our luggage and headed for the prepaid taxi stand to get a taxi to the city. We found a hotel that were listed in the Lonley Planet book, we got there and it was decent in price and the rooms were good, so we decided to take it for all the days we stayed in Varanasi.
During the time in Varanasi/Banaras - the old name of Varanasi. We took a trip to the university grounds. We saw this wonderful temple.

On the way back to our hotel, we went into the university museum, since it was now mid day and very hot, a few hours of sightseeing inside were appropriate.
Since we had a few days in Varanasi we decided to find a taxi that could take us to Sarnath Temple. This is the temple that according to history was the first temple where Buddha gave his first sermon, and are viewed as 1 of the 3 most holy sites of Buddhists.

Not far from there is another historic place called Ashokan Pillar. Below there are a few pictures I took there.

During our time in Varanasi we also went on what I would say is a mandatory thing, a sunset and sunrise boat ride on the Ganges. This were a great experience, it were amazing to see that there are activity around and on Ganges at all times a day. Every evening there are a big puja ceremony on the water front, where there are given thanks for all of the good things the water of the Ganges give to the city. Here are a few of the sunset pictures.

The next pictures are from the sunrise boat trip.

After a couple of amazing days in Varanasi, the trip would continue to Shimla.

India 17 of April - 4 of May 2009 - Jaipur

I had a early morning flight out of Copenhagen at 6, when we left it was 5 degrees outside, then I had a stopover in Amsterdam, when I left Amsterdam it was 15 degrees outside. When I arrived at New Delhi around 11 in the evening it was still 30 degrees outside. I had arrived just a summer was catching on. I was very intersted in seeing how I would deal with the heat this time.
This holiday would consists of a few things, first a wedding in Delhi, then a wedding in Jaipur, a trip to Varanasi and at last a trip to Shimla.
The two weddings I was so lucky and attend were batch mates from IIMC that were getting married. For the first one I attended the reception. From Delhi I took the train to Jaipur, for those of you that have never been at an Indian train station, here are a picture of the platform and one from inside the train.

The train was a few hours late getting into Jaipur, but it worked out.The wedding party would be going on from Monday until the night between Thursday and Friday where the actual ceremony would take place. During these days there was also time for some sightseeing. So I got to see the Maharaja Palace Jaipur.

The above pictures is from Tuesday where we went around in Jaipur for a few hours, before going back to where we were staying and got ready for the engagement party in the evening.
Wednsday morning we left early for a long day of sightseeing, with a few of the brides friends. Below you can see a few pictures of what we saw.
We also saw Hawa Mahal

After this we drove to see a fort and Jantar Mantar. Here are a few pictures. When we came to Jantar Mantar, I had to give up and to and sit in the shadow. Being outside in the sun was over for me, after around 6 hours of sightseeing in around 45 degrees, I had had enough.

The above is a few pictures from the fort. Below there are a picture of the Jantar Mantar.

After returning from the sightseeing. I was asked if I wanted to have mehndi done, I decided to say yes, since I thought it would be a fun thing to try. Several of the other female guests had it done while we were out sightseeing. Here is a picture of my hands while I am waiting for the mehndi to dry.

The day ended up with the guys going to the bachelorette party where the groom and his family were staying. And me staying with the bride's family. We had a good dinner, and just sat around and talked. Since Thursday was going to be a long day I turned in early. Thursday morning started around 7 with puja, followed by breakfast. Then us young people playing some card and talked before we went in cars for lunch at the wedding venue. After returning it was time for a nap, and some more hanging out. Around 6 I started getting ready, since we were leaving around 8. I had some help putting on my saree since, I was still not very good at it, and I wanted it to looks as good as possible. I had brought the saree I bought for Diwali when I lived in Calcutta. Since I believed this would be the most appropriate thing to wear, because I did not want to draw too much attention.