Pietarsaari trip for badminton tournament

I haven't written in my blog for long time. It was a long break. Finally I broke the ice and decided to give my updates here again :) Good thing is it's resuming with a trip post :)

I am going to Pietarsaari today to participate in a badminton tournament. I will participate both in singles and in doubles. In doubles I will play as Babu vi's partner. I am really honored that he allowed me to be his partner. The initial schedule for my matches can be found here. All the 3 matches are knock out fashioned. If I manage to win any of these games I will play more. Wish me luck :)

I will take the train from Helsinki. It will take four and half hours. Tareq vi is supposed to join me in the same train from Tampere. Babu vi will be in the train station to fetch us. It will be a nice trip I guess :)


Programming Solution

Euro trip 2011: Czech Republic

From Vienna we went to Prague, Czech Republic. It was 18 July. We had to take early train in the morning, at 08:25. We woke up very early in the morning, got ready, prepared light breakfast, ate and headed for the train station to catch the train. We found ourselves running in the train station to get in. We managed to get in at the very last minute :P

In the train, we met an American old guy, a literature professor, who is going to Prague to attend a conference. He is a jolly person. We gossiped about many things. He recited few verse from Shakespeare. Later on that day we met this guy again near the clock church. He took one of our pictures :) The train journey from Vienna to Prague was very nice. I liked the landscape. We had snacks in the train cafe. The journey was about 4 and half hours. We reached Prague central railway station around 13:00.

It was previously planned that we would be in Prague only for 5 hours. So we had to look around the city within that time. We started from the downtown, went to the church which has this famous astronomical clock. On the way we ate pizza for our lunch. For me it was one of the nicest pizza I have ever tasted. It was also very cheap. We passed through the Charles bridge and went to the Prague castle. It's on top of a mountain. According to the Guinness World Records, it is the biggest ancient castle. You can see the beautiful view of the city from that place. The day was very nice, bright and sunny. From the castle we went to see one of the weirdest structure of the world. Actually it's the transmission tower for the television center but somehow it looked really weird, doesn't match with the city's usual structures.

After seeing that building we had to do some grocery for coming days and it was almost time to leave Prague. Our next destination was Zurich and again we found that we were running out of time. So, run guys, run :)

Facts I noticed:

1. The look of Prague is different. There is not many high rise buildings. Many houses have tally roof, mostly of red color.

2. Roads are very narrow and so many steeps.

3. It's much cheaper compared to Finland.

4. Prague is a city for tourists. Lot of tourists all around.

Pictures:


The train from Vienna to Prague



Restaurant in the train



We requested the restaurant attendant to take a picture for three of us



Me, solo



In front of Prague central railway station



Typical European street



Interesting color of the building



Starting to walk to explore the city



Interesting way to leave your sign in the city. You can buy those blocks and write whatever you like and leave it there



The souvenir shop



The church



Church again



In front of the famous astronomical clock



Dressed up like a king, though the umbrella doesn't go with the king :P



Me and Shanila



Gagan barged in :P



Nicely framed



The American guy took our photo



Another shot in front of the church



Just a smiling face :)



Prague museum



On Charles bridge



Trying to figure out the correct way to the castle



Friends



On the way to the castle



Summer snow :D



We had to climb a long way



This is a scary thing outside of a restaurant. The restaurant was decorated with lots of torture equipments, no idea why



Many stairs to go



Almost on top



Now we are on top surface



The couple on top



Again requested somebody to take our picture



Nice view of Prague from the top



The weird television tower



Another look



At the bottom of that tower



Programming Solution

Euro trip 2011: Austria

The second country in our list was Austria, the country of Mozart. Our plan was to visit Vienna and see only the downtown. From Budapest we took a train which runs between Budapest and Vienna. It was only 3 hours travel to reach Vienna. We reached after 16:00 and got in the hostel by 17:00. It's a nice hostel - neat and clean, the staffs are friendly, we even got attached toilet and bathroom with our room. We freshened up, took a bit rest and then went out to roam around the downtown.

There are many attraction in Vienna downtown and interestingly they are quite close to each other. So if you take few hours walk you can see many attraction in Vienna city. The weather was nice. We saw many people roaming around, the whole town is in festival mode, music was going on in many places, plays, shows and so on. We saw museums, cathedrals, parliament building, opera house and several other old buildings which I don't remember fully. At the end we took a ring tram to have a round to the whole city. Unfortunately we got lost :P and it took a bit longer time to return to our hostel. It was almost 11 O'clock at night when we returned. Somehow we couldn't manage to taste the coffee in Vienna :(

We prepared our dinner in the shared kitchen, ate and went to bed early since we had to catch early train next morning to go to Prague :)

Facts I noticed:

1. Vienna is a very live city. Lot of things are going on here and there - sports, play, various show, dance, opera and so on. It was not any special day but looks like it's a festival in downtown.

2. People speak average English, not very fluent.

3. The downtown is very clean but not the whole city.

4. Tram and metro service is quite good.


Pictures:


Just got down in Vienna



Me as well



After reaching the hostel



A roadside restaurant in downtown



I guess it's the opera house :P



Trying to shoot something with my mobile camera :P



A bunch of people were singing loudly together



In the heart of downtown



A Mozart replica



Two guys dressed like Mozart in front of the opera house



That's Mozart cafe



International dance festival, the poster doesn't look like dancing though :P



The opera house



A nice square. The concrete balls is caught our eyes



Nice shade by the afternoon sunlight through the cloud



Don't remember what was that :-S



Vienna museum



Museum again



Having snacks in front of the museum



Asked somebody to take a picture of all three of us. Should have removed the Fanta can first :D



The parliament building (from tram)



Programming Solution