Dublin and Belfast

Dublin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin) and Belfast(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast) , were two cities I covered in August this year, yeah quite late in updating the blog. We took Rynair (ya ya whine about them being cheap or whatever) flights to Belfast from London, and drove in a hired car from Belfast to Dublin. It took us all in all around 4 hours to reach Dublin from London via Belfast. As soon as you reach Dublin you realize that you are not in Britain anymore, you can hear cars blowing horns more often then in London ;). People were full of warmth and energy. People are religious about Guinness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness) in Ireland, and yes never ask for a Guinness sandy, it's a sin and if you do then be ready for the consequences. Guinness is brewed in Dublin, and you wouldn’t want to miss the chance to see the brewery, and it is worth a visit. The other drink you do want to try in Dublin is Irish coffee(It basically coffee with whisky in it), well being an Indian it was hard for me to develop a test for it but it's worth a try.
After a day of wondering around in Dublin we drove back to Belfast, and went Chintu's sisters for night stay. We were welcomed with nice food and drinks, It was there I came to know about pear cider and believe me it was nice. Next day we explored Belfast. There is a big wheel similar to London Eye in Belfast as well. To our disappointment it rained whole day :( and we couldn't do much then sitting in a cafe and having Irish coffee.

Ireland

Swiss

I have got some time these days in xmas, so a good opportunity to update the travel memories of recent past. I shall start with Swiss and in coming days update the rest as well.
I was in Swiss in September-08 for 4 days. Swiss had been one of the dream locations to visit for me, yeah call it bollywood effect and yes you wouldn't believe but Indians top the list of visitors to Swiss. We took a Swiss airways flight to Zurich and stayed one night in Zürich at Marriot. There are two Marriott’s in Zurich, the one we stayed on day one was not very near to city central so night travel to city was an adventure in trams and trains. After checking in, we started our search for food well 9:00 pm in night is not a very good time to start your search for food, so we ended up having burgers at McDonalds, and that we got luck as they were about to close in next 15 minutes. We met a very friendly Guy and a Lady on this search who helped us poorly prepared and hungry bunch of travelers.
Next day we started exploring our options to travel, and the decision was made to buy a train pass that'll cover our travel over next 3 days to Mt Titlis, Interlaken, Joungfrough and then back to Zurich. Today was decided for Mt Titlis, Well was good and scenic journey may I belong to a hilly area in India myself, so it wasn’t of much interest to me, but the gang with me had good fun, well all went mad in Snow, It was a tiring journey from Zurich to Titlis and then back to Zurich. All I enjoyed was train travel in Swiss transport, It was first time I traveled in a double Decker train.
3rd day of our stay in Swiss we checked out and started for Interlaken, from where you take a train to the top of Europe, the route we took was like this Zurich-->Bern-->Interlaken -->Joungfrough. Today was more of interest to me then the travel to Mt. Titlis. Enjoyed every bit of it. It took around 2.5 hours to reach Interlaken, where we checked in and then continued on our journey to the top of the Europe. It gets all more scenic and beautiful as you move closer to the top. Well I must say a Swiss railway is marvelous piece of engineering, It's really a thrilling experience to see a train running up and down on a steep hill. Total journey to reach the top including Ropeways takes around another 2 .5 hours and I say it’s worth it, you won't be disappointed. On our way back we had some Indian snacks at the base, which came as a surprise to us. We don't get that quality even in London, which is to say is full of curry houses and Indian takeaways. In dinner as well we stick to curries and explore a restaurant called Bombay Spice, and again it was beyond our expectations, delicious. We all were really tired after all the travel of the day, but still me, chintu and bobby strolled till late in Interlaken and girl gang was quick to shut themselves in their hotel room.
4th Day we decided to roam around in Interlaken and explore the city. Interlaken is small and from Indian perspective very small but beautiful city. The Aare River flows through the town. It makes a perfect destination for getaways. The options we had were to either take a cruise to Thune or do some adventure sport like paragliding, bungee etc. Opinions were divided so myself and chintu opted for paragliding and bobby with ladies headed for the cruise. I must say this was THE activity of the whole trip. I cannot express my experience of flying with wings over such a beautiful city. My instructor told me that we had been lucky to have enough sunshine to glide in September. The whole adventure took around 3.5 hours, and it was well worth it. The Cruise group also had good fun I was told. We did some shopping afterwards chocolates off course :o), oh and yes I bought a Swiss knife as well, and headed back to Zurich for our flight that evening.
Swiss was a dream to visit, and believe me it is as beautiful as it looks in pictures. Hospitable and welcoming people, nice food, scenic places, adventure sports, you name it and you have it, well yes money is the catch, it's not of the cheap getaways. Local currency is Swiss Francs(CHF). There are four main languages spoken in Swiss namely German, French, Italian and Romansh. Local modes of transport are trains and buses. You can buy multiday passes. English speakers can easily survive in swigs. Almost everyone knows English. I enjoyed my time and look forward to go there again. I must thank my fellow travelers on this trip Pankaj(Chintu), Harjeev(Bobby), Sne, Niks and Prags, as one says it's all about the company :o)....