Edgy Trams and Ugly Doctors

Graz, Austria, 2018.

  

  I am so fucked off today. Not only did I wake up grumpier than a grandpa and groggier than a hobo who'd just shot up heroin, I also woke up late. To make matters worse, I had to wear a microphone in class for an agonising one-and-half hour, further perpetuating the Indian-working-in-a-call-centre stereotype.

  I have been doing more of what I love this week and not overwhelming myself with social obligations. So, naturally, the first thing I did was getting my procrastinating ass to Graz on Tuesday. Now, I might have been too penurious to buy avocados for the rest of the week, but the important thing is I made it there. I saw a new place. 

  Graz reminded me of Salzburg; I loved how accessible the woods are from the city and how I only needed a debilitating twenty minutes to receive a stunning view of the city. For free! No need for metros and buses. I realised just how acutely I missed walking. In Innsbruck, I would walk everywhere. Never mind how far, I would walk. The Inn would wail, the mountains would weep, as the pollen swept the air, the trees would shed their leaves in respect. 

  Anyway, now that we have taken care of my oh-my-god-I-am-enjoying-life bullshit, can we, finally, take a minute and discuss the fact that the medicine uni shuttle/tram in Graz is edgy as fuck?
Matt black. 
  
  Matt black!
  
  The fuck is this magnificence is wasted on med-students? 

 Matt black. Matt-mother-fucking-black. 
  
  The fuck do they need it for? Aren't y'all too busy saving lives and stealing drugs to stay awake on your shifts? I, for one, always am suspicious about attractive doctors. You mean to tell me that you are that attractive and you do not depend on your looks to get you through life? For me, the uglier my doctor, the more likely it is that the honour of treating me is going to befall him/her.  

  This is precisely why I refuse to grant my grandma's wish of getting with a well-to-do Indian boy (a doctor) - because all the good ones are ugly. What's the point of marrying a good-looking doctor if you are going to be neck-deep in lawsuits because your significant other sucks? 

The Time I Almost Got Frostbite

Innsbruck, Austria, 2017.

  Last week this time, I had boarded a train which would whisk me off from the hum-drum and into the throes of something magical. At least, that is what I'd hoped; you see, the weather had been terrible. So I ate my doughnut and drank my coffee, all before I reached Jenbach. And no, I did not expect Jenbach to provide me with my dose of 'something magical'.

  After a somewhat brief thirty-three minutes, the train glided into the train station and me, bundled in a multitude of layers of clothing, which I hoped would shield me from the biting frost, my camera bag, and my now empty cup of coffee, stepped out on to the assuring concrete. As I found my way to the bus stop, I thought, almost euphorically, I'm finally going to Achensee. After months of procrastination and shitty situations, I am finally going.

  Either if you personally know me or if you have been reading this blog long enough, you know that my luck is the most rotten thing you will ever come across - worse-than-bread-that-has-mould-growing-on-it-contaminating-everything-else-in-the-fridge rotten. So, there is no way that my moment of jubilation could have lasted. Now that we have that out of the way, allow me to narrate exactly what happened.

  As I mentioned, my brain was experiencing a simmering elation at finally having gotten my lazy ass out of bed and en route Achensee. Having found the right bus stop, I gratefully plonked myself down on an empty wooden bench, right next to a pair of lovesick teens, who giggled like there was no tomorrow. My glove clad hands - my body was finally au fait with the cold - scour my bag for the book I had brought along. Having found it, I open it to the dog-eared page. The book was alright; it was about a psychiatry resident and his various encounters, many of which were amusing enough.

  After reading a few pages, I look up at the digital screen which would tell me when my bus would come. I was not pleased by what I saw. There was a sadistic 54 next to 83328.

  Fifty four fucking minutes! 
  Why did I have to wake up at 6 a.m. again? 
  Oh, that's right, I picked the one place in all of Austria with bad public transport.

  I had already lost most of the feeling in my hands and the tittering next to me seemed to have gotten louder in the past - I looked at my watch - only five minutes had passed? I contemplated drinking another cup of coffee but, in the end, my snobbishness about coffee obviated this urge. So I sat there for the next  forty nine minutes, hoping - no, almost praying - that the bus would arrive before I got frostbite, which it obviously did. 

  NOT!

  The bus came a looooong time after I had lost all feeling in my hands, the cold had even become sort of pleasant. That is when you know you're in trouble. Although, gratefully, after a long ten minutes enshrouded in the warmth of the heated bus, I did regain some feeling in my hands, all the while being subjected to the unaffected giggling of teenagers, who for some fucking reason were immune to the cold. 

  That's it for now. This blogpost was my attempt at conserving my ever-positive outlook on life. Until next time. 

Love,
Teenagers are blood-sucking monsters.

Sipping Coffee Outside Harrods.

Lustenau, Austria, 2016.

What is that one thing that makes you the happiest? It doesn't just make you feel happy, but it makes you the best version of yourself. 
Do you have something in mind?
Good. Now ask yourself if you do it enough; allow yourself to be your happiest enough?

  For me this thing is travelling. It has been a hot minute since I have been someplace new. In these last few weeks I found myself craving bad habits again. I saw myself spiralling downward. I have diligently been allocating time to a lot of my passions, except travelling. What with the moving I haven't had an extra penny in a while now. But come December I am going to be back on track.
  I have quite a few places I want to visit in the coming months. February will find me in France. Spring, hopefully, in Netherlands. 
  Being in a new city makes me feel like I am on the top of the world...like I can fly. It shows me why things did not work out. It alleviates my sorrows, and makes me aspire for more. It teaches me that anything is possible. Especially things that we couldn't have conjured in our wildest dreams.

  

Lustenau, Austria, 2016.

  Growing up patience never was my finest virtue, so it has taken a while for me to understand that everything that needs to happen will happen at its own pace. There is no need to rush things. 
This is something I have to constantly remind myself of. One should always remember this while travelling. I grew up going through family vacations, where we were always racing against time, trying to check everything off our check lists.
Although there was this one I time I remember during our time in London. It was the last night, and we were sitting outside a Café, drinking coffee after dinner, across Harrods. I remember talking to my parents, whilst my brother slept in his pram, and thinking that Harrods looked so pretty at night, all lit up. 
  
  I wonder if the eight year old me - sitting outside Harrods with her parents, excited to have had a sip of her parents coffee - would have known that travelling would become such an essential part of my life. 

You May Have The Universe, If I May Have Italy.

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy, 2016.

Okay, so my undying love for Italy is no secret, and in the past one year I have been fortunate enough to travel Italy in a little more detail. The result was me being awestruck, spell bound and baffled all at the same time. This little country has so much to offer; from ornate Cathedrals and Palaces to mesmerising beaches.

Every new city or town that I tackled left me feeling as if I were in some other place all together, rather than in the same country. No matter where I went in Italy, it always left me craving for more. Milan let me have a sneak peak at the city life, where people are out at all kinds of ungodly hours of the day. Cinque Terre reminded me that as beautiful and relaxing as the ocean can be, it can be equally destructive if you by chance find yourself near one at the wrong time.
Much like people; our tongues hold the power to alleviate pain and suffering by whispering words of kindness, but the same tongues can be wielded as weapons if not used with care. The same goes for most parts of our bodies, hands that heal can also be hands that stab, legs that carry someone else's burden can be legs that kick.
In Como I gained a newfound appreciation for different cultures that seemed to be separated by what seemed only a few miles (Switzerland and Italy). The language being just the tip of the iceberg.

Verona, Italy, 2016.

Verona, with its never-ending cobbled streets, dotted with picturesque houses and dainty little shops, had the heart of a city while having the culture of a small town.

Lastly, comes Venice. Oh, Venice, you were the highlight of my past year. You made me believe in love at first sight. You evoke in me a sense of calm and belonging. Your unfaltering rows of bridges and small streets instilled in me an unsurmountable acceptance of my life's path. Your people reminded me that strangers, too, can be kind. Most of all you jogged my memory as to why I love travelling.
My time in Venice taught me how a place could turn me speechless, and at the same time still make me feel as if everything that had happened in my life, had been leading upto that moment in Piazza San Marco, where I sat after sundown with a glass of Spritz in hand, listening to the soulful melodies being belted out by the various live bands present over there. In that moment it did not matter that I was broke or that I had failed. All that mattered was that I had found my way to that moment. I had found what made me happy.

Travelling Solo

15.07.2016 Venice, Italy

17 things I learned while travelling solo.

1) Trust yourself. You are the only one who can get yourself out of a jiffy right now.

2) Learn to sit at a Café alone and enjoy it. Take a book if it is dinner time. It will help you not feel so out of place.

3) Learn to let go and do what you want to do. You are alone amidst a sea of people, whom you shall never meet again. What is holding you back? Do what you feel like. Who cares what they think?

4) Take time to discover where you are. I do not just mean the tourist attractions, I mean the places where the locals go. Try to get a peek at the local life here. Roam random streets. Discover antique book stores that you have only read about in books but have never really seen. Visit coffeeshops that the locals frequent.

5) Try the local food.

6) Make sure you know how to get back to your accommodation late at night. Look up the public transport timetables beforehand. Find out if the trains, buses, etc. work according to the same timetables at night.

7) Dress sensibly. Try not wearing sandals that will make your feet hurt after walking for 30 minutes. Put some goddamned sneakers on.

8) Walk around with your headphones playing some local music. When I was in Verona, I did not speak the language, I was tired and I did not have a lot of time in that city. For some reason I just felt as if I was missing out on something. I then decided to google top 10 Italian love songs and play them. Voila! I finally understood why Verona was also known as the city of love. It is often hard to see why a place is considered amazing with throngs of tourists around one. So put on those headphones and be ready to be transported somewhere else.

9) Do not trust anyone and everyone. I know it sounds mundane. I mean how many times have we heard our parents tell us this very exact thing, but it is easier said than done. Gauge a person before asking them for help. Not everyone is a nice person trying to make sure that you reach your destination safely. Ask families. This applies especially at night when you are asking someone the best way to get to your accommodation because the chances are that the person might remember the address.

10) See the city at two times: one, early in the morning when all the tourists are sleeping in their hotel rooms, two, at night when the street lamps finally come to life and the entire city is lit up.

11) Strike a conversation with a few locals and try to see their perspective on their city.

12) Accept that you will not be able to check everything off of your To See List, and be content with what you have seen.

13) Take a few moments to think about what this trip taught you or made you feel.

14) Try to take back with you not a load of souvenirs but rather memories and experiences that will last you a lifetime.

15) Find your favourite place in that city. The one place that calls to you and makes you feel calm.

16) Imagine how it would feel like to live there.

17) Accept that you will not fall in love with every place that you visit and that it is okay.

Honesty.

05.07.2016 Parliament Building,Vienna

Do you know that feeling when something feels right?

You just know that no matter what happens this thing will happen..that you will find your way to that thing. It is unavoidable. There is no rush in the world because at the end of the day you know..you know that it going to happen, or rather that you will make it happen. 

There is no doubt in your mind as to how and when. It will happen, when it needs to. You might not be ready for, it might not be what you imagined it might be, but in the end it will end being much more than you could have ever hoped for. 

And that emotion that will overcome you when it is actually happening is something that no amount of money, power or success could ever buy.

A few months back as I was alone in the washroom in school, I remember the regret making it’s way into my head. A part of me knew that what I had right now is more than anything I could have had at any Ivy League, had I gotten in. At that point although I knew that, the desolateness creeped in for a few days. Now I realise that sometimes you really should listen to that rational voice inside your head. 

Over the course of the past few months quite a few friends of mine told me that I wasted my two years coming here. The problem is that in these two years I learned more than I could have hoped to learn in ten years time, had I not come here. To normal logic it makes no sense but I have realised that most people just need someone else to put things in perspective in them. Sure, there were times when I hated every minute of it but it never occurred to me in these times to imagine a life where I had not chose to make this crazy life changing decision to come here for something I did not even understand well. These things really show one if they made the right choice.

When people think of going abroad or living alone, the first thought that comes to mind was party. I was trying to run after this stereotype for a long time, wondering why I was not doing what I “supposed” to be doing.

Somewhere along the way I let go of this need to do what I “thought” I wanted to do, and then something absolutely amazing happened. I started doing things that I actually LOVED doing- travelling, writing, etc. I found people that loved doing that. I still have friends who do not understand why I would save up so much money just to spend it on a day outing somewhere, but that no longer stops me or makes me feel self-conscious about pursuing my passions and interests. After a while even the people who did not understand starting accepting it.

At the end of the day being able to be honest with yourself is all that matters.