Place: Snowdonia, Wales
Route: London Euston - Bangor - Llanberis(Basecamp) - Bangor - London Euston
Date(s) of Travel: August 25 - August 27, 2012
You can read more about the place here: Snowdonia, Wales
My Experience:
The last time I went to Snowdonia, I never had the opportunity to hike the mountain Snowdon. Some of my friends were planning for quite some time to hike snowdon during the long weekend in august. Since, I was in tenerife, spain I wasn't checking mails about this trip. But once I got back to London and got to know about these plans, I decided to join for the hike at the last minute. It was also an opportunity to meet some of my old friends from pune, India.
My friends already left in the morning for Llanberis, wales for the hike. I started in the afternoon and took a train to Bangor from London Euston and the journey was around 3 hours. From Bangor, I took a bus to Llanberis which is the basecamp for the trek. There are two youth hostels, one in Llanberis and another one in Pen-Y-Pass which is 20 minutes away by bus. I was managed to book a place only in Pen-Y-Pass, but all my friends stayed in Llanberis itself since they have planned everything bit earlier. Llanberis is a small tourist city where there are quite a few shops and also you can do some activities like visiting the thermal power station or taking the steam rail to the top of the mountain. Finally I reached my hostel in Pen-Y-Pass by another bus in the late evening.
The next day morning I came to Llanberis to join my friends for the hike. After buying some sandwiches for lunch we started our trek from Llanberis. The trek is quite a easy one from Llanberis route, as it goes along the way of steam railway. It was a sunny day and there were loads of people doing the hike. The mountains and landscapes were beautiful all along the way and you could see them in the above pictures. Due to the variable speed among our group, we missed out lot of people before reaching the summit. We reached the summit around 12.30 PM and it was very foggy at the top. There is a restaurant at the top where you can get food and some drinks. We had our lunch and decided to start back around 1.30 PM.
While walking back, I suggested my friends why don't we take the Pen-Y-Pass route. They call it as miners route as there were quite a few mines operated around that area. It was a little rough route but it was worth it as the landscapes were fantastic. There was a small lake between two mountains and we took some rest to enjoy the nature. Finally around, 6 PM we reached the Pen-Y-Pass area. In the hostel, they serve good food for dinner and breakfast was the best one.
The next day, it was raining all the time. Our train was in the evening and we decided to visit "Swallow Waterfalls" in the nearby village. Around 12 PM we headed back to bangor and took a train back to london. It was a wonderful hike with lot of fun memories.
Thought of Day: Not all those who wander are lost. - JRR Tolkien
Place: Tenerife - Canary Islands, Spain
Route: London Gatwick - Tenerife(Reina-Sofia) - London Gatwick
Date(s) of Travel: August 15 - August 23, 2012
You can read more about the event here: Tenerife, Canary Islands
My Experience:
My friends from Cippenham meadows, UK asked me if I would be interested in joining them for the lads holidays in Tenerife, Spain. I said, I would be more than interested in the trip and I was truly excited. One of our friend Stevie B sorted out everything from airport transfer, flight booking and hotel booking. It was a planned week long holiday in a city called "Las Americas" in the islands. Little I knew about tenerife or lads holidays, I stared the trip along with six other friends.
The flight from Gatwick was delayed for 4 hours, but I wasn't worried a bit as we spent the time in a pub inside airport. The flight journey was around 4.30 hours and finally we reached Tenerife south airport around 8 PM local time. We catched the tour bus and reached our hotel called Marola Portosin in Las americas. It was a nice hotel and it got an awesome swimming pool and good rooms with self cooking options. After refreshing up, we went to the party street around 11 PM. Its day 1 of the holidays and the drinking party started.
The whole party street in Las americas is filled with bars and disco clubs. When you go through the street, there will be loads of PRs from different bars and clubs trying to convince you to come to their bars with their attractive offers. The idea is, every day you start drinking in one bar and keep moving to another one. When it reaches around 3 AM you go to a club and dance till 7 AM. Good god, I had loads of vodka, rum and shots and within 2 hours I was smashed. My friends helped me to get back to the room, thats all I could remember.
I woke up with a bad hangover around 12 PM the next day and it was the case for everyone else. The whole tenerife island is filled with tourists and mostly british people and you get english breakfast all day in every restaurant. I tried the local food called Paela and it was really tasty. After few munches, you hit the swimming pool and spend the whole evening in the pool till the alcohol dries out of your body. There were lot of people near by the pool, just chilling out in the sun for the whole day to get their body tanned. I found it funny, then I came to know that its a fashion thing and you get to show off your tan back home. Anyhow, I am naturally tanned from India, so I wasn't bothered about that.
It was the same routine for all the seven days and it was savage. But it was fun to do once in a while and I got to know more about the friends and english culture. Apart from that, we went to the near by beach just for chilling. I noticed the sand was black in colour and got to know that there is a dormant volcano called Teide in the islands and because of the volcanic ashes and lava the sand in the beaches are black in colour. I was very excited and I decided to visit the volcano. After all the planning, one day morning I went to the bus stop and came to know that I missed the bus by 10 mins. Fuck that. Adding to that, there is only one bus for the whole day from Las americas to the volcano base. I got the timing right the next day and boarded the bus to see the volcano.
The volcano is situated in the middle of the islands. The bus journey was around 3 hours from the city and the whole journey was through loads of mountains. Since, it was peak summer everything was so dry and everything looked like a desert. Finally, reached the base of the volcano and people told me, it will take around 6 hrs to reach the top by trekking and I wasn't prepared very well too for the trek. So, I decided to go by the cable car and it was a thrilling experience where the ride is almost vertical. Once I reached the top, it was way cooler than the base and it was really nice. The people at the top said there are two small treks I can do to reach the crater of the volcano. As always, I did the trek and it took me around an hour to reach the desired point. The view from the top was quite amazing and you can check them in the above photos. I heard during winter seaon, the volcano is completely surrounded by snow. After spending some time in the mountain top, I came down to the base and got the bus back to Las americas.
After partying for seven days, we got back to London with loads of fun filled memories. Some of the pictures that I took in the clubs can't be publicly displayed so I am just putting up the pictures of the volcano trip and a small video made my Stevie B which summarises our partying in tenerife.
Thought of Day: To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. - Aldous Huxley
Place: London 2012 Olympics
Date: August 11, 2012
Some video Links:
My Experience:
While I was growing up, watching olympics in television and cheering for my country was such a proud thing to do. Since I happened to be in London during 2012, I decided I should visit the olympic village and watch the games live. When they started issuing tickets it was a big mess. I couldn't get hold of any tickets during the first batch of sales. But during the second batch of sales, I was managed to buy a ticket for Womens handball final and medal ceremony. I was quite happy knowing I am gonna witness history.
The day arrived and I went to the olympic village. It was like a big festival and everyone was so happy to be part of this grand event. For most of the people its gonna be a once in a lifetime experience and I thought the same for me too. Walking from the stratford station to the olympic village entrance was itself joyful. All the volunteers welcomed everyone with big smile and making cheerful comments about different countries, people wearing costumes, kids holding their country flags. :)
After few security procedures, I was inside the village. I decided to walk around the village before going to my venue which was basketball arena. When I was walking near the main olympic stadium there was a huge noise of about 70000 people shouting. That time mo farah was running his final 5000m event and everybody went nuts. When he won most of brits were so happy and started jumping. Then I decided to go to the McDonalds which was massive in size and it was overfilled with people. They informed that the waiting time would be around 40 mins, so I decided to skip.
I started walking towards the basketball arena, where the womens handball final event gonna happen in an hour. On the way, there were a bunch of netherlands fans in orange costumes dancing, singing, shouting for their mens hockey final game. That was fun. When I reached the basketball arena, I came to know the final will be between norway and montenegro. There were loads of norway supporters and few for the other country. Once they opened the gates, I went in and the very moment was so thrilling.
The match was very good and it was a high scoring game. Norway won the game at the last minute, I felt little sad for montenegro because the girls were unbelievably pretty. Norway fans were quite happy with their country's win and started celebrating outside the arena for quite sometime. I watched few celebrations like a kid without taking my eyes off. Finally, started to my home with very good memories.
Thought of Day: Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain
