10 Trip suggestions for this Fall

I’ve been getting frequent queries over the past one month like “how to manage to travel”, “where to go this season”, “How to plan low budget trips”. Though I’m not an expert in travel planning, I’ll share my experience from past one year of traveling as I talk about the above questions one by one.

When to travel !!

If you look from the perspective of a KTH student, apart from the long summer holidays, there are two probable times in every study period when one can plan a trip.

The first option is to travel as soon as the classes are over, usually there is a gap of ten days between the last class and the exam week. So if you feel that you need to refresh a bit before getting in the exam mode, this is a perfect time.

Norway #5: Sky • Sheep • Snow

The Glacier

Our initial plan was to hike up to Trolltunga, and we even completed a figment of the hike (though the toughest part), but then our preparations were not good enough for the weather and marshy conditions there, so we decided to keep it for the next trip.

Disappointed, we arrived at our cabin in Jondal. Turns out our host worked with a skiing company, so when he got to know about our failed hike, he suggested us to go to a glacier nearby where he takes people for skiing, turns out, this was Norway’s third largest Glacier – Folgefonna.

The drive towards the glacier was one of the most scenic.

Norway #4: Wheels • Waterfalls • Wanderlust

Estrella

If you ask me what I enjoyed most on this trip, I’d surely say Driving, who won’t enjoy driving on such scenic roads, especially when you are driving a V70, we ended up naming our car – Estrella. So here are some pictures with Estrella.

Norway #3: Routes • Rocks • Rain

Norwegian Routes

What’s the best part of a road trip, of course, ROADS! and when it’s Norway, it becomes even better, driving across Fjords, tunnels, bridges, narrow roads, valleys, it was all unforgettable. While I wasn’t driving, I was shooting 😉 here are some of the views of Norwegian routes. The most scenic was Route 5, Route 63, & Route 64.

When Norway starts resembling Iceland, somewhere on Route 63.

Norway #2: Cities • Cabins • Colors

Oslo

When it comes to exploring cities in Europe, I am a bit reluctant, especially when someone recommends going to the “old town” (I know there would be cobblestoned streets, a church, a town hall and a lot of expensive cafés).

However, Oslo turned out to be a pleasant surprise, a city flooded with modern architecture and music, we explored the area around the Opera House in Oslo for a couple of hours before setting off to our cabin in the countryside.

Norway #1: Friends • Fjords • Fun

I don’t consider myself as a person with a Bucket List, maybe, because I have a broken bucket, so whatever plans I put in there, just leak out and never happen. So as soon as I realized that it’s possible to drive around Norway with an Indian driving license, I planned a road trip with my friends. Although, when we started with the plan, we were 9 people, planning to take a big Mercedes Vito van and drive around Norway. But, by the time of the trip, it was just 5 of us. So we rented a powerful Volvo V70 and sailed on the road trip of a lifetime.

So in 5 days, we traveled a little shy of 3000 kilometers, drove through and explored over a dozen of cities, drove through hundreds of kilometers of tunnels. And saw such a heavenly country that you can never get tired of watching. I won’t bore you with this text, enjoy the pictures.

A “study trip” to VENICE !!

I remember that in my previous blog, my closing sentence was “I won’t go to Venice or Milan unless someone pays for my ticket”. Guess what, we got the chance to visit Venice for a “Study trip”. Currently, I’m attending a summer school in Italy at the University of Trento, which Includes a study trip as well, and luckily, the plant that we were supposed to visit was just 30 minutes away from Venice. I will skip the details of “Study visit” part of the day for obvious reasons.

Venice in Pictures

Venice is a totally unique place, I have been to places deemed as “Venice of the East”, “Venice of the north” and I used to proudly flaunt about those as well, but believe me “Venice is Venice”, irreplaceable. No matter how many times you have seen it in Casino Royale or The Italian Job, the real thing is totally dreamlike. Everyplace where one could imagine a road, lies a canal, with water all around. An island that looks like a fish on the map houses a plethora of colorful houses, cafés, and shops. There are a lot of magnificent churches as well, roaming around directionless in those narrow alleyways is a wondrous feeling in itself.

I’ll stop boring you with text and let the pictures do the talking.

The Longest bus journey of my life (YET)!

Summary of the Journey

40 Hours of Traveling
5 Countries (Sweden – Denmark – Germany – Austria – Italy)
2200 kilometers

Sun • Sand • Spain: #2 More than just Barcelona

There is one ubiquitous thing about all big cities in Europe, no matter how beautiful they are, there would always be a hidden treasure, somewhere in the vicinity of that place and that would surely be an unspoiled and less crowded place. Sigtuna is an example of this around Stockholm.

I thought of making most of my time by exploring such places around Barcelona. With one side of Barcelona surrounded by sea, there are three other directions to explore, if you go north, you get to explore the pristine beaches of Costa Brava, If you go south, you’ll again reach the amazing beaches of Sitges and many more towns to follow, but if you go opposite to the sea, you’ll end up on majestic mountains of Montserrat. Let’s start exploring from Montserrat itself.

Sun • Sand • Spain : #1 Barcelona

After my previous trip to Prague got screwed up, I had a couple of lessons, first was not to plan short trips and second was to see the weather forecast very carefully. On top of that, I realized that it doesn’t make much sense if I just go for a weekend to a place and complete a touristy checklist in a day or two and come back. I need to stay longer to soak in the beauty of any place. That’s why, this time, I planned a weeklong stay in Barcelona, most importantly, to satiate my craving for Sun.

I read it somewhere, “Barcelona assaults the senses in every possible way” (of course not the bad ways), and I found it to be absolutely true, the place is so enthralling that even a week after returning to Stockholm I find my mind wandering on the Catalonian beaches every now and then.