I love travelling. I love seeing new places. I love beaches, I love mountains, I love monuments and their history and I love them all even though they aren't every different in different places!
I suppose my love for sight-seeing and travelling comes from my grandfather. Genetic or acquired as it got passed down to my mother who got our little nuclear family 'tourist-ing' every holiday we got! We've been to big famous places - recently places across Italy, The Great Monuments Of India herself - The Taj Mahal, Lal Kila, Fathepursikri, Mysore Palace, The Gateway Of India, The India Gate (list really goes on) and small places in outskirts of cities we lived - a funny place named Horsely Hills, a beautiful man-made modern town called Lavasa, the caves of Khandagiri and Udaygiri, little museums all over the place...
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| Gopalpur Lighthouse |
So, couple of weeks back, I made a trip to a beach called Gopalpur with my grandparents. By road it takes about 4 hours tops and one of the sweetest things one passes through on the way is a very unique pair of hills which the locals have named as uncle and nephew in odiya! Once in Gopalpur, drive gradually towards the beach and you would find yourself driving down a road almost parallel to the sea coast with a breathe taking view of the clear sands and water. This area was like a mini-Carter Road (Mumbai). To one's surprize the beach is very clean and the usual mixture of people is found strolling and enjoying themselves. This is place is actually called 'Gopalpur-On-Sea' as there is a Gopalpur-on-land without any water body connection! Its main attractions are the lighthouse and the port.
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| Piazza del campo |
While returning I realized, the fun of the travel doesn't end once you get there! Its still another adventure going back from the destination to the starting point! And I recalled the Italian Tour I had taken few months back with my family. After Rome, we took a car down to Florence.
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| Towers Of San Gimignano |
On the way our driver-cum-guide showed the wonderful vineyards from a distance and two very beautiful places called San Gimignano And Siena. Small places sure they were but they were astounding!! The former known for its awe-inspiring Towers and architecture and the latter for the Cathedral and Piazza!
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| Ponte Vecchio |
After the two Tuscan cities, we were left at Florence whose tour - short and quick - we had the next day. Florence has a lot of history and the tour seems rather incomplete but we can't everything our way, can we? Firenze, as they call it, is famous for having the world's 2nd largest basilica (1st obviously being St. Peter's at the Vatican), The Ponte Vecchio - the beautiful shop filled bridge over the river flowing through Florence, The tombs of great great scientists, politicians and artists of that time and The Uffizi Gallery which we chose to skip to catch a train that would take us to one of the 7 wonders of the world - The leaning tower of Pisa.
Now this trip to Pisa is what I remembered when I was at Gopalpur. That day, after our quick lesson on the places in Florence, we ran to catch a train we had not planned or placed in our itinerary, enjoyed the ride to a little town named Pisa, got off already tired at around 4, walked the whole length of that place to reach the famous sinking tower! Now one must know that every Cathedral Square has 3 main buildings - The Duomo, The Baptistery and The Bell Tower which in this case all of you know as The Leaning Tower of Pisa. The first thing that came to my mind when we entered the 'Square of Miracles' was, 'Oh my god! The Qutub Minar is taller than this!' Nevertheless, the Piazza was beautiful and so were the monuments around it. But you know what left a lasting impression were the Bangladesh immigrants who were selling little items on the road sides and looting the foreign tourists! Felt like we were back in our country with the same street side hawkers, just cleaner and more hygienic!
Why I thought of this day was, after the rush to Pisa, we still had to return to the hotel in Florence! Walk all the way across the little town of Pisa, into the train back to Florence train station, hunt down some dinner before walking all the way through streets of Firenze to the hotel! boy, were we tired and irritable! and did we get a goodnight's sleep or what! But that was it! The whole journey up and down the mountain is what matters, not just up! And I knew that I would look back to that torturous pizza we had for dinner that tired night and laugh as I remembered how my little sister and I entertained ourselves by looking at the little dog sitting at the table next to us! And thus I have for myself simple memories of the tiresome but wonderful travels!
So, back I went with my grandparents in the car that we came in, quiet though the journey was, we returned home happily as the exhausted sun set slowly at the horizon for his well deserved night's sleep...
Why I thought of this day was, after the rush to Pisa, we still had to return to the hotel in Florence! Walk all the way across the little town of Pisa, into the train back to Florence train station, hunt down some dinner before walking all the way through streets of Firenze to the hotel! boy, were we tired and irritable! and did we get a goodnight's sleep or what! But that was it! The whole journey up and down the mountain is what matters, not just up! And I knew that I would look back to that torturous pizza we had for dinner that tired night and laugh as I remembered how my little sister and I entertained ourselves by looking at the little dog sitting at the table next to us! And thus I have for myself simple memories of the tiresome but wonderful travels! 
