REFLECTIONS BLOGCHATTERA2Z 2020

The month of April 2020...the month when the world came to an unprecedented standstill. Together, we witnessed and are still experiencing something which we thought could only be a theme of sci-fi movies or novels. What adds to the intriguity is that the world is yet to fathom the kind of life we shall have post the pandemic.

In the midst of such turbulence,Team Blogchatter did a wonderful job of managing the A2Z contest. Congratulations and a big thank you to the team. No less gratifying is to see so many people pulling their thoughts into such beautiful words in such testing times. Congratulations to all the participants of this beautiful walk. A big thanks to EM for successfully inspiring me to complete 26 posts in a row, which is an achievement for me. It was indeed a pleasant walk together.

Since the last few months we have been experiencing the lockdown too...in an European country. Outside, the weather and the settings cannot be more beautiful..but it's only to see from a distance and appreciate. In such days, I must admit that I derived much needed positivity as a participant of this contest. It gave me an opportunity to look back into my photos folder and collect some travel moments to share. Travel is not only about being on the roads; reliving past moments is no less beautiful. Especially, when travel, the way we know, might not exist for some time to come. The theme I had silently chosen was limited to Europe.

The journey is not over and I aspire to populate my travel blog with time. I also aspire to write about my other travel experiences...of places which might not have the classical beauty of European locales but which offered life perspectives...like the days spent in Africa or South America. India is magnificent and I am thankful in a way that it's rare gems are yet raw and left to nature.

I aspire to share my moments from India...the raw travels into the Himalayan towns...those silent beaches which are incredibly beautiful...the warm coziness of the little known towns and villages from remote corners....or the.enigmatic Ghats of the soulful rivers.

Do peep in when time permits and leave a comment. Comments are like pearls of encouragements and means of connection.

Last but not the least, stay safe in this evolving, different world. Stay positive that good days will be there soon...and when we are ready to put our feet out of our homes again, there will be a beautiful and delightful world to welcome us back. Hopefully, by then, we should be able to understand our responsibilities towards Mother Earth.

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ANTWERP CENTRAL STATION

As deep as I can peep into my past, I always sense very fond and nostalgic memories of railway stations. So many moments of childhood began and ended in railway stations. My love for railway stations continues and whenever I get a chance I don't miss a visit into a station to experience the magical energy of the mixed sound of thousands of fast moving footsteps and eager voices. European settings provide infinite moments to any traveler. Antwerp is no exception too. Like any other European city with a strong medieval connect, Antwerp owns its history and legends. While it may take pages to write about Antwerp, let me restrict this post to the first landmark of Antwerp, its getaway - its very own train station, the Antwerp Central, located in Koningin Astreidplein, in the heart of the city. The brainchild of King Leopold II and designed by Louis Delacenserie, Antwerp Central, with its stone clad structure and huge dome, has s...

THE YACHTS OF VOLENDAM

There is something incredibly charming about fishing villages. Be it in Europe or anywhere else in the world. Possibly due to the presence of the sea so close...and the rituals of the sea, the fishermen are so adept at. The aspirations of the morning and the catch of the day...and the songs of the sea...of the calmness and the turbulence. Volendam is one such fishing village, located in Northern Netherlands about thirty minutes drive from the Amsterdam central by bus... there are a plenty of them from Amsterdam Central. The village is located on the lake IJsselmeer, the largest lake in the Netherlands. Vollendam means a "filled dam" and that is how it had started by filling an existing harbor and reclaiming the land artificially during the fourteenth century. A separate smaller canal and a new harbor was dug and this how this village was created. During the first half of twentieth century, as a part of the Dutch water management exercise, the water-body, which...

THE CLASSIC RIVALRY OF OLD ZAGREB

We stood there absorbing the beautiful sunset that Old Zagreb, locally known as Gornji Grad, offered. The February evening was delightfully clear and presented a view to remember. In front of us, mingling with the red tiled roofs, dominated majestically the two famous monuments - the Zagreb Cathedral of Kaptol and the St. Mark's Church of Gradec...along with the bits and the pieces of the historic panorama of a thousand years. Few centuries back, during the medieval period, when the region was not known as Zagreb, existed two hill top settlements - the Kaptol and the Gradec, separated by the then existing rivulet Medvescak. The Kaptol housed the Cathedral and was the religious center while the Gradec was home to the merchants and the craftsmen. It took the two settlements centuries of bitter rivalry before prudence took over and they decided to unify during the nineteenth century, thus together becoming Zagreb. The reasons for this bitterness were many ranging from s...

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