Saturday, July 25, 2015

ZOO Antwerpen

#ZooAntwerpen is just next to my office. And my company allows all their employees to take lunch from the Zoo cafeteria on cheaper rates. So we occasionally go to the zoo for lunch :). Otherwise, I am not a big fan of Zoos!.

It is one of the oldest Zoo's in the world and has a very decent variety of animals to look around. The elephants are the most popular animals, especially since the birth of #Kai-Mook (Belgium's first ever baby elephant). Apart from them, you can take a glimpse of some strange animals such as aardvarks, armadillos, tree kangaroos and koalas to name but a few (I haven’t seen them anywhere before; learnt these words only after going there).

The Zoo is just next to the central station, that makes it as the first tourist attraction to most of the visitors of Antwerp. However, the smaller area keeps much of the creatures locked up in small cages. They are not befittingly kept :(. I guess Antwerp should relocate the zoo to some other bigger place outside the City and make a better use of this central area.

This is a good place to go in Antwerp, especially if you have kids. I haven't visited that many zoos, but this is one of the good ones that I have seen so far. 

Friday, July 24, 2015

Fell in Love with Venice !

When I told about my Venice plans, almost every friend of mine said we should see the Venice, but warned that I might get disappointed too. Crowdy, Dirty, and much touristy most said (funny is that these were said by some of my Indian friends :).

I have to admit the first couple of our hours in the Venice was not that great. First of all, our bus got so much delayed, and we lost about 40 minutes trying to find our hotel amid the alleyways. We reached our hotel only by the noon almost. We had to have a very short lunch and run for the sight-seeing. It was very hot, we had to wait and stand in a crowded bus before we finally reach the City Bus stands.It was around 4 Ò clock in the evening, when we’re presented the beautiful view of St. Mark’s square. 

But every minute, after those first couple hours was a pure delight !!!
Venice – the city is full of history, romance and grand architecture, there are countless places to visit. But, we really underestimated, had only 2 days, so focused mainly on the city's major sights and attractions, on day-1. We had a great trip all over the historic Basilica di San Marco and the surrounding Piazza San Marco constitute the heart of Venice. On the 2nd day, we enjoyed one of the best beaches, Glass factories, and the colorful houses at the Murano and Burano’s—both neighboring islands that are just a short boat ride away.

Without any doubt, we thoroughly enjoyed the complete trip. However, I always feel the same or more happiness and excitement when I sit in front of my computer for hours, trying to write more about that trip too.

Well, am not sure whether my travelogues are going to help anyone; but I’m happy that these writings make me feel like re-living the cherished moments of the trip again, whenever I read them, even  after many days, months, or years. So let me put together all the moments of this trip too in the coming posts @ TRAVELOGUE-VENICE-ITALY

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

I believe in God - but...

A recent share on Facebook is the inspiration of this post. I read today, and it certainly made me to think..

The story is plotted around a dispute between the priests of a baptist church and a local Bar owner.

The Bar Owner begins construction on a new building to increase their business. The local Baptist church doesn’t want the Bar in their locality and they start a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. They begin to pray that God would intervene and stop the bar.

A few days before the bar is scheduled to open, a heavy lightning strikes the structure and burns the complete bar building to the ground. The people of the church are surprised but pleased - until they received a notice that the bar owner is suing them. The bar owner contends that the prayers are the sole reason for the collapse of his building. But, the church goers and priests deny the charge.

The trail goes to the local court and the judge become clueless and goes away with a remarks as "At this point I don't know what my decision will be, but it seems that the bar owner believes in the power of prayer and these church people don't."

How will you reach if you were in the position of the judge? Do you favor the bar owner who believes the power of prayer to his core or the people who chant bible all the day and discards the existence of God?

The story may be an exaggeration of its essential moral, but isn't the reality today? Don’t we set aside our faith, and it’s pride, when faith becomes problematic sometimes? Do we really stand up for our principles, their beliefs and proudly proclaim them, even when they bring some discomfort, difficulty, money-wise or otherwise?