Anagha Speaks

Walkers and lots of walking space! On our last night in Stockholm, the students and faculty of the Royal University of Arts, treated us to a special Swedish music and dinner at a Rowing Club. After the day long conference at the school, we were taken for an hour long boat ride, to watch the islands of Stockholm. We, about 50 of us, disembarked near the Rowing Club, a very quaint and wood log cabin, right on the water. All around us, the Stockholmers were enjoying the summer evening, some fishing, some boating. It was wonderful to see the leisure and an attractive appeal of the ‘rural’ right in the centre of Stockholm. Walking in Twilight @ 10:30 pm After 2-3 hours of fun and revelry, we were urged by all our Stockholm friends to take a walk along the water front, to reach our hotel. Most of them accompanied us too. For Puneites, a ‘short’ walk would mean 15-20 minutes, right? Well, the short walk turned out to be good 40 minutes to our hotel. But I was not complaining, as the...

If you love to ride a bicycle and are often nostalgic of the days when Pune was a cyclists’ city, Copenhagen will give you the pleasure of watching millions of bicycles on the road, jostling with tourists along its busy streets.   I and Poorva reached Copenhagen late night on Friday, May 27, 2011, having a multi-modal journey into the city. (Why multi-modal is a story in itself, which I can share over a cup of coffee sometime later). We emerged from the metro station, a little apprehensive, since we yet needed to find our way to our hotel and it was already past 10:30 pm. We need not have worried, as it was a Friday summer night and the streets were full of people, walking, cycling, having fun over pints of Carlsberg beer. We walked down the pedestrian shopping street, with musicians along the way, with small crowds surrounding them, listening to the melodious tunes emanating from accordion, an occasional flute and sometimes a saxophone. The upturned hats with tips in front of t...