Berlin was fantastic, the World Culture Festival ^[1] rocked… There are videos and photos and write ups and stories all over the place, so won’t say much about that… except that it was REALLY fabulous!

Dinesh and i can now claim that we performed at the Olmpic Stadium in Berlin! We were part of the chorus that opened the celebrations on both days. Chandrika Tandon and Michael were brilliant at teaching us how to sing as a team… Everyone said we sounded fantastic

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Dinesh and me ... singing!

The lazer show at the end was mind blowing, no video does any justice to it … You HAVE to have been there!

Wanted to buy kitchen stuff and we went to this really nice kitchen shop in Berlin (Kochtail on Invaliden strasse) that was run by an american called Joe.

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Kochtail on Invaliden Strasse, Berlin ... ty Joe!

It’s a charming little shop and has many, many things for baking and some really nice nifty gadgets. We bought a lot of stuff there and paid and were about to leave when we realised that Joe didn’t have the VAT form with which we could claim our VAT back. He very graciously asked me to pick up more things for free to offset the VAT. And he gave us a nice discount too! Yay Joe!

After Berlin, we went on to Venice, where i had a spectacular fall… Various passer-bys stopped looking at pigeons and went a horrified ooooohhhhhh… no one laughed. Was looking at hats in a road side stall and walking down the steps of a bridge. Bad idea. I fell and kept falling for a few seconds more than i thought a fall should last. Result was a super sprained ankle which had swollen to the size of a small apple or a big tomato in 6 seconds and was Painful (note the capital P). I had blurring of vision, the whole world seemed to become extra bright and fade to white… and then it came back… with Pain.

So somehow hobbled back to hotel, where we iced it and i had arnica and belladonna and waited for Seema to come. Seema is hot shot homeopathic doctor… also an adv course teacher

She was very proud of me and the way i had taken care of my ankle.

So, a lot of Venice was just 4 walls in my hotel room (on the ground floor, next to the urinals) which overlooked a garbage dump. I had asked our travel agent to get us a room with a view in Venice. My fault that i had not specified the view… Our travel agent was pathetic, and i can say right away that we had a super great time in Europe inspite of her. Almost seemed as if she went out of her way to make things as horrible as possible… but that’s another story.

Decided to go visit Massimo (one of our super teachers in Italy) in Milan, and left Hotel an hour before the train. It’s a 7 minute walk, but with the ankle the way it was, figured it would take an hour. When we reached the sidewalk, we could see the station tantalizingly across the canal. We had asked the hotel manager (not nice person at all) if some water taxi could take us across, he said 60 euros for a 10 second ride. I said no, we will walk. Hotel Capri sucks.

While hobbling along the sidewalk, a water taxi guy who was parked, took one look at me and asked me to hop (?) in. We were at the other side in less than 10 seconds … I promised him his photo on our blog and here it is. If you are ever in Vencice and he is driving you, please tip him extra

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A friend in Venice ... Thanks a lot!

So, was 40 minutes early for the train and there was nothing to do except sit on the steps of the railway station and pose for a few photos. The smiles were quite tough to do, but the pain had become much lesser, no need to use capitals any more. Next to me, sitting on the stairs was a guy holding his wife’s ankle. I asked her if she too had twisted it … She had not, however, he turned out to be a trained physiotherapist from Delhi, who had done his schooling in Jayanagar, Bangalore!

He asked if he could help. I said Be my guest. He made me do a few moves and declared that it was not a fracture or a torn ligament, only a super bad sprain. Keep it raised and iced. It will take it’s time to get alright…

Hobbled to the train and got to Milan. Massimo managed to get me a wheel chair, and i was spared the long walk from the train to the car. His wife to be had made delicious khichidi with nice thick dahi, we tucked in and had a great night’s sleep… Next day was the journey from Italy to Gstaad in Switzerland…

Jai Gurudeva!

love

bawa