March Madness ... !!! :-o)

If you are an ardent basketball fan and expected to read about NCAA basketball I am terribly sorry :-o). I just borrowed the term as it sounds cool. Anyways this March has been totally crazy for me. First I moved into my new apartment and had to settle down with all my stuff in my not so big but centrally located apartment in the City of Oslo. Needless to say, that my House is a total mess right now. I still need to do tons of work cleaning up and arranging and re-arranging stuff which I haven't gotten around to, yet.
Then comes the best part.. I had a couple of training programs to attend. Guess where?? One in Paris and One near London :) My last week to Paris was so hectic that I barely got a chance to go around the beautiful city of Paris. This time around I had lots of time and an excellent company to tour paris(You wouldnt believe if I said We had people from pretty much from each continent except Australia and that in a small group of 10 or so). I had 2 weekends and the weekdays in between. 4 days went off for training, but we still got the evenings to ourselves and the Friday off-work. So thats a lot of time to see paris.

First weekend I went to Brussels upon my friends invitation and from there he took me to
Beautiful Country/City of Luxembourg. Tiny as it may seem on a map, it was really picturesque. The city had lot of history and also the country has some of the oldest castles. We also visited one of those. I didnt have much time to go around Brussels though.

Then back in Paris, I was able to visit almost all of the main tourist attractions and enjoy the most beautiful and romantic city in leisure using the Metro trains and buses and ofcourse 'with a little help from my friends'. I will blog about each of these trips seperately with some pictures taken later.

Following week I had to attend another training program in Milton Keynes, an hour or so from London city. Very calm and nice place, it was. Come weekend, I went to London and stayed right in the dead center of city, Piccadily circus. I found out later that it is the most happening place on a saturday night in London where all night clubs and famous pubs are located. Got lucky I guess, but at a high price(Had to shell out close to 50 pounds for a room/night with shared failities and it was the cheapest I could find.. ridiculus maximus!!). Got to see many a famous places incl. the Lord's Cricket ground (which was on top of my list), 221 Baker street (which actually doesn't exist !), Former house of H.G.Wells on Baker Street, palace, Big Ben and all that. But couldnt find time to knock on 10 Downing street or to see the Famous London Tower Bridge(I feel like an ass for having missed out on this). Also did the Famous Open top London Bus tour(which I feel is very overrated and not cost effective). I felt more comfortable taking a map and using the underground to go different places. Anyways Will Blog in detail later. Never thought touring is so easy in such big cities esp. when you are single.

I am still on a floating high from the last 3 weekends. I am not sure if it was from the sheer thrill of seeing these places or just excessive French Wines and Warm English Beer from London(Asterix takes a dig at British for drinking their beer warm:-). After such a hectic touring (or should I say official touring!), I am back in Oslo in the middle of an extended never ending winter which is just not giving away to Spring. I miss the wonderful and Sunny weather from Paris and London :(. But snow is slowly melting now and thats a welcome sight for me. Spring is coming.. yee..haw.... Watch for more travelogs..