7+ months on, and Marta was still rocking the parties.

From 2009-10

My male stripper imitation (not pretty).

From 2009-10

From 2009-10

Mussoorie is called the “Queen of the hills”. A famous tourist destination it retains the traces of the British era to a large extent. Also houses the best boarding schools in the country.

When we started from YHAI hostel, we had still 5 more kilometers to go. We found a bus to go up to the city. Drivers driving on the hills have little fear of heights. Turning and twisting the vehicles at more than the permissible limit, they can make you sick. The bus veers dangerously close to the edge and vehicles pass each other like they are traveling in a 6 lane highway.

After all time is money here and the more trips you make, the more money you earn.

We arrived to a cold but bearable Mussoorie weather. The cars in Dehradun was to bring us to this spot and then we had to walk around. We did that at a much cheaper option using the bus.

Mussoorie is built on hills and the roads go up and down, narrowing and broadening as the hills permitted.

When we got down at the Mussoorie bus stop, we had to walk to the city

The road of Mussoorie with building lined up on both the slopes

The market of Mussoorie. The tourist have prompted many global brands to set up shops here. You can get practically all brands of clothes here

The foggy mountains

Observation balconies heavily influenced by British architecture

Probably a school with a running track

The climate changes in moments to show a bright sun. We were very close to the cable car which would take us to Gun Point

The YHAI Mussoorie hostel is almost 5 kilometers from Mussoorie and on a slope. The entrance is leveled to the road but once you enter, to get to the rooms, you have to walk down the stairs.

Its like the hostel is built upside down on the mountain slope. Very close to the newly constructed Mussoorie lake and very close from the main city, it gives a pleasant view of the mountains around.

The YHAI hostel offers clean, affordable accommodation for members of Youth hostel association of India. 

The road from Dehradun. State-run buses are available till 8:00 PM on this road.

The road to Mussoorie

The types and species of trees available in the mountains of Mussoorie.

The YHAI Hostel seen from the gate. As we had visited in the off-season, we were the only people in the hostel. As the hostel staff cleaned our rooms, we had a delicious breakfast of hot aloo parathas and steaming hot tea. 

The fog covered hilly town of Mussoorie as seen from YHAI hostel below

After we finished our breakfast, we started getting ready for the day. Our rooms were not ready but hot water was available in the dormitory. Some of us were getting ready while I was clicking photos of the surrounding.

Finally at about 10:00 PM, our rooms were ready. The rooms had double bed, bathroom and basic amenities. But the best part was the view from the window overlooking the lush green mountains

However, the heater ran on Sunlight and as sun was covered with fog and clouds, the heater was not working. We had to bath in cold water.

After bath, we came back to click pictures as others were getting ready

Mathew standing near the hostel’s railings. Not seen in the photo due to the fog, but the left is the road seen above

Amol and me admiring the nice view from the hostel’s compound.

All our 9 members got ready by 10:30 AM and we were ready to go to see the queen of the hills, Mussoorie.

Dehradun is the capital of Uttarakhand. previously a part of Uttar Pradesh, Dehradun is famous for its boarding schools in the Doon valley.

It takes almost 4-6 hours to reach Dehradun from Delhi. It was 6:00 AM when we reached Dehradun station. Dehradun is a major station. Our destination was Mussoorie. Mussoorie is almost 36-40 kilometers from Dehradun.

The city of Dehradun is connected with major cities under Northern railways.

As we landed on Dehradun station, people had started moving out. We were the last one to get down. We had too much time in our hand so we decided to take things easy.

The Dehradun station when we got down there in the morning

The Dehradun station as seen from outside when we waited for our ride to Mussorrie.

Although Dehradun is a town which see lots of tourist, the town has somehow become vary of them. We started negotiation with some taxi drivers who were quite rude with us. We had negotiated with the driver but the Taxi union refused to budge. In addition they were rude and we finally decided to take the bus to Mussoorie.

India is a major tourist destination and the experience the tourist have here, they will be telling others. Such kind of behavior is certainly not good for the business and for tourism.

We finally decided to travel by bus than take the blackmailing from the taxi drivers. We found the bus stand and enough place to sit. The YHAI hostel was 5 kilometers before Mussoorie. We had to find the hostel, get freshened up and tour Mussoorie.

A very old Northern Railway Engine at display near Dehradun’s train ticket booking house

It was a dingy bus with so-so seats. The bus must have seen too many rides to the queen of the hills. As the journey started up, I as expected went on a clicking spree. The morning sun, the winding roads and the view was too much of a temptation to click.

But the results would reveal later that not all clicking can make a perfect photograph.

The winding roads to Mussoorie

The sun rises behind the mountains

11 Kilometers from Mussoorie

The lush green mountains enroute to Mussoorie

The fog covered mountains of Mussoorie

Finally after 1 and half hour we finally reached YHAI Hostel in Mussoorie

I met Ranjana after a long time. We sat and talked like old times while my group moved around in Delhi. It was decided that I would meet them after they finished visiting Qutub Minar.

Ranjana offered to drop me somewhere near Karol Bagh Market and my friends decided that they would come there so we can go to the YHAI hostel. Our train to Dehradun was at mid-night from the Nizammudin station. It was still 6:00 PM on the clock and we had time to kill. I miss Amsterdam, I really do. And I miss it more because of the family.

Its occasionally when I meet the family in Delhi, I re-live the life I once had.

Ranjana dropped me till Karol Bagh market and also met the rest of the gang. We really did not have a plan except go back the hostel, rest a little and then have a small dinner and catch the train to Dehradun. The whole plan was to be adjusted within the next 6 hours we had too much of it in our hand.

Ranjana offered us to show Karol Bagh market where we could taste the famous Delhi chat. We turned our cars in Karol Bagh market. The market was packed with the Sunday crowd. There was no place to park the cars. We drove around a little bit before finally giving up.

It was difficult to imagine that there was a bomb blast in Diwali 3 years ago. We did find a Pakoda eatery nearby. We packed pakodas for later and bid ranjana goodbye. As there was nothing we could think of and we had already walked a lot in the hot sun, we decided to go to the hostel again.

It had been a busy day. But we always pack so much into so little. The last Dalhousie trip was quite hectic and on the schedule. This one was no different but this time we did not walk.

We came back to the hostel and everybody after freshening up just went to the bed. Some slept, some didn’t but no one had the energy left for planning the dinner. When we finally thought of dinner, we decided to look near Nizammudin Station.

At 10:00 we finally decided to start for the station. We were at the station at around 11:00 PM and we still had one hour to kill We found a cafe near the station and had a light snack. It was time for the train to Dehradun.

It was to Mussoorie next. Away from the very hot Delhi weather. The Nizamuddin-Dehradun AC Express isn’t the best train and nowhere compared to Rajdhani but when we wanted to spend the night comfortably and with total exhaustion, we really were not in mood to complain.

As the train chugged out of Delhi, we got ready to sleep for Mussoorie.

Tomorrow was to be a big day!

Gerne erinnert man sich “hierzulande” noch an die Kinonacht mit Clip Contest Windeck, die ich am 25. April gemeinsam mit der JU, Janine Kunze, sevenload u.v.a.m. in den Kabelmetal-Hallen Schladern veranstaltet habe: 

http://rossbach.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/das-war-die-grose-kinonacht-und-clip-contest-windeck/

Gestern war es nun soweit: die von Medienminister Andreas Krautscheid und dem Kreativ-Chef der Fernsehfirma Grundy Light Entertainment, Jens Bujar, verliehenen Preise wurden abgerufen. Jeweils 10 Teilnehmer aus der Villa Laurentius und dem 1A Jugendtreff, die durch pfiffige Videoclips die Juroren begeisterten, waren bei der neuen Show “Das Supertalent” dabei und berieten Dieter Bohlen & Co. bei der Talentsuche.

Die übrigen Preise wurden bereits übergeben:  hochwertige iPods und all-inclusive-Berlinreisen. Darüberhinaus feiern beide Jugendzentren die “Premieren-Party” ihres Clips in den angesagten Discotheken “Nachtflug” (Köln) und “JUBY Q” (Frechen), siehe:

http://rossbach.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/villa-laurentius-lost-kinonacht-gewinn-ein/

Und hier nun weltexklusiv die Fotos: 1A Jugendtreff & Villa Laurentius goes “Supertalent”. Die Stimmung vor Ort war so gut, dass uns ein Kamerateam ins Visier nahm

Immer wieder machen wir in der Weihnachtszeit die Erfahrung, dass wir uns dem Himmel ein Stück näher fühlen, als im restlichen Jahr. Vielleicht liegt es darin begründet, dass uns in dieser Zeit Engelsfiguren von überallher grüßen. Von vielen Häusern und Geschäften scheinen sie die frohe Botschaft zu verkünden: „Fürchtet euch nicht, Gott ist euch nah, denn er wird seinen Sohn hinab senden zur Erde.“

Die Engel verkünden die Verbindung zwischen Himmel und Erde. Jakob wird diese Verbindung zwischen dem Himmlischen und dem Irdischen in seinem Traum (Gen 28,19) deutlich. Er sah eine Treppe, die auf der Erde stand und bis zum Himmel reichte und auf welcher die Engel Gottes auf- und niederstiegen. Aber auch im alltäglichen Leben scheint uns der Himmel manchmal ganz nah, wenn wir Glück, Freude, Zuversicht und Hoffnung erleben.

Der Himmel hat viele Gesichter. Ein Astronaut sieht ihn anders als ein Liebender, dessen Himmel voller Geigen hängt und ein Gläubiger verbindet mit dem Himmel etwas anders ein Atheist. Es gibt viele Wege in den Himmel und ein paar dieser Wege wollen die Sängerinnen und Sänger des Rochus-Chores am 4. Adventssonntag gemeinsam mit ihren Gästen nachzeichnen.

Am 20. Dezember, kurz vor dem Tag, an dem sich der Himmel weit öffnet, nimmt der Rochus-Chor die Besucher des inzwischen 14. Adventskonzertes in der Rochus-Kapelle Wilberhofen mit „himmelwärts“.

(Fortsetzung in den Kommentaren!)

with the kitchen taking financial priority at the moment all unnecessary spending has been stopped and stamps have been listed for sale.  My big sister (who happens to be THE best big sister ever) saw me comment that I would wait for the Time Travellers Wife to come out on DVD because all $ were going to the kitchen and sent me an sms saying she had put $ in my account and to go see the movie! Isn’t she the best?! So tomorrow after my cardmaking session with a mate I am off to the movies (on my own) to see The Time Travellers Wife. I have been hanging to see it after I read the book a few months ago so that will be my treat. Then Sunday I am off to get the rest of my kitchen and Monday is Brett’s eye test and the real start of the clean up as the kitchen goes in in two more weeks!