Five (5) day Itinerary to Oslo, Svalbard, Norway: a mind boggling experience

The trip to the Northernmost town in the World! 

Well, this one is right out of my bucket list. I enjoyed it thoroughly, so I decided to document my itenerary for other's benefit. I decided to take this trip having worked day in and day out as the organising secretary of the annual Endocrine Soceity Of India Conference, which was a good success! (or so I hear!)

I took the late evening flight out of Hyderabad (2125), as only that connected well to Oslo. Had to spend seven hours in the Dubai Airport lounge. Although this was not ideal, I was too excited to care. Arrived in Oslo at 1230 afternoon. The excitement started before the flight landed. The first visualisation of the snow covered capital of Norway was a treat to the eyes! A shiver of excitement went down my spine when the Captain announced that temperature was -11 degree celsius! (I personally love cold weather, and I have been in Hyderabad for fifteen years, a city with the mildest of winters) I ABSOLUTELY recommend doing this tour in peak winter (Dec or Jan). I will explain why, as we go on.

                                                       Zoom this pic!

Day 1

1330. After immigration, etc, check into a hotel close to the airport. I stayed at the Radisson Red hotel, which is walking distance (10 mins) from the airport

1430. Walk to the railway station of the Oslo airport.  The views are as above. It was sunny and the temperature was 10 degrees minus (unique!) There are two types of trains that ply to Oslo City Centre. The slower ones cost lesser (NorKr 120 ~ Rs 950), but I will recommend the Flytoget service, which is 170 Kr, but much faster). Sit near the window seats on the left side to experience the unique snow filled landscapes of suburban and urban Oslo. Get down at the National Theatre Station. 

1530. From the National theatre, take a cab to the Fram and Kontiki Museums. 

1600 .I personally got immersed in the Fram museum,  but from what I heard Kontiki museum is also an awesome place! The Fram museum was a museum of the polar expeditions . With an amazing cinema show to kickstart; to the various photos; and finally a trip into the boats, to see how life was during the 2 year long exertions immersed me in much curiosity. I came out at 545 pm and it was pitch dark. The Kontiki museum would close in 15 mins , so I didn't enter. Remember there is no place to buy water here, so come with a water bottle 

                                   Dining place inside the boat

1800. Take a bus to the Vogeland sculptures and Frognerparken. Well,  what you see on Google and what I saw was anti climax,  as both were completely snowed over by a foot of snow . For me, it was a unique experience, nevertheless.  I enjoyed how kids continued to practice football and how young parents were taking out their infants and toddlers out for a walk in the snow covered garden and dimly lit pathways in the dark!

1845. Travel by tram to the Opera House, Have a hot chocolate break first. You may already be freezing by then!

1900. Opera House, It was quite a spectacle. I decided not to go in, already having visited the Sydney Opera House before. There are a few modern sculptures around as well.

1930. Walk to the Oslo Central station and travel by Flytoget to Oslo Airport station. Walk it to your hotel.

Day 1A

The reason I call this day 1A is that I actually didn't do this day. I skipped to day 2 directly. However I recommend to spend one extra day at Oslo 

Take the train to the city centre, and do visit the

Akershus fortress

Norweigian Musuem of Cultural History ( heard that it is beautiful)

Viking Ship Museum

National Museum

Royal Palace

Oslo Cathedral

Day 2

0735. Walk to the Oslo airport and check in.

0935. Board the SAS flight to Longyearbyen. Prebook a seat on the right side window.

1200. Take a photo of the Sun at the Horizon. This pic will be a memorable one, as you won't see the sun for the next few days (special for December and Jan only!)

1215. Technical break at Tromso, It looks so beautiful while landing. The break at Tromso is for passport control. Although Svalbard is administratively in Norway, it requires no Visa to enter. Of course as an Indian, you will require a Schengen visa to enter Norway. 

1230. Back on the same flight, and get amazed by how dark it is at Midday!

1300. Have some light lunch options on the flight itself. Surprisingly they were not expensive.

1400. Land at Longyearbyen airport. The time was 2 pm, but the airport was well lit. The temperature was minus 17 when I landed ! You can pick up a lot of informative material at the airport itself while you wait for your luggage.

1430. Please remember that there will be a bus waiting outside the airport (their are only 2 flights arriving per day in Winter!) For NKr 100, the bus will drop you to the hotel. Card is the preferred mode of payment all throughout Norway, but definitely so in Longyearbyen. There is no ATM or cash transactions there!

1445. Arrive in your hotel. I stayed at the Radisson Blu Polar Hotel. Most other hotels are in the vicinity.

1500. Laze around in your room and look out of the window. Just let the darkness soak in!

1530. Walk around town. Don't leave town, otherwise the polar bears will get you. I heard that the Svalbard museum and the polar expedition museum are really good, but they were shut down for renovation when I was there. Visit the northern most church in the world.

1630. Do your cold weather shopping in one of the many sports stores on Main Street Longyearbyen. Top it up by drinking hot chocolate somewhere!

1730. Have a drink at the Northernmost pub in the world.: The Barentz Gastropub!

1800. Go the front desk of your hotel and make your bookings for the next two days. Alternatively you can book it online at https://en.visitsvalbard.com

1900. Enjoy an early dinner at one of the many restaurants. I ate at the Barentz gastropub itself (Fish and chips)

2000. Back to base!

Day 3

1000. Get picked up by the Dog Sledding tour guys from the hotel (Prebook) . I used the Green Dog company,  which was really nice.

1030. Reach the kennels. You will hear the reckless barking of 40 odd huskies near by. You will be asked to change into snow boots, mittens, snow suits, neck guards, and snow caps. Wear a jacket and a wool sweater and warm thermal innerwear.

1045. You will be instructed how to use the sled. You can then pet the huskies. Beleive me, they are super friendly. Then comes the most physical part of the trip . You are supposed to hold on to the lead dogs while the guides tie the other dogs to the sled. Those guys won't just stay in one place (Swen and Mishka in my case) as they will jump all over; restless to start the trip. Catch your breath on the sled. The tour guide will start the trip.

1100. As the trip starts,the dogs fall silent immediately! They love running and that's all! The guides allow you to drive the sled intermittently and that's fun. As we move ahead, we would be surrounded by total darkness as technically we are in a frigid desert. The only source of light will be from the lamps on our heads! It is surprising to see how the dogs know the exact way to run. What an experience!! Its just too good!

1300. Reach the glacier. Well we can't see much of the glacier ,as it is pitch dark. The dogs deserve a well earned rest as the trip was mainly uphill till now. They are given some snacks and tied on a line. You have to pet all of them and they readily accept your gratitude. We move to a tent nearby.

1310. We go down the ice caves. The ice caves are well preserved and the temperature was warmer at minus 5 degrees (outside was minus twenty!) But this can be a problem for really tall individuals like me (I am 6'3") as too much slouching was involved. I stopped going in beyond a certain limit, but instead chose to be seated and sat with one of our guides Olivia. Was updated a lot about local Svalbard life!

                                                A rare place where no slouching was required!

1400. Lunch at the tents. We were served hot chocolate (coffee was an option) and Thai curry rice (ready to eat after pouring hot water). It was delicious !

1430. Preparation for the trip back. Again a very physical experience trying to hold on to the leader dogs (man, were they restless!)

1445. Trip back down. Here was the ultimate experience for everyone on this trip. The Northern Lights danced all throughout our return trip (although we did see some on our way up) But the major problem for us was the temperature. It was almost next to impossible to remove the mittens and gloves, reach out to your phone under layers and layers of clothing and take photos or record videos, as your hands would freeze almost instantaneously! It was mainly "for your eyes (covered with foggy specs 😎) only experience!"

1615. Back to the kennel. Again you need to pet all the dogs and thank them! Change back into your original clothes and then take the opportunity to pet the puppies, which is a great experience by itself!

1700. Dropped back at the hotel.

1715. Hot chocolate at the cafe in the mall!

1800. Another walk in Longyearbyen Main Street. Take photos at the Northenmost Post office and the Northern most Kindergarten in the world!

1930. Dinner. I had dinner at the Nansen restaurant. There are decent number of vegetarian options. Non veg eaters must taste the local cuisines which include Reindeer and Seal. What did I eat? Secret!

Day 4

0900.  Pick up at the hotel for the coal mines tour. A Must do.

0920 to 1000: Briefing at the day cabin. A friendly guide shows a documentary of how it was/is working in the coal mines. The coal mines in Svalbard are part of the hills, so the mining is more horizontal here then deep underground. The coal seams here date close to 5 million years back and the coal is more than 90 percent pure coal. The guide will show some artefacts and also a model of the 4 million old fossil found there

1000. Wear helmets, suits and headlamps

1000 to 1130. 

A walk through the coal mine. We walk for almost a kilometre into the hill. I was amazed to see the coal seams, the working conditions, the base for the miners, the lunch area, the tracks and finally course the conditions and the tunnels where the miners actually mined for the coal. The tunnels are never more than 3 feet high, so the miners at work almost always had to crawl and work for eight hour shifts! If you are wearing the suit, you can crawl into one such tunnel as see how harsh the working conditions can be.

You will also see the entries to the Global Seed vault (where seeds of almost all plants in the world are stored, in case a disaster strikes Earth) and also the Artic Bank, where many countries store secret documents that one cannot afford to lose, again should disaster strike elsewhere . For example I know that the McDonald's burger recipe is stored in there, and also the minute construction specifics of the Taj Mahal!

1200. Be dropped off at the Hotel

1200 to 1300. Lunch. I had lunch at the Karlsberger, and it was great

1300. Jacuzzi bath outdoors when the temperature is minus 20 and it is pitch dark at this time. Crazy experience at the Radisson Blu! You will be asked to wash your hair and body with soap before entering, but DO NOT FORGET to dry your hair before entering the Jacuzzi (I forgot), otherwise the water on the hair will freeze instantaneously and you will have a tough time post the Jacuzzi! Awesome experience!

1600. Either do the snow biking or the Snow Cat. Snow biking is great fun I heard, but I had enough of physical activity already, so I decided to take the Snow Cat. It is a special truck that takes you out on the snow to spot wildlife and northernlights. This is a easier trip for the elderly and children as well. I sat near the driver and had a huge height to climb in and out of, but the seats behind had a ramp. They will take you the city limits, beyond which you should not cross on your own without a guide with a gun as polar bears roam freely. This polar bear sign is a must for instagrammers

They then take you the wilderness, where another stop is done near a crashed German plane during the World war 2. Although it would have made a great place for photos, the temperature was freezing cold and it was snowing, so many of us quickly ran back to the truck!

The next stop was when we spotted reindeers at different places. Again enjoyable scenes, pitch dark, but it was awfully cold on that day (-24 degrees celsius). We had no luck with the Northern Lights due to the snow fall. We were taken to cabin and were offered hot Cranberry juice which was unique and tasted awesome! (coffee was an option). You will be dropped back at 1830.

1830. Premier League match (DeBruyne masterclass).

2030. Dinner at Barentz Gastropub, although there are many noteworthy places in Longyearbyen for dinner (Lavish to quick takeaways) Details will be on Google

Day 5.

1000. Bus to airport. Check in and soak in the last views of Longyearbyen. 

1200. As I walked on the tarmac towards the flight, it was lowest temperature I was ever exposed to:  -26 degrees Celsius!  I was waiting for the flight doors to close as we were all shivering in the flight too! As the flight stopped at Tromso , experienced fresh snowfall, and the first visualization of the Sun after 74 hours! 

1830. Reached Oslo. Back to airport Radisson. Some shopping may be considered on that day , otherwise you will be generally quite tired.  Time to relax and try your last bits at Norwegian cuisine!

Day 6. Back to airport and back to India.

Will be back if an opportunity presents itself! I really enjoyed this winter sojourn!! 

Cya. 

Three (3) Day Itinerary to Budapest and Bratislava.

Well,I embarked on this short trip as one of my other plans got cancelled. My trip was quite cool, so I decided to document it for others' benefit 

I arrived on a Sunday, having taken an early morning (4.30) flight out of India. My usual practice is to never do any sight seeing on the day I land. I just take a short walk in the city center if possible. I was staying at the Novotel Danube hotel, which was right next to the Danube river, bang opposite the river to the Hungarian parliament. I walked up and down the Buda side of the river and was treated to marvelous sites of the lit parliament, which looked awesome !

So, let's exclude this day and start from Monday Oct 2.

Day 1.

10.00. Fisherman's Bastion, Mathias Church and St Stephen's statue. 

I decided to hike it up to the castle hill. It was much warmer than I expected as the sun shines without any pollution here. Jacket was a heavy carry around and I was out of breath when I finally got there. (Bus, train and tram are easy ways to get around. It's literally free with the Buda card, otherwise it's quite cheap as well).

You need to pay nominally to visit the Fisherman's Bastion view point, but boy, was it an awesome view of the entire city! Quite the thrill for instagrammers! For me it was a great view to absorb.

You could pay a nominal charge and enter the church, which was quite popular, but I decided to skip visiting inside.

11.00. Buda castle.

Took the bus to Buda castle as I was tired with the previous experience, but it was short downhill drive, something I should have walked !

Don't forget to take the famous photo where the Szecny steel bridge and the St Stephen's basilica line up. The castle itself was beautiful, I decided not to go in, as I personally am not a fan of seeing how Kings and Queens lived. You could start an hour early to include a trip inside.

12.00. Walk across the the Steel bridge

This by itself is an experience. The amazing architecture and the stunning views make you walk across very slowly.

12.30. St Stephen's basilica. 

This one I did enter. The splendid architecture and the mummified hand was awesome. You could also climb the stairs to get a great view of the Pest side it seems, but I decided to skip it, as I had another plan for the same view.

13.00. Lunch. 

There are many highly rated restaurants in the area. I got into one such restaurant to eat up the famous Goulash soup and Chicken with paprika sauce (a must try if you have non veg food. It is the traditional cuisine and it was awesome ). The food was served late, and I was served an extra drink (lemonade is famous here, I took the kiwi lemonade, and boy, was the extra drink needed on that day!). You should use the washrooms here, otherwise prepare for shelling out 1 euro every time you want to pee!

14.00. Buda eye. 

It was a giant Ferris wheel, that took you around 4 times. But it offered stunning views of the whole Pest side of the city

15.00.  Pest

Book your evening cruise now at the tourist center near Buda eye (ofcourse one can pre-book on the net as well). Walked through the streets of Pest. The Vaci utka is a street full of souvenir shops and restaurants. Did some shopping here.

16.00. Great Market Hall

Walked to the Great Market Hall, and it was some experience . It is a railway station themed architecture and it was an old fashioned mall. Have the chimney cake here, which is famous in Budapest. Did some more shopping.

17.00. 

Went to Starbucks for Coffee and ermm.. washroom.

17.30. The evening cruise on the Danube. 

There are 3 ways to do it

a.During the day, which is least favourable 

b.One that covers the sunset. The one I took. Stunning views all over 

c. Dinner and cruise. Many people rest, change and come for the dinner cruise, which is also beautiful as all the monuments are well lit and look beautiful

It is a one hour cruise and totally worth it.

At night you could head out to the Ruin Bars of Budapest, which by itself is a tourist attraction. I rested as I had an early start the next day 

Day 2.

08.12. Train to Bratislava. 

It was a comfortable journey that costed 35 euros. Reached at 11.

11.30. Free Walking tour of Bratislava. 

It is one of the most popular ways to tour this small capital city. The tour guide expects an average tip of 10 euros, which is by the way, well worth it!

12.00. Bratislava castle. Puff up your lungs and take the climb. But the view from here is awesome. The tour guide explained the relevant history.

12.30. The walls of Bratislava and St Martin's cathedral. 

Beautiful place. Walk past the Kapitulskas street, the oldest street where the Kings used to walk after Coronation. Around the corner is the old Townhall, where u can take a beautiful picture of the townhall and the castle in the background.

 

13.00. City centre. 

Start at Michaels gate, the only standing gate of the wall. Many people climb up the tower for panoramic views, I didn't .Multiple statues dot the city centre and you will feel like taking a photo at everyone of them, as they are all funny  

13.30. Primates Palace and new Townhall. 

Beautiful place to take photos. 

14.00. Communist quarters. Reminds you of how Communist regime and houses looked like.

Tours end at the main square. 

14.00. Lunch at any one of the restaurants 

15.00. Blue church. 

Instagrammers will go crazy. Very neat indeed.

15.30. Photos at the presidential Palace. 

15.30 to 17.00. You could use this time to..

Go up the UFO tower to get a panoramic view (I had enough of panoramas)

Go to Levin Square (war memorial)

Go to casino and win/lose cash. I did and halved my expenses for the day  

17.05. Train back to Budapest 

20.20. Back at the room. If you have energy, take the funicular up to Castle Hill for excellent night views.

Day 3. 

Started a little late.

10.00. 

Booked the parliament tour later in the day. You can book it online before you reach here or be prepared for an otp to be sent to your local number (something which I did not carry)

10.15. Shoes at the Danube monument. Reminds you of the times when Jews were marched to the river, shoes were removed, before they were shot dead and fell into the flowing river. Sad.

10.45. House of Terror museum. 

Very interesting as it gives a clear picture of how the communist regime operated. Visual and sound effects were nerve wracking. You will spend 2 hours easily here

13.00. 

Walk past the opera house or get into it. I walked past it having seen Sydney and Vienna before.

13.30. Jewish quarters. 

You can take a photo at the Ruin Bars if you have not already visited. You should then look at the grand Synagogue which is a majestic building at the Dohany street

14.00. Lunch.

15.00. Heroes square

Take the M1 to Heroes Square. Again Instagrammers delight. Beautiful.

15.30. Vajdahunjad castle and city gardens

Go to the Vajdahunjad castle. One from the fairy tales. Again photos galore. Then, stroll around the city park. Beautiful and serene

16.00. 

U can jump into the Scezeny baths. Thermal springs with healing powers. Many people like it but somehow I didn't find it appealing to jump into a pool with so many people. It is supposed to be one of the most unique experiences In Budapest 

17.45. Parliament tour. 

Well organised tour of the wonderful building 

19.00. Danube promenade

Walk the Danube promenade for photos of the Buda side..awesome experience 

2000. Some shopping 

2100. Champions league match oh TV (must watch for me)

Well that was the 3 day Itinerary I followed. Maybe u can draw an inspiration from this. Maybe not! However, I enjoyed documenting it. 

Cya soon.

All Songs in An Album Sounding Good: Post 1985

All of us would have numerous songs in our 'favourite songs' playlist. Many of us would swear by some music albums. But can you name albums in which you have liked every song included in it?

Please chose albums post 1985. 

Pre1985, there were classics like Wish You were Here, Thriller and Teesri Manzil that would make into anyone's list, I guess.

Well here it goes post 1985...

1. Qayamat se Qayamat tak. All songs by Anand Milind in this album remain etched in the memory for anyone born before 1985!

2. Aashiqui. Nadeem Shravan gave their heart and soul in making this a success.

3. Dangerous. Michael Jackson. Whatever you say, the MTV generation in India has all songs from this album grooving in their minds

4. Introspective. Pet Shop Boys. Many of you may not even recognise this, but it still remains a staunch favourite of mine.

5. Alaiyepayuthe/Saathiya. AR Rahman gave numerous hit numbers, but in this album, every song was perfect

6. Kaadhalan/Hum Se Hai Muquabla. I loved every song in this one!

7. Rock On! Shankar Mahadevan would have had this on their all time bucket list, and they rolled out a fantastic album!

8. Dev D. Amit Trivedi gave a next age rendition of Neo-indian Rock, an album that many Indians swear by as one of the all time bests.

Special mentions (just missed by a single ordinary song or two in the album):

Maine Pyaar Kiya

Use Your Illusion: GNR

Bad. MJ

Jeans.

Hum Dil De Chuke Hai Sanam.

(NO>>NO>>>DDLJ and KKHH don't make it to my list)

The Best English Comedy Shows Post 2000

images may be copyrighted. they are for representation only. used from google. com and amazon.com.

due credit to the creators and producers of the show

Prior to 2000, there was a host of English comedy shows, that all of us can swear, was out of the world. The most popular one is of course the TV show Friends, which immediately struck a chord with many young people. My personal favourites include Mind Your Language, Yes Minister, Small Wonder, Home Improvement and Picket Fences. But there are a lot of serials that have hit the screen post 2000, and now are accessible to all thanks to the wonderful concept of OTT. Here are some of my favourites; and some not my favourites, but are widely popular.

Special mention: The Good place, Modern Family

7. The Office. The office is an ultimate favourite of people who work in the corporate world, as it is identifiable with their day to day life. Steve Farrell is such a natural actor, that he almost manages to get onto the nerves of the audience themselves!

6. Angie Tribeca. If you love and remember the movie HotShots, then this is the TV serial version of it. There is so much comedy happening in the background of every scene! If you manage to spot everyone of them, you will realise what a masterpiece it is! However, the quality of the show fades after the third season. Rashida Jones has done amazing work.

5. Spaceforce. Steve Farrel again. The show revolves around a newly created armed forces wing of the US, called the Space Force. Balancing government budgets, scientific discovery and the core need for Space defence makes an amazing cocktail. 

4. Parks and Recreation. Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman and Aubrey Plaza. Five amazing actors come together to make this amazing theme based program. It shows how things work in a local government and most people can immediately connect. We often are left wondering as to how a sincere hardworking Leslie (Amy) can work in the corruption and inertia based government offices.

3. The IT crowd. Simple jokes. No romantic angles and no glamour. It is impossible not to fall in love with Roy, Moss and Jen in the end of the show. Jen Barber is a 'manager' in a department which she knows nothing about; a scene that is common in most professional set ups nowadays.

2. Superstore. If you have seen only the first season and given this a skip, you have missed something great. I have seen this show more than a year and half back, but I still remember all the characters by heart. The show is based in a Superstore, and you cannot believe that there can be so much fun in this set up. I cannot help but remember how sad I was when the Superstore shut down in the last episode. 

1. Brooklyn 99. What a show! The show is based on detectives in a police station in Brooklyn. Hilarious detective stories mixed with the interpersonal relations of all the detectives. It is impossible not to like each and every character, Detectives Jake, Holt, Amy, Rosa, Terry, Charles, Scully and Hitchcock and the favourite secretary of all time, Gina. 

What are your favourites? 

A very Unique Animal in its natural Habitat: Phillip Island

All of us are, to various extents, curious to see animals in their natural habitats.

There is something special to see a tiger in the Ranthambore national park, a lion at Gir or a Rhino at Kaziranga, rather than seeing these animals in the confines of a zoo.My personal favourite wild animals which I have seen in their habitats in India are elephants and tigers. I still wish to go to Kaziranga some day.

Outside India, a swamp tour in the US was also amazing (another blog) where we could see many different animals. 

Of course the one continent you would associate with immaculate preservation of their animals is Australia. Nowhere in the world could you come up close to animals like the kangaroo, wallabies and Kualas. Australians take great pride in preserving the wildlife of their country and its something really commendable.

I will say something about today's blog. You guessed it. The location was Australia. I had some expectations from this trip, but the reality surpassed all my expectations.

It was in Melbourne in one Australian Summer. There are great things to do in Melbourne itself, and there are two specific favourite day trips from Melbourne; one drive along the Great Ocean Drive, and the other is visit to the Phillip Island.

My blog is about the latter.

How did I book?

Same ole' website (see my other blogs!). I booked a guided day trip from Melbourne and back online.The trip costed around INR 9000. 

Where did it start?

We started around 2 pm at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne. This trip is something to be done in the afternoon. Don't try doing it in the morning as you will miss out on the fun.

The trip before we reached the place in contention.

We first stopped at the Kuala conservation centre on the Phillip Island. It was one amazing experience to see the Kualas all sleeping hugging the trees. (the Kualas are hardly awake). People also maintained great discipline in maintaining silence there, which made the experience more amazing, as the sounds you could hear were mainly sounds of nature. 

 We then went to the place simply called "the Nobbies", where we expect to see Australia fur seals. I didn't manage to see any. But the views from there were breathtaking. Im not sure what you call the ocean there, but I am pretty sure its the closest I have got to the Antarctic Ocean. It was very windy there and I was forced to buy a jacket, the famous Philip Island jacket of Santosh, which you will see in many of my photos!! (Let me clear here: I wear my jacket only for a grand four or five days in a year: there is no scope of wearing one in Hyderabad!)

We then left for the place in contention...and here it comes: the place was called the Penguin parade. We reached there at 820 pm. I was pretty excited as I thought I could see some penguins and take some photos. We were informed that taking photos were not permitted. Well then, some things are for your eyes only, I guess.

We walked around 500 meters from the gate to to the beach, and we hadn't seen any penguins yet. Was this going to be a damp squib? At the beach, there was a constructed pavilion, where at least two hundred people were already seated by the time we got there. I got a comfortable seat. An announcer came and told  us some housekeeping instructions and told to just look at awe at what would happen when the Sun set. He said the penguins would return to land from the day out at sea as soon as the Sun set.

Okay...hmmm... lets see...

The sun set. Out came the first penguin. All of us were excited and muttered to each other. Then came the second, third and fourth in quick succession. They were small penguins, not the ones you would see on TV; the ones in Antarctica. I guess their height may not have been more than one and a half feet. 

Photos are not allowed by tourists at the Penguin Parade. This photo is courtesy Nadim from the royalty free image website Pexels.

Then... the numbers grew, I expected to see at least twenty or thirty of them; I was grossly mistaken. They kept coming out in huge numbers. They walked from the beach towards the pavilion and quietly made their way towards the park, some passing quite close to us. I think we would have seen .. guess.. at least eight hundred such penguins. It was like an ocean of these small creatures all around. 

Photos are not allowed by tourists at the Penguin Parade. This photo has been taken from the website Viator. com, my favourite travel agents.

We then made our way back to the gate, but this time we were walking along with our little friends, as they used a small dug out pathway to return to their individual burrows where they would rest for the night. There were so many of them!!. I remember, a few of them had to cross the road, and the attender stopped us humans so that the royals could pass!

We reached Melbourne at 1030 pm. 

But what a day it was! I can't imagine how else it would be possible for common tourists like us to see penguins in their natural habitat, until and unless Antarctica becomes more accessible. A wonderful place, and I would surely go there again.

Guaranteed.