Checklist

This blog is intended for Indians coming to Europe specifically Belgium.
This article summarizes the things that one might have to carry when they pack their bags.
Well its all left to the discretion of the reader to decide his needs and carry what all from the following list may be required.

1. First let’s start off with Clothes – one of the most fancied & fashionable varieties are available in Europe. And any one on earth would be tempted to try different things while being here.

So I would suggest the following –
Working Men:
6 formal shirts (costs about 10-30 or more), 3-4 Tshirts( costs about 5-30euros),
4 formal pants (no idea about costs here) and
2 Jeans pants (if you think that’s heavy you can buy them here. Costs about 20€)
Belts – 2 No
Male Students:
2-3 Formal shirts, 5-6 T shirts, 2 Jeans, 2 Formal pants, 2 Belts
Common for students and working men:
1 pair of formal shoe and 1 pair of slippers. The home wear slippers is optional.
One rain jacket and one sweater or jacket for cold.

Women:
Jeans -2 nos, (if you think that’s heavy you can buy them here. Costs about 5-10€)
Tops (formal or casual) – 6,
In case you are working then u would need formal Pants – 3, if not working then you would need just one or two.
Belts – 2 Nos
3-4 light weight salwar kameez (if you do not want to miss them.. u will hardly find it here).
One rain jacket and one sweater or jacket for cold.
Of course you will end up buying later a lot of them J
Optional: sarees(in case u love to wear and very rare to find here) 3-4nos
Must: one pair of slippers (costs about 10-20€)
home wear slippers – optional
Note: Ornaments or fashionable ear rings, bands, hair clips are expensive here
You wont get bindi packets here.
Eye liner costs about 2€ (not a better quality though)

Tip: Try to carry less weight clothes so that you can incorporate other items in the check in luggage.

You can buy varieties of fashionable clothes in Europe for best prices.
Skirts and Three fourths are considered formal here.
Sports shoe & boots are least expensive. I can say they are cheaper than what you get in India.
Jackets can cost anywhere between 20-50euros (or more for branded ones).

2. Umbrella is a must. Three fold umbrella is what I prefer so that it easily gets into bag.
Even if you spend 2€ or more, most umbrellas that you get here are not sturdy ones for the
wind here.
3. College bag / Back pack - 1 No - will be required to get groceries from shop at least ;)
4. Technical books or any novels (slightly expensive here)
5. Do not miss Laptop, hard disk, cds, dvds, softwares, mp3 players / ipod, headphone with earphones (call to India via internet via messenger or free call is cheaper). These accessories are pretty much costly here.
6. Not to be forgotten are your photos – better to have 15-20 passport size photos on white background even if you are here for just 6 months or lesser or more (cost is 5euros for 5 photos here)
7. Stationaries:
Stapler with one box of pins, scissor, correction tape, some pens, glue stick, file or folders
8. Dual/quad band mobile handset that is used in India would work here as well.
9. Last but not the least are the medicines: tablets for common cold(most likely), cough, fever (most likely), indigestion, head ache, body pain (if u r sportive), vomitting, loose motion, mouth ulcers and if necessary - spray for relieving pain. Of course your personal medicines as medicines here are different and the dosage is slightly high.
Now the other things that can be of more importance to you irrespective of the length of the stay here.

Food: Food is one’s own choice.
Whether you are vegetarian or non vegetarian, for cost cutting you will have to cook at home. Needless to mention that options for vegetarian are very very limited. And I have heard of my non vegetarian friends say that the non veg (meat) being eaten here in restaurants/by people is mostly raw meat. (Sometimes even with the blood stains on it). .Well that is how its used here. I am sure that non vegetarians would not have got the taste they would have in India. And so naturally leaning towards cooking at home J

Cooking at home:
Pressure cooker:
I suggest a 3ltr pressure cooker if you intend to live independently. (You can get it here for about 30€)
A 5ltr one for 2 or more people.

Extra safety valves and gaskets are a must depending on the type of your cooker.
You do get safety valves here. But I suppose they would cost between 2-10euros.
I haven’t come across gaskets here.

Utensils: All stainless steel items are expensive here.
If possible, try to get 2 utensils that fit into the pressure cooker that you get.
Also if possible, another 2 or three vessels with lids if you have space.
Else you can buy a three vessel set in ikea. In case you need, contact me. I can guide you.

One Kadai and one Tava (They are expensive here)














The above items are required. However the following Kitchen items are optional and depends on the extent to which you would cook here. My intention is to tell you what is available here and what is not available here. Its upto you to chose if you would miss it or not.


Cutlery:
Again its expensive here. For a steel set (4 spoons, knifes and forks each) you would pay about min of 4€.
Knife: I would prefer getting one from India for vegetable cutting as the sharpness lasts for long time. The knifes you get here cut slightly slant. So I don’t prefer them.

Serving spoons that are used for serving rice, rasam / sambar and spatula to lift chapthi or dosa from tava and the one used for frying oily items are the ones you would not get here. (hopefully i will upload a pic for all these),

Serving spoons that you get here are like in the picture shown below.
































Chapathi roller is also something that is advisable to be carried from India. Costs about 3€ here.
You may not need the board on which chapathi / roti is usually rolled on.

Tongs(optional) for making phulka or rotis on gas flame or its useful even while frying oily items. You will not probably find it here.














Coconut grating: you will not get it here. Other option is to cut the coco into small pieces and grind in the mixer. This is what I do.














Vegetable grating:
You get it here (costs about 1.5-5€)























Vegetable skin peeler : You dont get this kinda one here. But another one like tongue cleaner :-) and costs about 1€
























Churning:
You can use the egg beater (costs about 50cents to 1€) that you get here. This can also be used for potato mashing.

Or get this kinda one from India

























Sieve: Costs about 1€


























Blender/Mixer:
I suggest not to get it from India. You get a good one for 20€ in Blokker (a shop here) which has a 2 yr warranty period. In case that’s spoilt within this period, you can get a new one for which the warranty period starts from the date you exchanged which is another 2 years.
Iron box can also be bought here.

Shops where you can find Indian groceries:
Pakistani shops in Brussels
Nepali shops in Leuven
Bangladeshi or Pakistani shops in Antwerp

Shops/supermarkets where you can find almost everything else:
Delhaize, GB, Colruyt & Aldi.

Internet connection:
Various service providers are available in Belgium like Telenet, Belgacom, ClearWire and Numericable.

To make calls to India:
Most of us here use
www.freecall.com to make calls to Indian landlines and mobiles. Cost is around 2cents per minute. To add credit, you would need credit card.

PS: Belgian Debit cards are not accepted for any online transaction.

Banking:
Accounts:
Most Banks here charge maintenance fee for savings/current accounts.
Fee varies between 20-30 euros a year.
However one such Bank referred to us by a local citizen which charges no fee for account maintenance and used widely is Keytrade Bank.
Please note that fee varies for students and working class or under 26yrs.

Cards:
Credit cards (master card or visa card) are issued with maintenance fee of about 25-50euros a year. Again certain clauses are to be met for determining fee.

Apartments / Flats rent:
Depends on whether you want furnished or semi furnished or unfurnished apartments, area / region and owners.
The following links can help you find accommodation apart from threads on orkut Indians in Belgium community-
www.xpats.com
www.expatriates.com
www.be-housing.be/En/
www.Immoweb.be
www.vlan.be

Transport:
In Brussels, the modes of transport are –
Metro, tram and Bus (STIB/De Lijn)
In Leuven – De Lijn buses
In Antwerp – De Lijn bus and tram

De Lijn buses run between various parts of Belgium as well.
For railways, its www.b-rail.be

If you have any question, leave me a comment or mail and I will be more than happy to address that.

Pisa & Rome - Italy feel of being @ home

I must say that it was a well planned trip to Pisa and Italy to cover the wonders of the world.
Our planning started almost 2 months before to this place. We booked all our tickets and room as we were going during easter and one can imagine the amount of people and rush in the Holy Catholic city during easter.
Yes!! Yet again that was a long weekend. A long weekend in the mid of April. We were all set and ready at the airport. Contrary to our trip to Swiss, the flights were in the evening. Good that we did not have to strain ourselves early morning to get to the airport. Huh!! We were relieved of all these tensions the moment our tickets were booked.

Our flight departure was at 20:45 and we arrived at Da Vinci airport in Rome by 22:55.

We went out to enquire taxi fare from the airport to the hotel and the taxi drivers charged an extra amount. we were warned by the hotel receptionist that we have to bargain for the right price with an indication of what the right price could be.The last train from the airport train station to the Rome city train station called Roma Termini was at 11:36. We missed the one at 11:06 cos of ticket vending machine and cluelessly operating dumb people in front of us in the long queue. People selected their own mother tongue to operate the vending machine that was so obvious and easy to operate and still finding it so difficult and wasting everyone's time. Do you think this is the first hint of feeling at home? No I still think common man in our country is not so dumb given a choice of operating in their mother tongue.

The actual feeling started when we boarded the train and the train started. That was an electric train like all European trains and was called "Da Vinci Express". Express train here in Italy covers a distance of 30km in 30min with the same sound and movement a train would make in India like a mom swinging the child in the cradle. For a moment when we closed our eyes we could not think that we were out of our motherland.

As we got closer into the city we could see filth and garbage dumped everywhere in large lumps in one corner. The houses were painted with colour shades that are used in our country too. There were many buildings with patches of painting as they were I believe painted decades ago. A feel of being @ home. Our journey begins.

We got out of the station and set our foots onto the street to discover our route to the hotel at that odd hour and there were so many people on the street. Italy I feel is an indifferent European nation.

hmm.. We could easily find our way to the hotel and were off to bed as we had to wake up early morn for our 6am train to Pisa. Next morning I woke up at 4:30 and was ready by 4:45 giving time for other 3 people to get ready. We were earlier in the station to buy our tickets (how can we forget the previous night's ong queue in front of ticket vending machines?). So we were all set to view the leaning tower of Pisa. That was a regional train to Pisa from Roma Termini. The difference between an Express and Regional train is the usual difference in stops and cost. It was 10 euro fare difference and a time difference of 40mins. We had a very very very tasty cappuccino in the station. the quantity was not enough for others. But the taste of it lingers on my tongue even today. I suggest you not to miss out coffee anywhere in Italy. Another fact that I would want to share is that I used to wonder why people pronounced 'cc' in capu'cc'ino as 'ch' rather than 'c'. Its here where I realized that every 'c' in Italian is pronounced as 'ch'. Enlightened! :)

We boarded the train and I thought I could sleep well in the train as I had slept for just 3.5hrs the previous night and I am so concerned abt sleep. I must say that God has gifted me "sleep". Unfortunately, I did not get sleep in the train. It could be due to the excitement that was pervading inside me without being unveiled to others that I am gonna see one of the wonders of the world. By the way we (I) spoke in the train in our native language rather mother tongue as I/we usually do, we attracted another fellow national Vikram who was of same language and who seemed to us like someone who was craving to speak to someone in the same language in Europe. We could see that he was so delighted to exchange hand shakes and exchange views with us on his experiences and the lifestyle particularly in Europe. Since then, we could not realize how time of rest 3hrs flew :)


We reached Pisa and were hungry for traditional Italian Pizza. On our way to the tower we found a local restaurant and had yummy pizzas for absolute cheap prices.Each one of us had one whole pizza. Mind you that the Pizza here in Europe or Italy is thin crust (Dont compare it to the one in the Pizza Hut / Dominoz in India). The cheese over the Piza had melted and was smelling just like the "ghee"(reminding home.. Ahh!! yes:) ). The fragrance had half way filled our stomach. I tried a pizza margharita and my hubby n his colleague tried mushroom Pizza and the other two tried Pizza vegetale. The look and feel of Pizza vegetale(costliest in the restaurant) was not so good. It had topping of Brinjal, cabbage, tomato and onion. And the drink? Not wine yet.. We still did not follow 'Be a Roman in Rome' to dine and wine. But we had to definitely drink coke to digest this fat :)

Then we went to the tower and were amazed by the way the tower was built. From whichever angle or direction u see, the tower looks leaning. Thats why an apt name "Leaning Towere of Pisa".
we took some pictures and went around and had yummy ice cream and of course not to forget souveniers shopping fr us and our sweet friends in Leuven (Mr & Mrs Prashant) as they could not make it.
We were back by the train to Rome by 8pm. We stepped into a Mc D opposite to the station and had a tasty spinach and cheese frite. Taste was unimaginable for me as i was trying this kinda food for the first time. Had I tried fondue in Swiss, I would have probably felt it similar like others.
Then we went to our room and refreshed ourselves as we had to explore "Roma" during night. We started to Colosseum at around 8:30pm. We were there in abt 20 mins as the distance was less than 2.5km from our hotel.

Colosseum was lit with different lights. At first I could not really make out what it was and what was the purpose. I did not know that it was another wonder of the world. I had made this mistake of not reading about the history of the famous architectural monuments and the Roman Empire itself unlike how we used to do earlier for other trips. I regret a lot about this. I think I should have been prepared. But not to forget to warn you that there is a lot of history about Rome and Roman empire and its hard to remember or recollect what you have read. Still... "Something is better than nothing" Right?
Past is past. A lesson learnt. So we will make sure that we know about Venice before we go there in about 12 days.
Ok..Lets not get lost in these philosophic thoughts. Back to our exploration story.
We passed through the temples in Rome. The temple of Venus, Mars and Augustus. There were excavations going on through out Rome. I am unaware of since when its on or till when its on. But the places were all dug up prohibiting entrances to places. It was a good watch.

Then we strolled by to piazza venezia where we could see the famous Roman Emperor.


We went on to visit the famous "Romantic Fountain" - "Fontana de Trevi" in Rome. We spent some time there and went to the Indian restaurant we had searched prior to our visit to Rome. We went to IL Guru. I must say that the food was excellent. I have not tasted this kinda Indian food here. They say "if the quality of food is better then the quantity of intake increases". This was true with us also. We had stomach full and walked back to our hotel for peaceful sleep. Yet again, we slept at 12:30(it was second consecutive night). Thankfully, we could wake up by 7 and get ready to go to the vatican city on easter sunday.

Next morning we woke up and got ready as per our plans and reached vatican city. All the metro trains were so full of people. Every one wanting to be there for the mass on Easter Sunday.(kannadadalli helbekandre hindu hindu janara gumpu) We were all prepared to witness the rituals of the holy catholic church. But the crowd discouraged us to get inside of the crowd as we feared getting out of the place asap. We still had to shop for souveniers, wine and dine in Rome :)
We witnessed the mass from far. Thanks to the video camera's zoom which made us see the rituals from close.

Not surprisingly, Romans(Catholic) do circle around and bend before Jesus (like our Pradakshine Namaskara to God), they even use kinda dhoopa to spread the fragrance around. They purify the place with holy water(for us its the Ganges water). I had seen this fragrance kinda thingy in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris too. Please excuse me for not being aware of the catholic rituals and for not using appropriate terms.
We were out by around 12:30 and then we were at the Restaurant to taste the Italian Sphagetti and gnochchi.
We ordered varieties of sphagetti and the taste was not too high standards. But not too low either.
Then we headed towards the market in the vatican city and shopped for "Argenta ear rings" - silver ear rings and (uff!!!!!!!!! the list goes on) many other stuff.
Then we were ready to have some snacks or light dinner. We tried in a close by restaurant near our hotel. Those were horrible Indian restaurants. We did not like the food. Though we ordered very few items we could not have it completely and had to pack for our trip. We paid them cursing ourselves for going there and left to the airport.
We had our return flight at 8:30pm from Rome. Saying "bye for now" we returned from Rome. But the moments of experiencing Roman traditions/lifestyle will be cherished through out.