My love affair with New Year's Eve
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| Solo Trip #2: Christmas in Prague |
However, over the past few years, I have started doing a little introspective exercise around this time of the year. I look back at how my past year has been - what I hoped to achieve vs what I actually did, areas I wish I did more in and things I might need to do change. So in this post, I'll talk about a few highlights of 2016 that made it good for me. I will also talk about the few things I hope to accomplish in 2017. You don't have to worry about this being a "My New Year Resolutions" post. I don't believe in the "New year New Me" trend that many people catch on to around this time of the year but at the same time, I also don't hop on the "New Year, same old me" bandwagon. I'm more like the "New year, a slightly better me" person.
A look back at 2016
The trips
One of the highlights of 2016 were the amazing trips I took. I travelled more than I had in the past 5 years in a single year. I've been to places I had only read about before or seen over the internet. I've met a lot of amazing people and made memories that I'll be entertaining my grandkids with. I even have titles for some of these stories. The list of places I've been (along with the story titles) :
- Bratislava - "Dude, where's our bus?"
- Cracow - "The Dutch Blonde of Krakow"
- Lake Balaton - "There's a Party-in-my-pants weekend"
- Bologna, Reggio Emilia and Milan - "I don't hate you"
- Bangalore (for like the 3rd time but still counts) - "Eat Fish Curry. Sleep. Netflix. Repeat."
- Prague - "The Jamaican who gave me flu", "The Aussies in Christmas jumpers"
In addition, I must also mention the amazing time I had at Sziget Festival. Sziget is a 7 day music festival held on an island on the river Danube in Budapest. I was there on all days and had an amazing time there too.
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| Duomo Di Milano: Possibly the most clicked location in Milan |
I became an uncle
My sister was blessed this summer with a baby boy. That cute little fellow has brought a lot of happiness in my family's lives. His chubby cheeks, big eyes and innocent smile make up for the sleepless nights he gives my sister. Pretty soon, he'll need his uncle to teach him how to play cricket and tennis and get him pizza when his mom says no.
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| The little bugger must not be disturbed when sleeping |
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| But he may disturb you anytime. Literally anytime |
I played a LOT of Football
And yes, by a LOT, I mean a lot. From April to November, I played football almost religiously at least once a week and on most weeks, I played twice. I'm still not very good at it. My Argentinian flatmate is always happy to share all his criticisms of my game any time. However, I believe I have improved quite a bit. It has also forced me to develop a habit of waking up early in the morning since I play with my colleagues and we play in the morning before going to work.
While I would personally love to play Tennis regularly, I've been unable to find a playing partner. I've always need to play a sport regularly. I feel like something is missing from my life if I'm not playing a sport regularly. So I hope to continue this for as long as possible and get better with time.
Things I plan to do in 2017
Travel more
I wouldn't say I've been bitten by the travel bug but I've surely realised that there's a lot more to see and I'm definitely going to spend some of my time and money doing that. Some of the trips I'm planning to take:
- Amsterdam - The next trip on my calendar is Amsterdam. I'll be traveling to Amsterdam on my birthday weekend. I'll spend my 25th birthday holed up in the corner of a coffee shop in denial of the fact that I'm going through a quarter life crisis.
- Vienna and Berlin - I'll probably travel to Vienna and Berlin with my parents. They plan to come to Budapest for my graduation and then we can hopefully travel to these 2 cities as well.
- Paris - I will try and visit Paris around Roland Garros. The 4 Tennis Grand Slams have always been on my bucket list and I'd hate to miss this chance to go for 1 of them.
- Croatia - I read a book once called "The lady from Zagreb" about how a detective from Germany travelled through Croatia and it's neighbouring countries on a secret mission during the Second World War. I would really like to visit some of those places that are mentioned in the book.
Start eating healthy
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| Things I wish were healthy: Bolognese Pasta (in Bologna). |
It has been one thing that I haven't been able to maintain ever since I moved from New Delhi to Budapest. I guess not having a servant who makes your meals according to your diet chart really sucks. However, I am partly to blame for this as well. I end up being too lazy to cook and too lazy to go for groceries at times. Off late, I've developed the habit of going to the vegetable market every Saturday morning, buying fresh fruits and vegetables and cooking every meal on the weekend. I plan to possibly extend the cooking to 2 weekdays and possibly taking my own lunch to work too instead of eating at the terrible buffet at work (and I think I praised that place by calling it only terrible).
Write my Thesis
Well this task seems to be the most overwhelming project I have in my life at the moment. I've decided the topic but I realised that getting yourself down to actually study for it and write it down is quite challenging. Like most people, I hope to eventually be able to write a good one. Although, like most people, it might actually turn out to be a work of last moment panic too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one and hoping for the best.
As life takes me places, New Year's eve is one of the few things that invariably make me miss home. I haven't been there for 2 years in a row and unfortunately, there might just be more I'll miss. However, it will always be a special time for me and the people I spent it with back home will always have a special place in my heart. This time, I didn't celebrate New Year's Eve. I just sat in my apartment and watched House and The Blind Side with some amazing Chicken Biryani from Indigo (THE BEST Indian Restaurant in Budapest).
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