I’m back! And this past week has been loads of fun. Goa was absolutely amazing.. though I missed my family and friends too much.
Sunday, we had a really long train journey. There was some trouble with the men in the seats close to us. They were singing and passing comments.. the usual.. It was a little frightening…
We got to Madgaon Station (in Goa) at 1 am. (the train was an hour late) and our pick-up didnt show up. So we stood there waiting, wondering, murmuring while those sick men were staring at us. We finally decided to take cabs to the place where we were staying. The cab driver was either crazy or drunk. (I think ill go with the second option). He was really fast and he kept swerving like crazy!!! SCARY! So, anyway we got to the Don Bosco Youth Animation Centre, Benaulim in one piece (surprisingly) and the place was all dark and the gate seemed to be locked. We didnt want to make any noise coz we didnt want to disturb the priests. So we stood there witing.. Finally, this guy comes walking slowly towards us and then he realises the gate’s locked and so he goes running back. We keep waiting. In the meanwhile, My teacher- Ashwini, finds out that the gate wasnt locked at all. *3 cheers for her* But we didnt want to walk in and so we waited for the guy to come back. He got back and showed us our room. It was awesome! A really big, clean room with bedding on the floor and extremely clean bathrooms!!!!! So we were our usual excited selves inspite of being dead tired (Ashwini ma’am tried to get us to quieten down a bit…. then gave up) and we kept talking til about 4:30 am And we managed to wake up at about 7.
We had amazing breakfast. I usually never have breakfast but this was just too yummy!
Day 1- We took the local transport to Colva beach. We had to walk a bit.. no wait.. a lot to the beach. It was really sunny and the one thing I forgot to carry was a cap. Had to buy that there. Sheesh!
The beach was really nice! Nice sunny weather, clear blue skies, really clean beach. We walked for a really loooooooong time. Found a good place to eat. The food was good and not expensive.. *Thank God!!* After Lunch, we walked around for a bit and then we got into the water.. That was soooo much fun. The water was so nice and cool and… salty?! Lol. Sampada and Vrinda didnt get into the water and so they built a strange kind of sand castle.
We walked back to the Don Bosco Youth Animation Centre.. extremely tired but refreshed in a way. Dinner.. late night talking… Day 1 over.

The next day, we were up early. We booked a van to take us to North Goa and all the important you-dont-wanna-miss sights there. First stop was Big Foot. Its this exhibition of some sort. They have an entire goan village and they showed us everything from making Fenny from cashewnuts to the how the local shoe makers worked all with the help of life-sized clay models. Really cool!! The story behind the name ‘Big Foot’.. A long time ago there was this man who helped people and there was another man in the same village who always cheated people. One day, the bad guy cheated the nice guy out of his money and forced him out of his house. He was completely penniless.. his wife died.. He lost everything. He turned to God. He was praying when God suddenly asked him- what do you want me to do about the man who cheated you? and the nice man said- Forgive him. Then God took the nice guy away to heaven but he left a big foot print there and thats why the place is called big foot! Inspite of the strange name the place was really cool. They had really nice jewellery and other cool stuff for sale. Almost all of us bought something from there. I bought a bag for my mom, earrings and an anklet.. 😀
Next stop was Old Goa- St. Francis D’assisi Church. Nice place. But I couldnt enjoy the beauty of the place for long coz i managed to do something to my camera. The display screen was completely black. I didnt know what happened. Lumena *God bless her* tried to figure out what was wrong with it and after getting out of the church we found out that I had somehow manged to switch off the display. I was soooo relieved. I was starting to think of where I would get the money to repair the camera. 😀
We didnt go to the big museum outside the church. I wanted to coz I had never been to a museum before but no one else wanted to..
Moved on to Dona Paula beach. Dona was a rich man’s daughter and Paula was a fisherman. They fall in love. Father gets upset. She jumps into the sea and he jumps in after her.. Oh well..
Beautiful view with a lovely breeze once you get to the top.
Lunch time. Went to the capital of Goa- Panaji, for Lunch. Thats when we found out a certain Goan tradition. Every store was closed!! They, usually, open at 10 or 11 am and then they close for lunch at 12 or 1. They have a nice long lunch and a nap and come back at 4 and close for the day at 6!!!! We spent so long trying to find one place that was open. We finally did. (The owners were definitely not Goan!)
During Lunch, I was being my usual annoying self and so the rest of them challenged me to keep quiet and I did. For 45 mins!!! That was long!! I spoke in sign language! lol 😛
Next, Fort Aguada. A huge Fort with a moat all around it which was used to keep the invaders out.. (something like that) They still use the place today as a top security prison. Took some amazing pics there.
Finally, we went to Calangute. We didnt go to the beach. We shopped instead. We cant help it. Its in our blood. I got my first lesson in bargaining. Important note to anyone coming to Goa, especially non-indians (sorry for the crude term) remember that whatever price they quote bring it down to less than half. For example, Skirts are not worth 300 or 400. Its worth less than 100!! Pleae keep this in mind. These people are out to fleece you.
Its a good thing we didnt go to Calangute beach coz turns out its really crowded and noisy.. not very different from beaches in Mumbai.
Got back by 8 30 or so. Really tired. Had dinner, talked some more (we forced Ashwini ma’am to sit with us) and then finally went to sleep around 11 or 12. Day two over!

Day Three- We went to Anjuna Beach coz we heard that they have a flea market there. We couldnt find it for a really long time. lol. We finally found it and it was crazy!!! This huge place.. swarming with people and stalls. There were just too many people. It was hot and noisy and we had only like an hour or so to shop. We spread out and we found stuff but the prices they quoted were just too high. Its a good thing Im indian. They wont try to cheat us that much but I feel really sorry for all the foreigners there. Stuff that they were ready to sell to me for less than 50, they were trying to sell it to them for almost 300 bucks!!!!! We did buy stuff. I love what i got from there!! hehehe 😉
Some of them got lost in the flea market.. lol. We got everyone together and then got back to Margao for lunch. Lunch wasnt really lunch. It was more like snacks.cakes and chicken rolls an stuff. They had nothing in there for Vegetarians. (Im not one.. I was just concerned for the others..)
Got back to Benaulim and then got dressed to go to the beach one last time. We had so much fun playing in the water. It got a little late when we left and we were trying to run coz all local buses stop at 7:30 and this weird guy who’s *trying* to pass a comment says something like you’re running .. like dolphins. What is that?!!! That is the weirdest comment I ever got!!! After more comments about the way we run..we got to the bus stop and took the first bus home.
We were so happy with the service that we received at Don Bosco that we wanted to do something nice for the people there. Ashwni ma’am made a card. It was a really cute one! We packed and then went to sleep. Day Three over!

I woke up.. sad that we were leaving but glad that we had this time. We gave the card to Fr. Dominic. He was so happy!! A bus took us to Margao station. I bought 2 Agatha Christie novels there. Dont ask me why. I just felt like I should. The train journey was long and tiring and Sir was kind enough to take lectures the next day. Please note- i’m being sarcastic.

Some memorable moments from the trip-
1. Shruti!!!!
2. tee-too (lol)
3. Chaddi aur banian
4. Ashwini Ma’am is a young girl with a nice heart
5. Deepak Sir is “different”
6. Shruti’s toe-ring! an absolute steal at 120 bucks!!
7. a certain someone’s nasheela badan…. lol. this was absolutely hilarious!!
8. Songs in the shower
9. Shruti sleeping in the bus!

This is all that I can remember. I spent more than 2 hours on this post!! Plz remind me of anything that i might have forgotten..
In conclusion, I had an awesome time at Goa and I want to go again after my final exams. Praying about it!

Thankyou God, for the chance to see Goa.
Such a beautiful place.
Thankyou for the great time that I had.
Thankyou for all my friends and all the crazy stuff we did!