Amazing Kolkatta!!

Hello, from now on I will write in english so all (!) my english friends can read my blog too...

Just arrived in Kolkatta. The first second I walked out of the airplane I knew I would love Kolkatta, the second largest city in India! It's full of history, culture, non-bollywood songs are played on the streets, old colonial buildings in stone and wood, beatifull gardens, lovely people who like to tell you more than the usual conversation, clean roads, warm smell, so different from Mumbai.... the smell is sweet and sometimes mixed with incense. here no cows on the streets... Ravi, an 54 year old men from Varanasi whom I met this morning and whom showed me some parts of Kolkatta, told me that cows are banned not allowed to walk in the citystreets...

Had only two simple meals since I arrived, but sooooooo ... excellent! First I had tigerprawns in a coconutgravy with fried bindhi and rice, second meal was from a streetstall for only 20 roepies: rice with aubergine (brinjal), karela and fried fish. Yam yam (hmmm..). less massala, more tasty food. Tomorrow I'll go to a good restaurant.. my expectations are high!!

It's easy to tell Bengali people love culture: good bookshops are everywhere, music shops with excellent variety of music and hindifilms (couldn't resist the temptation and bought 10 film dvd's, amongst which my most old-time favourite: special edition of Pakeezah! and 3 music cd's... Pamflet's with classical dance and music performances invite you to their performances..

Visited the National Museum and I've seen some fossils of our ancestors: homo erectus and before, some 5.000 years old fossils. Fossils of prehestoric animals date from 18 million to 1 million years ago and were mostly found in the Himalaya's. Paintings from the Tagores (not only Rabindranath but also abrindranath?) were beautiful.