12960 minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Continuing with my micro-mini-travelogue, up next is Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota or the Twin Cities as they are popularly called. The all-knowing Wikipedia article on this subject talks about MSP being the most populous region in the state of Minnesota, and from my experience is a far better organized city than Atlanta.

I had a probable 20-30% of the 12960min available for sight-seeing and eating.  As long as you ensure that those few hours are during the evenings, you are all set to have an amazing time clubbing and pubbing. 

Some pointers for first-timers...

1. One important thing to note is that you need to stay as close to downtown MSP as possible, as that is where the action lies. If you do not have the fortune of getting cheap accommodation in the downtown area, make sure you have full pockets - you need a rental car and you need at least $15-$20 to park your vehicle in the downtown area.
2. Walk most of your distances. It's the best mode of transportation, given the high number of random one-way streets strewn about in downtown MSP. Finding your way is quite easy as the area is split into blocks unlike downtown Atlanta. Moreover, given the fickle traffic conditions, it probably is best to find your parking spot as quickly as possible and walk thereafter.
3. Some of the most interesting pubs in MSP are the Irish ones - notably, Kieran's, Keegan's, etc. 
4. As you go closer to the University of Minnesota campus, the number of pubs per block seems to increase drastically. A bunch of eternally high students, mayhaps? Amongst the noteworthy bars is the Library - there's an interesting thing to tell your folks back home... "Mom, I'm going to be spending the night in the library."
5. Things that go hand-in-hand with pubs in Minneapolis are Nordic women. They're all over the place, and most, most importantly, really good looking. A real treat for the roving eye!
6. Downtown Minneapolis also has a large number of excellent restaurants, that tingle the palate with some savory meals while also soothing the senses with some excellent choices in desserts. A few of the restaurants that I can personally vouch for:
1. Dancing Ganesha for Indian food lovers
2. Zelo for Pizzas and Pasta worshippers
3. Hell's Kitchen for American food
7. Food apart, tourist-y spots of course include the Great Lake and the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, I did not get to spend a weekend in the city and was unable to see these wonders - but without fail, make sure you do not act like the fool that I was and miss these sights!
8. The Mall of America is amongst the world's largest malls (and definitely USA's largest), and is a sight to behold. There is a full-fledged roller-coaster as well as a aqua-themepark inside the mall itself. Apart from this, there is the usual slew of eateries that most of you are accustomed to seeing in malls. Important note here - for all Lego fanatics, there are some really cool Lego statues that will greatly excite you (in a non-amorous manner of course).

These are the few things that I was able to do during my short business trip to Minneapolis - Saint Paul. It was definitely a very good change from Atlanta, and I am sure it will be a welcome change for you, no matter where you are from.

Regards,
A Traveler

A not-so-brief hiatus later...

So understandably, I have failed quite miserably at keeping this blog updated. It has been more than 90 days since my previous post, where I had spoken about spending 2hrs at Philadelphia.

I could give a number of excuses for being so lackadaisical in updating my blog. Enumerating them would be fairly pointless, not to mention tedious - for you to read, and for me to type out.

In this 90-day period, much has happened in the average Indian's life.

The IPL (the fourth edition, was it?), followed by a tour to the West Indies. Currently in England (yes, our Indian team does collect an unnaturally high amount of airline mileage points), we're struggling to come to terms with:

1. Zaheer's propensity to fatten and injure himself; 
2. Our general lack of preparation when it comes to major tours like England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka... well we've covered the entirety of the high-ranked crickets... haven't we? Oh well, I suppose Pakistan - from a few years back though - too); 
3. Our miserable overseas first-test record; 
4. Harbhajan's lack of effectiveness in Away tests unless there's a tremendous uproar over his continued presence in the playing XI; 
5. Our continued over-dependence on the Holy Trinity of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman.

The combination of Lee-Hesh twice failed to re-create their magic of 1999-2001. Somdev provided on ly arbitrary moments of glory, but continues to rise up in the rankings (currently, as World No. 62, he's the highest ranked Indian player in Singles' tennis since Leander Paes in 1998). Sania continues to prove why she's overrated in Singles'; but interestingly enough, has shown tremendous progress in Doubles'.

For some reason, the state of politics in India continues to flounder. We are still coming to terms with skeletons in the closet of the Congress Government. An earlier post of mine regarding voting copped a fair bit of a criticism (offline of course, none of my few readers have the courage / time to comment on the blog itself... tsk tsk...), and focal point in the criticisms was the lack of any valuable asset to vote for. My respect for Manmohan Singh has diminished over the past few months or so. The man who successfully dragged India out of the quagmire of Nehruvian socialism has looked on benignly while scoundrels around him indulged in money-laundering. But I continue to believe that in a diverse population such as India's, there will always be an asset worth investing my faith in.

This money-laundering does not just extend to scamming the Indian tax payers, but also extends to jeopardizing India's security against terrorist organizations. Case in point - the recent serial blasts in Mumbai. A few minutes after the blasts took place, rumours (notice that I spelled it according to the Queen) linking the blasts to Kasab's birthday spread. Falsified and unsubstantiated, of course. That being said, terrorists should have no business in being able to launch a co-ordinated attack on Indian soil - especially after countless promises of heightened security in key areas such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, etc. Mumbai's famous spirit did not diminish of course. But are we as citizens of the city learning anything by-the-by? I wonder...

Maybe the fact that I spoke so much about sports before politics gives a crucial indication on our prioritization skills...

This has of course, been a fairly confusing post. Just trying to recap the happenings over the past 90-days. These are random musings after all. Maybe one day, I will be able to recount the events in these 90-days to my great-great-great-great-great-grandkids via some weird time-capsule or the like? In any case, I've essentially tried to get back into the writer's mould again. It took me awhile to figure out a topic, and ultimately I came up with something that's woefully random and seemingly confused. But we have so much to talk about as Indians, wouldn't you agree?