7 days in Mallorca

I have been dormant on the writing part for a while now, but the travels haven't stopped. So, I decided to choose a different, more factual attempt at writing about my travels that can help others plan their trips better and have quite a variety in the things they do where they go. I will try to go in the reverse order, i.e. backwards from my most recent travels. So, here we go with Mallorca, the Spanish island to which you can almost always find cheap flights from Germany (or maybe other places too). Though I am here for 8 days, I would say 7 days are enough to cover some of the best Mallorca has to offer. I would recommend renting a car as many parts of the island do not have frequent bus service, and it is especially worse in off-season (winters) which is when we went there. We made Palma our home base and made day trips to different parts. But you can stay in the area as you drive to them and make a round back to Palma. Anyway, this was our itinerary for Mallorca.

Day 1: Palma

We landed early in the morning and after checking into our Airbnb apartment, left to explore the city. Parking is a big hassle in Palma with swarm of cars parked by the sides of the street. So taking the car about the city is probably not a good idea. A walk to the center or a bus ride incase you are staying far away, is a better option. Use the car for the day trips.
The city center is a myriad of beautiful alleys with historic buildings and restaurants all along. The cathedral is obviously a must-see and the Palace of La Almudaina by its side is worth a visit too. Their view from the port is breathtaking whether at morning or night. You can stroll around that area and spend a leisurely afternoon in the numerous gardens around. Coming from Berlin, I would say food is more expensive with most places having a multiple courses instead of a la carte on special days like Christmas or new year. However, Churros! Oh, there's a ton of stalls on the streets where you can buy Churros with hot chocolate and many other sweet treats. We found one near a public parking lot here that had the best freshly made Churros as compared to others near the center.

Day 2: Pollença, Cap de Formentor

 To the northeast of the island, is Cap de Formentor known for its lighthouse and beautiful views. We first drove to Pollença, a little town near it, nestled among the mountains. It has some charming cafes, a church and is good to stroll around for an hour or so before driving up to  the lighthouse. The winding road leading to the top of the mountains, has lot of viewpoints and observation decks on the way. One such viewpoint is Mirador Es Colomer which has stunning views of the sea and the cliffs. We decide to climb up a small cliff instead of following the crowds to the conventional observation deck, only to be rewarded with beautiful views that stretched for miles and miles. If you have the time, I would also recommend stopping by the beaches Platja de Formentor and Cala Figuera. The views from the lighthouse itself, are pretty amazing and the winding roads just add that much more to scene.

       

Day 3: Sa Calobra, Torrent de Pareis, Fornalutx

This day, we decided to to a hike and reading up on all the hikes, the one through Torrent de Pareis seemed like a challenging one. The problem with this hike is that it starts at Escora and ends at Sa Calobra which are at 2 different points and the bus to take you back to the start point, doesn't run in winter. Because of this and as it gets dark around 6pm in winter, we decided to start from the end of the hike (Sa Calobra) inwards and come back the same way when it starts to get dark. The roads to Sa Calobra and winding are narrow and as you keep going up, it gets foggy. Hence, I would recommend to at least cover the narrow road from Sa Calobra to the highway Ma-2141 before it gets dark. Again, lot of nice viewpoints on the way to Sa Calobra, so enjoy!

Now, the hike itself. It was one of the best hikes for me so far. The "trail" is between two mountains and is not really a path as such. There are just huge rocks that you boulder and climb through to keep moving forward. Sa Calobra starts off with a small pebbled beach and goes into the gorge. Sometimes the gorge is flooded, you might have to get your feet wet. We kept climbing and scraping till we reached a huge rock with a rope to climb over it which according to the maps, is 40% of the hike. After climbing up that rock and back down the rope, we continued our way back to Sa Calobra. All of this was probably 2-3 hours. On our drive back, we stopped by the little town of Fornalutx, which looks like a tiered cake because of terrace farming and swarmed with its beautiful lemon and orange trees. After strolling around the town till the sun went down completely, we started back 'home'.

Day 4: Es Trenc, Mondrago Natural Park

After the day of strenuous hike, we deserved some beach time. So, we headed to the best beach in Mallorca according to our Airbnb host - Es Trenc. And it was indeed spectacular. Sand stretching for miles, far beyond our eyes could see and the blue waters on the sunny day, was a perfect setup for picnic. We stopped by a supermarket on the highway, loaded up the car trunk with breads, spreads, chips and dips and headed to Es Trenc. Before taking the narrow street leading up to the beach, we found ourselves at a salt mine with mountains of salt in the backdrop of blue waters. After relaxing for hours at the beach and stuffing ourselves up, we decided to head to Mondrago Natural Park. There, we did a small hike to the beach and saw the sign for an even longer hike. So, we took that path and somewhere in the way, went off the trail to walk by the rocks and cliffs that surrounded the beach. The blue waters and red skies were astonishing. Close to sundown, we somehow reached a second beach and the hike trail that was in the dark forest was unknown to us. We somehow made it to someone's private property by the beach and seeing no way out, climbed over the fence to get back to the main road. Then a quick walk to the car and back to Palma!

Day 5: Hike in Sant Elm

Sant Elm is a pretty town about 37 km from Palma and we decided to visit it and hike around there. This town is by the waters and has a direct view to the island of Sa Dragonera whose name is courtesy to its shape that resembles a sleeping dragon's head. We started a hike in the forest at the edge of Sant Elm with a nice view of the island. We hiked first on the marked path, but that got boring soon, so we just started walking in the forest, through the bushes, wherever we could put our feet. This way, we walked towards the beach, Cala en basset. After getting there through some steep paths and shrubs, the view that rewarded us was splendid. We enjoyed the view from atop a part of the cliff that had fallen off it and headed back when the sky threatened with roaring winds and clouds. After chilling a while in a cafe and eating some ice-cream, we drove back.

Day 6: Banyalbufar, Valldemossa, Deia, Soller, Port de Soller

This day, we dedicated to the take-me-back-in-time towns along the mountains of Serra de Tramuntana. There are so many of them and they are all pretty, so we had a tough time choosing between them. But we narrowed it down to the 5 listed above and they were a delight. Starting off with Banyalbufar, we stopped right before it, to take in the terrace structure of the town and enjoy it from a higher altitude. Next was Valldemossa, which is probably my favorite town among this bunch. It has nice little shops, beautiful gardens and of course we found a path to walk up to a secluded, broken church overlooking the town. The walk was through a forest of lush green and I could hear goats in a distance. It was near Jardins Rei Joan Carles and a small street off Ma-1130.

After Valldemossa, we headed to Deia. This town looks fantastic from outside. We didn't go inside this town, but stopped before to enjoy the views and pluck some lemons. Next was Soller, which is bigger than the others before it and more crowded.We were quite hungry and fortunately found a really great bakery where a nice woman made fresh warm empanadas. We took some to go and ate them at the center. They were so good that we went back to try some more with different fillings and then hung out in a cafe with some good pastries and coffee. The bakery is Forn Es Pa Pagés located here and the cafe is right beside it.

Lastly, we stopped by Port de Soller where the sunset views were quite exquisite with the stacked houses of the town and the beach as the backdrop. We spent some time here and then went back.

Day 7: Arta, Hike in Llevant National park

If you don't have to lazy bums dragging alongside you when you are in Mallorca, then you should spend on day hiking in Llevant National Park. I really wanted to do this, but my travel mates were not so keen on waking up early this day. So, we spent it exploring and eating around Palma. But if you have the energy and are up for it, the beautiful town of Arta and this hike should be on the list as this side shows yet another landscape of Mallorca that is much different from the south, west and north west parts of it that the other days cover already.

Have fun!

What greed brings

Sickening stomach and bulging eyes, You sleep, sinner and I just whine.
Stroke of midnight, I bundle up tight, to calm my nerves and rule my mind.
Thinking this too shall pass, and leave behind, A cloak of sorrow and endless plight.
I see mountains fall and valleys chime the songs of sadness and forgotten lines
about respect and honor to all alike.
But see how we faltered and lost our way, and took all we wanted to be left astray.
All that knowledge and all that wisdom, has taught us nothing about freedom.
freedom of selves and that of others, because where comfort is concerned, we let everything wither.
May it be species, apart or alike, we exploit till there's nothing for next of our kind.
So, wake up now and see with eyes open wide, if you keep destroying, it will come around and sweep you up in its rage and wrath like none you will then see the end of all and one.

Travel tales: Austria

This is crazy! I didn't intend to account my travel stories, but here I am in bed at 5 am & my brain is itching with titles & adjectives for anecdotes from my trips. It has been days since the last trip, but talking to a friend about the places I visited, has ignited the desire to pen down everything I recollect from it. Though my last visit wasn't to Austria, my head is bursting with its memories, so I will just delve into that.
I love travelling & I have to admit that it was my ulterior motive in choosing Europe for Masters. After exploring very little of Europe with my family 2 years back, I fought tooth & nail to get into a good university in Germany & hop on the next train/bus/flight to a new destination & turn that 'little' into 'lot'. And here I am! Though sadly I haven't covered as much of Europe by now as I wanted to, all my trips have been memorable & unique.
So, a few months back, we went to Austria (obviously!). 12-hour bus ride, a change at Munich & you are in Innsbruck. Very wrong weather to visit Austria if you want to see some of its wonders, but very good weather for the scenic mountains. So, win-win or lose-lose. Doesn't matter! It was winter, but the sun still shone through the white mountains. White & bright Innsbruck. And freaking expensive too. One of the reasons why we chose cheaper accommodation far from the city centre & travelled 1 hour each way for next two days to get 'home' after the day of exploring. But I don't mind that because the huge & luxurious apartment amidst the mountains was worth it. The bus arriving once every hour with the final destination's name very similar to other end points, was our only way to get to the house. Innsbruck started out with buying groceries & daily tickets & waiting for that bus. Chasing snow covered mountains & roller coaster lookalike roads, we reached the accommodation. It was at much higher altitude than the main city, hence more beautiful, closer view of the mountains, colder & lacking in public transportation. Discovering that the entire top floor of the house was at our expense, complete with kitchen & a bathtub, was like finding a newer, richer independence. Anyway, we freshened up & headed for the city. Innsbruck, like any other European city has a similar architecture, but also has its own beauties unique from others. That day was dedicated to city tour by foot. So, all the tourist attractions in 7 km radius were on the agenda. We covered a rather disappointing Anatomische Museum after a lot of walking and getting lost. But we got to see the Triumphforte or Triumph Arch, beautiful historic buildings & while walking towards the Goldenes Dachl (Golden roof), came across a splendid sight by the river Inn. Yes, Innsbruck is named after this river, literally translated to 'bridge over the Inn'. The other side of bridge was lined with colorful houses in possibly every primary color. With the sun close to setting, the orange & purple of the sky mellowed the bright hues of the houses & this symphony was made complete by the blue of the river. It was breath-taking! After marvelling the view for hours till the sun set, we moved on towards the Golden roof. It was indeed all gold, sparkling on its own with no help from any other illumination. Walking ahead, it led to Maria Theresien street. This street started out with a church and blended into clothing stores. While everyone was looking ahead and walking, I was looking sideways instead, peeking into the store windows lined with fabulous gowns. The night ended with rounds of rum at the apartment while talking about music and books (yes, we are the nerd kinds)! The next day was equally great. We explored tons of museums, Swarovski diamonds, the castles and zoo. We climbed up and down tiny hills, took a tourist bus ride introducing the sights as they pass by and stopping at spectacular panoramic points and ate pastries. Apparently, Austria is known for its chocolate cake! And it was splendid. A meal of Schnitzel ending with famous chocolate cake. The adventure of the day however, was the ride back. We got off at the wrong stop because we took the wrong bus and were dying of hunger. When I said before that all the roads in the village which housed the apartment, looked same, well it was more evident now. We kept walking uphill through the snow covered mountain roads and after walking for hours, finally saw the house. That night, my legs just said goodbye! With only 5 hours of sleep left before we travel for Halstatt, I bid farewell to second day in Austria. I will write more in next post as this has gone on long enough. See you in Austria part-2.

Git - magical version control

I know this is a very late post as compared to the time Git has been rocking the world of distributed code management, but I was introduced to it 18 months ago and I am still too ecstatic to just let this post go. So, for those who are unaware of git (though I highly doubt it), it's a way to do version control for code which you know is going to be messed up one way or another by your teammates before it's pearly white and ready to deploy. So, to avoid tiny heart attacks, every time you get back to your code and see a minute change giving null pointer exception, git is the solution. The people behind designing this masterpiece have taken into account every scenario and have devised simple and efficient ways to handle them. Some of its 'magical' features that make my life easy breezy are branching, pull, safe boundary between commit and push and so on so forth. Branching will let you create your own working space branched from the current version of the base code. You may start with cloning (or copying) the base code to your local drive and creating a branch after that. When you switch to this branch and make your changes, those are reflected in your section only and can be worked on in your local drive. When you switch to another branch, the same location in your drive gets altered. No other folder or copy is created to increase confusion, but the same root gets altered. Don't panic! It will just reflect the stuff from the branch you are in. This property amazed me the first time and I still find it quite smart. Next would be 'pull'. If you want to update your branch or create a new one with changes from another branch, you can do so with just one command..pull. It is easy as the name. It will merge the remote master branch into the current master branch leaving your changes alone, so basically an incremental update. Another feature I like is that the commit states are saved. You can always rollback or simply check the status of the branch at a certain point of time. It allows you rollback for all the past commits, not only a few recent ones. Now, separation between commit and push. Say you want to make sure that your current progress is saved but you don't really want to change all the files because you are not quite sure. Well, you can commit your code. It will save the state of your code at that instant without making explicit changes to your codebase. When you really want to update, 'push' your code and you have it in your branch. Merge is another great and maybe the last thing to do in git. This will combine your solo branch to the mother ship (or any other branch). This should be done at the final stage as you are submitting your finished code to its origin. And git has so many flavors, the commands and rules are same everywhere and you can prefer whichever you like. There's github, gitlab, bitbucket and maybe more. There are some thumb rules that you can follow if you are new to git and rest you can learn along the way.

They are*:
1. Always leave a commit message. Make it precise, preferably short but not vague. And do not repeat them; it's confusing and makes no point.
2. Clone:

git clone [--template=<template_directory>]
 [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror]
 [-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
 [--dissociate] [--separate-git-dir <git dir>]
 [--depth <depth>] [--[no-]single-branch]
 [--recursive | --recurse-submodules] [--] <repository>
 [<directory>]

3. Branch:

git branch [--color[=<when>] | --no-color] [-r | -a]
 [--list] [-v [--abbrev=<length> | --no-abbrev]]
 [--column[=<options>] | --no-column]
 [(--merged | --no-merged | --contains) [<commit>]] [<pattern>…​]
git branch [--set-upstream | --track | --no-track] [-l] [-f] <branchname> [<start-point>]
git branch (--set-upstream-to=<upstream> | -u <upstream>) [<branchname>]
git branch --unset-upstream [<branchname>]
git branch (-m | -M) [<oldbranch>] <newbranch>
git branch (-d | -D) [-r] <branchname>…​
git branch --edit-description [<branchname>]

4. Commit

git commit [-a | --interactive | --patch] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend]
    [--dry-run] [(-c | -C | --fixup | --squash) <commit>]
    [-F <file> | -m <msg>] [--reset-author] [--allow-empty]
    [--allow-empty-message] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
    [--date=<date>] [--cleanup=<mode>] [--[no-]status]
    [-i | -o] [-S[<keyid>]] [--] [<file>…​]

5. Check status

git status [<options>…​] [--] [<pathspec>…​]

6. Push

git push [--all | --mirror | --tags] [--follow-tags] [--atomic] [-n | --dry-run] [--receive-pack=<git-receive-pack>]
    [--repo=<repository>] [-f | --force] [--prune] [-v | --verbose]
    [-u | --set-upstream]
    [--[no-]signed|--sign=(true|false|if-asked)]
    [--force-with-lease[=<refname>[:<expect>]]]
    [--no-verify] [<repository> [<refspec>…​]]

7. Merge

git merge [-n] [--stat] [--no-commit] [--squash] [--[no-]edit]
 [-s <strategy>] [-X <strategy-option>] [-S[<keyid>]]
 [--[no-]rerere-autoupdate] [-m <msg>] [<commit>…​]
git merge <msg> HEAD <commit>…​
git merge --abort

8. Pull

git pull [options] [<repository> [<refspec>…​]] 

9. Tools to make life easier - if using command prompt is not your thing, then there are tools and extensions available to allow fetch, pull, commit etc. only a click away. You can use git gui, git extensions and many more tools to visualize what you're doing.

It could get a little confusing seeing all the splendid things git can do, but the documentation from these guys is extremely easy and quick to grasp. Also, when you are writing a tutorial or blog about a project, you don't have to store your code on some third party cloud service, instead you can give the git link to it. Git kinda acts as a CV of your projects. I would much rather prefer giving the git link instead of writing about my project without a proof. And if someone checks out my git repository, that's even better as I don't need to list my code-based projects on paper any more! So, hack your heart out and leave the rest to git.

*www.git-scm.com

Finland - Tiny Bundle of Kindness

Prague and Budapest - 3 days each, Austria - 6 days, Hamburg, Bremen and Rottenburg - 4 days. These are the number of days I spent exploring some cities and a country. Compared to all of this, Finland, primarily Helsinki demanded that I stay for 2 weeks because of Summer School. But while travelling from Berlin to Helsinki, I thought that wouldn't be a big deal. With the daily lectures and assignments, it's good that I am going for 2 weeks as I will get to explore the country more in depth, for once. But boy, was I wrong! Indeed.
Helsinki is beautiful. No doubt about it. It's minuscule and clean and well connected. The modes of transport are bus, tram and metro. Where I came from Berlin that has complex subway and train lines branching from one end to other like the maze from Tri-wizard tournament, Helsinki's metro line boils down to one line branching to two. Done.

Well, that's always good news. Easy to get around and get accustomed. But the size of the city? Helsinki defines 'small' in truest possible sense. You could finish exploring the city just by walking, in 2 days. Enough about the area and space, lets talk about what makes a city, city. The people. In one word, Finns are ADORABLE. They are so polite and humble and helping, that I feel guilty asking questions. If you ask a passer-by where a certain bar is, they would make sure you get there. One girl fished out her phone and got directions to the bar for us just because she didn't know where it was. In Berlin, one would just reply 'I don't know' and go their separate ways, but not Finns. Those who know the way, would explain how to get there for 10 mins, describing landmarks and signs so that you arrive exactly where you want. One guy simply got off his bike in the middle of the road and asked us if we were lost. Their willingness to help just makes me hug them and say 'thank you' 100 times. But that wouldn't be so good as I noticed they are not very social. You could find them drinking or hanging out in small groups and with other Finns. But they are warm and welcoming, nonetheless.

Now, about the city. It's beautifully laid out. It boasts of old and majestic to modern and admirable architecture. I was awestruck by the creativity of even the simplest buildings here. The minimalistic yet fancy looks of the buildings is commendable and the centre pieces in front of museums, parliament houses or office areas are absolutely unique. Where at one place stands a hybrid of snake and fish, the other place hosts a huge statue of a bald guy peeing an endless stream. Other places have abstract art and some hold age-old men-on-horse statues.

Apart from the architecture, this tiny city gives way to water bodies every 20 metres! You keep walking on a sunny warm day hoping to sit by the water, and bam! there's a lake right before your eyes. Lakes, then give way to oceans, narrowly stealing land from the already small city. Yachts and boats are anchored everywhere and the majestic ships and cruises floating at the harbour. You couldn't even stroll back far enough to see the whole ships...they are that huge! Amidst such giant structures, I felt like a timid mouse dreaming of climbing up and seeing the horizon growing farther and farther as I sail away. Even if not on a ship, I got the chance to explore the nearby islands by ferry. Rushing over the water with wind in my hair and sun in my eyes, it was refreshing to get out of Helsinki and explore Suomenlinna, a small island which used to be a sea fortress owned by Sweden and Finland and now belongs to Helsinki. It is an exotic little place complete with tunnels that were used to store ammunition and massive naval guns from the period of Russian occupation. The island also hosted a few stowed away sandy beaches and rocky ocean-sides covered with moss and yellow daisies. It reminded me of so many scenes from Game of Thrones that it felt like maybe I was in Westeros after all. On one of the days, we visited a city nearby, called Porvoo which was a serene cobbled town surrounded by private islands and second-hand stores. We were greeted by a small band of folk musicians playing GoT theme song on local string instruments which somehow made it sweeter and less ominous than how it usually sounds. The people again, were a delight and we met a couple who had left Norway to come stay in this far-off town. Everyone could be seen relaxing by their boats as if owning one was quite commonplace.

Now, about the social events and celebrations in Finland. As a capital, Helsinki was quite fancy when it came to night decorations, especially on the day of festivals. Everything was lit up in colors of rainbow at night. We had the chance to attend an art festival which was not localised at a certain place, but was spread over the entire city. Within a few meters from each other, people were presenting their skills in creating melody out of discarded glass bottles and metal spoon or challenging passer-by to make it to the top of a simple rope ladder and win 100 euros (which was humanly impossible because of the way it was woven) or street dancing. It was quite a lively evening as we walked by the streets witnessing bizarre acts of expertise and ended with sitting by the colossal staircase of a cathedral reminiscing about how we all met each other and drinking wine while gazing at the illuminated city. It was indeed a perfect reunion. I did a lot more in Helsinki though, like swimming to an island with 4 other lunatics in freezing cold sea (or lake, gauging from the mild current), walking through the cemetery feeding and chasing squirrels as we walked to the beach almost everyday, peeking into museums and monuments as the entry costs were too high and ending up paying anyway to have a glance at the beauty inside, trying to finish the summer school assignments fast enough so that we could hit some bar nearby and realizing that the night was 'oldies special' and the bar was filled with old people on dates trying their luck to meet someone but getting drunk instead only to end up in a puddle at their feet. It all led to a fantastic experience that made the 2 weeks in this city much more revealing (about my friends!) and memorable that I wouldn't trade for the world. Still, goodbye and see you never again Finland!

Business Courses and Me

I have never ever ever thought that business courses were worth paying attention to. It just doesn't seem important to get lectured on how to make decisions, presentations and especially not by a motivational speaker shouting and jumping up and down the room telling us to stand up, shout and jump around with him because that somehow gets you inspired and helps you present an exemplary pitch. Well, I say that's complete horse-shit! I am an engineer and I honestly can't be made to sit for a whole hour or two unless you teach me something technical. For your information, all this is going on in a summer school on Smart Spaces, I have to compulsorily attend in Helsinki and sit for 8 hours everyday listening to all sorts of topics very unrelated to Smart Spaces. Where I thought this was going to be related to IoT and how you could integrate sensors with spaces to achieve a more intuitive shopping/exploring/dwelling experience, this is more about making money and all the shortcomings associated with an idea before you even have to chance to let it flourish in your head. Nonetheless, I continue to daydream and sleep with my eyes open in the class. I have gotten surprisingly very good at it.
It's not like I don't want my innovation out there. I want to be an entrepreneur someday, to be responsible for a huge change in the world and what not. But I want to do it without the fear of it being a failure and constantly worrying about the possibility that I may not make any money out of it. If I ponder over these aspects even before my idea is born, I am afraid all I am doing is suffocating and killing it before it sees the morning light. In this summer school however, I am somehow thankful that I got a better project than other groups as we are more about innovating a new product to promote smart spaces than marketing the existing product through ads and promotions which is what other groups are doing. At his point I would like to introduce Nimble Devices  who we are working with to implement Indoor Positioning System (IPS) inside one of the biggest department store in Europe, Stockmann's Herkku. This is aimed to help customers navigate through the myriad of items at the store to easily find what they are looking for. We are also trying to provide added functionalities in this service like making your own grocery lists, getting notified about your turn in the queue so that you can roam around and shop instead of waiting in in-store queues and instant payment using your online account. Well, I hope this turns out to be a reality as then I would have contributed or spent some part of my summer school doing something remotely technical even though I wished for more.
In spite of all this, at least I got to explore a new country and met a lot of really polite Finnish people who speak English (Yes, that's a huge factor!). But I will write about Finland in detail in the next post anyway. And at the end, I still think rocket science is much more interesting and easier to wrap my head around than business.

How to have perfect days?

Agreed that perfect days are hard to come by. But then again, definition of 'perfect' varies from person to person. It's peculiar how a day of not doing anything could qualify as perfect too. Don't believe me? Well then try bunking all lectures & just relaxing the whole day. Don't do this everyday as too much perfection can be boring too. You sometimes need a bit of bad luck or imperfection to make the day exciting & later think about it & smile at your misfortune. Isn't that feeling perfect too?
Putting aside defining all this crap, let's talk about how to have a perfect day. If you are too much of a pussy to skip classes & it's your day off, then there are many things you can do to have a perfectly entertained day. Read below:

1. Write a blog while listening to music. I am doing that right now. This way, process of writing isn't too heavy on your head & you come up with happier thoughts and ideas instead of depressing, petty dramas of your life.

2. Music is bliss! If you want to be productive, but are procrastinating study or work, music is perfect. I know that during studies, watching movies and youtube are huge distractions. But when you are soaking in your favorite beats, you don't want to pause & go back to doing something else. Now that you got nothing to do while listening to music, open the unfinished assignment & see how fast you tame that bitch. Many-a-times, I have found this process highly effective when I have to wrap-up a code & swinging to your beats while working makes it so much less boring. How this contributes to your perfect day? Well, when you have finished a dragging assignment, isn't that feeling perfect?!

3. A perfect day is when you catch up with your family or 2-3 precious friends. I bet the conversations with them are pretty long & after hours of talking, you are cheerful for the rest of the day. This is such a simple pleasure & yet contributes so much to the day. Yesterday I talked with my best friend for 2 hours & my face still hurts with all the laughing!

4. COOK. Yes, not kidding. As you are so free today, go ahead, prepare something you have been craving for days. May it be a complex dish or a simple improvisation, go crazy. However it turns out, the cooking will definitely cheer you up. It's so calming and absorbing.

5. Movies. Some days I just want to curl up in my blanket & watch movies. Get that cup of hot chocolate & binge watch movies, series or whatever that you have been missing out on due to the hectic week. I sometimes love to drench myself in the ideal world of movies & steer clear of the real world. Love gaming? Go for it! When you get bored (which I seriously doubt you will), go out, meet friends. That's always an option.

6. Go out. Go to museums, parks, lakes or just to a friend's place to hang out. Museums are perfect. You steal away from your usual ambiance & stroll through a myriad of historic marvels. Parks & lakes are perfect if you have been trapped indoors the whole week. Breathe in & get rejuvenated for the next week. Walk around or ride in the parks. Chill with friends. Have cook-outs if the weather is good. Numerous options!

7. Attend every event you come across. Facebook is a great source of all the events going on in your city. Go to every single one. It's enriching & fun. Meet people, talk, drink & just let everything go. Go to after-parties & don't come back home till 5 in the morning. There you go, perfect day.

8. Go shopping. Fancy stores, second-hand stores, flea markets. Anywhere. Cheap & good stuff makes one happy, obviously! Expand your style, buy designs and patterns you never wore before & play with them. Explore outside your styling options by buying vintage & bizarre accessories. T-shirts with cocky quotes are definitely another viable option.

9. Indulge in old hobbies. If you like painting, reading or poetry or whatever & have been too busy to pay attention to them, now is the time. Trust me, you haven't lost your talent. It's still there, dying to crawl back to surface. I was astounded when my paintings turned out so well even though it had been ages since I last held a brush. It's refreshing to delve back into your interests. Live a little!

10. Go to art galleries. If you are an art lover, you will obviously enjoy it & if you are not, make fun of the pieces. If it's abstract, then even better. Decipher the meaning behind a meaningless piece of art. Goof around. But don't get caught & get kicked out for creating nuisance! But even that's fun, so yeah, do it (if you have the guts)!

11. Attend concerts. If it's your favorite band, spend the money. Enjoy a night of shouting with the rest of your counterparts (fans) while engulfed in your favorite songs.

These are only a few things you can indulge in, but YOU define how to perfectly spend a day. So, go ahead, do whatever makes you happy. Any additions to this list are welcome.