Utmost time for a new entry 
The last days of November were coined by exams and spending some evenings out with the other foreign exchange students as they all would finish there exchange semester after Term V and go for travelling … felt a little sad those days cause I found really good friends in them.
On the evening of December 1st I then left to Bangalore with Christina, Jérem, Morten & Tobias who all would leave from there on the 3rd to go on their travels throughout India. Dec. 2nd we spent together, brunching, lunching, chilling & having-dinner in Bangalore. We all stayed at Varun’s place – the couchsurfer I had first met during my stay in Bangalore for the Metallica concert end of October.
October 3rd we went for lunch at UB city mall in Bangalore (@ Café Noir – really a place to recommend!!) from where Christina left to the airport to meet with her boyfriend in Chennai for some holidays on the Andaman islands – safe travels and have a great time!!
I then accompanied Jérem, Morten & Tobias to pick up some shirts at the tailor shop and then waved another good-bye there. The rest of the afternoon I spent with some shopping and chill-out.
On Sunday, December 4th Varun and I went out of Bangalore and he showed me some spots where he likes to go trekking on weekends – there’s really some great nature just right outside of Bangalore with lakes, huge rocks and almost no people (compared to the cramped cities). In the evening we went for dinner before I left to the railway station to go to Hampi – a World Heritage site in the North of Karnataka. I met my couchsurfing host Murali already on the train – he usually goes to Bangalore each weekend to meet his family that is living there. He works in Hospet (close to Hampi) for !dea – a telecom company.
On December 5th I went to see some of the monuments of Hampi (leaving from Murali’s place in Hospet in the morning where I left my luggage). I visited Virupaksha Temple, and the adjacent hills, walked along Tungabhadra River together with a shepherd and enjoyed some cold drinks in the restaurants at Hampi Bazaar. In the evening I went for dinner with Murali at restaurant Mango Tree – really a great place there at Hampi with view over the river and great food. Also met 2 Austrian girls that day from Pinzgau in Salzburg 
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The next day I went up to Hampi again to explore this unique and incredible site some more. It consists of more than 80 monuments and temples and there are many things to discover. I visited the Underground Siva temple, the Royal Enclosure, Lotus Mahal, the Elephant Stables and much more that morning and sometimes really felt like Indiana Jones entering a secret and hidden temple …
After lunch I explored Achutaraya temple and hiked up to Mathanga hill from where you get an awesome view over all of Hampi and can see the dozens of monuments you have not visited yet. I watched the sunset from there and then went back to Hampi Bazaar to get a rickshaw back to Hospet where I said good-bye to Murali and walked to the train station.
On Dec. 7th in the morning I arrived back in Bangalore where I first decided to sleep 3 hours at the train station cause it was only 6 am and I didn’t know what to do at that time in Bangalore. Later I went for breakfast and then met Carlo who had been in Bangalore for 2 days before also going to Hampi that evening (he also would be hosted by Murali). We visited Bangalore Palace and then had lunch together at Hard Rock Café (mmmmh, Steak). Later we chilled-out a little at a Cubbon park before having a cup of coffee and each of us heading for our trains. So I left B’lore at 8 in the evening and went back to Kozhikode.
Back at IIMK I tried to accommodate myself again – also with the fact to study here for another 3 months. I changed some courses to arrive at the minimum 9 credits which I still need to complete the total of 24 that convert to the 30 ECTS I need for MCI back home. The course on Globalization & Culture seems to be pretty cool – no reading material and movie screenings as part of the curriculum other than that, not much happened so far … I got to know the new foreign exchange students – Augustin, Hela & Allegra – and watched lots of Family Guy episodes …
Well, so far so good – that’s it again from my side. Hope you enjoy reading and hope to hear from some of you. Pics are on Facebook about Bangalore & Hampi and also on my flickr.
