Goa: A Trip To The Beach!

So about a week and a half ago I got back from our rotary trip to Goa! Goa is the beach vacation place in India. Luckily it's super close to (directly south west) so it was just a train ride of about 10 hours. While there we stayed in a super nice hotel near the beach for 3 nights, then went to the beach house of a rotarian for 2 nights. Overall it was a great trip and we enjoyed relaxing on the beach, shopping and exploring Goa, but I definitely wish we'd been there longer. Here's some pictures and stories from my wonderful trip!

Goa is definitely a huge vacation spot for people from all over the world. I think there were more foreigners than Indians! For some reason there's an especially large number from Russia. This leads to sightings such as the following:

Russian restaurants 

A surprising number of signs in Russian

As with any touristy place there were some tacky souvenirs.

For some reason lots of heavy coats and fur slippers. Maybe to make the Russians feel at home?

Seashell art. So much seashell art. I have yet to see anyone buy it

We visited a Basilica! It was called Bom Jesus Basilica and it held the remains of Saint Xavier. It was really nice inside and interesting to see. Here are some pictures!

The sign was in both English and Hindi

Not about the basilica, but still religion related. There's a definite Hindu influence on Christianity (which is very prominent since Goa was a Portuguese colony). Below is a sort of roadside shrine/temple that is Christian.

We also saw a Portuguese fort. It was a little boring and terribly hot but while there we ran into a good friend, Shubham, from Pune!   

Bruno, Hugo, Me, Shubham, Gustav and Matheus!

One evening we went on a boat cruise around a harbor

Audrey and me

There was a DJ and with having set behind it was beautiful

Most of the time though we just relaxed on the beach

Tons of beautiful and colorful fishing boats

 

A nice view from a hill

A Shrek sand castle

We found a beach restaurant run by a Swedish woman so Hugo and Gustav had to stop by

Tons and tons of flags everywhere!

Camel on the beach!

Beautiful views

Maybe my favorite picture of the trip

At the train station!

On our way back to Pune we visited Mahbaleshwar. It's a hill station with amazing views and incredibly delicious strawberries!

We bought newspaper cones of strawberries right out of the bus window. They were the most delicious and sweetest I've ever tasted!

 At the hill station we enjoyed the amazing views and the delicious roasted corn on the cob with salt, masala and lemon on it. I'm definitely trying to make it at home this summer!

Unfortunately there were evil monkeys roaming about trying to steal our food.

To end it all: a beautiful sunset!