Our stay in Pune was longer than expected and a “little” laid back. Turns out if you live inside an apartment with a chilled student Couchsurfer is a good way to unwind a little…

The way leading to Pune actually started out as quite the adventure. We needed to wake up early because the trip was going to be long again. To shorten it a bit we decided to take a “shortcut” instead of the coastal highway. On the way from our last night’s camp into the mountains we saw a really spectacular sunrise. It was magnificent. 

When we came closer and closer to the mountains the road condition rapidly worsened.

Is this even a road?

Oxford says: “A wide way leading from one place to another, especially one with a specially prepared surface which vehicles can use.” The highway through the mountains, which was supposed to be the “shortcut”, was not even worth to be called a “road“. The rare and randomly scattered patches of asphalt were more of a nuisance than a pleasure… still there were big trucks crossing us by the minutes.

An awesome host

After this hell of a drive, we arrived in Pune. It was already getting dark outside. Amol, our Couchsurfing host, was already waiting for us. He lived in an apartment building at the edge of the city and shared the flat with two of his fellow students. The building complexes architecture looked a bit out of this world. Especially for Indian standards it was extremely modern.

Even though we intended to stay in Pune for just one night, once we got to know the dude better, we could not help it, but stay longer. The company of him and his friends kept us in the city… a bunch of intelligent, young, very humorous people – what better company could we have wished for? I am actually really looking forward to meet Amol back in Germany. He wants to go to Munich to finish his studies in automobile engineering there.

Amol and his friends, also showed us around Pune and we visited some really nice places one can just find when strolling around with someone, who knows his city. We spend some time at a view point, from which we overlooked the whole city. Especially the view at night was magnificent…

Pune feast

But to be honest, most of the time when we actually ventured out into the city, we were simply hungry and wanted to eat something… There was this all-you can eat mess for example and Rico and I took the all-you-CAN-eat part quite literally. I think together we devoured around 24 chapatis and tandooris with lots of curry, gravy, curry, rice, curd… Everything was so delicious, we simply could not help it.

The weekend in Amols flat might have been the most chilled and laidback days in all of India. Even though we had not the most adventurous time, staying there was worth it. We really needed some days to unwind and relax… Driving a tuk-tuk around all day, always waking up in the early morning, after all takes its toll. After this weekend though, we were completely renewed and could continue to our next stop: Aurangabad. This time we were hoping for a much better road, carrying us to a new adventure. You can read more about that in our next post.