About Moving to India from Spain, Musing from Costa Coffee

My friends, the topic for today is tastes and an intro to sounds, starting with where I am sat now…at my very first visit to a Costa Coffee since I have arrived on Indian soil. I know everyone in Europe will know what Costa Coffee is but not sure about my friends and family in the U.S. so basically it is like a Starbucks – generally really over-priced but they make perfect iced lattes and have American style muffins, cookies and cakes so it is worth the high prices to enjoy a taste of home.

First off, there are Costa’s everywhere so it is great, I know I can jack up on caffeine whenever I need to which is fab.  The one I am at now is just off a street call 100 Feet Road and has a large outdoor terrace.   At the moment I am sat on the terrace listening to this amazing soft combination of a couple sitting down chatting in the local language (Kannada is spoken here by about 50 million locals), a group of teenage girls next to me are having fun talking in English about random blogs they read and about their classes (they were very sweet and actually told me the name of the local language here!), and then last but not least I hear the constant and overwhelming sound of HORNS that go off every .5 seconds.  I will get to the horns maybe tomorrow because Bangalore traffic deserves its own post!

Anyway, the iced vanilla latte is amazing. But what is really amazing and VERY different from Barcelona and California are the prices! Man… the price of ice, coffee beans, milk and a plastic cup really must vary from one country to another!!! My medium-sized iced vanilla latte was the deal of the century and only cost me $2! And the large is only 20 cents more (from small to medium is also 20 cents more). AMAZING!! In Barcelona I think I paid about 4 euros last time I had one.

Next thing I also loved was that the large cappuccino cup that serves as the tip jar for the staff isn’t directly next to the register. It is in front of a rack full of snacks and a bucket of water bottles that are in FRONT of the register, basically out of sight of the staff. And it was full of 10 Rupee notes, probably about 200 Rupees in notes total there, easily within reach of everyone. Don’t get me wrong, I know that this isn’t a pot of gold (it’s the equivalent of $5) but in Barcelona that money would have been stolen so quickly and so expertly. It makes me happy to know that we have moved to such a safe and friendly city 🙂

Fatty fatty fatty ALERT!!!  Well, I woke up even fatter this morning and decided that I really need to kill this Sumo rice belly I have grown over the past week so I ordered the green salad from room service menu for lunch. I mean, a green salad is a green salad anywhere right? No need to inquire about the ingredients?? Nope, it is not! Haha!  My salad arrived and to be fair it did have one green veggie on it (cucumber) but it was essentially sliced raw veggies on a plate, which the guy explained was indeed a green salad. So when I inquired about the oil and vinegar he said “no, no, ma’m, you take the pepper and the salt and put it there and you put the lime ma’m” …. This was all new for me but I did what he said.  I sprinkled some salt and pepper and then squeezed the juice from two lime wedges all around and you know what?? It was really, really tasty! And even fewer calories than oil and vinegar so score! I also ate a nice bowl of fruit salad for dessert, which was so fresh and sweet.  It was a combo of pineapple, apple, green grapes, watermelon, almost black colored grapes, candied cherries (now that was new!), bananas and one other fruit I can’t place but I think it might have been a fresh date (really sweet, soft like a banana but really grainy). Will have to ask the room service guy next time because it is my new favourite fruit!!

Whoa, I had to move from Costa!  Unfortunately, I am now back at my hotel because it started to really pour down cats and dogs so I decided to jump into an “auto” (a motorized rickshaw) and head back the 7 blocks to the hotel before they were all occupied and I was stuck either walking or drinking coffee for a few more hours!! I am really looking forward to finally having my car and driver next week so I have some freedom.  Here in Bangalore it is really different from Barcelona…the taxis won’t come for someone when the distance is only several blocks like it is for me from my hotel to the restaurants on 100 Feet Road.  So when it rains it is better for me to just stay in.

One last thing, I have good news!  Late last night our offer on the flat we wanted was accepted!!  Now I am simply waiting to sign the contract, either tomorrow or Monday morning.  Once I sign the contract I will share a video tour and more details of our new home for the next 2 years for my daughter and at least the next 3 years for me.

XOXO from Bangalore

© Angela Carson, Angela’s Adventures in Bangalore blog and photos, 2011

Angela Carson

At 21 I left uni, jumped into my Jeep Wrangler, and drove from my native California to live an adventure in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I've explored 37 countries on 4 continents, residing in 8 of them (currently Indonesia's Riau Islands is my home). I even have a private pilot's license and was shot at once by bandits!

This Post Has 9 Comments

  1. Teresa

    Hi Honey, well that salad sounds amazing so will try that once I remember to buy some limes! I thought it was going to come with a great bit chilli stuck in the middle heheheh.
    Fantastic news on the apart well done, you must have driven a hard bargain so well done girlie and cant wait to see the video.
    Also next time you go into costa nick the jar of money as I need it for my botox pot ahahah
    lol and happy st jordi xxxx

    1. angela_carson

      OMG that is so funny that you mentioned a big chili. I ordered the salad for dinner and it appears that the guys do not have a “standard” here at my hotel for preparing things. For example, check out the photo of the salad from lunch. Nice big plate, there were 5 different veggies… no chili. Well, tonight for dinner I received a small salad plate with cucumber, tomator and onions (which I don’t eat… note to self ask for it without onions next time) AND on top there was a WHOLE spicy looking devil-red pepper!! hahah Crazy!

      When I called down to order 2 boiled eggs (only ate whites FYI) and the dinner salad the guy was really confused. He was so used to my monster Sumo wrestler rice + curry order he thought it was just my first plate 😉 hahah

      Miss you honey, hope you had a lovely Sant Jordi… you give P a book? xo

  2. Nisha

    The soft grainy fruit in most likely chikoo/ sapota

    1. angela_carson

      You just absolutely made my day 🙂 I have taken note of it and will try to hunt the fruit down tomorrow and taste test 🙂 Thanks so much for that!! –ang

      1. Hi .. started following your blog quite lately so late reply

        The white vegetable you had asked in one of the pictures is most probably indian white radish

        1. angela_carson

          Hi V – thanks for that. I remember not being a big fan of that vegetable so a radish makes sense 🙂 Really happy to have you here, hope you will continue to follow my blog. Thanks for taking the time to comment. – angela

  3. 6 months ago if I had read this post, I wouldn’t have found anything wrong with the salad pic you posted. But now it cracks me up.. 🙂 A few cucumbers, tomatoes and carrots along with onions is Indian salad in most places.

    I envy you having iced vanilla latte at dirt cheap price..LOL.. You should stop converting currency and comparing rupees with $. Makes life difficult for a few like me when we read your posts. 😛 Jokes apart, $2 is a lot for many a common man in a country like India. Coffee parlours are still a luxury for many..

    Rainy season again. Hoping it treats you much better this time around.. 🙂

    1. angela_carson

      Yeah, I do know that what is cheap for me is an extravagance for someone with my housekeeper’s salary … but I was fresh off the boat when I wrote that, hadn’t made any friends yet … I had so much attention to detail back then haha By the way, glad you know salad diversity now! 🙂

  4. I wasn’t being judgemental. I can understand that this was long time ago and the big change would have excited you. 🙂

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