Half-way Around the World in 100 Days

Whooo! What a whirlwind it has been indeed! Well, for those of you who were wondering where we have been (cough cough Brian and Emma cough cough), we have been a little bit of everywhere. After our 5 weeks in India and our short time with Matt's parents in Greece, Matt officially started his new job in Athens and Teri flew back to California to spend some time with her family in Bakersfield. We are so fortunate to have our good friends Mike and Misha in the city who have been babysitting us and our mail while we're in transit. Teri landed for a quick 10 hours or so in New York before she headed off to California in late April-- Chez Cohen put her up and kept her entertained during her severely jet lagged pit stop in NYC. Two tours of sublets, 1 sushi dinner and one star sighting later (more to come about that), Teri was soon on another plane in crowded coach, scrounging for change to buy potato chips on her way to sunny CA. MEANWHILE, back in Athens, Matt boarded a slightly nicer ride, complete with couch and lobster dinner, and took an easy trip to the Land of Cleve in sweetest Ohio.

Finally we were "back in 'Merica!" Teri met Matt in Cleveland where they enjoyed the simplicity of the Mid-West. One weekend in early May, we went to visit Teri's brother, Sam, in Chicago. We were glad to be back in 'Merica, land of the freeway, truck stops and Garrison Keillor, but we didn't realize it would take almost 7 hours to drive to our hotel in downtown Chicago! Sam met us at our hotel around 11pm and we left to eat up the wonderfully rich Chicago food we had only heard about. We finally wound up at a burger joint known for pairing beers with burgers. We headed home in the drizzling rain, looking forward to a full morning of exploring Chicago. Unbeknownst to us, we had decided to come to Chicago during the start of a large summer storm. It was too cold and rainy to walk around the city, so we picked up Sam and his friend Mike and did a quick drive around Chicago in our little rental car. We were able to see a bit of Millennium Park and the famous reflective "bean". We tried, unsuccessfully, to go to the top of the Sears Tower, but it was closed due to high winds. So, we called our moms to wish them happy Mother's Day, and then went to Giordano's for a dense Chicago style pizza. It was really good to meet up with Sam, even if it was for a short time.

We spent another week or so in Cleveland and then headed back to New York City! Matt flew with his patient, while Teri drove I-80 all the way into the City (hold your applause please). We had sushi with an old friend and then headed out to Long Island where we slept for about 3.5 hours before Matt had to get on the train and join the commute into the city for work. Teri stayed behind and tidied up for the renters, drove the car back into the city, and transferred the luggage to a friend's apt. who had generously lent it to us while we looked for a summer sublet (now you may applaud).

Thank God, we found a sublet by the end of the week. The best part is that the apt is on 72nd and Columbus--just one block north of our old apt! Hooray for the UWS! We love our city and we love our park and we LOVE reconnecting with our friends here. It's hard to substitute "community," even with a trip around the world.

So, there ya go. Half way around the world, and back, in 100 days or so. We're in the city until July and then we head off for another adventure.

*Notable celebrity sightings:
Misha and I were standing in line at a NYC sushi restaurant and the girl behind us looked really familiar...
Misha: You look familiar, are you from California?
Norah Jones: No.
Misha: Oh, ok, I guess that's it then, you're not from California.
HA!

Matt and I were sitting in the hotel restaurant in Cleveland and they seated us about 10 ft. away from Oprah! She didn't have any makeup on and was in gray sweats, but it was definitely Oprah. We asked the waitress and she said she was not allowed to disclose any information.

Matt and I were sitting in the sun in front of St. Bartholomew's in NYC and MATT spotted Christian from Project Runway walking by! He looked exactly the same in real life as he did on t.v. He still had that one piece of hair sticking up and match-stick pants--Fierce!

Santorini, Greece

Opah! We made it safely to Greece where we met up with John and Faith (Matt's parents) and flew to the beautiful island of Santorini. We awoke to a gorgeous sunny day and had breakfast on the hillside terrace over looking "the caldera cliff." We are staying at a very cool hotel in rooms that are like house-caves dug into the side of the hillside. The walls are refreshingly white, domed, and let in the stark morning light. These ancient houses were once home to Greek sailors, while the hilltop villas housed wealthy merchants of the island across a marble road.

We spent the day trekking through the dry terrain of the hilltop, searching for the town of Thira (Fira) and a recommended taverna called "Nicolos." We managed to find Nicolas and his taverna, but not before sunburned faces, sore feet and hungry bellies. We hiked up five miles over steep terrain and daisy fields. John led us into many "paths less traveled" to get there.

We are warm and cozy in our adjoining little cave homes and are looking forward to three more days in this magnificent place.

More to come...
Teri & Matt

The Golden Triangle

JAIPUR - AGRA - NEW DELHI

These three cities make up "The Golden Triangle" of tourism in India.

JAIPUR, Rajasthan

Warned by our guide book that Jaipur was a hornets nest of scams such as dishonest "touts" (people who prey on naiive tourists), and potentially dishonest hotel managers, we were on our guard when we arrived at the airport and our taxi driver picked us up with a sign that read "Geiner." After he did his best to assure us that he was, indeed, our taxi driver he proceeded to take us to a different hotel, claiming that the one we booked was under construction (exactly the kind of plot our book warned us about). This was so suspicious that we insisted that he show us the original hotel and check his story of said construction. We checked the address, realized that he was telling the truth and that this is probably the first time that this kind of story turned out not to be a scam! In fact we got a better hotel, a better room, and a discounted rate for having been moved! It was great!

Rajasthan is the land of palaces, and it was very different from South India. After talking with our friendly driver, Bhati, we hired him for the next two days to show us around Jaipur. He was great! So friendly and honest--he even gave us money out of his pocket when we couldn't make it to the ATM.

The story goes that we were enjoying our introduction to the hotel when Teri started to feel sick. A bug bite on her foot worsened and she developed a fever. When her fever reached 103.7 degrees f, and she was shivering and her teeth were chattering, we decided to call the doctor to come to the hotel. Dr. Sen came around 1am and decided that she needed anti-biotics in injection form... in her bum! She got two shots and took some Tylenol and called him in the morning.

We spent the morning at the clinic where the doctor did a blood test and asked us to return in the evening. In the meantime, Bhati took us all around the "Pink City" of Jaipur, the Amber Fort, and a famous cenotaph. We saw decorated elephants and camels in the road, and a snake charmer with his toothless cobra. Still scary!

We returned to the clinic and he said Teri had an infection and needed another shot and more anti-biotics. We returned to the hotel and prepared for our 4am departure to the train station.

AGRA, U.P.

Agra...vating! Need we say more. Taj was cool. Everything else sucked. Even our guide had his shoes stolen while showing us around holy ground. Too bad we booked two nights here. Crap. Early morning departure, 3:45am, to train to Delhi.

New Delhi

Our favorite deli in India! No, really, we liked it here. It was such a contrast to the rest of India that we have seen. We stayed with an amazing family in an AMAZING house and met lots of other cool travelers who are working here, got married here, etc. We have met more Americans here than anywhere else we've been in India. We wanted to see "the city" life of New Delhi, so we skipped all the old stuff and sought out the hotspots of the "moneyed middle class," as the buzz phrase goes.

We found them jogging at Lodi Gardens, a type of Central Park. We loved strolling here and welcomed the feeling that we weren't so foreign here--there seemed to be lots of expats with families enjoying the green lawns and shady trees. We then went to a shopping center and purchased discounted designer glasses. We spent the night talking and laughing with the other guests here. The next day we went to City Center to try and buy tickets to a Bollywood movie, but they were all sold out, so we happily ate gelato instead. We walked around a giant mall that had familiar chains, air-conditioning, and coffee bars.. where are we?! We couldn't believe this was the same India we had been immersed in for the last five weeks.

We rode with a friend to the Red Fort, checked out a Jain Temple (complete with Bird Hospital), and poked our heads into "Old Delhi," before returning home to a home-cooked meal.

Overall, we liked New Delhi a lot but realize that our guest house probably set this positive tone. We are glad to be finishing our trip here and I'm sure we'll revel in the memories of all of the things we forgot to mention on this blog during our early morning flight back to Athens.

We're looking forward to meeting up with Matt's parents in Greece for some quality time on the island of Santorini.

Namaste,

Teri & Matt

Panjim, Goa

Umm... why did we leave the beach? We decided to err on the side of being too early for our flight from Goa to Jaipur (very unlike us) and we decided to stay in Panjim overnight because it is closer to the airport. What we didn't realize is that Goa is super small compared to Kerala and it only took us two hours to drive from Palolem Beach to Panjim. Panjim is only about 45 mins from the airport. SO we arrived early and decided to walk around this capital city... BIG MISTAKE for road weary travelers!

Within the first twenty minutes we realized that Panjim is not our favorite city in India. The traffic was relentless, the vendors were super aggressive, three out of four ATM machines didn't work, and the constant staring was starting to take its toll on Teri. Add all this together with uncomfortable heat, midday hunger (the restaurants were closed until 7pm), and two cases of lingering Delhi Belly and you get two very moody tourists! We decided to walk back to our hotel and wait it out until dinner time.

The good news was that our hotel was very cool and it was in a quaint little neighborhood called "Fontainhas"-- a colorfully painted Portuguese-style area with windy streets and small restaurants. We went to a small, family run restaurant in the neighborhood and then went to the open air patio at our little hotel for desert. We finally got to try the local coconut liquor called "feni" and it was great! We also ordered the local specialty for desert, which was a coconut based type of stiff custard, like flan.

Anyway, we hired a taxi for the day on Tuesday and he took us all over "Old Goa." We walked through great big churches built by Vasco de Gama and his Portuguese entourage, saw the preserved corpse of Saint Francis Xavier at the Basilica of Bom Jesus (Church of Holy or Infant Jesus), and retreated from the thick, midday heat in the Cathedral of Saint Catherine. It was fun to see these massive churches amidst the palm trees. All this AND we still got to the airport early enough to relax, have a samosa or three, and catch our quick flight to Jaipur.

More to come from the North!
Sincerely,
Teri and Matt

Palolem, Goa

Ahhhhhh the beach! I guess there is a reason Goa is known for its beaches. We arrived on a night train and quickly discovered why people had recommended we come to this beach--powder soft sand underfoot, long and graceful waves stretching from one end of this crescent beach to the other, beach front restaurants that let you linger in the shade while you sip fruit juice and read... We love it!
You have to come here with the understanding that you're coming to a tourist area and not "seeing India," but it is a great place to just be at the beach and relax. We decided to stay here six nights since we arrived so late the first night.
Here are some highlights:
- beautifully sunny mornings with crisp, turquoise water
- talcum powder sand outside of our bungalow in a palm tree forest
- monkeys swinging through the trees above us, hunting mangoes
- dogs curled up on the beach
- holy cows on the beach
- early morning boat ride in search of dolphins
- ayurevedic massage
- easy internet access!!
- body surfing
- finding a great book (If you like the show, "The Office," you should DEFINITELY read THEN WE CAME TO THE END by Joshua Ferris. We have been reading to each other and laughing out loud)
- enjoying the long sunset
- ICE CREAM!!! (Baskin Robbins has made it to Goa!)
- cold beer
- pulpy, fresh fruit juice
- Tiger cookies and frozen Twix
- working on our tans
- Matt is indulging in not shaving and has been growing a beard

Tomorrow we will head to "Old Goa" and then prepare for the last leg of our trip to Jaipur, Agra and Delhi.

Still no word from our airline so keep your fingers crossed that we will, indeed, have a flight back on the 14th.

Love ya,
Teri & Matt

Thrissur, Kerala

We accidentally left this out. Not because we didn't like the city, but because we were only there for one night. Actually, this is a pretty popular town during Puram, the largest festival in Kerala. Puram takes place on April 14th this year, so it wasn't really a tourist destination when we were there. It IS quite memorable, however, because as we walked around the busy town we suddenly realized... Hey, we're the only non-Indian tourists here!
It was surreal to sit and observe the seemingly crazed traffic, lights, cows, sari emporiums, jewelry stores, family parks, temple bells... of a typical night in an Indian city. It sort of felt like we had been let in on a secret as we sat with others in the wake of buses, tuk-tuks (3-wheeled mini taxis), and trucks in the nighttime cool of the cow friendly "green" at the temple.
We walked through a night market where vendors were selling fresh vegetables, fruit, spices, and other necessities. Since we already stuck out, we simply strolled through without taking pictures. We enjoyed our little "getaway" from touristdom, but... alas, the beach awaits!

Kannur, Kerala

This might be our favorite place so far. We got the tip to come here from some travelers we met on the way. They were raving about Theyyam -- a ceremonial dance that happens in this part of India. You will see the photos... It is a ceremony that lasts approx 20 hours, beginning at 6 pm. It reaches it's peak around 5 am with exhausted, dazed costumed participants "becoming" various Hindu dieties. (However, there is some debate about whether or not these dances predate Hinduism). During the trance, the participants are able to do "super human" things, such as walking on fire-y coals.

This was a high point, but what made it better was that we got to hang out with a family whom we adopted for 5 days. They were Marcel, Marisa (the parents), Aliena (age 11) Noe (8) and Gael (3.5). They were from Switzerland, but were on 3 months of travel, beginning in the Philippines where they visited family, and then all through Southern India. A lovely family whom we hope to see again!

The place we stayed was a guest house called Costa Malabari. We were served 3 meals a day of Indian food, which we were finally developing a stomach for again. During the daytime, we had access to a beautiful private beach, at the base of a steep cliff. Got a little sunburned.

Highlights:
-The family.
-Homemade mango ice cream
-Banana Coconut Lassi
-Swimming for 2 hours straight
-Meeting lots of friendly travelers who stayed at the guest house- even a couple from -Portland Oregon. Also some from New Zealand, UK, Colorado, and Austria.
-air-conditioned train ride!!

Low lights
-Never fly Gulf Air- they canceled our return flight from India when all we needed to do was change the return date. They have promised that we have a flight out, but we are still waiting for email confirmation.
-Hard to sleep straight thru tropical nights- either its too hot or or the fan makes ya too cold. Plus millions of bugs who's sole mission is to eat Teri alive.