TravelStream™ news feed for member sharadnsusan on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sharadnsusan en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 01 Feb 2004 08:03:24 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1074283380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1074283380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1074283380/tpod.html Sun, 01 Feb 2004 08:03:24 -0500 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Kerala, Madras, India

After we left Sharad's hometown of Jaipur in North India, we headed down to Susan's birthplace in Kerala. The deep South. India's vast and varied regions lead to drastically different cultures and languages and religious practices all next door to each other. Thus, South India is completely different from North India. The climate is tropical with a capital T. It was usually above 95 degrees Farenheit in December and January, the coolest times of the year. The tropical climate leads to this lush rainforest landscape consisting of coconut trees and rice pattie fields, crisscrossed with waterways. It must be one of the greenest places on earth.

Susan's mom, sister and brother-in-law flew from the States to spend Christmas and New Year's in Kerala with us. We spent most of our time catching up with family that was scattered all across Kerala. But we did manage to sail down the backwaters of Kerala, visit a hill station to cool off from the heat, and enjoy the fantastic beaches in the southern part of the state.

After three weeks in Kerala with family, and about another week on our own in Mallupuram (about an hour south of Madras, on the eastern side of India), we're off to Singapore for the final week of our trip!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1074965640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1074965640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1074965640/tpod.html Sat, 31 Jan 2004 07:35:40 -0500 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Singapore, Singapore

Happy Lunar New Year! It's the year of the Monkey, and we were fortunate to be in SE Asia to celebrate its arrival. We had planned the trip perfectly to start our trip around the world in June at the Inti Raymi festival in Cusco, Peru, but we got lucky when we arrived in Singapore and discovered we would end the trip with yet another celebration!

Singapore gets a rather bad rap from most budget travellers, who complain its a bit too much like the west. In fact, I think its actually a few years ahead of the west -- most places are positively pristine, and the technology is superb and ubiquitous. In any event, we loved Singapore. Its well known as a foodie's dream come true, and we got down and dirty with the fused Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, and Thai cuisines. Susan also went absolutely mad shopping -- everything actually fits her here, and is cheap, cheap, cheap! The museums are also brilliant and very well thought out to give you a great idea of all of Southern Asia.

For the actual arrival of the new year, we watched a brilliant fireworks show over the harbor at midnight. However, the general celebrations go on for almost three weeks. The whole city was caught up in celebrations, but nothing like Chinatown. The entire place was essentially cordoned off from traffic, and a huge tent city sprung up so you could shop and eat to your heart's delight. So we spent a lot of time just wandering around and enjoying the ambience. We also took in a lot of dances, drum concerts, and, on our last night of the trip, took in a performance by the Hong Kong Ballet.

Ah yes, all good things must ultimately come to an end, and it's time for us to say goodbye to the road and start looking for a home. We've been travelling a bit over seven months now, and its really been the trip of a lifetime. We've had so many unforgettable experiences, have seen so many amazing things. and have met so many fantastic people along the way. Its been a difficult trip too, of course -- there were moments along the way we would have traded a national monument or two for a hot shower -- but its a price we gladly paid to live out our dream. We've taken well over 4000 pictures, have seen eighteen countries and five of the seven continents, and had ourselves a spectacular time.

And to answer what seem to be everyone's question, yes we'd do it again, and, in fact, on the flight home we mapped out our next trip around the world . . . sure, we may not be able to take it until we retire, but we can always dream!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1072605660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1072605660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1072605660/tpod.html Mon, 19 Jan 2004 09:22:52 -0500 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Kathmandu, Pokhara, Nepal

Nepal was spectacular! We had really looked forward to this part of the trip, and it exceeded all of our expectations. It certainly started off on the right foot -- we arrived and met our good friends Mark and Bridgett at the hotel, as we had planned. They had flown in from Houston to join us for this part of the trip, and on their first wedding anniversary to boot (they spent their honeymoon climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro). The next day we all took an Everest flight on a tiny plane -- definitely a highlight of our trip. I don't think I will ever forget rising out of a sea of clouds and watching as what looks a string of island -- really 8000+ meter mountains -- get bigger and bigger. I think we took more than fifty pictures on our hour long flight, and every one looks they could be a postcard.

After a day or two in Kathmandu, we started our four day trek near the Annupurna range. This was the part of the trip we were nervous about. There have been weekly, sometimes daily, reports of fighting between the monarchial government and Maoist rebels. Trekking in particular was a bit iffy, as rebels regularly demand bribes from trekkers and, although there have been no kidnapped or killed tourists, we weren't eager to start a trend. However, our guide told us we would be fine, although he did insist we tell people we were from Canada instead of the US. As he was named Ganesh, i.e. the elephant god of good luck in Hinduism, we figured we would be fine. And we were. The trek was great with lots of super views of snow capped mountains everywhere around us. We hiked 8-10 hours a day up and down, and had a great time just spending time with good friends. Ganesh may have worked his magic as well, since we didn't encounter any rebels, and as we later learned the rebels had reportedly stopped asking trekkers for money a day or two before we got there.

Our trek then rolled into our three day white water rafting trip down the Kali Gandaki, a fine river with good class 3 and 4 rapids. The Kali Gandaki is one of the holiest rivers in Nepal, and we saw at least three or four cremations occurring on the riverside as we rafted down. That was certainly a first.

Anyway, after a week and half with Mark and Bridgett, we had to say goodbye in Pokhara as they continued down to Chitwin National Park to hang out with the elephants and rhinos Since we had already done that in Africa, we headed back to India to continue our trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1072083780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1072083780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1072083780/tpod.html Mon, 19 Jan 2004 08:31:38 -0500 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Bombay, Delhi, Barelli, Jaipur, India

After six months on the road, coming to India has been like a mini-homecoming. First of all, Sharad's parents met us in Bombay a day or two after we arrived, and stayed with us the entire three or four weeks we were in North India. It was great seeing them, particularly since when we are in US we can only really see them in Houston on a few rare weekends a year. Second, Sharad has a big family -- and by big, I mean over a hundred first cousins -- and they all took great care of us everywhere we went. So we didn't do a ton of sightseeing; instead, we visited lots of family and had did a lot of relaxing and eating. We had a lovely time and can't wait to come back in a few years!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1068572040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1068572040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1068572040/tpod.html Sun, 28 Dec 2003 06:46:37 -0500 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Cairo, Aswan, Luxor and Sharm, Egypt

From the start, Egypt was a must see on our trip around the world. How can you say you have been around the world and skipped the pyramids? But Egypt definitely exposed how this trip has been absolutely fantastic on the one hand, and a real grind on the other.

After traveling for almost six months, we considered ourselves pretty decent at this, but Egypt stretched our limits. The touts were the fiercest we've seen and would approach on average about once every twenty seconds. We would always say we were not interested, but they kept trying relentlessly. One even yelled at Sharad indignantly "why are you trying to ruin my business?" after we said no for the fourth time to a felucca ride. It is virtually impossible and very time consuming to book anything independently (i.e without a tour guide or agent) because of the translation difficulties and because Egpyt allows tourists only to take certain buses, etc. for their own safety supposedly. Of course, the heat is unbearable, and obviously western women (i.e white) in particular are treated exceptionally poorly. For instance, we once were going up an elevator to our hotel with a white woman and an obviously Egyptian guy. We thought they were together at first, but once we boarded the elevator he kept getting closer and closer to her and she tried to get farther and farther away. She finally started screamed at him, "I'm sick of this place!" and Sharad had to get in between them to prevent him from following her to her room.

In a nut shell those were the lows, and they were pretty low. But the highs of Egypt cannot be matched anywhere. To start, the Pyramids at Giza were even better in person than on film or from a photo. We were even allowed to climb through the largest one, and that was simply an unbelievable, Indiana Jones moment. The sound and light show at the Pyramids that night were also unforgettable. All during the hour long show, where the Sphinx is the narrator of a fascinating hour long history lesson on all he has seen over the thousands of years he has sat there, they light up the pyramids in a series of amazing colors. You have never seen the pyramids until you have seen them green!

From Cairo, we travelled by an overnight train down to Aswan and spent some time checking out the Temple of Isis and other sights. Absolutely fantastic. From there, we boarded a two day Nile cruise and celebrated Sharad's 30th birthday onboard. And the crew even managed an impromptu birthday celebration with a cake and dancing for all! It was also the first boat on which Susan did not get motion sickness, so that in itself was amazing, but it was just wonderful to watch the desert go by while you sail peacefully down the Nile.

We finally reached Luxor and saw the Temple at Luxor and the Valley of Kings, among other great sights. By this time, we were a bit ruined-out and needed to hide from the touts, and so spent more time than we should have at the hotel pool we splurged on. We then headed to the Red Sea for some much needed r&r. Sharm El Shiekh is very different from the rest of Egypt, which barely has any touts at all. It is right on the Red Sea, very near Jordan, and has some of the best diving in the world -- many say better than the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Accordingly, we spent some great time on the beach, and even had a better time underwater by finally completing our diving certification! That was simply awesome: breathing underwater, swimming with a million colorful fish all around you, floating above huge amounts of bright coral. During our last two dives, we even had a blue manta play right near by us as we practiced our diving skills, and had to have our dive instructor shoo away a poisonous lion fish. Awesome. The only negative thing in Sharm was that Sharad had some trouble equalizing on the way down, and the day after we got certified, popped his right ear drum and lost his hearing in that ear for about two weeks. A little annoying, but not all that painful, and we quickly took an overnight bus to Cairo to catch our flight to India -- ah, our motherland!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1066972200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1066972200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1066972200/tpod.html Thu, 11 Dec 2003 05:04:53 -0500 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Istanbul, Turkey

As we were writing this travelog entry, Istanbul was hit by a series of terrorist bombings. Since we are really behind on updating the travelog, we actually were in Bombay when we heard about the Istanbul attack, so we were in no danger -- but thanks for the many concerned emails. It was certainly strange to be watching CNN and remember that we had just celebrated Susan's 30th birthday pretty near one of the areas that was bombed, though.

It also made us reflect on our many conversations with locals, most of whom went to great lengths to draw a bright line between Turkey and what they described as the "rest" of the Middle East. To most of them, they were Turkish first and foremost, and described Turkey as a secular, tolerant and peaceful country, with very few fundamentalists, whereas the rest of the Middle East was backwards. From our own observations, Turkey is definitly where east meets west, and just as Istanbul literally straddles two continents, the Turkish people are definitly at the crossroads of a lot of influences. For example, it was not an uncommon sight to see an older woman covered from head to toe walking with her teenage daughter wearing a short skirt. We also once had a conversation with someone who, after saying how secular and "modern" Turkey is, mentioned that his wife had torn up an address for one of his cousins just because the address was in the United States. And any discussions about American politics were generally not very pleasant (of course, that's pretty much been the norm around the world), although most made a distiniction between the American government and the American people.

All this being said, we absolutely loved Turkey and think it is terribly sad that, as a result of these attacks, people might shy away from going there. There is no doubt that Turkey is not like the rest of Europe or the Middle East, but the cultural mix unique to it is the very reason to go there. For example, one of the most famous sights in Istanbul is the Aya Sophia, one of the earliest and grandest churches in all of Christendom under the Byzantine Empire, which was later converted into a mosque under the Ottoman Empire, and finally transformed into a museum with the founding of the Turkish republic. It still has beautiful ancient mosaics of the Virgin Mary high on the walls, with enormous writings from the Koran on the columns.

Istanbul is full of sights to see and things to do, our days were packed with the usual tourist things as we visited the Blue Mosque, the undergrounds cistern, sailed down the Bosphorus, shopped till we dropped at the Grand Bazzar, and stuffed ourselves on the amazing food. The underground cistern was a vast underground water storage device built by the Romans, and is wet, eerie, and now filled with unusual art exhibits. A perfect place to film one of the James Bonds films. We also squeezed in a few days to visit the ancient Roman city of Epheses. The Romans abandoned it once they dredged the harbour and the sea moved several miles away. But by doing so, the city is perfectly preserved for us now and it was very neat to walk down an ancient Roman street surrounded by ancient Roman buildings and get an idea how things might have been thousands of years ago.

We were sad to leave Turkey, but the pyramids were waiting! Hopefully we can get this travelogue updated soon and you can catch up with us!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1067074080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1067074080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1067074080/tpod.html Fri, 14 Nov 2003 15:31:06 -0500 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Cappadocia and Nemrut Dag, Turkey

I doubt we will ever forget arriving in Cappadocia, Turkey. For starters, we had taken a 12 hour, overnight bus to "the Cappaodica region," unsure exactly which city we would arrive in due to translation difficulties. We had somehow managed to fall dead asleep when, in complete darkness someone shook me awake, barked out that we had arrived, and then proceeded to escort just Susan and I off the bus in a rush, grabbing our bags and unceremoniously dumping them on the roadside. The bus then took off with a roar, leaving the two of us entirely alone.

Then there was the landscape. Susan's first mumbled words were, "This looks like the moon." All around us were these towering columns of rock, some of which oddly had windows in their sides. It was absolutely still and obviously very, very early in the morning, and although it was clear were in a city of some sort given the buildings tucked in between these weird rock formations, I thought maybe I should have planned a bit more before heading off directly to the interior of Turkey.

But no need to fear. Someone eventually wandered up to us, explained we were in the city of Goreme -- where I was aiming for, score one for Sharad -- and then sent us off to a very nice hotel which fortunately had a room free.

After several days here, we can say that without a doubt Cappaodica is the most surreal place we have ever been to. The land here once had a huge volcanic eruption that covered everything with soft volcanic lava, ash and rock. The rock was so soft that it was easily eroded away leaving fantastic shapes -- including one area called, uh, "Penis Valley." It's a strange place. People have been carving homes and villages out of the rock for over a thousand years, many of which exist to this day. We spent hours walking in secluded valleys where a small opening to a cave takes you into a vast multistory complex with whole churches inside, complete with cathedral like columns. Many early Christians came here fleeing Roman persecution, and painted beautiful frescos right into the cave ceilings. There are also many underground cities spread throughout Cappadocia, built to protect villagers from invaders. It was amazing to see how complete they were, with homes, wineries, and even stables to support the villagers for up to six months at a time while the invaders just wondered where everyone had gone off to. In short, Cappaodica looks like it is from out of this world -- and, unsurprisingly, one of the scenes from Star Wars was filmed here. Its difficult to explain without seeing it for yourself, and pictures simply cannot do it justice.

The people here are great too, just like virtually everywhere we have been: very laid back and relaxed, and they make Cappaodica one of those places you come for three days and can stay for a month. We didn't have time for that, unfortunately, but we did manage to see our first familiar face on the trip so far. Cecili Sessions, a friend of Susan's from residency, is stationed in Turkey, so she really couldn't get out of seeing us. It was great catching up on things, and Susan loved talking medicine to someone who actually understood what she was saying.

After a few relaxing days here, we decided to plunge deeper into Turkey to see the famous giant heads of Nemrut Dag. Okay, we hadn't actually ever heard of Nemrut Dag before, but a picture of it was on the front of our guidebook. As we headed further east, we felt like we were really leaving western civilization behind us. Certainly no more internet cafes, practically no one speaks English, no idea how to get around town, and on top of it all we had entered the land of pit toilets. I had to handle all the transactions since no one would really talk to Susan. There was even this ridiculous situation when we tried buy cold medication. She attempted to start a conversation with the pharmacist, who kept looking at me the entire time. Since of course I had no idea what we needed, we settled on a strange game of telephone where Susan would tell me in English what the name of the medication we needed, I would then repeat in English what she had just said to some nice man who insisted he spoke English, who would then engage in a conversation in Turkish with the pharmacist which to our untrained ear sounded something like "I have no idea what these crazy foreigners want." We never did get our medicine, but eventually found a very helpful tourist information guy who said I didn't look too sick and put us on bus to Nemrut Dag in no time.

The heads of Nemrut Dags are a series of statues surrounding an ancient, pyramid-like funerary mound for some famous king whose name escape me, and is almost 75 meters high. Seriously big. To get there we followed this winding path up a desolate mountain for four hours. The heads are all that's left of these huge statues of Gods and Kings that watched over Turkey. The heads alone were taller than Susan and it was great seeing another beautiful sunset with these ancient heads surrounding us.

We had been looking very forward to Turkey after travelling through Europe, particularly to a bit of rougher and more exciting travel, and it has not disappointed. But no trip to Turkey is complete without visiting Constantinople, aka Byzantium, and now known as Istanbul. So we changed directions and headed west on yet another overnight bus. Oh joy!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1065340500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1065340500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1065340500/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2003 05:49:34 -0400 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Athens and Rhodes, Greece

... and I think the word is frustrating. We were unsure about whether to skip Greece in the first place. It would expensive to get there and hop through any of islands via flight (since there was no way we would try any of the 15 hour ferry rides with Susan's immediate and severe motion sickness), but what would a trip around the world be if you didn't see the Acropolis? So we ignored the guidebooks which told us Athens is just a sprawling mess, brought out our credit cards and booked two night and a day in Athens. Just enough time to hit the National Archealogical Museusm and the Acropolis. So after a 12 hour flight from Rome (or, shall we say, delay waiting for a plane), we finally arrived in Athens. Nothing like pretty Rome or beautiful Paris, and a lot of smog. But hey, we're just here to see two sites and we'll be on our way.

The next morning, we wake up ready to hit Athens. After getting ready and eating breakfast, we notice a tiny sign in out hotel saying that the National Archealogical Musesum is apparently closed until 2004, in preparation for the 2004 Olympics. Okay, fine, whatever. We're flexible. And, hey, the Acropolis is just around the corner. We then walk around the corner, to find out that the Acropolis has closed due to a strike. Arrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! The best part, though, was watching the striking workers, who actually showed up for work, but simply milled around behind their iron gates and played cards. All the other tourists were pissed too, and I cheered when I saw some kids with a video camera sneak in over one of the fences and make it half way up to the site. But then the milling workers stopped their card games, blew their whistles, and "escorted" the kids out.

So we flew to Rhodes the next morning. Rhodes is a Greek island right off the coast of Turkey, and will conjure up any child's fantasy of knights and castles. The walled city of Rhodes is enormous, and the best preserved medieval stronghold in all of Europe (which is really saying something). Incredibly impressive with a real moat (not filled with water anymore, but which contains a great park - its that big.). You can actually see how difficult it would be to breach these walls, and can imagine a knight coming around the corner. We spent our few days just wandering around the walled town, with a nice day at the beach thrown in to relax. We're now done with Europe, and after a quick hour ferry ride, we will arrive in Turkey!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1065355740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1065355740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1065355740/tpod.html Wed, 08 Oct 2003 04:01:58 -0400 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Venice, Florence, Cinque Terra, Siena, Assisi, Rome, Italy

Ahhh, Italy. Words simply cannot express how much we loved Italy, but I'll try anyway. We started our travels by flying one of those cheap European budget airlines from Paris into Venice -- impressively, it was even cheaper than rail and obviously much faster. Paris and Venice back-to-back was just drippingly romantic, with one night walking hand in hand around the Eiffel Tower and the next taking a quiet gondola ride through Venice's backwaters. Though parts of Venice are mobbed with tourists, we managed to avoid most of them by simply getting lost in the alleyways. If you have never been before, or have been but didn't like it, getting lost is the key to this city. We actually ended up skipping most of the actual "tourism" and just wandered around, climbing many bridges, sampling some great gelato, and people watching. A lovely time!

We spent the next two nights in Florence, where we did all the touristy things you are supposed to do in the birthplace of the Renaissance, including staring up in wonderment at Michealangelo's David. At the time Susan was reading a biographical novel on Michealangelo, so she acted as our tour guide which was neat and a lot of fun for both of us.

However, it was here we had a bit of a meltdown. We have been on the road for about three months now with six months to go, and -- while this may sound ridiculous -- we were becoming quite tired of living out of our backpacks, eating out night after night, and constantly touring around. Also, we were positively sick of wearing the same few clothes over and over again. The grass is always greener, they say, and we definitely started to feel a bit of homesickness. So we changed our plans for the rest of Italy and decided to take off some time for us.

We first went over to the Cinque Terra, which is a group of five fishing villages (maybe a street long each) right along on the Italian Riveria. Its a great little place, very relaxing. You can hike from village to village on these little rocky, hilly trails with amazing views of the sea. And the beaches were great! Hopefully, one of the pictures we are posting can convey how beautiful it was, but you absolutely must go here. We were lucky to hit great weather, and one day took a 2 hour hike from the little village we were staying at to the next, and spent the rest of the day alternating between baking on the beach and swimming in the glass-like waters of the Mediterranean.

We then went to Siena. All we did there was wander around eating gelato (truly an amazing creation -- especially the nutella flavor). We did some serious clothes shopping and then ate some more! Barely took a picture. Then we were off to Assisi (of St. Francis fame). We rented a little house, complete with mini-kitchen, at this B&B for five glorious days, which came complete with an Italian grandmother who whipped up fantastic meals. Oh, and two dogs who would walk with us as we walked into town for groceries or took a hike. Aside from a quick half-day in Assisi, we did no sight seeing at all the time we were there; just reading and cooking and more relaxing.

So we were perfectly recharged as we headed off to Rome -- to Michealangelo's Sistine Chapel, the Vatican, the Colossuem, and the Roman Forum. You know, all the touristy stuff. We were really glad to have taken the time off because we absolutely loved Rome. St. Peter's Basilica was particularly moving. Between Italy and France we feel like we have taken an art history course. In fact, that has been the best part about Western Europe; we came for the food but just fell in love with the culture and history.

Italy was just one of those places we know we will go to again and again. But alas, our time here is up, and we are off to Athens for a brief stay, and head into Turkey! We are ready for the rest of the trip, and are so excited about traveling to the Middle East and experiencing a totally different culture (not to mention some wonderfully spicy food). Talk to you soon!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1063718520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1063718520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sharadnsusan/rtw2003-04/1063718520/tpod.html Wed, 24 Sep 2003 07:03:45 -0400 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

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Chamonix, Provence, and Paris, France

France was a gastronomical delight! We started our eating tour in Chamonix, which is in the French Alps in the valley underneath Mt. Blanc, right on the border of Switzerland and Italy. The hiking was fantastic as expected, and seeing the glaciers stretching down in the valley from the tops of the mountains was beautiful. We did an above the tree line hike, which made for some amazing views of Mt. Blanc, and an along the valley hike through the forest and pastureland, which reminded us of Switzerland. The hikes were made all the better by our delightful picnics of fresh French breads, stinky cheeses, creamy yogurts, divine pates, smoked meats and incredibly fresh fruit -- the likes of which you simply cannot get back in the States.

The next stop on our gastronomical tour was a beautiful french farmhouse in the heart of Provence. Since we arrived without a car we were essentially stranded at our B&B. This horrible fate meant that we had to hike in the vineyards all day and at night be subjected to brilliant 8 course dinners prepared by our very hospitable and able hosts who spoke little English, but definitely knew the language of food.

Paris, our final stop in France, was a delight on the senses. This city is nothing short of beautiful. It being our first time, we did the typical touristy things - the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, a walk down the river Seine - and loved it! Our favorite was the Musee de Orsey, which has some of the most famous Impressionist paintings. But of course, the Louvre was spectacular and overwhelming, and we got to see many of our favorite French revolutionary paintings as well. Of course, we also managed to sneak in several excellent restaurants where we dined to our hearts' content.

Alas, France was not all perfect. While we did met some exceptionally nice people, who went out of their way to be helpful in all sorts of ways, the rumor that the French aren't fond of tourists was confirmed in the train station attendants. Susan knows a bit of French from school, but its all mixed up with Spanish from work, which makes for a confusing combo. So everytime we sidled up to a train attendant, we would say bon jour and, rather than subjecting them to our dreadful language skills, ask in French if they speak English. Invariably we would get a very curt "non" accompanied by a bored or hostile look, and we would delve into our French. After five minutes of confusion, the now angry train attendant would begin to speak perfect English. Time and again. It got pretty frustrating for us, and made train travel not so fun. But at least the food and wine made up for it and more, and we definitely want to return to France in the future!

But the trip moves forward, and now we're off to Italy for pasta and renaissance art! Au' revoir!
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