Chasing Sunrises...

Home Sweet Home!

2005-11-28T22:21:00.000-08:00

An anonymous commenter pointed out that we haven't posted a blog since Nov. 5! (actually the message was more like 'how could Lesley stop being so long winded' ;) hee hee)

But fear not! We still have some blogging in us - in particular, we have tales to report from Cambodia, the gorgeous Thai island of Ko Chang, and Hong Kong. They will come soon (because not only has this blog been a great way to share our whereabouts with those we love but it has also served to document our trip for ourselves!) Here's a photo of us on Hong Kong island, looking across to Kowloon:

And enjoying the sunset in the warm, warm water around Ko Chang:

We are now back in the US... we arrived in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving morning after a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong. We're staying with our good friend Nate--very kind of him to open his home and let us decompress here. After a quick nap and some preparations we were whisked off to a jovial Thanksgiving feast at the home of friends Stuart and Laura (amazing host and hostess). Potluck style and a great mix of people. It was boisterous yet cozy; a perfect event to come home to! The next day we slept until, well... dark. Yes, the sun was setting when we finally got up. So much for resetting the internal clocks... finally today on Monday, I think we are approaching a normal rhythm.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we take a bus up to San Francisco. Lesley will spend a week there, head up to Seattle for one week, and then go to Michigan to see her family (yay!!! Can't wait! Hi Dad, Grant, Zoe, Vivienne, Natalie!). Russ will head to Minnesota to see his family for Christmas too. We just might be able to pull our final blog tales together on the bus tomorrow--it's a 7-hour journey.

So what now? The overseas portion of our travels is over but we're still living out of backpacks! We are refreshing our skills and job hunting while we enjoy reconnecting with our families and friends.

Elephants, Cowgirls and Temples

2005-11-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

The rain held off just enough the next day in Chiang Mai for us to make it to our daytrip adventure, although Russ had a touch of the belly blues so he stayed back at the hotel for some rest and recovery. Good thing he did, too -- our "adventure" included an hourlong elephant ride (covered all of about 1/4 km--man, those things stop to eat constantly), a short walk in the woods rather than "jungle trekking," about 15 minutes of river rafting (with just three spots that were of any challenge), and about 5 HOURS sitting on a hard bench in the back of a truck (and two-plus of those hours soaking wet after our "whitewater" rafting). That would not have gone down well with a sensitive belly.

The day was actually hilariously fun simply because it was so consistently NOT what it was billed to be. For example, after our so-called "jungle trek" we chuckled that the rafting would probably be a float across a serene pond on an inner tube... When we arrived at the river, we donned life jackets and helmets and got into the water... things looked promising... and then about 8 minutes later we are guided over to the side, told we had to get out and hike past a dangerous section (because of all the recent rain) to the next drop in point. We did that, but then another 8 minutes of rafting later, we were... DONE! Yes, done. We drove for almost two hours to get there, and rafted for a total of about 15 relatively calm minutes. The absurdity of it all was almost too much to bear. We were clutching our sides with laughter. We finally made it back to our guesthouse 2.5 hours late but it was ok b/c our evening plans of a riverboat trip got cancelled for us due to high water levels. So, we (including Thuijs, a new friend from Holland who found the day as ridiculously goofy as we did) decided to go to a Muay Thai boxing match. Muay Thai is notorious for being pretty hardcore. We got tickets from our guesthouse, got in a taxi and... in the spirit of our already silly day... found that there was actually no event at all that night, in spite of the date on the ticket and everything. It was hilarious. We finally just got back to the guesthouse, got a refund, and called it a night.

We headed back to Bangkok the next day, where it was probably 10 degrees F hotter... the humidity here is stunning. It's even too much for Lesley, who loooooves the heat. If she's sweating it, you know the rest of the crew is extremely uncomfortable. While in Bangkok we figured we had to check out Soi Cowboy, a street known for its over-the-top blinking lights, loud music, debauchery (Thai-style Vegas ;) Perhaps the most shocking thing about the area was the number of very young children running around in the street, literally grabbing our arms and jumping up on us, trying to get us to buy things they're selling. Apparently it's common here for kids to have "pimps" waiting in the shadows to take the money they collect. One wonders whether the kids' mothers are busy at work inside the establishments that line Soi Cowboy?

Currently, we are in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We spent yesterday wandering around the temples of Angkor in the sweltering heat. We hired a licensed guide (a good way to contribute to the local economy) but probably could have done just fine without one. Several times during the day we were told of his extreme state of poverty, which was somewhat awkward. Cambodia has no social security of any kind, so it is good that systems are being put in place to help people make money from tourism in ways like licensed guiding (rather than pimping out children to hassle tourists--although this seems to be happening here even more than in Thailand). We are seeing victims of land mines everywhere... so many people with missing limbs, blinded... On the path to one of the temples, a "victims of land mines" band was playing for donations. They were wonderful musicians and it was good to see them enjoying making music while also making some money. Pretty much everywhere we go, we are approached by land mine victims and especially persistent children for handouts. We're happy to give but are trying to be cautious to not support the pimping-out of children. It's difficult and frustrating to know what the best thing is to do.

Today we are spending the day in the town of Siem Reap. We took two tuk-tuks to get to the silk farm/artisan shop (one of the many local establishments whose proceeds are used to train locals with skills or provide medical care). Barry and Jen took one and we took the other. Well, in spite of a lengthy discussion with our driver about where the place was, map and all (and it's less than 1 km away, just into the downtown area), he starts driving far away. We finally stopped him and rectified the situation... but we arrived at the silk place much later than planned, and there is no sign of Barry or Jen. We don't know whether they were driven to the distant location as well? Ah well. Hopefully we find each other; this isn't a huge town.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Phnom Penh. The Cambodian independence day is Nov. 9. We're looking forward to being present while this re-establishing nation celebrates their breakaway from French colonization.

Sobering note: About half of Cambodia's population is under 15 years of age... this is because the Khmer Rouge murdered so many people in just three years of terrible rule.

Love to you all
Lesley and Russ

WB=87 (we had a palm wine here in Cambodia, which tastes a bit like sake, and a wretched California Merlot [we ordered a French wine but that is what they brought to the table, hee hee!] and a cherry wine from Turkey that tasted like cherry pie. Yes, we are recovering our taste for wine slowly, but we lament the limited selection here :)

Rain, Rain Go Away

2005-10-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

To get to our guesthouse, we must *wade* through calf-high water on the street. Yes, dear readers, we are here in northern Thailand at the very very very end of the rainy season. We thought we snuck past it, yes we did--with all that beautiful sunshine while we were at Tao Garden. An hourlong downpour each afternoon around 4:30 was a refreshing treat. Evidently it was an appetizer. We made plans to go on a daytrip for today: riding elephants, whitewater rafting, trekking through some jungle all in one day. But we awoke to more of the wet stuff and have delayed our daytrip until tomorrow...but now all the weather reports are dragging out the wet spell until the end of the week (when we will go get soaked in Cambodia).

Who, exactly, is "we" you ask?!? I delightfully report that "we" includes Barry and Jen along with Russ and myself! Yes, we all managed to meet up and we're getting lots of time together since we're, well, stuck in the rain. How do you make lemonade out of lemons? Just add water! Lots of it! Yay!

We did make it to the well known Sunday market and night market here in Chiang Mai. Beautiful Thai silk garments, handmade leather sandals, stunningly detailed woodwork such as intricate filigree carvings of scenes with Buddha, you name it. Other than that, our time here has involved sleep (yay!), reading books, eating fabulous spicy coconut milk curries and getting ridiculously cheap massages (one hour Thai massage=150 baht. That's about $4.25). In fact, if it keeps raining tomorrow, we will try to get our money back from our daytrip plan (minus deposit of just 200 baht each) and spend the rest (1000 baht each [$25]) on massages and curry. Sounds like a perfect rainy day to me.

WB=?? I don't know but it hasn't gone up - after our week of detoxing we actually haven't really craved alcohol. Even wine. I know, I know. This is serious. We promise to work on it.

Tao Garden Health Spa - Days 5 and 6

2005-10-29T03:59:00.000-07:00

Day 5
Time to begin the second round of cleansing...

Detox Day 5 schedule (see past blogs for descriptions of repeated treatments):
8:00 - Breakfast
10:00 - Chi Nei Tsang (abdominal massage)
11:00 - Colon Hydrotherapy
12:00 - Banana Leaf, Herbal Steam Bath
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - Foot Detox (50 minutes of foot soaking, scrubbing, and massaging)
3:00 - Thai Massage (50 minutes of deep pressure point massage with stretching)
4:00 - Five Elements Massage (90 minutes of heavenly relaxing massage and acupressure along with aromatherapy that is supposed to help bring balance between the five elements of fire, water, earth, wood, metal)
6:00 - Dinner

After Russ' first Chi Nei Tsang the masseur told him that he needed the Muscle Tendon massage (on day 3) to loosen his muscles so he could make the next Chi Nei Tsang more effective. Boy was he right! On Russ's second Chi Nei Tsang, the masseur was able to dig deep into the adomen, massaging each major organ. At the end of the day, Russ felt extremely tired as his internal organs were beginning their healthy recovery.

Day five was Lesley's turn-the-corner day. Instead of feeling wiped out from treatments, she felt absolutely radiant and energized (and realized how long it had been since she last felt that way).

In the evening, Russ went for some needed sleep while Lesley hung out with Jackie, David and Rae. All of us have major decisions coming up in our lives in the very near future, and so somehow everyone started telling sordid tales of decisions past (relationships, travel, jobs, etc.). Some of the stories were actually pretty tragic but generated peals of laughter from all, even the storyteller. (A testament to how much healthier and balanced we're all feeling after devoting so much energy this week to our well being.) David and Jackie are into jyotish, a method of eastern astrology which more or less says "it is written," so they seem quite peaceful about whatever their lives bring/have brought them. Rae, David and Jackie have all used a pendulum method to try to help them make decisions (hold a pendulum, or use your body as a pendulum, ask a yes/no question and see which way the pendulum moves). Rae prefaces her questions with "Is it good for my highest being to..." Just for giggles, I stood up and asked "Is it good for my highest being to... stay in Seattle?" Well, I won't tell you all what it said, mainly because I'm a skeptic. Nevertheless, it is enjoyable and expanding to hear others' ways of perceiving the world, life's challenges, and life's decisions. We also found out that David and Rae both make jewelry, and we pulled up Rae's website--she showed us some of the jewelry she has made (she even makes some for Hollywood) and clothing she has designed. She paints, too--very creative all around.

One of the most interesting aspects of our time here at Tao Garden is managing skepticism while trying to be open minded. We've signed up for some treatments and evaluations (such as the NES, see Day 6) purely out of curiosity. In the cases of actual treatments, we have been fairly amazed by the changes in how we feel. In the cases of evaluations, such as the energetic nutritional analysis we both did, and Russ's aura test, we remain cautious; nevertheless we are having fun and receiving information that is not only strongly upheld by the practitioners here but fascinating to contemplate as well.

Day 6
Finally--our last big day of detoxifying and cleansing our bodies. Its amazing how much better we look and feel. Our skin is glowing, our posture is effortlessly better, and our bodies are generally more loose and relaxed.

Detox Day 6 schedule (see past blogs for descriptions of repeated treatments):
7:00 - Chi Kung (Russ made it up for this; Lesley slept)
8:00 - Breakfast
10:00 (Russ) - Karsai Nei Tsang (50 minute genital health massage which is basically Chi Nei Tsang for the first 35 minutes followed by working the pressure points, tendons and other tissues in the genital area to release sediments in the reproductive system)
10:00 (Lesley) - Chi Nei Tsang (abdominal massage)
11:00 - Banana Leaf
12:00 - Ozone treatment
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - Full-body far infrared (30 minutes of far infrared over the body [from the farthest segment of the infrared spectrum from the visible light spectrum]) and Chi machine (ankles are placed on a device that moves them rapidly from side to side to loosen up your body, move the energy around)
3:00 - NES-Nutri-Energetics Systems (Place hand on device and an electromagnetic reading provides information on the body's nutritional successes and needs, pesticide contents, enzyme sufficiency, vitamin and mineral sufficiency, presence of antibodies to various viruses and bacteria, and various other things)
4:00 - Sauna and herbal steam bath, fresh fruit
6:00 - Dinner

The NES was pretty fascinating, particularly since some of the results it returned confirmed some things each of us already knew from other sources. Russ was told that his body is low on B-complex vitamins, contains too much oil (fried food) fat and has had too much computer exposure. Further, his liver still needs to keep working on the long process of removing toxins from his body, and that he must work on cleansing and detoxifying his colon (made some progress there...) and kidneys first. Lesley was told that her body is very low on calcium and B-complex vitamins and that it's because she isn't breaking down food well enough to absorb those nutrients. Her report also said she has a high concentration of agricultural pesticides (typically used on non-organic fruit and vegetable crops). She was told she needs digestive enzymes, particularly lipase (body doesn't do a good job of breaking down fats to get rid of them, just stores them) and, interestingly, that she's technically lactose intolerant (!) and that she should think about that possibility whenever she feels fatigue, has emotional swings or has digestive difficulties after consuming any lactose. Food for thought--we'll let our inner skeptics and optimists continue their grappling :)

Another thing we enjoyed was the infrared sauna (different from far-infrared treatment). It was amazing how fast it made the body produce perspiration, and how much! Lesley lived in a house with a sauna for five years so she is accustomed to dry heat and doesn't turn into a faucet when the temperature rises, but she was surprised by the fast results of the infrared spectrum.

Over the week we saw some of the same healers several times, and warm connections have developed in spite of limited ability to communicate linguistically. The men and women working here are highly skilled, committed to their work, and kind-hearted. Lesley connected really well with Daeng, who gave her an abdominal massage and a Thai massage. Daeng was absolutely thrilled to feel how her work was successful on my body during the Chi Nei Tsang. It was so clear that she was personally invested in my health and well being. She even talked me through the Chi Nei Tsang so that I can use some of the technique on my own. Russ enjoyed working with John, a masseur who did the majority of his massages, since he took extra time making sure Russ's muscles were loose and without pain. John also taught Russ a few Thai words and a couple of different ways to tie the traditional light-weight Thai shorts we'd bought in Bangkok.

Our skin feels like satin. There simply isn't any more to slough off. We've been sweating and bathing and getting rubbed all over the place so much that all of our body tissues feel refreshed, healthy.

We've posted pictures Tao Gardens from this week online. Including pictures of our red blood cells before and after our detoxification. The clumped RBC's are oxygen and nutrition deprived while our 'after' pictures are healthy RBCs.) Please check them out http://carmichael.smugmug.com/Events/99386
(Lesley's are the first two pics and Russ' are the last two pics)

Final quick note: Rae keeps calling this place a "health farm" which is cracking us up.

Tao Garden Health Spa - Days 3 and 4

2005-10-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

Day Three
Today's 7 a.m. Chi Kung class was abbreviated to 30 minutes so that we could all hike out to a big lake and dam nearby for a meditation. The "15" minute hike actually took about 40 minutes, but in fact that made it more enjoyable. The hike itself was done as a meditation, following these four rules:
1. Walk single file, evenly spaced (about 2 feet)
2. While walking, remember to breathe deeply in the abdomen
3. Maintain some kind of comfortable hand shape consistently for the whole walk
4. Walk in unison, in the same footprint if possible

Our morning was misty and humid, typical for this time of year here in the foothills of the Himalayas. We finally emerged from the greenery to face a huge sloped dam. Our meditation walk continued up the slope as we carefully, steadily, silently climbed the dam. The serene, undeveloped lake was beautiful in the soft early morning light. We meditated by the lake for a little while and then relaxed, conversed and took a few photos before heading back by a different route, this time all chatty and social.

Here's our Detox Day 3 schedule (see past blogs for descriptions of repeated treatments)
7am - Chi Kung and Meditation hike
9 am - Breakfast
10 am - Lymphatic/Rife machine
11am - Herbal Steam Bath
12pm - Colon Hydrotherapy
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Foot Detox (90 minutes of foot rubbing, soaking, kneading, sloughing and massaging heaven) & Reflexology (our feet never felt so light and healthy and the reflexology made our organs feel refreshed!)
5pm - Tendon muscle massage (Russ only - 110 minutes of theraputic massage stretching and loosening the body's major tendons and muscles from the head to the feet)
7pm - Dinner

The tendon muscle massage was the best massage Russ has ever recieved (sorry CA friends who've given him massages before). It wasn't a typical massage--it was like partner yoga with deep tissue massage loosening and stretching tendons as well as muscles in the legs, shoulders, neck, upper back and chest.

After dinner we hung around for a while with David and Jackie (a couple from Carmel, CA) and Dennis (a Tao Garden employee, who is from the Bay Area--wassup with all these Californians at the hippie farm here?!? ;-) David is a Transcendental Meditation instructor among other things and Jackie teaches ESL. They have just spent 9 months in Turkey, where Jackie was teaching English, and now they're trying to decide where to live next. They are scoping out possibilities in southeast Asia. Dennis has been "traveling" for 20 years now. Back in the day he used to work as a salesperson for IBM (back in the days of the marvelous blue chip) and currently he is a Tao master and at home here in Chiang Mai. People's stories are so fascinating.

Later in the evening we got online and got some fun news: Lesley's long-time friend Jason from Detroit is arriving in Phuket on the 27th! Jason visited Thailand a few years ago and really connected with the people, their culture and the way of living here, so he stayed for many months and even was trained in Thai massage in Chiang Mai. When the tsunami hit the Phuket area last December, Jason immediately got on a plane and came here to help (he is an EMS/ambulance health care provider), again staying many months. Now he's coming to stay for one year, this time employed by a health/wellness facility in Phuket. We have tentative plans to visit Ko Chang, an island in the southeast part of Thailand, but with this news, we are reviewing our plans because it would be excellent to spend time with Jason, see Phuket through his fond eyes.

Day four
Day four was a much needed day off. Russ managed to get up for the 7 a.m. Chi Kung class but slept for several hours after returning in a relaxed state. Lesley, often a mild ansomniac, burrowed deeper into bed when the alarm went off, acknowledging that serious rest is hugely important for the detoxification process. On her way to the pool for a swim in the morning, Lesley passed an outdoor satellite TV area, and found Dennis watching... the World Series! Dennis claims things like the World Series and the Superbowl are tendrils of connection to his old American culture (although he has lost his taste for beer during his life's quest).

After lunch, Russ, Lesley and Jackie took a Thai vegetable carving class. We made leaves out of cucumbers, a rose out of a tomato peel and other carvings, decorating a whole plate. It was fun! We'll have to bust out our new skills at a dinner party someday. We manged to squeeze in a swim and a few pamperings (steam bath, banana leaf treatment) before the usual 5 to 6 p.m. total downpour. Lesley bonded in the herbal steam bath with Rae, a friendly yoga teacher from LA who has been traveling alone for many months and is currently teaching yoga in the hills of Indonesia. She came to Thailand just to visit and ended up getting sick on some bad food somewhere, so she came to Tao Garden to recover. She decided to do a detox and it is causing some heavy emotional circumstances to bubble up for her, so it's great that she is surrounded by supportive people along with the thoroughly serene environment. We all attended the Tao Yin evening exercise together--a quiet, yoga-like floor-based series focused on the spinal core of the body. The Laughing Buddha posture was a blast: you lay on your back, put your arms and feet up (like a dead bug in an old cartoon), shake them around like crazy, and--laugh. Yes, laugh and giggle and chortle your heart out. You'd think it's hard to laugh on demand, but everyone found it so goofy that in no time we were all laughing for real, and Lesley actually couldn't stop giggling even though the posture was long over.

And that, dear family and friends, was our delightful day off. Tomorrow we go back to poking, prodding, rubbing, steaming, and so on. Phew!

Tao Garden Health Spa - Day 2

2005-10-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

We're in better shape after today's detoxing than we were yesterday. Both of us notice our skin developing a healthier glow and our bodies feel better.

Here's the schedule for Detox Day 2 - (activities without descriptions are listed below in the schedule for day 1)
9 am Breakfast (We skipped the 7am Chi Kung since our bodies needed the rest)
10 am Abhyamga (50 wonderful minutes of a luscious warm oil massage given by two people - the oil was a detoxifying sesame oil with four herbal scents added; one for each element)
11am - Ozone treatment
12pm - Banana Leaf treatment
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Lymphatic/Rife machine
3pm - Herbal Steam Bath
5pm - Colon Hydrotherapy
6:30pm - Dinner
7:30pm - Tao Yin Evening Exercise (Russ only - The class consisted of breathing, stretching, and sound exercises intended to remove your body of bad chi (energy) and replace it with good chi)

Our bodies are feeling much better at the end of today than they were feeling yesterday. For Russ - it was the colon hydrotherapy which exhausted his body yesterday (making him feel like he had been snowboarding all day) however today's didn't nearly have the same impact on him.

Our skin looks amazingly healthy after the Abhyamga (oil) massage! After layers of oil were rubbed into our bodies, the masseuses scrapped the oil off of our bodies along with many toxins and unhealthy skin. Unfortunately we're not getting anymore Abhyamgas however we feel this massage served its purpose.

As they say here...Good Chi **Good Heart** Good Mind

Tao Garden Health Spa, Chiang Mai - Day 1

2005-10-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Tao Garden <http://www.tao-garden.com/> is a holistic health resort set amidst lush tropical greenery, a river, about 10,000 orchid plants (this is probably only a slight exaggeration) and crops that produce some of the organic food served here. We're a little tired from our first full day here so a real description of the place (with photos too!) will have to wait until later. We arrived on Saturday and will be here for one week.

The first step was to get a drop of blood visually analyzed under a microscope. We didn't do too badly (no evidence of serious disease or infection) but let's just say that this week of cleansing will be good for the both of us. In both of our analyses, our red blood cells were clumped together (stacked up like coins), which we were told can be a symptom of several things: not enough oxygen is getting into the bloodstream, the body isn't well hydrated, the person is experiencing a load of emotional stress or frustration. Other features on the slide (in the plasma) indicated issues related to poor breakdown of nutrients, which often shows up when a diet is too heavy in protein or alcohol, and evidence of bowel toxicity. You can read the gory details here <http://biomedx.com/microscopes/training/LB1.html>.

It's a good thing we had already arranged for a thorough detox program (three days) followed by a healing spa program (another three days), with a day of rest in between. At first we balked at the day of rest recommended by a practitioner here; but now, after our first full day of cleansing, it is remarkably clear why it is a good idea. Not only are we pretty tired right now, we are pretty crabby, too.

Here's the schedule we had today (Detox Day 1):
7am - Chi Kung
9am - Breakfast
11am - Chi Nei Tsang (serious adominal massage--painful but hugely beneficial)
12pm - Banana Leaf treatment (relaxing in the hot sun for 20 min. covered in banana leaves)
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Lymphatic/Rife machine (50 minutes of light lymph massage while a mild electric current is sent through the body to stimulate the dissolution and movement of lymph)
3pm - Herbal Steam Bath (four five-minute hot hot hot herbal saunas with brief showers in between to wash off the toxins secreted in sweat)
5pm - Colon Hydrotherapy (yup, just what it sounds like)
6pm - Dinner
7pm - Ozone treatment (30 minutes, full body except head in an ozone-enriched steam bath, cold compresses and massage to the head)

So - we are crabby and we have to be up for 7 a.m. Chi Kung again... so we're signing off!

Bangkok

2005-10-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

(Scroll down for blogs on Cappadocia and Istanbul... we posted several at once!)

Our overnight flight from Istanbul to Bangkok was truly a sunrise-chasing endeavor with the sun rising about five hours early. Following the recommendation of a friendly Canadian couple we met in Turkey, we are staying at an inexpensive (~$16/night), clean hotel in a fun area (near, but not on, the well-known Khao San Road--we do like to get some sleep once in a while!). We've found the Thai people to be friendly and helpful (not as agressively friendly as the Turks). Our bus ride from the airport took us through steaming heat in this, the "cool" season here. Tuk-tuks and motorcycles wove daringly through the jammed traffic, and all of it coughed out odorous black smoke.

"That man, he has many problems."

We strolled down Khao San Road (one of the main tourist drags, particularly for backpackers) looking for a restuarant where we'd have an outdoor table to people watch. When we were seated Russ caught out of the corner of his eye one of the other waitresses shaking her head at her coworker who guided us to a particular table. (Incidentally half the waitresses were men... ahhh, Bangkok). There was a man sitting by himself at the adjanct table table, probably on his fifth Chang(Beer) who immediately snared us into conversation. The conversation was rather odd but sufficiently entertaining... at first--but with time he threw in things like "but the judge just doesn't believe you when you say you were dowloading kiddie porn because you were making a documentary." We blew that off as tasteless humor at first, but then he joked that girls with braces are too old because they have their adult teeth... and so on. At one point, an ultra-cute Heineken waitress (the female waitresses--but strangely not the crossdressing male ones--at this place wore slinky dresses with particular beer logos and received commission for each beer they sold) whispered to Lesley, "That man, he has many problems". We agreed--and by this point, it had become clear why, when we arrived, one of the waitresses was shaking her head at the person who seated us. Right before we finished our beers our neighbor took our bill off our table and said he'd pay for it. We tried to refuse but he insisted. We eventually made a polite getaway, telling him we had an early flight to Chiang Mai the next day (which is mostly the truth).

Serendipity

While on our way to see the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok, a young Thai man began walking in step with us, asking us about ourselves and what we were up to... fortunately he wasn't one of the people the guidebooks warn you about. His name was Tham, a cheerful 19-year-old student at Thammasat University who is going to become a monk next year. (We read in Lonely Planet's Thailand guide that socially, every young Thai man is expected to become a monk for a short while (usually 3 months), usually between schooling and starting a career.) We struck up a conversation and soon Tham was marking all the highlights on our map. He told us the best way to make the most of our day was to take a tuk-tuk, and that it shouldn't cost more than 30 bhat (including having the driver wait for us at each spot). We learned that white license plates on tuk-tuks mean they are government controlled and thus can't really rip you off, but no such protections exist for the independents with the yellow plates! Lo and behold, as we wrapped up our conversation, a tuk-tuk with a white plate was coming down the road. We hailed it, and Tham actually showed the driver the map, gave him instructions and told him to charge us 30 bhat (about 75 CENTS) for the whole tour, which would take a few hours. We were fortunate to run into a kind person with good intentions.

Our driver was Fren (spelling?). He was also friendly and even walked with us right up to each major site, making sure we could find our way if we had to park a few streets away. We saw a huge, gilt Standing Buddha (about 38 meters high), a Sitting Buddha inside an opulent temple, and Buddhas for every day of the week. We made a donation and lit a candle for the day's Buddha (Friday). As we visited each place, it was interesting to see the various forms of genuflection people from all nationalities engaged in when they approached Buddha. One rule of conduct is to never have your feet pointed toward Buddha, so people quickly kneeled or assumed a lotus position upon sitting down. We've learned a bit about Buddhism during our time here. One interesting note is that Buddha was a philosopher (rather than, say, a self-proclaimed prophet or deity). Theravada is the type of Buddhism practiced here in Thailand. Buddhism posits three principal aspects of existence: Dukkha (stress, unsatisfactoriness, disease), Anicca (impermanence, transience of all things) and Anatta (insubstantiality, nonessentiality of reality - no permanent soul). Some famous words from Buddha:When you smell, just smell.When you touch, just touch... (and so on)

Tailor-made

One of the destinations Tham wrote down was Voglee, saying only "you are very lucky today" and that it was a great place to shop. We would have passed up the "shopping area" what we thought it was - just focused on seeing sights. But then, on our tuk-tuk whirlwind tour of Bangkok, we waited for a while while our driver dashed off to the loo. We were discussing the tenets of Buddhism, and a Thai man within earshot joined our conversation. He has been living in London for 16 years and is a tax lawyer there. He shared with us that he is in Bangkok for now to help his 86-year-old father, particularly financially because Thailand has no social welfare... We showed him our map, marked out with the stops recommended by Tham, and he nodded in agreement that we were getting the critical Bangkok tour. Then he saw "Voglee" written on the map by Tham and he raised his eyebrows and said "How do you know about this? You are very lucky. This is only for Thais. Did you know this?" And so we found out the deal about Voglee - the lifetime membership, the Thai price for Armani patterns etc. Since our new acquaintance was a tax lawyer, he could tell us all about the Armani production/pricing process... We were so pleased with the serendipity of our day thus far that we decided a trip to Voglee must be included! - last day for farang to be able to get suits made there and become lifetime members. From now on, we can call and they'll send a catalog and fabric swatches and we can order things, shipped free, for life. Farang get this chance for one week out of the year. The reason? Armani suits are actually made in Thailand; thus, the patterns for these things are here - the Armani tag goes on them once they hit Italy. So we're getting gorgeous, classic-cut patterns, made to fit, out of cashmere wool, sueded silk, etc.

The Ubiquitous Tuk-Tuk

We get several offers for taxi or tuk-tuk on each street we walk down... And usually when you say "no thanks" in English or Thai, they'll let you be. Tonight though, on the way back to our hotel one taxi offer was followed up with: "ping pong show?" (If you don't know what that is, Google it ;)

WB=84. (We're in Thailand embarking on a cleanse now, so if we stick to it the WB shouldn't go up for at least a week! If it does, we've been bad.)

PS - stay tuned for Bangkok photos. Oh, and for some reason all the links in the right-hand sidebar are alllll the way at the bottom when the blog is viewed. If you want to see our photos, the link is down there!

Istanbul, Part Iki

2005-10-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Our second visit to Istanbul was centered on spending time with friends and being leisurely. We arrived late at night after an all-day bus ride from Cappadocia, and the daylight brought with it cool rain and wind. Perfect for a lay-around-the-house day! We stayed at the home of Hande and Dana (Hande is a former colleague of Lesley's from UW). They are *awesome* people, not to mention hostesses extraordinaire. What a pleasure to be at "home" for several days in Istanbul, and we did feel right at home. We were grateful for the opportunity to catch up on things requiring internet time, e.g., Lesley's UW email account closes down on 27 October, so a major download was necessary. (FYI: Lesley's new email address is luxelife@gmail.com.) Fortunately, Hande and Dana are geeks just like us so they have not only wifi but understanding of our many hours spent in front of computers. :) We completely geeked out, and they were our enablers, actually. And adding to the technology/leisure picture, they had satellite TV, so we lazed out in between our other lazing around, watching movies and even an American football game (the first of the season for both of us!).

The next day Russ took off to explore Istanbul while Lesley continued to take care of her account transfer issues. Russ went back to the Sultanahmet area to embark on a "Walk of the Empires," a walking tour listed in our Lonely Planet guide for Turkey. His adventure started off with the Basilica Cistern, a huge water storage facility (which holds 80,000 cubic meters) built by the Byazantine empire in 532 AD. A shallow pool of carp-filled water still exists in the cool, damp, underground building held up by lots of columns. (Insert picture) The tour continued past various old buildings, mosques, small graveyards with tombs of sultans and other famous Muslim Turks, and the Burnt Column which was erected in 330 AD by Constantine to celebrate the dedication of Constantinople as the capital of the Roman Empire. Russ ended his tour with a look into the beautiful Suleymaniye Camii (mosque) as Muslims were gathering for prayer.

That evening Hande appeared from her room (poor thing had a nasty bug for a few days from eating bad food) and we were all able to enjoy some delicious Turkish take-out, a stunning sunset over the Blue Mosque (they live across the water in the Harem neighborhood and have a high balcony), and interesting discussion about Ramadan, Turkish politics, you name it. As we lounged around together we came across the movie Freaky Friday--which we thourghly enjoyed...We did say how loungey we were, yes? :)

We were sad to have our final day in Istanbul arrive... such a dynamic, interesting place and just not enough time to get acquainted with it all. We spent that last day exploring the Dolmabahce Palace and the Grand Bazaar. Dolmabahce Palace was commissioned in 1843 by Sultan Abdul Mecit and was finished thirteen years later. The western opulence of the new palace complex was intended to show Europe that the Ottoman Empire still held glory and was able to play on the European playground. We thought it was humorous that the Sultan was only 20 years old when he commissioned the palace--such ... what a Grand Bazaar, a massive area of town housing about 4,000 vendors selling everything from dried fruits to rugs to clothing. Lesley particularly enjoyed smelling everything in the spice bazaar (the chilies! the cumin! the curries!), and we even found something called the "Sultan's Aphrodisiac" there...

The Cappadocian Moonscape

2005-10-22T04:43:00.000-07:00

No - we didn't actually go to the moon, but if somehow we had been whisked to the moon in our sleep, we would hardly be able to tell the difference between the lunar surface and the funky rock formations of Cappadocia (Persian for "land of beautiful horses" since people used to raise horses there) in southern-central Turkey. Cappadocia was once an active volcanic region, with massive eruptions that left lava up to 100m thick. Erosion over thousands and thousands of years eroded the "tufa," resulting in cone-shaped rock formations (often called "fairy chimneys"). People lived in caves (some still do!) and even entire underground cities. Canyons reveal ribbons of color that are like pale rainbows (see photo!), and the sculpted cones appear soft due to their consistent light color and smoothly eroded contours.

We took the night bus to the town Goreme in Cappadocia from Bodrum, which wasn't too bad--there were regular stops during the night to accommodate those who were fasting during the daytime for Ramadan ("Ramazan" they say here). We arrived in Goreme around 7:00 a.m. The sky was brightening and it was filled with hot air balloons. Ballooning is a popular attraction in this part of Turkey--it's a great way to take in the scenery. We had a balloon ride scheduled for the next morning, so it was pleasantly teasing to see the balloons in the air that morning. We arrived at our hotel one hour before the reception desk opened. They must be accustomed to dealing with visitors arriving on the various night buses from all sides of Turkey because they had a special "luggage" room open for use by people just like us. The room was a cave carved into the rock, fully decked out with kilims, carpets and pillows, and even a big bed. We crawled in and slept for about four hours! During that time, Lesley enjoyed a long, detailed, colorful and happy dream about making friends and living in the magical terrain of Cappadocia--an auspicious beginning to our time there.

We checked in and were disappointed that we didn't get an actual cave room. The power was off when we arrived as well. We learned that the original power grid to Goreme is no longer sufficient to meet the power demands created by tourism to the area. The power often goes off for a few hours a day (whether planned or unplanned, we don't know--we got contradicting answers to that question from different sources!). Later on, our shower flooded and took over an hour to drain, so we ended up checking out of Hotel Kelebek and moved to Canyon View, an absolutely marvelous place with a friendly, very hospitable proprietor (but more on that later). Lonely Planet gushed about Kelebek, which left us sort of nonplussed. We've dropped a line to Lonely Planet to let them know about Canyon View, which is a newer establishment (just opened in 2003) and therefore less well known.

It was as much of a calm pleasure to explore the town of Goreme as it was to explore the quiet, eccentric natural surroundings. It was so quiet. We could hear the clucking of chickens and the swish-swish of a broom down the street with intense clarity. To be removed from the all-too-familiar sounds of life in the urban center was joyful. While exploring the town we found Sultan Carpet, a shop recommended to us by two New Zealanders on a night train from Prague to Vienna. We walked right into the dragon's lair--Salih, our salesperson, didn't even have to lure us in. We were quick to tell him that they came highly recommended specifically for having very fair prices. We spent hours there with Salih and Mehmet, the owner of the shop, as they rolled out kilim after kilim and carpet after carpet (and gave us some tea). Being travelers on a budget when surrounded by an almost endless variety of beautiful Turkish rugs was tricky indeed. It took a while to make selections that suited our tastes and our budgets. You never really know whether you've paid an objectively fair price in Turkey. In this land, it's all about perceived value... In the end, we feel we paid a fair price, and we appreciated having our purchases shipped back to the U.S. for free (because we purchased enough...) We enjoyed the time we spent with Salih and Mehmet, too. They will be in the U.S. over the winter months to sell carpets. They do "house parties:" first, they display their offerings at a gathering and then they bring selected carpets to the homes of the prospective buyers so they can see them in their own homes before making a purchase decision. They'll be in Seattle and San Francisco, so we might try to organize one of these gatherings for them. (If any of you think you might be interested in hosting, or attending, please post a comment to this blog!)

Goreme also offered up delicious, inexpensive Turkish food. We were able to have a decent dinner and a beer for under ten US dollars. Both of us loved the lentil soup (a local specialty) which we ordered with almost every meal. We avoided chicken due to the bird flu virus concerns here. At one adventurous meal, Russ ordered a meat stew that was cooked inside a clay plot. The lid on the clay pot sticks to the base of the pot while it cooks, and a small hammer is used to tap around the seal of the lid. After much difficulty breaking the seal, the pottery started to crack and then crumbled open, which resulted in special crunchy treats in the stew... Needless to say he never tried that again. Many restaurants and nargile (water pipe) establishments would leave a backgammon board laying around so we practiced backgammon and think we might even be ready to challenge the Turks ;)

Hot Air Ballooning in Goreme

Taking a hot air balloon ride at sunrise was definitely one of the highlights of our stay in Cappadocia. The one downside with a sunrise balloon ride is getting up BEFORE the sun rises. It was especially difficult because it gets COLD at night here in the middle of the country, and there was no heat in our accommodation... not even the beautiful embroidered kilim on the floor could keep our toes warm. We were picked up in front of our hotel and taken to the launch site. We enjoyed tea and nibbles with about 20 or 30 other people who were also waiting for balloon rides, most of whom were Japanese or Korean. We listened to the fiery hiss-hiss of several massive balloons being raised from their sides to stand at attention above the baskets. A friendly guy named Suwat offered Lesley a 'shake up wake up.' She said "ok!" and he didn't quite know what to do because he said she was the first person to ever take him up on it. He put his hands on her shoulders and rattled her around while shouting "wake up! wake up!" in her face--much to the amusement of the other ballooners. It wasn't long before we were in the balloon and floating upward, viewing the incredible Cappadocian landscape. Our ballon floated up, down, to the left, and to the right as our seasoned pilot (with ghastly scars on his hands to prove his many years of pushing propane) took us through and over some of the unique valleys and rock formations around Goreme. The sky was filled with around ten balloons at the same time. Since the balloons are at the mercy of the wind they can actually bump into other balloons--like ours did. After our successful landing an employee of the balloon company opened a bottle of champagne and poured a glass for everyone. What a great way to start the day!

Seyit, the owner and manager of our hotel (Canyon View) was incredibly hospitable and generous. His name means "leader" and he was a wonderful guide for us as we discovered the history and beauty Goreme and its residents. He took us on a small private tour to see the famous fairy chimney rock formations and old cave churches with frescoes painted in them from around the 9-11th centuries. We also toured a fine ceramics manufacturer in nearby Avanos, where we saw the clay being thrown and very detailed Hittite and other styles of pottery painting being done by artists. His friend Mustafa at the potter offered us a very nice deal on pottery since we came with Seyit (we found out later just how sweet the deal was when we discovered what the participants of package tours are offered as a discount). We learned a lot from Seyit and feel we have a friend in Goreme!

There is so much more to say but alas we're already in Thailand and want to catch you up to where we are. To wrap it up quickly (can you believe it? Didn't think so ;) We oohed and aahed over frescoes of both Christian figures and Byzantine geometrical art from around the 10th century, and learned that red ochre, indigo and walnuts used for color, while pigeon eggs were used to create white layer for frescoes when they weren't painted straight on the rock. We saw a sema by whirling dervishes. On tour, saw underground cities. Used in war times when Christians were being persecuted. 5,000 people lived underground, had 8 levels or more down. We went on a great tour for just 40 lira each that provided a grand tour of the area and its history, including a hike in a massive canyon (where we ate fresh pistachios off the tree--peeling off the outer layer smells like sweet lemonade!), explored the Derinkuyu underground city (used by Christians in times of war and persecution), stopped at the Agzikarahan Caravanserai (a caravan stop along the Silk Road--there was one every 50km from China to Rome), among other things. In a nutshell (preferably one of those yummy lemony pistachio ones), we absolutely loved Goreme and the Cappadocia region. Go there!!

Bodrum, Epehsus, Kos

2005-10-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

After ten days of cool, autumn weather in Croatia, Slovenia, and Istanbul...the warm, sunny weather of Bodrum was greatly appreciated. Stepping out the back of the airplane was a bit odd for Lesley: the only time she had exited out the back of a plane, she was jumping out of a Skyvan over Pennsylvania.

As our taxi took us to Seckin Konaklar, our hotel in Bodrum, we passed tourists browsing through the plethora of shops, a smorgasbord of restaurants, and a big bay full of sailboats and yachts. Ah, the Turkish Riviera. The people at Seckin Konaklar were extremely nice and accommodating. With four geeks and three laptops, our main concern where we stayed was strength of the wifi signal. After walking through several different rooms with a laptop in hand checking the wifi signal the hotel owner appeared and told us we could move one of their wifi points right into the apartment. Now that is service.

After geeking out for a while, we walked along the busy bayside street in search of dinner. We were mobbed by every restaurant/bar frontman... They jump in front of you, arms wide, yelling "My friend! You are hungry! Come in! Where are you from?" (We're not sure whether "You are hungry" is a translation issue or a psychological ploy.) We finally got hooked by one place offering a sweet deal on fresh sea bass and a table right on the water. The view was stunning....the contrast of the dark bay at night against the colorful lights all around the bay.

Bodrum is known for its non-stop nightlife. Since we arrived just after the end of the high season for the town, the crowds were gone. This made for great access to the region's ferries, beaches, etc. - but to the dismay of the two single men among us, most of the cute summer patrons were gone.

Scuba!

As we mentioned in the Istanbul Part Bir blog, we took the recommendation of our friend Kutoy at the Istanbul nightclub and connected with his old scuba company in Bodrum. This was the first time for three of us, so we did "discovery dives" down to only around 10 meters. Scott Northrop is certified so he did two solo dives. Lesley got to play with an octopus on her dive and got inked!

Ephesus

We rented car one day and Scott Northrop dashed us up to Ephesus like Mario Andretti (indeed, he deserved an honorary Turkish driver's license--he fit right in). The zippy ride didn't stop Russ from being able to sleep sitting up in the back seat, though. He can sleep anywhere, anytime. Scott L. loaded up the book of Ephesians on his iPod so we could review it on the way there. It was pretty awe-inspiring to be setting our feet down on these old, well-trodden roads... the same roads walked on by St. Paul and so many prominent figures in history. But we can't be serious all the time: on the grand stage of an ampitheater, the Scotts reenacted the sword fight from Princess Bride. We also visited Mary's purported last home as well that day. All of the visitors were quiet, reverent--you could feel their focus in the air. Outside people tied tissues or fabric along with their prayers and intentions onto a wall-mounted rack to move them with the wind through the air.

Unfortunately Scottoni had to fly to Istanbul Thursday night and begin his long trek back to Seattle. Scottino and Scottoni continued to hit it off like old friends; Russ and Scottoni got to know each other better; and Russ and Scottino, best friends for a long time, got to spend some much-needed time together again. Of course Lesley had a blast hanging out with three fun, dashing men--she and various Turks referred to them as her harem.

A Restful Friday...

Lesley blogged, enjoying a quiet day though struggled with the less than consistent wifi connection. Scott L. and Russ got a little one-on-one time while they explored the city, figuring out how to get to Kos (Greek island) the next day and which buses to take to depart Bodrum. We originally had grand plans to go out that night but our plans changed as we got wrapped up in deep discussions over drinks at the apartment. We had all been reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello on this trip, so we considered our own "personal legends" (a la Coelho), events and choices in our lives and where we are headed. We went out for a late dinner and the discussion continued, so rather than shift gears to participate in a noisy, superficial club scene, we just took long walk along water and through the town.

A touch of Greece...

That morning we barely woke up in time to catch the 9am ferry to Kos. Our mission on the island was to find a nice beach so we rented some bikes and pedalled our way down the island. It wasn't long before we all agreed on a good beach... we rented chairs and palm thatch umbrellas and spent a lazy day reading books. Late that afternoon the wind picked up and the air got downright chilly so it wasn't a problem prying ourselves back to Bodrum.

A most Delightful and Delicious Dinner at La Jolla

For dinner, we decided to go to La Jolla, an elegant tapas and wine bar. We were greeted by the friendly owner Serdar, a Turk who lived in California for many years and loves wine. He and his wife Ece, a pharmacist, were both educated in the U.S. Serdar strategically built La Jolla on the edge of the bay by the yacht club to pull in wealthy vacationers. He told us Bill Gates was at his restaurant the day before. Lesley told Serdar that if Gates returned, tell him to hire her :) Serdar is a smart businessman--he recently bought up the restaurant space next door to La Jolla to open a sushi bar for the next summer season. He has a niche market: nowhere else in the area can you get quality California and other wines, much less sushi and sake. He gave us some awesome wine and tapas recommendations and sat down chatting with us for most of our lingering meal. He invited us to join him the next afternoon to see a quieter, less touristy area on the other side of the Bodrum peninsula, a town called Gumusluk.

The small fishing town was very pretty--no tourists. In the center of the bay there was a small island about thirty meters from shore. We walked out to it in thigh-high water on a rocky underwater surface. Under the water we could see an old Roman road that was built to reach the island (see photo) (the water level must have been consistently lower then). The smooth stones of the road were very slippery. Ece tried taking the old Roman road but slipped and fell in! The good news: she got to splurge on a new (dry) dress for her troubles. The rest of us avoided the slippery road and tiptoed on the sharp stones, grimacing... Russ finally put his Tevas on to save his feet, and then came back in to carry Lesley over the stones. Scottino got no such princess treatment. We had a pleasant afternoon chatting with Serdar and Ece. They gave us tips on Istanbul and we showed them pictures from our silly night at Halikarnas.

Halikarnas

We headed to Bodrum's largest nightclub Halikarnas--a massive (holds several thousand people) open air club located right on the water. Everything is white, and video screens are supported between Corinthian columns. There is a plushed out chill room inside--plushed out in a Turkish way, with traditional carpets and pillows. The music was pretty fun but drinks were Ibiza priced. The off-season crowd was small given the size of the club. We could imagine though how killer it probably was during the high season (albeit tacky-touristy). But if you didn't mind that, and you wanted to throw down and dance in a big crowd on the Aegean Sea, it wasn't a bad option :) The memorable part of the evening was the foam party--a very strange thing that has sprung up in dance clubs all over the world including Seattle and San Francisco. It was the first time for all of us to be present for such a thing. What a strange, strange phenomenon. At first just a little was sent flying onto the dance floor. Some people thought it was fun and got into it, and others retreated to the drier side of the dance floor. But then the stuff just kept coming. I mean, it was really ridiculous. We got completely soaked, dancing and laughing, as it came literally up to our waistlines. It was goofy fun but it sure drove most of the patrons away. Then again, it was past 4 am, so perhaps that was the intention. We met some friendly Israelis on the dance floor who were also bathing in the foam.
It's funny; when we make friends with other travelers, topics such as politics often come up in conversation, and all travelers generally feel the same way about events going on and people running the political show. Must be that certain kinds of people who tend to have certain points of view are the ones who are more likely to get out and travel.

We finally turned in around 5 am, but we had to be up and at 'em to meet Serdar and Ece at 1:30 at La Jolla for our visit to Gumusluk. Serdar thought it was hilarious that we actually went to Halikarnas the night before--he said the last time he went there was 15 years ago because it was so touristy-tacky. We scrambled in the morning to get Scottino's music onto a CD (hacked our way through an iPod to do it). Serdar knows people who run the famous catamaran parties in Bodrum... the catamaran leaves the dock at 1 am and returns around 5 am or so, and apparently it is just a crazy party with huge name DJs and a rambunctious crowd. We're all pulling for Scottino to get a spot on the catamaran next summer! We burned a CD just in time. The cool thing was, later on, (after we took Scottino to the bus station) Russ and Lesley stopped by to say hi to Serdar on the way home and he was playing Scottino's CD at his restaurant! Yay!

WB = 85

Istanbul - Part Bir

2005-10-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it's because 16 million people in one city cannot help but be dynamic, or maybe it's the inevitable cultural elegance of a city poised on the cusp of Europe and Asia... whatever is driving Istanbul, it's electric, eclectic and wildly fun. Our adventuresome gang (Scott Northrop, Scott Larson, Russ and Lesley) are in agreement that this city, and in fact this country to the extent that we have been able to experience it, has a flair for living, good humor, and a tenacity that wins in sociopolitics as well as it does in the bazaar.

We all flew in to Istanbul on the same day, and after a wild ride through Istanbul's rush hour (notice the motorcyclist on the sidewalk), we settled in at the lovely Hotel Alp (which we recommend highly--cozy, fun staff, gorgeous view over the Sea of Marmare from the terrace). We strolled the streets of our Sultanahmet neighborhood and finally decided to have dinner on the marvelous rooftop of the Seven Hills Hotel, which is snuggled right between two majestic mosques: the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya. An enthusiastic frontman for the restaurant (an archetype we have since found to be ubiquitous and to which we have had to build resistance) enticed us to "view" the terrace (with "no obligation" of course). The view took our breath away, and the menu looked de-luscious too, so we were sold! Glorious mosques to the east and west, the Bosphorous merging with the Sea of Marmare to the south (and, well, we don't know what was to the north because we were consumed by the rest)... The jovial and extremely courteous staff provided us with rich paisley shawls to ward off the chill of the night as we sat down to peruse the many delights on the menu. Little did we know that this gesture was but one instance of the pervasive, sweeping generosity and hospitality of the Turkish people. (They were also commendably patient with our constant field trips from the table to the terrace's edge for photos.) After dinner, we patted our bellies full of fresh fish, eggplant, good spices, and Turkish coffee and beer and called the night a rousing success, even if it stopped right there...

But everyone likes a bit of foreshadowing, don't they?

Well of course our night didn't stop there, oh no. This gang had to go all out on our first night in Turkey. It was a Saturday night, and Scott Larson (some of you know him as DJ Scottino) just happened to be reading in BPM magazine about a mega-exclusive, invite-only, ultra-slick penthouse-rooftop club in Istanbul called *Godat*Disco*... so we all decided we should try to get in. Why not? The article mentioned the name of the producer of the club night, which we all memorized (with the best Turkish pronunciation we could muster at that point)... Because *of course* we met him in Ibiza this summer, and he *told* us that when we came to Istanbul later in the year, we should come by his club...

Istanbul is a huge city and we had absolutely zero idea where this place was; nevertheless, we piled into a taxi and off we went. We climbed out at the Surmeli Hotel (the hotel with the penthouse club) and watched the taxi drive off as we sauntered up to the several stern-looking men in suits at the door. Scottino and Lesley had it all planned: Scottino, with his DJ credentials, would give the drivel about Ibiza, and Lesley would be on improv backup (and reasonable Turkish name-pronouncing) duty. Scottino goes first, telling the alpha bouncer guy with the headset and the beefy backup crew that we're happy to be finally visiting, and Can (pronounced sort of like "John") said to come by when we made it to Istanbul. Bouncer guy asks for the password!!! Doh! Bouncer guy says: "If you don't have a password I cannot do anything for you." But we were armed and ready: the BPM article informed us that entrance to the exclusive club is controlled by a password that's distributed via SMS. So Lesley jumps in: "Can told us about the passwords but we didn't know how to work that out since we're traveling and don't have phones right now. Besides, he told us to just come by." Then Scottino seals the deal with something like: "Is he here? Let's ask him." (Smooooth, ultra confident.) Bouncer guy peeps a few words into his super secret headset, makes us wait for a while. We converse among ourselves about Ibiza, we drop Can's surname, etc. Bouncer guy says: "Okay" and gestures us past. We're IN! We got the super secret passcard (see strange image at left), hit the elevator, and went all the way up. Scottino opened a tab in celebration of our reckless success, and our first drink was a round of champagne at 20 lira each... That's about 15 USD, yikes! All told, this place was almost as expensive as Ibiza. At one point during the night, we actually saw Can walk by (we recognized him from photo in BPM mag, which we also memorized just in case ;). We thought about going up to him and saying "Hey Can! We made it to Istanbul, remember we saw you in Ibiza and you said we should drop by!" just to round out our lie fully, but figured that might be pushing the fates.

The View from the Top

We could see for miles over the sprawling nightscape, extending from the lights of the city to the lights of the zillion ships in the sea. There are so many lights from ships that at nighttime that it is disorienting: it looks as though the city proper extends far into what you recall was water in the daylight. We didn't take photos at the club because we didn't want to blow our cover... it's a shame because it was a groovy penthouse with half of the club indoors and half outdoors. We met Haldun, a friend of the club's owner who actually constructed most of the interior, turning it from a spa into a night club. He made tables out of old sunbeds (just changed the bulbs from UV to neon!) and fashioned a see-through dance floor atop what used to be a swimming pool. It was impressive. Through Haldun and his wife, we met several fun people, all of them friendly, chatty, and an absolute blast. One great person we met was Kutoy, a professional diver who discovered an amphora from 5th-7th century on an archeological dive (his discovery filled a timeslot that had thus far been empty in the amphorae record). He also taught scuba diving in Bodrum, our next destination in Turkey after Istanbul. He recommended that we scuba dive with his old company while in Bodrum, and gave us their name and number. In the spirit of our reckless night, we decided right then and there that we would do it! And we did. Stay tuned for Bodrum tales, including our underwater photos...

We planned to stay late late late in anticipation of a glorious view of sunrise, but a moderate rain began to fall around 4:30 and the party moved indoors. The club became too packed, too smoky, and frankly too dramatic (the club really filled up around 3:00 and the drinks were flowing freely), so we called it a night. Not bad for our first night in Istanbul!

One new acquaintance of ours was Hakkan, who works nights at our hotel. He probably hated having us wake him up when we came in at various hours of the night, but he commented with amusement that we didn't hit Istanbul like most tourists do :) so we think at least we were curious to him. All of the staff there were super friendly--every time we came in or left, they would ask how we were, what we're up to, and take a few minutes to converse and offer tips and ideas as well as hear about our adventures.

We slept in until noon and then met up with Hakkan to go to the Blue Mosque. In conversation the day before, he offered to go with us, which we thought would be interesting; most of our gang had never been to a mosque before so having a Muslim around to ask questions of would be instructive. In between our oohs and ahhhs at the majesty of the place, we found out that 98% of Turkey identifies as Muslim, and about 25% practice strictly, including prayer five times a day and fasting during daylight hours of Ramadan (which would begin a few days later). We had fruitful discussions about the state of the world, the "war" in Iraq, the policies of various governments, etc. Our conclusion? We, a group containing Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and No Label Please members all felt the very same way about the state of affairs in the world.

Turkish Hospitality

After the mosque, we went to Hakkan's family's carpet store to meet his big brother, Salih. Over tea, Salih taught us about the different styles of rug making in Turkey (carpet vs. kilim, double vs. single knotting, hand vs. machine made, etc.). Of course it was a sales ploy but Salih turned out to be quite a character--which worked out well with this crew...before you knew it, Scottino and Salih were stirring the pot of bawdy humor and getting along famously. It turns out Salih will be in San Francisco within a handful of months. Cards were exchanged, reckless plans were laid... What a pleasure here in Turkey that even though vendors are hoping to make a sale, they are interested in just enjoying their time with guests as well. And so it was with Salih that day - we could afford nothing in his perfect-tourism-location shop one block from the Four Seasons Hotel in Sultanahmet... but we could be accomplices in bad jokes and good cheer.

Deep, Rich, Warm

The color palette of Istanbul is deep and rich, with warm earth and jewel tones. Even in the rain. We spent part of one day wandering around the Arasta Bazaar (not the Grand Bazaar) in our neighborhood, and what a pleasure to have our senses saturated with color and music and texture and the over-the-top sound and sight of persuasion as good-humored vendors tried to almost literally scoop us into their shops. The saturation continued into dinnertime, when we went to Turkmenistan restaurant, where we enjoyed live mellifluous Turkish folk music, utterly decadent yummies (perfectly spiced stuffed grape leaves, ayran [watered-down yogurt drink] with mint), lush traditional decor and several purring kittens at our feet.

Topkapi Palace

We visited the opulent Topkapi Palace, which was home to Selim the Sot, who drowned in the bath after drinking too much champagne (thank you Lonely Planet for that tidbit). There we viewed the living, ruling, and worshipping quarters of sultans along with a museum of weapons. The guys had a rather strong reaction to seeing the Circumcision Room (see photo). On a terrace over the sea, we met a sweet Ukranian woman, Katya (props to Scott N., who asked her to take our photo). It was her last day in Istanbul, and she was traveling alone, so we asked her to join us for a drink. We ended up finding a plushy corner to relax in for a while. We invited her to dinner and she accepted (by then she realized we weren't mean or dangerous ;) We shared stories, laughs, pictures, and drinks at our hotel before meeting up with Lesley's friends Hande and Dana.

Friends in Istanbul!

Hande is one of Lesley's former coworkers at the Language Learning Center at the UW, and Dana is her awesome partner. They pampered us silly, taking us out for the most amazing Turkish cuisine in the Taksim Square area. I think everyone's sides hurt after the meal - partly from eating too much, but mostly from laughing so much! What a great evening. We only got to see them for one evening in Istanbul Part Bir, but Russ and Lesley will see them again when they return to Istanbul (Part Iki!) after traveling around Turkey.

Ecumenia

We've been able to talk with many people who practice the Muslim religion. Their humble demeanor would earn the respect of any believers of anything: they have demonstrated a conscious acceptance of other faiths and have professed no judgments at all. In fact, they have reminded me of Muslims I have met in the United States--good people with good hearts, solid families, and friends from many walks of life. Nice to be able to confirm that Muslims outside the U.S. are just as great, just as human--not that we would have thought otherwise, but we appreciate the blaring contradiction to the image our government would have its constituents believe...what a disgrace. Rick Steves' "Back Door" travel series has this to say about Islam: "For us to understand Islam by studying Muammar al-Qaddafi and Osama bin Laden would be like a Turk understanding Christianity by studying George W. Bush and Jerry Falwell." A comment told to Steves by a Muslim mayor of a small town in central Turkey summed up the general attitude we've encountered nicely: "It doesn't matter what you call Him, as long as you call Him." Tell that to Dubya.

Five pillars of Islam:
1. There is only one God, and Muhammad is His prophet.
2. Pray five times a day.
3. Give to the poor.
4. Fast during daylight through the month of Ramadan (which began during our time in Turkey).
5. Visit Mecca. (Incidentally, Muhammad said: "Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you've traveled." This is very reassuring for Russ and Lesley who left jobs and responsibilities to round out their life credentials with travel ;)

That's all for now! Next up: Bodrum, Ephesus, Cappadocia, and Istanbul Part Iki.

A Short Stop in Slovenia

2005-10-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Our short two day stay in Ljubljana was an abbreviated version of the familiar chant April showers bring May flowers. It rained the entire first day we were there. Luckily for us it was only drizzling that afternoon when we (Lesley, Scott Northrup, and Russ) had to walk a short distance from the train station to the apartment we rented. As the day went on the rain increased its intensity, and we were recalling some of the dramatic flooding that had occurred in central Europe and the Balkans earlier in the summer. Our only adventure that evening was about 20 steps away: a quaint little Slovenian restaurant next door. The kind waitress there didn't speak any English at all, which was oddly refreshing to us but she was shy and apologetic about it. We enjoyed trying to meet her on her side of the language barrier with the Croatian we knew, and many giggles later we had a nice meal. When we left for the looong journey home we were stopped in our tracks by a massive puddle--several inch deep--that had suddenly developed between us and the entrance to our apartment. We tried to tiptoe, run, jump across the enormous puddle but we got soaked anyway. Ah, it was good to tuck in that evening in our cozy apartment. It was a good night's sleep and recuperation.

The next day turned out to be a marvelously sunny, crisp autumn day, perfect for discovering the elegant beauty of Ljubljana. Scott Northrup and Russ spent the afternoon together walking around the small town center while Lesley played Hausfrau and took advantage of the washing machine in our apartment. That evening all we all went on an informative and really fun guided tour of Ljubljana and its medieval castle. The highlight of the tour was the time we spent on top of the Ljubljana castle tower. The castle is located on top of one of the three prominent hills of Ljubljana. While on top of the tower, our guide Marty passionately told us stories about his city, country and culture as he pointed out points of history. He emphasized how lucky we were to see Ljubljana on such a clear night--probably the last of the season. We were able to see the highest peak in Slovenia which is rarely visible from the castle. Ours was the very last walking tour of the season for Marty. He was visibly moved by the beautiful night, and we felt lucky to be participating in it. We reflected on all of the serendipity and beauty we have experienced this summer.

The next day we got up at 5am and headed to the airport to fly to Istanbul. Since then we've been in Turkey for ten superlative days...stay tuned! We've also updated the smugmug site with pictures from Tuscany and Croatia (click on the Photos link in the sidebar on the right).

WB=80 (it's probably bigger but we've been sharing with many friends and we're losing track.)

Croatia

2005-10-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

During our time in Croatia we discovered some of its grand beauty: the towering mountains that provide a rocky backdrop for the coastal towns, the hills covered in olive trees, lush forested islands, the terraced lakes and multitudinous waterfalls of Plitvice National Park, and the tropical fortress town of Dubrovnik. Still present amidst the vast natural beauty are reminders of the war in the early 1990s between the Catholic Croatians and the Eastern Orthodox Serbians. More than half of rooftops in Dubrovnik were damaged from shelling. The photo here shows the contrast between the old rooftops and their bright orange new replacements in Dubrovnik. Although there is still disdain between the two ethnicities, our impression from meeting Croatians is that they are happy to have their own borders and are ready to move on and enjoy life in their scenic land. Croatians are very religious, with more than 95% of the population identifying as Roman Catholic.

The Vultures

Each time we disembarked from any mode of transport, we were swooped upon by older ladies, young entrepreneurs and anyone else with a spare room to offer. Even just walking around without our packs, someone hears you speak English and comes up and says "Excuse me, do you speak English?" and as fellow travelers we think this person needs assistance with something. We say "yes" and then they ask if we need a room for the night. Those with "sobe" (rooms) for rent would elbow around each other quite aggressively to get at you first: there must be zillions of available rooms per traveler, especially now in the low season for tourism.

Split

The town of Split is dominated by Diocletian's palace, a well-preserved complex built at the end of the 3rd century by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Within the grounds there is a massive statue that looks like a wizard casting a spell. Here's Russ, following the tradition of rubbing his toe for good luck.

We stayed in a region of Split called Kastel Luksic, which was way outside of town. This was disappointing at first but it turned out to be very satisfying because we got to see the side of Croatia that isn't prepared for tourists. Our ride there took us past a very industrial Croatia and many examples of a phenomenon we saw all over Croatia: half-built homes and other buildings. We'd see, for example, the basic structure of a two-story house in the standard bright orange hollow bricks with holes cut out for windows and rebar sticking out the top in the hopes of adding on a new floor someday. These were everywhere. We found out from a Croatian later that until a facade is put on a building it is exempt from some taxation, so builders produce these frames and then just finish them up immediately before they sell them. The result is a sort of ghost-town landscape. We stayed in a lovely small apartment with a big deck just 200m from the sea--and our building was surrounded by these hollow structures and unfinished roads. Even the bus stop on the main road was no more than a slab of concrete--no signage or other indication that it was a bus stop. Our hostess was confused as to why we were unsure where to pick up the bus back to town :) Our stay there helped us revive after a full day and night of traveling: a train across Italy and then a night ferry across the Adriatic Sea, on which, naturally, the insomniac in the group here couldn't sleep and in fact got a touch of motion sickness, so some R&R was definitely prescribed.

We found some excellent rich Croatian food in Split at a family-style restaurant filled with locals: veal and turkey in rich gravy, noodle-tender calamari grilled crispy with delicious seasoning (incidentally, we learned that a seasoning blend called "vegeta" is a staple in every Croatian kitchen. Inspection of a "vegeta" package label reveals that yes indeed MSG is the culprit) and a huge helping of swiss chard, washed down with a fresh and nicely sweet local white wine called Grasevina. Croatia has a substantial wine industry, and in fact, the excellent Grgich winery in California actually origniated in Croatia ("Grgic" in Croatia). Grgic is highly regarded in Croatia--it's truly tops, delicious with a price tag to match (we were able to try their red by the glass but there was no way we could pick up a bottle). The Dingac varietal produces the best Croatian wines in general but overall, they don't compare to wines produced in France, Italy, United States.

Dubrovnik

They call it the Jewel of the Adriatic. I'm not sure the name is quite opulent enough to describe the deep turquoise sea shimmering past the many islands of the archipelago to gently lap the rocky coast and occasional sandy beach of Dubrovnik. We were fortunate to find a place right inside the old town walls, something that would have been impossible to find, or at least impossible to afford, during the peak summer travel season. Unfortunately, our landlady was an odd one who turned out to be easily and irrationally angered. Her ad specified that she had a washing machine on the property, something we were seeking since we would be staying in one place for five nights and would have time to clean up all of our things. Well, when we arrived, there was a cloth hung over the washer with a note that read "Do not use the washing machine." We asked her why and she said it was broken. Ok, no big deal, things change on you all the time when you are traveling. So we are shown to our room, and there we find a large basket of clothespins and three long clothing lines outside the window. "Great!" we thought. So over the course of two days we proceeded to hand-wash almost everything we have with us. The next day we find a note in our room saying "Are you here on holiday or to wash clothes?" Yikes! Snarky. We tried to give the note the benefit of the doubt, blaming the tone on translation (she knew just a few words and phrases in English related to renting out rooms). We wrote her a pleasant note back saying "Sorry - we saw the bin of clothes pins and the lines outside and thought it would be ok." Well, she was incensed by that. At the end of the week, we had to wash the salt water out of a few things, and rather than piss her off by hanging them outside for her to see and further upset her, we hung our own clothesline in the room for them to dry. We did this in the evening on our last day there--a time when she shouldn't have a need to enter the room until after we've left--and lo and behold we return late to find a note tearing us into pieces for "destroying" her property and how we have no respect for others and how she will charge us for all of her trouble before we leave. We concluded that there was probably no way to achieve peace with her since she was clearly steamed, so we got up at 5 am and left. Oh, by the way: we found her using the washing machine (the "broken" one) twice during the week.

Kayaking! We spent a full day kayaking to/from and wandering around the island of Sipan, the least tourist-affected island in the archipelago off the coast of Dubrovnik. Our guide Dom and his Swiss friend Gabriela were our only companions for the day--quite a difference from the swarming summer season, we were told. It sounds like Dubrovnik is quite a zoo during the peak of the season, to the point that people move through the streets of the old town like water in a river, shoulder to shoulder. On the way, Dom led us to a small cave on the side of another island that we swam into. The cave was quite bright inside, lit up by sunshine reflecting on the sand underneath the water! It was incredible. We took a few moments in the cave, snorkeling around, before getting back in our kayaks and finishing our traverse to Sipan. Sipan has a history of wealthy landowners with vacation homes long, long ago. Today it is barely populated; there are frequent small farm plots and almost no cars. We visited a church from the 13th or 14th century, peeked down the hot oil chute high above the front door (used to ward off invaders), and chewed on an odd bean pod-like (vegetable? fruit?) called Rogac--it looks like a massive flat vanilla bean pod, smells terrible, and tastes oddly pleasant for at few bites, like a bland, fatty caramel. Very strange indeed. The day was peppered with discussions about Croatia, its history and Catholicism, and those became animated indeed: Dom is a good example of the Croatians' strong sense of nationalism (which as mentioned is driven by their Roman Catholicism) while Gabriela, on the other hand, is a Protestant Swiss, so the afternoon was filled with good-natured yet revealing jabs between them. We kayaked about 12 km all told--a pleasant day in the warm sun, with bright turquoise water all around us, and without the sounds of cars and machines. On another day we took a ferry over to the island Mljet, rented bikes and zipped around the island, including around a huge lake in a protected national park.

Russ's cousin Alan (whom we spent time with in Rome) joined us in Dubrovnik too! We had such a great time with him yet again. We all walked the fortress walls surrounding the old town of Dubrovnik with Alan. Here's Russ aiming an old cannon at a cruise ship in the bay ;) and Alan hanging onto Russ so that he doesn't fall over the wall while nabbing some freshly ripened dates off of a date palm for us all to enjoy. We had a picnic that day too in a rocky cove.

Zagreb

Is that fog or just pollution? Our impression of Zagreb is that it was an industrial Vienna-wanna-be. Scott Northrop joined us (yay!!!!) in Zagreb after adventuring to Munich for Oktoberfest. Lesley ended up with a flu after days of hardly any sleep and traveling a lot, so it was a relief that Scott needed a day of R&R as well. Russ ventured out into Zagreb one day and Scott and Lesley joined in the next day. We visited the main cathedral and saw tomb of Cardinal Stepinac, a controversial figure from the late 1930s and early 40s. He welcomed the fascist Ustashe regime, not realizing that the "Independent State of Croatia" proclaimed by the Ustashe in 1941 was simply a puppet state divided between Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. The Ustashe were responsible for things like throwing Serbian Orthodox women and children off cliffs. Stepinac eventually acknowleged that his free (Catholic) state of Croatia had come at a price, renounced the Ustashe, and became a resistance figure. He publicly denounced Communists (which led to his arrest and trial as a war criminal) yet he is reported to have continued to believe in an "honest" side to the Ustashe. Despite these contradictions, Stepinac is treated like a martyr and the Croats paying their respects at his tomb that day appeared reverent indeed. (note: Balkan Ghosts by Robert D. Kaplan, my reference for some of these details, is a great book regarding the history of the Yugoslav region and insight into its troubles over a long span of history).

Plitvice Lakes National Park: WOW
After Zagreb, we rented car and made our way to Plitvice Lakes National Park. We stopped in Karlovac, the location of the Karlovacko brewery (their beer is ubiquitous in Croatia). The encryption of signage in Karlovac made Italian roadsigns look like simple arithmetic. We tried for perhaps an hour to find the medieval fortress along the river but finally gave up. The Plitvice Lakes National Park consists of 16 lakes connected by hundreds of waterfalls. A boardwalk makes it easy to get close to the rushing water--and serves to protect both the environment from the ravages of tourism and tourists from the land mines which remain from the war. Brochures and guides regarding Plitvice Lakes National Park admonish visitors to stay on the boardwalk and obvious trails for this very reason. Plitvice was stunning: a series of 16 lakes, each spilling dowhill into the next through a panoply of waterfalls. We wondered whether the fish (who are well-trained to cluster near the boardwalks when tourists [a.k.a. food providers] are walking by) spill down from one lake to another. Is the highest lake the least populated and the lowest one full?! No: in fact, the fish in each lake have been shown to be speciated.

We are glad we were able to see Croatia now... it is becoming increasingly popular as a holiday destination and Lonely Planet's website announces that it has named Croatia the "Destination of 2005." Go there! Go!!!

TUSCANY

2005-10-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear family and friends ~

We spent a few weeks in Tuscany, including Florence, Siena, Montalcino, Montepulciano and Greve-in-Chianti. This is a loooooong blog, but it had to be that way to do this beautiful region any justice at all... (We are actually in Turkey right now, and have also spent a few weeks in Croatia)

Florence

Florence hustles and bustles like a large city, yet reminders of days past are always nearby with Renaissance facades around every corner. With so much to do in Florence we had to carefully plan out our activities for our one day there. The day started out early for Russ since he had to get in line early for the famous Galleria degli Uffizi, which houses some the most famous Renaissance artwork in the world. Russ' favorite painting was Michelangelo's Doni Tondo (Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist), and he was also highly impressed with the renaissance masters Botticelli, Donatello, Da Vinci and Raphael. Walking through some of the Florence's main piazzas, Russ saw a group of art students sitting down and sketching buildings around the square. It was great to see young, enthusiastic artists studying in Florence like many other amazing artists did half a century ago. A breathtaking view from the top of the Duomo, in the very center of Florence, rounded out Russ's whirlwind tour before meeting up with Lesley, who had spent the morning doing some serious lounging and window shopping.

Florence was our first stop in the Tuscany region so we were (surprise, surprise) both excited to try some Tuscan wines! Fortunately for us, many of the bars and enotecas there have "Aperitivo," the Florentine equivalent of a happy hour, but better: you pay a happy hour price for a glass of whatever wines they have open that day and along with it you can nibble from an impressive spread of free tapas. In fact, it was enough to call it dinner. Darkness fell and we caught up with the parade of Rificolone in a nearby piazza. Families and their children wove through Florence waving lit-up paper lanterns in remembrance of the birthday of Mary--the parade with lanterns is an imitation of rural farmers coming to town early in the morning, dressed in their Sunday best, for the last big market day of the summer. It was really cute to see all the kids laughing and playing (although sometimes trying to crush each other's lanterns or shoot spitballs at each other through makeshift blowpipes). The scene was festive: a sea of lanterns of all colors and shapes--ships and dragons and moons--bobbing past a dramatic Renaissance backdrop.

Siena

Walking the high-walled, labyrinthine streets of Siena (in which, incidentally, everything is the color Burnt Sienna) and emerging into the large Piazza del Campo, it was easy to imagine Il Palio: a synaesthesia of pounding hooves, the smell of dust and sweat as jockeys and horses run hard, the vivid colors of 17 unique flag designs, and their flap-flapping as they are waved by the hands of thousands of hollering, cheering residents of Siena's 17 neighborhood districts...
In Siena, the buildings are several stories high, permitting the late summer sun to warm only some of its streets, enotecas, piazzas, and people. The long rows of buildings form concentric rings around the Piazza del Campo, and occasional stairways or steep ramps permit the jumping from one ring to the next. Some of these tiny connector streets hold multilevel terraces for outdoor trattoria seating, each terrace just big enough for a table of 2-4 people. At the top of one connector, we found a produce market where we purchased some of the biggest, most flavorful grapes I have ever had. The skins of the blackest ones tasted like freshly cracked pepper, and the pulps of the round green ones must have been muscat, redolent of rose petals and hibiscus. These delicious grapes amply foreshadowed our experiences of Tuscan wine country in the days to come.

Lucca

Our brief dally with Lucca (it was a one-night stop on the way to Elba) was WET. It began as we neared the end of our hike from the train station to the pension and then it really got us good as we took a walk up on the city's impressive ramparts at night. The rain actually added to the experience, making it rather dramatic. Other than "wet," the other word that comes to mind as we reflect on Lucca is "uneventful." We walked around the small town, managed to find some simple tasty Italian fare even though siesta had kicked in for the afternoon just as our appetites spoke up, and we firmed up our strategy for making the most of our time in Tuscany's wine country after meeting up with friends on the island of Elba for the weekend. That's it!

Tuscan Wine Country

Traveling the way we have been (go go go) means that we are frequently leaving places that we may never see again. The impact of this on the psyche is pretty powerful... We arrive in a new location wanting to make the most of it, to allow ourselves to open up to the nuances of culture, language, topography and opportunity--but then we must leave, so it's tempting to not let a place get under your skin *too* much. I (Lesley) think this trip has had a positive impact on me in that I am getting better at fully experiencing a place without developing an attachment that causes me to spend too much of my energy lamenting the loss of the place as we are leaving. I'm one of those people who thinks about how much I will miss someone or something while they are still in my midst... therefore this is a marvelous life lesson for me and I'm grateful to have a situation in my life that is gently showing me that I can leave things with an abundance of joy for having experienced it (and less of the sense that I will miss it clouding my joy). This notion comes to mind because we *really* enjoyed Tuscan wine country, and it's only upon reflection that I realize how happily I left it, in spite of knowing that I absolutely would want to spend more time there.

And what is there not to love? Soft rolling hills wrapped in vineyards, glowing green with the first touches of gold under a late-summer sunset... Winding roads connecting the region's characteristic hilltowns, proffering stunning panoramae with each trip down from one town and up to the next... Chalky soil brightly reflecting the noontime sun and promising delicious fruit for wines, balsamic vinegars and olive oils...

Okay, we did think of something we didn't love quite so much: the road sign system in Italy, particularly on the non-autostrada (main highway) roads. It was cryptic to us since it isn't arranged to our custom. According to the signs, pretty much every road leads to Rome. It seems no Italians require the signs to mention some of the towns off to the side, or even completely opposite Rome, if Rome could possibly be the destination of that road. Rome is trump.

Montalcino: the Mighty Brunello

Montalcino is the region of the acclaimed Brunello, the king of Tuscan wines. Brunello is a deep leathery brew, like moist earth and an odd sanguinity with cracked pepper on top. This might sound odd, but it is the kind of wine that provokes a throaty rumble of approval after a sip rather than something so civilized as a word. The main grape used in Brunello, and in fact in all Tuscan wines, is Sangiovese. Brunello is so marvelous because the rolling hills of Tuscany create a unique growing climate around every bend, and the bends around Montalcino have the right sun, moisture, minerals, fu. The specific type of Sangiovese grown there and in Montepulciano is called the "Grosso." Different winemakers claimed they had a special clone of the S. Grosso while others rolled their eyes at such claims and said, "It is all Grosso! It is just the terroir that is different!" We really don't care who is right as long as they keep doing it. Brunellos are made from the best grapes and are often from single vineyards. Winemaking guidelines require that wines called Brunello must be aged three years in oak and two in the bottle, while the less expensive wines called Rosso (also S. Grosso) must be aged two years in oak and then another year in the bottle. A winemaker can decide how much of the oak time is spent in large or small barriques and which other grapes to blend in in small quantities.

We drove down from the north. We more or less randomly chose several wineries to try to visit based on whether they listed open hours and tasting opportunities and whether they were on our general route toward Banfi, a massive winery south of town. Our first stop, Casato Prime Donna, one of two wineries owned by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, took us several kilometers off the beaten path. We seriously doubted it was open for visitors when we finally arrived... But a tiny note invited us to ring a bell to call someone to the tasting room. Casato Prime Donna was a marvelous find; in fact, several days later in Dubrovnik, Croatia, we would learn that the winery is highly regarded outside Italy. The winery produces only 85,000 bottles per year but oh, it does it so very well, with a rich, elegant Brunello and an impressive Rosso. We also tasted three olive oils, each uniquely delicious.

We ventured to the sleepy small town proper of Montalcino (it is a tiny town but it was more sleepy because we hit it during siesta). We climbed up the city walls for a great view of the surroundings and then, seeing that siesta wasn't yet near its end, we made our way to Banfi, a massive and well-known winery that exports some of its wines to the United States. We enjoyed two tasting series (a Brunello series and a Super Tuscan series) along with a lengthy chat with the English woman who helped us (she has a literature degree, she married an Italian and now she works in the tasting room at Banfi. Not bad.) She noted my (Lesley's) enthusiasm over the Banfi Rosato Regale, the decadently sweet pink sparkling wine that put Banfi on the map for me (it was a gift from my thesis advisor when I passed my oral exams) and poured some of it for us along with a few crisp brut sparkling wines they produce. We leafed through a booklet listing all of Banfis wines and I'm sad to report that probably only 10% of them make it across the pond to the shelves of the United States (although she assured me that the right distributor could handle a special order :). We spent so much time on the wine that we didn't have time left for the balsamic vinegars, although our hostess snuck some olive oil from the back for us to try too. Everyone with grapevines in their yard here usually grows olive trees as well, so a wine tasting is often coupled with an olive oil tasting and occasionally a vinegar tasting. Bellissimo!

Anyone who has gone wine tasting with us knows that our day wasn't over just because Banfi had closed its doors for the day. We had factored in closing times when we plotted our course through Brunello territory. So we quickly (thank you Italian driving culture) zipped over to Fattoria dei Barbi. We enjoyed tasting their wines and oils but they didn't tickle our taste buds the way Casato Prime Donna and Banfi had, so we made our getaway while our hostess was answering questions for a newly arrived German group. We drove off into the Tuscan sunset, thorougly sated, in search of our night's stay just south of Montepulciano.

Montepulciano: the Swarthy Vino Nobile

It's like a question on the SAT:
Montalcino has Brunello: Montepulciano has ______________.
a. Chianti
b. Vino Nobile
c. Ramparts around the city
d. Quaint piazzas

The impressive Vino Nobile is what Montepulciano should be known for in the United States, instead of the very inexpensive Vino da Tavola that makes its way across to us. The Vino Nobile is less inspiring of animal sounds than the Brunello but is equally magnificent, perhaps with more dark fruit and less leather. Montepulciano also produces a Rosso. The procedures for making these two tiers of wine are similar to those of Montalcino although Montalcino's procedures are more rigidly prescribed.

We awoke to a huge sunrise blaring in the corner windows of our surprisingly huge and pleasant room (for the price--yes, we are finally getting past the summer travel season and its prices). We relaxed out on the deck, enjoying the view and the fresh air as we prepared for our second day of wine tasting in the Tuscan hills.

We thought of Montepulciano (based on our limited experience of French wine country) as the St. Emilion of Tuscany. Oh how that statement would probably stir up tempers on both sides--we heard more than a few disdainful comments from each side about the other's wines and wine making practices. But we are referring to the charm and bacchanalian lure of the two towns: both Montepulciano and St. Emilion are beautiful, with narrow streets and buildings made of stones of soft, warm earth tones. And both are very dedicated to wine. Wine shops are everywhere, as are tasting rooms and purveyors of other local products such as olive oil, cheese, pottery, etc. Both have many open doors, music and the scent of marvelous cuisine wafting in the air.

Montepulciano's perch atop a massive hill provides sumptuous views of the surrounding countryside, and of the impressive church that stands below the town proper but still high on the hill.

We followed the sounds of a symphony and found the tiny pie-slice-corner storefront for the Salcheto winery, so we popped in to taste the wares. We were joined by an Austrian couple who ended up buying two cases: they urged us to stock up on Italian wine as well since we were headed to Croatia. They were not impressed with Croatian wines. As we write about Tuscany, we've already been up and down the Croatian wine list and we must agree with them as a general rule. But more on that in a blog about Croatia!
We experienced a nice thunderstorm on our evening in Montepulciano... In the thickening air we thought we could actually smell a lovely sweet wine scent... Turns out our open bottle of Banfi Rosato Regalo from the day before had spilled in the rental car (doh!). Here's a photo of Lesley trying to clean up the mess. After a few other stops, we made our way to... Chianti territory!

Chanti: Classico, of Course

There are several towns that are called "[Name]-in-Chianti." We chose to orbit Greve-in-Chianti on the advice of someone somewhere that/whom I have forgotten. It was fine advice: in Greve, we encountered the most ridiculously fun place to taste wine. Ever. It's called Le Cantine, and it pretty much gives you the keys and lets you drive your own wine tasting. They have about 100 wines to try at any one time. On TAP. And you use a PRE-PAID WINE CARD. Yes, the psychology behind that is fun, isn't it? You hand over your euros and you get what looks like a CREDIT CARD. Then you stroll around the store, walking up to round stations that each have 15+ bottles of wine open and ready to dispense a perfectly poured sample to you at THE PRESS OF A BUTTON. You just pop your Wine Card into the slot and then get your glass ready because that sample is just a button-press away thanks to a nifty machine called--yes--the Enomatic. You hardly realize you are spending money at all. Setting aside the troubles of the "freshman with a credit card" syndrome, the system is brilliant because we were able to try some very expensive things, and create vertical tastings for ourselves (Luce Super Tuscan vertical, Oh My) which would otherwise simply not be within our grasp. Seattle has a great little wine shop called The Tasting Room in the Post Alley which is similar - you can sample many wines from a selection of Washington wineries, and the wines are always fresh because the dispensing system keeps air from contacting the wine in vessels which have been opened. Le Cantine also offered tastes of about 20 olive oils, which you could dispense for free and enjoy with bread as long as you had an active Wine Card. You could also use your wine card to acquire small plates of antipasti to fortify you for the next round. The whole shop was a well-oiled wine-selling machine. On the way out we poked our noses into their small wine museum which presented quite a collection of old corkscrews and tools for making wine. On our so-called "Chianti Day," we did actually visit wineries to try Chianti, although such tastings fade somewhat next to the sheer whimsy of Le Cantine. We were chased by huge thunderclouds on our way to a tiny family-run winery called La Berne in the early evening. As the moisture in the air increased, we were treated to a gorgeous, long-lasting rainbow (photo at top of this blog). We agree that the Chianti Classico is king of the Chianti wines, although we preferred the wines from Montalcino and Montepulciano.

Super Tuscans: Gettin' Wild with the Wine Making

No account of traipsing through Tuscan wine country is complete without a few comments on so-called "Super Tuscans." Super Tuscans emerged when Italian winemakers began to experiment with grape varieties and wine making techniques that differ from those prescribed in the controlled appellations (which allow a wine to be labeled with a name such as Rosso di Montalcino. Such experimentation was driven mostly by market forces: a response to the changing tastes of wine consumers over time. Divergence can include the use of different grape varieties (controlled wines use mostly Sangiovese) or changes in the process (time in barrels, etc.). Some of the Super Tuscans are incredible--big juicy wines that speak of the Italian sunshine--but prior to the coinage of the name, they had to be labeled simply "Vino da Tavola." We learned that the Italians weren't actually the ones who ascribed the name "Super Tuscan" to these unconventional wines: the name was coined in the British press, a factoid told to us with much eye-rolling by an Italian in a winemaking family. She said they certainly wouldn't have come up with such a name; nevertheless, it has created a more respectable category (undefined, rather than defined by table wines) for these experimental wines. She pointed out, though, that a wine isn't necessarily good just because it is called a Super Tuscan.

San Gimignano: a Hilltown You Just Shouldn't Miss

Our last night and day in the region was spent in San Gimignano, a town that is touristy as can be, but it is really beautiful and so I must acknowledge that it was a great place to visit. Cars are not allowed inside the city walls, which preserves the quaintness of the town (and, we suspect, makes it easier for the huge tour bus loads of people to roam around). We stayed in private room on the main street--our shutters opened right over all the bustling activity, and it felt like we were in a postcard of the quintessential old country Italy. We were lucky enough to get caught up in some local shenanigans as we strolled back to our room that night... we were stopped in the middle of the street by a smiling Italian, his arms wide open in a welcoming gesture. "Please! Come drink wine with us!" he urged us in Italian, herding us toward a small crowd standing around a long table on the street from an earlier dinner celebration. We tried to protest that it was late and oh we shouldn't, but he wouldn't have it! Soon we were laughing with the rest as he poured us plastic cups of wine from a massive bottle of wine--it must have been a jeroboam or nebuchadnezzar: We asked what the occasion was, and it was simply that he had a massive bottle of excellent wine from 1991 that needed to be consumed while it was at its peak! Soon, we were helping him recruit other unsuspecting passers-by. Fun! Beyond that, in San Gimignano, we strolled, we oohed and aahed at the views, we read lots of books and we had some of Italy's most famous homemade gelato:
We were TOURISTS extraordinaire!

And that, tired readers, was Tuscany. I predict a return to Tuscany. This time with a villa for two weeks, a car, and a bunch of friends!

Feel free to drop us comments or emails about what you are up to - even though we are in storytelling mode, we talk about our friends and family every day, hoping that you are living well.

WB = 72

Elba

2005-09-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

La Isola d'Elba: A Lovely Place for Exile

Napoleon didn't do too badly when he was exiled to Elba as part of the peace treaty enacted when France retreated from Russia in 1814. This was after Napoleon had pretty much annexed the rest of Europe. This small island off the west coast of Italy is shaped like a rather twisted United States:
Notice "Florida" for instance. Seriously, doesn't that peninsula on the south look somewhat like Florida? And to be sure, it is edged with sandy beaches. I definitely see the Pacific Northwest up there, and I can even stretch the bay near Portoferraio in my mind's eye to represent the Great Lakes. But - let's recount the myriad ways in which Elba is different; that is far more interesting. The first and foremost difference that strikes me is the presence of palm trees and beaches on *all* sides. Then, of course, there is the rampant use of the Italian language, and the delicious, strong, creamy Italian espresso. There seems to be a lack of any real traffic jams (or perhaps we just didn't get stressed out by them because we were on a palmy island in the Mediterranean off the coast of Italy?) and, pleasantly, a lack of 8-lane highways. Perhaps the only deficit of Elba is that there is just one wine appellation on the whole island (albeit one that produces tasty wines and even puts pictures of Napoleon on the labels).

Yay for Friends!

Before I extol further virtues of Elba and tell of our enjoyment there, it must be said that the *most* marvelous thing about Elba is that it had our wonderful friends Mez and Natalia on it at the very same time we were there. Yay for friends! Russ and I arrived with a hotel address in Marina del Campo clutched in our hands. It took us two trains, a ferry, a bus, and a walk to get there. If only we hadn't been distracted by the purveyor of local wines and tasty goods on the way from the bus stop to the hotel, we wouldn't have been caught in the torrential downpour. We were grateful that we'd be spending two nights in the same place, and that it wasn't a youth hostel dorm, so that we could empty our packs and hang everything up to dry. We had plenty of warning from the sky and the air pressure before the rain began... but we justify our mishap with the *entire wall* of wines produced on Elba. I suspect the storm was Nature's way of scolding us for letting our Bacchanalia delay us from connecting with our friends. The old man who owned the shop kept pointing at my backpack, and then at the clouds, saying "Forza! Forza!" It was very sweet of him. We waddled off into the storm with smiles on our faces and a few extra pounds in our packs. Mez and Natalia had come from a wedding in Lucca - Russ and I were wondering whether the Tuscan wedding was an outdoor one... we were relieved to hear that all went well for the wedding.

I just realized that in all these words I have only covered about an hour of our time on Elba. I will try to speed things up, but it is such a pleasure when I actually am staying in a place where I can take out my laptop and leisurely walk through a part of our journey in my mind...

We were upstairs, relaxing and drying out, when Mez and Natalia returned from the beach (taking cover from the rain near the beach, actually). It was so wonderful to see them! We have seen so many amazing sights in our travels but laying our eyes on family and friends trumps them all.

Napoleon's Villa

Portoferraio, the port town of our inbound ferry, is where Napoleon lived (er, was "exiled" in his villa with lavish French furnishings). We (Russ, Mez and I) saw his iconic black felt hat
and learned more about this incredible force in European history. Napoleon was responsible for substantial improvements in Elba's civic life, including public works such as road systems as well as government style (Napoleonic code). Russ shared a story with us of Napoleon's 100-day return to power upon escaping from Elba: He arrived on the southern coast of France, and Louis XVIII sent an army of a couple thousand to fend him off. When they arrived, Napoleon presented himself to them unabashedly, and dared them to strike him down. His legendary charisma won them over, and Napoleon, fortified now by the army sent to keep him away, moved toward Paris. Upon hearing this, King Louis XVIII sent another, larger force to accomplish what the last had not. Napoleon won them over as well and continued to move north. In a snarky but probably well-earned episode of "I told you so," Napoleon sent a letter to his cousin, who was the commander of France's army saying "Thank you cousin for the troops, I have all I need, please don't send any more." What a great story.

As we left the villa, the sky darkened and then burst on us, so we waited it out before returning to the south side of the island. As we drove back, I jokingly suggested that Natalia had been sunbathing on the beach in perfect sunshine all day. Well, that *is* the nature of islands, and when we returned to the hotel, we indeed found a note from her directing us to her spot on the beach! Not a drop of rain had fallen there.

Island Clubbing

Or not. Both nights we spent on Elba, we intended to go out and hit a few of the dance clubs--perhaps Inferno with its funky mosaic bar, or Morumbi the Brazilian style club or Club 64, tucked to the side of a main road in the middle of the island like a club on Ibiza. Both nights, after big dinners and the requisite "when in Rome" carafes of wine, we tired out. We even powered down a few espressos after dinner to rev us up. All we got out of that was restless sleep. But hey, we are on vacation here, and that means relaxation!

Beaches and Vistas

We had two main objectives for Sunday: 1) explore Capiloveri, a town on the southeast portion of the island, and 2) find one of the nude beaches indicated on our map. Capiloveri is a town that has been known historically for its artistic, fresh culture (I say fresh, some say hippie). It was a gorgeous spot, with hills that afforded novel views at every turn. From one high point, we could see the Mediterranean coast on both the north and south sides of the island because the land narrowed so much.
We strolled through shops of local artists and enjoyed some gelato. It was a quiet, pleasant Sunday. That is, after I got over my nausea from all the incredibly twisty roads that make it possible to get from one town to another over the naturally mountainous terrain. I am grateful that Mez's response to my carsickness was to simply toss me the keys for the rest of the day (I am certain it made things easier for all of us).

We left Capiloveri and aimed for the nude beach on the east side of "Florida" (see map above ;) An hour and about 20 turns-around later, we finally learned from two returning sunbathers that the beach we were seeking was in fact where we had tried to find it--it was just the small matter of a dead-end road and an hour-long hike. Well, it was pretty hot outside and suddenly the regular ol' beach sounded just right. We enjoyed the sun, the salty spray, and the antics of children on the beach. Eventually, our weekend in exile had to come to an end... Soon we were back on the continent, with the four of us and all of our baggage crammed into the sporty little space-pod Fiat Mez and Natalia had rented. They were sweet and dropped us off in Pisa on their way to Milan so that Russ and I could catch a series of trains into Siena. That lift to Pisa allowed us to arrive in Siena two hours earlier than we would have if we had parted ways at the ferry dock!

Rome - Marble Madness

2005-09-19T03:56:00.000-07:00

Our visit in Rome was like a marathon...exhausting in that we had to get up in the a.m. and walk around all day, stumbling back into the hostel after a 15 hour day, only to do the same the next day. This was the only way to ensure that we would leave Rome feeling that we had at least done it *some* justice. Half of our time in Rome was spent sharing it with my (Russ) cousin, Father Alan. Both of us thouroughly enjoyed spending time with Alan after we've been traveling alone for almost a month after parting from our parents in early August.

After checking into our hostel we had a hard time figuring out what to see of the panoply of sites Rome has to offer. We decided to start with the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We were amazed at Rome's mixture of buildings. Buildings and parts of buildings erected hundreds of years apart were neighbors and sometimes meshed into the same structure. A perfect example of the dichotomy was the first time we walked out of the bustling metro station--replete with its advertisements and litter--to see the Colosseum looming up into the sky right across the street. We were also shocked to see a huge stage being set up in front of the Colosseum along with several sets of massive speakers and gigantic video screens positioned throughout the nearby streets. We knew something big was going on but we didn't know what... Imagine our bewilderment to discover from our hostel-mates that Elton John was performing the next evening, using the Colosseum (with a flashy, all-colors-of-the-rainbow light show) as his backdrop.

Once we were satisfied with our marathon for the day, we returned to our hostel to find it full of mostly young, energetic English speakers (Irish, Scottish, English, Canadian and American). Emphasis on "young." This was one of those quintessential Youth Hostel Experiences. Russ joined several of the merry hostelers out that evening (after rounds of shots in the dorm room. Ahhhhh, hosteling) while Lesley stayed back to get some much needed rest for her strained ankle after the day's marathon. Russ had a blast spending most of his time chatting with a nice Texan named Omar and a couple girls from England. It was a fun, social night, but unfortunately our hostel experience only downgraded after that first evening.

The hostel was a dirty, dorm-style place where we slept in separate bunk beds in a room with 12 people. We shared two bathrooms between 30 people. On our second evening there a large Austrialian guy checked in who snored. SNORED. Poor Lesley had her head right next to the fellow and tried several times to stir him--even shook him and picked up his head to turn it to the side--to stop his snoring. It was hopeless. The man was a SnoreBot. Unfortunately this one guy cost us MANY hours of sleep over our last three nights there (not the best recovery environment for our daily marathons). On our last night there, we were assaulted by a new noise in the middle of the night: a very drunk Scottish guy actually FELL out of his bunk an hour or so after returning at 3 am from the bars (fortunately he was ok).

Saturday we spent the day walking through the streets and piazzas of Rome admiring the many fountains, statues, and ruins all made out of marble. The protected areas of ancient ruins of Rome are famous for being home to a plethora of stray cats. They safely lounge around the ruins in the mid-day sun like kings of their own ancient domain. Those cats were lucky to be on the side of the wall *without* the throngs of tourists.

In the evening we met up with Alan outside of the Croziers residence where he was staying for a few days until he could move into his own. The Croziers are a Christian sect mostly focused on Christian missionary work. Alan befriended several Croziers back in seminary school and they were kind enough to have him stay with them in Rome. We joined Alan and a few of his Crozier friends (including Tom, who was one of his professors in seminary school!) for a short evening prayer followed by a drink outside in their beautiful courtyard. During our prayer we prayed for Alan and Russ's Aunt Dorothy and her loved ones since she had passed away the previous day.

That evening we lingered over a delicious Italian meal in a cozy, tucked-away piazza with Alan and his Crozier friend Father Jim (Ristorante La Taverna degli Amici, www.paginegialle.it/tormargana). Getting to the restaurant required the somewhat terrifying task of crossing a many-lane road swarming with fast cars and motorcycles. To our surprise, Jim just stepped out into the crosswalk even though a continuous string of cars were advancing. As we crossed he told us the key to crossing Italian streets: make eye contact with the driver and watch to make sure they see you. Jim has been living in Rome for 12 years so he educated us on many Italian things including the satisfying after-dinner bitter drink Amaro ("amaro" in Italian = "bitter"), used for settling the stomach. Jim also recommended wonderful wines to go along with dinner: a Syrah from the immediate region and a Chianti Classico. He suggested that we focus on the Chianti Classicos when we visited the Chianti wine region, and he didn't steer us wrongly... our subsequent traipsing through Tuscan wine country confirmed that the Classico was indeed the superior stuff. After several hours of stimulating conversation over wonderful food and drink, we parted ways. On our way back to the hostel we actually heard Elton's last song of the evening. We had a great view from our perch high atop a hill--imagine seeing the purple-pink-green Colosseum, a video screen with Elton John's face on it, a cascading hillside covered with various Roman columns and other ruins, and thousands and thousands of people standing in the streets all within one vista.

Sunday morning we got up early (again without much sleep due to SnoreBot) and met Fr. Alan at the Metro station to head down to see Pope Benedict XVI at his summer home in Castel Gondolfo. After some confusion figuring out which bus to take, we arrived in the small beautiful town which is located on the top of a cratered mountain. A small swarm filled the square outside the Pope's home in anticipation of his brief, weekly speech and prayer. As noon approached the crowd started chanting something which sounded like "Aih Benedicto!" over and over. The cheering, banner waving crowd reminded us of gitty fans waiting for a celebrity or super-star musician. The Pope started and finished with a chanted prayer in Latin and addressed the crowd in several different languages with different prayers addressing concerns for each region of people (Italian, English, German, French, Spanish and Polish).

We stayed in Castel Gondolfo for lunch and sat outside overlooking a massive crater lake. We wandered around the quaint town for a while but the clouds were darkening and a storm threatened... we headed to the bus stop and had to wait for more than an hour for a bus back to Rome. During our wait, we got pelted by heavy diagonal rain and even hail! The drop in temperature was startling. Our tiny 5' x 10' roofed structure over the bus stop without any walls didn't provide much cover for the seven of us who were waiting there. But, we can't complain much when we got to witness a dramatic storm in the Italian countryside after seeing the Pope. That evening we walked around Rome for several hours and found a great little pizzeria with jovial staff just two blocks away from the North American College where Alan is studying this autumn. It was a wonderful day together, but eventually we had to head back to our dreadful hostel. We hoped SnoreBot had checked out but no such luck.

On Monday (and our last day in Rome) we toured the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican contains probably the largest collection of marble sculptures in the world. The paintings, mosaics, and sculptures inside the Vatican and the Basilica are stunningly beautiful. Russ gained a new appreciation for the magnificence of the Renaissance master artists like Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini. Throughout this trip, we have both been repeatedly blown away by the artistry, the devotion, the skill, the craftsmanship and the creativity we have seen in sculpture, painting, architecture and so on. The one problem with being exposed to so many masterpieces in such a short time is that you start to gloss over them after a while, not giving each one the contemplation you would ordinarily want to. "Wow, look--it's another amazing masterpiece. Oh, hey, there's another one! Let's get going because there's a whole other roomful of them as well!" Lesley found that she experienced an interesting shift in her perception in Rome: feelings of awe bubbled up upon observing the sheer quantity of majestic works. That is, the magnitude of her awe did not change--its direction did. The amount of marble that is crafted into sculpture within the city limits of Rome is just staggering. A visit to the Vatican museum is exhausting for a variety of reasons, not least of which is how tiring it is to have your breath taken away repeatedly upon observing objects of beauty and mastery.

That evening we met up with Alan once again and explored yet more of Rome. We stopped for some antipasti and a bottle of wine (Morellino di Scansano) in the Piazza dei Popolo while chatting it up. We had all spent so much time together in the last few days and it was easy to dive into personal, valuable conversation. We strolled around some more through a bustling shopping district and past the Spanish Steps, finally stopping at a beautiful Italian restuarant with frescoes all over the walls. Here Lesley introduced Alan and Russ to their first Brunello di Montalcino (Banfi, 1996. YUM!).

Russ is really grateful to have spent so much time with Alan in Rome--getting to know his cousin better as an adult. Previously most of the time Russ had spent with Alan, he was a teenager or in his early 20s, and would mostly see him during large family functions like weddings or when his parents would stop by Alan's parish and spend the day with him. It was great to learn about his life and his parish. This portion of our trip made a significant impact on Russ spiritually and religiously. Seeing the pope, spending time with priests, and being at such a historically important place of the Catholic church increased his appreciation of the Catholic church and faith.

Photos! Photos! Photos!

2005-09-17T04:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Just a quick note to say hi and let you know that we have uploaded gobs of new photos - click here to check them out.

Just to whet your appetites, here we are at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome-

(While you are there, you can scoot back a few levels to the "Grant Carmichael" link to gaze at my [Lesley's] scrumptious nieces Vivienne and Natalie :)

We are in Croatia at the moment after several adventures in Italy, including exploring Rome with Russ's cousin Alan, zipping through Florence and Lucca, enjoying the sublime beauty of the island of Elba with friends Mez and Natalia, cruising through Tuscan wine country and finally making our way across the Adriatic Sea on a nighttime ferry, arriving in Split this morning. We don't have photos from Tuscany ready yet (too busy with all the Brunellos from Montalcino, the Vino Nobiles from Montepulciano, and the Chianti Classicos). I can't even bring myself to type the WB right now (actually I am not sure what it is, but I do know that we managed to haul about 8-10 bottles of wine with us all the way to Croatia. Yes, we only have backpacks. Yes, our backs hurt. Yes, the WB is likely to increase rather dramatically in the next few days.)

We are still surviving these big packs:
Also, some marvelous fun news: several more dear friends will be joining us for a few weeks here and there! Scott N. is connecting with us in Croatia next weekend and we'll visit the Plitvice National Park together before all flying to Istanbul on October 1. At that point, another Scott (Seattle peeps will remember the groovy DJ Scottino) will be connecting with us in Istanbul and we will all seek adventures and misadventures in Turkey and on the hot hot hot beaches of the Greek islands for a week or so. Then, in November, Jen W. and Barry B. will join us in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from where we will venture to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia together. YAY!!

Love and hugs to you all
Lesley and Russ

Venice - the Lovely, Gaudy Old Starlet!

2005-09-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

Before I (Russ) continue on with our Italian travels I wanted to say how amazingly beautiful Prague is. Despite heavy air pollution, Prague has an air of class and elegance. Prague is filled with tourists, terra cotta rooftops, symphonies and black light theatres. Seeing Prague's castle and learning about Prague's history gave us new respect and admiration for the Czech people. This is one city I wish we could have spent more time in.

Venice brought an image to mind for us: an aged starlet clinging onto her dwindling elegance and yesterday's adornments. The city still possesses a unique beauty which no other city in the world provides; however, many of its buildings are weathered with cracks and crumbling facades. Venice is trying to protect and save its monuments and artworks from the degeneration of a variety of several ailments, like floods, neglect, pollution and salt-water corrosion.

Hundreds of millions of Euros are being spent trying to save the sinking city from an unhabited death. Tides, Venice's steady subsidence and a rising sea level create around 250 flood occurrences in a year. Water bubbles up through drains and sometimes completely covers St. Marks square and many of the low-lying walkways around it. Huge flood barriers are being installed into the lagoon to prevent these floods, but if they fail the city could be uninhabitable by 2100.

With only 24 hours in Venice we spent most of our time along the Grand Canal in the San Polo and San Marco sections of town. Lesley (being a trooper with a strained ankle from dancing at Machac) and I spent most of the day walking through the narrow, windy, difficult to navigate streets of Venice. We spent part of the afternoon observing beautiful and diverse collections of modern art at the Peggy Guggenheim museum which featured works by Picasso, Dali, Bacon, Ernst, Chagall, Miro and Pollock.

At sunset we walked to the famous St. Marks Square and were breathless as we saw the glittering gold mosaics which cover the front of St. Marks Basilica. The square was also packed with tons of the bravest pigeons I've ever seen. They'd actually fly onto the head, arms, and hands of tourists who would stand completely still.

WB = 61 (We are now in Siena about to embark on a 3 day tour of tuscany towns.)
ps. We've added new pictures for Copenhagen, Berlin, and Poland to our online gallery.

You had Burning Man, We had Czech Republic

2005-09-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Our Little Playa in Bohemia

This was our first year off of Burning Man in several years... Delightfully, we have been encountering the Burning Man spirit all over the planet as we circle it. Just last week, while you all were NoWhere, we were in Bohemia. (See?!? :) Okay, so "Bohemia" wasn't the name of the outer road on the playa this year - we are talking about the Czech Republic. We all know how the playa thumpity-thumps with a near overdose of electronic music (and happy revelers) every year. Who would have thought we would find a similar scene on the sandy 'plazh' (beach) alongside a lake in rural Czech Republic?!? Friday night's Machac music festival--the hottest party of the summer in the country--was held at Machovo Jezero (lake) about 80 km north of Prague. There were several stages and a startlingly huge crowd. Okay, okay, so there was a playa and some thumpity-thump - but certainly it takes more than that to have the Burning Man spirit. Indeed: we met and spent the whole festival with warm-hearted, fun new Czech friends (in spite of our linguistic limitations). We pointed out beautiful things to each other, such as the steam rising from the lake as the temperature dropped at night. We got creative together, designing our own shirts in a special tent at the festival. We talked about sustainability issues and cleanup plans and the subcultural commonalities that transcended all of our national, ethnic, political, and other manufactured differences. The bottom line is that we made new friends, shared an experience with them, made the most of our time together, and left feeling edified by it all. Once again, we are reminded that Burning Man is not just an event in the desert in Nevada.

Machac

Once Russ and I know we will be spending time near/in a particular region, we hit the internet to see whether something interesting is going on in the area. We ended up finding out about Machac and decided to rent a car and check it out! We are so glad we did - sometimes it is too easy to zip through a city or country and only in retrospect realize that you aren't satisfied with the amount of time and focus you applied there. Not so on our time in C.R! We were able to experience the insanity of Czech drivers (standard behavior on even a 2-lane highway is to drive about 130 kmh while constantly tailgating and passing everything in sight), see the gentle slopes of the beautiful Prague hinterland and visit smaller towns and Machac as well as pay a thorough visit to Prague.

We made our way up north to Machac, which is just outside the town of Doksy. We knew we were on the right track when we pulled into a gas station to buy energy drinks and saw about 20 other young people doing the same thing. Side note: Energy drinks are all over the place in most of Europe, with all sorts of crazy names and labels and claims. But I have to report that in the C.R. we found one called Erektus. Yes, Erektus. The labels of the tiny cans proudly sported a cave drawing style sketch of a very erect male figure. It was pretty funny. Tasted way better than Red Bull, too :) Anyhow, so we finally found our destination, parked, and followed the people through a forest stacked with tents and small cabins. Finally, we saw the sunlight glinting off the soft glassy lake through the trees, rounded a bend, and passed the ticket checkpoint. At this point, we could have found it blindfolded (thumpity-thump). The DJ lineup looked to be good (Anthony Mike, Fergie, Lucca, Trava, Loudka, Paul Van Dyk) but in fact the music turned out to be even better than we expected.

Veronika and Jorge!

So let us tell you about our friends. Veronika and Jorge are a sweet couple with fiery energy and warm, free spirits. I (Lesley) was perusing a table of CDs at the Machac music festival, checking out familiar and unfamiliar DJs, wondering what new gems I could find there. I turned to my left and sort of pointed at a few CDs and waggled my thumb up and down as if to ask "how are these?". Well, sweet Veronika smiled and started pointing out all the good, bad, and variety that could be found there. I took her advice and we ended up with a stack of CDs (ridiculously good price). Afterward, Russ and I got acquainted with V. and Jorge as we chatted about music, the scene in Prague, and various aspects of our lives. Veronika boldly led our people-train through the crowd right up to the front where we danced on the beach as the sun set and DJs cycled. At one point, we all made our way to the Red Zone, a huge tent that had a whole club inside where we enjoyed more music and had shirts made. There were computers lined up along the walls and after making a purchase at the bar, you could go to the machines and design your own shirt from a variety of colors, styles and imprints. Russ and I chose the same major pattern and Jorge and Veronika chose the same as well.

Finally, sometime around sunrise, we decided it was time to head back to Prague. We gave them a ride back, and they were so hospitable - they let us crash at their place for as long as we needed so that we could get on with our plans to visit the town of Kutna Hora later that day. We had a good lazy morning and early afternoon, sleeping and then just hanging out with them for a while. Eventually, we had to be on our way. We made plans to get together again when we returned to Prague. We saw them the next Tuesday night. They met up with us at our youth hostel and we walked around Prague for a bit. Veronika pointed out buildings whose interiors she designed (she works in civil engineering) and Jorge pointed out steel works he had produced that could be seen in a few window displays. In some cases, the work they do involves building onto or revising edifices that are many hundreds of years old - something we couldn't really imagine in the US. They took us to a few of their favorite bars in Prague, including a "locals" joint tucked in a courtyard. We mused about politics and communism. Veronika actually was refused medical treatment once because her father wasn't a card-carrying member of the communist party. The night had to come to an end, as they both had to work in the morning and we had to prepare to leave. We wish we could have spent more time with them, but our train to Venice left the next day.

The Bone Chapel

Kutna Hora is a smaller city to the southeast of Prague. Its size belies its historical prominence - the silver ore discovered there brought much wealth to the Czech kingdom. One of its most well-known sites is the Sedlic Ossuary, a church decorated with the bones of about 40,000 people. I wish I could post photos on this right now but alas I'm at an internet cafe and we haven't had a chance to upload our zillions of photos in some time. The ossuary was quite a sight, from chandeliers to sculptures to massive pyramids of skulls topped by huge wooden crowns to signify the inevitability of the multitudes facing God at death.

The Chateau and Wine Cellar at Melnik

The next day, we drove back up north to Melnik, a small city known for its Chateau, the palace of the Lobovitz family. Our tour of the palace was followed by a wine tasting of local wines. The wine label was related to the chateau, and one red and one white were named Ludmila after a family member. We figured the wine tasting would be in the room of the shop where wines were being sold. We were wrong, wrong. The hostess approached us with two wine glasses and a basket of bread and indicate that we should follow her... out into the courtyard... she handed us the stems and bread... she opened a huge heavy door... revealing a long, winding, dark stone stairway... and she pointed down it. We could barely suppress our giggles at this most novel approach to wine tasting. We made our way into the very cold, damp cellar. What did we find? 12 oak barrels arranged in a semi-circle, each one with a unique wine to try. Yup, that's right: Russ and Lesley got sent, unsupervised, into a cellar with 12 wines to try. It took us a few hours but we gave it our very best try, finally ambling carefully back up the stairs into the heat of day.

And with that, I shall point out our latest WB=53 (through today, which actually includes Venice, Rome, and Florence even though we haven't blogged about them yet).

Polish roots

2005-08-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

It has been eerie and marvelous to see my mother, grandmother, grandfather everywhere... The way "d" and "t" are pronounced with the tongue tip advanced behind the teeth rather than back on the alveolar ridge reminds me of the sound of my grandmother's d's and t's (see? I'm keeping my Linguistics degree fresh even during my holiday...) Grandma passed away when I was an undergraduate, but I remember clear as day how she pronounced the word "things" as "tings" - with that dental sound.

On our first day in Krakow, we met a sweet, eccentric 77-year-old woman named Maria who has sons living in the US. She was fiesty and reminded both Russ and me of Polish women we know and love (read: our moms and their kin). She told us stories about her kids to the point that her eyes welled up with tears. She wanted to live out her remaining days back in Poland, and her sons haven't come to visit her there. She goes to see them in Pennsylvania and Cincinnati periodically, but she wants them to see Poland, and besides - she lives on $400/month. Nevertheless, she gave us a small token of our meeting - a photograph of the church in the square of the old town (we were standing in its fall zone as we chatted with Maria, actually) framed in wood burned to shape trees, a souvenir she had purchased in the center square for 1 zl (about $0.33 USD). Let's call a spade a spade: it's a cluttering trinket that neither of us would ever have wanted to own. Nevertheless, it is ours now and it has Maria's address on the back. In turn, we gave her a small bottle of Czech wine we had just purchased. It took about 10 tries to give it to her. At one point, finally, her eyes got a twinkle and she reached over and literally grabbed it out of my hand, saying "well ok then". It was quite funny.

The center square is a bustling marketplace every day. There is a stage erected in the square, and various groups sing, dance and play music there. Awesome nouveau break dancers kick it in the square in front of the statue of Adam Mickiewicz, a 19th C. romantic poet. He is to the Poles what Shakespear is to the Brits. A formal covered marketplace takes up the center of the square, and it is constantly jammed with tourists. Purveyors of traditional Polish goods such as lace, amber jewelry, lead crystal, intricately painted batik eggs, inlaid wooden boxes and Polish dancing costumes make a mint there. We wandered these markets and enjoyed some real Polish kielbasa and beer in the hot summer sun. Prices of goods are higher than we expected this soon after the intermingling of east and west, but the beer is cheap :) A stellar beer costs about $1 USD.

Polish dancers wear extravagant costumes. The women's include a wreath of flowers around the head with ribbons flowing down the sides of the face, a billowing white blouse with embroidery and lacy detail, a black vest richly embellished withsequins, ribbons, embroidery, a skirt with ribbons around the end, and a tambourine accented by more flowers and ribbons. I was a Polish dancer as a girl, and my mom made the most amazing outfits for me. The vest she made was a true work of art, like everything she did - it was black velvet, and she actually created a Polish eagle on the back in sequins along with other lovely embellishments.

One day we visited the Wawel castle. There we are, in the cathedral, looking around... when suddenly I think I see someone I know! Practically impossible, I say to myself. Nonetheless, I chase the figure down at the next nave... indeed, it is Klaus Brandl, a friend and colleague from the University of Washington! Klaus just happens to be in Krakow for the EuroCALL conference. We were able to hang out for the afternoon. Fun!! (pictures of that coming soon when we have a wifi connection).

Interesting bit about Krakow and the Wawel castle... Wawel appears to be spiritually significant in myriad ways. Wawel's first cathedral was built on the site around 1020 (gone now except for crypts and foundation). The door of the currently standing cathedral is adorned by massive prehistoric animal bones hanging by chains. Furthermore, we read in our Lonely Planet guide that Krakow of all places is involved in Hindu thinking: When Lord Shiva threw seven magic stones to seven parts of the world, one of them landed in Krakow. The landing sites are purported to radiate the god's energy. The chakra of Krakow apparently resides at Wawel, in the northwestern corner of the courtyard. The holy stone that was thrown is said to produce energy that revives life-giving forces and protects the city from misfortunes. Krakow's escape from destruction during WW2 duly noted...

We stayed at the Bling Bling hostel in Krakow. Yes, yes we absolutely did choose it online solely based on its name. How could we pass that up? Indeed, it turned out to be lively, social place in spite of the mild grime and dormitory feel. We had a fun few nights out with our hostel-mates Jess (UK), Ed and Dave (law school grads, DC) and Kendall (Houston/SD/teacher in Shanghai). We managed to hit a good portion of the club scene in Krakow as far as we could tell: Cien Club, Carpe Diem, Faust, Prozac, Kredens, Roentgen... Krakow actually has a pretty killer nightlife, and the bonus is that for whatever reason, the bars and clubs are not sardine-packed the way they can get at home.

Many of the bars are in central courtyards (restaurants and some shops too) that have just a simple doorway entrance from the streets in the old town - but once you get in, you find wonderfully sculptured and designed environments. Gardens, wacky themes, elegantly chic - you name it. Many clubs are in the basements, brick caverns with arched ceilings and sultry lighting.

Day trips from Krakow

Wieliczka salt mines-- we took a very enjoyable 2-hour tour through the deep, deep salt mines of Wieliczka. This is more than *just* a mine - there are chapels carved in the salt. There's a massive formal hall with friezes sculpted into the walls, and all the chandeliers are made of salt crystals. The tile pattern on the floor is carved in to the salt. It is breathtaking. Amazingly, all of the sculpting done in the Wieliczka mines was done BY THE MINERS. WOW. They are excellent; I don't think we'd have guessed they were done by "common people" as they say. True talent. Our guide was hysterical - very wry sense of humor. A guide can really make or break your experience and in this case he made it!

Auschwitz and Birkenau...

The cloudy day turned into pouring rain as we walked over the soggy ground and in the leaky buildings of these death camps. It was good to be uncomfortable while we were there. We spent about 5 hours exploring both Auschwitz and Birkenau with a somber, excellent guide. She personalized the experience in many ways, including pointing at photographs of some of the victims and telling their detailed stories.

We paid our respects at a memorial in Birkenau. The memorial was set right next to a huge pit used to hold crematory ashes. We could see pieces of the bones of cremated victims in the soil. The ashes were used to fertilize crops in nearby fields...

One of the most horrifying features of Birkenau was its sheer magnitude. Birkenau was created because they simply couldn't murder and cremate ENOUGH people in one day at Auschwitz. We saw piles and piles of personal effects - eyeglasses, shoes, prosthetics, suitcases - and this is just a fraction of the total amount. But it certainly conveyed the magnitude of this wretched truth. Perhaps the most disturbing was the pile of human hair... The amount of hair they took from people per day of massacre was indescribable. The hair was then used to make textiles and sold in Germany. People went around wearing fabric partly made of the hair from these death camps...

The Bayer company (a la aspirin - Bayer--Bayern=Bavaria) used to pay 170 Reichmarks per human guinea pig to Birkenau for the "doctors" there to test new chemicals on them. There were deplorable gynecological experiments done, sterilizations, and multiple surgeries done on identical twins and others. One chemical being tested was intended to change the color of people's EYES. Many people went blind from these experiments. People who didn't die from the experiments done on them were killed within a few days so there wouldn't be any living eyewitnesses. The doctor would then choose a fresh crop of victims from the next train. There were up to 6 trains a day of 7,000 people.

The fortitude of the Poles

One major theme that we have taken with us from our experiences in Poland is the impressive fortitude of the Polish people. The Poles have suffered a ridiculous amount of adversity and wretched atrocity while trying to exist as a Polish nation. Their borders have been pushed, erased, you name it, repeatedly. But the Poles are a stalwart group, and our impression is that they have a fierce integrity. For example, Hitler wanted to create a "puppet state" in Poland, but his plans were not realized because no Polish collaborators could be found.

All in all, Poland impressed the heck out of us and we both absolutely want to return someday.

On to Prague!!! (whew, we're almost caught up)

Ich bin ein Berliner

2005-08-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

...especially after eating so much decadent European fare.

Anyhow, on to Berlin! Berlin wins the most-graffiti-per-square-km award. Not just on one side of the old Wall line, either. We stayed in the Mitte neighborhood, in a hotel along Friedrichstrasse. We think that the Mitte was a great choice in terms of location, and many of the things we enjoyed were in the northeast Mitte, a region with a good, funky vibe. Highlights include Hackeschehofe and our trip to Nocti Vagus, a completely dark restaurant staffed by blind and visually impaired people. It was awesome - we each ordered the "surprise" menu and it was truly shocking how difficult it was to identify some things and how simple to identify others. Being geeky oenophiles, we of course had to order wine to see if our noses were as good without the aid of our eyes on the color and density of the wine :) We did ok! On another night, we enjoyed some absolutely delicious German cuisine for surprisingly good prices at Honigmond on Borisstrasse, an easygoing, candlelit neighborhood restaurant.

Although we'd recommend staying closer to the north end of the neighborhood, we dug the Turkish and hippie vibe down in our part of the Mitte and south and east along Oranienstrasse in the Kreuzberg/Friedrichshain area. We popped by a Sommerfest that reminded me of the local-flavored Dally-in-the-Alley from my days in the Detroit area, but on a much smaller, less organized, less advertised, and more hippified scale. There was even a Go-Kart race blocking off several city streets on the day we left. It rained for a brief while that day, and we ducked into the covered terrace of the gorgeously decorated Mirchi (lively yellow, fresh greens, amber tones, Indian/Tibetan theme). A few staff members attempted to seal the gaps between the big umbrellas so patrons didn't get rained on and we watched in amusement, our Burning Man experiences with dust, rain, wind and duct tape solving the problem in our minds. We also enjoyed a bar called Molotov Cocktail--good happy hour drink specials.

One day we enjoyed a long stroll through the Tiergarten, past lakes and streams, a cafe, and probably upwads of 50 nude sunbathers. Berlin places no taboo on sunbathing nude. We also climbed to the top of the Victory Tower in the middle of the Tiergarten for some marvelous views of the city: the tower is surrounded by the green oasis of the garten, and then the urban cityscape wraps around it, stretching to the horizon.

Of course we stopped to gaze at the Brandenburg Tor. The US embassy is under construction right next to it. Interestingly, the plans for US embassy have recently been changed based on the increasing hostility and acts of terrorism directed toward the US and they now include reinforced low concrete walls and bars around the perimeter of the property. The building itself is being set farther back now so that car bombs can't get too close to the building. No kidding. There are anti-Bush posters and so on all over the place in Berlin as well.

Another great view of Berlin can be had from the top of the Fernsehturm in Alexanderplatz. The tower of course has the touristy rotating restaurant at the top. We figured ah, let's splurge on it - and then were pleasantly surprised to find that it was quite inexpensive compared to other such places (read: Seattle Space Needle ;) There was a fabulous fountain in the platz that we had a blast playing in -- Water shot up from the ground, forming the walls of a four-square court! The trick was, you didn't know when each wall would stop or start. We teamed up with a random group of Turks who had a soccerball and played volleyball inside the fountain! Imagine the peals of laughter we all shared each time someone missed the ball and it went flying outside the fountain whilst we were trapped inside... or when a person ran from one square to the next during a waterwall intermission, only to have the water spring up mid-leap! I haven't experienced such childlike, light fun in a long time. Laughter and smiles: the great multicultural intercessors :) yay!

Russ went to the Reichstag and to Potsdam by himself on a sunny afternoon. Fortunately the U-bahn (public light rail system) went the 20+ miles out to Potsdam. Potsdam was a charmingly beautiful small town filled with baroque styled houses. Potsdam is where Fredrick II built his royal palace in the early 19th century to rival the French palace at Versialles. Huge gardens, fountains, statues and elegant huge buildings covered the several hundred-acre royal grounds. My Potsdam tour finished at the cozy estate where the Potsdam Conference was held after the Germans surrendered in WWII. Thinking back and realizing I was standing where Stalin, Truman and Churchill were 60 years ago was quite an experience.

On a Friday night, we ended up staying in! Here we were, in a great clubbing city--indeed, Berlin has no curfew and is home to a scene ranging from jazz clubs to discos to the KitKatKlub; alas, we were tired from days of crawling around the city.

Next blog: Poland! (We're actually in Prague at the moment, on our way out of town to Machac at the lake resort area Machovo jezero for an outdoor music festival... playing catch-up on blogging)

PS - photos to come at our next uploading opportunity...

Heading south and east: Copenhagen, Berlin, Krakow

2005-08-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

(fyi: no pictures for this blog posting until we hit another good internet connection)

After our time with our families, we met back up with each other in Oslo We spendt just one day there together (thank goodness we left so soon - I must reiterate here how staggeringly expensive it was!) and then made our way to cozy Copenhagen to round out our visit to the northern portion of Europe. The only reason we didn't balk at the prices for e.g., food and drink in Copenhagen was that we had just come from Norway, so in comparison, Denmark was a treat.

We took a long leisurely walk all day around this smallish, pretty city. What we should have done is rent a bike to cruise along with all of the locals - everyone gets around on bikes. There is a designated bike lane on most streets, and hundreds of bikes are leaned up against the walls of the buildings, most of them unlocked. The city provides bikes, too: Just put down a small deposit and you can ride the city bike around all you want. Some of them are a bit rusty but it was great to see such an active, limited-petrol community.

We saw the Little Mermaid statue (through the massive throngs of tourists - here we are in a city with a rich history of many varieties, and everyone's crowded around this little statue, oohing and aahing).

And of course, while in Copenhagen, we had to try the classic smorgasbord (open face sandwich) for lunch.

In the evening, we played in the Tivoli - a crazy, other-worldly amusement park walled up right inside Copenhagen. Beautiful ornate gardens with a river winding through; lanterns in all the trees creating a warm glow at night. We saw a huge flashy production celebrating HCAndersen on an outdoor stage after sunset. We rode a tall gravity-drop ride - which cost us the equivalent of a mere $10 each (so while Denmark was less costly than Norway, by no means was it inexpensive. Sheesh). There were roller coasters and ice cream vendors but also elegant restaurants of all flavors with terraces. We stopped to listen to a big band play!

It was a quick trip but enough for us to appreciate that this is a charming city with people that seem generally kind and easygoing.

On to Berlin!

WB is back!!!

2005-08-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

By popular demand... The petition worked! :)

We're going to start at a humble 40. If you add the one bottle of delicious Czech Frankovka (blaufrankisch) from Kromeriz we had tonight the total will be 41. The winery started mass producing wine in 1345 - and boy do they know how to make a wine! Did we mention the bottle was only ~$5. So far Lesley and I are truly enjoying Poland and not just for its overall relative lower prices.

We'll blog soon about our adventures in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Krakow. BTW, we've updated our pictures online - just click on the photo link on the bar to the right;

Do widzenie,
Russ and Lesley

WB=41*

*It should be noted that we enjoyed some Bison grass vodka (yes, really) here in Poland and, well, that just doesn't fall under "Wine and Bubbly." Zubrowka (vodka flavored with the grasses that bison feed on) mixes marvelously with apple juice and is a popular drink here!

Scottish Roots

2005-08-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

Scotland is so many things - I hope as I write to touch on a few major themes: the beauty of the terrain, the rich history and importance of the shipyards along the River Clyde, and of course, seeing Scotland through my father's eyes.

With restless energy, I hopped in place, waiting for the passengers in front of me to disembark. Finally it was my turn. Tears of excitment welled in my eyes as I saw my dad and brother on the monitor, waiting for Russ and me to arrive at the Glasgow International Airport. To be standing on Scottish ground with my kin was exhilarating, sublime -- this was the first time my dad had visited his homeland since the late 1960s. He grew up in Scotland and spent the first ~40 years of his life there. He took a two-year work assignment in the United States in the mid-60s, not knowing that he'd find himself with a wife and two wee kids there, and not return to his homeland until 2005...

We were all hyped up, in spite of the late hour. At our hotel, we all went to the pub for a round of Tennet's (side note: nothing compares to a McEwan's Scotch Ale, but they didn't have it on draught that night) and presently were rolled up into a rowdy chat with a table of heavily drinking rural Scottish kids next to us, who were on their way to Cyprus in the morning for a holiday. It was tremendously fun to watch dad's amusement with our neighbors' humor and wit--and to witness the almost instant fortification of his Scottish accent.

Dad's Childhood Home

Our first adventure was to visit Old Kilpatrick, where Dad was born and raised. We drove through Renfrew, looking for the ferry Dad used to take across the River Clyde, but alas it is no more. However, now there is the huge modern Erskine Bridge spanning the river. Dad's excitment was apparent as he directed my brother Grant, who was driving. Dad remembers every last detail - where to turn, what landmarks to look for, etc. Some things have changed, but many things are still recognizable to him. We arrived in Old Kilpatrick, passed the small red brick schoolhouse where Dad went to school, and drew to a stop in front of 266 Dumbarton Rd. This is the tenement house Dad grew up in! And across the street, just a block down, is the building in which he was born. It is still there - everything looks much the same with the exception of the massive Erskine Bridge practically straight above. Dad has told me many stories of his childhood, of this very street, and here we stood. He pointed out the second floor, where his upstairs neighbor was literally blown out the back by firehose water as firefighters put out the flames set by incendiaries cast by German planes during WW2. A shed now stands in the back yard where the bomb shelter once stood. The door to that shelter was blown off by a bomb once. Dad said they had just gotten in, and his father was about to close the door, when suddenly the door "just went away." We walked past the storefronts where his father ran his grocery business. We strolled through Glen Lusset, where Dad used to play as a boy. In the midst of the greenery, with the small stream babbling through, I clearly understood Dad's comparison of the ravine in Seattle's Ravenna Park (on which I used to live) to Glen Lusset.

Robert Burns was Right

Robert Burns, the renowned Scottish poet, expressed endless awe for Scotland's beautiful land. I realize that I had underestimated Scotland all these years. The land here, especially the Old Kilpatrick Hills which Dad used to climb all the time and the land around Perthshire, Dunbartonshire and Loch Lomond is alive, bucolic, undulating gently. Dad has a favorite viewpoint: Kinnoull Hill. It's a good climb up, and you can see for miles and miles. A veritable quilt of earth, the swatches drawn from a palette of bright lively golds, lush greens, and soft purples from heather and milk thistle, and bordered by lines of trees. The sky is flush with thick clouds that look like baubles of shiny candy floss, ranging from silvery to brightest white. They cover the sky as far as the eye can see, yet there are actually large spaces between them so the earth is set aglow by sunlight under the silvery sky. The sky moves fast, too - clouds always scudding hurriedly to the east, long grasses bending with them. The river Tay below us is glassy smooth as it wends through this fertile, fairy-tale-beautiful land. It is truly exquisite. Dad said he couldn't explain it, he just had to take us there, and he was right. Goodness, I think I must quote Robert Burns now:
...
The Tay meand'ring sweet in infant pride,
The palace rising on his verdant side,
The lawns wood-fring'd in Nature's native taste,
The hillocks dropt in Nature's careless haste,
The arches striding o'er the new-born stream,
The village glittering in the noontide beam-
Poetic ardours in my bosom swell,
...

Dumbarton

We then headed toward Dumbarton, where Dad spent some years in his teens. We saw the shipyards and the delta where the massive, luxurious cruise ships Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were built and launched. A large rock with a small castle and fortification wall rises out of the water just at the edge of Dumbarton, and it's the namesake for the town's football team, the Dumbarton Rock. The team's new stadium is being constructed right by the rock - and not far from the now-defunct shipyard. We drove up to the hills over Loch Lomond and the finger lochs, looking over naval shipyards. We carried on to a small town called Luss and visited the beach on this gorgeous day, under a very "Scottish" sky: huge clouds, well defined and shaded in silver and shiny white. A heavy sky, yet so very bright because there are actually large spaces between the clouds. Plenty of sunlight illuminates the earth, and the wind is strong. We oscillate between baring shoulders to the warm sun and zipping up jackets to the top against the breeze. This is "summer" in Scotland!

We drove through Helensburgh and Balloch and arrived in Perth, to stay at the train station hotel, where Dad used to stay when he was doing business there. He used to live in Perth when he was working for Ford Motor Company of Britain - his territory was all of northern Scotland, even including the Orkney and Shetland islands and the Isle of Lewis! He said that if you are heading up to the Orkneys and you stop in Thurso on a clear day, you can see all the way to Norway.

Family Gathering in Space and Time

We sought the Elliot/Carmichael plot at the Dumbarton cemetery. It is shared by several generations, with dad's father, mother, and his brother Andrew who died as a child listed last. What a moment to stand there with my father and brother. Dad introduced us to his parents as we stood there, as we never met them. The tall gravemarker was one of hundreds that had broken off the base, and so the engraved portion was partially buried in front of the base stone to make it stable. We cleaned moss off of the stone and scattered fresh flowers in red and white around the stone and across the plot. We all had a good cry and embraced each other.

Old "Wull" Swanson and the Exquisite Nectar Experience

Dad's next-door neighbor in Perth (Leetown, actually - on the lovely quite outskirts rather than inside the bustling city) was Old Will (pronounced "Wull") Swanson, an 80-year-old retiree from the Dewar's whisky distillery. Dewar's produced an exquisite 30-year-old whisky which it reserved for the executives of the company and its retirees, and that's it. One day, Old Wull invited Dad over for a wee dram. Dad ambled over, dodging the ridiculous goose that lived on their street (you had to nudge it with your car to get it to move). Old Wull ceremoniously set out two drams, explaining earnestly that it would be like nothing he had ever tasted before. Indeed, one sip made it so - giving Dad a taste for the good stuff and immortalizing Old Wull and his enthusiasm in this story.

High Tea - Stuffy English Tradition or Scottish Penny-Pinching Tactic?!?

The gardens of the Taychreggan Hotel in Broughty Ferry are expansive, fragrant, and meticulously maintained. They are shown up only by the impressive spread of the hotel's high tea. High tea is a late-afternoon meal, typically with a limited variety of menu offerings, but replete with toast, all the tea you can drink, and decadent sweets whose primary component is fresh whipped cream. I can say without hesitation that the Scots are doing this tea thing right by me -- my previous experiences with high tea in England involved cucumber sandwiches, a dress code, mandatory pinky-extension while sipping, and a sizeable tab at the end of the affair. Our experienced at the Taychreggan started out with a pint of ale, and the delicious spread cost only 10 pounds each and included belly-fillers like fish n chips and steak pie (and those *before* the dessert/"cakes"). Dad, with his characteristic twinkle in his eye and chuckle forming at the corners of his mouth, said that high tea in Scotland is simply a way to get out of paying the higher prices fo dinner later in the evening!

What Happens when Wine Tasters go to a Whisky Tasting?

Well, for starters, they don't drink up every last drop of the samples :) We visited the Tullibardine distillery in Blackford, Perthshire for a tour and tasting. While whisky is too strong for me personally to enjoy drinking, I have a new appreciation for the craft of making distilled spirits, and for the subtleties of aroma and flavor that result from choices such as the characteristics of the wood barrels used to age the spirits. We tasted young and old whiskies, and even one that had been aged in a barrel previously used for port wine. The wood imparted a lovely rosy color to the whisky along with a notable aroma and flavor. We also learned how adding a small amount of water smoothed out the pungency and helped the aromas and flavors blend together. Very enjoyable!

The Pride of the Clyde

Dad describes the River Clyde during the height of the shipbuilding industry there - both sides lined double, triple deep with massive ships, and every slip filled with a ship under construction. The Clyde was of paramount importance during WW2, building not only ships but part of the prefab dock shipped across the English Channel for the definitive D-day advance on the coast of Normandy. Dad and I took a cruise on a small boat up and down the Clyde one day, passing all the old shipyards. Nowadays, just a few yards do any business at all - partly because the demands of wartime don't exist anymore, but also partly because the work is done more cheaply in other places such as Poland. The narrator on the family-run Pride of the Clyde cruise discussed each shipyard in turn, clearly reverent of the rich history of the region's booming industry.

Dad worked at the Lobnitz shipyard - he apprenticed there from 1940-48 as a draftsman during his naval architecture schooling. While on the return trip, one of our hosts brought some old books over to Dad, and he found a photo of the Lobnitz yard taken during his tenure there. Dad was able to pinpoint the building he worked in and even where he parked his motorbike.

A Day on the Waverley Steamship!

Pure, relaxing fun: Dad and I took a 10-hour cruise along the river and Firth of Clyde and around the Isle of Bute on the Waverley, an old steamship that was purposed as a minesweeper during the war. The ship was beautiful, evoking images of days past - people dressed up for a day at sea, taking high tea on the lower deck, standing in the bracing breeze below the two jauntily tipped orange and black steam towers...

The Great Pastime: Football

We *had* to cheer on Dad's old team, the Dumbarton Rock, before we left Scotland, so we drove down to Ayr on the west coast for an away game. A sizeable crew from Dumbarton showed up, clad in the team's yellow and black, and ready with a litany of cuss words and colorful epithets for the opposing team. Unfortunately Dumbarton lost but it was a most enjoyable day.

A Grand Tour

We managed to cover a lot of ground in just two weeks; nonetheless, Dad is right on when he says that he really needs six months to show us Scotland properly. We traveled from the Glasgow region, southwest to Loch Katrine and the Trossachs national forest, northeast all the way to Peterhead, down through Aberdeen and St. Andrews, and back along the Firth of Forth through Dunfermline (the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie), through and all around Perth, and back to Glasgow.

Norwegian roots

2005-08-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

One of the intentions I had for this worldly trip was for Lesley and I to visit the countries where our ancestors came from. My dad’s side of the family has always embraced their Norwegian heritage. Growing up with so many Norwegian traditions instilled in me a strong desire to visit Norway.

My time in Norway started in Oslo. I met up with my Mom at our hotel since she arrived in Oslo earlier that day. Our plan for the week in Norway was to do a big loop around the lower half of the country visiting Oslo, Trondheim and Bergen (Norway’s 3 largest cities). We took a train from Oslo to Trondheim, a coastal steamer from Trondheim to Bergen, and an incredibly scenic journey from Bergen to Oslo (kitschily labeled “Norway in a Nutshell”) via trains, bus and boat.

After spending time in Paris and Barcelona, I wasn’t too impressed with Oslo. Don’t get me wrong, Oslo is a pretty town but it’s much smaller with fewer sights to see. Most of the museums and sights are expensive, relatively small, and can be viewed rather quickly. The one noteworthy museum that impressed both Lesley and me was the Noble Peace Prize museum. The high tech exhibits contained an abundance of information and history about one of the world’s most prestigious awards. Norway has great restaurants and bars to hang out at but since everything is sooo expensive here we can’t afford to hit the town. Wine is extremely expensive. In restaurants, the cheapest bottles of wine are close to $50 USD and anything decent costs at least $70-80. One restaurant I ate at was selling a bottle of Beringer or Fetzer Zinfandels for 330 NKR which is equivalent to $55 USD (6NKR to 1USD)!!!!! Beer is the cheapest with bottles costing around $8, a glass of wine $12 and mixed drinks $15. So tonight we decided to stay in and catch up on our internet work while paying 150 NKR for 12 hours of WLAN. For those who smoke cigarettes…a pack is $10. Norway is my new king of expensive countries (stealing the crown from Switzerland).

Of all the places I have traveled to and will travel to on this trip, Trondheim holds the most significance for me. Trondheim is where I tapped into my roots. My great grandparents left their small town of Bolme, which is near Trondheim, to start a new life in the United States. I instantly took a liking to the lovely, UNESCO World Heritage Site city with its wide streets and tightly packed Renaissance-styled wooden buildings. At my Dad’s request, my Mom and I went to a folk museum to learn about the history and culture of the Trondheim region in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was interesting to learn which traditions carried over to the small Norwegian farming community where my dad grew up.

Leaving Trondheim’s port on our coastal line made me reflect on how my great grandparents left the same harbor 123 years ago, never to return. The 28-hour cruise went slowly with our boat stopping at several beautiful coastal towns. I have 3 highlights from the cruise (besides spending quality time with my mother – of course!): spotting a pair of whales, watching a small Viking ship brave the North Sea and finally getting to meet and chat with some Norwegians for a few hours.

Bergen, another UNESCO city, is a beautiful harbor town that reminds me a little of Seattle. Both have similar looking houses along lush, green hills, a harbor, and tons of rain. We were lucky to have warm, sunny weather for the one day we had to explore Bergen.

Going back to Oslo from Bergen we passed through Norway’s most mountainous region with tons of breathtaking scenery. Tiny towns nestled along incredibly steep, pine-covered mountains surrounding fjords and small river valleys. Every mountain has several small creeks rapidly running down them, many producing magnificent 300ft or larger waterfalls. You skydivers would probably like to know that I traveled through Voss and saw the steep cliff where extreme skydivers gather every June to BASE jump.

Despite the high prices, I really enjoyed Norway. I really admire the kind, mild mannered, multilingual Norwegians and their style of living. Norway’s towns and cities look clean and elegant with well maintained houses, landscape, and buildings. I bet Scandinavia will be the only place in Europe with extra long beds (a relief for tall people like us) and smoke-free bars and restaurants (also a relief for us after being in France, Spain, Italy, UK)!

One other thought we are having today as we leave Oslo and begin making our way down to Copenhagen… It has been so marvelous to read your comments and get your emails, thank you! Traveling is fun, but it is great for us to feel connected to home, and to hear from new friends that we’ve made along the way.

WB=??? (tease tease... but we're getting convinced)

Whining and Babbling about the WB: Wine and Bubbly Count

2005-08-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

Dissent in the ranks! Dissent in the ranks! It seems a few dear readers (i.e., vicarious global winos) oppose the retraction of the WB count from our postings (WB=the running total of the number of bottles of local wines, bubblies and other brews we're enjoying along the way). Check this out:

http://www.petitiononline.com/151/petition.html (THANKS DAVE ;)

I had removed the WB count because I didn't really want anyone to mix up a mashup with Garbage's #1 Crush as #1 Lush with my name in it upon our return from this trip. Ah, well. So much for saving face. But - we are not that easy. That petition only has ONE signature on it. No WAY is that enough.

Hm. I bet there are more interesting things to keep track of than WB. Thoughts?

A boat by the fjords

2005-08-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

Today and tomorrow (Aug 9th & 10th) I'll be taking a boat from Trondheim to Bergen. http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&searchtype=address&country=NO&addtohistory=&city=Bergen (Zoom out 3 times)

There will be more about my adventures in Norway in a few days.

Skol!
-Russ

A Fairytale Fortress

2005-08-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

Tired and loaded down we left the Carcassonne Train station in search of a place to stay that Thursday night. We walked 3 blocks to a cheap hostel to discover they didn't have any available rooms. The summer travel season has begun! Fortunately, we found a 2-star hotel across from the train station.

After some rest and a tasty cassoulet (a very hearty bean casserole fromS. France with sausage and confit de canard - duck legs cooked in duckfat and then preserved in the cooled fat - it's rich, salty and verytasty ) we headed to the medieval turreted fortress of Carcassonne. On our way there, we encountered a wine shop so...of course...we went in to explore. The wine shop had a small yet delicious selection of good-priced Langoudoc-Rousallonwines which included a 100% Cab Franc. The shopkeeper was a sweet lady who spoke less English than we spoke French - which isn't much. With guide book in hand, Lesley (Dr. Linguist) was able to express her love of their 100%CF.

Finally....off to the double-walled old Cathar town with 3 bottles in hand. The fairytale fortress triggered endless medieval images in my mind. The fortress stood on top of a small hill over looking the nearby city and countryside. My medieval daydreams came to a screeching halt once I reached the old town inside the turreted walls. The cobble stoned streets were surrounded by touristy shops, a plethora of tourists, their kids and which filled the town with sounds ofSssshhhhhhhwing.....ssssshhhhhhwing (which was the sound of toy swordsimitating real swords swinging in battle). Most of the shops had no association to the history of Carcassonne. Maybe we should have visited at night time when the tourists were gone. Oh well.

On our way out we passed a Merry-Go-Round by the front entrance to the walled city and said good-by to the touristy fortress of Carcassonne. After visiting Mont St. Michel a few days earlier Carcassonne didn't seem as grandiose as it probably should have.

The next day we left to Barcelona then had a rather uneventful time till weflew to Scotland.

Lots of love,
Russ and Lesley

Photos, finally--

2005-08-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings once again so soon-- I have a few moments so I want to finally point you toward some of our photos from this meandering journey. I planned to post a few gems for you right now but Blogger's image-adding function is not functioning at the moment. Regardless, we've created an online repository for some of our photos (a big thank you to my brother for providing the space): http://carmichael.smugmug.com/Events/99386

We've only uploaded a fraction of them all (Russ enjoys photography and is armed with gigabit cards and such) and we haven't captioned them yet.

Enjoy!

Four words: "Premier Grand Cru Classe"

2005-08-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

Oh! to savor the elixir imbued with the magical terroir of St. Emilion.
Oh chalky earth and bright hot sun and vineyards as far as the eye can see.
Oh my, the ratio of wine shops to people is 1:8.
Oh, my credit card bill.

Large cobblestones line - nay, bump - the hilly streets of this gorgeous UNESCO World Heritage site town. A massive cathedral, replete with a chamber for burial (with a special roof portal for lowering the body through and allowing the spirit to rise from) and St. Emilion's purported meditation chair (believed by many to proffer fecundity to those who perch there), was carved down into the earth. Every sweeping slope of land outside the town proper is covered in tidy rows of bright green summer grapevines and dotted by chateaux. The sun is intensely hot, and one ponders the region's prohibition against irrigation of its vineyards as part of its winemaking tradition.

The residents exhibit a simultaneous reverence for and casual acceptance of wine. Many of them, not unexpectedly, are in the wine business. An insouciant wave indicates Chateau Ausone's location just at the edge of town, but the touch of my hand on a 2002 Chateau Haut-Maziers (Canon-Fronsac) gets a sparkling commentary about the newest winemaker and how she has brought such a wonderful roundness to the wines produced there.

We visited and revisited a funky wine shop/wine bar called L'Essentiel. Perhaps it was the hot pink, violet, and electric green interior. It could have been Carlos, the cheerful if flamboyant server with whom we enjoyed conversing. Still yet it could have been the wine selection, and the save-lots-of-euros-if-you-ship-home-two-cases-instead-of-one situation. But no, no--I keep coming back to the indisputable fact that at L'Essentiel, we were able to get Cheval Blanc by the glass. That is, we didn't have to buy a bottle of it to be able to taste it. If you have ever walked past a building inside of which exists a wine cellar which holds even just one Cheval Blanc, then you are aware of the way it sort of warps the stuff of currencies (in a maddening way) along with the senses (in a delighfully maddening way). We had only a 1998... Not a rock star year in the grand scheme of things; nevertheless, we were moved by its elegance.

I digress to a quick overview of how wines are classified in St. Emilion and why the name Cheval Blanc should make you remove your hat out of respect (or at least provoke an insouciant wave):

The wine growing region of St. Emilion has been divided into four major classifications.
1. "St. Emilion" (good)
2. "St. Emilion Grand Cru" (better)
3. "St. Emilion Grand Cru Classe" (exceptional)
4. "St. Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classe" (the very best)

In every case, a chateau and its wine are subjected to blind tastings and procedural reviews. In St. Emilion, the classifications are reassessed every 10 years. In contrast, other regions of Bordeaux maintain their original appelation classifications indefinitely. There are hundreds and hundreds of chateaux in St. Emilion (800+?). Just 55 of them are Grand Cru Classe, and only 13 are Premier Grand Cru Classe. And if there's not enough Classe for you flying around here yet, I should like now to point out that the Premier Grand Cru Classe category actually splits into two: A and B. 11 chateaux are "B" (already the very best that St. Emilion has to offer). But two, yes two mythical chateaux have demonstrated such consistently superior quality that they rose to the top like cream. The two Premier Grand Cru Classe "A" chateaux are (drum roll): Chateau Ausone and Chateau Cheval Blanc. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we were so delighted to find the Cheval Blanc by the glass. Most sane people wouldn't open a bottle of it, not knowing whether they'd have a customer base around to consume (and pay for) the bottle within a relatively brief window of time.

For those of you who know of my almost cultish appreciation for Cabernet Franc, you can imagine my childish giddiness when I discovered that Cheval Blanc is one of the very very few St. Emilion chateaux to ever put 100% Cab Franc in a bottle. I saw (touched!) a rather old one. It cost 459 euro. I think I probably owed the place 30 euro just for petting it.

There is undoubtedly more to tell you about our experience in St. Emilion. Like the hike from/to the train station (heading back was downhill; however, we each had probably 4 bottles in our backpacks at that point). Or the time I wiped out very publicly on the cobblestones (no, I hadn't been drinking). Or the fact that we attended a class at L'Ecole du Vin and learned all kinds of things, including nuances of wine tasting (while these photos were totally posed, I suppose they do reveal my inner student ;)

At this moment, I (Lesley) am in Scotland with my dad (yay!!!). We (Dad, Grant [my brother], Russ and I) just wrapped up one week here in Scotland and that will be a whole blog post on its own because it has been absolutely marvelous to be here with my family, as my dad returns to his homeland for the first time in nearly 40 years. He remembers details like he left yesterday ("turn left here and then we should see the hill I used to climb"). I feel honored to bear witness to all of this and to get to know my dad better by sharing in his memories and creating new ones that bridge the span between my father's life in Scotland and his life with his family in the USA.

Also at this moment, Russ is making new memories with his family. He is in Norway with his mom for a week (hi Cathy!). He'll probably be posting about Norway in the next week or so. On Aug 12, I'll fly to Oslo to meet up with him and then we start our southward journey through central and eastern Europe.

xo love xo
Lesley

Our very own Tour de France

2005-07-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings, once again! We haven't blogged much in the last several days, and with good reason. This country is loaded with a) history, and b) wine. Well, that explains our sluggishness w.r.t. blogging. The lack of internet access out in the historical/oenological regions is not, admittedly, the real problem.

But let's jump back to Paris for a moment to recount our latest whorl of activity. Paris is one of those cities that is beautiful even in the rain. It was especially beautiful during our time there due to the lovely hot weather and lack of rain (I really do miss you, Seattle, but I don't miss your rain...). We arrived late at night to a wonderful hotel (Ecole Centrale, 3 rue de Bailly, we highly recommend it - we were able to get it for 66 euro/night from www.venere.com, when the hotel's price listed on their reception sheet claimed a usual rate of 129 euro/night!), but of course had to go out and explore. I had heard of a tucked away jazz club on the Left Bank, near r. Galande, just south of Notre Dame basically. We went there and the atmosphere was...lacking, not to mention so thick with smoke that it was hard to see/breathe. So we wandered around some more and came across a great late-night brasserie with a wonderful singer and a piano player. We enjoyed some wine and cheese and enjoyed the lilting music as we sat outside, nestled between the smoke-black back end of a cathedral on one side, and a warmly lit, narrow cobblestone street on our other. Russ took a beautiful photo of this - and we'll be getting the power/cord things we need this week so we can finally post up some photos, so you will see it!

We rested up and then got up early to get to the Eiffel Tower in morning light - and ahead of the afternoon pack of tourists. Of course it is always a total zoo up there (herd the animals into the elevator, stack them in line, tell them where to go, tell them again until they hear you and then herd them the heck out of there). It was COLD up at the top, huge winds. The view is so great - Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower seem to be waving to each other across Paris all the time. We then strolled down the Champs Elysees, a requisite Parisian experience. We sat down at an outside cafe with extraordinarily expensive eats and watched the colorful assembly of people go by. Russ climbed up the Arc de Triomph at one point while (since I have been here before) I relaxed and wrote in my journal (thank you Mez and Natalia!). We basically visited "the" sites that day, and even took a cruise down the Seine at night - touristy but it is undeniably a great way to see the City of Lights.

The next day Russ went to the Musee de les Invalides - he loooooves history and so really enjoyed seeing Napoleon's tomb and learning greater detail about the French Army's history. He could have spent the whole day there but we had set up a meeting time/point and of course we are now untethered from our cell phones, so this sort of thing is harder to modify in the midst of it all. Lesley strolled around in the morning, remembering Paris from trips past, shopping (that is, what "shopping" we can do when we have only backpacks), and so on. The afternoon was a train ride out to Versailles. We got there too late to go inside, but the GARDENS! Oh the gardens. There are meandering paths, maze-like, and all manner of trees and bushes and bursting flowers, and fountains, and frequently there are statues tucked in between. We wandered around for some time, and at one point I stopped and laughed and pointed Russ and his ever-present camera at a man lying in the grass, balancing his camera on a sign (for a timer shot with his wife) that read (get ready, French speakers)... "pelousez interdites". Yup, lying on the grass right behind the "keep off" sign. It was gorgeous. So naturally, we had to share the photo with him. Oscar, a Colombian, and his wife Ildko, a Hungarian, were tickled by the photo and we all ended up sitting on the grass (right behind the sign) for a few hours, drinking wine and discussing life in a mix of English and Spanish, the only two languages we all shared to some degree. Situations like that are such a treat!

The next day we went to the Opera house... We had seen it at night already and now in the bright sunlight. Opulent, elegant - and recently revitalized. It underwent a facade cleaning in 2000, I believe, and now the stones and gilding are bright and bold. Inside, the swirls of the marble and wood staircase, wrapped on the sides by salons with mosaic ceilings and layers and layers of rich jewel tones, were majestic to behold. And those were just the anterooms. Inside the performance hall, the ceiling was painted by Marc Chagall. Just think of his bold blue famous works... now imagine a negative of that... a white background with wispy figures painted in all the colors of the rainbow filling the cupola of the opera auditorium. Wonderful! I especially liked the fact that Chagall's style is so completely different from the burgundy-and-gold opulence of the rest of the auditorium. It kind of clashed... but in a rather brilliant way because it was all masterful. Fun!

In the afternoon, we went to Montmartre and enjoyed the hot sun on the lawn in front of Sacre Coeur. We found ourselves in a wine shop (amazingly! ;) and had a nice chat with the proprietor who may soon be moving to NY to work in wine distribution or some such. He helped us select a few yummies (I have a treat for my sister-in-law! Hi Zoe!) and we even bought a wee bottle of absinthe. We escaped the excessive tourism of Montmartre after dinner in the square, rested up at our hotel, and then got ready to head out to go clubbing in Paris.

We arrived at the Rex Club at a "fashionable" time (i.e., not before 1 am, that's what we read somewhere!). Well, what we got for our very fashionable timing was a 2-hour wait in line, surrounded by a zillion smoking people. We finally got into the club at about 3:30 am. We decided to go to the Rex Club based on several recommendations and the fact that Laurent Garnier was spinning (residency on Thurs. nights). Music was great at some times, very experimental at others, and I felt right at home when he burst out with "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Yes, he really did. And the crowd went NUTS. They loved it! A mostly French crowd all screaming the Nirvana lyrics, jumping up and down. And smoking. Did I mention the smoking yet? Yikes.

We dragged ourselves out of bed early, loaded on those 40+ lb packs, and trudged our way to the train to head out to Normandy. First stop: Bayeux. The small city has retained every bit of its old beauty - it managed to escape most of the destruction of WW2. We actually saw the Bayeux Tapestry (http://hastings1066.com/) at an excellent small museum in Bayeux. I particularly enjoyed it because there was a lot of preamble before they let you see the tapestry - a film, and a long psuedo tapestry that explained the circumstances of the time, and features/clues within the tapestry, and so on. As a result, when I actually saw the tapestry (and even then, you walked along its 70 meters with an earpiece talking you through it), I could appreciate it and understand its role and representation.

The next day, we got up (at our impressive HI youth hostel huge room! 18 euro for the night and breakfast per person) (thankfully Russ got up first and brought me some coffee because I was particularly zombie-like that morning) and Russ sought out the D-day museum while I foraged for treats to give my family when I see them on the 30th (the Normandy region is known for making caramel...). The region is also known for making Cidre Pomme (hard apple cider) and Poire (pear). Russ and I have been making sure to try local products as we rove around, and of course this was no exception. The ciders are very dry and have a great earthy, woody flavor to them. That afternoon we took a D-day tour which was actually excellent - our tour guide was very knowledgeable and clearly had a great interest himself in history. Another plus was the small size of our group - just 9 people. We visited a museum but the most moving parts were standing actually on Omaha beach and visiting one of the war cemeteries (we went to the US one on this tour, but there are individual cemeteries for every major nation that was part of the battle of Normandy, near the beaches corresponding to each nation's landing). To the west of Omaha beach, there are sections that have been left untouched - HUGE craters in the earth created by bombs, and concrete German batteries dotting the landscape. You know the bombing was sheer hell on earth when you see part of a several-feet-thick German battery wall lying on its side next to one of these craters, rebar snarled every which way.

We were sad to leave the charm of Bayeux, but we're also city dwellers so it was time to move on to something new - the next day we made our way to Mont St. Michel. It was a rough journey. Let's just say, never rent a car from Europcar, because when you get to the office to pick up your car, they will be closed, even though their website and our online ordering indicated it would be open. We arrived there in the late afternoon and so wandered around MSM in the evening light. Its beauty cannot be done justice in the 2 minutes we have left on this computer right now - so to sum it up, we climbed up and down and all around this huge fortress (the only part of northern France to never fall to the British in the Hundred Years' War), and we were fortunate to be here at a time when the tides turn the peninsula into an island. There was a feeling of mysticism in the air - a calm crowd gathered and waited, and you could feel people's primitive connection with the earth as we watched the tide change. The rivulets of earth began to fill, and we could see a sharp white line running up the river as the direction of water flow changed. And then it just kept coming! The parking lot went away. Fields of green went away. The nearest city at the other end of the causeway that now connects it to MSM seemed farther away. Beautiful.

Alas, we must go now - next time we write about St. Emilion (HEAVEN) and Carcassone!

Love to you all
Lesley and Russ

Ahh Paris

2005-07-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

Today is our final (4th) day and night in Paris. Paris has a plethora of fantastic museums, monuments, and beautiful places to kick back and enjoy. There is no way we can accompish everything we would like to. This post will be brief since we want to explore more of the wonderful sights Paris has to offer. Today will be the Opera, Montmartre, the Sacre Coeur, and hit the Rex Club where the famous dj Laurent Garnier will be spinning.

So far this trip has been even more profound than I (Russ) had hoped. Traveling to 4 different countries with different languages, cultures, cuisines, and toilets all within a week has been quite an amazing, challenging journey. Lesley's ability to learn new foreign languages is amazing. I too am enjoying the opportunity to learn and speak many new languages. Lesley's been a wonderful, (mostly ;) patient teacher when it comes to helping me pronounce the words in these foreign languages correctly. (footnote from Lesley: I haven't been very patient at all; he is covering that detail up)

It's amazing to see how healthy people live in Europe with one exception...smoking cigarettes. There have been many instances where Lesley and I have had to leave or avoid a bar, train car, or certain smokers because we can't stand the excessive, constant, sometimes opaque smoke. So many young people in Europe look beautiful however many of the older people look extremely wrinkled and old in the face. We think this is attributed to the cigarette smoking.

Besides all the delicious (and well priced) wine and bubbly in France I love its history. I've always been a fan of European history and I'm learning so much being surrounded by so many museums, monuments, and cathedrals.

Did we mention how fantastic the food has been throughout Europe. It's a good thing we walk several kilometers a day which burns off all of the calories from all of the rich foods we're enjoying.

We also have one picture from Ibiza to share with you. Our friend Dana found this online.
http://www.ibiza-voice.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/9039/sort/1/size/medium/cat/613/page/

We have so much more to say about Paris but right now we need to do it instead of write about it, since we have to leave here tomorrow.

Au revoir,
Russ and Lesley

Culture, and then champagne

2005-07-18T02:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings!!

Before I get lost on the subject of champagne, we wanted to share with you some of our culturally edifying experiences as of late... back in Luzern, we went to the local Picasso museum. Rather than being a collection of his artwork (although there was a small collection there), the exposition primarily consisted of a series of about 180 photographs taken of Picasso over the course of 30 years of his life. The photos were by Douglas David Duncan, a photojournalist whom Picasso befriended and allowed to photodocument his personal life. We became acquainted with Picasso,s eccentricities (packrat-the living/dining rooms of his home were also primary studio space), his deep partnership with his wife Jacquelyn (sp?), and his playful parenting style (supervising drawings by daughter Paloma and playing in the garden with them and their pet goat). The photos were not restricted to happy times, though - I cant shake the image from my mind of a photo of J. just hours after Picassos death. This collection personalized the man and the drives behind his art and his way of seeing the world.

Another site we both enjoyed tremendously was the Musee de la Reddition. We were able to stand in the very room where Jodl and two other German officers signed the WWII surrender document on May 7, 1945. We learned about this event/time in history from a perspective that was different from the bias presented in US history textbooks!! We learned about the roles played by the French and N. African armies (undoubtedly with some French bias, but hey, at least we have broadened our horizons somewhat). We saw a film of events surrounding the surrender that was clarifying for me personally (I dont believe I have seen such a film since grade school). Russ was like a kid in a candy store, just fascinated with every detail. One of my favorite aspects of it all was seeing the huge maps on the walls of the conference/war room (this was the actual little red schoolhouse that Eisenhower used at the time as his European headquarters) - seeing the marks indicating fuel lines, supply transport, battalion movement... it was seeing a slice of a chess game. We have photos of this room and will post them in a few weeks when we take care of all of our photos up to this point!!

We are off to Paris momentarily so I will write about Reims and Epernay and our stroll down the Avenue du Champagne another time.

Speaking of champagne, WB=20 (if you dont know what this is, refer back to our first or second post! :)

From 5T to Luzern

2005-07-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

We left off last time in the town of Vernazza... At dinner, in the warm breeze of the sea, the scent of fresh tomatoes and garlic in the air, we met two women from Toronto and a man from California. They recommended that we move over to the town of Riomaggio - the southernmost town, and purportedly the least touristy. We did so the next day, and found cheap housing right away, or rather, it found us... Mamma Rosa was right there at the train station, grabbing backpackers for her cheap hostel (20€/night/person). What a relief, as were still in the financial aftershock of Ibiza... We spent the day taking the hikes between each of the five cities. The first few legs were pleasant, easy - and stunningly beautiful, as the route hugs the side of the steeply sloped rocks on which these 5 towns are built, twisting and turning, with the Mediterranean always to our side. We stopped in Corniglia, the middle town, to go to the market for picnic fixings (another Ibiza-recovery strategy). Baguette, fruit, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a bottle of wine made the perfect picnic in the salty sea air. It was a good thing we stopped for lunch - we needed the energy on the next two legs of the hike. The path between Corniglia-Manarola-Monterosso included significant altitude changes, and was longer than the first sections. We enjoyed seeing the olive trees dripping with fresh fruit, and observing the terraced farming that some of the 5 Terre residents make their living on. These towns also have their cemeteries and mausoleums up high, overlooking the cities. We took a side (up, actually) path to one of them and it was quite moving -- there were portraits of the people who were buried there along with their names and dates. We arrived exhausted in Monterosso (clearly the most tourist-oriented of the 5 Terre) and dug into some delicious Italian fare at an off-the-beaten-path restaurant (to avoid the tourist prices). A night train took us back to Riomaggio and Mamma Rosas crazy little hostel.

We designated the next day our lazy day - we hit the rocky beach, wandered the town, and shopped for pesto, pasta, and vegetables for a home-cooked dinner. The other hostellers at Mamma Rosas were impressed with our breaded eggplant, red peppers, and green-bean-pesto pasta (washed down with Lambrusco, yup the red fruity bubbly stuff). After dinner we headed out to meet up with Becky (Aussie from Barossa Valley) and Stuart (from Ohio), and brought hosteller Katie (from Dallas) with us as well. We enjoyed good conversation about all kinds of world affairs, and even managed to catch the tail end of a puppet show put on for local kids.

Wednesday morning we hopped on a train and headed to Luzern, where we are now. We spent the beginning portions of our train rides reading and dozing, but settled into an intent, observant quiet as we found ourselves surrounded by bucolic rolling green hills, which folded into rocky mountains with craggy peaks. All of this is reflected in shimmering, clear lakes... I cant say we didnt anticipate this degree of beauty, but we were taken aback nonetheless. For the last leg of the journey, we were joined by four elderly Swiss in our train car. Despite all of our attempts to explain to them, German phrasebook in hand, that we did not in fact speak German, they cheerfully babbled on at us and pointed at things out the window and on our map. It was quite delightful actually!

We were fortunate to find a hotel that didnt break us, walking distance from the station. The shower.... ohhhh, the shower. This is the best shower weve had in a, well, almost gross while. The window in our room is one of those sweet wee windows that peeks out from between the tiles of a classic, cozy alpine chalet-type building. We can see (and most certainly hear) a lovely clocktower from it. Dinner was outside, next to the rushing river, with stellar local beer (Eichhof?) and distinctly Germanic cuisine (Russ is, needless to say, delighted). Later on, we went out to see what kind of nightlife Luzern could dish up - and found almost nothing! We surmise this is related to the staggering cost of living here, as far as we can tell... a simple meal begins at 20CHF (about 15 USD) and just goes up from there. We stopped at one of the busiest bars we could find (which was maybe 15% full) for a beer and noticed that the price of a basic cocktail was 14 CHF.

Today was, in a word, breathtaking. We took a gondola up 7000 feet to the top of Pilatus, from which we could see for miles and miles around. Green green green, wispy clouds on this perfect sunny day, water and quaint towns and more green nestled in valleys between majestic mountains, stretching all the way to the horizon. We hiked, we sunbathed, we climbed around like kids, we took photos, we breathed the crisp rarefied air. Finally, we descended via a steep cog-wheel train, and returned to Luzern on a 90-minute boat ride across a crystal clear lake. Today was one of those days that you look back on and say "my life is better than it was yesterday". We have been fortunate to observe and breathe incredible beauty today.

The only way this could possibly be better is if there were champagne involved. Oh wait! Tomorrow morning we are off to Reims. YES!

We read that 2/3 of Frances best champagne never leaves the country. Here we come!! Unfortunately international shipping laws make it so that we wont be able to share these gems with you in person :(

Were off in search of Swiss nibbles now (fondue for dinner?! :) (fortunately our hotel includes breakfast, another key to Ibiza-recovery, so we havent had to buy food yet today).

See you on the other side of Reims, dear friends and family.

WB=16 (just for the record, Russ is bigger than me and can drink more than me. I am not a lush! Wait, why are you laughing?!?)

2005-07-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

Well! Here we are in Cinque Terra, Italy... much has transpired...

Ibiza-Eivissa
Our second day and night in Ibiza were filled with meeting new friends and meeting up with old ones. We spent a lazy day at the beach, listening to great music coming from the open-air bars on the edge of the platje and chuckling at the various "sunglass salesmen" that strolled the beach selling a variety of wares. We decided to hit the Om party (the SF-based label we mentioned in the last post) for starters. The vibe was pleasant - the crowd was more social than at Pacha the night before. The club itself was gorgeous and had outside decks right on the water. We were drawn to the outside for the view and the breeze. We took a few empty seats at a table where one man was sitting, and soon another couple joined us. The first man was Scott from Toronto, in Ibiza at the tail/need-a-break end of a business trip. He has a stressful job that involves laying off good people sometimes (including this trip and a forthcoming one to Delhi). We felt bad for him because his spirit is obviously in conflict with his career path. The couple were Kirsty and Darren/Darran (sp?), two bright and fun young kids from Northern Ireland. We all ended up having quite a discussion about political and religious strife in N.I., and around the world as well. It is always enjoyable to compare life experiences with others from far away - inevitably you find out how much you have in common. Some of the things they shared with us were just wretched, particularly the level of pollution and littering that occurs in Belfast where they live. We danced for a while and then went back to the ever-alluring deck outside. We sat down at a table with a woman and man did we meet a firecracker. Sinead was her name, a spunky woman from Ireland who actually lived in San Francisco in the late nineties. What are the odds? In any case, she was a delight to spend time with (along with her partner Darran [sp?]) (Hi Sinead, we know you are reading!! Give us your email address!). One of the most interesting things that Russ and I took from our conversations were the substantial similarities between the Northern Irish and the Irish that we met. On two very different sides of a border, yet both couples were warm and open, and both spoke of the strife between Ireland and G Britain with great distaste. Kirsty and Darren told us that things are only getting worse. Children raised by fanatical parents are bursting onto the scene with even greater fervor than their parents did. What a shame that things are worsening, yet there are clearly citizens of both reasons who simply want it to stop.

London
We should stop for a moment here to acknowledge those in London who were injured or lost their lives this week... We were stunned to learn in Ibiza that a train line we had been on just a week ago (from Paddington station thru the Edgeware Road stop) was the site of a terrorist bombing. We have heard but not been able to locate solid information about further attacks in other cities since the four bombings in London that day. Needless to say, we are thankful for our safety but filled with sadness over these events.

Ibiza - cont'd
Later that night, at the Om party, we were surprised to run into three friends from San Francisco - Russ found them inside. We knew they were on the island but didn't know whether we'd be able to meet up with them. At that point, we left with them and went to see Eric Morillo spin at Pacha. The music was good and fortunately it was less crowded than the night before. After that, we all decided we wanted to go to the famous Space, but it didn't open until 10 a.m. so we needed to find a way to amuse ourselves until then. Our SF friends had friends who just happened to have a boat in the harbor. We emerged into beautiful rising sunshine and made our way to the water. We buzzed across in a dinghy and arrived a boat filled with... Germans! You just can't know what to expect on this trip. We spent a few hours there and then it was time to go, so we buzzed back to the shore and made our way to Space, for several hours of great music in a mostly outdoor setting. We finally decided to call it "a night" and went our separate ways. Russ and I slept until about 9 pm after that. So much for our plans to visit some of the historical sites of Eivissa during the day...

Thursday night we replenished with a quick dinner and then had to get our groove on because the night was beginning. Although, in Ibiza, it's sort of a long, lingering beginning. We didn't actually hit the party we wanted to attend until after 3 am because the DJ we wanted to see didn't go on until 4!! Anyhow, we met up with our SF friends around 1am at Lola's in Eivissa Dalt Vila (old town). What a beautiful area - huge fortification walls forming the edge of lazy sunshiny terraces filled with happy people and palm trees enjoying the local panaderias, bars, etc. We enjoyed a bottle of Cordoniu cava (delicious! One of the cava houses we had hoped to visit but weren't able to). We then made our way to one of the bars that sold tickets to Amnesia, the club that was hosting the night called "Cream" with one of our favorite DJs, Tiesto from Holland. We arrived at Amnesia with just a few minutes to spare. Amnesia has to be one of the most amazing clubs we've ever been to. They have incredible DJs as residents (e.g., PVD, Tall Paul) during the summer. dB meters were prominent all over the DJ box area, and a huge mirror behind the box let you see what was happening in there. The dance floor was PACKED. I mean PACKED. And HOT! phew. Tiesto spun the best set either one of us have ever heard. And that's saying something! Russ shot a brief video of the scene, and we'll post it once we can take care of photos.

Exhausted, we made our way back to our pension to gather our things juuuuuust in time to get to our 12:40 flight back to Barcelona. We crumpled into our chairs in the gate area, thinking only of getting onto the plane and eventually to a place where we could sleep, when who do we notice a few rows of chairs away? Tiesto himself. We debated for a bit whether it would be annoying or fun for him to have us tell him that we had a great time at Amnesia with him. Fortunately the problem got solved for us because he was on our flight and we ended up in line right behind him. We complimented him without acting like groupies, and he appreciated it. In fact, we kept chatting all the way to the plane. We were amused to find out that he didn't get any sleep either ;) He's now off to Turkey, England and then LA for his next shows. Go see this guy! He was a great performer as well as a talented music-maker. And the best part is, he seemed to be a very normal person in the face of all his stardom.

Back home to Barcelona
Upon returning to Barcelona, we planned to get a hotel near the train station for one night, then get an overnight train to Pamplona or San Sebastian the next night. Ha ha haaaa! Apparently there is some fair going on just south of the train station and every hotel within miles is completely full. We searched for hours and finally got a room in a somewhat scary pension. The lack of amenities didn't matter one bit - we just needed the bed for the unbelievable 17 hours of sleep we fell into. We got to the train station the next afternoon to discover that all trains heading in the direction of Pamplona or S. Seb. were completely full (running of the bulls week). So, we decided to just go in a different direction, any direction! Our best option was heading along the French Riviera region and into Italy.

Cinque Terra
So here we are now in Cinque Terra after about 14 hours of train rides. Even though we will be back in Italy in early September, we didn't think we'd have time for this gem (C.T.) in September, so we're glad to see this now. And it is something to see! One of the most noticeable features is the lack of automobile noise - they are not permitted for the most part in these five cities. Another feature is the staggering verticality of it. It is a paradise - shiny Mediterranean extending beyond the horizon... and a turn back to the land provides a breathtaking view of sharply sloped, terraced hills covered in rocks, grapevines, and various flowers and trees. I can't remember how many steps we had to climb to get to our hotel room, but with 40 lbs on my back and barely a full health recovery from Ibiza, it was particularly difficult.

Tomorrow, we will be traversing all of the hikes between the five cities (we're in Vernazza now). The views should be stellar, and the hiking in the sunshine will be a delight. The hikes will probably take most of the day, and the last leg of the hike ends at a beach. (Did we mention paradise?!?) At this moment, we're off to enjoy some Italian cuisine and vino (ahhh, right here in Italy - both of us have always wanted to see Italy and it's the first time for both of us).

We miss and love you!!!! Get over here now! Come join us! :)

WB=12 (13 after dinner tonight. The question is, vino rosso o prosecco?)

Ibiza - day 1

2005-07-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings! We flew into Ibiza yesterday - and we´re glad to see that it has a small-town feel, replete with history and artisans and plenty of locals (we were afraid it would be Vegas in the Mediterranean). It´s odd to see all the huge clubbing billboards as you take the bus through the hinterland between the cities. ¨Tiesto todos los jueves a Cream!¨ and so on (speaking of, that´s where we´ll be Thursday night :)

Yesterday we had an incident with a purse snatcher, and then we stormed around our pension knocking on doors and demanding to see in people´s rooms until we found it, and lo and behold, we think perhaps the noise and fuss scared the thief and suddenly the purse showed up, literally within 10 minutes of when it was snatched. Everything intact (I didn´t have any cash in it - that´s probably what they were looking for, a quick steal). Phew!

It´s hot! Sunny! And full of Brits! Yes, it appears that Ibiza is actually the tropical extension of the UK... Seriously. Bangers and mash and chandies and the whole deal. A part of Sant Antoni, where we are staying, is called the ¨West End¨ in fact. The locals seem to really appreciate me speaking Spanish to them since the Brits don´t seem interested in attempting anything other than English at any time whatsoever. Interesting - because really, the locals would probably prefer that I spoke Catalan, yet the Spanish seems to be much more satisfying to them than English.

Tonight we´re off to the opening night (of the summer season here) of Om (label from San Francisco). Tomorrow we´re going to a club called Amnesia for their Thursday night lineup, including Tiesto and Tall Paul, as I mentioned earlier. Yup, it´s not too shabby here ;)

Incidentally, Tiesto´s new CD is called "In search of sunrise" - fits our theme! We picked one up.

WB=9

Barcelona weekends

2005-07-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

During our wandering, we picked up flyers advertising nightlife activities in Barcelona. Our weekend thus began with a visit to City Hall, a club in Barcelona proper. It didn´t even start until midnight and we didn´t arrive until 1:30 - it is pretty easy to get a late start here. We probably had dinner around 10-12 and then ambled to the club. When we arrived, it was dead inside. But the flyer said that the entry price would jump up after 2:30... suffice to say that the club didn´t get hopping until about 4:00. While there, we had a great chat with a guy named Alejandro from Tenerife (Islas Canarias). Put that on our list for places that sound marvelous to visit! The conversation was a mix of Spanish and English - Lesley spoke Spanish to him and he responded in a blend of Spanish and English.

(oh... WB=8. We´re entering this now because we´re working our way through a nice bottle of Yllera, 2000, a Catalonian tempranillo, as we write this blog... the WB just might go up to 9 by the time we´re done here ;)

Saturday we went to Sagrada Familia, the gorgeous under-construction cathedral by Gaudi. We are really, really enjoying seeing Gaudi´s work. We climbed all the zillion steps up to the top of one of the towers and took some excellent photos of detail that could really only be viewed from the top. Wonderful! We stopped at local markets to buy bread, cheese, peaches and cava for a picnic and made a lazy day-evening of it. A visit back to our pension for a shower and we were ready to start our night out. We went to Muebles Ciutat, one of our now-favorite neighborhood joints, for a glass of wine before heading out to the Fresh Club, the site of the 12-hour Barcelona DJ festival. It began at midnight, with the entry price rising from 15 euro btw 12-4 to 25 euro at 4 am. We took our time and had a long chat with two of the bartenders at Muebles, all in Spanish. They gave us some tips on where to go in Ibiza (yes, our next destination - we have a flight on Monday). Soon, we got a taxi and were on our way to the Fresh Club (about 12 km from Barcelona).

The club had stellar music but a suspicious ratio of men:women (more men). We were relaxing outside in the chill area when a group of very friendly people started chatting with us. They didn´t speak English at all (except for one woman who learned some in elementary school), and they were all speaking at once. It was deliriously fun!!! We really enjoyed it - and Lesley was pretty happy that she could manage that many conversations with people talking over each other (not to mention themselves). We danced until probably 7 or 8 am, then made our way back to Barcelona for a long summer´s nap. And it turned out to be a HOT and humid day (33 C). Not too horrible for Lesley, who likes the heat, but the rest of Barcelona wasn´t too excited about it. Finally, toward evening, we emerged and started a long and winding walk through the city to follow a path that highlighted Modernisme architecture, including the famous La Petrada. Today was a lazy day at the beach in Sitges (I remember when I traveled to Spain in 1995, a Spaniard I met told me that Sitges was where his family vacationed). It was a sweet little town - had the "beach town" feel.

So, we are off to Ibiza tomorrow, to return on Friday and then head east toward San Sebastian. It appears that we are starting our travels with a surplus of sunshine, beaches, wine, and nights out. (We really are taking in the culture and seeing incredible examples of history and art, really - we are!) More than anything, it has been a blast to focus on social interactions because here in Spain we are able to communicate in Spanish. Once we head into France and lands beyond, things will get tricky and you´ll probably find us writing more about things we are learning in terms of history, culture, etc. ;)

WB=8.5 :)

Pamplona, Corisca, travels in October...

2005-07-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

YES we will be going to Pamplona for the running of the bulls. NO, we won´t be running with them. Life is good, why get gored?

To respond to other comments from potential visitors - our travel plans for Sept-Oct are approximately as follows: We intend to be in Italy from about Sept 3-10, then to Corsica through probably 13 or 14 (some visitors will be heading back to Milan at that time; we may stay in Corsica for a few more days or not, unknown). Then, we plan to make our way across the Adriatic to visit the Dalmatian coast (so many beautiful islands off the coast of Croatia!). We´ll definitely be staying in Dubrovnik for a bit. Then, we have to get to Istanbul before our flight on October 19 to Bangkok. We´d like to spend up to two weeks in Turkey, so we´ll probably head to Istabul by October 5 or so.

Right now we´re off to Sagrada Familia. Besos! Abrazos! Hasta la proxima vez!

The winding road to Barcelona..

2005-07-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings! We finally arrived in beautiful Barcelona after several adventures... We had about 8 hours between our arrival in London Heathrow and our departure for BCN, so we hopped on the express train to the city center in London and managed to traipse through Piccadilly Sq, Leicester Sq, Covent Garden and Neal´s Yard. Topped off with some classic English fish and chips and a Pimm´s Lemonade, we were ready to head back to LHR. We were also exhausted, from not sleeping on our overnight flight (the upgrade to the next class kept us deliriously entertained). So we´re dozing on the 15-minute ride back to Heathrow and at some point realize the train has stopped. Turns out there was a problem with the brakes, and it took about an hour and a quarter to get to the airport. Upon arrival, we split up: Russ ran to get our stored bags, and I ran to get in line. We made it, unlike others on the train, including a couple who missed their flight to Australia.

Barcelona... You can probably all guess what a FIELD DAY I (Lesley) am having with the Spanish and Catalan. Love it, love it. Many delights here: Sunshine. A whole box of fresh figs for 1 euro. Warm nights. Winding streets, balconies, strong coffee, tapas, wine everywhere (we already found "our" local wine shop and had them put some cava in the fridge for us yesterday so we could go pick it up chilled today :). We found a great pension in the Barri Gotic, and we´ve put down a tap root here through probably Tuesday. We have history and museums and modern culture to absorb during the days, and on Fri and Sat nights, we are going to some clubs. Tonight is a house music DJ lineup at a place called City Hall, and tomorrow is the "12-hour Barcelona DJ Festival" starting at 11 pm at the Fritz Frosh Club (www.voltechparty.com). Sunday we´re sleeping in and then hopping on a train to go to the cava-making region. Ahhhh, what a decadent weekend!! I *knew* that Ph.D. stood for "pure, hedonistic decadence." To top it off, we´ve designated Monday to be "beach day" in Sitges, an area where many Spaniards vacation, just down the coast from Barcelona.

Thank you to everyone who gave us tips on Barcelona - we are slowly working through them.

Oh, and we´ve decided it makes sense to institute a "wine and bubbly count" - to keep track of the amount of splendid European vine juice we are enjoying. So look for the "WB= ..." at the bottom of each post :)

WB=3. (yes, yes, we know we´ve only been here for two days. We´re just "doing as the Barcelonians do.")

Adventure's Eve

2005-06-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

After several months of planning we're almost ready to go. Tomorrow we fly to Barcelona (with a lengthy stop at Heathrow). For our first night in Europe we'll be staying at the Catalonia Princesa, located in Barcelona's Old Town near the Arc del Triomf. Lesley's first agenda item is to sit in the sunshine with a sparkly glass of cava, and breathe. Russ can't wait until Lesley accomplishes this first agenda item, because it might chill her out a bit :)

We are delighted that several friends and family members will be meeting up with us at various points on our journey:

Ian (Lesley's dad, who is Scottish) and Grant (Lesley's brother) in Glasgow, Scotland on July 30th.

Cathy (Russ's mom) in Oslo, Norway on August 5th.

Father Alan (Russ's cousin) in Rome, Italy on September 3rd.

Mez and Natalia and possibly other friends in Tuscany around September 8-10th, and we'll visit Corsica together for a few days.

Tom and Lisa will be heading over probably in the late September range.

Barry and Jen might be joining us in Thailand or Cambodia.

Scott and Megan late September/early October hopefully in Corsica.

If you're one of our many friends who mentioned the possibility of meeting up with us, we'd love to see you! Email us privately and let us know what you're thinking...

Hasta Barcelona!
Lesley and Russ

Flight Itinerary!

2005-05-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends and family - We have booked our around-the-world flights! We have many overland plans as well, but here's the basic itinerary. Please feel free to email us or comment to this blog to let us know of your favorite places, places to avoid, people you know who might enjoy meeting us, and of course--whether you might be able to pop over and visit with us on our journey. Here goes:

June 28 (flight)
Leave Detroit Arrive Barcelona

June 28-July 30 (overland)
France, Spain
Points of interest: Barcelona, Carcassone, French Riviera, Switzerland, Rothenburg (o.d.T.), Reims/Champagne, Paris(~7/15), Bayeux/Normandy, Loire Valley, Bordeaux, San Sebastian, Ibiza(~7/26).

July 30 (flight)
Leave Barcelona Arrive Glasgow

August 5 (flight)
Leave Glasgow Arrive Oslo

August 5-October 19 (overland)
Overland: Scandinavia, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Rep., Austria, Germany, Corsica, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Turkey
Points of Interest: Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, Copenhagen, Berlin, Poland (Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk), Prague, Vienna, Rome, Amalfi Coast, Tuscany (Siena/Florence), Vienna, Ljubljana, Croatia (~most of Sept), Santorini (Greek Island), Turkey (Istanbul)

October 19 (flight)
Leave Istanbul Arrive Bangkok

October 19-November 20 (overland)
Exploring Thailand/region
Points of Interest: Beaches and places where we can learn and explore traditional Eastern health practices.

November 20 (flight)
Leave Bangkok Arrive Hong Kong

November 24 (flight)
Leave Hong Kong Arrive Los Angeles

At that point, we hope to head to Morelia, Mexico to visit with Brian Fey.

Itinerary: In the works!

2005-04-12T23:32:00.001-07:00

We're working on our travel itinerary - Russ has been exploring around-the-world tickets while I'm busily preparing for my PhD defense (coming up this Friday!). So - we will post our itinerary soon. Our general plans are to be traveling from late June to late October or so. Stay tuned...