Month: July 2018

July 20-23

It was an 8 hour drive to Amritsar, in the state of Punjab. I know what you’re thinking. Apparently the travel agent that we assumed was trying to scam us was right about the train issue. Since Sonu is our trusty travel agent, we tried to book train tickets with him, but he was unable. So instead, Raj Kumar is driving us to Amritsar which is on the border of India and Pakistan.

We heard about Punjab in an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, and knew that if we were able to finagle it, we wanted to visit. So 8 hours in the car. The drive was fairly easy – one stop for lunch and one stop for tea.

The lunch spot was a little nicer than the tea spot, but both got the job done.

Our view as we entered Amritsar.

A drive like that, following a few days where we barely did any walking, meant a trip to the gym upon arrival at our hotel. I’m not a big fan of the treadmill, but it was way too hot to be running outside.

The next day we only had one activity planned in the afternoon, so we went for a walk to the market in the morning. That’s right – a successful walk to the market.

A lot of trash, but a lot of incredible colors as well.

It was roughly a mile away and we made it without being hassled at all. There are significantly fewer tourists in Amritsar, especially in the area that we were wandering, so we were able to fly under the radar… as much as possible.

That afternoon, Raj picked us up from the hotel to drive us about an hour to the Pakistan border.

Ok, ok, we didn’t actually enter Pakistan. But T-Mobile wasn’t so sure about that.

We went out to the Wagah Border to see the lowering of the flags ceremony. Every day there is a military ritual on both sides of the border to lower the flags of both India and Pakistan. The ceremony is very well coordinated and pretty dramatic. On the India side, tourists begin arriving hours before the show starts. We arrived at 3:30pm for a 6pm ceremony. We were really lucky to be foreigners. We got front row seats while most Indians were in a really crowded section of the stadium. That’s right. A stadium.

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As we were getting close to starting, women and children were brought down to the center of the stadium to run Indian flags up and down the stage area.

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Then there was a massive dance party for women and children. I honestly have no clue how they all got up to dance. Michael and I were just baking in that sun.

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Then finally the military exercise began. The main point of the operation was for soldiers, dressed in traditional uniforms, to storm up to the gate, high kick, stomp their feet, pose with their toes turned up, shake their fists, and finally straighten their hats. This happened for 30-45 minutes, on both sides. It was basically an elaborate dance between the two sides.

The guy in white was the master of ceremonies for the day. He spent his time riling up the crowds and organizing the activities.

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The Pakistan side:

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There was some up close interaction with the other side as well. Yup – just two dudes with massive guns facing each other from a foot away.

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Fun fact: people in India call their country “Hindustan”. It is the Persian name for India.

Then finally the flags were taken down.

And just like that, our Wagah Border experience was over. I thought it was cool, but Michael was obsessed with it.

How bout those colors?

The next day we visited the Jallianwala Bagh which is the memorial to the massacre of hundreds of Indians by the British army during a non-violent protest in 1919.

A crowd of about 5000 had gathered in a large garden to condemn the arrest and deportation of two national leaders of the Indian Independence Movement. This day was also a Sikh festival day, so many villagers had gathered for that purpose. Without any warning and without an order to first disperse, General Dyer has his troops open fire on unarmed people. They fired 1650 rounds, over the span of ten-twenty minutes.

It made Jallianwala Bagh an everlasting symbol of the non-violent and peaceful struggle by the Indian people for freedom and the beginning of Indian nationalism. Some historians consider this event to be a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India.

The garden is walled on all sides. The troops blocked the entrance with a tank and locked the exit, so the people had nowhere to run when the army began firing into the crowd. To escape the bullets, people began jumping into this well.

120 dead bodies were recovered from the well.

Then we went went to the famous Golden Temple in Amritsar. On our walk over:

The Golden Temple is the holiest gurdwara, or place of worship for Sikhs. All faiths are welcome in Sikh gurdwaras. The Golden Temple is the most important pilgrimage site of Sikhism.

Before entering the area, we had to remove our shoes, cover our heads, and wash our hands and feet.

A lot of people wanted pictures… and yes, Michael knows how good he looks.

After walking around for a bit, we finally got in line to enter the actual temple.

No pictures in line or inside the temple. To try to give you an idea of how beautiful it was… I’m not sure I can do it justice. Inside is pretty small, but it is several stories tall. Every area was either covered in gold or in elaborate decorative art work. Sitting inside the temple were 4 or 5 musicians playing the music that we had heard throughout the complex, complete with a raagis, who recites, sings, and explains the verses from the Guru Granth Sahib.

After the temple visit, we continued on to langur – the community kitchen. The Sikh religion believes that everyone is equal and that everyone should be cared for and fed. As such, the kitchen in the complex serves over 100,000 people per day. Rich and poor all sit side by side for their meals.

We grabbed our trays and sat in rows.

The menu is really simple: lentil curry, kheer (rice pudding), vegetables, and bread.

It might not look that good, but it was delicious – especially the rice pudding. I guess when you serve that many people, you figure out how to get it right.

Here is the cleanup area:

And the food prep area:

People donate money or volunteer their time. It is definitely a well oiled machine.

After we ate, we had a few hours to waste. We wanted to wait until it got dark to see the Golden Temple lit up. So we exited the complex and grabbed some water. Between the heat, the humidity, and the malaria meds, we are constantly dehydrated.

Finally it was dark enough to ditch the shoes again, wash up and re-enter the Golden Temple.

The next morning, we drove back to Delhi. I am so glad that we were able to get out of the big city. Once we were able to wander around a bit in a slightly less touristy area, we were better able to get a feel for the “real” India. Here are my final thoughts.

The People

We spoke with three types of people: hotel/restaurant employees, normal people, and some street kids.

The normal, working people we met were either excited to see us or wanted nothing to do with us. Everyone was polite; some wanted pictures. Most of them wanted to tell us how much they love Obama. They feel like Obama was the only sitting President to give India some personal attention. He visited a few times during his presidency and also visited last December to participate in a town hall organized by his foundation to engage the youth to create positive change across India and the world.

The hotel and restaurant employees were all overly polite. We didn’t speak with them much, other than to order food. However, on our last night in Amritsar, the manager, the kitchen manager and two or three other employees brought us a “come back soon” pastry to our room and were standing outside our room in the hallway, waiting for us to return. They too asked for a picture with us.

Finally – the street kids, who were trying to sell us pens. That is an item that we definitely do not need. But a few of them that spoke English just seemed happy to hang around and stare while we spoke with other people.

The Food

The food was incredible, but we definitely ran into the issue of too much of a good thing. By our last day in India we were ready to switch cuisines. They just use so much butter!

Besides the countless curries and masalas that we ate, we did try kulcha which is a flatbread that is stuffed with potatoes, onions and spices and served with chole which is chick pea curry. Delicious.

We also popped into few local food stalls which is called a kesar da dhaba. This one, outside the Golden Temple was serving up the perfect potato fritter.

The Driving

Just awful. Seriously scary and chaotic at every moment. Cows and bulls in the road, laying down to rest on whatever highway they see fit.

Young school children walking to school on the highway.

Raj Kumar, our trusty driver, had a few close calls, but delivered us safe and accident free every time. Apparently he has never had an accident in 35 years. Just hearing that made me paranoid that he’d jinxed himself. His mantra for driving in India is: good brake, good horn, good luck.

There are two types of license plates in India. Yellow plates are for commercial drivers, like Raj. To get a yellow plate you have to take a fairly extensive driving course. White plates are for private cars. Apparently, white plates are the only plates that get into accidents.

Raj is originally from a farming town near Calcutta. He moved to Delhi when he was young to work. His cousins are still farmers. The main crops in India are sugar cane, potatoes, rice, and beets.

We found out that the first night in Amritsar, Raj slept in the car because he could not find any rooms that he could afford. I cannot stress how hot and humid it is in India right now. Plus the mosquitos in Punjab are horrible. Michael got him a room in our hotel for the next two nights. As a seemingly proud man, I think he was equal parts horrified and excited. Raj has never left the country and does not get any days off work. “Maybe in my next life” is what he had to say about that. I hope so.

India was a tough country to spend time in. I’m so glad we went and the things we saw were all amazing, but we’re definitely ready to move on to something a little easier.

July 17-19

I have wanted to visit India for years. It has very much been on my list. I knew that it was going to be dirty and gritty and crowded and poor, but I was excited for the colors and the food and the culture. I got all of it.

We flew into Delhi and headed over to our hotel in the city center. Even late in the evening, the streets were crowded, but the driving wasn’t as frantic as I was expecting. We would get a taste of that later. It was after ten by the time we arrived to our hotel, so we had an easy choice to just get settled in and go to bed.

The next day we had an open morning, so we took the opportunity to walk to the market. This seemingly simple task in any other country we’ve ever been to was very difficult in Delhi. Two or three steps out of the hotel and we had a tuk-tuk driver offering a ride. Not a problem – we turned him down and continued our mile or so walk. He then followed us along the road for the next quarter mile, continually reminding us that he was there and wanted to drive us. He finally gave up on us and we experienced about two minutes of relative quiet on our walk.

To give you an idea of what walking down the street in Delhi was like, I can tell you that the few minutes we actually walked, it was tough. If there was a sidewalk, it was narrow and dirt. But most often, people were just walking in the road. Cars, bikes, motorbikes and tuk-tuks have no issue driving the wrong way down a street, so you constantly have to be concerned about getting hit from both directions. Plus it was incredibly hot and humid, and since the women dress more conservatively in India and all of the men wear pants, we were both a lot more covered up than the weather warranted. Both Michael and I were soaked through in a matter of minutes.

Shortly after our initial tuk-tuk abandoned us, a man walked up to talk to us. He claimed to be a concerned citizen. Apparently, the neighborhood that we were about to walk through was very dangerous and he suggested we get into a tuk-tuk to go the remainder of the way. Michael and I both thanked him, but continued walking. He approached again, telling us that he isn’t a driver and has no vested interest in the advice he is giving, but that he really recommends we take a tuk-tuk. I thanked him again and continued walking. At this point, he got aggressively angry with us. He stated that we are guests in his country and if we have a bad experience, it reflects poorly on him and his country. Ugh. What are we going to say to that. So we got in the tuk-tuk. I do not believe for a second that we would have had any issue.

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This was our first tuk-tuk in India. It went poorly. First of all, the man who allegedly had no skin in the game definitely had skin in the game. He negotiated the price for us: 40 rupees which is like 75 cents or something. Great. But he had the guy take us to the wrong place… on purpose. Since I’m a crazy diligent google mapper while in cabs (and now in tuk-tuks), I knew he was taking us to the wrong place. When these drivers take you to some of the markets, they get paid by the markets – apparently they get lunch tickets or something for bringing tourists. When we arrived, we made him take us to the correct place. He was annoyed and pushed back a lot, but we refused to go to their market. He tried to tell us that there was no market at the place that I was pointing on my map. I told him it was fine – it is still where we want to go, even if there is no market there. Finally, he switched directions and took us to our market, which magically appeared exactly where we expected it to be. Can you imagine that!

Second issue, when we got out he charged us 80 rupees. Rookie mistake. We didn’t confirm that it was 40 all in and he was asking for 40 per person. Annoying, but this entire ride was a great reminder that we are not in Europe anymore. We need to get our act together and not be pushed around by locals trying to manipulate us.

The market was great – simple with a lot of clothing, purses, and random goods. As we’re getting close to the end of our travels, we’re starting to think about presents to take home for los niños, so this was one of the few times in 8 months that we walked into a market and actually bought things. And it was also a step back into having to negotiate prices. That is not my favorite thing, but I’ve become decent at it. I wouldn’t say that I get the bare minimum price by any means, but I can usually negotiate 1/3 or half off the price which feels like a win for me.

I did see a new trick at this market. After buying something from one stall, the next stall was trying to get my attention. The first woman, who was bagging my purchase, handed it over to the next woman to finish bagging. That way, I had to negotiate with the second woman to get my original purchase. Shifting control from one seller to the next. I prefer to feel like I have control when I’m buying something. I would like to say that I didn’t fall for their trick and walked away… but that would not be truthful.

After wandering the market for a bit, we negotiated a tuk-tuk to take us to the train station. We needed to buy train tickets for our trip on Friday to Punjab. Michael nailed the negotiation of the price… and that it was for both of us… before jumping in. We had thought about everything! We were not going to be taken advantage of this time! WRONG. The guy did not take us to the train station. He took us to a travel agent where he got a kickback for the tourist drop off. Come on, man. We should have fought it, but we were optimistic that this would just get the job done and it wasn’t worth the fight. It didn’t work. The guy told us there was a problem with the train and that he had a driver who could drive us to Punjab. Certain that we were once again being taken advantage of, we left.

Having achieved very little in our day, we shifted gears and took the metro 30 or so minutes into the suburbs for a cooking class. The metro was clean and easy with trains coming every two minutes. A tuk-tuk picked us up from the metro station. It was negotiated on our behalf, so not only did it take us to the place we wanted to go, but it also used a direct route and cost exactly what we expected. Indian food is some of our favorite, so Michael found a class with Preeti and her husband, Sonu, in their home.

It is slightly awkward to cook in someone’s home – for me at least. They were very nice and welcoming. We spent our time in their kitchen and their living room. The living room consisted of two full sized beds, a couch, a coffee table and two chairs. It was also air conditioned. The kitchen was not – which made it was super hot.

After walking through the spices and herbs that are typical in an Indian kitchen, we started by learning how to make chai tea, mint sauce, and a fried appetizer of battered cheese and potatoes. Apparently the word chai just translates to tea, so chai tea is really just “tea tea”. Real chai is heavy on the milk and sugar – really delicious!

Preeti wanted to know how spicy we wanted to make the mint sauce. Michael doubled down on “spicy” even though Preeti seemed concerned for us. But it ended up delicious, plus Preeti swore that the spice level was as spicy as she prepares anything. So we felt pretty legit and I was grateful for the spice training I put myself through over the past few years.

After enjoying our appetizers and tea, we moved on to the more complicated part of the meal: chicken masala and yellow lentils in a curry. Both dishes used similar ingredients for the sauce, but somehow tasted very different. We also made some cumen rice to go with the dishes.

The final item that we cooked for our meal was a simple bread. We were hoping to make naan, but apparently that is a lot of work and most people don’t make it in their home. The bread we made still ended up really cool – especially since we cooked it right on the flame. That is a trick that we will definitely use at home.

All of the food was delicious, and it was great being able to spend time sharing the meal with Preeti, Sonu, their daughter, and Sonu’s father and sister who all live with them.

Another treat: while we were cooking, a traditional drummer started playing in the alley below us.

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Apparently, these drummers play for weddings, funerals and the birth of a baby boy. Of course, I asked the potentially culturally insensitive question about how baby girls are celebrated. The question was mostly ignored.

These drummers were there for a wedding!

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On our walk out, we got to see the bride and some of the other women dancing in the street. It was a very cool addition to our night.

The next day, Sonu (who also runs a travel agency) organized a day trip to the Taj Mahal for us. Sonu and his driver, Raj Kumar, drove us the roughly 3 hours to the Taj Mahal in Agra. Once there, we dropped off Sonu and picked up our tour guide for the day, also named Raj.

The Taj Mahal did not disappoint. It’s incredible.

A few fact about it:

– The Taj Mahal is a white marble palace built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. This wife was apparently his first love, and gave Shah Jahan 14 children. She died while delivering the 14th at 39 years of age.

– Shah Jahan was going to build himself an identical palace across the river that was all black marble, but he died before he could construct it. Instead he is buried in the Taj Mahal.

– “Taj Mahal” is Arabic for “crown of palaces”.

– 20,000 artisans were used to build the Taj Mahal… and a thousand elephants to haul in the marble.

– The four minarets surrounding the main building are not perpendicular to the ground – they each lean 3 degrees away from the building. This was done intentionally. The architect was worried that they would collapse and decided that if the towers were to fall he didn’t want them to fall into the main building. So he built them to fall away. They never have fallen, but I like the thought process.

– Construction began in 1632, one year after Mumtaz’s death. It took 22 years to build, so there are several places throughout the building that reflect this (22 stairs to enter the building).

– This floor is called the jasmine floor because the art is suppose to be jasmine flowers.

– All of the carvings are done in a style that is called marble inlay art. More about that later.

– The words around this door are the first chapter of the Quran and the letters get progressively larger as you make your way to the top so that they appear to be the same size when you look at it from far away.

– There were several times when touring the Taj (and later the Agra Fort) that Raj told us that there was previously gold or gems on the walls and ceilings. He then consistently followed up with the phrase, “but the British stole them”. I asked once if there was any attempt to get some of these items back from the British. I don’t think this was his area of expertise and I haven’t done any additional research, but he believed that most of the items were sold, not sitting in a museum waiting to be returned.

Unrelated to the Taj Mahal, we had our first experience in India truly standing out. People stared and tried to sneak pictures of us. Some even came up and asked for pictures. This is a first for me.

After leaving the Taj Mahal, we went to a marble inlay art store to see how the marble is carved. It’s an UNESCO initiative to preserve this cultural process. It is unsurprising that it would have to be preserved as the process seems really difficult and time consuming. One guy cuts the stones into tiny pieces with this wheel:

And the other guy glues the stones into the marble after carving away a space for them to fit. After all of the stones are glued in, the entire item is sanded so it is completely smooth to the touch. It feels as if the stones were painted on.

The orange on this white marble is painted on so the artist can clearly see the pattern that he is carving into the marble. Once sanded, it returns to its white color. The work is simply stunning and there were a few pieces that Michael and I would love to have. But super expensive… and we don’t have a place to live, so…

Next, we were off to see the Agra Fort, the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638 when the capital was moved to Delhi. This is also a UNESCO World Heritage site along with the Taj Mahal. This red sandstone fort was more like a walled city and originally had five hundred buildings, although some have since been demolished. We saw just a few of them.

The emperor who built the Agra Fort had three wives. One was Muslim, one was Christian and one was Hindi. As such, the art work in the below picture reflects the three different religions.

An interesting historical item: Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, was overthrown by his son in the years before he died. It is believed that he detained in the Muasamman Burj in the Agra Fort. From the balcony in this tower, Shah Jahan could see the Taj Mahal.

After this, we grabbed some lunch and then started the drive back to Delhi with Raj and Sonu. Mmmmmmm……

July 14-16

Most of our travel day was spent in Athens on a long layover. We briefly thought about heading out into the city for the day. However, having visited Athens a few years ago, we instead chose to stay in the airport and work on travel plans for Asia.

There also was a small fiasco regarding Michael, security, and post cards. Since our layover in Athens was our very last stop in Europe, and we hadn’t mailed a single post card in the almost four months we were here, we had some major work to do. I had been buying post cards from all over Europe while we were here, but we just didn’t make time to write them out. And since we’re trying to get postcards from every continent to the kids back home, it was important to get them mailed today.

After we finished writing, Michael took charge of the stamping and mailing process. This took him out of security. Not a problem… except it was. We had paid for an all day pass to a lounge in the terminal that we had arrived in (food, drink, wifi and a place to plug in – totally worth it for a 12+ hour layover). However, our flight out was in a different terminal and security wouldn’t allow Michael to return to the original terminal where I was still hanging out with all of our stuff. This turned into an hour long process of Michael speaking with half dozen different people, going through several rounds of security and passport review and finally convincing someone to just turn a blind eye and let him back in.

We arrived late that evening to Tbilisi, Georgia.

Despite it being a full day of travel, it went surprising smooth. We were tired, but feeling pretty good – especially compared to our previous travel day.

We woke up slow the next morning, grabbed breakfast and then headed off to a free walking tour. For being an old city, and one that has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, Tbilisi seems to have done a great job of saving as much art as possible. Here’s a mosaic that was recovered from a monastery, created in the 12th century:

Tbilisi also has some great street art and street musicians.

God loves his children…

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We arrived to Freedom Circle to meet up with Sev, our tour guide for the day. He first gave us some tips for wandering Tbilis:

1. The pedestrian crosswalks do not mean anything. Cars will not stop for you. Instead, you just need to walk with confidence, put your hand out to tell the car to stop and cross. Finally! This is something I can understand! I was always unnerved in places like Croatia and Scandinavia where the cars just stop for the crosswalks – even without stop signs or lights. I didn’t trust that they were really going to stop. But I can handle this. I just need to wait for a small break in traffic, start walking, stare down the driver and put my hand out. Although I’ll note that my extended hand looks more like a thank you wave then a stern STOP. They won’t hit you. No one wants that mess.

2. There are women and children begging. If you are going to give them something, that is great. Go for it. If you are not going to give them something, don’t make eye contact or they will never leave you. Sev had even seen children latching on to tourists’ legs, refusing to let go unless they give money. He swore the only way to get them off was to tickle them. Ridiculous.

3. You will get lost in Old Town. Don’t worry.

Having started the tour in Freedom Circle, Sev noted that all Soviet countries use to have a Lenin Square. Freedom Circle was called Lenin Square during the Soviet period and had a large statue of Lenin in the center. That statue was torn down in August of 1991. It was replaced in 2006 by this monument with St. George slaying the dragon on top. That’s right! Our old friend from the Stockholm Cathedral has made his way to the center of Tbilisi and he is still slaying dragons. If I could figure out how to link to prior posts, I would do that here. But I’m not going to pretend like I have the level of blogging knowledge.

It makes sense to have St. George here, since we are in Georgia, after all. Apparently 23% of all boys born in Georgia are named George. The only thing more amazing than this is that 24% of all girls are named Nino. More on that in a bit.

Here are the Freedom Circle griffins. Apparently these are two of the few things that have survived, nearly intact, throughout all of the destruction to this city over the centuries. However, people are known to remove their claws and fit them on necklaces. As they are removed from the statues, the city continues to replace them.

Our next stop was the Catholic Cathedral, Assumption of the Virgin.

Where the cathedral now stands, the first Catholics settled in the 13th century. First a Dominican monastery, it then became an Episcopal church in the 14th century dedicated to St. John the Baptist until the 16th century. In the 17th century, Catholic missionaries returned and built a new church dedicated to the Annunciation which is a very important date for all to remember – March 25th.

The current cathedral was built in the early 1800s. It was closed during Soviet times. Sev joked that communism was the only religion during Soviet times.

The cathedral was beautiful. It was pointed out that although it is a Catholic Cathedral, there were Russian Orthodox icons in the cathedral along with an orthodox cross. However, our parish back in Chicago, St. Teresa’s also has icons, so this didn’t surprise me very much.

My favorite part of this visit was the music. In the choir loft, someone was playing the Mozart Requiem on the organ with a woman singing along. How do we know it was the Requiem? Michael – which is a surprise to no one who has been paying attention. There is something to be said for silence, but absent complete silence (which is often hard to find), I believe beautiful music is just so moving when visiting a religious site.

Our next stop was two churches – an Georgian Orthodox Church directly next to an Armenian Orthodox Church. The Armenian Orthodox Church is currently being renovated, so we didn’t explore.

The Georgian Orthodox Church, however, we were able to enter. Called “Father Cross”, this church was built in the 16th century. Fun fact: the word mama in Georgian means father. Second fun fact: this church has very small windows because it was also used as a fortress.

With such little natural light, we were lucky that there was a religious ceremony while we were visiting so the lights were on.

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It was a really cool experience to be able to enter while they were praying.

On the left in this painting above you have St. Nino – who I previously mentioned.

St. Nino is called “Equal of the Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia” on the internet. That’s some title! Here’s her story:

The virgin Nino of Cappadocia was a relative of St. George, our dragon slayer. Her father was a Roman army chief and when she was 12, her parents sold all of their possessions and moved to Jerusalem where Nino’s father became a monk and left his family. At this time, Nino’s mother, Sosana, was ordained a deaconess. She left Nino in the care of an old woman who raised Nino in the Christian faith. Nino learned that Jesus’ robes were in Georgia, a country of pagans. Nino prayed to Mary for her blessing to travel to Georgia to venerate the Sacred Robes. Mary appeared to Nino in a dream and told her to go to Georgia and preach the Gospel. Mary gave Nino a cross of grapevines and told her to “Receive this cross as a shield against visible and invisible enemies”. When Nino awoke, she was holding the cross in her hands. She tied the vines securely with strands of her hair (the internet also said that the hair might have been that of the Virgin Mary).

There are quite a few stories associated with her travels to and in Georgia, but the main point is that everywhere she went miracles were performed and those who heard her preach were converted. Nino and George are the most venerated saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church. That grapevine cross that she is holding in the painting is the symbol of Georgian Christianity.

Here is a Jewish Temple, one of two in the city.

Mike asked Sev if all of these different religions get along in the city or if there is conflict. Sev noted that it is stated in Georgia that all religions get along because they have good wine. Now that is a great segue to the next part of the tour: Georgian wine.

Wine dates back to 800 years before Christ in Georgia.

Here is a statue of Tamada, the Georgian toastmaster. The horn comes from pagan times. The main idol in pagan times for the area was the moon, so people sacrificed bulls to the moon because their horns had a crescent shape. This made bulls sacred animals and people would drink special toasts from their horns.

In Georgian culture, the tamada, or toastmaker, was responsible for supervising the feast, organizing toasts, and telling jokes and stories. The entire mood of the feast was his responsibility.

The Georgian rule for toasts is that the first toast is always for God. Per the internet, this story is often told along with the first toast… After the creation of the world, God divided the Earth among the people. Georgians were late because on the road they had been drinking. When they arrived, the entire world had already been given to other people. But God had reserved a small plot for himself and decided to give this plot to the Georgians. This is why Georgia is Paradise. It is the best land in the world.

After spending time with our friend, Tamada, we popped into this traditional Georgian bakery.

This underground bakery was originally built to bake breads for the seminary above it. And this passage way originally was a direct passage to the church across the street.

I will say – Georgian breads are incredible. I could eat them all day.

This is the Eastern Orthodox Church which we didn’t enter. They were having service and, being more conservative than the other churches we visited, our guide thought it best we glance and keep walking.

Candle or sausage? Candle or sausage?

We had seen these items hanging around town. I was pretty confident they were candles. They are not. They are actually a traditional candy called churchkhelas. Almonds, walnuts, hazelnut and raisins are threaded onto a string and then dipped in thickened grape juice before being hung to dry. Since they are high in caloric value, Georgian warriors and travelers would carry churchkhelas along with them on journeys. They were delicious, but perhaps a bit waxy tasting.

Our final stop on the tour was the Bridge of Peace which crosses the Kura River.

This wasn’t suppose to be our final stop, but we were hit with torrential rains and we had to call it a day. Sev took this opportunity to note that from Soviet times until 2003, Tbilisi was a really dangerous city. In November 2003, there was a pro-Western peaceful change of power in Georgia called the Revolution of the Roses. This revolution consisted of widespread protests over disputed parliamentary elections which ultimately ousted the Soviet president at that time. After this, Georgia pursued pro-Western foreign policy and declared integration with Europe to be its main priority. This has led to tensions with Russia which we heard mentioned several times during our time in Georgia. This revolution also was the beginning of a revitalization in Tbilisi.

From the Bridge of Peace we could see Kartlis Deda which is a statue erected in 1958 to celebrate Tbilisi’s 1500th anniversary.

The name translates to Mother of a Georgian. She is in Georgian national dress and symbolizes the Georgian national character. In one hand she holds a bowl of wine to greet friends, while in the other a sword for enemies. Here is an up close shot that I borrowed from the internet.

Since our tour was ended a bit early, we made the best of it and continued our Georgian education with a trip to a wine cellar.

Tsangala’s wine shop and bar:

We let the guy there pick out a bottle for us. We went with dry red that is made in the traditional Georgian style. This traditional Georgian winemaking method using Kvevri clay jars is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The idea is that these clay pots are filled with wine and then buried in the ground, thus storing the wine at ground temperature. Some remain underground for 50 years.

The wine was great, plus we got some cheese and churchkhelas to pair with is. Michael wanted the sausage but the guy refused because it wouldn’t pair properly.

The next day we had just one job to do: watch the World Cup final! We found this great wine bar, arrived a bit early and secured great seats.

With wine and some delicious Georgian food, we had a great afternoon.

After watching Croatia beat England with a crowd cheering almost exclusively for England, it was interesting to be watching Croatia vs. France in a crowd cheering exclusively for Croatia. Apparently former Soviet countries stick together! I don’t think there is anyone who needs this information, but for posterity I will note that France won with a score of 4-2. But it was looking a lot closer the first half…

Here are few of our nieces and nephews along with my mom watching at home and sporting their Croatia jerseys!

On our last day in Georgia, we wandered around the city, had a great lunch at a place called Lolita’s and then celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary from a beautiful vantage spot at the top of the funicular.

Michael and I always take our anniversary as an opportunity for some reflection on the year behind us and the year ahead. This past year has obviously been a crazy one – with a lot of changes and new experiences. We are very excited for this next year which is looking like it is going to be just as insane. There are a lot of unknowns, especially as our travels are winding down, but we’re ready to figure out together what’s next.

July 11-13

With just two full days in Capri, and almost zero research done by us regarding this small island, we were super lucky to be meeting up with Leigh, his partner Craig, and Leigh’s daughter Mietta. Thankfully, they had things under control.

When we woke up on the 11th, after our travel day, we met up with them for breakfast to get our day started. Most of you will remember Leigh from our Antarctica expedition. He was the Australian that we met and with whom we spent most of our time. We think he’s great. So when he mentioned that he was going to be in Capri with his family, and asked if we’d be around, we shuffled our schedule a bit and decided to end our time in Europe with them in Capri. It did not disappoint.

First off, both Craig and Mietta are as great as Leigh is. No surprise there! They welcomed us into the group immediately and it truly felt like we were all good, old friends.

For our first day, Craig organized a boat trip with another Aussie couple. A little before one, we met up with Guy and Madeleine and their kids, Aston and Coco, at the harbor.

Knowing Leigh, and now getting to know Craig and Mietta, it is no surprise that this little family is also amazing!

We spent the next four or so hours boating around the island, checking out the grottos, swimming and just enjoying being out on the water with a little rose. Aston can tell you exactly how many bottles Craig brought on the boat if you’re wondering.

We also drove right through Faraglioni, Capri’s most iconic sight, which are coastal rock formations eroded by waves.

And we saw this famous house, Casa Malaparte, which is on the eastern side of the island and was built 70 years ago. The 45ish degree angle facing the cliffs are steps that climb up the side of the house to the roof-top patio. It was also the location of a Brigitte Bardot movie, Le Mépris, in 1963.

And, of course, the grottos! I love the contrasting colors here – the purple and the really striking blues.

After retreating to our hotels for showers and quick naps, we all met back up in the center square to watch the World Cup game: England vs. Croatia.

We had a great time – with most of the area rooting for England and just little old me and a few others pulling for Croatia. Perhaps no bigger England fan that Leigh… sporting a jersey with his own name put on the back.

In a shock to probably everyone there, Croatia actually won. Leigh is now on to supporting France. Not so much a spoiler, because at the time of writing this, the World Cup is over, but I’ve seen facebook and Leigh also has a French jersey. No way of knowing if it has his name on the back. But at least Leigh finally got his victory!

As the game was finishing up, a few bizarre things happened.

First of all, while I stepped away from the table to chat on the phone with my mom for a few minutes, a random woman came over to the table to chat with our group. Coco and Guy had already headed back to the hotel, but the rest of the crew was still there. She was young, quite drunk and looking to party… with our crew which included a nine year old. Craig was immediately trying to get a little distance from the woman and I think everyone had some concerns about hanging out with her. But she ordered shots and everyone felt a bit obligated to sit with her for a minute.

By this time, Michael is waving wildly at me to come back. At the time, I thought he was just annoyed that I was being rude by staying on the phone. It turns out he wanted me to come back and help manage the Chelsea from Chelsea situation. That’s right, her name was Chelsea and she was from Chelsea (in England, not in NYC). Chelsea from Chelsea seemed to be full of stories with questionable amounts of truthfulness. First of all, she is David Beckham’s stylist. She told them that she had been coming to Capri for 20 years, but she was only 27 years old. Chelsea from Chelsea wanted to take our crew to a jazz club that she just loves. She had a story about how she also has a boyfriend, or someone with her, who had left her at the restaurant to watch the game by herself. Plus everyone knows her because she comes there all the time. Whatever the story, our crew was nervous that she was trying to stick us with her bill. I finally finished my call and walked back to the group.

At this point, I approach our guys to see what was going on. Craig was trying desperately to find an exit strategy away from Chelsea from Chelsea. I’m not sure why we didn’t think we could just walk away, but I think there was concern that there would be a scene. So in a panicked fashion, Craig was throwing out ideas when Michael and Leigh made eye contact and Leigh said excitedly, “It’s Rod Stewart!”

Suddenly, the Chelsea from Chelsea issue was of zero concern. We had a new purpose in life and that was following a rough looking, definitely drunk Rod Stewart down the street. As we all started walking, Chelsea from Chelsea starting coming with us but was stopped by restaurant staff demanding that she pay her bill. She made some comment about it not being a problem and that she was going to “dial Rod” because she knows him and then she started manically pounding on her phone like she was dialing his number from memory.

That was the last we saw of Chelsea from Chelsea.

Madeleine took this as her opportunity to take Astor back to their hotel and the rest of us followed Rod and his entourage up the road to their waiting taxis. Once Rod was settled into a taxi, Leigh came up next to him and said, “you’ve got Bette Davis eyes” and Rod said, “I like that” and shook his hand before riding off.

We were pretty geeked about it. Leigh is now practically famous. I wouldn’t really even say I’m a Rod Stewart fan, but I was pumped to see him!

The next day, we did the fashionable thing to do in Capri and got reservations to a beach club for the day.

This is the view from our hotel window along with a few other shots from the hotel below:

These are from our walk to the beach club.

Since Capri is quite rocky, these clubs have lounge chairs, restaurants and swimming areas. There are varying degrees of exclusivity at these clubs. The one we went to was mildly exclusive and situated right next to the super exclusive club where Chelsea from Chelsea and her good friend Rod were probably hanging out.

We had a great time – got a lot of swimming in and met a few more friends of Leigh and Craig. They were a family were staying nearby and had chartered a sailboat for the day and just sailed right up to our club to have lunch with us. Apparently Capri is quite the place to visit if it is winter in Australia!

Here, Aston and I are watching one seagull eat another seagull. Gross? Yes. But really hard to look away.

Our ride back from the beach club:

And an extra taxi once we realized the boat dropped us off at the wrong harbor. Whoops!

That night, with a slightly smaller group, we grabbed a fancy dinner at Monzu which served beautiful local cuisine. This photo is courtesy of another breathtaking walk to the restaurant. Definitely should be in a fashion magazine…

The meal was wonderful and the wine provided by Claudio was excellent, but the conversation was truly the best part of the night.

The beautiful Mietta!

Oh – and those fireworks over the water that Michael had planned for us? Nailed it.

After two great days meeting new friends and spending time in such a beautiful place, it was hard to find anything that could make this visit better. And then we walked back to town. After dropping Madeleine off at her hotel, the five of us continued back through the center square. While passing the restaurant where we watched the World Cup the night before, we saw… Bono. True story. Bono was there, being introduced to a table of people by the owner.

It did not take long for word to spread that Bono was there and a crowd started forming. Both Leigh and Michael got selfies with the legend.

My favorite part was seeing Bono. My second favorite part was all of young, beautiful, stylishly dressed women who knew he was famous and had no clue who he was. Two 20 somethings asked us who he was. Michael responded, “Bono” and when I saw this didn’t clear anything up for them, I said, “from the band U2?” Still dead stares. So I told them to take the picture and google U2 later. There was a similar situation with two dads who were 50ish and their daughters. The dads were completely freaking out and their daughters were bored and confused.

What was cool about the situation is that Bono was a really good sport about all of it. He posed for a ton of pictures and didn’t mind being crowded. Eventually, someone did come over to save him, but he put up with it for 5 or 10 good minutes before heading to his car.

Awesome.

So that was it! Michael and I were on the 5:50 ferry back to the mainland to catch a flight out to Athens the next morning before heading on to Georgia.

We got to end our time in Capri with a sunrise over the harbor – really full circle from the sunset when we arrived.

This was definitely an excellent place to have our last stop in Europe for this trip. We loved spending time with our good buddy, Leigh, and felt so lucky to have been invited to share part of his vacation with his amazing daughter, Mietta, and wonderful partner, Craig. Plus spending time with Guy, Madeleine and their kids was a total bonus. We have a bunch of really cool kids that we love back in the States that we’ve been missing a lot lately, so it was a treat to have a little more time with some awesome kids while traveling. Thanks for including us in your incredible holiday! We hope to see you all soon in Australia!

July 10

We were struggling for our 6:30am alarm, but with big plans to meet up with our friend Leigh in Capri, we got moving. It was destine to be a day of travel struggles. We could not find a taxi to get us to the airport and we didn’t have enough time to take the train or a bus (let alone the patience to figure it out on short notice with bad internet). We ended up just wandering around for awhile and lugging our heavy bags, until our aimless wandering finally paid off and we found a taxi.

We made it to the Copenhagen airport with plenty of time and checked into our first flight with EasyJet. Both flights were actually with EasyJet, but they wouldn’t let us check in for both. We had to pick up our bags when we arrived at Berlin and then go through the entire checkin process again. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal since we had a five hour layover.

When we arrived in Berlin, we went straight to baggage to grab our checked bags. It took 45 minutes to an hour to get our bags. So now we’re down to just four hours left. When we left security, we were in major need of some food. The exit area had a few restaurants and the pizza smelled pretty good. It was a struggle finding a place to sit, but I took care of that while Michael tried to grab food. The area reminded me of Lima’s airport. It was crammed with people just standing around. Michael came back and informed me that they were out of pizza and told us to come back later. They were just too busy. Ok…

So we changed directions and went to check in our bags instead and grab our second round of boarding passes. We still had 3 hours remaining at this point in our layover, but the EasyJet employee wouldn’t let us get in line. We had to wait another hour to check our bags. So we sat on the ground (definitely no available chairs anywhere) and waited for our hour to be up.

After about 30 minutes, I realized that a pretty legit line had formed for our airline checkin. So Michael waited with the bags and I joined the line. By the time I found the end, it had snaked back and forth three times – and that was before you could even enter the gated checkin area.

Michael joined me in line another 30 minutes later. We were now officially “allowed” to check in our bags. But then came the most Un-German thing that has ever happened. It is unclear what the cause of the issue was, but the baggage group ran into problems and stopped accepting bags from the counter employees. So basically, counter employees could not help any new travelers because the conveyor belts were stopped and they had no where to put the bags. Everything completely shut down.

This picture shows the agents just standing around, confused.

And here are the bags piling up, with nowhere to go.

After being in line for nearly two hours, and fairly close to the front of said line, the worst thing for us started happening. Since it was such a disaster, they started taking certain flights all at one time. So entire groups of people got moved ahead of us in line. There was also a counter employee shift change at this point, so we got to see new employees showing up for work to a huge disaster. You could just see the look of horror on their faces. I’m sure all of them wished they had called in sick.

We finally got checked in and went back to grab a slice of that pizza we had our eyes on earlier. We made it through security without issue, arriving at the gate just in time for boarding. You read that right – we needed all five hours to get our luggage, check that luggage back in, have a slice of pizza, and get through security. At one point in our planning we had considered trying to run out to see Berlin for a few hours. What a joke that would have been.

By some act of God our flight was only about 30 minutes late arriving. It was on this second flight that I read that EasyJet article about Hija de Sanchéz. Hopefully their restaurant selection process was better and more thought out than their check in process.

Upon arrival to Naples, we had about two hours before we had to be on a ferry to Capri, so we had the taxi drop us off at L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele. Established in 1870, Michele’s is considered to be THE place to get pizza in Naples. It has won a ton of awards and was the pizzeria that Julia Roberts visited in Eat, Pray, Love. They claim to be the oldest pizzeria in Naples.

All of the awards:

The place was packed – but we only had to wait in line for about 15 minutes to get a table.

Michele’s serves margarita and marinara. That’s it. Obviously we grabbed one of each to make sure we had a thorough experience.

The pizza was good… but we’ve had better. It is cooked on an open fire which left the crust tasting a bit burnt. The sauce and the cheese were both really good, but meh on the crust. Cool experience, though!

Then it was off to the ferry. In a day that had already had two cab rides and two flights, it was only logical that we’d have issues with the ferry. Michael had bought tickets online because we heard the ferries sell out. So we were all set with our electronic ticket when they began boarding at 8pm. We got to the front of the highly chaotic crowd of pushing Italians and the man told us we were in line for the wrong boat. Crapola. So we ran over to the next boat, got in that line of pushing Italians, got to the front and the man told us that we had to take our electronic ticket to the box office and exchange it for paper tickets. Crapola.

Michael dropped his bags and ran to the ticket office. I sat there anxiously waiting. It was the last boat of the night, so we were in a tough place if we missed it. The captain came over and asked why I wasn’t getting on the boat. He gave me a huge deep sigh after I told him the story and then pointed to every man he could see, one by one, asking “is that your husband? Is that your husband?”

“No… no… no… no… there he is! The one who is running at us.”

So Michael returned to inform us that the ticket office was closed so he couldn’t exchange the tickets.

We had been traveling for about 13 hours at this point and were pretty haggard looking, which I’m pretty sure is why the captain gave another deep sigh, took pity on us, and just told us to get on the boat. Stressful, but completely successful! The ride was about an hour long and brought us into this beautiful harbor right at sunset.

This is the first true sunset we had seen in weeks, finally being far enough South to get complete darkness at night.

We grabbed an open air taxi cab and were jetted off to our hotel in the center of the island. After a day of tough travel, we had finally made it to luxurious Capri (pronounced “kuhhh-pree” apparently).

Then, so excited to have made it to such a beautiful place… we went to bed. We can meet up with Leigh tomorrow…

July 8-9

After a bit more sleep, Michael and I got moving and grabbed a bus to Copenhagen. These bus rides are not getting any easier, but they are cheap! And since Scandinavia is so expensive, now is a great time to cut costs while we’re flying solo.

We didn’t spend much time in Copenhagen – we mostly popped in because we could find reasonable flights out of the city compared to Oslo. We arrived, dropped off our bags and went out to find some dinner. Our plan was to check out the Tivoli Foodhallen. Just walking the mile or so to get there, we were already jazzed about the city.

The city was alive with a lot of people walking around and great street performers.

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_3263.trim_.mov

The food hall did not disappoint either. We had bao (steamed buns filled with stuff like a sandwich) and they were awesome.

We were pretty exhausted after our bus ride (and the fact that we’ve been moving nonstop for weeks), so we went to bed fairly early that night.

The next morning I had an errand. Spoiler to avoid my mother and sister having anxiety while reading this: I’m completely fine. But here’s the story. A few weeks back, in Russia, I fell. It was while we were in a huge crowd of people and I just missed a step. It left me with a banged up knee, a banged up elbow and a busted wrist. The knee and elbow healed quite nicely but the wrist was still giving me some problems. I was starting to get nervous that there was something wrong with it, and didn’t want to have to deal with a “health issue” in Asia, so I figured Denmark is a great place to get it checked out.

I called into the emergency room phone number and got an appointment. In Denmark, you have to call in advance or they won’t see you. I got an 11am appointment, so I showered and headed over. This is it:

I arrived 15 minutes early. They took me immediately and checked me in. I had to show them my passport and provide contact info. Then I went into a waiting room. The building reminded me of an old city hospital – the kind that would be really scary if it was night or if you were in it alone. But it was fine during the day. Sterile, old feeling, but clean. I shared the waiting room with one other woman. About 2 minutes into my wait, a nurse popped in to ask me if I’d like a juice. I declined and she smiled and walked away. About 2 minutes after that, she came back and asked if there was anything else that could make me more comfortable. I said no thank you. I was in an examination room within 10 minutes.

The doctor (or nurse?) was really nice, went through some standard questions, and then sent me off to get an X-ray. Now the service has been really great so far, but the weird thing is that they just sent me off. No one accompanied me – he just pointed at a yellow line on the floor and told me to follow it to X-ray and return when I was finished. I did follow it past open rooms with supplies sitting out. My first thought was: aren’t they worried about people stealing this stuff?

The x-ray room was a bit more crowded – 10 or so people ahead of me, but it was my turn within 10 minutes. I got the scans and headed back to the emergency room. Only thing to note about this was that they didn’t give me one of those pads to make sure the rest of my body didn’t get radiated. Apparently that is not standard practice abroad. They also didn’t ask me 45 times if I’m pregnant or could be pregnant. No litigation in Denmark?

A new doctor saw me a few minutes after I returned and told me the X-rays were clean. Great! I went to reception to find out what the damage was. FREE! I had to ask the question a separate way to make sure we weren’t working with a language barrier (with two women who speak perfect, unaccented English). Totally free. I said: Denmark is the best! To which one woman did remind me that their taxes pay for it.

Now to compare quality of service, I would say everything was as good, but faster. I was out the door in under an hour. However, in the US, the doctor would probably order more tests – send me off for an MRI or something. Or at least say that it’s probably a sprain, wear this brace for a few weeks and follow up. Nothing like that here. He gave me a compression slip which just made me feel silly and sent me packing. So I guess I’ll just wait for this to get better on its own.

After my free healthcare experiment, I met back up with Michael at… another food hall! Torvehallerne.

This one was chosen because it has a specific restaurant in it: Hija de Sanchéz.

This taqueria is owned by chef Rosio Sanchéz who is first generation Mexican-American from Chicago, who moved to Copenhagen to work in two-Michelin-starred NOMA which is considered to be one of the best, if not the best, restaurants in the world. It’s hard to get reservations there and expensive, so we grabbed these tacos instead! This taqueria is routinely included in best restaurant lists for Copenhagen and best taco joint lists around the world. It has also been called the best street food in Europe by EasyJet Traveler magazine. Remember that airline – I have a story about them in my next post. Hija de Sanchéz also was highlighted on the new Netflix series “Ugly Delicious” which I think just came out last week.

They might not look like much, but these tacos did not disappoint. Hija de Sanchéz makes their tortillas from scratch using Oaxacan corn. The tacos were so good, that later in the day when we walked by their other location, we stopped in for more tacos. These are the first really good tacos we’ve had since leaving the US eight months ago. That is a long time to go without good tacos.

After tacos, we grabbed a few beers from Mikkeller. We have visited a handful of their brewpubs around the world, but this was a bit special as they are actually from Copenhagen originally. The bartender there told us that we had to go check out Christiania. So we did.

Christiania is a self-governing “free town” established in 1971 in in the city limits of Copenhagen. Apparently some hippies moved into an abandoned military barracks to create an alternative to mainstream culture. The area is “green friendly” despite it being illegal in Denmark. We did see cops walking around, but it seems like they just let people do whatever they want. It is a very strange place. They claim to be anarchist but the area is equipped with rules, stores, even credit card machines. They use electricity and water, I’m assuming from the city, and I’m also assuming they pay taxes. So it seems to me to be less anarchy and more of a community that wants rules that are different than the city in which they are located. Weird place.

No pictures are allowed (to avoid anyone getting in trouble for illegal activity), but we did manage to snap a few while being screamed at for doing it.

The area was surprisingly safe and clean. The internet told us it was safe before going, but I was still nervous to go in. However, as soon as we stepped foot in I knew there was nothing to be concerned about. We hung out for a bit and wandered around before calling it a night.

And, no – it doesn’t get dark here in the summer either.

Copenhagen – you are a cool city and we at least need to come back to see if this is truly a blockbuster video store.

July 5-7

There is a very magnificent Stave Church very close to our farmhouse. So the handful of us that could get moving a little faster the next morning jumped in the fiesta bus and headed down to grab the ferry.

This ferry…

…that we missed.

So instead we grabbed a coffee and waffle at this super cute cafe…

…and Katie got a picture with the framed photo of the stave church instead.

Getting ready to leave the farmhouse:

The good news is that it didn’t take us long to need another ferry once we had the rest of the crew with us.

And we got some more pancakes with sweet cream! These were a great find a few ferries ago. A huge hit among everyone, except Michael.

Some more beautiful scenery on our drive:

And this beautiful shot at a gas station, because Norway:

And we got to drive through the Laerdal Tunnel which is 15.25 miles long. It is the longest tunnel for cars in Europe. (There is one in Switzerland for trains that is longer). It took 5 years to build and opened in 2000. It was really long. It took us around 20 minutes to get through it. And it had these cool colored lights in certain areas.

The last stop on the great fjord adventure of 2018 was the city of Bergen. Bergen use to be the capital of Norway from the 13th until the late 18th century. The city was founded in 1070 as the sole trading post between Northern Norway and other countries. To this day, Bergen Port is Norway’s busiest in terms of both freight and passengers.

Bergen is on the southwestern coast, surrounded by mountains and fjords, including Norway’s longest and deepest fjord, Sognefjord.

We arrived at our Airbnb late afternoon, dropped our stuff and headed out to grab some dinner at the fish market. We figured out pretty fast how cool this city is.

First we got to hang out with Edvard Grieg – renowned composer. Of course, I had never heard of him, but Katie remembers her Grandpa playing Grieg when they were growing up.

Then it was off to the fish market for dinner. We wandered around for awhile and found Bergen to be a pretty diverse community. This made stopping at each food stall fun for our bilingual family. I will say that bringing Katie and crew around gives Michael and I a little travel street cred. We are constantly dealing with people who know 2,3,4 languages while we are speaking English and stumbling through some Spanish. It is cool to not be the dumb kids on the block when it comes to languages for once.

Some reindeer sausages – Sofia was sad to eat it, but thought it was delicious:

Checking out the largest raspberries we’ve ever seen:

Ordering some fish from our favorite food stall:

King crab!!!

After dinner, we made it to another lego store. We owed the kids some prizes for a range of bets Michael made with them and what better way to pay them off than with legos! Also, how cool is this huge Harry Potter lego man?

Cosmic bowling styled bathroom – Sofia was too freaked out to use it. I, however, have used toilets on the Inca trail, so I was just fine with it.

The next morning, Katie, Michael and I went for a run around the closest park before starting our day.

Then it was back to that same park to grab some photos with the kids.

And, of course, the weird angry baby fountain:

Then we met up with Michael at the harbor and tried to find a boat that would drive us around for an hour or so.

We found this one that would drop us off a bit down the harbor at the Norwegian Fisheries Museum. This did not seem to me like what we were looking for, but when Michael heard the guy talking about it, he jumped right on board (literally and figuratively). OK – we’re doing it.

The boat ride left something to be desired. It was hard to see outside and it wasn’t a very long ride. But then it dropped us off at this fish museum which turned out to be AWESOME! I never would have expected it. We ended up spending a few hours there. Every room had activities for the kids (and the adults). Many of them gave scores which of course Michael and I can’t help but make into incredibly competitive games.

Some information about Geiranger Fjord that we visited a few days prior:

We’re not sure why Liam’s fish face went missing, but here are the rest of us!

There was also a treasure hunt for the kids that was actually a bit tough and required them to really pay attention to some of the educational stuff in each room. Good thinking fishery museum. Of course, the kids dominated and were rewarded with T-shirt’s and some other trinkets.

After finishing at the museum we were dragging a bit and super hungry. On our trek back to the harbor, we walked through Bryggen. This is the Old Town which has colorful wooden houses on the old wharf and is a World Heritage Site.

And then finally we made it to lunch. We found a great sushi place and we just demolished. I love watching kids eat (and enjoy) sushi.

On our walk back we saw a random BB8:

And some hilarious Star Wars conspiracy theory street art:

The next morning it was another drive back to Oslo. We made our first stop just outside of Bergen at a Stave Church that Katie wanted to visit. Fantoft Stave Church was originally built around 1150 in the eastern end of Sognefjord. It was to be torn down in the late 1800s but instead was moved outside Bergen. In 1992, the church was destroyed by arson. Wikipedia tells me that there was a string of church burnings by members of an early Norwegian metal scene. Very strange story. It has since been rebuilt.

Some more beautiful scenery with more grass covered roofs. Can you even see the houses back there?

We had a great lunch at Gretteberg Kafe, at the top of a mountain, overlooking a beautiful lake.

The best part of lunch was definitely how excited Liam was about this piece of hot dog.

“Hey! Will someone take a picture of this!” Yes, I will.

That night, we checked into the first hotel of their trip. We were staying at the hotel that is right in the Oslo airport since Katie and crew had a very early flight. We hung out in the restaurant and watched some more World Cup – Croatia v Russia. Croatia won in shoot outs. Another crazy, exciting game!

The next morning, Michael and I woke up a bit before 6am to say goodbye to Katie, Oscar, Sofia and Liam. It was hard saying goodbye, but we are so grateful that we had so much time and so much fun with them! We have been missing family a lot lately, so we’re really lucky to have had so many of you come out to travel with us. We could not have made it this long without these visits. Thank you!

Norway’s Specialty

Did you know that the movie Frozen is based off the country of Norway? The scenery and the villages are iconic Norwegian views. Another huge Norwegian fact from the movie revolves around trolls. Trolls, as some of you may know, are only active during the nighttime. During the day, they disguise themselves as ordinary rocks. Trolls can only come alive (to the best of my knowledge) in Norway.

Sofia and Liam found a few trolls that were disguised as rocks during the day. Sofia left them a note before going to bed to see if they were actually trolls, or just rocks. AND THE TROLLS RESPONDED DURING THE NIGHT!!

The second night, Sofia wanted more details about which troll was which rock during the day. We also picked up a few new trolls to hang out with. You don’t want to be calling them by the wrong names! What we found out the next morning is that most of the trolls only speak Norwegian. Only one, Lucy, can speak English. Thank goodness for google translate! Lucy had all of the other trolls tell Sofia and Liam what their names are and what they like to do when they’re awake.

Sofia had me take pictures of the notes so we wouldn’t forget which troll went with which name. It was very cool to see the great responses from the trolls and how excited Sofia and Liam were to hear from their new friends! Norway truly is a magical place!

July 4

We were back on the road, driving through the fjords to see what we could see! Our first stop at Hornindalsvatnet lake was just as picturesque as what we’d seen the day before.

Now, with all of these cool rocks to climb on, the first thing I said to Liam was:

“Liam, be very careful where you step. If you fall in this lake, then Michael is going to have to jump in after you and then his clothes are going to be all wet. So be very careful.”

Let’s just say, I saw it coming. Liam, sure enough, went head first into this lake. First things first – he was completely fine. Wet, and a bit upset, but fine.

But when he landed in the water, face down, he freaked out. Then he accidentally pushed himself deeper into the lake when he freaked out. That’s how I end up knee deep in the lake with my jeans and tennis shoes on.

Now I would like to say that I was upset about it. But when a child thinks you saved their life? Well that feeling is awesome. He kept saying that I “rescued” him. Michael was laughing at me while I was soaking it up – worth the soggy shoes for sure.

Our next stop was Loen, where Katie, Michael, Sofia, and I grabbed the gondola from the bottom of the fjord up to the top.

Katie wasn’t nervous at all.

From the gondola and from the top of the mountain we got a great view of Nordfjord.

We grabbed lunch at the top which included Sofia’s delicious and local Loen apple juice.

And then made our way back down.

These guys got down a bit faster:

Michael enjoying the beautiful river before we got back into the fiesta bus:

Next we were off to see a glacier! But first we had to get past these pesky cows.

This cow actually had a thing for Michael and would only come closer to him and the car as Michael tried to shoe it away.

We saw the Jostedal glacier at the Bøyabreen glacierarm. The Jostedal glacier is the largest glacier on the European mainland. It covers an area of 474 km2. The icecap lies about 1600 meters above sea level and the highest point is 1952 meters. It’s about 80km long and the ice thickness is 5-600 meters.

About 20,000 years ago, this glacier covered almost all of Scandinavia. They believe this glacier melted away almost completely 8000 and 5000 years ago. The current glacier that we see had its peak during the “Little Ice Age” in 1750. Fact: The Jostedal glacier contains as much fresh water as the entire Norwegian population would use in a hundred years.

The Fjaerlandfjord, formed through several ice ages, was carved over 2-3 million years by the glacier. It is still digging and shaping the landscape and every year soil and loose rocks pull away from the bedrock. The glacier is alive and always in motion.

Second fact: glacier ice was used as the podium of the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994. Boo to Michael who told me 1992 while I was writing the last post. Now I’m going to have to amend.

The kids loved making bets with Michael about who could stay in the water longer or who would go in the furthest. Michael definitely won… but the kids were pretty brave as well in the freezing glacier water.

Our last stop of the night was Fjaerland, a town which is called “international book town” for its ten bookshops.

Sounds awesome! We are a crew who loves books, so what could be better?!?

But when we arrived… at 7:05pm, everything was closed down. So we walked around for a minute and then moved on.

The airbnb that we stayed at in Hafslo is actually a traditional farmhouse. This was super cool for the kids who got to hang out with the baby ducks on the property! We also ate some fresh eggs the next morning. There was some hesitation from the kids, but in the end… it’s breakfast.

July 3

About a third of the 6 or 7 hours we drove today was along Mjosa lake which is Norway’s largest lake, as well as one of the deepest lakes in Norway and Europe. Its maximum depth is 449 meters or about 1475 feet. At the furthest part north of this lake, we drove through Lillehammer which hosted the Olympics in 94. As you’ll see over the next few days in the fjords, we did three things during the day: drive, jump out to explore, and take ferries.

Our first stop of the day, at Mjosa lake:

A lot of the houses have grass roofs. I’m not sure what the point is – insulation? Disguise? Decoration? Something funny for tourists to take pictures of?

Our second stop of the day, overlooking the Geiranger Fjord:

That ferry in the background is the one we were rushing to try to get on!

After doing switchbacks down the mountain for what seemed like forever…

…we finally got down to the docks at Geiranger, pulled up to the ferry, pulled right onto the ship and they took off. Perfect timing!! We are ferry experts!

So the fjords are like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Two things to mention:

1. These pictures are gorgeous and do absolutely no justice to what we actually saw.

2. I’m not going to bother mentioning how beautiful, massive, expansive, breathtaking, awesome they all are. I don’t have the proper words to describe them. I’m just going to show you the pictures and tell you that they are incredible.

First things first: the snack shop. They sell Geiranger beer on the boat, so…

And here is Liam geeked about the fact that I spelled out his name on his hotdog in mustard:

Now onto the main event:

These waterfalls are called the Seven Sisters. Legend goes that they are kept on their side of the fjord, dancing playfully down the mountain.

While across the fjord, unable to reach his love, the Suitor Waterfall is depressed and drowns his sorrow in a bottle of wine. Can you see the bottle in the falls?

When we got off the ferry, we had just a short drive to the town of Stranda where we were staying for the night. The airbnb overlooked the harbor and was beautiful!

Michael cooked us dinner and we watched the Colombia v. England World Cup match (which is why the niños wore their jerseys all day). It was a great match with Colombia tying in stoppage time. Although Colombia lost in shoot outs, it was a blast watching with our Colombians!

You can see how excited Katie was.

Here are some pictures from our balcony, the next morning, before we left.

Michael jogging. He apparently ran less than a mile and was attacked by seagulls the entire time.

And the kids with Michael and Katie after finally finding Liam a Lego store!!

Off for more fjord adventures!