2013 didn’t suck. I mean, for God’s sake, I started the year by living in Hawai’i for two months (and it cost less than $1500 — yeah, read that post if you haven’t already) — obviously, 2013 didn’t suck. I’m writing this post from my apartment outside Boston where I live with a wonderful man who loves me and a grumpy cat who also loves me. We sent out Christmas cards that featured this photo: 2013 was not perfect. There were months when I felt unsure of myself and unhappy with myself, and I spent an inordinate amount of time in my pajamas watching tv online and avoiding people. I…
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It’s beginning to look a lot like…
Well, you know how the song goes. The tree is decorated, there’s snow on the ground, and it’s feeling pretty festive at The Beach House lately. This morning I even drank a cup of Winter Delight — the loose leaf black tea that Katie and I bought in Sarajevo last Fall. In order to best preserve their flavor, loose leaf teas should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container and kept away from light, heat, and moisture. I’m not as diligent about this as I ought to be, but I do own a number of tea tins, which are pretty as well as functional. I bought one decorated…
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Namaste, Delhi
(This post picks up where the previous one left off.) After we’d walked through and around and past the beggars, my tour group arrived at the Lotus Temple, which is a Bahá’í House of Worship. It’s open to people of any and all faiths and is meant to be a place for praising God without denominational restrictions. While the outside of the Lotus Temple is a beautiful work of architecture, the inside is almost plain — cavernous and filled with wooden pews, but simple. I realize the irony of pushing past people in need in order to visit a place of spirituality, but at the time, I just sat down,…
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This is a post about beggars
Walking down the street from my hotel to the metro, I was treated to the scents of urine, dirt, and exhaust. Incense, spices, and street food frying in oil. My tour group and I were on our first outing together to visit the Lotus Temple in Delhi. We rode the metro there, and when we arrived at our stop (Kalkaji Mandir on the violet line), we paused outside the station beside an orange vendor and his cart. The fruits were green, but we could tell they were oranges because the vendor peeled them theatrically and their smell was unmistakable. We watched as the fruits released sweet mist into the air…
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Franz & Sophie: Another Reason to Love Sarajevo
Yesterday, I wrote about my love for Sarajevo. And today, I’m sharing the last (and possibly most important) reason I fell for this city. Are you at all surprised that my reason is a teahouse? Katie and I read about a teahouse called Franz & Sophie when we were looking up interesting restaurants in Sarajevo on TripAdvisor. The reviews are so good, it’s number 3 in the restaurants category, and they don’t even serve food. Or coffee for that matter. Be warned non-tea-drinkers, this is not a tea and coffee shop where you can grab a cup of joe and a pastry while your tea obsessed friend (that’s me) ogles…
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I LOVED Sarajevo
I can’t put my finger on why, exactly, but I LOVED Sarajevo. And it’s a good thing too, considering how much trouble Katie and I went through to get there (see: this post). For some reason, Sarajevo called to both of us. When we first met up in Istanbul, Katie and I talked about where we wanted to go over the 3 weeks we’d be traveling together. We knew the trip was going to end in Dubrovnik, Croatia, because Katie had booked a flight to London from there, and after Istanbul we were going to Greece, but it was unclear what we would do in between. Katie shyly suggested Sarajevo,…
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India: First Impressions
It was midnight when I arrived in Delhi — an hour later than I was meant to — and my first thought was that airports look like airports all over the world. Of course, when I stepped outside and met up with my tour guide, Earl, he told me New Delhi’s airport was only a few years old and the previous one had looked more like a large bus station. My second thought was something along the lines of, “damn, it’s humid. Should it really be this hot at midnight?” The answer was no, it should not have been that hot in Delhi in October (especially not at midnight), but…
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Get Off Your Butt and Do Something (in Bulgaria)
After catching a ferry back to the mainland, Katie and I took an overnight train from Athens to Thessaloniki. From there we hoped to take a train to Belgrade (Serbia) and then onward to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), where we planned to spend a few days. As it turned out, there were no trains departing Thessaloniki for anywhere outside of Greece, so, our best (and only) option was to take a bus to Sofia (Bulgaria) where we could get on another overnight train to Belgrade and from there, finally, catch a train to Sarajevo. You may have noticed that our mistake was trying to get from Kea to Sarajevo without…
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Relaxing Off-Season Travel in The Greek Isles
There’s this thing about backpacking and long term travel, and it can be hard to admit at first: sometimes you would rather relax than sight-see. I know, it’s hard to believe that you can buy a plane ticket to another continent and have days when you would rather watch tv than visit another church, museum, landmark, or charming sidewalk cafe. If you’re spending a weekend away or even enjoying a week-long trip somewhere, it’s possible to sight-see for 16 hours a day and crash every night. But that’s not sustainable when you’re traveling long-term and, although I’ve written about this before, I think it bears repeating. The first time I…
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Home From India
3 weeks, 25 cups of chai, and nearly 2,000 photo later, I’m home from India. I stepped off the plane a couple of hours ago, said “hello” to E and the cat, and turned on my laptop to write this post. I spent about 20 hours traveling today, so I hope you don’t mind my keeping it brief. You’re probably wondering how my trip was, but, unsurprisingly, I’m still processing the experience. For now, I’ll tell you what I plan to tell friends and family when they ask, “how was India?” It’s hard to sum up any trip in a few clever sentences or one wild anecdote, but that tends…
