A Taste of Some of my Adventures so Far

I have 60 pictures from the last couple of days.  These are just a few of them... lots of fun so far!


Heading out to the market

Sabarmati Ashram (Gandhi's school in Ahmadabad)

  The library

One of the residents

The Sarbarmati for which it is named.

Dhruv inside the Vavs (Adalaj)

5 stories tall!

The whole gang in there (Left to Right: Top:Nishit, Rutul, Bottom: Ethan, Tuhin Ankit, Dhruv taking photo)

Dhruv was kind enough to lift the gate to one of the wells so that you can see into it.  There is probably a reason that the well has a gate over the top... maybe they should consider a lock also.

The next day we went to the Sidi Sayed Mosque, known for its stone lattice windows. It is from the 16th century, so in the old part of the city. It isn't overwhelmingly big, but the windows are beautiful.  To be respectful, we did not enter the mosque without head-covering (although Rutul and Dhruv offered to provide head covering). Instead, we stayed by the pools in the courtyard after going behind the mosque to take these photos.

This is the view from inside of the window above

From there, we walked to the nearby Jami Masjid

The entrance (below) doesn't give a good indication of the beauty inside. Outside is a crowded market and coming into the mosque is entering a sanctuary. Not just that it is religious, but the noise and the grit of the market give way to something more ethereal.  The horns of the auto-rickshaws are gone as are the crowds. It is the pools, the people cooling themselves or praying, and the stone.

To the left when I entered.  This is a quarter of the courtyard. The Mosque itself is the opposite side.

I made some new friends outside the mosque in front of this carved stone art.

There are other images of the inside of the mosque, but needless to say it is beautiful.  The above image gives some sense of the scale (and the lack of crowd).  The engraving below (again, better images are available) is also famous and I guess settles the argument over Ahmadabad and Ahmedabad.

So, it was a great weekend.  I need to start taking more pictures of food, because there has been so much of it and it has been so good.

On Sunday, India beat Pakistan in cricket, setting up a re-match on Thursday.  That should create a nice buzz all week.  Sunday night, there were fire works and other celebrations.

Alright, I'm off for now. I know this isn't very literary, but at least it is something, right?

Monkeys!!!!

Fun times, outside my flat.

We're Home!!!

After what felt like a long time, we made it home.  We're here now in fact.  The trip wasn't that bad - a quick stop in London, on to JFK.  My parents were kind enough to rescue us and take us to Harold's New York Deli, a wonderful American kind of place.  We grabbed a flight from Newark to Philadelphia (yes, that is not a typo) - the Women's World Cup - Philadelphia to Charlottesville, a cab home and here we are!  We took a week to regroup and the house is in good order.  The cat seems happy and healthy and our guest was neat and orderly.  Now, we need to get you updated on the last part of our trip.  We have Bologna and Rome to tell you about and even our last thoughts on Florence.  Then, truth is - we're still going.   Albeit not as often but updates will continue.  We have at least two more weddings to attend, and we're hoping to make it three.  We'd love to visit family and friends.  Who knows, we might even discuss some of our thoughts here - in between Tweets and Status updates.  Anyhow, we're still here - with more to say - we just took some time.  Stay tuned!

We're Coming Home

So, it turns out we aren't that flexible. I'll save the rant against the airline, but we looked at the numbers and realized if we wanted to be home before Wednesday, we were going to have to buy tickets.  So, that is what we have done and we'll fly back to London and on to New York, stopping off at my parents' house before heading home on Sunday (back to stand-by mode... but lots of seats, although it costs more for the flight from Newark to Charlottesville than it did from Charlottesville to London - again, I'll save the rant!).  We'll keep giving updates  once we are home, since we've told you very little about our Rome trip, as well as pictures.  For now, we are travel weary and eager to be home.

Travel Day -1

The airline on which we are flying overbooked our flight on Saturday by 12 seats.  We will try to get on a flight tomorrow through Philadelphia.  I'm afraid the level to which we will be able to be flexible may be tested.  The ordeal of the matter has made us both more eager to be home.  On the whole, we stand to lose way more than any price savings from which we benefited by flying stand-by.  A full day of our vacation in Rome, for which the apartment is not refundable, and the fact that we may not be able to get home on this airline until Wednesday, per the representative, may mean that hotels, train tickets, or just the airline tickets home on another airline may end up costing us twice as much as if we'd just booked a flight.  That's aside from the dinner we skipped tonight our of worry and stress before an early morning arrival at the airport for a flight we may not even board.  These are the risks we calculated.  Tomorrow, we'll see the balance on the ledger.

Decision Time Approaches

I'm writing this late morning on Thursday local time.  We have been discussing leaving tomorrow instead of the originally planned Saturday.  After looking at what we needed and wanted to accomplish in Rome, we figured everything could be done by today.  Still, (warning: obvious statement approaching) Rome is very large and there is always plenty to see and do.

Yesterday, we fought crowds at the Vatican and saw two of the most important objects to Emily, the Sistine Chapel and the Pieta in St. Peter's.  It was quite the adventure.  We didn't take any pictures as again, our fellow tourists disgusted us out doing so.  We then went out for an incredible dinner in Testaccio before watching the US Women disappoint against Sweden.  We're feeling pretty good, but a little bit lazy today.  I think we're both out of clothes and eager to be home.  Today, we'll visit more of the ancient side of Rome at the Capitoline Museum before heading back to the Renaissance at the Farnesina.  More gelato will be a must and I think we may attempt dinner in the Jewish quarter.  After that, we'll have one last look at the numbers of seats left on the flights back home and make a decision.  I think right now, the numbers are pushing us back to Saturday.

I'll make sure to update the blog for all of those interested.  The end is nearing and I feel it is the right time.

I was going to post some pics, but my computer is not cooperating.  My apologies.

The Eternal City

Sorry for the late update, but we have arrived to our palazzo in Roma.  Emily booked a gem.  It has two bedrooms a kitchen we're trying to fit in our suitcase, a vast living room and is just beautiful.  The landlords were also super nice.  If you're coming to Rome, let us know and we'll hook you up - the rate was even incredible.  To boot, they have high-speed internet.

Anyhow, we're here, safe and have had a tremendous afternoon after leaving Florence.  We walked and walked and have already seen many of the wonders that Rome has to offer.  Still, there is more to do tomorrow and the day after and even the day after that. We're leaning towards coming back to the states on Friday now instead of Saturday given the number seats available on the various flights.  Round two of seat roulette is beginning earlier with higher stakes and a bit of home-sickness.  To try to help with the latter malady, we went to the Roman cat sanctuary, but that just made us miss Wally even more.  There was one poor kitty with only three legs, but he did not seem to know this.  He kept trying to scratch his face with his lost leg.  Still, he seemed plucky.

Well, I don't want to give away too much.  We still have Bologna to write about!  We did take lots of pictures today and celebrated the 4th of July with pizza, beer and a toast to the Constitution. I also reminded some Italians that they'd be eating sauerkraut if not for the US (in my head, anyhow).  Tomorrow, we have an early appointment in the Villa Borghese and are looking forward to dinner with Guy and Beth (Emily's uncle and aunt).  So, we'll have plenty more to report about then.  Until then, happy Independence Day and buonanotte.