The land of beer and pretzels

The past 2 days in Munich have been a blast (minus the day we spent at the Dachau concentration camp).

We got in on a Friday night and then we went to the infamous Hofbrauhaus, one of the most famous German beer halls. Beer halls lend themselves to meeting people as everyone crowds into the tables. We first sat with 2 Irish guys, Eamonn and Dez, who were hilarious but then they had to leave to go have dinner with Dez' wife. Then as they got up, a German family with 2 teenagers, The Schneiders, sat down as well as another 2 German guys, Andres and Til. We had such a good time with all of them. Liz even proclaimed this as one of her top 10 nights of all time.

This was also the night that Elizabeth became a carnivore after 3 long years of being a vegan/vegetarian. One of the German boys was eating sausage and had it on a toothpick and went straight for Elizabeth's mouth and said "try this." In the seconds before it reached her mouth, she had no idea how to explain to a German that she was a vegetarian and before she knew it, she was chewing. That is when she realized how delicious meat is.

Sunday afternoon I ordered a hot dog which I thought was a sausage and the waitress accidental brought us 2. Elizabeth dug right in and then couldn't stop raving about it. In reality, it wasn't very good.

On Saturday we went to the Dachau concentration camp (I wrote another post about that). It was about an hour outside of Munich and we spent much of the day there. We got back into Munich early Saturday evening and decided to drown our sorrows at another beer hall. This time we went to Augustiner Brauhaus. This was a much less touristy beer hall and we predominantly met Germans. We first sat down with 2 German couples in their late thirties. We loved them! We were a little disappointed, though, that they didn't invite us over to their house for Easter Sunday. After they left, 3 Swiss boys sat down next to us. One of them lived in Munich and had his 2 friends from grade school in town. They were a lot of fun. Actually too much fun, because they started ordering schnapps left and right and Elizabeth and I are not schnapps kind of girls. Aka we had to dispose of them over our shoulders.

Sunday was supposed to be our Munich sightseeing day, but it was Easter so it kind of put a damper on outings. We did get to the Deutsch museum which was really neat. It was basically a "how is this made" kind of museum. There were aviation, astronautical, mechanics, power, boating, ceramic, glass, science (my favorite!) and all sorts of different exhibits. We could have spent years in there, but we didn't. Our next stop was to go by the Hofs gardens and then into the Englisch Gardens. In the summer, many people hang out in the beer halls in the Englisch Garden and bring in their own food, but it happens to be snowing here in Munich so it wasn't very crowded (aka at all.) We did get to see a lot of adorable dogs (with their owners) in the park and I even saw my first Vizsla! My boyfriend, Marshall, has a vizsla, a dog originally from Hungary. Needless to say, I cannot wait to get to Budapest and ogle over the vizslas! The dogs here in Germany walk off their leashes a lot. I first realized this when one of leash-less dogs came up to us, Liz started petting it and I screamed "it's a homeless dog." Then we saw its' owner and I realized it was a rather clean, well-fed, homeless dog.

For dinner, we went to a very meaty restaurant. Elizabeth got sausage and sauerkraut and I got a pork knuckle with red cabbage. The pork knuckle was to die for. I even ate the crispy fatty skin and cut off 20 years of my life. Elizabeth also enjoyed some of my pork knuckle.The red cabbage, however, was not our favorite. We will be sticking to potato dumplings and kraut from now on. Liz also might have overdosed on meat, because this am she said something along those lines.

Right now we are on a 2 hour train to Fussen where the Neuschwanstein castle lives. This is the castle from the sleeping beauty and what DIsneyland's castle was modeled after. We heard you can either walk to the castle once we get into town, or we can take a horse-drawn carriage. We aren't sure if we should go all out or not, but I'll keep you updated.

1.The Schneider family 2.Liz and I with Andres and Til in Hofbrauhaus 3. Liz and I in the Englisch garden 4. At Haxnbauer eating my pork knuckle 5. Pork knuckle roasting

Munchen

En route to Munchen (Munich) via train, so I've found some time to write.

I left off after our first day of skiing/snowboarding. Lets just say it was better than the next. I had the brilliant idea to go to the slopes on the other side of Andermatt, so we dragged our gear across town via the town shuttle and found ourselves at the top of a little sledding hill that led to the chair lift. The snow was a tidbit icy. I'm timid when the snow is "fresh powder" but add a little sun to melt it into a slippery ice slope, and I'm like a a dog with my tail between my legs.

The benefit of day 2, was that I remembered the way you are supposed to actually get up from the ground to your board. I had been leaning forward to get up the first day and after literally having no strength left in my upper body, the second day I realized all I had to do was roll over and get up backwards. Snowboarding 101. At least I was beginning to look like I knew what I was doing, minus still wiping out every time getting off the ski lift. We had to take 2 lifts to get to the top of the mountain and I was a very big fan of the top part. No one was on this mountain except for a guy and his two 6 year olds who must have passed us at least 3 times. The bottom part of the mountain was 50% flat and I had to resort to sledding since I go so slow on my board that I kept getting stuck and then falling. The top half of the mountain, however, had relatively good snow and lots of steep turns. I'm so talented at snowboarding that I do better on the harder runs than the dinky ones. Liz took her one and only fall on the top of this mountain, while I took the team home with all of mine.

After a successful 1.5 runs (they were very long), I couldn't bear the thought of falling off another lift. Liz decided that since she had yet to break a bone or get an epidural hematoma, she too was done. And Emmanuelle would be actually getting some exercise the next 3 days she stayed on in Andermatt, skiing with her father (a black diamond kind of guy), so it was time for fondue.

We enjoyed ourselves some Swiss fondue and beer at a local pub and then headed home for raclette (more melted cheese, just in a different cooking apparatus.) Let's just say we have not skimped on the finer things in Switzerland.

Earlier in the day, we had met a guy skiing who had a parachute on (aka a skiing parachuter)and we learned he was a military mountaineering guy from Switzerland and that there is an annual international military mountaineering meeting in Andermatt that just so happened to be over that night. He invited us to the local pub that night, so we decided it might be fun to go mingle. It turns out there was a 10:1 ratio of international military mountaineers to us. Since Andermatt is not entirely on the international party circuit, and as soon as the words "almost doctor" came out, we were each being talked to by 3-4 muscular military men at once. Most of the men were married and in their late 30s/40s, we had our mace handy, and we kept talking about Emmanuelle's tall French father down the street, so we weren't too concerned. Of course, we also turned down their offers of lager and schnapps, for fear of becoming sex slaves with IVs in our arms supplying a continuous heroin drip. Regardless, it was a fun little experience to say that we have met men in the military from over 10 countries (France, Holland, Spain, America, Argentina, Sweden, Norway, etc.) Of course, none are quite as handsome as my American marine ;)

Elizabeth and I are now off to Munich to enjoy some beer, sausage, and kraut.

Here are some pictures from skiing and fondue eating! Elizabeth is modeling her $4 green jumper from goodwill that kept her quite cozy on the slopes.

Super Swiss Skiing

On Wednesday morning, we woke up ready to go! Unfortunately, we still had to wait for my bag which amazingly showed up intact, just a day late. My friends were nice enough to lend me some clothes and face wash. Liz even had sulfate-free shampoo to prevent sulfate-ization of my chemically straightened hair bonds.

We ventured out around 11, after a breakfast of Swiss cheese (and yogurt) and were ready to take on the Swiss Alps. Of course, first we had to go rent ourselves some ski/snowboarding gear. But then, we were ready! We took the gondola to the middle of the mountain (which so happened to be right next door to her Dad's place) and Liz and I proceeded to become one with the snow.

I had a mild freak out before even getting up on my board. Emmanuelle is a lot more experienced that us (this is my third time snowboarding and Liz has skied once or twice, last time in 1995.)The truth is, Liz is a heck of a lot more coordinated than me, so I really wasn't worried about her. So as I proceeded to scream bloody murder while laying on my tush strapped into my board at the top of the mountain, having snowboarded nowhere, Emmanuelle coached me up and Liz set off down the slopes. See, I knew Liz would be a superstar!

20 minutes later, we made it the 500 feet down the first part of the "easy" slope, and that was where we saw Liz, laying in the snow with her skis skews all over the place and outside of the flags. Apparently Liz headed straight down the slope, screaming bloody murder, and then toppled over at the bottom, unable to stop. I had by this time, become comfortable with not just sitting on my tush with a snowboard strapped on, so Emmanuelle gave Liz a basics lesson to skiing while I slowly made by way down the slope. 45 minutes later, we made it all the way. Poor Emmamuelle had no idea what she was getting herself into!

The good news is that by the end of the day, we had gotten our run down to 7 minutes. The learning curve was steep (no pun intended.) Of course, I still was incapable of getting off the ski lift that brought us back to the start of the easy run (the only one here on Andermatt.) Emmanuelle would have to literally drag me off the lift and then I had a 60% chance of still falling over, but it's all about trying.

Liz and I managed to fall at least once per run (and usually I managed more than once.) I even managed to aid Emmanuelle in falling, as she couldn't miss out on the fun! At one point during the day, Emmanulle's ski pole got stuck in the ski lift as she was getting on (in large part because she was trying to go with me and I couldn't get on fast enough) and then it snapped in half and she flipped over.

Needless to say, today was full of lots of laughs. And $36 francs well spent on 3 helmets to protect our very expensive brains. Sorry no pictures, I somehow knew that bringing my iPad up to the mountain wouldn't be a good idea!

Left in Lisbon

It's been an eventful 3 days. It started off with Liz and I meeting at the Miami airport, serendipitously arriving at the same time (well we might have planned it.)

We took TAP airlines, and we were very unimpressed with the televisions. The not yet out on DVD movies we were expecting were non-existent and instead we couldn't even hear our cable tv. So we drowned our sorrows with the unlimited wine and our pasta and 2 rolls. We were so excited, we didn't even fall asleep but for the last hour.

Luckily our carb-loading paid off, because the Lisbon airport entailed a marathon. We had only 45 minutes until our next flight, and we spent about 20 minutes hiking through the airport. The next 20 minutes entailed waiting in 2 lines, one of which we later realized was customs. We made it to our airplane with 5 minutes to spare, but little did we know one important thing was left behind in Lisbon. Liz and I crashed on our 2.5 hour flight into Zurich, status-post unlimited TAP wine.

We made it to Zurich and went to collect our bags. This is when we found Emmamuelle who had arrived earlier in the morning! We waited for the bags, and then realized that although Liz had hers, mine would not be making an appearance. I rarely check my bags, but this one time was all it took. Adios red backpack.

Although they could not locate the whereabouts of my bag, they insisted it would be delivered the next morning. So, off I went, with my new bag in tow (see picture.) Emmanuelle's dad was waiting for us outside and we hopped in his car for a 2 hour drive to his place, in Andermatt.

Now Andermatt is quite the adorable little town. Population 1200. At the base of the Swiss Alps. And freezing as can be when you venture out in your outfit from Miami. Luckily, I borrowed one of Mr. Topiol's coats on our second outing in town.

Pictures: 1. Liz and I on the plane 2. My overnight bag compliments of Swiss Air 3. Liz and Emmanuelle while exploring Andermatt

Home sweet Switzerland

I never got around to updating everyone about my 2 week stint in the US.

I got back to Miami Saturday night, greeted by sweet Bauer(my parents' dog) and my parents. My mom is very reluctant to bring Bauer on a car ride unless it's to the beach or the vet, so I knew they were really missing me when I saw his little face pressed up against the window in the Miami International Airport.

When we got home, I pretty much went to bed for 14 hours. My parents, of course, were by no means shocked since I've been known to sleep excessively. Bauer even slept in my bed, which is highly unusual as he normally runs the other way when he sees me. He must have really missed me, too. Or maybe my mom bribed him with chicken liver. Either way, it felt amazing to fall asleep clean with the fan blowing in a dark room (black out curtains rock!)

Sunday I managed to stay awake for a whole 3 hours before falling back asleep for a 3 hour nap. My aunt Pam, uncle Robb, and cousins Brad and Jared from Massachusetts happened to fly in late Saturday night for a week in Florida, so I did get to go out to breakfast with them and catch up. Then it was time to drive the 3 hours and 30 minutes to Gainesville, since I had to go to work on Monday.

I managed to get through two weeks of anesthesia, waking up at 645 am every day.

And I found out I have a job for the next 4 years! I'll be moving to philadelphia in June to be a resident in obstetrics and gynecology! I'm very excited to be leaving Gainesville after 8 years. I'm also very shocked that I'll be graduating medical school in 2 months and will be a real, live doctor.

And since these past 2 weeks entailed a lot of reality, it's time to go back to my safe place: traveling. I'll be spending the next several weeks in Europe with 2 of my friends from medical school, Elizabeth and Emmanuelle.

And now its on to Zurich, Munich, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Lisbon.

Oooh oooh eeeeh eeeeh sexy eyes

Sorry this wasn't posted last week, but it was written in the midst of my 26 hours of flying home...

The title of this post is from Super Khan as he sang Ace of Base from the 90s while periodically pointing to his biceps.

We arrived back in Delhi Thursday night and enjoyed hot showers and clean beds.

I woke up early to go to a guided walking tour by Saalam Balak Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to helping street kids. It was led by a street kid, Iqbal, who was 21 and had been left in a market by his father at 6 years old. He had spent a year or two living on the streets when a member of Salaam Balak Trust told him about the shelter. It was really sad hearing about what happens to these kids. You seem them everywhere, who knows which ones even have parents, but they are dirty and they beg. They can all usually find food at shelters (the Sikhs apparently are very giving to the poor), so they spend what little money they make on the streets doing drugs (sniffing glue) or going to the movies where they can get high and sleep. He recommended only giving the kids opened food, because they sell the unopened food for money. This tour was interesting and educational, I got to meet some little boys in a shelter. One of them couldn't speak or hear and wouldn't even smile at me, it broke my heart.

After the tour, I went back to the hotel to pick up Ale and we went over to parantha wali gali- a street with lots of paranthas shops (a type of Indian bread) filled with anything you want and served with several curries and pickles and chutneys. We were going to take the metro there, when we walked out of the hotel and a rickshaw driver agreed to bring us there for 50 rupees if we stopped by some stores. We agreed, as long as we didn't have to buy anything. Big mistake! The next 2 hours consisted of him bringing us to store after store and promising he would bring us to Chandichowk after. We finally got fed up and insisted he bring us, when he pointed to the metro and said it would be faster. Meanie!!!! Ale and I got played. The good news: we didn't buy anything. The bad news: we wasted 2 hours. Its a hood thing we really didn't have a whole lot on our agenda for the day. Just another Indian experience I wouldn't have wanted to miss(that's what we are telling ourselves.)

The metro was very close by and was 12 rupees each, so it ended up being fine. It was really easy to figure out, it was as clean as the New York City subways (which isn't saying much), and the trains came really fast. They even had a women's only car! This made me very happy and feel safer. We made it to parantha gali wali street, had one of the most delicious meals ever, and then walked around Chandichowk (a big Indian market not geared to tourists) for a couple hours. It was really fun. There are so many different shops and it's busy and crazy. When we were in the spice section, my eyes were burning and I was coughing it was so overpowering. We then walked over the The Red Fort, yet another fort in India. This one was built in the late 1600s when Delhi was becoming the Capitol. Don't quite me on that, since the sound and light show we went to was in Hindi. English was another hour later and we didn't want to be out too late!

We went back to our hotel and then grabbed our bags and took a cab to the airport. I'm currently in the Amsterdam airport (free hour of wifi!), almost done with my 4 hour layover. The first flight was all sleep. Now I'm on to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Miami.Poor Ale went to the airport with me and had to wait another 2.5 hours for her 5 am flight, then goes to Moscow for a 15 hour layover, then to Madrid (she is visiting her friend in Sevilla for 5 days) where she waits 6 hours for a train to Sevilla. And did I mention she started vomiting around 6 pm and was still vomiting in the airport? Ya, my little flight will be a walk in the park in comparison.

Potential adjustment issues on coming back to America:

- not being able to bargain for everything. I hope I don't find myself in Target, bargaining with the cashier over toothpaste.
- not being asked to pose for random people's photos 3-4 times a day (this will be hard, I've really enjoyed being Britney Spears for two months)
- eating bland American food after 2 months of Indian spices
- not using flip-flops to shower
- having a shower door and not soaking my entire bathroom wet
- taking hot showers daily (okay, and maybe just taking showers in general daily)
- not needing to carry toilet paper with me at all times
- not being offered food while rounding on patients in the hospital, strolling through a park, while waiting for a train, while sitting on the train, on the top of a mountain, etc

Pictures 1. Ale and I having tea in one of the shops the mean rickshaw driver brought us to 2. Idlys (that were really disappointing, but I don't have any other new pictures on my iPad) near Chandichowk

Super Khan

En route to Delhi now, on the Taj Express from Agra. We will be arriving in Delhi for our last night (in a hotel) in India. 2 months flies.

Today we saw the Taj Mahal and it was breathtaking. It gets all this hype, but it was worth it. It was built by the king (at the time) in the 1630s to commemorate his 3rd wife who died during the childbirth of her 14th baby. At first, before coming to India, I thought how impressive it is that back then, people could make such a beautiful, intricate, massive building without all the machinery of today. But now, seeing all the handiwork and crafts and miniature paintings that people do here in India today, I'm more unimpressed with our machine made buildings and lack of intricacy.

But back to yesterday. We got in to Agra around 630 pm, bought our tickets for our train ride back to Delhi the next day and then found ourselves a rickshaw to our hotel. This is when we met Super Khan, our rickshaw driver. He was hilarious, welcoming us to his Indian helicopter and singing Shakira and Ace of Base "ooh ooh eee eee sexy eyes." He also happens to be a great business man because during the course of our ride, he convinced us to take a rickshaw tour of Agra with him the next day. He did this slyly, by showing us his comment/guest book en route to our hotel (that included pictures of him in a superman shirt), then when he was dropping us outside the west gate (rickshaws can't go in and our hotel was inside the barricaded area) he pulled out a map and showed us exactly how to walk the one minute to our hotel and also where everything is in Agra and what time and how to get to the taj the next day.

So basically, he has a great business strategy. Pick up tourists at train station, show a comment book of all the people who loved his rickshaw tour and pic of him dressed as superman, be super helpful and funny, and then book those tourists for a day tour the next day. We couldn't help saying no!

We easily got to our hotel, Hotel Siddhartha. We expected it to be pretty bad because reviews basically said not to expect much other than an excellent location. But, it really wasn't that bad. It was relatively clean, had a high pressured (cold) shower, and almost clean sheets. It's always good to be pleasantly surprised. We grabbed dinner at Hotel Saiyana Palace's rooftop restaurant nearby and got some neat pictures of the taj at night- it's not lit up but Ale has taught me some photography techniques.

We went to bed and set our alarms for 5 am. Eww. This might be the earliest we have woken up in 2 months, but we HAD to get to the taj for sunrise! We got a quick breakfast and made it to the ticket line and that's when we found out we couldn't even go in until after the sun had rised. Boo.

The good news, though, is that there were already 200 plus people there as early as us looney tunes, so we were (kind of) glad to have gotten there before even more people showed up. After the sun rose, we (and the now 400 other tourists) were allowed in. This is when things got tricky. Apparently tripods are not allowed in, so that was a doozey since Ale had one. They also looked suspiciously at her mace.

Security guard: "what is this?"
Ale: "my asthma medication"
Security guard: undoes the safety and is about to spray
Ale: "Nooooooo! Mace. To keep me safe! No spray!!!!"

Luckily, the security guard did not spray himself, Ale, and the ten surrounding tourists and instead handed it back to Ale and told her to put it in the locker with the tripod. We went to the locker (10 minutes outside the gate) and then returned to the taj.

The Taj was, as I said before, breathtaking. We spent 4 hours in there and took a bajillion photos of ourselves with the Taj. The taj tickets come with shoe covers for when going inside, but of course you have to seek them out before going inside security, so we had to go barefoot. My feet got really dirty (ewwwww), but at least I saved a little bit of the environment.

If you plan to go to the taj, here are our tips.

1. Don't bring in a tripod or mace
2. Don't wake up early if you don't like waking up early
3. Get sunrise pictures at either the fort or Hotel Saiyana Palace's rooftop restaurant
4. The taj is closed on Fridays
5. Get shoe covers before going into the taj security (or bring socks)

After the taj, Ale and I had lunch and then called Super Khan to bring us around Agra. He brought us to the Baby taj (made for the king's grandmother years before), Agra Fort, and our favorite Mehtab Bahg, the gardens which are across the river from the taj (aka more pictures.) We stopped at a restaurant for the last 2 hours before our train. The restaurant was at a hotel and Ale ended up renting a room for two hours to take a nap. I had chai and then went shopping across the street for 30 minutes, because what I really needed was more souvenirs.

Super Khan picked us up at 6pm to drop us off at the train station. At 647 (655 train), Ale realized she had left her iPad at the hotel. She quickly called super Khan and told him she needed him back at the train station STAT and then I proceeded to freak out. Ale and I spent the next 3 minutes deciding if I should go with her and then decided it made the most sense to stick together and hope we could catch the next train out. As we were leaving the train station, I saw a blur of yellow go by .... I screamed (I can't make this up) "Super Khan!!!!!" as he is running towards our train to find us. Super Khan yells "Come! Hurry Up!" and we run with him through the train station to his rickshaw.

45 minutes later, Ale and I were back at the train station with her iPad in hand. The hotel had very kindly seen the iPad and saved it, wrapped in the copy of her passport (Thank you, Hotel Sheela!) Ale was one lucky girl. Super Khan waited for us, as we tried to get new tickets for the next train. The ticket counter for the train we needed had closed (you can't buy the tickets less than an hour before), so we got to wait in line at a different "I don't have a ticket" counter. This counter opened up at 8 pm, so we sent Super Khan home (he was on standby in case we needed him again) and waited the 15 minutes for this ticket counter to open. Amazingly, we got 2 tickets on the Taj Express for the 830 pm train and before we knew it, we were boarded and ready to go!

Now, we thought we had seen all the different trains, but The Taj Express is a whole new beast. It has real seats (no beds), is nonstop (2 hours!) to Delhi, and serves a dinner (and even dessert) which is included in the price. Let's just say we weren't the only tourists on The Taj Express. This was the train our hotel had insisted we travel on- it seems much more on par with their normal hotel guests.

So there you have it. Never a dull moment when traveling with Ms. Ale "Oops, my bad, Where's my iPad?!"

Pictures: 1-7: an obscene amount of taj pictures; 8-9: our fancy train food

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

So where were we?

Wednesday morning we both slept in (thankful we weren't waking up for a 6 am train), took super hot, high pressured awesome showers, and had room service for breakfast. We can really get used to this! This is by far, the nicest place we have stayed in India- we wanted to be safe in Delhi so we went with the hotel The Thackers have been staying at for years. We checked out at noon, left our ginormous backpacks at the hotel for our return 2 nights from then, and went outside to catch a rickshaw.

We always ask our hotels how much rickshaws should be because different distances cost different amounts in different city and we don't like being ripped off (which can easily happen.) so armed with the knowledge that the trip should be about 50 rupees, we walk outside and go through several drivers before we find a rickshaw that would take us to the train station for 50 rupees. As we get in, the driver begins to say that we can't buy train tickets at the station. This seemed odd. Instead, he says we must go to "Namaste India". Now I would have thought that we couldn't get train tickets at the station if he gave us another name that didn't scream "im going to rip you off." Ale and I gave each other a look and one of us goes:

"Okay, we are going to just go check with our hotel" and we start getting out.
"Wait, wait" - driver
"We just want to make sure"
"Waaaaiittt. Excuse me". -driver

Not fishy at all. So we went back to our hotel, as they screamed after us to not go ask questions and asked the guys at reception if we can buy our tickets at the train station. They were aghast that we hadn't bought our tickets "you'll never get tickets today, there are only trains at 6 am." This was getting annoying. After telling them that we didn't need 6 am train tickets (we aren't sure if they just want us to use them to book and make money off us or if the trains they book their hotel guests on are just a lot fancier than what we are used to), they told us that yes we could get tickets at the station. I think we might not be their typical hotel guests.

We go back outside and find a new auto rickshaw. After being told it will cost triple (150) what we know it should be, we find a bicycle rickshaw who agrees to 50 rupees. Of course he goes .1 km and then we realize he is bringing us to the metro, he tells us to the train is 200 rupees. Of course, because when we say 50 to the train, we actually mean metro. This is nothing abnormal for us to be ripped off, so we get out, give him 10 rupees for bringing us one block, and go find a rickshaw to bring us for 50 rupees. Our next auto rickshaw, though, works out and he brings us for 80 rupees (fine, we will give him an extra 50 cents.)

Upon getting to the train station, we begin to look for a ticket counter. This station is much much bigger than any station we have been to yet (since we ARE in Delhi) and things get a little confusing. We see signs for tourist counter and even a sign saying "tourists, ignore all touts. Even if you are told the tourist counter is closed, we are still open." Really, there are people trying to confuse us and rip us off in Delhi?! I never would have believed that! Still, it is nice of them to warn tourists.

So we head to the tourist counter and see a lot of tourists and lots of lines. We, of course, have no idea what is going on, but I find a lady who works there and she tells us to go to counter 67/68 outside of this office to get to Agra today. We leave the office (thankful to be avoiding whatever these lines are for), and ask around for 67/68. We get directed to the other side of the train station (10 minutes walk) and when we get there we get confused by another bajillion touts who all say they work there. I mean, I guess it is obvious I'm the only white person in a sea of hundreds of Indians, but still it's annoying. Everyone (touts) keeps telling us we can't get tickets here or there and Ale and I finally just go to one side that says ticket counter and wait in line. We fill out a form similar to the one we filled out in the train station in Mussoorie and by some grace of god, the guy at the counter hands us two train tickets for the 210 pm train to Agra.

Ale and I aren't sure, but we think the guy might have just been doing us a favor, because this wasn't counter 67/68 and we had no clue what we were doing. The good news, is that we are on the train in 3AC (we splurged for the safer class even though it's daytime) en route to Agra and we each have our own bed (middle and top of a 3 high.) This took Ale standing up for us and insisting we put the middle bed down so we could each have the beds we paid for. I'm glad she isn't as weak as me.

And on that note, next time I write, hopefully you'll be seeing lots of pictures of us at the Taj!

Pictures: Ale and I on the train. Chai on the train

Come away with me

So much has happened since I left you! I mean not really,but I have to pretend like I don't just perseverate on nothing.

So, we arrived in New Delhi, yesterday morning around 530 am. We got to our hotel soon after and then waited 4 hours until a room was available. This was not fun, but I guess since we have only not gotten into our room 8 hours before check-in one other time, this was deserved. They let us have the free breakfast, which although it was nothing to write home about, it at least filled our tummies and prevented us from having to go out to eat. We got in our room and Ale immediately went to bed while I immediately showered. We each have priorities. I then took a nap, and an hour later we had a knock at the door. Ale was completely out cold, so I had to get all the way out of bed and go to the door. And guess who it was!?!

Vishal! With our Norah Jones tickets!

Me: "oh my goodness! Did you come all the way here to deliver our Norah Jones tickets!?

Well, of course he didn't. He had an interview for MBA school that very day that he had scheduled the week before. How serendipitous! Vishal then went back to his room and studied for his interview, while we took another nap. We met him at noon and he brought us to a delicious restaurant. There was so much meat! And it was soooooo good. We had chicken kabobs and mutton skewers and paneer tikka, black Dahl, more chicken, this fluffy delicious roti, and rice kheer. Mmmmmm so good. And obviously it was made even better by the company.

After lunch, Ale went back to bed (she couldn't sleep-in in Mussoorie like I could) and Vishal and I went to his interview. Well, I didn't actually go to the interview with him, there just so happened to be a Tibetan market in Janputh right next to his interview spot, so I hitched a ride with him (and used his driver.) After we dropped off Vishal, the driver bright me to the auditorium where Norah Jones was being held because I had to trade in the piece of paper that came in the mail for actual tickets (I don't make this stuff up.) It was a decent distance away (30 minutes) so I only ended up with an hour to shop by the time I got back to Janputh.

This market was ridiculous, though. Every single stall/store owner was begging me to come inside to "just look" and practically throwing stuff in my hands to bargain down and buy. I actually got a lot of things I didn't need bargained down, but I didn't need them so I somehow had enough self-control to not buy anything. Each time I would leave, I was practically being dragged back inside. It was the worst I've experienced in India and it got old real fast.

The highlight of the market was meeting this really nice middle aged man. He didn't force me into his store, so I already liked him. We got to chatting as he was curious what country I was from and then long story short he asked me for medical advice for his epileptic son. It was really sad, because when I told him I was just a student going into Obgyn, he asked me if I could find a neurologist and have him write him. I obviously don't know about his son's medical history nor had I examined him, and in our country we don't just give medical advice by mail, but I really wished I could have. This man wanted a second opinion and I couldn't give it to him. I guess we have the same problem in the US, if you can't afford it/don't have insurance, you don't get a second opinion let alone a first opinion.

By the time Vishal was done with his interview, I was more than ready to leave. Don't worry, it wasn't a complete waste as I got 4 pairs of earrings out of the experience. Vishal and I went back to the hotel. We woke up sleeping beauty and Vishal packed and was off to the airport to go back to Bangalore. We said our good byes and by this time, it was Norah time!!!!!

Ale and I got a rickshaw over to the auditorium. It ended up taking more than an hour to get there because of traffic. That part was not fun. I had also read online that we had to be in the gates by 730 so I was having a mild panic attack. What if I don't get to see Norah!? Luckily, they let us in and Norah hadn't even started (Indian Standard Time.)

Norah was pretty much amazing. She has a gorgeous voice and she's cute and she plays the piano and guitar and I love her. We couldn't bring in a camera, which was super sad, but I guess that meant I could actually be in the moment.

Vishal's driver picked us up after the concert (he was busy dropping Vishal off at the airport during the concert) and we got back to our hotel by 11. The ride home was luckily less trafficky. When we got back to the hotel, we asked them where we could order in food (room service!!!!) and how to get to Agra the next afternoon. The man at the desk told us there was only 2 trains that left at 6 am. And it was too late to book one for the next morning. Buses? Not safe. What?! This was not going to work with our plans. We were supposed to stay over Wednesday night and get up early for a sunrise at the Taj (when less people are there and we can therefore get better pictures). The taj is closed on Fridays for Muslim prayers, so we couldn't see the sunrise if we left Thursday morning. And besides, 6 am is way to early to be taking a train.

We decided to go onto makemytrip.com (after ordering aloo paranthas) and found a bajillion trains leaving the next day. So we went back downstairs to ask the guy at the desk if these were safe and he said they were fine. Hmm, so why did you tell us we could only leave at 6 am? Since makemytrip no longer takes international credit cards (probably after we were the first foreigners using international credit cards 10 times), we decided we would just go to the train station the next day to buy our tickets, since we could see there were at least 134 spots available.

And so we fell asleep in our fancy hotel room stuffed with aloo paranthas singing Norah and excited for the adventures of the next day!

Since we couldn't take pictures at Norah, here is us in the hotel room.

Last stop: Delhi

We have arrived in Delhi! Two months have really come and gone, I leave on Saturday morning (like 2/3 am.) Tonight we get to go see Norah Jones (if our tickets show up at our hotel.)

Insert complaining: We originally bought them thinking they'd send them to The Thackers within 2 weeks, but when we realized they wouldn't even be sent until after we left, we tried to switch to window pickup in Delhi. To which we got this reply (after many emails and phone calls) "we would like to inform you that there is no provision wherein we could make any manual modification in the transaction once details entered while transacting as opted for home delivery." Thanks bookmyshow.com. This is also the site that wouldn't refund us our money when the Swedish house mafia switched their concert to the next night because they got delayed overseas. America spoils us with customer service.

Anyways, today was our last day in Mussoorie and we definitely enjoyed it. We had our usual 10 stops for chai, walked down camel back road, which our hotel is on, and enjoyed the mountains and crisp air. It's amazing how we spent about the same time in Mussoorie as we did in Rishikesh, and Mussoorie went by in a flash while Rishikesh just dragged and dragged. We made a good move getting out of there!

This evening we had a very local bus ride experience. First, a porter came to our hotel to lug Ale's backpack and bag of gifts. The past several days, we kept seeing these smaller older men lugging big gas tanks around town and commenting on how sad it was. When the porter came to carry Ale's stuff, he set up her bags like the men set up there gas tanks and she immediately felt really guilty. He was hunched over and it looked so painful. But let me tell you, this guy could move. I had my bags on and was dying. If it had just been Ale and I, we would have taken a handful of breaks, but not only was this guy not breaking, he was sprinting. I could feel my asthma acting up, my back was aching... But the porter was breaking his back and I couldn't stop because we felt so bad for him. I cursed Ale the entire twenty minutes. She did take my smaller backpack, and felt guilty as can be about her porter. I told her at least she was supporting the porter fighting off heart disease (and killing off her travel buddy.)

Many steep hills later (the porter chose the uphill route, when there was clearly a downhill route), we got to the bus stand. I rolled myself onto the bus and caught my breath in the back after my sprint 5k with 50 kg on my back. Since the bus was full, we were sent to the back of the bus. This was not a good location for a 7 pm night bus going down the very twisty roads of a mountain. We got to witness 3 little kids and 2 women vomiting out the windows in front of us (and on themselves and the floor) for the next hour. The smell of puke, and essentially being hurled in all directions in a black box, was almost enough to send me hurling out the window. Luckily (unluckily), the two windows were occupied by said family, so I held it in and only felt like puking for an hour. I also was very prepared (Ale gets nauseous a lot) so I had my pharmacy on me and immediately self-medicated.

Eventually, we got to the train station and I recovered from my sprint 5k/asthma attack and vomit filled bus ride. We waited a couple hours for the train to come. To entertain ourselves, we decided to look in Ale's bag of gifts. We counted 6.5 scarves (the .5 is really flimsy and she insists doesn't count as one) she bought herself and she said "well, this is really all I bought myself." I then counted her 2 purses, 2 dresses, yoga mat and yoga mat bag, tapestry, the 5 pairs of sandals (they were a good deal - she wants me to put in), a bag of chai spices for tea, a painting, and the actual bag itself that she bought for weekend trips back in the states. The good news is, to all you friends/family of Ale- she has plenty more in the never ending bag of gifts (that helps porters fight off heart disease.)

We arrived this morning in Delhi, managed to avoid getting completely ripped off by the rickshaw (it's called a prepaid taxi stand) and now we wait in the lobby for our room. We want to go to sleep, we (I) don't like this waiting thing.

Picture: here is Ale realizing she is paying someone to lug a gas tank (albeit much lighter.)

Lal Tibba

Yesterday was another good day. I woke up to the sunrise (in my dreams) and was ready for the day come noon. This is what I call vacation. We ventured out for breakfast (at lunchtime) and found ourselves at the real princess palace. It was really pretty. We spent about 10 times what normally spend on eggs and got really bad service. Fancy hotels don't always mean fancy service and food.

The rest of the day we spent climbing up to lal tibba, another high lookout point. We leisurely made our way up the 4 kilometers through a cute little town. As we got higher and higher, we started seeing lots of really tall pine trees and less and less houses. It was beautiful. There aren't signs pointing to Lal Tibba (at least not in English), so we always asked people whenever we reached a fork in the road.

Towards the end, we ran into a young kid (it's scary when 20 is a kid) who was quickly passing us. As usual, we asked him where we needed to go, and he told us we were heading into the military base. Long story short, our new friend, Gaurav, invited us on base and we got an awesome view with chai his mommy made us. One thing we have noticed about Indians, is that they are the most hospitable and generous people. I can't even count the number of times a stranger has offered us chai or chapati. And yes, we are always very careful. Ale and I have a secret signal we make when we don't like a situation. This kid though, he literally brought us into his house, we met his mom and little brother and his brother's pet rats (they reminded me of the poor little mice I did experiments on in undergrad.) They made us chai and set out cookies and chips for us. His dad is in the military (hence they live on a military base) and he is studying mechanical engineering in Dehra Dun. His little brother is 12 and gets all A's. And the thing is, this is what most people here in India are like when we meet them- just so kind and welcoming.

After our adventure to the military base (with such a beautiful view of the Himalayas), Gaurav escorted us off base and then pointed us in the right direction for lal tibba. It was just a 5 minute walk and before we knew it, we were there. The military base is actually a little bit higher up, but tourists obviously are not allowed to just hang out there (unless you are Lauren and Ale), so lal tibba becomes the spot to get the view. Luckily, it was not too touristy up there. Just a couple chai stands, not all the commotion of Gun Hill. Less people, better view, longer hike. My kind of place!

We snapped pictures and watched the sun set (and then our new friend brought Ale's zephyrhills (well India's brand) water bottle down that she forget- yes he walked all the way down for a water bottle- too kind!) and then headed back down. It took only a half hour to get down to main Mussoorie and we found our way to the kabob restaurant. Mmmm. Dinner was malai chicken kabobs, paneer, and gobi (cauliflower) curry with laccha paranthas and roti. It's much spicier up here in Mussoorie than it has been in the rest of northern India (which hasn't been very spicy), and it's much needed. I was really missing the heat of south India. My taste buds have definitely changed and I can proudly say I like spicy food. I am glad, though, that I spent the year before India developing a fondness for hot sauces.

On our way back to the hotel, we got some street gulab jamon and Jelibee (mmmmm). We stopped in the lobby of our hotel for some wifi and then I headed up for a hot shower. I've perfected the electric blanket and by the time I was getting out of the shower, my bed was nice and warm. I love Mussoorie.

F is for feet

Our journey to Mussoorie was quite enjoyable. We got the real local experience and the bus rides totaled about 3-4 hours. We first took a local bus 90 minutes to Dehra Dun where we got dropped off --> took another local bus 7 km to the train station --> then got on another local bus an hour up the mountains. The roads were so winding (we were going up a mountain) and everyone drove like they do in India (with lots of horns and passing) so i might have held Ale's hand the entire time.

On arrival to Mussoorie, we called our hotel, Hotel Emerald Heights, for them to send a pickup (which we had read on tripadvisor, they did free of charge.) We sipped on chai, as we waited for our car to come and whisk us (and our heavy backpacks) into the mountains. Unfortunately, we were greeted by our pickup, a 60 year old man. Now it made sense why we were hounded by porters asking to bring our bags.

This is the moment when Ale finally realized she is too old for backpacking. She handed over her 70 rupees and sipped her chai as we walked the 15 minutes uphill to our hotel. I, on the other hand, hadn't bought an entire new bag (see picture below) and filled it with souvenirs, so i could still manage by backpack. Yes, my backpack may be 75 L instead of Ale's 65, but I leave some room before my trips so I can carry everything on my back.

We passed gulab jamun and Jelibee and pani poori on the street and knew we had come to the right place! We got to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised by how nice our room was. Of course, this is no Ritz Carlton, but by far the largest and newest room we have stayed in as of yet. The views of the Himalayas were much needed, and the only complaint we had was that they were doing some minor construction on the hotel. Aka chainsaws. But given this place was well in our budget and we hadn't found another place with as good of reviews- we were more than okay to sacrifice. This is low season in Mussoorie and the rains just stopped a week before, so most of the hotels in the area were getting some work done.

We did encounter one more problem, as sunset came. It was chilly! For me, this wasn't too bad since I had packed for India thinking it would be freezing, but Ale was not prepared. And she gets colder way easier than I do. So after realizing we might freeze to death that night, we asked the front desk if there was a heater. They have been very accommodating to our needs, which isn't too hard since we are just one of a few guests who have decided to come freeze their butts off in Mussoorie. But still, we are thankful. They sent up a guy to set up an electric blanket. This was a novel invention for Ale (who lived at the equator for her first 12 years) and although I had heard of an electric blanket, I had never used one before. I plugged it in and turned it all the way up. Unfortunately by the time we realized it only worked on Ale's side of the bed (he had put it in horizontal and it was only the size of a beach towel), it was late and we decided to put the hot part of the blanket in the middle of the bed and share what little warmth there was. I, of course, have the superpower of sleeping anytime anywhere and had a wonderfully cozy night's sleep. I'm also kind of a bed hog, so Ale didn't end up getting too much of the warmth (sorry, Ale!)

This morning, we decided to ask for 2 new electric blankets (that worked, please!), and as the guy was setting them up (now vertical so we could each get our whole body warm), he showed us the key to the settings. When I had turned it all the way up, I had set the blanket to F for feet. My bad.

Today was fabulous - we have figured out that our hotel provides room service, which is awesome. We did venture out today, though, I promise. After breakfast that they set up for us in the reception area (which was tiny!) so we could have wifi with breakfast, the guy at the front desk walked us to buy train tickets. We thought he was bringing us to a travel agent, but turns out we went straight to the source! We normally buy all our tickets on makemytrip.com but last night they apparently decided they were no longer taking international credit cards. Hence, the train ticket counter. The trains start from Dehra Dun, though, so we will get to take another bus ride from Mussoorie down to Dehra Dun and then a train from Dehra Dun to Delhi in a couple days.

After buying our train tickets, we explored the rest of Mussoorie. We have noticed that lonely planet is pretty bad at setting up a visual of a town, so we eventually realized that Mussoorie is a big circle. It starts with mall bazaar which leads to library bazaar by mall road. You can also get between the two by camel back road. It probably makes no sense, but we were glad to figure it out. Included in our activities today, was drinking about 10 cups of chai and now lemon tea (it's freezing) and then also going up to Gun Hill, which is one of the highest spots in town. It's
normally much busier in high season, and by busier I mean more touristy. It's pretty tacky, with lots of shops and restaurants but it still has a nice view, so we definitely enjoyed ourselves. We also took a bicycle rickshaw at one point because Ale really wanted to experience it.

Now we lay in our heated bed waiting for room service. In case you can't tell, we like Mussoorie a lot better than Rishikesh!

Pictures: 1. Ale's porter and me before our hike to the hotel 2. Eating dinner in town, our Malai kabobs made in front of us! 3. The view from Gun Hill 4. Our favorite thing to do- drink chai and read with a gorgeous view 5. Eating gulab jamon in bed

Finding oneself in a city other than Rishikesh

Again, I write on a bus. A bus out of Rishikesh and to Dehradun, where we will catch another bus to Mussoorie, a hill station.

A couple nights ago, after my last post about how excited we were to go do yoga with our guryogi in the foothills of the Himalayas, we did a little web surfing to check out our guryogi. It appeared like he was a rather famous yogi from the 60s/70s, so famous a woman had even written a book about him: The Serpent Rising by Mary Gardner. Our guryogi was apparently a womanizer, similar to Marishei, the yogi who The Beatles had spent time with in an ashram and who they later wrote a song about "You made fools of us."

Now, we didn't want to judge too much, as our guryogi was now in his 60s and from the book reviews it didn't seem like he had really done anything that would put us in danger. He had had a relationship, albeit an unhealthy one, with some woman from New Zealand who had set out to find herself. Yes, he might have been abusive and manipulative, but she could have left like we wish all battered woman had the capability to do. What was our guryogi going to do, try and dateus in the 3 days we would spend meditating with him?

We decided to sleep on it, and when we woke up yesterday disenchanted, we decided we had given Rishikesh a fair shot and we were high-tailing it out of there as fast as we could. So yes, we left Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world, before doing one class of yoga. Don't worry though, we each managed to buy a new yoga mat and mat bag!

All I've learned about finding myself in Rishikesh, is that the best way for me to find myself, is to head to the nearest Ritz Carlton and spend the day in the spa. And since there's obviously no Ritz Carlton here in Rishikesh, and we all know what happened the last time we spent the day at the spa (Kerala) ... It was good-bye Rishikesh, hello something new.

And since no post can go without pictures... Here are some pictures of dogs (and Ale). The first is Dollie, a Great Dane who guarded our hotel in Rishikesh. 2. A stray puppy who wandered his way into a restaurant we were eating at and whom we both tried to shoo away (rabies!!) 3. Ale sitting across from me on the bus