Fatehpur Sikri + Agra

We set out early in the morning for Fatehpur Sikri. I was surprised to see so many people sleeping virtually everywhere along the roadway. At times it was difficult to look past the poverty to see the beauty of the culture. I kept dwelling on how the poverty could permeate, what it has to do with caste, and how education and tradition collide.

Other interesting things along the journey included: a 'frozen semen bank', children tending to new born goats at the side of the road, and a misunderstanding with our driver - he was saying 'Germany flying back', but it sounded like 'Germany playing dead' and we couldn't figure out what he was talking about. He kept repeating it.

Our final guide was picked up right before we reached Fatehpur Sikri. As soon as he heard that I also give tours he was going on and on about things he thought we'd have in common. Unfortunately having the same profession is where the similarities stopped.

He kept welcoming us to his home and saying if he visited us that we'd treat him the same and that in the Hindu faith a guest was like a God and therefore we should be treated accordingly.

Then he started with some emotional blackmail about how difficult it was being a guide and supporting everyone. He could not believe that I don't get commissions from taking tourists to my favorite places and he felt that I should at least get lunch at a restaurant. The surprising thing was he said he received only a 2% commission from the places he took tourists, which converted is basically 5¢ on $1 USD.

Random notes + photos:
- From Fatehpur Sikri to Agra we passed many fields of wheat, millet, and potatoes. Closer to the city center is dense smog.

- Agra totally thrives on tourist money from the Taj Mahal. In some ways it's good - for example they are trying to cut down on emissions in the area, and therefore people are shuttled to the area. In other ways it's bad - the people are forced to depend on tourists, because 70% of production was moved elsewhere to cut down on the emissions.

- The double pricing is so steep at the Taj Mahal that foreigners are charged 750 rupees ($15 USD) vs. 50 rupees ($1 USD) for locals.

- There is an enormous list of things that are not permitted at the Taj Mahal, including: gum, anything with a USB, books, ipods, lighters, video cameras, and tripods.

- We arrived during a Hindu holiday, so there were tons of families. It took us by surprise when so many people wanted their photos with us. People would literally grab our arms and at one point an entire family surrounded Stefan. I could not stop laughing as I saw them migrate his direction to include him in their family photo.

- The Taj Mahal really can't be captured in photos. It's definitely a striking piece of architecture that glows. It looks like a painting from afar.

- Seeing all of the colorful saris reminded me of confetti. I love the clothing and how it looked against the stark white marble or against the green grass and red pathways.

- Our guide was a bit over the top in wanting us to get photos taken. He suddenly turned into photographer and was racing around from the perfect vantage points. We have some very kitschy photos.

- We were given shoe covers to help preserve the marble.

- The line to get into the Taj was enormous and we definitely didn’t have time. We peered into the cut marble to see inside and then ventured to the back and went in the exit. I felt awful doing so, but I preferred doing that as opposed to using the foreigner excuse and skipping people as our guide suggested.

- There are beautiful gemstones inlaid into the marble and the man power and work that was required to built it is certainly a testament to love. It required 22,000 people and 22 years to complete.

- We really struggled with people instantly thinking that we were rich. It's difficult, because the standards of living are so different as are our priorities and opportunities.

- The begging street children typically targeted me, I assume because I'm a woman, while the sales people always went to Stefan. It's interesting to see that dynamic.

What is your view? Is it fair to charge guests differently, simply because people can afford it? Tourists are using and abusing their resources, yet the thought of charging foreigners more money here would be considered discrimination. Is it redistribution of wealth and therefore, OK?

sign of the times

After all of the travels it's back to work. I guess work and travel have become synonymous in my world, but never the less I was able to join tourists on their vacation to Salzburg.

It's been a long time since I visited - September to be exact.

That was right before we left for our trip... when I decided it would be fun to take my husband to work and had a crazy awful group, which included the wandering off guy (who by the way was left at Neuschwanstein the next day), and the entire group showing up to the meeting point a good 15 minutes late, which is impressive since they all had marked maps and weren't traveling together.

We made it to the train with about a minute and a half to spare. Thankfully someone took to pushing the Grandma in her wheel chair through the city or we never would have made it. Stefan ended up schlepping some woman's bag of beers back to the train station so we could make it on time, because she decided they were too heavy. They drank their beers on the train and didn't even offer Stefan one for all of his troubles.

All in a day's work. When working with the public, various cultures, or those with so so English skills that sometimes feign understanding nothing surprises me anymore, but it's also the reason I love what I do.

Today I did get an unexpected surprise - one glaring sign of the times. So many stores have closed.

Yes, there are several new places that have opened, but there are plenty of empty store fronts. I'm not really sure I can complain, because I did only partake in window shopping at a lot of them - the gorgeous rose shop (Gerhard Swarovski Rosentury) with the wedding gown made of fresh flowers - gone.

The egg shop... downsized. Don't worry, it is still there, but now those windows that seemed to go on and on filled with beautiful painstakingly decorated eggs doesn't have the same affect in such a small window.

I try not to make a big deal out of the things that people wouldn't know they are missing, but today was different.

I love seeing how the city changes - the scaffolding comes off the cathedral, when an archeological dig is going on, or where the horse carriages will be moved to accommodate whatever is new, but I am surprised the winter was so harsh to so many stores. I know that's the nature of business and new shops will hopefully fill the vacant spaces, but it's a real bummer that this economic crisis has taken its toll on the independent shops - and beautiful ones at that.

Oslo

Here's a bit about Oslo before I get back to India and our around the world adventure.

Once again, we were blessed to know people that live or have lived in the city, so they could offer us some local tips, which we took to heart. I will include those at the bottom, because they were awesome.

Random observations:
- Surprisingly Oslo isn't that big - just under 600,000 people live there.
- For being so small it's really diverse.
- Yes, it's truly crazy expensive. We read that even workers with seemingly basic jobs receive something like 15€ / hour. A great way to save money is to go on Easter weekend when all of the Norwegians are in the mountains skiing and many of the stores are closed!
- You probably have never seen so many blondes in your life.
- The trend appears to be wearing skinny pants with skimmer shoes and tucking your pants into your socks. I kid you not. I won't be taking part in this even if it trickles down my way.
- With a knowledge of English and German it was, at times, easy to decipher written words - not so much when they were spoken.
- I forgot how much I love Scandinavian TV... they put under titles on and don't dub out the people. It's pretty exciting to have TV from home - all the time.
- For being such a peace driven city it seems so contradictory that they are harboring a known terrorist, because they don't deport those that could face the death penalty.

We spent our days enjoying the blue skies, brisk breeze, and having the city virtually to ourselves, except of course for the sea gulls.

Transportation:
-The city is easy to wander around and has a great network of public transportation ranging from a subway, tram, bus, and boat.
- Buy a "flexi-kort" at any Seven 11 or Narvesan or Deli Delucca...they are 190 kr (24€), and give you 8 rides. Its crazy expensive if you buy a one way trip on the bus...and they don't sell the flexikorts on the bus so you have to buy ahead of time at one of the convience store shops.

Sights:
- Aker Brygge - While being a bit touristy I actually really like seeing what they are doing with the harbor area. There are plenty of restaurants and interesting architecture in this area.

- Vigeland Parken - The Sculpture Park - the world's largest sculpture park made by one artist. The figures have every emotion you can think of and are often intertwined in every possible way. Angry boy is one of the most beloved here.

- Nobel Peace Center - a great place to read about the Laureates and the book shop is really interesting... it has everything about war, peace, movements, and migrations.

- Munch Museum - This is one of Norway's most famed Artists and a collection of his emotion driven symbolist paintings, drawings, and prints.

- Opera House - This is very beautiful and interactive. I appreciated all of the angles and how it appears as if it's coming out of the harbor.

Bygdøy
- Viking Ships at Bygdøy - unfortunately this was closed for our visit, so we went to Hemma Hos instead.
- Walk around Bygdøy towards Paradiso or Huk (both beachy areas)
- Folkemusuem - outdoor museum with Norwegian architecture and traditional dress.

Food:
- United Bakeries - a good place for traditional bøller (roll with chocolate or raisins)
- Gødt Brød - sandwiches
- BIT - sandwiches
- Åpent Bakeri - salads, sandwiches, etc.
- Pascal - chocolates + other confections. This is also where Bill Clinton ordered a decaf cappuccino. Unfortunately it was closed during our visit.
- Bolivar Cafe - a favorite place for lunch.
- Frognerseteren - a traditional restaurant in the mountains.

- Delicatessen - Tapas in Grunerløkka. They don't take reservations, so go early and put your name on the list.

- Cafe Hemma Hos in Bygdøy - a cosy cafe with great food.
- Olivia - Italian with nice outdoor seating.
- Hell's Kitchen - beer + pizza in Youngstorget.

Shopping:
- Bogstaveien - street with lots of Scandi brands. Check out the The Shoe Lounge.

And just to give you an idea of how expensive things are, here is what 40€ will get you at the grocery. We stayed in an apartment, so we had means of cooking, although we didn't cook much... if you call heating up tomato soup cooking.

I wish that Wasa would have the same rosemary salt flat bread available here in Germany. They had German on the package, so hopefully I'll find them at a grocery closer to home!

Norway

Tomorrow we're back to being wandering nomads with a long weekend in Oslo. If it's anything like other Scandinavian cities that we've visited I'm certain that we will love it. Harbor cities always have a special place in my heart - and it's home of the Nobel Peace Prize!

I'm interested to see just how expensive it is too, because that's always the first thing people say when you mention Oslo.

Thankfully we have some tips from locals and our apartment has a kitchen so we can hit up great restaurants or cook dinner if we see fun things at the grocery. Don't you just love visiting foreign grocery stores?

Hope you have an exciting weekend!

Jaipur

The Pink City is a magical place. I love the splashes of color, the interesting patterns, and of course the shopping. It was painted pink to represent hospitality for the Prince of Wales that visited in 1853. I can only imagine what a journey that was. The pepto pink and those lovely hanging lights make it feel like a movie set.

The initial shock of India started to wear off - the poverty, the dust and dirt, everyone wanting something, and the guilt for having more than others. These qualities linger with me and give me a lot to continually think about.

Unfortunately the heat isn't something I'd ever get used to, but it's part of India. Thankfully there were a lot of distractions.

Random notes + photos: - Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) is one of the most famous sites here. It's very ornate and distinctive.

-Our guide told use how the cow is such a sacred piece of the Hindu culture and that they use all of its byproducts in ayurvedic medicine. We noticed dung patties drying and he told us they were delicious... still not sure what to make of that.

- We kept seeing men with large silver jugs. In these jugs they had milk and would dip their hands in the milk to determine how concentrated it was, which would determine the price it sold for.

- The city is one of the best planned in the world, which piqued my interest, because I love urban planning. Interestingly, we heard multiple times how they hold horoscopes and gemstones in high regards. Jaipur is a prized city since it is set up according to 6 sectors with 9 blocks, which were based off the planets. Every street is 111" feet wide and all streets are on a 90 degree angle. Our guide said that religion and profession dictate where people would live.

- Astronomy is a long standing part of Jaipur, which is evident at Jantar Mantar - a sophisticated observatory that holds the world's largest sundial (Samrat Yantra). You can literally watch time pass and most impressively there's an accuracy of 2 seconds. (You can read more about it at the WebUrbanist)

- Supposedly 70% of the world's gem stones are cut and polished here. Then again, maybe that's a sales ploy. We were told multiple times that Indians invest their money in jewelry and land. It wasn't the first time there were plenty of things I would have loved to buy, but baggage space didn't allow for it. Instead I bought several custom made tunics, which arrived at our hotel several hours later.

- The Amber Fort was particularly astounding due to the architecture, view, and artistic details. It had some impressive vegetable dyes in vibrant colors that have withstood both time and weather.

- We were particularly interested in the elephants, so we asked what it takes to own one and how the owners can afford them. We found out they are traditional for grooms to ride for 1km when they get married and they cost 11,000 rupees ($230 USD) for weddings and a minimum of 1 million ($20,800 USD) to buy one.

- Our first introduction to double standard pricing... we noticed the neighboring table at dinner was given another menu with local prices and our bottled water was seriously inflated from what we paid in Delhi. It also doesn't help that we haven't exactly figured out how to tip without thinking of Western standards and being overly generous... wouldn't you know that waiter was waiting on us hand and foot at breakfast the next morning.

- There were monkeys running around on city walls. Unfortunately they were too fast for me to catch on camera.



...next stop Agra - and the Taj Mahal!

city updates

As much as I'm sure you'd love a play by play of each day of our trip it's frankly a bit boring and will take forever. I am bored writing it, and I know that it can never precisely capture our experiences or the excitement. If it's boring for me, it's surely boring for you.

Instead, I think I will post a more concise reaction to each place with plenty of photos. If you have questions about places, experiences, or something else I'm more than happy to answer them, just leave them in a comment below.

There's so much going on that will hopefully be more inspiring to write about and plenty more trips around the corner. I need to enjoy the downtime while I have it and get our apartment settled, because we're back to exploring foreign lands in early April.

Road to Jaipur: Day 3

We spent the greater part of the day traveling by car from New Delhi to Jaipur.

It was a bit of a surprise that the tour company owner wanted to meet with us since he was out of town when we arrived. He lived slightly outside of New Delhi in a place called Dwartha. One thing he said really resonated with me - he tells his children how much he appreciates living a little outside of the the New Delhi chaos, because they can see the stars at night. Isn't that sweet?

The drive to Jaipur was long - insanely long. At each tiny village that we encountered there was traffic, not to mention there aren't really any rules for the road. 3 lanes of traffic turn into 5, and they are shared with people pushing goods on bikes, scooters, the occasional animal and often also pedestrians. Stefan particularly liked the trucks that were so festive.

The closer we got to Jaipur the more we saw wild life... cows, camels, goats, monkeys, and even elephants.

Seeing people working in the fields made me really feel as though we were stepping back in time, until we saw people on their cell phones on the sides of the road in the middle of nowhere. One thing is for sure - there is plenty of work to be done and the people here are very hard workers.

It seemed very misplaced to see billboards of jewelery companies along the way when the people working in the area would most likely not be able to afford things that luxurious. In India there truly is a market for anything. With so many people everything from the inexpensive street foods to the 5 star restaurants are filled.

Once we reached Jaipur I was thrilled to see such interesting architecture. This is nicknamed 'the Pink City' and the buildings demonstrate exactly why. It is a very striking place that most closely identifies with the India of my thoughts, although it's still sensory overload.

In the end our poor driver was on the road for nearly 7 hours - including arriving right when it was Jaipur's rush hour. We checked into our beautiful hotel, had an exorbitantly priced dinner, and then decided to call it a night.

antique photos

One of my guilty pleasures is riffling through boxes of old photos at the antique stores. I love photos, so I find it very hard to imagine how someone could part with these. Surely they have many stories and a history behind them. There are babies, weddings, parties, and my favorite - vacations.

Some are the historical scenes of the lives that cities once lived, while others are people. I admit, I am the creepy person that has photos of people I don't even know.

My favorites are the kids at the zoo or people wearing lederhosen, just because they are funny. I'm not entirely sure what I will do with them - perhaps display them or introduce them to the 21st century and make them digital so I can share them here.

My city collection now consists of:
Rome
the Vatican
Florence
Venice
Capri
Paris
Pompeii
Dubrovnik
Salzburg
Brussels
Trier
Hamburg

I think about how far digital cameras have come and how precious these snap shots and limited film supplies once were.

Now someone's memories are having a second life and making me wonder about the experiences that made them worthy of being captured for posterity... even if posterity means a random American girl living in Munich.

absolutely beautiful

I've been loving Jamie Magazine since I was sent a copy by a friend.

Being a book lover I appreciate the luxurious feeling of the uncoated pukka paper mixed with the photos from David Loftus and the incredible fonts. It certainly makes for an insanely gorgeous magazine.

Unfortunately I haven't found the magazine here in Germany - even at the international booksellers. (I found this magazine here in Munich. You can purchase it at the Hauptbahnhof International Magazine shop for 10.50€)

Stefan enjoyed reading it too, and I'm all for anything that encourages him to cook with me! I may just have to get a subscription from the UK.

You can flip through some of the back issues here.

In case you are interested, here is a list of some fonts that are in the magazine:

Monte Carlo Script NF
woodtype URW D
Fedra Serif B
Quimby Mayoral, which I purchased today!
Soho Gothic
Meta Hairline

We'll be heading back to London in May and have already made reservations at the River Café, where he was a sous chef. I can't wait for a great meal and to pick up his newest magazine!

If you're in the US, you can even check out the Food Revolution and sign his petition for healthier school meals.