So much to say...

Well fans, I've been struggling with all the things I need to blog about. You see we only have a modem (pronounced mo-dem) connection here. (Some of you might have heard of this ancient device which allows you to type and see your text mere seconds later. Ah Technology. Thanks Al Gore for inventing the Internet, although according to Mr. Bush he only invented one of them.)

Don't worry, I'm using what they call pen and paper which, when combined, allow you to record thoughts and store them for later. What will they think of next?!

Anyhoo, we're finally going tomorrow to start our adventures in Goa and Kerala. (Thank God, because I am getting quite bored of sitting around doing nothing. To think, my Pareshbhai does this everyday. I'd have to kill myself!) I will continue to use these devices, these pen and paper, to record thoughts which I will produce exciting blog posts upon my return or when I find the other Internet.

Throwing the hand-brake

After an eight hour flight, and constantly asking what time, day, and date it was, we arrived in Ahmedabad at 2:30 a.m. local time (I think.) It was about 4:00 before we arrived at my kaka (uncle on one's dad's side.)

We sat around and chatted for a while. I held my month old cousin sister. Yes, there is now a girl on my father's side! Everyone always thought that I would have the first girl in countless generations of Trivedi men to have a daughter. Instead, my kaka had the first. Granted it took him four wives to finally get it!

Also note, that I will be referring to my cousins as brothers and sisters (or bhais and bhens or didhis) and their children as my nieces and nephews because traditional Indian families extend to, well, extended families. Traditionally, it is the mama (one's mother's brother), not the father, who gives away a bride at a wedding.

Anyway, my nanhi-bhen (little sister) was so precious. She was asleep as I held her so there wasn't a lot of interaction.

After a brief nap, which was much needed, we headed over to Suchit-bhai's home. They have a flat on a busy street across town. This is where I am now. The flat is actually two flats. Suchit-bhai's and the one next door which they use as a guest house. It's actually owned by another family that lives in Mumbai. When they are away, they allow our family to use it as a guest flat.

Since arriving, we've been doing a whole lot of nothing. This is quite the welcome break from all the running around my brother and I have been doing over the past week. I took several naps yesterday. I also read a lot and sat chatting with my family. We briefly went out to a jewelry shop, which was actually just a room in the proprietor's mansion. Mom bought a few pieces and we also put in a few pieces for alteration. One of which is the ring I've been wearing that has been cutting into my finger. We're having it reset.

I got to meet the newest addition to my mother's side. Jesh is a two year old boy who's cute with his head shaved like mine. He's also very naught as all two year old boys should be!

My family is also still teasing me about finding a wife. Paresh-bhai said that if we placed an ad saying that I was a U.S. citizen there would be a line out the door tomorrow. Tempting as it may be to have women lining up for me, I think I want a woman that wants me for me and not my citizenship!

That's pretty much been my stay in Ahmedabad so far. Today's we're heading out for a little more shopping. That's the total of the day's plan. Tomorrow we head out for a brief trip to Porbandar. Among other things, Porbandar is a quaint sea town on the Arabian Sea. It is also the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. There is a museum and the original house.

We begin our trip south a few days after we return.

More on Amsterdam

The last day we walked. That's an understatement! We walked so far that we ended up off the map! We were a good kilometer or so off the map. It took me about a half hour to find a landmark (a windmill that I'd been looking for in the first place) that would get us back on track.

We first walked to KNSN, an island off to the east of Centraal Station. KNSN was recommended as a trendy new Amsterdam. Not to be New York which was once New Amsterdam or Istanbul which was once...

It was definitely trendy and new and modern. There were great bike paths through red brick apartment buildings and pretty gardens all around.

It was upon leaving KNSN that we found we were lost. In hindsight, I think we ended up taking the third bridge instead of the second.

After rebearing ourselves we headed to the zoo. It was on the way back to the center of town. It soon became obvious that this was not a typical tourist destination. My first clue was there was only Dutch text on the signs. I learned a few words for different animals. Gestreept means zebra. Leeuw is the word for the king of the jungle.

I also learned the word for woman the hard way. Damas means women as the little girl explained. Afterwards, she and her friends ran away giggling! Although, in my defence, a big "D" on an open door isn't really a great way to signify the sex of a toilet.

Once we left the zoo, which was actully a zoo, aquarium, plantarium, insectarium, and planetarium, we needed to head to the airport. We needed to grab a taxi. We passed on the shiny black BMW 745. The silver Mercedes-Benz S-class was just too much. We opted for the nice early 90's E-class.

That's right. The taxi cabs in Amsterdam were mostly high end luxury cars. At least that is what they are in the States. These are cars that I cannot afford that are driving around as taxicabs!

Anyway, we got on the uneventful flight to Paris. I've decided that we can't really say that we went to Paris when, technically, we never left the airport. Our hotel, despite being a half hour shuttle ride, was still technically on airport grounds. Charles de Gaulle airport is massive.

The next morning we had to get in a bus from the gate to get to our plane. The plane wasn't at the gate; rather it was on the tarmac some ways away. Quite literally twenty minutes, and probably three kilometers later we arrived at the plane!

One side note, having no knowledge of French, I successfully impressed our shuttle driver when I asked if he spoke English (in French.) He said that I said "Parlez-vous anglais?" in a very French way.

Off to Paris...

We left London via coach overnight. The coach was okay enough except for one drunk Englishman who was causing trouble throughout the bus. He smelled of cigarettes, alcohol, and b.o. and was slurring and calling passangers names. By the end of the ride the coach smelled a bit and it was hard to sleep. On top of that we arrived too early to check in to our hostel.

On the ferry from Dover to Calais, France, I met Lucy from L.A. and Laura from Scotland. Laura was quite drunk and was spattering on about George Bush and Tony Blair and how it was our (Lucy, Amar, and me) fault that the world's going to hell in a hand-basket. It was difficult to get a word in because she was spattering at a mile a minute, staring at the deck, and never stopping to breathe.

Getting back to Amsterdam, we arrived to early to check in, so we left our bags and went walking around for a bit. We were so tired that we really were walking around aimlessly. We stopped for awhile at a Best Western and crashed on the couches in the lobby. Eventually we worked up enough energy to continue on. We ended up in Dam Square and people-watched for awhile.

We finally went back to the hostel and found out that our room was still not ready. So we decided to find a laundromat and do some laundry. Amsterdam was looking totally unappealing at this point. Firstly, we arrived at 6:00 in the morning and had to walk to the Red Light District: not the most pleasant of walks.

After laundry and a quick nap (we finally got into our rooms) we were charged up enough to go explore. We explored for several hours. Amar was tired so he went back to the room. I ended up in an Irish pub run by Moroccans. I was talking to a Norweigian about the Scotland v. Norway football match. This was a big night for the U.K. and Ireland. All four countries in the U.K. and Ireland were all playing that night. I ended up staying to watch the Irish get disappointed 2-0 by the French.

The next day and today we wandered some more. We've definitely walked several tens of kilometers over the last week. Our feet are pretty blistered. Yesterday, we started the day at Anne Frank's Huis (House). It was a pretty down-beat way to start the day, but I'm glad I went.

Next we walked through Vondel Park and hit three more museums: Van Gogh, Rijks and Heineken. The Heineken museum was pretty dumb, but we got three beirs with our ticket so it wasn't too bad!

I've got a minute left on the internet so I'm going to wrap up here. I promise to write more later.

Off to Amsterdam...

Today we're off to Amsterdam. We're taking the night train. I hope the sleeper car is more comfortable than last night's bed. Amar and I switched for one night (I didn't want the top bunk) and boy was that a mistake. There was a lump right in the middle and the mattress sagged so that I always ended up on the lump!

Sunday we went to see Tower of London, Tower and London Bridges, The Monument to the Great Fire, St Paul's Cathedral, and much of the financial district. We arrived at St. Paul's just in time for Even Service.

Later that evening we went out to the hostel sponsored bar for some £2 pints. On the elevator down, we met three Americans. One of which was from Annandale, VA! The other two were from Michigan. Their roommate was from Lithuania.

Soon it seemed like the whole hostel had emptied. I talked to several interesting characters. The Germans who were here studying English. The token Brit. The really dumb girl from Louisville, Kentucky. The Australians Carmen and Loz (short for Lauren somehow). Loz and I hit it off as we talked about cats for quite awhile. She's studying to be a vet and she just left her three month old kitten back in Australia.

Afterwards we ran into the Argentines again and we all went to a club which I really don't remember the name.

Yesterday, I hung around the hostel while Amar went over to Covent Garden. Today, before our train we're going to go by Westminster and see the standard tourist fare (Big Ben, Parliment... Big Ben, Parliment.)

Windsor, Eton, Soho

Today we went to Windsor/Eton. We went up to Windsor Castle and arrived just in time to witness the changing of the guard. I was able to record a fair amount of footage on my digital camera and, from what I can tell, I've got some good video. Unfortunately, I've filled my disc and will have to find a way to upload it to a disk or something if I want to take more pictures.

From Windsor, we could see what I believe to be the OPNET UK office. Yay.

After we went through the castle (is it wrong that I thought the Queen's Dollhouse was the coolest thing?) we walked through Eton to Eton College. It really wasn't that interesting, but we saw a video that confirmed my suspicion that Harry Potter's experience at Hogwarts is quite accurate as far as schools in the UK (minus the magic, eh?)

We came back and walked around Soho for awhile. We eventually settle into a quaint pub where we met a bunch of Pollocks watching the Polland v. Austria game. Polland won so we were rejoicing.

We also met a group from Norway. They were an interesting crowd.

One thing about pubs in London is that they close really early. This particular pub was closing up at 11:00. Clubs stay open later and we'll definitely check these out over the next few days.

Avasare Represent

One thing that you get from staying in a hostel is a lot of interesting young people. Tonight there's a kid (literally he must be 16) from Avasare (sp?), British Columbia here who's trying to pick up Ruth and Jules (Julia) from Argentina. Ruth and Jules were totally making fun of him in Spanish and I was cracking up. He's got a gangster rapper attitude that really isn't working for him.

He's a white punk who thinks he black and was complaining that the black rapper (on his Discman) was trying to sound white.

The boy also isn't very intelligent as it was very easy to make fun of him to his face. For example, "You're not one of Canada's finest" went right over his head.

The hostel is bustling with activity tonight. Drunk peopleTomorrow, I think we're going to check out the hostel bar a few blocks away.

Arrived in London

We arrived last night in London without a hitch. Amar dealt with a bout of motion sickness all day and went to bed. We're staying at a neat hostel in the heart of Picadilly. I went walking around last night and proceeded to get lost several times.

I know now that we are two blocks from the Virgin Megastore.

I guess I blended in well as I got stopped for directions twice! I told both persons that I just arrived two hours ago and barely knew where I was.

Today, we off to Windsor to see Windsor Castle and Eton College. Maybe, we'll swing by Slough and check out the OPNET UK office, but that's only if we really have time and are really that bored. It's Saturday, so I doubt anyone will be there.