The problem with mobile blogging...

Although the photo on the last blog of Paula and David Bowie serenading each other on her birthday is nice, I wanted to put a photo up all of the girls at our candlelit cooking class.

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One year anniversary (plus a few days)

As unreal as it may seem, a full year of travel has passed by for us. Using the term 'passed' makes it seem like someone has died or we haven't been conscious of what a rare, incredible experience we have made for ourselves. Thinking back on what we were thinking, feeling, and doing a year ago is a comedic endeavor - we actually had no idea what we were doing. We were terrified of spending any money which meant a lot of aimless wandering and empty stomachs. We still do not like to spend so much money and firmly believe that wandering around a city is often the best way to get to know the place, but suffering is unequivocally out of our lives. In fact, we are pretty good at this whole traveling thing by now, but were very happy and grateful to have a 2 week reprieve from our lifestyle as my mother and later on my sister in law came to pamper us.

The benefits of my mother's arrival proceeded her by exactly 10 kilometers. That is to say, George gave up at that spot and my mother was able to quickly lift our spirits through her motherly comfort, dry white wine, and clean clean beds. Our two weeks in Portugal and Spain were action packed.

We drove through landscapes covered in olive trees as far as eyes much better than mine could see, went to a flamenco show which was surprisingly impressive, toured beautiful Moorish buildings, gawked at Las Meninas(!) and Guernica(!!) on the SAME day, and got to the bottom of Spain's 20th century history, to name a few.

On my mom and Katie's last day with us we took a cooking class in Barcelona. It was a great experience the whole way through. Our instructor was a soft-spoken woman who knew of Amma our favorite Hugging Hindi Saint and wore sequin covered sneakers - two points to her. She then tells us that we are going to learn to make the group's three favorite Spanish dishes - gazpacho, tortilla espanol (a fancy omelette filled with potatoes), and paella. While Katie and I are blanching tomatoes, the power goes out. Although this delayed our cooking and prolonged our 'starve', we happily imbibed in the fully stocked refrigerator's supply of wine in the impromptu candlelit kitchen - thankfully only the eating was ahead of us! It was a wonderful conclusion to a lovely two week 'vacation' from our usual traveling.

Due to George's death, we took the opportunity to change around our plans for the next month or so. A day after the Fox ladies returned to the States, we boarded a plane to Budapest, Hungary. The city is beautiful and all, but honestly we are having a tough go at it. We have had a huge shock to our systems as we currently find ourselves in the first properly cold weather in a year and a half. Within a few days we will be in Serbia on a bio-dynamic, sustainable farm just as we were at the same time last year in Argentina. My hope is that in the past year I have become patient and calm enough not to have a near breakdown this time around while picking burning, fly-covered weeds eight hours a day in the fields. Progress reports to follow.
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George was euthanized.

Worth noting: here we are waving hello to the homeland as we overlook the Atlantic on continental Europe's most Western point, yayer.

So yesterday morning we woke up at 5 am in order to make it to Lisbon in time to meet my mother and commence two weeks of comfortable beds, bountiful beakfasts, and flowing wine amongst other things. The drive into Lisbon was easy, maybe too easy as we are accustomed to getting hopelessly lost at least once on every drive, which of course means that something is bound to go wrong. 10 kilometers outside of Lisbon we pull up to the toll booth and as my foot is firmly on the brake, George starts to roll backwards. As we are blocking the morning commuters into Lisbon, we push the car out of the way, or at least try to when a man jumps out of his car and says in accentless English, 'do you need some help?'. Thank god for Canadians. After our new friend made a call to his mechanic, we saw George towed away and told by a man with no front teeth and a pinache for flirtatious lip movements that George was dead - he conveyed this to us by clasping his hands together at the side of his head and pretending to sleep after trying to make engine work. Moral of the story, George is legally dead and being compressed into a small block to be sold by weight - we are in mourning. Thankfully my mother has arrived and we are already enjoying the luxuries and comforts of having some mothering.
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Mission accomplished!

I feel a bit like a Pilgrim setting up a charter in New England, but, yes, we set out with a mission to go around the world and we have done just that. Well, mostly. We left the United States from the Western edge of the Atlantic Ocean and are now situated on one of Europe's farthest westward reaching Atlantic coastlines, but aren't done yet! We have been in Portugal for only a day now and we enjoy it thoroughly so far. Portugal has always been a bit of a mystery for us. At this point we are fairly well traveled and have met many other travelers from every corner of the globe, but until yesterday I didn't know a single Portuguese. It has been rationalized to us by the mere fact that the entire nation is just a touch larger than the population of New York City, but with slightly less spending power and thus traveling abilities. So, yes, Portugal is great, as was our far too quick jaunt through Spain and France. In France we were lucky enough to meet up with two of our friends from the good old days in the Australian camper can - Laurene and Olivier. It was so nice to see some beloved familiar faces despite being a bit shocked that we have been doing 6 months of continual traveling since last seeing them. After visiting them in Lyon, we had a few days to explore the Basque country on both the French and Spanish side and it was not only a beautiful region, but it seems as though the people there have a heightened awareness and appreciation of the beauty of their land and culture that seemed to make it a very nice region in which to live. The reason we are moving quite quickly through this area of the world is that tomorrow we are meeting my mother in Lisbon for two weeks of travel through Portugal and Spain (yes, George was invited too) that is sure to be a lovely time and a long anticipated reunion!
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Germany (especially Germans) are spectacular

As the radio is particularly bad on this sunny Sunday afternoon spent flying down the autobahn in the mostly trustworthy George mobile, I have time enough to reflect on the 5 weeks that we have spent in and out of Germany which today officially comes to a close as we are headed to Switzerland. Germans are great, albeit chain smokers, who have been very friendly, thoughtful, and bearers of good conversations.

After a most interesting week spent in Poland getting an education on the Soviet Bloc, we went to Berlin and did pretty much everything someone of our generation 'should' do while there - we spent time in awe of the Pergamon Altar (a masterpiece of Hellenistic Greece that the Germans replanted to Germany in order to 'protect' it), drank delicious German beer in dingy bars, discussed contemporary art and cinema, and stayed up way too late dancing. Berlin seems to be an extremely complicated city with everything from pristine commerical and the yuppies that go along with it to areas of grafittied, mostly abandoned buildings inhabited by anarchists and Turkish immigrants. The remnants of the Wall and the division it represented is ever present, but, for me, it wasn't depressing as the city is so alive with a constant stream of artists coming to the city to benefit from the city's massive arts initiative program. Most importantly while in Berlin, our dear friend Paula joined us and has already folded into our lifestyle and all signs point to her approving of said lifestyle. It occurs to me that what we do on a daily basis remains a mystery to most people and so I think Paula should write a little guest blog in a bit to give her opinion of this life of ours. After leaving Berlin we drove to Nuremburg with the intention of staying for a short while and then making the short trip to Munich to spend a day at Oktoberfest. Instead of spending too much money drinking with British and Japanese tourists in an overcrowded tent as we were told we would, we decided to stay in lovely Nuremburg and make our own Oktoberfest and I must say, we did pretty well for ourselves. We watched a soccer match while at a beer garden, ate traditional Bavarian food, learned how to pour and drink proper Bavarian beer from proper Bavarians. In other words, Germany has been very good to us. As we cross the border into Switzerland, a new phase of our European chapter begins - the mad dash to Portugal. We will spend the next ten days 5 countries with the goal of meeting up with my mother in Lisbon for a much anticipated tour through Portugal and Spain. We are often told how 'American' our plan to drive such a distance in such a short period of time is, but we are looking forward to it as we anticipate it being very beautiful drive, and besides, the possibilities for adventure are endless.
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#17 (countries, that is)

Hello from Poland. If I knew how to say/write hello in Polish I would, but let's not kid ourselves here. However, I DO know how to say "dziekuje" ( pronounced something like "gin qu yay") which means thank you, never mind that I get laughed at almost everytime I say it due to what I guess is poor pronunciation. Oh, I also know how to say "nastrovia!" which is synonymous to our "cheers!" pre shot. What else have I learned since being in Poland?
1. I cannot keep up drink for drink with 3 polish men, though I tried valiantly.
2. Pierogies (dumpling-like things filled with cheese, potatoes, or sauerkraut) are the only things that will make you feel better after trying to keep up drink for drink with 3 polish men.
3. Polish highschools are the same as highschools in the states.

I will elaborate on that last one since it didn't really flow with my previous train of thinking. We were asked by a friend who teaches English at a local Polish highschool in Kolobrzeg to come in and talk to the students about our travels and our lives in the states. Laura, who does not have the fondest high school memories, actually reported feeling nervous as we walked through the doors and throngs of youngsters copying homework, flirting, and texting. They were just like us 7 years ago. The building itself also had an eerie familiarity - walls painted a terrible shade of olive, smells of burning oil from the cafeteria and bleach from the bathrooms, and the ubiquitous flickering flourescent light fixtures that I am now convinced are put there by THE MAN to induce headaches in students worldwide. But, Laura worked through her anxiety (plus, I promised her that if any girl was mean to her, I would steal that girl's boyfriend) and we ended up having a great time with the students sharing our pictures and stories.
The students and teachers also helped to give us a history lesson about the eastern European bloc, as we talked a lot about Poland's tendency to be invaded, and eventually the success of post-Solidarity Poland.

Life in the GeorgeMobile is well. Ah, yes, we have christened the minivan in honor of the one CD we could afford at the used record place in Germany - Faith, by George Michael. A classic for sure, and it came with a nifty poster that has a place of honor in the front. We have been enjoying driving around the Polish countryside, blasting the sounds of our man George, making friends, and exploring this oh so fascinating part of the world.

For Marcus, just to let you know we are still keeping count: us 311 world 15. Yah, we are still kicking bootay.
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Back in the West

These photos may be in need of captioning - in no particular order they are my leg after falling down some wet steps, Jess' shoes being laid to rest in a mall trash bin, me with the biggest dyke in Holland(!) and the precious little town of Edam.

Less than 20 days in Europe and so much has happened - I suppose that is what can happen when you can drive through multiple countries and experience their unique cultures and languages within a few hours. Flying into the Frankfurt International Airport was like any other fancy, big airport we have been in lately. The public transportation, however, felt very, well, German. It was so clean that it didn't have any smell and instead of using the area surrounding the train tracks as your trash bin, there not only was a trash bin on the train, but next to every set of seats! It was also silent - an experience we have not had in a very very long time. When we emerged into one of Frankfurt's main squares in the middle of a workday, the sight actually caused us to stumble a few steps back in shock - there was no one there! Well, hardly anyone...and the people that were there were not trying to sell anything, befriend us, or try to get our attention in any way. As a contrast, on our final taxi ride to the Delhi airport while sitting in traffic, an Indian ladyboy (I am forgetting the proper term now but Hindus believe they have mystical powers and can curse you) stuck her (his) hand into the car with neatly folded 10 rupee notes between her fingers urging me to add to the collection by smiling, batting her eyelids, and repeatedly jabbing my thigh with her hand. Jess on the other side of the taxi is having fashion magazines opened and thrown in her face while she is simultaneously yelling at the ladyboy to leave me alone. Moral of the story, if something goes terribly wrong for us, it is because we didn't give some rupees to the ladyboy AND the transition from India to Germany felt like we were both coming home to a familiar place and entering an alternate universe as the two countries could not be more of a contrast. That being said, we loved India - there is truly no place like it on earth that we have been to - and being in western Europe has also been spectacular. Drinking tap water, eating salad, and not being grimy at the end of a day are all greatly appreciated novelties for us.

While still transitioning to life in the West we thought it high time to buy a car. Please do not jump to conclusions by assuming that Jess and I are prepping our families and friends for the announcement of a civil union with our decision to buy a minivan, but yes it just so happens that a minivan is the most responsible and biggest purchase that we have made individually or as a unit. We had been told that buying a car in Europe while not being a part of the European Union is nearly impossible, but hey, we like a challenge. We found a guy on the internet in the city of Koblenz near to Frankfurt who sold campervans and also bought them back when travelers were done with them. After realizing that we actually cannot drive manual cars not to mention an old VW Westfalia on the Autobahn, we decided to try our luck elsewhere. We proceeded to spend the next 3 days in the office of a Lebanese man who refused to speak English to us and was referred to only as chief by his trusty assistant and our new friend. Before setting off in the sun with our legally registered, export plate-d minivan, we discovered that Koblenz is actually a lovely city filled with historic buildings, a rich history, and darling people. We then continued on to Cologne, Bruges in Belgium, a few small cities in the Netherlands including Amsterdam, and then back into Germany to Bremen a few days ago and Hamburg as of yesterday. I think this is the fastest we have been moving in the past 10 plus months, but getting in our lovely minivan every few days and driving for a few hours through lovely countryside is not so difficult a task. Here is a varied list of things we have learned recently - Belgian waffles really are better in Belgium, the cheese in Edam really is as good as you would think (Jess snarkily points out how much sample cheese I ate there), blonde children might just be the cutest, our minivan does indeed have a CD player and Melanie C isn't so bad, electrical tape does not permanently repair shoes, Jess is average size for a woman in the countries recently visited, my German is not so shizey, Holland and Netherlands (colloquially) are the same thing, Lebanese men know how to export a car, swans are nearly deadly, Belgian beer really is that delicious, Colin Farell is sadly not running around Bruges, Formula 1 racing might actually be interesting, German bars really look like how they are imitated to be in the states, neo-Nazis exist, Grimm fairy tales can really help a city's tourism, the west is obsessed with cleanliness and there are no smells here, Van Gogh didn't start painting until the last 10 years of his life, finding a parking spot for a minivan is not so easy in a city planned a thousand years ago, and to round the list out, people are kind to us wherever we go.

Jess and I, being of a certain breed, are naturally inclined to plan and perhaps you could go so far as to say that we can even overthink things on occasion. Thankfully, traveling beat that out of us pretty quickly so here we are, in Hamburg, with our minivan embarking tomorrow on a journey into former Soviet occupied Germany and Poland. We decided this yesterday and think it will be great fun - vodka, accordions, perogies and all.
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