Our Dog

The past two weeks have been eventful to say the least and Mika and I are hoping to have photos and all the wonderful (and not so wonderful!) adventures posted shortly.  We are leaving Italy tomorrow morning and headed to Corfu, Greece.

I had to take a moment though to share this story.

Most of you know our wonderful dog, Mickey.  As we travel around the world Mick has been enjoying himself, spending time with our loving friends Monica and Brendan.  They just got a 1 year old chocolate lab named Murphy and the two have apparently become quite the pair.

The story begins just before we left the country.  Mickey chose to get a skin infection probably in early August.  He went through 2 cycles of antibiotics and we thought we had it nailed down.  Monica and Brendan seemed unfazed by the last couple days of pills he required and all seemed well as we bid farewll.

Two weeks later, the rash is not only still there but coming back.  Our dear friends take him to the vet, I'm not even sure how many times, and Mickey begins a new cycle of steriods to cure the infection.  So....just short of a month into the trip, our dog now looks like this....

You can only laugh at his smiling face.  Apparently he is knocking everything over becasue he has no idea how big his head now is!

Monica and Brendan....Thank you so much for everything you are doing.  We owe you big time!


Mick....you are too much!  We love you.

Venice

Driving out of Northern Italy and the Dolomites on Monday morning, we headed for the love city of Venice.  Suprisingly, for two people that get lost driving up the Merrit Parkway to Mass., we have done extremely well navigating foriegn countries - I have a new found respect for our compass!

Venice is an amazing place.  Why they decided to bulid a city on a marsh land is beyond me.  I guess the same thing will be said about the Xanadu project in the Meadowlands in 800 years (or has it already been said).  Anyway, a couple million timber piles that are almost 1000 years old support everything here...simply genious engineering.  The canals are everything you would expect and create a maze that makes Amsterdam look like the grid of midtown Manahattan.  You can get lost here simply by standing still.

Unfortunataley the weather has been tricky.  It poured on the drive down but let up enough for us to unload the rental car and get our bearings.  Then poured enough to soak us on our way to the hotel but stopped again so we could enjoy the rest of the day.  The man that owns the B&B we stayed at gave us a quick to do list for ourstay here.  Basically he said, wander around and get lost the first day (easy enough), ride along the Grand Canal and take a Gondola ride the second day.  See as many of the 120 churches as possible along the way.  (120 CHURCHES in all...I'm waiting to understand that). Look, here's one now!  This is the most famous.  the Basilica di San Marco.

We splurged that night and treated ourselves to an excellent Italian dinner.  Bottle of vino, antipasta, 1st course, second course and even desert!  Mika may be half Italian but I swear I was meant to be!

So Romantic!!!  and Delicious!  Which leads me to day 2 in Venice.  A boat ride up the Grand Canal to start, a bottle of wine, cheese and fruit for lunch in one of the hundreds of picturesque plazas, followed by the cherry on top - a Gondola ride through the city at twighlight.  This is where romance was created!

So now its off to Florence...apparently they have some art there!
Ciao- Alan

Milan, Verona and the Dolomites

Friday, 9.11.09-  Monday 9.14.09
We took a quick one hour flight from Belgium to Milan, Italy, which had amazing views of the Alps. Our first priority after renting a car was to find the Indian Embassy and get our Visa sorted out. Alan printed the wrong directions in Belgium and we were left without a map and the additional pressure of only an hour until they closed until Monday. We soon discovered that there are two airports in Milan and we were at the one outside the city, like we needed another obstacle. Somehow we made it (through my wonderful navigational skills and Alan's excellent driving in these challenging video game like highways) without getting lost and with 20 minutes to spare!

A few days prior Alan had spoken to a guy named Fabio, yes Fabio, on the phone about the visa application process. Upon our arrival the man behind the front desk calls Fabio in. It turns out that Fabio is the owners son and Fabio LOVES New York City. Small talk lead to a drink and then lunch on the house (I say on the house but mind you there was a 55 Euro processing fee for the visa so you so the math!). After much talk about New York,  (Alan had some difficulty relating at times to the great shopping in New York and the number of jeans one man can own) he gave us lots of ideas on where to go and soon we had ditched our plans to head up Northwest to Lake Como and Mt Blanc and decided to head Northeast towards the Dolomites and Lake Gorda instead.

We spent the second half of our day in Verona, a small touristy town with lots of charm (I mean Romeo and Juliet for crying out load!) and the night in a not so nice hotel. 

The next morning, with just a map for guidance we headed north towards Lake Gorda, opting for the slow backroads that followed the lake North. Soon it came time to find a place to stay, we were tired of traveling and since we rarely make reservations ahead of time we needed to start looking. We decide on camping, even though we did not have a tent. This area is full of Italian tourists and camping is very common along the lake. We plop our things down on a site and set out in search of a make shift tent. In town we find a tarp and Alan assures me that "this will be great," and "it is so nice to sleep outside!"

2km up shore there is a small festival in Navera that begins in the evening complete with fireworks, we are the only Americans there and spent our evening people watching and eating. (I must say so far we have not been impressed by the food, that is until we reached Venice). The small firework show was nothing in comparison to NYCs 4th of July, but it did have a comical appeal.  They would routinely shoot fireworks into the ground toward the festival area.  Clearly not on purpose but it happened often nough to question their ability.  It did provide a nice touch to the show though!

The night "camping" was miserable. The winds picked up soon after we had gone to bed and the tarp was flung around making so much noise and falling all over us that it made it impossible to sleep. I tired to crawl into the car but was only able to lay in the fetal position. After not much sleep Alan and I packed up our things and spent the day driving Northeast through the Dolomites. We passed through field after field of grapes and apples, taking small roads through mountain top towns with streets that barely had enough room for our car. We stopped for lunch at a biker bar. Motorcycles are very popular here and the riders are all decked out in the most extreme stereo typical outfits. We continued driving through Austrian inspired ski towns before heading south stopping outside a small town to stay the night at the cutest place! And enjoyed a bottle of wine outside taking in the great view before we headed out to dinner. 

This new life of ours is surreal. Each morning we pack up our day bag and head out for an entire day of wandering. We are both finding out what our "roles" are. Alan always wants to figure out where we are going or where we are. I on the other hand enjoy being lost while in a city without having to worry about going the wrong way or turning here. In his defense his desire to pin point our locations does give us some important historical information and I have lead us to some pretty great undiscovered, less touristy areas.
--Mika

BELGIUM

We were greated by Henry and Elian in Antwerp with 3 boxes of goodies - chocolates, cookies, cheese and blueberry danishes (the list goes on but I'm stuffed!). Mika has been struggling to keep up with the bakery's output but I have to say she has given it a hell of a shot.

We are in serious trouble....for the past 3 days we have been nothing short of spoiled. For crying out loud our family owns a bakery here! We've travelled to Brugg, Knokke and Antwerp in two days and have feasted everywhere. We assume that Nepal and India will counteract the effects of such glutteny. But that's not for another month, so th feast continues!

(This was actually hooked up to an IV drip for direct injection for Mika)

(Truffles....mmmmm)

A traditional Belgium lunch - fresh herring with onions, cottage cheese, tomatos and of course bread straight out of the oven.

And what would Belgium be without a waffle.

The canals of Brugg (little Venice) with Henry and Elian.

We leave for Italy tomorrow morning.

-Alan and Mika

AMSTERDAM

Walking off the plane it seems that we have skipped forward a few months. We had buried our jackets at the bottom of our packs but we needed them right away. Apparently its Fall in Europe.

Neither of us slept on the flight over, even though we had three seats to ourselves. Chaulk that up to the excitement and anticipation of the unknown. Just to make things interesting, we conveniently forgot to get our India passport while in NYC - Praveen, I blame this entirely on you! So, in our semi-conscious state we thought it best to head directly to Da Haag in search of the Indian Embassy. Its amazing how much money you can spend so quickly on absolutely nothing. After 2 trams, a train and $100, we arrived at a street corner where a lovely Polenesean woman told us we were on the wrong side of town! After explaining that we were from NYC and there was no way we could be wrong she phoned a friend. Turns out the embassy was right donw the street. In an Amazing Race style, we followed directions to the embassy and were then redirected to the visa office (which by the way are in different buildings - of course). Finally a nice Dutch woman told us what we should have known before we left...it takes time to get a visa from India - at least a week. So, we strolled through the streets. Ironically, soon there after we had our first fight - at the entrance to the Peace Palace of all places! Luckily, as designed, we made our peace and had a drink to toast our adventures.

After much needed sleep we have decided to take up our Visa search with the Italians. The food is better there anyway!

Hedda - we cannot thank you enough for the apartment. The view is magnificent.

Amsterdam was wonderful and confusing at the same time. Which is probably what it is supposed to be. We easily walked every inch of the town just trying to find our way. Luckily they plop those outdoor cafe's and coffeeshops everywhere.

Our time in Amsterdam was spent mostly gearing up for the times to come. A transitional period so to speak. The journey has begun and its all just sinking in. Here are a couple more snippets...

(Just in case anyone was wondering, it takes less than 7 minutes to make a soft boil egg. We are not totally sure how many less but we will let you know when we get it right! We tried every day!)

-Alan and Mika

The Final Countdown

It's funny how things work out. For the past month and a half Mika and I have been trying to figure out how to put all the peices of this trip together. Who knew how much time and effort was required to just experience life! As my dear friend the Worm so eloquently stated, "It's like a rubix cube". I guess that final right corner green piece is about to fall into place.

After stressing for weeks over the apartment we finally signed a lease Monday night. Now its all odds and ends which seems to be an unending list of items that all require separate trips to either Duane Read, Target or EMS. And by the way, for those few that don't know yet - apparently when you want to return something you MUST have the same credit card you bought it with. Nothing like braving the elements in the NYC Metro system only to find out you don't have your wife's AMEX card. Which by the way is linked to your account and feeds into the same pool of debt that the AMEX card in your wallet does and the nice hippie at the store won't take!

But this too shall pass. Friday is the beginning. Boxes are packed and are heading to the parents basement. Today was the last day of work and in 1 week we set sail.

I've been telling Mickey for weeks what is about to happen. This will be the hardest part. I think tonight he has finally caught on that something is amiss. I'm not sure if it was the random guy I found on Craigslist that came by to pick up the stereo system or the fact that I have been loving him way to much recently, but he knows. And that makes me sad.

Tentative itinerary plans

Here is a rough idea of where we are going to be when. Flights may change, we may stay in places longer or shorter or maybe even add in some new destinations! But for now this is it!

FLIGHT FROM NYC-AMSTERDAM-Sept 3

• AMSTERDAM Sept 3-11 
• BELGIUM for a few days and travel to ITALY
• ITALY Sept 15-28
• GREECE Sept 29-October 8
• TURKEY October 9-14

FLIGHT FROM ISTANBUL, TURKEY TO KATHMANDU, NEPAL October 15

• NEPAL October 15-November 7
• INDIA November 7-23

FLIGHT FROM BANGALORE, INDIA TO BANGKOK, THAILAND November 23

• THAILAND, LAOS, VIETNAM, CAMBODIA, (possibly) MALAYSIA  November 23, 2009-February 8, 2010

FLIGHT FROM SOUTH EAST ASIA TO SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (the only potion to early to book as of yet)

• AUSTRALIA February 9-23

FLIGHT FROM SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA TO CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND February 23, 2010

• NEW ZEALAND February 23- March 29

FLIGHT FROM AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND TO NADI, FIJI March 29

• FIJI March 29-April 6

FLIGHT FROM NADI, FIJI TO LOS ANGELES, CA April 6

From here Alan and I have lots of ideas of how to end our trip and I am sure plenty more will come up along our way. For now -- IF we have enough money, ideally we would spend a couple months hiking and camping out WEST, hopefully getting a chance to do the John Muir Trail.