Pinky and Bahrain

We've made it to one of our most bizzare destinations - Bahrain.
This country is right in the middle of the Persian Gulf; we flew over Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to get here - how odd is that?!? It is very rich due to oil reserves just off the coast and it is full of expats from the USA, England, Germany and all over the Middle East, but it is truely an Arab country as has been Islamic since 629AD. As such it is a fascinating mix of an Arab and Western cultures.

We have spent just over 24 hours here, and fly out late tonight to Delhi, where our India trip (and all the wonderful food) begins!!!

Bahrain is hot. And humid. Our hotel had a sign up this morning stating that the temperature would be approximately 36 degrees today with minimum humidity of 50% and maximum of 85%. I can now confidently declare that 85% humidity is stupid: the air is so thick that you can practially write your name in it.

So, suffice it to say, we were very, very happy to find the National Museum of Bahrain this afternoon because it was wonderfully and beautifully airconditioned. Plus we learned all kinds of interesting facts about Bahrainin history and culture that will, I am sure, stand me in good sted when I am called up to go on Jeopardy in 20 years!

Bizzarely, we also learned one of the world's longest palyndromes today: Malayalam - it's a language used in southern India. We found this out from the ever so nice Indian man who worked in the National Tourist Office of Bahrain. (Will also be very useful on Jeopardy, I am quite certain!).

We have spent 24 hours in Bahrain; I am currently clean and showered and (thanks to Dia's Mom from Athens) I have clean clothes. We also treated ourselves to Dairy Queen ice cream this afternoon. So, I think I am ready and braced for India, which I have been told by all and sundry is not clean, not quiet and has no Peanut Buster Parfaits...but I am very excited and I am sure to have some beautiful pictures and hopefully some interesting stories soon.

TK

In Either Paris or Rome...(or Athens)

We have ended our time in Europe with a whirlwind tour of all the major destinations; in the space of less than a week, we have traveled from southern Spain (Granada) to Paris, where we spent a crazy 9 hours running around the city, seeing all the sites possible in such a short period of time! Then we hopped an overnight train to Rome and spent two days there, and then we flew from Rome to Athens.





















1) Shot 1 of the L'Arc de Triomph. I am cranky because I have not had coffee...





















2) Shot two of the L'Arc de Triomph, I am smiling because Brad said he'd buy me a coffee if I stopped looking grumpy...





















3) Shot 3 of the L'Arc de Triomph and I finally have my coffee, and damn was it ever good!

- The Louvre, and the obligatory 'couple shot' in front of the Eiffel Tour:)





















A few photos later, another overnight train and then we arrived in the Eternal City - Rome.

- There is a cat santuary in the middle of Rome; B and I practically went broke buying all kinds of silly trinkets that the sanctuary was selling to raise money for the kitties! Anyway, this cat sanctuary, is located amoungst the ruins of several ancient temples and most imporantly this was the location of the theatre where Julius Ceasar was assasinated. The grey granite block in the photo above marks the spot (at least, the spot 7 feet above) where he was stabbed.

- Me with a lovely Roman Kitty!

- B's renditon of the famous painting; took him far less time than Michelangelo!

- Italy seems to have gone a bit crazy with the Anti-Terrorism stuff; read this picture and you will see what I mean...

- The Trevy Fountain

- View of one of the ceilings in the Vatican Museum, near the Cystine Chapel. I actually liked this one better.

- The line up to get to the Vatican Museum (aka the Cystine Chapel) was at least 1000 people long; and that was in mid October!

After two funfilled days taking in all the sights of Rome, we hopped a quick flight to Athens. Now Athens is not a very nice city, nor a very pleasant smelling city, nor a very clean city and really, the only tourist attraction of any note is the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Nevertheless our stay in Athens was fantastic because we stayed with a super nice guy - Dia (which means Zeus!!!!!) - who we met in Bergen, Norway about 2 months ago. Dia let us stay at his house; his mother cooked wonderful food for us and even did our laundry!! Dia's brother went out looking for Brad after he got lost on his way to the postoffice (quite a stressful experience, as we had to catch our flight to Bahrain...). Dia introduced us to his friends, acted as tour guide and translator, and even bought us Rakimellow - a neat drink made of Raki mixed with water and honey. How freaken' nice is that?!?!

- Shots from the Acropolis.

- Us at one of Dia's friends birthday parties. Completely freaking random!!!! (Dia is the one in the pink pants)

- A protest shot; apparently the Greeks strike even more than the French do! Shocking I know. Apparently this one was quite tame, because the police, who were out in full riot gear, didn't actually have to beat anyone up. Dia told us that the rioters usually throw smoke bombs and set things on fire, whereas at this one they just yelled a lot and sang hippy, soviet sounding revolutionary type music. The protest was made up of teachers, university profs and students, and was against the passing of a law privatizing some facet of the Greek education system.

Grenada and the AlHambra

These photos of one of my new Favourite Places in the Whole Wide World are beautiful.
I recommend the book 'Tales of the Alhambra' to anyone who wants a quick fix of this stunning Arabic Palace, without actually having to fly to Spain.

Photos from Spain

- Everyone remember Margarita? She was the angel at our Halloween party 3 years ago (my how time flies!) I met her at karate class in Vancouver, where she was studying English and, despite beating each other up at our initial meeting in class, we became good friends. Such good friends in fact that she invited us to stay with her and her boyfiend (Alfonso, in picture on the right) when we got to Madrid. We meant to only stay for 2 or 3 nights, but they were so incredibly nice to us that we stayed for nearly a week!!! This is us eating a traditional Spanish snack called chorros - like a skinny donut that you dip in chocolate sauce...pretty tasty!






- Shot taken in Grenada of a spice and tea stall; it was so neat...all these different spices from Spain and Morrocco, and all different kinds of herbal teas designed to cure any kind of illness or afliction. For some silly reason, Brad and I decided to buy about 5 different kinds of these magical teas, even though we had to buy them in 500 gram bags, so now our backpacks are stupidly full of tea that can cure anything from headaches, to nausea, to arthritis...but, hey, at least our clothes smell nice.

- Me and Margui at the gates to the old city of Toledo - yes, Brad and I walked around all day saying "Holy Toledo, look at that _____" (Fill in blank with anything from 'dog' to 'cat' to church). It was fun.

- Me and Margui at the Don Quixote statue in Madrid.

Rewind a few days to Barcelona:

- Hoards of people walking up and down Las Ramlas.

Who out there has not heard of Antonio Gaudi? He was a Spanish architect who lived in late 19th and early 20th centuries. And he had undoubtedly one of the most creative minds in the architectural world before or since. His work is located solely in Barcelona. His most famous work is called the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family). It is a church that was begun in the mid 1800s and won't be finished until about 2020. Gaudi knew this when he started, but was willing to take on a project that would take 200 years to build, becuase he believed "my client is not in a hurry".

- Outer facade of the church

- Inside the church he used different kinds of stone of differing colours to build the pillars . He did this for so the pillars could represent a forrest, where different kinds of trees grow. As a mark of his genius, he varied the type of stone used with the weight the pilar would have to bear.

- Niffty turtle holding 'the weight of the world on its back' on an outer pillar of the church.

- The famous gecko at the Gaudi park.

- Gaudi's third most famous work was an appartment block called 'La Pedrera'. It was and is an amazing blend of bizzare and outreageous designs with pure and effiencient functionality. These figures are chimnies on the roof and each one is both functional and unique - there are a total of about 18 on the roof.

Photos from Europe - Batch 1