Teresa and Paul's World Tour - 2011

Leaving crazy Delhi and it's constant drone of blaring horns with people in your face hawking something was a welcome relief.  We were happy that we were headed to a smaller town where we thought things would be a bit more tranquil and slow. And we were looking forward to seeing the Mausoleum that a broken hearted king built for his love. The train ride from Delhi to Agra was quite good.  We ended up chatting with two gentlemen during the two hour trip (one of whom was making a 30 hour   train trip with his family to Chennai!).  They asked us about our impressions of India, which is a common question you are asked while traveling throughout the country.  We also talked about the level of corruption that exists in India and we assured them that although it doesn't seem as though the US has as much obvious corruption as India, there are many back room deals being made between the politicians and businesses.  And one of the gentlemen asked me what I though...

Some of you might remember that I spent a few months living and working in India back in 2004 (mostly in New Delhi, with short side trips to Agra, Jaipur, and Katmandu). So while this trip would bring me back to a few of my favorite places (eg. Taj Mahal, and Amber Fort), I was also looking forward to sharing new experiences with Teresa, and I was intrigued to see how I would feel being back. Because Teresa and I arrived at Delhi International airport at about 3am the roads on the way to our first hotel were pretty quite, and the temperature was pretty bearable, certainly not how I remember mega-metropolis that is New Delhi. The taxi driver, however, wasn't very pleased that we had had the commonsense to pre-pay the cab fare to the hotel (something we'd read about online), so he wasn't going to be able to charge us his normal 'tourist rate'... that was a little more like the India I remember. Once we eventually ventured out in to the city during the day (after a cou...

We've been able to relax for a few days at the Delhi Hyatt (thanks to Paul's many stays at the Hyatt up in Cambridge!), so we've had some time to take a deep breath and revisit our experiences and observations from the Turkey trip.   The overall experience was unexpectedly wonderful.   Unexpected, because we had no idea that Turkey 's countryside would be so beautiful.  I highly recommend a road trip through Turkey .  It's much like the little towns and villages that you would see in Switzerland , with the snow capped mountains in the background and each town dotted with a mosque instead of a chapel.  Then there were the gorgeous and abundant wild flowers in the fields and the sides of the highway.  And, the people in the country side are friendly and sweet and offer to sit and have tea with you often.  Cappadocia   was a contrast of green, lush countryside and other-worldly fairy chimneys for which they are famous.  Add to tha...

In order to stay within our travel budget when we arrived in Turkey, Teresa and I needed to make a decision about whether would travel to Cappadocia or Ephesus. In a perfect world we would have done both, by self-driving a triangle from Istanbul to Ephesus (along the coast), then on to the heart land of Turkey (where Cappadocia is located), and back to Istanbul... however for this trip we needed to make a decision. Both destinations offered different features... we were told Cappadocia offered a strange landscape with underground cities and hot air balloon rides, while Ephesus offered beautiful coastal vistas, and magnificent roman ruins. After much consideration we decided to head to Cappadocia, and as Teresa has mentioned in another blog entry we're glad we did... it was a wonderful adventure. Bill Fuchs (a close friend from New York) asked if he could fly over to Turkey and join us for an impromptu vacation, so the three of us headed off to the local Avis office and hired a car ...

One of my favorite things about being on vacation is the opportunity it gives me to enjoy a good book. And when I'm traveling I especially like to try and find a novel (either fiction or non) that has some theme connected to the place I'm visiting... for example: Max Dangers Adventures as an Expat in Tokyo when traveling to Japan, City of Djinns for journeys to India, and In a sunburned country for wonderful insights in to Australia. So it was that I began the wonderful Ernest Hemingway novel, A moveable feast . For those who might not be acquainted with this wonderful classic, the book is a series of short stories written about Hemingway's experiences in Paris in the 1920's... loosely based on reality, but like most great writers I suspect Hemingway doesn't let reality get in the way of a good story. Ironically there is also connective theme with the recently released Woody Allen movie, called Midnight in Paris, which has some very fun references to both the 192...

After Paul and I settled in to Paris and reclaimed our restaurant mojo we wound up finding a number of spots that we enjoyed while in Paris.  All of them were great for various reasons - either the food reflected the art of food preparation and presentation or the service was super friendly, or the ambiance was unlike anything you could find anywhere else.  So,  here they are!  If you're able to try some of these suggestions the next time you are visiting Paris, please let us know what you think of them! L'Ami Jean:  Dining here gave us the experience we were hoping for in Paris - rich food that was fun to look at too. The service is friendly and the atmosphere is rustic with some graffiti cartoons of the owner and chef.  L'Ami Jean also forced us to finally learn how to ask for a carafe of water!  http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d714972-Reviews-L_Ami_Jean-Paris_Ile_de_France.html .  Ironically ...

When describing our experiences in Paris, 'food' is a great place to start. Despite Paris's reputation for wonderful food, Teresa and I spent the first few days of our visit eating some pretty ordinary meals, and we were beginning to wonder what all the hype was about. Even worse, we were beginning to think we might have left our best food back in Brooklyn. It wasn't until we did some introspective analysis that we discovered that our 'food-radar' seem to be malfunctioning (in the French context). We were doing everything we usually did... when we were hungry we looked for restaurants with lots of people, we looked for a place with at least one thing we like on the menu at a reasonable price (not too high, not too low), and outdoor seating was always considered a bonus. Well... we were wrong on all accounts. The first thing we found out is that, 'good' restaurants in Paris are typically only open for lunch from noon until 2pm, and for dinner from 7pm un...