Transcontinental
Sarah: Now that it's been fully a month since our last update, some of you have probably started wondering where in the world we are, and whether you'll ever hear from us again. As of a week or two ago, we were pretty uncertain ourselves where we were headed. We knew we were getting ready to depart India. Despite the fact that there are years' worth of sites and cities that we would be missing out on in that vast and fascinating subcontinent, we could tell that after spending about two months there, we were going to be ready for a change of pace and a change of scenery. We also knew that we'd be flying to wherever we headed next, which opened up a whole raft of possibilities.
The joy and the curse of travel is deciding where you want to go -- the whole world opens up with possibility, but any choice you make eliminates other places you might have gone instead. Should we go to Nepal? China? Egypt? Spain or Morocco? We weighed possibilities, priced flights. But the one place we kept coming back to in our discussions, oddly enough, was Georgia.
The Republic of Georgia, I have to admit, is a country that I knew next to nothing about until a few weeks ago. I knew it was somewhere in the former Soviet Union, and that my cousin had been there for a while in the Peace Corps a few years back. Patrick got curious about it after reading a brief article in The Economist that mentioned a Georgian myth about their country's location. Legend has it that when God was passing out land to the peoples of the world, the Georgians were off getting drunk on wine and showed up late. All the land was gone, but when God found out that they had been lifting their glasses in praise of Him, He assigned them the parcel of land He had been reserving for Himself.
Further research kept capturing our imagination. Georgia may have been the first place in the world to produce wine, and has a renowned and distinctive cuisine; nestled between the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea, it has striking natural landscapes, and as the second country in the world (after next-door Armenia) to formally adopt Christianity, it is covered with ancient churches and monasteries. It has a language that fascinates linguists because it is unrelated to any other in the world. Also, it borders Turkey, allowing us to travel overland westward through Asia Minor to the Mediterranean. Our minds made up, we purchased our tickets, and set out to make the most of our last week in India.
After leaving Kolkata, we had travelled down the east coast to Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu. We spent almost two weeks in southern India, visiting historic Hindu temples and seaside cities, eating delicious banana leaf lunches and the best dosais (thin lentil flour pancakes) we'd ever had. From Bangalore, we flew back up to Delhi, which we hadn't really seen much of during our first few days in the country. We explored Mughal architecture in Delhi and took a day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal before going up to visit our friend Gurjinder and his family in the state of Haryana, a few hours north of Delhi.
Our visit to Gurjinder's village was easily one of the highlights of our trip so far. We had met him almost two months before, in Chandigarh, and stayed in touch throughout our time in India. We were welcomed with big hugs and more delicious Punjabi food and drink than we could possibly cram into our bellies; I was made up in traditional Indian style by some of the girls in the village, and Gurjinder's aunt wouldn't let me leave her home without a dozen beautiful bangles from her collection. We felt so thankful and lucky to have met this wonderful family -- I know we'll stay in touch with them through years to come.
At around midnight on Monday night, we set off for Georgia. If a direct flight between Delhi and Tbilisi (the capital of Georgia) existed, it would probably clock in at around four hours; the countries are geographically not all that far apart. However, international connections to Tbilisi are sparse, so the best we could do was a 14-hour layover in Istanbul. Thankfully, as US passport holders, we could get a 3-month, multiple-entry visa issued in Istanbul, which allowed us to leave the airport during our layover and start exploring the city. We took the fast light rail into Sultanahmet, the historic neighborhood surrounding the Hagia Sophia, and spent a delightful day (despite chilly and rainy weather) in the Archaeological Museum and Grand Bazaar. Our one day in Istanbul has really whetted our appetite for Turkey; we're looking forward to heading back in a couple weeks.
At 11 pm, we boarded our flight bound for Tbilisi, and arrived a little bleary-eyed at 3:30 in the morning. One appealing part of being a tourist in Georgia is that homestays are a common lodging option; families open up a few rooms in their homes to paying guests, which is a lot more homey and intimate than a cheap hotel. The owners of our current homestay are a nice couple, and the husband picked us up at the airport early yesterday morning. We've been catching up on sleep, wandering the streets of Tbilisi, buying sweaters (because our India wardrobe wasn't sufficient for the chilly weather here) and sampling tasty food. Despite the chilly weather, I'm glad we'll be in Europe for all of spring; there are daffodills, pansies and hyacinths for sale at street stands in Tbilisi, and their bright petals are such a familiar spring sight. I'd hate to have missed out on that.
Love to all. Happy spring -- we miss you!