DC to Iceland to London

June 3 - 4, 2014

My first flight was 5.5 hrs to Reykjavik and I was thinking it wasn't bad. When we got to the airport in Reykjavik, I hadn't slept except a few times when I dozed for less than 10 minutes and it was about 6:30 am there. I know the rule about putting yourself on local time right away, so I had coffee and a yogurt and decided it was morning. The weather didn't help. Reykjavik was just GRAY. It looked miserable. That airport does have the nicest bathrooms I've ever seen, though. (In my head I hear David Sklar In Morocco asking in exasperation why we ladies always have to comment on the quality of the bathrooms.  And these were better than those in the airport in Casa.). The next flight to London, I was so tired I felt sick. I dozed a little, but I can't sleep more than 10 minutes on a plane. I rallied a little when I got to London. I managed to take the Heathrow Express into London.  I asked a man about getting the underground to my hotel. He told me which train to take and walked with me to where I bought my Oyster card. I got to my hotel at about 1:30. I thought if I took a shower and changed clothes, I would get some energy. Then I thought if I ate lunch, I'd feel up to sight-seeing. I went to a peri-peri chicken place. I walked around the neighborhood a little, but now I'm back in my room totally exhausted. I'm going to have to take a nap. I did take 2 photos in the neighborhood of my hotel. I did take 2 photos. One is of the strange lines in the street. I don't understand them. The other is of the "American Diner". Note that it's halal!  

Last minute stuff

June 2, 2014 Verizon says my iPhone 4 won't work in Bulgaria and Turkey. Ish's iphone 5 will. So verizon says they can switch the phone #s, contacts and media on the 2 phones.  Ish is in Norfolk now and won't be back till late Tonight so we won't be able to do it till tomorrow. I hate leaving it till so last minute. I need to test it out. And will they transfer my notes?  I have a lot of stuff I need there: currency conversions for the 5 different currencies, things I want to see in London, etc

I've tried to call Turkish Airlines to get my seat assignment, but I keep getting a recording that says "All lines are busy.  Please call again later."  Then it disconnects me.  Finally got through around 3:00. It put me on hold - major accomplishment - except after an hour on hold I got disconnected. I give up. I really want to select my seat because it's an 11 hour flight home, but I think my next strategy needs to be to go to the Turkish Airlines desk at Dulles tomorrow. 

I printed my boarding passes!  The flight to Rekyavik is only 5 hours. Then an 80 minute layover and 3 hour flight to London.  Not bad. 

Getting ready to travel

I finally broke down and bought an iPad. I think it will make it easier to blog. I also bought a cable to connect my camera to it so I can upload photos I took with my camera. In India I only used my phone for photos and blogging. So now I will test uploading a photo.  (This is just a random photo that I took on my deck.)

Homeward bound

March 9: My flight doesn't leave until 8pm but I came to the airport at 10 am with Gavin. His flight for Katmandu was leaving much earlier. I thought I'd rather have company I the taxi ride here and just hang out at the airport for the day. I'm very disappointed in Calcutta airport. Delhi was very big and modern. Calcutta is a tiny airport - more like Bamako. They won't let you go through check-in till it's close to the time of your flight - probably because there isn't enough space there. I had been hoping to look for Indian rum in the duty-free shop, but there is very little in the way of shops here. I also need to change money. They say it's after check-in. There is a nice ladies room and places that sell sandwiches and drinks so I should be fairly comfortable here for the day.

Kolkata

March 8: Calcutta definitely has an excitement about it.. We are in a very nice hotel (hotel lindsey) which is in the middle of a busy area. It feels kind of like Times Square. (Photo 1) We arrived at 8 pm and there were neon lights all around. We took showers and then met at the rooftop restaurant for dinner. It felt like being in a US restaurant. There was a big table near us with some Americans and Canadians who sang happy birthday to someone. Binu said to order the fish because its good in Calcutta. So I had Calypso fish and a mojito. It is difficult at times to order here. Neil asked for Jack Daniels and coke. The waiter said he didn't have it. Neil told him he could see it behind the bar. Binu had to show him the bottle. We also all had flaming brownies with chocolate ice cream. It was really a festive dinner.
This morning we went to a corner stand on the street (photo 2) with Binu and had a grilled cheese sandwich. It was very good. Apparently we were near the chicken wholesale market because there were baskets of chickens. (Photo 3) Some guys rode off on bicycles with chickens hanging from them. Then we walked to another stand for a chai served in a pottery cup. The cups are disposable so we kept them for souvenirs.
We visited two places today: Mother Teresa's home and the Victoria museum. You aren't permitted to take photos at Mother House except at the tomb. They have an area with big placards that tell her story. There are also some of her possessions (calendar with her notes on it, notebook, etc). We also saw her room - very simple with a bed, table and desk. In the room with her tomb, some people prayed at the foot of the tomb (photo 4). The Victoria Museum was okay - mostly things from British colonialism. One funny thing happened there. Gavin and I were sitting on the steps in front and a. Indian woman came and asked to take our picture. The whole family got in the photo. She said they were tourists from the north of India. Binu said they often have never been in contact with Europeans so they want to take a photo to show people back home.
This is my last full day in India. Tonight we will have a festive dinner. Tomorrow I will take the taxi to the airport and wait for my very long flight. My first flight doesn't leave till 8 pm but I will go early with Gavin. Maybe there will be wi-fi in the airport and I can upload my last 2 blog posts. The wi-fi in the hotel doesn't work even though they act like they don't believe us when we say that.

India transportation

Transportation is definitely unique. Here are the modes of transport I have used so far:
Bicycle rickshaw (photo1)
Touk-touk (photo 2)
Hired van (with driver's apprentice in photo (photo 3)
Yellow taxi: They always have interesting things on the dashboard like flowers or gods. (Photo 4 flowers and Ganesh. Photo 5 Shiva's wife + 2 others. Maybe one is Budda?
Row/sailboat (photos in a previous post)
Metro (no photo - similar to US)
Train (no photo - bathrooms very different from US). Yesterday (Thursday) was the last train ride. I was dreading it. I just felt like I'd had enough of trains and it's an all-day train to Kolkuta (Calcutta). Our assigned seats weren't together. I was sitting on my own in one cabine. Christine and Bridget were in the next one. I could leave my bag with them if I went to the bathroom. It turned that 2 Indian high school boys came to sit with me. They were cousins traveling with one boy's dad and the other's sister and little brother. We had a lovely time. I talked with them the entire trip. They had just finished exams and had been to Jaipur on vacation. They're from Kolkuta and are Bengali Hindus. They're very well-educated and taught me lots about India. At one point, Gavin came down by me to visit. The boys enjoyed talking to him. Then they took a walk down to the other car to meet Neil because they wanted to know everyone in our group. It was really a great train trip.

Transportation I have NOT used:
Truck with "Blow Horn" painted on the back. In India truck drivers actually want you to blow your horn when you pass them.
Hand rickshaw. These exist only in Calcutta now. Note that the driver is not wearing shoes.

Bodh Gaya

Bodh Gaya is very different from anywhere else we've been so far. The Buddha was born in India in an area that is now Nepal. In Bodh Gaya, he was sitting under a tree and was enlightened. Buddhism didn't really take off in India, so the majority of the pilgrims here are Thai, Japanese, etc. each country seems to have its own temple. We have seen a Bhutanese temple and a Japanese temple is across the street from our hotel (the Hotel Tokyo) The streets are full of Buddhist monks buying souvenirs. In the temple, the monks are getting their photo taken and praying. Today we went to the temple to spend some time. I found a shady spot on the grass to sit. It felt very calm. A dog came and lay down by me leaning up against my purse. I never touch the street animals, but this dog was so sweet I felt like I should pet him. I was worried he might not be accustomed to being petted so I was careful at first but he liked being petted and didn't even seem dirty. After a while his spot got sunny and he moved to a shady spot near a monk. The monk threw him some cookies.
On the streets here there is a greater variety of animals. In other cities we saw cows and dogs only. Here there are small pigs and goats also. Most of the time people pay very little attention to the animals. They occasionally feed them, but most animals seem to just eat garbage.