The Other Half of the Top Ten ... (You have to see this) ... Impressions

Bright Warm Sunshine at Lake Como, Italy

I started out with the first half of a Top Ten list of things that made a big impression on our trip. 

Here is the second half - five more items of note ... Please make sure to read all the way to the bottom of this post, you will be amazed - at least I was ... 

6. Climate 

     We were blessed upon our return to Oregon with some really spectacular springtime weather:  sunny, clear and warm.  Just perfect here.  It's nice to be home. 

     But I wanted to talk about the weather on our Around the World Trip, and the truth is we had really great weather almost the whole time. 

     The picture bwlow was taken as we were leaving Namibia, and there was yet another glorious sunset.  We were thrilled by several awesome sunsets, and I took a lot of special effort to capture them on camera when I could. 

     The day-to-day weather we experienced was consistently very good, with a couple exceptions.   We didn't know what to expect when we left home, and our clothing options were limited (the focus of a previous blog post), but we could have no complaints about the weather.  We were lucky.

     
     Most of the countries we visited were relatively close to the equator and thereby were warmer with less variations.  India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Dubai, Malaysia, Turkey and more were bathed in warm sunshine while we were there, which is the norm for those locations. 

     But outside that range, like Dublin, Ireland. for example, the weather was the best of the year, and we were fortunate to catch it at the right moment. 

     It wasn't all good.  Beijing China was very, very cold, and Poland and Iceland offered a dramatic snowy contrast to the warm climates where we spent most of our time.  

     All in all, we could not have asked for better weather than we had. 

7. Food 

    This is another topic that could be endless if one chose to drill down into all the amazing cuisine we encountered. 

    It seems like we somehow managed to hit all the places that had the kinds of food that we enjoyed.  Was that by design or just chance?  

    For instance, we were in the following countries that feature some of the world's best food and dishes:   Chinese, Thai, Indian, Middle Eastern, Turkish, Italian, Mediterranean, Polish, and last but not least, British Fish & Chips.

    And believe it or not, there were several Mexican restaurants on the trip.  One of the best burritos I ever had was in Dublin!

   This picture above shows a specialty of Turkey, stuffed baked potatoes.  It's a meal unto itself with sausage, olives, corn, cheese, and a whole bunch of other exotic options.

    And this picture below shows a delicious Italian Sundae complete with fresh strawberries and Italian Gelato and whipped cream - delicious!

     Maybe our favorite cuisine was in India, where we enrolled in a cooking class for curry dishes and other wonderful Indian food dishes.  We learned to cook amazing items and finished it off with Chai tea.  My mouth waters just thinking about it. 

    One of the questions we have gotten more than once was - did you guys ever get sick or have food "issues"?  We can honestly say that no, we didn't have any problems with food or illness, and we stayed healthy the entire time, other than a sore throat for Fiona in Poland. 
    I can't claim that all the food was good all the time.  There were a few pretty unusual things to eat.  Often we didn't exactly know what we were eating.  I think we took a pass on the item below. 

    Part of the joy of travel is to experience the delights and the range of food and cooking around the world.   And the good thing about all that food and all that travel is we ultimately both lost a little weight! 

8.  Music

     This is a topic near and dear to me.  Music is art, it is heart, it is painting a picture with sound.  It can express emotion in a way that nothing else can. 

     We heard so much music on our trip and it really added such another dimension to the trip. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed that.  I can't explain why, but music has a huge impact on me.  And it was a joy to hear so many cultures reflected in their music.  It is who they are. 

     It is almost like food - in some cases spicy, in other cases, heavy, rhythmic, and other times exuberant.  

     And the variety of musical instruments is astonishing.  They use whatever they have wherevet they are. Single string violins in Turkey, handmade flutes in India, Senegalese drums, even just their voices.  And people everywhere like to sing - always ready to break into song, everywhere. 

     Many a time, my mood was altered by the music I heard.  You couldn't help it, the time and place and the view were transformational.

     One more thing - in many places (most?) that we traveled, people had their hand out, begging.  You can't avoid it.  Frankly, it's a turn off. 

     But there were also street musicians, they usually had their hat out on the sidewalk, playing music and trying to make a buck.  And most of them were pretty good.  Some were really good.  
     I always throw some coins in their collection box.  I made a commitment a long time ago to do that.  If you are making music, I want to support you.  Music makes life better for everyone.  

9. Time

     When you talk about different cultures around the world, there may be no bigger topic than that of Time.   

     While traveling you have to adjust to a lot of things, such as language, currency, climate, food, etc.  But perhaps the biggest and most difficult adjustment is that of coming to grips with how different cultures treat time.  there is no bigger adjustment than to understand how people consider time. This is a huge topic.

     We constantly had to throttle back our Western World treatment of time to accommodate the local culture.  They do things differently than we do. 

     Westerners, especially Americans, are always in a hurry and want to maximize the use of every minute of time.  And we focus obsessively on efficiency.  This is a major component (flaw) of my personality.  My attitude is - There is always a better way to do things and save time.  

     Other cultures would find this concept alien.  Why do you want to save time?  Save it for what?  You can't stuff the time you save in a closet.  ...  you know, you really can't "save" time, the clock keeps ticking.  

    Let's spend time ... let's use time.  Let's have another cup of tea ... let's dance ... let's sit here and talk ...   

    One of the best anecdotes I heard about how other cultures view time came from this story from a European lady who lived in Africa:

     " ... they are on friendly terms with time, and the talk of killing time does not come into their heads. In fact the more time you can give them, the happier they are, and if you commission a local to hold your horse while you make a visit, you can see by his face that he hopes you will be a long, long time about it. He does not try to pass the time then, but sits down and lives."

10.  Sporting Events - (I just threw this in for fun) - Especially the The Grand National in Britain 

     I'm a big sports guy.  One of our favorite memories of the Round the World trip was racing around Beijing China trying to get to find the only place in town that had the Super Bowl on TV, it was 6:00 in the morning.   But the Super Bowl is a uniquely American thing. 
     At the beginning, everywhere we went the Cricket World Cup was going on, and people were fanatical about it.  I never did quite understand how that sports works ...
    And of course, most of the rest of the world loves soccer.  And there are a million other sports (well, maybe not a million ...) that people live for in their own culture. 

     I don't know why, but I took particular delight in the Grand National horse race in Great Britain.  We were fortunate to be there on the day of the event.  It was wild. 
     A little background:  We had been in Dublin Ireland the week before and they had their equivalent to the Grand National.  I was chatting with a bloke over a Pub lunch, and he told me, "This is  a race that is not friendly to man or beast".  
     Okay, I'm in, what's this all about? 
     I used to go to the horse races here in America when I was a young kid.  My dad loved the ponies and would take me to the race track to watch the thoroughbreds race at high speed around the oval track.  This would be like the Kentucky Derby or Santa Anita races.

    The horse racing in the British Isles is completely different.  It is a long race over a bunch of obstacles, they call it a steeple chase.  It is not a speed race, it is an endurance race and it is very tough - on both man and beast. 

     It's a really big deal.  The British and Irish love this stuff!

     I was fascinated with the event.  It's long, it takes up to fifteen minutes to complete, and there is considerable carnage on the track.  
     I will let the pictures tell the story:

They have to jump over some pretty high barriers  

There were 39 horses in the race, it was crowded

The tumbles were dramatic 

The riders and horses really had to work their way around the seeming chaos 

     Hey, I'm not making any judgments here.  This race has been going on for a hundred years or more.  But it is brutal, and horses die and jockeys get maimed.  It is crazy!  
     In the Irish Grand National, 29 horses started and six finished.  You can draw your own conclusion.  
     I have to admit, I thought it was great fun.  The fans were going nuts, and there was a tremendous amount of money wagered on this.   

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     I plan to maybe use this blog to share some thoughts from time to time.  I'll let you know when I do ... 
     Thanks,  
     Kevin