Vacation is Starting!

Vacation officially starts now! I am in the Delhi airport on an eight hour layover, and Mike should be boarding his El Al flight to Hong Kong.  So, this is really the vacation of a lifetime and I have decided to run two blogs.  The first one is this one- ramblings, occasional posts and pictures with whatever catches my fancy.  This one is for family and close friends.  I will try to post a more polished piece on my Slow Travels Blog from time to time (I would love to say weekly, but I am afraid to commit) for the "public."  Choose which one you want to follow and come along for the ride.

A quick recap of the last two weeks is in order to set the stage of where I am and where my head is.  I spent the last 14 days in Kathmandu, capital city of Nepal.  This is my third trip to that country in the last nine months.  I have been working with Tevel B'Tzedek and its sister organization Nyayik Sansar developing psycho-social interventions post earthquake, called the BRI-Building Resilience Intervention.  Here are a few photos from the recent training.

with completion certificates

Aside from the four day intensive workshop, I was fortunate to make a field trip to rural Nepal.  The road was harrowing, grueling and every other adjective you can think of.  Ten hours, some of them spent in teeth clenched terror (I exaggerate not).  Here are a few photos from the road.

Coffee Break

Inside the Jeep

Our Jeep

Four Hours of Off Road

Passing on the Narrow Road

It turns out that coffee breaks, lunch breaks, tea breaks and what have you are a critical and important part of travel here.  All in all we went about 100 KM in those ten hours.  Can you believe it???  And our average speed was between 20-40 km an hour.  So go figure.  I can't do that math.  By the way, for those who want to see where we went, here is the map-  we were west of Kathmandu (to the right).

 The conditions were remarkably rugged. Outhouses (of course), no running water, no electricity for the most part.  Most of the villages use solar panels to charge their cell phones and for an occasional light at night.  Village life is pretty spartan.  People get up, work to feed themselves, eat, bathe (very infrequently because of the difficulty and in the winter because of the cold), wash clothes, and go to sleep early.  Very early.  I was in bed by 8:30 all three nights!! And was it cold.  Freezing.  We had staff meetings under the covers! I wore six layers of clothing every day (in Kathmandu too), very warm socks, thermal underwear, and sometimes I was still cold.   And now, a few scenes from the villages (two), the people we met, and the women we worked with. 

 Terraces for Rice (not the season)

 Mud and stone houses

Making Butter

Outhouse

The Women Schlep

 Group Meeting

So that's it folks.  Checking out for now.  Will keep you posted as we move along.

Follow us in Florence - Day One

A group of ten women and one intrepid man set out on an eight day Florentine adventure.  This blog will attempt to keep up with them as they discover the masterpieces of the former Tuscan Republic, sometimes Duchy, and currently, the commercial and cultural center of Tuscany.

Day One:

We set out bright and early to Piazza della Signoria, the central plaza of Florence, where the seat of government ruled from Palazzo Vecchio.

 We heard a wonderful introduction to Florence and learned about the various sculptures displayed here:

First and foremost a copy of Michelangelo's David which we will see the next day for "real" in the museum.  Things to notice: David is very large, he is nude, his head and hands are not proportional to his body, symbolizing power.  This is the Republic's response to the Medici who were banished from the city several years before the statue was completed in 1504.





The Loggia  dei Lanzi, the largest loggia in all of Italy, where the Swiss lancers (and therefore the name- they actually were soldiers with lances) were housed for several years and where currently , wonderful sculptures can be found including the Rape of Sabine (far right).



From there on to the Bargello Museum, which originally served as the courts, the jail and then the police station for the growing city of Florence.

 Currently it houses a wonderful museum including Michelangelo's Bacchus. Notice the satyr that is holding up Bacchus, and the fact that he is holding the cup in the "wrong" hand.


There are also  two sculptures of David by Donatello. This one, the one with the shepard's hat,  is the most well known.  Notice the androgynous David, standing on Goliath's head, with his  moustache tickling David's foot.  What does that mean??


Wednesday was all in all a very full day leaving us all very happy and with a taste for more. Lucky for us we have seven more days.

Now for Neriya

As you may already know, Neriya has been travelling around the Republic of Georgia for the past couple of weeks. Located at the crossroads of Western Asiaand Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its population is almost 5 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

Tblisi

 He is with three high school friends, celebrating their graduation and life in general as they hike and horseback ride their way through Georgia.  They have spent the last two shabbatot in Tbilisi enjoying the hospitality of the Bet Chabad.  The pictures below are some of the areas I believe that Neriya is travelling in.

Last week they were in a place called Samati which I have not been able to locate.  This week they are in Tusheti  north of Tblisi, horseback riding in the Causcasus mountains.


And here are many more pics of the area.

This is the one photo Neriya sent me:


He sure looks like a happy camper!

Shoshi and I set out for Dubrovnik tonight, so more to follow!

Family Travels

We are a peripatetic family this summer, with most of us on the road for various periods.  Just a quick update to let you know who is where and what they are doing.

Shuey met Mor at Victoria Falls and sent some beautiful photos that I will add in a day or so.  Meanwhile enjoy this one from the internet.







After  that they went on to Chimanimani.  There is  a big national park here.


and they did a lot of hiking this past week.  This shabbat they are staying at a farmhouse here.  Some nice photos from hiking (on the internet) here.


Here is a pic of the farmhouse.

Neriya has also been travelling.  He is with four friends in Georgia (former USSR) and having a wonderful time.  Pictures will come next week.
Shoshi and I are due to set out to Dubrovnik on Monday, God willing.  We are hoping for a very quiet shabbat.

Lublijana and Beyond

We have had such a lazy time since Sunday that it is hard to get me to write.  On Monday we slowly and regretfully bid good bye to "our" apartment, and set out to Lublijana, capitol city of Slovenia.  I left my camera in the car, so the photos are from my i-phone- if I can figure out how to bring them over....ahh-I got it!

old town of lublijana

the river that runs through the town

art noveau building (one of many)

We moseyed around town for about two hours, enjoying the sites, the main square, the interesting buildings and then we headed on to Rimske Toplice, near Lasko, the site of the Rimske Terme.

You might be saying to yourself at this point- what?? Where is that?? And why go there?  So to answer your questions in order:  It is about one hour from Lublijana due west in the direction of Austria.  It is a very small town. The reason we went was for the magical thermal waters that are supposed to be rejuvenating, healing all that ails you.  As you probably know, we love spas, and this is a lovely Slovenian spa, as yet undiscovered by English speakers (very few English signs, and no English speaking guests) and definitely not by Israelis.  It is very refreshing!!  We got here on Monday, and although we had made a reservation for only one day, and were not sure about our plans, we were easily convinced to take a "wellness package" and signed on for three nights, which take us through tomorrow midday when we start driving back to the Vienna airport to make our 7:45 PM flight.

So what have we done here- not a whole lot- some nice walks in the nearby woods.

 Some spa and massage (great massage).

A candle light romantic dinner (part of the package- and all employees insist on calling it "Romantic Dinner") where we enjoyed fish and salad.

Note the Candle

Yesterday morning as Mike was exercising on the lone treadmill, I took a walk up to the local sheep farm and tasted some wonderful cheese as well as had a tour of a typical Slovenian farm house from at least five hundred years ago.  It is well preserved because the poet laureate of Slovenia grew up there in the 1800s.  His name was Anton Askerc, and this has become a national landmark.  The 26 year old son of the people who farm there showed me around and talked with me about the place and about his life in rudimentary English.

I can't get the captions to work today - so you will have to figure out what these pictures are on your own.  In the bottom picture notice how the window only fits in half the frame.  The windows were boarded up when some queen in the 18th century put a tax on all windows!  At least that is what I think I understood.

The weather here has been pretty cloudy and rainy, but we are enjoying and storing up as we know it will be a long time before we see rain again.  We planned to take a bike ride today, but have as of now we rearranged our busy schedule and will do midday massages with the hope that the weather may clear by the afternoon, allowing us to set out through the beautiful countryside.  We will let you know....