Thoughts for a New Year

Will continue to work on these in 2013:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2012/10/04/40-things-to-say-before-you-die/

Power to the Journey

India:  Chennai, Delhi, Kochin, Pondicherry, Tricky, Coimbatore, Mysore, Bangalore, Agra

Thailand: Koh Samui

Sri Lanka 

Spain: Mallorca, Barcelona 

France: Nice, Monaco, Grasse, Villefranche-sur-Mer, St. Jean-Cap Ferat, Cannes, Menton, Antibes

Life is full of adventures, some great and some small.  All begin with a dream.  Some change en route.  Bad things happen.  In the end, there is always a reward:  another room in the soul, another set of memories, a fuller heart.  It's wonderful to go home again, to friends and family, to our "stuff."  To rest and regroup.  To take out the bucket list and check things off.  To let the next dream be born.


We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.      


T.S. Eliot 

Carnaval de Nice 2012: Bataille des Fleurs

Battle of the Flowers, a parade along the Promenade d'Anglais, along the Baie des Anges.  Wonderful costumes and floats created with flowers, lovely women tossing out mimosa branches to the crowds, hundreds of tourists and locals lining the street, a camera in every hand, winter sunshine.  It's crazy to land in Nice for Carnaval by accident.  Most of the people here have been planning this for months, no doubt.  And my apartment is on Place Massena, again not by design, but right in the heart of Carnaval.

These were my favorite costumes, the pink flamingos

Carnaval de Nice 2012

Last night was the opening night of Carnaval de Nice, 15 days of festivities & parades.  Thousands of people have descended on Nice in the last few days to take part, changing it from a quiet seaside village into a city teeming with tourists.

At one point in the festivities last night, there were spectacular fireworks in and around the Fontaine du Soleil in the central plaza, with the fireworks breaking behind the fountain's statue of Apollo, giving it the look of hell-fire and brimstone, the four horses on top of the statue's head like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The theme of Carnaval this year is the King of Sport (Le Roi du Sport), promoting Nice as a tourist mecca for all kinds of sporting activities, from skiing to sailing.  The giant floats represent the King and Queen of Carnaval.  The King has a rather creepy visage, staring down at the crowds with crazy, psychotic eyes that actually turn. Scared me.  

This comes close to my image of hell, Satan coming with his evil grin, people screaming, running, smoke in the air

There were three huge balloons that lifted off with beautiful girl gymnasts attached who performed, music accompanying them (Alanis Morisette's Uninvited, etc), in the dark plaza, shadows reflecting off the nearby buildings.  Stunning.  Captivating.

Towards then end of the act, a confetti machine spewed out these paper snowflakes making the whole scene even more spectacular.

History of Carnaval

The Lenten period of the Liturgical year Church calendar, being the six weeks directly before Easter, was marked by fasting and other pious or penitential practices. Traditionally during Lent, no parties or other celebrations were held, and people refrained from eating rich foods, such as meat, dairy, fats and sugar. The forty days of Lent, recalling the Gospel accounts of the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, serve to mark an annual time of turning. In the days before Lent, all rich food and drink had to be disposed of. The consumption of this, in a giant party that involved the whole community, is thought to be the origin of Carnival.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival

The Côte d'Azur

It's no wonder that it's called the Côte d'Azur, the Azure Coast, the color of the water in the morning sunlight can take your breath away and create a longing for this place, and you start to dream of your return before you leave.  It quiets the soul and fills your heart up to the top. 

So many lovely places to visit along the Côte d'Azur:  Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Monaco, Cannes, Menton, Eze, St Paul de Vence, Juan les Pins, Antibes, St Jean-Cap Ferrat, Mougins, all with breathtaking views of this azure sea. 

Below the view of the Mediterranean from the Promenade d'Anglias in Nice called Le Baie des Anges, the Bay of Angels

Robbed in Barcelona

Still crying over lost objects:

New Air Mac (the small cute one, light as a feather) 
Canon 7D Camera with new 50 mm lens ($2500)
Canon lightweight pocket camera (birthday gift)
Beloved Passport with stamps from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Spain (had to go to the embassy in    
     Barcelona to get a new one, missed the flight out)
Credit Cards & Debit Card (luckily left me with one to use for a stop gap)
Keys to my house in Seattle
Several pairs of reading glasses (cheap, but I needed them)
2 tubes of lipstick (first thing I replaced at the Barelona airport)
Paperwork for flight & phone number for the apartment in Nice
A really great (perfect) travel bag from REI 
600 euros!
My cool Ray-Bans


Not going back to Barcelona

On the beach in Nice, France

Bar-the-lona. It's hip. It's cool. It's happening (baby).

Sophisticated.  Old. Steeped in art, past and present.  Steeped in history.  Situated on the Costa Brava, the Mediterranean seaport, a center of art, culture, and "hip-ness." Pigeons roosting in the rooftop recesses, bringing to mind Picasso and his fanciful sketches of birds.  The Barrio Gothic and Gaudi-inspired ornamentation on rooftops and spires of thousand-year-old cathedrals.  Cafes, bars, and more cafes, tapas, pinchos and paella.  The Spanish people, masters of strolling and cafe culture.  What to photograph that hasn't already been captured?  Below, some of the Picasso-esque street art in and around the neighborhood of the Barrio Gothic. 

Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues
So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone reading Vogue
They said "How long can you hang around?"
I said a week maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I'm going home to California [or Seattle]

from California by Joni Mitchell

From East to West

From east to west, Chennai - Sri Lanka - Thailand - London - Madrid - Mallorca.  40 hours altogether.  One of those marathon days of travel when the only thing you want in the world is a place to lay your head down, and a hot shower.  

Finally arrived in Mallorca, the beautiful, lush island off the coast of Spain, the summer playground of the rich and famous, and the summer resident of the Spanish royals, however, quiet and peaceful in January, when only the locals are about.  Arrived just in time to participate in the Festival of Sant Sebastian, the patron saint of Mallorca.

I'm in food heaven in Mallorca, Spanish olives, rich goat cheese, luscious fruit, excellent wine and beer, all served at sidewalk cafes under a cold, but sunny blue sky, the Spanish people walking by looking hip and put together in their European fashions.  India and Europe, east and west, a  study in contrasts.  

The major city on Mallorca is La Palma.  It is mostly old winding stone streets that twist like a maze, the city once protected by the immense cathedral along the waterfront.

History

Palma was founded as a Roman camp upon the remains of a Talaiodic settlement. The turbulent history of the city saw it the subject of several Vandal sackings during the fall of the Roman empire, then reconquered by the Byzantine, then colonised by the Moors (who called it Medina Mayurqa), and finally established by James I of Aragon.

Port de Soller

Just north and west of Palma, lies the town of Port de Soller, a sleepy seaside village at this time of year, charming and picturesque.  I could live here.

Valldemossa

From Port de Soller, driving along a sheer cliff winding road, terrifyingly steep and narrow, but with spectacular views of the Mediterranean, lies another little town, best known for being a getaway for Chopin and George Sand, as well as one of the homes of Jorge Luis Borges.  It looks almost too perfect, like a movie set or storybook town.

As the photos show, it was unusually warm and sunny in Mallorca during my stay.  What great luck to have these blue skies and sunshine when normally it's raining and cold.  Gracias a Dios.  

Out of India

January 10, 2012.  Left India.  Survived.  Enough said.

Koh Samui, Thailand

Sri Lanka

Just an hour flight from Chennai, the island/nation of Sri Lanka is a dramatic change from India.   The city of Colombo is both cleaner and more polluted.  The streets are clean, but the air pollution from the traffic in the city and on the main roads out of town is thick and leaves one gasping for a breath of fresh air.

That said, once out of the city and onto the back roads, Sri Lanka is a lush and verdant landscape, and the beaches are hypnotic and inviting.  This is a little taste of the island.

Pinnawela orphanage is situated northwest of the town Kegalla, halfways between the present capitol Colombo and the ancient royal residence Kandy in the hills of central Sri Lanka. It was established 1975 by the Sri Lanka Wildlife department. This 24 acres large elephant orphanage is a also breeding pace for elephants, twenty elephants were born since 1984, and it has the greatest herd of elephants in captivity in the world. 

http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=43