Colonial Foot Soilder

Well, what can I say besides Iḿ snowed in at Travellers Cave Pension hotel in Cappadocia today, the day we were supposed to go on a tour of this city and see everything it had to offer. We were supposed to go and see all the churches built into the rocks that lay underground, and see the underground city where people still live today in caves underground. It isn't all that bad though because our hotel is amazing and today turned into a nice, relaxing day where I was able to read my new book by James Patterson called Cross and write in my journal! I also want to mention that the owner of this hostel is the nicest guy I´ve met so far while traveling, as far as someone who Iḿ giving my money to ... read more

Arriving in the train station and literally taking at least 20 minutes to leave from the train out of the station is just the beginning of trying to explain how crowded it was in Venice for Carnival this year. Although it was really crowded I'm really glad we did end up making it though all the way there from Madrid, although it was slightly chaotic doing it! We booked our train ticket from Madrid to Paris because Paris was the only place that went directly to Venice and we wanted to get there with enough time to make carnival and see the festivities, and it ended on the 24th and we got to Paris on the 21st. We arrived in Paris and tried to book tickets immediately from Paris to Venice for later that night, but ... read more

So we finally made it out of India and are now traveling all over Europe. So far we have had a great time and it is such a change from India! We flew into Paris and started out by staying with a girl named Sixteen who lived about 20 minutes outside of Paris. Cami met Sixteen in Guwhatti while volunteering there and they were really close friends while they were there so it was really nice for them to be reunited! Sixteen had a perfect family that was soo nice to us and cooked for us and were so great to hang out with! She had a younger sister who was 19, a younger brother who was 15 and another brother who was 9. Her younger brother Albo who was 9 was really cute and funny. ... read more

So we just finished the last exciting thing we had planned in India, and might I say that our trip here couldn't have ended in a better way. To idea of not going to Jaisalmer and the thought of just staying in Rishikesh for the whole time we were in India now seems ludicrous to me. We had 4 months in India and I still didn't even come close to seeing everything that I wanted to see while we were here. The camel safari was by far the most fun I've had while being here in India, maybe because of the open desert and riding on the camel or maybe because of the group of people we were with but either way it was a blast. We got to Jaisalmer on the 25th in the afternoon ... read more

Well it's been a long time since I've wrote in this, way too long to put every little detail that I would like to, but it's not all my fault. I've tried to write in the my blog twice while I was staying in Rishikesh, and both times I was unable to publish the blog and it didn't save either. I guess the internet cafe's in Rishikesh just aren't very good. Rishikesh was a great time though, and I'd like to spend some time elaborating on the experiences that I had while there. At the start of my Ashram stay I was a great student, maybe because of actually having to wake up every morning for Vapassana meditation, maybe because I was really excited. Our schedule was actually pretty easy. Wake up at 5am Morning meditation ... read more

Well I have now experienced the best part of my trip so far in India, and the most unique thing I have ever done in my life, the ten day vapasana meditation course that Cami and I had been planning on doing as a part of our trip here in India. We got to sarnath where the meditation course was being held and stayed at a tibeten temple for one night before the course. It was not such a bad place, only 3 dollars a night to stay there, and we got to go inside the temple where they worshiped every morning. You could make a donation in the temple too and I made a small donation, and then signed the book saying that I had made one. In the book there were so many different ... read more

I love Varanasi!! So far being here has been the best part of my entire trip since I left America, and that's including my time spent on the island Koh Samui in Thailand. Varanasi is such a magical place that has so much to offer and entirely too much to do. When we first planned our whole trip, and I saw that Cami had us stationed in Varanasi for 10 days, I kinda freaked out thinking it was going to be boring and that there would be nothing to do, but it's the exact opposite. My days are so full that I barely have enough time to do half the things that I want to. I wake up in the morning time and work out a little and stretch, then when we feel hungry enough we ... read more

A lot has happened since I last wrote, but all good things, thankfully. We made it to Varanasi by train with no problems at all. The train is actually pretty confusing, considering they make plenty of stops along the way in different city's to pick up and drop off people, and make no announcments which city they are now stopping or stopped at. Luckily for us, I happened to ask a man which stop was the next stop right before the Varanasi stop, and he told us. We got our things together quickly and ran off the train just in time to reach solid ground before the train started moving again to it's next destination. We then proceeded out of the station to my most dreaded part of traveling, finding a legitamate taxi driver that will ... read more

It seems that every time I start to think I'm getting better, my stomach does a flip and starts to cramp even worse than it did before. If I had to describe my pain, I'd say it feels like my stomach is like a wash-cloth. Things are going through my stomach, like water would go through a wash-cloth if it were hanging up and water was being poured onto the top of it. My stomach is trying to take nutrients out of the food and liquid I am giving it, but something that I have been giving it, it does not like. So now, my wash cloth stomach is trying to wring out all the frail things it does not want, all at once. The cramps wake me up in the middle of the night, around ... read more

So the past couple of days have not been so good. It seems like right after I wrote my last entry I became sick with stomach aches, bowl movements, a sore throat and a runny nose. I also felt extremely fatigued and weak, so I slept a lot. I missed 3 days of volunteer work, and basically slept all of these days and didn't do much else. I couldn't eat much either, and every time we went out to eat, I began to feel sick to my stomach and extremely hot, and usually had to leave Cami at the diner by herself while I went back to our room to lie down. All the friends we had made while we here here suddenly seemed less interesting, and all I wanted to do was be in my ... read more