Jub and Anna

Greetings! Since last writing, we've returned home to reality, but we are determined to finish our blog entries ... so here we go. From Chisinau, we caught a cheap flight to the northern Baltic outpost of Riga, Latvia. Riga's reputation as a destination for British stag parties precedes it, so we weren't alarmed when we arrived in Old Town to the sounds of drunken raucousness. Indeed, the mayor has recently threatened to kick stag parties out of town after a string of “urinating on the Riga Freedom Monument” incidents, which, given the history of the country is completely understandable. And, it seems, the local mob has taken advantage of the boisterous drunks so many times that even the US Department of State warns against frequenting certain bars and clubs, which have been reported to coax men ... read more

Greetings! Our time in Turkey was far too brief. Having only a few weeks to explore a country that is worthy of months, we chose to stick to two highlights: Istanbul and Cappadocia. In the end, we were glad to have seen two very different sides of Turkey, but are definitely planning another trip to Turkey sometime in our future to give the country its due. When we touched down, spring had sprung and Istanbul was chockablock with blooming cherry trees, tulips and lilacs. Judging from the plastic masks worn by every single airport worker and the dirty looks we received at the Istanbul airport (this coming from Israel, which reported only one case), you'd think Swine Flue had sprung, too. We eventually checked into one of the many boutiquey hotels cluttering the cobblestone streets near ... read more

Greetings! Here's the lowdown on our week in Jordan, the most pleasant surprise of our trip thus far--particularly since it wasn't even on our original itinerary. We arrived in Jordan via ferry across the Red Sea, landing at the Port of Aqaba with several dozen Christian package tourists (the "Christ Died for Your Sins" t-shirts and reading aloud of biblical passages re: the parting of said sea were the giveaways) who were all quickly shuttled through immigration and onto waiting buses before the port officials finally stamped our passports, and we headed outside to a parking lot devoid of taxis. We continued walking to the main road, where a Jordanian man looking expectantly in both directions told us he'd been waiting twenty minutes for a cab, and that they came through sporadically, at best. He chatted ... read more

Greetings! "India: Week Four" was a frantic but ultimately successful effort to visit the country's far north and south before catching a flight to Egypt (although we weren't able to squeeze in a trip to Indian's northeast, the Bollywood version of which looks awesome in this clip, our favorite song from our time in India). Our first stop was Amritsar, up near the border with Pakistan, to visit the Golden Temple--the holiest site in the Sikh religion. Amritsar itself was nothing special, but the temple was an absolute highlight of our time in India. The complex is stunning--a stark white ring of colonial-style buildings and opposing clock towers surrounding a white marble walkway and crystal-clear pool, with the small, ornate temple and its hundred and fifty kilos of gold glimmering resplend... read more

Greetings - Three weeks in and we are still loving India, which keeps finding new ways to awe us and keep us on our toes. On day eight, we flew from Varanasi to Khajuraho, where we spent the afternoon exploring around--and blushing at--the town's two dozen eleventh century erotic temples. The original inspiration for the three tiered, two-foot high carvings chiseled into Khajuraho's fleet of red sandstone temples has been lost to history (or so we learned while listening to an audio tour on early 80's Casio Walkmans before Anna's ate her tape), but the stunning, deeply-recessed images include thousands of men and woman in various states of undress, and many more depicting scenes that rival anything found in the Kama Sutra. (We found ourselves asking, "would an elephant really do that with its trunk?" ). ... read more