Paris 2018

October 12-14, 2018

I realize I never finished posting the next few parts of my Bilbao trip from July, but I do make these trips frequently enough that I just didn't feel like continuing the posts.  If anyone wants me to finish posting about the trip I will, I just don't feel it's necessary right now.  I really just want to focus on getting my Paris trip done and out of the way because it was already a month ago, and I really should have posted sooner.

So here goes.  A post about my adventures in Paris last month.

Euskadi 2018 - Part 1

July 2-10, 2018.

It's that time again!

Time for me to post about a recent trip, even if it's one I make every year now.  It's always a long time coming, but it's so much better for me to make it at least once a year instead of once every who-knows-how-long.  I promised my best friend, and myself, two years ago that I'd make this a regular thing, and I will keep that promise.

I booked the tickets in March or April, about the same time I booked the tickets to the Philippines, after talking to my best friend about the dates, and when she confirmed they'd work for her, I booked them, and when the time came, off I went.

My flight left at 10 PM out of JFK, so I'm not really counting that day as a travel day, since only about 2 hours were actually covered, fewer if you count in the time difference that inevitably occurred within two hours of flying east.

SE Asia 2018, June 7-11 - Day 5, Oslob

June 11.

Probably my favorite day of the entire 4 that I spent in the Philippines was this one.  We left around the same time we left to go to Moalboal a few days earlier and arrived at our destination at about the same time, if not earlier.  The only pit stop was for a half-hour Jollibee run, because you're not in Asia without going to Jollibee, which is basically fast food, but instead of getting fries with everything you get rice.  You may be able to order fries too, but you basically get rice.  Because it's Asia, and it's not a meal unless there's rice.

Anyway, we made the drive down to Oslob, a trip complete with inside jokes, made all the better by the fact that the days of the week in Cebuano are the same as they are in Spanish, so that was fun.

I'm still a little hesitant about this entry because it deals with the apparently controversial topic of swimming with whale sharks, so if you absolutely believe that swimming with whale sharks is bad even though you are not a certified marine biologist, you can let me know.  Or don't.  I kind of don't really care.  I just know it's controversial, but as someone who's had a thing for whale sharks and marine life since I was a little kid, and after seeing the experience first-hand, I have some thoughts about the pros and cons of how the Oslob whale shark experience is handled.  If you are a marine biologist and have your opinion as a trained expert in the situation, you are even more welcome to share your opinions.

SE Asia 2018, June 7-11 - Day 4, Cebu City

June 10.

After the craziness that was the trip to Moalboal the day before, Sunday was a day for relaxation.  Kind of.  We stayed local like Friday, exploring a few more places, like a Filipino shopping mall at the SM Seaside and Sirao Gardens.

There's not much to say about the mall; the SM Seaside is basically a Filipino version of Westfield malls, since it's high class (they have a Benefit store if you're a makeup junkie, only it's one of the few stores where the products are more expensive than they are in the US) and massive, and they have them all over the country.  I actually really enjoy the shopping experiences abroad though, and I'm not one to complain that I'm taken to a mall when I only have 4 days in a country.  SM Seaside is big but comfortable, as there's actually a rooftop park with jungle gyms and play areas for kids as well as walking paths and views of Cebu. It's places like this that really make you feel like you made the right decision in hanging out with locals.

Plus I got a new phone case and tempered glass screen protector for my Galaxy S8 at a fraction of what it would cost in the US.  So there's that.

SE Asia 2018, June 7-11 - Day 3, Moalboal

June 9.

I was told that it would be an early morning, but since I didn't need too long to get ready, I was woken up shortly before we were ready to leave.  I'd been told that there would be multiple family members going, but when I opened the door to confirm that I was ready to leave whenever everyone else was, I saw that the entire family, almost literally, was coming with us, and we weren't riding in a caravan.  We would be traveling Filipino-style, which means everyone piles into the back end of a truck with benches, towels, pillows and blankets, and enjoys the drive to wherever we're headed.  It wasn't something I expected at all, because we just don't do it that way in the Western world, but far be it from me to complain about something that the vast majority of the world seems to do without blinking an eye.  And hey, when in Rome.  I'm not one to complain about things being different, or weird, I just simply accept that things are different in other places and I'm perfectly okay with that and will happily go along with it.  It didn't feel any more dangerous to be on the back of that truck than it would in a normal car, and besides, I was with people legitimately having fun and enjoying themselves, and who was I to ruin their fun?  So I got into the truck, sat down, and enjoyed the trip that ended up taking way longer than an hour and a half (not like I was counting, or complaining).  So there I was, in a truck with 29 other people (no lie, we were 30 people), headed to the beach.

SE Asia 2018, June 7-11 - Day 2, Cebu City

June 8, 2018.

Thanks to jet lag and an early sun, I woke up at about 6 am the next morning.  In the daylight I got to meet my friend's family, and we walked across the street so I could meet some more ants and uncles as well as her grandparents, was offered some Filipino coffee (which I am now currently obsessed with), and began plotting out the day.

The original plan for this morning was to head up to Malapascua and Kalanggaman, two islands with stunning beaches that are pretty well-known in the Philippines, but due to weather (the Tropical Storm I'd experienced in Hong Kong) it was postponed.  This then changed to Bantayan, another island with great beaches that is well-known in the country, where we'd planned on going the next day.  Today was just going to be exploring Cebu City and some surrounding areas.  Cebu is the oldest city in the Philippines and is called the Queen City of the South.  It was "founded" in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for Spain (despite being Portuguese, as many of us well know, not that it ultimately makes a difference).

SE Asia 2018, June 7-11 - Day 1, Hong Kong

Day 1, June 7.

I got back from my week-long trip to Southeast Asia (Hong Kong and the Philippines specifically) on Tuesday night, and have been steadily recovering from jet lag ever since.  It's actually not as bad as I was expecting considering the 12-hour time difference and 15+-hour travel time both ways, but it's there.  It wakes me up at 4 in the morning, makes me want to crawl into bed at 5 pm, and other awkward things, but it's really not too bad.  It's incredibly worth it considering the absolutely amazing experience that I had for the very short week.

The trip had been in the works for about a year, when a Filipina co-worker mentioned that she was going to be going home this summer and was looking at flights.  We'd become pretty good friends, and I'd mentioned always wanting to go to the Philippines due to having a grandfather who served there as a medic during WWII as well as having a very close friend who's of Filipino descent.  It's a country that I feel that I owed it to myself and the people in my life to visit, and I loved the idea of visiting someone on her home turf.  Most people might think that's a little weird, and most people probably wouldn't even understand my eagerness and willingness to take this trip, but again, I wanted to go for personal reasons.  The main problem of course ended up being timing, both in the season I'd be going (the rainy season in most of Asia lasts from June through August, as I attested to in India last year) and the duration of the trip (5 days off work, 7 days give-or-take total).  But I didn't care, because the opportunity arose and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't take the chance.

So once my friend told me her tickets were booked sometime in March or April for most of June (since she'd be there for 3 weeks), I began seriously looking at tickets myself.  I'd told her I'd visit her early on in our conversations, and I think part of her may have doubted the seriousness of my desire, but in the end, she became very excited that I really was serious and that I was looking at flights.

The best and most convenient tickets were through Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific, and when I saw that I had two options for layovers: 4 hours or 11 hours, I decided to go with the 11-hour layover for the flight out, since it meant I could check another country off my list.  So I booked the tickets, and the planning began.

Toronto

May 11-13, 2018

May 11.

My apologies that isn't going to be a typical "travel blog entry" since in a way it was more of a personal trip and less of a touristy one or a trip for travelling's sake.  I'm still debating whether to actually publish this or not for this reason.  But I'll type it up anyway to see where it goes.

I actually started this blog when I was living in Toronto with my parents in 2011.  They were working as managers for a youth program with our missions organization that handles 18-20-year-olds from Germany who used to be required to do military service, or in the case of abstaining, could do a volunteer year.  Our organization set them up with programs with inner-city or other cultural communities in Toronto and my parents managed them.  Military service is no longer required, but many kids still use the organizations to do volunteer work in the time between high school and college.  I didn't have a job, couldn't find one since I graduated in 2010 at the height of the recession and so I went to spend some time in Toronto with them.  Got involved with a German family with our organization who worked with the Bangladeshi community there, as they had spent time doing missions in Bangladesh and spoke Bengali.  It was truly an eye-opening experience for me and I can definitely look back on that time and say that I learned a lot and it was overall a good experience to have as I could at least be somewhat productive despite the fact that I couldn't work, having no work papers or even having skills necessary to even apply for a work permit (story of my life, really).

One of my brothers was with us as well, and he volunteered at a local house for refugees, and ended up meeting and falling in love with a Peruvian-Canadian girl and married her, and he lives and works in Toronto still in a tailor shop.  Being as the last time I was in Toronto was in November 2011 for his wedding, I felt it was high time to head back up there for a visit.  I took my travel buddy, and had a great time.  Tickets to Toronto from New York are super cheap, and the airline Porter is perfect for short or long trips, as the flight itself is only between 1-2 hours max (usually an hour and a half), as opposed to an 8-hour drive and dealing with immigration at the border.  Immigration at an airport is a far easier process.

So we headed to Newark after work, had a slightly delayed flight, and landed in Toronto around 10:30 pm, and my brother came to pick us up.  Billy Bishop, the city airport of Toronto, is super nice and convenient since it's right in the city, and it's small enough that immigration is a cinch.  Porter even gave us Lindt chocolate, offering high-cacao bars plus dark chocolate Lindor truffles.  So yeah, Porter is pretty awesome.  Anyway, my brother lives in the Parkdale neighborhood off King Street, about a 10 minute drive from the airport.  We got caught up for a bit because I hadn't seen him since January when he came down after Christmas with his wife, and then went to bed on his pull-out couch.

London 2018

April 20-22, 2018.

April 20.

I'm going to skip Madrid 2016 for the time being and go ahead and get to my London adventure from last weekend, since I'm trying to stay as on top of my trips as possible from now on.

This was a weekend trip we'd booked back in February or March or so when the flight deals were crazy cheap.  We figured a weekend in London with no time off work would be fun because most people wouldn't even consider it, but we're pros at A. traveling on a budget and B. traveling while short on time.  Neither of us had been there in years: 18 for me, ever since a layover from Spain back to the US when I was 14 and it was our first time going back to the US after spending 2 1/2 years in Spain.  So a long time.  I've always wanted to go back because it's London, and why not?

Little did we know the actual adventure we were about to have.  We've now decided that anytime the two of us travel together (my friend/travel buddy will be referred to as "S" from now on to make it easier) it'll be an adventure.

Barcelona 2016

Barcelona 2016.

August 25-30.

August 25.

So now for the entry that you I have been waiting for.  This was my first trip back to Barcelona in a little over six years, and it was a long time coming, especially considering the love I have for this city that I haven't made any attempts to hide in the amount of time I've had this blog.  Barcelona is one of my all-time favorite cities in the world for various reasons, and I wasn't about to let any chance to go back go.

My time as an au pair had come to an end, as school was starting for the kiddos at the end of August, and I think the family was getting kind of sick of me in the end anyway.  I'm not good with kids, and I didn't speak enough English with them as was expected, and even though I did leave on good terms (I believe), it's not an experience I'd go into again.  It was a great learning experience, and it did teach me patience and how to be a better guest, but I'm just not cut out for those kinds of environments.

Anyway, the family dropped me off at the train station in Castellón, where there were some tears on the kiddos' parts (which I'll admit was really nice, because they were sweet kids and the family was definitely one of the better ones I could have been with).  I bought my tickets to Barcelona, where I had booked a hotel for four nights right by the Estació de Sants.

If you're not familiar with Barcelona, there are two main train stations: Sants and França.  França is generally the one geared toward European destinations and Sants toward domestic/Spanish ones.  I've never actually been to França, which says a lot about how I travel, but what can you do.  [I should mention there's another train station, Catalunya, right underneath the Plaça de Catalunya, but it's for regional trains within Catalunya, and I've been through that station; when I went up to Terrassa in 2010.]

Sevilla 2016

July 15-18, 2016.

July 15.

One of the great things about spending that summer in Spain was being able to see my best friend more often than I would normally, being based in the US and all.  My best friend had notified me early on that she'd be in Sevilla during the third weekend in July, my second week in Castellón.  The family I was staying with had a wedding and were going to be off of work, so I asked if I could go to Sevilla to spend some time with my best friend, whose husband was also going to be in town since some friends of his were going to be in Sevilla, and since it was the same country that my best friend is in, they met up there.  They had a long-distance relationship, her being in Bilbao and him being in Paris, so any opportunity they got to be in the same country for whatever reason they took.  And I really wanted to meet him, so I was so glad to be able to make this trip.  That and the fact that I hadn't been in Sevilla in over eight years, since my family left in 2009 and I was last there in 2008.  Win-win.

The family dropped me off at the train station in Valencia where I could spend the night before getting on the next AVE to Sevilla first thing in the morning.  It was my first time in Valencia and it was only for a few hours, but it worked out.  I stayed at a really nice Airbnb that was a bit of a hike from the train station, but worth it, because I got to see a little bit of Valencia that way.  Not a whole lot, and I'm sure one day I'll go back, but so far so good.

The Airbnb was basically a kind of guest house/hostel situation, but it was nice, and the hostess was glad to have another Spanish speaker, but once she left I got invited to dinner with two of the other renters for the night, two guys from Germany and Austria who were taking a van trip across Spain for a few weeks for funsies.  What made it really interesting was the fact that it was the same night of the coup in Turkey, and the guy from Austria was of Turkish descent, so he had a legitimate freak-out, and we also discussed current events in my home country.  I always feel like I'm tooting my own horn or thinking too highly of myself when I talk about my conversation skills with Europeans, but the fact of the matter is, Europeans really enjoy talking to Americans who know their stuff.  After the madness in the news died down a bit, I went to bed, since I had an early train to catch and wanted sleep.

Bilbao 2016, Part 2

Bilbao 2016, Part 2.

June 6.

I didn't realize how long this would be when I started writing this, but I'm going to keep going and using the same header image, because I can.

Anyway.

June 6th started with a partly cloudy day threatening rain, but it cleared up quite nicely, which worked out great because I'd told my best friend that I really wanted to go to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, because I hadn't been there in 16 years.  And it's absolutely stunning, completely unmissable.

That morning we walked along the cliffs that lead out over the Bay of Biscay, and it's a nice walk from my best friend's house.  It has beautiful views of the sea and the cliffs, as well as the main port.

Bilbao 2016, Part 1

Bilbao, 2016.  Part 1.

June 1-15, 2016.

June 1.

I'm not going to say "by popular demand" because no one has requested it.  But I've been thinking about it, and figured I might as well.  This trip was a huge deal for me and was a long time coming, as before I started "catching up" on my travels, the second-to-last post I made was me sharing that I was going back after six years.  If you've followed this blog (and me) since the beginning, you know what I mean.

I grew up in this city.  Well, kind of.  I actually spent two-and-a-half years more or less in Leioa/Getxo (lived in Leioa, went to school in Getxo, and my friends lived in Getxo) which is a municipality northeast of Bilbao along the river.  It marked my childhood and my life in countless ways, not least of all because I met my longtime best friend here, who's still managed to be a part of my life despite so much time away.

After going through some dismal experiences in my life that I won't go into (some self-inflicted due to poor decision making and others slightly less so), I really, really needed this trip.  I was working at Toys R Us at the time (R.I.P.) and had two weeks vacation, and booked this trip before I even knew that our department was closing.  And when I found out, in made me even happier to be going.  That train ride to JFK after pulling a half-day at work was one of the most exciting experiences I'd had in recent years, and I'm one of those people who loves the lead-up and travel to the airport in general (I guess I'm weird, but whatever).

So anyway, I got to JFK, albeit a bit early, and sat, and waited for the plane to arrive, board, and take off.

Washington, D.C.

March 2-4

March 2.

Well, we're at the last major trip I've taken up till now.  After this, it'll be me talking about prior trips (I'm considering Bilbao 2016 and then Barcelona/Madrid 2016, maybe even possibly Bilbao 2017) and my upcoming/recently completed trips.

I've never been to DC, and I think it's great that my friend/travel buddy has family in cities like Boston who are more than willing to have someone like me join my friend on her trips, because I get it, sometimes having an extra person whom you don't know in your house can be kind of daunting, but it sounds like she talks about me to her family and they feel like they can trust me, so I'm okay with that.

Anyway, we booked the bus tickets and headed up after work to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to head down there.  We had some really nasty weather that day in New York; one of those really nasty sleet storms, that's half rain and half snow, plus lots of wind.  We heard rumors that down in DC it was also really bad, but no word on any cancelled buses, so we left.

Well, we got into Delaware on I-95, and we stopped at a rest area to switch drivers.  It was then announced that all traffic on I-95 by the Chesapeake Bridge that spans the DC metro area was closed off.  So we were stuck in Delaware until further notice.  It's 9:30 pm by this point, and I'm exhausted, my friend is exhausted, and I didn't have the energy to care one way or the other what was going on.  My friend wasn't having any of it after all, she decided, so she was going to do something crazy.  It's always an adventure.

Mexico City

February 2-4, 2018

February 2.

My friend and I have now decided that once a month we're going to go somewhere, anywhere, and she decided to "give" me a trip to Mexico City, and she went to Oslo the weekend prior.  I needed warmth, sun, and Spanish.  She was originally going to go with me but her flight plans fell through, so it was just me.  Thankfully I'm totally okay being a solo traveler, even though the majority of my solo travels involves me going somewhere to meet up with someone.  It helps if there's no language barrier, but I can still find my way around regardless.  Language barriers are non-existent for me in Mexico aside from some dialectal differences, but no big deal.

I had already been to Mexico four years prior on a work trip that took me to Puebla for two weeks, along with a day and a half in Mexico City.  I fell in love with it; Puebla being absolutely gorgeous, and Mexico City was just as fascinating.  I called out sick that morning while at the airport (because it was a 6 am flight), and landed in CDMX shortly after 12, local time.

Martinique

December 8-10, 2017.

December 8.

This trip came about sometime in November, when my friend (the one who showed me around Israel) found super cheap tickets through Norwegian Air to Martinique in December.  Before we went to Israel we were talking down by the shore (that's the Jersey Shore) about a flight to Iceland for $99, and I wasn't willing to book.  She then found the tickets to Martinique after we got back, and told me flat-out that I was not going to balk this time.  The prices were far too good to beat, and I had never been to the Caribbean, so I paid up and marked my calendar.

I called off work, went to the train station to head to Manhattan, where we met up to head to JFK together.  We realized in Israel that we have very similar travel styles, though she's still more "adventurous" than I am in the sense that she's way more of a backpacker type than I am, though we still prefer culture to dealing with tourists and resorts (we are not resort people).  While there's nothing inherently wrong with that, in the course of reading this blog and any future posts I might make, you will definitely see that I do not like the resort/luxury lifestyle.  I'm not bitter about the luxury part, I just don't like the idea of resorts simply because the idea of "all-inclusive" does not appeal to me.  I don't want to just sit on a beach all day and not deal with anything else.  I could definitely spend all day at the beach, but I also want, and need, to experience culture.  It's imperative.  I can't just go to another country or another place with another culture and not see it or smell it.  If I ever do, I could never claim to have been to that place.  Like I took a work trip to Dallas once, and never left the Hilton.  So while I can say I flew to Dallas, maybe that I spent some time in Dallas, I've never actually been to Dallas.

Anyway, I got super excited about this trip because a. it was my first ever trip to the Caribbean, b. Martinique is a French island.  So it's literally like going to Europe, and I can work with that.

I was actually pretty impressed with Norwegian.  It's absolutely a budget airline and they remind you of that, but it's pretty comfortable for being one and they don't pretend to be something they're not.  I also appreciated the free WiFi on the plane, even if it just wasn't very good.  At least it was something.

Israel

October 16-20, 2017.

October 16.

One of the benefits to working for an Israeli company based in New York is that every once in a while, they give us trips overseas.  In this case, as our company celebrated 10 years, they offered everyone in the company the chance to go to Israel for a week (four days for those of us in the Customer Service department, because of course).  Being in Customer Service not all of us could go, but I was one of the first people to sign up because there is no way I'm turning down a free trip to another country.  No way.  And because I got promoted within the department, I was essentially guaranteed a spot on the trip, which was only made better by the fact that my new friend at the company also happens to be Israeli, and insisted I go where she goes, and because she's been to far more interesting places than I have, I wasn't turning that opportunity down.  Plus she's really cool and we've become really good friends outside of a work environment.  Which essentially turned into us doing our own thing instead of whatever it was the company had planned for us.

So I got to work early on Friday morning, my little suitcase behind me, as I took the bus in since there was no way I was paying for parking for four nights.

When we left work we had a shuttle bus waiting outside the office on 7th Ave to take us into Newark Airport, and my friend and I, being the seasoned travelers we are, split from the group once we led everyone through security and grabbed sushi and drinks while we waited for our 10 o'clock flight to board.

India 2017, part 4 - Rajasthan (and Mumbai)

Rajasthan and last day in Mumbai, August 12-15.
August 12.

We left early in the morning, a bit begrudgingly because Agra was by far our best experience in India up to that point.  The guide, the hotel, the city itself far surpassed our expectations.  But we had an itinerary to keep, so we headed off on the national highway towards Jaipur, a cultural and historical capital in Rajasthan, a few hundred miles to the southeast.  It seemed that the city of Agra itself was never-ending, and a few people kept asking when we'd end up on the highway.  My best friend's husband pointed out that we were on a highway.  It was just a national highway, and since the Agra-Jaipur road isn't as touristy as New Delhi-Agra, it wasn't a fancy Western-style highway like the one we'd been on on our way to Agra.  It was basically like driving through back roads, with no lane dividers, so you'd get experiences like this:

Yeah...

Seriously, roads in India technically have the same rules we do in the West (only they drive on the left side instead of the right, like in the UK), only they're really more "guidelines than actual rules", to quote Pirates of the Caribbean.  I really don't think I could ever complain about traffic in New York City or New Jersey ever again.

India 2017, part 3 - Agra

Agra, August 10-11, 2017

The night before we left for Agra, we found out that the Taj Mahal was closed on Fridays.  After going over the trip itinerary we found that our trip to the Taj Mahal was actually scheduled for Fridays.  Now, we may have have been able to forgive the planning for the Red Fort, even though it was only about a week before Independence Day (though they probably still should have known, or advised that it might be closed in the lead-up to the holiday), but it was pretty hard to forgive them for planning a trip to the Taj Mahal on a Friday, since it's always been closed on Fridays (being a Muslim monument and all).  My best friend and her husband were irate.  So we decided we'd go to the Taj Mahal on Thursday, the day we'd arrive, instead of Friday, because that was an impossibility, and you know, it's the Taj Mahal.  We went to bed early, planning for an early start to the day so we could get to Agra as soon as possible, and enjoy the Taj Mahal.

August 10.

India 2017, part 2 - New Delhi

New Delhi, August 7-9, 2017.

August 7.

We woke up early the next morning to head to the Pune airport to catch our flight to New Delhi, way up in the north.  It's about a 3-1/2-hour flight, spanning a couple hundred miles.  India doesn't look that big on a map, but it is quite large.  And I'm from the US, which is still larger.  I think the Europeans were probably a bit more shocked at the size, since Spain is about the size of Texas, and again, Americans have a much different concept on large-ness, since we really do have so. much. space. here that we don't even realize it most of the time.

Anyway, for reference:

Pune is just east of Mumbai, and New Delhi is in the state of Delhi right between the states of Haryana to the West and Uttar Pradesh to the East.

We landed in New Delhi, and the climate changed dramatically.  There was a perpetual gray haze (I actually typed out "graze" because I basically made up a word to describe what it was) with a stifling humidity, with temperatures in the mid-90s (low-40s if you're a Celsius person like most of the world).  Now, I love me some humidity.  Like, people actually make fun of me because of how much I love it.  And even I got to thinking the humidity in New Delhi was a bit much, and we got to stand around for an hour waiting for our tour bus to show up, only to have it be too small for all our luggage (we replaced it the next day).  The bus had air conditioning, and we were all happy campers.

I still love humidity though, and will still take August in New Delhi weather over freezing blizzards any day of the year.

What it looks like to fly from Pune to New Delhi.

India 2017, part 1 - Flight to Doha --> Pune

So it really has been over a year since I've posted anything on here.  Wow.  Okay.

Well, here's my attempt to resurrect this blog from the dead, and bring you something I finally feel like I'm qualified to do, since I left the country four times last year (2017) and I'm on my way to breaking that personal record this year (I think it's a personal record, at least it is pre-high school, where I switched countries so much people still don't believe me).  I'm going to turn this into a travel blog.  Woohoo!

I'm not setting out to make anything viral-worthy or anything like that, just write about the personal experiences I've had while leaving the country.  I feel like some people might actually want to read that, and if no one does, at least it'll just be for my own benefit, because hey, maybe one day I'll actually forget all this stuff or wish I still had that life again or something like that.  Living vicariously through my memories or something like that I guess.

So anyway.  I'm going to skip my trip to Spain in July, not because Spain is boring or anything, but because that was a whirlwind trip that was short for my standards (six days, one being spent traveling) and it was really a set up to the next trip.  India, three weeks later.  So to run this down, my favorite person in the whole wide world, otherwise known as my best friend whom I've known since I was thirteen, got married.  Making me feel like a loser in terms of life choices, but in all seriousness, she's my favorite person in the world and I love her to bits and I had to do everything I possibly could to share in her special day(s) so I went to Spain for a week for her Spanish wedding, and then three weeks later I was on another flight to India (by way of Doha, Qatar), to go to her Indian wedding, since she married an Indian guy.

So here goes.  I'm going to break this up into various parts, because it was a nearly-two-week trip filled with craziness and wonder that if I don't split it up I'll go crazy and you all who decide to read this are going to go crazy too.

Part one, of India 2017.  Flight to Doha, flight to Mumbai, and Pune.  August 3-6, 2017.