Back in the UK

Hey A,

Well my 3 week stay in the states quickly turned into 6 fun filled weeks but now i'm back in the UK trying to find a job and somewhere I want to live.

While Liverpool has really nice people, a reputation of awesome nightlife and lots of history with both the Beatles and the Titanic i'm not convinced it's where I want to be.

So for the past few days I have been visiting my good friend from Australia Liz and checking out Bristol where she currently lives.  After a massive feast of the best Chinese food outside of China with very full tummies we slowly strolled back to Liz's along the river and I realised this has to be my next place to call home.

The Bristol job hunt is now on....so stayed tuned!

Loved seeing you and miss you heaps 

E xx

Milwaukee&Madison

In an effort to fill Emma's time with places and things she has never seen or done, we headed to Milwaukee on Sunday to visit my cousin and cousin-in-law (James & Abby).  After seeing the sights and staying the night, we headed over to the Madison area to show Emma some of our favorite spots.  


The highlights of Milwaukee (besides Abby & James of course!) include shopping on Brady Street and in the Third Ward, and taking Emma to the Safe House.  

We were sent on a mission all over the restaurant and luckily we had Abby who is a pro since she has been there so many times!  You can read more about the Safe House here.


In the Madison area we took Emma to the Mustard Museum, Mount Horeb and the Grumpy Troll, and the Henry Villas Zoo (which she loved!).  I had all kinds of other little stops planned, but the weather was freezing and we were ready to be home again.  

I am sure Emma will have lots to tell you about the zoo!  

S'Mores

I have introduced Emma to one of my most favorite foods of all time... S'Mores!  When I found out she hadn't heard of a s'more, and obviously had never eaten one, I had Paul fire up the Saffire grill so we could remedy the situation.  

Emma loves them!  I knew she would... and finally it was something that I talked up that exceeded the expectations!

We have added s'mores to the menu quite a few times lately... Yum!

Road-trippin'

Well hello!  Emma has been here for three weeks now and the time flew by so quickly that she decided to stay for another few weeks!  Lucky me!  It isn't everyday you get to spend time with your best-friend who lives half the world away.  


As Emma previously stated, we hit the road to knock out two more states on our quest to hit all 50!  Indiana and Michigan.  These were my highlights on the trip...


The Indiana Dunes Park...

New Buffalo, Michigan...

Amish Area (Shipshewana and Middlebury) 

The pretzels that we had at Ben's pretzels were out of this world!  I want to drive all the way back there right now just to get another pretzel (plus it was free pretzel Friday!  bonus!).  


We ended the trip at Paul's sister's apartment with dinner at an Asian-fusion place and a night on the town!  Needless to say the trip was a lot of fun... and we were blessed with perfect weather to top it off!  

On The Road Again..

Hey fellow roadtripper,
I'm so excited to be in the United States of Anna (America) again and already dreading the day I have to leave.

Even though the Indiana Dunes weren't exactly what I was expecting as someone seriously talked them up they were still great to see!! I had never seen beaches before with bare trees do that was a first for me.

Our next big stop...Amish Country!! Well that was an experience. I loved seeing the traditional clothes and horse drawn buggies instead of cars. While I'm not ready to throw away my shopping malls or even a car for a bonnet and buggy yet I adore their warm soft pretzel and they have some pretty amazing cheese too.

Our roadtrip ended with a very fun night out in Merrillville, Indiana with Annah and Brian. Steak n Shake is definitely a life saver!!!
Love E xx

Welcome Emma!

Emma is here!  I like to create a big to-do at the airport to make her feel very welcome in the good old USA...

I feel like with each visit the signs get a little better and the wording gets a little more creative!

Another very exciting surprise... the package Emma sent me from India arrived in the mail the same day that she arrived at the airport!

Evidently the gentleman that she paid to package the present "in a box" and send it "by air" wasn't listening... he sent it via sea and sewed it into a canvas satchel!

At least it arrived safe and sound, just like Emma did!

All Good Things Must Come To An End...

Hey A,
I can't believe its over! Our three month adventure ended where it began in Delhi but instead of sightseeing we were shopping and finally getting to see an English movie...Moneyball with Brad Pitt..love him!! India really wore us down and there we were in our prepaid taxi ten minutes from the hotel on the way to the airport and the tyre blows. The driver wouldn't refund our money or get us another taxi so we were stuck on the side of the road watching him change it, along with the usual male crowd. As a result of three months in India this followed by a lot of yelling and crazy driving, we are lucky to be alive.
I had never heard of Saudi Arabian Airlines until I saw their super cheap flight from Delhi to London on cleartrip.com. I was expecting a budget airline with the price of the flight but it was super nice. Lots of leg room and complimentary meals. They even have a prayer room and Muhammads prayer when taking off for those men walking around the plane in white towels and sheets! Besides all of that if you don't mind being stared at I would recommend them to fly with.
We had a seven hour stop over in Jeddah's most basic airport and a food voucher to survive on as the only food outlet wouldn't take credit card or Indian Rupees so I had to work a little magic to get some decent food! Haha. We managed a nap somehow and were again happy we had purchased sleeping bags and travel pillows before leaving Brisbane.
Each with a 20kg backpack and a suitcase we struggled through the London Underground to the Railway station for our two hour train ride to Liverpool.
So Liverpool is my new home. It's a smaller city than I expected but it has a lot of old English charm and some of my favorite stores as well as a Beatles Museum.
I can't wait til you visit so I can show you but first I'll being seeing you in my home away from home Rockford!!
Love E

One Week From Today!

One week from today and you arrive in the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I cannot wait to see all your pictures from India and hear all your stories!  I have SO much fun stuff planned!  (That picture above, I think we are at Alpha in Beijing, well, I will be so excited to see you that I will do the snap dance like I am doing in that picture!)  

Never Before Have I....

Hey there,
Since we are leaving India today Lish and I have been playing this game we created called "Never before have I..."
Turns out it's a little more difficult for me after our time in China, I'm sure you understand why!!
So here's a few of our favorites...enjoy!!

Never before have I...
- seen so many women wearing such brightly colored saris and men wearing skirts
- seen traffic jams full of pedestrians, rickshaws, tuk tuks and cars unable to move
- heard so many horns blaring unnecessarily I think my hearing has been permanently effected
- eaten so much dirt in my cornflakes
- seen people eating with their hands then ferociously licking them clean as if it was a delicious dessert
- seen camels overloaded as work vehicles
- been in a tuk tuk which is about to collide head on with a group of cows sitting in the middle of the road
- seen such beauty and such filth combined in the one landscape
- seen people jumping out of the way of cows running through the street
- seen such cruelty to animals
- seen a dead body wrapped in a blanket carried through busy streets
- had the pleasure of viewing a young boy standing on a fence taking a poo
- had so many people putting their hands out for money rather than getting a job or going to school
- seen so many people manipulating others for a free hand out
- been around so many stray dogs laying on roads and roofs
- seen an Indian woman urinate standing up and only holding her sari slightly off the ground then leave without wiping or shaking!!
- dropped the standards of food I am willing to eat to a ridiculous low
- shared a naan with a cow at the train station
- been surrounded by so many men who do nothing but stare and ogle at me
- been viewed frequently as a dollar sign
- seen people bath and wash their clothes and dishes in dirty river water where rubbish and body parts are dumped
- watched a body burn on the side of the Ganges River and feel like I've taken an ash shower
- enjoyed watching movies I couldn't understand a word of

Going Batty!

Dear Emma:


Things have been a little "batty" around here lately.  


First off, we had a really heavy snow!  It was pretty but wet and it only lasted for a few days.

Then we celebrated Grandma Kapfer's birthday.  The next day Chelly and Jaron got engaged, and that leads us to now...


Last night Paul and I were supposed to get a lot of edging done.  We are having a paint party tonight with his parents and my parents, so that we can have the kitchen and living room all painted and awesome by the time you arrive next week.  In order to keep up with Paul's painting plan we needed to get that edging done.  Well anyways, Paul was down in the basement getting our rollers and pans and then suddenly I heard him running up the stairs... "There is a bat."  "WHAT?!?!? AHHHH NOOOOOO.... should I call my dad, should you call your dad?!?!"  Paul armed himself with a broom, gloves, and a plastic bag and ventured downstairs.  He hunted that bat for almost two hours to no avail.  I even had to stomp around upstairs hoping it would motivate the bat out of hiding... it didn't (and let me just tell you that the stomping hurt my tailbone... I forgot to tell you I fell down my stairs when I found out that Chel was engaged and I have a bruised tailbone).  


Finally we gave up on the bat for the night.  We decided to run to Taco Bell for some quick food since our night was going so horribly wrong and when we got back to the house we shut our house key in the garage and were locked out in the rain.  Luckily Paul's dad came over with the spare key and we made it into the house.  


I am so mad at that bat!  


Can't wait to see you!  1 week and 1 day!


Love-Anna

Varanasi and the Ganges River

Hey hey,
I had been super keen to visit Varanasi ever since I saw a documentary about it starring famous Australian Andrew Dado back in his prime.

Varanasi was our last stop on our three month adventure. I think if we had of visited here first we may have been on the first planes out of India. It's a very confronting place to visit with death and the dying really in your face. Varanasi is situated on the Ganges River which is considered by the Indians to be Holy. To me there is nothing holy about a black river where rubbish is dumped and people bath and wash their clothes (hopefully not ours!!) but we all have our beliefs.

The Hindus believe that if they are cremated here they will go to heaven regardless if they have been good or bad in this life. However there are some exceptions for example children under five, pregnant woman, victims of snake bites and those with diseases are not cremated they have weights tied to their body and are thrown in the Ganges.
Cremations are done around the clock in public at either two Ghats along the river. There is a podium which those of a high caste are burnt and those of a lower caste are burnt along the dirty banks of the river. We watched a body wrapped in white resting on a bamboo stretcher ducked in the river then after about half and hour placed on top of log fire. Only the men attend the cremation while the woman wait at home.
The smell of flesh burning, the intense smoke and the foot painted red poking out from flames are permanently pressed into my memory.
If this all wasn't confronting enough there were dogs poking through the rubbish and chewing on things I can only assume to be body parts from the fire.
We walked away nauseous, stunned by what we had witnessed and covered in ash very eager for a shower.

From a distance Varanasi and the Ganges River look beautiful especially at sunrise but when you look closely it's filthy. The water is disgusting housing hundreds of diseases, the ghats and nearby streets are full of rubbish and poo from cows, dogs and goats. To walk without your eyed glued to the ground would be disastrous! Like many other places we visited there are constantly people putting out their hands for money rather than getting a real job or being lazy in the job they had. We had to yell at a boy to row our boat at sunrise. It seemed more apparent here or perhaps India had finally just taken it's toll on our patience.

So now we are in Delhi eagerly awaiting our flight to the UK...I'm so happy I get to spend some time chilling out with you before I start a new job.

Love E xx

Sikkim

Hey A,
We recently visited the protected area of Sikkim in the north of India. We were required to obtain a permit to enter this particular area. Unfortunately we were visiting at the wrong time of year so we were unable to see the view we had heard was spectacular due to cloud and fog cover, as well as ride the rope way which we were excited to do as this was closed for maintenance.

We decided to visit Tsomgo Lake which was about a two hour drive from Gangtok where we were staying, along the side of a mountain and insanely bumping roads through extreme fog. It had recently snowed so the lake was frozen and covered in gorgeous white snow. I rode a Yak through the snow and Lish and I had a snowball fight with our guide. It was a really fun day and definitely a highlight of India for me.

We spent a couple of days in Gangtok the capital of Sikkim as well. We felt like we had left India as the people look Chinese, Napali and Tibetan but still spoke Hindi. Their city is surrounded around a mall, not the malls you know though but what we call a mall in Australia. It was a street closed to cars with shops on either side and benches, gardens and a fountain down the centre.

Our final stop before our flight in Delhi was Varanasi. To get here we had to catch a shared jeep for nearly six hours followed by an overnight train. Of course our train was delayed!!!

But more on Varanasi next time.

Not long now.....:) E xx

Sri Lanka Part Two

Hey A,
With all the excitement over my birthday I forgot to tell you about some of the places I visited in Sri Lanka.

After about six days of soaking up the sun and eating amazing seafood we headed to the hills of Kandy. We hired a driver for the day and headed to Sirgirya which is about two hours from Kandy. It's also called the Lion Rock and one of the kings built a palace and a swimming pool on top of a massive rock with beautiful gardens and caves surrounding. One of the caves has some pretty raunchy artwork inside!! Haha
The climb up the rock proved to be only a small warm up for our next adventure...Adam's Peak.

Adam's Peak is a mountain Buddists climb as a pilgrimage. We woke at 2am to start climbing at 230am so we could see the sunrise. It was seriously tough work for that hour of the morning. 5200 steps later we reached the top along with thousands of others. It was heartwarming to see the elderly being carries up and down by their children and grandchildren and parents carrying their young. It really is a family ritual for them.

Amongst the masses at the top I managed to loose the girls. I basically ran down that mountain it was that or be pestered by the locals, one in particular kept telling me to look at the sun..very strange!
So I arrived back at our guesthouse an hour before the girls so was lucky they had some super cute puppies to play with.

I think it took my body about four days to recover but it was definitely worth the hard work and the very early morning.

Only 2 weeks til I see you...can't wait!

Love E xx

Exciting News

Dear Emma:


Yesterday was a rather exciting day for me.  I had the day off (it was President's Day) and I spent the morning chatting with you on gchat... That was fun in and of itself, but you told me some pretty exciting new that changed the course of my month...  you are coming to visit me!  FOR THREE WEEKS!  (in two and half weeks which is very soon!)  

The last time you were here was for my wedding... it was a really busy time and though we did manage to cross Iowa off our list of states, we didn't get to do much else besides go tanning, work-out, and hit your local favorite restaurants.  


With the wedding behind us and your guestroom all set, I cannot wait for March 8 to get here (on top of if I have more vacation days than previously thought so what say you we bang out a state or two?!).  


I know you are looking forward to the simple things like running water, good food, and television, but I have some adventures planned (yes, I started planning the minute I found out you were heading my way!).  I have also alerted the troops and set a desperate painting plan into motion so that the living room and kitchen will be in ship shape when you arrive!


Enjoy the last few weeks of India, soon we will be spoiling you in the USA!


Yours with love- Anna 

Birthday Postponed

So the rest of my birthday...
After I slept for a much needed 12 hours we headed to the famous bakery and restaurant Glenary's for breakfast. It's best not to have any expectations when ordering food in India especially when trying a restaurant for the first time. Glenary's stood by it's reputation and I was served a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and butter toast. Usually the bread is really sweet in India but we were greeted with delicious fluffy fresh bread that actually tasted normal.
After breakfast Lish had organized a piece of chocolate cake with two candles and also chocolates as a birthday treat...thanks Lish!!

I was very excited about going to the zoo here in Darjeerling as it is renowned for it's breeding programs so we headed there to check it out. Compared to the Beijing Zoo which is a disgusting and should be shut down for cruelty to animals (i'm sure you remember) this zoo had good enclosures with plenty of space, with lots of food and different levels for the animals to be amused. It was my first time seeing the various Leopords, Snow Wolves, the Black Bear and of course a Bengal Tiger so I really enjoyed it. Although I had seen the Red Pandas before in China I was still captivated by them they are totally cute! I of course sat on a bench and waited while Lish looked at the birds...stupid bird phobia! We even dressed up in local attire and had some photos taken, we look pretty funny.

We walked back up the hill to the centre of town taking in the views and hoping for clearer skies tomorrow and ran some errands before we headed back to Glenary's for dinner (the restaurant we wanted to try out was closed after we took an hour to find it.) My American favorite of Mac and Cheese was on the menu so I was pretty pleased. We then headed back to our room and toasty fireplace to chill out.

My postponed birthday was alot less drama and stress free than my actual birthday...thankfully!! Isn't it great to be able to postpone your birthday?!!!?
I miss you and hopefully I will be celebrating with you next year xx