the shower

i was in the shower yesterday for a good 15 minutes. for those who know how quick my showers are, this was about 5 times longer than it usually is. it was really nice to have a hot shower.

In india, hot water is available but its only available thru the tap and not the showerhead. so often times, a bucket and little scooper (about the size of a 2 cup measuring cup) is provided. so you end up using one of your arms as a showerhead. the plumbing system in india isn't great either, there were a couple times where i scooped up grains from my bucket and poured it all over my face. i guess once in the while the filtration system doesn't work too good, so brown crap gets into the water.

so yea, it was nice to soak up the heat of a hot shower.

London

I'm no longer a foreigner. I don't stick out like a sore thumb. people have stopped coming up to me either to ask for me or sell some of their merchandise.

London is a big city.

I have been travelling for many hours.

I am tired.

here is my itinerary for the next couple of weeks.

4th - leave london for amsterdam. spend the night there
5th - amsterdam to the rhine valley, then to st goar. spend the night in germany
6th - rhine valley to munich. another night in germany
7th - munich to innsbruck. spend the night in the austrian alps
8th - innsbruck to venice. a gondola ride is gonna happen for sure.
9th - venice to rome. pizza and the colosseum
10th - rome all day. vatican city and sistine chapel here i come
11th - rome to florence. apparently the real gem of italy
12th - florence to lucerne. swiss chocolates and knives.
13th - lucerne to paris, thru the french countryside
14th - paris all day. i bought a cheap tripod in india. i'm gonna make my own eiffel tower postcards.
15th - more paris. tour ends.

woo hoo. internet is expensive, so i'll be keeping the blogging short most likely form here on end.

I'm tired.

south india

so here's a map i've found of my 5 day trip around southern india. i got into hyderabad at 6am this morning. and i'm back on the plane in about 21 hours.

day one - overnight train to erode... which is between connoor and trichy

day two - got off the train and took a bus to Ooty (up in the mtns), met up with my classmates liz and terri. and we were at the same hotel for the night. terri was feeling really sick, she ate some bad chicken that day.

day three - explored more of ooty and then headed to mysore. i got in at about 5pm. and explored around the city. its small, so i got to see most of it before i left the next day.

day four - took a 2pm train to bangalore (about 6 million people) and spent the night with my friend samuel. got onto the overnight train at 5pm

day five - arrived at 6pm. back in hyderabad.

one of the most interesting things about my journey was the bus rides. some of them didn't have suspension. so that was fun going over the millions of potholes all over. going up the mountain, the roads were bad too. i think i went thru over 50 hairpin turns. and it was basically going off roading on a bus with 50 people. it was crazy. seriously. like 4 wheeling we would do in BC? imagine that on a bus screaming down the side of a mountain with super dangerous curves. ha. it was great. i'm just glad i survived.

the second leg of my trip starts in a day. where i will be all over western europe. itinerary to come!