Review: Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis

'Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis' by Jimmy Carter, is a very quick read and look at the current state of some of America's policy and the 'moral values' or lack there of driving that policy. While he does tend to toot his own horn a fair amount, he raises some valid and interesting points. Certainly a bit of a simplistic look at American Policy, I would recommend it to anyone with a couple of hours to spare and a belief in the fallacy of 'the moral majority'.

Review: East Along the Equator

'East Along the Equator' by Helen Winternitz is the story of a couple who embarks on a journey through Zaire primarily via the Congo river, in the early 1980's. The book describes their encounters with local merchants, catholic missionaries, secret police, and members of President Mobutu's cabinet as they work their way from Kinshasa east to Goma and back again.

While now a bit dated, this book provided an excellent view of what Zaire was like during the time of the entailed trip, as well as a historical look at the Congo as a colony of Belgium and how it ended up in it's present state.

Review: A Fine Balance

After an interesting discussion about India with a fellow traveler in Turkey who was heading that way, he highly recommended I read 'A Fine Balance' before I got there. This was another book that I had never heard of, but as soon as one person mentioned it I heard about it from several people over the course of the next couple of days. I picked it up on my way out of Turkey and spent my first three days in Kenya thoroughly engrossed. The story of four characters in Bombay during the mid-70's that end up together via a series of circumstances, this book takes you from utter despair to triumphant hope and back again. As another friend characterized it, "The best, depressing book you'll read."

A great read for anyone interested in knowing more about Indian life and culture, or wanting a tale of joy and sorrow

Review: Extremely Loud and Incrediby Close

'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer was another book I was fortunate to pick up in Cinque Terre. Flipping through the book I noticed several random images, that seemed out of place, and I was anticipating one of those books that is all ove the place, with the author 'trying things'. The person that passed it along said it was a good book, but didn't give it a rave review by any means, and being that the book is centered on a boy who loses his father in the World Trade Center disaster I didn't have high hopes. I'm happy to admit that I was wrong and pleasantly surprised. Despite 'trying a few things' and perhaps because of them, along with his mastery of language, this was another book that found me choked up on my flight to Nairobi.

If you're looking for a tear jerker, I'd certainly recommend this one. I plan to pick up his first book 'Everything is Illuminated' which is supposed to be even better.

Review: Passage to India

My friend Anna from Cinque Terre was kind enough to pass along E.M. Forster's classic 'Passage to India'. Being another one of those books that I had heard was a quintessential read, I think I failed again to get what was expected. The book was certainly interesting and entertaining, providing a good example of cultural difference, but I had a difficult time imagining the 'India' described in the book, especially having read more contemporary India books. I will be curious to see which if any of these british colonial attitudes remain.

Nairobi, Kenya

After uneventful, but comfortable flights I arrived in Nairobi at 9am Friday morning. I'm sorry to say that apathy has kept me from doing or seeing much over the last few days, but promise to have some fun, photo filled updates soon.

Leaving Turkey

I have to say that I was somewhat sad to finally be leaving Istanbul; I had finally started to get the hang of things and know my way around, and it had become fairly comfortable with a small group of friends, familiar restaurants, and that comfortable starbucks;). Before Leaving I decided it was time to finally buy my first souvenier and upon Adam's suggestion, picked up a set of onyx worry beads from the grand bazaar. I have to admit that the beads have already proven their worth in distracting my mind when necessary.

Adam and I also took advantage of one more turkish bath on my last day in town, one that I'm sorry to say was both more expensive than and not as good as the first. The wash was quick but still resulted in a good shedding of rolls of dead skin. The massage only lasted about 5 minutes, and during my masseur's unnecessary preoccupation with my left leg, I swear I heard my left knee cap cracking against the marble. As you can see, the masseurs were just as happy about the experience as Adam and I.

My experience in turkey, the places I saw, the people I met, the food I ate, were amazing and I can safely say that it is a place I plan to visit again in the future.

Review: Miami Vice

Yes folks, in a moment of weakness, grasping at one last 'western' movie experience before heading to africa Adam and I ended up as 2 of 5 viewers in a giant theater where the sound was too loud to even understand half of the dialogue. Surprisingly, the sound problem took little away from the movie, as we still managed to decipher such jewels as "Is that your go-fast boat?","Yes","How fast does it go?","It goes very fast!" and "I'm a fiend for mojitos." To conclude, let me just say that despite how cool the poster looks, you might want to save this one for DVD...or the garbage whichever comes first.

The Kanyon Mall

I've been looking for a few things that I figured would be easier to find in Turkey than Africa and so Adam suggested checking out the new Kanyon Mall. I have to admit that I think this is the most interesting and unique mall I have ever seen; elegantly designed to be both in and outdoors, with gurgling fountains and frosted glass walkways, and chock full of great restaurants, clothes store, the biggest grocery store I've seen since leaving the US, and a myriad of other shops to cover just about everything one might need. Swank.

Review: The Razor's Edge

When I solicited some book recommendations back at the beginning of my trip, one book that had come highly recommended, but proved difficult to find was The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. I finally acquired a copy upon returning to Istanbul and was glad to finally sit down and read it. I have to say that the book wasn't quite the 'quintessential travel book' that I was expecting, but certainly a very insightful and enjoyable read about a young man that embarks on a journey of 'loafing' and discovery lasting many years. Before reading it, I had a difficult time finding an adequate summary and am afraid I won't do any better here, but definitely recommend it. It looks like there is also a DVD.

Africa, Looking Ahead

It's hard to believe both that I've already been gone for over 3 months and that only 3 months have past; the time since leaving seems like a blur and yet I've been so many places, seen and learned so much. What's even stranger to realize is that there are still 10 months to go! So far I've, somewhat unconciously, considered my time in Europe to be more of a warm of for Africa and Asia, in the sense that it is the most like home. With that in mind I am anxious to press on to Africa in anticipation of the challenges and experiences that await.

I've given a fair amount of thought to what I want to accomplish in my time there, and will spare everyone the finer details, but wanted to share a few items in brief, I: a) want to continue to meet and interact with interesting people and b) further develop the tools used in that exercise, c) begin to quiet my mind, d) find outlets for thinking and expressing myself more creatively, e) futher open myself to new and different cultural experience while identifying and setting aside my 'americanisms'.

Rather than spend so much time city hoping and siteseeing, which I will no doubt still do to some degree, I plan to spend some time doing volunteer work. To that end my friend Emilie has recommend two great resources that are great for finding volunteer opportunities all over the place: idealist.org and escapeartist.com.

Second Casualty

I keep meaning to mention this, and it's old, stale news at this point, but I lost my Nalgene bottle getting off of the train in Venice. I didn't have the leash on him and he ran off. That bottle had been all over the world with me and has been sorely missed this past month. Don't fret, there should be a replacement on the way soon.

Europe, a Retrospective

While resting up in Istanbul over the past week I've been spending a good deal of time reading, writing and reflecting over the past three months of travel and the trip thus far to determine to some degree how I've changed; what I've gained/lost and what I've liked/disliked about the trip so far.

Gained:
One of the biggest changes I think has been social, my social skills have vastly improved, due to necessity, and meeting people is no longer a slightly feared chore but a fun game that I look forward to almost daily. Traveling on my own has also been a bit harder, at times, than expected and I've also been thrown into a lot of situations where there has been no one to turn to for help and I've had to figure things out on my own, which has strengthened my self reliance and made me realize that I am much more capable of overcoming obstacles that I had realized. This in turn has translated into a more relaxed disposition; I'm no longer nearly as worried about things not working out and so have abandoned using that as an excuse not to do something, which has made me much more apt to try things that I might have been reluctant to in the past. All of these 'improvements' have further manifest in an overall sense of greater confidence, and belief that I might be able to complete this trip after all;).

Lost:
One of the things that I seem to have lost for now, is a sense of Focus. I definately have less idea or what I should be doing than I did when I started, which is probably a good thing for now. At the same time my mind is restless and in need of something to 'work on'. This is entirely acceptable for now, but I will definately be trying to identify some 'goals' for my time in Africa.

Liked:
There have been a lot of likes on this trip so far, certainly interacting with new and different people, seeing sites, and enjoying food and culture has been at the top of the list, and seeing as that was a large reason for the trip it should be no surprise. It's also been great to read so much and back into that habit, as well as the habit of writing on a semi-daily basis, which has allowed me to collect my thoughts for better focus and reflection. And somewhat to my surprised I have really enjoyed the photography aspect, and like to think that I'm getting a bit better, and have to admit that sometimes I wish I had a dSLR.

Disliked:
There have been few dislikes thus far, but the major one has been the constant travel (every 2-3 days), which I never intended but occured due to a series of circumstances. Certainly this let me see a lot, but moved many experiences from qualitative to quantative in that I didn't have any chance to get to know a place before moving on again. Also, the incessant movement was both physically and mentally draining which further diluted the quality of experience in some places.

I'm working on determining how I can apply what I've learned over the first three months to the next three months in an attempt to maximize my experience in Africa. Having said all that one thing I plan to try and diminish somewhat is over-analysis!

As always, any feedback, comments, (dis)agreement, etc is welcome and appreciated.

Meeting People

One of the best things about this trip so far has been the people, and the chance to meet such a wide range of them. They have provided great information, been a sounding board for ideas and questions, and greatly enhanced the experiences of each place.

Being thrown into situations where I step off the train into a new country/city and don't know the language, have no idea where I'm going to spend the night, and don't even have a map has forced me to improve my social skills and meet people much more readily than I would have in the past, and it has had amazing results in terms of how easy is now is to meet people. I think part of this ease may be attributed to practice but also recognize that a large contributing factor is the conducive environment that traveling allows. I'm hoping (and practicing so) that when I get 'back to reality' this new found skill/confidence will translate.

Unfortunately, this abundance of meeting hasn't been without it's downside: constantly starting the 'get to know you' process only to part ways and start over again on a daily basis becomes mentally and somewhat emotionally draining. It gets old. I've started to come up with some new ways to mix things up and will see how that works out. Despite the drain of so many constant encounters I feel a compulsion to keep meeting, not quite sure if it is driven by a hope that the next interaction will lead to a lasting/sustainable friendship, or perhaps by the new found confidence of feeling that I can now approach and interact with people at will with only an occassional and subdued fear of rejection.

Filming...what?

Traveling around anywhere, and especially europe, as one might expect, you see a lot of people with cameras and video cameras capturing the sites and their trip, fair enough. Camera clad tourists are nothing new by anymeans, but one of the things I noticed in europe and had forgotten about until I saw it again today, are these tourists who literally walk around filming seemingly every minute. I have watched people film a statue, with no added narration or panning or anything, for 2+ minutes. The video camera is used for something where a still camera would obviously be much more suited. This absolutely boggles my mind, and must produce boundless hours of relatively soundless statue watching and street walking, which some might call 'artsy' and others 'boring'. I know that cheap storage makes this kind of excessive filming possible, but when is anyone going to sit down and edit all of this, or worse watch it? Am I missing something here?

Flickr Photo Map

I know that I have espoused the kewlness of flickr.com to many of you in the past and have even been successfuly in getting a few of you to sign up and load your pictures up there. Well for a few more of you hold-outs (especially fellow travelers), now there is yet another reason to sign up: the flickr photo map. Essentially, this is a fairly easy and intuitive way to represent the location your photos were taken on a map. There is a blog entry with details on how to get started and how it works. I've gone ahead and slapped all of my trip photos onto a rough map for anyone interested.

If anyone has any trouble getting this going, feel free to shoot me an email and I'll be happy to help you out.

Back to Istanbul (again)

I have to admit, I wasn't too sure how I was going to like being back in Istanbul. Don't get me wrong, I loved being here the first time through, but after 10 days or however long it was, the pollution, noise, and chaos had started to get to me and I wasn't so sure about going back to all of that. I was however, anxious to get back to a place that I felt I knew relatively well and thus wouldn't feel too obligated to make the rounds of tourist attractions and so could do a little catching up, reflection, figuring, and resting before heading off to east africa on Sept 14.

Much to my surprise I met two different American couples in the airport before the flight and then on the flight over to Istanbul: one in their early 30's having quit their jobs and decided to see the world and traveling indefinately before age set in, and the other in their early 20's taking a break for a few months of travel after finishing school. It's always great to bump into and spend a bit of time getting to know like minded travelers and it's been nice to get to know these couple's a bit over the last few days rather than the more common 'meet for a day head out tomorrow' kind of encounter.

Back in Istanbul I'm staying in a great locatation near the Gallata tower, in the World House Hostel just a short distance from Taksim and the heart of Istanbul as well as the old city. I've found a few small cafe's where I plan to spend the bulk of my time over the next couple of weeks as I sift through things.

Milan

I was luckily able to find a relatively cheap (40euro) flight from Milan back to Istanbul and so after my fun, brief stint in Cinque Terre I hoped an early morning train to Milan. Despite being some what invigorated by the hikes around Cinque Terre I was still pretty exhausted when I reached Milan and the plan was originally to take it easy and do nothing. Instead, I met a great pair of girls fresh off the plane and in Milan for 2 nights before starting study abroad in Florence.

Being worn out of tourist mode I gave my camera up to the girls for photo taking. I tagged along with them and we wandered the city for a few hours, through squares, and parks, long narrow alley ways and streets lined with uber-expensive shops before we came across a quaint little cafe. We split a bottle of wine and enjoyed the free happy hour tapas and spent the evening chatting about travel, studying, people, relationships, music, and a refreshing array of other topics.

After a few yawns and a check of the watch to see that it was 1am, we said our good-byes and headed to sleep. I arose early the next morning to head to the airport for the flight back to Istanbul.

Photos: Milan

Video: Cinque Terre

I had heard nothing but great things about Cinque Terre (the sun, beaches, food, hiking) and was really looking forward to doing some good hiking, getting the heart rate up and a good sweat going after so much flat city walking. I am happy to report that I was not disappointed and of all the places that have been so abundantly praised Cinque Terre lived up.

I was very surprised to have met more Americans in my first 12hrs in Cinque Terre than I had in the rest of the previous 2 1/2 months combined. Not surprisingly most of them were study abroad students on a short trip from Florence before the year got started. I made the aquaintance of Anna and Claire and spent the next two days hiking around and exploring the area with them.

Cinque Terra consists of five small towns along the cost with houses built into the sheer cliff sides, and connected by great hiking trails as well as railroad. The hike from the first to last town was great and took just over 4 1/2hrs, the last section definately got the heart pumping and made me realize how much stamina I've lost since leaving CO. At the last town, Monterosso, we were greeted by a small but sandy (finally!) beach and wrapped up with some splashing in the cool water, before heading back to the hostel with pesto pasta in tow. Apparently Cinque Terre was the place that pesto was 'invented' and it's everywhere. I had the chance to try some strange, but tastey, pancake looking pasta with an amazing pesto sauce.

Photos: Cinque Terre

Video: Florence

I have to admit that leaving Venice after several days of rest, to get back on the road of travel was a bit more difficult than I had expected and I wasn't really in the mood to do much touristing/walking once I got there. As a result I spent a fair amount of time drinking coffee, catching up on journal writing, and finishing off another book.

Stepping off the train I was fortunate to meet a trio from Hong Kong traveling around europe, and I tagged along with them to their hostel and was able to snag a bed. This is the first time I've ever really traveled without making any hostel reservations, planning what I'm going to see, etc. While being somewhat nerve-racking at times, mostly it's been very liberating.

Florence is definately American tourist central. I heard far more American accents there than in Venice (which surprised me), I think in part because it is a very popular 'study abroad' destination. In fact I met a young American from NYU, in an internet cafe, who was fresh off plane to spend a year studying in Florence. We spent the day chatting and walking around, which I would have done otherwise, and I used the opportunity to snag a few obligitory photos.

Photos: Florence

Review: The Accidental

Ali Smith's The Accidental was definately one of the more odd books I've read along my trip both in style and story. The story is largely written from the first person, stream of conciousness perspective of four different familial characters: a 12yr old girl, 16yr old boy, 42yr old mother, and 45yr old step father. While the stream of conciousness was certainly a bit tough to get into at first it soon made the book very refreshing, entertaining, and more relatable than it might otherwise have been. The story involves this family and their chance encounter with a stranger, Amber, and how that encounter impacts them all.

Another good read and worth checking out, but be warned that you need to at least break the first 50 pages before you really get into it.

Review: Shop Girl

When I stopped over in Venice for a few days I found Steve Martin's Shop Girl at my friend Emilie's Place, and being that it was a small and short book I figured I would kill some time with it and save my other books for down the road. Having heard nothing about it, and not necessarily being a huge Steve Martin fan I had pretty low expectations. I have to say that I was completely wrong and very pleasantly surprised. The book moves quickly and often feels, not surprisingly, like a movie script. The characters are very relatable, if not always likeable, the content surprisingly insightful, and the dry humor very refereshing after Steve Martin's slapstick debacle of The Pink Panther. Definately worth reading, and it can be polished off quite easily between dinner and bed time.

Review: Lipstick Jihad

Lipstick Jihad is the story of an Iranian American woman that decides to move to Tehran, having spent most of her life in Souther California, and see if life in Iran is as idealized as she remembers or as bad as she's heard. She works for two years as a reporter for Time magazine out of Tehran, covering part of the middle east as she unravels the life of the moderan day young person in Iran.

A very engaging and insightful read that helped to pull back the curtain surrounding the every day life of Iranian people. Definately worth a read.

Review: Pretty Birds

Pretty Birds, a novel by Scott Simon, of NPR fame, that takes place in 1992-93 during the seige of Sarajevo and is about a young teenage girl there that becomes a sniper. A fairly interesting book made more so by my visit to Sarajevo. While the book was enjoyable and helped pass the time I found it difficult to connect with the characters and often felt like the conversations and descriptions were a bit to contrived and seemed artificial.

Review: The Africans

After reading David Lambs The Arabs I was curious to read its precursor, The Africans, about his time in Nairobi, Kenya covering all of Africa for the Los Angeles Times during the early 1980s. Unlike The Arabs, The Africans has unfortunately not been updated since it was originally written and so a lot of the information is pretty dated being that it's 20yrs old. Having said that, it was a bit disheartening to read this old information and feel like not much had changed in most of the African countries that he discusses, other than the name of the dictators in power. Other than that, the style and tone of The Africans was a bit more preachy/soap boxy and less refined in terms of flow than that of The Arabs. Overall a decent, quick read, but I would look else where for a more current overview of Africa.

Review: Shantaram

Doing all of this traveling I've finally had a chance to get back into the swing of reading and have been doing a lot. So here comes the first of several 'reviews'.

In preparation for my time in India, my buddy Josh had suggested that before I arrive I pick up and read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts because the depictions of Indian life and culture were very detailed and very accurate. Since the book is a wopping 944 pages, I opted to go with the audio version from audible.com, which while being 43hrs long was a bit easier on the back.

I have to say that this was one of the best books I've read in years. The authors use of language was so fine and masterful that I felt completely immersed in the story and very connected to the array of characters. There were several times when I laughed out loud, or would feel myself getting choked up, something I don't remember ever happening from a book before. Reading this book certainly made me anxious to get to India and see the things described, but I would also be lying if I said it didn't make me at least a bit apprehensive as well. I would definately recommend this to anyone that likes any kind of book really.

It also looks like they are making a movie out of it.