One Month In – Traveling by the Numbers (Nora)

We have now been on the road for a little over a month, so it’s a good time to look back and take stock. To organize, I’ll offer our trip so far by the numbers:

Near death experiences: 1. For readers of the blog, you already know all about the David-plunging-off-the-cliff thing. Happy to report, that remains our only close call thus far.

Loads of laundry completed: 2. You might be thinking: 30 days, 4 pair of underwear each for the boys, 2 loads of laundry. How does that work out? Answer: Not prettily. We are limping, limping to Rome, where rumor has it that our Airbnb has a washer. Vatican shmatican. This mama is excited about some non-smelly socks.

Islands visited in Greece: 3 – Naxos, Santorini, and Crete. Of these, Naxos was definitely my fave. It’s kind of like a really toned down Napa with the bonus that it’s on the beach — and a gorgeous one at that — and the EXTRA bonus that there are no crowds (or at least there weren’t in April, when we visited). Santorini, on the other hand, was stunning but SO HEPPED UP. Kind of like a mash up of the French riviera + St. Barths, with prices to match. (Granted, I haven’t visited the former and I visited the latter as a teenager, so a good quarter-century ago, but it’s what I envision, so let’s roll with it.)

Truly dreadful meals: 4. Kind of impressive that all the others have existed in that very broad realm between between passable and awesome. The “biggest dud” award belongs to the McDonalds in the Delhi airport. The whole idea of a McDonalds in a country that doesn’t eat beef should have been enough to scare us off, but when we got to the Delhi airport (for the second time, after spending 2 weeks in India and on our way to Nepal), the golden arches were inexplicably irresistible. Alas, McDonalds in Delhi is just as awful as it sounds — perhaps worse. Some other lowlights were “pizza” during the trek (don’t ask), and a terrible missed opportunity at the worst kind of tourist trap in Crete. (Missed opportunity because every other meal in Greece was spectacular, and picking this abomination represented just an unforgivable lapse in judgment because the place was practically SCREAMING tourist trap — I mean the menu was 30 pages long and printed in 8 languages, and, if that weren’t enough, they had a staffer standing BY that menu touting their wares. But I somehow disregarded those signs and insisted that it looked good.)

Okay, now the speed round:

Places we’ve stayed: 14 (14 places in 31 days means lots of packing and unpacking but also means we’ve gotten to rest our heads in some truly gorgeous spots — everything from the finest luxury in Udaipur to simple guest houses during our trek). Here’s still the most decadent — the “Mahal” suite at the Taj Palace. I assure you, they put us there entirely by accident.

Longest flight delay: 7 hours. Other than that, which we encountered in Nepal when the runway was “broke,” we’ve been super lucky with air travel, knock on wood.

Stuff we’ve lost: 5 items. The biggest bummer was some Bose noise-cancelling headphones but also a pair of shoes, a charger, some sunscreen, etc. Trying to cut ourselves some slack, given all the packing and unpacking, as evidenced in the above. But still, could do without this.

Public vomiting: 13. Total vomiting: 22. Could do without this too.

Ancient civilizations studied so far: 2. We feel like, when we were in Greece, we really got a great education on the ancient Greeks and Minoans. Here we are at the Parthenon, where we (minus C, who was sick that day, poor guy), had an awesome tour guide and wonderful time:

And, here we are with our guide, Vasa, who did a fabulous job teaching us about the Minoans on Crete (which followed up on the boys’ trip to the Minoan ruin of Akrotiri on Santorini):

Ancient civilizations we will have studied by this time next week: 3. Excited to be headed to Rome (and then Renaissance-era Florence) to round out the progression.

Cousins who will be traveling with us: 2. Thrilled that cousin/niece Mary will be joining us in about 10 days in Italy and also delighted that cousin/nephew John will be joining us to trek in Japan.

Vehicles rented: 2. We rented a little Fiat convertible in Naxos and a jeep in Santorini and had a blast tooling around both islands.

Cooking classes attended: 1. A highlight in Naxos was a day cooking with a Greek Grandma right out of central casting. She kissed each boy (my husband included) about 12 times over the course of the afternoon and just exuded goodness and warmth. Also, she was a FABULOUS chef and, though she spoke no English, taught us a ton about Greek cuisine. On the bottom right, you’ll see the ingredients we used to make vegetarian moussaka.