After the Hiatus

The wannabe-traveller has actually been travelling! And how: I have been in eight different places in four weeks, and its been a long ride. Some business, some purely pleasure, and one rite of passage. I went to Europe for the first time! After all the years, friends and build-up, there I was, finally in Europe. And like all things that have been built up for so long, it was both superb and disappointing. But more about that later.

I leave you with a classic image of Stockholm, of Riddarholmen, the Knight's island, sorry not Gamlastan.

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge. I was trying to go for a different angle, but keep it distinctive, anyways.

Another visit to my sister, one in which we did every touristy thing we could: went to the top of the Rockefeller Center, walked the Brooklyn Bridge and went to Times Square. Pictures will definitely follow.

The funny thing is, in all my gazillion visits to New York over the past few years, this was the first time I saw any of these things. And it struck me again just how famous New York is, how much a part of the popular imagination. I prefer San Francisco myself, but I have to admit, New York gave rise to everything that we now know as a cliche.

Crystalline

The streetside jewelery sellers on Powell street, near my dear cable cars.

Synagogue in Kochi (Cochin)

The synagogue in Jewtown in Cochin, Kerala. I believe its the oldest one in India.
They are very strict about the attire of the people who enter, I was dressed okay (in a skirt), but my husband's shorts were deemed too short (!) and we couldn't go in. It's a beautiful exterior though.

Commercial Street, Bangalore

Commercial Street in Bangalore, on a wet rainy day in November.
It always amazes me that people drive there.

Waiting for the Cable Car

One of my favourite things to do in San Francisco is ride the cable cars. Up and down Powell street, to Mason or Hyde. Passengers squealing, wind rushing and the crazy streets of San Francisco everywhere. Here's the Bay Bridge, there's the Bay, you never know what you'll see when the road dips.



But, you have to wait to get on the cable car at Powell street (Or Hyde Street, which is worse, which is why I usually get on at Mason). These girls were dealing with the waiting exactly like my sister I would have-I reading, she watching me read (she may disagree with my reading of events).



Or you can just go ahead and have some fun.

Vernal Falls in the Summer

Vernal Falls, taken from the mist trail. Yosemite falls dries out to a trickle in the summer, but Vernal and Nevada falls keep on flowing. You can hike up to the base of vernal falls, to a foot bridge, easily enough. Then comes the crazy part, where you hike up 700 feet in 0.2 miles-all straight up steps cut into the rock. My cousin bounded up lightly and my husband wasn't too far behind, but I was struggling. Puffing and panting like I was 20 years older than I am.

Anyway, every time I take a picture in Yosemite, I think of Ansel Adams hauling his large format camera and photographic plates up all these paths. He may have had a mule, but other than that, it was just him. And photographic plates-he had one shot. One, and on a metal plate.

Needless to say, my pictures cannot even approach his pictures, and I used a Canon digital Rebel, that my husband carried because I couldn't. I love Yosemite though, and one of my dearest goals is to photograph it in ways that it hasn't been already (not that this counts). These days, being too sincere is definitely not acceptable, and nothing is or should be sacred. The thing is, Yosemite makes me feel sincere.