As sheep must outnumber people by a good margin, this seems a good shot to leave you with. This is on the road back from Lerik to Lankaran, in the South near the border with Iran. One of 4 trips around the region we made in the last two months trying to take advantage of Spring weather. I regret not getting to the blog more as the year wore on—and Marlys, as some of you know, defected to the joy of pure images on flicker. But I have decided my own hard drive was so full by mid-year, that things have just been overflowing—or at least so close to the top that it’s all I can do to keep from losing track of daily life. I have learned a great deal, met a million people—or at least a thousand—and started about six different research/writing projects. A few of which are actually in final editing stages.We head back via Riga, Latvia in a few hours, where we will spend a day and a night. Then on to Norway for 9 nights, 3 in Bergen, 6 with family Marlys and I made friends with from Marlys’ school—one of her best friends this year (Marlys and another good friend had very sweet tearful goodbyes earlier this evening—that friend heads back to Pakistan in a couple days). Then on to England for 8 nights, 2 in Bath, 1 in York (where we have tickets to the Broadway version Pirates of Penzance), and 5 in London where we will wander around, eat curry, and enjoy (hopefully) cooler weather than the 80s we have here right now. We return transiting through Philadelphia to arrive in Seattle late the night of July 14th.
The 20 kilo limit on bags has hit us hard. Every kilo over 20 is 15 Euros now for EACH of three legs to London. That’s nearly 24 USD per kilo times 3=$72. London-Seattle we are grandfathered in with a bit bigger weight limits from having bought tickets last year for Europe/US portion. Needless to say it’s been tough trying to jettison precious papers and scraps with memories attached—I have airmailed 5 boxes to Seattle (you don’t want to think about how much that cost—but less than overweight charges on the flights), we have packed our heaviest things in our carry-ons, and we still may be about 5-8 kilos over. Hoping they let it go, but probably not since it’s such a great way to add bucks to the industry without appearing to raise prices. Fuel costs…yeah, yeah.
Sorry for prosaic quality of this post. It’s past three am and I’m just sitting here waiting to wake Marlys up for our very early flight…Poetry leaves when sleep is absent.We have tons more pics and stories to share, as I’m sure all of you do with us. Looking forward to return!
This is in Lankaran market where the produce was really in full swing of Summer and dry foods in this pic still beautiful.
