Israel & Cyprus with The Myers!

Beirut 2016

Kelly & I popped over to check out Beirut for her birthday, which was good timing as it was ARTE Film week! Independent movies, museums Lebanese food and walkabouts...perfect!

(Go to the Settings icon at the bottom of the YouTube window, click Quality and watch it in 720HD)

North Cyprus 2016

Road Trippin' with Katie - 2016

We're Back! ...and we're in Cyprus!

After six years in Texas, the casual observer might have been convinced we had settled down and were letting the roots take hold....then one day friends of ours mentioned they had a flat in Cyprus that we could use if we liked....BLAMMO! The Mrs and I did a joint judo kick of the apple cart and before we knew it we had quit our jobs, sold the majority of our stuff, said "adios" to Texas and were on the road again!

What the F is wrong with us?

Ok so Cyprus is here:

The island is split into the Republic of Cyprus in the South and the Turkish controlled North. We had been to Cyprus once before in 2010 (previous blog post can be found in the menu to the right) but that was a beachy, touristy vacation in the south which is pretty much a Florida-like destination for the Brits. This time around we find ourselves in a quiet area of the rural northern coast dotted with vacation villa communities and expat retirees.

We had no idea what to expect and were stunned when we got to our friend's flat.

Coastal view to the north....and mountain view to the south!

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!

Since arriving 10 days ago we have slid into a pretty easy-breezy schedule of lazy mornings including breakfast and tea, a few lazy hours of poolside reading, a light, leisurely lunch...maybe some more poolside reading or napping followed by 4pm happy hour with new friends at the poolside bar! Eventually we head back to the house for dinner or go to one of a few places within 15-20 minutes walk for dinner/music.

We've borrowed a car a few times to run to the local market and also drove into Kyrenia to sort out a data card for internet, but other than that we haven't gone anywhere...certainly a big adjustment for us.

Now that we're settled, we'll look to make trips around the island to some of the incredible historic archeological sites as well as the golden beaches and donkey sanctuary of the north east peninsula...

More to come soon!

Key West 2016

Another installment of our annual couples trip with the crazy posse from North Carolina. This year we added Mike and Jill from Florida to ensure we reached maximum fun saturation levels.

2015 - The Guianas (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana)

Getting caught up on some old posts! Here is the video from last summer's trip to South America with Donny Mumbles....

Marlon Brando

My brother Brian and I watched "The Young Lions" the other night.

1958. Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin. World War II. Great movie.

So Brian tells my Mom that we watched it and she says something to the effect of.."Oh that movie is where I first fell in love with the name Christian"

Marlon Brando's character in the movie is Lieutenant Christian Diestl..... a Nazi officer.

Except for that minor detail, that would be a great story I could use:

Me: My mother named me Christian because she loved it in a Marlon Brando movie

Person: Oh wow thats so cool! What a great story! Which Brando movie?

Me: The Young Lions

Person: (awkward silence)...isn't he a Nazi in that movie?

Me: ummm yeah...but...he's not a really bad Nazi?

Person: Your Mom named you after a Nazi character from a movie?

Me: A Brando character....

Person: A Nazi Brando character...

Me: Well he is a Nazi, and he is a proud German, but he becomes dissatisfied with the path Hitler is taking Germany down and despises the war and what it has done to his country.

Person: Yeah...but your Mom named you after a Nazi.

Me: No, she got the name from a Marlon Brando movie..

Person: A movie in which he is a Nazi.

Me: (pauses) Did I say Brando in The Young Lions?...my mistake...I meant Mutiny on the Bounty...its a great story, my mother named me after Marlon Brando's character in Mutiny on the Bounty. Cool right?

Marlon Brando as Lieutenant Fletcher Christian

Video - Summer 2014

Music feeds the soul

My wife's passion for music is one of the greatest gifts she has given me over the years...don't get me wrong I have always loved music, but if it wasn't for her I would have missed out on some serious ass-kicking oddball shows and probably would have not popped into the little hole-in-the-wall places that her curiosity demands we explore. Where I would've walked right by a klezmer trio, Kelly is compelled to sit and listen for hours...and now I do too. When the local community radio station advertises an Irish-Ska-Punk band I don't even process the information, Kelly has already bought tickets. When I say "Hey, (insert name of big mainstream band) is playing at (insert name of large concert venue) next Friday, wanna go?"...Kelly says "We can't, we have tickets for Cliff Casino and The Purple Dragon Angel Dolls in the alley behind the Basement Annex Club at 11:30pm that night."...I used to scoff, now I say "awesome". (Don't google Cliff Casino and the Purple Dragon Angel Dolls or the Basement Annex Club...I made that up)

Recently, I went through our videos and took out the clips of music from our travels. There were TONS of them...hours worth of music. I clipped together a small sample of the wide variety of music we have had the privilege to enjoy over just the last seven years or so (the age of better video quality!)... if you have 10 minutes or so, and like music, check it out. There are clips from at least 30 different countries, and cities around the US as well. 

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. - Plato

Digital or Vinyl?

Last Christmas, I got the Mrs a record player. When I say The Mrs, I mean us. After 23 years, all presents, except jewelry, are joint presents. 

I can't tell you how much joy this little contraption has brought into our house. We now sit in our living room...TOGETHER...talking about music, listening to RECORDS. Now I know what you're thinking. Together? Aren't you guys always together?...Well, yes..of course, but like any married couple, we do our own things. I'm always up in my office and Kelly is tucked away somewhere reading a book, covered in hot bags of herbs. The record player brought us back to living room and its really nice.

The record player came in the  mail and I plugged it in....no fuss, no muss I got it all hooked up and when Kelly got home we marveled at the nostalgia and settled down to listen to a record.

We did it every night for the first week...and any night that we got new records in the mail.

It's fantastic. Sure we have the music on our iTunes, but there is something about a record. They only last 3 or 4 songs, then one of us inevitably, jokingly says "uggghhh, go flip the record!" or "uggghhh this record player sucks!". 

Can I tell the difference in sound between Digital and Vinyl? Is there a big difference in quality?

Nope. Don't know. Not even a clue. Can't tell. No idea.

What I do know is that I like sitting in the living room with my wife...listening to records.

Rise and Shine

At 8am this morning I was on the phone with my father....I walked into my bedroom and discovered my wife still in bed, apparently abusing the snooze function on her alarm and making herself late for work in the process.

I asked my father to hold on for a second, leaned over my wife and said "rise and shine".

Then it happened.

I was holding the phone down by my leg but I could hear it....the morning nightmare from my youth...my father was singing at the top of his lungs:

"Rise and shine

And give God the glory, glory

Rise and shine

And give God the glory, glory

Rise and shine

And give God the glory, glory

Children of the Lord"

I am a morning person....now....but when I was a kid, I hated getting out of bed. My father would come upstairs, turn the lights on, pull the sheets off the bed all while singing that damn song, every verse, as loud as he could...clapping and dancing like a crazy person. My brother and I had awoken in Hell and my father was a demon from whichever circle it is that they torture children.

"The Lord said to Noah: there's gonna be a floody, floody

The Lord said to Noah: there's gonna be a floody, floody

Get those children out of the muddy, muddy

Children of the Lord"

So this morning, when I heard him singing it again, it sent shivers down my spine.....then I put him on speaker phone.

My wife was up and on her feet before he finished the second verse. Apparently her mom had used the same technique.

Now of course, I was actually thrilled to hear my father singing, as he is in a nursing home and can get depressed from time to time,....but over the course of the rest of our morning call, he burst out into that song at least four more times. I finally had to ask him to stop.

He said ok....and sang it again.

Kid Life

Kids on my street frequently play right outside my house and , as I am the only house with a basketball net, they play basketball in my driveway. Today they decided to throw footballs from across the street and try to hit baskets. Instead of hitting baskets, they were peppering my house (and truck) with 30-40 yd bombs....and it sounded like bombs.

I was gonna go out there and tell them to stop before they break a window or dent my truck, then I thought back to my youth. I remember making up new games which were only limited by how many kids we had and what miscellaneous sporting equipment was laying about. Baseball bat and volleyball? VolleyBat, no problem. Wiffleball bat, skateboards and a softball? Street polo. What fun we used to have......we annoyed the hell out of all of our neighbors.

Instead of telling them stop, I went outside and said "Ok, what are the rules here?" They were ecstatic to explain them to me. You have to stay on the driveway across the street and if you hit a tree someone gets to punch you etc etc etc. I watched for a while, then I went back inside.

As I was typing this the 13 year old from across the street threw a football 35 yds directly into my basketball net......swish....nothing but net. Watched it from the window. Unbelievable.

The neighborhood kids went bananas.

The Most Serene Republic (is made of dead fish parts)

San Marino, the third smallest country in Europe (after Vatican City and Monaco) is a little gem surrounded by Italy.

Now we, of course, went to San Marino to check off another country on our list in our ever present quest to beat Mike and Patrice to every country on Earth...but I also had another reason. Now that I am back at school I have found a new subject that fascinates me....Geology.

I know what you are thinking (maybe)..."but Chris, you are a History guy!"..as it turns out, I have an inner scientist busting to get out too. Last semester I took a Physical Geology course, and this semester I took a Historical Geology course, both fascinating. I guess it helps that Geology is very Historical, there are also lots of maps involved (and I do love maps), but I think the most interesting part is the sheer magnitude of the time periods involved. Its kind of hard to wrap your mind around.

So off we went to Africa.........what's that? You thought Italy was in Europe? AHA NO! Italy is actually on the African Plate of the giant jigsaw puzzle we call the Earth's crust. Many years ago, 200 million or so, the African Plate moved northwards and slammed into Europe. Of course when I say slammed I am talking about movement of less than an inch a year, but you get the idea. Italy was not only part of Africa, it was underwater. The resulting continental collision, or orogeny, is what formed the Alps and in fact formed many of the mountains in Southern Europe and Southern Asia. As the continents pushed together, one of the plates had to dive under the other, increasing volcanic as well as seismic activity, and started the process of pushing up mountains.

Another set of mountains in Italy are the Apennines. They basically run from North to South straight down Italy forming a geological spine. These mountains were formed much later, about 20 million years ago as new faults had opened up on both sides of Italy in the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas.

The activity of these faults and the compressional stress from different plates in Italy being pushed together is what basically formed mountains in the middle and folded/crumpled the terrain across much of Italy. Now you know why Italy has not only significant seismic activity in the form of Earthquakes, but also why it has Volcanoes. Anytime you have plates diving under each other the resulting subduction zone makes volcanoes possible.

So this pushing up and folding of the crust, combined with increased volcanic activity and molten rock being pushed around inevitably led to some pretty impressive scenery.

Today when you go to North Central Italy, you see the same rolling valleys Tuscany and other parts of Italy are famous for, but when you realize it is actually crumpled up seafloor it really is amazing. How long did THAT take? The giant rock formations, like Mount Titano in San Marino, are made of limestone.

When sea creatures die, their shells and/or parts of their skeletons fall to the seafloor. Over the course of time, vast amounts of time, billions and billions of tiny organisms contribute the calcium carbonate and other minerals from their bodies to an ever growing sediment on the bottom of the ocean. If enough piles up and conditions are right, eventually it gets compressed (and more compressed, and more compressed, and more compressed) until it is limestone. Ok so how many gabillions of organisms and how much time do you think it took to make this?

Mind....blown.

When you think of Italy, you may think of marble. Marble statues, temples, etc etc? You know where Marble comes from? Thats what happens to Limestone when IT gets compressed (and compressed, and compressed etc)....how long does THAT take!

We had a great trip to San Marino. We enjoyed the great views from the top of Mt. Titano overlooking the Adriatic. One restaurant we had dinner at was tucked right into the rock on the side of the mountain. I was sitting on a ledge that 100 million years ago was a thousand feet below the surface of the sea and the rock was actually made from the skeletons of long dead sea creatures. Pretty freakin cool.

Jaisalmer - The Golden City of Rajasthan

Getting caught up on some older posts....lets see, what did I miss? Oh yeah, India August 2010.

Will and I traveled by train to the heart of the Thar desert in the far West of India to Jaisalmer, the Golden City of Rajasthan.

Jaisalmer ( Jeye-sall-meer) is a 16 hour overnight train ride from Delhi. Our first experience with the trains was exactly as you would expect....complete chaos. You're not really sure where your train will come in and when it did, hundreds of people started climbing on it, in it, over it...before it even stopped. It was already full to capacity by Western standards...plenty of room by Indian standards. The class of cars is marked on the outside, but they are in no particular order...and there were 40 of them. After the train stopped, Will and I started walking down the "platform" looking for our car, as hundreds of people ran by us in every which direction. We eventually started walking faster as we realized we couldn't find our car....then running.

Then the train started moving.

I yelled to Will that we had to get on and he said he didn't see our car....I said "its leaving!"

Like stunt men, we actually had to run along side and jump onto a moving train...with our backpacks on.

We pushed our way through the crowd of people by the door and into the hallway, and luckily ran right into a train man who offered to help us find our "seats"....which, turns out, we were literally standing right next to.

We had jumped onto our car as it passed by! Hows that for luck?

As we had traveled from Nepal earlier that day, we were tired and able to sleep for most of the night. In the morning we reached Jaisalmer.

Jaisalmer, dominated by its amazing fort (built in 1156), is an incredible, incredible place. One of the last states to sign a treaty with the British, the people here are fiercely independent.

It feels very different than Delhi, thats for sure.

Having left Guillaume in Nepal, Will and I were on our own for a few days. We settled into our hotel and immediately set out exploring. We found a great, air conditioned restaurant (above) right across from the fort and had our first taste of Rajasthani food...delish.

Then, back to exploring!

The architecture is....well...amazing. Some of the most famous medieval Havelis are in Jaisalmer.

The city has pretty much all the same sand color buildings, which give the city its reputation of being the Golden City. At sunrise/sunset its a beautiful sight.

The fort is very impressive with its 99 bastions and its imposing position on a hill looking over the city.

We stayed at a small off the beaten path family run hotel which was very pleasant and had a great view of the fort. It had all the little desert building architectural delights like pass throughs in the ceilings and floors for air movement.

We were there in Late August...it was very hot...brutal in the sun, but manageable in the shade.

The old bazaars were full of the standard Indian trinkets, plus regional stuff you don't see other places. Less wool shawls, more silver jewelry. Lots of camel leather bags, hats etc.

No cow leather of course....but lots of cows roaming the streets.

We spent an entire day walking around the old city with intermittent stops for cold beverages. The heat really takes it out of you.

Although tourists do come to Jaisalmer, it wasn't nearly as crowded as Delhi, especially in August. Many tourists come here to avoid the Monsoon this time of year and this year the floods had driven many people south from Ladakh.

We hooked up with a bunch of people to catch a ride about 30 miles into the desert.

We visited a few temples, palaces and the like.

Some pretty surreal sites....did I mention it was hot like an oven?

The group we were with all went on an overnight camel safari, so Will and I rented a couple of camels of our own and headed out to the West to catch the sunset in the desert.

After two hours on the camels we had left civilization behind and were IN the desert.

Pretty freakin cool.

Our guides walked as we rode. Felt kinda bad, but I gave them each a Pepsi....so it was cool.

Camels are interesting, dirty, beautiful, disgusting animals. Very impressive that they don't need water and can carry a lot of weight. Ships of the desert indeed.

We got back at nightfall and crashed hard....exhausted.

The next day we did some more exploring and met up with two Italians who had been in the truck with us out to the camel place.

We spent the afternoon, relaxing out of the sun with new friends Fabiana and Alain.

After we said arrivederci to our new pals, we walked around some more and stopped at one more place for one last rest and a cold drink.

The locals drink a yogurt drink called a Lassi. You can get it in all flavors...mango, lime, vanilla.

mmmmm sour yogurt drink with fruit...no thanks

After 3 1/2 days in Jaisalmer, Will and I were ready to hit the rails again to meet up with Guillaume in Jodhpur.

Guess who we ran into on the train? Our new Italian friends!

The train through the desert has no filters on the air system, so the train fills up with sand and dust. Luckily Will had brought some hospital type masks from China...and luckily I had brought the cards!

6 hours of American and Italian card games!

A great stop on the big trip...next up, the Blue City of Jodhpur!

Trapped in a Box....in Holland

Ok so....I have been very lucky. I have coached all over Europe and have had the extreme privilege and honor of coaching not one, but two National Lacrosse teams. Since moving back to the States, I have bored my friends to tears with my tales of galavanting around Europe coaching at tournaments and festivals yadda yadda yadda. So when it came time for the European Championships again this past summer, my buddy Andrew was excited to have the opportunity to go with me and coach the Irish Development Team in the European Festival.

We discussed the trip for months prior...and finally it was here. Like giddy school kids we joked around in the airport and got on the plane for the 5000 mile trip from Houston to Amsterdam. It was Andrew's first trip to Europe and I assured him it was gonna be a blast. Here we go! Saddle up partner!

 The shit hit the fan almost from the minute we got there. We met up with my old pal Mike and off we went to explore Amsterdam!

We got about 100 feet outside the airport before a swarm of police surrounded and detained us.

Apparently, the taxi driver who approached us was not licensed. No big deal, he got arrested and they just took a complaint from us. No troubles...then, after a very minor delay, we were off!....again!

Andrew and I had carted over a lot of the teams equipment...which became a huge pain in the ass once we were out of the airport. I should mention we had stayed in a hotel the first night before moving to our final "accommodations"...so we had been lugging this crap around a lot.

Eventually on Day 2, we got to our "accommodations"....a freakin' campground.

You can almost sense Andrew's excitement in the picture above, can't you?

While lugging the bags for a 1/2 mile from the road, our conversation went something like this:

Andrew: Let me get this straight....we are staying in a fucking campground?

Chris: Ummm...Yeah...it'll be great!

Andrew: You told me you guys stayed in hotels...and everyone had their own room.

Chris: Yeah, that was last time....this is fun, it'll be great!

(Andrew stops walking, puts bags down)

Andrew: My back hurts...a fucking campground?

Chris: Well....its not tents, Mike said they are like Chalets.

Andrew: Whats a fucking Chalet? I'm gonna punch you. I have a bad feeling.

Chris: Oh stop...it'll be fine.

(We pick up the bags and start walking again....100 yards later, we put the bags down)

Andrew: This sucks. I hate you. I'm gonna punch you.

Then we got to our.....little house.

An 8 man shed.

8 bunks...a table...4 chairs...and a light bulb. I laugh everytime I look at these pictures of Andrew because I know how shocked he was.

If I were an artist, I would title the above picture "Stunned in Holland". The players were all showing up, and Andrew was just sitting there...realizing he would be staying in a shed, with 7 other guys....for 11 days.

It really is a miracle he didn't kill anyone.

After we settled into the shed, we decided to go check out the venue and fields. Ok so where are they? The venue was just on the other side of the Amsterdam Bos, like Amsterdam's Central Park.

Off we go!

....and we're going!

.....and we're walking

...and walking....

After 20 minutes of forced marching through the woods, someone asks how much further it is and Mike says "I think we're almost halfway"

There was silence...then a maniacal laughter from Andrew behind me.

Then it started to rain.

It was like being in the 'Nam. Halfway into a 60 minute walk...in the woods, and the rain is coming down in buckets. The temperature has dropped...we're all wearing shorts...its pouring.

6 months later, sitting in my house, I am laughing my ass off. I am used to stuff going pear-shaped and sideways, but Andrew had totally been sold on a different picture. I had told him of the World Championships, and staying in University dorms, with a buffet style cafeteria, practice fields, classroom sessions.

We were living in a box....in Holland....and it was raining.

So eventually we get to the "venue" and as it is a few days before the first games, everything was closed.

Everything was closed.

Andrew killed a Dutch lady walking her dog...then killed the dog. He knocked a guy of his bike and beat him to death with it...then he just sat on the ground and mumbled something about being hungry.

After the long walk BACK to the Shed of Despair....the whole team adopted a "Don't mess with Andrew" policy that lasted pretty much the entire trip.

Things did get better, of course, but we joked about it...alot.

Chris: Hey bud, you want a sandwich?

Andrew: Hell yeah, I am starving...freakin Holland has no food

Chris: Here ya go (hands Andrew a small sandwich)

Andrew: What the...there is only cheese on here.

Chris: Yeah...cheese sandwich...on a little dutch roll.....want a warm Heineken?

Andrew: (Becoming increasingly irate) This isnt a fucking sandwich! Goddamn Dutch.

Chris: I have some Curry Ketchup?

Andrew: CURRY KETCHUP?!!!!

Chris: I think we have some pickles...

Andrew: I'm starving to death! Goddamn Dutch Bullshit...freakin Holland...(rolls up into a ball on his bunk...mumbles to himself for the next hour)

Before the trip, I had joked with Andrew that I had "issues" with the Dutch. I couldn't really explain it. I said they are a bit cheap, you have to pay for every little thing, and everything is expensive...and they have a weird way of doing everything that has a way of getting under your skin. He didn't understand and gave me crap about it saying I was being silly.

After only 2 or 3 days in Holland...he was more like this:

After the team arrived and we settled into our routine, things got better all around. We had a real blast shooting the shit with the boys and got ready for our games.

We found some public transportation options to get us to and from the fields, and found some good little places to eat, and drink, along the way.

We even found a spot in the campground...a very small spot...where you could get wifi...occasionally.

I didnt take any pictures of the games during the tournament, but the team did great (we came in 4th place) and we all had a blast. To top it off, the National team made it to the finals against England!

The normally insane Irish fans went out of their minds...they went bananas. In the end, the English won...but who cares, they always win. 

I got to catch up with many of my European lacrosse friends, which is always great.

All in all a great trip.