We are Home...
...and off to ski!Half Way Home
We are the Frankfurt airport waiting for our flight back to Denver. We just had some café lattes and chocolate croissants and are looking out the window on the sun rising on this cold, cold morning (-15 C). The jetway was cold and got us both giggly at finally having some winter to enjoy ourselves instead of just the snow reports are getting from home. Last night, when we got to the Mumbai airport, we submitted our seats again for a bump. We wanted to head for home, but getting another 1200euro and having to spend another day in a nice hotel wasn’t too punishing for us to offer up our seats again. We had a formed a little makeshift family of “stay behinds” and there we all were again, waiting to see what the verdict would be, but then the word came that we were all getting seats. We got our boarding passes and then, without any help from the Mumbai Lufthansa people, we had to beg every line keeper we came to for a cut to the front of the queue in order to actually make our flight. We still needed to go through immigration and security and they had already begun to board our flight. go, go, go (as Cort would say) We had already checked our too heavy, though carry-on sized bags and still needed to send our backpacks and largish bronze statue through the x-ray. We got some typical Indian security men bullsh*t hassle about the statue. (fellow Indian travelers, you knoooow what I am talking about here!) They held us and passed us back and forth between tables and each other, waiting for what, a bribe? I don’t know what it was besides flexing their meager, uniformed muscles before finally sending us to the gate with our statue that was already preapproved and tagged by Lufthansa back at the ticket counter. We got there without much time on the clock, but as we rounded the corner to our gate about 25% of the passengers were still waiting to board too, so no harm after all beside a few minutes of worry and frustrations.Being in Europe again is great. I am always so impressed with how put together and glamorous most European women are, even as they head to the airport at 8:00am for their own flights. I am having serious shoe envy and feeling a bit self-conscious of our long-worn jeans, trail runners and unwashed faces in this crowd. It is a good thing we are cute enough to hold our own in spite of the state of our clothes (giggle)
Our bags are checked through, so we can relax for the 4 hours between our flights. Luke is working on batching our recent “rolls” of photos---we have some good ones. We are feeling happy and complete as we recall some memories from the trip and talk about picking up milk and tea at the Vitamin Cottage on the way home today. We are making plans to pick our passes at Eldora and head up for some runs tomorrow to see if these lazy legs still work. After being at sea level for so long, I think most of the gain that we had being up above 16,000ft in Tibet for those 3 weeks is likely lost, but we will see soon enough!
Heading Home
We've been having such an amazing time these last few weeks that we haven't been blogging much. Sometimes it seems an impossible tasks to convey our experiences and all that comes with them in a blog post. I am still going to try to complete the trip once we get home.We went to Mumbai International last night to catch our flight to Denver via Frankfurt. When we went to check in, Luftansa offered Luke and I each a 700euro in flight vouchers or 600euro in cash and to put us up at a 5-star hotel to give up our seats and to stay an extra day in Mumbai. We said no at first, but then reconsidered when we realized that it was going to add up to over $1500 in cash. The only thing holding us back was my Women's Wednesdays were starting, but in the end, we opted to stay and put that money to good use for us at home. We had also come straight from Sapta Shringhi village which was 8 hours drive already and then facing those two flights totaling over 18 hours, plus another 4 between them, seemed more than we could muster. Afte being up for nearly 24 hours already, were very glad for our 5-star bed, food, showers and the loot.
We'll head back to the airport tonight for our 3:45am flight, though they are likely to offer this again. There was one guy who was now on his 3rd night of giving up his seat for this deal---Luftansa is 20 days overbooked out of Mumbai right now. We are pretty certain that we are not going to stay back this time though, as Luke just got word of another ski trip to do some filming in Canada on the 11th and we have a house to unpack. Plus, we have a ton of sushi and sake to nosh on with some dear ones of ours.
This trip has been full of grace. All that has happened this year has come together beautifully in support of this trip. Our friends and families have been a huge part of this support, especially Luke's folks who let us move ourselves and our things (all of our things!) into their home and outbuildings. We offered to housesit for them while they were in Australia this summer for Giff's work, but then we moved in a few weeks before they left, and then let us stay on a few more weeks before we took off. This is the kind of love and support that have had from everyone in our lives. Thank you deeply from our hearts. Thank you. Thank you.
We have been cared for by some beautiful strangers these last few weeks. I really mean, scooped up from the side of the street in the middle of Mumbai, and taken in people's homes and feed. truly. Also, my dear, dear teacher, Mukunda, took a last minute trip of his own to India. We were able to travel together to the place of his teachers and of also of their own. I was with my living teacher, in the place of his lineage: 4 generations of guru and student together in such holy places as we were in. It was grace. It was potent. It was beauty.
Luke and I are going to share some good stories later, but for right now, we are too in the experience of it all to tighten it into a blog post.
Pictures too are still coming and we will add them back at home. We have also been asked for some top 10s and favorites so we will try to oblige those requests too.
We both hope that your new years are off to a beautiful start. We wish you all a year of love, spirit, beauty and adventure in all forms.
oxo
Nichole
