Quoting Marcel Proust.........

I read a most beautiful and moving paragraph recently, a quote from Marcel Proust from the (mis)translation of Y.K. Karaosmanoğlu. To quoute:

"To imagine that a person who intrigues us has access to a way of life unknown and all the more attractive for its mystery, to believe that we will begin to live only through the love of that person - what else is this but the birth of great passion?"

how apt then, that I should find these to be the introductory words to Orhan Pamuks White Castle....how very apt.....

Explaining Szerelem

got a question from Cherie yesterday - whats szerelem? is it an extension of your new found Turkish obsession? Well NO! sigh...dont I deserve a bit more credit??....

Szerelem, Szrelem is a very very beautiful hungarian song (one i listen to quite constantly).... szerelem meaning love....its quite haunting and i like the sound of it....plus it also has to do with all other possible names I came up with before being unavailable....even if the blogs havent been updated in forever!(note szerelem is also taken, hence this address is actually szerlem...a perversion if you may)...I do think its beautiful so am sticking to it....its is also in the hope of squelching the overbearing cynic that i have become.....ok I was being sarcastic there....see what I mean?

it also comes from my still existant English Patient obsession..... ok make that Ralph Fiennes obsession...its the theme for the movie which is how I chanced upon the word.....by the by I am still besotted with the movie and I adore Fiennes.....finer eyes havent existed..and such a fabulous actor.....see the constant gardener for proof....the pain he brought across broke my heart .....

Heidiland Visa

I got my Swiss visa today.....and its really cute!!! Well its the nicest visa i have in my passport yet. Its yellow, has cute clockwork watches and a nice little map of Switzerland...(this one here isnt mine obviously but gets the point across, no?) it beats the Schengen monstrosity anyday....though is it weird that i find a visa cute?? (my room mate thinks so, her response -jeez its a visa!!)
Maybe its just me over compensating considering the pains i had to go through to get it. First of all the Swiss Embassy is in the middle of NOWHERE...it really is! I get that they need to be neutral but does this need to extend to the location of the embassy as well?? Why not just have the embassy where ALL the other embassies are located?? no can do....
I literally had to hike up 2k from the bus stop in the heat to reach there (twice...once to submit, once to collect) not to mention the $50 i lost the first time i went there....the memory still pains....*curses the swiss*....

So, I'm trying to blog....

hmmm......i dont know how long this will last but im giving it a try....it started with me being bored to death over the weekends (which are now ridiculously free as i have no school work ...YAY!), having flights of fancy and thinking up new and exotic places to visit (when??...sometime....hopefully....i need to go Turkey!!!).

And thus started my blog surfing...so i thought this would be a nice way of writing about all my travels as well and posting up all my nice travel pics....well that was till i realised i have been in toto to 7 countries, which may be ok i guess (since i have literally just started travelling) but seems very insipid when you spend time reading about people who seem to have been everywhere and through everything (dont believe me?? -pls just surf through the lonely planet forums...)

Imagine a potential conversation:
LP blogger: I have blogged about my treck through the Himalayas and stay in the Amazon!
Me: Well, I have written about my trip to Thailand....(is that exotic enough?)

Anyway so that was enough to convince me against coming up with a 'travel' blog. This is just for random rumblings, try and keep people updated and a nice way to put up my travel pics anyway......just bear with me....=)

Agra - Summer 2004

Agra is a ridiculously dirty, crowded, smoky town - and the entire experience of visiting is so intensely forgettable. Except of course the Taj which is, imo anyway, the most beautiful monument ever. (Agra fort is pretty amazing too). In any case, every time i have seen the Taj (5 times at last count), i have been utterly stunned by it. It is, I think, best appreciated from afar where it looks like an unbelievable mirage - the marble reflects the sky light and takes on different tones at different times of the day. The best time to view the Taj, however, is definitely sunrise when it looks pale gold and the semi precious stones on the facade glitter.....its stunning.

The Taj in blue - still dont know how I took this picture

The Taj viewed from a side arch

Early Morning
Agra Fort