after a while

The Christmas time is upon us and all I wanna do is decorate, wrap gifts and bake ginger-breads. Unfortunately, after the wedding madness, I need to focus on more mundane chores. Plus I promised myself I’ll be writing regularly… all I can say at this point: those who do post around their wedding time have super powers! It’s just can’t be done!

Our past weeks were so eventful I could write a book about it and not be finished!

First, we made a trip to Delhi to pick up my cousin. After short stop in capital we backpacked our way through Rajasthan – like in good old days! We managed all the classics. Stayed in fairytale Jaisalmer fort, spent the night on the desert, got lost in narrow blue streets of Jodhpur, took a boat ride in charming Udaipur and finished the trip in pink city – Jaipur. After that, we said goodbye to my cousin, who was heading to Agra, and jump on the train back home. 

It was time to really get the wedding preparation going. Our life revolved around menus, drink choices, music, decorations, room assignment, guest list (that kept changing till the last day!). Meanwhile I was still finishing both of my wedding dresses…

 Shortly after that, second batch of European guests was arriving – this time to Mumbai. Traveling mode was on once again. We’ve managed to see Ajanta and Ellora – breathtaking caves! I’ve seen the pictures earlier but it was more than I’ve ever expected. With some time to spare, we visited family in Nasik, where we balanced sacrum with profanum, spending the morning in ancient temples and evening in local winery. Though India has still much to learn in this department, after wine tasting, I have to say they are surprisingly good, for having only few years of experience.             

                                                            

From Nasik it was straight back to Goa. We’ve shipped the family of to visit Hampi and got ready for Indian invasion for a change.

This whole time was punctuated with cancelled train tickets, tour planning, almost obsessive list checking, menu tasting, wedding shopping etc…

Since we wanted to make the event as personal as possible, we engaged large portion of our guests in some DIY activities. Honestly I felt like the whole thing was impossibly unorganized, but afterwards I got many compliments quite to the contrary. Thinking back, past days are just a haze of comings and goings, hysterical phone calls, last minute changes and expectations… and then the wedding!
I think we actually avoided the wedding curse, we were warned about: you stress so much that you don’t even have fun on your big day. Thought it’s just a blur of colors, faces and lights I had a great time, especially seeing all the friends and family who managed such a trip… But I do wish I ate more. There is sth about weddings, which makes the food never to reach the newlyweds.

After the big hoopla we took closest guests to our favorite beach – Agonda and finally had laid back, relaxed holidays. Nothing but sand, sun, sea and fruity drinks with umbrellas... All the tension was wearing off and we came home quite relaxed and with new member of our family. We adopted tiny beach kitten, whom we are spoiling rotten!

After the last guests have left, we were supposed to turn the dirty cave back into our dream home but another obstacle arose. The VISA! The FRRO! The DRAMA!

Since we’ve moved to Goa, I had to be registered in new place of residence. I also needed that done in order to apply for visa extension. Documents in hand we marched to registration office to find out that it can’t be done without a stamp from Delhi branch. After hours on the phone we knew one thing: we have to pack again! 30 plus hours on the train and we were back in hell. Actually it wasn’t that bad… we got some winter chill, met some friends and reminded ourselves, once again, why moving to Goa was such a brilliant decision. Visit in FRRO (which I call spawn of Satan for short), had amusing aspect this time. Well… there was amusement mixed with annoyance, but still! First off, they kept telling me to fill the form that doesn’t exist, then to fill the form unrelated to my issue, in the end just exclaiming: fill any form and we’ll do what u need! Secondly the person I was dealing with had no idea where (or what) Goa is. It gives certain inside into working of government offices in this country… and it makes me giggle.

FINALLY we are back home, with our ginger cat, sunny weather and all the mess to clean. Task for today: deal with it. Task for tomorrow: enjoy all the xmas preparation I can squeeze into remaining time!