A New York Minute and "Hamilton"

In between Christmas and New Year’s, I made a short trip back to the US. I spent most of the time in Pittsburgh and then had a few days in NYC to visit with some friends. Although I didn’t have much specific planned for New York other than catching up with my friends, I ended up having a pretty big surprise.

I met up with my friend Katie, who is a NJ native, and was a fabulous tour guide through the Big Apple. We walked around the city for most of the day, just getting my fill of the urban life and taking some stereotypical tourist pictures. 

Shake Shack!

So excited to make it to Momofuku

As we were winding down and planning on finding one last café to rest for a bit before heading home, we decided to try to find the theatre where “Hamilton” was playing …just to get a photo. Serendipitously, just as we decided on this, we turned the corner and there was the theatre! We walked up to the window to get a picture and noticed that there was a sign saying that face-value tickets were for sale for that night’s performance!

In case you have been living under a rock, “Hamilton” has been acclaimed as one of the best musicals in the recent years. Lin Manuel Miranda’s unique story about founding father, Alexander Hamilton, has taken the theatre scene by storm and tickets are either completely sold-out or outrageously expensive after being resold online.

We asked at the box office and they explained that the show was indeed sold out, but that we could wait in a rather short line for last-minute cancellations. After five hours (in 30 degree weather) of waiting in line with about 20 other dedicated, bargain-hunting theatre goers, we were finally admitted at the very last second and able to buy a ticket for about $100 (~$600 cheaper than those for sale online).

The group of us who waited in line for 5 - 24 hours. 

I have to say… the show was worth all of the hype that it’s received. Unfortunately, the original cast include Lin Manuel Miranda, Daveed Diggs,and Leslie Odom Jr. are no longer performing, but we were still completely captivated as the musical style constantly switched between classic broadway , jazz, rap, hip hop, and spoken dialogue. The sheer amount of writing/lyrics/words is simply incredible. So much is happening at all times, that you can’t get bored. Additionally, the cast is racially and ethnically diverse, adding an interesting dimension to the story of America’s founding. Simply put, it’s an amazing show and I can’t wait to see it again. There's a great review here and Miranda sums it up as "It's the story of America then, told by America now."

On my last day, a small snowstorm caused some airport delays and my 7pm flight didn’t take off until 2am. It at least made for a pretty farewell as we flew directly over all the lights of Manhattan.

Wedding in Jodhpur, India

Well, well, well, friends. Here we are again when another six months have passed in between posts. As always, it feels as though life never slows down and I haven’t been able to write much.

The end of 2016 was particularly busy for us with both work and travel. After our trip to Egypt, we also had a short trip back to the US for a wedding and then we followed that up with a wedding in India. One of our very good friends from Pittsburgh invited us to share in her celebration and we couldn’t turn that offer down. The planning for this trip (including travel AND wardrobe ;) ) took almost one year to prepare…and we weren’t even the ones getting married!

A group of 5 of us living in Germany went together, which made for a really fun trip. We flew overnight from Frankfurt to New Dehli and then transferred to go onto Jodhpur, which is in the province of Rajasthan, in northwest India. 

Dehli Airport

Flying into Jodhpur

Arriving in the small Jodhpur Airport

At the welcome party

We had a few days before the official wedding festivities began, so we were able to do a bit of sightseeing in Jodhpur. Our first stop was the Umaid Bhawan Palace, where the Maharaja of Jodhpur lives. The palace also includes some collectibles and artifacts and collectibles of former Maharajas, including many vintage cars.

Next, we went to the Mehrangarh Fort. Movie buffs might recognize this from some scenes from part of the Batman trilology “The Dark Knight Rises,” which coincidentally was also filmed partly in Pittsburgh. The fort is on top of a huge hill and overlooks the whole city.

Overlooking the "blue city"

The handprints of former widowed queens as they left the fort on the way to throw themselves into the same fire where their deceased husbands were burned. Fun fact.

An interior room in the fort

A temple

A huge well in the middle of the city

Another temple

Our personal 1 hour sales presentation at a textile shop

We ended the day sitting at a cafe in the main square, watching the hustle and bustle die down as the sun set. Perfect.

Gently used sarees sold on the street

One of my favorite pictures from the trip

When it was finally time for the wedding festivities (3 days long) to begin, we weren’t sure at all what to expect. But in the end, it was INCREDIBLE. On the last night, the guests from the US were with us and we were talking about how hard it would be to explain everything to people when we got home. I think the easiest way is to show pictures.

A tuk-tuk decked out for the festivities

For Mehndi (henna) day

Henna before

Henna after

One of the most interesting (and fun!!!) parts was when we took part in a procession through the streets of Jodhpur, from our hotel to the hotel where the groom's side was staying. Our method of transport? .....

Our ride

So much time and preparation went into us preparing our outfits for all of the various events. Since we had no idea how to put on a saree, we had a group of local women (who we lovingly dubbed our "Glam Squad") come every night to dress us as well we do our hair and makeup. They were wonderful!

Day 1 Outfits

Faces blurred to protect the innocent ;)

Some "Bollywood" posing

Day 2 Outfits

Day 3 Outfits

And most importantly…the food was AMAZING! I honestly don’t think there was anything that we tried and didn’t like. Most of the wedding meals were served buffet-style, so we were able to try as many different things as possible and fill up on our favorites. I think I had a samosa at every meal!

The best veggie burger ever

As we got back home and settled back into normal life, it feels now like the trip was just a wild dream and we keep asking ourselves if that really happened. 

Namaste

P.S. I added pictures sparingly in this post to avoid sharing pictures with other people in them. If you know me in real life, I would be more than happy to show you some of the 1500+ photos that we took on this trip. :)