Earth

It took me some time to admit that this place could be almost as good as home. These helped over the years:

We moved in, four unknown people who had nothing whatsoever in common with each other, except for love of the seat on the windowsill which overlooked this bit of earth. As crammed up as it may seem, the tops of the green firs had us smiling and chattering away, nursing mugs of steaming chai (tea). We had black tea, green tea, milk tea, fruity tea, hibiscus tea, camomile tea, earlgrey tea, english breakfast tea, Turkish tea,tea with lemon slices.... you name it, and we might have tried it.

Weirdly (or maybe not) a lot of the tea here comes from Ceylon and India. And the coffee mixes from Indonesia and Brazil. Did I hear you say globalisation? ;)

Do you see the rocky peninsular-ish outcrop? That's Medved Gara. Medved means bear and Gara means mountain. Apparently an enormous bear wandered the Earth long ago and finally felt such an unquenchable thirst that he had to stop for a drink. And he happened to be by the Black Sea, just on the outskirts of Port Yalta. Well, he bent over, bum in the air and all, and began drinking from the saltiest sea in the world. No wonder his thirst has not been quenched yet!

He was still there a few months back when I took this picture :)

And my last picture for today is of the mountains and gentle rolling hills leading to the Red Caves, so named, for their rusty colour (high iron deposits). The Red Caves area has a beautiful waterfall and little gurgling brooks and streams surrounded by lush greenery and tree saplings. We had to walk an hour from the marshutka (shuttle-van/public bus?) stop to get there, but it was worth it.

The Red Caves are unadulterated and peaceful, a perfect place to be after a crazy schedule.We enjoyed the hike up the hills and the slipping and splashing along the cold cold cold stream beds very much!

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It's funny how we worked so hard during school, A-levels and the equivalents to get an education here, away from home, then now we work so hard to get back home. Maybe it's got something to do with where the heart is? ;)

Whatever it is, the earth here may be beautiful, but my motivation to do better each day is for my bit of earth halfway around the globe, somewhere along the Equator.

Home. That's. Where. I. Want. To. Be. :)

Woopsie. I hope KFC doesn't sue me for plagiarising their catchphrase :S