Maria's European Adventure: Sri Lanka (part 1)

Due to a surprising chain of events, I found myself with a lot of free time and more money that I expected. Oh the "joys" of socialism. I really needed to get out of Brussels and away from the drama of being laid off and not knowing what what happening with the job I was offered so I started thinking of places I could go. Eventually I decided on Sri Lanka because I have a friend from my master's living there and I interview for a job with USAID there a while back and wanted to see this country I studied so much about for an interview I never had (but let's save that rant for another day). So I searched for plane tickets, asked Gonzalo if it was cool if I came, and decided to escape to Sri Lanka for a week. It was the best decision I had made in a very long time.

I also apologize for how long it took me to make this post but there are a lot of pictures and it is rather large undertaking. So here we go...

So my adventure begins with a flight from Brussels to Abu Dahbi on the very nice Ethiad Airlines - they had caramel popcorn! I spent a three hour layover in Abu Dahbi international in this very lovely terminal:

However, I almost missed my flight to Colombo because getting to the gate over an hour before take off wasn't early enough. Whatever, I still got on the flight. And I was the only white person on the flight and everyone sorta looked at my like why is this white chick flying to Colombo at 1 am? Because the flight was cheap and I wanted an adventure.

So I land in Colombo and go through customs where there were lots of very large signs announcing that importing illegal drugs carries the death penalty. Very welcoming. Then I get my luggage and get a cab to take me to Gonzalo's apartment in Colombo (on Slave Island, no less). The cab driver had no idea where his place was so it involved a few stop to talk to tuk-tuk drivers but we found it (two very tall luxury apartment towers that my cab driver was very impressed by). I go to the gate with my suitcase and the guard asks who I am there to see and I reply, "My friend Gonzalo Jo-" "Ah! Mr. Gonzalo! Go right ahead!"

Gonzalo has a very nice apartment on the 28th floor with amazing views of Colombo and the Indian Ocean (clearly working for the Commission has its benefits.

Look! The Indian Ocean as seen from Gonzalo's apartment:

Not too shabby, eh?

I arrived on Friday morning and Gonzalo and I had a little chat before I went to take a much needed nap and Gonzalo went to work. We went for a really tasty lunch and then Gonzalo received a very important phone call and had to go deal with some human rights stuff for work and then go to piano lessons. So I had the afternoon to explore the city by myself. And I decided I wanted to see the ocean. Harder than I thought. Really, the world needs to adopt the gird system. But I found it and my way back without much issue.

Buddhist temple near Gonzalo's apartment

Lake near Gonzalo's

Cool tree

More lake

Pelican-esque bird (the first of many wildlife shots throughout the trip)

Vendor on the side of the road. There were lots of vendors selling various food stuffs I didn't recognize.

I eventually made it to the Indian Ocean! There is a long grassy area along the coast called Galle Face park and it was full of school children and families.

I was a bit of a novelty in Sri Lanka, particularly amongst school children. They would see me and get excited and they would get one of their classmates to come up and say, "hello" and I would be really nice and say, "hi" back to them but they would just run away and laugh.

That evening Gonzalo and I went for a delicious Indian dinner with his roommate and then went to watch some of the World Cup at the Hilton. If I remember correctly the match was very boring.

Saturday Gonzalo still had some work stuff to take care of and another piano lesson so I had the day to explore Colombo a bit more. I found a very nice tuk tuk driver, Latif, who took me around the city. First I went to the national museum, which was pretty nice and had a large collection of knuckle dusters, which amused me greatly. And the building itself is really lovely.

Arguably the most amusing incident of the trip happened when I was at the museum. I was walking between exhibits and the guard stops me and excitedly points at my stomach as says/asks, "Baby?!?!" I was mildly horrified and being decidedly not with child, I politely informed the man that, no, I am not pregnant. He seemed embarrassed, apologized, and I continued my visit of the museum. I was looking at some ancient statues when the guard comes up to me again and starts asking about where I am from and what I do. He determined that because I am American and have a desk job that I don't do enough exercise. Then, he tells me that I am "nice up here, down down here" while gesturing at my breasts then at my stomach. He does this several times and gives me some work out tips all while I am trying to politely extradite myself from the situation. Eventually he leaves me alone and I finish going through the museum. As I am about to leave the guard finds me, AGAIN. This time he takes me into the prehistoric Sri Lanka exhibit and has be stand next to a diorama of neanderthals in Sri Lanka. He proceeds to show me how to pose in pictures so that I don't look pregnant (hands interlocked and placed over the lower abdomen) and takes several pictures of me. Please note how happy I look.

The real kicker is that it is forbidden to take photos in the museum so he forces me to hide my camera as we are leaving the exhibit.

After the museum, I call Latif and he takes me around Colombo and we visit a bunch of Buddhist and Hindu temples around the city.

Buddhist temple near the museum