the long journey home...

well, it should not have been such a long journey.  there was a bit of a misunderstanding due to how far i was along in my pregnancy.  qatar airlines had informed us that we could fly until week 36, when we called and asked before the trip.  they did not tell us however that we would need a doctors note after week 32.  and we never thought to ask.  so they let us fly out of goa in the middle of night, but when we arrived in qatar, they would not let us on our connecting flight.  Instead after hours of back and forth arguing and heated discussions, they finally fixed visas for all of us to go out of the airport and sent me to a doctor where i had to have an ultrasound to prove i was not about to go into labor (luckily the airline paid for everything but the ultrasound, or it could have been a very expensive layover).   after being awake all night and then fighting with them all day, and then the long wait for the ultrasound, they put us up in a very nice hotel for a few hours before our next flight. i believe that i fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow and did not wake up till they started banging on our door that our ride back to the airport was there.  too bad we were too tired to appreciate the hotel, or the food, or even qatar!  cannot remember that last time i was THAT tired!

 well, once we finally could fly, we came up to a bunch of snow!  talk about weather shock!  the girls loved it though.  glad we manage to stock up on sun and beach before coming home to this cold.

goa, you will be missed...

it has been fun and you will be missed... but the memories remain...

 good friends...

 fun shopping...

 and great wishes...

good bye, hope to see you next year...

squeezing in the beach time...

our trip is winding down, and a cold spring awaits us home in sweden.  so we are getting in as much beach time as humanly possible to stock up on the fun in the sun before we leave!

 

 

 

life in southern goa...

is full to the brim with adventures. oh no it just not all just fun and games while swimming at the beach.  there are motorcycle rides to be had.

 and hair dressers to visit to get that perfect look.

 there are piles upon piles of chillies to contemplate eating.

 and lots of strawberries, every morning, delivered to your breakfast table!

 but you cannot forget about the ice creams.  oh yes, one does enjoy their ice cream here, on the beach, at sunset, just about any time and any place,  just ask zoe and eijla.

and the new one this year, how many more days until mom can´t squeeze her belly through the door!

time for a little education

today we sent the girlies off to to school and kindergarten.  they were pretty excited.  new friends, new adventures.

eijla was very excited that she got to play with chloe all day and not just in the evenings at the beach!

farmor and farfars last days on the beach

all good things must come to an end, including farmor and farfar´s vacation.  however we had the most fun we could in those last days.  lots of laying around, eating good food, swimming, and relaxing.  not a bad way to spend your days.

eijla seemed to think that licking zoe´s face tasted better that drinking their coke.

 and of course dinner that last night was crab, which satay had the guys fix up super yummy for two of his favorite customers.

 thanks for another great trip farmor and farfar.  looking forward to another one next year!  safe travels!

goan adventures with farmor and farfar

while farmor and farfar visit we make sure to do hit all the fun activities nearby, including the anjuna market, where  you can buy almost anything...

 and the local chaudi market, with their yummy and oh so cheap vegies.  zoe loaded up on her beloved snack, peas.

 and a visit to the nature reserve and butterfly park.  see, we did not spend all day, everyday at the beach!  :-)

Eimi Thorén Fotography

i am working on starting my own company,  Eimi Thorén Fotography.  will be doing what i have always been doing, websites and of course photography, but now it will be official.  snapped this shot on the beach the other day, with just my iphone, and thought of all the precious moments in life one would like to caputure.  this is one of mine.  hope i can capture those moments for many others in the near furture.

life at the beach

the days slip easily away into weeks when things are this good.  get up in the morning, put on your swimsuit, maybe go for a swim or a walk.  throw yourself down in the restaurant and wait for some yummy food.  perhaps some snuggles while you wait.

 then maybe a swim again, then soon it is time for farmor and farfar to take all the kids for ice cream.  yum.

 then again you can pass the time taking silly selfies with some strange hot guy on the beach.

 showering off the saltwater after some morning fun in the sun. perhaps your showering facilities are not quite what they are at home,  but that doesn´t really detract from the experience.

 then it is time once again to chill in the restaurant and await your lunch.

 there are tons of creative outlets, including building a small fairy town in front of a nearby bungalow.

 then maybe some exercise with living weights before it is time to enjoy a tasty dinner once again on the beach.  really, one cannot complain.

Off to india!

off on a new adventure.  this time a lazy month in the south of goa!  farmor and farfar hanger med för ett par veckor med!

well behaved children on our long flights!  we were lucky today! 

last but not least, the TAJ!

the entire trip i have been afraid that we would be lazy in the end of the trip and skip the taj mahal.  luckily i was wrong.  we hopped on a plane to delhi...

 after a quick night's sleep in delhi we headed to the train station to try and buy a ticket.  it was a bit hectic, but i shoved my way through and managed to get us some general class tickets.  dirt cheap, but well, in general class there are about 100 people in three square meters.  we walked down the the wagon that we should be on, and it was so full you could not even look in or try and climb the steps, so we snuck in sleeper class. we heard that the conductors will let you upgrade on board.  about an hour before we were to hop off the conductor came by and i told him we wanted to upgrade, he said now that was not possible and we should pay a fine of 1200 rps (150 sek),  our tickets had only costed 80 rps (10 sek), so this is  a pretty steep fine.  i argued and said we should be able to upgrade, and he got annoyed and said he would come back to us.  but he never did and we snuck off the train at our stop, and although we saw him at the station in agra, we just kept on walking, naughty us! yeah for dirt cheap transportation.  thomas and the girls enjoyed their last train ride in india...

 yes, why does one go to agra?  to see the taj mahal of course.  i have been looking forward to it the whole trip.  from the train we took a rickshaw to our hotel, and ate some lunch on the rooftop restaurant,  while i can say the food was not that exciting, the view was not bad at all.

after a good nights sleep, thomas and got up really early to watch the sunrise over the taj mahal from the top of the hotel,  it was pretty smoggy, and not that exciting of a sunset.  but after breakfast we headed to the wonder of the world...

 the girls loved all the flower carvings.  i think they may just have inspected nearly every inch!  it really is a beautiful building.

 after wandering the grounds for a couple of hours, zoe took a break from admiring the architecture and went tadpole fishing in the fountains.  she actually found some.  pretty funny.

yeah it was a fun day out at fabulous sight. glad we did not miss it.