Appearing in India

Feet in India

First of all, we wish YOU ALL a marvellous HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! We hope it will be an interesting, fruitful year for each and everyone of you. Live it according to your feelings, listen to your intuition, and follow the signs showing up along your way. For us – this is the recipe to live our life happily, it is the path we are provided from the universe, we just need to go it. Give it a try!

We thought of a little update on our life and how we appeared in India. We enjoyed the summer time in midst of Europe, being among friends and with our beloved family members, and all this in lovely places like the Lithuanian countryside, the creativity-bursting Berlin metropole, the windy and sandy Danish seaside, the beautiful Norway and Sweden, and the breathtaking Ukrainian carpats.

Though, after three years in Latin America (Jan 2006 – Oct 2008), where sun was our daily companion, we got used to warm climate, so it took us a lot of energy to survive last winter (2009) in Europe. Few months ago the upcoming harsh winter in Europe made us decide to leave again. It was difficult this time, especially for Katja who realized that she starts to enjoy staying in Lithuania. However, the longing for warmth and sun was bigger. The greatest wish we had, though, was to finally find a place of our own which we could afford and in which we could rest from our last four years on the road – a desperate need we had already sometime ago in Argentina. We intended to find exactly that upon coming back to Europe in November 2008, but destiny made us understand that Europe is not the right location. Thus, we had to move on – just where to?

Having already explored a big part of Latin America made our interest turn towards Asia, a big continent with plenty of choices. Malaysia scored highest, until we figured that the visa regulations would cause us a hazzle. Continuing the research we were pointed to India which offers a 6 months valid tourist visa. Just…how to pick a place in a country driven by chaos and overpopulation which we had never set foot on?

Signs appeared, among them an Indian CouchSurfer suggesting Kerala state, the most South-Western state of India, as suitable for our requirements. Upon this, Katja remembered “The God of Small Things“, a fantastic novel having a strong background on Kerala’s life. Participating in the 13th birthday of the Vilnius Hitchhiking Club in October, we met a Lithuanian family who used to live for half a year in Thailand with their 2 kids. “What place did you like most in India?”, we asked them, and they took a breath and eventually suggested Varkala town as a worthwhile place to rest for half a year… And so, our minds started to concentrate on one place. Researching the Internet for possible contacts made us get in touch with Alex, a Latvian-Russian CouchSurfer, who lives in Varkala for the last 2 years. He offered us hospitality and help for settling down in Varkala. Having such a wonderful support already before our arrival made our decision for Varkala the final one.

On 18th of November we arrived in Varkala.