An afternoon trip to Srirangapatnam

Hi everyone,

Well now that I am up before the sun, it turns out there are a lot more daylight hours than I am used to having.  I got up this morning to go to my yoga class again (and I can barely move now, ouch) and was home and had taken care of some emails and school stuff shortly after.  Since it was still relatively early and I didn't have any plans for the day I decided to try and venture a little outside of town.  There isn't much else for me to see in town, and there are a few places of interest within about an hour bus ride.  This town is only about 16 km from my city (Mysore) so I thought that would be a good place to start.  It was from this fort that Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan ruled Southern India during the 18th century.  There was an impressive temple, a summer palace, and a mausoleum of most interest.  When I got off the bus, I was immediately assaulted (as is the norm pretty much everywhere I go) by people either wanting to sell me something or offer their services.  One man offered to bring me to all the sites in town (they are a little spread out) on his little horse-drawn carriage for the entire afternoon for the equivalent of about $5.  I couldn't pass up the offer, and it turned out to be really nice.  He was very knowledgeable and explained a lot of the history to me.  It was also really nice to have some shade in between sites since I was getting pretty sunburnt.  I can only find SPF 20 here, and I usually use something much stronger.  All in all, it was an enjoyable trip though I was exhausted by the time I made it back to Mysore, maybe that's why I managed to fall down the stairs of the bus when I got back here.  I am such a klutz!

That was pretty much my whole afternoon and I went to dinner at an Austrian cafe of all places this evening for dinner.  I had a nice simple pasta, which is sometimes a welcome comfort from random ordering and hoping I get something that isn't too spicy for me to eat.  I have yoga again in the morning (of course) and then a meeting with my (please please please) hopefully supervisor tomorrow at 11am.  I am hoping the rest of that will finally fall into place so I can get started!

Sweet dreams everyone.