The last trip to Koh Phangan was absolutely amazing and I felt truly blessed to have had the experience, as short as it was. Now I have had two months back at home settling back into the routine of sorting out my 17-year old son's school life and finishing Sandhya's cookbook 'Mysore Style Cooking '. It is off to the printers now with the blessings and hopes of some very excited Indian people and of course yogis as well.



Now I have three weeks of school holidays (my son's) coming up and the freedom to go to several yoga retreats to continue on this journey of completing my next upcoming book 'The World's Best Yoga Centers'. The places I have chosen to go to have all been recommended to me by yoga practitioners whom I have met on my journey so far.



The first place I will be visiting is Istanbul. I have actually been there before but did not practice yoga there and only spent two days 'doing the sites'. One fifth of Turkey's population lives in Istanbul which houses 12 million people. The place is truly the New York of the middle east. It is a vibrant city, where every so often the sound of prayers voiced over loudspeakers waft over the city and infuses every nook and cranny. Istanbul originally known as Byzantium and then Constantinople started off as a small roman town in the first century A.D. and is now the largest city in Turkey and the fourth largest in the world. It is situated along the Bospherus Strait which divides the city into two continents, European and Asian. Istanbul is the cultural, economical and financial center of Turkey with so much to see and do that spending a year there would not suffice. I am looking forward to going to the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Markets, as well as taking a trip down the Bospherous and visit some of the villages along the way. I will be practicing yoga at Yogasala Istanbul where they teach Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga. Many world renowned teachers are now going to Istanbul to hold workshops.



Then I will be heading to Finland and to a place I have been trying to get to for a couple of years, the Midnight Sun Yoga Retreat. I have heard a great deal about Stefan Engstrom and his retreat, which is on the Island of Kadermo one of thousands of islands and skerries of different sizes around the Finnish coast. Some of these islands are entirely untouched. Judging by Stefan's description it sounds incredible "Where else can one listen to such silence, broken only by the sound of an owl hooting in the night, a woodpecker hacking away at a pine tree, seagulls squalling, a deer crying in the morning mist?"



After that I will be joining a yoga workshop yet on another island, Clare Island. The Clare Island Yoga Retreat Center holds retreats from June to October on various kinds of yoga. This week I will be doing something a little different to my usual Ashtanga practice. Clare Island lies off the coast of Ireland and has a population of 140. I'm looking forward to getting to know them.



Well, I am very excited about this trip. I'm looking forward to eating European food and exploring this part of the world. These three places certainly won't be the only European centers I will be visiting, but this is all I have time for this July. Then in August I will be going back to Mysore to launch Sandhya's book and then come end September I will be back in Europe to continue exploring what other exciting yoga centers are available for the intrepid yogi traveler.