Safari

We went on a safari to Etosha National Park in Namibia and we saw so many animals! It is cool there because you can drive yourself and there are tons of watering holes so you can drive around and see animals then sit at the watering holes and see more animals. We even stayed the night in the park and you can sit at the watering hole, which they have flood lights on, and see the animals at night. The coolest thing was the lions. We got right up next to them and they are so big!

Now we are in South Africa, after about 2 whole days of driving, and we are staying in the mountains in a place called Cedarberg. We went hiking yesterday; the terrain is totally different from what I am used to. There are mountains, but they are soapstone so they are worn away in strange patters instead of being granite or serpentine, which is more jagged, which is what I am used to. There are barely any trees; there are lots of scrubby bushes, which make the mountain look green from far away, but are really kind of bristly from up close. Nothing compared to the pines and cedars at home. For a place called Cedarberg, I have seen few cedars!

Next we will travel to the west coast of S Africa, which is called the "Western Cape" where it is said that the cliffs go right to the sea. I am imagining Big Sur type cliffs, but we shall see what we run into. South Africa is very civilized; there are real grocery stores with stocked shelves!! It is almost like home, except there is still a large black/white separation.

Comb The Desert!

We ain't found shit!! Sorry, I had to put a Spaceballs reference in this. We rented a car and our first stop was the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which is a dune park near Sossusvlei, Namibia. It was awesome. Supposedly, as you can read on the link above, these are the world's oldest dunes, and sometimes some of the tallest (they change with the wind).  We left Windhoek and thought we would take the "shortcut", which turned out to be a dirt road...the entire way, which was about 300 km (about 200 miles). We thought we would be there around 7 pm; we ended up getting in around 10 pm. It was dark and there were many animals on the road. (see previous post re list of animals)

We went to the dunes, hiked up them and down them and all around them. We got up at 4 o'clock to sit in a line at the gate of the park in order to watch the sun rise over the dunes, which is cool, as they have the shade on one side and the sun on the other and they have such a high spine and a windy one. However, once you've seen one dune, the others all look very similar.

It was very fun, but very hot, so we retired to our campsite to find that...our tent was gone!! And somebody was in our space!! As it turns out, there had been heavy wind and our tent had blown away. The resort had found it and secured it with rocks (ooops, I guess we will use tent spikes from now on!) and they gave us another spot so all was well.

The next day we drove north to Swakopmund, which is a German inspired town near the beach with the dunes in the distance. You can do many things here such as sand boarding and dune buggies but we are using the time to use the (fast!) internet, do laundry, run errands, grocery shop (we are self catering!) and get things like that done before hitting the road again tomorrow.

Things have been a lot more expensive in Namibia than in any of the other countries. We sure are not getting the 1 dollar rice and chicken plate anymore! But, you get other things, such as cleanliness and fast internet for the price. I am not sure if it is worth it, as I was hoping to save money in Africa. I have also heard that South Africa is expensive and that is our next stop. So, PB&Js to the rescue!

I have a feeling we will have better access to the internet so hopefully can avoid these long stretches of time where I am silent.

I did put some phtos online. Please check them out at your leisure HERE.

Hell Week

So what has happened to us, you ask?! Well.....

You last left us in Malawi. Big K was doing his diving certification and I was chillin with S and R who were good fun, reading and relaxing at the lakeshore. From there, we had hell day. Wait, it was hell week!

From there, which was Nkata Bay, we had to go to Lilongwe, which is also Malawi, but is about 8 hours from Nkata Bay. So we took a morning bus at 5 am, it rained, no wait, POURED on us the whole walk to the bus WITH all of our stuff. We arrived at Lilongwe, kind of dryish and tiredish and got the closest hotel to the station because the NEXT day we had to get up again and catch a bus at 6 (which did not leave until 8) which lasted all day again. We arrived in Lusaka at 9ish (PM), had to pitch our tent (yes, we ARE camping!)

So...the NEXT day, we did the same thing... a 8 hour bus ride from Lusaka to Livingstone, where Victoria Falls is (Zambia). We stayed there one day, went to look at the falls, relaxed (in our tent) and then the NEXT day...yup you guessed it -- anohter travel day! This one was actually interesting. I think I said before that I hitchhiked for the first time. This was that day. We wanted to take a bus from Livingstone to Windhoek, Namibia. This is about an 18 hour bus ride. However, the bus only goes on Wednesday and Sunday. Today was Thursday. So, we tried to get a bus but they said we had to go to another town to get it. So we took a taxi 60 km to the next town where they dropped us off....at the side of the road. Mind you, at this time it was about 630 am. So...we hitched. The guy who picked us up was super nice and was actually traveling in a caravan, two trucks long. They always travel together.

The guy, Franco, was from...Namibia! Yay! Since that was where we were trying to go, we asked him if we could go all the way with him. He said yes, although he was going to a different town, but we could go with him as far as we needed. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!! His partners were great too, we actually switched trucks in the middle. We saw elephants and warthogs!! We learned A LOT about Namibia. We did not go over 100 km/hr (they have a sensor that sends a signal to the home office if they go over 100). We did not make it to the end. We had to get off in the middle because it was 10 pm. Namibia is a HUGE country!

The next day, we hitched again, met a nice guy named Bob and his dog, Poppy (named for "the item you get from Poppies". I didnt ask him to elaborate), tried to rent a car but were told we DID need to go to Windhoek (pronounced VindHoke) after all. So, we got another ride with a great guy named Sam (who had AC -- wonder of wonders!!) He was a wealth of information. He told us all about the human trafficking from Nigeria and China. He told us all about the gun laws. He knew so much. I asked him if the cops were corrupt here. He said no and he knew all about the programs they have within the government where they watch the cops to make sure that they stay legal. I was thinking "this guy knows his stuff!!" Then we asked him what he did. He says, "I work for the police". Hahaah. Oops. He was super nice. We finally got to Windhoek around 8 pm.

This was the end of hell week. 6 days of travel. No rest. Camping on the ground, riding in uncomfortable buses for 6 days in a row. We got a car to continue our journey and I am sooooo glad. We are traveling every day, but it is no big deal anymore. We can stop when we want! You dont know how good this is! Anyway, more about that later. Hell week is over.

The Gods (and Lists) Must Be Crazy

I thought of more things that I have found out about while in Africa:

- Rats. Fried. On a skewer. : YUM

-It is okay to throw rocks at your neighbor's goat.

-It is also okay to throw trash/food/etc out the window of your bus/on the ground/in a hole in the ground. There is trash EVERYWHERE. (except Namibia... it is cleaner)

-There is a lot of skirt on skirt action. The women wear a skirt and then wrap another one around it. My mom would love it.

-Things you can buy from the window of your bus:
     Fanta
     Bread
     Fried Pastries
     Tomatoes
     Cabbage
     Spoons
     Wallets
     Shoes
     Oranges
Okay the list goes on forever, but if you ever want anything, just ride the bus! (ps the rats I mentioned before = CAN be bought from the bus)


Well, thats it for now. I am sure I will have more things to say about Africa later. I am in Namibia now, having hitched a ride (dont tell my mom!) for the first time in my life. From Zambia to Namibia, in a 18 wheeler (also my first ride in one of those!). I am alive now, so I can talk about it freely.

A quick list of animals I have seen! From the car! At night! Be careful on the road, that's what I have learned.

Zebra --- we thought it was a donkey, but then....STRIPES! Fun!
Oryx -- a large deer with huge straight horns and a horsey tail
Ostrich
Warthog -- cute, but ugly!
Porcupine -- I didnt know they had them in Africa
Wild dog -- looks like a dog with bigger ears
Unknown birds -- to be announced later
Rabbits -- or hares? about 50 of them!

I love it here! It is what I expected and it is not what I expected. I thought plains and grasses and animals and tribes like in National Geographic. It IS a little like that and so much more.

A couple of things you may or may not know:

Most of the countries in Southern Africa speak English: Mozambique speaks Portuguese. Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Malawi and Botswana speak English, Africaans and about a dozen (or so) tribal Languages. You thought I had to learn those clicking sounds to get around over here, but...as unglamorous as it is, I can mostly get along with English.

Namibia just gained their independence 17 years ago. Mozambique I think gained theirs in 1975 (from Portugal) but has been in Civil wars with themselves until about 1994. Wounds are still fresh.

A beer in each of the countries I have been so far in Africa costs about 1 dollar. This is very important information.

There is still a lot of racial strife here. In Zimbabwe the whites came and staked their claim on land and began to farm it. Not long ago, the government decided to give the land back to the natives. People are angry. Still.

Enough for today! Waka Waka Hey Hey!

This is Africa (T.I.A.)

10 things that you see and you have to say, "THIS is Africa":

1. Boobs. Yes, boobs. Many of them. Apparently it is okay to nurse your child, then leave your one boob hanging around afterwards. Literally "hanging", swinging loose in the breeze.

2. Obamas - Not the POTUS, but a little cake like donut made of bread and fried and sold on the streets of most Malawian towns. When your bus stops, the kids all run up to the bus with Obamas on a stick, putting it in your face and shouting, "Obama, Obama!!"

3. Minibuses - Normally a 12 seater van, minibuses have become 23 people capable, whether you like it or not. Like I said in my last post, you have 4 people abreast plus 2 kids on laps, usually a lady nursing a baby with her boob in your face and a chicken or two. And maybe a pot or a bag of maize.

4. Welcome - when you meet people, and you meet a lot, they shake your hand, ask your name and proclaim that you are "most welcome" to Malawi. The people are very friendly.

5. Supplies - we were going to go camping/hiking for a few days, so we went to find supplies, things to eat. Usually we can exist on tuna or a canned item and bread for a few days. However, there was none to be found. The only thing we could find were canned sardines in tomato sauce, which were pretty darn gross. But we ate them anyway. We also tried canned corned beef (gross but a little better with rice) and canned chicken (tastes like a hot dog...NOT like chicken!)

6. Nsima - this is a staple of the Malawian diet. I have had Cameroonian food, and they have the same thing, but it is called Foo Foo. In Kenya it is called Ugali (I think...or Ungali). In Malawi, it is called Nsima. What it is: crushed/ground up maize which is then boiled, like rice, to make a kind of lumpy rice type meal. They then pick this up with their fingers, make it into a kind of ball and use that to scoop up meat or vegetables.

7. Kids in Sacks - I guess a picture would be better, but instead of spending hundreds of dollars on baby carriers and misc products, they take a length of fabric, put the baby on their back, and wrap the fabric around the baby and their back like a sling and off they go. To top it off...see number 8.

8. Things on Heads - after strapping a baby to their back, they put their items on their heads, be it wood, luggage, water or the like and off they go again. They must have necks of steel.

9. Aging - The average age of people in Malawi is about 38. 52 percent of the people here are under 20. These figures may not be spot on, but I have heard this a few times. The main reason for this is AIDS.

10. TIA - This is Africa. This phrase was given to me by a fellow traveler. It basically means, chill out man, this is just the way it is. When your bus is 3 hours late, you cant complain, you can only say...TIA. When you go to a restaurant that has pizza thinking you are going to get a Naples pizza and you get a piece of bread with kale and chicken and some strange sauce on it, you say...TIA. When you get a cab and have to then go to 4 gas stations to find gas because they are all out, you say...TIA. When you finally get to your destination and the place you were going to stay the night has been closed for 3 years you say...TIA.

So, carpe diem! TIA!!!

The Walmart of Africa

I was talking to a guy the other day about traveling in Africa. He talked about Malawi, which he said was "the walmart of Africa". I made a comment about why this was, maybe because they greet everyone in a friendly manner at the door? I later learned he had said, "the Warm Heart of Africa".

We are now in Malawi, and the people ARE very friendly. However, it is interesting finally being in Africa. It is kind of what I expected, a little hard to get around and a little bit of a wait for things, similar to Island time. But you get used to that after a while. The buses are overflowing with people. It is not uncommon to ride 6 abreast in a seat meant for 3. And maybe with a child on your lap. Or a chicken. You never know.

We are currently in a place called Nkata Bay, which is in the middle of Malawi and is situated right on the shores of Lake Malawi which is a HUGE lake, and covers basically a third of the country. It is just like an ocean, it has waves and everything, but it is nice to swim in FRESH water! Our hut is situated just on the shore, overlooking the lake. It is great.

We next plan to go to Zambia and camp next to Hippos in a game reserve! Then we will go to Victoria Falls and then on to Namibia, where there are tons of sand dunes and more animals.

I have to keep this short; I am so glad to finally have internet. It has been few and far between! However it is a shared computer and there are always people waiting in line. I hope to get some pictures uploaded, but that has been a total bust lately. I am deathly afraid of losing my camera or memory card, as I have not gotten a chance to upload in a while! More later!

Randoms and Peeves

I decided I would like to have an apartment in Paris. Naturally it will be on the top floor with a balcony with flowers and it will be in a fun neighborhood. Realistically, I could barely afford an apartment in Paris and if I could it would be about 200 SF, in a basement, with no kitchen. Which isnt even that bad really. I would still want it.

I almost left my passport in Portugal. Can you imagine, getting to Spain, after an _ hour bus ride, and realizing you don,t have your passport. Thats one of my fears! Luckily on the way to the bus station I realized and voila, I went back and got it and still made it to the bus on time.

The keyboards in France are weirdly arranged. I guess they use certain letters more than we do, so they arrange it differently. But if you think my spelling or grammer are bad, its not me, its the keyboard. I cant even find the apostrophe or the question mark. The , is zhere the M should be. And obviously the Z is where the W should be.

One of my biggest pet peeves is pushy people, ones who dont wait in line or who cut or push in front of you. And that happens all the time in Europe. Apparently waiting in line is not something that anyone values. Yesterday I was waiting to buy a metro ticket and a lady, her husband, and two kids walked right up to the front counter and demanded the man tell her how to get to the airport from there. Apparenly if you have a question you are allowed to skip the line and go right to the front. However, if you are BUYING tickets, you have to wait. Unless of course you are that lady and in that case you get a quick pass to the front no matter what. I wish I knew how to say HEY, I WAS HERE FIRST, LADY!! in French, or Italian, or Portuguese.

You cannot always find a public restroom when you want it. But it is hot here and I am thirsty. Herein lies the "what goes up must come down" connundrum (otherwise known as the camel connundrum). How much water can you drink before you have to pee? (Look I found the question mark finally) I dont want to have to hold my pee but I am thirsty. Its not like at home, you cant just go into any place and use their bathroom, and I cant justify buying a coke or a water (hence the cycle continue) every time I need to use the potty. So, what is the answer? I admit, I probably dont drink enough water when I am out and about but when near a toilet, I GUZZLE it. Then pee like 3 times, then...camel time.

Sorry this post doesnt have any news. They will probably be pretty few and far beteen in the next few weeks...Internet qctiis getting sparce!!!

Photos a Day

I am still taking a photo a day, however, I am not posting one a day, as I am not in reliable internet areas all the time. So, please forgive me, but if you want to see a (very) small sample, you can do so here.

My 2010 Round The World photos on flickr.

The Traveler´s Diet and The World Cup

I have probably already talked about this; I can never remember what I have already said and what I haven´t. Anyway, I am going to let you guys in on my very secret diet plan.

1. Carry a 40 pound backpack around with you everywhere.
2. Eat only 2 or 3 meals a day since you don´t really have time for snacking (not like sitting at the desk all day!)
3. Eat something shady in Egypt (no idea what). End up sick, not able to eat for a few days.
4. Walk miles a day. Miles and miles.

It feels great. Except for the little slip up in Egypt, everything has been healthy. We are eating fresh food and smaller meals and walking a ton. Big K must have lost 10 or 15 pounds and me, little K, maybe 6. But all in all, we are happy and healthy.

And then....we went to Italy.

We arrived in Italy and our first stop was Bologna. This is supposed to be the home of some of the best food in Italy (they all say that but what the heck). Since we are scientists, we decided to test out the theory and see if we could prove it wrong (by multiple testing of course). So we went to a typical Italian meal, which consists of a starter, first course and second course. Unlike us, they eat it in a strange order. Your starter may be a meat platter, your first course is pasta and your second is usually a meat dish. Then there is always coffee and desert, which are generally delicious. If you are particularly brave, there is a cheese plate and a digestive. Of course we had to try it all.

And then we went to Venice and had to try the food there, because I heard that the Venitians have the best food in Italy. And then we went to Rome, where we met up with some of Big K´s family and of course had to prove to them that the food in Italy was good, as well as to find out for ourselves WHICH region ACTUALLY has the best food. We also made sure that Florence was not left out. All in all, I think that the bottom line is: all the food in Italy is good. Period. Sorry Neopolitans. You are NOT the best. You are in a 21 way tie with all the other regions in Italy. But....I have only tried 4 of them, so I never know, I may have to go back and keep trying out the theory.

So, now we are in Portugal, which as you know is Big K´s family´s origin. So we are trying to get a feel for the city, eating and drinking and walking. And most of all, watching The World Cup....watching the USA kick butt, even though the England goal they made was a little crappy...watching Portugal tie with Brazil to make it on the next round... So its a week of eating and soccer. Carry on.

Next, we go to a few more places in Portugal before heading towards Paris for our flight out of here. I made a map but the computer I am on would not let me save it in a format I could post here. Next time, I guess. Until then, Arividerci, Adios and Ciao!

If it is Called Monte, it Must be a Mountain

Okay so the verdict is in...Montenegro is the place to be! It is beautiful. It is tiny, with only about 700,000 people. It has ocean, mountains and beautiful old cities. We had a great time in Budva, which is a beach town, although we had no map and had a heck of a time finding a place to stay. The norm in Montenegro is to stay at someone's house, in their extra room. We got lucky the first time and the guy had an entire apartment with a separate entrance, its own kitchen, bathroom and patio. It was awesome. We got some wine and cheese from the store and had a picnic on the patio. The next day we went on a tour, which is not my favorite thing, but we did get to go on a boat and to see my favorite town, the walled city of Kotor, which is very midevil and has walls going all the way up the mountains to protect the city.

Next we headed to the mountains and took an all day hike up the third tallest mountain, which was very cool, but very tiring. It was only about 7000 feet (2300 m) maybe, but man was it steep, with lots of scree and snow so sometimes you had to bushwhack (actually to scree whack is more like it ) in order to get up the mountain. But we made it and the view was amazing. You could see for miles, rolling farmland and steep mountains together with little farm houses with steep alpine roofs. The walk back was the worst; downhill always gets me. And then we had to walk along the road to get back to our house and I think that in itself was about 4 miles! Or it seemed like it. We ended up hiking for about 10 hours in total. We got back to town and ate a horse and a half and passed out. Whew, real excercise makes me tired!

So then it was off to Croatia where we are now. Croatia is just as beautiful as Montenegro, but its about 3 times the price. So, we get on an over night ferry tonight and are headed to Ancona Italy. From there we will go to Bologna (has a first name...its Oscar!) and then Venice. More on all of that later. My posts are going to be quite sporadic, as the internet here is 6 dollars an hour and the internet cafes are surprisingly SCARCE. Booo..

I hope all is well back home. Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there!

My Mom Asked For a Map

So here it is....

Red = Where we are
Green = Last route
Blue = Where we plan to go

What's That You Say?

I only have one thing to say about Albania so far (arrived yesterday evening). Albanians are NICE. Waaaayyy nice. So maybe you are wondering, "aren't Spanish people nice? And what about the Greeks?" Yes, they are also nice, but I decided that the reason I like the Albanians, and maybe it is ironic, is that they don't speak English. Not really.

Yesterday we took a bus from Athens to Saranda, Albania, which is a cute little town sandwiched between the mountains and the sea. It is only about an hour from the Greece border and has had much strife. As little as 13  years ago, Albania was still having strife between anarchists and the government (see history of Albania here). However, now they are peaceful and the tourist business has supposedly picked up, although we have not seen more than a handful of other tourists yet.

On the bus, there were only about 6 other people. The whole time, even though we didn't speak the same language, they made sure we made it back onto the bus, bought us oranges and even patted me on the back as I finally got off the bus. They were very helpful and super nice!

Then we were looking for our hostel and a man came up to us and said, "I think I can help you" and since usually taxi drivers and everyone under the sun says they can "help" us when really they want to rip us off, we ignored the guy. Then he said my name. Turns out he was the guy from the hostel, waiting on the street to make sure we found it okay. Then when I asked him later where we could have dinner, he said, "I will take you there. What time would you like to go?" Its like a personal shopper! Anyway, this guy, "Tom" was/is great! He took us to dinner (we invited him to stay and it was very informative), told us exactly where to catch each bus and more!

Today we went to Gjirokaster, which is an old city, all made of rocks with slate roofs, and went to look at the Castle there. It was beautiful, very Gothic with many arches and stones and cobblestoned streets. The town was cute, with tiny cobbled streets, little shops and SO MANY MERCEDES! I don't know what it is about this country, but I think it is where Mercedes go to retire. There are a lot of new ones too, but there are TONS of 1970s 1980s Mercedes. They must have got like a buy one, get 100 free deal at some point. I love it!

Tomorrow we go to to Butrint, which is a UNESCO site with ruins from the Ottoman empire. More on that later.

It's All Greek To Me

We arrived in Athens and nobody accosted us at the door to the airport. In fact, it was all very civilized. We took the metro into the city and walked to our hotel without a hitch. We had a great time exploring the Parthenon and surrounding Acropolis area, then had a nice dinner of Gyros (I finally figured it out -- it IS pronounced "Euro", which is funny as we had 2 Euro Gyros) and wandered around the Syntagma Square area, which is where they do the changing of the guards. As we were leaving the square, a bunch of cops shut down the streets and a bevy of motorcycle cops came down it. We were not sure what was happening, but in the light of recent events (strikes and violence a couple of weeks ago) we got the hell out of there, after taking a couple of pictures, of course.

The next day we went to the beach and observed the customs of the Greeks. Actually, it is mostly older ladies. Here is the drill. Get to the beach. Take off clothes, put on bathing suit. Yup, I saw plenty of old lady boobs that day. Put on colored hat (note: each lady has different colored hat). Get right into the water. Make a circle with whichever friends are already there. Chat for a while, probably talk about your horrible husband and your wonderful grand kids (I couldn't understand them, but I am sure it is the same everywhere).  One lady would leave, after changing back into her regular clothes, and others would take her place, with a different colored hat. They never get their hair wet. It was great. They must do this every day. The funniest part is, the next day we went to a totally different beach, about 2 hours from that one, and the ladies were there too!

The next day we went to see the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion where apparently Aegeus, king of Athens, jumped to his death, thereby giving the sea the name The Aegean. The temple is very neat; it is surrounded on three sides by water and sits up on a high cliff. It was surprisingly uncrowded as well, which is not what I can say for the Parthenon. It still amazes me how they built these things (this was built around 700 BC). They are beautiful, all made of marble and columns and supposedly mathematically correct -- the columns go from wide at the bottom to narrow at the top so if you are looking straight at it, they look like they are all the same width. Pretty neat.

Oh and don't forget about the food! Great olive oil and tomato salads and tzatziki and hummus and souvlaki. Yum.

10 Things I am Happy to be Lugging Around

1. Wet wipes. Along with TP, these are invaluable. INVALUABLE. In case you don't realize, they don't supply TP or napkins usually. Enough said.

2. Sarong. Yes, it is a wrap, a skirt, a towel...whatever you need it to be. Even boys should have one.

3. DEET. The stronger the better. Mosquitos are everywhere! I hate them. And don't want malaria. 

4. Reef Sandals. Many people go with Havianas. Any sandal will do. I will be wearing these 99 percent of the time. Buy them in black and they can even pass as a dress shoe. Well not really but it's worth a shot.

5. Sunscreen. I already broke open my second bottle. What can I say, I am white...My traveling partner thinks he is invincible but has already been burnt twice while I have not. So there.

6. My penguin. You may remember Papa P. Well the whole family couldn't come, but the teenaged daughter is taking a gap year with me.

7. The Lonely Planet, aka The Bible of Travel. I have three. They each weigh about 10 lbs, literally, so the Africa one is going in the swap bin ASAP.

8. Camera. Charger. Extra batttery for camera. Adapter for charger. Extra memory card. Jump drive. Another extra memory card just in case. And I am still not sure I am going to have enough memory.

9. Journal. I have not been very good at keeping up with it, but I always like to look back at them and see what I thought, where I stayed etc. Memories are good.

10. (last but not least) - Zip-off pants. I think I spoke of these earlier, or maybe not. Dorky, maybe. But useful, yes. They are pants! They are shorts! They dry in a jiff. They barely weigh a thing. They are a backpackers dream.

City vs. Sea, Earth vs. Water

Cairo leaves a dirty taste in my mouth. Literally. There are cars and people and dust and fumes and smoke and smog and dirt. You can't breathe. You can't see. I have wanted to see the pyramids for ever but the rest of the city is pretty much null in my book. According to our first taxi driver, there are 18 million people in the city; according to the next, there are 25 million. Either way, that is a LOT of people. Most of them are poor; they live in dirt (kind of like adobe) apartment complexes and wash in the Nile (yes, I actually saw this). They look at me like a piece of meat, ripe for the taking. They hiss and leer and make kissy noises. You know they are ripping you off but can't really do much about it. I am all for letting the "journey not the destination" be the fun part, and it is, but sometimes you just groan and say, "enough".

Needless to say, after seeing the Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum, we got out of there fast. We headed to the Red Sea for some diving and relaxing. The Red Sea dive was fantastic. The water is so clear, the coral is multicolored, there are tons of fish, and I even saw an OCTOPUS. Two of them to be exact! That was cool. I have never seen an octopus before.

The last couple days have been very relaxing. We went to Nuweiba, which is a small town where you just relax on the beach and snorkle. We are now in Dahab, which is a bit bigger (Nuweiba didn't even have electricity or Internet or anything, just beach). We have been relaxing, enjoying the area, looking at many camels (they don't charge you to take picture of them here!) diving, swimming and snorkeling. It has been great.

Tomorrow we move on. The next stop is Athens and after that...the world! Egypt has been great but we have so many more journeys and destinations to experience!

A Small Flickr

Oh. I finally got flickr to work, so I put a couple more photos up, but I am on a public computer and the next guy in line is eyeballing me, so really I only uploaded about 6. They are here. More to come later!

Photos of Camels are Not Cheap

So, we made it to Egypt.

Oh, before I start, I have to apologize, I am only putting a few photos in each blog because the flickr doesn't always work on these public computers (and is not working now -- grrrr). I had some people ask me if I was: taking the big camera, taking a computer, taking a suitcase... The answer to all of these questions is: NO. No big camera - I am too scared of theft and HEFT!! No computer -- what I do usually is just log on to a public computer. In most countries, there are plenty of internet "cafes" where you can check your email etc for a fee. Unfortunately that fee is pretty hefty in some cases (in Southern Africa, I have heard it can be up to 10 dollars an hour! You won't be hearing from me much while I am there!). So, I have to put up with whatever the cafes have, which sometimes is not much. The hardest thing is uploading pictures too, as it takes a while even with a good connection, and most of the connections in these places are not good.

Speaking of photos, this is one of those things I wondered how I would handle. Does anyone have any advice? When you are traveling, what do you do with all the photos? My card (damn xD!!) is only a 2 gig; that is the max that xD has. I bought a 16G thumb that I plan to use as backup, but I am afraid I may fill it up. And what about ANOTHER back up? If I lost all my photos, especially toward the end, I would be heartbroken. So, any tips?

So..... we made it to Egypt!!! We spent today exploring the pyramids and THEY. ARE. COOL!!! I really don't have many words...I will add more once we get more into the country (we arrived at 1 am last night) so for now, I will just put a few photos...

I hope everyone is doing GREAT back home. Rick, do you think the Canadiens will pull it out? 

OH!!! A sidenote really quickly before I add the photos. I have had two friends whose emails have been compromised and the hacker has sent out an email using my friend's addresses saying something along the lines of "Urgent, Please help me. I am in ____ (fill in foreign country) and got mugged and need you to wire me _____ (fill in exorbitant amount of money here -- 3000 dollars etc!!) immediately". I just want everyone to know that if you get an email like that from me -- IGNORE IT.  It is NOT me! I am NOT in financial trouble! Do not reply. It may add your email into the spam trap. I just wanted to say that, since I am traveling and I know some of you are worried. I have additional email addresses. Email me on one of those. Or email my other half. You know who he is.

Whew. Enough about that. Pyramids and Camels and DUST!! PS the camel photo is illegal -- If they catch you taking it, you have to pay like 30 bucks! They call it a baksheesh, a tip, but I call it extortion.

Tapas and Futbol

When we planned our trip, we made a tiny mistake.... Mr L loves soccer. The original plan, like I have mentioned, was to go to the World Cup in South Africa. Once we realized it would be too expensive and a pain to get around during, we decided to do the next best thing, which was to be in Portugal during the Portugal v. Brazil game. Which we are still planning on doing. However, when we booked the first couple of flights, we planned to go into Madrid on the 19th, then fly to Egypt on the 21st. What we didn't know then was that the UAEFA finals were IN MADRID on the 22nd. It would have been fun to be there during the game, however, we were there the couple of days prior and that city was HOPPING!! In fact, our hotel that we stayed at was the headquarters for all the activities, reporters etc that were there for the game. Oh well.

We were pretty tired when we arrived at 10 am, but were determined to stay up all day so we would get into the rhythm of being in this time zone (Madrid is 9 hours ahead of California). We did alright...but it is hard when it is hot and you have a beer and some food. The streets were buzzing with people and we just sat in the shade in a plaza in the middle of the city and ate peanuts and had a coffee, in the true nature of the locals. In fact, my Spanish picked itself up off the ground and presented itself fairly nicely once it brushed off the rust a little.  I made it to about 9 pm, then passed out.

We made a little plan regarding lodging which I like so far, but I have to say, I have been royally spoiled! I usually stay in hostels the whole time, share a bathroom and can't really spread out or really dig into my backpack without making a total mess. BUT. Since we work away from home all the time normally, and stay in hotels, we have accumulated some hotel points. Our plan is to use them for Europe, where the hostels are about 30 dollars each per person. Once we get to Africa, they will be more along the lines of 5 dollars per person (or less sometimes!) so then it will be no problem. Otherwise we will be out of money in a month!

So, in Madrid we were in the Westin and our room was AMAZING!!! A junior suite in a 400 year old building with a sitting area and FREE FRUIT (okay I was pretty excited about the free fruit). Oh and did I mention free bottled water? Ha. We saved about 3 dollars by staying here! Anyway, it was a beautiful hotel and it was kind of nice to "ease" into the traveling experience instead of jumping right from niceties to dirty shared bathrooms. Don't get me wrong, I actually LIKE staying in hostels -- you meet a lot of great people who give you great travel tips for the next destination and oftentimes you end up traveling with them as well. But man it is nice to be able to take a long hot shower and then walk around naked in your air conditioned room. Okay, maybe that was too much information. Suffice to say, the Westin Palace Hotel Madrid ROCKS. Here's the crown molding. Made out of plaster!

Enough about the hotel...ON with the TAPAS! I love tapas. Little plates of heaven! My favorite is these little pickled (I think they are...) sardines. Oh...I have a picture. Its not the best picture, but you have to see these so you know what I am talking about. If you ever, ever go to Spain, make sure to get THESE!!!

Okay so basically right after I ate that plate of fish, we ran to the airport to catch our flight to Cairo... I am very excited about the pyramids, although a bit wary of the people trying to take advantage of me. We shall see. Wish me luck!

Hawaiin Shirts and Naked People

Whoa, what a week!

First I flew home from New Orleans, packed up my stuff, had dinner with my friend Nadine who is pregnant with her first child. A boy! Yay! She is still the same old friend that I have had since...well...forever. She and I have known each other since we were born. I don't have a photo...I did take some but I did it with the big camera....who is now sitting in my mom's closet gathering (yikes, I hope not!) dust.

I visited with my mom, which was great, but too short, and then headed to Sacramento for Uncle Jay's Celebration of life, a Hawaii themed Memorial. It was great. Many good people, drinks were flowing and everyone wore a Hawaiian shirt, just like Jay would've wanted it. Here is a picture of me, my two cousins, and Mr L enjoying the party.

Next we headed to San Francisco for some nakedness in the Bay to Breakers. It was great! We were joined by many friends, including 7 month pregnant K (I see a theme here...) and her new Husband A. The costumes were awesome. I did not dress up this year but had a great time getting ideas for next year. My favorite costume was either a king skipping along with a hunchback following him clacking two coconuts together (clip clop, clip clop -- you guys know that one? that joke is "not dead yet") or the oil spill -- two guys wearing black trash bags, joined by a red pool floaty noodle. Here is a picture of Alamo Square and the dreaded Hayes Street Hill.

Then it was off to Petaluma and the Lagunitas Beer Fest with my brother, who is a beer connoisseur. It was a little strange. The title was the Beer Circus, and it definitely was that! Ladies on stilts, bearded ladies and tightrope walkers mixed with 40 year old heavy metal rock bands and beer. Hmm... It was a great time and I found a penguin who was willing to take a photo with me. I am not sure what a penguin has to do with the circus, but I love Penguins, so I was stoked.

The next day I hit up the dentist one last time before the big trip and then...it was off to Europe. Woo hoo! Here we go....

Ash Cloud and Other Misc Worries

Did you guys see the news yesterday? Just when I thought I was in the clear...along comes the wind and the flights are delayed again. I thought I would be safe, since I am flying into Madrid, which is in the southern part of Europe. But yesterday, there were delays in Lisbon and Madrid airports. Crap!

picture (volcano.si.edu)

So, there are 9 days until my flight and I am a little worried. Not that I can do anything about it, so I am not THAT worried. The worst thing that can happen is that I am stuck in San Francisco...or Atlanta...or in Madrid if I get there but can't get on to Egypt.

The itinerary is slowly taking shape. So far:

May 18: Flight from San Francisco (through Atlanta -- ick) to Madrid, Spain
May 21: Flight from Madrid,  Spain to Cairo, Egypt
May 31: Flight from Cairo, Egypt to Athens, Greece

And that's it so far!

Days left until takeoff: 9
Things left to do until then: 148
Days of work left: 1
Items I will buy at the last minute: 7

I am getting excited! The Euro is down, I have been brushing up on my Lonely Planet reading and there are about 400 countries I would be happy to visit. The Canadiens are doing well right now so the man is in a good mood and my birthday is in 4 days. All in all, many great weeks are in store!

Anybody have any tips? Packing? What countries to visit? What food to try? A good hostel?