April 25th
We went out on super adventures today. I wanted to see the spices and maybe get a shirt or dress because I have been wearing the same thing for 8 months now and it would be nice to have something else to wear...It is fun to see all of the people selling their goods. They all have a story or something to say about something. Haggling is just what they do here and many times it is very dramatic. There was a guy that was selling what I thought was licorice root and he wanted 20 pounds for it, when the guy down the street had offered it for 2 pounds. We ended up leaving the store and the guy ran down the street yelling “OK OK 3 for 5...3 for 5...” It was all very heart wrenching... We were gone for so long that we had to book it back to the ship because the ship was about to leave. So we ended up running the last leg and we just make it. Sailing was fun and the dinner was excellent. Cruising down the Nile is beautiful. The landscape is lush and you can see some structures that people live in. Sometimes you can see fishing boats or people standing on the shore. There were a bunch of people on deck one night and just after they all went in we came upon some temples on the side of a cliff face during sunset. The sunset was another matter. There was so much smog in the air you could actually look at the sun directly for a long time like it was the moon.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Another ship and adventure day
April 24th
We wake up and have breakfast and then go on a boat ride around some islands. The one Joseph our friend really wanted to go to was Elphante island. Which we thought would have more on it, but it was just a small museum and some ruins which were not very exciting. That night dinner was fabulous. We did a small tour around town, but everyone was tired so we got some sleep for the next day.
We wake up and have breakfast and then go on a boat ride around some islands. The one Joseph our friend really wanted to go to was Elphante island. Which we thought would have more on it, but it was just a small museum and some ruins which were not very exciting. That night dinner was fabulous. We did a small tour around town, but everyone was tired so we got some sleep for the next day.
The Nile Cruise
April 23rd
Today we get a ride to our cruise ship. The ship is pretty nice, we are not sure how 5 star it is, but it is fine and we are glad to be there. When we get to our room we realize that it has two beds and it is very hot. So we ask for a room with one bed and they say they don’t have one for us. Now...we are almost the only ones on the boat and they definately have another room for us, but they are not budging. Also our room seems to be getting hotter and we are just not very happy. So we call the guy who booked our trip and he sends over the guide and he takes care of things. We end up getting a fancier room with a big bed and lots of windows, two bathrooms and an air conditioner. We even got bathrobes! Deluxe!
After a while we realize that the boat is not sailing until tomorrow. Which is very upsetting to us because we had booked this 2 day cruise, but we really are only going to be sailing on it for 1 day. We tel our guide about how upset we are and he ends up taking us to a Museum and to a couple islands so we don’t feel like we missed out on doing anything fun.
Today we get a ride to our cruise ship. The ship is pretty nice, we are not sure how 5 star it is, but it is fine and we are glad to be there. When we get to our room we realize that it has two beds and it is very hot. So we ask for a room with one bed and they say they don’t have one for us. Now...we are almost the only ones on the boat and they definately have another room for us, but they are not budging. Also our room seems to be getting hotter and we are just not very happy. So we call the guy who booked our trip and he sends over the guide and he takes care of things. We end up getting a fancier room with a big bed and lots of windows, two bathrooms and an air conditioner. We even got bathrobes! Deluxe!
After a while we realize that the boat is not sailing until tomorrow. Which is very upsetting to us because we had booked this 2 day cruise, but we really are only going to be sailing on it for 1 day. We tel our guide about how upset we are and he ends up taking us to a Museum and to a couple islands so we don’t feel like we missed out on doing anything fun.
Cleopatra's Temple of Isis
April 25th
We finally get to Aswan 12 hours later and we get picked up from the airport by this guy who is on the phone and not really talking to us. We get to our hotel after another crazy car ride and he says “OK you guys are late for your tour so we have to drop off your bags and you are going to get on a bus to go on your tour....OK...first of all I am wearing jeans because I figured I would just change when I got to the hotel. I also have not brushed my teeth yet because I didn’t even want to think about bring my toothbrush into that filthy bathroom on the train. (Did I mention they never wash them? I am not over dramatizing either...it’s really true. Yes...it is true.) So we drop our bags off and he walks us over across the street and we are waiting for this bus...he is still not talking to us, he is talking on the phone and we are tired and cranky, but feeling like there is nothing we can really do, cause I guess this is the way it is, kind of thing.
The bus finally pulls up and it is hot in there. Everyone is dripping wet and sweaty; we are sitting in the back and not getting any sort of air at all. Finally I open the window and get some sort of air moving, but I need to close the window every once in a whole because it is so hot it starts feeling like we have a hairdryer on full blast. But in the beginning it is nice because it helps evaporates all of the sweat off your clothes and that helps cool you off a little.
We drove around town fast with the “tour guide” telling us things as we were going by. Everyone was hot and cranky and not really even listening. The bus stops at a dam and the bus driver says 8 pounds for everyone to go here and the whole bus says “NO! We don’t want to go here!” So the bus driver moves on and we go to a fairy which takes us to the Philae Temple. This temple is the last temple dedicated to Isis. It was made by Cleopatra’s dad for her. This temple was originally somewhere else, but the place where it was got flooded so they moved it piece by piece to this place where it rests now. Which is very beautiful by the way. It is right by the water and the rocks are amazing to see as well.
One of the things that I found wonderful about this temple is the carving. Some temples and tombs have carvings some have paintings. Here the carvings were done so that if you run your fingers across them you can feel and see what is on them. The curve of a knee or the wrinkles on the toes. At one point I was running my fingers along the wall and I burst into tears. I felt like I was a little girl remembering the times when I used to feel the walls. I remembered all of the people I was with. I had forgotten the connection I had with Egypt before this moment. For many years I had studied Egyptian mythology. The love story of Isis and Osiris was one of my favourites. I had dedicated myself to the Goddess and she had taken care of me and somehow I had forgotten, but everything came back in these moments of feeling and remembering as I touched the pictures. It took me a while to stop sobbing, but I was able to pull myself together and continue on with the tour.
After Philae Temple we got back on the boat and went to a Botanical Island, where we got to smell Henna flowers. Henna flowers smell so sweet and wonderful. Flowers here are so colourful. Not all of them have fragrance, but the ones that do are very memorable.
After Botanical Island we make it back to our hotel room and get a rest and clean up. David, Joseph and I went walking around the town. There are many people all wanting you to buy something for 5 pounds, one pound. Buy this, where are you from, that is a good place, need help buy this. Hi my friend, come see this, No hassle No hassle. We make it back to the hotel again and David and Joseph decide to go find some place to get beer. I decide to stay back and do some laundry. It’s good to get some time alone to just chill out. When travelling there is very limited time you are by yourself. There are always people around. This doesn’t always keep you from being lonely. I get lonely lots, not for lack of people around, but for lack of hugs or fun giggly talks with friends. I really miss that these days... Anyways this laundry night I watched Daddy Daycare as I washed our clothes and hung them out to dry on the balcony. Just as I finished up David got back and said they saw a drum and dancing circle as they walked around the streets. I was sad I missed it, but I was glad to have some time to just chill out too.
We finally get to Aswan 12 hours later and we get picked up from the airport by this guy who is on the phone and not really talking to us. We get to our hotel after another crazy car ride and he says “OK you guys are late for your tour so we have to drop off your bags and you are going to get on a bus to go on your tour....OK...first of all I am wearing jeans because I figured I would just change when I got to the hotel. I also have not brushed my teeth yet because I didn’t even want to think about bring my toothbrush into that filthy bathroom on the train. (Did I mention they never wash them? I am not over dramatizing either...it’s really true. Yes...it is true.) So we drop our bags off and he walks us over across the street and we are waiting for this bus...he is still not talking to us, he is talking on the phone and we are tired and cranky, but feeling like there is nothing we can really do, cause I guess this is the way it is, kind of thing.
The bus finally pulls up and it is hot in there. Everyone is dripping wet and sweaty; we are sitting in the back and not getting any sort of air at all. Finally I open the window and get some sort of air moving, but I need to close the window every once in a whole because it is so hot it starts feeling like we have a hairdryer on full blast. But in the beginning it is nice because it helps evaporates all of the sweat off your clothes and that helps cool you off a little.
We drove around town fast with the “tour guide” telling us things as we were going by. Everyone was hot and cranky and not really even listening. The bus stops at a dam and the bus driver says 8 pounds for everyone to go here and the whole bus says “NO! We don’t want to go here!” So the bus driver moves on and we go to a fairy which takes us to the Philae Temple. This temple is the last temple dedicated to Isis. It was made by Cleopatra’s dad for her. This temple was originally somewhere else, but the place where it was got flooded so they moved it piece by piece to this place where it rests now. Which is very beautiful by the way. It is right by the water and the rocks are amazing to see as well.
One of the things that I found wonderful about this temple is the carving. Some temples and tombs have carvings some have paintings. Here the carvings were done so that if you run your fingers across them you can feel and see what is on them. The curve of a knee or the wrinkles on the toes. At one point I was running my fingers along the wall and I burst into tears. I felt like I was a little girl remembering the times when I used to feel the walls. I remembered all of the people I was with. I had forgotten the connection I had with Egypt before this moment. For many years I had studied Egyptian mythology. The love story of Isis and Osiris was one of my favourites. I had dedicated myself to the Goddess and she had taken care of me and somehow I had forgotten, but everything came back in these moments of feeling and remembering as I touched the pictures. It took me a while to stop sobbing, but I was able to pull myself together and continue on with the tour.
After Philae Temple we got back on the boat and went to a Botanical Island, where we got to smell Henna flowers. Henna flowers smell so sweet and wonderful. Flowers here are so colourful. Not all of them have fragrance, but the ones that do are very memorable.
After Botanical Island we make it back to our hotel room and get a rest and clean up. David, Joseph and I went walking around the town. There are many people all wanting you to buy something for 5 pounds, one pound. Buy this, where are you from, that is a good place, need help buy this. Hi my friend, come see this, No hassle No hassle. We make it back to the hotel again and David and Joseph decide to go find some place to get beer. I decide to stay back and do some laundry. It’s good to get some time alone to just chill out. When travelling there is very limited time you are by yourself. There are always people around. This doesn’t always keep you from being lonely. I get lonely lots, not for lack of people around, but for lack of hugs or fun giggly talks with friends. I really miss that these days... Anyways this laundry night I watched Daddy Daycare as I washed our clothes and hung them out to dry on the balcony. Just as I finished up David got back and said they saw a drum and dancing circle as they walked around the streets. I was sad I missed it, but I was glad to have some time to just chill out too.
The "First Class" Train
April 24th
We have a gentle day today and at night time we head out to the night train to Aswan. We are told that there are First class seats which recline back and there are also sleeper cabins, but the sleeper cabins are $120 per person. So we decide on the First class seats....Don’t be fooled people...’First Class’ and ‘Reclining’ are very loose terms here. These are pretty filthy trains which bathrooms are never cleaned and the reclining part of the program means that 4 inches later you are kind of leaning back a little. Our cabin consisted of David, a guy from our hostel named Joseph, and two Egyptian men. The rest of the train was filled with teenage French girls who were running around laughing and talking for most of the night. Before the train started moving Joseph got relocated, evidently the number we thought was on the ticket was a different number. (It was in Arabic so we just kind of had to trust who ever told us.) As Joseph was whisked away a very nice Mexican couple came to sit across from us. Mario and Adriana. It was the fourth day of their world journey. We could tell because their backpacks were very clean and shiny still. They both work as movie producers. Some American movies some commercials and some Mexican movies. They were both really sweet and Mario was super funny. Mario is one of those, you have to see him be funny kind of people. His whole face gets into what he is saying and he has everyone laughing. We talk for a while and then everyone tries to get some sleep. It is hard to sleep on the train even though we had sleeping masks and earplugs in. Every once in a while we would open our eyes and we would see them in a different position, they said the same thing about us.
We have a gentle day today and at night time we head out to the night train to Aswan. We are told that there are First class seats which recline back and there are also sleeper cabins, but the sleeper cabins are $120 per person. So we decide on the First class seats....Don’t be fooled people...’First Class’ and ‘Reclining’ are very loose terms here. These are pretty filthy trains which bathrooms are never cleaned and the reclining part of the program means that 4 inches later you are kind of leaning back a little. Our cabin consisted of David, a guy from our hostel named Joseph, and two Egyptian men. The rest of the train was filled with teenage French girls who were running around laughing and talking for most of the night. Before the train started moving Joseph got relocated, evidently the number we thought was on the ticket was a different number. (It was in Arabic so we just kind of had to trust who ever told us.) As Joseph was whisked away a very nice Mexican couple came to sit across from us. Mario and Adriana. It was the fourth day of their world journey. We could tell because their backpacks were very clean and shiny still. They both work as movie producers. Some American movies some commercials and some Mexican movies. They were both really sweet and Mario was super funny. Mario is one of those, you have to see him be funny kind of people. His whole face gets into what he is saying and he has everyone laughing. We talk for a while and then everyone tries to get some sleep. It is hard to sleep on the train even though we had sleeping masks and earplugs in. Every once in a while we would open our eyes and we would see them in a different position, they said the same thing about us.
First Pyramids
April 23rd
We have a breakfast of a hardboiled egg, some bread, cheese and coffee and then we are off to the pyramids. There is a choice when you get to the pyramids, you can walk, take a horse or a camel. We are thinking, “Hey, we are in Egypt why not do the whole camel thing? How fun would that be? Well, yes, for the first while it is fun. You are 2 stories above the ground. The camel is very different from anything. He has on a special outfit and everything. But really...camels are uncomfortable. You are doing this belly dancing move the entire time the camel is walking so it works out your entire midsection which is great if you are expecting it, but whew! It is work. By the time we stop the camel is complaining and I am thinking...no kidding dude, I can’t imagine having to do this every day. I give him a good patting and thank him for doing such a good job and I tell him he is working so hard and he deserves a rest. (They say that camels are mean, but I think that no body ever really takes the time to have compassion for these animals who do such hard work in such hot weather. I guess horses work hard too, but camels are just more dramatic about it...hmm now that I think about it, I guess camels are sort of drama queens of the animal world, but I think they are entitled...it’s hot out there man!
After riding around and seeing the pyramids we get to go into one. We go into the second pyramid because our guide says that it is less money and just as good. So we pay our money and go in. At this time I am overheating...it is 115 degrees and although I have my sun hat on, amazingly enough I am still really hot. Our water, which we have been carrying with us is now the temperature of a hot tub and feels like we could make tea in it. As we get ready to go into the pyramid our guide tells us that it is even hotter inside of the tomb...Now I am thinking...hmmm shouldn’t it be cooler? You’d think that underground would be cooler, but no...not so much....
We go down these steep steps to get to a stopping half way point. So I rest against the stone wall which is cool on my back and neck. I close my eyes for a moment to take in the coolness and pray to whatever God is available at the temple to please help me make it through this place. I feel my body start to resonate with the energy of this place and I start to get my energy back. We make it to a second set of stairs and this time we are going up. We make it up into an open square stone room with a stone casket at the end. I sit for a while to catch my breath, because I am thinking that there is somewhere else to go in this place, but....no. This is it. We are kind of bummed out. I think we expected to see pictures, paintings, hieroglyphics or something, but what we found was pretty anti-climactic. Maybe we thought we’d feel more...maybe we expected there to be less trash all over the place, maybe we expected the people there to care more about their land. But for whatever reason we left the pyramids feeling like we missed out on something. (Well the one thing we didn’t miss out on is a sore bottom...it took about 3 days to recover from that camel ride...)
We got back to the hostel and were hungry for dinner so we went wandering around the streets for a Doner Kabab. This is a Turkish wrap that is found in Australia and evidently in Turkey, but sometimes you can find them in other places like in Cairo. We have seen a few places and the one down the street looks promising so we stop in. It is about 1/4th the size of what we would have gotten in Australia, but it tastes really great! On the way back we buy some pita bread from a woman selling them in the street. We get a good night sleep in our air conditioned room.
We have a breakfast of a hardboiled egg, some bread, cheese and coffee and then we are off to the pyramids. There is a choice when you get to the pyramids, you can walk, take a horse or a camel. We are thinking, “Hey, we are in Egypt why not do the whole camel thing? How fun would that be? Well, yes, for the first while it is fun. You are 2 stories above the ground. The camel is very different from anything. He has on a special outfit and everything. But really...camels are uncomfortable. You are doing this belly dancing move the entire time the camel is walking so it works out your entire midsection which is great if you are expecting it, but whew! It is work. By the time we stop the camel is complaining and I am thinking...no kidding dude, I can’t imagine having to do this every day. I give him a good patting and thank him for doing such a good job and I tell him he is working so hard and he deserves a rest. (They say that camels are mean, but I think that no body ever really takes the time to have compassion for these animals who do such hard work in such hot weather. I guess horses work hard too, but camels are just more dramatic about it...hmm now that I think about it, I guess camels are sort of drama queens of the animal world, but I think they are entitled...it’s hot out there man!
After riding around and seeing the pyramids we get to go into one. We go into the second pyramid because our guide says that it is less money and just as good. So we pay our money and go in. At this time I am overheating...it is 115 degrees and although I have my sun hat on, amazingly enough I am still really hot. Our water, which we have been carrying with us is now the temperature of a hot tub and feels like we could make tea in it. As we get ready to go into the pyramid our guide tells us that it is even hotter inside of the tomb...Now I am thinking...hmmm shouldn’t it be cooler? You’d think that underground would be cooler, but no...not so much....
We go down these steep steps to get to a stopping half way point. So I rest against the stone wall which is cool on my back and neck. I close my eyes for a moment to take in the coolness and pray to whatever God is available at the temple to please help me make it through this place. I feel my body start to resonate with the energy of this place and I start to get my energy back. We make it to a second set of stairs and this time we are going up. We make it up into an open square stone room with a stone casket at the end. I sit for a while to catch my breath, because I am thinking that there is somewhere else to go in this place, but....no. This is it. We are kind of bummed out. I think we expected to see pictures, paintings, hieroglyphics or something, but what we found was pretty anti-climactic. Maybe we thought we’d feel more...maybe we expected there to be less trash all over the place, maybe we expected the people there to care more about their land. But for whatever reason we left the pyramids feeling like we missed out on something. (Well the one thing we didn’t miss out on is a sore bottom...it took about 3 days to recover from that camel ride...)
We got back to the hostel and were hungry for dinner so we went wandering around the streets for a Doner Kabab. This is a Turkish wrap that is found in Australia and evidently in Turkey, but sometimes you can find them in other places like in Cairo. We have seen a few places and the one down the street looks promising so we stop in. It is about 1/4th the size of what we would have gotten in Australia, but it tastes really great! On the way back we buy some pita bread from a woman selling them in the street. We get a good night sleep in our air conditioned room.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
First day in Cairo
We get woken up by the porter asking us if we are ready to come down with our stuff. Our alarm never went off and we are frantically running around getting things ready to go.
We get everything in to the cab in record time and head out to the airport.
The streets and the airport are deserted. It's such a change from the crush of people everywhere usually.
Our flight is pretty good. When we get off the plane we have a few visa dramas, turns out we got our visas too early and now they are all running out of time so we have to buy them all again. Stinky!
Our driver from the hostel picks up up and we go on a crazy car ride to the place we are staying. People in Cairo drive like mad men. I don't think there are any road rules and sometimes there are not even any lines in the streets. About an hour later we arrive and check in. We speak to a Chinese couple that are leaving for another hotel and we end up getting their room, which is great for us because we now have airconditioning! Wooo Hoooo. It is really hot here...like Africa hot man!
We set up a tour with George, the guy who owns the hostel. We are going to be gone for about 7 days touring around. Should be fun.
We get everything in to the cab in record time and head out to the airport.
The streets and the airport are deserted. It's such a change from the crush of people everywhere usually.
Our flight is pretty good. When we get off the plane we have a few visa dramas, turns out we got our visas too early and now they are all running out of time so we have to buy them all again. Stinky!
Our driver from the hostel picks up up and we go on a crazy car ride to the place we are staying. People in Cairo drive like mad men. I don't think there are any road rules and sometimes there are not even any lines in the streets. About an hour later we arrive and check in. We speak to a Chinese couple that are leaving for another hotel and we end up getting their room, which is great for us because we now have airconditioning! Wooo Hoooo. It is really hot here...like Africa hot man!
We set up a tour with George, the guy who owns the hostel. We are going to be gone for about 7 days touring around. Should be fun.
Last night in Nairobi
April 21st
We wake up today and head down to breakfast. Today we are going down to the Egypt air office to see if they can get us out of here any sooner, today if possible. We are pretty much done with Nairobi. We walked to the Egypt air office and they were extra helpful. The manager was having a hard time getting our tickets re issued because of many issues, but finally he got a hold of someone from China who was able to send the copies of the tickets and verify that we actually did have tickets. The manager was very nice and he was super helpful and kind. He even gave us some Turkish coffee that was delicious! It turns out his wife does healing with essential oils and crystals and is also certified in Body Talk. The only thing we needed to do was to go to the police to file a lost ticket form and bring it back to get our tickets. We had to pay 10% of the cost, but we were just glad we didn’t have to pay the whole amount. When we went to the police station two other guys were in there and one of them actually got robbed and beat up by 6 men a few days ago. They caught the guys and they have been in jail since Friday, it made us think about how lucky David really was getting away with only giving them our money and not getting hurt.
We walked back to our hotel room to get ready for our trip to Cairo. A cab driver is going to come by the hotel at 2am and then we fly out at 5am tomorrow morning. It’s good to know we are on our way tomorrow and it was really good to meet some good people today. We went down for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Later I checked email downstairs and David did computer organizing. After finishing up this blog I went to take a shower and made sure I had everything ready for leaving at 2 am. We really have to get some early sleep if we are going to be anything but cranky. Luckily, we are staying at a place called the Australian hostel and they are going to pick us up from the airport. We have noticed it’s just the trickiest thing to find an honest cabbie, so this is an A+ for us!
David gets robbed! :(
April 20th
Today started out as a very typical boring day. We had breakfast, went walking around a bit outside. And then came back to the hotel. I was pretty much done with outside. The air is smoggy the place is extremely dirty and there are too many people out and about. I lay on the bed to take a nap and David decided he wanted to go take some pictures out on the street. So he left with his camera and I rested for a bit, then caught up on blogging, which is what I am doing right now.
When David finally got back to the room he said he had been robbed. He was scammed by these people. Here is the story...
David was walking along and found himself talking to this guy who was interested in Australia. So he says, hey let’s go sit somewhere and talk. So they go to some cafe and talk for a while and then these other guys come and take away the guy David is talking to. They tell David this guy is wanted for money counterfeiting, they are undercover police and they need to test all of his money to make sure it is all legitimate. So they take his money and tell him if it is legitimate they will bring it back to our hotel room. David gave him all of the money we had and then came back to the hotel. I was just glad that he wasn’t hurt. They got about $500 all together. But they didn’t take his wallet or his camera or anything else of important. It shook David up pretty good. He is pretty sad and downhearted. We were really only here as a stopover because we need new tickets to get us to Cairo. (long story short. We lost the tickets we need them to reissue them so we can fly, they don’t have any flights until Monday or Tuesday. Something about having to verify our tickets with Sydney, only Australia is closed until Tuesday Africa time anyway so we have to wait here.
A guard from the hotel walks us to the police station so we can file a report. Then we come back and they switch our room so that the bad guys can’t find us. We order some rice and veggies and watch some space alien attack movie and then David goes downstairs to get onto the computer. After a while I had to go down to check on him...I don’t feel very safe leaving him alone now, not after what happened today. He downloads some updates we need for the computer and then we come up for some sleep.
More Nairobi
April 16th
We wake up and have breakfast then move our stuff across the street to The Sandton Hotel. The people are nice and help us getting our stuff into the elevator and up stairs. We do laundry and more re-organizing, take a walk around the town, do some grocery shopping at a 4 story store that has everything from food to house hold items. There are just so many people and black smoke is pouring out of most of the busses on the street. It’s a little hard to breathe as we make our way back to our room. We shower, rest and watch Zoro while our laundry dried in the window with the fan gently blowing it from side to side.
Nairobi
April 15th
We wake up have a shake and then head out to the Nairobi shuttle, which we think for some reason is going to be much fancier than the ones we had been taking...but we were not all that correct, in fact they had stuck us all the way in the back so the ride was extra bumpy and bouncy...it reminded me of the times in grade school when we thought it was fun to sit in the back and get bounced around. It’s all well and good when it is a half an hour trip, but when it is a 6 hour trip it becomes a little tiresome, but at least we had lots of room...
During the visa check in when we got to Nairobi, Kenya we met a man named Bill who helps the local people how to use the resources they have to create better lives for themselves and become fully sustained without outside funding. The organization he works for is a Christian organization that also works with the people who donate the money to teach them how to help in the right way. He told us a story of a man from the US who visited Africa and want to help, so he brought materials from the US and was helping the locals to create houses. They didn’t always do it the “right way” so he built all of them himself and gave them to the people. Then he saw that the corn crops were only growing about 4 feet talk so he brought in seeds and fertilizer from the US and gave them to the people so their crops would grow bigger and stronger. Then he notice that the locals were dependant on the “witch doctors” so he built a hospital and staffed it so that people could get western medicine and not have to depend on the witch doctors.(Now I thought what is wrong with the witch doctors, but Bill told us that some of the ways the help people isn’t really the best ever. Like if a baby has diarhea instead of giving the baby more fluids or electrolytes they would put it in the sun to dry because the baby had too much water in their system. So in this case I am thinking...there is a reason the mortality rate for babies is high and people only live til around 50 or 60 here.)
To finish up with this story, the man eventually died and all of the funding dies with him. He was supporting all of this with contributions from people and when he died none of the people were interested in contributing anymore. The man had been helping them for about 50 years so when he died the people could take care of themselves anymore because they had forgotten how. The houses that were given them were great, but when it was time to build new houses they had to learn all over because they forgot how to build any kind of house. They had no access to the seeds and fertilizers from the US anymore so they experienced a famine because they didn’t know how to grow any food with their local resources. The funding for the hospital ran out and so the people turned to the witch doctors again. So basically what he and his group does it to teach the people how to use the resources that are all around them so they can be self sufficient and have sustainable lives. They teach them everything from water purification using sand and charcoal. To building cob houses and growing crops. Bill also talked to us about his views as an ‘Independent Christian’ which is a non-denominational denomination that believes in Jesus and God, but aren’t big fans of the political structure or dogmas of Christianity. Bill was a pretty cool guy and we hope to keep in touch with him.
We had so many good talks with Bill that the trip flew by. Before we knew it we were at the Nairobi airport. We said our goodbyes to Bill and were off to the Kenya air ticket office. Unfortunately we got there on a Friday and we weren’t going to be able to speak to anyone until Monday or Tuesday and we had to go to the ticket office which was in town. While David was inside the office getting all of the information I sat outside with our luggage. A man started talking and flirting with me, which is not very typical for me these days so he had me giggling and I come to find out he is a cabbie wanting to take us into town. (All these cabbies have their angle, I’ll tell you what...) When David got out I told him that this guy could take us and he said he would charge us about $60. When the guy went to get his cab we asked a guard how much a trip should be and he told us 1500 shillings, so when the cabbie got back he agreed to take us into town and back for 1500 each way. We packed up the car and were off to town. Tons of traffic... Along the way the cab driver started complimenting David and David told him he was a smooth talker. All in all he was a pretty nice guy, he brought us to the places we needed to go in town and in the end we couldn’t do anything until the weekend was over so we asked him to bring us to a hotel that didn’t cost too much. He ends up bringing us to this place that is all run down and kind of scary looking. When the woman brings in a tv for us the cord explodes in a big flash of fire. We are super motivated to find a new place and we find that right across the street we find one that is perfect for just a little bit more money, but much nicer. That night it was hard to sleep. It is Friday night and everyone is on the street. Busses are beeping...Let me explain about the busses. There are busses everywhere and each of the people who own these busses are constantly yelling and beeping. So this isn’t an every once in a while thing, it sounds like a marching band all day and all night long during the weekend and sometimes during the weekdays, but not as bad. There seems to be as many people here as when we went to New York. The people just keep coming and coming from all directions. And this night around 4am there was some sort of church thing happening...I am not really sure what was going on because it was in Swahili, but every once in a while they would say Jesus and Hallelujah soI am pretty sure that was what was happening. They got louder and louder until finally everyone was screaming. It ended around 5:30 am or so and we were able to sleep more, but we were defiantly moving hotels the next day.
Serengetti and Ngoro Ngoro
April 14th
We catch an early breakfast and meet Gaspard down in the hotel lobby. Our first stop in the journey is a grocery store, which is really nice because we hadn’t seen a proper grocery store in a while. (I guess seeing something modern like that just makes you feel a little at home for a moment.) We picked up some Somosas, bisquits, bacon...(David has to have his bacon, they don’t have too much bacon around these parts...we never really saw any pigs...so we are not quite sure where they get it from...mmmm mystery bacon.) carrots and we decide to pick up some bananas along the way.
It takes about 6 hours to get to the town where the Serengeti is. The road is bumpy...so OK all the roads in Africa are bumpy...if we are taking a road trip, just assume that the road is bumpy and bouncy most of the time, oh and warm don’t forget warm.
We finally get to Ngoro Ngoro (A town so nice they named it twice.) We are not even in the park and we are seeing Monkeys cruising around the trees and by the road. Ngoro Ngoro is a wild life reserve and you have to pass through it to get to the Serengeti. It is pretty fun because in this place you can go off road a bit and Gaspard took us to see the Giraffes up close and personal. OK so we were kind of torn because on one hand we were cruising through their house, but on the other hand, when were we ever going to see giraffes this up close in the wild? So we went and it was great! There was a while family including babies and elders and everything. We loved it! David took a bunch of pictures and then we were off again. During this trip we are able to see Water buffalo, antelopes, dig digs, zebras, Thompson gazelles, grand gazelles, eagles, hyenas, coribastards, lions, waterbucks, rhinos, ostriches, secretary bird and probably some more than I can’t remember right now, but just know that there were heaps of really cool animals to see! We even got to see the Wildebeest migration, which was amazing within itself. There are thousands of wildebeest that stretch for miles and miles all in a line walking together towards us waiting to cross the road. That was a sight we won’t see again in a hurry. After seeing the parks for a while, Nogoro Ngoro and the Serengeti, Gaspard take us to see the crater. The crater is huge and it is home to many different animals. It is sort of like a zoo in the way that the animals can’t get out. They are all stuck there and evidently this is causing a problem because they are interbreeding, so eventually they will have to introduce other animals into the park if they want to keep it going for years to come to keep the population strong. Gaspard tells us that it is $200 per car to go down into the crater so we take some time to really think about if this is something we want to do. It is now getting late and we need to find a place to stay. We stop at one place, but it is $350 a night so we pass and Gaspard remembers a place where someone mentioned before. It is called the Rhino Lodge. If you ever go to the Serengeti stay here period. The Staff was great, the food was the best we have had in Africa and there are Massai guards that will take you for walks, but mostly they are there just in case the animals come cruising around and start causing trouble. They Massai have a way of speaking to the animals and the animals listen to them. Our room was lovely. Clean and nice, with working hot water. And the hotel also gives you a free dinner and breakfast! Dinner was Marsala Chicken with coconut rice and garlic green beans and breakfast was Spanish eggs with toast and fruit. OMG everything was the best ever!
After breakfast we headed out to the creator. It takes a while to get down to the base of the crater, maybe a half an hour or so. Once down there we saw, a leopard, A male lion and his mate with their two cubs. Flamingos, elephants, warthogs, Ibis, hippos, jackals, water buffalos...just a side note about water buffalos...how funny are these guys? They are really super tough looking when they are in a pack out on the plains. Very aggressive and give you reason to think twice about approaching them or any part of their herd, but in the forest, they are timid and very gentle creatures. We passed by a group on the way to the Rhino lodge the night before and they looked scared of us and one of them was hiding next to a tree with a look like “You can’t see me, you can’t see me I am invisible...” OMG they were so cute! We have a picture on one of them with a little branch of leaves over his ear. They have now made it to one of my favourite animals.
Driving in the crater is not an off road experience. They have people watch you all the time to make sure that you don’t go off road. There are roads that snake around, but if an animal is off in the distance, that is where they stay because you can’t really get to them. We drove around the crater for about 4 hours. Seeing lots and lots...I am not sure what I thought a safari would be like, but this was pretty good. Seeing the animals and having fun taking pictures. I guess I thought it would be scarier. Lions jumping out at you, having to floor it away from stampeding wildebeest, stuff like that, but I guess I have been watching too many movies...
After the crater we headed back to Arusha. It was still early so Gaspard invited us back to his house to meet his family. He has a wife and two little kids. His wife made us a lunch of traditional stew, rice and bananas which are a staple of every meal in every place we have been in Africa. After lunch and showing them our pictures from the trip on the computer Gaspard took us back to a hotel for the night and we said our goodbyes.
Planning for Serengeti
April 13th
We took this day to rest and re organize some things. Later that night we go down to talk to the safari tour people and they tell us that we are too late to book anything for the next day, but this guy has a friend and he will take us. So he calls his friend and while we are waiting for his friend to come we decide to go for a walk around town. When we get to the front gate there is a man there who is a guard and he is holding a huge elephant gun. We talk to him and he says that it is not a very good idea to go walking around town. Too dangerous. So we turn back and find our tour guide friend named Lawrence and wait and talk with him while his friend Gaspard is on the way. Lawrence tells us that he works 7 days a week from early morning until late at night and gets paid about $500 a month. He says if he doesn’t work this job there will be no other jobs for him, so he does what they tell him to. We told him he should start his own company with his friend and he said all he needs is capitol. If someone funded him he would start up a company no problem. A lot of that sentiment is going around Africa. It seems that most of the money that comes into Africa from other places goes into the government and doesn’t seem to reach the people. If you want to help you have to know someone specifically and give to them, that is the only way to truly know if the money is going to get there.
Gaspard finally comes after about an hour and David is able to negotiate a deal with him to take us the next day. We give our thanks to both men and we go up to our room to rest for the night.
Arusha
April 12th
The bus from Morogoro to Arusha takes about 9 hours. It is very bumpy and warm. Along the countryside we could see many cob houses, Yurts they call Bomas, and many houses put together with scrapes people find from wherever they can.
When we get into Arusha we get the rush of usual cabbies giving us...’special deal just for you’. It is always a little tricky trying to pick a cabbie, one can never be too sure who is going to rip you off. I saw a guy with nice eyes and picked him because he could speak English, but as it turned out he quickly handed us over to two other guys who could not speak English and then the wackiness ensued. We asked them how far to a hotel and they said 10 then they told us 8,000 for the ride and then we asked them how much for the hotel and they said 10, 10,000. So we thought we were going far away and getting a good deal on a hotel room. So here is what they were really saying. The hotel we are taking you to is $100 a night. It is only 2 km away and we are going to charge you 10,000 for the trip. In Morogoro a 2 km trip is 2,000 shillings, here they wanted 10,000 shillings. They had us pay half up front so they could get gas. Many of these people work from job to job so we have stopped a few times for people to fill up for gas. When we get to the hotel David throws a fit because it is not anything what we thought they were telling us. We bring the hotel manager over and he helps us sort it out with them. We give them another few thousand shillings and call it done.
The Impala hotel is $100 this is way more than the $20 we paid in Morogoro, but they said that this is the going rate in town unless you want to have a place that is sketchy. So we are tired and cranky and decide that it is now a great deal. They show us to our room. At this point David is close to exhaustion and really just wants to have a shower and go to bed. We run the water in the bathroom...no hot water. Rats....we call down and let them know and they say that something is wrong with the boiler and they will fix it. A half an hour later still no hot water and David is just getting more cranky, so I call down and just say that we would like another room.
They upgrade us to another room, which looks really nice. I run into have a quick shower because I figured that after I was done with my shower I would run a hot bath for David so he could relax. After I get out of the shower I notice that there is water all over the floor....I call down and let them know what happened and they upgrade us to an even more fancy room. An executive room with a round bed. What is the deal with round beds anyway? Most of the room is kind of lost on the round bits on the side, but it had mosquito netting, so I was happy. David is finally able to have his shower and we watch a movie on the computer before going to bed.
Mikumi National Park
April 11th
We head out to Mikumi National Park. Rogers called Mohammed a friend of his to drive us for the day. We met a woman named Martha the night before and wanted to introduce her to Rogers, so he called her up and she came along too. The drive to the park consisted of listening to Christina Agulera and 3 kids in the 20’s speaking Swahili. With David in the front and me in the back we felt a little left out of the conversations and it suddenly dawned on us that we were paying for these kids to have an adventure together and we just happened to be luggage to their nice day together. They had some amazing animals at Mikumi that came close to the road so David was able to take really up close shots. I was excited about the trees too. There were a couple of really ancient looking trees that were stunning and I wanted the driver to stop and take a picture of them, but one of the kids started making fun of me in Swahili so David told me to stop asking to stop for things. The day for pictures was a success. We saw many animals and we even stopped at a Hippo pool and ate some lunch of bananas, bread and muffins. On the way back David had a big headache and I mentioned to everyone that it would be nice if they spoke English so we could be a part of their conversation. They did for a while, but then they started speaking Swahili again, until they asked us where we wanted to eat. We end up at this kind of fancy place and I told David that they were going to expect us to pay for everyone again. So David asked them how much they were putting in for the meal. After telling them we weren’t very hungry and we weren’t going to get any food they decided they weren’t hungry after all. We paid the driver for the day, about $300US and David gave him a really good tip over that. Mohammed did a lot of driving and was very helpful. He even shared with David some of the local tea and that made David very happy. We got our stuff from Rogers house and had his friend take us to our hotel because we were going to get an early start in the morning to catch a bus to Arusha...home of the Serengeti.
Rogers house
April 10th
We wake up to have a breakfast of toast, fruit and a hard boiled egg and then Rogers comes to get us and has a friend named Saleem with him. They catch us a cab and we all head up through town into an entrance with an armed guard. The entrance is to the local college and Rogers lives somewhere on the grounds. Our cab wobbles and slides along the bumpy and muddy roads. We almost slide into a tree but the cab drivers here are really good at negotiating these roads.
We make it up the hill to Rogers house and we pack our things and hike them up another steep hill that can only be accessed by foot. When we get up to the top of the hill, through trees and bushes, it turns out Rogers doesn’t have the key. He sends his friend off into the jungle to find a key. His friend is gone a very long time as we wait and the cab driver waits, and then finally Rogers heads out into the jungle to go after his friend. They both get back a little while later and we bring our stuff into Rogers room and then we are back down the hill for some lunch.
He brings us to a diner where we have some rice and veggies with sauce. We end up paying for Rogers and his friend which we felt a little weird about because we just thought we were going to be hanging out with Rogers, but this was only the beginning of stuff like this happening...Since Morogoro is a poor town people will try to get as much as they can from you. It is not a malicious thing, it is just a cultural thing I believe. It’s important to be able to set clear boundaries of what you are willing to pay for and what you are not up front. This goes for cab rides, hotels, food, whatever, it’s just important to get these things established ahead of time to make sure there are no miscommunications.
As Rogers and Saleem take us around town they tell us they will make us some of their traditional foods for dinner. So they take us to the local open air market. They sell fruit, veggies, beans, rice, amaranth, quinoa, millet, dried fish, spices, many chickens in tiny little cages. There are piles and piles of beans and grains everywhere, it looked pretty colourful and beautiful. The shop people were friendly and helpful. After getting the ingredience they needed we paid for the lot and headed back into town to catch a cab back to Rogers house. Each ride in and out of town from Rogers house is =3000 shillings. (It is slowly dawning on us that this free accommodation is going to be costing us more than staying at a hotel...)
We get back to Roger’s house a chill for a a bit while Rogers and Saleem make dinner. We have a meal of beans, casaba and purple potato and ginger tea. We all watch 10, 000 BC on the laptop. (Just in case Matt from England is reading this, he worked on the movie in New Zealand, Matt, what were you thinking?)
After watching the movie and having some chats we were off to bed. A small slated bed with a thin mattress. The whole bed has mosquito netting over it. (Hey, it’s not just for being fancy, it is actually used for mosquitoes here. J
Tanzania
April 9th
We wake up and have a traditional Tanzanian breakfast of local fruit, toast and eggs that had a really pale yolk and yummy juice. Passion fruit juice I think...I found a cab driver to take us to the bus to Dar es Salaam. The cab driver is very nice and offers to take us to Morogoro and show us the National Parks for $500. We respectfully decline and he takes us to the bus station....The bus station is crawling with people trying to sell us something. Here buy this food, these bananas, this bag of cashews, these crappy headphones made in China... When we stopped the car our car got mobbed by 4 guys trying to sell something. David and the cab driver got out of the car to buy the tickets and the men dispersed. After a short time David and the driver come back to the car and we head over to the bus we are to take to Morogoro. The driver negotiated a local price for us, because when you are a white person basically everything is at least twice as much as for other people. We made it onto the bus and started our 9 hour bumpy ride to Morogoro. We pass many villages that look the same. Dirty run down shacks with metal roofing and the words Citel written on the sides of many of them. These are extremely poor conditions people are living in. I think it wouldn’t be so bad if these people were living with the land and farming and using what they had, but it seem like people just came in and added things like cell phones and random crappy items with packaging and so begins the litter of the land.
We fall in and out of sleep all day. Around noon the bus stops at a place for lunch and potty breaks.
This is our first experience with a “squatty potty” so here is the deal...It is a white fancy porcelain hole in the ground. You squat and then you use a bucket of water to wash everything down. There is also sometimes a little faucet so you can wash yourself afterwards, because most of the time there is no toilet paper.
After a quick lunch of sausage and French fries, they call them chips here, we are on the bus again.
We finally make it to Morogoro and we find a cab driver to take us to a hotel. Because we are still unable to locate our couchsurfing person Rogers. Our cab driver takes us to a place that is about =20,000 a night which is a little less than $20 US. When we get into out room there is no electricity, we ask about it and the woman says, no electricity. So we rest for a moment and then walk into the town to find internet. It seems the whole town is out of electricity because we see them working on the cables in the street. So we walk and have a look around. Many shops selling random items, many shops selling cell phones and credit places everywhere. Cell phones are a status symbol here so everyone has one. Even some of the poorest people have them. Word on the street is that the breweries are getting upset because people are spending money on phone credits instead of beer. Another interesting fact is that you can see people in huts and then see a huge satellite dish next to the hut.
On the way to trying to find the internet we meet a young man who is in his last year of High School. His name is Michael and he speaks very eloquently. Evidently he was sponsored for 3 years by someone from the US because they saw potential in him. He is hoping to use his education in Economics to help Africa become a better place. He told us about the corruption and politics of the government as we walked down the street to the internet cafe. . We write to Rogers, our couchsurfing friend, one last time. It starts getting dark so we head back to our hotel. We clean up and get something to eat and while we are having dinner who walks in but Rogers. He said he was very sorry, he hadn’t check the internet in a few days and when he checked he saw we had written him so he came by the hotel. He also said that he switched phone cards so the number we had used to be correct, but it wasn’t anymore. Rogers said he would come the next morning and bring us to his house. We did laundry in a bucket and hang it to dry in the room. The air conditioning and fan work well to dry most everything by the next morning . (Oh yes, by the time we got back the electricity was back on. Seems it goes on and off all the time in this town.)
Dar es Salaam
April 8th
After a pretty short flight we land in Dar es Salaam. We go from snowy and cold to hot and humid heat. We have to stand in a long line to get visas, then we find out my visa is $100 US and $35 for David because he is an Australian. We find out that the money we have gotten before we came here is the wrong kind of money. (We got South African money instead of North African money.) So we get escorted outside to get money from an ATM and then we have to go to a currency exchange to have them change it back to US. This is a huge scam here. Many places want US $ and won’t take their own money if you are white. It stinks big time, but this is where lots of people make their money evidently.
We finally finish with the whole visa deal and then we need to catch a cab to a hotel because the person I found for us to stay with does not have a working number, and even if he did, he is 100km away from the airport. So we ask the cab driver to take us to a good hotel and he takes us to one in the town, but it is booked so we go next door and check in. This hotel is $80 a night and although we didn’t want to pay that, we decided that we were tired and just couldn’t go on any further. We were both scared and tired and freaked out at this point.
Simon and Tina day 2
April 7th
Simon and Tina had some breakfast for us and then we all headed out to visit the local town. Simon especially wanted to show us the nautical museum because he works on off shore oil rigs. That museum was pretty cool. They had deep sea fish in bottles that you could check out. When we got back to their house we had some chats and I gave Tina a massage. Her back had been hurting her and she needed a little love. After chats and massage we packed up and headed out to the airport to catch our flight to Tanzania.
Simon and Tina
April 6th
Simon is from New Zealand and Tina is from Germany. Simon came down and met us when we showed up and helped us bring our stuff inside. I let David talk to Simon because they were having an Aussie/New Zealand moment, which allowed me to take a shower and get ready for bed. (When you are traveling for long periods of time, it’s nice to hear your own language for a little while. It helps you not miss home so much.)
Lillian part two
April 6th
We had such a fun time talking to each other. You know when you just get into that groove and things start flowing? This was one of those days. Lillian talked to me about the faeries and how some places are gateways to them and the easiest ways to contact them. We agreed that communicating with the faeries is the best way to keep the gateways open. At one point I was crying because I felt like I had nothing to offer them. And she said that what I offer is a chance for the faeries to do their work in the world.
Lillian also shared with me that although Findhorn used to be a place for people to work with Elementals, it is now just a place for people to learn about living in community, which is what they do very well. So if someone is wanting to work with elemental energies like the faeries and the Devas I would suggest Perelandra which is in the US. Virginia I believe.
After a morning of great talks we headed out to the countryside to visit more castles. More talks in the car and at the castle. David took many pictures of the grounds and I sang my Power song Yemaya. Lillian said it sounded like it was a song from the Western coast of Scotland. After the castle we saw more rolling hills, more sheep and ocean. We stopped at a cafe for some scones and coffee and then we headed back to Lillian’s for dinner and poems from Lillian. Then we said our goodbyes and we were off to Simon’s and Tina’s.
Lillian
April 5th
Said our goodbyes to Lorraine and headed out to Lillian’s house about 2 ½ miles away. Lillian welcomed us with hugs and tea. She is a lovely medicine woman who likes to network people together. She used to live at Findhorn and some other communities, but she is a person who likes to change the system so sometimes people have a hard time knowing how to interact with such a strong high powered woman such as herself. She had a friend staying with her and her friend was lovely as well. She is a healer and is getting ready to write a book about her life. After an hour of good talks we were shown to our room which consisted of two beds that were beautiful and fluffy. I felt like I was sleeping on a Goddess bed! So many good books around and really nice artwork on the walls of spirit things. We were so tired we went straight to sleep as soon as we hit the pillow.
Lorraine's mom's house
April 4th
Went to visit Lorraine’s mom’s house to visit her sister. Her sister makes realistic looking baby dolls. She takes them around in a stroller and people actually think they are real. I saw a few and they do look real. Lorraine’s sister wants Lorraine to get into the business with her so she can have help painting the dolls and selling them. Lorraine is thinking about it, but we’ll see.
Lorraine
April 3rd
While Katie was at school we got some quiet hanging out with Lorraine time. When Katie got home we all went castle hopping and took a drive into the countryside. We even explored an old ruin that we were able to walk through. It was fun to think of how people actually lived here and how these were the windows they used to see out to the ocean. We also walked around the grounds of a still working castle that they rent out for weddings and such. I can’t begin to imagine the heating bill for that place...When we got home Lorraine made us a traditional Scottish dinner with flavoured meat and potatoes and carrots. Mmmmm.
Lorriane's house
April 2nd
We head to Lorraine’s house today. It took us about 2 hours to get there she lives about 97 miles away from the airport. Lorraine is a sweetheart. Her house is small but very clean and you can feel the love she puts into it. Lorraine is a tiny fairy of a woman with a huge loving heart and gives very good hugs. She does Reiki and has a daughter Katie who is almost as tall as she is J Poor Lorraine was shaking as she met us. Sometimes we forget how our energy affects people, since we are in it all the time, we don’t notice it too much. We had coffee and good talks, but the Scottish accent was sometimes hard to understand. Even David had some trouble and I told him that is what it was like when I met him.
Two Australian girls at Farrah's
April 1st
We explore more of Scotland and the countryside. I am driving better today than the day before and that makes me feel a bit better. We stop at some castles, take some pictures and see a lot of sheep and lambs along the way. Love those lambs! We get back to the house late and Farrah gets home and so do the other people who are staying with her. These two Australian girls, 19 and 20 from Brisbane...small world! David talked to them at length and he showed them the Cane toad cartoon video. Then more talks and off to bed.
Driving on the wrong side of the road
March 31st
Went exploring around the countryside and I learned to drive stick on the other side of the road. This is a tricky thing people... Not only am I moving the stick around with my other hand, I am also trying to remember that I am supposed to be on the other side and need to stay in the middle of the lane, which feels like I am going to run straight into oncoming traffic. This was pretty stressful to say the least. I was so glad to get back to Farrah’s house!
Farrah's place
March 30th
Said goodbye to Ulla and headed out to see more of Edinburgh and finally got a hold of Farrah another couchsurfer who said we could stay with her. Whew! We drove around that day and came across the Queen’s Scottish home, discovered the cliffs which were breathtaking. We were very lucky to have such a bright and sunny day! After a series of twists and turns and lots of stops to figure out where the heck we were going we finally made it to Farrah’s house. Farrah is a lovely 24 year old Capricorn who is into UFO conspiracies. She talked to us about her theories about Aliens coming down and breeding with humans. I have heard this theory too from somewhere. I am not sure where, maybe Urantia? Talked to Farrah until late then set up the bed and went to sleep.
Forest cafe
March 29th
Explored Edinburgh a bit and stopped at the Forest cafe to read and write some emails. This is a place where a big group of alternative hippy subculture hangout. They show interesting videos and you can hear people playing various music around. Some kids were even playing some music with big 50 gallon water jugs. I took some pictures of the art people did on the walls downstairs. Evidently people live there and do work trade at the cafe. Everyone was friendly and warm. The coffee was super yummy! Mmmm lattes...
Meeting Ulla
March 28th
We get off the plane and find the rental car place, there are so many places we are going to Scotland we decided not to mess around. Ulla’s apartment is not too far away. An hour and a half maybe. It is not the safest place ever, kind of the Scottish ghetto if there is such a thing. She lives on the 7th floor of a 12 story high rise that they are trying to tear down. Ulla is a communist and it was interesting hearing her views on what a perfect society would be like. It’s a lot of the things that we want as well, but from a totally different way of getting to it. They are all about protesting and fighting the system. I guess it seemed to me they all know what they don’t want, but maybe aren’t too sure how to create what they do want. She had a book of communes in Britten and that was cool to look through. www.diggersanddreamers.com was the website she told us to look up different communities around the world.
Nutella and Pancakes
March 28th
Woke up to Pancakes and Nutella. (What angel created Nutella? Food of the Goddess I tell you! David spent most of the day with Matt getting good tips about camera works. We got to talk to Minion and martin a little and then Matt dropped us at the train station where Idoya met us for hugs and goodbyes. We are really going to miss those guys...
Massage with Martin
March 27th
Hung out with Martin and we both gave Martin a massage. Later we made root veg mix, went to the Kabab house and brought a bunch of food over to Maria’s house. (Who is a total cutie btw!)
As we were all cruising down the street going to the Kabab place it occurred to me that it felt like we had been there for years. Like we had always known these people and they were family. We could have stayed there forever with this group of people and it would have been perfect. It came to my mind that I really miss having a core group of people around me all the time. Another reason why it will be good to get back home, to start a loving community of friends. Even though it’s great to have friends all over the world, I still like to be able to have a friend I can hug and go out for coffee or walks with. Well hugs and coffee are happening around the world now, so I will count the amazing blessings I have and all the great hugs we have received along the journey. J It gives us good incentive to start making the communities happen when we get back home.
Staying with Matt and Idoya
March 26th
Stayed at Matt and Idoya’s house. Talked to Martin. Evidently Martin was having a string of bad luck too. Sometimes I feel like I am having a string of bad luck too, like I can’t do anything right, so I had total compassion for Martin. We talked to him and then I let David talk to him while I cleaned up the kitchen so he could rest. Martin is a woodworker from Austria, so is his partner Minion and Dax as well. There is a very interesting thing that happens with this trade. It seems that you go to school and then when you graduate you have to leave for 2 years or more and travel to different places so you can learn about how to do the work for different people. They wear a traditional outfit, that looks kind of Amish and they need to wear it all the time so people know that they are doing what they are doing. People will put them up and give them things to help them on their journey. It’s really an amazing learning experience. Turns out Martin hurt his back so he was laid out for a while until he could get to the chiropractor so we were able to have some good Martin time for talking. We caught up with Minion, Idoya, Matt, Deni and Dax later that evening and Idoya made Paia.
Massage with Cat
March 25th
We went to Cat’s work and got massages from her at her work. It was really lovely to get nurtured and loved up. Later while David went to dry our laundry at the shop I was able to return the favour and give Cat a healing and massage which she loved. I can’t wait to get back home so I can do more massage for people. David and I are taking Thai massage when we are in Thailand. So when we get home we will be all about the massage! Yeah! Being with Cat has been fun and interesting. She is filled with Goddess energy and when she gave me hugs I was able to feel that Goddess energy in myself awaken again. She helped me to remember how to open up to love again. I think that being on the road is sometimes so challenging that I forget how powerful and creative I really am. It’s nice to meet people who remind you when you are having a hard time remembering...
meeting Cat
March 24th
We say goodbye to Deni and Dax and they drop us off at Cat’s house. Cat is a lovely woman who is on a journey of awakening to love. Just this year she started coming into herself as a woman and she is opening her heart as big as she can. It is always fun to hang out with people in the process of opening. She has a lot of similar views as us on a lot of things and we talked well into the night.
Easter fun!
March 23rd Easter
Easter was waaay fun! There were about 15 people who showed up and everyone was amazingly nice! We all mingled and talked and then there was an Easter egg hunt. We wore bunny and chick masks and read the clues to find the Easter basket of chocolates at the end. Then Idoya brought out some hordorves of different thin meats from Spain and for dinner Matt created an amazing meal of Lamb and potatoes that was super tasty! Idoya also made fried milk, which was really something. (I picked the wrong day to give up dairy...) ;)
We all laughed and talked into the night. Matt ended up feeling like he was getting a cold so I did some healing on him. It was the first time I had done a full on energy work and massage session in a while and I loved it. I want to start doing my work again in that way. I think I am opening up to my energy again.
Getting to meet Deni and Dax and the rest of the gang
March 22nd
We get into the airport and it’s night time. We are wheeling our stuff out to the bus we need to take to get to Deni and Dax’s house. I am having trouble getting my cart up this curb and David is far ahead so I am pulling and pulling and a really nice English man comes up and offers to help me just as I am pulling my cart onto the sidewalk. He says, I was too late, sorry, wish I could have helped you sooner. I almost cried, he was so nice and I was so tired. We finally make it to the bus and we meet another nice English man who is talking to us about his philosophy on life and how he likes to run and how he is not interested in getting married but his mom gets on him from time to time about it. The bus ride went really fast talking to this guy and before we knew it we were at the train station.
It was tricky trying to find the right train to go on...I picked wrong. The train was the one that went the same way as the one we were supposed to take, but it passed our stop. We get out at the closest stop and make our way upstairs to the street so we can call Deni to come get us. At this point David is yelling and I am balling and neither one of us is having a good time. Full Moon, you gotta love it...
Deni and Idoya come in Idoya’s tiny little car...Our stuff just about fits. Idoya still talks about how she had her foot all the way to the floor and the car was still moving slowly. We made it to Deni and Dax’s house and met Dax, Martin, Minion and Maria. We had a yummy curry meal and talked for a while. Everyone was so nice! Dax is from Germany, Martin is from Austria, Minion is from Germany and Deni and Maria are from Spain. We kidded about being in England and only hanging out with them J They said people from other cultures tend to find each other and flock together. The next day is Easter and we are invited to go to Easter at Matt and Idoya’s house.
Last morning in Ireland
March 21st
This is our last morning in Ireland. Karen makes us an Irish breakfast which consisted of Eggs, toast, rashers (which is bacon and it this is actually what David is talking about when he says bacon. Thank God we found that so he could stop pining away for it...) black and white puddings which is not jello pudding, this is meat sausage with barley, spices and pig blood. (They tasted pretty ok.) And of course black tea, how could you do Ireland and not have black tea...of course how could you do Ireland and not have Guiness? But I digress...
As we are leaving for the airport Karen’s dad says he can take us. We have tons of stuff so we pack the car early, but as it turns out he had left the lights on all night long so the battery was dead. We end up running the car down the street to try and push start it, but it doesn’t want to go. So we run back to Karen’s house, she brings her car over and we pile everything into it and she flies us down the road to the bus stop. Now I am not sure if all Irish drivers are fast and crazy but our bus driver from the airport was driving really fast and in the bike lanes and swerving like nobody’s business. Karen was not a swervy driver, but she was fast, so we knew we were going to get there on time. We end up pulling in just in time, the driver was just about to pull out so she parked right in front of him to make sure he wasn’t going anywhere. We piled our stuff out of the car and said our goodbyes and then we were off on another bus ride. The bus ride itself was beautiful. We saw 2 rainbows, lots of sheep and lambs (My favourite are the lambs....so cute!) The sun has been out most of the day, hanging out right next to dark gray clouds, but today the sun will not be denied. It’s shinning it’s little heart out! Just before we get out it starts hailing. Which reminded me of Chicago around Easter. I remember riding my bike as a kid on Easter and picking up all the hail, bagging it up and putting it in my grandma’s freezer. I was always curious why it hailed every Easter, but I guess it’s just the right conditions for it.
Heathrow airport is pretty nice. Lots of shops and some fancy coffee places. As we were walking we stopped for a caramel coffee drink for David and a mocha one for me. (We kinda got hooked on Frappachinos when we were back in the states...so we needed one more fix before heading out. They were good, but gee whiz...coffees are expensive here! Yes, even more than Starbucks.) We have actually been very good about spending money. We go to the grocery store to get food usually and we cook at people’s houses we stay with, so we have been saving money with not eating out.
In the airport I passed a shop that reminded me of my grandma and I started to cry. My grandma was Irish and loved scarves and capes and this store was something I knew she would have loved.
After that the next stop was a bookstore and I saw that Paulo Cuelo had a couple of books out. The one I picked up was talking about an Irish woman who was looking for her soul mate and meet a man who helps her to open up her heart to love.
It’s very fun to watch people at the airport. Irish, Irish, German, German, Spanish, Spanish, Polish. In America almost everyone is a blend of so many nationalities, but here you can see the pure blood of the origins of many countries.
Our flight was full but the Stewart said when they come back from England it’s going to be even more packed. Easter weekend is coming and there is a HUGE population of Catholics in Ireland.
We are pretty proud of ourselves releasing excess baggage. Everywhere we go we get rid of something to make our journey a little lighter. When we leave Europe we expect our load to be a lot lighter because we will have run out of Isagenix by then. Isagenix has been a Godsend keeping us healthy and keep us from eating crap food along our way. Yaaay for Isagenix!
Tonight is a full moon...you can tell with us because we have been a little moody lately. But seeing the sun is definitely helping.
Next stop England...
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