Energy & Love World Tour

May 24th

2008-07-02T23:47:00.003-07:00

The mattress we got was saggy in the middle so we switched rooms and took this opportunity to re organize and clean out all of our bags. Later we are going to look for a laundromat to do our washing. Did laundry and then watched some movies. Then later went out to walk around the streets to see where some drumming was coming from. It sounded like a drum circle, but it turned out to be a few people, so we continued on walking along the water front. The place where we are staying is near a Musical venue where they have concerts and events. The art surrounding the venue is amazing and the park that holds it all together is pretty huge. For the most part the streets were pretty empty...except for the occasional couple holding hands and walking or someone walking their dog. When we were almost back to our apartment we ran across a group of people who were on a birthday adventure. A women that I walk talking to said she had done a two year journey that took her to Asia and California. There were two other women with her that were going to go to San Francisco next October.

May 24th

2008-07-02T23:47:00.002-07:00

May 24th

2008-07-02T23:47:00.001-07:00

May 22nd

2008-07-02T23:46:00.001-07:00

We made it to our hotel after long day of buses trains and walking. I left David in the hotel room and went to go get us some dinner from the super market. When I got back I made some sandwiches and then we watched movies until we fell asleep.

May 21st

2008-07-02T23:45:00.000-07:00

We woke up on time, got ready, but the train took forever and we missed our flight. We had to wait 5 hours for the next one, but that’s OK, they didn’t charge us and we got to have one last Italian meal before we left Italy. Even the airport food in Italy is pretty good. The coffee is definitely great and not so expensive, but we hear in Paris it is something like 5 euros. Wow...it is not even that expensive at Starbucks...

May 20th

2008-07-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

Today we hung out around home most of the day and then went back out to try to take some pictures of the things that we got pictures of in the dark a day or two before. We took the train to the Vatican museum , but when we got there they wanted us to store the tripod and the backpack and we were just all ‘store the tripod’ out from Egypt so we skipped the museum and just took pictures. We got some good pictures of angel statues and then got some pizza...We had gotten pizza the night before last and it was not only expensive, but crap, this was pretty good and only 2 Euros. We headed home early with big plans of packing so we could be ready the night before for the next day, but we set the alarm and then went to sleep until the next morning.

May 19th

2008-07-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

We had a lazy day watching movies and TV shows.

2008-05-19T01:55:00.000-07:00

May 18th
Woke up at 10am and hung out with Franco and had some breakfast. Watched a couple movies and then later headed out to the Vatican. Vatican City is surrounded by a huge wall, God save the queen, but we'll make sure we build these walls to keep the millions of dollars of gold and jewels in the Vatican safe... oh wait I mean the pope...
We walked around to the front and looked into the front gates where there were these men standing wearing these ancient Italian outfits....they have probably been wearing these outfits for hundreds of years... http://www.daveliu.com/images/travel/italy/rome/vatican/Guard

The Vatican is it's own country governed by it's own rules. http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/vaticancountry.htm

We got there late so we couldn't go into the city, but we plan on going tomorrow...if we wake up and get out of the house before it gets dark...

We did however go into the main circle where the pope comes out to speak...it is an outside place where many chairs are set up. There are sculptures of people way high on top of the edges of the walls. In the center of this circle there is an Obelisk with a fountain and on the floor of this there are circles that look like some sort of astrological dates...but I couldn't really read them because they were in Italian. I tried to Google it, but without knowing what they were really all about it is a little difficult. I will ask around next time we are there and then give you the scoop when I find out. The best I can come up with is that it is a big sun dial...I also had a really weird thought that people were buried underneath these circles...it would be the perfect way to make someone disappear...but then again I think I lived in Chicago too long and the Mafia is seeping out of my consciousness because we are in Italy...but then again...

We walked across town and got some pizza, come on you have to have pizza while in Italy...it was OK. I miss Chicago pizza...or a good Zelda's...I think the pizza I like is Sicilian and we are far from Sicily. The pizza they make here is more like...crispy cracker like crust with a little sauce and they just kind of throw a few things on there. I think David had a few olives with the pits still in them and a piece of lunch meat ham thrown on there with a handful of artichokes. I just had sauce. cheese and basil.

Walking through the town has it's different smells...there is a smell of jasmine everywhere, but also the smell of not enough public restrooms so men tend to just relieve themselves wherever, which leads to a smell that is less than savory...It is also not the cleanest city, people tend to leave rubbish on the sidewalks and on the streets, but we have seen this most places, except for Holland, but I also think that in Holland they are cleaning the streets all the time, so it is hard to tell if the people are actually cleaner, or the trash is just picked up quickly enough so you don't notice.

After a long bus ride we made it home and fell asleep with hopes of waking up before 10am...

Gelato

2008-05-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

May 17^th

This morning we woke up around 10am took some showers and started some laundry. We tried the cake and it was absolutely amazing and with the espresso mmmm mmmm. We are hoping to get out of the house today while it is still light out...it may be a big pipe dream, but we are going to try... :)

Yeah...it’s about 12am right now and no we didn’t make it out of the house...it seems we have received some sort of nasty virus on our computer. Super stinky! So David has been all day fixing it. But I think maybe he has taken care of it...these are things that are not my forte so I have no idea, but he looks happy so I think it is all good now. This evening Franco took us out for Gelato...Oh dude! You know I have been looking forward to Gelato...I got chocolate, banana and pistachio and David got coffee, pistachio and kiwi. It was good mate...real good! Then we sat outside and talked for a while then headed home because it started raining. That Franco is really a very nice person. If you are coming to Rome he is the guy to look up! His apartment rocks and this was the most inexpensive place we could find and we are so glad we did. We have been super happy here!

More 3 for 5ers

2008-05-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

May 16^th

Today we had a lazy day in bed all day watching tv shows day. (We stayed up until 2 am the night before.) When 6pm rolled around we finally made it out the door and took the train straight to the Coliseum. Literally, when you get off the train and walk up into the street it is staring straight at you. We went at night and it was all lit up, which was beautiful. There were many lovers holding hands and enjoying each other and many venders walking around trying to sell you random crap. Some guy came up to us and tried to sell us a holographic glass image of the Coliseum and I told him 3 for 5 3 for 5 and he laughed...he must have been from Cairo... J

We walked up to a church on the top of a hill and they were having a meeting of the Franciscans. I wished I knew better Italian because I would have liked to sit in on that service. We are going to go back to this place tomorrow because the art inside of the church was amazing. I have always been a big fan of realism in painting...like a photograph from the past, only you can feel more...sometimes when I look into paintings I can feel more of the intention of the artist. But I guess really good photography does that as well. We stayed with Matt and Idoya and Matt was such an amazing photographer that I felt emotional when looking at the shoreline of a beach. Growing up I always wished to have a gift like that, to be able to explain how I see the world so people understood...I think real artists do that with a passion.

After many fountains and buildings we headed towards the bus to go home. We had taken the train home last time, but it was now late and the bus is the only thing running. The bus was packed, you see this all the time and we laughed about it...and then it happened to us... J The bus ride wasn’t bad however, looking at all the ruins along the streets and the people were all very friendly. There was even a cute Roman girl sitting next to where we were standing and she kept smiling at us. I think she like the way I was saying the street names, she thought the accent was funny ((giggles)).

We got home and Franco had made some cake for breakfast that smelled so good! We crashed out around 2am again.

Espresso and the Baths

2008-05-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

May 15^th

Woke up this morning and had some espresso that we made in the Italian coffee maker. This thing that you put water in and coffee in and then you put it on the stove and it percolates the coffee and makes two little cups of espresso. It’s super strong, but pretty good. Franco told us that coffee is pretty cheep here and there are different prices for if you stand to if you sit, so I guess we are going to be doing some stand drinking J Later we went out to explore the city. We saw many ruins and a bath house that was surrounded in different color roses, lavender and jasmine. It smelled absolutely amazing. The sculptures were rather creepy however. I am sure back in their day they were good likenesses of the people they represented, but now they are all eroded and they looked like mummies. We walked and walked for hours and made it across most of Italy. We were surprised that we walked as far as we did and we were pretty tired by the end of the day. We came home and made an Italian dinner.

First day in Rome

2008-05-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

May 14^th

Today we head out to Rome. We woke up early and got ready, had some breakfast and got to the train. The train went fast and the airport was very little hassle. We are ready getting used to this getting in and out of the airport stuff. We are flying Swiss air, which is super wonderful when it comes to chocolate. They give you chocolate every flight and it is the best chocolate ever! MMMM mmm.

We got on a train after we landed and then got on another train called the Metro. When we finally got to the stop where the place we are staying is we took a couple of wrong turns and asked some women for directions. These ladies were so nice, they didnt know english but they were more than wanting to help and when they couldnt they just started to ask random people waling along the road of they knew where the place was that we were going. I think we had something like 6 people helping us at one point in time. Finally we figured it out and then this old man decided to help us all the way there just to make sure that we made it.

We got to the place and Franco welcomed us, but he was working with some students, he is a teacher. So we went out to the local shops and got some food for dinner. Gnocci, salad, veggies ( we have not had a good salad in such a long time...fruit and some cheeses and some cold meats.

Dinner was super yummy! Cant wait for tomorrow!

OH yes and great conversations with Franco...

Rest and Laundry day

2008-05-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

May 13^th

Michelle is going home today so we had breakfast, got ready and then we headed out for one last look around and some lunch. We walked her to the train station and then she was off to Scotland again. We had some trouble finding our way back to our hotel after dropping her off, mostly because the place is not set up like a grid. It is all over and meandering....and the shops tend to start looking the same after a while... So we walked around, explored again and finally made it back to the hotel room to do some laundry and catch up with emails. After laundry we went out for dinner then came back to the hotel and crashed out.

Red Light District

2008-05-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

May 12^th

Amsterdam itself it quite a beautiful town. There are many channels of water that run through, the streets are all cobblestone and they wash them daily which is really so nice. I think the town would be super trashed if they didn’t clean it as much as they do. Especially since people who tend to do too many extra special treats will often spew chunks all over the sidewalk, you will see that every once in a while, but really it is rare, usually the streets are clean and trash is limited. The red light district is a few block radius of sex stores, sex shows and women in windows who are wearing swimsuits smiling at the people walking by. There are a wide variety of women in these windows. Young women with small bodies, older women with larger bodies and everything in between. Black, White, Asian. Only saw one with glasses though. Beyond the women in the windows is a room with a bed in it. Sometimes you can see it from the window, sometimes there is a curtain so you can’t see it right away, but mostly it seems like they are all the same kinds of beds. Small single beds. We didn’t ask how much things were, cause we were probably just big chickens, but that would have been interesting to find out...oh well, maybe next time... 

First night in Amsterdam

2008-05-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

May 11th

We got into Amsterdam on the train and walked for a long time to find our hotel only to find that our hotel was really only 2 minutes away from the train...but that was ok because Michelle was waiting out front when we got there. Michelle is a friend of David’s from Celestine Vision and from Second Life. She used to live in Sydney but now lives in Scotland, which she is enjoying at the moment. Amsterdam is an interesting place...it feels like a college town, only there is no college. There are ‘coffee shops’ everywhere which do in fact serve coffee, but mostly pot. They give you a menu of which one side is drinks and the other side is different strains of pot, which seem to differ from one another. We went to Free Adam, which seemed to us to be good enough for us. (Actually we were looking for dinner, but didn’t quite make it that far because we got interested in going and seeing what this coffee shop thing is all about. We got 3 different varieties Bubble Gum, White Widow and Haze. Oh and we also got some cake with pot in it. Which reminded me of when I first moved to California and our roommate grew it (that is an interesting story, but I have told it so many times and I don’t want to ‘tuna fish’ sandwich myself.) ((‘Tuna fish’ sandwich comes from the movie I (heart) Huckabees. Great movie!))

We walked around and explored a little of the town and then back to the hotel room for a quick rest, which turned into the rest of the night. We are not big party animals...

Belgium

2008-05-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

May 10th

Today Wim and Jen took us to Belgium. I think that maybe I expected it to be like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer visited the land of chocolate when the German's took over the nuclear power planet. But no, it looked like a typical European village. People speak mostly French here, which was surprising because we thought they spoke Dutch here. We stopped by a cafe to have a drink and the menus were in Dutch and French, but no English...so we had to just guess. Hamburger was the only thing we could really read so we got hamburgers. To me they were like Morning Star Veggie Burgers and it made me think of how glad I am that we will be home soon...Although....I am not sure they have Morning Star Veggie Burgers in Australia.

We did get some chocolate, but from a gas station...good enough for me, it was super yummy. I figured, you have to have some sort of chocolate when you are in Belgium.

Another day for resting

2008-05-11T02:21:00.001-07:00

May 9th
We rested today and I updated my website.

Rest Day

2008-05-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up at Ilse and Maarten's house and I remembered we forgot to take our tablet. SO I got them out and we took it....unfortunately you need to really take it with lots of water and with food so about 10 minutes later I started to feel sick and about 15 minutes later I was throwing up in the bathroom. Yuckola. After I did however I felt so much better and we had some breakfast of Muslei and yogurt and some fresh juice that Maarten made.

They dropped us off at the train station and we made our way back to Wim and Jen's house and rested a bit while watching Tin Man. David has not been feeling well. He has some sort of seasonal cold thing going on. Snuffley and stuff. But he is still in good spirits. It's good we just had a day to rest and relax.

The Beach

2008-05-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

May 7th
We did some laundry and then headed off to see Maarten and Ilse a really lovely couchsurfing couple. They have done a fair bit of traveling and were super sweet to us. Ilse picked us up frmo the bus stop and drove us to their house where she had made a quiche and pasta salad which we took to the beach as soon as Maarten got home from work. Maarten works at a greenhouse 4 days a week. We went to the beach for a few hours and the weather was just perfect. Sunny blue skies so nice!

We had great conversations and dinner and then they took us back to their place for some coffee and chocolate cake...mmmmm.

That night we slept in their guest room which had a sky light where we could see the stars as we fell asleep. It was a wonderful restful night.

Extras....
Ilse is pregnant and super beautiful and glowing...
Maarten made an amazing scrapbook of all of their travel pictures that was just out of this world. It looks like a professional coffee table book. He did it on line and they sent it to him from Germany. Really nice!

Frittes with mayo and salted fish

2008-05-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

May 6th

Jen had work today so Wim took us out to the Market. It was a very tame version of Cairo as we walked through the market. People selling various things. Wim got some salted fish for us to try...we haven't tried it yet...we are a little scared...
But what we did try that we liked was Fritties. Which are French fries with mayonnaise mmmm mmmm. They some them in that sh**. (For all of you Pulp Fiction fans...it's really true...and it's good.)

Rest Day

2008-05-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today was a rest day. We have been going and going and were starting to get a little sick. Everyone was coughing and sneezing on the plane... so we took sometime to just veg.

Later that evening we went on a walk around the trails and petted some horses and some dogs passing by. There are many trails around here because everyone and their dog has a bike and they ride them everywhere. It is very flat here so it is easy to ride. At the train station there are thousands of bikes waiting for people to get off the train. More bikes than cars around here.

Just to let you know about the toilets here...I had heard about them a long time ago, but it didn;t really hit me until I used one. The toilets are made a little but differently. Instead of your poop going into the water it goes onto a platform until you flush the toilet and then it goes down. This freaked David out a little. He said "I am not sure about this whole Poop and View thing." That was pretty much the funniest comment ever... But really that is what they have here. Personally, I don't care as long as it's not the squatty potties...I am not looking forward to those again... (They are probably coming back when we get to India...)

Jen and Wim cooked us another great meal and we watched Travel channel until it was time for bed.

Flower Festival

2008-05-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

May 3

Jen invited us to go to a flower festival with her and her friend so we woke up early and went to the train. We then met her friend Wilma and headed on a bus to the show. The show was pretty huge. You can see the pictures on our website www.worldtour.zenfolio.com.

There were so many flowers, but even more people. It became a little overwhelming all of the people and sometimes we just had to take a moment out. But mostly it was just nice to be around green and colorful flowers. Fresh air and cool breezes.

We got home that night and Wim and Jen took us to Michele and Sam's house. It was Michele's birthday. We watched the Matrix and had an amazing meal cooked by Sam and Jen. Asian food rocks the universe, especially when it is cooked by Asian women! :)

Went home and went to bed.

First night in Holland

2008-05-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

May 2^nd

Woke up and packed up. David talked to the owner of the hostel about s few things that happened in Aswan and he ended up giving us a free stay here and paying for our taxi to the airport. What a sweetheart! Thanks George! We checked some emails about places to stay in Amsterdam and then headed off to the airport. It’s going to be cold in Amsterdam.... we have our jumpers (sweaters) at the ready for the airport and when we get off the plane. We land at around 9 or 10pm...It’s going to be a long day...

Got on the plane and transfered. We a good flight non-eventful. The view was pretty amazing from the plane. I think it was Budapest, but where ever it was it looked amazingly beautiful with green rolling hills and trees with a house here and there. When we finally got over Holland that was an amazing sight as well. The farms are very geometric with lines of different colors going here and there like a quilt. Later we came to find out that they were mostly tulips and a kind of wheat...although we are still not convinced about the wheat thing...we have not seen bright yellow flowers of wheat before...

We got off the plane and found our way to the train where a nice man showed us how to find the right train for us, then we had to take another train where someone else told us how to find the next train.

When we got to the station where Jen and Wim live we realized that we didn't have the address so we looked for the phone number to call, but the phones here only take special cards so we found someone with a card and he was able to call them for us. We got the address and he walked us all the way there.

Jen and Wim are very nice. They are a married couple, Jen is from Borneo and Wim is Dutch. Jen very warmly welcomed us with hugs and then showed us to our room 3 floors up where we have a water bed.

We were pretty tired and it was 2AM so we went to bed.

Super Market Day

2008-05-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

May 1^st

Today we headed off to Hala Habibi Market, one of the oldest markets in Cairo. It’s pretty crazy there. At this point we are pretty over the constant loud beeping, loud people, crowds and the various ways you can get lost on these streets. Once at the market this was amplified by about 100%. Since it is already loud people now have bullhorns to yell things out at people. Music playing people snapping their fingers in front of your face to get your attention, touching you, trying to shake your hand (this you really have to watch for because someone tried to do this to me and some other guy came out from behind his stand and literally kicked his ass, like took his foot and kicked his ass. I wasn’t quite sure why, but it probably wasn’t good.) The clothing they have here is quite fancy and if we had the money I would so be buying shirts and shirts and dresses. Not to mention the scarves...every fancy scarf in every colour...oh yeah baby this is really the way I would dress forever if given the chance...

A few hours into this super adventure I am fading fast. Too many people, too much noise so we look for a place to get some tea, which is also interesting, so they have tea stations all over the streets, but you have to have your own cup or you can use their cups but you have to stand around and drink it there at the station because the cups are either glass or silver. So we looked for a shop with a cup I could walk around with. Finally we found a place that was mostly a place with water pipes where people smoke Sheesha, not sure what Sheesha is exactly drugs are illegal, but men seem really like it here and sit around smoking it at these places so it is probably good... After tea we went to get some ice cream and then we went to the mall, which had more men’s shops than I have ever seen. The markets have lots of women’s shops, but the malls and many stores about town have men’s shops galore. Men really like to dress to impress here. Women do too, but you really see it in men, like you will never see a man wearing shorts or anything sloppy. They are usually wearing nice shirts and dress pants or nice jeans. Most women are wearing head scarves and long dresses. Some covered head to toe some only a head scarf and regular clothing, but most women have their arms covered somehow. There are these very thin long sleeve shirts women wear everywhere with things. Clothing is not that expensive either, usually about $10-$12 for a shirt or skirt. We also had some of this local food that we have grown to love. It consists of macaroni, spaghetti, lentils, tomato sauce, vinegar and hot sauce. IT is pretty good and super cheep. A whole big bowl of it costs about 75cents.

We were out today to find empty bottles for the oils we got a while ago at this essential oil/perfume place in Aswan. (We got totally taken by this guy, they talk you up and give you tea and relax you until you believe all the things they are saying about their oils, but don’t believe them. I thought I was getting pure Sandalwood oil, but later I started to realize that it was mixed with coconut oil. Rats...but we also bought some fragrances that were made to smell like popular perfumes. I got one that smells like Angel and he got one the smells like Jean Paul Guiteier. So the reason why we needed different bottles is because the ones we got had lids that didn’t close very well.

So we searched and searched, but couldn’t find anything that worked so we found our way back to the hostel.

We got cleaned up and caught up on some blogging. Had some chats with some people staying here at the hostel and then watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Market day in Cairo

2008-05-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

April 30^th

Today we had a catch up on computer day at the hostel. Then we went super adventuring around the town looking for some veggies for dinner. Most of the numbers are in Arabic so we made a cheat sheet so we could figure out how much everything costs. One thing I forgot to mention is crossing the street... When they say walk like an Egyptian there is really a whole different meaning here. Walking like an Egyptian when you are crossing the street is a lot like the old Frogger video game. Traffic never stops so you have to start walking...with an attitude mind you...and stop when you think a car isn’t going to stop or is going too fast and then continue walking start stop walk, walk stop pause go. We are now pretty much experts at it. Oh and there are really no traffic lights that actually do red and green, it’s mostly yellow, but even if for some reason there was a red light, no one ever really pays attention to those kinds of things...they are more like suggestions. We finally get to the part of the market where they have the fruits and veggie and we are drawn down the side alley where an old man is sitting by some onions and garlic, just what we were looking for, and we ask him how much and he says “No much” and we are thinking...ok what does ‘No Much’ really mean, because here it could mean...here is how much I will gouge you for, but actually this guy just wanted to give it to us as a gift. We were thankful and a little shocked. This kind of thing doesn’t usually happen without a catch, we have become a little jaded about things lately after David’s mugging...After getting what we needed we went back to the hostel for showers, dinner, Snow Dogs the movie and Tom and Jerry cartoons.

back in Cairo

2008-05-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

April 29^th

We got off the train and caught a ride back to the hostel, got cleaned up and went on a tour to the Citidel....which in hindsight weren’t quite sure why other than it was on our schedule to do so. The Citidel is the highest point of Cairo and it houses a huge Mosque made of Alabaster which stays cool in the hot Egyptian sun. We took our shoes off before we went in to explore. They have amazingly large crystal chandeliers and these other 365 lights for the days of the year.

After the Mosque we were taken to a few different churches one of which Joseph and Mary stayed at for a few days while in Egypt. After churches we headed to the Cairo Egyptian Museum where they have many mummies and artifacts from tombs and the pyramids. They also store the King Tut exhibit. It was a very impressive museum, however we are pretty tired and over stimulated at this point and really just want to go have a rest with some quiet away from people at this point. So we made our way back to the hostel to chill out for a while.

Temples and More Temples

2008-05-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

April 28^th

Went to the Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple today and were pretty much at the end of our temple cycle. You get to a point when you are done seeing temples...this was the time for us. We got back to the hotel and were told that we had to wait until 10:30pm to actually catch the train back to Cairo. So we stayed by the pool and then checked messages at the internet. Later we went for dinner and met the woman and her mom we had met the night before and they invited us for dinner. This time we exchanged information and decided to keep in touch. We got back to the hotel just in time to catch the cab to the train. We had a 3 person room this time and Joseph stayed with us. The train is really the most uncomfortable way to travel and I don’t recommend it unless you get a sleeping car. If I ever come here again I am so getting a sleeping car... David gave up trying to sleep on the chair and just spread out along the ground to sleep. I curled up on his and my space. It was very uncomfortable, but we did get some sleep.

Last day on the boat

2008-05-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

April 27^th

Our last day on the boat we woke up super early and went to visit Karnak temple. Then we got back, had breakfast and packed up to go to our hotel. We had to change hotels because they didn’t have any double rooms available for us and the next hotel they put us in was super scary, but the last one was super deluxe. It was a 5 star hotel called Pyramisa Isis Hotel and it is the fanciest place we have stayed so far in Egypt. Big bath tub a lounge room super comfy everything. After dropping our stuff off we headed out to the tour to see the Edfu Temple, Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Kings. We had a full day of temples and by the time we got back to the hotel we were super pooped out. We cleaned up a bit and then headed out to a Chinese place for some rice. We met a woman who was there with her mom and they were really lovely. We ended up chatting with them for a while and then went back to our room for the night. Poor David was really tired and him feet were really hurting him so I ended up Giving him a full massage after he took a bath.

Nubia Botanical Gardens

2008-05-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

April 26^th

Nubia Botanical Gardens

Haggling in market

2008-04-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Another ship and adventure day

2008-04-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

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.

The Nile Cruise

2008-04-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Cleopatra's Temple of Isis

2008-04-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

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.

The "First Class" Train

2008-04-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

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.

First Pyramids

2008-04-29T23:21:00.000-07:00

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.

First day in Cairo

2008-04-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Last night in Nairobi

2008-04-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

April 21^st

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! :(

2008-04-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

April 20^th

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

2008-04-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

April 16^th

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

2008-04-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

April 15^th

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

2008-04-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

April 14^th

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

2008-04-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

April 13^th

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

2008-04-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

April 12^th

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

2008-04-22T12:58:00.002-07:00

April 11^th

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

2008-04-22T12:58:00.001-07:00

April 10^th

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

2008-04-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

April 9^th

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

2008-04-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

April 8^th

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

2008-04-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

April 7^th

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

2008-04-22T12:53:00.001-07:00

April 6^th

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

2008-04-22T12:52:00.001-07:00

April 6^th

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

2008-04-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

April 5^th

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

2008-04-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

April 4^th

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

2008-04-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

April 3^rd

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

2008-04-22T12:47:00.001-07:00

April 2^nd

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

2008-04-22T12:19:00.001-07:00

April 1^st

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

2008-04-22T12:17:00.002-07:00

March 31^st

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

2008-04-22T12:17:00.001-07:00

March 30^th

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

2008-04-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

March 29^th

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

2008-04-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

March 28^th

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 7^th 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

2008-04-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

March 28^th

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

2008-04-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

March 27^th

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

2008-04-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

March 26^th

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

2008-04-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

March 25^th

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

2008-04-22T12:04:00.002-07:00

March 24^th

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!

2008-04-22T12:04:00.001-07:00

March 23^rd 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

2008-04-22T12:03:00.001-07:00

March 22^nd

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

2008-04-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

March 21^st

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...

Ireland

2008-03-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Hi from Ireland!
We got here on St. Patrick's day but you know...after traveling for so long...we were pooped out. So We got some rest and the next day we went adventuring around Waterford and then Tramore. The woman we are staying with is named Karen and she has a daughter named Kayleigh. They have been wonderful to us the whole time! Karen took us around and about to show us her town and to the ocean which is very close. (However, it was very cold and we just could stay out for very long. Even though it has been sunny, it was still pretty chilly. )

Last night we hosted an Abundance and Gratitude Circle here at the house. It was the second one we have done, the first one was at Denise's house and it went really well too! (I have it written down on some paper and I will write about it at a different time.)
These circles are something we want to start doing as we travel around the world. The basic premise is to bring people together who have intentions about something they want to create in their lives and as we come together in circle we all focus intention on them to help them create their wishes.

The things we kept hearing from people were a sense of peace and warmth from the group and fully supported and loved. Isn't that what gatherings are all about? Yeah!

Our next stop is England to stay with a couple named Deni and Dax.

Hope it's a sunny day tomorrow while we are traveling to the airport....sounds windy and stormy out...every once in a while we have been hearing a weird high pitched scream outside almost like a whistle... evidently it is just the wind... ( ooooh scary Irish storms...)

We got our tickets again today...

2008-03-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

Today we headed out early to get our tickets reprinted...after some craziness with ticket stuff we finally have our tickets sorted printed and in hand. Word to the wise...if you can get e tickets...do it! They are a lot less hassle and will save you a lot of grief if you lose them.

I have been on couchsurfing.com everyday for the last few days getting our accommodations lined up. There are lots of friends we have in the world...but in some places we are needing to meet new friends so that is a good place to fins the people we can stay with and share our journey with.

It gets stressful sometimes on the road and getting everything ready. It's important to take good care of ourselves during this time...I am finding myself wearing out every once in a while because I forget to take time for myself. David is such a wonderful reminder of this. He has special ways to remind me to take time for myself and to make sure I stay in my center. I feel so blessed to have him in my life...

I am also feeling blessed to have so many amazing people I have met in such a short period of time. Love is surrounding us always and I am so thankful for that.

On Friday we are going to throw an Abundance Party...kind of a gathering of people in this area that I know to say good bye to them since I won't be seeing them for a while...and the other reason is because I figured, every one could use a little more abundance...What could be more fun than to have a group of people gathered together to share love with one another? My second thought was...why haven't we been doing this the whole time...but well...you know how it goes...everything happens in it right timing...And for now...at this moment...it's time for abundance.

Love and so much abundance to you!

Love you!
:)

In a nut shell so far...

2008-03-11T00:09:00.000-07:00

Here is an update of our super adventures from start to now...David just sat down and did it...what a legend he is :)

Blessings of love and light everyone.
Joanna and I have thoroughly enjoyed touring the United States and are embarking on the 16th of March heading to Dublin, then England then Scotland and then Africa......

We would both love to thank all those wonderful people we've met, some awesome old time friends and many new ones from Celestine Vision http://www.celestinevision.com , Second Life http://www.secondlife.com and many other places.

We're so sorry to those who missed us on our journey and would like to let you know we'll be back this way in the near future but more so in summer :)

I would love to write all about my experiences with all the loving spiritual endearing souls that touched our hearts.
All in time :)
Capturing many memories of the journey so far, please come and have a look.

http://www.worldtour.zenfolio.com

Here is a quick burst of our journey across the USA...
Started in Edmonton, Alberta- Canada. Was the most loveliest little place upon a lake where you would go for summer retreat. Adored the people there, they were all down to earth friendly types :)

From there we flew into Sacramento - California where we picked up Joanna's car that she'd left here. Joanna is from the California so she had many friends for us to visit and see, knowing that she might not see them for a while.
A car - woo hooo. OMG they are crazy drivers over here and i fitted in just nicely. Even though they drive on the wrong side of the road... sheesh man... and who sticks to the speed limit here ????? hmmmmm

From Sunny Sacramento of which was like Brisbane Australia, we sat here for a while watching the summer go bye, then up and headed towards Las Angeles, across to St George for a wonderful meeting with lots of beautiful people. From there we were invited up to climb Angels Landing - phew. it's huge, check out the pictures.

From St George we drove across to Las Vegas, pulling in just on sundown we saw lights everywhere. Man that place was lit up like the 4th of July.... I had an itch to gamble of which soon subsided as i noticed all these players were wired into their little stations and pressing buttons. It reminded me of some fun i used to have in the past and I was here to check out more than just a table of Craps :)

The day time had a lot to offer, noticing intricacies in the buildings as we toured up and down the main road. Back and forth, Snapping photo's here and there. Many many people. It's out in the middle of no where with not much around.... well unless you gamble... hehehehe

Colorado - passed through a little town some 14000 feet up.
A picture perfect kind of place for Winter... Snow all around and freshly laid, soft white puffs of frozen stuffss. Cars with pillows on top and trees with blankets... It was so breathtaking and so bloody cold brrrrrrr.....

Colorado to Chicago, we drove through some magnificent mountains and also along the flattest nothingness roads ever. With lovely orange sunsets on our heals and streaks of white, where signs of a plane had been. The sky was just a beautiful thing to see.

Chicago is lovely - Joanna's mum is there and she's just a hoot, so very easy to get along with and loving and kind. It was nice to see Joanna and her mum together for a while.

From here, I flew back home for about 5 weeks till Rebecca was on holidays for Christmas, we then both flew back and into Chicago to tour around for about 5 weeks before she flew back home again.

So from Chicago we went to Michigan to see Jerilyn and her boys, had a blast, i was in Kid mode again and riding around on Snow Mobiles at 2am New Years Eve is a memory i'll not forget as well as Rebecca who was flying along doing about 35 miles 60 klms on these machines. It was exhilarating, exciting, adrenaline pumping fun.... You have to try it...
Took a day trip up to Wisconsin to see Chrissy for a while... Big hugs and lots of love there, she's so sweet.

Michigan to ThunderBay... OMG cold it was freezing mate, freezin.... Liisa was up there with her lovely sons and new partner Dean. It was a drive not to be missed, it's a place to return to during summer to check out the wonders of the magnificent lakes they have up that way. The lakes feeding Niagara Falls.
We experienced... cold.... and Curling and thank you Liisa for showing us some Martial Arts and introducing us to your Teacher :)

From ThunderBay we headed across the desolate plains of Canada through Sudbury and across and down into Buffalo - New York. Rebecca wasn't feeling the best so we heading for some bigger type "hospitals" and Sherri's place. Buffalo was very nice and not far from Niagara falls. Yes... ahuh... middle of winter and night time and we're out there trying to check out Niagara falls.
It was coooold... Came back the next day for another look.
Thank you Sherri for the lovely stay and wonderful connections. Her son, Deven is really switched on in regards to energy and he's only 9 years old.

Headed towards New York City where Rebecca was to fly back home. I miss her and love her a lot, you guys know how it is having "special connections".

New York was a blast, we got to meet a few people and stay with Joanna's Brother - it was a lovely family reunion. Drove down to water front to check out the Statue of Liberty (sheesh it's on an island) Checked out "Ground Zero" sighs....

Headed up across to the country and into Columbus Ohio... Had lots of fun there meeting up with a few very old timers, Erica & friends, April - Scarlet. Amanda and family, Sandy - ITN or TNT and family. We came across the Columbus Caves please check out the pictures as they were really neat.
Up in the countryside we met some Amish people and got to have a look around at how efficient they are with the land, bottling and other various things. Tasted some home made wine and cookies. yummmmmmoooo
Thank you Casey for the visit and setting up the meeting with the Amish people.

Heading back towards the coastline and into Midway - Washington we visited Joanna's Dad - This was something of an experience, because like visiting her brother, they had not seen one another for about 30 years. Big sighs.... ??? it was soo lovely and endearing, so caring, kind and they both went hand in hand walking and talking.....

now, my memory is fuzzy at the best of times and there is those who would like to "blame" other things for it :) hehehe.. However, i think i'm doing a great job at letting you know in about the right order how it was.

Off to visit Kelly Kel Kel and hopefully Candace. We had a wonderful time with Kelly, family and Friends. Laughed most of the night and caught up for breakfast the next day. It was nice to see where she works and the wonderful harmony that surrounds her. We love you Kelly and we're thinking of the house with you :) ???

We then visited Sandra - Cheesecake lady in some little town... i'll remember later when i find my notes... hehehe. She kept us so entertained with balloons, although we were tired from the trip it was so lovely to be pepped up by Sandra who went and made us some lovely cheesecakes... Thank you

North Carolina - woah slow down.
South Carolina that accent is something you really have to hear, it's soo cute, so very cute when you hear a child with accents. We stayed with Erika and Noah, it was a super sweet stay and we all wished we could have stayed longer. Thank you for your hugs across the oceans ??? mtl

Savannah - Georgia ... Sandy and Peter - Softpath and Pathfinder. Magnificently wonderful people just like you know in CV, they're love is so exuberant and they both shine together like twin fluorescent lights. What a place to stay and be in. The weather is beautiful, the coastline is lovely, the people are relaxed it's a must to see. Love you Peter and Sandy. hugs

From there we headed across towards Tennessee and stopped in a little place on the way Atlanta. It's so very quaint and the place where we stopped was very laid back and surreal. Ponds, ducks, birdlife, geese pooh .....
Thank you Rhina for the opportunity to see the country that way and your wonderful heart opening up.

Atlanta to Oklahoma - Putty. Boy he's a big boy man and a wonderful hugger. I hugged him for all those people who said give him a hug for me. But "I'll tell you what" i wasn't going to kiss him for you galls. hehehehe. Seriously, Steve is a wonderful man who's studied a lot in regards to helping people in life, I felt a strong sturdy fellow who is there to lend a helping hand where ever he can... I'm interested to see what he builds in the near future, because he has a lot of visions and wonderful ideas.
Thanks for sharing your love bro.

Albuquerque - New Mexico - MJ (Maida Jane) This lady is a whirlwind and boy she's on a mission to help anywhere she can. I love how she's so compassionate and loving and how she's looking after her family. Keeping as positive as "one" can, i think she does an excellent job. Thank you for all the loving help you gave and the time we shared with your beautiful family. Those boys are a handful for anyone and you deserve a big HUG.
Love you MJ

We were to head into Mexico round about now and drive down and through the panama canal up and across to Peru...
OK OK so I didn't do my homework enough and no travel agent told me... There is no road ... lol sighs
So we changed plans. we'll be back this way when they do have a road then i can drive into Machu Pichu and check it out. Or organise a group tour coming up soonish :)

We drove back into Sacramento and headed up to Seattle- Washington, just shy of the Canadian border... Cold again.
First stop was Stacy and her lovely children... The family is soo kewl and mellow and helpful and... well all the family's we visited were like that, they're all so very beautiful. We had lots of fun sharing ideas and helping one another. Communities being the subject.

Karen - Yinny... What a hoot and a blast she is.
Man, take the drive and go up and see her, be ware, watch the road not the scenery. hehehehe, it's breathtaking up there, so lovely to drive along and see Glaciers and huge mountains, running water so very clear, Icy cold water.... Hawks, Eagles, Coyotes, Wolves, Owls and many other birdlife. You can taste the air up there it's so fragrant and sweet. Karen and Simon were both lovely wonderful hosts with lots to offer, I guarantee you'll not be bored up there.
Thank you Karen and Simon and doggy's
Coming back down south towards Portland is Angelo - Grant and Robin, they were both lovely and in tune people who embraced you from the moment we touched base. Thanks to Putty and other CV-ers i was able to meet this wonderful man and his family. He has a huge heart and one he himself is exploring. He's almost like Willy Nelson but lacks the scrawny look. Geodesic domes. I think that's how you spell it. Grant has some awesome ideas into housing for the future. We would love to see some of these houses made and give lots of love to Grant and his wonderful dreams.

From Grants we landed in Salem at Kathleens, she's an old time CV-er who's a blast. Arriving on the night of a powwow we were entertained by magical colours and mystical chanting from all sorts of tribes. People competing for the Shoal Dance as well as all the beautiful arts and crafts for sale. Thank you Kathleen for introducing us to some very loving and kind friends of yours, the encouragement allowed us to shine even brighter. Bless you.

Kim aka Kimber - Stuck out in the middle of no where. Well you almost think that but just up the road is a huge intentional community with hotsprings. Go see Kim and make an excuse to steal her away for a day and go check it out. I unfortunately didn't have the time and will do that when i return during summer. It was heartfelt to see Kim, an old time friend who's come along way in life. Feeling her calmness and love was something i'll not forget for a long time. I almost thought i would miss out on seeing Kim so it was even more special that our "delays" allowed us to see Kim and more magnificent people on our journey.

Thank you to everyone and please forgive me if i forgotten to mention your name... Just wait for the book hehehehe

World Tour Itinerary ....
We would love to see you so please don't hesitate to drop us a line.

16th March to 21st March Dublin (Ireland)
21st March to 27th March England (UK)
27th March to 08th April Scotland (UK)
08th April to 19th April Tanzania (Africa)
19th April to 02nd May Egypt
2nd May to 14th May Amsterdam (Europe) - Berlin
14th May to 23rd May Rome (Italy) - Greece etc
23rd May to 09th June Paris - Spain etc
09th June to 19th June Delhi (India)
19th June to 15th July Nepal (India) Tibet & Mt Everest
15th July to 05th August Bangkok (Thailand)
05th August ....... Brisbane.... Back home........

Keep an eye on the photos and drop us an email if you wish to keep in touch or want a couple of "Family" to come stay with you.

Love and Light
Always

Namaste' (The god within bows to your god within)

Joanna and David

Joanna - Unfoldinglove@gmail.com
http://www.unfoldinglove.com

David - Davidthomas.au@gmail.com
http://www.PoweringPositivePeople.com

We both have msn, contact us to hook up :)
????????

Thunder Bay with Liisa

2008-02-24T17:48:00.000-08:00

Canada in Thunder Bay was coooooold! Brrrrrrr.
But Liisa's house was warm and friendly. We had lots of good talks with Liisa and her boyfriend.
We had lots of good talks and played some monkey video game and laughed and laughed! She also took us to some frozen water falls. Very beautiful!

Michigan with Jerilyn

2008-02-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

We went back to Jerilyn's house for about a week. The boys really enjoyed having Bec around, they took turns taking her snow sledding, out for lunch and other super adventures.
New years eve was especially fun! We went to Jerilyn's brother's house and played on the Skidoos until 2 am. Bec was cruising around at 30 MPH! She had such a great time. David had a great time cruising around too! I drove a little, but those things are hard to maneuver!

It was a great and fun beginning to the new year!

Wisconsin visiting Chrissy

2008-02-24T17:17:00.000-08:00

We took a day trip to visit Chrissy in Wisconsin. It was fun having coffee and talking with her fiance.

Catching up with blogs...

2008-02-24T16:15:00.001-08:00

Hi everybody...sorry it has taken so long to catch up with blogs...life on the road is pretty non-stop and exciting..but we have some time at the moment so I am going to catch you up as best as I can.

David and Bec came back Dec 17th. Bec enjoyed the snow, but surprised at how amazingly cold it was...I think she thought that snow was more like sand....it could be warm and snowing at the same time.

On Christmas eve David went back into the hospital because he started getting his dizzy spells again. It was just a day visit this time and the doctor said it was vertigo. We got some travel sickness tablets and that was it. My mom took this opportunity to take Bec out to the shops and get her a new Christmas outfit. We met up with them later at my Aunt and Uncle's house. For dinner.

Christmas day we spent at my cousins where we ate dinner, talked and played games. You can see the pictures of Bec as a Christmas tree in the pictures. Everyone had lots of fun.

Life in Chicago

2007-12-02T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well here I am waiting for David to get back with Bec. They fly in on December 17th.
So until then:
I am blogging..evidently because here it is.. :)
I am doing a work trade for yoga classes at the yoga studio across the street from my mom's place.
I am doing nutritional cleansing..I just released 10 pounds and 40 inches since September when we started.
And I just got a new job as a mother's assistant to a woman who is doing talks on the dangers of cell phone use and children.

I have seen two movies with my mom Enchanted, which was pretty cute and August Rush, which was a really really great movie! Loved it! Loved it!

So now you are pretty much caught up with our journey this far.

I try to update the blog more frequently now so you can be in the moment with us.

Until next time...

*mwahs*
David and Joanna

Life in Australia

2007-12-02T12:02:00.001-08:00

When David got back to Australia he got pretty sick. But he is doing much better now.
He also had his birthday that he celebrated with Scott and Bec. He was super happy to see Bec and she was so happy to see her dad!
Scott was also glad to see him and has been making fancy meals for all of them. (Scott is a really good chef, 30 and single so if you know anyone...)

David missed being home, mostly the birds and the other wildlife that is there. Our back yard has a large variety of birds and trees. One day he put the microphone next to the window so I could hear the sounds of home. It was really nice. One day he had the camera set up so I could see the trees...I really miss our home too...

At present David is cleaning and organizing our house. Getting it ready for my stuff to get there. (My boxes just got shipped over from California.) 20 boxes and my massage table. But also, when we get back home we plan on making the house like a retreat center. To teach people about health, energy, love and spirit. During this trip we have met heaps of people and can't wait for everyone to come visit when we get back. So there is David back home painting, putting up curtain rods and generally getting it in tip top shape. I just can't wait to see it!

We get back home August of next year, so if you want to come visit, just let us know and we will see you around then :)

Chicago

2007-12-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

After Jerilyn's house we head over to my mom's house. My mom lives in Downer's Grove, which is a suburb of Chicago, but pretty much if you live anywhere near Chicago they call it the Chicagoland area. We are only there a couple of days and then I have to take David to the airport so he can go back to Australia.

(He had to leave the country for a while so he could extend his visa. I am going to be spending the next month and a half with my mom in Chicago.)
I dropped him off so he could check in and had to bring the car around to park. We were running late because we thought he was leaving international, but actually he had to go to LA first so it was a domestic. O'Hare airport is super tricky. I finally got parked and went to go meet him. I realized that I needed to run so I could get to him before he needed to go through baggage check. I am running from the garage, the moving sidewalks are down.....running running as I am running I am hearing some guy playing saxophone....as I get closer I realize he is playing Leaving on a Jet Plane... Such a movie moment...
I finally make it up stairs...(the escalator is also down so I am running up the escalator too.)

I finally get to the floor and see him and run over to give him a big hug.
We have a short time to hug...I stay with him in line until he has to go through and then we say good bye.

As I drive away from the airport Bon Jovi is singing I'll Be There For You.

Music...it's the soundtrack to our lives....

Staying in Michigan with Jerilyn

2007-12-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

We got to Jerilyn' s fairly late and we stayed up and talking and hanging out with her Mike and the kids. Jerilyn helps people get real estate loans and her husband Mike is a builder. They have about 5 kids who are all really good kids. very polite and very kind. (and fun)

We were there for Halloween, which evidently is not all that popular in Australia, so it was very fun for David to see all the people dressed up and the candy. The kids came home with lots and lots of candy. It was fun to see how excited they got. I think it was less for the candy and more about the experience of getting it.

Jerilyn and Mike took us to Frankenmuth one night where we went to a German restaurant where the wait staff wore clothes straight out of Sound of Music. Then we went to Bronners which is this really huge store that sells Christmas ornaments. So many Christmas ornaments....I ended up getting a cute one for us that is of two to-go coffee cups. One says Mocha and the other says Latte. Which, when we get coffee is what we get. So cute!

It was very fun to hang out with Jerilyn and her family...we are coming back here for Christmas when Bec is with us. Can't wait!

On the way to Michigan

2007-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

From Colorado we headed out to drive to Michigan. We stopped at a motel to rest for the night and then continued on the next day.

Colorado

2007-12-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

We hung out with my cousin Jennifer, my aunt Jan and Jennifer's kids Alex (2) and Kyle (4).

One night we had dinner with Jennifer's brother Luke and and my Uncle Bob who was in from truck driving.

David had fun hanging with the kiddos and he also took lots of pictures of the house decorate for Halloween across the street.

Angel's Landing

2007-12-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

The day after the retreat our new friend Gary invited us to come hiking with him up to a place called Angel's Landing in Zion national park. So we packed up mostly the night before and woke up at 5am and started out.

We got there way before dawn...and it was cold and dark. It turns out
that Gary needed to wait until the store opened so he could batteries anyway.

We bundled up and headed to the buss at dawn, which at this point I am thinking...oh that is nice...maybe it will take us all the way to the top or something....yeah...that didn't happen...

We get dropped off and walk over to the path. Gary is talking to us and pointing up to the top of this really high up place and I am thinking..oh that is nice that he has been up there...not even having the first clue that we were soon going to be hiking up there...maybe it was because it was early, maybe it was wishful thinking..but I just had no clue...

So we start walking....2.5 miles...oh that is nothing...no problem..we had walked that far and further. No problem. During that hike we went up 4000 feet.

Neither of us had never done a hike like this before. In some places it was such a steep incline that you needed to use a chain to pull yourself up...

David was a legend and a super hiker. I only cried two times from exhaustion. After a long hike and lots of stops we made it!

You can see the pictures at www.worldtour.zenfolio.com

That night we went to Gary's favorite restaurant and our waitress spend time talking to us about the workshops she has taken and how she liked to be a waitress because she was able to touch people's lives that way.

It was a really fun conversation.

That night we spent at Gary's with his family and woke up the next day to head out again...
We got invited to come hang out with my friend Rick in Sedona, but when I talked to him to tell him we were coming his dad was having heart problems and they thought he might have to go in for surgery. So we opted instead to go to Colorado and visit my cousin Jennifer and her family.

There is some amazing (When I edit this I will have to go back and find a new adjective, it is an amazing trip, but still.) landscape between Utah and Colorado. We drove and drove and finally got there around 1 am or so. So tired we fell asleep.

Utah

2007-12-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

We get to the hotel everyone is staying at in Utah Comfort Inn...The room is very nice. David rearranges the furniture so we can receive guests. It turns out I end up doing 2 healings on people there on our couch, so as usual David's on it again :)

The retreat it self was fun and very informative. We did gratitude walks, connection exercises, heard amazing presentations from people like Jim Rhodes, who is a great speaker and knows so much about nutrition, but tells you about it in such a way that it is easily understandable. Lenny Evens who is so fun and inspiring. That man makes you feel like you are able to do anything!
Kirk Metz..who is this guy? He is so funny and rocks the universe!

It's fun to see these really successful people talk because you can feel a difference in the energy of how they connect in to the river of abundance. At the level they are at, it is very simple to reach out and fill their cups with more.

I remember times when I felt that way...I think those times are coming back...Isagenix is helping.

While I was doing a healing one night David was hanging out with this fun couple we connected with and George Ruiz, one of the Isagenix millionaries.

One of the last days we were in town some people took us out to Outback Steakhouse, which had to be one of the funniest things ever. Outback Steakhouse..just in case you were wondering..has absolutely nothing to do with Australia..So David and I joked about how everything "Hey honey...remember this from back home?" *giggles*

All in all it was a fun time...we met lots of great people and had a fun time!

LA

2007-12-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

The first stop after Andrea's house in Marin is Los Angeles where we spend the night at Kristen's parent's house. So tired when we arrive, but we watch Dancing with the Stars with them on their very fancy Plasma TV. We wake up in the morning and go to the Australian consulate to get Bec's passport things taken care of.

Then we head out to Las Vegas...

Did I mention that driving takes a long time?

We finally get to Las Vegas. Get to the hotel and fall asleep.

Wake up the next day and drive down the strip and took some pictures...Las Vegas is...interesting.

I am sure it is more fancy at night time, but we didn't really feel up to adventuring last night so today we take pictures and we head out to Utah...

Getting ready for Oregon

2007-12-02T10:28:00.000-08:00

From Denise's house we are going to go to Oregon...but we get a call from Andrea Henkart who tells us there is an Isagenix meeting at her house and we should come. So we think about it and say OK because it will be on the way to Oregon...we also ask if we can stay there so we can get an early start. She says sure, but also says....Hey btw there is a 3 day Isawarrior retreat in Utah in about a week. If you guys want to why not come. It will be fun and really help bring your business and life to the next level.

So we talked about it...we couldn't do Oregon and Utah...so because we were running late on our trip anyway and because it would help our business. (at this point were a little worried about finances.) We decided to go to Utah...

Back to Sacramento

2007-12-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

One last time at Denise's house.
Thank God for Denise...she is really been our retreat and special home on this trip so far.
She is an amazing woman. A Major in the military and an all around spiritual seeker. We have had such great talks with Denise....

On this particular visit we met Denise's mom who was very nice. it was fun to have spiritual talks with her. She is pretty set in the way she sees life, but is open to learning about what other people are into. Very fun talks :)

This was also the visit we introduced Denise to Isagenix. She is now an avid cleanser and so excited about helping the world get healthy and wealthy. It's fun to watch her go!

3 am wake up call...

2007-12-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

Around 3 in the morning I got woken up by a spun out David. He was feeling dizzy and was needing to throw up. For the next day we stayed in bed. Sleeping on and off. David couldn't turn his head without wanting to throw up. He had cold sweats and was pretty miserable most of the time. I just held him and took care of him best as I could. But when it came to the day after I was pretty much set that he needed to go to the doctor.

We went to the emergency room and they admitted him. Evidently he was anemic and when they did some tests there was some internal bleeding so they had to do more tests.

Poor David, they took so much blood from him. Every couple of hours pretty much.
They had him all hooked up to drips and things, but once he was on the iv's his dizziness went away. I slept with him in his bed at the hospital. Just giving him love and trying not to stress out too much....but when the man you love is sick...stress happens...what can I say?

We were in the hospital for about 3 days. After all was said and done, they thought he was going to need a blood transfusion because he had lost so much blood, but after about a day his blood counts were fine. I was doing a lot of energy work on him. Keeping him safe in a bubble of energy, wrapping my wings around him. Anything I could do. Also so many of our friends were praying for him and sending him energy and love. Miracles were bound to happen!

After the hospital we went back to Adam's house for one more night. We had dinner with Adam, Julia and Owen, which was fun and we also got to hang out with one of Adam's house mates who shared some travel tips with us. We got all packed up the next morning and headed out again...

Dinner with Adam

2007-12-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

This night we went to Adam's house for dinner. It was great to catch up with him! Adam is a landscape architect, really great at putting parties together and is a hardcore dancer. His number one priority in life is connecting in community.

After dinner I was super tired. He and Adam spent time hanging out together and having chats.

Kraig in the park

2007-12-02T09:26:00.000-08:00

We went to visit Kraig at Yerba Buena park to go for some lunch at a place called Samovar.
http://www.samovartea.com/
It was a really nice place and the tea was very yummy.

After we just sat in the middle of the gardens on the lawn and chilled. A German kid in his 20's was on his first super travel adventure and came to talk to us about that and the book Conversations with God.

Kraig showed us his sketch book of his drawings. He is a comic book illustrator who also writes screen plays, he has a huge DVD collection and is an amazing martial artist.

We had a very fun time with Kraig this day.

Next stop Kristen Blue's House

2007-12-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

Our next stop was my friend Kristen's house aka Blue.
She lives with 3 room mates and we all hung out that night. Kristen ended up getting really sick the next day. With stomach pains and dizziness. Her boyfriend came and took her to the hospital. They did a bunch of tests but in the end they weren't really sure what was wrong, but she called a few days later to say she was doing much better.

Back at Denise's house

2007-11-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

We didn't get to spend too much time with Denise so we came back to talk to her more and hang out. During this time we also got a new door for the car and new shocks.

It was fun to be at Denise's house talking to her and sharing lots of good energy.
We also had a couple of dinner parties to introduce her to some of the Sacramento friends.

Really a wonderful time there.

Rikki and Mike's house

2007-11-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

Rikki and Mike went to Burning Man and needed someone to house sit their cats and then they were going right from Burning Man to Hawaii, so two weeks total at their place.

The San Francisco Bay area is a different energy from Sacramento. It's more fast paced and stressful than our quiet Denise get away. We go to Bolinas beach, but poor David is getting sick at every turn because our car needs new shocks.

We did get to see Kraig. He brought us to a tea house where they pair up meals with tea...that food was amazing and the tea divine! Then we sat and talked on the lawn in this park where we met a German boy out on his super adventure.

I can't remember much about the rest of that visit..I just know we had to get back to Sacramento for the REI used equiptment sale.

Oh yes and ask us about the mystery chocolate sometime....

Denise's house

2007-11-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Our second stop in California was Denise's house.
Denise just remodeled her house and told us that it was still a little dusty, but when we got there we were graced with the most amazing house ever!

It was beautiful...you can see the pictures at www.worldtour.zenfolio.com

Denise's house is like being at a meditation retreat. It is so calm and serene here.
We spent many days out in the garden. Quietly observing the bees and the birds fly by.

We loved her house and didn't get to spend much time with Denise so we came back....

Landing in California

2007-11-11T18:51:00.000-08:00

We took the flight to California from Canada and Air Canada "lost" David's luggage. We waited and waited but finally we just had to get on the flight and go. Once we got to California however it was magically found!!! Miracles of miracles!

I called my friend Merlina and had her pick us up at the airport. I picked up my car and we spent the night at Will's house. Will and Tamera are friends of mine. Will is an empathic healer and teacher who helps people to get in touch with the feelings that they can't feel. Tamera is a healer and nurturer by nature and is now doing colonics for people, a job that she loves.

We sat and talked to them for a while, but we were so incredibly tired from the trip all we wanted to do was sleep. so that is what we did until morning. Will made us a great breakfast and then we were off to super adventures.

August....We are on our way

2007-11-11T17:32:00.000-08:00

We start our journey on August 7th. The plane flight is long and we lose track of each other for a moment in Hawaii because David is detained by customs. Something to do with the fruit he is carrying for us to snack on. We finally get reunited at the gate. Continue our flight and end up in Canada.

As we are flying into Canada David notices that it looks like Second Life from the air. The way that the farm plots are divided. We laugh about how familiar it looks.

When we get to the airport we realize we don't have Laura's phone number. So we wait for our bags and hope we recognize her and better yet hope she recognizes us.

About 5 minutes of waiting she walks up to David and they embrace. Yaaay!

Laura takes us to her Lake Home which is a holiday and weekend destination for her and her family. This would be the beginning of lots of Kahlua and milk and Jim Beam and coke days and nights....We even tried something with Tomato juice and something...I don't remember...but it wasn't a Bloody Mary. Some local favorite drink.

We spent lots of time with Laura talking about love and life and spirit...during our days and nights around the out door fireplace they had set up.

It was kinda like camping, except for we got to sleep in a nice bed and had a bathroom and shower.

My birthday was August 11th and we had a nice dinner. Laura gave me a beautiful card and friendship statue that I just loved. I collect these angel/fairy statues...I have three now, one is one with a teapot, one has a heart and another has flowers. They are just simple and nice...peaceful beauty...

The days we spent at Laura's were great. We got to meet some of their friends from the neighborhood. Went fishing...Well David went fishing...and caught some fish and released them I don't really fish so I took a nap. It was really wonderful. The boat was rocking back and forth, the sky was an overcast gray....hearing the swish....swish of the water....totally lulled me to sleep.

We went on a boat of a man who made his millions selling vacuums and then managing the offices that sell the vacuums. He was really nice and his kids were cool. The day we went on their boat they were doing wake boarding. Which is water skiing and then surfing on the waves that the boat makes. Pretty cool!

Some of the last days we were there they had a family gathering. Where we sang songs and sat around the fire. Laura's brother-in-law and husband played the guitar and we sang...fun fun!

The Lake itself was nice...the weater was pretty overcast the whole time we were there. But it was a pretty peaceful and gentle beginning to our journey.

Playing catch up

2007-11-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome and thank you for tuning into our journey.
It's been an amazing journey so far and we are just catching up with the blogs now.
What I will do is go month by month until I catch you up and then we will go from there.

Amazing amounts of love and light surround you!
We are about to take you on our World Tour adventure of Energy and Love.

If you are ready...let's begin.....