Endless Summer Tiny World

When they say Mykonos has some parties they are not kidding!! We stayed at paradise beach and had a blast, though the euro and summer prices are killing me!! Even so Mykonos is beautiful and we had a great time going even if just for a bit. The night we got in was their full moon party! It was nuts! There were over 2,000 people at this club to see some dj! Greg and I had a really late dinner and an evening nap as most people don’t even come until midnight or one! We headed in the club and had a great night dancing and people watching… So much so that we stayed until 6:30 am! The next day we laid by the beach and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many beautiful, fit people in one place! We had an evening in town and saw the area called little Venice and the famous windmills on Mykonos. Because stuff is so expensive, including the ferries we decided we needed to head back to turkey where at least the dollar is a little better than the lire! And the ferry left at 2 am! So after a fairly sleepless night and two ferries we find ourselves exhausted but back in kusadasi, turkey!

We spent two nights in Izmir. After visiting the blue mosque in the morning we headed back to the airport to get to Izmir. We mostly just wanted to cut out a full 12 hours of travel for only about $20 more! We spent the first night in Izmir on the waterfront enjoying the sunset over dinner. The next day we spent some time strolling through the bazaar and enjoying the agora. And the second night Greg had a little too much fun and spent a little too much money when we went into a bar where girls come sit with you and you buy them drinks…… Don’t do it!! It’s too much money, but it’s definitely a funny story for us!! The next day we got up and headed for
Ephesus and huge old ruined village. It was super amazing!! And
every Turkish person we meet is so nice!
We got to put our stuff at a carpet shop for a couple hours and the owner drove us to and from Ephesus for free, though Greg did buy a bag from the shop, but still it was super helpful and nice. We then hoped on a ferry from kusadasi to Samos Greece! We got to our hotel just in time to catch the most amazing sunset and have a swim in the Aegean sea! It was an early nightas were both exhausted from the previous night and we have an early ferry to catch to head to Mykonos today!!!

Greg and I had a great two days ın Istanbul. ıt ıs really a beautıful cıty! we vısıted the Hagıa Sofıa and the Blue Mosque and the Topkapı palace. all were amazıng! The Palace ıs so old and has amazıng clothıng jewellery stones ın ıts treasury. It also has old relıcs and ıtems from the prophets whıch ıs amazıng consıderıng some of the ıtems were mohammeds tooth and beard! Our nıghts were spent on the rooftop terrace of our hotel wıth the sea ın front of us and the lıt up blue mosque behınd us! There ıs so much more for us to see but we want to see other thıngs and wıll have another day ın ıstanbul on the way back. so we are off to ızmır for a couple nıghts to vısıt ephesus the old ruıned greek cıty and then ı thınk we are gonna head to the greek ıslands of samos and mykonos and maybe do some ısland hoppıng. but we wıll see our plans are stıll up ın the aır!

Egypt is amazing!! I had an absolute blast!! After Luxor we had to say bye to the other group which was sad because Tom got really close with Emily, Jack and I. But we headed out to hurghada on the coast which was amazing! The water was so blue and salty! The first day I just chillled on the beach and by the pool and we all went to the tourist area and met george’s brother!! The next day we headed out snorkeling in a couple areas and then went to an amazing island. The snorkeling wAS cool because we saw eels and could play with jellyfish but it was way too crowded in a lot of spots! That night we headed to a dance club with George. It was mostly just Em, Jack and I dancing til the wee hours of the morning! The next day we had to say bye to Jack and Leanna, which is so sad because Em and Jack and I got along sooo well! Emily, Sarah, and I went on to dahab, and we had a new group: Caitlin, Nicole and Anita and their leader willy! Em, Caitlin and I were climbing the Sinai mtns to watch the subset that night so it was a long day. We started our trek up the mtn at 1 am, but the sunrise was great! We walked back down 3,750 steps to the bottom on the stairs of penance. The rest of the week in dahab was mostly swimming and relaxing! The red sea is the second saltiest in the world so super fun and easy to swim in! The snorkeling in the blue hole was the best snorkeling I’ve done in my life and swimming in the crystal clear waters of the blue lagoon was awesome! The rest of our time at night was spent going to nice restaurants and hitting up the bars! It was awesome! The oe bad thing was that my bag that had my wallet and camera got stolen/lost. Oops! Thank god I spent so much time uPloading photos to this blog in morocco and I have pictures from lots of friends!!
Last night was the bug goodbye when I had to say bye to George and Emily! And today I boarded a plane for turkey, and met up with Greg ward in Istanbul! I’m so happy another person is here so I don’t have to be depressed about missing all my friends!! And turkey so far is beautiful and so modern compared to africa!! Greg and I think were gonna head along the west coast to anatalya fr the next two weeks and then it’s time to head home!! It’s so weird to think I’m headed home in two weeks!!! Don’t get me wrong I’m excited to see eeryone, but it’s sad!

I met my tour group and just had a chill day. We have one guy and 4 girls for the first two weeks and then there will be 3 of us girls for the last week. We have our tour guide George, we all find it pretty funny to ask him lots of questions, Leanna from Singapore, And Sarah Jack an Emily from Australia. We all get along fairly well so that is good! We went to the egyptian museum, really really cool. we saw king tuts headress, so amazing!! and an actual mummy, it had been robbed at some point but you could actually see the toes!!

After the museum we headed out to the pyramids! They are
AMAZING!!! As we drove up I had goosebumps, they are so huge
and right in the middle of the city. The whole place was super cool!
We also saw the sphyinx which is actually smaller than expected but
also cool! And when they say that Egypt is hot in the sunmer they weren’t kidding!! We feel like were  melting all the time.

That night we all went out to dinner and  then walked along the nile and ended up at a bowling alley right on the river. The bowling alley was really fun because they made us get in line and wait because they would only turn on two lanes so they could save power!

The next day we headed down to aswan on the night train and had a free day. We mostly just swam and hung by the pool, and that night we had dinner on the river and then drinks on the rooftop of the hotel. The next day we met up with another tour that we have been with for 4 days. This group is the tour guide and then Tom the british guy and Sara and Bree from Australia.  This was my  birthday!! so for my birthday we all went to the Philae temple which we had to get to by a little boat, and then we went to a nubian village and a traditional nubian dinner. It was so cool and then when we got back later at night to the hotel we all walked up to the rooftop together and Mario and George had set up with the hotel to have a huge cake and snacks so we could sit up there and have a rooftop party for my birthday!! It was so nice of them and awesome!! It was the first birthday cake and candle I had in 2 years so it was cool!!!

The next day was a little rough cause most of us were going on little to no sleep as we had our rooftop party and had to leave at 3:30 am to get to Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is quite the drive and you get escorted by police so you have to leave super early! But the temple was amazing!! There are 4 HUGE sitting statues of Ramses II out in front and then a little smaller temple with huge statues for his wife! It was really really neat. After returning later in the afternoon we loaded up our stuff and headed for our first day on the felucca. A felucca is basically an old sailing boat with a HUGE mast. It was really neat. We spent 3 days sailing on the felucca and just swimming in the nile, playing games, having fires on the beach and sleeping  under the stars on the felucca!

We are now in luxor and have seen lots of temples and the Valley of the Kings where king tuts tomb was found. So far we are having a blast and im loving my group! I’ll try to be in touch soon again with pics maybe but am not sure on my internet situations from now on!!

So the last couple days in fez were fine, we went to the cherry festival but things didn’t get started til late in the afternoon so we didn’t end up seeing any of the festival but lots of the town! I went with two Americans, Melinda and chaba, and an Aussie, cam, and we followed a guy through the medina, where we got some cherries and olives, and then up to a waterfall. The guy wanted to take us further but we decided to sit and have lunch. The guy who walked us around the medina and cam, being so trusting, had been told we didn’t have to pay anything, ended up arguing with the boys and getting 100 Moroccan dirhams from us, which is about $10 usd, but still wasn’t happy! The boys argued with him and that’s all he got!
When we went back into town and bought some water we got invited to share some couscous. This was the largest and best couscous I’ve had yet! It’s funny how they have no concern of sanitation as you just walk in knock off left over food on a spoon and use it to try some, but it was amazing and had an entire chicken on it!!
The next day I stayed in casablanca, not my favorite city, got ripped off by the cab driver ( but this Is the Moroccan way for white people) and stayed in what felt like the bates motel!

When I landed in Cairo my first impression was the amazing egytian sunset taking place! The sky was reds, yellows and oranges and the sun was already very low in the sky! The weather was great! Like a nice summer night, customs was easy to get through and a driver to my hostel was very easy to find, things were going great and then BAM! I was in the middle of a huge city and traffic people say is comparable to NYC! I just wandered a little last night without getting lost and decided that today I should go to Alexandria today as it’s not part of my tour.

This morning I made my way to the train station and made my way to alexandria. It’s amazing how outdated the station is with how modern the rest of Cairo is! While waiting on the platform I of course made a friend of a local, ismaih ( sounds a lot like “it’s mine”). Who helpede find my seat and then ended up hanging out with me for the day! “Its mine” is about 40 yrs old I’m guessing with two younger children and he lives in alexandria working for a petrol company, he helped me buy my ticket back to Cairo and decided he didn’t have much else to do so he would accompany me to the sights I decided to see in Alexandria. He bargained (terribly) with the taxi to take me around. We went first to the catacombs which were extremely cool. Over 2000 years old and 300 tombs ! Really awesome. We then went to what they call pompey’s pillar which is a large Greek pillar and sone underground sanctiary’s.we also stopped by the fort and some mosques and then I went to the wontazah palace after dropping “Its mine” off at work. It was a cool city with some cool stuff to see. We also drove by the courthouse where traffic was crazy because one part of the street was closed off due to army tanks being in the road and lots of military being present because it was the trial for someone who killed 5 people during the protests on January!

The funniest part of the day though was my return to Cairo. On the train a young boy sat down to talk with me and practice his English. The funny part though was trying to get a cab back to my hostel from the station. I knew from this morning that it only cost 10 Egyptian pound, which is already twice as much as locals pay, to get home, yet none of the cabs at the station would take me for that much, one cab even tried to get me to pay 50 pounds!! So I started walking towards the road and asking all the cabbies I came upon, as I was asking some guy in a suit said he would help me, his name is sayed. So I let him help me and we ended up getting a cab to the right area for 5 pounds! He then took me to his local coffee shop and we had a tea and then he said he wanted to have a beer and asked if I would go. I wasn’t exactly sure where my hostel was and so far he had paid for everything ao I said sure. We went to a local bar/restaurant and had a couple stellas. The funniest part though was that I almost felt like I was in a dirt if Muslim strip club. There were very few women and at some point a guy decided to take over the microphone and sing all the songs. So this guy stood at the back of the restaurant and sang all the songs by a table (I’m not sure why this table was so special) while anywhere from 1 to 3 girls danced in front of the table, and even one girl ( she was even wearing shorts, unheard of on Muslim religion) almost gave a lapdance- muslim style! So it was strange! But I am beans – they give beans instead of peanuts- and one of them reminded me of cheese curds! Funny I know but I think I had the egytian version of cheese curds, though they weren’t actually even cheese, just tasted a little like them.

After this place I knew it was definitely time to say goodbye as I didn’t want to give the wrong impression or push my luck too much and I headed back to the hostel! But it was a pretty good bargain I think, free cab, tea and drinks and a good laugh, as yet again on this trip I found myself laughing and wondering “how did I get myself into this?” yet one more time!

Tomorrow evening is the first meeting with my group and the luxurious hotel, I’m very excited to meet my crew for the next couple weeks and explore Cairo a little!! Not sure how much contact I’ll have over the next three weeks though, but hopefully most the hotels will have Internet thoug!!

So marrakesh is definitely the tourist capital of morocco. But fez I definitely older and you can tell by how much more narrow the streets are, and taller the buildings are! I spent the day with my friends Christy and malou wandering and getting lost in the medina, the oldest city in morocco! It is narrow streets and shops everywhere with little hidden treasures of mosques, medersas and old palaces. The buildings seem to go to the sky and the streets sometimes end in dead ends but it’s still fun to wander in. The reputation of the men is true and especially when you are three girls, two of them blonde, but I can handle it and you just ignore it.
We saw the tanneries, where they dye and make all the leather goods. It was so cool and really neat to just sit above all the large pots of dye and watch them work, though the smell is not great so you get a piece of mint to help you stay fresh. The reason for the bad smell, they soak the leather in pigeon poo and cow urine.
We also went to a scarf and carpet shop and watched how they worked the looms and how they made patterns and we also stopped and saw how they made argon oil. Overall it was a really great day and we spent about 6 hours just wandering and getting lost in the great old city of fez!

So I made it to morroco and boy was i excited! No more senegalese to try to follow me around and Marry me and a lot more europeans and Americans to talk with! And there was green grass and trees again!!
I flew very early into Casablanca and got right on a train to marrakesh! Everyone says that marrakesh is crazy and my first night out in the square it definitely was! It was Saturday so everyone was out for the night. I made some friends, David and Kaitlin, right away in the hostel and after showering and letting it cool down outside we headed to the main square! Yea it’s crazy and everytime you walk through the streets there is a very high chance of getting hit by a motorbike but I LOVE it! Especially after having no one around in Senegal!
The square at night is full of people, snake charmers, magicians, women doing henna, they set up restaurants and have booths that sell fresh squeezed orange juice for forty cents! It’s great, it’s crazy and on a Saturday night it’s packed!!
We got dinner at one of the restaurants, couscous and tagine, and tHen had orange juice and spent most the night wandering around people watching! At the end of the night when you’re done as tired you weave your way back to the hostel and sit one the rooftop terrace talking with all the other people from the hostel.
I spent the two days there seeing the palace, the saadian tombs, the medersa and the museum, and of course wandering the souqs (stands/shops). All the old buildings are made with tiles Madrid bright blue, greens and whites, it is really very pretty. In the afternoons by about 1 pm we would get so hot that we would go back and just hang out with everyone in the hostel til it cooled off a little until it cooled off some. I think during the days it’s about 45 degrees celcius, I think around 90 fahrenheit, thank god it’s dry heat, but still so hot!
Today I made the journey to fez and have mostly just been making friends in the hostel as fez doesn’t stay open as late, and tomorrow I’ll go explore the city. I found out nearby there is a cherry festival starting on Thursday so I think I better be here long enough to attend!! So far I’m really enjoying morocco!

So today is a day that when I said yes, I really had no idea what I’m getting myself into! I was all ready to head to Dakar in a sept place today and just needed a ride to the bus stop. So the owner of the hotel said he would take me, but on the way he said he would take me to Dakar for free, in a non squishy hot car, if I didn’t mind going a little later and visiting his grandfather with him. So i said sure, thinking this definitely was a better deal for my money! Haha! Well turns out when I said yes, I didn’t realize the full extent of what yes meant and what “later” meant as well!

So we headed out for his grandfathers, made a stop along the way and I soon found out his grandfathers was 80 km away! Also, we got stopped at the normal roadstops by the police and they wanted a bribe which my buddy wouldn’t give, so we had to go back into town and go to the police station. All was fine and got figured out and we were on our way again. While on the drive there I found out that his grandfather was a traditional doctor and I was going to have to bath. I still wasn’t sure what this meant but I figured I was in Africa what the heck! While driving up to the “household” I found out his grandfather was 104 yrs old and had 13 wives and over 60 children and a lot of them live at this homestead. Also, a lot of women go to him for fertility and men for sexual problems as well as with medical problems.

We got there and found his grandfather sitting on a bed out in the open with a roof over it and then to my left was an area that was fenced in with some tin and in the middle you could see a lot of spice pounders sticking out of the ground, almost like te tops of bowling pins in a circle all buried together! So when it was my turn I held my hands out palm up to his grandfather and he asked my full name, where I was from and then he said some stuff to me I didn’t understand. He then mumbled and gurgled on some seeds, I’m assuming he said some prayers, and the seeds were brought along with me behind the circular fence where the buried bowling pins were. Some water was poured in a bowl, the seeds added and then I bathed with the water. Yes I stood naked ( don’t worry I was by myself) in this strange little area and poured water with seeds all over myself. I then dressed went back out and he did the gurgle thing again onto more seeds which I then got given to take home and use to wash my face and hands everytime before I leave the house, the rest of my life! I was told that his grandfather said I will be rich in the future, and that now that I have done this bathing I am protected and will have men in love with me following me around everywhere – duh! I’m in Senegal! Haha! I also am not sure but may be really fertile now! Haha!

So before we left I snapped a couple pics of the kids – they lov getting their pics taken- and then we did something I never thought I would see, we loaded a goat into the trunk of the car!! Haha! We then had to drive back to drop off the goat, which I was told is a protector of my buddy. We stopped in a sketchy restaurant on the way and had the national dish, fish an rice. When we got back to drop off the goat we had to wait for his friend to show up. This probably took two hours, but I got to play with an adorable 4 yr old girl so it was ok! They pick things up so quick, I had her saying english terms even though she didn’t totally understand them!

So now it is almost 9 pm and I am right back where I started this morning! I am waiting – forever! – for my buddy to pack his bags and I’m ready to be in Dakar in my hotel and I’m getting impatient, but I guess it’s ok because it was a pretty cool experience today. I guess I just haven’t adjusted to the fact that in Senegalese time “later” could mean midnight!!

Wow.. Apparently I’m gonna be doing Egypt in style… This is the first hotel we stay in: http://www.swissinn.net/nile/index.htm

I think this might be super luxurious for me!! I’m not used to this!!