Blurred memories

The much awaited arrival

nadscol — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 11:05:00 GMT

(28^th April 2009)

I never thought I would ever willingly and excitedly get out of bed at 530am ever. No really- anyone who knows me even a little bit would probably know that I don’t do mornings-ever. Here is the only exception. After 14 months nearly to the day of not seeing mum and dad I more than willingly dragged myself out of bed and to Heathrow airport. As usual I missed the train I wanted to catch and had to wait nearly half an hour for the next one (being stingy and catching the Heathrow connect). Granted I still got to the airport well before mum and dad were due to land but that’s not the point. I was just so ridiculously beyond excited. This excitement was pissed off slightly when I found out that the flight was delayed and running about 45 minutes late. BUGGER! It was like the world was screwing with me just to get a reaction. Well my reaction was to buy a large double espresso so in your face world!

When they finally walked out from the arrivals gates it was all I could do not to jump the fence and tackle them in a bear hug (I didn’t want to make a scene) so I waited until they just cleared the fenced off bit and then jumped on them. It was really surreal and hard to explain how I felt. I’m trying not to be overly dramatic here but after the last few months I’d had I really just wanted my mum and dad to give me a hug. I’m not ashamed to say we were all a little teary (even dad no matter how much he may try to deny it). After this initial excitement and them both commenting that I had lost weight (YAY!) they both needed to pee....nothing had changed – man I missed mum and dad!

So after our somewhat mushy reunion we headed back to Bayswater (another long wait for a train- it seemed to be my luck at the minute but considering the company I really didn’t mind). On getting back home and having a much needed cup of tea we headed out to see the sights of London. London really is a great place to be a tourist in and I never stop enjoying walking through the parks hunting for squirrels and people watching and having mum and dad with me really made it all the more exciting. I remember walking through Hyde Park we came across a sign saying “humps 400 yards” and for some reason dad seemed to find this one of the funniest things on the planet. I think it must have been the jetlag perhaps. After cutting through the park we got to Buckingham Palace. Somehow we had timed it perfectly for the changing of the guards. Now I have never seen this changing of the guards before but seeing the crowds on that particular day I realised that I still probably wouldn’t be able to SEE the changing of the guards, I might HEAR it but would it be really worth the effort? We made a group decision of “bugger that” and headed down to Westminster abbey. Best decision ever!!!!! We saw the Queen (and Prince Phil) but we saw the Queen! It was absolutely brilliant. I the staunch monarchist was grinning like an idiot the whole time. Mum and I actually climbed up on a big metal and concrete thing to get a better view of her and dad managed to wiggle through to the front of the crowd and get a plumb position next to a copper. Did I mention it was absolutely brilliant! At this stage I had been over here 14 months altogether and had been over once before and I had never even had a sniff of anything remotely royal. The closest I had come was visiting Windsor castle on a day that she was apparently in according to the flags and I once x-rayed a lady whose husband was in the royal marching band. Mum and dad couldn’t believe their luck that after only being in the country for like 3 hours they had already seen royalty! Not everyone can say that can they?

The next few days we spent doing some nicely generic London touristy things together. St Pauls cathedral, shopping on Oxford Street, the British museum, national portrait gallery, national gallery and the tower of London. We had a much awaited ride on the Eye (thank you Jo Heys!) and I even managed to get them both on one of those foot pedal paddle boats in Hyde Park! – I did most of the pedalling.

Next stop Dublin!

YAY MY MUM AND DAD ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!

Nott any more!

nadscol — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:04:00 GMT

The time in Nottingham has flown, but to be honest I spent 95% of it looking forward to mum and dad coming over. Yes, it was a great job, good hours (overtime etc.), nice rate of pay, nice workmates, but really I’ve spent the last few months wanting mum and dad. After the dreadful start to the year I think I wanted to see them more than ever. Sometimes the other side of the world may as well be the other side of the universe.

But, as I’ve said QMC has been good to me. They gave me a really nice going away present (a charm for my necklace- Robin Hood – or Sagittarius really but it’s the thought that counts and the fact that they tried to get Robin Hood means a lot. After being there only really two and a half months I really did feel like a member of staff and not just ‘the locum’. Especially when I got given a proper uniform- You’d have thought I’d joined a special club or something the amount of people that commented on it!

So Nottingham is over, I’ll definitely return but for now it’s getting old time (26....eeek!) and MUM AND DAD!!!!!

I have an old man disease!

nadscol — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:03:00 GMT

(March 2009)

Sick again. It has not been a good year for my lungs; they have been through a lot and have been complete utter bastards to me this year. It’s Easter, 4 days off in a row and I have pleurisy. How do I know this is an old man disease- well my dad had it not long ago and he said that my symptoms sounded pretty much like his earlier on in the year. Bugger. Pleurisy is chest pain beyond pain, constant, crushing and debilitating. And I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

I had so many grand plans for these days off too. It sucks. The one little bright spark in all of this was my wonderful next door neighbour Ali. He woke me up on Easter Sunday with a hot cross bun and a cup of tea. Just what I needed. It did cheer me up marginally (as breakfast in bed at midday will do). After this we went to Wollaton Park to the mind, body and spirit festival and he looked all over the place at the crystal stores to find out which rock was the best for chest pains and then bought me one. Rose quartz- good for pleurisy apparently. I don’t believe in crystal healing at all- hippy mumbo jumbo- but it was really nice and it is the first, but hopefully not the last time, a guy has bought me a rock.

So back to bed for more misery and pain.....and maybe another cup of tea.

The dork hits York.

nadscol — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:51:00 GMT

(March 2009)

I can admit it; I’m a dork- a history dork. And in York I was in history heaven and I absolutely loved it. It was another weekend day trip and a ripping good time. York is one of those places oozing history that I have always wanted to visit- in particular the cathedral which I had heard from numerous sources was one of the best in Britain but also the whole Viking thing.

First stop unsurprisingly for me was York Minster. The place is absolutely huge and it dominates the old city’s skyline. It is terrific and definitely deserves its fame (yet another church which I class as being nicer than Westminster abbey – I’m really not sure what I have against it- too many tourists maybe?). Needless to say I did the guided tour, good times, very informative; wish there wasn’t so many people. Next I climbed up the tower- great view over York, very windy, typical miserable English weather- I’m definitely growing accustomed to it now. I really like how they organise the people going up and down so that you never get caught having to climb past someone else- other churches and towers would do well to adopt this! I powered up so I got a pretty great view before the rest of the crowds joined me (Yeah bum exercise!). After this it was the obligatory crypt tour (I’ve seen better) and leave before the church became a mosh pit (tourists do love York- I shouldn’t complain seeing as I was one but I’m a huge hypocrite so that’s OK!)

After this, and a lovely cup of tea and scone at a teahouse in the Shambles, I powered on to the Yorvik Viking centre. I had seen a program about this on the TV and was definitely looking forward to it. It was great, in a disgustingly tacky way, but well worth the visit. The highlight for me was the bit at the end where you get to see lots of Viking bones which they dug up some of which show evidence of some interesting medical conditions. Educational and FUN! The only thing I was disappointed about was when you go round in the little cars I was totally expecting a Viking to jump out at us- there was no Viking! I got myself all geared up not to scream like a little girl and nothing jumped out at us. Not sure why I was expecting it, I guess if I ran the place I would have someone dressed as a Viking to scare the tourists. Or maybe I just have a stupid sense of humour!

After the fun of looking at bones and expecting someone to jump out and try and scare me I had a lazy afternoon wandering around the extensive shopping area. I managed to pick up a Discworld puzzle at a church charity store for 50p. Absolute bargain, not sure if it has all the pieces but I really don’t mind! It was a pain in the butt to carry around though! After this I did about half of the wall walk before it was time to get back to the train station to catch the train home to Nottingham. An absolutely brilliant day, I will definitely be back to York. I have unfinished business here. There is so much more to see.

The Lincoln Imp

nadscol — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:37:00 GMT

(March 2009)

Lincoln, what images are conjured up when you think about Lincoln? Well not much at all to be truthful. All I had heard that there was a nice cathedral there and that they had good Christmas markets. That was about it, and all of this I had heard from a local (Jo who I used to live with in Cheltenham). So I must admit I went there with a pretty open mind. It was a weekend day trip, my first from Nottingham (I don’t think we can include a trip to Beeston in this criteria). And I was certainly in need of something (anything) different. Nottingham is definitely not the most picturesque of places. So, Lincoln it was, just over an hour directly on the train.

Lincoln is bloody beautiful! I had an absolutely fantastic day. The weather was typically English (raining), but for once in my life I had dressed appropriately. First stop straight away on arrival was the cathedral. I had looked it up in my bible (Lonely Planet Great Britain) and it was on my little post it of things to do. To get there you have to go up what it aptly named Steep Hill. The only way this street name could be any more accurate would be to call it BLOODY Steep Hill. Do you get my meaning? I was actually quite pleased with my fitness walking up there, I certainly felt it, but didn’t need to stop multiple times and have a quasi-heart attack like I saw numerous people doing. Years of living on the top floor of building with no lifts certainly had paid off (as well as my stupid sand dune climbing fetish in Egypt and Jordan).

The church was amazing. It is one of numerous cathedrals in England that I would definitely rate higher than Westminster abbey. Once again I turned up at the perfect time to do a rooftop tour (I have a happy habit of this), and yes I was the youngest person on the tour by about half a century but that didn’t matter. The tour guide was a fantastic old guy who was certainly very knowledgeable and also had a cheeky Lincolnshire sense of humour and most importantly for those of us who were not from the area- an accent that was understandable! After the great tour I had a bit of a wander around the Cathedral by myself. I must have somehow looked like I worked there (not sure how, I was wearing jeans and a rugby jersey), because this guy came up to me and said:

“Gargle gargle drolly ere eh?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Gargle gargle drolly ere eh?”

“Sorry”.......

This followed for a few more minutes until I finally worked out he was saying to me in a very extreme Lincoln accent: “Excuse me do you work here?” He must have thought I was an absolute moron but I swear I couldn’t understand a thing he said!

Just a quick word to explain the title- it relates to a cheeky little bugger in the Cathedral. He is a little carved guy near the choir who apparently got turned to stone for trying to chat up one of the angels. Pretty rough punishment I reckon!

After the fun in the cathedral I went across next door to Lincoln Castle. As castles go it is actually pretty disappointing, most of it has fallen down (well the old bits anyhow), but it does have quite an interesting bit you can go in that used to be the city gaol. Also there (APPARENTLY) is a copy of the Magna Carta. Which is all well and good except it was out on loan to the Americans the day I was there! So I saw a fantastic replica of it....mildly disappointing.

Unsurprisingly me being the big nerd that I am I had spent nearly a whole day in these two places; I spent what remained of the day wandering around the shops on the Bloody Steep Hill and the town centre.

Lincoln- nice place, big hill, wear comfortable shoes (big hill- very good for working the bum)

BINGO!

nadscol — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:26:00 GMT

(March 2009)

Just a quick one on my first foray into the world of professional bingo....well that’s what it felt like!

I had previously only ever been to bingo a few times at the Wagga RSL back when I was at uni but I thought I knew the gist of what was going on. I mean how different could it be to back home. Yeah I was pretty stupid on this one wasn’t I? Gala Bingo is absolutely nothing like Wagga RSL bingo! I turned up with the girls, excited like a five year old with my “learner dabber” that you get when you join. The place was like a huge hall with lots of overweight middle aged women and little old ladies who kept popping out to chain-smoke. The only men seemed to be some old guy husbands of little old ladies and one or two young guys who had the aura of ‘I still live with my mum even though I’m 35’. And you know what, despite my admittedly snobbish/overly observant first impressions I had an absolutely awesome time. Like I said though it felt like these people were professional players- the announcer people read out the numbers at 100 miles an hour (it was all I could do to keep up let alone realise that I had bingo!). I did win too, 10 quid! I was beyond excited and I think everyone thought I was cute- if not a little sad!

When you join up you get a new members pack, which included a big learner dabber (red) and some vouchers for the bar and stuff. I utilised these to maximum advantage and got some looks of disgust from some of the pro’s when I got my free pint- they looked absolutely horrified that I might even consider impairing my bingo skills with Carling- man lighten up guys! It’s supposed to be fun!

So I had a wonderful time and our group had quite a successful night. I went home happy after downing my free beer, with my £10 in winnings and 5 free packets of salt and vinegar chips that I got at the bistro........BINGO!

Nott too bad...

nadscol — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:15:00 GMT

(Feb 09)

So, Nottingham- first week, new job, usual jitters, usual cursing the fact that I miss my last job. Same thing happened when I started at Cheltenham and Winchester. But still- it was always going to be a grass is greener type situation. Nottingham isn’t too bad really. Good shopping, lots of students and bars, restaurants, people with funny northern accents. I spent my first weekend here trying to orientate myself, find a supermarket, get internet, and being excited about the fact that Nottingham has a boost juice AND a Gloria Jeans. So it really can’t be too bad, even if I hate it at least I know that I will be able to get a decent cup of coffee.

Well, the new job, where do I start? QMC (the Queens Medical Centre) is to put it bluntly- FUCKING HUGE. It honestly makes Liverpool look like a ditsy little medical centre. It is busy, very busy, the x-ray department is huge as well (not surprisingly) and very short staffed for the amount of work we have to get through. I’m pretty sure I have x-rayed every knee in Nottingham. The people are lovely, if a little stressed, busy and overworked, and I have a lot of names to learn. I think I will do my usual “call everyone mate until I can actually remember all their names” thing. I guess this is one of the major advantages to being an Aussie.

I suppose the highlight of my first week here has been all the snow. I’m sure you have heard of it in the news ‘Britain’s big freeze’. It’s been brilliant, you’d think there was a national emergency here the amount of fuss that people are having. Its hilarious, but worrying how unprepared the Poms are for snow. The Russians, Scandinavians etc. are laughing their heads off and want to know what all the fuss is about. Schools, roads, buses, trains closed and cancelled. It looks really pretty and isn’t all that cold though. The only problem personally that I have encountered due to all this snow is the amount of snow and ice related injuries. You don’t get these back home (certainly not at the moment with all the bushfires, 40 degrees plus etc.) I have never had so many broken wrists, elbows, humeri, dislocated shoulders, spinal injuries, broken ankles, knees and hips. I’m pretty sure I have seen everything. And it will be hell for the next month or two because all of these people will be coming back through fracture clinic and the like for follow up treatment!

My next weekend was spent further exploring. I managed to catch up with Adam and Mel, two Aussies I met whilst travelling through Scandinavia. It was fantastic to see some familiar faces and drink some good coffee (Gloria Jeans). I also spent one afternoon at Nottingham Castle. Not too bad, most of it is quite modern and has been done up as an art gallery and museum. After that I went to what claims to be the oldest Inn in England. The Old Trip to Jerusalem- nice place, but the beer is crap.

Next week, more work, busy busy busy!

Jersey Girl

nadscol — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:10:00 GMT

(Jan 09)

Perhaps a trip to Jersey to visit Rocky was the thing I needed to put me back in the land of the living both emotionally and physically. After a few weeks sitting in the flat in London barely able to venture down the block to even get groceries unless I was severely medicated- I was ready to leave the house, put on a brave face, see somewhere new and realistically have an old friend look after me. In theory it was just what I needed. A nice restful break on one of the Channel Islands- it was a good theory, I just didn’t really get the whole RESTFUL part of the holiday. I honestly think I came back even more tired than when I left. The reason for this is that Rocky is one of the worst sleep talkers on the planet!

At the time when I visited she had been having some dramas at work and while she held it in quite well during the day it was all vented quite vocally during the night time. Here is a girl that not only sleep talks, she also manages to sleep walk, sleep yell, sleep drink, sleep turn the damn light on and sleep kick. Not the most restful person to share a room with! In a way I suppose it was sort of nice, purely for the fact that it made me focus on something else other than what was depressing me- it just would have been nice to get some sleep!

Other than that I found it quite a therapeutic holiday: long walks on the beach, random wandering around town, shopping (not that I bought anything decent) and good company. The highlight of the trip was finding 40 quid on the ground in a department store. No I didn’t keep it, I handed it in like the very responsible citizen that I am but I believe that I got a big dose of good karma from that- well things couldn’t get much worse and the last thing I bloody needed was to anger the karma gods. After handing it in I actually felt marginally good about myself- I suppose that made it worth it.

Jersey really is quite a nice place. Ideally i will go back one day when i am in a little bit better frame of mind and then hopefully i will appreciate it more.

So while my holiday was anything but restful I was marginally healthier and had even managed some smiles. As they say at Tesco- “every little helps”.

To the point

nadscol — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:48:00 GMT

(Jan 09)

Anyone who knows me well will probably know what happened in early January and hence why I have taken so long to write about. Really it is the one reason, not my usual laziness which has made me get so far behind on my blog. To put it simply I subconsciously, then I suppose consciously avoided writing about what had happened purely for the fact that I was not dealing with things. Even now, 8 or so months later I’m still in that happy bubble of denial which does not want to burst so I can move on. I guess I don’t want to move on in a way. Denial is a small luxury I have living over here when it comes to grief. Purely for the fact that nearly everyone I know or at least have known for quite a while are on the other side of the planet, so with many things in a way I can just not deal with something because it is “back home”. One example of this is my Grandma’s death last year; I think I am still in the “back home” frame of mind so that in a way cushions me from dealing with it. I suppose the problem with what happened in January was the fact that it wasn’t “back home”, it was over here. Yet I was utterly helpless to do anything, perhaps even more so because of my illness, and that made it hurt even more.

Simply put, someone I loved very much died quite suddenly after a very short illness. All of this happened over New Year when I myself also ended up in hospital sick from the illness which I had been suffering from over Christmas. I was too sick to fly home to Australia, and was alone, sick, and utterly completely miserable in London. It was not a good time for me.

For now that is all I will say about that- thankyou to everyone who tried to help me. It was appreciated even though I may not have shown it at the time.

Please keep the comments to a minimum on this one.

Fieber Fever

nadscol — Thu, 6 Aug 2009 16:03:00 GMT

(Dec 08)

Well finally I’m back to Fieberbrunn, it’s Christmas and a weeks worth of snowboarding and associated shenanigans. The only dampener of this mood is my ongoing illness.

We drove from Munich to Fieberbrunn (Austria) and I was felling pretty average. It totally sucked because I had been looking forward to Christmas for approximately forever. So despite my body’s objections I bought myself a 5 day lift pass and signed up for a 4 hour lesson on my first day. I hadn’t been snowboarding for nearly 18 months so I was feeling a touch nervous at my abilities with these crazy Austrians zooming about me. The group I was put in thankfully had 2 instructors that spoke excellent English (I don’t know that my German would have stretched to snowboarding technique- they didn’t cover that in school strangely!). I think the oldest person in the group- the average age was about 13 I think- so not only did I have to have everything repeated to me after everyone else, I was also about 10 years older than most of them! Happily this was remedied by my complete inability to use a pommel lift. On ski’s it’s no problem but on a snowboard it’s a whole different kettle of fish. After about my third stack off the lift and I was left with one of the instructors (the good looking one) he turned to me and said- “so you and me then?” So my 4 hour group lesson with hyperactive teenagers turned into a 4 hour private lesson with a hot Austrian. Good times- Kai was a bloody good (and very patient) teacher.

The snow wasn’t as good as it had been 3 years previously when I had been there, but Fieberbrunn was just as fantastic as I had remembered it. And after a full day boarding with a nice young man having not eaten anything needless to say I was absolutely knackered. This could have also been due to the fact that I had gotten about 2 hours sleep the night before and not much more the one before that. To put it nicely- my roommate was a very, very loud sleeper. I did my best to have an afternoon nap but I was never a very successful napper.

So the next day still feeling a lot woozy I had another lesson with my favourite good looking Austrian. We had the whole morning together again and despite the fact that I was living on tea, half a bowl of coco pops and very, very minimal sleep I was definitely improving. Unfortunately Kai had another lesson in the afternoon and I had to join the hyperactive teenagers. It was really irritating, all the confidence I had gotten in the previous day and a half I completely lost. I managed to do the worlds most spectacular face plant (I am very glad I had my helmet on). That evening I was sporting a lovely bruise covering half of my face- a fantastic look! Happily I managed to keep down another cup of tea and half a salad…..today salad, tomorrow the world!

The following day, feeling mildly sorry for myself (and looking mildly stylish sporting my big bruise) was Christmas Eve. I decided to have a lazier morning…..of more boarding. Conditions were pretty bad but that was actually kinda nice because the slopes were a lot less crowded. Christmas Eve in Austria is treated more or less like Aussies treat Christmas day back home (with snow). That evening we went for a swim at the local pool complex. It’s an absolutely fantastic place, with indoor and outdoor sections that are connected, and a waterslide. It is an absolutely amazing experience swimming outdoors in a warm pool surrounded by snow. The fact that it was Christmas Eve made it that little bit nicer.

That evening we had a big dinner at the hotel (I managed a small dinner but hey….it’s better than nothing). It was a big party with Christmas carols (in German- I could actually sing along which was nice). I decided to have an early one after that in an attempt to get some sleep before my ever loud roommate came in. Ironically I was the one to wake her up when mum and dad rang me at midnight to say merry Christmas. It was really nice to hear from them because it was hard being away from home at Christmas. As I was talking to them they were unwrapping their presents in Australia. I even had a chat with Sammy (the dog) - dad got a little upset when she started licking his phone. It was brilliant hearing from home, but it actually made me kinda depressed- I miss home. At this stage I had been away nearly 11 months- it had passed so quickly, but it felt like a lifetime since I had seen them.

The next morning I got one of the nicest Christmas presents I could- a video from mum and dad taken earlier in the year when they had visited Geoff and Eileen. Needless to say I burst straight into tears, which made Eileen burst into tears and Geoff just groan! I really liked all the other presents I received but nothing compared to seeing mum and dad. It really cheered me up (despite the tears).

To celebrate Christmas I had booked myself another private boarding lesson- this one was unfortunately not with Kai, it was with another guy (not quite as good looking but still VERY acceptable). I had a fantastic morning. He took me to parts of the mountain I hadn’t seen before and after a slow start I was going really, really well.

I got back in time to have a traditional Christmas lunch- schnitzel followed by ice cream! I managed to eat the whole kids sized schnitzel! I had a relaxing afternoon, a nap, a walk…..the only other thing I needed was a game of cricket!

So it’s now my final day on the slopes- it was a lot busier but I still had a great time. I celebrated my newfound confidence with yet another spectacular stack. This one was an absolute doozy! My legs came straight out from underneath me and I landed straight onto my arse- on my coccyx to exact. It was pain beyond pain. I had to lie on my stomach for a while just to get my breath back. Needless to say I had quite a slow run down to the bottom as the thought of landing on my arse again was beyond belief. That afternoon I was supposed to be going on a horse drawn carriage ride with the others, but I honestly realised that I would not be able to sit down for that long- man my arse hurts!!!!!!

Tomorrow we leave Austria. It was a brilliant, yet painful,ill, malnourished and sleep deprived Christmas!

Bis zu Weihnachten- Munchen

nadscol — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:06:00 GMT

(Dec 08)

Ah Munich, the beeriest place on earth. A quick train journey and we made it to Munich. I had been to Munich once before but hadn’t really had a chance to look around properly. Munich was also in Christmas mode- i.e. more markets. I really don’t think it is possible to grow weary of German Christmas markets- the sights, the sounds, the smells. We went to a traditional Bavarian beer house for dinner for yet another hearty German meal. The food is so rich in Germany I’m surprised that everyone over there is not the size of a house or at least a small killer whale. German self control I suppose! One worrying thing though was the fact that I was developing a nasty cough and was suffering from monster headaches. I tried to get an early night to rest but alas not much sleep at all!

The next day we met up with Emma’s mum and dad who we would be spending Christmas with in Austria. It was so wonderful to see the people I class as my second mum and dad. If I can’t have my real parents they are certainly the next best choice! We had dinner in the Hofbrauhaus- Munich’s most famous beer hall. I really do think its reputation is entirely justified. Great atmosphere, great food but I can’t vouch for the beer because I was feeling pretty ill and decided to have the night off. I left early from dinner and went back to the hostel to get some sleep. Not much luck though unfortunately.

After not much sleep that night I decided that it was more intelligent to just get out early and have a long shower to try and feel mildly human. This was mildly hampered by my latest symptom- excessive vomiting. I class this as totally unfair seeing as I hadn’t had any beer the night before! I was exhausted, had a headache, was coughing like a champion and was feeling way too nauseated- but on the up side I was heading to Austria for Christmas for a weeks worth of snow boarding! Honestly things could be worse- and every cloud has a silver lining!

Frohe Weihnachten! (Merry Christmas!)

Bis zu Weihnachten- Nuremburg

nadscol — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:01:00 GMT

(Dec 08)

From Stuttgart the next stop on the train line was Nuremburg. I was super excited about going here mainly because of its history and the fact that it has reputedly the best Christmas markets in Germany. We got there a little before lunchtime and set off exploring the fantastic town. Nuremburg is one of the prettiest towns in Germany I have ever been to. The old town is gorgeous, walled and full to the brim with history. The markets were fantastic, and we had a great time exploring them and the town. Emma bought a very stylish beanie that I managed to convince her to try on backwards until the lady in the stall pointed it out- she wasn’t all that happy with me! We visited the city hall that had all of Nuremburg’s famous torture implements and were lucky that there was an American girl in our group who spoke really good German to translate everything for us. My German was nowhere near good enough for some of the graphic descriptions the tour guide was giving us!

We had dinner at a fantastic beer hall place which was recommended by lonely planet. Great recommendation! After this we wandered the streets taking in the atmosphere that was like a festival- well it was Christmas! All of the shops and the markets were open late and we had a fantastic time. One of my favourite parts in the town was this fantastic fountain which showed the stages of a marriage from a man's point of view. Needless to say it wasn’t entirely complimentary to women- there was a reference to the ball and chain and the wife putting on weight- honestly it was bloody hilarious and I loved it!

The next morning we went to big museum which was loosely translated the German Propaganda Museum. It was all about the war, the Nazis and how they used propaganda to achieve their goals. It covered WW2 and the Nuremburg trials and it was just amazing. It was so informative and honest. I think the German attitude in relation to the WW2 is one of utter shame- they are embarrassed and they want to make sure that nothing like it ever happens again. It was by no means as graphic as some of the other WW2 museums i have been to (especially the one in Warsaw) but i don't think i was really expecting that anyhow- but it certainly didn't beat around the bush in saying why the Nazi ideaologies were just plain wrong. The whole museum was full of school children and I heard that it is compulsory for all German children to learn about the war. It was such an eye opener learning about it from the German point of view, and I think this place is an absolute must visit.

Next stop: Munchen.

Bis zu Weihnachten- Stuttgart

nadscol — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:12:00 GMT

(Dec 08)

Or for those who didn’t understand my dreadful German linguistic feat- Up to Christmas- I just thought it sounded fancier this way.

Another day another flight: after only one day back in London we were off for another early morning flight. This time we flew to Stuttgart in German. Previously I had only ever been through there on the train a few years earlier so I was not only excited to properly see the city, but also excited to be able to test out my German again. I must admit it was pretty rusty and I was frustrated that I had forgotten so much. So on arrival to our hostel I said in my very best German: “Guten Tag, sprechen Sie Englisch?”- Hello, do you speak English? Big cop out I know, but at least I said it in German!

After dumping our stuff in our room we were off into town. The hostel was right at the top of a big hill and the views over the city as a light covering of snow came down were lovely. In town there was a huge Christmas market on. The Germans really do know how to do Christmas, and they really do it in style. Somehow Christmas feels more Christmassy when it is snowing, with traditional markets, people rugged up in woolly hats, drinking mulled wine, laughing, singing carols and generally having a fantastic time. I love it! Yes, they don’t have the Boxing Day test, and the weather is hardly appropriate for a barbeque and cold salads, cold beer and a game of cricket outside- in a way I wish I could have both- cricket and cold meat and salad in the morning, and a snowboard and hot roast in the evening- that would be ideal.

So, back to Stuttgart and away from my philosophical ramblings- it’s a great and bustling busy town. I managed to buy about 5 DVD’s from my favourite band (Die Toten Hosen) and to have my favourite German food- Flammkuchen, which is like this gorgeous flatbread potato pizza thing with fancy cheese. I managed all of this in German and even managed to successfully translate a menu for Emma and to order for her and me with all of her fussy little changes. So all in all I think it was quite a good day. By now I was starting to get excited about impending Christmas and snowboarding- but before then the next stop was Nuremburg.

Irish Mist

nadscol — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:33:00 GMT

Ah Ireland, land of the little people. The previous day I had been to a wedding in Cheltenham- a brilliant all day affair with way too much food and quite a few beverages. I had caught a bus at 2am in the morning following the wedding to get to Gatwick for the early flight to Dublin. So after a full day of excitement, I got no sleep and had to catch an early flight. Yes, I was a touch tired.

We arrived in Dublin early, excited and a little drowsy. We went straight to our hostel in the centre of the city, dumped our bags (we were so early we couldn’t get into our rooms) and then went off to explore Dublin. Emma had been there before so she had a rough idea of her way around. We wandered about, tried to go and see some historic old book in the University (it was closed), did a little shopping, and had a big lunch of Wagamama. By then I was pretty much out of it tired, so I decided that my time would be better spent fast asleep. So for about half of my first day in Ireland was spent asleep- but I honestly think that my time was very well spent.

I woke up about 4 and a half hours later with a good looking young man smiling at me from across the room. There are worse ways to wake up- his one I must admit was quite pleasant. He was a Belgian uni student who was going to be working at the hostel. Nice bloke, great English, good perve. Emma had gone out to meet a friend so I had a traditional Irish dinner at Joe’s American Diner (Or something like that), and an early night (but not after another chat to the lovely Belgian).

The next morning we left early to get to the airport to collect our hire car. At this point in time I would just like to say that little Fiat’s are absolute crap. Dreadful vision, no guts whatsoever and most importantly as we headed north to Belfast and crossed into Northern Ireland- only miles per hour on the speedometer. I had no idea how fast I was going, I was convinced that I was either holding up traffic, or would have a speeding fine! It was nice to finally do some driving though, even though the car was shit.

We got to Belfast quite easily, it took a little longer than expected as there seemed to be some plan to upgrade every road in the damn country and they hadn’t quite finished any of them and every time a new speed sign came up I did some rough maths and hoped I was going the right pace.

Belfast for me was as surprising as Dublin was disappointing. It really is quite a nice place, and I think the best way to describe it is optimistic. After the ‘troubles’ as they call it, it seems that Belfast really does want a better future, not to forget the past by any means, but perhaps not to repeat it. We did a black cab tour, which we had heard was the way to see the city. Our driver, who had grown up during the troubles was a wealth of information, and I think it was so much more informative hearing the history from someone who had actually been there and experienced the violence. It really was worth it and I think that I will definitely do another one when I am back in Belfast with mum and dad.

After our tour we were dropped off back in the main town square. There was a big Christmas fair and market going on and we took a ride on the “Belfast Eye”, the smaller, younger cousin of the London one. Cities really do look the prettiest at night, from above. After some retail therapy we drove out to our hostel, a cheap place not far from the city centre. It wasn’t too bad, and had free internet which was nice (will have to try and remember the name for when I’m there next). We had dinner (cat in a box- as Damien and I call it), which was cheap, and filling and perfect.

The next day we got out early to make our way further north to the Giant’s Causeway. We heard from our guide the day before to try to get there early to beat the crowds because the last thing you want is to get caught behind a tour bus. As it was we must have left at the perfect time because traffic wasn’t too bad at all. The weather, as always, was rainy; perhaps this kept the traffic down on the tourist roads. Our first stop on the way to the causeway was this rope bridge thing only a few miles from the causeway. You can climb along this bridge over the ocean out onto this little island. It was closed…bloody typical! I think we missed it by a few weeks. Apparently it is dangerous to walk out over the ocean on a flimsy bridge in high winds in December! Bah humbug! I would have done it! So I will have to wait until next time I’m in Ireland to have a go at this one!

So we went on to the causeway. After a short walk downhill (made a little longer by how bloody windy it was!) we got to the causeway. It was everything I had hoped it would be. I have wanted to go there for about 10 years- ever since I saw photos of it in Steve Waugh’s Ashes Diary. I loved it! It was such an amazing piece of landscape- it’s hard to believe that the rocks are natural formations and not man made somehow. I certainly was a place unlike any I have ever seen before. We made our way back up to the visitors centre via a longer cliff path and shit loads of steps (Emma didn’t enjoy this part so much!). It got ridiculously windy and I had never experienced wind like it. It was so strong I felt that if I had an umbrella I could become Mary Poppins and fly away! By the time we got to the top we were frozen, windswept and absolutely starving. Lunch was at the café at the visitors’ centre where we had Irish stew, hot tea and scones. Absolute bliss- I credit it as one of the best and most needed meals I have had in my entire life- ever!

We drove on, stopping at a few ruined castles on the way. We reached Derry or Londonderry depending on who you are. For me it’s Derry. Derry has a gorgeous walled old town (which is dreadful to navigate around in a car) and just outside the walls is the place we came to visit. I’m not sure of the exact name for it, but it is sort of an outdoor art gallery. In this one street there is about 20-30 murals painted on the walls of the houses that border it depicting “the troubles” and Derry’s place in them. While I loved the ones in Belfast these were in another league altogether. Most of them had little plaques or information things in front of them too telling you exactly what you were looking at. At one end there was also a monument to the Bloody Sunday riots. Really nice, really understated, and needless to say much to poor Emma’s mirth I spent the whole time humming a certain U2 song…

In the car again, I was in search of a Gaelic football shirt for my dreadfully fussy older brother for Christmas and according to what I had read we were in Gaelic Footy country and headed to this small town which according to a pamphlet I had acquired, was its capital. I thought that if I was going to get a shirt anywhere, it was going to be here. I must admit when we got into town at just before 5pm I was mildly sceptical. Turns out that my suspicions were right- we went straight into what looked to be the only department store in town and went to the sports department. A young guy came to serve us and we told him what we were looking for. He replied (or so it sounded to me) - “ar herdy blerdy gargle”- turns out that he was speaking English he just had the strongest Irish accent that I have ever heard (and have ever heard since). To me, it honestly sounded like he was speaking another language. After much stopping and starting and blank looks and asking him to repeat himself we managed to ascertain that Letterkenny, about 20 minutes back down the road had a few stores that sold what I was looking for. In the heavy peak hour traffic it took us about half an hour to get back to Letterkenny, but “ar herdy blerdy gargle” man was right and we found quite a large store that had quite a few shirts to choose from. I ended up buying two, one for Damien and one for Dad.

By then it was quite dark and we pushed on as far as a town called Sligo. We managed to find a really nice (but expensive) hotel which was chosen on the basis of: “I don’t care how much it costs I’m tired and hungry and I refuse to drive any further”. It was a good choice despite the price and had a good curry place nearby, and very comfy beds which was all we were looking for.

The next morning we had a huge (and expensive) breakfast at the hotel and a well earned sleep in. I posted off the shirts home (bloody expensive too!) and then we left town to travel south to Galway. From what I can remember it was mainly a driving type day. Shit weather- just for something different, and a trip to an old abbey boarding school which was absolutely lovely, despite the weather. We arrived in Galway in the afternoon and spent our time exploring the town and having a lovely dinner of our new favourite Irish stew. Mmmmmm!

The next day it was further south again along every single scenic route we could manage to Killarney. The highlight of the day was a trip to the cliffs of Moher. The most amazing and breath-takingly huge and amazing cliffs I have ever seen. It was windy and drizzly, but this kind of added to the atmosphere of the amazing place. As we headed closer to our final destination we saw a sign which pointed to “the most beautiful cliffs in Ireland”. I’m a sucker for such blatant advertising and immediately turned down the road to see said cliffs. Emma decided I was on my own going to explore these cliffs. The weather was absolutely dreadful and it was a 500m walk down a muddy track to get to the cliffs. I was not deterred and wandered on, getting absolutely drenched and covered in mud. The cliffs were amazing. But at the edge it was so windy that comparatively, the wind at the Giant’s Causeway was a light breeze. I have never experienced anything like it before. It was so windy it was painful and I felt like I was going to be either swept off the cliff, or if I did manage to avoid this I was going to have some severely burst ear drums. I lasted about 20 minutes before the rain and wind took me back to the car- brown, soggy and lamenting the fact that I may have ruined my favourite red boots. On the up side though- it was a lovely view.

We had lunch in Limerick a lovely town, crap weather, and ironically and irritatingly more stalls selling Gaelic Footy gear than I had ever seen before- I took this as a sign to buy myself one too! We arrived in Killarney at about 530pm. It was still pretty dreadful weather and we ended up having a gorgeous pub dinner (not Irish stew for once but I thought about it!) and an early night in bed reading. Not the most energetic I know, but I still felt like my ear drums may have exploded.

The next day we rose again early because we were about to travel along one of Irelands most well known tourist routes- the Ring of Kerry. This certainly was one of the most amazing roads I have ever been along. In parts the weather did clear enough to give us amazing views of the ocean. We took the entire route as much as we could right along the coast. There was basically no traffic whatsoever, which we were both certainly very glad of as the road was barely wide enough for one car let alone two, and our crappy little fiat really did struggle getting up some of the hills.

We drove on, through amazing landscape and amazingly bad weather. Lunch was in an apparently very famous fish restaurant in a town where the only thing open was said fish restaurant (no I didn’t have the fish). Further south we travelled around another scenic route- another ring of something or other. This road, while most of it was not as “pretty scenic” as Kerry, but it was a totally different landscape. Parts of it had big boulders and huge hills, other bits were green and lush. All the time there was the Irish mist. At one stage we drove around this Island called Valencia- no we were not in Spain. We did a loop round it and it had one of the most amazing coastal roads with a gorgeous view out over the ocean- the road was so winding it was absolutely crazy but totally brilliant to drive along. My inner rally driver was just bursting to come out and show itself- pity about the dreadful weather, crap car and the fact that every 20 metres or so there was another blind bend with potentially a car coming the other way. I can quite confidently say that in my whole driving life I never had a more challenging day behind the wheel. But I certainly have never had one more exhilarating either! On the way back for another night in Killarney the weather was so dreadful you could barely see out the front windscreen, the traffic was absolutely atrocious and I was driving along what was one of the craziest roads I have ever been on and I was having an absolute ball!

Our penultimate day in Ireland- we drove straight to Blarney- in order to kiss the famous Blarney stone. We got there nice and early and only had to wait for the two people in front of us to kiss the stone. I went first and made an absolute arse of myself. I didn’t lie back far enough, got scared, didn’t kiss the right bit and then threw a huffy. Emma had a go, had absolutely no problems, and wanted to know what all my fuss was about. I felt so bad knowing that I had come all this way and stuffed it that I went back to have another go! This time I didn’t stuff it and got the stone with a big sloppy one! Second time lucky and I felt like I had the gift of the gab already. I’m glad I went back for the second go, because I never would have forgiven myself. After this we had a walk around the gardens- quite slowly as it was slippery as anything because of the morning frost and ended up getting away from there quite early as there was nowhere near the crowds we had expected.

Next we were off to Cork for lunch. It wasn’t a bad place. My particular favourite place that I found was a Gloria Jeans. I truly do believe in the healing powers of a quadruple shot skim cappuccino. I did get a strange look when I ordered that one! Lunch was Mexican, not bad- very filling and nice to have something different for a change.

After some shopping we drove on to a place called Cashel. We had booked into a gorgeous little B and B which wasn’t that expensive considering how gorgeous it was. We had a fantastic dinner at a Thai restaurant just down the road which was one of the best Thai places I had been in yonks. After dinner I had a gorgeous long bath- I think I still had mud from earlier!

The next morning after a great breakfast of porridge, yoghurt and fresh fruit we went to the famous Rock of Cashel. I had heard about it but I admit I didn’t know exactly what it was! Turned out it was a fantastic old castle. Because we got there quite early in the morning and the weather was dreadful as usual we basically had the whole place to ourselves. It was so fantastic seeing a place like that without the crowds. I think you appreciate it so much more.

After this we headed north again back towards Dublin we again took the scenic route- at one stage ending up on a dirt track with grass growing in the middle! Apparently this was part of the scenic route! Finally arriving back in Dublin and returning the car was in a way a sad moment. While it was a crap car I had really enjoyed driving for once again- it had been a while! At the airport I managed to employ the services of a shoeshine man who managed to revive my boots back to their original redness for the price of 7 euro. I thought this was totally worth it considering how much I love my boots- even though they only originally cost me 15 euro three years earlier. I suppose if it gives me another 3 or 4 years it is definitely well worth it. So, back to London, one day there and off to Germany for Christmas!

A.K.A Katie Price

nadscol — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:33:00 GMT

See that witty title there….I’m sure it may confuse many of the non-pommies reading this- I guess this country is wearing off on me! So, Jordan …….ah now you get my fiendishly clever title!

After a fantastic trip through Egypt I was exhausted but rearing to go on the next part of the big adventure! Jordan! An early morning and Emma and I were off to the airport to make our way across to Jordan. Our taxi driver this time was not as crazy as the last one, but he didn’t need to be I suppose, traffic at 5am in Cairo is merely busy, not as bonkers as it was when we arrived. His cab did seem to be held together by string though. Nethertheless we arrived safely at the airport and had a traditional Egyptian breakfast before we boarded out flight. I think Emma had the Hotcakes and I had some hash browns. It was a quick flight across to Jordan and the views of the desert and the Sinai Peninsula from the plane was lovely.

We arrived without event in Amman. Our official meet and greet person at the airport was about 15 minutes late so we wandered about the arrivals wondering what to do. Eventually we were met by a disinterested young man who put us in a nice taxi with Jack, who turned out to be our driver for the rest of the tour. I can’t express enough at this point already how different Jordan was as compared to Egypt. It was as clean as Egypt was dirty; it was as ordered as Egypt was chaotic. Who would have thought that 2 countries so close to each other could be so contrasting?

After a lazy journey to our quite swanky hotel we were left to our own devices until the following morning. Emma took immediate advantage of this and put a bag of washing through to be done and went straight to bed. Poor bugger was exhausted, I however, was mildly hyperactive at the prospect of being in a new country that already seemed a whole lot cleaner and hospitable than I had previously been in and went out for a little explore. I managed to successfully find an ATM and to buy a bottle of water, all without being accosted by strange people trying to sell me things or make me go in their store. The only thing that did happen was that I got checked out by some builders nearby, but that was ok because I was perving on them too!

I went back to the hotel and was debating the merits of whether to have a nap or a ridiculously long shower (I still felt sandy from Egypt) and there was a knock at the door. I answered it and it turned out to be a top guy named James who was on our tour with us. I have to admit he made a good first impression (chirpy, energetic to the point of being hyperactive) and we made plans to go exploring for dinner. So, the three of us set off a little later to explore downtown Amman. It was a bustling happy place and we had a great time wandering about trying to decide on dinner. We ended up going to this classy kebab joint which we were so impressed with that we even filled out the customer satisfaction survey (sorry Laura but if you get some mail from a random kebab shop in Amman that might be because of me….). As it turned out there was only 4 of us in our group and the other person was named Russell as far as we knew. We decided Russ, as we already decided to call him, would be a top bloke and James would had a lad on the tour with him. As it turned out we got a bit of a shock when we got back and there was a girl in James’ room. Turns out that Lisa Russell was a top chick and a brilliant addition to our group, and that James was now the token male!

The next morning we went down to meet our tour guide. To put it nicely, he was a little older than I was expecting. But he knew his stuff and was happy to let us sleep in most days so that was a big tick in my book. So off we went to explore the sights of Amman. Firstly we went to a big citadel ruin thing right in the centre of town. It was at the top of a big hill and had great views right out over the entire of Amman. Here too they had a museum with lots of really old stuff. The highlight was definitely some of the actual Dead Sea scrolls. I never thought I would ever get to see them- bloody amazing!

Next we went to this really big roman amphitheatre. It was great and in really good condition, apparently they still hold concerts there- it would be great to listen to good music in such a beautiful setting (hmmmm…. I’m thinking an Acoustic concert, maybe Pearl Jam? Well a girl can dream!) I, of course, climbed right up all the stairs to the top- I am going to have an arse of steel after this trip with all the hills, stairs and sand dunes I’m climbing! Then it was 2 more little museums right next door then we left Amman, via what we were told was the snobby rich embassy area (oh for a few million Dinars…) First stop after we left town was this really old fortress type building which seemed to be in the middle of the desert. Turned out this was kind of like the ancient equivalent of a truck stop. I think it’s called a caravanserai. People would apparently stop here on their journeys (it was a main pilgrimage and trade route or something) for McDonalds and refuelling of their camels- or something to that effect! After a quick cuppa with some of the locals we continued on to this Roman bathhouse place. Inside there was all these beautifully preserved paintings which I guess were nice to look at while you were having a bath or a steam sauna. They were pretty cool considering how old they were.

Next stop was a quick photo stop in front of a road sign. We begged for Jack to stop and I now have photographic proof that I have been 58km from Saudi Arabia and 240km from Iraq. Well I thought it was pretty exciting- I think it’s as close as I will get to these places for a while!

Then, we went to this old fortress thing where Lawrence of Arabia lived when he was in Jordan. I honestly never realised he was a real person, I thought it was just a movie (proves how stupid I am) so it was kind of surreal going into what was his bedroom! Finally we headed back to Amman for the night, absolutely exhausted from a very long day of sightseeing. Dinner was at this fast food place called Popeye’s. I feel it’s important to embrace the food of a different culture and I think my Popeye’s kid’s meal did this. It was hilarious in the store. The guy who served us was a bit rude to James, perhaps because it was quite obvious he wasn’t a local, but when he served me he couldn’t have been nicer and he and the other guy serving were ever so helpful and stood there behind the counter smiling at me the whole time I was there! Looks like I’ve still got it!

The next day we were in the car again. First stop was to our tour guides mums house. A little out of the ordinary yes, but it was really nice to go to the home of a normal family, sit and drink tea, and chat. His mum was about 90 and was so sweet. She spoke about 3 words of English bus was so welcoming and kind. We had a little tour of the olive gardens and orchard around the house and then said goodbye. Then we went to Ajloun Castle which apparently was of great strategic importance during the crusades. It had fantastic views over the surrounding valley and you could see all the way to Israel. All through the castle there were guys in traditional guard’s costume who you could have your photo taken with (for free!)- I now have an excellent photo of a guy trying to shoot me with a bow and arrow. This took a little convincing but I got it in the end despite our guide saying something about it being inappropriate- the guard didn’t seem to mind all that much!

After this we headed to Jerash- an ancient roman city. The sheer size of the place is the first ting that hits you. It really is the ruins of a whole city. One of the best bits was the massive amazing amphitheatre, which could apparently seat 3000 people. The acoustics are amazing- if you stand in the centre stage bit and just talk normally the sound carries so well that even if you are sitting right at the top at the back you can still hear everything perfectly. At the time we were there, there were some people playing traditional instruments and is was just fantastic (and eerie) hearing them. By the way- lots more stairs….arse of steel!

Next to the amphitheatre was the hippodrome, which apparently has nothing to do with Hippopotamuses, hosted the chariot races and gladiator type stuff- while we were there, there was a couple of guys practicing fighting in full costume- very fit…even better than Russell Crowe I’d say- very nice to watch and um appreciate the historical significance and stuff of their glistening and sweaty muscles under their fantastic period costumes…

The good looking men and great acoustics notwithstanding, Jerash was an absolutely amazing place. The entire city, although in various stages of ruin, was on the whole fantastically well preserved- the colonnaded “main street” still had the ruts made from the chariots which passed along the street over 1000 years ago. Just outside the complex was Hadrian’s Arch, built to commemorate his visit in 129AD and still in great condition. It is crazy to think how far this guy’s rule extended. Think of Hadrian’s Wall in England- a very long way from the middle of Jordan!

Next we went to Mount Nebo, which is according to legend the place from which Moses saw the promised land- Israel. Personally I think he could have done better. It was a fantastic view but not exactly a land of milk and honey if you catch my drift. But then again maybe climate change has made some of this dry up or something. (Sorry to anyone I might be offending here but I say it as I see it). We had a group photo here, and another few with a bunch of young guys who said they were from Iraq or something (I’m not entirely sure who they were but they must have been important somehow going on all the “minder” type people they had with them!).

After this we headed on to the town of Madaba to see this church which has what is thought to be one of the oldest maps in existence. It was this mosaic on the floor which showed Jordan, the Nile valley, Sinai peninsula and the Dead Sea and Israel. It was pretty cool! Next we went to a place that is known as the Grand Canyon of Jordan- the Mujeb Valley which is over 4km wide and 1km deep. It was honestly one of those places that I put on my list of places that took my breath away! It was absolutely indescribable- the best I can say is bloody big, and bloody amazing!

Next stop Karak Castle, apparently one of the most famous in Jordan (I hadn’t heard of it)- it had great views, lots of steps, and a store just outside that sold fantastic pistachio ice cream.

After this it was straight on to Petra for the night. A dinner of dodgy kebabs and great nights sleep in quite a swanky hotel. The next morning we were up early to go to the only thing in Petra really worth seeing- the Ancient city. We rode horses down to the entrance- for some reason the guy who gave me my horse assumed I knew what I was doing on a horse (my horse riding experience was limited to the donkey ride in Egypt and once when I was about 9 or so) and just let me go off by myself while everyone else got led slowly. I’m proud to say I didn’t fall off once and it was really nice (albeit nerve wracking) riding down by myself while everyone else had guides. Happily even Emma managed to stay on her horse!

After leaving our horses we walked into the narrow Siq (apparently this is what the path in the rocks is called). The rock formations and the structures carved into them were unbelievable- it would have been an amazing place to live- according to my tour notes that put it much more eloquently than I ever could: “Although inhabited earlier, the current structures, hewn out of the sheer rock face date from the 3rd century. Petra’s importance grew due to the caravan trade, but with the development of sea trade its importance dwindled and by the 14th century it was effectively lost to the west, only being rediscovered in 1812.”

It is hard to believe a place like this was “effectively lost” for nearly 500 years. The absolute best part is the bit I call the Indiana Jones temple. Mainly because it is the temple in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that he goes into to find the Holy Grail. I think I must have been humming the theme tune half of the day! It was crazy amazing and I’m absolutely stuffed if I know how they managed to build it!

The rest of the Rose City (as they call it) was equally amazing and so well preserved because of its sheltered position. It kind of reminded me of the Flintstones with all the carved rock houses. There really is no other place on earth like it (prove me wrong!). The colours in the rocks were beautiful and as the day went on they seemed to change as the sun hit them at different angles. It was absolutely, unbelievably gorgeous.

That evening we went to a fantastic cheap restaurant (where the guys who worked there all seemed to love Lisa) and had a huge and more importantly cheap meal!

The next day we made a quick trip to a place known as little Petra- strangely enough it was just like Petra, but little! It was no where near as crowded as Petra was the day earlier and we were allowed to climb up into some of the houses. We drove on to a rest stop and changed cars to a 4WD to go out into the desert to a place called Wadi Rum- this area is famous for being the base for the Arab revolt during WW1, and also as the area where ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ was filmed. It is a maze of rock-scapes which rise from the desert floor to a height of up to 1750 metres. It was a great place- and a vastly different type of desert to that we saw in Egypt. We had “fun” climbing what felt like the worlds steepest sand dune (arse of steel!) and I was going ok until I managed to swallow what must have been one of the only flies in the entire country about 2/3 of the way up- the rest of the climb was spent gasping, coughing and spitting trying to get rid of it! The best, and easiest, part was running right to the bottom of the dune- I got down a lot quicker than I got up!

We then made our way to the tent city we would be camping in for the night. I don’t know if camping is the right word for it- there was certainly no DDBB! I spent the evening relaxing and wandering about the camp. I climbed up this big rock thing next to the camp and got an amazing view of the campsite and the surrounding desert. It was such a nice view that I climbed all the way down, got the camera, and then climbed back up again to get photos. I wasn’t quite as quick a climber as I’d hoped and unfortunately just missed the sunset over the desert. Either way, it was absolutely worth 2 climbs and amazingly relaxing sitting at the top of a big rock looking out over the desert in the evening twilight.

Dinner was a traditionally cooked affair with slow roasted lamb an vegies, breads, salads and sticky sweet desert things- all of this followed by dancing and singing around the campfire. Life is good!

The next day was the highlight of the whole trip. We went to the Dead Sea. It has been one of my lifelong dreams to go swimming in the Dead Sea- ever since year 7 German when Mrs Allen told us about the Dead Sea and how floaty it was. I had a brilliant time, and yes it was very floaty and bloody salty! It was really surreal just bobbing about thinking- I’m in Jordan, at the Dead Sea; over there is Israel… bloody hell!

After our lovely salty swim we continued on to the Israeli border. Lisa and James were both continuing on to Israel, while Emma and I were heading back to Amman. It was really strange at the border (I suppose this has something to do with the political situation). Emma and I were not allowed past the checkpoint and were basically unloaded, with our bags at the border with all these guys with big guns and told to wait there- we’re not sure how long this will take. So here we were at sunset, surrounded by men with big guns, on the Israeli-Jordan border crossing- not know how long or ride would be. We thought it was a good time to crack out a game of cards (UNO) to amuse ourselves. This got a bit of a shocked reception from the men with guns. There was something about 2 young girls, sitting on the border with their bags having a very loud and argumentative game of cards that was a little out of the ordinary for them. We certainly had a lot of interested onlookers!

About an hour later our car came back. As we were loading our bags back in one of the guards (the one with a really big gun who looked like he was in charge) came over to us and said something in Arabic. Naturally we had no idea what he said (my Arabic is limited to thankyou, no, and breath in and hold your breath). He repeated himself and stood there quite imposingly with his big gun. Our guide came over worried and he repeated himself- turned out he said “can we please have your pack of cards we’re a bit bored here”, of course I am not going to say no to a man with such a big gun and I duly handed over a pack of cards to which I got a big smile and a thankyou from Mr big Gun and a wave from all the other men with guns- just making the world a safer place I suppose! It certainly was an experience I will never forget- sitting on the Israeli-Jordan border, surrounded by men with guns, playing UNO.

It was with a sense of sadness we headed back to Amman, minus one pack of cards, but with a lot of new and fantastic experiences to talk about and remember. Tomorrow we head back to London for a week off, a wedding, and then a trip to Ireland.

Walk like an Egyptian - Dig do burn bury

nadscol — Sun, 5 Apr 2009 19:10:00 GMT

Then it was off out into the desert….a new adventure starts...We drove out to a truck stop type place which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere to meet out drivers and to get different cars. We certainly attracted a lot of attention. I think we were the only females within 100 miles! Anyhow, our drivers and cook met us and we were off again for a long drive. The roads were surprisingly good although I could have done with a touch more legroom in the back of the 4wd on our lovely little bench seats! We arrived at our campsite just after dark after numerous police checks. In Egypt they seem to have police posts in the middle of nowhere which mainly involves a few young guys (usually smoking cigarettes) who look at your paperwork. That seems to be about it. Maybe it’s so if you get lost and don’t turn up at the next checkpoint they go looking for you in the dessert. Dunno…

So the campsite was in a kind of hollow on the edge of a big sand dune. The boys set up and Mohammed (our utterly brilliant cook) started dinner. We then learned the concept of D.D.B.B. or dig, do, burn, bury. You can guess what this relates to… There is something strangely Zen about wandering off into the desert at night, out of sight, to pee. The only major dramas were getting sand in your pants, keeping an ear out for the foxes, and remembering the way back to the camp!

Dinner was gorgeous. Mohammed cooks what is the best lentil soup on the planet! I still salivate over it and this is 3 months later. (Will have to try to get the recipe- I think Lisa got it). Put it this way, it was bloody good soup.

The night was spent looking up at the stars and lazing around the campfire. We slept out in the open right underneath the stars (it’s not as though we were expecting rain) and I really do think that this is a lovely way to fall asleep.

The next day we drove to the oasis town of Al Kharga. Here we got a police escort to go to some of the local sights- I’m not sure why, I think they may have just been bored- but they were very good looking young men who smiled and waved at us a lot so we didn’t really mind! We went to this Christian burial ground at Al Bagawat, dating to the end of the 7th century. It was absolutely amazing. There were all these igloo looking buildings that were graves or I suppose you could call them little mausoleums. It was hard to believe exactly how old they were- some of them were in really good condition and were even painted with murals and stuff on the inside.

After this we drove on to Dakhla where we were staying for the night. It’s this Bedouin village where you can stay in reed huts. We were expecting something pretty basic, but we were very pleasantly surprised! We must have gotten an upgrade because we were in lovely little villa things. It was great and although the bathroom facilities weren’t brilliant we didn’t have to do any digging! That evening we had a traditional Bedouin dinner and then went into a big tent thing where there was singing and dancing. They are such a happy people, my only nit-picky thing is the fact that all of the men seem to be chain smokers! Come on boys- give it up!

After a good night sleep we got out into the desert, its absolutely amazing looking out at the desert and all you can see right to the far horizon is sand dune after sand dune. It makes you feel very small, and a little thirsty! After this we found a bloody great sand dune and did some sand boarding. It was crazy fun- and the best workout on the planet climbing those damn dunes! In the fun I somehow managed to bugger my camera (I think it may have gotten a little sandy on the inside- oops!) so I was unfortunately without camera from then on- thank goodness for Emma who doesn’t take photos of anything that let me commandeer hers for the rest of the trip. Then we headed on to a natural spring nearby. It was lovely. It was like a warm swimming pool and you could jump off a bit at the edge with about a 4m drop into the water (or be boring and use the steps on the other side). I of course jumped in about 10 times it was so fun. You had to jump right out because there was a bit of a ledge below and aim for a certain spot in the water which was deeper because it was the actual source point for the spring. When you landed it was like being in quicksand or mud at the edge of the hole, but in the centre it was all bubbly and it exfoliated your legs. Great fun! While we were there another group turned up a little later than us. They were a big group with about double the amount of people we had but out of the lot of them only 2 of the guys had the guts to jump in off the big ledge bit. It was hilarious, all of us in our group (which was as you know 8 girls and one guy) were practically doing loops to keep jumping in, but the others were nearly all big scaredy cats!

After the lovely swim, which unfortunately turned me bright orange due to the sulphur in the water (think very bad fake tan) we had a nice lunch. That afternoon we went for a camel ride. Mine, named Bruce of course, was very smelly but like to go quite fast which was nice! Emma managed to nearly fall of her camel (and would have had the camel guide not caught her! Further enhancing her reputation as being a bit unco! (Sorry dear but it’s true!).

That evening (still orange) we headed back out into the desert for another nights sleep. We got to our campsite well before sunset and thus got to see the sun setting over the dunes which was lovely. That evening, by popular demand, Mohammed made lentil soup again. Again, it was to die for, and then our group treated our guides to some fantastic around the campfire singing (whether they liked it or not!).

The next morning we made our way back to the Bedouin camp for some well earned showers (still orange and smelling slightly of camel) and then drove back out into the desert we stopped at the fabulous medieval mud-brick town of Al Qasr. It was really nice and Khaled gave us a little bit of a lesson on Islam which was quite interesting. After lunch we headed to the Farafra Oasis where we visited an art gallery which was sort of also the artists house. The whole building was full of works of art as well as being a work of art itself. My favourite was his sandstone sculptures- the amazing colours….absolutely lovely. We stopped at another spring but it was only Mark and Khaled that jumped in here. I spent the time feeding apples to some donkeys nearby (I bought the apples and they weren’t nice so I thought the donkeys would appreciate them- I really do love donkeys!) It was lovely at the spring- while we were there a bunch of women came along and did their washing in it while their little kids played. It was nice just seeing people do normal everyday things in such a harsh environment and doing it so cheerfully too!

That night we camped out in the amazing white desert- a spectacular region of wind-eroded limestone formations. The continual erosion has left a layer of fine white dust on the desert sands, hence the name ‘white desert’. It was unlike anywhere I had ever been before. Looking at all the limestone formations made you feel like you where on another planet they were so alien looking! That night we had our final serve of our favourite soup (I think poor Mohammed was getting sick of making it!) and we had our final night under the stars.

The next day we had an obligatory group photo under one of the famous limestone formations (it kinda looked like a mushroom) and made our way slowly back to Cairo. On the way we managed to pick up an armed policeman (whether we liked it or not) to be our escort. Secretly I think he just needed a lift back to Cairo! It was a very long exhausting day. We got into Cairo in the afternoon peak hour. The roads were utter chaos! One thing that caught my eye (and that I wish I would have gotten a photo of) was a family of 5 riding on a single little motorbike- I don’t know how on earth they all managed to fit on! – it was not what I would call a family vehicle!

In the evening we made a trip to the Pyramids sound and light show. It was dreadfully tacky but certainly worth a visit if not purely for the chance of seeing the great pyramids and the Sphinx lit up at night. After this it was a final farewell dinner at a restaurant that Khaled recommended. It only seemed to have one thing on the menu which was this noodle and lamb thing with crunchy onions and chilli- but it was really yum- and cheap! Wish I could remember what it was called!

After this it was goodbye to our group and guides. It was quite a sad farewell because we had such a brilliant time with some truly wonderful people. I know I will be back to Egypt but not for a while yet because tomorrow I’m off to Jordan!

PS Still a little orange but no longer smelling of camel!

Walk like an Egyptian - Eau de Donkey

nadscol — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:36:00 GMT

I was up before sunrise today for our hot air balloon ride. Hot air ballooning has never really been one of those things that I have craved doing. I have to admit that I sort of classed it as a little to tame for my inner adrenaline junkie- however the prospect of flying over the Valley of the Kings at sunrise did put quite a bright silver lining on the idea. So, I with most of our group headed off early to fly. I definitely think the most ‘extreme’ parts of it were being practically thrown into the basket by 2 Egyptian men, and the point where we hit the tree. Nethertheless it was a fantastic flight. The view over the Nile and the Valley of the Kings was incredible. And watching it as the sun came up was magical. I think my favourite part of the whole thing (apart from hitting the tree) was being able to see so starkly from above the border between the lush Nile valley and the huge deserts which edge onto it. I took heaps of photos of this- it was a perfect illustration of what things will look like without water. No wonder the ancient Egyptians worshipped and revered the Nile. It really is the lifeblood of Egypt.

After a surprisingly smooth landing we headed straight to the Valley of the Kings to see some is suppose you would call it- gravesites. It’s an absolutely amazing place- they had discovered another grave temple thing (tomb??!!) yes that’s the word about 2 weeks before we arrived there- so we got to see an excavation site too. I can only imagine how many undiscovered wonders there are in those hills- the romantic in me hopes that some are never found, but the curious nerd in me wants to know and see everything! We got to go inside 3 of the tombs- all three were brilliant. The best part was the paintings inside. The bright hieroglyphics everywhere telling stories about the pharaoh who was buried there. The colours were all so bright and vivid still- it was mind-blowing thinking how old they actually were.

After this fun it was time for our donkey ride- this was something I had been looking forward to for ages. I have only ever ridden a horse once, and that was about 15 years ago in Delegate. I was ridiculously excited and got given a cute white donkey whom I immediately christened Bruce. Bruce was brilliant- he intelligently ignored any directions I tried to give him and trotted along at a reasonable pace minding his own business. It was so much fun and I never fell off once! (A real achievement considering how uncoordinated I am!) The same could not be said for the whole of our group. In Rhian’s defence her donkey was a complete out of control bastard and she did amazingly well to last as long as she did without falling off. I don’t think there is any defence for Emma- she was just no good at riding donkeys and very unco! (I am glad she didn’t get hurt though). Bruce was absolutely perfect and I gave him a big hug when we finished. I want a donkey!!! (Please mum-it’s my birthday soon!)

After this we had another fantastic lunch at a local restaurant and then headed of to explore the absolutely huge Karnak temple. This place was absolutely huge and I am very glad that we had a local guide to explain what everything was to us. It was quite crowded but luckily because the place is so huge you don’t really notice the crowds as much. It was stinking hot and I am ashamed to say that when our guide left us to explore on our own I joined the others in finding a nice shady bit of temple and sat. I honestly don’t know how people can handle the heat there it was so draining!

Thankfully after our visit to Karnak we went straight back to quite a nice hotel where we indulged in long showers and a change of clothes (I smelled like eau de donkey!) so it was much needed!

Then it was off out into the desert….a new adventure starts!

PS : I am still singing Billy Joel

Walk like an Egyptian- In the middle of the Nile

nadscol — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:51:00 GMT

Finally some relaxation! Well sort of. After the worlds most frustrating and bladder stretching journey we arrived in Aswan feeling gross. Thankfully Khaled, the best tour leader on the planet (this is a guy who knows people!) had a minivan waiting for us as well as a free lunch of felafel kebabs (mmmmmmm!!!!) and then a lovely shower to wash off all the train yuckness (yes I am inventing new words here). After this we went on a trip to visit to the stunning Temple of Isis at Philae Island. To get there we had to catch not the most seaworthy (well technically river worthy) vessel I had ever been on and listen to one of the most hyperactive guides I have ever encountered. It was beautiful though, especially as we were there kind of on sunset. Hieroglyphs absolutely amaze me; they were so perfect that I couldn’t really believe they were real. I learned how to write my name in them (no I can’t remember how, there are birds and zig zag lines involved somewhere). It was crowded, but not ridiculously so, and it was definitely worth the trip.

After braving the boat to get back to land we made our way back to our hotel then went of to explore the Nubian bazaar - a long and colourful street that snakes through the centre of town. This was an experience. I have never met such persistent sellers as the Egyptians in Aswan. It was downright irritating! Stores that I might actually have looked in, I didn’t on principle because the storekeepers were so forceful. They tried anything and everything to try to get you into their store. The funniest and most unbelievable tactic was the “I’ll pay you to look in my store”- what sort of idiot would fall for that! I felt really sorry for poor Mark, our lone male traveller- he got heckled the whole time. The entire population of Aswan felt the need to call him Casanova or something to that effect. We ate in the bazaar- I had a lamb and rice type thing with the obligatory flatbread that seems to be the staple diet here. Very nice- Egyptians know how to cook! We wandered back to the hotel, bellies full, for an early night, partly because we were absolutely knackered from 2 days of travel with minimal sleep and maximal sightseeing, and partly because we had a 4am bus to catch the next morning to go to Abu Simbel.

These early mornings are killing me! 4am and we are on the road for about a 3 hour drive south to Abu Simbel. The reason for the early morning is the strict rules that Egypt has for going on certain roads. We went in a huge convoy of buses and police cars. I guess they feel there is safety in numbers out in the desert. We arrived on sunrise to one of the most spectacular places I have ever been. Abu Simbel has 2 main temples overlooking the majestic Nile. These in themselves are spectacular, but perhaps just as spectacular is the fact that they were moved about I don’t know, 40 years or so ago to higher ground after the Nile was dammed. It is amazing- I imagine it was one of the world’s oldest and most fragile jigsaw puzzles and they did a brilliant job. It was ridiculously busy here but totally worth the trip and the lack of sleep. I am glad that we came so early in the morning too because it was absolutely stinking hot and I would have hated to be there in the midday furnace.

A long hot and boring bus trip back to Aswan and we boarded the cruise boat that was to be our home for the next 3 days. It was pretty flash, on board pool, giant dining room, lovely little twin cabins with private bathrooms that all had little balconies. Anything would feel like luxury after that dreadful overnight train (I really do think that I may be scarred for life). We had a huge dinner and the afternoon was our own. Most of the group decided to indulge on a felucca ride down the Nile. It really was the most amazing and relaxing afternoon. The felucca that Khaled hired for us had basically the whole deck as one big cushy mattress covered in pillows. We lounged around for hours in the perfect weather drinking tea and eating cake provided for us by our Nubian sailor guy. All of this while listening to Bob Marley (who is apparently a huge favourite of the Nubian people). It really was absolute bliss. Another good thing was looking out at all the other feluccas absolutely crammed with people. Most of those boats on the river just had bench seats and seemed to carry at least 25-30 people, ours, while being exactly the same size had the big mattress, lots of space between the 10 of us (including the driver) and with every single boat we passed crammed with people sitting on hard seats while we lounged about I must admit I absolutely loved the jealous looks! Like I said: absolute bliss!!!!

We had a relaxing night on the cruise boat. They had a show on with a belly dancer woman and a guy (who kind of looked like my mate Tharwat from Liverpool Hospital) whose act mainly involved lots of high speed spinning and flapping of his skirt. I was suitably impressed that he didn’t fall over, vomit, or trip up on his huge skirt.

The next day was spent relaxing. I had a last minute shopping trip at the bazaar in Aswan to get some souvenirs (which I managed to barter quite successfully for! Yay me!) And after that it was utter relaxation on the boat as we set sail down the river. More and more relaxation- after the craziness of the previous few days it was lovely just to mooch on the sun lounges and watch the world go by as we drifted slowly down the Nile. Just on sunset we arrived at Edfu to see the temple of Horus. Sunset really is a lovely time to see an Egyptian temple.

Back on the boat we had a fancy dress party. Good times- a very fun night! Prizes for best dressed definitely went jointly to Mark – in his exquisite blue Egyptian man dress, and Rhiannon, Laura and Bec in their matching belly dancer-esque ensembles.

The next day we continued sailing down the river. It is a lifestyle I could certainly grow accustomed to! We stopped to look at another wonderfully preserved temple, and then continued on with our lazy drift northwards. That evening we had a big traditional party with dancing and music before a huge dinner – the food was brilliant- and plentiful!

That evening we arrived in Luxor. Tomorrow morning it is another early rise for a sunrise hot-air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings! This trip is brilliant! So in the morning it will be goodbye Nile but hello to the next part of my adventure- into the desert!

PS I think Emma is getting sick of me constantly singing Billy Joel!

Walk like an Egyptian- The Overnight Train

nadscol — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:40:00 GMT

This one deserves its own story. The overnight train- definitely not something I would ever care to repeat.

We had our very long day exploring the exciting and wonderful sites of Cairo. This was exhausting (especially due to the heat) and definitely wore us out for our impending journey. We went to the train station at about 10pm that night for the overnight train to take us down south. It was SUPPOSED to be a 12 ish hour journey. This was daunting enough. I had heard a few stories in my travels about these trains and was expecting the worst. The main thing everyone seemed to comment about was the bathrooms. Anyone who knows me moderately well will affirm the fact that I have a bladder about the size of a very small walnut- especially when travelling. So I particularly was not looking forward to a 12 hour journey on an uncomfortable train with possibly the grottiest toilets on the planet. I tried to prepare by not drinking much and trying to sleep as much as I could – there was absolutely nothing to see outside the windows because for at least the first 7 hours it would be dark outside. Best laid plans hey!

As it turns out the temperature of the train varied between sauna and freezer most of the night (I wrapped myself up in my sleeping bag most of the night), the lights never went out (except when the sun came out in the morning), the seats were bloody uncomfortable, the guy in front of me seemed to be oblivious to the fact that his mobile phone was ringing and beeping half the night (he got a good nights sleep at least), and the guard felt the need to check peoples tickets every couple of hours or so whether or not we had even stopped at a station in the intervening time! Either way not a recipe for a restful night for a person who is a bit of an insomniac at the best of times and who is also concentrating on not needing to pee!!!

I made it to 12 and a half hours. I could have made it had the train not been running 3 hours late. Bloody 15 bloody hours!!!!! And put it this way, the grotty train toilets after 12 and a half hours were not what I would call remotely sanitary…I seriously considered trying to hold on….but needs must.

15 hours on a train….an experience certainly. But not a very enjoyable one.

Walk like an Egyptian- Pyramids, the Sphinx and King Tut

nadscol — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:39:00 GMT

An early morning and we were off to see the sights. First was the best- the pyramids. Here I had one of those “I really can’t believe I’m here” moments. It was breath taking, brilliant, wonderful… I could go on forever. Because we got there early I luckily managed to get one of the daily limited tickets to go inside the great pyramid. Standing outside and looking up at it was just brilliant. It is bigger than big. Inside is like being inside a crazy sauna. I have never felt such dry, oppressive, lung bursting heat. Almost half of the way inside to the centre you have to practically bend in half because the walkways are so low. In one particular part there is a really long, steep ramp that was just…I don’t know how to describe it…there was this high ceiling, and this ladder thing to go up so there wasn’t a sheer slope…everything was so geometric and precise. It was really hard to believe that I was inside the great pyramid, an absolutely amazing structure, thousands of years old and inside all of the surfaces were so smooth and precise it felt like it could have been built 5 minutes ago. In the central chamber all that remained was an empty stone sarcophagus. Apparently this chamber, directly in the centre or the pyramid, is apparently the only place on earth where acceleration due to gravity is less than 9.8 metres per second. To a big nerd like me this is absolutely unfathomable.

At the time we reached the central chamber there wasn’t many people there. I did find 2 things quite funny though. The first was the Japanese film crew that were there. The “host” was jumping in and out of the sarcophagus having an absolutely brilliant time. The second was a group of people who came in just as we were leaving. In the centre was this casual but expensively dressed guy who looked like he owned the world. Around him were what looked like about 4 body guards- all in the traditional men in black type attire. As I have already said, it was absolutely sweltering, and the poor buggers in their full suits and jackets and ties looked like one big layer of sweat. I felt sorry for them they looked absolutely exhausted- think they must have been carrying some very heavy weapons underneath those very thick heavy jackets! I still wonder who that guy was with all the protection he had.

After this we made a trip down to see the sphinx. It was pretty good but there was so much stuff around it I think that this kind of detracted from it. This and the gazillion people in the way! I’m not bitching and moaning, it was fantastic, I liked its paws the best, but it was in this little sunken part in front of the pyramids and it would have been nice to see it better.

After this I had the world’s cheapest lunch (one Egyptian pound for a falafel roll) and we went to the Egyptian museum in Cairo. It was pretty damn good. Obviously the best part was seeing king Tut’s mask and grave goods. I still can’t believe how beautiful and in tact everything was. The mask was beautiful, I had seen it in so many pictures and books it was kind of hard to fathom that I was seeing the real thing. I loved the coffin (sarcophagus?) too. The only big shame was, apart from a few main areas the whole museum seemed a little dilapidated and drab. It was like they knew that they had some of the greatest treasures on the planet- why bother setting them out nicely and informatively- I mean they speak for themselves don’t they? Well sort of, but they could have said so much more.

We had a lazy night of doing not much apart from a little bit of grocery shopping for our impending overnight journey. But that is another story….