Europe/Africa Itinerary 6/18/2012 thru 10/9/2012

wyldkat — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 06:48:00 GMT

June 18 depart Lawton, Okla transit to Dallas, Tx then to London. This is the last of my air miles, this trip is economy. How will I handle this, I’ve always flown business or first, poor poor me!!!

June 19 arrive London, John and Pam will meet me and store my things needed for Africa. What a relief not to have to cart the sleeping bag, hiking boots, mosquito repellant, etc around Europe.

June 20 depart London on the EuroStar for either Cologne or The Hague..haven’t decided yet.

June 22 take off for Hamburg to visit Uda. Am hoping she has those great plum pastries she made last time.

June 25 train to Berlin

June 28 train to Warsaw

June 30 - July 6 travel by train/bus through Hungary and Belarus. Will stay in hostels and at Servas hosts

July 7 arrive Krakow to meet with Eva Kor. She was an Auschwitz survivor, one of the Mengle twins. She is going to go through Auschwitz and Krakow with me. This will be an amazing experience to see this and hear about it first hand from a survivor. A chance of a lifetime to pass on history, I wish Alyson were with me for this.

July 13 fly to Brussels and meet up with Lewis and Mari Carr. We will visit my old haunts, drink lots of Belgian beer, eat like no tomorrow.

July 17 leave on the EuroStar for London. Here I will visit John and Pam, Sara, and Rob. I have promised Rob not to injure myself like last time and we had to spend the evening in ER. Plus I was in a wheelchair for my return flights.

July 28 depart London for Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I will stay 2 days here then take a 90 minute ferry to Zanzibar. Not only does it have lots of history in Stone Town but it is the home of Freddie Mercury of Queen.

August 4 depart Dar Es Salaam on a bus for Arusha, this is at the base of Mt Kilamanjaro. It is a 10 hour bus ride, no toilet, 1 stop with squat toilets only. Good thing, Laiken (my crossfit trainer) has been making me do lots of squats, I will need that practice for this trip.

August 6 meet with Global Crossroads representative and begin my week of language and culture. Hope learning Swahili is more productive than my French and Mandarin lessons were.

August 13 go to Moshi with Global Crossroads to begin my week of volunteer work at an orphanage. There are about 100 orphans, infants to 6 years. I will be taking care of the babies and reading stories to the older children.

August 20 leave for my 3 night, 4 day safari. I will go to Lake Manyara, Serengeti, N’gorongoro Crater, Tarangire. This was the cheapest safari I could find at $800 total, all others started at a minimum $700/day. This may mean I am the lion bait to attrack animals for the expensive safaris??

August 25 leave for Nairobi, Kenya via another bus. In Nairobi I will see the Karen Blixen plantation (Out of Africa), the Giraffe Manor, and the Elephant and Rhino orphanage. Think I will stay away from the several slums as I really don’t need to see this. There is enough poverty without going to the depths of it. Will be staying in hostels and with Servas people. I am thinking I might go to Mombasa or Malindi or Watamu but have not yet found transport. The train is said to be extremely unreliable, busses dreadful, local airlines very unsafe with high crash incidents, and car rental not recommended due to poor roads and hijackers. That only leaves hitch hiking…not sure how I feel about this by myself. Last time I hitch hiked was in Mexico with someone that spoke Spanish.

September 3 meet with the Global Crossroads representative who will take me to the Maasi Mara where I will stay with the Maasi tribe. I am to be working with the women, teaching English, helping them sell their famous beadwork. This is the most exciting and most challenging! There will be no electricity, no plumbing, no toilets, no running water, no showers and the huts are made of cattle dung. So do I take a battery operated fly zapper? The village encircles the cattle so flies abundant. The Maasi tribe are the very tall people that herd cattle and are known for their dance of jumping very high. The women wear no top (not sure of bottoms) but wear their beadwork necklaces as adornment. Who knows…I may end up going “native”.

September 11 depart from Nairobi to London. I am hoping John and Pam will let me stay a few days to clean up. However, they may make me take a taxi to their house and hose me down outside, then leave all my Africa things in the garage.

September 14 leave via air for Madrid to visit Txema and Beltxu. This will be great, the last time we visited they were staying with me in Scottsdale over a Thanksgiving several years ago. Beltxu made an excellent paella.

September 20 depart by train for Bilbao for the Guggenheim.

September 22 or 23 depart by train for South of France, Rustrel near Apt. I will be visiting Mike and Shelagh and get to see my Art Nouveau glass from Brussels that has traveled the world and finally ended back in France.

September 28 or 29 depart by train for Draguignon to visit Marianne and Dominque. We will also visit an old friend, Steven VanDeBeek.

October 4 or 5 depart for Paris then take the EuroStar back to London

October 6 arrive London, hope to spend the night with John and Pam then depart for Dallas. I don’t have my return flight yet.

Then I arrive Lawton, Ok totally broke!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photos: Various

wyldkat — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 05:56:00 GMT

World Adventures

Europe/Africa Itinerary 6/18/2012 thru 10/9/2012

Photos: Various