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Thursday, January 8, 2009

Made it to Egypt!

I realize every now and again that when I don't have the chance to update the blog, some people get worried that I'm not okay. :) Sorry bout that!

We did finally make it to Barcelona and had a great few days. We stayed with Maria Rosa's cousin, Silvia, who welcomed us with open arms and made our stay really comfortable. We ran around Barcelona seeing as much Miro and Gaudi as we could, which I enjoyed more than I can say. The last night we were there, it even SNOWED up on the hills. Crazy.

We are now in Egypt. We arrived late last night, waited at the airport for Rahima's friend Jenny, who is traveling solo for six months, and then headed to our hostel to sleep for about four hours before getting up today and on another bus to head to the city of Hurghada. It is on the red sea, and if all goes well, Rahima and I will begin our SCUBA classes tomorrow. The weather is heavenly, in the mid 70s, a welcome change from Europe's winter!

So, I have one quick anecdote for you all to ponder before I have to run. When we went from the airport to the hostel last night, via taxi (about 3am) we noticed something very odd about driving at night in Egypt. That is to say, cars drive with their headlights OFF and use them to only flash each other when they want to pass. Hmmm...not quite sure about this system, since they already don't follow any coventioinal rules of the road. I'll keep you posted. Oh, and their horns are seriously wired louder than any horns every should be, and they are constantly honking. At everything. See a car: honk. Pass a car: honk. Want to pass a car: honk. See a car wanting to pass a car: honk. Sitting in your car: honk. The list is endless...let's hope I can sleep through it. Listen to that...someone just honked. Seriously.

3 comments:

Leslie and Dave said...

Seriously, I think you have won the travel award of the year. I would have lost it at some point during your London transport ordeal! Hopefully you can relax in Egypt for a few days.

maria rosa said...

`o.k. Im obviously your other mother because as you know I started to worry when i didn't see a post or e-mail. I know, get a life.
On the honking in Egypt, do they yell and make obscene gesture to each other, like in latin america? Do you have a list of gestures and swear words yet? Miss you lots.
m.r.

Kevin said...

Hey sis - Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc. etc. ...I guess I haven't commented in a while. It sounds like you are having a blast and I miss you.

I hope you have a really good time diving. I think you'll like it. The certification process is mostly fun although some of the drills (like flooding your mask) are a pain. Just remember...relax and breathe...chill out and it all goes a lot easier. The key to good diving is seriously to just get mellow and enjoy it all. And once you've been on a couple of dives, try to figure out where your backups and buddy are, then forget about all the equipment and remember to watch the fish, turtles, sharks, etc. It's amazing how many people forget that part when they are new.

Good luck and let me know how it goes. Did I say I miss ya? Love ya too.
-Kev