Toronto airport again

We are now in the Toronto airport for the 3rd time this year. This time we are heading home; we will be there soon. yeah!!



Mhari says BYE!!

Ukraine and an Istanbul flashback

The boat trip was interesting. Our cabin was nice; it was in the front corner of the cabin area, had two windows and was far away from the siting area where everybody smoked. There were five of us in a four person cabin and I slept on the couch. The food was OK, but the bread was really bad. If you wanted to eat it you had to smother it with butter or dip it in your tea to moisten it a bit or do both. We thought that the boat trip was 3 days 2 nights, but it was 4 days 3 nights. (more food for our buck) but not every one was so happy because they had places to be, unlike us. When we arrived in Odessa it was about 6:30-7:00am we disembarked around 11:00am and made it through customs at 12:30 my parents arrived 15 minute later. It was kind of fun going though customs without my parents, the guy checking our bags asked Sam why we had come to Ukraine and Sam said: “travel”. The guy then responded with a curious: Alone? But the first guy ( the custom's guy) never questioned us and we could have told the bag guy: Yes, we are alone, and I think he would have been fine with that.

The hotel we had in Odessa had really good wifi and a little to good air conditioning. The room was tight, but the weather was good so we didn't do much hanging around in the room.

The train to Kyiv was very nice. About on par with the Turkish trains but maybe better. We arrived in Kyiv at about 8am and found our way easily to our hostel. Kyiv would have been really nice if it had been sunny but it rained most of the time. I still liked Kyiv but it could have been better. We stayed 3 nights 4 days and I think it was the perfect amount of time.

The train we took to Kamyanets-Podilsky wasn't as nice as the train to Kyiv but it wasn't bad and it was half the price of the first train. The hostel in Kamyanets-Podilsky doesn't have as good internet because it is a bigger building but the hostel is good.

We went and saw the K.P. Fortress one day and on Canada day we went and saw another fortress out of town they were both very fun.

In the market here in K.P. They have kittens, puppies, bunnies, chicks, ducklings, chickens and rabbits for sale. I don't think any of them except the chicks, ducklings and chickens were for eating. I tried to convince my parents to buy me a kitty or a puppy, but they wouldn't. What's more, they wouldn't even let me collect a sample of radioactive silt from the river bank/ beach in Kyiv. My parents are no fun!

Istanbul

We did all the normal things in Istanbul Aya Sofya, Blue Mosque, Bosphurus Cruise...

My least favourite thing was the Basilica Cistern which was kinda boring, damp, wet, (yes they are different) and full of people.

My favourite thing was going into some random mosque I forget the name of. It was just Dad, Sam and I. We were just wandering around Istanbul looking at all the big mosques we saw while Mom went to the Grand Bazaar. Just Sam and I went in to this one at first because Dad had to go the the bathroom. (handy tip for when in Turkey you can almost always find a washroom by or in a mosque complex.)

This mosque was really pretty. It had a different colour scheme to all the other ones. It was really quiet and there were 2 guys praying. Sam and I were too scared to make any noise so we barely talked. But loosened up a bit when a little girl came running in yelling quietly the way little kids do. And the guy at the shoe shelf didn't ask Sam and I for money. He only asked Dad later.  

You happy now Rey!

Georgia

Georgia

We arrived in Batumi and were surprised at how different it was from Turkey. It was a lot less modern than Turkey and would have been a good place to go after India because back then it would have felt modern. Our guest house in Batumi was nice because we got the the “suite” on the top floor, all the walls were wood and we had a fridge. We often get nice rooms because the fancier double rooms often have fold out couches.

After one night in Batumi we got on a bus for six hours. We arrived in Tbilisi across the street from a metro stop but didn't know and successfully got ripped of by a taxi! After a few days in Tbilisi we took a 3 hour bus ride to Kazbegi, a town in the mountains by the Russian border. Kazbegi was really nice; we hiked a lot. The area around Kazbegi is really nice and we stayed four nights which is longer than most people. After Kazbegi we went to Borgomi with a one night stop in Tbilisi.

Borgomi was very nice. We did a seven hour hike in Borgomi national park the first day and went to the Borgomi water park the second. Both were very nice and Sam and I went on the roller coaster twice. It was even scarier than a normal roller coaster because we didn't see any body go on before us and we didn't even know if it was safe. We could not say to ourselves 'don't worry it's North American / European standards'. Because it wasn't. We went back to Batumi for a few days after Borgomi before getting on the boat to go to the Ukraine.

The boat was a very interesting experience. I will right about that later

Yusufeli

I am going to skip Pamukale, Istanbul, Orhaniye, Fethiye, Olympos, Antalya, Goreme, Kyseri and the train for now so that I can catch up.

We arrived in Yusufeli at 5 pm. We went for a walk and found lots of pide restaurants. We were not hungry because for lunch when Sam ordered 3 tavuk (chicken) doners (white fluffy bread filled with chicken and some veggies) instead of giving him three half loaves they gave him three full loaves!!

Later, Sam Dad and I went to go have supper but all the places were closed except two: one was a suckish lokanta with food from this morning and one was a tea shop full of Turkish men that served doner kebabs. We finally found a pide shop across the river.

When we asked the man in the pide shop what the had, he told us that he had a meat pide, a cheese pide and a meat and cheese pide. We got one of each and they were delicious!

We crossed the foot bridge on the way back home. The foot bridge over the river is a wooden bridge with metal rails and every time we cross it I purposely walk beside my dad matching his stride, emphasizing my landing so as to maximize the rocking because I know he hates it. But the last time we crossed he purposely waited until I had crossed the bridge to cross it himself. Humph!!

The next morning we had çorba (lentil soup) for breakfast then, at noon, set out for a 3km walk to see a Georgian church. We walked along the river on the road for awhile and then tuned off at a path which lead along a stream to a small water fall. A 100 meters above the water fall we made dams which diverted the water. We spent about 45 minutes doing this and it was fun! Then we continued on for a bit untill we had a good view of the church. We couldn't climb up to the church because it was on top of a small peak so we didn't bother going as close as we could. We got close enough for a good view and some pictures. We walked back to Yusufeli and then ate at the pide shop for the second time in two days.

Rounding off greece starting turkey and some pictures

The Greek islands were nice. I will just give you a brief update because I am way behind in my blog. Naxos was cold and rainy but had a good vibe and our pension was good and cheap. Santorini was well Santorini and the weather warmed up a bit. Rhodes had a nice old town and we met up with my aunt and uncle for a day which was fun. Rhodes also had more cats than the rest of Greece which was very much to my fancy.

Turkey

We arrived in Marmaris, found a hotel and left the next morning for Selçuk (in Turkish ç is pronounced ch; s with the same accent under it, is pronounced sh). Selçuk is the town beside Ephesus, an ancient Roman city. I think by the time we leave Turkey I will be tired of ancient Roman cities, if I am not already now. Ephesus was nice and had a field of pretty wild flowers. It had two roman theatres . Along the highway to Ephesus there is a running path with play ground style exercise machines (like the ones they have in Kiderminster, England, only older). The path was lined with trees so it was always shady. There were two paths actually: one was a path of lose stones and the other of pavement. There was also a sidewalk on either side where the exercise machines were. I found it very considerate to have put this running path on the way to Ephesus (the locals spell it Efes “like the Turkish beer” they also spell it Efeses when trying to spell it for foreigners). The path didn't go all the way to Ephesus but it stopped just short of the turnoff, and it wasn't far from there. 

Pretty poppy in Rhodes

Silly cat at our pension in Marmaris

The gate of our Pension in Selcuk

Kitty at Ephesus

Me at Heiropolis

Still playing

This is a cat in Istanbul. Biggest Turkish cat yet.

Comments don't hurt you know? It would be kinda nice to know if people actually bother to read my blog.

Pic of me

My new bag.  Hee hee.

(It is my mom's)

Cairo and Athens

We went to Cairo on the night train from Aswan. Cairo was a nice break from Luxor, Dahab and Aswan because the citizens didn't all make their money off tourists in Cairo. The hostel we stayed at had lots of cats (see the pictures on my last blog). The guy at the desk said that there were 20 cats . The cats kind of lived throughout the big 6 story building the hostel was on. The cats left the building to scavenge for food in down town Cairo. When I said on the building, I mean it. The hostel was on the 7^th story -the roof-.

The guy at the desk said that there were six kittens but since the rain a few days before they could only find 3. The three kittens were soo cute and really fun to play with. The male kitten was a little rascal, he meowed a lot and was the braver of the three. He liked tugging at my scarf and at times would start biting my feet. The little brown coloured female was not as brave, but was more outgoing than the other female most of the time. She was the smallest or lest fluffy anyways. The other girl wasn't bothered by us and mostly just did her own thing. She was really cute when you held her cupped in your hands up side down and she would just lie there for a few second looking at you and then she would start to squirm. It was really fun watching the kitties and even in just three days I saw changes in their behaviour.

1. the fluffy girl had trouble getting on to her feet from her back the first day, later that day she could do it.
2. all three kitties were licking themselves a lot more the last day compared to the first.
3. they were more sure of their footing and were a bit more rowdy.

Bye bye kitties, hello dogs... Athens!

Athens was a huge culture shock! It took me two days to get used to it. It was so modern compared to Egypt and even more so compared to India.

There was hardly any place in down town Athens where you could not see 5 or more dogs. It was funny because every other tourist was so amazed and kept pointing and saying to there friends “look at all the dogs!” and “ oh look there's another one!” Us, after being in India where there are stray dogs everywhere and Egypt had a few too, were almost unfazed

Till next time Mhari

Abu Simbel

After a lot of talking, we decided that we should go to Abu Simbel on the local bus, stay there one night and go back the next afternoon, rather than taking the convoy. The convoy leaves at 3 in the morning and if we took it we would arrive at the temple with 5 hundred other tourists.

We took a taxi to the bus station in the morning and successfully bought our tickets. The 4 hour bus ride there was uneventful but we had lovely views out the window of the desert and the Nile valley.

The village of Abu Simbel was nice and well... very small. We checked in at the cheapest hotel in town which was A) Full of cockroaches B) Full of mosquitoes and C) Not that cheap; quite expensive in fact.

In the morning at 6 am we went to the Abu Simbel Temples. They were HUGE and the insides were slightly spooky. There were two temples the big one -the Great Temple of Ramses II- which is on all the posters and most of the post cards and a little temple -Nefertari- which is just as nice but a little smaller. We hung around the temples till the convoy came at 8am. It was fascinating to watch the space around the temples fill up. It was like being in an empty sheep pen and then all the sheep were being herded inside around you. We left the temples at about 8:30 and went back to our hotel. The bus ride back was just as nice as the ride there except dad and I lost our hats. Humff! I had just bought my in Luxor, it was pretty and blue.

Tourist Convoy arriving at Abu Simbel

Kitties in Cairo

The Kitten lying in the sun is a girl the dark kitty playing is also a girl and the light kitty playing is a boy. 

Aswan Faluka

We finally escaped Luxor for Aswan which seemed better at first, but the Faluka Captains were unstoppable. Falukas are smallish sail boats with very big sails. They can fit ten easily and the bigger boats can squeeze twenty on board.

We finally booked a Faluka ride, 50le for 2 hours. Only minutes later a Faluka Captain asked if we wanted a Faluka ride. When we said no, he did the usual ' Why not?! I have very good boat. Beautiful sunset. Please! Good price, good price!'. We told we already booked a Faluka ride, and he asked us the name of our captain. We told him it was none of his business. He kept pestering us and we finally told him that his name was Abdula. Then we escaped and had a McDonald's ice cream. When we left the McDonald's he was at it again. He told us to 'forget Abdula!'  

Egypt

When we were done with Dahab we took a 20 hour night bus to Luxor. This time it wasn't a sleeper bus and we stayed on the same bus the whole time (not like in India). The bus journey was relatively uneventful but they did make us get up at midnight at the African border. This was entertaining because they spent a longtime searching through all the Egyptians bags so we had our bags all ready and they just came along with a detecter of some sort and kept walking by ours. But they spent a very long time pouring over our passports.

Luxor was very fun but you couldn't go for a nice walk because the calesh drivers woudn't leave you alone and you know they thought that meant you still wanted to go for a ride, but for a cheaper price. I DON'T WANT A CALESH. I WANT TO WALK!!! Valley of the Kings was amazing. I don't think I realised it then because it took a little time for my dad and brother to covince me that they didn't just repaint the hieroglyphics (I think I have been in India too long).