We are in Dahab on the coast of the Red Sea in Egypt. We went snorkeling in the best snorkeling area I have ever done. The first day we just went outside the Penquin Hotel, where we are staying. We discovered that day that my snorkel had too big of a hole and we had to dump it. It was still pretty cool but I didn't see many fish at all. Yesterday, we shared snorkels at the Lighthouse snorkel area. It was the coolest snorkel area I've ever seen. I went out for the first time, saw a few fish and then my mask started leaking. So we went in to the beach area. For the second time I went snorkeling in the lighthouse, we fixed my mask and then I could go snorkeling with my Mom. I went out on her back to where it got really pretty. We saw a few fish, I got too excited and breathed with my nose a bit so my mask started leaking again and we had to go in. Darn it!
The third day, today, we bought a new snorkel for me and then the snorkel started filling up because the waves were so big. We were at the area called the Islands, which were only amazing if you went really far out. After the Islands, we met a friend, Nathan, who we had met in Olympos, Turkey and went for milkshakes. I had a pineapple vanilla thick shake, that had a lot of really yummy ice cream in it, which is probably rare here. This afternoon the water got calmer and I really wanted to try snorkeling again because I was getting anxious to see some of the cool fish. I went out on Dad's back and then I didn't panic, I was totally calm and guess what? I saw Indian lion fish, pencil fish, a puffer fish puffed out, a really cool blue fish with purple spots and a purple tail and a yellow face, and I saw two bright yellow fish with colorful stripes on their tail. I finally did it. Yahoo, yippee kayaye!
I can't wait until tomorrow to check out another really famous site named the eel garden. It is supposed to be really cool.
That's it for now, bye,
Emilia
ps. there is a really nice waterfront walk path that I like to walk barefoot on.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Puffies
Hello everybody,
I know that puffies sounds like Puffins again, but guess what? It means puffer fish! We are in Dahab on the coast of the Red Sea in Egypt. We are staying at a place called the Penquin ( even though there are no penguins). The whole reason we came to Dahab is for the snorkeling (pretty amazing)! We have snorkeled for three whole days and have seen maybe a hundred different kinds of very colorful fish. I wanted to rent an underwater camera so everyone can see how amazing the fish are but it was too expensive. I went snorkeling about one hour ago and knew what the puffer fish looked like, so I found one, then scared it and made it puff! I also saw an eel that was green and black and scary. I was wondering what it was until it looked at me. It looked me for quite a while, I looked at it, then it opened its mouth and showed me its sharp teeth. This usually means " don't come near me or I will eat you up" so I didn't, I swam away (scary).
There are three different places we have snorkeled in the three days and every place has been amazing mostly for the fish. But the coral reef is super colorful and fun to look at. There is a type of clam that every now and then you see in the coral. It is very beautiful and very sensitive. If you swim down near it, wave your hand in front of it, the blue and purple sucks into the clam and if you scare it a lot the clam completely closes- interesting.
We'll go snorkeling again tomorrow to hopefully see even more types of fish and maybe even a different type of clam.
Bye for now, Mattias
Ps I'll try to put on some pics later.
I know that puffies sounds like Puffins again, but guess what? It means puffer fish! We are in Dahab on the coast of the Red Sea in Egypt. We are staying at a place called the Penquin ( even though there are no penguins). The whole reason we came to Dahab is for the snorkeling (pretty amazing)! We have snorkeled for three whole days and have seen maybe a hundred different kinds of very colorful fish. I wanted to rent an underwater camera so everyone can see how amazing the fish are but it was too expensive. I went snorkeling about one hour ago and knew what the puffer fish looked like, so I found one, then scared it and made it puff! I also saw an eel that was green and black and scary. I was wondering what it was until it looked at me. It looked me for quite a while, I looked at it, then it opened its mouth and showed me its sharp teeth. This usually means " don't come near me or I will eat you up" so I didn't, I swam away (scary).
There are three different places we have snorkeled in the three days and every place has been amazing mostly for the fish. But the coral reef is super colorful and fun to look at. There is a type of clam that every now and then you see in the coral. It is very beautiful and very sensitive. If you swim down near it, wave your hand in front of it, the blue and purple sucks into the clam and if you scare it a lot the clam completely closes- interesting.
We'll go snorkeling again tomorrow to hopefully see even more types of fish and maybe even a different type of clam.
Bye for now, Mattias
Ps I'll try to put on some pics later.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tombs
Hello again every single person,
We are in Cairo with a population of 20 million plus across the Nile there are another 12 million and 4 million come into Cairo to work every day. Who can imagine how crazy it is with as many people in Canada as there are in two cities that are more like one?
Anyhow, today we went on a private tour to all the pyramids in the area and saw the Sphynx (it looks smaller in pictures than it actually is). We went in to a pyramid that everybody except for my little darn sister had to duck for. There was a sarcophagus in the pyramid bigger than the entrance. See if you can figure out how they got it in there (answer in the comment box).
We saw a statue of Ramses II and his nose was the size of my head, so you can imagine how ginourmously huge it was!
In Cairo you need to be really cautious when you cross the road because there are about three painted lanes and 12 lanes of cars. So you have to cross one car at a time and stand in the middle of the road with cars going in front of you and behind you. One nutty guy that helped us cross the street (he was a human shield) said to us "a tip to cross the street is to close your eyes and open your heart" (silly).
Bye for now, Mattias
ps... vegetarian tip - eat Koshary - it is a pasta with lots of sauces, chick peas, lentils and some other good stuff. There are fried onions. We went to a restaurant that this was their only food.
We are in Cairo with a population of 20 million plus across the Nile there are another 12 million and 4 million come into Cairo to work every day. Who can imagine how crazy it is with as many people in Canada as there are in two cities that are more like one?
Anyhow, today we went on a private tour to all the pyramids in the area and saw the Sphynx (it looks smaller in pictures than it actually is). We went in to a pyramid that everybody except for my little darn sister had to duck for. There was a sarcophagus in the pyramid bigger than the entrance. See if you can figure out how they got it in there (answer in the comment box).
We saw a statue of Ramses II and his nose was the size of my head, so you can imagine how ginourmously huge it was!
In Cairo you need to be really cautious when you cross the road because there are about three painted lanes and 12 lanes of cars. So you have to cross one car at a time and stand in the middle of the road with cars going in front of you and behind you. One nutty guy that helped us cross the street (he was a human shield) said to us "a tip to cross the street is to close your eyes and open your heart" (silly).
Bye for now, Mattias
ps... vegetarian tip - eat Koshary - it is a pasta with lots of sauces, chick peas, lentils and some other good stuff. There are fried onions. We went to a restaurant that this was their only food.
TD and P of C
Hello everybody, sorry I haven't blogged for a while. While we were in Istanbul, we went to a TURKISH DANCE. At the dance there were belly dancers and men dancers and there were traditional dancers. There was a bit of Turkish jazz. My favorite was in second part. It was a solo belly dance and she had little jingle things on her dress so when she moved she jingled. The dance was in an 500 year old Hamam (Turkish bath) that was converted in 1986 to a theatre. There wasn't a big stage. You sat in regular chairs that went in a semi circle and the stage didn't go up high. At the intermission they were giving away Turkish Delight and drinks.
In Egypt, where we are now, it is very hot and we are in Cairo. Today we went to see the PYRAMIDS OF CAIRO. The ones still standing and full, in total there were 10. When we went into a pyramid that was very small, Mom, Mattias and Dad had to duck, but I didn't- hee hee hee hee heee ha ha ha. We saw the Sphynx and the day we are flying out in 2 weeks we are going to see Pharaoh Tutankhamen's famous mask at the museum of Egypt.
In Egypt, where we are now, it is very hot and we are in Cairo. Today we went to see the PYRAMIDS OF CAIRO. The ones still standing and full, in total there were 10. When we went into a pyramid that was very small, Mom, Mattias and Dad had to duck, but I didn't- hee hee hee hee heee ha ha ha. We saw the Sphynx and the day we are flying out in 2 weeks we are going to see Pharaoh Tutankhamen's famous mask at the museum of Egypt.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Get on the bus
If you have kids, you may have heard of this song by the Doodlebops, well, it has become a regular hit with our family in Turkey given the number of buses we have taken in the last month.
Our first bus was spectacular and I can see why people rave about the Turkish bus system. We started with a bus that was pretty average, only to realize this bus was just the shuttle to take us to the otogar (main bus station) that are all a few km out of the centre of town. A huge coach arrived, seats were assigned, there are two drivers and ticket taker, and then, another guy appears and he is in the in-house flight attendant - no kidding -service similar to that on and Air Canada Jazz regional flight, only better because we also had wifi for the entire trip. Did I mention personalized tv's and direct trip door to door too? So our first experience- pretty good.
Our next trip baffled us as we couldn't quite figure out how a 220 km trip was to take us 5 hours. We started off on the shuttle and found out it wasn't the shuttle, it was the bus and it took 5 hours because it went through every little village en route. We still had drink service, but no wifi on this bus. This bus was direct too...sort of... we had to change twice and the last bus wasn't included in our ticket, we had to pay more.....
The third trip confused us further as we were on an overnight journey and we knew we'd be on a big coach again. But 9 hours for the 450 km still seemed long. Well, a mini bus, another minibus, a few hour wait at a main city to get the 9 hour bus and finally we were on our way. Hmmmm... No flight attendant service, no wifi, Turkish movies played out loud on the one tv screen and a stop every two hours for half an hour with announcements and lights on... Pretty poor sleep quality and when it was time to get off, we were the only ones getting off and we were pretty much tossed off at 6am with not much more than a look of disgust that the attendant had to get off to get our luggage out from underneath... Pretty much direct though.
Bus 4 direct to the north...pretty good and met our definition of direct...no minibuses and it did include inflight service, but no wifi and no tv's. Emilia was getting a little too much attention too, so she had to move to a window seat just to be left alone for a while. Not much meeting up to that first bus standard.
Bus 5 was the classic. This bus was old. It didn't even stop at the otogar ; we had some bus helping guy show us where to and how to flag down the bus on the road as it drove by. Our seats were taken and the rest were dirty or broken. This bus had no service or tv or wifi, in fact it was more like what we expected before the first bus ride in Turkey. The best part of this trip was that we were to get off at some named town we couldn't find on our map and then just wait on the side of the road for one of the many minibuses to go by to get to our actual destination. Apparently there are lots of minibuses from our drop off point. We got dropped off at the junction of two highways as the sun was going down. No town, no minibusses going by. After some deliberation we walked up the road a ways to find help. Glad we did.... The traffic policeman who was the only guy around for miles...lucky moment.... helped us by waving down the most decrepit vehicle and putting us in it with instructions to the driver to take us to the next town. We were way over charged but happy to be on our way along the 10km hike we would have taken with our packs in the dark on a hwy....to the next minibus and then the final minibus.
We are not sure we actually want to get on another bus since they seem to be getting a little worse each time. The best part was that the kids attitudes were great. Emilia told us that the hiking we were doing along the highway was what she had envisioned when we talked about going around the world so it wasn't so bad. Mattias reminded us if all else failed we had the tent with us and we could pitch it and deal with getting to our destination in the morning. I am not sure at 7 or 9years old I would have had the same attitude! Oh, and once we had got our wits about us, we looked at our dictionary for the name of the town we were supposed to be dropped off at, and it wasn't a town, the word meant junction/crossroads. The joke was on us but we laughed pretty hard especially when it made us think back to the bus driver's look when we showed him where we wanted to be dropped off. He needed to know "where".... So we just told him our final destination and all seemed to be okay. We had assumed he just knew as a result of our trip direction. What did we know?!
So, we have learned that the bus company does matter, sometimes you are shuttled and sometimes the shuttle is the bus, and the meaning of direct changes dramatically depending on who is selling the ticket and how desperate they are for a ticket sale. Our 300km journey to Istanbul tomorrow is 6.5 hours and direct on a large coach.... we will have to see what that actually means.
Our first bus was spectacular and I can see why people rave about the Turkish bus system. We started with a bus that was pretty average, only to realize this bus was just the shuttle to take us to the otogar (main bus station) that are all a few km out of the centre of town. A huge coach arrived, seats were assigned, there are two drivers and ticket taker, and then, another guy appears and he is in the in-house flight attendant - no kidding -service similar to that on and Air Canada Jazz regional flight, only better because we also had wifi for the entire trip. Did I mention personalized tv's and direct trip door to door too? So our first experience- pretty good.
Our next trip baffled us as we couldn't quite figure out how a 220 km trip was to take us 5 hours. We started off on the shuttle and found out it wasn't the shuttle, it was the bus and it took 5 hours because it went through every little village en route. We still had drink service, but no wifi on this bus. This bus was direct too...sort of... we had to change twice and the last bus wasn't included in our ticket, we had to pay more.....
The third trip confused us further as we were on an overnight journey and we knew we'd be on a big coach again. But 9 hours for the 450 km still seemed long. Well, a mini bus, another minibus, a few hour wait at a main city to get the 9 hour bus and finally we were on our way. Hmmmm... No flight attendant service, no wifi, Turkish movies played out loud on the one tv screen and a stop every two hours for half an hour with announcements and lights on... Pretty poor sleep quality and when it was time to get off, we were the only ones getting off and we were pretty much tossed off at 6am with not much more than a look of disgust that the attendant had to get off to get our luggage out from underneath... Pretty much direct though.
Bus 4 direct to the north...pretty good and met our definition of direct...no minibuses and it did include inflight service, but no wifi and no tv's. Emilia was getting a little too much attention too, so she had to move to a window seat just to be left alone for a while. Not much meeting up to that first bus standard.
Bus 5 was the classic. This bus was old. It didn't even stop at the otogar ; we had some bus helping guy show us where to and how to flag down the bus on the road as it drove by. Our seats were taken and the rest were dirty or broken. This bus had no service or tv or wifi, in fact it was more like what we expected before the first bus ride in Turkey. The best part of this trip was that we were to get off at some named town we couldn't find on our map and then just wait on the side of the road for one of the many minibuses to go by to get to our actual destination. Apparently there are lots of minibuses from our drop off point. We got dropped off at the junction of two highways as the sun was going down. No town, no minibusses going by. After some deliberation we walked up the road a ways to find help. Glad we did.... The traffic policeman who was the only guy around for miles...lucky moment.... helped us by waving down the most decrepit vehicle and putting us in it with instructions to the driver to take us to the next town. We were way over charged but happy to be on our way along the 10km hike we would have taken with our packs in the dark on a hwy....to the next minibus and then the final minibus.
We are not sure we actually want to get on another bus since they seem to be getting a little worse each time. The best part was that the kids attitudes were great. Emilia told us that the hiking we were doing along the highway was what she had envisioned when we talked about going around the world so it wasn't so bad. Mattias reminded us if all else failed we had the tent with us and we could pitch it and deal with getting to our destination in the morning. I am not sure at 7 or 9years old I would have had the same attitude! Oh, and once we had got our wits about us, we looked at our dictionary for the name of the town we were supposed to be dropped off at, and it wasn't a town, the word meant junction/crossroads. The joke was on us but we laughed pretty hard especially when it made us think back to the bus driver's look when we showed him where we wanted to be dropped off. He needed to know "where".... So we just told him our final destination and all seemed to be okay. We had assumed he just knew as a result of our trip direction. What did we know?!
So, we have learned that the bus company does matter, sometimes you are shuttled and sometimes the shuttle is the bus, and the meaning of direct changes dramatically depending on who is selling the ticket and how desperate they are for a ticket sale. Our 300km journey to Istanbul tomorrow is 6.5 hours and direct on a large coach.... we will have to see what that actually means.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Hamam (Turkish Bath)
We are in Amasya, Turkey. We arrived two days ago and at about 5:30 in the morning we realized I had a terrible flu. I threw up quite a few times and the full morning was boooorinnnng because I had to stay in bed. Mom said that all the energy needed to go to getting my flu to go away. Luckily the flu only lasted the day. Today was much better. When I woke up we realised I was fine. So for the day, I will say these in order, first thing we went straight to a mosque (mom and I wore head scarves). The mosque was very cool. There were men going in and out praying on their knees facing east because they are Muslim. After that we went up a hill to a castle that was built-in the bronze age. It was very fixed up and looked like a building from only 1000 years ago. After that we went to the most exciting part of the day.
We went in the hamam ( I like to call them hamammis). First we got really sweaty and hot in the steam room. Then we doused ourselves in water and then finally we went in to a room and had a real scrub down. All of the dead skin came off and it was disgusting. After that we went for, yay, the massage. It felt so nice. When he did the choppy thing on my back I was making noises which made it seem like a bumpy truck. Then we got wrapped up in so fuzzy towels and had tea (only mom and dad had tea, we weren't allowed for some odd reason). I want to go for another one, it was great! Mom said we probably will go for another one in Istanbul.
Bye, Emilia
We went in the hamam ( I like to call them hamammis). First we got really sweaty and hot in the steam room. Then we doused ourselves in water and then finally we went in to a room and had a real scrub down. All of the dead skin came off and it was disgusting. After that we went for, yay, the massage. It felt so nice. When he did the choppy thing on my back I was making noises which made it seem like a bumpy truck. Then we got wrapped up in so fuzzy towels and had tea (only mom and dad had tea, we weren't allowed for some odd reason). I want to go for another one, it was great! Mom said we probably will go for another one in Istanbul.
Bye, Emilia
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Amasya
Most o....I forgot to mention Hello everybody.
Most of the towns and places we go to are set up for tourists from the west region, but Amasya is set up so that mostly Muslims come to visit!! I think because of Ataturk's influence here many Turks come to visit (Ataturk was a Turkish leader who helped the Turks win independence- 80 years ago). Actually we are the only non Muslims that we have seen besides some loud American laughing about touching an old woman's head. Everyone else seems to be from the middle east. Don't forget to practice your Turkish charades before coming here.
There is not much to do in Amasya but we found four really interesting things to do:
- hike around in the tombs built in the side of the cliffs
- go to the castle at the top of the mountain
- go to a hamam ( a traditional Turkish bath)
- walk around the town (look at the awesome water wheel in the river)
The place we are staying is very traditional. It is an old Ottoman Empire house hanging over the river. There are lots of very Turkish things( besides the bathroom). The bathroom is definitely a WC (water closet). It is literally a closet with a shower, toilet and sink. Disturbing photo to follow, and some other pics of the place we are staying.
Most of the towns and places we go to are set up for tourists from the west region, but Amasya is set up so that mostly Muslims come to visit!! I think because of Ataturk's influence here many Turks come to visit (Ataturk was a Turkish leader who helped the Turks win independence- 80 years ago). Actually we are the only non Muslims that we have seen besides some loud American laughing about touching an old woman's head. Everyone else seems to be from the middle east. Don't forget to practice your Turkish charades before coming here.
There is not much to do in Amasya but we found four really interesting things to do:
- hike around in the tombs built in the side of the cliffs
- go to the castle at the top of the mountain
- go to a hamam ( a traditional Turkish bath)
- walk around the town (look at the awesome water wheel in the river)
The place we are staying is very traditional. It is an old Ottoman Empire house hanging over the river. There are lots of very Turkish things( besides the bathroom). The bathroom is definitely a WC (water closet). It is literally a closet with a shower, toilet and sink. Disturbing photo to follow, and some other pics of the place we are staying.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Fairy Chimney Hike
I am in Cappadocia, Turkey.
We went for hikes through fairy chimneys. The fairy chimneys are rock formations that stick up like big cones. In the fairy chimneys there used to be people living in them. The first day we went for a hike we went through two valleys. The two valleys are called Rose Valley and Red Valley. They are called that because they have the colour pink on the mountains. See...!
The second day in Cappadocia we went for a tour of the underground city. In the underground city 20,000 people used to live there too.
People lived in the sturdy chimneys and the underground city because they were early Christians and Christianity was not always accepted. They even built churches into the rocks. One of the churches built into the rock in the open air museum was really neat with a cool design on the ceiling.
The third day we went for a 12 km hike. We went through tons and tons of fairy chimneys. Here are some more pictures...
We went for hikes through fairy chimneys. The fairy chimneys are rock formations that stick up like big cones. In the fairy chimneys there used to be people living in them. The first day we went for a hike we went through two valleys. The two valleys are called Rose Valley and Red Valley. They are called that because they have the colour pink on the mountains. See...!
The second day in Cappadocia we went for a tour of the underground city. In the underground city 20,000 people used to live there too.
People lived in the sturdy chimneys and the underground city because they were early Christians and Christianity was not always accepted. They even built churches into the rocks. One of the churches built into the rock in the open air museum was really neat with a cool design on the ceiling.
The third day we went for a 12 km hike. We went through tons and tons of fairy chimneys. Here are some more pictures...
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Saban!
Merhaba (Turkish for hi),
I thought I should catch you up on one of the places I'm staying. My favourite is the place I'm in. It is called the Saban. The reasons I like it are that breakfast and dinner are included (great food) and there are two, two week old puppies (we only see one most times). The mother was kicked out for killing 2 chickens (bad thing not roosters because they wake you up at 5:00am). They are eating a lot better than when we arrived. The Saban has hammocks, a campfire each night, comfy turkish sitting areas outside, and ping pong. It is near the beach. The next thing is we can eat oranges off the trees. And the last thing is that Mima and I get a tree house to ourselves while mom and dad are in a bungalow next door.
We all like it here so much, we stayed here two days longer than we had planned.
What is this picture of? (above) Answer in the comment box please!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Happy Halloween!
Well the festive candy haul was a little different here on the coast of Turkey at Olympos.
The scariest part was likely the feet in this photo - luckily you can't smell them when viewing over the internet (at least not yet). The "Smelly Feet" song sure comes up often during our travels. You'd be happy to know that this particular pair did get a good soak in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea right after this photo.
Of course we couldn't find any Jack-o-Lanterns here either so we decided instead to eat chocolate around the "fire breathing rocks" of Chimerae. No kidding, these fires have been burning for thousands of years and though the photo might look like we're just huddled around the campfire, there is no wood burning here, just natural methane seeping out from somewhere deep in the earth. Legend (Homer) has it that it comes from the fire breathing beast (Chimerae) that was beaten and driven deep into the earth. In celebration of this the Lycian people would light torches and hold sporting events with these lit torches. Many believe that this is the origin of the Olympic flame.
After watching the fire burn into nightfall we hiked back to Olympos in the dark making sure to include going past tombs of the ancient necropolis for an added spooky effect. Not the same as the North American event, but we figured it was a pretty good alternative.
The scariest part was likely the feet in this photo - luckily you can't smell them when viewing over the internet (at least not yet). The "Smelly Feet" song sure comes up often during our travels. You'd be happy to know that this particular pair did get a good soak in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea right after this photo.
Of course we couldn't find any Jack-o-Lanterns here either so we decided instead to eat chocolate around the "fire breathing rocks" of Chimerae. No kidding, these fires have been burning for thousands of years and though the photo might look like we're just huddled around the campfire, there is no wood burning here, just natural methane seeping out from somewhere deep in the earth. Legend (Homer) has it that it comes from the fire breathing beast (Chimerae) that was beaten and driven deep into the earth. In celebration of this the Lycian people would light torches and hold sporting events with these lit torches. Many believe that this is the origin of the Olympic flame.
After watching the fire burn into nightfall we hiked back to Olympos in the dark making sure to include going past tombs of the ancient necropolis for an added spooky effect. Not the same as the North American event, but we figured it was a pretty good alternative.
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