The Challenges of Travelling

Well, I can't believe it has been almost five months since we left home and four and a half since we left Canada. Time in one hand seems to be flying by, but when we stop to think about where we have gone and the things we have done and seen, five months doesn't seem to fit.

Daily we count ourselves as being fortunate and the kids hear all the time from other travelers how lucky they are. Yet, there have been challenges and it wouldn't be traveling if it was all smooth sailing. Below is a list (in no particular order) of some of the "best" moments that come to mind:

• Being scrubbed down by another man in a Turkish bath - a large hairy man at that.
• Playing hopscotch down the back stairs of the Citadel in Cairo attesting to the serious lack of nearby public latrines.
• Stepping out of the car in France, in the dark, looking for a place to pitch the tent, only to realize too late I was standing in a good thick patch of stinging nettle - in shorts and sandals of course.
• Having breakfast to the sound of the hostel staff snoring on the bench, couch, or where ever... in the common area. I guess their work includes room and board, but when the rooms are booked...
• Getting dropped off in "Kafacek" (as we instructed the bus driver to do) as the sun was going down, hoping to catch a minibus ("there are many, many buses") to our destination. No mini buses and the town of "Kafecek" we learned afterward means junction. As we walked along the highway in the middle of nowhere, Mima said "I thought this is what we were going to do all the time". I guess we could have prepped her better ... : )
• Subjecting ourselves and our kids to a secure and enclosed waiting area for the ferry from Egypt to Jordan with hundreds of people, of which most are men and almost all smoke. We felt like bad parents - compounded by the fact the ferry kept getting delayed (by six hours). Hack!!
• Enduring the night bus to the Red Sea trying to manage some sort of sleep in between police check points while being bombarded by bad Egyptian movies cranked at full volume (regardless of the language barrier, I'm sure there is no plot).
• Trying to get the proper coffee buzz off Nescafe.

I'm sure there will be more challenges and we will do our best to take face them with a positive attitude. As Mattias said when we got dropped at the junction, "we're really in our traveler's groove now" and he looked for a spot to pitch the tent.