Song of the Open Road

Getting back from a long trip is an odd experience. You are usually exhausted, your clothes are dirty, and the trip is a blur. It takes a while to think about it and figure out what you really took from it. While we were traveling, I read on CNN about a study that found people who spent their money on experiences were happier than people who spent it on things. The rationale behind it was that you eventually grow tired of the thing, but the experience seems to get better when it’s over. The iphone’s bad reception is there every time you make a call, but you tend to forget about the bad flights, hot nights in hostels without air conditioning, uncomfortable taxi rides, and tummy aches. Instead, you just remember the awesome parts.

That’s somewhat true for me, although I enjoy remembering some bad parts because I love telling funny stories. The thing is though, having a dude chase after us in Syria for not giving him a tip after he grabbed my bag and carried it was not really funny at the time. I was freaking out! But now when I think back at Nic just shaking his head and shrugging and saying “I don’t understand” while the guy yells “BAKSHEESH! BAKSHEESH!,” I just laugh.

So here’s for remembering!

Recap or Things We Learned While Abroad. (A top 10 list if you will.) 

10. If you die traveling in the Middle East, it will most likely not be by a bomb or terrorist or infectious disease. It will be crossing the street in Cairo.

9. If the hotel manager calls you James Foreman, just go with it. Free beer will follow.

8. If you go to Petra in the summer, don’t, i repeat, don’t try to hike in the heat of the day. But if you do, climb to the top of the High Sacrifice Trail. (Carry water or you may be the sacrifice.) Then, at the top, drop in a tent of two hipster Bedouin guys who have dreds and are obsessed with Bob Marley. They make cool hemp necklaces.

7. I am worth approximately 100 camels. And Nic is a very lucky guy.

6. Keep tabs on politics in France and Spain. If a Union member stubs their toe, THERE WILL BE A STRIKE.

5. You may lose weight in the heat. Don’t worry though. You will gain it all back eating Middle Eastern desserts. (FRIED DONUT THINGS WITH HONEY!)

4. Apparently, Nic and I look Dutch. ?

3. If Nic has the map, you will not be able to ask for directions. Also, you better have on non-blister inducing shoes.

2. Axis of Evil? More like Axis of Super Friendly People who keep feeding us seconds, making us sit in chairs instead of standing, and saying “Obama! Obama!” with the thumbs up sign.

1. Travel is amazing thing and I can’t wait to see where it takes me next!

Maybe here?

http://www.drifters.co.za/

Madrid: our last stop of the Mediterranean tour. Madrid was beautiful and we stayed in an amazing hotel right next to the main square. Our room even had its own laptop and a great view of a pedestrain street. But even though the city was amazing, it finally hit me. I. was. so. tired. Nic was still feeling adventurous, but honestly, I wanted the internet and the bed. (And McDonalds. So naughty!) We didn’t get much sleep in Barcelona. (It seems the partying doesn’t stop ever there. Drunks singing outside our hostel every night.) And we had traveled around half the world, so I suppose it made sense that I was exhausted.

I was most embarrased when we went to the Prado, one of the great art museums of the world. I was so tired, I don’t think we even made it through 1/20. (Granted, the Prado is massive and it would take you days to do everything, but still.) And I was also grumpy. Nic was trying to find all the famous paintings, and all I could think was:

Jesus, Jesus, Mary, Saint, Jesus.

Renaissance art loved its religious icons. Every room seemed the same: painting of Jesus on the cross, Jesus in the manger, pregnant Mary, some saint dude, Jesus on the cross again. My negativity was getting too much so Nic bought me cheesecake and I was better.

In Madrid, we met up with two old friends, Ronnie and Erica, who live in Madrid. Erica is getting her master’s in Spanish literature at the University in Madrid. They took us out for dinner and drinks and we had fun listening to all the “ex-pat” experience stories. Ronnie also showed us a place that had huge beers for a euro. Of course an Old Mello would find out fast where the euro beers were.

Spanish cities are so pretty, even more so than (dare I say it?) France. I will definitely have to go back to Madrid and give it my open-eyed attention. (I’ll even go for a second round in the “I love Jesus” painting section of the Prado.)

Background Info: The night before we traveled to Spain, there was a massive world event that went down but probably stayed a small news subtext in America. The World Cup Championship. Every single country we traveled to was obsessed with the World Cup. In Turkey, everyone was avidly rooting against Greece- their arch rival. In Syria, the government set up huge tvs in every park in Damascus. Syrians were pulling for Brazil in huge droves. In Jordan, there was excited talk about the next World Cup being in Bahrain. In Egypt, tons of dudes would be crowded around coffee houses with tvs, smoking sheesha and watching the game. Every newspaper in France was filled with drama about the French team’s bad sportsmanship and early exit. (They team even had a disciplinary meeting with the President!) And in Spain. Well, the night before we went to Barcelona, Spain won their first ever World Cup.

Needless to say, people were partying hard in Barcelona. There’s three things that are must do’s in Barcelona: eat bit sized foods called Tapas, gawk at all the amazing architecture, and drink. Most emphasis is put on the last one though. Beer, Sangria, wine, lots of things with strawberry, etc. Everyday, we duly explored the city, going to architecture museums, amazing parks, and castles, and every evening we partook of the other two. Although we were not close to keeping up with the locals of course.

Gaudi, the most famous architect to ever come out of Spain (or maybe anywhere), left his fingerprints all over the city. You will be walking down a street filled with stately buildings from the 1800s and suddenly, out pops a building that looks like a sea monster. His work is stuff that dreams are made of. He also designed the park in the city. It’s like a botanical maze with man-made caves and mountains and lots of trails. Beautiful! Actually, everything about Barcelona was beautiful except for maybe our unairconditioned hostel. But you can’t be spoiled all the time!

When Nic first traveled to France, he did so as an exchange with the UT UTeach program. For half the program, a group of French teachers stayed with NIc and other UTers and then returned the favor when the Texas group went to France. During this exchange, Nic became friends with a cool chick named Celie.

Celie taught in Paris for one year, but she met a dashing Spaniard and asked to be transferred to the Spanish/French border so they could live together. She was gracious enough to invite Nic and I to stay with her in Perpignon, France.

Quite by accident, we were in France during National Day, the French version of the 4th of July. There were lots of events planned and Celie took us to a small, medieval town down the road for “interactive fireworks.” She said something about fire dancers. Intriguing! We were drinking some beer in the city center when all the sudden all the lights went off. Drum beats were crashing from a few blocks over and about every ten seconds we would see flames shoot up. My first thought was, “What the ….” Around the corner came a marching band of demons dressed up in horns, helmets, and lots of macabre outfits. There were men on stilts blowing out fire. And they were coming. Right for us. In fact, if you looked scared or excited or were a teenager, they really came after you with the fire. After the fire breathers passed by, everyone followed them through the town. Keep in mind that this is a town where the buildings were made in the 1600s. Small, winding alleys, cobblestones, and a castle at the end. TOTALLY CREEPY. It was like a living nightmare. Plus beer. Awesome.

After our night of terror, we made a trip to a small town on the Mediterranean- complete with castle, amazing water, and 5 wineries. We sat at a small cafe on the ocean and had French tapas. We even ate escargot. Celie thought it was funny that Dad thinks escargot is practically France’s national dish. She said they are just an appetizer and not her personal favorite. They tasted tomatoey and you got to use toothpicks to dig them out. Plus, leftover snails’ shells look so much cooler on your plate.

Southern France was beautiful. I wish we had more time there. Nic and I looked at real estate in the small town. Now, if we can only save up 850,000 euros, we can have a small flat overlooking the ocean and eat snails everyday.

Ahh, Paree!

At my income level, nothing is more important than price when booking a flight. I will endure multiple lay-overs, crowded seats, and bad airlines just to book that lowest price on kayak.com. By an interesting chain of events, booking that low price had an added bonus when leaving Cairo. It gave Nic and I a three day layover in Paris.

Oh Paris! Nic, who is a huge Francophile, had been to Paris before and I had too my freshman year of college. Since both of us had been to Paris before, we kept the sightseeing down to a minimum. Just Versailles. Versailles, the palace of the Sun King and the home of Marie Antoinette (at least before she was locked in a tower, is of course anything but “minimum.” It is ridiculous. We waited in line with every other American, Australian, Asian, etc. tourist in the whole of France for two hours.

Versailles, with it’s crazy wallpaper, room full of 50 chandeliers, and lots of paintings of not very handsome looking people, (royal inter-marriage didn’t do much for looks apparently), was gaudy and exciting. After looking at the 5th room that Marie Antoinette redid in gold leaf though, even a curious tourist like myself was ready to run at the old Queen with a machete screaming, “Viva la Revolucion!” Monarchy did not live in reality.

And we didn’t really either in Paris. We were on the 22nd floor of the Le Meridien and there was a slight drizzle for the three days. Also, the neverending movements were beginning to get to us. We barely went out! Instead of climbing the Eiffel Tower again, we mostly had room service and watched bizarre French music videos.

3 day weekends (in Paris) are nice.

So before heading to Cairo, we had heard some things from previous visitors. Mainly, that it was incredibly dirty, full of hassles, and that we would hate it.

2 out of 3 of those things were correct. We pulled into the train station at about 6:30 am and stepped out into the early morning light on a city street that was filled with trash. On the taxi ride to the hotel, our sight distance was limited by the hazy pollution and the streets were filled with illegal housing slums.

When we went to the pyramids, someone tried to steal our ticket. We were followed forever with the questions, “Camel ride? Horse ride? Camel? Buy a hat? Water?”

However, we actually loved Cairo.

“Why?” you ask. Well, there’s something about a city that provides a hard face up front. You can turn away pretty quickly, but if you don’t, you might notice the pulse of life that seems to be exploding behind every corner. Why is Cairo full of hassles and dirty? Because it’s massive! Every street was a labyrinth filled with people and donkeys and pastry shops and shoe shiners. But the best part of it was definitely the people. They had a “what can you do?” attitude toward the city’s problems and faced them with a smile and joke.

For example, one day, thanks to my exemplary map skills, we got really lost. Really, really lost in this crazy slum section of the city. If this had been a similar section of an American city, my very nice Nikon camera, Nic’s iphone, and our wallets would definitely have been confiscated. Instead though, people came to the rescue. A friend we met, Ahmad, who spoke no English, was able to figure out where we were headed. He lead us for over an hour (we were really lost!) to the spot we needed, and even bought us a yogurt drink because it was hot. He didn’t ask for money (which is a common thing in Egypt) but we insisted.

We didn’t do a huge amount of touring in Cairo- except the pyramids. Mostly, it was eating at Egyptian fast food restaurants and going on long walks. We traded the intense heat of Luxor with the intense crowds of Cairo.

I think it was a good trade.

So for those of you who don’t know, during our stay at Luxor, we have been using my dad’s Sheraton platinum status and staying in hotels redeemed from his points. Here, we were upgraded to a suite that had a massive terrace and 3 rooms! At first Nic felt very uncomfortable with the extra attention.

“I feel like everyone thinks we’re rich and we’re not! I don’t like this!”

Ladies and gentlemen, it took approximately 3 days for him to change his mind. He’s been up in our “lounge” that we share with the 2 other suites stuffing himself with samosas and chicken. And drinking.  He just called the lobby to page me and tell me that “I’ve got to come try this!” The hotel manager made a visit up to the lounge to meet the platinum member at his hotel.

Manager: “Oh sir! You are a platinum spg member?”

Nic: (Who doesn’t know what spg or starwood points is) Yeah! *Smiles. *Drinks more.

Manager: “Mr. Foreman, it’s so great to have you at our hotel. How was your stay?”

Nic: “Awesome!”

Nic has just joined the proletariate in the lobby and he’s telling me he really hopes our hotel in Cairo has a private lounge. :)

We have made it a hop, skip, and a jump away from our last post and have landed in Luxor Egypt. Petra was amazing and our opinion of Jordan was that the people are very nice, Amman is a very up and coming city, and it is freaking hot.

We made the mistake last Wednesday of hiking Petra in the heat of the day. Our brains were fried but we did manage to see the tomb of Aaron, the brother of Moses (from afar), the absolutely beautiful Treasury, and the old city square. The next day we headed to the Royal Tombs and did some minor hiking. After two days in the heat, we were ready for a day off. Friday we hung out at the pool. Then some transportation days and here we are in Egypt. Jordan and Syria were as brown as land can be, so it was very striking flying from Cairo and seeing the green spread out from the Nile. Desert as far as the eye can see and then suddenly these lush fields. Thanks to mom and dad, we have a platinum suite at the Sheraton here in Luxor. It’s odd being waited on. I’m adjusting better than Nic though. No one moves here during the afternoon unless it’s from the bar to the pool, so we are waiting for the evening to break so we can see Luxor temple and the Luxor Museum. Hopefully, some shesha too!

Hope all is well!

Hello Blog, it’s been awhile. After a whirlwind tour of southwest Turkey, Nic and I are back in Damascus. We are planning on heading to Jordan tomorrow to see some biblical sites and make it to the gem of our trip- Petra!

Yesterday, we drove all the way from Adana Turkey to have dinner in Aleppo Syria and then arrived back in Damascus at 3am. That is of course with 10 other people in a van and that includes 4 kids. Woohoo. We hit a massive dust storm about 2am and visibility was down to maybe being able to glimpse the headlights in front of us. Of course that didn’t stop the driver from going 90 mph the entire way.

That brings us to our friend the driver. Abdul was hired by my friends the Abdi’s to drive us all over tarnation. The guy has never been out of Syria before so this was his first trip abroad. He was a very nice, very religious, and, how shall we say it?, colloquial guy. During our trip with the Abdi’s, I stayed with the teenage daughter and Nic got to stay with the driver. The first night, the driver got the thermostat mixed up and put it on heat instead of cool. He thought it was broken and proceeded to pull his bed out on the balcony. Of the Hilton. Nic waved his arms alot and explained that it wasn’t broken so that disaster was adverted. He also had the habit of waking up at 4 am to do the early prayer. Before the prayer, he would make wudu, which is where Muslims wash their hands, face, and feet in preparation for prayer. In Syria, there are spigots near the bottom of the floor and every bathroom has a drain on the floor, so you can splash around a bit. Well, the driver used the sink and of course it being the Hilton, there was no drain on the floor. Every morning Nic would wake up to water on the walls, ceiling, floors, towels, everything. The guy totally took a bath every morning in the sink. Ohhh, the driver.

It was ok though. We got to be there for the driver’s first taste of McDonalds. Plus, he gave us some delicious date cookies. Nic forgave him for trying to sleep on the balcony, snoring all night, and taking a bath in the sink. Happy moments for all!

P.S. Speaking of McDonalds, when we went there, the driver let us out and then went to find somewhere to park. Never having seen a drive-through before, he thought the nice shady place next to the menu would be the perfect place to park. Needless to say, about 4 cars got behind him and honked. He looked confused and motioned them around. Finally, we explained that he couldnt park there and then he ate a sunday.