Hello, Culture Shock!

We arrived in Luxor, Egypt on Wednesday late afternoon.  As soon as we stepped off the plane we were hit by a brutal heat wave.  After everyone piled onto the bus, we were driven to the back entrance of the airport.  There were only two other planes there besides ours.

As soon as we walked into Luxor International Airport, we were bombarded with questions like, "taxi?" "visa?" "money change?"  There were taxi drivers lining the walkway on both sides right inside the entrance holding up signs with names written.  We looked for ours, but didn't see it.  We figured maybe he was waiting outside.  We then were asked by another man, apparently there to point people in the direction they needed to go, if we needed visas.  He pointed to the visa counter where paid $25 each for a 30-day allotment.  After that we waited in line at customs, which only took about 10 minutes.  Once we got through customs we headed for the exit, not knowing that we were not allowed to get back in.  I tried, and was greeted by a policeman who, after blocking me with his body said, "no madam, sorry."  He was very polite, but I felt a bit intimidated by the interaction.  The reason I was trying to get back into the airport was because our taxi driver was a no-show, which we are sure is only due to a communication error on our part with our hotel.  There were several men standing outside the airport waiting for the tourists to exit so they could offer them a ride to their hotel, carry their suitcases or sell you a map.  The local men and young boys are constantly trying to make money off of tourists here, and they are quite aggressive in their approach.  I give them all an A+ for their persistence.  So there we were, standing outside the airport with no ride.  The only option is to take a taxi unless you are on a guided tour in which case you are greeted by a tour bus.  One man approached us wearing a long linen dress and sandals.  He asked us if we wanted taxi.  We asked him how much.  He motioned for us to follow him and did not give us a price.  We asked him again how much, and he still wouldn't say anything.  Finally, Kale said, "ok, la shokran," which means no thank you, and we started to walk away.  As soon as he realized he was losing a sale, he said, "ok, one hundred pounds each."  We were told the price should be one hundred total, and politely declined.  About 100 meters from the airport exit there were a bunch of cabs parked, and we decided to head that way.  Sure enough we were approached by a taxi driver who said he would take us to our hotel for one hundred pounds each, and we started to follow him to his car.  As we were following him, another cab driver approached us to see if we wanted a ride, and we said no because we had already procured a ride.  This did not make him happy, and he started yelling at our cab driver who just walked away, leaving us with the man who yelled at him.  We were basically standing in the center of a bunch of cab drivers wearing their calabelias, which are the long linen "dresses" I referred to earlier.  We decided just to follow the angry man, and let him take us to our hotel.  He opened the trunk for us to put our backpacks inside, and as Kale was taking off his pack, another man jumped in front of him, took his pack, and threw it in the trunk.  When we climbed into the backseat of the cab, the man who threw Kale's bag in the trunk stopped our door from closing, and asked Kale for a tip.  Kale asked, what for, and the man started touching his pockets to see if there was money in there.  It was scary at the time, but we just told the driver to go, and he sped off.  We finally made it to our hotel about 25 minutes later.

After settling into our $14-room, we decided to walk to the city center.  At this point the sun was setting, and all of a sudden we heard a man's voice singing a song.  The song was amplified throughout the city on a speaker.  It was actually not a song.  It was a prayer.  Our hotel is right next to a mosque, and they pray/sing four or five times throughout the day.  As we started our walk to downtown, we were greeted by a few taxi drivers and a few men on horse-drawn carriages.  They all asked us if we wanted a ride, and when we said no, they just kept following us and continued to ask us if we wanted a ride.  They will literally jump into their carriage, and have their horse follow you while continuing to ask you if you want a ride.  It was a little too much for me to handle after the craziness at the airport, and after walking about 20 meters, I told Kale I wanted to go back to the hotel.  Luckily the restaurant in our hotel was featured in a magazine that lists good places to eat in various cities.  We decided to tackle the city in the daylight, which seemed less intimidating.  After a great vegan meal, and friendly conversation with our servers we decided to call it an evening.  We were dead tired after a long day of traveling.

This is the mosque outside our room: 

By the way...as I was writing this entry in the lobby of our hotel Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" came on ... so awesome!

Notting Hill

We spent our last day in London in Notting Hill.  I think that was our favorite part of the city. There is a very famous market there everyday called the Portobello Market that sells clothes, fruit, jewelry, shoes, and many other things that you don't know you need until you see them.  The Portobello Market is located on Portobello Street, which is lined with restaurants, cafes, antique shops, bars and clothing/shoe boutiques.  I loved it there.  There is even a vegetarian shoe store called Bourgeois Boheme whose motto is "fashion with compassion".

We stopped at a small cafe for a coffee and met some locals sitting outside.  We chatted with them for a while, and one of them told Kale and I that he was an excellent judge of character   , and he believes Kale and I will be celebrating our honeymoon for many years to come.  He was very sweet, but very talkative.  One patron even left because he wouldn't stop talking and she was trying to enjoy her book.  It was funny.

We walked by one of the fruit stands, and the most enormous avocado I have ever seen, stopped me in my tracks.  It was literally almost as long as my head... 

 This is me planking.  Planking is an activity that is characterized by lying on your stomach and holding your body as straight as possible in front of any given location.  Kale and I learned the art of planking from our 13 and 15-year-old nephews, and have taken a liking to the hobby...

 This is Kale on the "tube" or train back to Uxbridge.  Isn't he handsome?!

We only have four days left in London.  After being in the UK for over a month, we are ready for something radically different.  Not that the medieval architecture isn't amazing, but after a while all of the Gothic arches, barrel vaults and flying buttresses tend to blend together.  We've been staying in the western-most neighborhood of London, Uxbridge.  The "tube," or subway system has six zones.  Zone number one is basically the center of London, and we are in zone six, which is a 30 to 45-minute train ride into the city's center. 

This pic was taken when we got off the Piccadilly line.  We were headed to the United Grand Lodge of England, and Piccadilly Circus-ish area.  The tube is so far underground that we had to take two of these extremely long escalators to the street level.  Kale thought it would be funny to take the picture straight-on so it would look like everyone was leaning backward.  He was right.  It is funny:)

Here's street-level.  We were now about one block from the lodge:

Here we are at the Grand Lodge, this is the world home of Freemason's, established in 1717. The lodge was amazing.  Everything was marble, and the building was huge.  We got there too late for a tour, but the doorman gave us guest passes and said that we could get into the library, the museum, and the study area. We also looked around the lodge shop for a while and wanted to buy a few things, but knew we couldn't take anything with us. We climbed five or six flights of stairs and stopped on every floor to admire the details that give to every aspect of this building.  The ceilings were incredible!

Below: Looking down from top floor stair.

Kale with a painting of George Washington, he too was a Mason and had a little something to do with the founding the of the US and A :)

This is the front of the lodge.  I had to cross the street, and even go into a store front to get the entire building, and I don't even think I got the tippy-top.  It was such a massive structure.  If you look closely, you can see Kale in the doorway.  He looks like an ant next to the building:)

By the time we were ready to move on from the lodge, it was pouring rain.  We only had one umbrella between us, so we huddled together and walked slowly.  Chinatown was a short walk so that was where we decided to go.  We figured we would find and place there to sit and have some tea.  The pics below were taken in Chinatown...

Once the rain started to clear up a bit we decided to head for some other sites we've neglected to visit since our arrival.

National Gallery, which like all of London's museums has free admission.

National monument:

Oh - and there's Big Ben...parliament...

This was right across the street from Big Ben/parliament.  It was a fenced-in grassy area about the size of an acre, and there were a bunch of flags from other countries surrounding the fenced in area.  Right outside the fence, close to the street there were a bunch of tents set up.  There were maybe 30 tents lining one side of the fence.  I think the protesters were in the tents, and you can see their signs below...

More photos of Big Ben/parliament, and just past BB/P there's a bridge we took a pic from...so you can see how massive it is...

And then we moseyed on over to Westminster Abby...

And Cleopatra's Needle... which was quarried around 1500BC, later around 5BC the hieroglyphs were added. This needle originally stood Heliopolis, then later moved to Alexandria Egypt. It is 68ft high, weighing in at 224 tons (448,000 lbs), made from solid red granite. It was presented as a gift from the ruler of Egypt, Mohammed Ali, in 1819 in appreciation for battles won in support of Egypt. It wasn't moved to London until 1877, via boat. This obelisk has a sister, it rests in NYC's Central park. There is a third, which is in Paris but is somewhat different from the NY and London obelisk's.

Recent news regarding the New York Obelisk. In 2010, Dr. Zahi Hawass, sent a letter to the president of the Central Park Conservancy and the Mayor of New York City insisting on improved conservation efforts. If they are not able to properly care for the obelisk, he has threatened to "take the necessary steps to bring this precious artifact home and save it from ruin.

London Obelisk below:

         

And then we called it a day, went to a pub, had a Guinness and some wine, and headed home:)  

Rain Rain GO AWAY!!

It rains every single day here.  It's pretty much rained everyday since we arrived.  Now I see why everything is so green here.  I am ready to go somewhere warm and sunny!  I actually miss the desert right now. I wish we would have a haboob!

Kale is grumpy right now because he keeps getting web site charges for his business that he no longer owns.  His bad mood is putting me in a bad mood.  But I'm not perfect!  I was in a bad mood yesterday because I didn't like my outfit, and I cried.  I think it is lack of sunshine that is making us cranky.  We only have one week left in London, and then we move on.  

Kale is on the phone with his former partner right now, and they are talking about how busy the business he sold before we left is.  I hope he doesn't regret selling it...too late now, I guess:) 

Nephew-Chasing:)

On Monday, July 18th, my nephews were flying in from Texas!  Kale and I were so excited, and got up early to try calling them on their international cell phone.  I left a message on what sounded like a pretty generic recording, so I am still not sure whether or not I dialed the number correctly.  It didn't really matter to me at the time because I knew where they were headed, and I knew where they were having lunch:)

Kale and I jumped on our bikes, and headed to Windsor/Eton, which is where Austin and Conner, my nephews, were planning to be.  We rode a little over six miles before we arrived in Eton.

We rode across a small bridge into Windsor, which was such a beautiful little town.  I wanted to stay.  But we couldn't.  We were on a mission to try and find our sweet little nephews:)

After riding around Windsor for a bit, we decided to head to The Ostrich, which is where Austin and Conner were having lunch with their Grandparents.  It was about a two-mile ride to the restaurant.  We were so excited to see them! Once we got there and locked up our bikes, we went inside and tried to decide where we should wait for them.  We told the bartender that we were waiting for our nephews to get there with their grandparents, and she cried, "OH NO!"  Apparently, they had already been there, and had left to return to the airport.  We had missed them by about 30 minutes, according to the bartender.  We were sad.  But that is what happens when you are traveling on foot, or bike, I guess.  When we rode the six miles back to our flat, it started to rain.  Thank God we made it home before it really started to rain hard!  It rains EVERYDAY here, by the way.  I checked my emails once we settled in, and had an email from Austin letting me know they had tried calling us, and couldn't get through.  Sure enough, there were three messages on our answering machine from them.  Boooooo:(