Summer '99 Trip - Africa - May to June 1999

To celebrate our graduation from Duke, after two long, hard years of studying (well, not really), we decided to travel for 3 months over the Summer of '99 before we started our jobs at Deloitte in NYC in the Fall of '99.  After a few weeks of research and planning, we decided to spend the summer in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Turkey and Switzerland.  Throughout the trip, we met up with friends from Fuqua (Tracy, Dave, Danelle, Mark, and Fran) and Keith's friend, Russ, who joined us for certain portions of the trip.

We packed all of our items into each a backpack and with a budget of approximately $100/day, we backpacked around these countries, staying in youth hostels along the way.  We had an amazing time, got great tans and gained several pounds after 3 months of eating and drinking.

This portion of the blog covers the Africa part of the trip (which is the first part of the trip) including the countries of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Egypt.  The second part of the trip can be found in the Mediterranean blog and the last part of this trip can be found in the Switzerland/France blog.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

OK, so this is not really Africa but we had a layover in Amsterdam for several hours and decided see a bit of the city.  We met with Dave, John, and Julie (who were there for a portion of their trips) for a brief tour of the city.

We visited the Rijks Museum which is a famous art museum and Anne Frank's house.  And, of course, it would not be a trip to Amsterdam without a brief walk through the Red Light District.  We were quite amused by the fact that you could buy 'brownies' (the kind that make you happy) in almost every coffee shop!  After a quick bite to eat (we did not eat the brownies), we said our goodbyes and left for the airport to fly to Cape Town.

South Africa
We arrived in Cape Town and met with Dave and Tracy who traveled with us throughout Southern Africa, Egypt and Israel.  During our first afternoon there, we went to a food festival at the Castle of Good Hope where we had some cheap, but yummy food and wine for lunch.  We also walked along the waterfront, stopped for an email fix at an internet cafe and then had dinner at Papa Luke's Cantina, a Mexican restaurant.

The following day, we did a tour of the townships with Grass Route Tours where we saw thousands of people living in 'lean-to sheds'.  It was quite a humbling experience to see this much poverty.  We stopped at one of the community schools where the children sang for us and we met Gordon, who made and sold flowers from aluminum cans.  He shared a story with us that he had a vision from God that told him to make these cans.  Interestingly, we met someone else a few blocks away who had the same vision and who was making and selling the same aluminum flowers!!  Later that day, we drove to the Cape of Good Hope where we say beautiful ocean scenery.

Dave, Tracy, Shawna and Keith
Cape of Good Hope

The boys decided that they wanted to swim with sharks.  Tracy and Shawna opted out of this, so we went our separate ways.  Keith and Dave headed to Gansbaai where they boarded a boat to 'Shark Alley'.  They spent a few hours diving in metal cages (which looked like they were made of chicken wire) while sharks swam around them, trying to get into the cages.  The guys who ran the boat threw chum into the water to attract the sharks.  Because the water was choppy, Keith ended up blowing chunks through his regulator which of course drew the sharks in closer!

Shark Diving

While the men were trying to prove their manliness with this insane activity, the girls decided to take in some culture and took a ferry to Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned.  We toured the grounds which included the prison, a leper colony and a military site from WWII.  Our tour guide had been in prison there for 5 years so we got to hear stories from an insider.  Later that evening, we all met at the hostel, shared our stories from the day, and had dinner at Cafe Bardeli, where we ate tapas.

Table Mountain

For our last day in Cape Town, we had planned to go to Table Mountain.  However, when we woke up, it was raining so we opted to drive to the Stellenbosch wine region instead.  We went wine tasting at a few wineries (including Uitkyk and Sonnsig) - some were good, some not so good.  We were amazed at how cheap the wine was!  At the Spier Winery, we visited the cheetah preservation where we went into one of the cages and pet one of the cheetahs named Inca.  We had an amazing lunch at 96 Winery Road and then went cheese tasting.  Back in Cape Town, we all did some laundry and had a light dinner at Cafe Bardeli.  We capped the evening with some drumming at the Drum Cafe -- it was a lot of fun but our hands hurt after a while!

Shawna, Keith, Tracy, Dave
Spier Winery

Botswana
We flew to Maun to meet with our guide, Jannie, from Thebe River Safaris, who was taking us on a 15-day safari throughout Botswana.  Keith was a bit nervous as we had paid for the safari in advance from the US (only $100/day per person which we thought was a great deal) and he had visions that we would show up with no one to greet us.  We walked through the crowd and finally found our guide, dressed in the typical khaki attire.  We later found out that the guides say that female tourists who have a crush on the guides have 'khaki fever'.  He took us to the company's campsite in Maun where we spent one night before we left for one of the parks.  We also met, Kilos, who joined us on the safari as the cook and keeper of the campsites.  Throughout the safari, we slept in tents and ate at each of the campsites, often having meat (pork, steak or chicken) with vegetables (potatoes, corn, and/or squash).  The food was surprisingly good!  We also drove in a 4WD truck with bench seating that had a canopy top and was open on the sides for easy viewing of the animals.

Jannie (Our Guide), Shawna, Tracy, Dave and Keith

We began our safari with a drive to Nxai Pan National Park, known for its salt pans.  Along the drive there, we saw wildlife including steinbok, springbok, jackal, ostrich, red-eyed bul bul (which is a type of bird) and pale chanting goshawk (which is another type of bird).  Our guide had to tell us to slow down on the picture taking (at this point, we probably had taken about 50 pictures) as we would see plenty of wildlife over the next 14 days.  We arrived at our campsite where we planned to spend two nights.  Later that day, we went for a sunset drive where we saw guinea fowl, impala, giraffe and the famous cori bastard (only famous because we like saying the name).

The next day was an amazing day as we witnessed a kill!  We started the morning early (6am) with a drive to the water hole where we say 4 lionesses and 1 lion on the prowl.  Apparently, the lionesses do all of the work while the lion watches.  There were many springbok tentatively trying to drink but they did not drink for long since the lions where there.  The lions made several failed attempts to kill a springbok until finally they met with success.  It was amazing to watch the process, as they slowly slinked toward the water hole, stopping each time a springbok turned it's head.  One of the lions crept up on one of the springboks and just as the springbok tried to run away, another lion that was hiding behind a rock, pounced on it and began to suffocate it while the other lions started their feast.  It did not take them long to eat the poor animal.  Right after this, three elephants showed up so we watched them spray themselves with water.

Elephants

During our last morning at the Pan, we returned to the water hole to see if we can catch more action.  We watched as two of the lions attempted to take down a giraffe.  Giraffes are very vulnerable when they are drinking as they have to spread their legs in order to get their mouth to the water!  Well, this giraffe lived to see another day -- the lions ran for it but the giraffe outran them.  On our drive back to Maun, we stopped to see the famous Baine's Baobob Trees -- these trees are huge and look like they are stuck upside down in the ground.

The next morning, we drove to the Okavonga Delta where we would spend two nights.  In town, we picked up George who was supposed to be our boat guide (called head polers) in the Delta but when we arrived at the village in the Delta, we found out that the rules had changed -- the town kept a list of polers who could be hired and they assigned them in the order that they appeared on the list.  So, we dumped George (not sure how he got back home) and picked up Foster and Kaiser.  We got into 2 makoro boats that had straw at the bottom to cushion our seats (which after a few hours did not feel too much like a cushion) and floated off down the canals of the Delta.  We poled for about 3.5 hours along narrow passageways, seeing a hippo (in the water), many elephants along the banks and other wildlife, including otters, iguana, giraffe and birds.  After we arrived at our campsite, we went for a short walk where we saw baboons and more elephants.

The next day, we had a few close encounters!  After a three hour walk in the morning, we went for a makoro ride in the afternoon and stopped at one point for another walk.  Our guide saw vultures flying around so decided that we should go check it out.  We walked over a ridge where we came across 9 lionesses feasting on a buffalo -- we were only 12 meters away from them!  Our first instinct was to run but our guide (who thankfully was carrying a gun) told us to stop and slowly walk backwards -- apparently, you should never turn your back to a lion!  The lions did not seem to be too bothered by us -- they took one look at us and returned to their feast!  The saying is true - a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush!  On the boat ride back to the camp, we got a little too close for comfort to an elephant who was none too pleased with our presence -- the elephant stomped his feat and roared at us.  We waited until it walked away and then we continued along our merry way.  We capped off this part of the trip with a flight over the Delta -- it was quite cool to see all of the animals from the air and to see how extensive the canal system is.

Lion

We spent another night in Maun, got more supplies and then drove to Moremi where we spent 5 nights at various campsites in the park - at Third Bridge, Xakanaxa, and North Gate.  In this park, we say kudu, impala, zebra, elephant, giraffe, red lechwe, wildebeest, warthog, hyena, baboon, lion, hippo, crocodile, waterbuck, cheetah and many types of birds (including slender and banded mongoose, white spoonbill, lilac breasted rola, secretary bird and red-billed quelia).  On several instances, we saw lions feasting on an animal.  We say a film crew for ESPN with someone who looked exactly like Jay Peterman from Seinfeld - we later found out that he was not who we thought but rather a soap opera star who played the evil twin on Loving.  We also learned why the tales of warthogs stick up while running -- to avoid dust from getting in their eyes, warthogs squint their eyes while running and since their skin is so tight, it forces the tail to pull up (nothing like a little bit of bush humor)!   And, along the way, we experienced a few 'natural' scenes - humping hippos, farting elephants, a zebra with an erection and hippos pooping (which oddly sounds like a bird flapping its wings).

The close encounters with animals continued in this park as well.  On two occasions we returned to the campsite to find Kilos hiding (once in the tent and another time in the trailer that we pulled behind the truck that stored all of the supplies) -- lions had come to the campsite to check out the food situation!  Almost every evening, we had 'visitors' including lions and elephants who walked through our campsite.  And one evening, Tracy and Shawna swore that there were animals in the bushes (we could see red eyes staring back) -- turns out it was a campfire from another campsite!

After Maremi, we drove to Savuti where we spent one night.  We saw all of the usual suspects but was also treated with a sighting of roen antelope (which is endangered) and a leopard who was resting next to a kill.  We woke up early to find hyenas attempting to steal our food containers (large metal boxes that they were trying to drag away into the woods).  Thankfully, our guide caught them and we got our food back.  That morning, we climbed Bushman's Painting Rock where we watched the sunrise and saw 300 year old paintings in the rocks.

Cheetah

We then went on to Chobe where we spent two nights, one of which was Shawna's birthday.  We stopped along the way to buy birthday cake and champagne to share later that evening.  Turns out the birthday cake was hard as a rock so we threw it away only to find a band of monkeys enjoying it the next morning - it was so cute to see their faces covered in icing.  We also feasted on the best lamb stew which I swore she would try to replicate but has not done so to this day.  Aside from all of the usual animals, we saw buffalo (which made 4 of the big 5 animals on the trip) and sable antelope.

We ended the trip at the Thebe campsite in Kasane where we spent 1 night and met all of Jannie's family. It was here where we celebrated Keith's birthday, feasting on a yummy meal prepared by Jannie's sister and drinking the local beer and doing a few springbok shots (made of Creme de Menthe and Bailey's).

Zimbabwe
Jannie drove us to Victoria Falls where we stayed three nights at the Inyathi Valley Lodge and had planned a few days of adventure.  After we said our goodbyes to him, we walked around the falls, getting drenched and also walked around the local market.  We spent the next day rafting the Zambezi River with Shearwater Rafting Company (Shawna did not get much sleep the night before, worrying about drowning in the river or worse getting eaten by a crocodile).  It was an exhilarating rafting trip, one that we will never forget!    We walked down a steep gorge to our put in point which was before rapid #11.  When we got to rapid #13 (named the Narrows), we had to get out of our boats and walk around the rapid as it was too dangerous to raft.  We later came upon rapid #16 (aptly named the Terminator II) where our boat flipped. We all went flying out with Keith, Dave and Shawna holding on to the rope on the side of the boat while we floated through the rapids.  Tracy and our guide were not holding on to the boat so they floated down on their own.  Once we got to calmer waters, Keith and Dave got on top of our boat and flipped it.  We then got in and rowed over to another boat which had picked up Tracy and our guide.  We made it the rest of the way with no more flipping.  We later celebrated this day of adrenaline at the Spur Steakhouse in town.

The next day we went micro lighting over the falls.  If you have never seen what a microlight looks like, picture a lawn mower with wings!!  While Shawna was biting my nails given my fear of heights, she totally enjoyed it.  We each took our turn flying over the falls, as the pilot banked the plane several times so we could look straight down over the falls.  We met up with Tracy and Dave and walked over to the Zambia side of the falls to see the views from there - quite beautiful.  We grabbed lunch at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge (really nice lodge) and then went on a relaxing 2.5 hour cruise on the Zambezi River.   We later celebrated our last night in Zimbabwe with a meat lovers meal at the Pride Rock Carnivore Restaurant where we had our first ostrich, kudu and impala among other grilled meats.

Micro Lighting Over the Falls

Egypt
Our next adventure was to Egypt where we spent 15 days.  Danelle and Russ joined us (including Tracy and Dave) for portions of this leg of the trip.  Once we arrived in Cairo, Keith, Russ and Shawna went straight to Luxor while Tracy, Dave and Danelle stayed in Cairo for a few days.  In Luxor, we stayed at the Windsor Hotel - we upgraded to a place that had air conditioning (which was much needed) for $30/night!  After walking around town, we took a felucca sunset boat ride with Yassar, who proclaimed himself to be the King of the Nile!  We were only on the boat for an hour so needless to say we didn't get very far.  We later dined on some yummy Egyptian food at the Ali Baba Rooftop Restaurant.

The next day, we spent most of the day at the Valley of the Kings where we almost got arrested - Russ and Keith tried to pass off tickets to get in one person for free and the guards were not too happy.  Thankfully, they did not cart us away to jail!  While there, we saw Nefertiti's Tomb, 3 tombs at the Valley of the Queens (which we not as impressive), and the tombs of Tuthmosis III, Ramses VI and Septah which were amazing -- we couldn't believe how well preserved they were.  We also visited Hathseputt (which was the mother of all temples) and Ramesseum (which was mostly in ruins).  It was so flipping hot (aka Africa hot) that we had to cool down at what has got to be the coldest McDonalds on the face of the planet.  Later that evening, we went to the sound and light show at the Karnak Temple (yes, it was a cheesy as it sounds).  The temple is amazing but the show was over the top with melodramatic narration about the lives of some of the kings who had lived there.  We made the best of it, sipping Egyptian wine and munching on wheat thins and cheese whiz (classy, right?).  On the way back to the hotel, we caught a ride with Mohammed (a unique name for Egypt!) on his buggy -- well, we got a flat so Mohammed just taped the tire together and kept going -- a mechanics work at its best!  Later that night, Dave, Tracy and Danelle met up with us at the hotel.

Hathseputt

We returned to the Karnak Temple during the day which was much more impressive than our previous evening's experience.  We also visited the Luxor Museum and then took a motor boat over to Banana Island which is a banana plantation.  We had the pleasure of meeting Mr Lovely (the captain of the island) whom we watched smoke hashish from a huge bong.

Keith, Russ and Shawna left the gang to fly to Sharm-el-Sheikh, a resort town on the Red Sea, where we spent the next few days diving with the Red Sea Dive College.  There were not any 'budget' accommodations in this town so we ended up at the Sanifir in Na'ama Bay.  Keith and Russ went out on dives together, while I completed the open water course -- I got certified even though I never quite perfected the buoyancy thing!

After two days of diving, we rented a car and drove to the town of Dhaba (a cute, beach town) and then on to St. Catherine's Monastery where we stayed one night.  We got up super early the next day (2am) to start our hike up Mt. Sinai in order to arrive at the summit in time for sunrise.  After about 2 hours of hiking, we made it to the top and found a relaxing spot on a rock.  As the sun rose, we realized that there were hundreds of people around us so it was not quite a romantic sunrise!  We returned to Na'ama Bay for a few more days of diving where Tracy, Dave and Danelle met up with us.  We took the advance course to go on deep dives; however, I never made it as my ears were not cooperating below 8 meters -- after seeing a doctor at one of the hotels, it turns out that I had a sinus infection which was blocking one of my ears!  Keith completed the advanced course, doing drift dives, deep water drives, wreck dives and even a couple of night dives.  While Tracy, Dave and Keith dove, Danelle and Shawna relaxed on the beach for a couple of days and went snorkeling.

We left the gang behind again and took a bus to Alexandria on a quest to see the famous light house there.  We arrived to find that not only was the light house no longer there, but the town is nothing to write home about.  We walked around the Fort and saw Pompey's Pillar, and the catacombs (which were quite interesting).  We did have one funny experience -- we decided to see Blade with Wesley Snipes in the movie theater for $1/person.  The Egyptians in the crowd talked through the whole movie (since it had subtitles in Egyptian, I guess they didn't need the sound) and there was construction going on outside of the theater so we never really heard much of the dialog (not that there was much dialog to hear given that it's an action film).

We returned to Cairo for one night and thankfully only one night.  The hotel (and we use that word loosely) was disgusting.  The halls were dark and dirty and the room was even worse.  We toured the city for a day and a half, seeing Muhammed Ali's Mosque at the Citadel, Ibn Tulun Mosque (one of the biggest in the world), and the Cairo Museum where we saw King Tut's exhibit.  We also spent about a half a day at the Pyramids in Giza where we saw the Sphinz and climbed into one of the pyramids.  The passageway was quite narrow and Keith got claustrophobic (big time), knocking people over as he climbed back out.  Of course, it would not be a trip to Cairo without a camel ride (including a turban on the head) and a visit to a carpet factory -- so we obliged.  We were skeptical about how many of the carpets were truly made by hand at the carpet factory as they had thousands for sale -- they would have had to start in the era when the pyramids were being built to get that many carpets made!

Pyramids of Giza

At the airport in Cairo we went separate ways.  Keith had to fly back to the States to attend Deborah and Damian's wedding while Shawna flew to Israel to meet up with Tracy, Dave and Danelle.  Keith met up with the gang in Israel a week later.  Shawna did not have the best experience at the Cairo airport, as they grilled her with many questions (apparently a single girl traveling alone is suspicious), went through all of her personal items (including reading my journal) and took away my camera, telling her that I could collect it at the airport in Israel -- she really thought I would never see the camera again.  The security also escorted her to the gate where I was searched again.  With this much security, it's a wonder that terrorists still get away with what they do!

Obligatory Camel Ride

Continue on to our Mediterranean blog for more information about this trip.

RTW Trip - Europe - Fall 1990

Continued From Previous Blog

Sweden

Kerstin and Mia in Vaxjo

After a fire-drill departure from Kandersteg I spent a lot of time sleeping on the train - all the way to Berne where I picked up my passport and visa - then back to sleep until Basel where we found Mike and Connie's shop Chat Noir.  After a bit of shopping we met Mike at 4pm, had another nap, dinner at 8pm (spaghetti followed by creme caramel) and then fully to sleep after chatting with Mike and Connie.  It was their 3 year anniversary that night, so we did crash the party a bit, but the upside is that it was a great dinner with Champagne!

Mia and Yoshi in Kalmar

The next day I got up late (finally caught up on sleep), caught the quick train back to Basel to see Mike and Connie for lunch, read a book while overlooking the Rhine, bought a fleece, saw RoboCop (seriously), then arrived at Basel station to spend the next 20 hours on trains - couchette to Hamburg, inter-city to Copenhagen, and another inter-city to Alvestra, where we waited an hour to get a 15 minute train to Vaxjo where Mia and Kerstin met us.  It was fantastic to see them both again - thought certainly out of context from KISC.  We spent a couple of days in Vaxjo eating and sleeping, filled in with a few walks. 


We arrived quite late to Kalmar - Mia's brother Magnus picked us up from the station and we headed to Mia's parent's house for dinner, eating with the whole family: Ulla, Karl-Axel, Magnus, Mia, and Johnas.  It was a wonderful dinner around the family table.  I slept in the next day - Magnus drove Yoshiko and I in to Kalmar where we met Mia for lunch, went to math and English classes and then walked around Kalmar, including the castle.  We went for a hike around the Lindblad farm - it is a tree farm and some of it is also used for grazing cattle.  The farm is gorgeous - old red and white barns and lots of land - the scout hut for 120 scouts is even on their land.

Farmhouse

Yoshi left the next for the next leg of her adventure, while I had one more relaxing day in Kalmar - spent at the school library, the public library, and then another walk around the town.  After her class I met Mia and her friend Anna for a baked potato. I did receive a letter while at Mia's - from Steve and Jan - saying that they were engaged - and had been for a couple of months!  The only people who knew where their parents, who had been sworn to secrecy.  I called Steve from Mia's house to congratulate them.  One final night at the Lindblad's then I headed to see Victoria from '88.

Vivecca with Her Parents

Gunnel and Suzanne

I took the train from Kalmar to Emmaboda, where after an hour of searching for her came to the stunning realization that I was in the wrong town - I should have been in Karlskronar.  I took the next train there where Victoria was waiting at the station.  We headed to her flat to see slides of her most recent trip.  That evening we went to a night club with her school friends, then crashed so I could get up and to the station for the 11:07am to Emmaboda, then off to Stockholm to see Viveca and Christel.  Christel met me at the station, and waited around for Viveca who could have been on the next train but was not.
We headed to her boyfriend Michel's house, dropped my stuff, and headed to an Italian restaurant where Viveca met us a couple of hours later (along with Michael).  The next day Christel, Michael, and I headed to the Vasa Museum that had opened this year - where there is a boat that sunk in 1623 and is still preserved today.  It was so fascinating that we spent several hours looking around.  That evening was a flat-warming party for Viveca - she had been in the place since June but had yet to celebrate.  There I met her boyfriend Brian who was a great guy.  It was great to meet so many people at the flat, and a heap of us headed to a disco post-party where we met what Brian called "English groupies" - girls who liked to meet English-speaking men.  We spoke with tons of people, making a game of inventing different personal stories for every person we met - until we got caught after too much creativity!  Viveca's sister Jenny was at the club so I met her.  We finally got to bed at 5am, though had to get up at 9am to head to Viveca's summer house in the archipelago.

The cottage was old and quite small, but had amazing character.  After a row I helped Viveca's dad take the boat out of the water.  We took the ferry back to Stockholm - the islands are gorgeous - I should definitely return some day and sail the area.  After a curry dinner with Christel at her house I crashed.  I spent the next day wandering all over Stockholm, getting to know the city a bit and then met the girls for tacos and a movie (Dick Tracy).  The next leg was to Gothenburg to see Suzanne and Gunnel.  I slept and relaxed a lot during the day as the girls had to work.  While in Gotheburg I also met Annika.  It was a quick few days, and then off to Trondheim.

Norway

Marianne Hiking

Marianne in the Cabin

I was on my way to visit Marianne, who was an exchange student at my high school.  After arriving at the train station and changing some money I called Marianne and woke her up!  It had been a long night for her so she was wrecked.  We went to the student center where she was working, then back to her parent's house.  Despite the plans of an early night we ended up going to a party with some of her friends.  We called it an early night at midnight as we were to do some walking the next day.  I was painfully awoken at 8am for a 9am departure heading south to a cabin 2.5 hours away.  While the weather in Trondheim was gorgeous, by the time we got to the cabin it was cloudy, and 30 minutes into the hike it was snowing hard.  We got off track once, but ended up having a great 6 hour hike.  Fish soup and grilled cheese was for dinner - excellent.  The cabin was super - at just 35 kronar it was a steal - and the payment was even on the honor system.  We then headed back to Trondheim for some walking the next day, including goat mountain, a 4 hour hike out and back.  The scenery of this part of the trip was just incredible - despite the dodgy weather, it was just stunning.

At the Hostel in Flam

After the days in Trondheim it was time to head to Oslo on the 8:35am train.  After arriving at the station I made my way to the Haraldsheim Hostel - one of the first places I had to pay for an overnight so far into the trip!  My roommate in the hostel was David (Australian) who was traveling with two other Ozzie girls - Liz and Alanah.  The three of them convinced me to delay my "Norway in a nutshell" departure until the later time - kicking off with the 10:30am train to Myrdal.  I was easily convinced of this reasoning!  We got up the next morning at 7:30am to take advantage of the hostel's all-you-can-eat breakfast that is included in the price.  I sat with David and the girls and read/relaxed/watched scenery the whole way.

On the Boat in the Fjord

It was snowing quite hard the whole way - the snow was deep by the time we arrived in Myrdal - which inspired us to have a snowball flight while waiting for the connecting train to Flam.  The snowball fight helped us meet a two Americans from NY and another Australian - and the Americans joined us on the train to Flam.  The ride down was fantastic - only 12 kilometers but so steep it took us 1.5 hours.  The train stopped a couple of times so we could jump out and take pictures.  It took a bit of wandering around Flam to find a hostel - we ended up getting a couple of cabins for 200 krona each (3 people per cabin).  We bought a jar of spaghetti for dinner, added some carrots and potatoes, and added to the noodles.  Not gourmet, but tasty.  We all stayed up until midnight chatting, then woke at 8am to catch the 8:40am ferry.  Breakfast of toast, jam, and baked beans was speedy as we did not want to miss the ferry.  The fijords we gorgeous despite the crummy weather - I must return some day.  The ferry took us to Gudvangen, then a an hour-long bus to Voss where we then headed to Bergen.  We wandered around Bergen for a few hours - though really did not find a lot to do.  Dinner was lasagne for only 29 krona - what a great deal!  We went to the university and just sat chatting in the student center.  It was the overnight train back to Oslo and then yet another train ride to Copenhagen - still traveling with Liz and Alanah. 

Denmark

At Carlsbeg Brewery

Arriving in Copenhagen I was not really sure of my plans.  I ended up going to the same hostel as the girls, though it took 45 minutes of navigating the city to find it.  We all had spaghetti and soup for dinner, then played a few hands of cards (oh shit and 500) and crashed around midnight.  The next day we tried to check every landmark off the list: castles, national stables, and of course the mermaid.  There were a staggering number of tourists there - all trying to get the exact same photo. We dropped Liz and Alanah at the station and then did some bargain shopping at the supermarket: pasta, onions, and 5 apples - all to last us dinner and breakfast.  After dinner we chatted with a couple of Australians before heading to the TV room.  We headed downstairs and saw Liz and Alanah - there had been no room on the train so they had come back to the hostel.  One of the fun events in Copenhagen was the Carlsberg brewery tour.  It took an hour to walk there from the hostel.  The tour was quick, which was good because the real goal was the beer after.  I downed 3-4 of them, then a huge group of us headed over to the Himalayan restaurant.  I paid for Nick's lunch as he had let me crash in his room one night for free.  While the group was at lunch I went to the Student Travel service to coordinate my Russian visa and Trans-Siberian ticket.  That was the end of Denmark - it was time to head to Frankfurt!

Germany
I called Russ from Hamburg station at 11pm and let him know I'd be in Frankfurt at 6:30am via the overnight train.  The time with Russ was relaxing - we did not do an awful lot.  I did get to see the Babenhausen base where he worked, we saw four movies, and a really good classic car museum.  While at his place we got a call from Cynthia who had worked with us at Steak and Ale.  Also met his good friend Julia while I was there.  Russ and I discussed meeting in Amsterdam after the Irish Reunion. 

Switzerland redux

Dutch Working Party

I had decided to make another visit to KISC before heading to Ireland.  Arriving at 6:30pm I saw the Dutch working party cars in the parking lot - though they were at the Upper Hut celebrating Petra's birthday the following day.  I immediately bumped into Ron and Victoriana.  They mentioned that the Upper Hut was going to stay up until midnight to celebrate Petra's birthday so I just threw my stuff in the Nordic room and Ron, Andrew, and I made the 1.5 hour trek up to the Upper Hut.  Needless to say there were a lot of surprised faces when we barged in the door, carrying the bottle of Baileys that I had picked up at the German border.  The next day Harold, Petra, myself, and another guy hiked from the hut to the Bindercrinde, then over to Bonderspitz, walking home via Allmenalp.  Harald and I ran down and made it to the chalet in 30 minutes, actually beating the other two who took the cable car!

Petra's Birthday Party

That night was the big birthday party - everyone in the staff room with lots of alcohol and a huge cake with 50 candles.  We kicked off the night with Paradise by the Dashboard Light and it went down (up?)hill from there.  We then headed to the High Noon - last night it was open for the season - and had a blast dancing with Wendy, Petra, and two Australian girls I had met on the train and suggested they visit KISC.  We came back, made chips, built a fire, and crashed on the floor that night.  The following day we hiked to the Doldenhorn hut via the fire hut, then over the back side to Oeschininsee, down to the village for an ice cream, then back to the chalet.  The Dutch party left in stages all afternoon, with Harold and Petra heading out at 7pm.  My strongest memory of this time is that of "Poems, Prayers, and Promises" by John Denver playing during "mellow night".  What an amazing time - just relaxing with new friends, doing nothing but sharing stories.

Ireland

At Dave's Cottage

The trip to Ireland was terrible due to my poor planning.  I got the train at 12:30pm and ended up in Paris so late I could not make the connection.  With no french currency to my name I ended up stuck at Paris St Lazare railway station locked in a railway room with a bunch of drunks where I slept on a few seats.  The next day I was able to make my way to Le Havre where I met up with some Americans and split a taxi to the ferry 4 miles away.  It was a blast on the 2.5 hour boat ride - full of Baileys and white wine.  I picked up a couple more bottles of Baileys duty free - though taking it to Ireland is kind of like taking coal to Newcastle?  I took the bus to Cork where I stayed with the Williams, old friends of my parents Howard worked with Dad in '66 and he and Patricia met at my parent's wedding .  The next day I caught the 11am train to Belfast then headed to Annalong to meet everyone for the "Irish Reunion".

The Gang with our Empties

I arrived at 6:30pm and spent a couple of hours trying to find the cottage but had forgotten the directions.  However, finally Warren met me and drove me to the cottage.  Steve B, Anne W, and Yoshi I arrived that night and Steve and I stayed up until 6am talking.  The rest of the people joining for the weekend included Mark S, Nellie , Warren P, Dave F, Rob J, Kerstin B, Kato, Anna-Mike, Nicolette, Jeroen, Adrian (from the Dutch working party), Jan B, Suzy P, Anne O-B, John B, John M, Marty, David P, David M, Ylva, Damian G, Auden, Roope R, Skippy R, and Sue T. - almost 30 people total.  The first day of the reunion (Friday) was pretty mellow for me, just hanging out at the cottage and chatting with people.  The next day the whole group hikes up Slieve Donard, the highest peak in Northern Ireland at 2789 feet.  That night was the big pub night - I helped Warren with the orders, collected the money, and got the food to everyone.  We had three rounds of "public feeding" then everyone in the pub for singing, followed by dancing and throwing ourselves around.  We retired to the cottage for more Guinness and made it to bed at 3am.

Warren Teaching Yoshi Archery

The weather was terrible the next day - rain and wind that even knocked some tents down.  I was fortunate to be in one of the rooms, which was warm enough in my sleeping bag.  Sunday was spent at the beach - writing stuff in the sand and playing bowls and football on the beach.  By the end of the weekend we had finished 16 cases of Guinness, all stacked in their original cases up to the ceiling in the hut.   It was a glorious weekend, and generally the last time we'll have this whole group together. 

A few of us went up to the Scout Center in Belfast to spend a day - did a bit of archery and then headed to Bangor for a swim in the ocean.  Four of then headed down to Dublin - Susy P and I on the train and the two Annes on the bus.  It took a while to find Damian's house - the bus system in Dublin was tricky for us to navigate.  The Annes showed up and left, while Damian, Susy P, Audean, and I headed out to a pub for a few Guinness.  I slept until 10am, then chatted with Damain's parents before heading out to grab the train to Rosslare where I'd catch the ferry to France.

Netherlands
On the train to Rosslare I met a Canadian (Kim) who I traveled with to the Netherlands.  The ferry was not too bad - got about 12 hours of sleep on it.  We arrived late to La Havre, but caught the bus and early train to St Lazare, with enough time to transfer via the metro to Paris Gare du Nord.  Getting there early, Kim and I had a quick pizza and a Perrier in an Italian restaurant across the road and to the right of Gare du Nord.  Then we headed to Rotterdam where Kim and I went our separate ways.

In Amsterdam

In Rotterdam I tried calling Wendy, Marcel, Gerald, and Joey - but none were home.  I took the train to Vlaardingen, just hoping to find someone.  I got hold of Wendy's mother who said she'd be back later, so I headed back to Rotterdam and wandered around there in the morning and back to Vlaardingen in the afternoon.  I was finally able to meet Wendy in the afternoon and grabbed a hot chocolate and apple tart.  We went to volleyball practice (Wendy is coach) - I got to play a bit and embarrass myself a lot.  After a quick trip to Wendy's place we had dinner with her friend Hanneke who bought dinner.  After dinner I took the train via Utrect to Nunspeet to stay the night with Nicolette.  I slept in until noon, then headed to Zwolle with Nicolette and her brothers to do some shopping.  Dinner that night was fondue with a heap of wine, then off to a disco where we danced until midnight.  The next morning I had to get up at 7am to catch the 8:10am to Amsterdam.

Petra and Russ at the Beach

Russ was waiting for me at Amsterdam station.  Since we did not know the station we had said to meet on platform one - which we discovered does not actually exist.   After dropping my stuff in Russ' car we had a quick breakfast, then went for a walk around the city, including De Wallen, the Red Light District.  In the afternoon we went to Anne Frank House which was fascinating.  The museum not only tells the story we all read in high school, but also includes a part about the new rise of fascism and antisemitism.  Dinner was at a little Italian joint, then we wandered around the RLD at night - much different environment than during the day - bizarre to see the counter-culture.  Everywhere we went we were offered hash and coke - in the friendliest manner!  We stayed the night at Bob's Youth Hostel - lots of smoking and drinking in the lobby, but the place was clean.  The next morning we went to the Heineken Brewery for the standard tour.  We had 7 or 8 beers in the room afterward, then headed to the pub with two Ozzies and two Americans (Bob, Dave, Chrissie, and Maree).  We went back for the 2pm tour but it was sold out - argh!  So, back to the pub for more beer.  Russ and I eventually left, had dinner at KFC, then headed off to Haarlem.

Eating with Victoria and Kato

It took a while to find, but we eventually found the station and then slept in the car a while.  Dinner was in a cute cafe where we had spaghetti and wine.  After desert we noticed it was 11pm, so called Petra who met us at the station.  We went back to the cafe for a beer, then all headed to Petra's apartment to crash for the night.  Since we were wrecked from the day before, Russ and I slept in until noon, wandered around a bit, then met Petra at 3pm - she took off from work a couple of hours early.  We headed to the beach at Zandevoort, had dinner at McDonalds, and grabbed some dessert at a little bakery at the side of the road.  After spending some time on the beach we went back to Haarlem and Russ left us as he had to be at work at 5am.  So, Petra and I called some of the gang in Leiden: Victoriana and Jan-Dirk.  We met Victo at 8:30pm and got a tour of Leiden before meeting J-D at his work.  We all stayed out until 12:45am until Petra and I got the train back.  The next morning I slept in again, then headed out to arrange my ticket to Copenhagen before meeting Petra for lunch.  In the afternoon I just wandered around Haarlem again, had a dinner of spaghetti, and saw the movie Presumed Innocent, then just had Mellow Night II at Petra's before falling asleep.  The next morning I left the house early-ish and headed to Utrect.  I met Kato at Utrect station, threw my stuff in left luggage, then we met Victoria G.  We spent the rest of the day sightseeing and eating and drinking - had dinner at the student union, had a few more beers, then I jumped on the 9:15pm overnight train to Copenhagen.

The Netherlands is indeed a tiny country - so small that I actually randomly bumped into two people I knew.  The first was Joey L (KISC '88), who I saw at Haarlem station - I was able to speak with her for a few minutes before each of our trains left.  The other was Mike (Kato's friend).  It really is a small world - I'd just hate to have to paint it.

Back in Scandinavia
Once in Copenhagen I headed over to Student Travel, met Carina there to get all my stuff for Russia, and then took the train to Kalmar again for a free overnight at Chez Lindblad.  Mia picked me up, we grabbed a pizza, then went to see Days of Thunder before heading back to the house to crash.  The next day I took the train up to Stockholm, where Christel met me at 6pm.  We had spaghetti at Michael's, then I spent the night and the rest of the next day at her house just relaxing and catching up - Christel had to study.  The next evening I took the 6pm to Marsta to see Viveca and Brian - we played badminton and had lasagne before I headed back to Christel's.  The next day I packed up, hit the AMEX office for some money, had lunch at Pizza Hut, and got all my paperwork in order.  I met Christel again for dinner (Chinese), then made my way to to the Silja Line ferry for the 7pm to Finland.  On the ferry I had a sauna, then met Paul (Oz) so we had a few drinks until 2am - arriving in Turku at 8am.

Ferry to Finland

The first day in Turku was rough since there was close to no sleep on the ferry.  I was able to get in a nap - Heidi and I hung out talking - and had a few beers at the pub.  The next day we went out to stock up on stuff for the trip: toilet paper, orange drink, spices, toothpaste, paper/pens, and other items I had run out of. I also picked up some books by John Irving and Larry Speaks, as well as a Russian-English dictionary.  I spent the afternoon reading a ton of newspapers while Heidi was in class.  We met for a pizza dinner then went to the pub again before bed.  After Heidi headed for school I packed all my stuff (an enormous amount now) and took the 12:55pm train to Jyvaskyla to meet Pipsa - the train ride was 4 hours.  Frost was all over the ground and it was crazy-cold.  We chatted over a home-made pizza dinner then went to a sauna party with her friends - drinking loads of beer.  I met quite a few really cool people there and stayed out until 2am.  It was snowing hard - really seemed like Christmas weather.  I ended up heading to Tampere with Pipsa and Simo - a really good guy - he promised to take me cross-country skiing some day.  We stayed at Simo's parent's house - had a sauna in their basement followed by spaghetti for dinner.  We then headed out to a pub where I randomly bumped into Paul, the guy I had met on the ferry.  That night I read part of the book What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School.  I got the train to Helsinki the next day, arriving at 1pm.  I could not get hold of Heidi, Pavy, or Outi, and Roope and Petter were out of town, so I went to the Stadion Hostel inside the Olympic Stadium.  After an overnight at the hostel, I had my final meal at Pizza Hut, then jumped on the 1:12pm train to Lenningrad!

Continued On Next Blog