We knew from day one this portion of the trip was going to be different. From our day one cycle of 53km (the most I had ever cycled on a bike in one goat that point) to !00km on my birthday. We weren't sure what the motivation was to make us (Sy and I) cycle more then ever have day after day. Either it was the fact that the end of the days ride was where you slept or there was nothing else to do so just get on the bike and ride.
Riding in Turkey, our first country on the list, was a great start. Our day one cycle of 1.1km brought huge generosity out of everyone around us. Seeing we were crazed, stressed and swearing shop keepers young and old would just make us stop and have a cup of tea with them. We could not give or even say anything (thank you meant nothing to them) to them besides asking the only English speaker in the town to give them our thanks. The bent chain wheel got people helping either driving us to metal presses or trying to bend it themselves. Thankfully there was a hotel and the next was a start. My gps guided route through small back roads worked perfectly except in a rather bumpy section the gps fell right off the bike mount and got caught up in the spokes. This left a huge crack going up the screen and a quarter of the digital screen gone. Still after 53km we found a hotel and ate, ate, ate. Day 3 ended up being on a larger road to the Greek and Bulgarian border. We tried to cross into Greece that day but were unable because of lack of accommodation in the near by Greek towns. Our final night in Turkey was spent in Edrine with its huge mosques and bustling pedestrian walk way.
We did Greece in one day spending no nights in the Northern part. It was a beautiful sunny day for a 70 km day (a new record for me at the time). We had no gps route because my map detail ends until Hungary. We managed alright:) We were in a relatively un-touristed part of Greece so all the villages were tiny and the few shops weren't even open. This meant we couldn't get a Greek Lunch anywhere and had to wait till Svilengrad, Bulgaria to eat. Crossing the border was no issue except that the duty free shop had no Greek sticker so we will have to wait till Canada.
Bulgaria the largest country we have passed throught thus far was again differnet from the rest. We crossed from Greece into Svilengrad (a town mentioned on the website of another cycling couple who did a route like ours but after Bulgaria the went to Ukraine and east. Our route brought us from Svelingrad to Topolovgrad, to Nova Zagora, to Tvarditsa, to Veliko Tarnovo, to Pavlikeni, to Pleven, to Belene on my Birthday, to Svishtov and then into Romania and back in to Bulgaria at Vidin before entering serbia. Internet access was less of a challenge then we first thought and many fo the hotels we stayed in had wi-fi. our first 100km day ride was in Bul and on my birthday no doubt. It happened after Amb wrote lets go do 100 on my card (being sarcastic).
From there we crossed into Romania and spent 3 days cycling and 1 rest day. Hotels are even more scarce in Rom and we had to train further a few times.
Crossing the Danube back into Bulgaria was no hassle and the next day we were on our way to Serbia. The Danube cycle trail was a bigger thing in Serbia , with signs and funny quotes (story later) at every turn. Hotels were easier, and it felt that tourism was a bigger thing. Spend three days riding along the Danube and spend a rest day in Beograd before cutting across and crossing the Danube yet again into Croatia. Reach Osijek on the first day and then take a train at five in the morning to Zagreb. Don't have worry about bikes a they are in a bike shop getting repaired (cleaning, tune up , etc). Spend one night in Zagreb at the Carpe Diem Hostel and parents even go to a concert (Leah's life long dream was to go to a classical concert in Zagreb). Train back to Osijek and Head up into the wine region of Croatia. Cross the border into Hungary two days later.
Hungary was a whole new country again. A very controlled environment, felt like it at least. Internet hard to find even though it was probably one of the wealthiest country's we have been in to date. Pasterys got better and better as we cycled further north and they keep getting better. Weave our way though Hungary in order to be in Budapest on the set date to meet Paul and Ed. Hit a small wine village, a thermal spa with long beach like accommodation, and Hungary Holiday Resorts only 9 km out of the nearest city and in a converted horse stable. Last time we book ahead on line. Train into Budapest and stop at the airport to successfully ship a parcel to graham with FedEx. Our panniers are light again!!! Spend three days hanging out doing, math journaling, exploring. Train out again with 5 bikes and 6 people. First day with Ed and Paul is huge hills and we see that even after 1.5 months of cycling Ed and Paul are both still stronger then us.
I will stop my blog there and continue through Slovakia, Czech Rep and Poland in my next one!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
I Wish It Had Been Three Months
It was a drastic change. Going from Muheza one week to Cambridge and then Istanbul. Everything so different and all in two weeks. Cambridge was spent unloading, remembering, packing (again) and realizing what warm cloths we had and didn’t have. We spent our nights at Susan Griffith’s house who is a dear friend of my Dad, but who we missed on our last trip to England because of a family issue. Is was nice to spend time there, the cold weather and all, where we could re group, and get ready for the next big adventure.
Our plane to Istanbul was an early 7:30 flight which meant going to heathrow the night before. We set up a bed of sleeping bags and mats enclosed by our four bike boxes. We were in the new Terminal 5 where sleeping in the airport is not liked so to say so the sleep was not comfortable and short. We check in and find that it was not till you where past security that they brought out the nice couches and chairs. What ever. We flew with BA and arrive in Istanbul Ataturk Airport a few hours later. There a man with a sign that said Mrs. Norgrove picked us up. We were driven to hotel Ararat (recommended by one of our friends. Expensive, but funky). It was located on the top to floors of a small building with a beautiful view of the blue mosque and hagai sofia. We would spend two nights at this place then move to a cheaper hotel/hostel ( the main reason we stayed here was because they had agreed to hold our bikes while we traveled in turkey). On day one in Istanbul we got some of the touristy things done. Blue Mosque, Istanbul Modern, Hagia Sofia and istnabul Archeology Museum. It was amazing to see two mosques so massive and beautiful, and to think we called our small mosque in muheza the “big mosque. On our first day we had an interesting experience when a carpet seller s father pulled us into his shop. His son, a fat bald man, showed us a near by cistern (he said that it wasn’t in any travel guide. It was) \, played some Turkish Music on his flute and offered us tea in his shop saying we would not have to look at carpets at all. We left 45 minutes later after being offered every carpet in the shop. It was hard to leave, not out of like of the carpets, but how low his prices were getting. After that dad was really thinking about getting a carpet, not necessary from him but from turkey.( Mom pulled us out before any purchases were made, Dad was very close)
We spent four nights in Istanbul before getting a lift tot the otogar (bus station) and catching a bus down the Gallipoli peninsula to Eceabat. Here we stayed two nights and saw both troy and the famous Gallipoli battle fields from world war two. Our hotel was crowded house hotel and it was defiantly crowed. There was a group of Young EU residents on a cultural exchange and every night they put on a little country presentation including information, food and dancing. The two countries that did their presentation while we were there was Solvakia and Malta. This got us really looking forward to our time in Solvakia and we even got a little taste of Solvakian smoked meat. MMMM.
It was very neat to see all the trenches and the famous ANZAC cove where the Aussies and Kiwi’s landed and helped the allies. We also got cool hats on the tour. Troy was just like the Simpson’s had shown it. The great Trojan horse and 9 different “citys of troy” (through the centuries) built off of each other.
After the two nights we caught another bus to Selcuk which was where you slept if you came to visit Ephesus. The bus was long but everything is good with Turkish Bus companies. Nescafe 3-1, a small cake and comfy chairs who would complain. On our way down to Selcuk I also got my GPS working with my great map of Turkey and had it scream at me because of the buses route decision compared to its. We finally arrived in Slecuk late at night and happened to be met by someone who ran a near by hotel (he wasn’t there to try and pick off helpless tourists but actually looking for someone who said they were coming and hadn’t yet). Anyway we gave us a good price and since we were tired and it was getting dark we decide to say yes and have a good sleep. It was that night that we had our best meal in Turkey. The Selcuk Koftesi served some of the greatest smoked aubergine, and meat dishes that we had on our entire trip through Turkey and all for a great price. We all slept beautifully that night with full tummies and visions of aubergines danced in our head. Ephesus was just some ruins and the first of a lot more to come. I still picked up on the magnitude of some of the creations and building. The ampatheatre still blows me away by its size and resemblance of a modern day concert hall. We walked through the ruins with an American couple that were staying at the same hotel. They were in Turkey fro the World Water Forum in Istanbul and were doing a little bit of traveling before going back to Istanbul. Before leaving Selcuk we had to have one more meal at our favorite restaurant and since it was closed for our second dinner we stayed till lunch on the third day and had another amazing meal again for very cheap. From there we caught another bus this time to Pamukale and another bunch of ruins Hieropolis and Afrodisias.
We arrived late at night and our direct bus wasn’t so “direct”. It had stopped in many places along the way and didn’t even get us to our final destination. We had to switch to a minivan to drive us the rest of the way. The minibus ended up taking us directly to a hotel that it had “connections” with. Thankfully they gave us a good rate after some bargaining so we didn’t have to move around in search of another hotel. The next day we hike up the calcium deposits in bare feet and walk around the spa town of Hieropolis. Because of human interference with the running water none of the calcium rich pools still are available for swimming and the one main made pool was 20 liras per person. Instead of swimming we walked, explored and walked some more before heading back down to out hotel. The rain picked up on our way down so our toes got quite cold and numb. We arranged a tour with out hotel so we could go to Afrodisias. We left eh next morning and the only thing of real importance from the ruins was the stadium that looked like an old time version of a massive track and field stadium, which they used for meetings, tournaments and concerts. Again we moved on by bus to Goreme in Capadocia.
Snow covers the fairy chimneys as we roll in by bus. Dad and I in our shorts stand out in the crowd of people getting off our bus. We quickly make our way t the hotel we had chose from the lonely planet. Again with a little bit of bargaining we get one of our funkiest rooms yet. We are in a cave on the side of a cliff of volcanic ash eroded away by wind and rain. From there we got tours to the an underground village, an amazing valley with churches craved into the rock and out looking down upon a valley full of these fairy chimney houses (fairy chimney is the name given to the parts of volcanic ash still standing because they are all have points that look like chimneys. The next day we went to The Goreme Open Air Museum with its many churches and houses again carved into the rock………then we got off the tourist track.
We caught yet another bus (this time an overnight one) to Gaziantep (the home of pistachios and baklava. We got I early and spent some time at the otogar before departing into the city. Using the LPG lame map we find a reasonably priced hotel where we all get a bed and have Family kwelada treatment #1 (actually it was #2 for Mom and Dad but Number 1 for Sy and I). This stuff had a weird fell but we had to do it to try and destroy our African scabies. When we try and get our cloths washed it is another story all together. He washes the cloths but by the time we return that night they are not dry and to officially destroy scabies from cloths they have to be ironed or hot air dried. He had an iron but was being a jerk about and charging us a lot of money. And when you think about it why would he care about our problem. We had already paid him, so we were stuck not him. We ended up have to dry the cloths in our room and borrowing an iron from another hotel and doing tit all in our room. In this town we went to a museum, but no ruins and did a lot more walking around this big city then visiting its landmarks. Two highlights of the town were the 1 lira doners which we still great and an atom juice. (A collection of nuts, honey, yogurt and mixed fruit which together created an amazing drink. From there we catch ANOTHER bus to Sanliurfa where we spend three nights. Here we visit the famous castle on the top of a hill where the king threw _________ over the cliff and the story goes he landed in a bed of roses placed by god and that saved his life (Comfy landing?????). There we met Redvon, an English speaking tour guide who help us with a lot of things and even took us on a tour the next up to Golbeki Tepe (a recently found archeology site) that was on his friends land dating back to 7000 bc . He also took Harran which had another set of cool traditional bee hive houses (humans actually lived here) and had a cup of tea together (at this point the Syrian border was a few kilometers away). Then we went back tired and ready to go on. SanliUrfa also had a massive football stadium but as Redvon put it the Kurds aren’t soccer fans.
Deeper into Kurdish Country we go first to Mardin for the afternoon and no nights (LPG said that there we very few hotels and all of them were very expensive) so we have a very nice lunch at a LPG recommended restaurant where, unlike else where in Turkey, all the cooks were women. The meal was expensive but a very special one on our list. That night we slept in Midyat at a 100Lira per night hotel where we spent three nights. We went to the old part of town and stole many elections flags from the night befores storm, and we weaved our way through the many small streets trying to get into one of the small churches. We went to Hasenkeyf , a town (including ancient ruins)at risk to demolishing if a new dam goes in up river on the Tigiris, and we caught another bus…..
…… to DiyarBakir. The walled city as the LPG puts it because of the 6 m wall that stands around the inner part of the town. This will be our last destination before flying back to Istanbul and heading out cycling. We do some bargaining and get a room fro 90 lira. Since this is such a low tourist area most of the hotels are for businessmen, so just a few hotels keeps the price up. Walking along the top of the wall is a Turkish Experience. No railings or bars keep you from the 6m drop to the ground. This got mom a little creped out, but nobody feel. In a search we also found more election flags of the pro Kurdish party and had three cups of tea with a group of heavy smokers and likely unemployed and politically fervent Kurdish separatists. Soon our time was over and we flew but to Istanbul on a cheap domestic flight costing us only 68 liras per person. We arrive two hours later and a high paced taxi ride (guy maxed out at 175 km/h and refused to stop in heavy traffic riding the shoulder instead with his hazards on). Our 2nd time in Istanbul is spent shopping, doing the last of the touristy things and preparing out selves for the next big adventure.
I would like to apologize for my lack of blog lately. With internet back after leaving Tanzania I starting connecting with friend on facebook and stopped updating my blog till now. (thanks Maria for reminding me) Another blog about cycling is soon to come.
Our plane to Istanbul was an early 7:30 flight which meant going to heathrow the night before. We set up a bed of sleeping bags and mats enclosed by our four bike boxes. We were in the new Terminal 5 where sleeping in the airport is not liked so to say so the sleep was not comfortable and short. We check in and find that it was not till you where past security that they brought out the nice couches and chairs. What ever. We flew with BA and arrive in Istanbul Ataturk Airport a few hours later. There a man with a sign that said Mrs. Norgrove picked us up. We were driven to hotel Ararat (recommended by one of our friends. Expensive, but funky). It was located on the top to floors of a small building with a beautiful view of the blue mosque and hagai sofia. We would spend two nights at this place then move to a cheaper hotel/hostel ( the main reason we stayed here was because they had agreed to hold our bikes while we traveled in turkey). On day one in Istanbul we got some of the touristy things done. Blue Mosque, Istanbul Modern, Hagia Sofia and istnabul Archeology Museum. It was amazing to see two mosques so massive and beautiful, and to think we called our small mosque in muheza the “big mosque. On our first day we had an interesting experience when a carpet seller s father pulled us into his shop. His son, a fat bald man, showed us a near by cistern (he said that it wasn’t in any travel guide. It was) \, played some Turkish Music on his flute and offered us tea in his shop saying we would not have to look at carpets at all. We left 45 minutes later after being offered every carpet in the shop. It was hard to leave, not out of like of the carpets, but how low his prices were getting. After that dad was really thinking about getting a carpet, not necessary from him but from turkey.( Mom pulled us out before any purchases were made, Dad was very close)
We spent four nights in Istanbul before getting a lift tot the otogar (bus station) and catching a bus down the Gallipoli peninsula to Eceabat. Here we stayed two nights and saw both troy and the famous Gallipoli battle fields from world war two. Our hotel was crowded house hotel and it was defiantly crowed. There was a group of Young EU residents on a cultural exchange and every night they put on a little country presentation including information, food and dancing. The two countries that did their presentation while we were there was Solvakia and Malta. This got us really looking forward to our time in Solvakia and we even got a little taste of Solvakian smoked meat. MMMM.
It was very neat to see all the trenches and the famous ANZAC cove where the Aussies and Kiwi’s landed and helped the allies. We also got cool hats on the tour. Troy was just like the Simpson’s had shown it. The great Trojan horse and 9 different “citys of troy” (through the centuries) built off of each other.
After the two nights we caught another bus to Selcuk which was where you slept if you came to visit Ephesus. The bus was long but everything is good with Turkish Bus companies. Nescafe 3-1, a small cake and comfy chairs who would complain. On our way down to Selcuk I also got my GPS working with my great map of Turkey and had it scream at me because of the buses route decision compared to its. We finally arrived in Slecuk late at night and happened to be met by someone who ran a near by hotel (he wasn’t there to try and pick off helpless tourists but actually looking for someone who said they were coming and hadn’t yet). Anyway we gave us a good price and since we were tired and it was getting dark we decide to say yes and have a good sleep. It was that night that we had our best meal in Turkey. The Selcuk Koftesi served some of the greatest smoked aubergine, and meat dishes that we had on our entire trip through Turkey and all for a great price. We all slept beautifully that night with full tummies and visions of aubergines danced in our head. Ephesus was just some ruins and the first of a lot more to come. I still picked up on the magnitude of some of the creations and building. The ampatheatre still blows me away by its size and resemblance of a modern day concert hall. We walked through the ruins with an American couple that were staying at the same hotel. They were in Turkey fro the World Water Forum in Istanbul and were doing a little bit of traveling before going back to Istanbul. Before leaving Selcuk we had to have one more meal at our favorite restaurant and since it was closed for our second dinner we stayed till lunch on the third day and had another amazing meal again for very cheap. From there we caught another bus this time to Pamukale and another bunch of ruins Hieropolis and Afrodisias.
We arrived late at night and our direct bus wasn’t so “direct”. It had stopped in many places along the way and didn’t even get us to our final destination. We had to switch to a minivan to drive us the rest of the way. The minibus ended up taking us directly to a hotel that it had “connections” with. Thankfully they gave us a good rate after some bargaining so we didn’t have to move around in search of another hotel. The next day we hike up the calcium deposits in bare feet and walk around the spa town of Hieropolis. Because of human interference with the running water none of the calcium rich pools still are available for swimming and the one main made pool was 20 liras per person. Instead of swimming we walked, explored and walked some more before heading back down to out hotel. The rain picked up on our way down so our toes got quite cold and numb. We arranged a tour with out hotel so we could go to Afrodisias. We left eh next morning and the only thing of real importance from the ruins was the stadium that looked like an old time version of a massive track and field stadium, which they used for meetings, tournaments and concerts. Again we moved on by bus to Goreme in Capadocia.
Snow covers the fairy chimneys as we roll in by bus. Dad and I in our shorts stand out in the crowd of people getting off our bus. We quickly make our way t the hotel we had chose from the lonely planet. Again with a little bit of bargaining we get one of our funkiest rooms yet. We are in a cave on the side of a cliff of volcanic ash eroded away by wind and rain. From there we got tours to the an underground village, an amazing valley with churches craved into the rock and out looking down upon a valley full of these fairy chimney houses (fairy chimney is the name given to the parts of volcanic ash still standing because they are all have points that look like chimneys. The next day we went to The Goreme Open Air Museum with its many churches and houses again carved into the rock………then we got off the tourist track.
We caught yet another bus (this time an overnight one) to Gaziantep (the home of pistachios and baklava. We got I early and spent some time at the otogar before departing into the city. Using the LPG lame map we find a reasonably priced hotel where we all get a bed and have Family kwelada treatment #1 (actually it was #2 for Mom and Dad but Number 1 for Sy and I). This stuff had a weird fell but we had to do it to try and destroy our African scabies. When we try and get our cloths washed it is another story all together. He washes the cloths but by the time we return that night they are not dry and to officially destroy scabies from cloths they have to be ironed or hot air dried. He had an iron but was being a jerk about and charging us a lot of money. And when you think about it why would he care about our problem. We had already paid him, so we were stuck not him. We ended up have to dry the cloths in our room and borrowing an iron from another hotel and doing tit all in our room. In this town we went to a museum, but no ruins and did a lot more walking around this big city then visiting its landmarks. Two highlights of the town were the 1 lira doners which we still great and an atom juice. (A collection of nuts, honey, yogurt and mixed fruit which together created an amazing drink. From there we catch ANOTHER bus to Sanliurfa where we spend three nights. Here we visit the famous castle on the top of a hill where the king threw _________ over the cliff and the story goes he landed in a bed of roses placed by god and that saved his life (Comfy landing?????). There we met Redvon, an English speaking tour guide who help us with a lot of things and even took us on a tour the next up to Golbeki Tepe (a recently found archeology site) that was on his friends land dating back to 7000 bc . He also took Harran which had another set of cool traditional bee hive houses (humans actually lived here) and had a cup of tea together (at this point the Syrian border was a few kilometers away). Then we went back tired and ready to go on. SanliUrfa also had a massive football stadium but as Redvon put it the Kurds aren’t soccer fans.
Deeper into Kurdish Country we go first to Mardin for the afternoon and no nights (LPG said that there we very few hotels and all of them were very expensive) so we have a very nice lunch at a LPG recommended restaurant where, unlike else where in Turkey, all the cooks were women. The meal was expensive but a very special one on our list. That night we slept in Midyat at a 100Lira per night hotel where we spent three nights. We went to the old part of town and stole many elections flags from the night befores storm, and we weaved our way through the many small streets trying to get into one of the small churches. We went to Hasenkeyf , a town (including ancient ruins)at risk to demolishing if a new dam goes in up river on the Tigiris, and we caught another bus…..
…… to DiyarBakir. The walled city as the LPG puts it because of the 6 m wall that stands around the inner part of the town. This will be our last destination before flying back to Istanbul and heading out cycling. We do some bargaining and get a room fro 90 lira. Since this is such a low tourist area most of the hotels are for businessmen, so just a few hotels keeps the price up. Walking along the top of the wall is a Turkish Experience. No railings or bars keep you from the 6m drop to the ground. This got mom a little creped out, but nobody feel. In a search we also found more election flags of the pro Kurdish party and had three cups of tea with a group of heavy smokers and likely unemployed and politically fervent Kurdish separatists. Soon our time was over and we flew but to Istanbul on a cheap domestic flight costing us only 68 liras per person. We arrive two hours later and a high paced taxi ride (guy maxed out at 175 km/h and refused to stop in heavy traffic riding the shoulder instead with his hazards on). Our 2nd time in Istanbul is spent shopping, doing the last of the touristy things and preparing out selves for the next big adventure.
I would like to apologize for my lack of blog lately. With internet back after leaving Tanzania I starting connecting with friend on facebook and stopped updating my blog till now. (thanks Maria for reminding me) Another blog about cycling is soon to come.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Photos of Our trip
Please check out some of our photos
Gallipoli : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69561&id=584266324&l=d52a5ee257
Troy : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70489&id=584266324&l=72762d687c
Ephuseus : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70697&id=584266324&l=6405208f8f
Gallipoli : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69561&id=584266324&l=d52a5ee257
Troy : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70489&id=584266324&l=72762d687c
Ephuseus : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70697&id=584266324&l=6405208f8f
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
A little late but still useful information
The feeling of being cooped up in a large car for 10 hours a day watching some of the largest and most prehistoric creatures has its ups and downs on many levels. Over all it was fantastic! What we saw on day one was well worth our money. We traveled with 2 medical students from teule and their friend who was also doing an elective but in malawi. One day one we drove from arusha to the Serengeti and out the other end where we stopped at Ikoma Safari camp run by pepe (an old bracelona businessmen man who just steeped out). By the end of out 5 day safari we saw 4-5 big five (elephant, lion, water buffalo and rihno), 4-5 small five (ant lion, leopard tortoise, buffalo weaver, and rihno bettle) plus tons of other things. Dad who doesn't call him self a birder racked in over 100 species of birds with a great deal of help form our knowledgeable driver Lawerence. He was a nice guy, spoke good english but got a little edgy when we would ask about a common bird name. All he would was "come on I have told you 100 times" which as you could guess got on our nerves as well. Our safari inculed 5 days, 3 parks, 3 catan games and a whole lot of bear and soda.
Muheza was god when we left. All regulars sad to see is leave especially sylis (bike fundi) and jafari (grocer). Our last day consisted of many a bike fundi trips (he is adding a new extension on to his shop which we are calling the marsh-norgrove extension for all the money our bikes have brought in to him), packing which was a brutal task, goodbyes (very sad), and a final pizza dinner with Ally, Sefu, Kevy, Maxee, and Zacka, which ended badly as ally neglected to tell his mom and got a few slaps!!! The next morning was final packing, more sad goodbyes are our final drive though and out Muheza with tears in our eyes. Good Bye Muheza We Will Be Back Soon!
Muheza was god when we left. All regulars sad to see is leave especially sylis (bike fundi) and jafari (grocer). Our last day consisted of many a bike fundi trips (he is adding a new extension on to his shop which we are calling the marsh-norgrove extension for all the money our bikes have brought in to him), packing which was a brutal task, goodbyes (very sad), and a final pizza dinner with Ally, Sefu, Kevy, Maxee, and Zacka, which ended badly as ally neglected to tell his mom and got a few slaps!!! The next morning was final packing, more sad goodbyes are our final drive though and out Muheza with tears in our eyes. Good Bye Muheza We Will Be Back Soon!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
25 days to go!!! (I don't want to leave)
With us in our last 4 weeks we are slowly bring everything to a close. We all don’t want this last month to go fast but with the amount of stuff that needs to get done it just may. Our last month consists of the Serengeti next week, a workshop at bombo hospital for Wednesday and Thursday of this week plus our goodbyes and maybe we will try to squeeze in a trip to Lushoto (a town in the heart of the Usambara mountains).
School is back in full swing! The new buildings are going up fast and the Africans say next week but Sister G knows that not true. I am in Standard 7 and Simon decided to stay in 5 (I think it was because he wanted a reason to be able to do his own math because I was ahead of him. (Always competing!). My teacher was Simon’s teacher last year who moved to my class. He is very kind and wouldn’t dare to hit a kid so the corporal punishment has ended. The kids enjoyed Rose’s computer lesson so much that when ever one of our visitors (Joel and Paula, Stephanie and Fiona) come up to the school the kids are always asking me if they are here to teach computers.
We were all choked when massive dump trucks started bringing truck after truck of a dusty soil mix with large rocks. We knew it would be something that would not do our bikes very well. Ally (our new bike partner who just showed up at our house on morning calling out “simon , simon” over and over again. He is in neither of our classes and neither of us knew him at the time. We are now good friends with him) said they are paving it which will not be done in the time we are here so I think it is all very bad timing. It is now almost impossible to ride with the big piles spilled across the road.
Last week we went to Peponi with Joel and Paula, who left in the middle, and then were met by Stephanie, Fiona and their two daughters Eva and Hailey. This meant we had two sand island trips in 3 days! The meals were just as good as we remembered and I had something new every night. For the first three nights we shared the family banda with Joel and Paula which is a double bed with a side room with 4 singles. It was perfect for what we needed. When Steph and Fiona arrived we moved for the one night where Joel and Paula and Steph and Fiona overlapped, but then Sy and I moved back to the double bed the next night. Simon woke up on the Sunday morning feel as if something was in his ear (like water) and he couldn’t shake it out. After a day where he was almost in the water all the time it bleeds during the night and we realize he has punctured his drum. We think it happened by the water pressure of diving down but we don’t know. We just today got and email from the ear doctor in Sidney who said it should heal up fine with a few drugs and there is no need to cut the trip short. Anyway by the end we were there for 6 nights which was awesome!
Our visit with Joel and Paula (besides going to Peponi) was lovely but short. Paula loved Muheza just like so many of our visitors and she even told us in a recent email that she had strongly considered coming back for a week to ten days but realized it would be hard to pull off. She loved the scene in general and we even relaized from her walks in Muheza she loves shopping as was buying kangas or ktangas on every trip. She left with 2 tie fisher pantsade by the fundi. We went to Amani on there first weekend here which they both loved. We saw chameleons and tons of other creatures. Again she shopped at the gift shop up there.
Internet connection is in Muheza but it is our access that is limited. After a server crash in late December our laptop has never connected SO I am having to ride my bike up to the local “internet café” to bring our emails back on word documents and send others. This is the reason for the delay in the email you sent us. All I can tell you is we are trying and we all can’t wait for internet in England!! Plus just to add another effect to the whole this is that the Café owner hates me and will do anything to make it as hard as possible for me to get stuff down. A few cases are I walked in and she was on her computer and all the other computers were full so I waited. Less then 30 seconds later a woman walks in the owner gets up and this woman sits down. They both look up at me and laugh. I usually end up with the slow computer on purpose.
We leave for our safari in a few days. We got a very good deal with one of Sally’s ( the doctor) nurses husband who runs a safari company. The final cost was $800 per adult and he doesn’t charge the kids. Two medical students and their friend from Malawi are also joining us which knocks the price down again. We will have our cameras tuned and ready for the experience of a lifetime (I think).
I said it last week that I was looking forward to some cold weather but I don’t know if healthrow being closed because of snow is too cold. Haha. I will try to get yah posted.
G
School is back in full swing! The new buildings are going up fast and the Africans say next week but Sister G knows that not true. I am in Standard 7 and Simon decided to stay in 5 (I think it was because he wanted a reason to be able to do his own math because I was ahead of him. (Always competing!). My teacher was Simon’s teacher last year who moved to my class. He is very kind and wouldn’t dare to hit a kid so the corporal punishment has ended. The kids enjoyed Rose’s computer lesson so much that when ever one of our visitors (Joel and Paula, Stephanie and Fiona) come up to the school the kids are always asking me if they are here to teach computers.
We were all choked when massive dump trucks started bringing truck after truck of a dusty soil mix with large rocks. We knew it would be something that would not do our bikes very well. Ally (our new bike partner who just showed up at our house on morning calling out “simon , simon” over and over again. He is in neither of our classes and neither of us knew him at the time. We are now good friends with him) said they are paving it which will not be done in the time we are here so I think it is all very bad timing. It is now almost impossible to ride with the big piles spilled across the road.
Last week we went to Peponi with Joel and Paula, who left in the middle, and then were met by Stephanie, Fiona and their two daughters Eva and Hailey. This meant we had two sand island trips in 3 days! The meals were just as good as we remembered and I had something new every night. For the first three nights we shared the family banda with Joel and Paula which is a double bed with a side room with 4 singles. It was perfect for what we needed. When Steph and Fiona arrived we moved for the one night where Joel and Paula and Steph and Fiona overlapped, but then Sy and I moved back to the double bed the next night. Simon woke up on the Sunday morning feel as if something was in his ear (like water) and he couldn’t shake it out. After a day where he was almost in the water all the time it bleeds during the night and we realize he has punctured his drum. We think it happened by the water pressure of diving down but we don’t know. We just today got and email from the ear doctor in Sidney who said it should heal up fine with a few drugs and there is no need to cut the trip short. Anyway by the end we were there for 6 nights which was awesome!
Our visit with Joel and Paula (besides going to Peponi) was lovely but short. Paula loved Muheza just like so many of our visitors and she even told us in a recent email that she had strongly considered coming back for a week to ten days but realized it would be hard to pull off. She loved the scene in general and we even relaized from her walks in Muheza she loves shopping as was buying kangas or ktangas on every trip. She left with 2 tie fisher pantsade by the fundi. We went to Amani on there first weekend here which they both loved. We saw chameleons and tons of other creatures. Again she shopped at the gift shop up there.
Internet connection is in Muheza but it is our access that is limited. After a server crash in late December our laptop has never connected SO I am having to ride my bike up to the local “internet café” to bring our emails back on word documents and send others. This is the reason for the delay in the email you sent us. All I can tell you is we are trying and we all can’t wait for internet in England!! Plus just to add another effect to the whole this is that the Café owner hates me and will do anything to make it as hard as possible for me to get stuff down. A few cases are I walked in and she was on her computer and all the other computers were full so I waited. Less then 30 seconds later a woman walks in the owner gets up and this woman sits down. They both look up at me and laugh. I usually end up with the slow computer on purpose.
We leave for our safari in a few days. We got a very good deal with one of Sally’s ( the doctor) nurses husband who runs a safari company. The final cost was $800 per adult and he doesn’t charge the kids. Two medical students and their friend from Malawi are also joining us which knocks the price down again. We will have our cameras tuned and ready for the experience of a lifetime (I think).
I said it last week that I was looking forward to some cold weather but I don’t know if healthrow being closed because of snow is too cold. Haha. I will try to get yah posted.
G
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