Friday, February 15, 2013

Under the Egyptian Sun

My last post was all about snow and skiing and winter, so today I'm going in an entirely different direction - south. Last week, my school was on half-term break (i.e. we can't possibly be in school for more than six weeks at a time, so have a week off!), so Deb, Craig, Jen and I headed down to Egypt to soak up some much needed vitamin D. We booked a five-star, all-inclusive holiday and had every intention of doing nothing at all. Mostly, we were successful.

Most days, we just lay by the water, taking in the sun and the heat, and almost managing to forget that it is, in fact, still winter. We entertained ourselves by drinking, eating, and trying desperately to avoid the attention of the amorous hotel staff by pretending we were asleep. On Sunday, we even got in the pool and joined in on the daily water aerobics. The other days, though, we contented ourselves in listening to the daily announcement of "Ladies and Gentlemen, in ten minutes we invite you to the pool for WATER AEROBICA!!!!" followed by some music, then "WATER FANTASTICA!", then music, then "WATER GYMNASTICA!!", then music. One day we are certain we heard the animation guy say "WATER EROTICA!", but there is really no way of knowing for sure.

On Tuesday, Deb and I got off our lazy butts and actually did get something accomplished. At 2 o'clock in the morning, we were picked up by a tour bus for the 6 hour journey to Cairo. Though we attempted to get some sleep on the bus, we mostly failed due to discomfort, so it was a long ride... Anyway, when we arrived in Cairo, we were shipped onto another bus where we met our own personal tour guide - sometimes, it pays off to be the only two English speakers in a group of Russians!

We started our day off at the Egyptian Museum, where our oh-so-clever guide took us upstairs first, to avoid the mob of other tour groups, all of whom start downstairs. He talked and talked and talked about stuff that is actually really interesting. Unfortunately for me, his accent was mostly indecipherable, so I only undertood about 5 percent of what he said. Deb obviously didn't have the same problem - every now and then, she would come up with some question for him that absolutely blew my socks off, mostly because the information her question was based on had gone completely over my head.

We followed up our visit to the museum with an outdoor photoshoot. It seems that being a tour guide in Cairo is synonymous with being a professional photographer, because our guide was a star! He kept holding out his hand and saying "Give me the camera and go stand over there." We did it, and he took awesome shots.

After that, we went to a Papyrus paper factory, which was pretty cool. We got a quick demo of how the paper is made and how to tell if it's real or not before being given ample time to shop (shocking, I know).

Next came lunch, which was not only delicious, but served in a cafe with a direct view of the pyramids. Somehow, I did not expect the pyramids of Giza to be right in the middle of the city, but they practically are! There we were, sitting in a cafe, looking out at the street...and across the street - pyramids. Odd, but fantastic!

After lunch, we crossed the street to the pyramids. They are...exactly as you'd expect them to be. It's funny, because every time I've visited such an extremely famous monument, it's been so much greater than any picture ever suggested. The pyrmaids, however awe-inspiring and spectacular they might be, look and feel exaclty as they do in all their photos. This does not mean I was unimpressed - I'm just stating my surprise at how photos have finally done something justice! We spent the afternoon at the pyramids, taking photos and listening to more jumbled-up history and fun-facts. We visited the inside of one of the pyramids, too, which I was not terribly fond of - I felt pretty claustrophobic and somehow got it into my head that I was only breathing the carbon dioxide other people were producing. Not cool. Then we decided that if we were going to be tourists, we might as well go big or go home - so we hired two camels and went for a ride. We once again took a million photos, then headed back to our bus to go see the Sphinx.

Of course, throughout our visit to the Sphinx and the pyramids, we were hounded by vendors selling everything from postcards to "crystal" pyramids. I think I kept Deb widly entertained with the way I turned them all down - I told the postcard guy I couldn't buy anything because I was illiterate, the guy with the wooden cat statues that I was allergic to cats so that wouldn't work, and the guy with the collector's coins that I had plenty of them in my wallet. A simple "No, thank you." would have been too easy.

At the end of the day, we got back on the bus for another 6 hours back to the hotel. After that long day, we were once again unenthused about doing terribly much, so we spent the rest of the week back at the pool, or jumping in the Red Sea.

Overall, I would say I had a terribly unproductive, super-fantastic week. I would go back in a heartbeat.



Monday, January 14, 2013

Back by Popular Demand

Hi again!

I guess I've been on something of a blog hiatus for a while... oops! I didn't think I had anything too terribly interesting to say, but a stern talking-to from a grandmother who never admits wrongdoing on the part of her grandchildren has left no doubt in my mind that I need to write more. So here I am, to tell you the story of my life.

I guess I should start with my return to Ostrava after Christmas. The trip was rather uneventful (unless you count the absolute horror of trying to lug a 50 pound suitcase through a tiny train door), but the first few days over here were crazy. It seems our boys club really missed Deb and me, so they kept us out until ridiculous hours of the night for the first few days. Being our ever-so-responsible selves as usual, we didn't even bother putting up a fight. As it turns out, however, 7 am bed times and 5 pm wake-ups do not a jet-lag cure make. The first few days of school were exceptionally painful and exhausting, but I think I've found myself a somewhat regular sleep schedule now. Not a moment too soon.

Although Ostrava left its residents with a totally green Christmas, it has been snowing just about every day for the past week. All this white stuff gave the boys a seemingly insatiable desire to go the mountains and strap on their snowboards. So, on Friday afternoon we hopped a train and off we went! As soon as we checked into the hotel, the boys, Deb, and Martina donned their snow gear and hit the slopes. I, a determined non-skier, hung out in our nice, warm, cozy room until they were done. When they got back, we hit the hotel restaurant and bar for a delightful meal and more than enough drinks to make us a little bit silly. When the bar closed, we took some drinks back to our room and continued the festivities.

A couple of hours of wine, beer, and spirits later, somebody (I don't remember who), somehow, thought it would be a good idea to go out and play in the snow... sure, why not? Soooo... on went the snow pants, jackets, hats, and gloves and out into the winter night we headed! A couple of snowboards also found their way onto the hill with us so, naturally, snowboard-toboganning ensued. It seemed like a good idea at the time... then Drew and I crashed into a metal pole and the giant bruise/welt on my left arm is making me think that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the smartest endeavour.

After the crash, I decided to leave the snowboard-tobogganning to the others, and opted instead to lay flat on my back in the snow and stare up at the heavens. Best. Idea. Ever. It was snowing heavily, and a flurry of gigantic, fluffy white snowflakes on a backdrop of pitch-black sky made it seem as though I was living in a snowglobe with an endless supply of falling glitter. Either that, or the stars had decided to leave the sky and come down to Earth for a visit. Whichever way you look at it, it was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately for you, I can't upload mental images to a blog - if I could, you would be mesmerized, too. I lay there, staring up at the sky, until my teeth started chattering and I thought it might be a good time to retreat into the warmth of our room.

We all went back inside and, responsibility be damned, continued to drink. On Saturday morning we got up with difficulty, had breakfast, then got ready to hit the slopes again. While everyone was out skiing, I spent the day drinking tea, reading, and writing. I think they all thought I was really bored, but an entire day of bumming around and not needing to think at all was my idea of perfection.

By four o'clock we were all pretty dead so we did the only logical thing - hit up the sauna. Of course, this being Europe, we saw much more of each other than we had originally set out to this weekend, but what can you do? A little nudity never hurt anyone ;)
What hurt was the "correct" way of enjoying this sauna. That is, sit in a 90 degree room for fifteen minutes, sweating profusely, then immediately dump a bucket of freezing water on your head when you walk out! It's for crazies, I tell you, crazies.

After all that adventure, it felt like the weekend should be over, but it wasn't! Hooray!! On Sunday, we had a nice relaxing day involving ice cream, badminton, and a duck for dinner! Win-win-win.

I hope this will assuage the blog cravings for a while. I do have a week off coming up soon, so I'll hopefully have something interesting to report after that!

Ciao!

Steph :)