Made it to the USA Thursday

After over 24 hours of travel, I finally made it to the states yesterday evening. I'd been awake all day in Cairo, then up all night to catch my flight at 3am, then flying all day on three different flights to make it to Washington DC. The flight from Abu Dhabi to New York was 14 hours long, and I was really dreading it, but it turned out to not be so bad. The plane was over half empty, so I got three seats to myself. I shared them with an older Indian guy, but was able to lay down to sleep for a couple of long stretches. It really helped the flight go quicker, and I wasn't as exhausted as I could have been.

When I got to JFK airport in New York, I had to go through customs and all that jazz, then recheck in to catch my domestic flight. Made it through customs and immigration just fine, but the security stuff here is intense! I almost go turned away from a security check because my boarding pass only included my first initial and not my full name, but they let me through. Then I had to take off anything I was wearing that was metal and go through an xray machine! Yeah, they actually xray every single passenger. I was getting pretty fed up withthe airport by this time, so I was happy when I made it to my gate and could just wait for my connection. The flight from New York to Baltimore was well under an hour long, and the plane was tiny! The whatever you call an air hostesses it's a man only just had time to give everyone a drink before we were already landing.

At the airport I got my bag, got picked up, and here I am! I spent the day napping, reading, and exploring the area of the city I'm in. I was out walking for a while, and despite getting lost, must have looked like I knew where I was going because two people asked me for directions. Obviously, I couldn't help them. It's quite cold outside, but there isn't any snow. I was walking quite quickly, so stayed fairly warm, though. There wasn't anything really hugely different that I could see about America, other than its heaps more multicultural than NZ, both in terms of the people out on the street and the shops and restaurants. Might go try a restaurant tonight :)

Ok, that is all for today. I've been very tired and sore from all the flying yesterday. Hopefully I can get a good nights sleep tonight and do some proper sight seeing tomorrow.

Oh! And I nearly forgot! Suwon university offered me the job! I have over the weekend to get back to them. Awesome!

Job interview Tuesday

I just had an hour long job interview with Suwon University. I have no idea how well it went. I had prepared a full sheet of answers to common interview questions, but they asked me some really bizarre stuff. Well, the first guy did, and then the senior lady asked me regular stuff about my work history and teaching philosophy and whatnot. I think the first guy was trying to test my creative thinking and ability to deal with random stuff. His questions included things like "blue or red?"; "choose 5 CDs"; " are you a dandelion or an oak tree in terms of flexibility?"; and "would Ghandi make a good software engineer?". The last one was my favourite. It made for quite a fun interview. Interestingly, before we started, the guy was telling me not to worry and not to be nervous. I hadn't even thought to be nervous, he said it and I was thinking "oh yeah, some people do get nervous, don't they?". It hadn't even occurred to me.

Anyway, the job sounds really great, and I'll probably take it if they offer, but won't sweat it if they don't.

In other news, today is my last day in Egypt. I'm so excited! I've had enough of it now. Touring was fun, but I wouldn't want to live here. Today's plan includes sleeping, eating, and trying to find somewhere to print my boarding pass so I can check-in electronically for my flights and choose my seats early. Hopefully the hotel has a business center or something where I can print my forms.

That's all. Everything going to plan, my next post will be from America!

It's all over Sunday

The tour of Egypt finished last night and everyone left this morning. As usual, I was the only one not flying out directly after the end of the tour. The beauty of not having a job to go to, I guess. We had a farewell dinner last night, which was nice, and then hung out at the hotel bar until late. The trip was fantastic, but there's no one I'll really miss like on my contiki. 

Yesterday was a busy day, though. We were on the sleeper train in the morning and then went straight from there to the Egypt museum because if we went around lunch time like originally planned the protests might have interrupted our visit. The museum itself was intense. Without a guide you wouldn't know what just about anything was. Its simply packed full of artifacts and not even 10% of them have any information alongside. Our guide, Momo, came with us and talked us through the highlights of the museum. I enjoyed it, and so many of the artifacts are truly minblowing. However, museums are such dead places. Especially the Egyptian one, as most of the artifacts have to do with death, burial, and religion. I feel like I've been on a big tour of death related sites. I prefer living culture, although the old old stuff here in Egypt is amazing. I would have liked this tour, and my last one in Italy, to know more about who lives in the country now and how they live and whatnot. I'm hoping my time in America will change this pace a bit.

Speaking of the US, touch wood, everything is set for me to arrive there late on Wednesday. I've got flights, a visa, and Frank is coming to get me from the airport. I don't have any concrete plans of what to do once I'm there, I'll just see what I feel like.

Ok, that is all for today. Here's my top five things about Egypt:

1) the weather! I love sunshine, and that's pretty much what you get 24/7 here.

2) the food. While I haven't eaten anything truly amazing, it's all been very nice and I've tried a few different things.

3) sailing down the Nile in a felucca. It was a lot of fun and a really good experience.

4) riding in a hot air balloon! I didn't expect it to feel so safe.

5) getting to actually climb and sit on the great pyramid. I didn't think we'd even be allowed to touch them, but we had a lot of freedom to clamber all over. It was really special.

Two days on a felucca Wednesday

It's Wednesday night and I've spent the past day and a half on a boat on the river Nile! It's been mostly uneventful, not really much to report. It's been super relaxed and amazingly beautiful. The boat is basically one big bed with pillows mad blankets, and the roof is solid so you can go up there and sunbathe or whatever. I've had a lot of sun today! The crew has been cooking for us, and we've had some really nice food. I'll be glad to get off tomorrow and shower and use a toilet, but this has been really fun!

After I wrote the above paragraph, the felucca trip got even better! We docked for the night on a small beach and after dinner the Cree of our Noah made a small bonfire. Our whole group went and joined them and they played us some traditional songs using a couple of drums they'd brought with them. It was a lot of fun!

Now I'm off the felucca and in the hotel in Luxor. It's very nice! Tonight we've got a night tour of Luxor temple and dinner. Tomorrow is the hot airballoon, some sight seeing, and then sleeper train overnight to Cairo. I'm trying to book a hotel in Cairo for two extra nights, but the one I tried originally hasn't gotten back to me. I'll try them again in the morning.

Back on the sleeper train Friday

Thursday was spent recovering from the felucca trip :) I got a room mate for one night in the hotel, but she was nice. We went to two temples in morning, freshened up at the hotel, and then went to see Luxor temple by night. It was very cool to see such a magnificent temple all lit up! It was very beautiful. Then we went for a group dinner at a Egyptian buffet, which was nice, but not amazing.

This morning I had to wake up at 4.30 to go on my hot air balloon ride! It was still dark and pretty cold. The hot air balloons bare so big! They lay them out on the group and slowly inflate them with hot air. Then you get into the basket and they fire up the gas frame thing and you lift off and float away. I was a little bit scared to begin with, and I wasn't sure how well I'd handle the hight and being suspended so high by just some hot air, a balloon, and a basket - but I was totally fine. It was a wonderful experience. The balloon was so stable and quiet, and watching the sun rise over the Nile and seeing all the other balloons in the sky was really awesome. I enjoyed hot air ballooning a lot!

When we landed, we met up with the rest of the group (not everyone went up) and travelled a little ways to the valley of the kings. It's where a whole lot of very intact tombs are, many of which still have all the original art and colours in them. The art is similar to all the rest of the ruins, but being able to see the colours was really special. We got access to three tombs, and all the ones I saw were gorgeous. I liked the paintings of birds the best.

After that we went to the temple of a the only female phaero. It was not very interesting. So, we left and had a yummy group lunch at a local Egyptian restaurant. After lunch it was time for the last temple of the tour. We were all kind of breathing a sigh of relief about that. We sure have seen a lotion temples. This one was pretty great, though. It's the biggest temple in the world, apparently. Covering 45 acres of land! We only saw part of it, but it was pretty intact and very interesting. I enjoyed that one.

Then it was time to go back to the hotel to freshen up for our overnight train trip. We ended up in our tour guides room eating McDonald's :) the group has really improved over the last couple Mondays, and is a lot of fun now. So, now I'm on the sleeper train, with a cabin oneself again. Time to go to bed and retreads forth last day of the tour tomorrow.

Shisha Monday

Sleeping on the trains last night went really well. I did end up having the compartment to myself, so I got a pretty relaxed and uninterrupted sleep. We got into Aswan by around 12pm, so 15 hours on the train. We transferred to our hotel, freshener up, I used the internet briefly, and then it was off to see the Aswan dam mad the huge man made lake behind it. It's very big! It has enough water in it to supply 80 million people for 20 Yeats, apparently. It wasn't very exciting, though, just a dam and a lake. Dams kind of freak me out, so I was happy to leave. Then we caught a small boat to a tiny island with a temple on it. The temple used to be just off the island, but when they built the dam, it went underwater, so they relocated it after about 60 years. It was from the Greek and Roman times, and covered in carvings and hieroglyphs. We were there while the sun was setting, and it was beautiful!

Then we came back to the hotel quickly, and then went for a short walk around the spice market across the road. It had a lot of amazing smelling spices! But nothing I wanted to buy. Then we caught a boat to an island in the Nile... oh, I forgot to mention the hotel is right on the edge of the Nile, its gorgeous! Anyway, we went to an island with a Nubian restaurant on it. Nubians are the native people of the area. We had a selection of Egyptian salad type things, rice with cinnamon, and beef tagine for dinner. It was very nice!

Then we caught the boat back and our tour guide organised a van for some of us to go to a traditional coffee shop. Nearly everyone went, and the guide paid for the whole thing himself, even the coffee shop! At the coffee shop, which was an old Nubian house on top of a hill with sand floors, I had a mint tea and tried smoking the shisha. There were four flavours, but they all tasted the same to me, just sort of sweet. Having never smoked anything before in my life, I have nothing to compare it to. It wasn't horrible, but wasn't anything special. I certainly wouldn't rush to do it again. But, I'm glad I tried it :)

And that is all for today. I'm really tired now. In the morning most of the GroupWise doing a six hour round bus trip to a temple, but I'm staying behind. I'm going to sleep in, have a swim in the pool and organise my stuff for going on the sailing boat for two nights. Sounds much better than getting up at 3am to see ANOTHER temple and spend 6 more hours on a bus!

Started the tour Saturday

I checked out of my central Cairo hostel this morning. I'm not sorry to see the end of that place. Tiger print bedspreads, loud street noises and a bunch of huge bugs that crawled out the drain in the bathroom every night. There's a reason some of these places are cheap :) the new hotel is utter luxurious in comparison. I've not time to enjoy the huge gardens, gym, or pool, but I am enjoying the clean bathroom and double bed. It seems I've got a room to myself tonight. That or the other person isn't arriving until late and is going to wake me up in the middle of the night.

Anyway, while today is day 1, we don't actually do anything until tomorrow. I was lucky enough to get here in time to go on an afternoon tour of Cairo with four other people who are also on the tour. Apparently there'll be about 17 people all up, but I guess they hadn't arrived yet. The tour was good, but it was nearly entirely look at churches and mosques. I'm so over religious buildings after Italy! The other four people were Australian and were nice, but not overly friendly or anything. I think it'll be hard to beat, or even match, the social aspect of the contiki trip. The more I think about that trip, the more I realised I enjoyed it. I'd definitely consider doing another in the future.

So, religious sites in Cairo... really really old churches and mosques and stuff. Very beautiful, very dusty. From the van I also saw pyramids and the Nile! The pyramidal are first on the list for tomorrow, and I'm pretty excited to see them. I could have gone to a light show tonight where they shine multicolored lights on them, but it sounded pretty tacky. I'd rather see them normally, I think.

Only problem with this hotel is that they don't have free WiFi. I mean seriously, in this day and age, who makes you pay for WiFi with your room? I can pay $20 a night and get it free, or $180 and have to pay? Cheap buggers. But, I think I'll buy some time tomorrow morning, because tomorrow night we're in a sleeper train, and I want to hear from my mum and stuff.

That's all :)

Pyramids on a Sunday

Well, I ended up having a whole room to myself last night, and it looks like I'm getting sleeper compartment to myself too. Old me would think that was great, but new me isn't so sure. You dent have anyone to talk to! But, on the other hand, there's no chance of crazies. Speaking of crazies, everyone in the tour seems nice. There's quite a mix kf younger and older people, but no older married couples. There's a few older ladies, one who's travelling alone and a couple who are traveling with their daughters. There're a few younger couples, and a couple of single traveller guys, making up a group of 16. Much smaller than contiki! We've had good fun today, and have just set of on the sleeper train for Aswan.

Today I woke up, had a pretty good breakfast at the hostel, met up with the whole group, and then went to see some pyramids! We first went to the great pyramid, which is the biggest pyramid in the world. We were actually able to climb on it! Because of the revolution and political unrest in Egypt, not to mention the bad rep Muslims get, tourism here is way down, so many of the sites were rather deserted. Awesome for us! So, we got to climb on the pyramid and take lots of photos. Then we went to a slightly smaller one and were able to climb down a very small tunnel into the heart of the pyramid. That was cool! Then we went to a plateau in the Sahara where we're could see all 3 pyramids in the Giza area, took lots of photos, plus a group pic. Then I rode a camel! It was amazing. Camels are actually very tall animals, who walk in a very jerky way. I'm glad I only had to ride it for 15 minutes, I'd be pretty sore otherwise! As it is, my camel decided it really like another camel and walked so close to it my foot got a bit squashed. Now I have a bruised ankle on the same leg as my sore knee :)

Then we went to a place and saw them make traditional papyrus. They had some amazing paintings on sale, painted on the papyrus, so I bought a couple. I'm not buying many souvenirs this trip, but what I am buying I think is really quality stuff that the places I'm going are famous for. My painting in Rome, my ring in Florence, my glass necklace in Venice, and now papyrus in Cairo. Very cool!

After that we drove 45 minutes to the step pyramid, which is the oldest pyramid in the world. It's nearly 5000 years old! In that area there was also and amazing tomb that still had really well preserved wall art carved in the stone walls. In some areas there was even some colour preserved, and the hieroglyphs were fascinating. That may have been my favourite thing in the whole day. Sometimes the huge magnificent things are almost too overwhelming, and it's the smaller details that make a more lasting impression. The pyramids were simply amazing, though.

It was about 3.30 by then, and we got taken to a restaurant for a Kate lunch. We had mixed grilled meats, Egyptian style, fresh Egyptian bread, babaghanoush, and fresh mango juice. It was all nice, but the mango juice was so so so good!

Then, it was back to the hotel to freshen up before riding to the train station, boarding the trains, and here I am. We got a train dinner, which was like the meals you get on an aeroplane. My little room on the train has a door and a little sink, and towels, and everything! For someone who's only experience of sleeper trains is China, this is luxury! I'm quite easily impressed, it seems :)

So, today has been a lovely day. I'm hoping to get an internet connection tomorrow morning at out next hotel. If not, I'll have to go and find a coffee shop with free WiFi in the afternoon.

That's all in terms of activities. Some of the group is going to hang out in the club adjust now, but it's nearly 11pm, so I'm going to try and sleep.

In terms of deep and meaningful thoughts, not much! I've been finally too busy to overanalyse :) it is getting a bit tricky to answer all those questions people ask when you just meet them, though. Where are you from is easy, but where do you live is hard. I don't live anywhere right now. What do you do is easy, where do you work, the answer is nowhere, which weird people out. Where are you going next is easy, how long, what will you do there and why is not! Um, dunno how long, no plans of what to do, and well, I meet this guy a week ago... so I have no home, no job, and am travelling to a country with no plan and no set duration to see a guy I met in Italy. It makes perfect sense to me, but I think it sounds kind of odd to others.

Ok, bed time!

Hiding in my room Friday

I've been inside most of the day today, but it got to lunchtime, and I needed, well, lunch. I figured if I walked to a bakery I'd seen in the opposite direction from the protests, it'd be fine. I had a little wander around, then went to the bakery. It was really flash, but all the prices were in Arabic. Still, I picked out a couple of nice looking things mad bought them. I got what I guess is an Egyptian version of pizza bread with different spices and stuff on it. It's really nice! And then what seems to be deepfried doughnut, soaked in syrup and filled with cream and pistachios. So sweet, but nice too. And it all cost me under a dollar!

But anyway, then I went to leave the bakery, and there was a protest march going on right past the door. No one seemed worried like last time, it was just a big bunch of people walking sown the road chanting, clapping, and waving flags. Still, I didn't really want to be anywhere near it, so I justvwaited for it to be gone and turned down another street and made my way back home. Reports predict increasing numbers of marches and probably escalating violence as the afternoon continues, so imma just stay here in my hostel. Tomorrow's hotel is ages away from here, out in its own grounds and stuff, so I'll be pleased to get out there. Though, I feel safe enough here, just not outside :)

In other news, Matt booked my US tickets! I'll be there in the evening of the 19th of December!

Sam's five things about staying inside and not getting injured in political riots:

1) it gives you heaps of time to email all your friends and family and facebook stalk everyone you know. And everyone they know.

2) I'm really really clean now. Showering becomes fun.

3) the air in my room doesn't smell like cigarette smoke or car fumes and it's nice and cool.

4) maybe my knee will finally get its act together.

5) I'm going to REALLY appreciate this tour! Even if it sucks and the people on it are horrible, at least I'll be doing something and not alone. Though, the people must be pretty ok sorts to be travelling to Egypt just now.

What I want (countering the guilt)

WARNING! Introspective crappy personal post ahead.

I feel incredibly guilty about Andy. And I feel guilty towards both myself, and to a certain degree, Frank, for feeling guilty in the first place. What a mess of emotions.

I fell so quickly and completely out of love with Andy. All it took were some conversations with other people about him and my issues, and all of a sudden it was gone. When Frank's said to me something like 'so why are you with this guy?' and all I could come up with was that he was nice. Which is unfair. he has a lot of excellent qualities. What was telling was that I couldn't/can't think of them. What I admired most about him was his strength, and when he broke up with me because of his parents, it destroyed something. I know he tried to fix it, but I think my respect was already too far gone. What's a rationalisation, and what's real? This is not a list of what was wrong with that relationship. Perhaps when Andy told me that it wasn't that I didn't want to get married, I just didn't want to marry him, he was right. We'll come back to this marriage issue another day.

But, here's what I do want. And it'd do me well to keep this in mind as I move forward.

I started writing a list. This is Sam's five things, after all, and who doesn't love a good list? But I think what I want can be summed up more simply than a list.

I want a partner.

I've never really felt that before. I think my mum and dad have it, but I haven't. Up until Andy, the guys I dated were not my equal in some way. They were happy to let me do the work, or the thinking, or set the pace, the tone, whatever. Not that they were less than me, I just never felt like we were working together as a team. I want to be a team. Andy was too far the other way. He wanted all the control. He told me once he thought we could never work out because I was too strong. There was no sense of sharing or joint decision making, really he wanted to make the decisions and have me be happy with them.

I'd say my family is a model of what I want, which gives me hope I can have it too (or again). Mum and dad are partners with different strengths and ideas who work hard together. Our family as a whole is a team, each putting one another first when need be and working together. Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow, and sometimes you're carried. Idealised, yes, but basically true.

So, now all I need to do is find my partner. Right?

I smell like cigarettes Thursday

Today I decided to spend most of the day pretending I wasn't alone and scared in Cairo. I went to the City Stars shopping mall way over the other side of the city. It's the biggest mall they have, and was pretty nice. They had all stuff I recognised, and no one bothered me at all. Not an Egyptian experience at all, but that wasn't what I wanted anyway. So far I'm not super keen on this whole Egypt thing, and there's supposed to be some more problems tomorrow, so I'll probably just hang around close to my hostel for the day.

I did have one 'you're in Egypt' experience today, and that was my taxi ride back from the mall. There are no seat belts in the back seats of cars here, so you have to brave that, and the traffic is crazy. Then I realised that my taxi driver had a tv for a rearview mirror and was watching 'The Avenger' while driving, and smoking, despite the big no smoking sticker on the front window. He also had some sort of gangster rap/dub step CD playing rather loudly, and then proceeded to get lost in the streets around my hostel and drive around asking for directions. Which cost me like an exta $3! I'm feeling a bit sick now from the driving and smoke, but I'm ok. On the bright side I got a couple of nice new clothes, and some moisturiser. I don't know what's in the water of these countries, but it's harsh!

So, what else is going on? I'm inching day by day closer towards booking my tickets to the US. I think I'm going to fly direct from Cairo, but book myself a niceish hotel in a nicer area for a couple of days instead of a hostel for the time between when my tour ends and I fly out. Just to preserve my sanity.

Here's five things for Thursday:
1) I had Starbucks. It was good. I'm not sorry.

2) I had a good look around a huge Egyptian supermarket. There wasn't much weird stuff, sadly, but it was interesting.

3) I survived two taxi rides through the city. It really is best not to look.

4) I actually bought something while I was shopping :)

5) I felt safe today.

Cairo's not making a great first impression Wednesday

All I wanted to do today was go to the museum. I finally mustered up the courage to leave my hostel to brave the streets alone. I'm in the downtown area of Cairo and it's very busy, dirty, dusty and loud. I don't mind so much, you just have to be careful not to fall down the holes in the sidewalk. It's not even too hot, just t-shirt or light cardigan weather, which is nice. I haven't even been majorly hassled on the street, just a couple of people trying to talk or ask me into their shops, nothing very annoying.

The problems arose when I got down the end of the area to visit the museum. I made it down there and it's on the other side of like a billion lane highway thingies. I stopped to ponder my options and a guy asked if I was trying to get to the museum. I said yeah I was. He said 'oh, don't go right now, there's a demonstration just down there. It's very dangerous. It should be over in half an hour, come see my gold shop while you wait'. I was like... hmmmm, right, no thanks. But then I continued down the footpath and there was all this barbed wire hung across it and people in a huge crowd on the other side of the street with flags and stuff. So, I left.

I walked around for about an hour, just exploring the area. Nothing very exciting, just tiny shops and souvenir places. Then I decided to go back down and see if I could go to the museum yet. Again, I'm pondering my road crossing options and a young guys comes up and is like 'it's group time at the museum now, if you come back at 2pm the groups will be gone and the tickets will be cheaper. If you go now it'll be really crowded'. Ok, thanks. So, I went and got some lunch.

Then, at 2pm I AGAIN try to get to the museum. A guy tells me I can cross the road at the subway station, can I please come see his paintings. I tried to find the subway, failed, so had to cross the 6 billion lane highway. It wasn't so bad if you don't mind near-death experiences. So, I now made it to the same side of the road as the museum. I walk alongside it looking for the way in. The entrance is barricaded. With armed guards. Super. Yet another guy comes up and asks me where I'm going. I said I'm trying to go to the museum. And then it got scary.

He was like 'no, you have to leave here, its very dangerous... everyone else is leaving', and as he said that, people stated running away down the street, shops started closing and pulling down rolling metal doors, sirens started.... So, he leads me away down the street telling me there's a demonstration going on and it's not safe. He took my hand and rushed me across the road and down the street. People are running down the sidewalk past us, and he's going 'where is your hotel? Can you get back to your hotel?'. Then he was like 'come in this shop, you'll be safe'. I was afraid, but I wasn't going in any tiny shop with him. I was just like thanks for the help, I'm going now, ducked down the nearest smaller street leading away from the problems and walked really fast. As I got away from the main area things calmed down, and up by my hostel things seem normal. Well, I guess they are. I won't be going back down there again.

So, now I'm sick, dusty, scared, and the internet just stopped working. Bah!
What do I do now? Hide in my hostel and eat at the McDonald's across the road until my tour starts? I've got a day trip to Alexandria tomorrow, which I'll go on, but what do I do with Cairo? As I said, not a great first impression and apparently Friday is a dangerous day too.

As you can imagine, I'm not feeling very comfortable. So, scared, sick, sore knee, and don't want to get shot in the head by Muslim extremists - I think I'll just chill in my room for the afternoon. Mum, don't freak out. I'm ok.

Made it to Egypt Tuesday

The flight from Rome to Cairo is really short! Not even two hours, but it still takes all day to travel. I caught the bus to the Rome airport this morning, did all the checking in business, sat on the plane for three hours, got off, got money, got a visa, got out into Cairo, found my driver and made it to my hostel. Phew!

I arrived after dark, sonic glad I had a driver, but I had a good look out the windows as we drove in, and the area of town I'm in is very well lit and lots of people around, so I think I'd be all right out there at night. I'm in the downtown area of Cairo, and there are a lot, a lot, a lot of shops! All selling like a million versions of the same thing. Like the shoe shop has so many shoes there's no room for customers.

My hostel is pretty run down, but I can deal with it. I'm glad I have earplugs. Honking car horns seems to be a national sport. I've got a room with three beds in it... I'm assuming that since I booked, a private room that I'll be the only one in here. And, as an extra bonus, because I'm staying for 4 night, my airport pickup was free!

I've organised a private tour to Alexandria with a guide on Thursday, for only $100, which seems very reasonable. It's an all day thing, so should keep me busy. I'm pretty scared of Egypt, so I'll have to explore gently tomorrow. The museum seems like good idea?

I'm so tired tonight! I then I'm getting the cold everyone had on contiki. I blame you, Frank.
So, Sam's top five things about travel days:

1) Not having to plan to entertain yourself, all you have to do is go where they tell you.

2) the excitement of going somewhere new.

3) the feelings of 'moving forward' that come with this kind of travel.

4) spending the last dregs of your currency on candy.

5) finally getting where you're going and being able to go to sleep.

Slightly melancholy Monday

Just a quiet day today. I've been feeling a bit lonely and sorry for myself after yesterday's impressive display of upbeat enthusiasm. I went for a big last walk around Rome, which is just as beautiful as when I arrived, only now it's filled with memories too, making it really special. I took one last walk around where I ate my first gelato, where I laughed with Ange and Vicki, and where Frank and I made wishes on coins in the fountain. Pretty awesome :) I miss my friends!

Sometime it seems to me like 2012 has been a year of goodbyes. You'd think that would have been 2011 when I left for Korea, but I have had to say goodbye to so many amazing people this year. Courtney, Amy, Laura, Brook, Andy, Ange, Vicki, Frank, Mum, Dad, Matt, Jessie (dogs totally count), and Jen. Some of them are gone from my life almost entirely, but others have stayed, and I love you for that!

But anyway, enough on that. I'm off to Egypt tomorrow, which is cause for celebration! I've just been doing a bit of research online, and I've got a few activities in mind to keep me busy for my 3 alone days. I'm foreseeing a trip to McDonald's in my near future though... I'm not sure why, but I want a hamburger. I NEVER eat it at home, but when travelling it can be a weird comfort :) Other than that, I'm gonna get me some goat meat, and all kinds of Egyptian food! I want to do a day trip to Alexandria, which is apparently beautiful, go to the Egyptian Museum, and visit the Kahn el Kahlili markets. And I need to take more photos! I'm not taking enough. I came across a tour you can do in Cairo that's a photography day trip and they take you places and teach you how to take better pictures. It was pretty expensive for what it was, though, so I might not do it. Depending on how things go in the next little while, I might need all the money I can save.

Speaking of that, I heard from Frank and he is genuinely interested in going to Thailand with me, which is simply awesome. Have to wait and see if he can get the time off work and start planning from there. I'm trying (mostly in vain) not to worry about it. How on earth is it that you can be more concerned with a crush on a guy than the fact that you're about to go to Egypt, see pyramids, and ride in a freaking hot air balloon? My brain confuses me sometimes!

And you guys remember negative Nathan? Well, I got back in touch with him a while ago because I thought I was going back to Korea and still wanted to be friends. Well, I don't think I want to be his friend at all. He really is just too negative, and he actively hates all things Asian, specifically Korean. So, what's the best way to dump a friend? Tell him, or just taper off the communication? Yeah, I know. If it was me I'd want to be told. So, That's two guys I have to tell that I don't want to really know them anymore. Ugh, year of goodbyes!

Ok, I'm off for my last meal in Italy. I'm going to the airport in the morning to fly to Egypt just after midday. Actually, on closer analysis, I am really very excited :)

A holiday from my holiday Sunday

I had a great Skype chat with mum last night :) I'd cheered up a lot by then and was feeling pretty good, so I went to bed happy. Today I've emailed both Jen and Matt to catch up, cos I've been a total communication slacker during the tour. I was too busy to email!

Today's been a really relaxing day. I've been just reading, walking, sleeping, and eating. I'm trying to sit as much as possible to rest my knee.

But, mostly what I've been doing today is thinking. So much thinking! Why is it that some decisions are so hard to make and others just fall into place like it was all just what you should have wanted in the first place? All That worry and fuss over Andy and now I'm trying to decide how to best tell him I wont be coming back. The thing that really gets me is that I'm not sad about it. Hugely guilty, but not upset. Even if Frank wants nothing to do with me ever again, he's opened my eyes to how things could be, and I want a part of that. I'm certainly having some adventure, that's for sure!

Here's five things I love today:

1) My friends and family. You guys are so crazy supportive of all my life! I love ya.

2) Hot showers. They can temporarily make just about anything feel ok.

3) My puzzle ring from Florence. I'm not sure why I like it so much, but I love wearing it.

4) Photos! I've just been looking back through a bunch of picture from the last 5 or so years. So many good things to remember.

5) Looking forward. Just like I've been enjoying looking back, I've also had some fun looking forward today. The future is completely uncertain, and I'm strangely ok with that. I have no concrete idea of what I'll be doing, or even what country I'll be in in three weeks time, but that's ok. Am I finally learning to deal better with change? Wouldn't that be nice!