Today is Yom Al-gu-m’a, or Friday in English, the weekly Muslim holy day. The mosques peal five times each day, the first before sunrise, and the last well after sunset, but on Fridays at around noon they also broadcast their ‘sermons’ over the loudspeakers. We’re getting used to it, and Continue Reading
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Felucca
We’re writing this after dark from the cushions where we will sleep on the deck of our felucca. A felucca is an Egyptian sailboat, which have been used on the Nile for thousands of years. Our felucca is only 20 years old, but it has a new sail, and a Continue Reading
The Pilgrimage
Yesterday, we set out on a hike through the desert near the city of Aswan. After taking a ferry across the Nile, we started walking near the Tombs of the Nobles, ancient Egyptian tombs from 2000 BC. We hiked up to a citadel high on a hilltop, then headed cross-country Continue Reading
Observations from Egypt
Every hotel room is a smoking room. Even the straight men hold hands. People here dress better than we do. People are generally very friendly. Most don’t have the language skills to carry on a conversation with us, but you can tell that they want to. Everyone says “welcome”. The Continue Reading
One Night in Cairo
We arrived at Cairo airport from London at about midnight. We cleared immigration on the 2nd try, after we went were sent back to buy a Visa stamp. Fortunately, it was $15US each, rather than the $25 we expected. Upon exit from the arrival terminal, we were fully expecting to Continue Reading
Jolly Old England
We’ll enough about our preparations… We spent our first day in London with Natasha Koroluk, Patrick’s cousin’s daughter (first cousin once removed). She was a terrific host, who met us at the airport, got us to our hotel, and led us around for the first day. This helped to familiarize Continue Reading
Preparation — Diane’s Perspective
To say the last month has been stressful would be a bit of an understatement. As Patrick already told you in his blog post, things have been a bit crazy for us. He has worked extremely hard getting things ready for our trip, finalizing stuff for his parents’ estates, etc. Continue Reading
Preparation
By Patrick The last few months have been extremely busy and stressful for me. Getting ready for this trip, in addition to the many other things going on in my life, has been exhausting. It has been the most sustained period of intensity and hard work I’ve ever experienced. The Continue Reading
Lift Off!
Six months of planning, and the reality of what we are about to do is just setting in… We’re currently sitting at Gate 64 at Vancouver International Airport. Our flight to London leaves in 30 minutes! After an exhausting month of getting ready, we’re really about to do this. After Continue Reading
Welcome to our Travel Blog!
This is the first of what will hopefully be many updates on our travels this year. We’ll be updating this blog every week or two, with our experiences, thoughts, and the deep insights gained from our globe trotting. This blog is secured, so we can share more intimate details with Continue Reading