Too busy

Only two more weeks of our trip and it has been unbelievable. We are in London and since we last updated our blog we were in Italy! That seemed like forever ago... I finally met Gulia Patrick's cousin who lives in Torino, Italy and then I met Aunt Judy in Bassano del Grappa where we relaxed for a few days and ate the best food of our trip. Homemade cooked meals ... we ate till we were full and then we ate some more. Words cannot describe Italy- One of my favorite countries we have visited. I was hard to board the plane to Barcelona after ten amazing days in Italy.

Barcelona, was more than I could expect! We couchsurfed with a young Catalonian Xavier where we spent three nights in his flat playing the board game RISK -Patrick was obsessed! We did spend the day light hours admiring Goudi's famous work in Barcelona. While snapping pictures of Goudi's work we unexpectedly ran into a traveler we had met in Greece over a month ago! This backpacker, Mike from Canada is also on a 3 month trip and we spent two nights with him in Meteora, Greece. While in Barcelona our paths crossed, so we spent another day sightseeing.

From Barcelona we flew to Paris- Aw Paris- Absolutely beautiful, another city that words cannot describe. Two days in Paris was not enough time to see all the history and sights. I must say that Croissants made in Paris melted in our mouths and locals carry around a baguette...What is the secret ingredient in French bread?

Paris to Amsterdam-we had a luxurious train ride and since we were eligible for youth prices we were in first class for less money than second. We arrived in Amsterdam and quickly fell in love with the Dutch.. by far the nicest people (also in Barcelona locals were very helpful). The second we pulled out our map locals would ask if we needed help and walk us to our destination. The Dutch know how to make the sweetest desserts. I ate waffles and profiteroles until we left the country. Three days in Amsterdam - I cannot write about our impressions because I am getting tired and I have to write about the REUNION!

Over 5 years ago I went to South Africa with an organization Youth With A Mission where I spent six months with volunteers from all over the world. There was a lot of Europeans and since Pat and I were going to make this trip I contacted my friends and they organized a weekend reunion. It was brilliant, there were over 12 friends who came and some with their new additions their beautiful children. It was a relaxing weekend of fellowship just catching up and watching videos from our time in South Africa.

From Holland we spent nine hours on a bus to London- Thank God the British accepted us into their country and now we are spending 3 days with a Slovakian couple Lenka and Vlado who we ran into several times in Egypt. We are staying on their couch in their lovely flat in East Finchley, London. Traveling opens up heaps of opportunities for friendships, I just cannot stop smiling! We worked so hard to save money and the sense of accomplishment when we boarded the plane in Los Angeles to embark on this life changing journey is a feeling I wish everyone could experience for themselves.

December 15th at 6:15 we arrive in Los Angeles.

Much Love

Paula and Patrick

Old stomping grounds

There is an old Italian proverb that goes something like "he who goes to Rome and doesnt see the Pantheon comes and goes a fool". Somebody please call Berkeley and tell them that a fool I am not. Paula and I recently flew in to Rome from Bucharest, where we were greeted by goregeous blue Italian skies, punctuated solely by soft cumuli inviting us into a world where Renaissance magnificences is passed, casually, by Romans on their morning walk to work.
We found our hostel, as couchsurfing had failed us, and took off. We RAN from place to place, each destination adding momentum to our enthusiasum and egging us on to the next sight. When we found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel, our legs began to fail us. With throbbing feet we sat and reveled at Michelangelos ingenuity. We quit the place and found pizza and wine. Oops. We got a little...come se dice, drunk. So we stumbled back to the hostel, after a gelato or two and partied even harder. Now its time to go see Florence. Peace.

Bulgaria/Romania

OK OK where to start? Let's see, we last updated heading to Athens...which was, to say the least, nice (Yea, to say the least). Athens, we couchsurfed with this guy, Nico, who had a one bedroom apartment a short metro ride from the Acropolis. Paula and I stayed with him, and 3 hippies, who, as we, were enjoying Nico's hospitality. We spent little time in the apartment but what we did, was crowded. Paula and I were given Nico's waterbed, while the four of them slept out in the living room, where it got a bit noisy and, to say the least, stinky (yea, to say the least). Night one passed with little to report but night number two, Paula and I were out in Athens having a blast with Barb's unmet collegue, Theressia, and didn't make our way back until midnight. Come the dozen strikings of the bell, we were ready to dream the dreams of sailors. Nico wanted to talk. The three of us camped out on his bed until 2, whereupon we fell asleep and woke in the morning for our train only to find that we had passed the night with Nico, who was adorned in naught but his undergarments.
Ok, so we jump on a train to Sofia, Bulgaria. It was, to the the most, OK (yea to say the most). The couchsurfers we met made the experience better, and it was our first encounter with snow, which the sky provided in plethora.
Sofia, peace out, hello Brasov, Romania, where we currently sit. We've just spent the day gaurding our necks in Transilvania and strolling the grounds of Chateu Dracul. (Count Dracula's castle). Seriously? Yea, seriously. We saw Dracula's castle.
Don't worry, we're staying warm, it's currently 4 degrees. So, thanks dad for the jacket (which has got Jay's name on it you thief) and thanks Donna for keeping my Paula warm (my arms can only do so much).
Hope the McSig family has a great time at Omnium and don't forget about us ok? Love to everyone back home.
Pat and Paula

Africa, Asia and Greece

Do you all remember the story of Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel Mary Ann? No? Read it. Think about it. And think about our blog ok?
Now that that's settled lets talk about our travels. So, when we left Cairo, we left Africa. The next day we landed in Istanbul, we landed in Europe. That night, for coffee we went to Istanbul, we went for coffee in Asia. Three continents in two days. That's pretty BA.
So in Turkey we spent some time outside of Istanbul and were able to see the incredible natural pools at Pammukale, the incredible catholic ruins at Cappadocia and, of course, Ephesus. A crazy amount of history, biblical and otherwise.
We spent that night on a fantastic sleeping train in a cabin, complete with beds, that took us from Istanbul to Xanthi, Greece where we met a wonderful couch surfer Panagiotis. From Xanthi, our plan was to hitchhike to Thessaloniki and we tried, but only got as far as Kavala, where we were picked up by an amazing man Gregorios. Kavala is great and if you ever come, maybe you too can experience spending 68 Euro on cleaning your clothes. Great. Wonderful. We shop at Goodwill and cleaning them has just doubled the amount of money we spent on them in the first place. Patience.
Life is good and we're heading to Athens tonight.

Mike Mulligan. Read it.

Istanbul

If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze upon Istanbul.

Alphonse de Lamartine

Turkey here we come

We are both itching to start the second month of our journey in Turkey. We fly to Istanbul in just a few hours and will be greeted by Berna- a couchsurfer we met while in Cairo. We are sad to leave our friends here in Cairo, but are excited for our future travels.

Just a few pictures

Pat holding one of Maya and Nour's baby goats in Dahab... aren't they adorable?

Freezing on Mount Sinai

The Temple of Karnak

Abu Simbel in Upper Egypt... a breath taking site

Floating in Lake Siwa... extremely salty!

(Ahmed, Brad, Patrick)

i forgot

and we hiked Mout Sinai for the sunrise.

To the borders.

Sorry for the lack of updates people, we've been on one heck of a wild ride. Our first venture (it's cool if you follow on a map) was to the Siwa Oasis, near Libya. In Siwa we stayed in just about the middle of nowhere, on the skirts of the Great Sand Sea. A big old Toyota LandCruiser took us out into the Sea and we splashed around in what can only be described paradise. We spent hours breathing in the toxic fumes let out of the engine that needs no smog checks, and when our lungs were no longer forced to breathe in the slow death, we found ourselves in the middle of the desert, surrounded by sand for miles, with a gorgeous blue lake offering sweet respite from the sweltering desert heat. From Siwa, Paula and I left the group we had been traveling with to cut out on our own, with a few blissful days in Marsa Matrouh and the famed city of Alexandria. The brilliant waters off the Egyptian coast were, i apologize for my repetitivity, but paradise as well. How much beauty can one country hold? Our spirits were deflated slightly as we got on the 12 hour train ride to Aswan, 12 incredibly slow, dark, stinky hours. We made it to Aswan and Paula fell in love. My heart? I left it in Alex. Aswan is this small...paradise...wrapping its cozy self around the green waters of the Nile. The river itself threads its way through boulders the size of LA apartment buildings and scattered throughout you can see the tall masts of the small feluccas perforating the hot blue sky. We felt it necessary to hop on one of those feluccas and sail down to the temple of Kom Ombo, which took the better part of a day sailing and a fitful rest on the Nile that night. A microbus took us from Kom Ombo to Edfu and then Luxor. Luxor. The Valley of the Kings? Tutankhamun's grave? Are you kidding? Luxor was just crazy historical fun tomb and temple hopping. Luxor was hot, and we were mentally drained from the tremendous amount of activity the ancient and contemporary Egyptians had/have provided us with so we set out to relax. Where could we possibly relax? We've seen the Libyan border, we've seen the Sudanese border, we've seen the Mediterranean border, that just leaves the Sinai Peninsula and the Saudi Arabian border. Dahab here we come. 12 hour train ride? Psh, lets talk about the 18 hour bus ride from Luxor to Dahab. Apparently the ferry from Hurgada to Sharm el Sheikh wasn't running, so our bus to us north to the Suez Canal then back up and around the peninsula to Dahab, on the Gulf of Aquaba. Dahab was paradise (somebody get me a thesaurus!) and we whittled away the day snorkling at the 'Blue Hole' and smoking sheesha on the beach. In case we needed excitement, our couch surfing hosts, Maya and Nour, had a couple of camels, Ruby and Shakira, who spent the day in the dirt and dust with a bunch of goats. To say the least, they were dirty. Can you picture a bathtub big enough for a camel? Neither could we, so we were forced to take them to the sea and rinse them off. Yea. We bathed camels. We're now back in Cairo, home sweet home, just long enough to wash some clothes and maybe even wash ourselves with something besides salt water. Family and friends, we're having a blast and we appreciate all your prayers and emails of comfort. Uploading pictures is a pain in the ass so we'll have a nice big party when we get home with a slideshow ok?
Love to you all and everyone who isn't reading this that should be (Skip).

Saying Goodbye to Cairo...

We have been in Cairo for over a week now, it has been a whirlwind of an experiences and now Pat and I will be venturing to see the rest of Egypt. We leave tonight (Wednesday) to Siwa the famous osasis about 600km from Egypt. We are traveling with Ahmed, Menna and her brother. It will take about eight to ten hours.
Then we are traveling to Alexandria and then up the Nile to Luxor, Asawn, Abu Simbel and the Red Sea. We wanted to let everyone know our plans because we will be away from a computer for at least a week depending on where we are staying. We will be back in Cairo on October 10th! Lots of love from the Sweet P's~

Pryamids and dinner with an Egyptian family

We saw them. We saw the Pyramids. Our day started at six where we traveled with our new German friends and our old friend Ahmed, whose apartment were staying at. Go find yourself a National Geographic with pictures of the pyramids and stare long and hard and please, let us tell you that they alone are worth the trip to Egypt. These megalithic testaments to human inginuity that have withstood the literal sands of time are beyond what can be expressed in words. You may find yourself tilting at windmills but try, please try to wrap your mind around this...we descended, with heads bowed and backs bent, into the very heart of the Pyramid of Khafre. The pyramids, that you have seen since before you were born...not 3 hours after waking up, we found ourselves underneath more than 6 million tons of limestone brick.

Post pyramids, we came home for a quick nap and, having fasted all day in the spirit of Ramadan, went for breakfast at Ahmeds girlfriends, Mena, house for a feast, where her mother Amani prepared Molokhia, some red stuff, some dolmalike treats, rice, and some other red stuff with beans and carrots in it. In spite of my lack of names, the meal was TDF (to die for..duh). We have just finished our night (at 1 am) with shisha and tea and are preparing for our second trip to the Egyptian Museum, this time with a tour guide to show us how, exactly, to get to the room of Tutankhamun.

Thats all for now.

For the record, the keyboard refuses to equip us with the tools necessary for proper punctuation so bear with us.

Much love,

2SweetPs

What have we been doing?!?!

I must begin by saying that Pat and I could have never dreamed of our first few days in Cairo to ever be this amazing. We are currently couchsurfing in an apartment right outside of Cairo, we have the apartment all to ourselves, it has airconditioning and internet. A few German couchsurfers will be joining us tomorrow night. Our host, Ahmed has an internship during the day but at night he has given us the tour of a life time. Our first night we went on a double date with Ahmed and his girlfriend Amani, we took a night cruise on the Nile. It was a smooth and relaxing sail on the Nile, however, we could still hear the sounds of car horns from the night traffic. -The next day Ahmed's friend Mo offered to take us to the Egyptian Museum. This is the largest Egyptian Museum in the world, we spent hours in the massive building viewing ancient artifacts-some of th artifacts were not even in a case. It was truly unbelievable. We paid a little extra to see the Royal Mummies, this was a small room where exposed mummies laid in glass cases. Egyptians who lived over 4000 years ago right before our eyes- Pat said we were living in a National Geographic magazine and it is true and it is just the begining!
We arrived to Cairo during the middle of Ramadan and it has been interesting to see the nightlife from 6pm to 4am this is when Muslims break their fast and the streets are filled with people walking and taxi's and cars storming the roads.
Tomorrow brings us another adventure with perspective volunteering with the Cairo Rotary Club and as we itch to see the pyramids we eagerly wait for our German couchsurfers so we can make one big trip!

We made it to EGYPT!

After two days of traveling Pat and I have finally made it to Cairo! We are safe and exhausted! We were welcomed at the airport by Ahmed and his girlfriend, which was nice because the airport scene was a litte overwhelming. We arrived at midnight so we will report on more when we are fully awake!

September 13th we fly to the unknown for three months

Less than three weeks till Patrick and I get on a plane at LAX and fly to Cario. It has been 11 months since we won our two tickets to anywhere in the world. Azusa Pacific University, the University I graduated from in May raffles two tickets every year during Global Vision week. The week is dedicated to learning more about issues and cultures around the world. My raffle ticket was picked and we were able to choose where ever we wanted to go! WOW, we are totally blessed! We have been planning this trip since before we even won the free tickets. Unsure of how we were going to finance such a trip we continued to save and dream. I wanted to go back to Africa and Pat wanted to see Africa, I also wanted to see Europe since I have only been to Eastern Europe.
We fly into Cairo in September and will spend a month traveling the ancient sights and soaking up every inch of the Egyptian culture. From Egypt on October 14th we fly to Istanbul and hope to spend two weeks in Turkey, the rest of our trip is very tentative.
Here is our intinary:
Egypt September 13th-October 14th
Turkey October 14th-Oct 24
(we will be traveling through the Balkan countries by train to get to Greece)
Greece October 24th-30th
Italy October 31st-Nov 10th
Spain Nov 11-17
Germany Nov 18th-23
The Netherlands Nov 24-30
*In The Netherlands Pat and I will have a mini reunion of my DTS group that I met in South Africa over 5 years ago!*
France Dec 1-7
UK Dec 8-15
We depart from London on December 15th!

Since we have a limited budget, Pat and I will be Couchsurfing! For those who have never heard of couchsurfing, you have to go to couchsurfing.com. It is an amazing network of world travelers who open their house to travelers. Pat and I are so excited, only a few more days till we board the plane!