Regina on Top of the World

Goldilocks and the Three Bears...

2011-07-26T00:50:00.001-10:00

Day 169 November 15, 2010 What a trip. I arrived safely in Istanbul and it took me a few minutes to look at a map and figure out where I was. Apparently, there are two airports in Istanbul and I flew into the Asian side, on the other side of the city (European side)! But thankfully, Okan sent me maps and gave me bus numbers and navigated me to his home on the European side all by email!

Tram, Train and Airplane!

2011-07-01T06:08:00.001-10:00

Day 169 November 15, 2010 I woke up at 5:00AM so that I’d be able to ride the 5:52AM tram; I had a 6:51AM train to take me to Switzerland. From there, I’d take a bus to the airport and then fly out to Istanbul. I had a big day ahead of me and my biggest fear was that I wasn’t going to wake up and I’d miss my tram, that would make me miss my train, an then I’d miss my flight…we all remember

Lazy days in Strasbourg

2011-07-01T01:41:00.001-10:00

Day 161 – 169 November 7 – 15, 2010 We got up to Strasbourg and Judy and I only had about 3 full days together. Judy was returning to the US on November 11. She was kind enough though to offer me her room in her shared apartment until the end of the month since it was already paid in full. Such a tempting offer! Free accommodations?! But time was of the essence and actually, I had already

Surprises in Paris!

2011-06-08T01:32:00.001-10:00

Day 159 - 161 November 5 – 7, 2010 I arrived in France early in the morning; slightly disoriented because I had to switch trains twice on my 7 hour journey, with a 2 hour stopover in Munich…each leg only a little over 2 hours. I was meeting up with my friend Antonia - remember Antonia? My cute French friend who I traveled with back in Namibia? Yes, I was in France visiting her. I also thought

Getting to Germany…

2011-03-12T19:39:00.001-10:00

Day 150 - 158 October 27 - November 4, 2010 So I arrived safely in Spain…I had 8 hours before a flight to Germany. My original ticket brought me out of Jordan and into Spain but I would be traveling to Germany to see Martha and Yaya; one of many side trips I would be doing. I found a relatively good price to Frankfurt Hahn via Ryan Air. I had the option of spending time in Spain before flying

Before I say Good-bye to Jordan…

2011-02-22T21:13:00.001-10:00

October 24 - 27, 2010 Day 148 - 151 I was ready to be out of Jordan. After returning from three great weeks throughout Egypt, my perception of Jordan somehow wasn’t the same. Maybe it was because I was all alone again or perhaps because I didn’t have as much local interaction in Jordan as I did in Egypt? Whatever the reason, I knew that I didn’t want to stay much longer. I started devising my

The Journey Out of Egypt

2011-02-01T21:12:00.001-10:00

October 16-17, 2010 Days 140-141 Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have two early days, especially following a long day – waking up at 4:45AM to walk a mile or so to the train station to take a 3 hour train ride to Alexandria…A full day of walking – roughly 8 hours – was demanding. Is it a surprise to anyone that I didn’t get up to catch my 6AM bus? Well the retarded part was that I was up until

On my own….

2011-01-31T18:14:00.001-10:00

October 13-15, 2010 Day 137-139 Cairo Adjusting to life without Lee was hard. On my first day alone, I decided that I would go to the Egyptian Museum since I was close by and because Lee and I never made it in the end. When I finally got out of the hostel and headed there it was past 1:00PM; the guards stopped me and told me that the Museum closed at 1PM due to renovations. WHAT? So, I

All Good Things Must Come to an End…

2011-01-30T15:35:00.001-10:00

October 10-13 Day 134-137 We arrived in Cairo by taxi, going by minibus was not an option since we had all our luggage. We had found a place that looked pretty decent - Arabian Nights - located in Islamic Cairo near the Khan El Kalili Markets. We got lost and drove around in circles…eventually we found it and it was exactly where I thought I had seen a sign that read “Arabian Nights”! We had

Random Sleepovers

2011-01-29T12:52:00.002-10:00

October 9 - 10 Day 133-134 And so it turned out that we had no where to sleep the day after my birthday. We could have easily gone into Cairo and slept at one of the many hostels that dot the streets of Cairo but no, that would be too easy. No, actually, I hadn’t seen the pyramids yet! Since I chose to make the most of my 5-star stay, I barely emerged from the room…come on, this was the FIRST

Birthdays Only Come Once a Year

2011-01-27T22:54:00.003-10:00

October 7 - 9 Day 131 - 133 We were on our way to Cairo…finally! I had been in Egypt for almost 2 weeks and I still hadn’t see the capital city. We had the option of going on first class which included dinner and breakfast and a bed but it was way more than I was willing to spend. So instead, we opted for the first class seating which didn’t include a bed or meals. We had met some guys at the

Adventures to Aswan and Abu Simbel

2011-01-17T04:28:00.004-10:00

October 5-7 Day 128 - 130 We arrived in Aswan about 3 hours later, it was hot on the train and we were ready to get off. We hadn’t really figured out where we were staying in Aswan and again, I took for granted the fact that I’d be able to find a wi-fi signal to look up places to stay. We weren’t particularly worried though because our guide, had given us a name of a place to stay. The

Big Ships, Big Balloon and Big Graves

2011-01-12T04:00:00.003-10:00

October 2 - October 5, 2010 Day 125 - 128 The next morning, we were taken to the bus terminal and ran into our Greek friend from the Mount Sinai tour; he was trying to get to Alexandria and thought he could go up through Port Said, north of Suez. It seems a bit ridiculous but our route was via the south bit of the Sinai Peninsula to get up to Suez which is in the north. I feel like there could

Paradise Found: Dahab

2010-12-22T14:29:00.002-10:00

Day 121 - 125 While working at the hostel, a couple of people had told me about this place called Dahab in Egypt…a big scuba diving destination, I wasn’t sure if I’d really be interested in going being that I am from Hawaii and to be honest, beaches don’t really impress me too much, especially when compared to Hawaii’s own. But the last Australian I had met could not stop talking about it.

Aqaba on to Egypt…

2010-12-09T05:43:00.003-10:00

Waiting for someone to take us to Aqaba Ali dropped us off on the highway, as he said he would and again, thank God, I was with the guys. Seriously, I would have freaked out if I was dropped off at the highway by myself; at least we had each other. The owner, who was driving in front of us, was also taking his cook, who was Egyptian and who was also trying to make it to Aqaba so that he

More Drama in the Rum…

2010-12-08T22:03:00.005-10:00

So the next morning, I got up and went downstairs to meet Ali at 9:00AM to do our Wadi Rum tour. The tour which was an overnight in the Wadi Rum desert wasn’t cheap; the guys paid 65JD (USD$91) for the tour that included dinner, breakfast and transportation to and from Wadi Rum. As an employee, I received my employee discount and paid significantly less but it still wasn’t cheap. We headed

Lost in the Lost City…

2010-12-05T13:38:00.003-10:00

A few days later, there was interest stirring up at the hostel of doing a trip down to Petra. Finally! I had been spending my days at the hostel waiting for someone to book a trip so that I could tag along. There were some Greek girls who were interested in going and there were two other guys who were planning to do the trip on their own and were leaving the next morning. I thought it would have

You’ll never know who you’ll meet….

2010-11-24T11:47:00.004-10:00

My first morning in Jordan, I was awoken rather early (I thought it was 7AM but apparently it was more like 5:30AM) by the sounds of the ‘Call to Prayer’. In the predominantly Muslim country, the Call to Prayer is heard several times a day (5 to be exact) urging Muslims to pray towards Mecca…or at least this is my understanding of it. I must have been startled by the sounds and woke up but

It was love at first sight and so I said yes…

2010-11-12T02:31:00.014-10:00

I was on the plane heading over to the Middle East…The Middle East! It’s that faraway place you only hear about on the news?! I was finally going there! First inspired by one of my political science professors, Dr. Nasr, I knew one day I’d like to go to his home country - Lebanon. Jordan is not quite Lebanon but it was close. Other than the association with my prof, the only other knowledge I

The Venice of the North

2010-11-12T01:37:00.004-10:00

Is what St. Petersburg has been dubbed and it truly is…when you walk down the streets, you’ll be amazed to see how many canals there are and how the architecture is something out of Western European. We also heard that many of the early urban planners modeled the city after Amsterdam. Whatever city St. Petersburg tried to imitate, it’s definitely not what you’d expect from Russia, or at least in

From Russia with Love

2010-11-11T06:03:00.003-10:00

Day 86 - Day 100! So, I finally made it to Moscow! After all the hassles that I had with the visa, again, I was admitted into the country with very little questioning. We were about an hour delayed and so I needed to quickly find my luggage and make my way out towards my friend Eleanor’s house. Eleanor and I also used to work together; she is also good friends with Yvonne, Maggie and Andy!

Case of the missing underwear…Travel gone bad…happy endings in Moscow

2010-11-10T02:56:00.002-10:00

I pulled an all-nighter…the first time in a while. I had been on a mission for the last week or so to finish the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert so that I could leave it for Stephanie. I didn’t finish it in time when I was in Breedon on the Hill so I thought I will definitely finish the book while I’m in London and I’d see if maybe Gogz could take it with him when he went to

Celebrate Good Friends

2010-11-09T04:47:00.008-10:00

Day 73 -86 I arrived safely in the United Kingdom. It was a long flight but I was able to sleep most of the way. It’s one of the gifts I have been blessed with, I can sleep anywhere! I have been to London several times so it wasn’t anything new for me. I was hoping to be able to sort my bus ticket before arriving but for some reason, I wasn’t able to pay online. When I contacted my credit card

The beautiful people of South Africa…

2010-10-22T20:37:00.119-10:00

So I arrived in Gaborone 30 minutes earlier than planned. My bus driver was awesome he got me there safely and early! What more could I ask for? When we arrived, I asked him if he thought there were still buses that were leaving for Joburg. He said that there should be and pointed me in the direction that the buses usually wait to fill up before making the 6 hour drive across the border. It was

A night in the Okavango Delta

2010-10-20T03:49:00.005-10:00

So the following morning, I got up bright and early and had a taxi come and get me at 6:15AM; due to some miscommunication, the driver, 'Small', went to the place that he was supposed to drop me! Good thing that I had him come early…he ended up coming to get me at 6:40AM instead and we went back to the Okavango Delta Lodge so that I could start my tour on the Delta. Back in Windhoek, I had met