Where There's A Waterfall, There's A Way

Can you dig it?

2006-07-09T17:41:22Z

So the other day in the field we found a small round basin rock structure thinger and we called it the bathtub.... and then we created this story that a man with leprosy was cast out of the city and the area outside of the gate that we're excavating now is his house with his bathtub. Only one of several hundred ways you can keep entertained while moving ridiculous amounts of dirt! Hahaha... Archaeology is very cool though, I must admit.

Well, only 8 more days of digging and getting up at 4:30am! Yaaayy... although I will be a bit sad as Jordan has been awesome.. everything is too expensive here though... its all like the same prices as in Canada... blaaaahhh.. Egypt was dirt cheap.

Hah.... funny story...
So I have these bright red baggy flowy pants and I was wearing them the other day walking down the street. Weirdly I was getting about 10 x's more catcalls than is normal for 2pm and was frankly a bit creeped out when about 4 Jordanian teenage boys started following me and yelling out most likely creepy stuff in Arabic....... so I thought to myself, "this can't be just because of the red pants can it be?" and then I remembered that not once have I seen a red shirt or red pants in ANY of the stores here in Jordan! No red shirts at alllll..... The only thing I've seen that is red here in the store windows is not very respectable red lingerie....

.... so I think they thought I was, well...... a not very respectable lady in red....

The moral is: Just in case you ever doubted it, red pants are a bad idea. You might be mistaken as a lady of the..... ick.... night.

Hahaha

Love
Krysten

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Petraaaaa

2006-07-01T19:22:46Z

Oh wow. I can't even begin to explain the awesomeness of this weekend.

First of all, I got a beautiful hotel room for $20 CAD a night. I managed to grab one of the only single rooms with *gasps* a continuous hot shower! No more army showers (water on, water off, shampoo in, rinse, water off, conditioner in, rinse, water off .... all in 3 mins) for a whole weekend! And as if that wasn't enough to make my whole hotel stay worth every penny.....

We all got into Petra for free! Usually $40 CAD per day, but waived as we were registered with the Jordanian antiquities office and considered as "doing a service to the antiquity of Jordan." Ah yes, that's us... superstars in the Jordanian antiquity circle. I'll bet you're all jealous...

The photos from Petra are definately the best photos of my trip so far, I think.... We started in the Siq, then to the Treasury and the Monastary and the look outs. I dont want to say anything else because I just can not bring myself to ruin the photos before I actually post them or show people. The Monastary was a 45 minute climb up the side of a mountain on 2000 year old steps that were created by the Nabatean people...

You really must go see pictures at http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/
since I can't get my camera working on these darn computers in Jordan.....

Next was the High Place of Sacrifice which was a steep hour climb up 1256 steps on sketchy, demented stairs. The climb was so worth it despite a decent sun burn and nothing short of a heart attack affecting the three of us who climbed. The minute we reached the top, an ancient ceremonial altar was visible (which we laid in of course for oh so good photos... which was placed splat in the centre of the highest mountain in the area with a backdrop of rolling mountains and steep deadly valleys.

Of course the scenery was amazing and the incredible stonework, astounding.... but it was really the Jordanian people that made our day. We ended up (my friend Casey and I) having tea three times with different bedouin women throughout Petra who would simply not have no for an answer... and good thing, they were HILARIOUS. In broken English and Arabic, our conversations were enough to crack up even the tourists standing nearby who of course were pretending not to listen.

And when we finally climbed the 898 winding, ridiculous 2 foot high and 4 foot long steps to the Monastary we rested in a Bedouin tent and were surrounded by Bedouin music and a meal of "we still don't know what".... although it was the best food I've had in Jordan yet!

Oh, and of course with my broken Arabic I charmed some Bedouin men into giving me a free camel ride... and after joking around with them for far too long Casey, Cara and I were taken on a crazy, free camel and donkey ride with some hilarious Bedouin dudes.

Oh and then a camel bit me...... But it was more of a surprise then anything else to see a camel coming straight for my arm. Surprisingly it didn't hurt at all... It was merely like a clamp with no teeth... ewwww... and I don't even want to talk about the slimy white and nasty yellow gunk which was left behind on the entire sleeve of my shirt. Puke.

Of course, after arriving in Petra at 6:30am and ascending and descending over 4000 treacherous steps and walking over 8 kms over the course of 12 hours, we were ready to leave at 6:30 pm...

So I came back to the hotel with some others and went for a swim in the POOL and am now ready to CRASH

Mucho love,
Krysten

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Dirt Boogers

2006-06-21T12:40:45Z

Salaam!

I hope everyone is well and everything is nice and summery in Canada or wherever the heck you're from.

Just an update:

1. We've started digging our site. I am working on a part of the wall enclosure outside of the city. It's a comprehensive retaining system of specially placed rock intended to keep the city walls up and visitors out. We've also found HEAPS of pottery and animal bones that suggest the site was possibly used as a dumping ground at one point. After all, out of site out of mind, right? HAHAHA PUN INTENDED. I am so funny, eh? :s

2. I have NEVER been so FREAKIN dirty in my life. It is often VERY windy on the tell so sometimes digging can be a nightmare and sunglasses to keep the dust out of the eyes is the equivalent of a 11pm chocolate binge. I could just feel the desert sand literally blowing INTO my EARS the other day. SICK. Our favourite weapon at the end of the day on the bus ride home are baby wipes to take off the disgusting layer of sand and mud that layers the face like a pre-teen wearing too much foundation.

3. You won't see any photos from the tell until I get home. Legally we're bound to archaeological ethics that tell us that no organization besides the actual sponsored website or books of the excavation is allowed to publish any material about our finds, blah blah blah. Even online. Frankly, I understand. If every person that went on the dig published blogs about what they did that day and what they found there would be most likely many errors, like "I found an iron age pot!" when actually it was Nabatean or something and then they publish pictures on a webpage? It's just false information being published about an actual archaeological scholarly site.

4. I am sick of pita and hummus.

5. I am sick of eating chicken and rice on monday, rice and stewy weird stuff on tuesday and some other strange concoction on wednesday.... and then having the menu repeat itself.

6. The first thing I eat when I get home will be a big steak, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes and fruitopia.

7. I have to go to the bathroom so bad that I don't know if I can finish writing this blog.

8. Farmer tans are the shiznak.

9. I have some awesome middle eastern souvenirs but I can't tell you what they are because *gasps* one of them might be for ... YOU!

I have to go to the bathroom.
Byeeeee

Much Love,
Krysten

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A puke and a half....

2006-06-16T17:16:42Z

I apologize for the horrible title, but really there is no other way to explain the last two days for you.

Since everyone arrived in Jordan, members of the team have been dropping like flies. By dropping like flies I mean worshipping the porcelain goddess, not dying. Don't worry too much.

So Tuesday was our first real day of digging. After a painful and borish day of mapping out the square, taking elevations, taking photos of everything and stringing the squares we finally got down to business.

Monday on the tell (a large mound in archaeology which is not a naturally formed hill, but rather dirt and grass covering an archaeology site) the weather was nice and a calm 36 degrees.

Tuesday was better and only 32 degrees which helped us ease into a long summer of excavation. Let me tell you, my arms and legs will be rocks by the time I get back to Canada. Just climbing the tell in the morning leaves every single person gasping for breath upon completing the steep climb.

Wednesday was a bit rough as the temperature climbed up to a scalding 42 degrees by the time we left the site at 11:45 am. I can't imagine not starting at 5am and being finished by 11:45am

The rest of the day is busy, busy as we only have a couple hours of free time in the afternoon and then it's off to pottery and object washing and then our specialization. Mine somehow being object photography, even though I suck at photography.

So anyway, I'll stop boring you with mundane details and get to the really gorish and juicy (no pun intended) details of my two sick days.

I woke up at 2am in the morning on Thursday morning and felt horrible. I got out of bed feeling like several Egyptian speeding trucks carrying loads of watermelons had hit me and the contents had been left bouncing behind in their watermelony goodness only to yes, hit me while I'm down.

I made it to the bathroom in time and spent probably 18 days puking (although realistically probably only about a half hour) and climbed back into bed.

The trucks only increased in size after that until they became trains and then large cruise ships, this time drowning me in the depths of the Nile.

I know I'm a drama queen.

At about 4 in the morning I fainted and did a pretty good job on my knee.

At 10 in the morning it took me 30 minutes to make it up a flight of stairs to get a bottle of water from the fridge. A quick 10 minute pass out on the kitchen floor and a 5 minute break after walking 10 steps in a dizzying orb of fluorescent light and all was well. Somehow I made it back to bed.

Apparently there's some Jordanian virus going around and has even the locals as close to the floor as humanly possible. I was relieved to hear it wasn't just our pitiful Canadian stomachs reacting to the food.

So about half of the 50 member team is sick as of now...
I'm pretty much fully recovered now and am told by Dr. Bernie that by tomorrow morning I will be peachy....

Great.

Much love,
Krysten

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Time is flying...

2006-06-13T12:42:09Z

Alright...
So the computers in Jordan are crap and not Windows XP which means they won't recognize my camera when I plug it in or allow me to upload photos on to my site. This really sucks because my next entry was my second day in Egypt and GIZA

GIZA=PYRAMIDS

EYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

So basically you just get 1000 words in place of a picture, assuming that a picture is worth a thousand words.

My second day in Egypt was great, although a wee bit tainted by some ridiculous Amarikens. Stupid Americans. I met Blair (girl) and her boyfriend (the bf we'll call him... I forget his name) my first day and they were from Alaska. We decided to get a taxi together for the next day and go out to Giza to see the pyramids and to visit Saqqara and Memphis. It was cheaper to share a taxi between the three of us and it ended up being 7$ CAD each to hire the taxi for the day.

Once we got out to the vicinity of the pyramids which are actually only a couple km's from the immediate city of Cairo our taxi driver took us to a stable where you could rent horses and camels for the day to explore the area around the pyramids and the sphinx.

What you must understand is that when you're in Egypt and bartering you must never take anything seriously. Sometimes you'll get ripped off and sometimes you won't. The Americans simply did not realize this and absolutely sucked at bartering finally settling for 90 pounds egyptian for the camel ride and entrance to the pyramids (not INTO the pyramids). The bf was a huge joke and was getting very upset because apparently the Egyptian man was not up to par with "how the world does business." Dude, it's Egypt. Get a life. The Egyptian man jokingly told the bf that his hair was too long and he needed a haircut so I told the Egyptian man that he was going bald and he needed a hair transplant. The Egyptian man laughed and said "I love Canada more than I love my life." The bf got very angry and started insulting the way the Egyptian was running business. It was a horrible experience to sit there and watch someone so stupid blatently insult another man's culture when he did not even remotely understand it himself.

Finally the Americans left and I refused to pay that much, finally getting it down to 60 pounds Egyptian ($11 CAD) for a camel, entrance to the pyramids, entrance INTO one of the pyramids, a guide and entrance into the sphinx.

Later on, I met up with the Americans again and they pretty much hated me and vowed to get their money back for their tour. You don't get your money back in Egypt. It's like they thought they were in the States! ARGHHHH.

Anyway, enough about them for now.
The minute we (myself and the little 12 yr old guide sitting on the front of my camel) entered the grounds to the Pyramids it was like being transported back thousands of years. I definately expected the place to be brimming with tourists but surprisingly there were only about 50 or so within the entire pyramid complex covering a couple kilometres.

Three gigantic monuments stuck out of the desert surroundings like they had been placed there, preformed, by God himself. Once we were fairly close to the pyramids I had to get off and walk myself since the camels were not allowed to walk any further.

But of course, as predictably Egyptian, a man came up beside me with 2 horses and asked if I would like a ride up to the pyramids. Of course I said no way, I can walk. He was insistent and I was also insistent I would walk.... until he said it was free. I said "Enta Magnoun" (You're crazy) and made sure he would not make me pay through some trap and he led me to the pyramids. Though I didn't have to pay, I think I payed with brain cell erosion as the 10 minute horse walk to the pyramids was a conversation based solely on "No, I will not marry you" "Why not" "I'm married" "Are you happy?" "I have 8 husbands, of course I'm happy." "Want 9?" "No" "Come to my home in the desert and I will make you a very happy woman" "Um NO"

I got to the Pyramids which were *gasps* surprisingly not as large as I had expected them to be! I think all the hype made me think they'd be equivalent to mountains, silly me. Going inside the 2nd largest Pyramid was actually the coolest part and a very narrow and claustrophopic descent (1 metre by 1 1/2 metre) into the burial chamber and then a steep climb in the same tunnel on the way out.

Time is running out on here!
Much love!
Krysten

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Madaba, Jordan

2006-06-08T18:47:41Z

My last night in Egypt was excellent.
I know I'm skipping an entire week of Egypt, but those entries will follow this one. I just want to get everything down as I remember it and I've only got 20 minutes remaining.

The day began when I arrived back in Cairo yesterday after a 10 hour night train from Luxor. The train ride was pretty uneventful aside from sharing a cabin with a large Egyptian family who spoke little English and I, "Shwiyah" (little) Arabic. Of course upon finding out I was Canadian their Egyptian Hospitality came into play four-fold and I was offered any and all of their food. The pita and sketchy cheese looked unappetizing but of course refusing their offer of "Ekel" (food, eating, etc) would only ensure they shove it further towards me and eventually down my throat so I took it and ate it... and then took the juice they gave me, and then the cake, and then the crackers, and then the etc. etc. etc... you get it.

Travelling alone in Egypt as a woman is not difficult, just incredibly annoying since you will inevitably be stopped every 5 steps and heckled to buy things from shops, told you are "gemilla" (beautiful), be offered a variant amount of dowry from your hand in marriage, receive dirty looks, receive smiles and waves and of course the famous wink and nod which basically means... accompany me to my house for a bit of loving.

Travelling alone, I generally avoid most eye contact but smile briefly... it's easier this way. Then they know you're polite and respectful but you don't encourage them to approach you one-on-one even though they will.

Travelling with Josh and Eliza it was a lot easier to wave and be outgoing and smile as we had our "husband" Josh to protect us. Remember, we were his two wives after all. Hah.

I got to the Cairo train station and because the taxis were all attempting to charge a ridiculous price because I was a woman tourist on my own I said "fil mish mish" (in your dreams) and started walking with 45 pounds on my back and 15 pounds on each arm (silly, stubborn me) to my hostel about 2 km away.

I arrived sweaty and nasty and immediately had a shower and dropped on my bed in my beautiful air-conditioned room (YAAAAYYY). Keep in mind that at this point anything was beautiful.

Later on that night I went with 3 Egyptians I met to a traditional Egyptian dance put on for free by the ministry of culture. It's incredible. You sit there and watch men twirl around to Arabic music for 2 hours. It definately puts you in a trance. Awesome pictures to come. I have five minutes left so I leave you with a quick summary....

I stayed up all night with the 3 Egyptians wandering downtown Cairo and smoking Shishah in a cafe until a taxi picked me up at 5am for my 7:40 flight to Amman which I almost missed because they changed the gate before the flight and only announced the gate change in Arabic. Gahh...

Oh well. I arrived safely in Madaba with an excess of Egyptian souvenirs and gifts and am happy to finally be sedentary for a month and a half. The dig starts in a couple of days so I will do my best to continue updating and adding pictures...

Much love,
Krysten

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Welcome to Alaska!

2006-06-06T18:54:48Z

I can't tell you enough how fun and amazing Egypt has been for me, so I'll start at the beginning...

I flew into Cairo Airport with a delicious view of the Nile and a very nice Egyptian man in the seat beside me who taught me my first words in Egyptian Arabic:

"Ha bi bi" - My darling
"Bousse" - Kiss
"Tanem" - Sleep

Little did I know that this flight was only an inkling of what was to come. From 100 - 1 000 000 000 camels, limitations are no holds bar when it comes to marrying a caucasian.

The airport was a nightmare due to a silly mistake on my part. I arrived at 3:25 am on the morning of June 1st. I booked my hostel for June 1st. Silly me! Since I booked my hostel for June 1st, they assumed I would be staying the NIGHT of June 1st and not the night of
May 31st. Get it? So here I was in a foreign Arabic country where as soon as you leave airport security there is a crowd of 500 Egyptians waiting for their family or foreigners they can hassle for a much over-priced taxi.

I looked around for awhile expecting to see my name raised above the crowd, but after an hour of taxi drivers following me around and asking to be my boyfriend even though I'm "married" and attempting to make Arabic payphones work and receiving only a busy signal I gave up and got a taxi to my hostel. This brief summary is only a fifth of the detail of the insanity that occured that night. I hardly want to relieve it in writing... So ask me about it when I get home.. haha

I met Josh and Eliza in Cairo my first day there; twins, travelling for 18 months from South America to the Middle East to Europe to Asia. Hilarious and very great people. I met them as they came into the hostel arguing with their taxi guide they had hired for the day to take them to Giza, Saqqara and Memphis ... apparently they decided they didn't want to go Saqqara and Memphis after Giza as they thought the guide had said "Sahara" and not "Saqqara" ... They were still going to pay the full amount, they just didn't want to see everything. In Egypt if you reject their history, you reject them. Josh and Eliza learned quickly how to be better tourists. Hahaha.

My first day in Cairo was spent at the Egyptian Museum where we saw some of the most incredible things I've ever laid my eyes on, besides Tommy (permission to puke at my lameness). An entire wing was reserved for 11 ancient mummies. Entirely preserved, the bodies laid intact in cases carefully monitoring the temperature and ensuring their hair, fingernails and other finer parts of the body would endure no further physical degradation. Seeing a 4000 year old woman lying with her eyes closed, arms extended and hair fully intact was an experience that I still can't put into words. It's just... so... cool.

Tutankhamun's tomb was definately a highlight of the Egyptian museum. Howard Carter discovered the tomb many, many years ago and died soon after it was uncovered. Many mysterious deaths followed thus suggesting the work itself, in uncovering an ancient tomb, was victim to ancient curse. Howard Carter's fellow excavator, a man who performed a purification ritual before entering the tomb was one of the few men who worked at the site to survive into old age.

Tutankamun's remains were incredible. Hundreds of golden, earrings, bracelets and necklaces adorned the mummy itself and were wrapped in bandages surrounding the mummy. A MUST SEE.

Crossing the road to the museum? Well.... an adventure. Basically roads here are busy highways or death traps as I like to call them that you simply run across when the traffic is well.... less thick (and by less thick I mean 300 cars passing you a millesecond instead of 325). Josh, Eliza and I simply stared at the traffic until we saw an Egyptian guy just running through it. So we did the same, pretty much screaming and laughing the whole way.

Khan-el-Khalili, probably the largest and most famous Bazaar in Egypt was another AWESOME experience. We showed up and were FAMISHED. Any restaurant was a good restaurant. Wading through the piles of carpets, sheesha pipes and crappy Egyptian souvenirs we came across Egypt's version of a mall's foodcourt. A bunch of restaurants cluttered together all vying for your appetite. The minute we came around the corner the shouting began.
"Here, Here! We Good Food! Here Menu! Eat! We Have Chicken, Falafel, Koshari! Good Price!"

The only tourists there, we just started laughing and the entire 500 or so Egyptians enjoying their dinners turn to look at what's causing the commotion. Finally we decided on a restaurant and found out there were not enough seats inside. According to the owners "No pob-lem, No pob-lem!" We stood there until we realized they were kicking people out of their restaurant in the middle of their meal so we could sit down. Egyptian hospitality at its finest! Of course we said NO way! Let these people eat! A table opened up in a couple minutes and we were finally able to eat.

The food was delicious, pita, meat, salad stuff etc... The hawkers were an experience. Everything known to man was being sold and little Egyptian boys, girls, women and men would approach every table in the market with odds and ends like Kleenexes, souviners, rugs, necklaces, bracelets, hennah and etc. We went wild with the hennah as it was only 5 Egyptian pounds, or rather $1 Canadian.

And THIS was created! Awesome, eh?

So we ate and continued on our merry way around the market taking about 12 steps an hour as we seemed to be barricaded by a ridiculous amount of people shouting "Welcome to Alaska" (Yes, Egyptians are crazy or "Magnoun" in Arabic), "Look at my shop, you know how much? 5 pound!" or "Two wives? Lucky man!"

The Egyptian people are the funniest and most welcoming people in the world. When we finally left the market Eliza and I had each purchased 1 item and Josh, nothing. Basically the entire time was spent joking around with the people in broken Arabic-English and turning down offers of marriage for Eliza and I by saying we were Josh's wives. In Islam, men may have up to four women... but the story goes "Four women equals four problems."

We went home very, very happy but tired and HUNGRY. We seem to always be either hungry or thirsty here! It seems less of a hassle sometimes to eat nothing then to have to barter for a cold bottle of water or a meal! Hahaha.... You wouldn't believe how cheap everything is though... it's awesome.

A 1.5 litre bottle of water? 1.5 pounds or $0.30 CDN
A meal? 2 CDN

And so I leave you with the memories of my first day in Cairo...

Next? My second day in Egypt. Hopefully soon to come.. haha

Much love,
Krysten

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Arabian Dream

2006-06-02T07:11:55Z

WOW.

There's hardly a word to explain Egypt.

I am having an amazing time. The best part though? THE PEOPLE.
Yup, you read that right. The Egyptian people are some of the coolest and most easygoing, hilarious people in the world. Of course you may still get ripped off as a tourist, but have plenty of fun with the shopkeeper while you're doing it....

... and a little game the taxi drivers play? Don't mention you're scared or they'll drive ten times more dangerously and laugh at you shaking in the back seat while they're doing it!!!
We learned quick!

... and crossing busy highways? RIDICULOUS. You look at the oncoming traffic, realize it's never going to stop and the cars going way faster than they should be of course MAY not stop for you so you JUST. START. WALKING. Sometimes running. 6 lanes of traffic and you weave your way through and get honked at about 470 times.

... offers of marriage are plentiful.... but apparently I'm married. I've been travelling around a bit with these 2 New Zealanders who are brother and sister and at the market last night EVERYONE would say to him... Oooo, two wives my man! Good work! By the end of the night he was just saying "Yes, it's a good life!" ... The Khan-el-khali markets were DEFINATELY one of the HUGE highlights so far. We had an amazing time and spent probably 30 minutes actually looking at the items and about 2 and a half hours trying to get through the markets without tagalongs while joking around with most every stall we passed....

OH and I got hennahed! My hand and arm has the most awesome design that lasts for a month and was only one dollar Canadian!

Hopefully I'll put some pictures on tonight after I go to the pyramids with a girl and a guy from Alaska....

COOOOOL

Much Love,
Krysten

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To assume = Doom

2006-05-31T19:18:20Z

Here I am in Malta, waiting for my plane to Cairo. It seems a little crazy to me that I've already made it this far without any major problems or mishaps.....

...well except for falling in the lake last night while riding Jolanda's brother's bike. Just wait til you see the picture that was taken after it happened... (featured soon.. haha)

So here's the story...

No one felt like riding their bikes with me so I decided, you know what? I'll go by myself! I need a little independence.... but little did I know I would independently fall from the bike and in to the murky, swamp behind her house. Europeans are tall. Her brother is probably about 6'4 which means he has long legs. Following so far? Long legs mean the seat and the pedals are VERY far apart, which means my short little body and legs don't quite reach the pedals....apart from the tips of my toes.
Add a narrow bridge in the middle of a nasty, fishy swamp to the mixture and the recipe equals disaster. A smelly, wet, girly disaster.

When I realized I wasn't going to be able to turn the corner on the narrow bridge because I couldn't reach the pedals, I freaked out (not wanting to fall in the swamp, you see) and tried to jump off the bike and onto the bridge (no, not into the swamp). I missed and landed in the lake. The scenario was not as gruesome as it could have been even though I did come out with a fairly large bump on my head when the bike...well... landed on my head (sheez this is embarrasing). I managed to land somehow in a bed of nasty, slurpy, swampy seaweed and only one side of my body was at one point, fully submerged in sickly Holland swamp water. The other side was, YAY, dry. So I pulled the bike out of the water with seaweed hanging from the handle bars and ...yes... walked back to the house where I was laughed at by Jolanda and her family... of course.

Anyway, I recovered... physically, although maybe not completely my pride and somehow I made it to Malta.

The title of this post was to assume = doom and I presume everyone would be happy if I stopped babbling and got on with it. I've assumed a lot of things in the past couple days some of which have gotten me into more trouble than others:

1. I assumed Kijelt (Jolanda's friend) wouldn't drink a whole bowl full of thick sweet onion and chili sauce, meant for dipping food in, for 5 Euros. It took him awhile, but I lost that bet.

2. I assumed I would be able to ride a bike that I could barely reach the pedals

3. I assumed that I was in Valletta, Malta when I got off the bus in a very populated, yet small metropolis. Only an hour later when I read the sign that said "Paolo Police" did I realize that I was still 20 mins outside of the city I actually wanted to go to. No wonder the map didn't make any sense and I couldn't find the Ocean! Holy embarrasment, batman!

... and just in case you're ever in Malta and riding public transport, the bus drivers like to honk at each other on the rode which often scares the bejeezus out of us country folk who are unfortunately stuck in the circumstance of riding formentioned bus...

4. I assumed because Malta was an Island it would have BEACHES. I packed my sunscreen, bikini and towel in my carry on so I could just hike to the beach on my layover. I start talking to the couple beside me and we get talking about how I'm only in Malta for about 7 hours and I tell them I'm gonna find a beach and go to it.... They respond with "A beach? It's all rock. There's only a couple beaches in Malta and none of them are around Valletta." Here I'm thinking, oh blah... what do they know.... UNTIL we approach Malta from the air and I see that INDEED, the ENTIRE exterior of the island is beautiful, solid, ROCK lined shores. Oh, blah.

And now my internet time is running out so I leave you with the moral of my story:
Don't assume..... or your vocab will be reduced to two words, like mine: OH, BLAH

Much Love
Krysten

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Amster - scam

2006-05-30T11:20:00Z

Hello everyone!

Yes, yes I know it's been awhile. I've just been having way too much fun!

This weekend we went to Amsterdam and Jolanda and I met up with Erin from Canada who's on co-op in Germany. We had tons of fun and stayed at Jolanda's uncle's place who is only 26 and well... gorgeous. Haha. E-ron and I:

So here we were in Amsterdam shopping in the markets and I see this stand specializing in tea... and I think to myself, ".I have a friend who likes tea!" So I go in there and I buy some loose tea mix and a metal tea thinger that you put the tea in and then ya put in the water. Following?

Everything is peachy until I see Jolanda and show her what I bought. She takes a double glance at the package and suddenly bursts into laughter, "You bought BATHSALTS" she manages to get out between gusts of laughter. So basically, I was going to poison my friend with bathsalts instead of tea, cool. We ended up going back to the shop where Jolanda explained to the shopkeeper that I didn't understand Dutch, watched the shopkeeper also stifle his laughter and then was able to switch the bathsalts with actual tea. Heh.

Later on that night we went to the red light district which was so surreal. Skinny little girls standing in windows the size of a door with a tiny narrow room behind them would wait for guys to come up to their window. When the curtain was shut it meant a guy was in there with them. Sex was everywhere... it was pretty crazy.

Amsterdam is jam packed with canals throughout the city, so every corner basically looks like the last with a canal thrown in just to confuse you a little bit more. It's VERY pretty though and VERY packed full of tourists and well... people.

Tall houses characterize Amsterdam and allow the city to just pack more and more people in on top of each other. The houses are so narrow that little hooks exist on the top of each roof so that you can attach a lever system to lift things to the higher Bringing a couch up those stairs would simply be impossible.

Bikes are EVERYWHERE and the older and more junky, the better. Granny bikes, they call them. Biking paths are everywhere and watch out, they have the right of way!

So I'm off to Egypt tomorrow with a 8 hour stop in the island paradise of MALTA! So hopefully I'll get out of the airport with just enough time to lie in the beautiful foreign sun! Heh.
Ah yes, and my hair is a completely different colour; getting used to it is proving to be quite difficult. I'm hoping I look a tiny bit more like an Egyptian with my hair dark, although I'm sure when I speak absolutely no Arabic they'll realize I'm just a silly North American...

See you all in Egypt!

Much love,
Krysten

Amster - scam remains copyright of the author schwackers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Nederhosen?

2006-05-26T10:09:25Z

My goodness, my goshness.
You should SEE what I bought today.

Alright, so you know how the whole European Union goes wild when they hear the mention of soccer? Well, the World Championships are coming up as you should know and every country goes nuts. Orange, The Netherlands national colour is on EVERYTHING and party favours, orange clothing and etc are everywhere already.
So here I was in the store today and I saw "NEDERHOSEN" Politically incorrect, of course; though hilarious, all the same. They are bright orange leiderhosen which directly mock Germany. Perfect, as the dutch aren't too fond of Germans. A picture will follow in only a couple days time... when we get up the courage to actually put them on.

So basically days in Katwijk (a town in the Netherlands) go by hanging out with Jolanda's friends, touring the town of Katwijk, eating and me pointing to something everÿ two seconds and saying "Vat is dat?"(Dutch for what is that? Hard, I know!)in an attempt to learn more Dutch.

The Katwijk museum was great. A little town on the sea, Katwijk is famous for sending its men off to sea while the women wait for them and make their fishing nets. Of course while not to the same extent as in the past, Katwijk still survives mainly based on its fishing industry.

Here I am 100 years ago, strangely modern, with the ladies making nets. What a good wifey I'd be...

Oh, and pumping water to make dinner. Sheesh, I'm fricken'amazing, eh? No cake mixes here!

Of course Jolanda had to demonstrate how old fashioned dutch boat toilets work....

And I accidently got a 30 minute history lesson in the dutch dialect of Katwijk when I unknowingly sat on a bench sensor in a makeshift beach hut (scattered all over the beach of Katwijk and are intended for you to leave your belongings in while you swim) which activates the very loud story. Basically, the whole museum staff glares at you when you set off the sensor.

The bench in the beach hut:

and the silly dutch it read from for a half hour:

Oh, and then we went on a three day cruise to Africa. The Captain died so Jolanda and I had to steer the ship there and back...

I lie....

Last night we went to The Holland Casino in The Hague. On the way through The Hague we passed landmarks such as the World's Supreme Court of Justice and the infamous Prison which holds criminals such as Hussein and the now deceased Milosovich. It was pouring too hard to get photos unfortunately and frankly the buildings weren't too exciting. The Prison was only high brick walls with a single black, heavily fortified door.

The Casino was a bust of course, Jolanda and I limited ourseleves to $20 Euro and spent most of our time on the penny machines to make ourselves believe that we weren't actually spending the money that should in fact be feeding and clothing us. Haha... The highlight of our night was probably when a guy walked away from his machine with a balance of 140.00 Euro and we convinced ourselves he wouldn't come back to which we began planning our future on 70 Euro each. Of course, he came back... Blah.

Tomorrow Jolanda and I are going to Amsterdam for the weekend! Yayyyyy. Erin is meeting us at the bus station and the weekend should be fun, fun, fun!

And of course I must end this with a picture of my wonderful hosts! Jolanda and her mum!

Nederhosen? remains copyright of the author schwackers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hallo!

2006-05-23T20:00:21Z

Hai!

Ik ben gut! Ik ben in Katwijk in de Nederlands!

We have been very lazy so far! Jolanda picked me up from the airport and I had bought her Irish chocolates from Ireland but surprise, surprise... I forgot them on the plane! Just like I always forget everything on planes!

I have also forgotten my passport on the plane in Australia (thankfully I ran back to get it in time and had to search through the garbage! Yeck!) and my Nike running shoes on my flight back from Haiti. At least I didn't lose my plane tickets this time! That would be the ultimate nightmare.

Today, Jolanda and I made a chocolate cake! They don't have chocolate cake mix here though so we had to make it with a vanilla cake mix and put cocoa in it... sweeeeet

Gas here is INSANE. It averages about 1.40 Euros per litre which is more than $2.00 Canadian per litre!

The beach is only about a kilometre from Jolanda's house...

Tomorrow we are going to The Hague where Sadam Hussein is on trial and then to the casino at night! We're planning on going to either Germany or Belgium sometime this week as well, so soon we will be busy, busy, busy!

Hopefully everything is well with all of you and you all are having a great summer! I almost wish I were in Canada now because the weather is so cold everywhere I go! Hah...

Love
Krysten

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The Emerald Isle...

2006-05-21T20:15:43Z

What a brilliant and rainy country Ireland is!

It has rained every single day at one point or another and usually for the majority of the day! Although it seems that every time I've really wanted to see something the weather is just good enough to go out. It's awesome how it's been working out.

The past couple of days have been quite a blur!

I went to Cork county and kissed the famous Blarney Stone! Yes, folks... I now have the gift of gab. Oh gawd, you're probably thinking, "She's going to talk MORE?!" My answer to that is YES!

So there I am. Legend has it you have to lean down and arch your back ridiculously while someone holds you (appointed by the government) so you don't fall to your death and the government won't be sued. I think falling face first from the Blarney castle could be quite possibly the worst way to die.... :S

Beautiful, eh? Blarney Castle at it's finest...

Cork was alright. On Friday night at the hostel, an American and I proposed Scrabble. English Scrabble. We were the only English speakers. It was hilarious! Half of the Germans, Austrians and Polish kids had no clue how to play and would try to build words upside down so reading top to bottom it said "ERIF" and we'd be all up in their faces "That's not a word! That's not a word!" and they'd say "Yes! Look! FIRE!"

On Friday night we went out to a traditional Irish bar for a bit and I tried Guinness which I believe may be a thick brew of fermented guinea pig. Just a thought. It was great fun with my hostellers! Yes.. this is our version of "We are Chinese tourists!"

On Saturday, Andreas (A German guy travelling alone) and I went to Kinsale

which was about an hour from Cork city and went on a 20 km hike out to Charles Fort, an old military fort used to defend Kinsale Harbour.

The trek was ridiculous at times, so we named ourselves team Canger (Canada-Germany) to make it through the rough, narrow, smelly, prickly parts with enthusiastic encouragement from me!

"You can do it Andreas! Just a little further... but um.. uhh... don't look up!" "There's no mud up here, I *coughs* swear! It's only a bit farther!"

It turned out to be incredible though when we finally got to the very isolated tip. It felt like no one had ever been there before. We talked about how much we missed our boyfriend/girlfriend and how nice it would have been to have them there! I missss my boyyyfrieeeennnddd....

And now I am back in Dublin... preparing to fly out tomorrow morning to see Jolanda in Amsterdam and am staying in the SKETCHIEST hostel EVER! I'm trying to waste time so I don't have to go back!

Mucho Love!
Krysten

The Emerald Isle... remains copyright of the author schwackers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Tired, bored and not European....

2006-05-21T20:35:24Z

I got to my new hostel today which is near the bus station and I can easily walk there to catch my bus to Cork County tomorrow morning at 8am...

The new hostel has not one english speaking person, I swear.... It took me 5 minutes to get across my point when I stupidly stated "It's hot in here, eh?" to a German girl. She looked at me blankly and the next 5 minutes were spent explaining with frantic hand motions and waving my arms wildly around my head until finally, " Oh... HOTTTT. Jah!" Or something like that.

So I guess tonight I'll actually have some down time and chill or read a book or something. Boring! I know!

Mom and I before I go on the plane!

So I board the plane to Ireland which smells like booze and find my seat. A few minutes later a couple of yellow-teethed, middle aged, drunk Irishmen sit down. I'm seat A and they're C & D. If you know planes that means the seat next to me is vacant... So anyways, the first gentleman sits down (or rather, falls) and the second sits beside me to which is friend says "Mate, your seat is over here" and his friend says "Shuttup, I waont tew sait he-yah"... These guys turn out to be hilarious and we're talking for awhile when I ask them if they're travelling together and Petig says "Yeah, but we're not gay, you know." HAhh... boys are boys everywhere I guess, always confirming their masculinity A couple minutes later Petig tells me he's a butcher and then asks me if I like horses... I answer "Yeah, why?" He says... "Cuz I kill em" and starts laughing...

This morning two guys from my hostel and I walked to the Oscar Wilde Monument which features Oscar Wilde spread out on a rock looking all.. for lack of a better word, sensual O.0 .... So Ben climbs up on the statue and lays across Oscar Wilde's lap just as a bus full of teenage Asian girls is passing through and they're all giggling and covering their mouths, probably saying "Wakachi yang ka fong yo!" or some other interpretation of "Look! Oscar Wilde is spanking some American boy's bum!!!" Bet that tour guide was at a loss of words explaining the statue of Oscar Wilde.

BEFORE he flipped over into the bum UP position!

So Ben saw the tour bus watching him and began blowing kisses and winking at the girls, with them all pointing at him, giggling and blowing kisses back. I guess girls will be girls everywhere... Heh..

Tired, bored and not European.... remains copyright of the author schwackers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The many different drunken sides of Ireland....

2006-05-18T13:21:07Z

Hello! It is sooo exciting here...

I arrived Wednesday morning to a pouring city and arrived frazzled and with frizzy hair to my hostel like 2 hours later. ANYONE that knows me knows that I am super stupid when it comes to directions and generally too proud to ask for directions. So I didn't. Until an hour later after walking many street multiple times. The streets here are CRAZY. They all change into different names along the same road like 5 times within 3 blocks......

I've only got 8 minutes left on this computer so I'm typing like mad.... ignore spelling mistakes or I shall probably put an irish curse on you. I'm kidding, I don't know any irish curses.....

I do know one cool story though....
I went to Dublin castle today and went on a guided tour with a girl and two guys I met from my hostel (americans! BLECK! haha). So anyway, we went on a guided tour (cheesy, I know) through the huge amazing castle and the tour guide pointed out this insane huge carved and decorated table that took this Irish prisoner 7 years to make. Supposedly prisoners sometimes would make gifts for the English queen and if she liked the gift she would keep it and grant the prisoners a royal pardon....

So he presented it and she didn't like it... In the 1800's Ireland was going through a spiritual exploration phase, hypnotism and etc.... The queen assumed that a spiral in the middle of the table was supposed to hypnotize her into freeing the prisoner so she refused the gift and granted the prisoner 4 more years in gaol...

Ick, eh?

Well my time is about to run out... More later today, or tomorrow!

PS: IRELAND IS AMAZING!

Pictures to come.....

The many different drunken sides of Ireland.... remains copyright of the author schwackers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Just a couple days...

2006-05-15T04:03:24Z

This is basically a test entry. Don't get too excited, my spectacular adventures aren't showcased here yet. Unless you consider Kitchener spectacular, like I do of course.

Basically, I head out on Tuesday May 16, 2006 from Buffalo Airport. I'm flying Buffalo to JFK (New York) and then I fly to Ireland and arrive there on the 17th.

From there I'll hit up Amsterdam, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Australia. Here's my rough itinerary for all my shaznazzles like family and friends that I know will be checking daily to see if I'm still alive (or else I'll shun you). Yes, Yes ... I know... We Mennonites play a serious game of hardball.

Ireland: May 17 -May 22
Amsterdam: May 22 -May 31
Egypt: June 1 - June 8
Jordan: June 8 - July 24
Israel: July 24 - August 8
Australia: August 8- Sept 6

Initially this trip only included my dig (for Uni credit) in Jordan. Then I thought screw it, I'm over here anyway... why not hit up Ireland, Amsterdam, Egypt, Israel and Australia too?

Just a couple days... remains copyright of the author schwackers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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