Turkey

Our first full day in Turkey and what an amazing day it has been! Jumping off the boat, going sea urchin hunting, returning the sea urchins to the sea after we realized they were inedible, shopping in the port, beautiful scenery, delicious food, etc. etc. etc. Turkey in its first day is seriously rivaling Gouna and that is saying something. I'm sad my arabic doesn't work here though because the crew seems so fantastically nice and interesting.

The scene
Our boat
The port
Post running through the airport to catch our plane. Hot, sweaty, and tired.

We have been in Cairo for the past few days and the bulk of our time has been spent at the JW Marriot hotel where they have a totally awesome water park. Complete with slides, sprinklers, inner tubes, and a wave pool!
As if the Marriot wasn't awesome enough they also had American pancakes available! So the second day we went to the water park we were sure to get there early enough for breakfast.

Please note the plate closest to the camera and its complete lack of pancake. Those pancakes are now in my belly! Also take note of the OJ on the table, we suspect it of being the the culprit for Tut, Ram, Maggie, and my icky tummies this morning. Not fun.

Here is Han's (the boys cousin) enjoying his first ever pancake that has been dipped in maple syrup . A life changing experience.

The second most interesting and exciting thing that we experienced in Cairo was driving in Cairo traffic. Today we were on our way to have lunch with the entire family when we came to stand still traffic due to some unknown obstacle. Egyptians unlike Americans will not wait for the road to be cleared, however, and instead invent their own way to escape from sitting on the road for hours.

After following suit and driving the wrong direction on a four lane highway our driver took us on a detour through the city. We saw many interesting things and I've decided Cairo is the best city to play Punch Buggy No Punch Back in. I've never seen so many old VW bugs and if I wasn't afraid of getting in trouble for teaching the boys a semi violent game we could have had a grand time walloping each other every few minutes. Instead I had to settle for teaching Maggie the game.

Tomorrow we are off to Turkey where we will spend the week on a massive sail boat touring different islands. We will be without the internet on the boat so the next time I post will be from Paris.

Correction: it takes 11 egyptians to get a boat out of the water and even then not so successfully. To their credit though it was the wrong type of trailer for Teti's boat.

Traveled to Cairo today. I believe the plan is for Maggie and I to spend the next few days tearing up a water park with the boys. Should be fun even if I do have to wear a shirt over my bathing suit.

Last night in Gouna. Things that are easy to say goodbye to... sharing a house with Coco (the dog that barks too much), the knob on the closet that always falls off, and bathroom with its trick door and limp shower head. Things that are harder to say goodbye to... the boat ( speaking of boats. How many egyptians does it take to get a boat out of the water and onto a trailer? 8. I know I saw. And even then sometimes they don't succeed...), the islands, and Kitesurfing. There are of course many other amazing things about Gouna but these are my favorite.

Last night in Gouna, last day kitesurfing. And would the wind cooperate? No. I had to wait hours before going in the water because the wind was too high. When I was finally able to kite, the wind dropped as if it hated me. I had fun with the other kiters though and got ahold of some great German rap.

From here we travel to Cairo for a few days and then on to... TURKEY!! ON A BOAT! a BIG boat! so that should be quite fun and I hear the scene is gorgeous. However I have already been informed that we will be sans internet on the boat so pictures and postings will have to wait until we get to Paris.