The First 24 Hours in Athens Greece

           The first 24 hours in Athens, Greece were very confusing.  We got lost a lot getting to our apartment, but we were all right. The next day, we went to the farmers market and the grocery store. We tried to visit the archeological museum, but it was closed or closing when we got there.  Instead, we had gelato at a cafe right next to the museum because we had to wait for daddy who went to the phone shop to get his IPhone 4S.  We tried to find him at a phone shop nearby when we finished our gelatos, but he found us.  It was very confusing being in a new country for the first day, but after getting lost a few times, I know my way around the city pretty well.

Us resting at the park near our apartment.

           Three days ago, my family and I arrived in Athens, Greece after being in Egypt for 10 days. We had a very hard time getting to our apartment for the first time.  The trip started with a perfectly normal routine with us getting Metro tickets at the airport and then we got in the next train to our stop  to the center of Athens at Stygmata.  The train was empty when we got on because it was the last stop at the airport.  The train filled up and we were off.  But when we approached our stop at Stygmata, the train kept going past two other stops. We were confused.  We got off at the next stop at Kerimekos and went outside saw lots of restaurant and ate at a burger stand. We all had hamburgers. I had a chicken burger like Kayley and Mia.  The rest of the family had beef. I liked mine but it was very spicy, because the guy put lots of mustard in it.  Then we waited for daddy to figure out where we were and where our apartment was.

Me looking lost.

           After what seemed like 30 minutes, we got 2 cabs to take us to our apartment.   Later, we found out that our Metro stop opened around the time when we got in the cabs because the protesting was over.   Daddy told the cab drivers, who only spoke Greek, that we needed to go to No. 7 of a street full of apartment billdings. He even showed them on a map we got from the airport.  They seemed to know where they were going, but when we got there, it was not the right street.  We were a block away from our apartment building, but instead of going 2 blocks to it, they took us to the other side of the city even though we were telling them not to.  They probably knew where to go because the GPS was telling them to go the right way, but they went the other way. When we finally got to the right apartment, we met the manager outside the building.  I don't know what Daddy paid the drivers, but it was probably less than what they wanted.  Our first trip to our apartment in Athens was very exciting.

Athena with us at the other end
of the park near our apartment.

           The next morning, we went to look for groceries and we found a humugous farmers market a few blocks from our apartment.  The farmer's market seemed like it was not everyday, so everyone was there getting their food for the week.  I saw lots of stands with people selling fruit and veggies.  Some of them were selling olives and one sold sweets.  All the food looked delicious.  We bought lots of fruits and veggies, but we finished it in 2 days later.  I liked the oranges the best because it is orange season and they were yummy.  We also found the grocery store that we bought our other supplies at during our wanderings.  We also found a bakery across the street that had lots of different deserts.  Mommy and daddy bought us a huge loaf of glazed sweet bread that we had after lunch.  We found all that we need on our wanderings around our neighborhood  our first morning.  We also got a little lost getting back to the apartment, but getting lost made us get more familiar with our place in Greece. 
          In the afternoon, we tried to visit the archeological museum, but it was closed or closing when we got there. Instead, Mia, Mommy, Kayley, Zander, and I had gelato at a cafe right next to the museum.  We had to wait for daddy who went to the phone shop to get his IPhone 4S a few blocks away. When we finished eating our Tiramisu gelatos, which was like a cake with layers of ice cream, we tried to find daddy at a phone shop nearby that smelled of Skittles, but he found us instead and took us to get his phone at a shop down the street.  The kids and I watched TV while daddy got his phone set up.  After that, momma thought that we could go thru the park to get to our apartment, but the path went in a circle.  So we ended up at the same place we entered the park and we walked back that way instead.  We got lost in the park, too.  But now I know the park!

Closed Archeological Museum.

             The first 24 hours in Greece, we had an adventure exploring our neighborhood and Athens to find our apartment and get what we needed.  Getting lost was fun in Athens.  It forced us to use a map and to get to know the city.  Now, I don't really need a map when I go there again, because I know the area around the apartment well.  But I still need a map to get to certain places and I know how to read one if and when I need to get somewhere.



          

What We do to Prevent Ourselves from Getting Ripped off by Zander



My dad and I outside an Egyptian mosque and about to get asked for money.

            My dad does a lot of things to save money on our world tour. My dad and my mom make budgets for each country that we visit. They try to stay under the budget. When we go to places, we don’t do anything that doesn’t have good value, and that we have negotiated a good deal on. We usually only go out to dinner once a day.  The other meals, we cook for ourselves. When we do go out to dinner, my dad negotiates really hard for a good price. My dad try’s really hard to keep us under budget, he tries to get deals on transportation, stay at cheap hotels, and eat at restaurants with good value.  

            My dad try’s really hard to get cheap transportation, but sometimes we get bad deals. When we were in Turkey, we got a rental car to drive around. My dad thought that he had got a good deal on the car. But the car had a weak battery. When we went in the snow, our chain broke and tore up the underside of the car. We went skiing while the car got sorted out. My dad didn’t like dealing with the rental car company. In the end they fixed our car down the hill in Bursa, and then drove it up to us in Uludag. So we got the car back, and we didn’t have any more problems with it. I think that it was pretty good value, because we didn’t get charged for the cost that it was to fix the car.

            In Greece, we had to get to our apartment from the airport so my family and I took the metro. It cost us 30 euros for the ride. Unfortunately, it didn’t even take us to our station. It turned out that there was protesting at the stop, so it was skipped. We were dumped out in the middle of a nice naborhood that we didn’t know where we were, and had to get a taxi to our apartment. The taxi drove us in circles, for a while, before we got to our apartment. We have also have gotten into really sketchy situations with or cab drivers that we got in Egypt.  In Egypt, we got a taxi to the train station. It was an old man with an old car that didn’t speak English. When we got to the train station, he tripled our rate, and complained when we didn’t tip him enough. After he negotiated the rate down again, my dad was not happy about that transaction.

My dad finally relaxed in Egypt, but he is in a cruise ship on the Mile.

       We are staying at budget accommodations on this world tour, and I have had some really frustrating experiences trying to find hotels late at night in strange places. When we were in Alexandria, we stayed for a night at the Egypt hotel. My dad negotiated the room, with free breakfast, and Wi-Fi. They also only gave us 4 towels to shower with. My mom got really mad and told them that there are 6 of us and that we need to have 6 towels and that we shouldn’t have to pay extra.  Right when we got back from dinner the hotel owner’s son told us that we will have to pay extra if we wanted them and breakfast. He also noted that he wanted to get paid right away and not in the morning. When we were going to check out of the hotel, there was nobody there to take our money but a person sleeping right by the door who would not respond. We left and ate breakfast at a restaurant down the street while my dad found us a new hotel to stay at. I was really glad that I didn’t have to go with my dad, because I would have to walk, and wait for him to negotiate. My dad tries to stay under budget on our accommodations, but we sometimes don’t get what we were promised and that is really frustrating.

            When we go to restaurants, we have to negotiate really hard. We negotiate because we have to pay a premium because there are 6 of us and we eat alot. We have to look at the menu and get a good rate. We also have to make sure that we see all the taxes and service fees that the owners add on to the cost of the food. Before we sit down, we have to know exactly the deal that we have with the restaurants, so we don’t get ripped off.   A common scam was that they gave us a 25% discount that doesn’t include drinks. But they have a 13% service charge, and 11% tax. So they really did not give us a discount. It happened a lot in Egypt. For example when we went to a restaurant near the Luxor temple, we negotiated a 25% discount.  There was a 22% service fee and tax. When we got the bill, we looked it over carefully to make sure that they didn’t add unknown costs onto the bill. It is hard work to get a good deal on a meal of food while we are traveling, but we try to do it so we don’t get ripped off.

    While we have been traveling, we have been trying to travel cheaply. We try really hard not to get ripped off on food, transportation, and lodging. Some times when we can’t get a good price, we have to walk away like when the sellers don’t come down with their price like at the hotels and restaurants. We also have been scammed by taxis in addition to hotels and restaurants.   It is really frustrating when the taxi driver asked for 3 times the price that we agreed on, and daddy has to negotiate it down to the agreed on price.  With all the times that we have been promised stuff and had it taken away. We have learned how to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

Cairo and Athens by Zander

My dad looking at a map because we don't know where we are in Egypt. Below, a burnt out Police building in Cairo.

My dad and I playing a game on his new iPhone 4s.

The Greek guard outside the President's house.

It has been a really big transition between Egypt and Greece. For example Egypt is Muslim, and sometimes it can be really scary. The Muslims if they are allowed have multiple wives. The women there all wear burkas, big sheets with head scarves that have slits for eyes.   In Greece, since it is westernized and they aren’t Muslim, they usually do not wear head scarves. There are a lot more graffiti than anywhere else that I have seen. Plus is some of the sketchy part of town they all travel in packs. It is really crazy to be back to the western world, but there are some tradeoffs.

                In Athens, Greece, I have seen a lot of more graffiti than anywhere else I have been. I think that there is all the graffiti because the people in Athens are depressed. Since the Debt crisis, Ron told me that the number of paintings has doubled. In Greece, there is over 50% unemployment rate.  So that means that there are a lot of people that don’t have anything to do.  If they are people like me, then they will do something crazy. So they paint stuff on places that they shouldn’t. When I walked in the sketchy part of town, there were a lot more rundown buildings which mean that there is a lot more graffiti. This part of town is by the train station, and not very close to old Athens It is really scary walking around some parts of Athens, and seeing people destroying there neighborhood.

                In some parts of Athens, there are a lot of people that travel in packs, and there are some really crowded areas. I think it means that if you are alone, then it isn’t safe, unless you are the Terminator. But even the police travel in 3 and 4s. I even saw a group of about 50 police officers with dogs and everything. I think they were looking for drugs. All the women are in packs too. I saw a bunch of them all selling teddy bears by a street corner, in the early evening. There are mobs of guys that all are selling electronics and who knows what. They all look kind of scary. When I was walking with my family, I just wanted to get the hell out of there, but we had to get to the cemetery that we were going to see. Sometimes, I think that I am making up stuff about how bad things are, but I am not.

                In Egypt, they always tell you that if you are a girl then you need to travel in groups. It is really true. All the locals do it, so it is kind of a hint that us tourists should too. One of my dad’s crazy felucca drivers was telling us about his 2 wives. He also told us about how he smokes pot and cigarettes. My dad was kind of egging him on. Then he asked my dad if Mia was married to him.  He told him that she was his daughter and of course not!!!! After that we didn’t talk to him anymore. Egypt was really scary, but I can see how I could get used to it if I stayed there for a long time.

                In Athens there are some really nice parts of town. I am thinking that these are the parts of Athens that I would like to spend all my time. There are really big bazaars with lots of trinkets and models of the Parthenon and Greek figurines for sale. If you are traveling to Athens and you want a sheltered trip, you should stay around the major sights like the Parthenon, Zeus’s temple, and the old markets. There are some really nice spots everywhere, and I really like to be there. In some places you need to travel in packs just like in Egypt. There is a lot of colorful graffiti in Athens, but you know to get out of a place when you see a lot more graffiti then normal. But to see all of a city, you have to walk through the good and the bad parts of town. 

               

Athens Part II by Mia



That pile of rocks is where democracy happened!

After we dumped all of our stuff in the apartment, we had to go get some food so we went out searching for a grocery store or something. We walked a few blocks and came across a bustling farmers market that took up an entire street! It was really pretty, and after Egypt we were all really needing fruit and veggies. We loaded up on that, and then went to a bakery and got some bread, and then a supermarket. We had our first home cooked meal in ages, it was really good!

The Parthenon

The poor ceremonial guard.

The next day we started our sightseeing. We met Ron at the central square thing that was in front of the parliament building and was just a few blocks from the Acropolis (the ancient city center). Ron started telling us a bunch of cool info about the city form the very start. He said that that square we were in was the place where all the protesting happens and that the nice hotel that is right there has metal cages for their window for protection from flying rocks and such. Then we went to the acropolis, which is at the top of a little hill in the middle of the city. There were two theatres, a few temples, and a great view up at the top. We wandered around for a bit looking at all the buildings. the Parthenon was covered in scaffolding because they are restoring it, and they had taken our the friezes up on the edges of the roof and put them in the museum, along with all the other statues and carvings (pretty much everything cool). I think it's pretty annoying that they do that, but I guess if they left it up it would probably get destroyed by acid rain or something. After the Acropolis we went to the Ancient Agora which had lots of crumbling stone foundations everywhere and a rebuilt stoa with a museum in it so we could see what it used to look like. There was the site of the building in which democracy happened, which was really amazing just becuase of how important it was. That got you thinking that really famous, smart people like Aristotle had walked around there which made up for the fact that it was pretty much just a pile of mossy stones. Having someone there tell us about it really helped, too. After the agora we saw Hephestaus's temple which was a mini version of the Parthenon, but still mostly intact.

Hephestaus Temple

After that we ate lunch and then walked around the Placa (a big area with lots of shops and cafes) and then went to Zeus's temple. That was really cool even though it was mostly gone. It was much bigger than the Parthenon-- you could tell just by the size of the columns.
Then we walked though a park, on the other side of which was the president's house. There were some ceremonial guards out front that were whereing some really funny looking clothes. They had tights with tassles, weird short tutu thingys, and (best of all) their shoes had giant pom poms on the toes! They had to stand there all day, and every once and a while they switched places. That took a really long time because they had to walke really slowly and take huge steps. It was hilarious! I actually felt really bad for them though, you'd think that wearing a tutu is humiliation enough! After that we went past the first olympic stadium on the way to Ron's apartment.

Zeus's Temple

Ron's apartment is way nicer than ours, and everything was really shiny! We had some tea and baklava there and rested for a little bit before taking the metro back to our own apartment, which seemed about 10 times nastier now that we had seen his!

The next day we went to a museum and then hiked up a hill. The hill had a cable car up to the top (Ron took that instead of waking) and a cafe. We just sat at the top for a really long time because it was perfect weather and the view was amazing!! After that we went home and took a nap because we were really tired after all the stairs.

The Pantheon and the Hephaestus Temple by Zander

the Acropolis temple wich is diwarfed by the Parthenon.

the Parthanon, wich makes the mall look like a dog house.

the Haphesits temple with not much restoration done to it.

                I think that it is really cool that some of the Greek temples have survived to the present day. What really helped all the temples and Greek buildings stay intact was that Athens, Greece has been buried under a few hundred feet of dirt until when. The Hephaestus (the god of stone masons, and iron work) temple has survived because it is his temple and it has to be really sturdy. I am really glad that the temple of Hephaestus is still standing and mostly intact, so that I could see how they really looked back in the day.ephaestus temple has been preserved for a few hundred years. On top of the buried temple, many events took place on the site of ancient Athens. Athens, or what was left of Athens, was a strategic place in the crusades. The Parthenon was a major fort with a giant crusader tower. It was also fought over in WWI.  After WWI, Athens was in the Greek revolution. Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for a long time.  The Greeks revolted, and they beat the Ottomans on land, then they killed the Ottomans in a great navy battle off the coast. I am really amazed that a temple has survived so long and through so many wars.  The Hephaestus temple survived through all the wars because it was deeply buried so it wasn’t damaged.

                There is a really Interesting story about the creation of Athens. Long ago, Athena was in the Parthenon and Hephaestus was making stuff in his work shop. Hephaestus fell in love with Athena, so Hephaestus jumped her. Of course, Athena was a maiden goddess, she couldn’t have kids. She made Hephaestus get off her. Hephaestus was a little too excited, so he dripped some sperm on her. She swiped it of onto the ground. Then the Athenians were from where the sperm hit the ground. I think that whoever made up that story was really creative.

                The Acropolis is the famous Temple of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens which dominates the city of Athens. To figure out who was going to be the God/ Goddess of Athens, there was a contest between Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. They both gave a gift to Athens. Poseidon gave a salt water spring.  Athena gave the olive tree. Of course, Athena won. The Acropolis isn’t a temple “acropolis” means “high city”. There is a temple on the mountain, but it is way smaller than the Pantheon which is the treasury of Athens.  The Acropolis would have been in better shape, if not for the Ottomans.  They used it to store their gun powder.  Since they were in the middle of a war, it got blown up, and that is why it isn’t in good shape. I think that the Greeks are really cool.  How they built the Acropolis for Athena was pretty nice. I just wish that it hadn’t been blown up.

                The Athenians had it all figured out:  they “knew how they were made”, they knew who their patron god was, and they built a big structure in honor of her. In the 1800s, the president of Greece wanted to live where the famed city of Athens was. So they started to excavate it. He also wanted to live on the Acropolis and have the Temple of Athena in his back yard. Of course, nobody was going to let that happen, so he got some botanical gardens instead. I wouldn’t have settled for that. But before they excavated, the only thing that you could see was the Acropolis.  Everything else was underground. It is really cool that Ancient Athens has been preserved so well, even though it was buried for so long.

Athens Part 1 by Mia

On our last day in Cairo we went to the Egyptian Museum, which was a really fitting conclusion to everything we had seen. We got to see all off the statues and carvings and treasure that had been taken from the actual sites that we had seen, and we saw King Tut's death mask! That was very... golden. That took a few hours and we had to rush through the last exhibits so  we wouldn't be late getting to the airport. We rode to the airport in our hotel van, that was driven by the only Christian we had met in Egypt, and did the usual airport stuff. No disasters there. We sat around at the airport for a while and ate panninis from Starbucks, which were surprisingly good. Then I had a frappachino, which was really delicious (as always)!!!!

Boarding our little baby plane to Athens!!! So exciting!

After lunch we boarded the plane which was a little tiny thing with six seats across. We got served nasty airplane lunch which made us glad we had eaten Starbucks panninis. We did get free soda though, so it was much better than Jetstar. I'm pretty sure that all of the airlines are better than Jetstar. On the plane there was a big group of people that we assume were on a pilgramage or something religious like that because there were a few guys with Jesus hair (big beard, long hair), robes, and weird hats. When we landed they all cheered and clapped really loud. Also, at baggage claim they all picked up their wooden staffs. Really, they checked their wooden sticks!
It was rainy and dreary they day we got here so we were all a bit cold when we got off the plane. The customs and passport control were a breeze, but baggage claim was a bit longer because our stuff all came out last. After we got all of our stuff we headed for the metro. The first thing that we all noticed, was the cleanlyness! Everything, from the air to the streets was so clean compared to Egypt! We even drank water from a drinking fountain! A drinking fountain!!!! We haven't seen one of those since New Zealand!!! Anyway, that was super exciting. The metro was spotless as well, except for the outside. Athens is covered in graffiti and that does not exclde the outsides of the trains. I'm not sure how they did it, but there is paint all over the out side of most of the trains.  It's really sad. Anyways, it took a while to figure out the metro, and when we finally got it, we realized that we didn't know where we wanted to go! We have never had that problem before. Usually we know where we want to go but can't get there. We decided to go to Syntagma, which is the big center of the city. The square that the stop is at is right in front of Parliament so all the protests take place there. It turned out that there was a protest that evening, so the stop was closed.
The train dropped us one stop too far, in the middle of a street of happening cafes and clubs. We got some cheap burgers for dinner, and daddy and I went to one of the cafes in search of wifi so we could figure out where we needed to go and how to get there. Since the metro stop that we were trying to get to was closed, the best way to get there was via taxi. So, we hailded two cabs and got driven around in circles a few times before the cabbies could find the place we were looking for. It was really sad, daddy even had a map with an 'X' marking the spot and we drove in circles for about an hour!
When we finally got to the apartment, it was almost 9 pm and we could have slept anywhere! No one was in much of a shape to be choosing apartments, but whatever. It's not like we were going to do all this work and look for a different one! Who knows where we'd end up if we tried to go anywhere. The appartment is slightly subterranean and has the most ridiculous floor plan ever invented. The entry has two doors, one goes to this weird bedroom thing that I think is supposed to be the liveng room, but It is all decked out to be a bedroom, and the other door leads to th kitchen/ dining room. If you go out of the kitchen or the bedroom thingy, you get to a little hallway. Off of the hallway there is another bedroom, and on the ends there are the bathroom and the living room. I'm pretty sure the living room was supposed to be a bedroom when the apartment was planned, though. The guy had a whole list of special needs this appartment has, like you can't put toilet paper down the toilet, and you have to turn the hot water heater on 15 min before you shower and then turn it off while you are showering. I'm just glad we only have to be here for a few days!

THE END OF PART ONE (GETTING THERE)


TO BE CONTINUED

fights in Egypt and Turkey by Zander

My family and I posing in front of our Taxi in Alexandria

            In some of the places that we have been there have been some really serious street fights. The ones that I remember the most are the ones in Turkey and Egypt. In turkey I saw a fight, late at night, while we were driving through Bursa. In Egypt I saw a fight while we were driving by in a taxi.

            In Turkey, they are known for scary driving. When we were there, I found out that they have tempers too. I think that maybe it is their temper that makes them such crazy drivers. In Bursa, late at night, there was a scooter crash in the middle of the street. The guys that crashed into each other got of their scooters and fought it out. They fought until some people that were walking on the side of the road pulled them apart when it got serious. I thought that finghting was a more direct way of letting you anger out then suing people. If I were them I would have wanted to punch the guy that I had crashed into too. There are some really high temper drivers in Turkey and on some occasions they fight.

Our chanes that got broken on our trip to Uludag

            In Egypt, I saw a street fight. I was in a Taxi and we were driving around a turnabout in Alexandria. A scooter driver went in front of a pedestrian who was trying to cross the street. The guy that was crossing the street hit the driver because the scooter driver blocked the pedestrian walking path. The scooter driver got off his bike and started hitting the guy that was crossing the street. I thought that it was kind of funny, but it probity would have escalated if the pedestrian hadn’t walked away. If the pedestrian had stood his ground, we would have gotten more pictures. I think that the pedestrian shouldn’t have hit the scooter driver, so it was his fault, but I would have been a little ticked off if I were walking and a scooter blocked my path.

            These are just 2 examples, but we saw a lot more fights. In turkey the cars bump into each other a lot. When they do, people get out of their car and yell at each other. Someone bumped our car. But when the driver saw my dad he got back into his car and drove away.



The Valley of the Kings by Zander

Us in front of the Hatshepsut temple.

The Ancient Egyptians believed in elaborate and costly rituals to get to life after death. The Egyptians built tomb for their pharohs for a long time. They built step pyramids, then smooth face pyramids. Then last of all they built hidden tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is located deep in the Theban hills right across the Nile from Luxor.  The Pharaoh that got the idea to hide his tomb in a mountain was Tuthmosis I in 1500 B. C. The Valley of the Kings was a perfect place for King Tuthmosis I to place his tomb because it was safe from robbers, it was a great location relative to the Capital, and because it had really good stone to carve with.

Us getting on a plane to Athens yaayayayayayaya!!!!!

            One of the reasons Tuthmosis I buried his body in the Valley of the Kings to keep his tomb safe from robbers. The pyramids were easy to steel from because everyone knew that the entrance was on the north side of the pyramid for religious reasons. When Tuthmosis made his tomb, he put his entrance facing a different angle. When the tomb was finished he arranged it to be covered it in sand and rock so it would be hard to find. Plus nobody lived or went to the valley where the king Tuthmosis chose to be buried. The Valley of the Kings is located directly across the Nile from Luxor, the capital at the time. The Valley of the Kings was on the west side of the Nile because it is the way the sun sets. In Ancient Egypt the west symbolizes death, while east symbolizes life. One of the major contributing factors that the Tombs were built in the valley was because of the soil and rock. The rock there is really easy to carve, so making tunnels is easier. With all the pharohs attempts to make there tombs safe from robbers, even though there attempts most of them got stolen from.

me kissing the

Sphinx !

            Tuthmosis I built his tomb deep in the Theban hills because, it would be hard to steel from, it was in a great location relative to his capital, and the soil and rocks were practical on the site. When a pharohs  dies he cannot protected his temples and tomb, so they are open to theft and vandalizing. All the known Ancient Egyptian pharohs  tombs including king Tuts, were stolen from to some extent. Tuthmosis plan to keep his tombs safe from robbery didn’t work. The main reason that it didn’t, was because most of the pharohs  after Tuthmosis were buried in the same location. If they had spread out a lot then maybe more of the tombs would have been intact. There are 62 known tombs in the valley, so you can imagine that everyone knew about it where the kings were buried. The pharohs   wanted big tombs like the Pyramids. But if they built them then they would probably get stolen from. So the Valley of the Kings is a good example if the pharohs  trying to hide their tombs and save it from robbery.  

Interesting facts

-King Tut's tomb was not free of getting stolen from, all the perfumes, and cloth were more valuable then  gold in Ancient Egypt so they got stolen first.

-There are 13 gates to get to the Afterlife. There are Guards at all of the Gates and they won’t let you pass willingly. To get past the guards, the pharohs had to say the passwords. The third gate was the hardest to pass because a serpent guard guarded the gate.

-The Passwords were writen on the walls of the pharohs  tomb so he didn’t have to memorize them.

-When they got through all of the Gates they were escorted to where their heart was weighed against the feather. If the feather is lighter then the heart then they will go to hell. If the heart is lighter then the feather then they will go to heaven. 

-When the tomb gets robbed they take the mummy, if the robbers do that then the pharohs  will wander in his tomb forever, because he cannot find his body.

- If the king died before they were done with his tomb then they would have to work really hard to finish the tomb, and put all of his treasures in it as fast as they can. So that is why some tombs look nicer at the beginnings. Then as it progresses some of them get worse. 

PS WE DON'T HAVE ANY PICTURES OF THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS BECAUSE THEY TOOK AWAY OUR CAMERA!!!!!! SORRY

My Favorite Parts of Turkey

Thats just a nicepicture of me tucking a statick eletricity ball.

        I’m writing about Turkey, because I haven’t finished my blogs for Turkey until now.  I can barely remember where we went in Turkey, but I remember my favorite places. My favorite place of all was either the apartment near Galata Tower or the Spice Bazaar. I also really like the Turkish mosques and my favorite of the mosques was the Blue Mosque.

That's sarah and I in a mosque, I don't know whitch.

        The Spice Bazaar was probably my favorite because it smelled really good and the jewelry was really cheap and pretty.  When we went to the Spice Bazaar, mommy was looking for sweetened anise to give to someone as a gift, but we never found any. Instead daddy bought some really good dried mangos and two boxes of Turkish delight that was the bad kind. We gave one box of Turkish delight to Ilter and Gul and ate the other box that night. The Turkish delight had a thin rubbery coating underneath the powdered sugar but other than that it was OK. While mommy and daddy were looking at the sweets, Mia and I were looking at the jewelry in the shop across from them. There was some really cool and cheap jewelry.  I bought two bracelets and a necklace that had a flower with multi colored petals inside a silver squashed cylinder. Mia bought two bracelets and a necklace. Mia’s necklace was a bejeweled, silver rose, Mia looks really good in it and it made her look sophisticated.

        The things I liked about the apartment were the cozy and comfy the beds, the view of the Galata tower and shops\square at the foot of the tower. You all know how awesome the apartment and the view was. The cobble stone square that is at the foot of the Galata tower is probably a really nice place to walk and sit if it’s not snowing or raining like it was when we were there. The shops along the Galata square were really nice and cozy looking and there was a small grocery market really close to our house that we got our food from. The grocery market had some really cheap candy and a pretty good selection of foods. What I like most about the apartment and square is probably the Galata tower square because how nice a view it has of the town and the water.

That's a random mosque we walked past on our second day in Turkey.

        The third thing I really liked about Turkey or Istanbul was the mosques and my favorite of the mosques is the Blue Mosque. The thing I really liked about all the mosques is how nice the carpet on the ground inside the mosques and how quite the mosques are. The Blue Mosque has really pretty paintings on the roofs and ceilings and has really cool light fixtures in the middle of the mosques. The light fixtures were set up in a big flower in the center of the mosque and some flat, round spirals around the rest of the mosque. The Blue Mosque was definitely my favorite mosque in Turkey.

        I really liked Turkey.  I hope we go back there some time in the future, but not until we are living comfortably back in California.    

Alexandria by Mia

                          After the cruise was over in Luxor, we took the train to Alexandria. The whole process of getting the tickets was pretty interesting because no one would sell us tickets to anything except sleeper class. After some kicking and screaming (this time we got it on video!!!), we finally just decided to go on the sleeper train to Cairo (since it was all night anyways…. I’m not sure why we were even considering going on a seat class because that would not mean sleep, and sleep is essential for both the survival of yourself and the survival of everyone within a 10 meter radius of you when traveling in Egypt). Of course everyone was absolutely thrilled (except for maybe daddy who doesn’t like to admit defeat) because the sleeper trains are awesome!!! After a good night’s sleep (thanks to the sleeper train) we got off in Cairo at abot 8 the next morning. In Cairo (Ramses Station is really pretty—despite all the trash and destruction, but you just have to learn to ignore that kind of stuff in Egypt) we caught another train to Alexandria which was only about two hours. We just hopped on in second class and bought the ticket on board, which worked out fine.

                 When we got to Alexandria we walked with all or bags and tried to find the hotel that mommy had found for us. We walked around looking for it for a while and then just found a restaurant to eat at while daddy looked on his own. Luckily she never actually booked a room at that one hotel because we never did find it, and no one we asked had ever heard of it. After lunch (really yummy—really good fish!) daddy went to find a hotel for us. He found this little family owned one on the 3^rd floor of a building which had a really nice lobby and was really clean, but the room was less nice and they didn’t give us towels. After we dumped our stuff at the room, we walked the library and got there about five minutes from closing time so we couldn’t go in. That was a bummer because it looked really nice.  There was one of those round planetarium theatre things out front along with statues of Alexander the Great (it’s his library, even though it is a modern building). There were college students everywhere in Alexandria, especially at the library, because there is the big Alexandria University there. It was a pretty happening place!

                The people who owned the hotel we were staying at started changing their mind about the prices at 10 pm. It was actually really funny, because there was a 13 year old boy who was pretty much running things, a mother, several little boys, and a dad. The dad didn’t do much work at all and probably couldn’t even if he had to. I think the little son had to tell him where the towels were.  So yeah, he didn’t do work, and he yelled at everyone whenever something went wrong. We heard him chewing out his wife at about 10 pm because she didn’t charge us enough. That’s why the son kept knocking on our door to raise the prices and stuff. We had been planning to stay there for two nights but obviously changed our minds and left the next morning. When we left at about nine the next morning they were all still sleeping and the lobby was dark. That was good (even though it was weird) because we avoided a big nasty confrontation. We could have just walked out, but daddy left some money and the keys on the desk.

                After that was pretty much a repeat of the night before. We found a café and hung out there with our stuff and ate breakfast while daddy looked for another hotel. This time it was on the 5^th floor and it was quite a bit worse than the last one. The signs were really decrepit and the elevator was downright scary! The whole place smelled bad, but the worst part was that neither one of the showers had both hot and cold water! The kid’s room only had cold water, and the grown up room only had hot water (the cold water valve was broken). Neither a super-hot shower nor a super cold shower is at all pleasant, trust me! Of course, they didn’t have towels either. So anyways, we dumped our stuff in the room and walked to the Qaitbay Castle. The castle was pretty cool, but the most shocking thing (in a good way) was that the people selling souvenirs left us alone! There were plenty of stands and stuff, but they only asked if you wanted something once and they left if you said no. It was so nice!

                 On the walk back we stopped by a really pretty looking mosque that we had spotted on the way over. That ended up being a really interesting experience because we ladies had to go into the ladies section that was in a tiny corner. In all of the mosques we have been to so far there has been a ladies section, so that isn’t new, but the different thing was the fact that it was in a tiny corner (usually there is a much larger space), the screen was higher than eye level (usually it is only about waist level), and we (as visitors) had to go inside it! It made us pretty darn angry especially when the guy outside asked for baksheesh (tip). Other than that it was a pretty nice mosque! There was a guy who was giving out free copies of the Quran and all sorts of pamphlets on Islam. Actually, he pretty much forced them upon us so we took them. That book is heavy, so we discreetly threw them away once we were out of sight of the mosque.

                 After the castle and the mosque, we walked back to the hotel and hung out in the room for a little bit before dinner time. For dinner Zander, mommy, and I went across the street to pick up some fast food (which was actually not that fast, and not that disgusting), fruit, and drinks. We brought it back to the hotel and ate at the tables in the lobby. It was dirt cheap and it was really yummy, so I liked it. The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, which included a gigantic croissant and all sorts of other breads (they really load you up on the carbs in Egypt). After breakfast we met the driver daddy found for us. He was another senile old guy with an ancient station wagon (we seem to be a magnet for those ones). He kept saying ‘happy, happy’ and ‘this for you not for me’ and stuff. Exactly like our felucca guy! “Happy captain!” “Happy driver!”. We went to Pompey’s Pillar (the tallest pillar in Egypt—its huge!) and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa (endless underground maze of tombs—creepy as hell). After that we went to the train station and (after daddy got rid of the driver who, like the last old man, wanted more money) bought a second class ticket to Cairo. At Ramses station daddy found yet another crazy old driver with the same exact model of station wagon! Seriously!!! From there we braved the traffic to our hotel. The driver took a long cut that was supposed to get us less traffic, but it didn’t so it took a few hours. It was interesting though, we saw a pretty intense fight because two guys ran into each other or something. When we finally made it to the hotel our driver wanted more money too, so daddy had to get rid of him and hire the hotel van for the trip to the Egyptian Museum and the airport the next day. That van was way more comfortable and the driver was not creepy, so I’m glad he did it.

                The whole Alexandria episode was, as always filled with drama for your reading enjoyment, and actually pretty fun (when you look back on it… only when you look back on it). We saw an Egypt mixed heavily with Roman influence, got a copy of the Quran, met two more old men with older station wagons, and we met our first Christian!!!! (He was the guy who drove us around on the last day in Cairo. Daddy asked him how many wives he has, which is as common as ‘do you like Lady Gaga?’ when we are in Egypt, and he looked pretty horrified and said ‘One! I’m Christian!!!!’ I hope he wasn’t offended….). Then we visited the Egyptian Museum (which was awesome) and finally took off for Athens

*** Sorry for the lack of pictures! The internet connection we are on won't upload any so I will put some pics up later.***

A Summary of the Sight We Saw on the Cruise or Before by Kayley

Our route in Egypt, sideways...

            This Egypt trip has been full of sightseeing, tourist stuff, and adventure. Mostly it has been a really fun adventure, but sometimes, it was tiring.

            On the second day in Cairo, we saw the great pyramids of Giza. Boy the pyramids were a sight when we saw the tops behind the dusty apartment building with laundry hanging out the windows. It was a sketchy walk from the dusty taxi to the pyramids. A guy trying to be our guide took us through a dusty ally way and through some horse smelling parking lots.  When we got to the ticket booth, daddy bought the tickets and we had to go to a different building to go through security. Security was a metal detector and for bags there was an x-ray machine. All the sight had some security, but I think some of the metal detectors weren’t even switched on. When we got through security, we were walking on the desert and the Sphinx was right in front of us. The Sphinx was missing its nose and the front part was very weathered and it looked kind of artsy. When we were beyond the Sphinx, the three Pyramids loomed over us. I felt like I had walked into a post card again because realty hadn’t really dawned on me yet. When we got closer to the Great Pyramid, there was a dusty old sign saying NO CLIMBING.  But a bunch of boys were already perched up a little ways. A security guard a ways off came over and said that we could climb and when we came back down, he asked for Baksheesh (tip)and daddy got kind of mad because the guard was asking for 50 Egyptian pounds (6 LE=1 USD). While we walked around, people kept asking if we wanted a camel, horse, or carriage ride. The hawkers were saying “good price for family”, and they seemed to assume that we really wanted to have a camel ride. Daddy was getting really annoyed with the hawkers, and so was everyone else. I think there might have been more hawkers than tourists. I think that the Pyramids of Giza might have been the most stressful of the tours in Egypt.

            After a 14 hour train ride from Cairo, we arrived in Aswan. Aswan is a somewhat warmer town than Cairo and the train station is about two blocks from the cruise ship dock. Mommy had a hotel that was right in between the dock and the train station booked for us. We had taken an overnight train, so we arrived in Aswan in the morning. When we secured our hotel (the Nuba Nile), we took a walk along the cruise ship dock to research cruise ships and feluccas.  When we saw a nice boat, daddy talked to the attendents for a price. Of course we got the Nile Ruby, but Mia and I were hoping for a bigger boat called the Nile Crown II. Daddy negotiated a good price for the cruise that also included a tour that started at 3:00 am the next day and ended in time for a late lunch. On the sightseeing day, we went to the Abu Simbel, the the High Dam, and the Philae temple. The High Dam was anticlimactic.  We didn’t go to the Philae temple because we thought that we didn’t have enough time, because we only had an hour. First of all we would have had to buy the tickets.  Then buy a ferry ride across the water and then see the temple. So we had to wait for the others to finish the touring temple and that took an hour extra.  The driver came with the van half an hour after he said he would, and then he told us to wait, and mommy and daddy got really mad. So my family and I and two others that had waited with us got into the van. Then mommy started honking the horn and yelling at the people who had just come and were asking us to move for them. The driver finally took us to the hotel.  We got our luggage and went to the cruise ship to check in. Miraculously, we saw the people that we had left behind walk into the cruise boat right when we were getting led to our rooms. That was certainly an adventurous day in Aswan.

            After fun and a somewhat eventful two day cruise, we arrived in Luxor. Mommy told us that Luxor was once one of the many capitals Egypt has had and that Luxor is home to many temples and tombs. The cruise ship planned a driver and a guide for us to go to the most important sight in Luxor or close by. In the morning, we went to the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut temple, an alabaster factory, lunch, then Karnack temple and the Luxor temple. There were about 64 tombs in the Valley of the Kings, but you’re only allowed to go inside three tombs per ticket. We went into Ramses IV’s tomb and two other tombs that I don’t remember. One of the tombs we went into had the best preserved panting on the walls, and one was really big but one part collapsed, so we only saw a little bit of that tomb. And another tomb had a really big stone sarcophagus with some really cool carvings on it. Since we were only allowed to go into three tombs, we only did the ones our guide recommended and those turned out to be pretty incredible. After the Valley of the Kings, we drove over to the other side of the mountain to see the Hatshepsut temple. The Hatshepsut temple turned out to be a much rebuilt temple that used to be a ruin.  Queen Hatshepsut built the temple only to be destroyed by her stepson. The story behind this whole business is Hatshepsut’s step son was king when he was about 5 or 10 year old and he couldn’t rule alone, so Queen Hatshepsut stepped in and booted her step son out and ruled alone. So Hatshepsut’s step son went off and grew up and when Queen Hatshepsut died, her step son ruled and destroyed her temple for revenge. Because of course, he didn’t like being booted off the throne. The rebuilt temple was a mummification temple that worshiped the jackal headed god of the afterlife and mummification. The temple had three levels built into the mountain. The first level wasn’t used and was just a hall way with a lot of columns on one side. The second level is much like the first level but has more of a view and more space. The third level has a courtyard with some ruins and some carvings of mummification in progress. After the Hatshepsut temple, we drove like 20 meters to a family alabaster factory. The alabaster factory tour was pretty much like the carpet tours in India, but it was a little more fun. Our tour guide was off praying, because it was Friday. So a member of the family that ran the factory showed us around. He showed us that the machine made alabaster pots are much thicker, shinier, and heavier that the man made products. The man made jugs and jars were so thin and light that they could be used as lamp shades. He also showed use a neon green stone (I don’t remember the name of the stone) that glowed in the dark. I think the neon stone might be made out of some sea oil, but I’m not sure.

After a yummy lunch on the Cruise ship, we went to the Karnack temple and the Luxor temple.  First we went to the Karnack temple.  The tour guide told us that all of the kings at the time when Luxor was the capital of Egypt had to build something in the Karnack temple to gain the favor of the people. The Karnack temple worships the ancient Egyptian king of the gods, Amun-Ra, and is the biggest temple in Egypt. Inside the temple, there’s a group of the second tallest columns in Egypt.  And some cool obelisks with some cool hieroglyphics on the sides. Also there was the “Holy of Holies” which is a dark room with a lot of hieroglyphics on the walls and no windows, a sanctuary.  Sphinx Avenue once connected Karnack Temple to Luxor Temple, but is now under excavation.  In Ancient Egypt, the people who wanted to pray in Karnack Temple had to get there by boat on a canal from the Nile River to the temple.  I thought that the Karnack and Luxor Temples were both really cool and huge.  I like the obelisks in the Karnack temple the best because they were simple and amazing.

Some interesting things have happened while we were sightseeing in Egypt, like when Mommy freaked out at the Philae Temple and when all the hawkers got really annoying at the Giza Pyramids; but mostly, it was all an educational adventure.  We just got back from Alexandria, but I’ve run out of time and space for it in this blog.  We did have some more “Happy Drivers!” (Someone else will have to explain that one!)


PS I WANT TO PUT MORE PICS ON BUT I CAN'T DUE TO THIS REALLY BAD INTERNET CONNECTION IN CAIRO.  I WILL TRY TO POST MORE PICS FROM ATHENS IN A FEW DAYS!!!

The Nile Ruby by Kayley



Mia and I on the sun deck on the Nile Ruby.

            My family and I stayed on a cruise ship to see the sights from Aswan to Luxor for three nights and four days. The cruise ship was called the Nile Ruby and it was awesome because it served good meals, the rooms and facilities were clean and comfortable, and the sightseeing tours were well planned. I really liked the meals and the bed and the sightseeing was not as stressful as usual because all was planned for us.

            The cruise ship had a buffet for meals and the meals were free but the drinks weren’t.   We weren’t allowed to bring drinks into the eating area. We learned that on the first night when Sarah brought a Fanta into the eating area and the waiter guy told her not to bring drinks to the area and put it under the table. For the first dinner there was fish, rice, watery lentil soup, and cooked veggies. Mommy and Mia said that the fish melts in your mouth, but I didn’t get around to trying the fish because I was too busy with desert. The meals got better later in the cruise like the second to last lunch was really good. There was stuffed chicken and pasta with tomato sauce and a zucchini casserole. My favorites were the pasta and the casserole. The deserts were all really good, or at least the ones that I tried. The jello was really refreshing because there wasn’t much flavor but they were cold. Also, there always were strawberries. Sometimes the strawberries were bruised, but over all they were good.

            The rooms that we slept in were very clean and the beds were comfortable. Each bed room had a double bed and a twin bed. Mommy and daddy bought two rooms.  Sarah slept in mommy and daddy’s room, and Mia Zander and I shared a room.   The bathrooms in both rooms were kind of small, but the shower was nice.  On the top deck of the boat, there was a small swimming pool with a wading pool attached. Also on the deck there were a lot of deck chairs and an eating area.  I think the cruise ship was a really nice boat.

Kids by the top of the obelisk at Karnak Temple.

            Every day we went sightseeing.  Some of the time, the boat had planned a driver and a guide, but sometimes we were on our own. The sightseeing always started at 8:30 am and sometimes ended after lunch or before. And sometimes we had to have a late lunch.  Before we went on the tour boat, we saw Abu Simbel, the dam, and the Edfu temple. I already did a blog on the Abu Simbel, so you know how that went.  We didn’t go inside the Edfu temple because we didn’t think we had enough time so we ended up waiting for an hour extra because we had to wait for the other people. Mommy freaked out about having to wait and started honking the horn until the driver took us to the hotel. The Aswan High Dam wasn’t really interesting but really expensive. The dam sloped down to the water on both sides and was made out of concrete. Also there was a road on the dam and in the median, there were some information signs and one showed a diagram of what the dam was made out of. The dam turned out to be made out of a bunch of different types and sizes of dirt and rock.  I think there was some clay in the middle. The longest day of touring was the last day and that was in Luxor. In Luxor we saw the Valley of the Kings, Karnack temple, Luxor temple and family factory for alabaster.  The tour of the alabaster factory was kind of like the carpet weavers in India because the guide told us how alabaster is carved into pots, bowls, and little figures.  He also told us the difference between the handmade products vs. the machine made products.  The machine made products were much thicker, heavier and shinier.  The hand carved products could be used as light shades, they were so thin.    All the activities the cruise ship planned for us were interesting and very educational.      

            Overall, the cruise ship was an awesome experience.  The meals were pretty good, the rooms were clean and comfortable, and the sightseeing activities were eventful in their own special ways.  My favorite part of the cruise experience was either the meals or the Karnak temple because the meals were yummy and the Karnak had some really cool architecture and art.