September 25, 2019. Trip Oversight
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
– Neale Donald Walsch
Top 12 Trip Pics
• Pyramids of Giza
• Parthenon – Athens, Greece
• Meteora, Greece
• Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
• West Cork, Ireland
• Banks of the Seine, Paris, France
• London along the Thames
• Luxor, Egypt
• Dublin, Ireland
• Peloponnese, Greece
• Dubrovnik/Trogir/Zadar, Croatia
• Cappadocia, Turkey
Lesson Learned: The lesson learned is you never stop learning as long as you travel. Its more like tweaking your perceptions. You hear you don’t need to take a lot of clothes, but even after packing light you find things you need and things you won’t wear. You decide to reduce your load, discard or mail home articles you don’t need (at that moment) and move down the road lighter than before. I don’t believe this is something new learned, just a tweak to what you already knew, but didn’t understand how you were going to exist on long-term travels. Living out of your suitcase is a lot different than packing for a long vacation. What you need, you buy. What you don’t, is forgotten.
We spent 7 months on the road, slept in 51 beds, spent the night in eight different countries, and visited 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and met lots of new friends. Over this time we learned a lot, but I expect to learn more when we head out for the Adventure of a Lifetime II.
A Good Traveler is One Who Does Not Know Where he is Going
Seven months on the road and countless sites seen, cities lived in, countries visited, and cultures experienced leave you with countless memories, opinions, thrills, new friendships, and real-life exposure to images and places we’ve dreamed about our entire lives and twice as many more that we’d never heard of before we departed the U.S. It also leaves you with a yearning to see more.
But we’ve also got a list of the things we’ve seen or places we have really enjoyed. We are continually asked what we enjoyed the most or what we liked the best, and that’s tough to describe, or rank from 1 to 100. Our trip experience was cumulative, and difficult to separate the experience into discrete events. Much of what we did or saw built upon the events of the previous day or week, and blended over our travels to paint our memories. Here are a few of our favorite memories from our travels in 2019. You’ve heard of these places before, but here’s a list of experiences we’d do again.
Pyramids of Giza
Egypt is a hoot! Well, maybe I should say that Egypt is a lot different than anywhere we’ve been before. The first thing I’ll share is that they take security very seriously here, and the end result is we never felt threatened, unsafe, or anxious in any venue. Go! Enjoy! You’ll see marvelous things.
I wouldn’t call Cairo a walkable city, mainly because traffic is horrible and you take your life into your hands when you cross the street. You take a cab or hire a driver everywhere you go. Always keep small change (5 or 10 Egyptian pound notes) in your pocket because you need to tip everyone. Porters, bathroom attendants, bellmen, taxi drivers, museum guards, waiters, hotel clerks, café’ hostesses, merchants, and you’ll come across lots of panhandlers, too. Everyone is trying to make a buck, and I can’t fault them for that. Just be prepared. Don’t go out without small bills. Also, expect to be diverted by your drivers to café’s, papyrus shops, jewelers, rug dealers, and spice shops. Just learn how to politely say NO.
Where to stay: Lots of options. There are plenty of hotels, you just need to decide if you want to stay in Cairo, or if you want to go out by the pyramids in Giza. I’m not sure picking an Air BNB would be a good idea, you’ll need access to local transportation, English speakers, and eateries, which are clustered around hotels.
How long: I’d probably recommend a minimum of 3 nights.
What to see: Giza pyramids, Egyptian Museum, Memphis, Saqqara, Old Cairo, and soon there will be a new museum in Giza. If you feel adventurous, go see the Garbage City.
Next up:
Parthenon – Athens, Greece