My plane from Joberg, South Africa to Maun, Botswana was full of tourists. All of whom have no idea what to wear in Africa. They were hardcore ready for their safaris. Which typically consist of walking to a car, driving around, looking at animals, and walking to the table for dinner.
Can you guess how they were dressed? No, not just khaki pants! Think i would give it all away in the title. Besides the pant were the hiking boots, and these neat khaki jackets with tons of zippers on them. You know for the knife, mace, nets, and all the other required safari gear that they will never us.
Don't believe me?? Huh, see the photo that I am attempting to embedd
Litterally Jess said I was the only one to come off the plane in normal clothes. AKA Jeans!
Monday, May 23, 2011
End of Days
So I flew out on May 20th and landed in Joberg on the 21st. Given the hype about the end of the world occuring during those times, and my complete hatred of flying I was worried. But needless to say I lived.
Joberg is a sketchy place, and it was even more pronounce this year. Luckly I made friends on the flight that were also staying at my hotel and we all walked together. Otherwise the stupid porters may have driven me bonkers. Southern Sun is a pretty nice hotel by Africa standards. The food however was horrific and expensive. To top things off my jet leg resulted in only 1 hour of sleep for me.
So you can imagine my condition when I arrived in Maun. Tired, Hungry, and a bit stressed. Jessica is a saint for not only putting up with me but for being excited to see me.
We have already had a delay in the schedule. Remember, AFRICA time is vastly different than US time. So 1 day late is still actually early here.
Feel like this is a bunch of random thoughts but I have a couple of great stories coming up in the next posts. Which if I can stay awake wil be coming up soon!
Joberg is a sketchy place, and it was even more pronounce this year. Luckly I made friends on the flight that were also staying at my hotel and we all walked together. Otherwise the stupid porters may have driven me bonkers. Southern Sun is a pretty nice hotel by Africa standards. The food however was horrific and expensive. To top things off my jet leg resulted in only 1 hour of sleep for me.
So you can imagine my condition when I arrived in Maun. Tired, Hungry, and a bit stressed. Jessica is a saint for not only putting up with me but for being excited to see me.
We have already had a delay in the schedule. Remember, AFRICA time is vastly different than US time. So 1 day late is still actually early here.
Feel like this is a bunch of random thoughts but I have a couple of great stories coming up in the next posts. Which if I can stay awake wil be coming up soon!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Netherlands
I have finally made it to the leg of my trip that I have been so excited about. I cannot tell you how long I have wanted to backpack across Europe. While London and Paris are the two lest that I am most excited about Amsterdam is pretty cool.
The arrival at the airport was a bit overwhelming. I did not speak the language, need to mail thins to the states, find my hostel and not kill anyone with my huge backpack. Luckily all was achieved with little problem, I only got seriously lost once.
On my only full day in the city I did some serious sightseeing. I went early to the Anne Frank house in order to avoid the long live. It was really sad but a must see. To know that 8 people hid in three small rooms for so long was odd. The most moving part of the house was the very end. I did not realize that Anne's father survived the war, he was the only on in the family. After his release form the concentration camps he knew his wife had died but he searched for months for his kids. He put ad's in the paper, went person to person asking, ect. She died 1 week before the liberation of the Jewish people, at a time when she thought all of ther other family members were dead. Her father died in 1980 after he had published her diary and set up the Anne Frank Foundation.
"We cannot move to the future, without learning from the past" Otto Frank, 1977.
After leaving the house I took a canal cruise. It was neat to see all of the houses, including the smallest house in Amsterdam that is only 1 meter wide! It is 5 storied tall though. Can you imagine how narrow and steep the stairs are in that place/
After the canal cruiseI bought my ticket to Paris. I am so excited. The price was three times what I had planned to pay, but how many times do you really get to do something like this? I asked the women why it was 120 euro and she said it was becuase I was traveling over the weekend. Apparently if I had stayed in Amsterdam until Monday my train ticket would have been 43 euro. I am too excited to get to Paris though.
Next, I did some light shoppig. Light becuase I kew I just paid a small fortune for my train ticket. I did see some awesome necklaces that i think my mom could make and I bought this cool wax braclet.
My iAmsterdam card gained me free access to the Amsterdam history museum, so I wandered around there a bit. My timing was peferct as it had just started to rain when I arrived.
And then I did it.....took a walk through the red light district. It was ummmmmm interesting. Maybe sad is the better word for it. Several people asked me to try to get a picture of the pot menu at the coffee shops. Well doing that almost made me loss my camera. Only after I deleted the picture did the bartenders / barista leave me alone. LOL. But I did get some other photos that are interesting, and no they are not of prostitutes. Is it shocking to anyone that this area of Amsterdam is where the best restaurants are?
Yesterday I went to the Van Gough Museum it was amazing. Made me think that mom should start painting again, The two most famous can gough paintings "starry night" and "the bedroom" were either not there or undergoing restoration. It was neat to see his lesser known works though, and to hear more about his crazy life. I bought a couple of postcards of his lesser known works.
Did I mentation the length of day here? It was something I should have thought of but really did not. I am typing this at 10pm and it is still completely bright outside. The sun is setting somewhere around midnight.
PARIS TOMORROW. Hope Parisians are nice like Jessica said. Everyone here at the hostel seems to disagree with her.
The arrival at the airport was a bit overwhelming. I did not speak the language, need to mail thins to the states, find my hostel and not kill anyone with my huge backpack. Luckily all was achieved with little problem, I only got seriously lost once.
On my only full day in the city I did some serious sightseeing. I went early to the Anne Frank house in order to avoid the long live. It was really sad but a must see. To know that 8 people hid in three small rooms for so long was odd. The most moving part of the house was the very end. I did not realize that Anne's father survived the war, he was the only on in the family. After his release form the concentration camps he knew his wife had died but he searched for months for his kids. He put ad's in the paper, went person to person asking, ect. She died 1 week before the liberation of the Jewish people, at a time when she thought all of ther other family members were dead. Her father died in 1980 after he had published her diary and set up the Anne Frank Foundation.
"We cannot move to the future, without learning from the past" Otto Frank, 1977.
After leaving the house I took a canal cruise. It was neat to see all of the houses, including the smallest house in Amsterdam that is only 1 meter wide! It is 5 storied tall though. Can you imagine how narrow and steep the stairs are in that place/
After the canal cruiseI bought my ticket to Paris. I am so excited. The price was three times what I had planned to pay, but how many times do you really get to do something like this? I asked the women why it was 120 euro and she said it was becuase I was traveling over the weekend. Apparently if I had stayed in Amsterdam until Monday my train ticket would have been 43 euro. I am too excited to get to Paris though.
Next, I did some light shoppig. Light becuase I kew I just paid a small fortune for my train ticket. I did see some awesome necklaces that i think my mom could make and I bought this cool wax braclet.
My iAmsterdam card gained me free access to the Amsterdam history museum, so I wandered around there a bit. My timing was peferct as it had just started to rain when I arrived.
And then I did it.....took a walk through the red light district. It was ummmmmm interesting. Maybe sad is the better word for it. Several people asked me to try to get a picture of the pot menu at the coffee shops. Well doing that almost made me loss my camera. Only after I deleted the picture did the bartenders / barista leave me alone. LOL. But I did get some other photos that are interesting, and no they are not of prostitutes. Is it shocking to anyone that this area of Amsterdam is where the best restaurants are?
Yesterday I went to the Van Gough Museum it was amazing. Made me think that mom should start painting again, The two most famous can gough paintings "starry night" and "the bedroom" were either not there or undergoing restoration. It was neat to see his lesser known works though, and to hear more about his crazy life. I bought a couple of postcards of his lesser known works.
Did I mentation the length of day here? It was something I should have thought of but really did not. I am typing this at 10pm and it is still completely bright outside. The sun is setting somewhere around midnight.
PARIS TOMORROW. Hope Parisians are nice like Jessica said. Everyone here at the hostel seems to disagree with her.
Company
It was reaffirmed to me at the KLM checkin counter the need to mail things back to the states. I was 2 kg over the baggage weight limit. Guess the hornbill and giraffe get to travel to the Netherlands in the cabin of the plane.
Next post from Europe!
Next post from Europe!
Back in Joberg
Sitting in the Joberg airport, or madhouse as I call it. Super tired but have another 12+ hour flight to go. Did I mention that I hate flying???
Gaberone
Back in Gabs. Staying at this odd but seemingly appropriate bed and breakfast. But when I say breakfast I mean odd looking sausage on a plate with cold bread and instant coffee. There so called American Breakfast. LOL.
Jessica got her hair braided just like many of the girls here. I am 99.99% sure that she is the only white girl to ever step foot into that salon. The salon was painted pink, both inside and out, and when Jessica took a picture of it the owner came over and accused her of trying to steal her idea. Sorry to tell you lady but your "idea' is a neon pink bulding named: Hair Salon. Not the most coveted of ideas.
Overall there was not much work left to do. I finished entering all of the training sample data, and emailed it to Cerian, we went on a wild goose chase for data, and we found a way to mail the surveys back to the states. This lack of work left us with a lot of down time and a complete lack of transportation.
The public transporation in Botswana consists of these terriflying VW buses called combis. I refused to ride in them. Yes it was only 2 pula, but there was no map as to where they travel. No actual stop signs. And it was 99% male. The way to hale a combi you ask? Well....that is still unclea. I do know that the passengers of the combi are always yelling number, as in how many seats they have left. If one does pull over to pick you up they ask where you are going then decide if they want to take you. I chose cabs instead, and boy did we pay for it.
We did see a movie though. It had been to long since i had seen a film. It was Marmaduke.
Thats about all we did those 5 days. I did watch a lot of world cup.
Jessica got her hair braided just like many of the girls here. I am 99.99% sure that she is the only white girl to ever step foot into that salon. The salon was painted pink, both inside and out, and when Jessica took a picture of it the owner came over and accused her of trying to steal her idea. Sorry to tell you lady but your "idea' is a neon pink bulding named: Hair Salon. Not the most coveted of ideas.
Overall there was not much work left to do. I finished entering all of the training sample data, and emailed it to Cerian, we went on a wild goose chase for data, and we found a way to mail the surveys back to the states. This lack of work left us with a lot of down time and a complete lack of transportation.
The public transporation in Botswana consists of these terriflying VW buses called combis. I refused to ride in them. Yes it was only 2 pula, but there was no map as to where they travel. No actual stop signs. And it was 99% male. The way to hale a combi you ask? Well....that is still unclea. I do know that the passengers of the combi are always yelling number, as in how many seats they have left. If one does pull over to pick you up they ask where you are going then decide if they want to take you. I chose cabs instead, and boy did we pay for it.
We did see a movie though. It had been to long since i had seen a film. It was Marmaduke.
Thats about all we did those 5 days. I did watch a lot of world cup.
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