Friday 11 January 2013

more vacation photos

As promised, here are a few more photos from our Nile Cruise, temple stops and safari.















I only have one Hurghada photo to add - we really didn't take many. While we were there we spent a lot of time relaxing on our balcony, watching the sea and the Russian sun bathers and playing cards. This photo is of a t-shirt we found for sale in the kids section of one of the tourist shops along the main street. We thought about getting it for our nephew but decided just to take a photo of it instead.

Our Christmas vacation will officially end tomorrow. Back to our regular school routine on Sunday. It's been a great 3 weeks off. 

Wednesday 9 January 2013

and then it rained ...

First of all, let me solve the cat mystery, I've made you wait long enough. Did you find them on your own?


And now for some excitement - IT RAINED! I know, not really that exciting but when you haven't seen or felt rain for over 4 months it's note worthy at least. On January 8th at about 11pm we heard a noise. It sounded like rain. We went out on the balcony and holy cow it was rain! It was windy and the road was wet. You could see it under the street lights and smell it in the air. It was pretty neat. 
This morning, another rain cloud passed over and this time I got out my camera to document the moment.

A rain cloud in Egypt

Rain drops on the window.

Rain drops on the railing.

The road is wet! And not just from washing the cars.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Brianna's last two days

It's almost time to send Bri back to Canada. Her time here has really flown by. She had an opportunity to experience our everyday life here in Maadi and to experience Egypt as a tourist. It's been fantastic to have the girls here together for the holidays.
At midnight on New Year's Eve we were hanging out with my parents and sister via Skype. With a quick chat to the Forster-Lett family before that. It was really nice to see everyone!
On Jan 1st we did some shopping because it was business as usual here and ate a nice dinner at home. Then Mike taught us how to play Texas Hold'em. That was a lot of fun!
Today, Jan 2, we took Bri on the Egypt subway, called the Metro, all the way to downtown Cairo. We stepped out into Tahrir square for the first time. ( I have been before but it was a first for Mike and the girls.) We had a very good experience up there. Three very nice men offered us directions if we needed. Two of them even helped us cross a crazy 6 lanes of traffic. It was great!
We easily found our way to the museum and spent about 2 hours inside looking at as much as we could until our legs were tired.  Our favorite exhibits included the Royal Mummies and all of King Tut's treasures. Especially his death mask and throne.
For Brianna's last dinner we will head to our favourite Italian restaurant for some wine and pasta!
Her flight leaves tomorrow at 10:40am our time and she will be back in Toronto at 7:50pm her time.
As for us .... we still have 10 more days off until school starts back up. We don't have any specific plans except to rest and maybe join the gym and I will be getting caught up on my scrapbook. I'm also going to put together a few more photos for you from our trip.
In the photos below the girls are standing in front of the museum main doors (Mike is sitting on the right side) and then Mike took the second photo showing us in the square with some tents still set up in the background.

Happy New Year!