Time for Paris

After our day in the city of Venice we relaxed by the pool for a few hours and met some nice travellers. There are several other groups at our hostel that are travelling in organized groups throughout Europe. Their food, transport, guides and accomadation is planned everywhere they go. It sounds pretty amazing and some of them are even flexible about their times and destinations. As always, there are a lot of Australians taking advantage of these programs and travelling. We had a picnic on the blankets provided by the hostel and ate our dinner in the sunshine. The club on the grounds was pumping at night but Tyson and I had no problem sleeping. We watched part of the movie Megamind before going to sleep. There was even a rain storm in the middle of the night that did not bother us in the least. In fact it was very relaxing for Tyson to hear the storm but be safe and warm inside. I was sleeping so I did not even know there was a storm.

The next day we got ready and head to Venice by bus. Soon after we started walking into the center of town Tyson spotted two guys walking ahead of us, one of them was wearing a backpack that said "Pitt" on it. Since we went to a high school called pitt, he asked them if they were Canadian. They were not but this initiated a great relationship. In fact we spent nearly the whole day walking around with them and exchanging experiences. They were coming from studying a semester abroad in Jerusalem at Hebrew school. They were Americans, one from Chicago and one from Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh guy was a big hockey fan so Tyson was in his glory talking sports again. They were fascinated with our trip and listened to our stories while adding their input. They taught us about Judaism and learned about the Bahai faith. We walked with them to Saint Mark's Cathedral and ate lunch while they waited in the line up and went inside. We walked around the entire city over the canals all the way back to the bus station where we met. This is where we parted ways because they wanted to go to the Jewish ghettos and we had to go to McDonalds. The McDonalds idea did not work out as planned but we hung out there for a while anyway. We stopped at the store to stock up on junk food as well as fruits and salad before catching the bus back to the hostel. At the hostel, we ate dinner outside in the sunshine and relaxed for the evening before bed.

The next day we slept in and we did what we do best, layed in the sun and had pool time after our computor work, of course. We relaxed in our room and by the water in the hot sun all day. As our skin got darker and darker, we met many other travellers and talked about our experiences. In the early evening we walked to the store, and bought dinner and lunch for the next day. We ate our delicious meal while watching a movie and eventually passed out.

The following morning we woke up to the sun heating up our tent. I woke up a bit before Tyson and began packing our bags for our departure. At ten am we checked out , paid our tab (including a tourist tax) and went back to enjoy a few more hours at the pool. I found another book to read so I was pretty much a right off and Tyson worked on some of his own things. After baking in the sun we went into the city to catch our shuttle to the airport. We stopped at a store where we bought a litre of mint chocolate chip gelato and finished the whole tub off in a glorious fifteen minutes. It seemed appropriate to leave Italy feeling absolutely sick of gelato.

We had been invited to a Guiness book of world records event that was to take place in the city so we ran off to San Marco square where the event was to be held. We did not have much time to spare before the last shuttle was leaving for the airport so we had to rush but I am proud to say that I only fell once on the way. When we arrived we saw a huge sea of people wearing orange tshirts and orange sunglasses. There were many tents, a stage and a huge line of people waiting to recieve shirts of their own. The drink company Aperol Spritz was challenging the record of the worlds largest drink toast. They were handing out free drinks and pizza for everyone participating. We were a little strapped for time so we went in a reasonably short line up to get our shirts. After recieving our shirts and glasses we looked back and noticed that the line up actually started at the far end of the plaza and we had totally budged. Being naive sometimes pays off. We got our free swag and entered the lounge where the toast was to take place, we enjoyed the free pizza, garlic bread and drinks until the last minute and then ran through the city to catch our bus. It was very hot and we were dripping sweat but it was worth the run because we made it to the last bus and paid our hefty fare for the tickets to arrive safely at the smallest and dingiest airport ever. Only very budget airlines such as the one and only Ryan Air fly out of it and they do not feel the need to dress it up. Nonetheless, it was clean and they hosted us for the night on the hard cold floor. Of course being such a cheap airline, they only allow ten kilograms of baggage for free as a carry on so we performed a practice run of what was to happen the next day. Tyson and I put on as much of our clothes as possible, shoved the heavy stuff in our pockets and finally got our bags to the acceptable size and weight for a carry on.

We slept on the ground hugging our bags with many other backpackers and in the morning we did a live run of the same event. We put on all our clothes and filled our pockets and our bags passed the tests and we were allowed to continue through security. Unfortunately we had several bottles of sunscreen and liquids that were over the limit of one hundred millilitres so we had to step out of the line to reassess our bags and try security again. They caught us a second time with too much liquids but the third time was a charm and they let us through. Crappily enough though, they confiscated our two brand new cans of body spray that we had treated ourselves with. After security we got to the most confusing set of line ups that really just looked like a big crowd of people in a small room. There were no chairs and the signs made no sense. After lining up in the wrong cues several times we ended up creating a new line for our flight and being first on the plane. Since there are no seat numbers, this was lucky because we got to sit together. Both of us slept through the flight and we woke up to the sound of horns and the pilot's voice announcing "another on time flight with Ryan Air".

In France, we landed at Beavais airport which is an hour drive from Paris. We had organized to join a carpool from this city to Paris at five pm so we had about six hours to kill. After stripping off dozens of layers of clothing and breathing a few easy breaths, we drank some coffee, ate some croissants and head out for the city on foot. We stopped at the first McDonalds we saw to eat french fries in France. They tasted the same but it was significant to Tyson in a way that I could not quite understand. We continued down the streets of this small town, we walked by huge fields of multi coloured wild flowers. It was very beautiful and the architecture was amazing with various sizes of cute brick houses in perfect porportions. Each house had well manicured lawns and gardens full of fresh flowers. The streets were not busy and we took our time taking it all in. We stopped for some groceries on the way to the main area of the village where they were having a midieval festival in front of the cathedral. The cathedral was very impressive competing healthily with the ones we had seen in Rome and Venice. We walked around the inside of it and then window shopped through the small market. We stopped to watch a parade with a marching band, horse back riders and so on. We bought a tub of strawberry sorbet and finished it off in another enjoyable fifteen minutes. We need to stop doing this.

On the way to meet with our carpooling friends, we stopped to watch a caravan of high end cars drive by with young people hanging out the windows screaming their heads off. It was quite the sight, apparently there was a wedding and this was a part of the celebration. Also on our way back we stopped at a large world war two grave site. There were hundreds of white crosses perfectly lined up in rows and rows of fallen soldiers. It was very sad, each of them had died within a small period of time and there were photos posted of the war near their graves. It was a foreign experience to see mass graves like that.

We met the young guy from the carpooling website exactly as planned and rode with him to the big fancy city. We chatted with him and another girl who was riding along as best as we could with our very broken French and their poor English. We all all got along famously though because he offered us chocolates as soon as we got in the car. He dropped us off at the main metro station and we got our first glimpses of the eiffel tower and the famous ark de triumph. Tyson, the girl from the carpool and I went to catch the metro and after a thirty minute fight with the ticket machine we were on our way. We made it to the stop where our couch surfing host was living and we noticed a long line up and, of course, went to find out what it was all about. It was the salvation army handing out dinner to the homeless. Since we were technically homeless at the time and we certainly looked and smelled the part, we ate with them. The meal was surprisingly delicious with pasta, chicken with ham and cheese, yogurt, a big dinner bun with cheese, cucumber salad and bottled water. There was entertainment as well consisting of homeless people fighting each other in the line up and crack heads shouting nonsense. We met a few very nice people as well who kindly welcomed us to Paris. We finally found our host's home only to find that he was away in Italy until Tuesday. So he had a friend give us the key and all the instructions and we had the gorgeous central apartment to ourselves for three nights. It was an unbelievable amount of trust, he had all of his stuff (computors, appliances, cash, electronics etc) out and he had never met us, yet he gives us a key and tells us to help ourselves. So we spent the rest of the evening catching up with e-life, cleaning ourselves up and eating junk food.

"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

Across Northern Italy

We had three days in Genova, Italy (pronounced Zena in Genoese). We stayed in the heart but of the downtown area with our couchsurfing hosts in a cozy apartment. They had two cats that were very cute but they shed like no other. There was cat hair everywhere, which I could somewhat handle but Tyson had a case of the old spoiled-by-cruise-cleanliness. He was having a hard time and wanted to spend as little time in the apartment as possible. The first day that we arrived, we had a week's worth of catching up to do on the computor which took us the better part of the day. At one point, about thirty minutes before the cruise ship was scheduled to depart from Genova, we realized that we had left two shirts behind in the boat. So Tyson ran the entire way back to the boat without stopping and managed to just make it in time and get them back. We were lucky that time.

Our hosts are very talented, the guy is a professional cross country skier, he is also a skilled architect, a very good artist and a musician (just from what we learned in our few days there). The girlfriend is a cook who made us home made pizza for dinner the first night. She cooked two large authentic Italian pizzas, one was called a margharita pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella, and the other one was similar but also had sausages. We all sat together and ate. Since it was a Friday night, our hosts were going out but we are old farts, so we opted to stay home and sleep.

The next day we managed to leave the house by ten to go shopping in the city, we checked out the markets and the coastal walks before heading to the beaches that the family from California (from the cruise) had told us about. There are beaches all along the coast so we could take the train from stop to stop and check out all the different ones. The first beach took us nearly one hour to get to but we met a young couple from Nova Scotia on the train. We talked to them for the ride and they were travelling Europe for about six weeks. We stopped first at Recco which was a beautiful beach, there was no sand at these beaches but rather small rocks. We were not impressed with that at first but it worked out to be quite comfortable. We walked right into a quaint restaurant that the family had a reccomended called La Bruchetta. We ordered foccacia bread and it was very tasty, the mozzarella was out of this world. We layed on the beach and accidentally fell asleep for two hours which left us dark skinned and refreshed. We decided to walk through the small town and then take the train one stop further to Comogli beach. This beach was the most beautiful of the three but also very busy. There was barely any space on the rocks to lay our towels. We walked around and the tall flat colourful buildings created a backsplash that was so picturesque that it looked like a postcard. They stood behind large bright rocks jetting over the clear blue sea. There were many cafes and gelato places along the water that were busy with customers. This is the area that locals frequent as opposed to the more touristy beaches. We saw a couple in their wedding clothes taking photos and people watched for some time there. We sat by the beach and I dipped my legs in the water while Tyson jumped in and played around for a while.

The next stop off the train was Santa Margharita which was also very lovely like the other two beaches. They were all equally beautiful but each had its own unique qualities that made them different. At the last beach we walked along the water and checked out the markets. Towards the end of the day we walked by a very large line up and Tyson told me to wait while he went to find out what it was for. As I waited, people stood behind me and the line was steadily growing so we knew it was for something good. Tyson came back and said that they were giving out fresh fish dinners by donation for a cause that we could not understand because it was in Italian. So we continued to wait and finally got our plate filled with several peices of fish, a huge king prawn, a slice of lemon and a cup of carbonated water. We ate by the water and when we were done we got in line again for seconds. This was not the best idea because by the time we got our second serving, we realized that we were not hungry anymore but we still forced half of it down before feeding the rest back to the sea. We watched the thousands of little fishies eat their relatives. We watched all the people dressed up for dates, jogging, walking their dogs and enjoying the scenery and the perfect weather around the water`s edge. Around nine pm we walked back to the train station but the next train was not until eleven pm. We played a few rounds of crazy eights, chatted and watched a drunk guy fight a vending machine repeatedly until the train arrived. During the one hour ride back to Genova, the ticket guy checked our ticket and almost gave us a two hundred euro fine for not validating it properly. Thankfully he had some mercy and let us go with a warning. By the time we reached the house it was after midnight but there were still a lot of people out enjoying the night. Our host told us that it was some kind of holiday about asking Saint John for luck for the community. So they light a big fire and dance around it through the night.

The next day we slept in until about eleven am and even when we woke up, we took our time showering and getting ready. It was not until about two pm when we actually left the house to walk along the markets where Tyson bought a purse imported from India. We found it rather Ironic that we came from India where the currency was fifty to one and where we could have had my mother take our goods home for free but instead, we bought Indian stuff in Italy where the currency is way above the dollar and every gram counts. We continued walking down by the water where we saw another MSC ship and reminiced about our cruising days. We walked to an internet cafe and tried to print off our boarding passes for our Ryan Air flights but it did not work. We tried several times but we had no luck, this is quite worrisome because if we do not print our boarding passes they will charge us eighty dollars each to do it at the airport.

We stopped at a Carefour grocery store and bought big cups of pudding with whipped cream and orange pop and went to the water to eat again. After our snack I fell asleep on a bench for some time while Tyson did some more people watching. When I woke up a large crowd had gathered near us. We watched as hundreds of people dressed in multicolored cloaks and costumes walked in a parade carrying gigantic crosses. They walked around in a fenced off area to music while the crowd watched. There were people of all ages and ethnicities walking through the pain of carrying the heavy cross in the heat. We realizeed that this was also connected with the St. John holiday that our host was explaining to us the night before. We walked back to the house and Tyson ran out to get some pasta and sauce for dinner. He cooked while I organized life a little on the computor. The dishwasher is broken in our apartment but we cannot find any friend to stop by and take a look at it so we will have to call in a professional to rip us off for a small problem. We are also working on some other planning for the trip and work back home.

We ate dinner while watching an extremely long movie called `2012` and then we slept. Tyson had to keep the window open for fresh air which caused me to be eaten alive by mossies all night. I woke up to soak myself in OFF and Afterbite several times. In the morning we had to get up early to pack the last of our things and catch our train to Milano. Our train left at nine am and we managed to make it a bit ahead of time. The train took nearly two hours and it was a comfortable ride. We ate breakfast and blogged until we reached our destination.

We had a three hour layover in Milano with several things to do during that time. With all of our baggage in tow, we ran to return a couple of things that we had bought when we were in Milano the last time but we no longer needed. First we exchanged some batteries we had bought for the old camera for new a luggage lock because the old one stopped working. Next we continued on to return other batteries we had bought from a bigger grocery store. We had stocked up because the old camera was going through batteries like crazy but we did not need the extra weight of them anymore. With a little convincing, they took them back. Then we went to a Camera shop where we had seen a camera we liked but it had been sold during our week away so we bought a different one. It is a Samsung and it should do us just fine for the next month or so while we are away. We stopped at the Duomo where it was still busy as ever. We checked out the camera to make sure everything was in order and all the parts were present which they were. We took some photos and rested for a short time before strapping on the bags again and speed walking to China town. Here we bought a memory card for the camera and then half walked and half ran back to the train station with only two minutes to spare before the train took off towards Venice. In total we walked over twenty kilometers in the three hours and completed everything we intended to do. By the time we got to the train however, I was about to collapse, the weather had been very hot outside and I was wearing flip flops so I was drained and in pain. As soon as we sat down both of us guzzled down several bottles of water, ate four oranges, two muffins, and a cup of pudding. After updating the blog we slept until our destination.

After unsuccessful attempts at finding a suitable couchsurfing host in Venice, we managed to book a hostel just outside the island. It was supposed to be a fifteen minute bus ride outside of the city with a pool, fitness center and wifi so we were happy. We had read some horrible reviews on the place but the price was right so we decided to give it a chance. The directions to the bus were great, the ride was fifteen minutes as promised by the hostel website, then we walked about ten minutes and we were there. It was the greatest place! It was very clean with a very huge pool and two large whirlpools. It was packed with people and we got our own bungalow for the same price as a tent. The staff were friendly, the wifi worked (most of the time), the showers had hot water and were clean so there was no more that we could ask for. We were very confused by the bad reviews online because we had a great time at this place. The first night we took much needed showers and then tried to organize our bags. We threw several kilograms of stuff away, made a maybe pile and packed everything we had to keep. Our flight with Ryan Air is in a few days and we are only allowed (strictly) ten kilograms each of luggage so we are a bit nervous about how much stuff we have at the moment. After hours of going through our stuff we slept.

The next mornng we got up at a decent hour and head out to Venice. We had to run several hundred meters to catch the bus while everyone watched and some cheered us on. We caught the bus but the driver charged us double the fare because we did not know that we had to pre-purchase tickets at newspaper stands outside and on the bus we had to pay an extra fee. So we were a bit upset about this but we tried not to let it ruin our day.

Venice is, as everyone may tell you, the most unique city ever. It is entirely on water and the only mode of transportation is by boat or by foot. There are no cars or busses and it is beautiful. It is by far one of the most touristy places we have ever been and there is rarely a time when no one else is around with bags of shpping and melting gelato cones but we had a lot of fun. We wandered to places we had no idea about all day. There were gigantic churches such as the one of St. Mark's. We waited in line for about thirty minutes to see the inside of that one but you have to pay for most parts and there is a large souvenier shop at the end which takes away from the whole spiritual aspect of it all. Inside was lovely though with a great deal of detail and gothic beauty. Throughout the city, there were lots of beggars kneeling on the ground or following people around for money. There were many shopping and sight seeing and the people watching was great. The prices are very high of course with one 300ml cup of juice costing the equivalent of $4.50. We bought a tons of groceries including chocolate croisssants, milk chocolate bars, potato chips, ham, bread, oranges, cheese and pop for dinner and head back to our hostel around six pm. We got into our swim suits and layed by the pool until it closed at eight pm.


"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

Cruising the Mediterranean with MSC

The next morning on the ship, we arrived in Solerno. We hit the snooze button a few extra times before heading to breakfast. We met up with our French friends and took a city bus into town. After debating over going to Amalfi coast or or to Pompeii we decided to stay in Solerno and enjoy the city while they made the boat journey to Amalfi. Solerno is a small city with more modern architecture and is not nearly as busy as Rome or Milano. The coast here is very beautiful and looks just like the photos of Amalfi. We walked along the beach with our feet in the water, checked out a local market and watched some cars that were in a stereo competition. We slowly made our way back to the ship and enjoyed walking along the sea wall.

We returned with plenty of time to spare before the ship`s departure and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and eating by the pool. The staff had set up several activities to keep the people entertained during the day. For one of the games Tyson had to eat a bowl full of crackers in one minute and then try to say his name. His mouth was so dry that he could barely make a sound. Then I did an aerobics class and learned some fun new dances. The entertainment team work so hard and they always have to do it with a smile on their faces. We also played mini golf and spent some time in the whirlpool.

That evening we went to cocktail party where we were able to meet the captain and crew of the ship. It is meant to be a formal event but being backpackers the best thing that we had to wear was far from formal compared to the beautiful dresses and tuxedos that the others were wearing. Before dinner we watched another performance about the Forces of Nature, a variety of these performances are held nightly in the main theater and they are always over the top. The performers are extremely talented and they have different guest stars every night. After the performance that night, we went back to the room to rest for a bit before heading to the Pasha club to watch a Mr. Italia show. The men from the entertainment crew stripped down to their underwear to music. Since most people on the ship have gotten to know each other over the last few days, these events are a lot of fun.

That night we fell asleep in Europe and the next morning we docked in Tunisia, Africa. This is Northern Africa where most people are Muslim Arabs. After a buffet breakfast, we got off the ship to people offering camel rides. The city recieves a ton of tourists everyday from all of the ships and the taxis were asking 40-60 euros for rides into Medina and Sidi Bou Said towns. We walked to the bank and changed some euros to dinas (their currency). The whole walk there were taxi drivers following us with cars and on foot trying to make a sale. The lowest offer we got was ten euros one way for the ride. On the train we paid fifty cents and it only took twenty minutes to get to Sidi Bou Said. This is a touristy village with beautiful beaches, white buildings, street markets and lovely architecture. It looks a lot like the photos of coastal towns in Greece that I have seen.

We were looking for a camera but the closest shop was a taxi ride away. We asked a local lady to hail a taxi for us so that we would not get overcharged. At the shop, we did not find a camera we liked and we had run out of the local currency, so we hitchhiked back to Sidi Bou Said. A guy in a truck stopped for us and kindly drove us exactly where we wanted to go. Back at the market a local guy we had met begged us to sell him our old camera. We knew that we were getting a new one in the next few days and we had met some friends on the ship who were sending us their photos of the trip so we agreed to sell it. We removed our memory card and he paid us fifteen euros. He was very happy with the transaction even though we were a bit unsure. We caught the train back to the ship with our last dinar and got there just in time for the buffet lunch. After lunch we slept and relaxed by the pool before a dip in the whirl pool, a quick game of mini golf, a dancing lesson and more drinks. This is really the life, every time we look out over the Mediterranean Sea we feel very lucky and happy. We showered and got ready for the buffet dinner before watching the main show for the evening. We went to our plated meal after that to meet our Indonesian server and our Swiss friends just like the few nights before that. The days went by very fast despite our efforts to slow them down.

The next day was our stop in Ibiza, one of our Spanish destinations. Since this beach town is well known for its night life and partying tourists, our time here was in the afternoon and evening rather than the day. In the morning we woke up in time for the buffet breakfast, here we met a ninety one year old lady that has been coming on this cruise for ten years in a row. She always comes on the same cruise even though she has to travel thirteen hours by bus to get to the port. She has no siblings, parents, partner or children so she is all on her own. We talked with her for about an hour and it was very interesting. We felt very close to her and she shared some stories about her life, she spoke of the importance of coming on the cruise and how it is the highlight of her year. We then decided to go back to the room to get ready to go to the pool. The big comfortable bed had other plans for us though because as soon as we sat on it we both fell asleep for four and a half hours. Of course my internal alarm clock woke me up ten minutes before the lunch buffet was over and we rushed down to eat at the pizza, pasta and hot foods stations. After a couple of desserts we sat by the pool for the afternoon. Normally the entertainment team has several activities, games and dances going on near the pool area during the day. They give away cheap small prizes like mouse pads and bandanas but it is still a lot of fun to participate. They also do dance classes, aerobics classes and other activities for the guests. Additionally, they have ongoing games at all times like tennis, mini golf, ping pong, board games and more. So we took advantage of some of these offers until five pm when it was time to go out to explore the beautiful tropical beaches of Ibiza, Spain. Near the port there is a breathtaking beach with clear blue water and soft white sand that we stayed at for a few hours. It was nice to hear Spanish again and the whole vibe of the place was similar to the one that we felt during our time in South America.

On the way out of the ship, we met a family with two grown children from California. The couple had done a twelve country round the world trip twenty five years ago when they were just dating. They shared many hints for getting ahead and saving money while travelling, we thought we knew it all but these guys were experts on the topic. We got along very well with them and agreed to meet later in the day. We walked to the city area which was not far and it really looked exactly how one may expect Spain to look. It looked like all the photos I had seen of the narrow streets, old architecture, castles, cathedrals, small doors, uneven streets and busy markets. In the markets we found a lot of the same products that we had seen in South America and India but at greatly inflated price. We tried on some clothes and shopped for a while, but our time was short. The famous clubs here charge fifty euros per person just for the entry fee. We had to be back at the ship at midnight and they only open the clubs at two am so it was not possible for us to go anyway. We jumped on the shuttle bus back to the ship and ate the midnight snacks that the staff served in the lounges. We watched a show and joined in on some dancing until it was time for bed.

The next morning we woke up in Palma, Spain. After another large buffet breakfast and some packing of sandwhiches for lunch, we went out to the city. We walked around the port and to the city where we got the same South American vibe that we felt in Ibiza. The city was a bit bigger than the one we were in yesterday, and we shopped for a while. The weather everyday has been extremely hot, between thirty five and forty degrees. This was getting unbearable so we head to one of the famous beaches. We swam and tanned for the rest of the time before we had to walk back to the ship. Being on a cruise ship is a great feeling because you feel like your home is travelling with you and is always close by in case you need it. Also the passengers become like a family. We have become very close with several couples and families and in addition to this, we continuously run into other guests that we can say hello to or chat with. They let us know if we are running late, we share useful information and everyone is watching out for each other. We even run into the staff from time to time and they stop to chat and know us by name. At the beach we ran into a young couple from the States that we recognized from the ship. They are living in Germany because the guy is in the Army and they are stationed there. We hung with them for a few hours and walked back to the ship with them. We got along very well and decided to meet up later on.

We went to the pool for a while where we participated in some variations of activities that we had been playing all day, and tanned some more. We went to the dinner buffet for some snacks before the nightly show at eight pm. This show is extremely extravagant and exciting every night. The dancers are very professional, the costumes are unreal and the performers are very talented. They have comedians, actors, fitness buffs, people with wierd but rather unbelievable talents and so on. This is one of our favorite parts of each day even though we always miss the first five minutes due to being late.

We ate dinner with the Swiss girls that we met at the plated dinner. It was very good and they even had a special presentation for the dessert where all the chefs and staff turned out the lights and marched around carrying cakes on fire. It was great fun and the Alaskan ice cream cake was one of the best desserts I have ever had. This was the second of two formal nights that we will have during the cruise. Of course we did not have tuxedos and evening dresses so we had to make due with what we had. In the evening, they had an event where we got to learn dances from around the world and we participated in that. The next game was a couple`s game where the audience would choose the ideal couple on the ship based on some games the two would particiapate in. Tyson joined the game with another girl that we did not know and I left to upload other people`s photos of the cruise since we no longer had a camera. I took some of the scenery photos so that we could still have some memories of the cruise.

That night they had a special midnight buffet where the chefs had prepared all the food into fabulous creations. They had sculpted fruits and savoury foods into unbelievable shapes and scenes from the sea. We ate again and hung out with four people from France that we have gotten to know over the last few days. The family from California stopped by and gave us a bunch of food from their mini bar including drinks, nuts, chocolates and so on. They have unlimited mini bar so they were kind enough to share with us. They also gave us six extra water tickets that they had.

The next morning we got up for a lighter breakfast than usual but packed some food for later. We hung out at the pool and watched the games and dances for the morning until lunch time. After a filling buffet of burgers, fries, salads, pizzas, desserts and almost anything else you can imagine, we arrived at our second to last destination in Marseille, France. We walked to the public bus stand and caught the bus with several other cruise passengers into the city. Marseille is very beautiful but a lot of the buildings were under construction during our time there. We visited some very large and extravagant cathedrals and museams. Every time we turned a corner, there was a huge structure sitting there looking completely out of place. The streets were narrow and the six or seven level apartment buidings were completely flat looking with very thin balconies inching out the sides. The architecture had changed evidently from when we were in Spain. There were many little cafes in the streets as well as theaters, art shops and music places. We walked along the water and tried to go to the beach but we missed the bus so we stayed in the city. We met some very friendly people who became even more friendly when they realized we were from Canada. Apparently the people of France think very highly of Canadians which was a very nice fact to learn first hand. We stayed in the city for several hours, looking in shops, meeting people and taking in the sights. We took the bus back to the ship and layed by the pool burning in the sun and watching the activities for a few hours before the buffet dinner. After the buffet we did the usual by catching the big show of the night at eight pm and then having a couple of coffees before our plated dinner. Everyone had to say bye to the servers that they have had for the last eight days. A lot of times (including with us) it looked as if people were saying bye to an old friend.

After dinner, Tyson lead me back to the buffet where he had organized the chef to prepare us a special dessert and we had the whole place to ourself. It was very sweet and we talked there for a few hours before going to bed.

The next morning we had to check out of our room and pay our tab by seven am so we were up early to pack and clean out the room. We stopped by our friend's room. They had a lovely room with a balcony off the ship and we chatted with them for a while. They gave us some more drink tickets that they did not need and some snacks from their all inclusive mini bar. We exchanged information and said bye to them there. We went for a plated breakfast for the first time during our cruise. We usually eat at the buffet for breakfast but the plated meal was very nice with some fancier alternatives such as smoked salmon and different flavoured pancakes. We ate there and then head to the buffet to pack more food for the day. We said bye to many of the lovely people we had met and hung out with for the last week. It was sadder than we expected because even though we had not known them for very long, we had gotten close to them. We had some time to lay by the pool and play one last round of mini golf before we had to be off the ship in Genoa, Italy. The cruise was definitely a major highlight of the trip and we had a great time. It's a great way to see many places in a short time with amazing comfort and eaze.

In Genoa we walked to the center of the city with all our bags which keep getting heavier for some reason. We stopped along the water and wandered through the little shops and markets on the way. We met with our couchsurfing host in front of a large cathedral in the center of town. Him and his girlfriend live one apartment down from our meeting spot which is an amazingly great location. We stayed at their place for a few hours catching up on computor activities since we have not had internet access since embarking on the ship.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

Milano to Genoa to embark

Our host in milano is a DJ so he had to go into Milan to work overnight and we had the whole house to ourselves. Tyson cooked a delicious meal and we stayed up late working on the computors and eating a six pack of ice cream bars.

The next day Tyson and I dragged ourselves out of bed early, ate breakfast and were ready to go by the time our host came to the house to take us to the railway station. We were quite proud of this accomplishment and even made it a few minutes early for our train. We slept on and off for the ride and then as soon as we got off we both had to make emergency bathroom visits at the nearest McDonalds. After the pressure was relieved, we went straight to a museam that was themed around fashion but it was quite boring since the fashion was from hundreds of years ago and there was more art than clothing. We enjoy art but at this point we were getting a bit tired of it. Next we went to another museam that used to house a very famous poet and artist. We visited his original rooms including a library that was covered in over 3000 books from his personal collections.

After this museam we went to an aquarium that was quite interesting. Again, the information was all in Italian but we could make some of it out and their was a wide variety of fish and marine life to look at. Almost everything to do in the area closes between noon and one oclock so Tyson and I decided to have Farsi lessons. For the last four years, Tyson has been trying to learn Farsi on and off. Unfortunately every time we forget to practice for a while, we have to start from square two all over again. So we practiced conversations for a while in the lovely park in the sunshine. There were many people outside enjoying the day.

Of course we had to spend some more time walking around the duomo watching people and exploring the shops. You cannot stand still for half a minute in the area without being approached by people selling corn for the birds, bracelets for tips, taking photos for cash and so on. The sales staff do not let go easy either, they stand there and force their products on you. It can be annoying at times but then there are other times when it is interesting and fun. That day, two of the guys selling corn for the birds got into a heated argument and started throwing fists and kicks. This is a serious business and everyone has their own territories and boundaries.

We tried for part of the day to buy a camera but the one place that we found a reasonable one, the shop staff were not helpful at all. They would not even let us try out the camera, so they were expecting us to guess that we will like how it works. And if we do not like it? Tough luck because there are no returns. So we thought it would be a risk to buy something with no warranty that we have never tried or touched from a place where the people could not care less about customer service and will not exchange the product. Luckily the camera that our host had given us was working decently. The double A batteries were dying and did not last very long at all and we do not have a cord to upload them onto a computor but those are minor details at this point.

In the afternoon, we went to China Town to shop a bit and try to look for someone to unlock our host's phone that he asked us to fix for him. There was a lot of very nice clothes but almost all the shops only sold in wholesale and the ones that would sell individually, would not let me try on their clothes. Unfortunately I do not have the body type where everything will fit me so that rule did not work for me. We still spent some time walking around there, looking at the very few camera shops. We tried to find a cord for our camera but everyone told us it was too old and they do not carry anything that can help us.

We walked back to the grocery store by the metro station and bought dinner. We bought Italian panini bread, cream cheese, two large bags of potato chips, two cups of pudding with whipped cream, a bottle of pop, a box of peaches, and a lot of batteries. We walked to the meeting spot we had set up with our host to grab our bags off of him. This way we did not have to spend two hours taking the train back to his place, it worked out great because he was dj'ing in town again.

We caught the train to Genoa at around nine oclock. We ate cream cheese and chip sandwhiches, peaches and puddings while we watched a movie. Near the end of the movie I realized that we should not have had enough time to finish a whole movie before we got to our destination. So we unplugged our earphones and sure enough we were at our stop, very lucky. At the train station in Genoa we had, of course, not planned for a place to stay over night. We arrived after eleven at night and we slept at the train station. It was odd because we seemed to be the only two people there at that time of night but our options were quite thin of places to go and we had no internet access. We were confronted by the police and we thought that we were going to be asked to leave but they just told us to watch our things carefully.

The next morning we awoke to the sounds of the busy train station. The spot that we had found was kind of out of the way of the main traffic area so we were able to doze in and out of sleep for awhile because no one could really see us. We left to the cruise terminal to check in right away and make sure that we weren't late.

The ship we took is called the MSC Simphonia. It is one of the smaller ships that MSC has holding around twenty five hundred passengers. It is equipped with at least four pools, basketball and tennis courts, six bars, two restaurants, two buffets, and a theatre, these are only some of the places we used. This "small" ship was actually so big that we did not have enough time to explore the whole thing in eight days. We took advantage of the buffet lunch almost immediately following the mandatory safety drill. We loaded our plates with the delicious food, not all healthy, but hey calories do not count on vacation. Thankfully there is also a gym on board to work off some of the food. It felt so good to run after not working out for almost a year. Tyson hit the weights hard...he's so buff....

After burning some of the calories from lunch, we celebrated by hitting the dinner buffet before our evening a la carte meal. For every meal, we have options of several different buffets including ones that are entirely pizza, pastas, grilled foods, desserts and more. Or there are also fancy plated meals that we have to dress up for and have assigned seats. Usually we attened the buffet breakfast and lunches and then for dinner we ate both. On the first night, our eyes were much bigger than our stomachs and by the time our main course, during the plated dinner, came we had already loosened our belts a few notches. After we finished stuffing our faces for what seemed like the tenth time that day, we explored the ship and found a "Grease" party. The entertainment group on the ship is a great bunch of staff. We got to know them all quite well through our time there. They had different games, classes, events and shows going on all the time throughout the day and night.

The second morning of our cruise, I woke up ten minutes before the alarm in anticipation of the breakfast buffet. We ate hearty again because we were going to Rome for the whole day. The breakfast buffet is a big part of our day, they have waffel and pancake stations as well as any other possible breakfast food imaginable. We packed a small lunch in our bag and headed to the train. The cruise sells excursions on the boats that cost at least ten times as much as the tours you can find on the street, but we heard that it was very easy to catch the train into the city and see the sights on our own so we took the chance. We met a nice father and daughter from France who were also on our cruise who were doing the same thing as us and they helped us map out how we could see Rome in one day. We were worried that we were the only ones wandering out on our own, but there were hundreds of people doing the same thing. The cruise sold tours anywhere for 80-120 euros per person for the same thing that we did for 12 each.

The train dropped us about five minutes away from the Vatican City. This is the smallest country in the world and also the home of the Pope. For us, it is the 34th country we have visited this year. The cue to enter the Vatican and the Systine Chappel would take an entire day to wait in so we had to take photos from the outside. Of all the places in the world we have been, we have never seen so many tourists as we saw in Rome. The entire city is crawling with visitors but we still enjoyed our time. We saw all the famous sights that you see in movies and in pictures but there is nothing like seeing it in person. Unfortunately our camera ran out of battery but once again the kindness of strangers prevailed. A couple from the US saw that we were stuck and gave us baterries so we could finish taking our pictures.

Our final boarding time after our visit in Rome was at seven so we had to make our way back to the port earlier than that. The train from the port to the city of Rome took just over an hour so we had to be careful of the time. We realized that we had been over charged for our train tickets so we had to rush to the train staion in Rome and tell the company what had happened. The first person we spoke to was not being very helpful and actually told us "its not my problem it's yours" Tyson started to raise his voice at her and we had to ask for the manager who wasn't much help either. As we were almost late for the train we had to leave the office and hurry to our platform with no refund. On the way, a kid started to walk in front of us in the same direction as us. When we jumped on the train he asked us for money for showing us the way to the train. Tyson laughed and told him to move along. The child insisted we pay him but when he realized he was getting nowhere he eventually left.

We both ended up falling asleep on the train ride and woke up shortly before our stop. We had to rush back to the shuttle bus that would take us through the port back to the ship. After a quick shower we went down to the theatre for the evening show. It was a musical about Italian culture with dancers and a very talented opera singer. The show was very well put together and lasted an hour which gave us enough time to make a stop at the dinner buffet before our plated dinner. We realize that attending both dinners makes us fatter than the average people on the ship, but we are officially backpackers and this gves us the right to take advantage of such opportunities. We learned from the night before so we did not take nearly as much food from the buffet the second time and had planned to order less food from the dinner menu. Our server seemed insulted by our small order and insisted we try the appetizer and the second main dish. Our server at the plated dinner is a guy from Indonesia, we have the same server and the same people at our table every night. It is a nice idea because we have gotten to know him and the others quite well. The theme for the dinner was Italian and for dessert the servers paraded around the restaurant holding delicious cakes that turned out to be soaked in Rum. After trying the cake, we thought it tasted funny so we asked what it was cooked with and found out.

After dinner we went to one of the bars with two girls from Switzerland that we eat dinner with every night for the Mr. Italia competition. This is not exactly what we thought it would be. The competition started with about twenty old men and Tyson dancing around while the staff picked out three contestants. They had the three men make a pizza and then dance around in womens clothing. A far cry from my expectations of hunky Italian men. After the competition, we finished the night with dancing at the night club which is on the top floor with a gorgeous view of the ocean.


"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

fashion, art and gelato

The next morning our host had set out a nice breakfast with fresh Italian coffee, eggs, bread and biscuits. He had to be at work early but he was kind enough to return home when we were ready to leave for the day and drive us to the railway station. The train into Milano took us about an hour, it is very similar to the West Coast Express but much different than the trains in India or Africa. Everyone sat quietly, keeping to themselves without even the slightest eye contact. This is quite the difference with the pumping rap music and playing children in decked out busses speeding over pot holes, or jam packed cars with people stepping over one another.

When we arrived downtown we got a similar vibe as when we were in Buenos Airies due to the buildings and the energy of the people. The architecture is very beautiful with a lot of history and yet also a modern feel. Milan is absolutely packed with tourists eating gelatos, drinking coffee, photographing the exquisite structures and most of all shopping. There are areas full of high end designer fashion boutiques and stores, most of the famous brand names originated in Italy. The shopping attracts even the most fashionless of all people, me. There are also more reasonable shops like the world famous H and M and other copy cats so the city does not have to bankrupt you.

Unfortunately both of the cameras we brought from home are completely shot so we spent the better part of our day searching for a decent replacement. It is pretty ironic that after visiting all the cheapest countries on earth, our camera dies in Italy. We were very upset about the camera and having to miss all the beautiful shots but there are very few camera shops in the fashion capital of the world so we did not find anything suitable. We decided to hold off and research some options later that night.

As mentioned, and clearly obvious to most people, Milano is famous for shopping. Since we will be taking a cruise in the next few days we tried to find some more appropriate clothing items. This took up most of the rest of the day except for the time we spent people watching. In the center of town there is a very famous area called the Plaza Duomo. Inside of this plaza is the world famous Milano Cathedral. This magnificant work of art has extraordinary details that could only be done by hand. The buidling is gigantic and it towers over the city. It is truly the symbol of the city that everyone has to see during their time here. On the very top of the cathedral, there is a gold statue of one of the Popes (I believe). Unfortunately it is currently being renovated and there is scaffolding around some of the outside but it is still a sight to see. It looks as if it has been carved out of ice and while few people take the time to go inside, the outside is worth the time. We sat down in the plaza in front of the Cathedral and ate over priced chocolate gelato sundaes from the super fancy McDonalds. This was some of the best people watching in the world. We watched as the fashionistas of the world frolicked in their glory. They were dressed in all the obsurd fashions of the runways. Most of it made no sense and half of it looked awful but we enjoyed our time watching them in awe. The time it probably took each of them to select their outfit for the day could probably cure a few diseases. Most of the females look anorexic and the size zeros disappear fast out of the sale racks. The men resemble ladies and they also could afford a couple big macs from the designer McDonalds.

Another shopping area that our host had reccomended for some of the less expensive shopping was near the railway station but by the time we got there, they were closed. We decided to go back to the house but we missed our train by one minute and had to wait another thirty minutes for the next one. During the one hour train ride we tried (uselessly) to budget for the rest of our time here. Once we made it back, we were picked up, once again, by our awesome host. His two young boys were at home playing and fighting when we arrived. They are super busy but a lot of fun. He made them go to bed while Tyson cooked us our wonderful meal of Mr. Noodles and it was great. Our host sat with us, and we ate and talked for a couple of hours. We enjoyed some home made Italian chocolate pudding for dessert that he had prepared for us. We mentioned that we needed to buy a new camera and he mentioned that he had found an older one in a bathroom that no one had claimed. He offered it to us to have and while it is not the greatest, it will serve our purposes just fine.

We had a bit of a mix up with our travel medical insurance claim for when Tyson was hospitalized for dengue fever in Malaysia so we spent some time trying to settle the issues and then slept for the night.

The next morning we slept in and by the time we ate breakfast and our host came home from work to bring us to the train station, we had missed the train by two minutes. So we waited thirty precious minutes for the next one to show up. In town, we hurried towards a Leonardo Davincci museam that we had wanted to see but once we got near, we were advised not to go there half way through the day because a full day is needed to see the whole thing. So we retraced a few of our steps from the day before to capture it all on our camera. We went to a castle near the Duomo that was built in the 1300's and we walked through it to a beautiful park that is full of monuments and historical statues. There are lovely gardens and lakes inside the park and there are many people enjoying the calm green area. It is very relaxing to take some time away from the hustle of the busy city.

We went to four museams throughout the day and they were all free. The first museam we went to was an art museam. The architecture of the building in itself was so impressive that even if it was empty I would not have complained. Each of the dozens of rooms were painted and decorated differently. They each had themes with elaborate carvings in the walls and paintings on the roofs. The detail was amazing to say the least. Each art piece in the museam was priceless, the authors were people such as the likes of Picasso. We could have spent a week inside the one museam if we had the time. Even for us who are not passionate about art, the pieces were outstanding and we were very lucky to get to see them. The second museam we went to was one about modern art. It was also a very large and impressive museam that we spent over an hour in. Our limited time was a bit of a problem but we managed ok. The third museam was one of natural history and it was very large. It was set up like a zoo but all the animals were stuffed. Every type of animal imaginable was accounted for. They were set up in their natural habitats, sometimes eating, sometimes relaxing and sometimes going about their personal business. The tiniest tick to the largest whales and dinasaurs were represented. Even though all the information was in Italian, we benefitted a great deal from the displays. It was one of the best museams we have ever seen. We got kicked out before we even finished viewing everything so we planned to go back the next day. The last museam was one of contemporary art. It was also a lot of fun and very enjoyable. It was a great size and each floor was themed with historical art pieces, media pieces, modern pieces and more. Of course there were the pieces that we did not understand, but for the most part we managed to gather enough to enjoy the work.

We were a bit tired after all of the museams so we stopped at a grocery store and bought a real Italian dinner with pasta, tomato sauce, sausages and a six pack of gelato ice cream bars. We ate two of them on the train back to our host's place an hour ride away. He picked us up from the station and we went back to the house to eat and relax.

"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

The start of Italian food

　

In the morning we woke up early to say bye to my cousins who were heading to school around 6am. Of course we fell back asleep and managed to finally get up again around 8:30am. We quickly packed up the last of our belongings and ate a big breakfast. We called to get our bus tickets from Zurich to Milano resent to us because we had not printed out the eticket and they had not emailed me a copy. After two phone calls, several explanations and my poor Aunt explaining my email address for the hundreth time, we printed off a new copy.

We said good bye to my uncle and my Aunt drove us to catch an intercity train from Bern to Zurich. This train is similar to the West Coast Express from Pitt Meadows to Vancouver. Many people take this train daily for their commute to work. We were expecting the tickets to similarly cost around $6. Well we were in for a shock when two one way tickets for the 50 minute trip equalled nearly $135.00 CAD. While we had prepared mentally for the expenses of Europe and I had spent the entire night the night before buying overpriced tickets around the continent, this was still a blow to the guts. We really had no choice but to bite the bullet but it hit us just as hard as when our wallet was stolen in Malaysia. European extravagance may have been accepted in the form of $20 each for an intercity 50 minute commute but the equivalent to a full shift's wage or the cost of two weeks expenses in another country was nauseating. In fact it was so ridiculous that we figured we had bought return tickets for several people by mistake. We even stood in line to ask the staff to correct our fare but we were told by the two people we spoke with, that this is the cost for a one way ticket on this route.

So we rode the train and disliked every moment of it, it was not even as nice as the West Coast Express or the Skytrain lines that cost less than one twentieth of the price. The train was quiet and people did not even look at one another. When we got off the train in Zurich we had to run to the Cruise Center to pay for our trip and collect our tickets. We did not take the tram as suggested but rather walked the fifteen minutes to the office. We were short Swiss currency to pay for the trip but we offered to make up the difference in Euros. The instinctive, kind, distracted man who was helping us, refused, telling us to forget the 30 Francs that we were short. We were shocked because as I understood the price, this would mean that he did make any money off of us. I am not sure but either way, he was very kind and it helped settle the steam a bit from the rip off at the train station.

After collecting our tickets and listening to his advice about what to do and not to do on the ship, we ran back to where we thought the bus station was. We thought we were running late but the bus was actually delayed by about an hour and we were stuck waiting for some time. We shopped for some snacks because we would be stuck on the bus for about three hours with no food. We got oranges and apples, a big cake, chocolate, a muffin, a bagel with butter, and ten packages of Mr. Noodles for some upcoming dinners in Italy. We paid with everything we could scrounge up and got on the bus.

On the bus a big black man boarded and tried to open the window on the bus, the older white attendant shouted something at him in German. The man did not like this one bit and they started to go at it. It was just elevated voices at first but then it became aggressive shouting. The subject went from the window to rascism to black people and finally to the blood of Hitler. It was toxic conversation and I naively felt like I was on a movie set. I had never heard people shout about these topics before. I had never seen a very simple misunderstanding turn into an argument about race and historical dictators. It was unbelievably immature and embarrassing.

We stopped for a fifteen minute break on the way to Milan but Tyson and I were watching a movie so we decided to stay on the bus. The same attendant who was involved in the argument earlier insisted in German that we get off the bus but he would not tell us why. At least this is what we understood even though he was speaking German. The language barrier here is actually far more interrupting than I had anticipated. Anyway I found him rude but I decided to let it go considering the earlier events. We got off the bus for a short time and before long we were back on our way.

The drive through Switzerland was seriously breathtakingly beautiful. The mountains, waterfalls, greenery, architecture, flowers and trees work magic together that cannot be duplicated. There is no where in the world like this. We were watching a move but most of the time we were really just staring out the window with our mouths hanging open. We could not catch any photos of the beauty because of problems with both the cameras we brought but you should take my word for it. The blue bodies of water that appeared every once in a while added a dreamy, softer feel to the steep green mountains topped with bits of white snow. I can even admit that it is worth the expenses to live here.

We got to Milano much later than the anticipated time and we rushed to get to the central station where we had to pay for several long distance train tickets that we had booked online. We could not figure out the metro tickets that we needed so a nice homeless man advised us. He spoke English very well and knew all the routes, I suppose that he lives at the train station and assists people for tips to make his living. There were several people who had beds set up along the outside of the station, which is a drastic change to the cleanliness of Switzerland. Italy, of course, does not have the obvious beautiful scenery of Switzerland but I cannot judge too much on day one. We took a metro to the central station where we hurried off to pay for our reservations. Our metro tickets were valid for 90 minutes so we had to rush a bit. After we had the tickets confirmed, we hopped back onto the metro and went to another station where we could catch a train to where our couchsurfing host was supposed to meet us. We were supposed to meet him at 8:30pm but the train was delayed and we did not arrive until 9pm. The train trip was one hour long and by that time we reached the meeting spot, he had left. We used the pay phone to call him but it cut out in mid conversation so a guy offered to let us use the internet on his movile to contact our host. This did not work either so Tyson spoke with some of the train staff to see if he could find a phone.

The train staff kindly helped us contact our host and he arrived thrity minutes later to pick us up from the station. During this time, we met a young Romanian guy who we chatted with about life in different parts of the world. In fact he was quite an interesting guy and we wished that we had exchanged contact information with him. Our host is already one of our favorites after only one night. We arrived to his large house that he shares with two cats and two children part time. They were not there the first night but the cats kept us quite entertained. Our host cooked us Itlalian food for dinner, we had cheesy rice with fried hamburgers. After dinner we chatted for a while but we were both very tired so it did not last too long. We made plans to call him for a ride to the train station in the morning. He offered to come home from work to drive us because he goes to work quite early. He also told us to help ourselves to breakifast and invited us to dinner with his children for the next night. We passed out in bed not too long afterwards.

　

　


"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

Bern and Interlaken

This weekend in Switzerland was wonderful because my cousins were off from school and we got to spend some quality time together. They are two of the most wonderful people ever. I admire their manners, in addition to their caring, genuine, generous and loving personalites. On Saturday, we all ate a big breakfast together and it consisted of fresh breads, lots of nutella and coffee, other spreads, yogurt, fruit and so on. A few hours later we all put on our shorts and went out to play volleyball. Bern is a beautiful place full of possibilities. They have more green space than one would know what to do with, large outdoor pools in the middle of the park that are well maintained and have free admission, ping pong tables, foozeball tables and of course, beach vollyball nets. It is not on the beach but there is sand and it feels the same. We layed on towels in the sun, played soccor and volleyball for some time before everyone decided it was time to swim in the Aureh (glacier water). Well everyone except for me, of course. I have a problem with the cold and I was not about to expose myself to such torture but I was happy to watch and take photos. So we walked barefoot to a bridge that people jump off of. The water was flowing extremely fast so they could just float down river. When we got to the bridge, within seconds, Valentina had already counted to three and jumped without hesitation. In seeing that his sister was quickly floating away, Nick jumped in secons behind her. Possibly feeling a bit left out, Tyson was not far behind them and by the time I ran back to the area where they got out, they had already dried off and were waiting for me, this is how fast the water flows. Tyson said the cold water was like a strong shock to the system but soon afterwards, you go numb and it's ok. We stopped for lunch at a popular kiosk type place and ate chicken nuggets and pommes frites. We laughed and chatted all day long and it was time well spent.

Tyson drove my Aunt's vehicle home and we all shared a big dinner with rice and chicken. We ate outdoors overlooking the newly planted gardens. All day, my Aunt and Uncle, with help from several workers, had been rearranging the garden and planting several dozen new flowers and plants. It looked lovely with roses, lavender and newly trimmed bushes. After dinner we all enjoyed coffee together. Valentina went out to a party with her friends while Tyson, Nick and I tried to watch the movie Hunger Games for the second time. The first time, the night before, I fell asleep within minutes and the other two were half and hour behind me. So this time we stocked up on enough Swiss chocolate to never have to share and tried to watch the underwhelmning film before passing out. I did not make it, but the other two claim to have watched the end.

In the morning when we woke up, my Aunt was in the hot pool so we got up and joined her. We all ate a big Sunday breakfast together with my uncle while in the pool. The pool overlooks amazing scenery. The green mountains are spotted with adorable Swiss style cottages and complimented by the sharp angles of the snow capped alps in the distance. It is really breathtaking to sit in the hot tub, breathing in the crisp fresh air and gazing at the picturesque sight ahead. We enjoyed this for the better part of a couple hours and then spent some time buying tickets and planning the rest of our trip.

My Aunt had to attend a gathering with her friends so my uncle took my cousins, Tyson and I to Interlaken, another one of Switzerland's jewels. It is the town by the famous Swiss Alps, where the scenery is unreal and the area is kept very clean and well groomed. We walked around a bit and enjoyed the gardens and the greenery. We watched the paragliders landing in the open fields and enjoyed our time together. We ate lunch at a fancy cafe style restaurant where a live musician was performing old sing along songs. Amazingly, dogs are allowed everywhere in Switzerland. They come onto public transit (with the purchase of an adult ticket), into stores and even into restaurants. So we brought William with us into the lovely restaurant that we enjoyed lunch in. In fact this is also the place that Shoghi Effendi (the Guardian of the Bahai Faith) used to spend time in when he was in Interlaken, which was quite often apparently. We ate appetisers of endless fresh breads with butter and then our main meals came. Tyson and I ordered typical Swiss meals, although I cannot remember the names exactly. Mine was a huge portion of grated fried potatoes, topped with slices of tomatoes and smothered in melted cheese. Tyson had two large chicken shnitzels (seasoned perfectly) with pommes frites. We ate more than we should have.

After lunch we went to a place where they have a installed a large clear lift through the inside of the mountain. We walked to the base of the mountain where we all stood inside of this large elevator type lift that carried us up through the center of the mountain to the middle where we got out. It was amazing that this was even possible to construct. We hiked up many stairs and saw the beautiful natural glacier waterfalls through the mountains. The water shot through the holes of stone increasing the size of it over time. 20,000 litres per second shoot down through the mountain to the body of water that Tyson and my cousins had swam in the day before. Of course by the time it gets to that area it has warmed up a bit. We took some photos and watched the miracle of nature and human construction with awe. We hiked back down the mountain and head back home.

Of course the Eurocup soccor matches are always the topic of conversation these days and the games were on throughout the evening. We ate another delicious dinner and then Tyson and I did some more planning before he and Nick went to the indoor tennis courts to work off their meals for the day. While they were gone, I worked some more and spent time with the rest of the family during our last evening. That night I was up until the middle of the night but we got a lot of planning done. We leave for Milan tomorrow and while we will miss the family here very much, we are also excited to see some more of this famous and wondrous continent.

"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

Swiss chocolate

On our third day in Switzerland, we took it easy. We slept in, researched Europe transportation and spent time with family. We ate a lovely dinner and went in the warm water pool for several hours into the night. We spoke about life, goals and aspirations. It was great quality time and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The pool is outdoor on the patio overlooking acres of greenery before a lovely shot of the alps. It is absolutely the scene that postcards aspire to.

The next morning we had a big breakfast with my uncle, we chatted and took our time leaving the house. We stopped by a rental property that he owns to check out a couple of things. A very famous soccor player lives there and they own a Newfoundlander dog who is gigantic. His paw is the size of my head. We only saw photos of him because they were on vacation but his bed was bigger than my king size one at home. We went to my Catherine joon's dental hygiene clinic near downtown. In Switzerland, hygienists can open their own clinic and provide dental services. They refer patients to dentists when there is a problem. So she has opened her own practice and is doing very well. It is a beautiful office, decorated in very calming colors and elegant decor pieces. We shared a couple coffees and sat in the garden. They also have a Persian tenant living near the office who came out to sit with us and anyone who knows the Persian culture will not be surprised that she just happened to have a huge tray of fruit laying around so she served us. Then it was not long before she had a full lunch prepared for us with dolma (rice wrapped in leaves), salad, bread rolls and drinks. We ate happily and my cousin joined us for a while on his lunch break from school. In the afternoon we got dropped off in downtown to check in with a travel agent about planning the rest of our time in Europe. We found a cruise that we lliked but we were not sure about the cost and so on. So I told my uncle about it who generously gifted us with the whole thing. I will not pretend we are not spoiled because we definitely are. It is an eight day mediterranean cruise to all the hot spots for beaching. We had already booked a bus to Milan and we will have to find another one to get to Genoa but then we go to Civitavecchia in Rome, Salerno in Amalfi Coast, Tunisia in Africa, Ibiza in Spain, Palma in Sain, Marseille in France and back to Italy. We are very excited!

We wanted to book it with the agent but her fee was very expensive (nearly $100) so she said we can book it online to save that. We thought that would be good but their website is only available in Dutch and French, so after an hour of pasteing everything onto google translate only to be even more confused afterwards, we gave up. By that point the agency was closed so we had to plan to go back the next day. We stopped by my uncle's Persian carpet shop in downtown and visited with the manager there who fed us coffee, cheese and bread. We used his computor and then got picked up by my uncle later on. We went for the most amazingly gluttonous dinner I may have ever participated in. It was the highest quality all you can eat buffet dinner. It was in a beautifully decorated reataurant in a hotel. There was huge prawns, steaks, seafood, sushi, Thai food, noodles, Chinese food, soups, salad bar and so on. The big hit of the night however, was the dessert. Home made ice creams, chocolate fondue, mouses, puddings, tiramasu and so on. By the time I finished my coffee and last bite of mint chocolate ice cream I felt like I had eaten for ten. Unfortunately I was wearing my jeans instead of the stretchy pants I normally would have worn to a buffet so I had to hold my sweater in front of my mid section to avoid embarrasment. My point being, I ate too much. Back at the house, the boys went into the hot water pool while I went to bed.

I ate so much that I could not sleep. I went to bed, but my stomach was too full. I got up at 4am and did a load of laundry, posted some photos onto facebook, cleaned the room a bit until Tyson yelled at me to go back to bed. In the morning, I wish I could tell you that I did not eat breakfast..but I did. I ate fresh bread, nutella, strawberry jam, specialty coffee, banana, nectarines and salmon. After that sin, Tyson and I hitched a ride with my Aunt into town. We stopped by the travel agent to book our cruise. The agent did all the work and told us that because it was such short notice that he would call us back with a confirmation before we needed to pay. He had to wait for a confirmation from the cruise line to ensure that we got the tickets. That was supposed to take an hour but the call never came. We called back several times but he said he had not heard back yet. So we had to wait nervously until the next day to find out if we had a cabin or not.

We came back home and ate another delicious meal of lamb chops, baked potatos with garlic cream sauce, corn on the cob and salad. Then of course we did not stop until our nightly ritual of Swiss chocolate devouring was completed. We watched Euro soccor and played table tennis for a while before eating chips, more chocolate and fruit in the hot water tub. My cousin and Aunt went to Ballet for a couple hours of training while the boys went to run some errands so I hung out at home with William (the dog) until everyone came back. Good times.

"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

Our last continent

As a Bahai, I believe that there is one universal God and that He has sent down teachings via the different prophets. That all of the prophets existed and brought essentially the same spiritual teachings as one another but it is the social teachings that have changed in keeping with the times and the progress of humanity. About every thousand years there is a new prophet with teachings that apply to people for that time. So for this time we believe that Bahaullah is the messenger for this age. He brings us new teachings such as the equality of men and woman, the oneness of religion, universal peace, the need to science and religion to agree. He says that if religion be the cause of war, then it is better not to have it at all. Bahaullah is the first prophet to leave a clear lineage of leaders within the faith. This is to prevent the split of one religion as has happened every time in history. We do not have clergies or mullahs, no one judging you but God. All the laws are a personal relationship or covenant with God. When I see the disunity and hatred in the old city it just reconfirms that the teachings of Bahaullah are right for this time. Questions? Ask me or go to www.bahai.org.

When Tyson and I were reunited after being seperated in the old city, I told him all the stories I could remember from the tour while we made our way back to Tel Aviv. The drive took about an hour. We stopped on the way for petrol which costs a whopping $2.20 USD a liter!!! That, the price of parking, plus the cost of insurance..not the best place to rent a car, I suppose. We found parking and laid by one of the most beautiful beaches with silky white sand and turquoise blue water. The cool water was refreshing for a swim and we watched a kids surfing lesson. We collected some beautiful rocks and shells along the sand and strolled along the seawall. Israel really has the best of both worlds with it's beautiful tropical beaches, amazing history, religiously important sites, hiking, scenery, modern technology and even a few minutes of snow per year.

We went shopping for some groceries in the city and spent most of the last of our shequals. We bought two 1.5 liter bottles of pop, two large cakes, pita bread, lunch meat, humus and jam. We then had to top up the gas at the airport station to make sure that the rental company would not charge us for filling it and then we returned the car. We spent the very last of our shequels on Mcflurries at an Israeli fast food place and the tip for the shuttle driver who took us to the airport. We arrived to the airport around 9:30 pm for our 4:50am flight. We sat on the internet, I slept some and before we knew it, it was 3:50 am and we had not checked in. Israel's security department, being one of the tightest security airports in the world, was not impressed. Of course they pulled us over for extra screening where they ripped all our stuff apart and even took apart our laptop. The supervisor told us we would be missing our flight for sure because they cannot do the security checks in ten minutes when our flight was leaving. After several nerve wracking minutes, she let us go through and we barely made our flight. I slept through the whole thing waking up for food only. We stopped over in Berlin where we saw Ozzy Ozborne and then finally made it to Zurich.

We got off the plane and waited for our baggage and then walked through the exit. There was no passport check or customs at all and as we walked I noticed my last name on a piece of paper. Since I was expecting family to pick us up, I was shocked. We gave him the benefit of the doubt though and went into his car with him. From Zurich to my uncle's place in Bern it took over an hour and we reached a new building that he had purchased and was repairing. We greeted each other and head to the family home atop a beautiful hill. We had lunch together of Persian food, cleaned up a bit and head back out for the afternoon.

Some interesting facts that I learned about the country is that, in a side street, the driver on the right side has the right of way. They have mandatory army service for boys, two years worth of time spaced out over several years but one can pay their way out of it. They only have basic education until grade nine and after that, only ten percent of children who attain the highest grades move on to high school and ten percent of those students move on to post secondary school. For most people, education after ninth grade is unattainable. The majority of the students enter the work field at this time and learn on the job. They are paid a small amount the first year, a bit more the second year and then a full wage by the third year at which time, they should know the work well. Also Switzerland is by far (about double) the most expensive country in the Europe. The minimum wage however allows one to take home nearly $5500 CAD per month which is well above other minimum wages.

In the afternoon my Uncle, Tyson and I walked along the beautiful lake that Bern is so famous for. We stopped by a coffee shop where we tried local delicassies and drinks. We met with my Aunt and we all went home. We met with my cousins one fifteen year old boy and one nineteen year old girl. That night my cousin, my aunt and I went to a ballet lesson. My cousin has been dancing since the age of four and my aunt has been practicing for ten years and it was my very first class so as you can imagine it was abit of a disaster. I completed (barely) one of the two hours of excersizes and the rest of the time I watched the performers in awe. The instructor's son is a very famous dancer from Broadway. We had a lot of fun and came home to eat tender barbequed lamb chops with rice. The boys went into the outdoor hot tub (heated with the energy in the air) and the girls all passed out.

The next morning we slept in by accident and went downtown with my aunt after a big breakfast. She activated a new phone for us and bought some minutes so we would not be stranded. We walked around downtown Bern which is very typical of what one may expect in the area. There is an older and newer part of the city and it is very beautiful. We saw the Parliament building and a very large beautiful chruch. The three of us went for a lovely lunch together where Tyson had tortellini and I had a parmesan salad. After lunch my aunt went to meet with her friend and Tyson and I shopped a bit, wandered the area and stopped by some travel agencies. We still have no idea where we are going, when or how to get there, but we did not get help today.

We met with my cousin and took the train into the Bahai Center. We met the Swiss Bahai community, wow. We participated in the feast and consultation and then socialized over snacks. After getting back to the house, we ate chicken wings and french bread for dinner. We had stopped at a petrol station on the way home and picked up tons of Swiss chocolate, so we ate more than anyone should in a year or so. Tyson and I stayed up with my uncle for a while chatting and learning from each other. Tyson went to bed and I stayed up doing some computor work.


"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"

The old city and the lowest sea

　

The flight to Israel was about two hours and we landed at around eleven in the morning. It was a holiday in Israel so none of the public transportation was running. After speaking with the very helpful guy at the information counter, we decided to wait until later that night to take a shuttle to Haifa because the taxis were very expensive and they were the only transport available right away. He seemed to know everthing about Israel and even gave us maps to cover every corner of the country. Out of curiosity, we looked into renting a car with our visa points. We found a decent deal and booked a car for the week. A shuttle from the company picked us up at the airport mintutes later and took us to their office ten minutes away. On our way to the rental car office we inquired about the cost of fuel and were blown away to find out the cost of fuel is over two dollars per liter. Then at the rental office, they told us that the price we had paid with points did not even cover the mandatory liability insurance. Our credit card already has coverage for rental cars but they forced us to buy basic insurance through them. We reluctantly agreed to pay the difference and rushed to Haifa. I hav not been to Haifa in years and a lot has changed since last time I was here. Tyson had to high of expectations for my navigational skills so we found ourselves a little lost trying to get to the Shrine of the Bab. As we approached Mount Carmel we could see the outline of the terraces and we became very excited. As we turned onto Ben Gurion and saw the Shrine of the Bab, it was a very emotional moment. Even though I have seen this sight many times before it is still like seeing it for the first time everytime. As we made our way up to the Pilgram Reception Centre (PRC) we realized that it was already closed for the night and having no phone we had no way of reaching our new couchsurfing host. Luckily there were two very helpful Bahai's walking down the road and they were able to help us get the general direction. After about thirty minutes of driving around and asking for the Technion (trade school in Haifa), we found it. We settled in, showered, blew up the air mattress and went to sleep.

The next morning we woke up early to make sure we could get to the PRC to register for our three day pilgrimage. Because we had only a short period of time we wanted to make sure that we were not having to rush but still got to visit everywhere we were allowed to go. As three day visitors, we have some restrictions with the sites we can visit. The first day we visited the peaceful Monument Gardens. This is the final resting place for the immediate family of Baha'ullah. His Daughter, Son and Wife as well as the wife of his son, Abdul'baha are buried here. After spending some time in the gardens praying, we headed up the paths to the Arc. This is the administrative center for the Bahai Faith. It consists of the Universal House Of Justice, The International Teaching Center, The Center For The Study Of The Text, and the Archives Building. After resting a while back at the reception center, we walked down the street to the resting place of Ruhhyah Khanum who is the wife of Shoghi Effendi. She has a private gated garden that is lined with beautiful flowers and shrubs that seem to frame the marble tombstone.

For lunch we found a shwarma shop that had great food. After lunch we stopped at a grocery store and stocked up on pita bread, lunch meats, fruits and vegetables and headed back to the PRC. We met many people, lots of which were from Canada, but also from around the world. The atmosphere is undescribeable, all the people seemed to be glowing and one can really feel the joy that they have to be on their Pilgrimage. Anytime that you go to the PRC you will always find somebody there, it really feels like a big family and it is the home base for all the Bahai visitors and pilgrims.

That evening was the Ascention of Baha'u'llah in Bahji, Akko. This is where the Shrine of Baha'u'llah is and His final resting place. The event started at three am but we made our way out there at about six pm. Beside the shrine, there is also the Mansion where Baha'u'llah passed away. We had a time slot at nine pm to visit the Mansion, which was very nice. We said some prayers in the room of Bahaullah and then visited the shrine for some time. We went back to the Bahji PRC and had some sandwiches and coffee before closing our eyes in the library for a while before the event started. As everyone made their way out toward the shrine it was a very peaceful atmosphere. The 2000 chairs were set up facing the Shrine which was lit up beautifully for the event. Tablets and prayers were read over the speakers followed by a circumambulation of the grounds. It was a special time and we were lucky to participate in this event. We drove back to Haifa with a few new friends we met.

We returned to our couchsurfers home at around six am and managed to sleep until around eleven am. Where we were staying was nearly twenty minutes from the PRC so after two nights there, we moved to a different couchsurfers place which was right around the corner. We spent the remainder of the day walking up all nineteen of the beautifully groomed terraces and spending time in the Shrine of the Bab and the Shrine of Abdul'baha. Each terrace is different from the last and everything is done in perfect symetrey and with different types of flowers and colours. They are absolutely stunning. As we made it to the top terrace, we ran out of time and had to run back down because we had to make it to a talk at the International Teaching Center. On our way back to the PRC we ran into an old friend of mine and her husband. They live in the Northwest Territories and were on their Pilgrimage. They invited us to meet them after the talk for dessert at a local cafe with some other friends. We grabbed a quick bite to eat from our groceries, and ran up the hill to the talk. The talk was about the progress of the world and service to mankind. It was very nicely done by one of the members of the teaching center.

We joined our friends at the coffee shop, and had a great night with them. We told a few stories about our trip and people seemed amazed at some of the things we have done. A girl we met there invited us over for dinner the following night and we accepted. We were running very late getting to our hosts house that night but he is a very easy going guy so it was no problem.

The next morning we woke up extra early to go to the shrines for dawn prayers which go from six am to eight am. The prayers are individual so when it was eight, I did not realize it and stayed until eight thirty. They would never say anything but rather, they just give subtle hints which I did not pick up. We went back to the PRC for breakfast before we drove to the Old City in Akka. There are many holy sites throughout the city such as the prison that Bahaullah and his family were imprisoned in and the homes they lived in. We could see these places from the ouside since we were not on an organized tour. Akka is one of the oldest cities in the world and has been kept in almost its original state with very little restoration. We purchased some fruit from one of the vendors and also a very expensive glass of cold lemonade. After spending nearly half the day walking around the area, we went to pray at the Shrine of Bahaullah. At the PRC in Bahji, we met some new friends from Austrailia and drove them back to Haifa with us in time for the pilgrim farewell. This is at the end of every nine day pilgrimage, the pilgrims go to the Shrine of the Bab to pray and follow institution members in circumambulating the shrine as a group. Everyone says their goodbyes after spending nine wonderful and valuable days together. The connection that is made with the people within groups is very special.

We went to our new friend, Mona's, house for a delicious dinner of rice with chicken tadik, lasagnea, salad and the best red velvet cupcakes ever topped with a (cream cheese) frosting nine pointed star. The stories that we told the night before about our trip actually gave one of the ladies nightmares. We had to share a few more stories just to reassure her that we are fine. We stayed out quite late once again but luckily our host lived just around the corner from where we were. When we went back to his apartment he was still awake, so we talked with him about our travels heard about his.

On our last day, we made the trip back out to Akka to the Shrine of Bahaullah for prayers, and also to the Shrine of the Bab in Haifa. Even though we had all day to do this, we were still found ourselves rushing to get it done. We stopped in the markets in Akka for a while and also ran into some friends throughout the day. We said our final prayers and goodbyes and I ran into a friend that I had been in Haifa with ten year prior. She is a very good friend and I was very lucky to have seen her before we left at the last minute.

We drove the nearly three hours (should be two if you know the way) to Jerusalem that night and arrived around 10:30pm. Our couchsurfing host from Haifa had contacted his brother and arranged for us to stay with him and his girlfriend for a couple of nights while visiting the ancient city. They welcome us with a healthy meal and a hot shower. We slept very well on the futon and woke up early the next day to explore the city in Jerusalem.

We spent a half day walking through the markets and old buildings. I found a skirt that I was interested in and the man selling it asked a very high price so we told him that we did not want the item. He then followed us saying tell me your price". Tyson said we would pay him twenty sheckels. Well he did not like this at all and he told us to go buy a falafel for twenty scheckles. Tyson laughed and joked about the comment and the guy kept a straight face and told Tyson to get out of his store. Realizing that he was serious, I turned to him and said that he had followed us around the store repeatedly asking us what price we would like to pay. So we replied with an honest answer and he must not be rude to us. He got upset and it escalated from there to the point where I nearly fist fought him and another old man who stood up for his friend. They were swearing, I was shaking and Tyson stopped me mid punch, to which the old man told me to go for it. Then he tried insulting me by making fun of Indians. I started to tell him that I was not even Indian but then I stopped myself since there is nothing wrong with being Indian. I told him in colorful language, that it was none of business where I was from and that he just lost a lot of customers by acting this way. He swore again and I stormed off. Tyson went back to him and told him he was being rude and that he should appologize, this of course went no where but a very nice younger guy from a few stalls down in the market saw me upset and was shocked. He insisted I go into his shop, sit down and drink a cup of water. He asked what was the matter and when I told him he said not to worry myself about these stupid people. He tried very hard to comfort me. When Tyson caught up, we left the area.

The old city of Jerusalem is surrounded by a huge old wall and everything inside of that wall is thousands of years old. It is one of the oldest areas on the planet. It is packed full of unbelievable sites because this tiny area of land is very precious to millions of people around the world. It is the holiest place on earth for almost all denominations of Chritianity, it is the third holiest spot for Muslims and again the holiest spot for the Jews as well as other religions. Everyone believes that they have a God-given right to the land, or they just use religion as a means to gain power. There are four very distinct quarters in the old city. There is the Armenian quarter which only consists of 350 of the 33,500 people living inside the walls. Ten years ago there were still thousands of them but they are quickly dying off. They are a protected peoples in the old city and thus, even though they have such a small population, they still maintain a quarter of the land and will likely do so forever. They have had protection since the Roman days when the Jews were kicked out of the holy land but the Christian Armenians were permitted to stay. There is also the muslim quarter which is populated by 22,000 of the 33,500 people so it is by far the largest group of people in the city. There land is also the biggest part out of the four groups. Then there is the Jewish and Christian quarters which are both significant parts of the city. When one walks accross the border of one quarter to another it is a very astonishingly unique experience. It is like travelling accross the world, absolutely everything changes. The people, the clothes, the markets, the languages, the smells, the sounds and more. Even the energy instantly changes and one will know right away that they have crossed a border.

When we were exploring on the first day we noticed this but did not pay much attention. We walked through a couple huge churches and older buildings but we did not really know what we were looking at. That fact along with our negative experience with one of the merchants put a damper on the whole city and we were dissapointed with our visit. We left the area after only a few hours wondering why people say that Jerusalem is not to be missed in Israel.

We drove just under two hours (it should have been under one hour but we got a bit lost) to Ein Gedi which is the Southernmost part of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth and is extremely saturated with salt. It is so dense that one cannot sink, even if you tried. It is an undescribable feeling when you go in. This was my fifth time at the sea and I still felt shocked by its effects. We stopped by the spa first which has the mineral baths, private beach area and mud for skin masks. This is the spa I have gone to every time I have visited, but the prices have gone up a lot and especially on Saturdays the cost shoots even higher. There were discounted tickets available at 4pm so we decided to go to the public beach until then. We went into the clear turquise-blue sea and floated on top. This is where some people say that Jesus walked on water, but then again this is where everyone walks on water because you cannot sink so can actually walk on top of the water. As we were floating and avoiding water getting into our eyes, we saw several young people covered from head to toe in mud. We inquired with them and they said that there was natural mud and that we needed to ask the life guard to give us some. The dead sea water and the mud around it are said to have amazing healing powers and people travel from around the world to take advantage of it. So we climbed to the life guard station and he denied us the precious mud. He said something we did not understand so we walked further along the beach and went back into the water. It was there that Tyson spotted tons of natural mud and we covered our bodies in it from head to toe. It feels like a very wrong experience to roll around in mud when we regularly avoid it at all costs. It was lot of fun and there were many other tourists joining us. When we finished and we relaxed and let the mud dry. Just as we were taking photos of ourselves covered in mud, a local couple came by and they were reaching way beneath the rocks searching for something. After a few minutes, they pulled out handfuls of dark blue smooth mud. Now this was the real stuff that gets packaged and sold for tons of profit. What we had on, while still very beneficial for the skin, was dirt compared to the stuff they had. It was a bit emabarrasing but we quickly covered our faces in the smooth, soft, silky mud from under the rocks and the difference to what we had on our bodies was obvious. We probably should have washed off and re applied the new stuff everywhere but we were too lazy and tired from the heat so we passed. After washing the mud off in the sea, our skin was softer than it has been in dozens of years.

The day was extremely hot at 41 degrees celcius and the cool water had felt nice. When we exited the water our skin felt slimy yet also very slightly gritty with salt. And when the water dried, we were left with white salt all over. Luckily they have fresh water showers all around the beach, where we could rinse off before leaving. At one point we were trying to push our legs under water but the density of the water kept pushing our appendages back up. One time, water splashed us in the eye and this is a very painful experience. We had to shut our eyes tight but it was still burning fiercly. We managed to get some fresh water and splash our hands before cleaning our eyes but it was still a terrible experience. Since I had been here several times before, I had warned Tyson not to shave his legs in the last three or four days before coming to the sea and I did not do so either. Any open cuts or scrapes, or even just a fresh shave makes it impossible to swim in the water due to the burning it would cause. Swallowing the water is also very dangerous as the amount of salt in it could be fatal.

We head back earlier than anticipated because there was no need to go back to the spa since we had found our own mud. We went back to the home of our hosts and hung out for a while. They were heading out for dinner but we decided to stay home and cook and relax. We had eggs and about ten pieces of toast each. We did some work on the computor and I passed out quickly while Tyson stayed up doing some research and then joined me a bit later.

In the morning we had booked a tour of the old city of Jerusalem with a guide from the information office. It was to start at 11am but we had planned to show up to the city around 7:30am and see some sights beforehand. What actually happened is that we left the house at 10:45am and got lost trying to find parking. We finally found some meter parking and after figuring out how to pay the fees we ran about fifteen minutes to Jaffa gate entrance to the old city. We were a bit late but managed to catch up with the tour group who had already started. Since we anticipated the tour being about an hour and a half we had bought two hours of parking, but the guide informed us that the tour would be more like two and a half to three hours long. Tyson decided to run back to the car to pay. The next time I saw him was three hours later in the same spot after the tour. He missed the whole thing because he could not add minutes to the parking meter plus he could not find us in the city. I felt very bad during the tour but I took some notes on my hands and managed to explain to him the absolute wonders of the old city. After that tour, I really began to understand why people love the old city of Jerusalem. It is a place full of wonders and unlikely events and more history then the rest of the world combined. It is difficult to tell hundreds of thousands of years of history in a few sentences and I only know a very tiny piece of the information. Our tour guide was very well spoken and I enjoyed the tour thoroughly. Jerusalem and its parts have been fought over since the start of time. This is where the intended sacrifice of the son of Abraham took place, this is where Jesus was crucified and was layed to rest. This is where he was resurected and lived most of his life. This is where Mohammad lived as well as Moses and other holy prophets. So the different quarters of the city truly believe that this is their rightful land. As our tour guide explained, nine years ago when he started these tours a three hour walk throughout the city from section to section was an absolute impossibility. There were dozens of checkpoints, security and passport checks. Certain people were not allowed in certain sections and others were only allowed through during allocated times in the day. He said the hostility was unbearable and there were fights everyday. That day we walked through the sections and while we definitely felt that we were entering different areas, we were free to do so. Although the hostility is still present, and not everyone walks into each other's quarters. People were even questioning our tour guide about where he is from when he was walking through. He was obviously experienced, so he just avoided the questions expertly and we hurried along.

Many pilgrims come here from different religions. For example one denomination of Christianity does their pilgrimage by walking the steps of Jesus as they believe it had happened. They even do so carrying a large cross on their backs as they believe that he did. At one point we saw them attempt to walk into an Ethiopian Church but there was an altercation at the door and they were not permitted to bring the cross into the building. They had to leave it outside the property, walk through the curch without it, and then return to pick it up later. This is due to the different beliefs the catholics have about the cross. This blew my mind that people of the same religion can be so different from each other. The church where Jesus is meant to be burried (of course the coffin is empty since Jesus was resurrected) is owned by six denominations of Chritianity. This does not work well and while inside the church I witnessed a fist fight between two monks who dissagreed on a subject to do with religion. It was obsurd and embarrassing to see. There are several sites inside the old city that claim to be the site of the last supper, atop the mount of olives there are several sites where different churches claim that Jesus resurrected, In Tiberias there are dozens of places where Jesus apparently walked on water. There are several stories and routes that Jesus took when he was crucified, or some people believe that never even happened. Each of these "holy sites" are of course complete with "holy" souvenier shops, "holy" falafel shops, "holy" snack shops and so on. The whole feel of the place is very unfortunate for a city that is truly a holy place.

The Muslims only allow visitors to their mosks during a few hours in the morning. During that time there are extremely thorough security checks and apparently they are checking for the two most threatening items: weapons and bibles. During the rest of the day, non-muslims cannot even go near the entrances. We went and saw the Western Wall where millions of Christians come every year to pray as this is their most holiest place. They place small papers with wishes into the walls. Our tour guide showed us the level of inaccuracy in the information that people have by asking a dozen people why they are praying to the wall. We got a dozen completely different stories. And having a doctorate in religious history, our guide informed us that all of them are historically wrong. The stories like the ones above continued for the whole three hour tour. The old city was once Greek, once Persian, once Roman, once Turkish and so on. Some were in power for a few years, some for longer but there has always fighting. Sometimes the fighting was within the muslims, within the Christians or within ethnicities. The Jewish peoples have been kicked out and re conquered the area several times. At times the whole city became Muslim and at times they were other religions. Many times the wars that were fought were due to directions from higher officials who had very little or nothing to do with the people living in the old city. The people within the walls were often friends, seperated by rules and power hugrey, unjust outsiders.

We started off by learning about the Tower of David which had nothing to do with David but rather when the Romans discovered it, they assumed David had built it and it has kept the name. Another funny story I remember is that when the Turkey won land from the Armenians, they also took their famous Ararat mountain. The Armenians kept this mountain on their flag though. The Turkish were upset about this and wrote a strongly worded letter to the powerful Stalin and asked him to ask the Armenians to take the mountain off their flag because it no longer belonged to them. Stalin wrote back and said, well you people have the moon on your flag, and you certainly do not own the moon so the Armenians can keep their flag as it. We also saw where the war of Independance was fought and where the Jewish people surrendered. There were stories of two people being comrades on the same side of a war, fighting against each other years later in a different war. The turmoil and history in this small city in unreal. There are also about ten cities built on top of one another which is archeologically astounding. There are aqueducts, tunnel systems and Roman ruins below everything. Some of the street stones and buildings remain in their original form from thousands of years ago. Of course we saw the famous site of the last supper (as believed by most Christians), we saw the resting place of Jesus where people were crying and throwing themselves over his tombstones while others were fighting and shoving their way to the front of the line up. The stories we heard during the tour are numerous and the stories that exist are countless. People dissagree about the stories according to what they grew up with and even within religions there are inaccuracies. It seems that many people have blindly followed tradition and it has become their religion. The new testament of the bible either renames some of the important figures, changes details or leaves things out entirely.


"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"