End of SA, Egypt, and London!
Well I am sitting here watching the gold medal game for the world juniors, and its the intermission so I figured i could sneak a post in. I am sitting on a couch which will also be my bed tonight, its 2am and i am enjoying our 3-0 lead going into the 3rd.
SA finished off great, although just like other places, it was too short. Our last few days were mainly filled with Surfing, shopping and visiting members.
Ian is a golfer so he went golfing and I went Surfing, a member who has been surfing for a long time came out with me for my first time. Surfing was really fun, my friend was a very good teacher, I didn't think it was that hard actually, by the end I was wishing I had a short board to mess around with. Ian had a terrible start to his 18 holes but finished off with a grand back 9. We were able to go to the beach almost everyday which was great!
Okay, its now the morning, I was writing and then the third period came on, and after a 5 goal Russian domination i was no longer interested in writing so I went to bed, but I'm back...
We did some shopping at a few of our favorite places and got some nice things. Also we spent some time in one of Schwartings areas to visit some of his friends, it is so nice reuniting with these people. Sunday Ian went to Stanger and I drove up to Richards Bay for church. Both were great and everyone was a little shocked to see us because we had seen many of the people in these areas and they were not expecting us to show up at church.
After one last stop to a new (to us) beach on Monday we drove up to joburg to fly out. After visiting a friend and little shopping in joburg we went to the airport.
Egypt was fantastic!! We arrived at 5am, spent some time sorting out a driver and someone who new the area, he took us to a papyrus souvenir place first where they showed us how to make papyrus and gave a history of it. After that we went to the pyramids. Egypt is a very fascinating place, it was also pretty dirty. The people were very aggressive with their prices when we were pricing out tickets, camel rides, and other things. We had a initial quote of 250 Egyptian pounds for the camel rides around the pyramids, but after some haggling on our side and price matching we got it down to 75, which was about 13 USD. From there we hopped on some Camels and we were taken through the pyramids. They. are. amazing. They are sooo big and it is incredible to see them up close, they really are a wonder, it was awesome to check them out and be around them. Our camel ride not only took us there but thru some other tombs near by. I was amazed to learn that their is still a lot of excavating going around right there, I guess there is still a lot to discover, like im talking less than a km from the pyramids they had digging sites.
We also enjoyed 2 different traditional meals that were super good and super cheap!!! Egypt is a great place and we simply didnt have enough time there, we missed a lot of cool things.
After that adventure we grabbed a plan late at night and got into London at about 11pm. After jumping on a few subways we were getting somewhat close to where we were staying (a friend), but we ran into a stitch as the last subway to his area had left. Our friend doesn't have a car so we would have had an extremely expensive taxi to get there. Luckily the guy closing up the train station said he lived very close and he offered to take us. Such a nice guy!! We didnt ask or anything and he just helped us out sooo much!
Yesterday we cruised London with a few friends, we saw Big Ben, Buckingham palace, the London bridge and tower, and lots of other fun stuff (we took pics we the funny guards who don't move). Today we will hit the town and then... brace yourself moms and sisters... we are going to either Les Mis or Wicked. Its going to be a great day!! We are excited!
We get home Sunday after spending Saturday in Ireland, we decided to knock out Paris in the end. Its doubtful we will post again.
Love you all
