STAYCATION IS WHERE IT'S AT

New York, NY

I've been back Stateside for almost two months now and am already pining for my next adventure. What can I say? I like to see the world! My sights are set on Thailand for 2012, but the bank account doesn't quite agree with me. I think I need to employ "The Secret" method of positive thinking to bring the money my way...or I need to win a trip from The Travel Channel. Hey, you never know. Lightning could strike twice.

I also have been trying to remind myself that "staycations" are just as much fun. I mean, come on! I live in New York City. There is ALWAYS something to do. And plenty of things are uber-cheap or even free.
Case in point, a few weekends ago Miriam and I hopped on our bikes, rode to Central Park, and had a picnic with a group of friends. There's nothing like spending a beautiful day sitting beneath a tree, eating delicious goodies, while chatting with good friends. We then got back on our bikes, took in the sunset as we pedaled along the Hudson River, willed ourselves over the Manhattan bridge, and passed out from lovely exhaustion after our 20 mile bike ride day. We had a fantastic day in NYC for the cost of our groceries. Not bad.
The great thing about living in New York is that you have options for rainy days and sunny days. Rainy day? Take in a show, go to a museum, try one of the five bazillion restaurants. Sunny day? Take a bike ride, go on a picnic, find a free concert, check out free movie screenings in the various parks, try free kayaking, ride the Staten Island ferry to that long, lost other borough. Don't have a bike? Plenty of parks now rent them!
June 29th the NYC public pools opened, and, luckily for this little mermaid, I have the second largest public pool in NYC just blocks from my apartment. I can guarantee I'll be living there at every possible moment-- I've been dreaming of the pool since it closed for the season last fall. The best thing about the NYC public pools? They are FREE. And you all know I love me some free.
A hidden gem to most New Yorkers is Governors Island. During the summer, free ferries are available Friday-Sunday (and Monday holidays) from both Manhattan and Brooklyn to the island, and there are plenty of events to keep you entertained over there for the entire summer from concerts to art exhibits and, for the really brave at heart, trapeze school! Bring your bike and explore the island on your wheels-- or rent a bike from Bike & Roll once over there.
Here's our experience on Governors Island in 2010:

Last year, renting my bike from Bike & Roll

The beach bar area

Exploring the old government buildings

Miriam enjoying the views of NYC from the island

One of my favorite Governors Island events is the 1920s Jazz Era Dance Party that occurs over two weekends throughout the summer. They set up a dance floor and have a jazz band playing-- you guessed it-- 1920s jazz music. They have vintage cars on display, dance lessons, and people even dress up. It's a really fun event and makes you feel like you've truly escaped the city.
For those interested in checking out Governors Island, here's the link to the website with all the info!
http://govislandblog.com/
And here are some of my photos from last year's party:

Miriam and I decided to embrace my "staycation" idea and become tourists in our own town. A few weeks ago we started the weekend early by (finally!) winning much-coveted lottery rush tickets to BOOK OF MORMON on Thursday night. We have entered that lottery about 15 times. For those of you not in the lottery know, many Broadway shows offer greatly discounted last minute seats via a lottery system. Put your name in the bucket and cross your fingers. In the case of BOOK OF MORMON, where roughly 300 people show up every night vying for 22 $32 front row and box seat tickets, you have to cross all your fingers, your toes, your eyes, and link arms with the person you came with. But wholly awesomeness, Batman! That show is everything it is hyped up to be. Ridiculously crass and pee-your-pants funny. Miriam, who plays for the B.O.M. softball team in the Broadway Show League, was able to get us backstage to hang out with the cast and crew after the show, and then we grabbed drinks with them all at a nearby bar. It was a pretty fun night.
On Friday I took advantage of a Living Social deal (Living Social is just like Groupon) and went to the new Cirque du Soleil show, ZARKANA, at half the price. It wasn't my favorite Cirque show, but I still enjoyed myself. The music is usually what sells me on a Cirque show, but this was trying too hard at making a rock opera. It was what would happen if Bono tried to write a musical...wait a minute...
Our weekend was set up to be beautiful, so that Saturday we got on our bikes and decided to tackle the Brooklyn Bridge (Manhattan Bridge was the weekend before). Years ago I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with my family, but Miriam had never done it and had always wanted to-- now was our chance!

A word about riding bikes over the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges: challenging. But challenging in different ways. The Manhattan Bridge has a separate biking area from the pedestrian walkways, which is great, but the challenge is the never-ending incline and the perfect view of the straight drop to the river below (you ride along the edge of the Manhattan bridge). What a workout! The Brooklyn Bridge has a small incline, but you share the space with pedestrians. There's a giant white line down the center that warns pedestrians to stay in their lane, but on a really nice summer day when all the tourists in the entire city of New York decide they want to cross the bridge for the fun of it, it means you spend a lot of time slamming on your breaks and yelling at tourists to watch out. It was an easier ride than the Manhattan Bridge, but it was extremely challenging maneuvering through the pedestrians.

We headed over to the Meat Packing District and got gelato in the Chelsea Market. Okay, you non-New Yorkers can quit your giggling. The Meat Packing District is a funny name, especially since it's in a prominent gay area, but it used to house packing plants and slaughterhouses in the early 1900's. Nowadays, it's got a more Soho feel to it with the famous Chelsea Market, tons of ritzy shops, restaurants, and cobble stoned streets (which are pretty to look at but not so easy to ride a bike on...).

We cooled off sauntering through Chelsea Market before tackling High Line Park. This time I was the tourist, as Miriam has been a few times to the High Line, and I was climbing up there for the first time.
High Line Park was created from an old railway line that went out of service in the 1980's. Rather than tearing the whole thing down, someone had the brilliant idea of turning the whole thing into a pedestrian walkway/park, complete with plants, benches, and the original railroad ties, a couple stories above the street level. No stop lights, crosswalks, or vehicles to maneuver around-- just tons of other people.
Apparently, a nice weekend is not the most ideal time to walk the High Line. We weren't able to walk too far because the crowds were very slow moving, so we opted to turn around, take in some of the views, and then head back to our bikes. I'll have to try the High Line on a week day evening, as Miriam says it's much calmer and nicer to walk down. Battling crowds of tourists is not my forte when I'm seeking a pleasant stroll.

View of the Meat Packing District from the High Line

Strolling on the High Line

From the High Line pedestrians can take in the natural wonders of New York...traffic...

On our way back to our bikes parked in the Meat Packing District, we were walking behind a woman dressed in a bright neon green dress and bright purple heels that were at least 3 feet tall-- okay, so I exaggerate, but you get the idea, right? They were really high heels...Anyways, as I'm remarking about how amazing those shoes are we come to find out it's Kim Kardashian shopping with her fiance. Huh. Who knew?

Now the summer is in full swing, and I've already got a couple trips planned. Can't wait to write about them. Until then, I'll be at the pool...

THE VLOG

Egypt

Here are a few of our goofy videos taken throughout our journey. We enjoy entertaining ourselves. Hey, if you don't find humor in your life then what's the point? Enjoy!

Attempting to kiss a camel.

At the panoramic view of the Pyramids after our camel ride. Our guide, Hany, was taking the picture and was in hysterics.

Yes, we're dumb.

In our room at the Oasis Hotel in Giza.

Oh, and by the way, I had plenty of memory cards to give her...

This one goes out to Sammy G. I forgot the words, but the show must go on.

In Karnak Temple in Luxor. Amazingly enough there was no one else around the hall we were in so we could be foolish without an audience.

Best. Video. Ever.

Right before we left Karnak Temple I had an idea and made Miriam do it. I was trying really hard not to laugh and failing miserably. A group of Australians were entertained watching us make the video, and after we finished one of the guys came over and told Miriam she needs to be on the stage. Haha. That made her day.

Listening to the call to prayer while at the Winter Palace's poolside restaurant, but it's a little overshadowed by the restaurant's Musak playing in the background. Listening to all the different mosques' call to prayer merging together everyday was really amazing.

Spuddy Buddy, our couch potato, enjoying Abu Simbel.

I wanted to sing a little "The Gods Love Nubia" while on the Nile. It was too awkward to sing while on the felluca because it was too intimate with the captain and his assistant. hahaha. Unfortunately, we got back to our hotel after the sun had set, so I'm singing in the dark, but the Nile is there and Nubia is across the way (look for the lights). Enjoy!

SIDE NOTES FROM THE ROAD

Egypt

Side notes we compiled along the way.

·         Pepto Bismol is my best friend.

·         Deoderant is awesome and more people should use it.

·         Miriamism: We are dropping pounds like crazy. (And by pounds, she means Egyptian money.)

·         Because we are American, every time we travel with a guide we need a security escort. They are packin’ like you wouldn’t believe. Today we had Ahmed, and he escorted us through Khan el-Khalili (the shopping area) and made sure we were not harassed.

(Miriam with Ahmed at the coffee and sheesha house)

·         Miriamism: My toots are uncommon (tutenkhamen).

·         I think people who have a problem with Muslims need to have some time for self-reflection. From what I have learned and seen of the Muslim religion in Egypt, it is very peaceful. They are willing to help you no matter what. Yes, there are religious extremists, but there are also Christian extremists, and more wars were started on behalf of Christianity.

(A Muslim woman in reflection at the Mohammed Ali Mosque in the Citadel)

·         Miriamism: Egypt is where our cars come to die.

·         They are trying to build new apartment buildings so fast to keep up with the ever-growing population, and they don’t seem to care about precision. We watched them throw mortar on the bricks and plop the brick down on top of the wall willy-nilly. No scraping the mortar off, no lining it up with the brick below it or to the side of it. Some of the walls have little holes where they didn’t even bother putting bricks. One building is leaning so heavily it looks like the leaning tower of Pisa. And these buildings are 10-15 floors high…

(Not sure if you can tell, but this is the leaning tower of Giza)

·         Our guide and security guard refused to sit in the back of the van with us (I think they were nervous to sit with us), so all three (driver, security, and guide) sat in the front of the van. Hilarious looking from behind.

·         Don’t lie and say you’re married. Or if you do, be prepared for a barrage of questions (how long have you been married? Do you have kids? Why don’t you have any kids? When do you think is a good time for a woman to have kids?...and then they suggest certain oils that will make my husband bigger and longer and draw pictures to demonstrate…)

·         Miriamism: How could they lose these?! (Exclaimed at the Karnak Temple ruins that were buried under sand for thousands of years.)

·         Egyptian men have a strange love for Celine Dion, Whitney Houston…and Michael Bolton.

·         Do most of your shopping at the airport. The stuff is real, the prices are fixed, and most things are cheaper than what you can bargain down to in the souqs.

·         Miriamism: The best Egyptian drivers are driving cabs in New York City. (and that's scary)

·         If you plan on flying Egypt Air make sure to tell them your food preferences before you fly. On both flights they ran out of beef and chicken by the time they got to us, leaving only fish (which neither of us eat) so we were starving by the time we landed.

·         Remember to get bug spray. While eating dinner outside, the bugs decided to make a meal out of us. Miriam seemed to be the delicacy on their menu as she has 75 bug bites from her shins down to her feet (!!!). I am not even kidding. She just counted—60 on one leg alone.

·         Egyptians are very proud of their new country and love to talk about it. It’s absolutely fascinating. I wish them luck on creating their new democracy.

 

HEADING HOME

Aswan, Egypt - Cairo, Egypt
(Saturday, May 21st and Sunday, May 22nd)

We awoke early (again) in order to catch the sunrise and our flight back to Cairo, but we had an unexpected “surprise” welcome us in our hotel bathroom. Shoeless Miriam discovered we had giant roaches running around the bathroom, which completely grossed us out and we refused to use the bathroom for anything. Skipped the face washing, the teeth brushing, the EVERYTHING. Gross!

We made sure our bags were packed and headed down to breakfast, only to find an empty restaurant. Finally we found someone to help us who told us our breakfast was a fixed menu. He brought out the plates, and we realized it wasn’t much better than the breakfast box from the day before. Oh well! Time to play with the food!

(My little man-face sandwich)

(Miriam with the plate of bread they served for breakfast...)

At least the view was spectacular—we were dining on the deck right next to the Nile and watching the sun coming up and the locals starting their days. A couple of fishermen floated past us, bringing up their long rope with hooks on it. It was fascinating to watch.

We met our driver, headed to the airport, and boarded our plane back to Cairo. We met a few older American women on our flight—the third group of Americans we had seen the whole trip! Miriam told them how we had won our trip, and they were so excited they started telling everyone. It was pretty hilarious hearing little conversations start up all around the luggage carousel about us.

Eslam, our Cairo travel agent, met us at the airport and brought us back to the Oasis Hotel in Giza, where my plans were to sit by the pool and relax for the rest of our time in Egypt. We ordered some hummus and my strawberry juice (I’m obsessed!) and some ice cream desserts for fun and swam and relaxed for the afternoon. We discovered a TON of Americans staying at the hotel this go around—everyone had been German or Australian earlier in the week. It was very interesting to see so many Americans!

Miriam was all worried because she hadn’t finished shopping for gifts and was trying to convince herself to take a car into Cairo to visit Khan al-Khalil again, the busy souq in Islamic Cairo, but decided to wait until we got to the airport the next day. Fingers crossed the airport would have shops with what we wanted—we were leaving Egypt with little in purchases since the shopping was so difficult for us.

Once the pool closed we headed back to the room and treated ourselves to room service, packed up our bags, showered (yay! A clean shower!), skyped with my mom (who was relieved to see we were still alive), and passed out.

Our alarm went off at 4am (this whole early morning thing has got to stop!), and we rolled out of bed, grabbed our bags, had breakfast in the hotel lobby, and headed to the airport, waving goodbye to the Pyramids and the Nile as we passed them by.

Once we were checked in at the airport we noticed a ton of shops with all sorts of little Egyptian souvenirs we had been looking for in the souqs. The difference? These items were real (a lot of the souqs sell fake items or things made in China), had a fixed price, and were CHEAPER than the souqs! I had bought myself a mother-of-pearl inlaid box for a discount in a price-fixed shop in Aswan and found it for $5 cheaper at the airport! Crazy! Who knew?!

Rule of thumb: Save most of your shopping for the airport when in Cairo!

We realized, though, that Ashraf, our music man, had given us an amazing deal on our purchases. Almost $5 cheaper per item than the airport prices. We love that man!

The airport doesn’t have everything we had looked at in the souqs, but we had so much fun filling up our luggage with the souvenirs we had hoped to buy during our travels but hadn’t.

And now here we are, on the plane, heading back to NYC. The flight is completely different from our flight to Cairo. Our flight to Egypt had been filled mostly with Egyptians—Miriam and I had been amongst a handful of tourists—but this flight is almost all American tourists. Where were all these people before? Ha!

All in all, we had an AMAZING experience—some of it good, some of it not so good, some of it totally crazy, but all amazing nevertheless. I look forward to my next adventure, but for now…

Home, Sweet Home. 

(Miriam and Eslam at departures)

(Bye, Egypt! Thanks for the memories!)

THE GODS LOVE NUBIA

Aswan, Egypt
(Friday, May 20th)

After Abu Simbel and shopping we rushed back to our hotel, threw down our stuff, and hurried out to the water to meet our felucca captain as we were a half-hour late for our felucca ride! Oops.

(Our captain, Sero)

(Other feluccas sailing the Nile)

Sero, our captain, took us out on the water in his boat with the help of his assistant and we started off towards the Nubian village he lives in across the way. Both Sero and his assistant are Nubian, a very proud and hard-working people. When we got to the Nubian village, Sero took us into his home where his family was preparing lunch for us.

Their living conditions were fascinating! Each and every room had two or more beds in it—there were family members everywhere—and It looked to be really run down and sparse…and then there was the flat screen they were all watching in one of the bedrooms. What?! They looked like they didn’t have much money but then they whipped out cell phones while watching a flat screen. We don’t even have a flat screen! His young daughters were fascinated by us and kept popping their heads in to look at us. They were cute.

(The most amazing Egyptian meal EVER)

Then the meal came…I can’t even begin to describe how amazing it was! By far, it was the BEST meal we had in Egypt. It consisted of fresh pita, tomatoes with a delicious spice on them, rice like we’ve never eaten before, fresh chicken, and an okra/tomato concoction that we practically ate directly from the serving bowl. It was SO GOOD. We stuffed ourselves until we couldn’t eat any more, and then it was time for our felucca ride!

In a food coma, we started sailing around Aswan on the Nile River. The ride was beautiful but really hot. There was a shade on the boat, but the sun was able to sneak around it—it was around 110 degrees out on the water. There wasn’t much wind, so we didn’t have a strong breeze, which meant we moved slowly through the water since feluccas don’t have motors, but it was really delightful.

It was so interesting watching the Nubian people across the way, seeing their livelihoods on the water as they fished and swam and sailed. A number of young boys had taken out small canoes and rafts and would grab hold of a passing felucca or motor boat and take it for a ride. I envied them—I wanted to get in the water so bad!

(One canoe of boys)

Miriam mentioned wanting to see a crocodile, which aren’t in the Nile around Aswan (they are, however, in Lake Nasser around Abu Simbel), and our captain got very excited and took us over to a village across the way, where we met his friends who just happened to have three crocodiles! One 18 year old monster and two 5 year olds. They then insisted we hold one of the little ones! Miriam was petrified, but she handled it like a trooper!

(Yep, she's nervous)

The old man in the shop LOVED me and insisted on cuddling up next to me when we were taking the pictures. Kind of creepy, but he was harmless. Hahaha. The crocodile felt so bizarre and interesting! I loved getting the chance to hold it!

(The Sahel village where we held the crocodile)

(Miriam in the sunset)

It was getting late and we had been on the water for quite some time, but on our way back to the hotel the wind died. No wind equals no sailing. We were rowed over to a landing and then Sero insisted on walking us back to our hotel (about 15 minutes away). It was very interesting walking with him because no one approached us. They would walk up to him say something and then walk away. He said as long as we are with someone the touts are not allowed to approach us directly—they have to speak with him first. Ah, lovely.

We got back to our hotel, said goodbye to Sero, and went to freshen up before braving the souq again. Maybe it was because it was Friday, the first day of the weekend in Egypt, or because it was really warm, but we were left completely alone while walking on the Corniche, and the touts in the market weren’t very pushy at all, most of them just calling to us from their shops.

We headed straight to the musical instrument shop and found Ashraf, the man who owns it, and insisted on making some purchases. He had told us the night before that he didn’t want to haggle with us so he gave us amazing prices on things. He offered us a small, hand-painted, camel-hide drum for one quarter of the price of other shops. Awesome. His instruments were really neat and he took great time with us—we LOVED shopping at his shop. He didn’t pressure us to buy anything, he demonstrated what all of the instruments sounded like and told us which ones were real and which were meant for decoration.

We ended up getting a medium sized oud (a lute-like string instrument), drums, and tambourines. Everything was hand-made and hand-painted by the African people. They are really neat.

Fresh off our great shopping experience we realized a young man who had tried to sell me a decorative pyramid had followed me down to the music store and had waited, trying to convince me to buy the pyramid. I was in the perfect haggling mood and really wanted an alabaster pyramid and wasn’t sure if I would be able to get one if I didn’t take him up on it. He claims it’s alabaster, but I’m not so sure—whatever, it’s pretty! His original asking price had been 150LE ($25 US), and I told him I only had 20LE left. After following me down to the music store he offered it to me for 30LE ($5). It probably was only worth the 20LE that I had, but I knew he was probably struggling to sell anything these days with so few tourists so I didn’t push it. Miriam offered to “lend” me the extra 10LE (remember, I supposedly only had 20LE left), and we headed back to our hotel, feeling successful for once and feeling much better about Aswan after the amazing day we had had.

The day had been so positive, especially spending so much time with the amazing Nubian people. They really are a testament to perseverance and are so sweet and welcoming. The Gods love Nubia (according to the song), and so do we.

(Aswan after sunset from the felucca)

THE RACE TO THE SUN

Aswan, Egypt - Abu Simbel, Egypt
(Friday, May 20th)

2:30 am.

Too early. Seriously. But we crawled out of bed and got ourselves ready and ventured to the lobby to meet our driver. Our hotel provided breakfast boxes, but, much like our room, they left much to be desired. A couple stale rolls, prawn flavored chips (guh-ross), an apricot that looked like it had passed through many hands…you get the picture. Luckily for us it was so early that there was no way we could really eat, so we headed out with our driver to join the convoy going to Abu Simbel.

(Prawn flavored chips. I'm excited about it.)

Abu Simbel is a temple 3.5 hours drive away from Aswan, a temple by Ramses II dedicated to Ra, the sun god. It’s carved into a mountain and is absolutely massive in size, but we’ll get to that later. Back to the convoy…

Abu Simbel is located 40km from the border of Sudan, so the Egyptian government, in an effort to keep tourists safe, requires tourists to travel in large convoys to and from the site, the first one leaving around 4am. It includes everything from private cars (like we had) to giant tour busses. Hundreds of vehicles traveling together. We were so early to the convoy that not only were we the first ones in line, but we even beat security, and Miriam made the mistake of mentioning to our driver that we like being first…

(Part of the convoy, waiting for our drive)

The convoy started and so did the racing. A toe-curling, hair-raising, jockeying-positions race between the drivers to try to be among the first to arrive. Our driver was going around 95mph the whole way in an effort to keep us in the front pack, and I was petrified. So much for relaxing, enjoying the desert, and trying to get some additional sleep in! Miriam said later that she wondered when I was going to tackle him so that she could take over the driving. So scary!!

But it paid off, I must admit. We were one of the first vehicles to arrive, and when we finally walked down to the site, the view was AMAZING, and completely devoid of people. Not many people can get a picture of Abu Simbel without a single person in it (with the exception of the guard sitting in the doorway…). It was HUGE! And it’s located right next to Lake Nasser, the world’s largest man-made lake. It was a beautiful sight.

(Abu Simbel and itty bitty Miriam...and no one else. Awesome.)

(Whispering into Ramses's ear)

The inside of the temple was really cool, too, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures. So I took some anyways. Hehehe. I like to say my belly takes really good shots, as I have the camera hanging from my neck strap, aim it upwards, and cough loudly as I click the shutter closed. Almost got caught once when I didn’t really try to cough—I didn’t realize there were people walking throughout the temple watching for people taking pictures. He came around the corner and started following me around for a while. So close!

(My illegal photos)

We then had a lot of fun with Spuddy Buddy, our couch potato (he lives on our couch), the Idaho mascot my brother sent me. Spuddy has been having adventures all over Egypt, culminating at Abu Simbel. He has also seen the Pyramids, ridden a camel, and entertained a lot of Egyptian men (they thought he was hilarious). Ever the comedian, that Spuddy Buddy.

(Hot potato)

(The crowd we missed because of our lead-foot driver)

After we had taken every type of picture you can with Abu Simbel, we ventured over to the Temple of Hathor. It was much smaller so we finished it pretty quickly, which left us with a lot of time left before the convoy headed back to Aswan…which meant walking through the souvenir market with the pushy touts. We were able to evade them pretty well and decided to grab a soda and sit in the shade (the merchant tried to double the price on the sodas—almost $4 US for one can—and we laughed in his face and left. Suddenly, the price dropped to around $1.60. Much more reasonable).

(Temple of Hathor)

(View of Abu Simbel from Temple of Hathor)

(Find Spuddy Buddy! Hint: He's in the hieroglyphics.)

(The baboon frieze on top of Abu Simbel)

(Lake Nasser, the world's largest man-made lake)

When the convoy headed back, our driver was much slower (he had been trying to get us there first, after all)—around 75mph. That I could handle, but he wanted to get around a big bus and kept tailgating it and then driving in the left lane to try to get around it until he was forced back behind the bus when a car came from the other direction. This continued for over two hours. Once again, I was petrified. Imagine being in a car that drifts into the left lane as you are taking a corner or going over a hill and can’t see the traffic coming from the other direction…nail-biting!!

But the mirages in the desert were fascinating to see, and we had great conversations with our driver, who was around our age. He even convinced Miriam to sing for him (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which he had never heard before!). He shared “nuts” with us that looked and tasted just like pumpkin seeds. Miriam and I ate the whole seed, including the shell, like we usually do in the States, and that made him laugh. He thought we were crazy. Then he said, “Be careful not to eat the cover (shell) because…hmm, how do you say in English? There will grow a snake in your belly,” at which point I figured out he meant parasites! Whaaaa?! But he said we should be fine as we only had a few…*ahem*

He offered to take us to a jewelry shop/souvenir bazaar whose Cairo store we had visited earlier in the week and wanted to visit again, so we were able to get a little more shopping done and it saved us having to haggle with a cab driver to take us there. Phew!

We made it back to the hotel in one piece! Exhausted from lack of sleep, sticky from the heat, but ready for the rest of our day!