NYC - Day 2

Sunday October 30th, 2011

Day two was soooo much better!  The major snow storm had passed.  There was still snow on the ground and it was chilly but much easier to get around.  We slept in a little and took the hotel shuttle to the train.  Turns out there was still planned work going on so we had a little maze to figure out where we were going.

Our first stop was Times Square.  It was almost lunch time by the time we got there so we wandered around until we found an Irish Pub called The Playwright.  It was okay.  Pricey since it was Times Square!  After, we walked many blocks over to Central Park to meet up with Natalie and David.  I had met Natalie at the wedding I shot on my birthday, she was a bridesmaid.  Turns out she is getting married and lives in NYC!  Small world, so we decided to do an impromptu engagement session while we were here.

We had a blast wandering around Central Park with them.  The snow knocked down a ton of branches so alot of the park was closed off.  We had to be by the Plaza hotel by 2:45 for the Sex and the City tour and they made sure we were there in time!

The SATC tour was fun!  The tour guide was a comedienne and super funny!  They took us to spots they hit up in the show and movie.  We stopped at the sex toy store (where Charlotte bought her rabbit vibrator), Buddaken restaurant (where Big & Carrie had their rehearsal dinner), Bleeker St (Where Magnolia Bakery is, another scene in the show) and finally ended up at Aiden and Steve's bar Scout (which is actually O'Niells)  Lots to take in and they played the scenes from the show to help us remember.  Jason didn't die of boredom. ;-)

After the tour it was starting to get dark and we wandered around Bryant Park.  We stopped for a slice of real NY pizza and came across Rockafeller Center.  So pretty at night all lit up!  We went to Justin Timberlake's restaurant Southern Hospitality and had a drink and appetizer.  We happened upon the restaurant while looking for a beer bar called the Pony Bar. We sat there for awhile enjoying some yummy beer!  It was about 11pm when we left so we went to the Empire State Building.  It was pretty cold and crowded up there but the view was amazing!!

We made our way back to the warm hotel room and passed out for the night!

NYC - Day 1

After 2.5 hours of sleep (Yay procrastination!) Jason's mom picked us up at 5am to take us to the airport (that woman is a saint I tell you).  We boarded with our boarding passes on our phone no problem and got to the waiting room with no issue.  We were both exhausted but passed the time petting a cute French Bulldog in the seat next to us.  We got on the plane and both immediately passed out for the first 3 hours!  I don't even remember take off!

I was stoked to wake up and find out there was only 2 hours left in the plane ride!  I got some work done on the laptop and chatted with Jason.  We knew there was a snow storm going on and it delayed our landing by 30 minutes.  We could see white everywhere as we landed.  Should have known, another trip together, another blizzard!  We got our bag and found our way to the Airtrain pretty quickly.  This is where our luck ended!

We knew which train we needed to get on (E train) and got the 7 day unlimited pass easily.  Got on the train towards Manhattan and then our cell signals went out.  Oops.  We got off on the stop we thought was the correct one.  It wasn't.  This was our first meeting with Mother Nature.  We wandered a block before realizing this was not the right stop.  We found our way back to the Metro (with a little help from a local) and after a mishap with the new metro pass we just bought (i didn't go through the turnstile fast enough - oops) got on the train we thought was the right one.  It wasn't.  We realized quickly that it was going the wrong direction and got off. 

We made it to the other side (mind you Jason is dragging a 50lb cherry covered suitcase up and down flights of stairs) and got on the correct train.  That's when the conductor announced they are doing track work and the stops were all messed up.  We looked at each other in bewilderment when the train passed right through our stop!  Oh no!  We got off at the very next stop we could (now miles from where we needed to be) and made our way out to get a cab.  Impossible.

Took us a good 40 mins to hail a cab, we were freezing, soaking wet and cranky.  By the time we made it to the motel it had been about 2.5 hours since we landed.  Ugh, not a good way to start!  Mind you, I had not eaten at all today and Jason had a small snack on the plane.

We warmed up by the heater, changed our socks and walked a block in the freezing cold to a little Irish Pub called Bantry Bay Publick House.  Pretty empty inside and the waitress was the only one working the whole place!  Well, not the kitchen but the front end.  We ordered two local beers (Brooklyn Brewery lager and a Blue Point smoked lager) and got some food!  Sweet Potatoe bisque, steak burger with sweet potatoe fries and a buffalo chicken sandwich with onion rings.  Very good food, we want to go back and check out the other stuff on the menu for sure!

We decided to call it a night, not wanting to press our luck with any more trains tonight!  We are staying warm in the motel which is an old school building across from a creepy cemetery!  Great for Halloween!  Tomorrow we will get up early and start our site-seeing!

xo, M

NYC!

You poor sad neglected blog!  This is what wedding season does to a person ;-)

Jason and I are off to NYC in the morning - my first time there!  So excited.  A storm may be coming in which means possible snow.  We'll see!

I'll try to be better and at least update here a little!

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Day 9

Saturday May 14, 2011

My last day!  I woke up with a sniffling and sneezing, I think I officially have a cold. That’s going to be fun on a 14 hour plane ride!  We got up around 7:30 and walked down to Bilo’s for our morning chocolate croissant.  After, we went to the Internet shop and for the first time in 2 days we could actually get online!  I checked my email and Facebook quickly and got on the phone with Jason. We chatted for 30 minutes.  This is the last time we can actually talk until I see him at the airport on Sunday! 

My parents had already walked back to the hotel so I walked back alone.  I got in the elevator, hit level 4 and then the electricity went out. With me still in there!   I immediately started imagining plummeting to my death.  It was completely dark (I didn’t know the electricity had gone out at this point) so I started yelling “help” and pounding on the doors.  I heard voices below but they weren’t responding to me so I was getting more worried.  I kept pounding, having no idea what floor I was on, if any.  After a few minutes of this, a housekeeper (looking as frightened as I was) pried open the doors – no I didn’t try that one – and I jumped out on the 4^th floor.  I was about a foot below the actual level.  When I saw her face I burst in to tears and ran immediately to our room. 

My parents had heard the pounding but didn’t realize what it could be.  They were quite concerned when I walked in, in hysterics and tried to calm me down.  My heart finally stopped beating hard about 10 minutes later.  Pretty scary!! 

My moms friend Amsale and her husband picked us up around 12:30 for lunch at their house.  They live in the suburbs of Addis Ababa, that didn’t even exist 30 years ago when my parents lived here. They had a very nice house and we had a yummy traditional lunch with them and their two teenage daughters.

They drove us back to the hotel around 5pm where we took the stairs up!  No more elevators for me!  We walked down to Bilo’s for ice cream, blackberry for me!  We headed back a little after dark to wait until my taxi got there at 9:45.  I check in at 10pm, flight is at 1:15am.  We are going so early because they have decent wifi there!

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Day 8

Friday May 13, 2011

I was so itchy from my mosquito bites, I had to take a Benedryl to sleep. I still woke up around 6:30am and we headed out the door around 7:30.  I went to the internet place to call Jason and Audra.  I got through fine (internet was down otherwise) but there was a huge annoying delay so it was hard to hold a conversation.  My parents picked up a chocolate croissant for me and we headed to Addis Ababa University to see the library she used to work at.

You need a student ID to get in the door, so they went and got the head catalog librarian there. Turns out, he knew my mom by name and took over her job at a different college library back in the 70’s.  They knew a ton of the same people.  He gave us a tour of the whole library, pointing out the differences since she had been there.  After, we walked over to the museum on campus and got a Sprite.  My knee is feeling pretty bad, I had a fall at the airport yesterday and it’s all bruised so it’s not easy to walk far.   We decided to go rest at the hotel and put my knee up. 

Abdul-Rashid picked us up at the hotel at 12:30 and took us to an Indian food place called Sangam.  We had a ton of different dishes and the naan was delicious!  It’s the biggest meal I had eaten in a few days since being sick.  We also stopped at the Turkish Airlines office to confirm my plane ticket for tomorrow – things are a bit archaic here…you still have to confirm with the airline even when you have an e-ticket!

He dropped us off at the Ras hotel where we met Beza’s brother and mother for a drink. They were very kind and we had a nice visit.  After they left, we started talking to a man near our table who was meeting his daughter there.  He was from the town where my parents used to live and his daughter was in to American celebrities so we had a nice long chat while he kept buying us beers!  Ethiopian culture wants to feed you constantly.  We chatted for awhile and headed out to finish my souvenir shopping down the street.  

I got everything I needed for friends back home so we took a taxi to Bilo’s for some dinner of ice cream.  They have awesome ice cream in Addis, its all made in the shops.  We walked back to the hotel to wind down for the night.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Day 7

Thursday May 12, 2011

I woke up bright and early this morning, ready for the day!  Partially because I was feeling much better (other than a slight sore throat, thank you antibiotics for killing both good and bad bacteria in my body) and also because its one step closer to heading home. Yes I am ready to admit publicly that I am over this trip.  After many bad things happening, the lack of Internet and missing my boyfriend and friends, I’m looking forward to the normalcy of home.

I also knew the idea of free, somewhat fast internet was in my immediate future.  I skipped breakfast altogether and my dad walked me down the street to the Taye hotel.  I got to chat with Jason for an hour and a half, catch up on Facebook news and upload all my photos to date.  It was a nice piece of back home that I had been missing. 

The driver picked us up around 10:15 and we said our goodbyes to Ambassador Zemene and the staff.  We arrived at the airport 2 hours early but the plane arrived early and we left an hour ahead of scheduled time.  I’ll never understand Ethiopian Airlines and their always-changing schedules.  

Dad’s friend, Abdul-Rashid picked us up at the airport and it was back to the Bole Guest House.  We had no plans for the day and we were hungry so my dad wanted to search for this German Beer Garden and Hotel he had read about.  We finally found it and it was super nice on first glance! They even had dark beer (well to them it was dark, it was more Amber to me) that was decent.  I decided to try my iPod, and there was free wifi! Holy cow, this was a good day! Of course it was majorly slow and only worked half the time but I was able to check my email.   Their pizza was quite good as well.  We decided to check out their room rates but they were way overpriced.  We are paying $30 for a triple room with private bath and they wanted $60 for a single room, no bath!  

We moved my bed to the unfinished kitchen for some privacy ;) 

We walked back to the hotel, stopping for some ice cream at Kaldi’s and apple juice at the store.  I got a much-needed shower and caught up on some work.  My mom had discovered the Americanized burger joint down the street (Roomi Burger) had soft serve ice cream so we went there for a light dinner. We split a plate of fries; I had a Sprite and my own swirl soft serve.  It was good, very sweet.   We plan to go back for a burger sometime over the next two days if we have time.  Back to the hotel for some relaxation and an early bed time!  After tonight, only one more sleep until I get on the plane to head home!

Gondor, Ethiopia Day 1 & 2

Tuesday May 10, 2011 & Wednesday May 11, 2011

I’m combining two days in Gondar because we didn’t do much on Tuesday!  We left Lalibella, took a share taxi down to the airport.  I started feeling nauseous in the car but the roads are extremely winding and I was turning around talking, so I assumed it was the car ride.  We were at the airport extremely early and they gave us a blank boarding pass. Pretty funny how it works here.  We chatted with a nice couple that live in New York and waited for the plane to arrive. 

When we landed in Gondar, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightening!!  We assumed it would pass quickly but it ended up pouring all night.  We were picked up by Beza’s father (Ambassador Zemene), whom we have never met before.  He owns a small hotel right in the city center so he took us out there and set us up with a room. I still wasn’t feeling completely normal, but I shrugged it off to hiking so much the day before. 

We relaxed at the hotel, playing games on my mom’s iPod and had a huge traditional Ethiopian lunch. It was quite spicy, but I was able to eat it still.  I went to bed early, before dinner because my stomach was feeling upset. I woke up around 3am, horribly ill.  My mom laid in bed with me and rubbed my back until I was able to fall back asleep.  I woke up again in the morning, still sick.  We had a car and tour guide arranged for us at 9am, so I got up, looking like the walking dead. 

We toured several historical sites in Gondar, including the church of Haile Selaisse, Queen Metubah’s palace, King Fasilede’s vacation home and what is known as the Camelot of Gondar, the palace of King Fasiledes, all from the 17^th century. I was still feeling sick, so we took many breaks to sit down and rest.  The guide was very sweet, taking me to shady spots to sit.

Haile Selaisse’s church was quite a treat, with paintings all over, in beautiful colors.  They were mostly preserved with a little bit of sun and water damage.  The ceiling was covered in 144 angels, all with large round eyes.

After the tour, we went back to the hotel and I took a 2 hour nap.  My mom woke me up and we went in search of internet and food. My dad knew of another hotel that served decent pizza so we went there. We ordered the margarita pizza, which ended up being a vegetarian pizza with spicy tomato sauce.  Not so good for my weak stomach! I ate the breading and had a Pepsi with it.  After we went to an internet café that was super slow.  My parents had left me there to confirm our flight for tomorrow and in the meantime found another hotel with fast wifi!  WooHoo!  I was able to get on for about 45 mins and get some important emails answered. 

At 5pm, we had a car waiting for us again, to take us to Falasha Village, aka Beta Israel, which used to be where the Afro-Jewish community lived.  They no longer live there, but they sold their land off and the people that live there still make the same products to sell.  It was very commercialized; children wanting to sell us items bombarded us. I did buy one thing for Nichole and Mitch’s wedding.    We didn’t stay there long, and went to Ambassador Zemene’s dairy farm to pick up their daily milk.  We got to see the house he was born in, which was quite interesting.  

Back to the hotel, for rest and another early night for me!  Hopefully I’m feeling better for our flight back to Addis Ababa tomorrow!

Lalibella, Ethiopia Day 2

Today is the Virgin Mary’s birthday!  We had arranged for a local guide to meet up with us (400 birr = approx $25) and he was at the hotel promptly at 8am.  It was the same guy we met at the airport with our hotel.  He had mentioned he was a guide and his English was very clear.

Because of the big birthday, there was a huge ceremony happening when we arrived.  Our guide pushed us up to the very front so I could get photos.  There was a lot of dancing and chanting.  After that part was over, everyone sat down for a lesson from the head Priest.  We snuck out to buy our tickets to see the churches (350 birr = Approx $20).  We started the tour and got to see the Priests brining the important crosses (including a replica of the Arc of the Covenant, which we aren’t actually allowed to look at…but it was under there) back to the church!  We hired a Shoe-minder, which is man who watches over your shoes when you enter the churches.  We learned there is hardly any theft (or violence for that matter) in Lalibella but its more to give this man a job to do.  It wasn’t very expensive (100 birr = $6) and its great to be able to support a working man and his family.  He even came back later in the day although we had already paid (and tipped) him.  Very respectable. 

I couldn’t possibly type through everything we saw today!  There are 12 churches in the area of Lalibella that were all excavated about 900 years ago by King Lalibella.  Each church has so much character and history.  Most of them are underground and the earth is dug out around them.  The most famous is the church of St George that is shaped like a cross from the aerial view.  We spent the morning going to about half the churches, and then finished up the remaining ones in the afternoon.

We had a fantastic lunch at a local restaurant, tibs, injera and firfir.  We rested for about 2 hours before returning for the tour.  There is so much history and archolgists and church historians date some of these churches to the 12^th-16^th century!  There are even painting and fresco’s dating back that far!  Amazing!  Although I’m not religious at all, I got choked up several times at the spirituality and history of this town.  If you are an adventurous traveler, I would highly recommend visiting Lalibella, this was a definite highlight of my trip!  

Because we had a guide this time, no little beggars bothered us, which we learned they are called walky talky’s.  This is perfect because that is exactly what they do….walk and talk along side you!  Most of them praise Obama and quote his campaign slogan.

We got back to the hotel around 5:30 to shower up and we made plans to take a taxi to a local bar to have some tej (honey wine), which is my favorite in the states!

Okay, so Tej is totally different in the states!  This is made with special Ethiopian hops with aids with the fermentation.  It had a somewhat citrus (orange) taste as well.  It’s not as easy to drink as the US version but I managed to finish my dad’s portion.  The place is called Torpido and we ate some awesome lamb tibs, with super fresh injera.  Ethiopians like it a day old but I prefer it light and fresh.  They had some Azmeri’s (musicians) who performed tonight.  The man plays a Masinko (like a one string violin made of horse hair) and sings along with a dancer who pulls you out on the dance floor for a traditional dance that involves moving your shoulders up and down (mom went, I didn’t).  They sing happy songs that are actually underlying insults.  They called me an orange, full in the face, which I guess is a compliment here. Ah well.  

We walked the mile back to our hotel in the dark around 10:00pm, more exercise than I’m used to before bed!  I’ll sleep well tonight!

Lalibella, Ethiopia Day 1

Sunday May 8, 2011

We had a crazy early flight to Lalibella, the taxi was picking us up at 5am!  It actually wasn’t that hard to get out of bed amazingly.  We got to the terminal (the wrong one again, so we had to walk) and found some pastries for breakfast along with some high speed Wifi!  WooHoo!  I got to chat with Allie for a bit, post a blog and even Skyped with Jason for 10 mins.  He could barely hear me and there was a delay but it was nice to hear his voice. 

The wait to board the airplane was long and extremely hot.  I thought I was going to pass out!  We finally got on a bus which brought us to our prop plane.  We first stopped in Gondor but didn’t get off.  We arrived at the Lalibella airport it was around noon.  We didn’t have hotel reservations but my dad had found the place we wanted to stay and since its their low season, we figured there would be a room.  They had a representative at the airport who called and confirmed they had a triple room available!  

We boarded a share taxi (van) and drove the 30 minute ride in to the town of Lalibella.  It was quite remote.  Lots of mud/straw huts for houses with farm land and some streams.  Its very hilly here, no flat land other than at the airport!  I saw women washing their clothes in the stream, a boy pulling a sheep by its hind leg and a group of young boys carrying a wrapped dead body on a stretcher type contraption.  All new sights for me! 

The hotel is extremely cute!  It got good ratings in my dads guidebook.  They are individual huts and are clean and relatively new.  They are made out of red stone from a Caldera, which is volcanic rock.  We are staying in Tukels which are round buildings. These happen to be one on top of the other. 

We had lunch at the hotel, injera and tibs with a prix-fixe menu.  They had a lovely salad that was from their garden.  It started raining during our dessert of crepes with orange marmalade and then the electricity went out!  

It went on about a half hour later where I checked my email in the hotel lobby for 1 birr per minute.  My parents met me in the lobby and we went for a long walk around the town.  We walked about 2-3 miles, on cobblestone, with lots of uphill and high elevation!  Needless to say, it was exhausting.  We walked to the center of town.  Begging from the small children is very common.  It’s the young boys, between the ages of 5 and 10 mostly.  They have little scams they try to run on you.  For example, asking for change for a dollar bill, asking for money for school supplies, giving me a letter written in English that says they are orphans and homeless. Things like that.  The elder people don’t say a word and a lot of the 20-30 year olds will say hello in English.  Quite a few people said hello to us and welcomed us to their town, which I found nice. The begging was tough and I learned how to say “I do not want” in Amharic.  

A wedding processional van!

We didn’t go in any of the churches today, we are doing that tomorrow.  There were a few weddings happening today and we saw the decorated vans carrying the bridal party and guests. They go to different sites around town and then follow the bride and groom and sing them taunting songs. 

We ended up back at the hotel around 6pm and decided to call it a night.  I was asleep by 8:30pm. I blame it on the altitude! :P

Tanzania Day 7 & Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Day 6

Saturday May 7, 2011

Our last day in Tanzania!  We left the hotel around 7:30 and got on the road to Arusha.  We stopped at a souvenir shop to check out some Tanzanite.  All the tanzanite in the world is mined in Arusha!  This place was overpriced but I was able to fine this cool statue to bring home to Jason.  We went to a second, larger market for souvenirs. It was crazy overpriced and their stuff wasn’t even that nice.  I saw some tanzanite rings that were pretty but in the $300-$600 range!  I can get that cheaper in the states!  I think our driver gets a kick back for taking us there.  He was awesome but he has to earn a living too!

We got back on the road to Arusha where they took us to Mount Meru hotel which was super swanky.  We had a delicious lunch before being ushered back to a van to go to the airport.  The airport was so disorganized, we didn’t get through til the time our plane was supposed to leave.  Turns out there was a major miscommunication and we weren’t supposed to leave for another hour.  Oh well, we sat in the airport and chatted with the others in our group.  Stupid me set my cell phone down on the seat and left it there in the rush to board the airplane!  Bye bye iPhone!  I was pretty upset when I was on the plane and realized it was missing.  I knew exactly what I did and beat myself up over it.  I’m not normally that ditzy. 

The flight back to Addis was pretty bad too. I got put in the middle seat between two men.  One decided to take his shoes off for the entire trip and the other obviously forgot his deodorant that morning.  Luckily the 2 hour flight seemed to go by quickly!  We arrived in Addis and it was a whole ‘nother bag of worms getting money and our bags.  We finally got out of there around 9pm, got a taxi and went to the hotel.

I had planned on jumping online at our hotel, emailing Jason about my phone and calling AT&T to switch over the back up old iPhone I brought as a 2^nd iPod.  Turns out the Internet is down in the entire town!!  What the heck?  I was able to get through to Mandi, who gave me AT&T and Jason’s number (Thanks Mandi!)  I called both and had no luck getting the 2^nd phone activated.  They fried the SIM card when I cancelled that number so I have to wait until I’m back in the US to get a working phone again. Grrrrr!  I have no had good luck on this trip.

Bed time now….we have an early morning flight to Lalibella!

Tanzania Day 6

Friday May 6^th, 2011

Our last day of game drives.  We decided to start extra early to beat the crowds – 6:30am!  It was tough considering I was up til 1am the night before!  We got in the Ngorongoro Park early and started looking for lions.  We ended up seeing about 4 or 5 different prides. They were mostly sleeping although one of the younger males was out scouting.  We also saw some rhinos in the distance and a few cheetahs!

We stopped for lunch at a hippo pool and an elephant walked right by us!  After lunch it was back to looking for more lions and cheetahs.  There are no giraffes in the crater since it is mostly plains.  We headed back to the lodge around 1pm for lunch.  I was super tired so I spent the rest of the afternoon checking email and napping. 

At 6:30pm there was a traditional Maasai dance in the lounge.  It wasn’t as cool as the one in the village but still neat to watch.  We had dinner and I was so tired I fell asleep just after dinner!