Kiev Redux

The "Motherland" Statue

One tired family on one long day….. The highlights: the Great Patriotic War Museum (WWII) fantastic and reverence awe, the Lavra (Kiev monastery and catacombs) more dead people but incredible history and a pharmacy museum of drugs of the past….let’s just say they did the same things our doctors did way back when and the brews were probably the same….eye of newt, wing of bat….all yours for the price of three cows! And we thought our health care was expensive. What scares me, is it hasn’t evolved a whole lot (not really, they now use electrical shock therapy)!

These are impressively large, Ithe gun is at head level.

Having fun!

Only one part of the brew...the eye of newt follows.....

The Big Top!

We are packed in like sardines, as wet as one too!

The Big Top came to town! This was another unique experience that is best described as WOW, not necessarily a good WOW, but deserves the title. Let’s start with a shoe horning of guests into a one ring circus tent erected in the town’s square (one could barely move…praying there was no calamity where people needed to evacuate). It happened to be pouring rain this day and besides standing in 2-3 inches of water outside waiting to get in, there was 2-3 inches inside the tent completely submerging the electrical cords for the sound, lighting, popcorn and cotton candy maker….ahh, thank goodness we have soaking wet submerged rubber soles on! The talent was good for the size of the event, we saw a tight rope walker….let's just say she was very flexible, a sword swallower, amazing farm animals that could do tricks of sorts (I never thought a 75lb pot belly pig would execute an obstacle course and chickens that were willing to be spun around in circles on hoops. It really was a good show and the clown between acts made all of us laugh even though we didn’t understand a single word. To keep it short, one could classify the whole event as a “circus”…but a three ring would have been more appropriate.

Entranced by the show!

Halloween

Having fun at Perspective school

This is always one of those holidays we could do without, but the kids love to dress up and get candy (what kid wouldn’t). As you know we try and make life seem as normal as possible for the kids while we are here, so we figured there were enough American families in Slavutich that we could organize a small trick or treating route. We introduced the Trick or Treating holiday to a few new people: one American couple whose wife hasn’t lived in the States and experienced the uniqueness of having kids come knock at your door and ask for candy, and one local who was eager to get candy for our cute kids! We ended up sharing our weird holiday event with some kids from the Perspective School who quickly understood the benefits of this strange cultural experience. All and all we had about 20 kids happy to be running around the town knocking on doors screaming “trick or treat”. We all had a good time and for eight houses the kids had candy for a month…….

The young American kids having a blast trick-or-treating!



A belly dancer and a gypsy



Leave it to the Professionals

Ah driving, we have only touched on this topic. When we moved to Ukraine, it was a drastic change to the way we drive in the States. The people in Ukraine drive very aggressive (sidewalks count as vehicle paths), Speed and “cutting” and even driving in the wrong lane for a “smoother” trip is the norm. I have had many trips to Kiev and the things I’ve seen still amaze and freighten me. I pray for the sure hand of the drivers and I’m always thankful to return home safely…….Egypt was a whole new experience, what I thought was crazy driving in Ukraine couldn’t hold a candle to these people. I think the only thing that is familiar is they drive on the “right” side of the road. Pedestrians do NOT have any type of right-of-way and hearing a hand slapped against the side of the bus was all part of the experience (we think it was on the side and not on the bottom of the bus…hee, hee...we think). One of our first clues of the insanity should have been after leaving the airport to the hotel (it was dark out); Nichole and I noticed that some people didn’t drive with headlights on and then “flashed” them at different times, very peculiar but we were too tired from the trip and excited to get to the resort that we didn’t think too much of it. But heading back from Luxor we learned a lot about Egyptian driving (more than we’ll blog about, we don’t want to scare the Grandparents). There is a middle lane on a two lane road, this is where you align the vehicle dead center of the faded painted center line and push the oncoming and ongoing traffic over (during a simultaneous pass of all the vehicles there’s all of six inches on either side of the middle vehicle). During night time driving Headlights are optional and actually not preferred to use.

The headlights are only used during passes (which occur at all times). This headlight thing also made for an interesting event called “crossing the street”, we noticed that as people started to cross the dark unlit street that all of a sudden multiple cars started “flashing” their headlights, warning of the approaching danger. This got us thinking what happens when you’re already in the middle of this road crossing? I think ultimately we didn’t want to know and didn’t bother to ask…..we figured somehow they made it without incident. The bumper sticker, “I don’t drive fast, I fly low” certainly came to mind multiple times as when there was a straight section of road; I think the speed rating on the tires was far exceeded. I am confident the Lord was keeping us safe and we had a lot of exhausted angels up there. All I can say to put in perspective was when we got home, it was a breath of fresh air to have “normal” driving with headlights and we commented on how nice it was to be driving back in Ukraine….yikes!

Luxor & Valley of the Kings

How interesting can 3400 year old ruins be? Well let me tell you, absolutely breath taking and fascinating! Nichole and I enjoy immensely history and archeology (If the Lord wills, perhaps someday we will find ourselves on an excavation site, sharing His name). Even if you don’t appreciate history, the shear massiveness and complexity of the Luxor Temple is unfathomable. To have seen it during its peak would’ve had to be more than mind boggling. The pillars of the great hall are about 40 feet high and 8 feet in diameter, hieroglyphs are etched on every wall, pillar and roof on this temple. Gold lined all the sanctuaries, pillars and some walls, precious stones and solid gold “gods” were everywhere. It truly is unfathomable how the Egyptians created these temples.

What can you say, how awesome?!

Every hieroglyph seemed a perfect copy of the one before and these are on 320 ton stones throughout the temple some as high as 80 feet (a mistake I’m sure would have been life ending, but these men had to be craftsmen like no other). Of course all that is left from this once great temple are bare broken walls of endless hieroglyphs telling of past stories. Some of the original colors can still be seen which further paints the picture of what it may have looked like, given the chance to let the mind wander, it doesn’t take long to imagine what it would have been like to see such a place.

The amazing thing is we were allowed to touch and run our fingers through the same carvings that the Pharos of the time idolized, and that a man carved 3400 years prior. We saw and touched the same stones that Joseph, Solomon, Alexander the Great and every other historical leader of the time saw and probably touched. I’m confident we stood on a spot where one of these men stood at one time.

A small break from the stone oven.

The stories are on the walls, so cool!

The Luxor Temple has history of being used as a Christian church and pictures of Christ, Paul and Mary is still seen to this day. This is just one stop in Luxor; we haven’t even talked about the other temples, the Valley of the Kings and the City of the Dead. Even today’s modern city of Luxor has its own tale to tell.
As you can imagine we could write pages and pages of these places, but I guess that’s what books, museums and the Discovery Channel is for. But we would recommend if you ever get a chance to visit this place you won’t regret seeing this part of human history.

The girls were real troopers for Mom and Dad’s big history lesson; they failed to grasp the full awesomeness of these big rocks with pictures on them and although they thought it was interesting, fun to run around and explore, the heat and beating sun took its toll on them and they quickly wanted to go back to the air-conditioned bus. I of course, was running around looking behind every wall, around every corner and under every rock I could find.
The City of the Dead was the same, the hot mountainous rocks full of graves didn’t thrill the girls too much (it was interesting too them for oh, twenty minutes), but pictures of weird half animal half man things and the thought of a dead person being at the end of the tunnel didn’t sit too well with them (no, all the mummies were safe at the museum) and in fact the girls would rather have stayed outside where it was a touch cooler and they had fresh air. But we dragged them down into the tombs for their enlightenment (I’m sure the therapy sessions will be interesting someday). We do have wonderful little girls, they indulged us little complaint and at least kept up with our unusually exuberant pace in the high heat.

Nearing the end, Ellie & Rylie weren't the only ones wiped out!

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures in these areas or at the museum, so, you’ll have to Google for some pictures, but it was every bit of as impressive as the Luxor Temple. The colors are still vibrant and original and there are many graves yet to find (they had actually found one a few months prior to our arrival and we saw the entrance and heard about some of the artifacts that were discovered). If you didn’t know, this is the same place in which King Tutankhamen (King Tut) was found.

Grave entrances of governors

Egyptian Desert

Welcome to Egypt! Egypt is 38662 square miles that’s about one and half Texas’, but only five percent of this country is inhabitable, the rest is desert. Now those of us that know the Tri-Cities is technically considered a desert (less than ten inches of rainfall per year), please know, we do NOT live in a DESERT. There is more greenness and vegetation in the remotest part of the Columbia Basin than there is in the remaining 95% of Egypt. The area where we were (Hurghada) hasn’t seen rain for three years.

We had an unusual moment when we were on our desert excursion, about a dozen rain drops fell (there were threatening looking clouds or I would have thought airplane)….we heard some people from the Bedouin tribe start the Arabic “ayeyeye” sound over it. WOW, it was like manna from heaven! The rocks, and mountains were so jagged, the only thing to erode these towering pinnacles is wind.

The desert excursion we were on was fascinating from the stand point we saw some territory of Egypt that we would not have otherwise seen. The day started with a speed bump riddled van ride to pick up other participants from other hotels (this was our only Russian tour). The day was to include, driving/riding four wheelers, spider cars, horses, camel and a jeep ride out to a Bedouin tribe. This trip was executed not exactly as described to us (now, remember we are in Egypt from a Russian travel agency, so I’m positive that has something to do with it). We had to purchase some scarves to keep the sand off our faces then we were shown the art of wrapping them on our heads (now we’re looking Egyptian). The four wheelers were boring for this Northwest born family who knows how to jump these puppies; we end up playing follow the leader through the desert. It was more fun letting Rylie (age 5) and Ellie (age 7) drive while we sat back and gave them limited direction (like slow down) we would occasionally fall behind so we could ramp it up to catch back up; the girls loved it. The spider car wasn’t any different (but I couldn’t let the girls drive or I would have) and our horse ride consisted of a 30 yard walk up and back on a poor broken down horse that was the perfect size for Rylie….it didn’t look very good for the adults that actually got on it (we had the only kids and opted out of this ride). There was a little excitement at the end when the horses got into a small skirmish; of course Ellie was front and center for the event, we were able to rescue her without incident. After that though, the tour group took a real interest in the girls and they were always watching (and intervening) to make sure the girls were safe, the Russian/Ukrainian people are very protective of children and it was comforting to know that 25 other people had their safety at heart.

We also got to ride individual camels, you would have thought the girls died and went to heaven having their OWN camel! They sure did look cute up on that funny looking animal! The Bedouin tribe was a bit disappointing as it was “commercialized” I guess Nichole and I had envisioned the National Geographic version. But we got to see a few cobras and other desert reptilian we even had the opportunity to have a snake around our neck…..oh joy! (that’s being sarcastic!) I think I forgot to talk about the ride out there. That was probably the most exciting part of the trip. How does high speed off road travel in an enclosed van/jeep vehicle with no seatbelts sound? So, it was off to the races and with every bump we became somewhat weightless and begin floating around the vehicle (or tumbling). I think that’s why little Rylie started to not feel very well, it was the astronaut training. So we ended up with a car sick little girl and four bruised kidneys (not really…well Rylie didn’t feel well).

They were delighted to be on their own camel!

Tony's camel guide-so cute!

The ride did take us to the amazing part of the trip and that was getting into the mountains and seeing up close the valleys and peaks that we could see from the resort. It doesn’t look like anything you would see in Pacific Northwest; it was a different beauty but still incredible. To think the Israelites wandered a similar wilderness for 40 years is unfathomable, you truly would need Jehovah Jireh!
The night ended with some шашлик (Shashleek….Russian for meat Kabob) and the best nightly entertainment of the entire vacation; a performance of the El Tanoura (Egyptian Spinning Dance)….it was amazing, to have seen it in person was a real privilege!

I think he spun for 20 minutes straight!

The Great Pyramids

This trip was expected to be a very big and full day…..here’s the plan: plane to Cairo, private tour of the pyramids, sphinx, lunch on the Nile, Museum of antiquities and finally the famous bazaar of Cairo…oh don’t forget fly back and drive to the hotel; see I told you it was full. Cairo is a city like none that we’ve ever seen. There are 20 million people in this city…..wow! Do you realize that's over two New York Cities combined! The outskirts of the city looked extremely poor, yet there were some very NICE cars rolling along next to our little tour bus. It was hard to imagine what life was like for the average person…..
Our first glimpses of the great pyramids of Giza were amazing; it was weird to see these structures as a “normal” part of the skyline and because of the size of Cairo, the city is built right up to these structures. By the time we reached the pyramids they didn’t seem real and then when you’re standing in front of them you can’t believe what you are seeing; you really can’t appreciate the enormity, the engineering and the complexity of the pyramids until you see them in person. Our tour guide hooked us up with a camel tour down and around the pyramids and gave us our first experience with the Egyptian culture of “haggling”, in this case it was certainly just for show and I think we got taken advantage of (at least a little, but it wasn’t more than we were willing to spend).

A very very bumpy ride!

The unfortunate part of this excursion is we had a lot of area to cover in a very short amount of time so there wasn’t time to just sit and take in the sights and the feeling of what we just looked at and it couldn’t sink in. The same was true for each stop, but we managed to take in as much as we could.  Even Chaplain and Bun (Ellie's bear and Ry's bunnie) missed their photo shoot in front of the pyramids and had to settle for a picture from the window of the tour bus as we zoomed by the pyrmaids.

The museum was by far the next favorite stop; we only had two hours and trust me that is only enough time to scratch the surface of this place. It’s filled with artifacts from King Tutankhamen tomb, statues….we’re talking BIG stone statues of Ramses, Anubis to just name a few of them. Actual sarcophaguses of the many mummies (we could touch these), toys, the first ever portable camping bed (it actually had hinges and could fold up). Some weird/eerie things we saw was the embalming table; it was made of stone, sloped and shaped just right to “catch” all the fluids; when you’re standing in front of it (being able to touch it) and thinking what actually took place on these (these aren’t replicas) it just felt a little creepy. Oh, and the alabaster jars that held the organs of the dead with the blood still present on the lips and running down the side of the jars and then of course there are the mummies. I don’t know, there is something just not right about how these things look, although very, very, very fascinating it was just “weird”. Looking at the artifacts, you really wouldn’t have believed the ingenuity, artistry and skill of the people of this time. These people were truly an advanced civilization that surpasses a lot of places in the world today. The experience left us with many more questions than we were able to find answers.

The shopping was, well, interesting…..there is no easy way to explain this processes, if you know the opening scene of Disney's Aladin it really was just like that at times (we were just waiting for them to try and sell us sand).  In the end the girls each bought a gold Egyptian kartoosh with their names written in hieroglyphics. We bought a papyrus painting of something (I can’t remember what….but it’s cool), authentic Egyptian scarves and a blouse as well as few alabaster vases, bowls and candle lights.
The trip was overwhelming with sights, sounds and adventure and it ended way before we were ready. We hope to return someday and if we do, we will spend a minimum of two days, but hopefully closer to four in order to capture all the amazing things we saw.

Look Dad, it's Nemo!

 

With all the water time we got, it’s a wonder that we didn’t grow gills. We spent most of our days in the labyrinth of pools or out playing in the Red Sea. One of the trips’ highlights was teaching the girls how to snorkel; they really took to it like fish to water (sorry, I couldn’t resist). For some of our dive buddies the water was about 30ft deep off the pier and the reef was about 5’ deep at most, so there was an awesome reef wall perfect for snorkeling & diving, the visibility was around 60-feet and temperature around 75F. Like in Nemo, at the edge of the reef (where we were) was the “big blue” so we were able to see a few larger species of fish (unfortunately no sharks). Rylie’s first open water adventure on the reef and the “Deep” waters of the Red Sea were something to be seen. She was no bigger than some of the fish we saw and somehow she figured out how to talk in her snorkel so we could all hear her. We heard odes to the fish and all of a sudden we hear a shrill of happiness and an ever so exuberant “look dad it’s Nemo”. Sure enough, there were three clown fish and one of them was a tiny little one (couldn't see the lucky fin). We saw many familiar fish from our Caribbean dives and many new fish that we haven’t seen before. Ellie, was hard to keep up with, she wanted to see what was next along the cliff, for a seven year old with no fins she was fast in the water (she’s part mermaid I think). The Red Sea must be a little more salty than other oceans we’ve been in, as we were able to float effortlessly for hours in the water swimming quite far from the pier. We were able to go on a snorkeling excursion where the girls were much more prepared for the deeper and more challenging waters of the open Sea. We had so much fun blowing bubbles as a family!  The boat we were on was beautiful and quite relaxing.  I suppose the advantage to being around a bunch of tourists who don't speak much English is that you don't have to sit and have small chat with them.  We had a very relaxing day sailing on the boat, snorkeling in the sea, and swimming off a sandy beach.  We might have had a few close calls with boats nearly colliding and what not, but no harm done.