Saturday, our first destination was breakfast at nearby City Stars, a gigantic mall that, after some research, I’ve since discovered is about six times larger than Cherry Creek Mall in Denver and almost twice as large as the great Mall of America in Minnesota. The place is MASSIVE.

City Stars is pretty close to Heather’s house, and has a Fuddruckers. Amazing! Not only are there no Fuddruckers in Germany, there aren’t even very many in Colorado. It was delicious.

Next, Heather wanted us to experience some public transportation. Seeing as we’re kind of an expert at public transportation in Europe, we thought this would be easy. The ticket was 1 Egyptian pound, or about 20 cents. As we waited for the train to pull up, Heather explained that she would ride on the women’s car and we were instructed to take the men’s, because as Travis’ wife, I was expected to ride with him - but since Heather is single (and NOT his wife, contrary to their speculations), she rode with the ladies. She told us the stop we’d need to get off at and we went our separate ways.

I can’t overstate how awkward and uncomfortable the next 30 minutes was. We were packed in the train car getting stared at, looked up and down - one lady even shook her fist and yelled something at us after she got off the train. If we had felt somewhat out of place at the market the day before, that was NOTHING. I was more than relieved when the train finally got to our stop.

I should backtrack a bit and mention that although it was about 80 degrees there (and gets MUCH hotter), no one wears shorts. Showing the knee is a bad, bad thing. I was prepared for this and wore jeans the entire time, but wasn’t aware that also showing elbows is apparently a bad thing (but not bad, bad). Everyone had on jackets and heavy coats in spite of the heat. Also the fact that I wasn’t wearing a head covering made me stand out as “Western” and therefore, the enemy. Travis also stands out in a crowd - literally, at 6′5″ - and being blond ensures he doesn’t exactly blend in with the locals.

We got to our stop, elated to be off of that horrible, hot, sweaty, cramped experience with all of the eyes on us and met back up with Heather. We were at Coptic Cairo - the Christian area. Hooray!

Heather told a story about when she first got here last September and it happened to be Ramadan. During that time, the Muslims fast during daylight hours, and even non-Muslims are expected not to eat or drink in public. Add to the fact that it was 110 degrees, and Heather said she and her friends got to Coptic Cairo and just chugged an entire bottle of water because it was a “safe” place to drink.

Our first stop was The Hanging Church, and this is what Wikipedia says about it: The Hanging (The Suspended) Church is named for its location above a gatehouse of Babylon Fortress, the Roman fortress in Coptic Cairo (Old Cairo); its nave is suspended over a passage.

It was gorgeous, and Travis took this picture of Heather and I inside.

We wandered the beautiful cobblestone streets and alleyways and went into a number of churches, and even one synagogue.

It was a warm day, and we decided to stop for a coffee/water break at a local tea house before continuing. Travis had insisted that we would not be riding the train again - taxis from here on for us - but Heather promised it would be a better ride since we were only going three stops. We trusted her, but this time I let Travis take the men’s car alone and I rode the women’s with Heather. It was much more peaceful - I even secretly took this picture to document it.

Travis said his ride was better, too, thankfully.

Our next stop was Maadi, the area of Cairo that Heather will be moving to in June. Her friends apparently call it Honky Town, after all of the expats that live there, but to us it didn’t seem to have THAT many whites.

We stopped at an alabaster store for some souvenirs, picking up a few small gifts and trinkets for ourselves. Heather had a meeting that evening at 5:00 and we realized she’d forgotten something back at the house, so we hailed a cab (no, no, and NO to the train idea) to run back to her house, get it, and return. And what an ordeal that was! With the traffic - which is everywhere, all day, all the time - I think the entire round trip took us about 2.5 hours. Travis caught this video from his front seat perch, which I think is awesome but it’s hard to see things like the two lane road being turned into four, the cars swerving in and out and honking, and all of the other chaos.

Driving in Cairo, Egypt from Iamyourleader on Vimeo.

On the other hand, I tried to shoot my own video from the back seat, and because I am a white woman, I was trying to be a little incognito about the whole thing. Mine is much shorter, but take note of the horns.

Untitled from Iamyourleader on Vimeo.

THE HORNS! The entire weekend in Cairo, what I will remember most is the horns. There was never a full minute that was horn-free. It absolutely drove me batty.

We made it back to Maadi in time for Heather to shove us off on a Felucca boat and make it to her meeting.

For about an hour, we sat on the Nile in a boat and enjoyed the scenery and sunset (and honking, from a distance though, so that was better).

While we were perched out there, we noticed a TGI Fridays in the distance, and decided that’s where we’d head for dinner. Another thing we don’t have in Germany.

It was probably one of the best meals of our trip!

Heather met up with us, and since it was a Saturday it meant it was a school night for her - she teaches Sunday-Thursday, with Friday and Saturday being the weekend (Friday the holy day). We took another cab home (more traffic, but not AS bad), and Travis and I got some sleep so we’d be ready for our big day at the pyramids on Sunday.

To begin, driving in Malta is everything I expected it to be, and I can highly recommend avoiding renting a car if you value your life and/or your marriage. If, on the other hand, you are the type that likes death-defying, white knuckle moments for two days straight, then by all means rent a car!

We had a bit of trouble finding our hotel, trouble that I won’t go into here more than to say it got ugly. And the hotel was only about five miles from the airport. How could anyone get that lost in only five miles? Well, in this picture below, imagine trying to go from just below the “M” in Map to the coastal area above the “I” in Image.

Now imagine doing that on the left side of the road, on roads that were a small step above gravel in quality, and without the aid of a single street sign. Sure, we had a map, but it’s hard to follow a map when you have no idea what roads you’re on or what town you’re in. Add in the complete blackness, and there you have our first night in Malta.

Needless to say, we got to the hotel eventually and fell asleep from sheer exhaustion pretty quickly.

Saturday we were up early to begin sightseeing. And let me tell you, things are a lot easier to navigate in the daylight. I mean, it was still REALLY hard, but it’s all relative.

Ever since we’d decided to come to Malta, Travis had wanted to go see the Blue Lagoon, located off of the coast near a tiny, uninhabited island. So we headed to the northern end of the island where the boats took off for that area. We were greeted with a rainbow right away, which I thought was a nice sign after our tumultuous evening on Friday.

Unfortunately, we weren’t expecting the typhoon-like conditions that awaited us on the north shore. Needless to say, none of the boats were running to that area because of the wind and high waves.

We did get a lot of “angry sea” pictures:

Even though it was sunny and about 60 degrees, I was very glad to have my winter coat. It wasn’t long before we were soaked with sea spray (even from a “safe” distance) and the wind made it feel like I was getting frostbite.

The ferry was still running to the nearby island of Gozo, so we drove on. Surely a big boat like that would not be affected by a few waves, right? Wrong. We were tossed around like a ping-pong ball for the full 25 minute duration of the trip. Travis actually took this video before we boarded. If I had seen it, I probably would have opted out of riding. It’s a good thing I didn’t see it!

Ferry Boat from Iamyourleader on Vimeo.

We drove through the beautiful countryside of the island, stopping every so often for photos.

Between the two small islands, that are over 365 churches, which meant we saw beautiful scenery everywhere we looked. We made it to the opposite side of the island fairly quickly. The weather was torn between trying to be sunny and trying to be rainy, and between the skies and the sea and THE WIND, everything seemed to be in a battle.

Travis had a lot of fun playing, and got some really good videos.

Fungus Rock from Iamyourleader on Vimeo.

I got a taste of the video bug myself and shot this one from the warmth and calm interior of the car.

Tourists from Iamyourleader on Vimeo.

But then I decided “You don’t go to Malta to sit in a car!” and forced myself back into the rain. Here’s my search for my husband.

Coast from Iamyourleader on Vimeo.

I really am sorry about all of the videos, but I felt I had to take this one to give a good example of what the roads are like. Unfortunately it doesn’t look nearly as steep as it was, but this still gives you a pretty good idea. And sorry about the camera shake Inevitable, I think.

Crazy Road from Iamyourleader on Vimeo.

Ok one last video if you’re really bored. This was on the ferry ride returning to the main island and man, was it rockin and rollin. I pretty much decided that if we made it to the shore I would never ride a boat again. It was MUCH worse than our trip out and I had my eyes on the life preservers - you know, just in case - the whole time.

Once back on solid ground, we headed for the town of Mdina, a walled city high on a hill.

WOW! This place was awesome. Ok, it took us a little while to actually find our way inside the city gates, but once we did…

We had the quiet, cobblestone streets almost all to ourselves.

We had a great time, but I was starting to get worried about the sunset. At 3:00 in the afternoon. You see, I was worried because I didn’t want to get ourselves in some crazy predicament like we’d had the night before where we were driving around blindly. It turned out to be a wise call on my part because the roads we took back to the hotel were sketchy indeed. I’m proud to say it we made it fairly easily. It still took about an hour, so I was happy we planned ahead.

Once back at the hotel, we asked for dinner recommendations because we’d only snacked all day. The staff sent us in one direction, but were never able to find the area she’d described. (SEE? It’s even easy to get lost WALKING there!) There was a Tex Mex restaurant next to the hotel, and we decided we’d just head back there. Of course, in the process of heading back there, we found the area we’d originally been looking for. Funny how that works. But at this point, we wouldn’t be deterred from our Mexican in Malta.

Dinner was actually really great and we were happy we ate there. We decided to take a bus to the next town. The buses in Malta are straight out of 1960. It was actually a really cool experience to ride - even though we only went two stops.

After goofing around and taking a few night pictures, we headed back to the hotel.

It was a long, jam-packed day for us.

When we were in Holland with Reggie and Kim last week, we got to star in our own music video!

Sing Along from Travis Hess on Vimeo.

I’m a little low on writing materials (and quite busy at work, and quite tired from the weekend) so I’m wimping out today and posting a missing video from our trip to South Africa. This is from the Shark’s Board. Note the gagging sounds of the collective audience trying to keep breakfast down.

Natal Black Tip Shark Dissection from Travis Hess on Vimeo.

I mentioned a video of the lightning on our first night in South Africa and I wanted to add the link to it. One thing I feel I should mention: Have you ever tried to film a lightning storm that is not cooperating? Yeah, it’s hard. But I think I caught some good strikes. To give you a visual, this is all going on over the ocean, which we’re facing (but you can’t really see since it’s nighttime).

Lightning from Travis Hess on Vimeo.

We slept in a bit on our last day, but not too long because we had to be out of the guesthouse by 11. And also partially because sleep was still a painful concept to my fried twigs.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the guest house so much. The staff was so kind and we did not want to leave. One good habit we’ve carried with us from our stay there has been a nice, hot breakfast every morning, usually fried eggs and toast. I knew it had been a trip well worth it when on our first morning back I was treated to breakfast in bed

We had a large part of the day before having to get to the airport, but we were torn with not wanting to be in the sun too much but still wanting to soak up the ocean while we could. We decided to check out uShaka Marine World which was home to a Sea World and Water World.

We were very surprised and pleased when we got to uShaka. After parking, you walk through an outdoor mall with all kinds of unique shops. There were also a few groups of dancers and drummers, one of my favorites being this troupe.

Zulu Dancers from Travis Hess on Vimeo.

As we continued through the mall, it emptied on to the beach. At this point we decided there was enough to do and see here and we didn’t need to pay for Sea World when all of this entertainment was free. We did some shopping, ate lunch, and threw the Frisbee around on the beach to kill the day.

When we got to the airport, I was still in shorts and sandals. I couldn’t imagine the thought of jeans or, even worse, SOCKS on my raw skin. But when we arrived in Frankfurt at 6 a.m., it was quite chilly and I bucked up and slipped on jeans over my shorts. I think I was the only person in Frankfurt in shorts that day, even if it only lasted a few minutes.

It was a great trip, and we feel very fortunate to get to experience something that is so unique. In case you haven’t viewed all of the pictures yet, here are the links to Travis’ and mine.

For our third day in South Africa, we decided to stick to the city limits to check out some of what Durban had to offer. Our first stop was the Umgeni River Bird Park. The park was full of fun and interesting birds, many with very unique personalities like this guy:

Double Wattled Cassowary from Travis Hess on Vimeo.

We took lots of pictures and videos of the critters.

One of my favorites was the laughing Kookaburra, which I caught here in full-on laugh mode. I can see why they call them “laughing” - it may not sound like a laugh, but it sure causes YOU to laugh when hearing it.

Laughing Kookaburra from Travis Hess on Vimeo

As an aside, Travis had never heard the “Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree, eating all the gum drops he can see” song, until I sang about 1,000 times that day. Now I think he’s had enough of it

It was a cloudy day which kept the temperatures relatively cool. We walked around the beachfront and did some small shopping.

Durban wasn’t nearly as nice as Umhlanga Rocks, the town we were staying in, but they had a very fun developed beach front area called the Golden Mile. On the Golden Mile were a lot of public swimming pools and water slides, and it would be a very nice place to spend hot summer days as a kid.

(Mom, you should stop reading now.)

In spite of the clouds, we thought we’d better take a break from the sun, and we found ourselves at a casino with about 200 South African Rand, or 20 U.S. dollars. I sat down at a blackjack table and we walked away with well over $300 U.S. dollars (3,000 rand), which more than paid for our entire trip.

(Mom, you can start reading again.)

Afterward, we went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies for our Christmas day picnic. The store happened to be inside of a shopping mall, and when we looked at the directory trying to find the store, I noticed a shop I couldn’t resist.

We bought ourselves a couple of beach towels from this ingeniously-named (if not a bit overpriced) store and after a nice steak dinner (they call fillets “fill-its” here) settled down to wait for Santa.

We’ve recently started to go through some of the videos we took back in September on our Croatia trip, and I figured there was no better time to share this video of the sunset in Croatia. This video shows the beautiful town of Rovinj in full color. (And in full sound - we never even noticed those loud, ever-present church bells until we got home and watched this. How could we have missed that??)

Croatia from Travis Hess on Vimeo.

I’ve really been wanting to chronicle my commute on the blog. Even though it’s only 6 kilometers, it’s filled with death-defying acts by pedestrians and fellow drivers alike. So, yesterday, Travis drove and I videotaped and narrated, and here you have the unedited, uncut sampling of my daily drive. Complete with narration AND a soundtrack of German radio stations on scan. You’ll see exciting things like the scenic forest, the absurd drivers in Neu-Isenberg (the town I work in) and even my office building. I know, it sounds terribly boring. And it probably is. But here it is anyway.

Erin’s Commute from Travis Hess on Vimeo.