The End

Ainsley, Matthew and I in the Netherlands!
We flew in to Amsterdam the morning following our Tivoli adventures, and we didn't do much. We went to the people's place we were staying at before and we relaxed. The following day was also spent relaxing and not doing much. Then yesterday, we met up with friends of mine, Matthew and Ainsley. We met in The Hague (Den Haag) where we went adventuring for some dutch pancakes. Then we went to the beach there, where it promply decided to storm on us and we got soaked to the bone in a matter of 30 seconds. We found dutch pancakes and poffertjes, had a latte, and ventured to the aquarium where we spent a good portion of time. It was then time to head back to Leiden, pack up, and go to bed so we could be awake for 4:15am in order to catch a 5am taxi (hurrah, early flights).

And now, we are back in Vancouver. Thus ends our adventures on the other side of the world.

Now, we battle jetlag for a couple days.

Thus concludes this blog. Thanks for following us on our adventures!

Denmark Time is Coming to a Close

Brandon at HC Andersen's House
I left you guys in Århus. After, we went to Odense where we checked into a hotel, thankyouvery much. I'm sorry, but hostels are just gross. So a hotel it was. About Holiday Inn quality, but twice as expensive. This is, after all, Denmark and everything is about twice as much as it is in VanCity (and I thought it was expensive there!)

Anyway, Odense. We went to the Hans Christian Anderson museum and his house, which I enjoyed quite a bit. And my Lonely Planet Denmark guide had this little neat walking tour laid out in it, so we followed that, and it took us through the small city to churches, HC Anderson thingamajigs, museums, a beautiful garden, and other such things. It was quite nice. We also had giant sandwiches from a cafe, and they were seriously delicious.

The next day we took a train back to Copenhagen (this was yesterday). We found ourselves a hotel in a very central location. Brandon left me in the room reading my book while he went out for a bit so he could "organize" things for my birthday. when he was back, we went out for a walk along the shopping street, Strøget, which took us quite a long time. We also found ourselves at the guiness book of world records museum which was interesting. (and I discovered I can only punch 31% of the record punch). I had another ginormous cafe sandwich (the danes really do good sandwiches, I admit). Then we went to an Imax movie and the planetarium, because Brandon has never been to a planetarium before.

Today is my birthday. I woke up and got a birthday cake with candles and everything, and I ate it for breakfast. Brandon ate it for breakfast too. He also sang for me. It was very cute. Then I opened the presents he got for me and then we headed to Tivoli, an amusement park. We've been going on rides and whatnot all day. Now we are back at the hotel to chill out for a while, then we are going out tonight.

Tomorrow we go back to Amsterdam where we will spend our last couple days before flying back home.

Århus, Denmark

Den Gamle By
So Brandon and I are currently in Århus, which is on Jutland. We took the train here yesterday, got ourselves a room in what I call a "low budget hotel" (though it is really crappy and it still costs us about $90 a night). Anyway, we wandered around last night trying to find something to do, only to discover that everything closes here around 5:30pm (but it is still sunny at 11pm, so i dont get why everything closes so early). So we went to a movie for lack of anything else to do. We saw Fantastic Four 2, and it was good. We both enjoyed it.

Today, we went to Den Gamle By (The Old Town), and that was actually pretty cool. Then we used the public transit system to go to Legoland, which isn't in Århus. We got there just after 3pm and wandered about and admired the lego constructions, which were really amazing, but then they kick everybody out at 6pm (which we didn't know, our travel guide said 8pm), so we were bitter that we paid for a full day ($50 each) and only got less than 3 hours for it. Lame. But oh well.

Now we are back in Århus, and tomorrow we are going to go to Odense and check out Hans Christian Anderson's home town. We will spend the night there before heading back to Copenhagen.

Denmark

At the viking ship museum in Roskilde.
So Brandon's last entry ended off with our last day in the Netherlands...I will bring you all back up to date with our adventures so far in Denmark.

We flew from Amsterdam to Copenhagen on the 13th. Unfortunately for us, our flight was actually on the 12th. We missed it byexactly 24 hours. Lucky for us, a flight with the same airline was going to Copenhagen, so we bought ourselves some more tickets (only 90 Euros each, not bad!) and hung out at the airport for a couple hours until the flight left. We arrived in Copenhagen that evening, and had an adventure on the Danish train system up to Humlebæk, where we are staying with one of Brandon's family friends.

We had a good night's sleep, and then Dorte (the person we are staying with) drove us to Roskilde, where we went to the Viking Museum (Viking ships are so cool!) and then to Roskilde Cathedral, where lots of dead people are. It was really neat.

The next day, we took the train to Copenhagen. We pretended to sleep on the train so that the ticket lady wouldn't check our tickets, because we have no idea how to do it and we stamped them all wrong (we've got it figured now, though). Our sleeping ploy worked, however. In Copenhagen, we hopped on a tour bus and went to Christiania, which is a weird hippy freetown within Copenhagen. You should all look it up, it's pretty interesting. Then we walked to a train station because we somehow missed the last tour bus of the day by being 5 minutes early. We then met up with someone that Brandon knows and had dinner with them at their apartment, then went back to where we are staying (which is actually in Langstrup, a little country farm type town, but it is right by Humlebæk).

Then yesterday, we did nothing because we were so darn tired (travelling makes me sleepy, but I love it anyway), so we just read our books, went for a walk, ate food, whatever).

Then today, (dad, you'll love this), we met up with Preben (my farmor's cousin, for those that don't know) in Helsingør, and he took us to Kronborg, which is Hamlet's castle (Shakespeare, ya know). That was pretty cool, seeing as I have my degree in literature. Then he took us to his place in Hornbæk, which is way up North, and he and his wife made us a wonderful Danish lunch (start with the fish, then go to the meats, then the cheese) and Akvavit was also involved, but not too much. Then Preben showed us around Hornbæk a bit before dropping us back off in Helsingør. From there, Brandon and I hopped on a ferry to Sweden, because, why not? It is only a 20 minute ferry ride. So we wandered around Helsingborg in Sweden for the evening, and we went to Kärnan, a tower. It was pretty neat. Then we got some dinner, and caught a ferry back to Helsingør, and then a train back to Humlebæk (the journey back only takes about 40 minutes!)

And now we are going to pack up our stuff, as we are leaving this little country house, and heading to Århus tomorrow morning, which is on Jutland. We will be there for tomorrow and the next day, then we will go to Odense on Funen, then back to Copengagen for a couple days before going back to the Netherlands.

I am not so sure how much internet I will have until we go back to Leiden, because we do not have people's computers to borrow anymore. So you may not hear from Brandon or I for a while.

At any rate, it is rainy in Denmark, but I am still having a wonderful time!!!

Brandon's Second Post Ever

The herring.
It's been a while since the last update and a lot has been done.

When Alia left off she said that we were going into the Hague, which we did. While there, we went to Madurodam, which is a small town of scale models of famous and/or interesting Dutch buildings. It's quite fun for the most part, but one such as myself can only look at so many minature buiidings. Alia liked it because it was small and cute, and she likes small and cute things.

After Madurodam, we took the tram to Scheveningen and had poffertjes on the beach. Poffertjes, for those who don't know, are something like small and very delicious pancake balls with powdered sugar and butter. After this fantastic and nutritious meal, we returned to Den Haag and met up with a friend of mine, with whom we sat down and drank beer. Later we met up with another friend of mine and had more beer, then by chance more old friends showed up and yet more beer was had. This is what you do in the Netherlands when you meet an old friend, you go to a pub and tell stories over beer and by the end of the night you are happy but have some trouble walking in a straight line and probably shouldn't operate heavy machinery.

The next day was our final day in Amsterdam which was both a good day and a bad day. It was a good day because it was tons of fun. It was a bad day because our flight to Denmark left that day instead of the next like we thought it did. We started the day with a trip to Madam Tusseauds wax figure museum. They had a Pirates of the Carribbean display going on with actors who would jump out at you. One of us got a good scare, but I won't say who. We also got to have our pictures taken with such prominent figures as Johnny Depp, Micheal Jackson, Tina Turner, Jennifer Lopez, Van Gogh and the Mona LIsa (not the real painting, but a figure of the Mona Lisa, it was interesting).

Soon after leaving Madam Tusseauds we met up with one of my friends from the previous night and Alia and I had a herring eating competition. Herring is gross when prepared by the Dutch, very gross. After the competition, which I won, we went to a fry shop where you can get the world's, or at least Amsterdam's, best french fries. They were welcome relief from the taste of herring.

That evening was spent wandering around the Red Light District, adminring the local economy and visting various naughty shops which were full of the craziest things. We also went to a sex show, which really wasn't as exciting or entertaining as I had thought it would be, that is until my friend was half dragged on stage as a volunteer participant in a dominatrix act. I won't describe to you what happened but I'll let you know that I had tears in my eyes and nearly died of laughter.

The next day we caught a flight to Denmark, which is a small country that is much more cold and rainy than Oman. I'll tell you more about Denmark later, but for now I need to go and get some breakfast.

-Brandon

Brussels, Belgium

Nemo 33. Looking up from the bottom.
So we went to Amsterdam that day and headed to the Van Gogh museum, where we admired much of his artwork and it was amazing. I have always liked van gogh, and it was really neat to see many of the paintings i have seen and heard about in person.

After the museum, we went to the Tuschinski Theatre to watch Pirates three, and it was fantastic! Now it may seem odd that we went to a movie in Amsterdam, but this theatre was spectacular. It was built in the times of silent movies, so the architecture was really neat, and they have love seats (you know, those little couches for 2 people) in the theatre. Brandon and I booked one of them, and the benefits of sitting in one of these love seats is that you get served food and a bottle of wine during the movie. It was really cool.

Then we headed to the infamous "sexmuseum" and yes folks, it is exactly as it sounds. It is indeed a museum dedicated to sex and the history of sex, and sex artwork. It was entertaining and scary at the same time. Trust me, there are some scary things in there.

Then we went back to our base camp in Leiden.

Yesterday, we headed to Brussels, Belgium, but due to some sleeping in and some missing trains, we didn't actually get there until 4:30pm. First thing we did was catch a Taxi to Nemo 33, that 113ft swimming pool, and it was actually pretty darn cool. First they make you freedive for 10 minutes, then you can grab gear, gear up, and go diving in there for about 40-45 minutes. So we obviously went down to the bottom and sat there for a while then came up and went into their little simulated cavern environment, and there, they have these little air pockets where you can pop up in and talk, while still being under pressure so it doesn't mess up any off gassing or anything. Anyway, so that was pretty cool. Then we went out for dinner close to Grand Place, and my amazing French skills were called upon because our server couldn't speak english. I actually ended up speaking a lot of french when we were in Brussels. Anyway, by the time we finished dinner, it was 9:30pm and we hadn't seen any of Brussels yet. We were planning on a 10pm train back to Leiden. Instead, we found a hotel near Grand Place and spent the night. So this morning, we woke up and there was a little market outside our hotel, which we looked at, and we wandered around for a while. We ventured in to the Musee du Chocolat (or, Chocolate Museum), and we hopped on a tour bus. Then we left on a 3:30pm train. Oh, we also came across Mannekin Pis, a little statue of a young boy, peeing. Look him up for the story.

And now we are back in Leiden. And I am all inspired to take French again.

Tomorrow, we are going to Den Haag, I think, but plans change, like spending an extra day in Belgium randomly. :D

Amsterdam

Windmill in Leiden.
So Brandon and I went to Amsterdam 2 days ago, which is only about a 30 minute train ride from where we are staying. First thing we did when we got there was head to the Anne Frank House, where we had to wait in line to be admitted for 45 minutes. It was a really neat thing to do, but really depressing. If sany of you get here, I recommend it. It was amazing...they have the original copies of her diary in there.

Then we headed to the Heineken Brewery where we walked through and saw everything in there. And the best part was that you get 3 free beers along the way.. Unfortunately for me, I don't really like Heineken, but I did drink one of them because, well, you have to! It's Amsterdam! It was also really neat. I also recommend that excursion to anyone heading to Amsterdam.

Then we went on a canal boat tour where we boated around the main canals and saw Amsterdam as a whole.

Then we went to Boom Chicago, which is a comedy/improv performance and we had a total blast. Then, we trained home.

Yesterday was spent in Leiden, where we went on a tour of a windmill (it's necessary. Holland is windmill country). It was actually really interesting. Then we biked to Wassenaar, which is Brandon's little home town, and he visited his school and talked to some of his old teachers. Then we biked to a pancake house and I had my first "real" pancake and oh my goodness it was so delicious. It was HUGE, but I ate the whole thing because i couldnt stop eating it. YUMMM. Then we biked around Wassenaar, and I got to see Brandon's old house, and where they did all the shopping (on a shopping street, no malls here), and then we boked back to base camp with the Yarnells.

Anyway, it's awesome here. We are heading back to Amsterdam today to see the van Gogh museum and such (we are staying in Leiden, yes, but we really came here for Amsterdam, so we'll probably be there quite a bit). Tomorrow we are going to Brussels, Belgium for the day.

Arrived in the Netherlands

So we are in the Netherlands now, but before i get to that, let's go back to Dubai.

Our last day in Dubai was spent mostly in the Mall of the Emirates, which you have all probably heard about, if indirectly. It is the biggest mall there, and there is the famous ski slope in this mall, which I was dragged on to by a few members of the Hill family. Now, as most of you know, I don't ski. I have never really learned. I went skiing once as a child, and once a few years ago and that's that, so I didn't really want to ski in the desert. But I was practically made to. My first couple runs were a little shaky of course and I was not having fun, but then i started to get the hang of it rather quickly and I started to have fun slicing through the snow. And now I have bragging rights, so here I go: I SKIIED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT.

After skiing, we ate some food and wandered around the mall for a while before catching a cab back to our hotel to get ready to leave. We had some dinner then headed off to the airport to catch our midnight flight. Night flights are bad. I find it difficult to sleep on them in the first place, and THIS particular night flight had the added benefit of a screaming 2 year old child in the next row. Now, he wasn't crying, he was screaming. It wasn't exactly pleasant. But the plane did have individual TVS for every seat, so I sat back and watched Bridge to Terabithia, hoping to cut out the screaming child and drift off to sleep.

And then we arrived at the Amsterdam Airport at 5:30am. We caught a train to Leiden, and a taxi to the Yarnell's, the people we are staying with here. Taxis are pricey here. Like, ridiculously pricey. Anyway, once at the house, I was introduced to everyone and they seem like a great family. I can see why Brandon and his family are friends with them. They are great. After introductions and talking, I headed up to our room and took a nice long 3 hour nap to catch up on lost sleep, then woke up around noon, got ready, grabbed one of the bikes we are allowed to borrow, and Brandon and I biked in to the downtown part of Leiden to explore. We ate some food and wandered around, and Brandon showed me a church, I forget what it is called because it is a dutch name, but it was the church where the pilgrims last prayed before heading to the Americas. The architecture is gorgeous in the city, and it is exactly as I imagined it. Oh, and its funny because I was informed by Brandon that most people here can tell North Americans right away, yet, everyone was talking to me in Dutch, so they all thought I am a local. Ha. I fooled them, except for the fact that I really don't speak dutch. Just "hi", "thank you" "bike" and "cheese", really. And I can say "I love..." (yesterday I was claiming that I love the Netherlands in Dutch). So I get a bit stuck if people speak to me in Dutch. But no problems, they all speak English too. Anyway, so that was yesterday, first day in the Netherlands.

Brandon and I are heading in to Amsterdam today, checking out the Anne Frank house for sure and anything else we feel compelled to do. We'll be there the whole day, and are leaving in just a few minutes.

In Dubai

Ugly Dubai photo...
We arrived in Dubai on Saturday night after a day of diving in Oman and then a nice long drive and really weird borders. you "exit" Oman, drive for a while, and then "enter" the UAE, lots of stamping and waiting is involved. Anyway, we got here safely and are nestled in to the Sofitel Hotel.

Yesterday we went around on the "Big Bus" which is like a tour bus, but you can get on and off wherever you want, and new busses come every half hour. It's actually a really good way to get around and see things. We stopped at old dubai, which wasn't as interesting as it sounded, and we stopped at the famous "Gold Souq", which is a souq involving only gold sellers. And being in DUbai, I just had to buy gold, so I spent a lot of money yesterday on an 18KT gold necklace, but it was fun to buy because they offer you a price, which is totally ridiculously high, and then you haggle for it. I managed to knock off 200 dirhams from his asking price (which is about equivalent to $60 Canadian), so I didn't do too badly at all. We had lunch on the way at some really random non-tourist restaurant, and I didn't know anything on the menu, so we pointed to something on the menu, hoping it would be good. we discovered that we had ordered a couple different indian curries. they were actually delicious, but it was nervewracking not knowing what the heck we ordered.

Brandon and I signed up for a desert safari, and we had an awesome time. We got picked up from the hotel at 4pm, in a land cruiser, where we went dune bashing, which is really fun. they drive you on to the desert, go over dunes, slide around, and you basically hold on for your life. At the end of the dune bashing, you end up at a bedouin camp, where there is camel riding, ATVs (and we rode both), and many other activities. I got a henna tattoo on my hand, we partook in a little shesha activity and other such traditional things. Then they served us a yummy dinner, which was followed by a belly dancer show. Then the land cruiser picked us up and took us back to our hotel. I'd recommend this "desert safari" to anyone wanting to come to the area. It was really fun.

After the safari, I fell asleep instantly. It was a good day. Today will be spent shopping and whatnot, and our plane to Amsterdam leaves at midnight.

By the way, if anyone is wanting to travel to the Middle East, don't come to Dubai. It's honestly really, really ugly. Muscat, Oman was so much more eye pleasing and has so many more "heritage" things to see like forts and whatnot. Dubai is this gross conglomeration of ugly Western style architecture, and honestly, this city is not all it's cracked up to be. 2 days is really all you need here. So go to Oman instead. You can do desert safaris there too. :D That being said, I am glad we stopped here for a couple days, now i know what it is like.

Oman Time is Ending

2 days left in Oman and then we head to Dubai. Time is going so fast.

2 days ago, Brandon, his mom, and myself took a drive so we could visit a cave in the area. Unfortunately, when we got there, the cave was closed because it had flooded a couple months ago. Because it was a 2.5 hour drive, it was rather disappointing, but we quickly changed our plans and drove to a very small town called Misfat Al A'Briyeen. I am not kidding when I say it is a small town. Half of it is old and abandoned, the locals there do not speak English, but it was beautiful...it actually is in a couple tourist books because it has this wonderful 10km hike. We didn't even try to do the whole thing, but we did hike a bit of it and it was well worth the drive. I have some pictures of it. And yes, I was holding up fine in the heat. We left the small town and then drove to Bahla for kicks where Brandon and I decided to explore abandoned mud huts for a bit before driving to Nizwa, where we visited a Souq and wandered around for a bit. Nizwa is a lot warmer than Muscat, I discovered, but still, it was totally manageable. I love how bodies adapt. We then drove back to Muscat.

Yesterday was a lazy day. Brandon and I hung out on the beach for a while and went swimming in the ocean.

Today we went for a delicious buffet lunch and have been hanging about lazily. We also found camels, which of course, I was eager to pet, and then I was treated to a ride across the beach on one, and Brandon was on another. So yes folks, I rode a camel, which seems like an amazingly appropriate adventure for the Middle East.

Tomorrow, we are leaving early do do some diving on the Dayminiyat Islands at Al Sawadi. Should be a good day, I think. The day after, we have a morning dive planned and then a drive to Dubai, where we will be for a couple days before heading to Europe.

Random Facts:
- One place is usually spelled 2 different ways on 2 road signs. Apparently, Arabic vowels don't really translate well into English ones and so one word will have multiple "correct" spellings. Example: I have seen the Daminyat Islands spelled Daminyat, Dayminiyat, Diminyat, Diminiyat, and various other versions.
- Many of the women's public toilets do not have toilet paper. I discovered this very quickly after my arrival in Oman. All that is in a bathroom stall is a toilet and a hose.
- White people are apparently really rare here. Omanis tend to wave and smile at you, especially children. They are extremely friendly and love saying hello.

Oman, Still

Inside Grand Mosque.
Still in Oman, and yes it's still hot, but I am beginning to think that 36C is pleasant and 42C is merely warm. I am acclimatizing, but I am worried because Europe temperatures are around 16C and I believe I will be freezing because I have adapted so well to this heat. It sucks for the first while, but it's honestly fine once you get used to it.

Yesterday, we ventured to Grand Mosque, where I had to cover myself up completely (long pants, long sleeve shirt, and head scarf) so as not to offend any of the locals. It was really beautiful, actually, the Mosque. The architecture and art was wonderful, and chandeliers all over the place. I took a bunch of pictures of it, and yes, there is a terrible picture of me in my head scarf that you can all view when I load pictures on once I am back in Vancouver.

After the Mosque, we went to the Omani Museum, which was pretty interesting...there were exhibits of all the different national dress for all the different regions in Oman, and jewellery and other such things.

Today was spent back in the water, with the GUE instructor that I took the course with, and the purpose of diving today was to see if I could upgrade my recreational pass on the course to a technical pass, which basically means that I had to have the same mastery of skills before, but using double tanks, and with a little less leeway for mistakes in buoyancy and trim, and miraculously, I performed well, so I now have a technical pass (which Brandon received when we did the actual course). I would have done the whole course in doubles, but to be honest, I was scared of carting them around in the heat (they weigh the same amount as I do), and the course gave me so much to think about without worrying about diving double tanks. At any rate, it's all good and done and I can go on to take technical course with the GUE agency now if I so desire.

No plans for tomorrow yet, but at some point we are going to go dive the Daminyat (sp?) Islands, which are supposed to be wonderful. Then we head to Dubai on the 2nd for a couple days before jetting over to Europe.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Life is good. I like it here in Oman.

Hey Terry, be warned if you ever come out this way...they burn frankensence EVERYWHERE, and all the Omanis wear really strong perfume! My nose is constantly filled with a conglomeration of odd smells.

Brandon's First Ever Blog Post. Ever.

Brandon, Alia, and Brandon's parents Ian and Lorna out on a boat for a day of snorkelling.

So here we are, the first ever blog post in the history of me, done just for you Johnny.

Well, we're still in Oman and for those of you who may be wondering, yes, it's still really really hot. You do get used to it though, just last night Alia and I were sitting around outside thinking about waht a nice tempertaure it was, not too hot at all. A quick look at the thermomemter revealed the temperature to be a mild 32 centigrade. We're freaks.

A few days ago we finished up the diving course we were taking here, GUE Fundamentals. The course focused on proper bouyancy, control in the water, team work (GUE teaches diving in groups of three rather than the traditional two), out of air drills and several other skills all of which you think you've got under control until you take the course and discover you don't. The original group taking the course was supposed to be Alia, my father and myself, but then some things got shifted around and my father couldn't take the course anymore due to work constraints so he decided that my mother would like to take the course. This came as a bit of a suprise to her but she was good natured about it and took the course without complaining. The end result was that Alia and I passed and my mother got a privisional pass, which is quite good considering she entered the course with only 36 dives. The course definately made me re-evaluate the way I have been diving and I highly reccomend it to any of you reading this who are divers.

The course, spanning four days and involving a fair bit of theory, some fun in the pool and six dives in 34C water left us quite tired, so the day after it was time to relax on the beach. Alia and I went down to the PDO recreation center (or centre) for a nice lunch, some beach time and a swim in the ocean, because we havn't had enough ocean yet. Not much to say about it really, it was still hot. In the afternoon we took a trip to the Mutrah Souq to experience local shopping. For those who don't know, a souq is a sort of out door market and can be lots of fun. There are quite a few aggresive salesmen about and I had a good laugh when my mother ended up buying four scarves that she originally had no intention of buying. The experience was unfortunately cut short as we had to return home so my mom could drive my brother to music lessons.

Yesterday was another day of relaxation. My father took us out on the company boat and we went snorkling at a few locations. The first two sites were on Fahal island, which is a large rock in the middle of the ocean. The water was warm and crystal clear and there were plenty of colourful fish to see. I was a bit worried snorkling around there as I have seen large chunks of rock fall off the island into the water and I'm pretty sure that in a competition with a high velocity boulder, I would lose. The second site was Jesse point, which was nice and shallow and had an abundance of colourful fish as well. This site also has the advantage of being high velocity boulder free, which pleased me greatly. While the snorkling was fun there was a downside, my back became a nice bright red and my brother started making fun of me saying that I got maynonaise on my lobster which means that despite having a lobster colour back, my bum is still a brilliant white. Alia remains sunburn free.

Today there is more lazyness to be had in the morning, later this afternoon we're off for another spin in the boat and then off to another souq in order to ensure that alia gets as much culture as possible. We have plans for diving tomorrow and hopes to find a few sharks, rays and cuttle fish.

-Brandon

Busy Busy!

So the jet lag is nearly worn off. The only thing is that I am ready for bed round 8pm, but I have been waiting until 9pm, and waking up at 6am, which is actually a really good schedule to be on since the sun is not at its hottest (only around 35C at that time of day). I like waking up early here and mosying about outside.

The heat...is actually not so bad anymore. You adjust to it really quickly. I was actually out walking around for an hour in 44C, with a hat and a giant bottle of water, and it was fine. Warm, but fine. You adust after about 10 solid minutes outside. Every day, the heat gets easier to manage. Just as every day, the jet lag gets less.

So 2 days ago was when I was walking around in the 40s. Brandon's parents took us to Nakhal where we wandered around a fort. It was really neat to see it. I have a bunch of really good pictures, but you all have to wait to see them. After the fort, we went to see a hot spring, which is the oddest thing, I thought. A hot spring in the middle of the desert. Amazing. All of the locals gathered there and were sitting around and singing and such. It was really cool to see the Omanis just doing what they do. Speaking of Omanis, all the little kids wave to us. It's so cute.

Yesterday, I got my first taste of scuba diving in Oman. It's not spectacular, it's not anything to rant and rave about, but it is nice and I did enjoy it. It was diving off a boat, which is always a treat since I am used to the hassle of shore diving. First dive we went to a wreck and we checked it out...Brandon, his brother and I dropped into the cargo hold and hit about 90ft, then Brandon and I headed inside into the engine room for a quick look around while Cameron waited just outside the entrance. We only went maybe 5-10ft into the room....just wanted a quick look around. It was pretty neat. We also saw 4 moray eels on the wreck which was cool. The time between our dives was spent snorkelling, then we geared up and did a second dive in a bay, where we saw lots of local fish, most of which I don't know the names, but we did see a box fish, a lion fish, and a snake eel. The life is abundant, and the water really warm (it was 91F on the surface of the water, it dropped to about 78F down at 90ft). On our way back in from the dives, there was a very rare spotting of a whale shark, which was so exciting. This guy was only a baby, only about 8-10ft long (the adults can get to be 50-60ft long...). That was defintely the highlight. I grabbed mask and snorkel and hopped in with him, as did most of the other divers on the boat.

Today marked the beginning of the diving course we are taking (it is me, brandon, and his mom). Today was all theory, and then some practice of finning techniques in a swimming pool. There was also a swimming requirement which we had to pass in order to pass the course, which i was worried about because I don't really swim. We had to do 275m in 14mins or less. and I am pleased to announce I finished in under 10mins. It was quite surprising, seeing as I never swim laps. Ever. Also had to swim and hold our breaths for a while which I had no problem with. Tomorrow, we hit the ocean. So we'll see how it goes.

But yea, I am having a nice time here and keeping busy. It's hot, sure, but I am getting used to it! I will be in for a shock, I think, when we leave the Middle East. I'll think it's too cold. :D

In Oman

Brandon and I at the end of our flight to Muscat, Oman.
So here I am, typing out this entry from Oman. It is 6:30am here, and I have already gone on a walk with Brandon and his dog. Yes, I woke up at 5:30am (after falling asleep around 3am...), wide awake, thanks to my friend jet lag. It is currently 33C. HOT. We lasted about 15 minutes on our walk, and I was sweating.

So the plane ride...was alright. I do like Lufthansa. They fed us hot meals (I accidentally ordered vegan instead of vegetarian when I bought the flight, whoops) which actually tasted decent. Our first flight was delayed, thanks to crashed compters. We waited in the check in line for about 2.5 hours. But it was smooth sailing after that, and made our layover in Frankfurt shorter.

So this is the first time I have had to deal with more than 3 hours of jet lag, and boy, I can't even describe it. Last night as I was trying to sleep, my body was so tired from all the travelling, but falling asleep was difficult because it felt like I was going to bed for the night at about 1pm. Odd. And as we were flying, the sun set, and then it rose. There was no night. And it is night when it feels like day, and day when it feels like night. It's all very odd, but I am adjusting already, thank goodness.

And our arrival in the Muscat airport? Fantastic! Brandon's dad arranged everything for us, so when we got in, there was an Omani waiting for us, he led us to a room, took my passport and got my visa for me, then we got to bypass all the lines (which we would of had to wait in for over 2 hours, they were so long...), got our bags for us, put them through screening and led us right out. the whole thing was done in about 10 minutes when it would have taken us forever otherwise. It was awesome.

Anyway, no plans for today except for chilling out and relaxing and getting over jet lag.

I am looking forward to spending time here, because the little of Oman I have seen so far looks really neat. The buildings are so different, and the landscape too. I really look forward to my time here.

San Antonio

Terry, Dad, myself and Brandon in San Antonio.
So we all just got back from San Antonio today, and it is such a cool city. I had never been before. When I was here last year, I opted to check out Austin, but this year I got to see San Antonio and I am so glad I did!

We stayed at a hotel right on what they call The Riverwalk, which is a bunch of restaurants, pubs, etc right alongside the San Antonio River. It is also where I spent the bulk of my time, because it was so pretty and fun.

For those that don't know, San Antonio is home of the Alamo, which you have probably heard of, but if not, just google it. Lots of info on it. Needless to say, we walked through the Alamo. It was pretty neat.

Lots of Mexican food was had (sooo much Mexican influence in Texas) as were a few margaritas. I drank a cactus margarita, and it was surprisingly tasty. Of course Brandon tried one out too.

Anyway, San Antonio is a really cool place. I'm glad that Dad and Terry took us there.

But now our time in Texas is coming to a close, and we leave tomorrow to get on an airplane that will take us to Oman. It's been short but sweet. I have loved spending time with Dad and Terry here. I always have a fun time in Texas.

That's it from me for now...next time I write, I will be in the Middle East. It's going to be a LONG plane ride.

First Couple Days in Texas

So Brandon and I got to Sugar Land late Tuesday night. Out first day here yesterday was pretty darn laid back and relaxed. We went for lunch with Dad and Terry at Ruby Tuesdays, and then they headed back to work while Brandon and I scouted out the little mall here. That pretty much made up yesterday.

Today, Brandon and I headed down to Galveston (an island in the Gulf of Mexico) where we ate lunch at Yaga's Cafe (which is where the photo was taken). I went to Yaga's my first time here in Texas and enjoyed it, so we decided to go there today. We had a margarita each (Brandon had to try a real margarita...lime, on the rocks because we only have those frozen fruity ones up in Vancouver, it seems). Then we proceeded to wander around Galveston aimlessly until we decided to drive back to Sugar Land, and here we are. The drive is only about an hour, which makes the trip nice and easy. (And dad has let us use his truck while we are here, which makes things really convenient if we want to go out while they are at work.)

Dad and Tree have informed us that we are going to San Antonio this weekend, which will be really cool. I wanted to go there last year, but we never did because we went to Austin instead, but I get to go to San Antonio this year! So that will be lots of fun. Apparently it's a really fun city.

Anyway, that's it for now. Later.

Pre-Trip

Hello everyone,

So as you know by now, this is where I will be periodically updating you all on my travels over the next 2 months. Brandon has threatened to write in here as well, but we shall see if he follows through on his threats.

So the plan is to hit up Texas for a week to visit dad and Tree, and then we will begin a wonderfully long and dull plane trip bordering on about 21 or 22 hours, where we will end up in Muscat, Oman for a couple weeks. Then we will head over to the United Arab Emirates and check out Dubai for a couple days. From there we fly into Amsterdam, and we will be touristy there for a bit, also checking out other cities in the area. Denmark is also on the agenda, and we'll be there for about 10 days before going back to Amsterdam for 2 days before flying home. Other places that we may include will be Brussels, Belgium and perhaps Sweden, since they are close and convenient. So why not, right? But we don't have everything planned quite yet. We'll just take it all as it comes.

The plane to Houston leaves on Tuesday at noon, a glorious 2 days from now.

And I can't tell you all how darn excited I am. I have never actually left North America before, as sad as that is, so this is a first, and honestly? I am pretty much exploding with excitement.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy reading my blog here, and feel free to reply and comment, or email me. It would be nice to hear from you guys while I am gone for these next two months.

- Alia