The past 3 weeks I took a trip with my family to Egypt, Israel, Spain, United Kingdom (London, Scotland) and France. It was indeed an interesting trip as I stepped away from my Toronto….
Spain
Spain entered an General Strike to fight against government legislations/laws. This shut down 70% of the transit system in the country and most local services (stores, streets, restaurants, etc.) were closed. In Barcelona, It felt like G20 in Toronto a few years back – police/military people at every street with guns. Spain’s style in fashion and food is very different than North American countries – one word – style. My favourite food was Paella – it is Spanish fried rice. People are very friendly and speak English. We visited Montserrat, La Sagrada Familia (lovely structure), Port Vell, and La Sagrada Familia and Tibidabo. I’m sure I’ll do a stop over there in the future.
Israel
From a general strike to Israel – where tax was 16% and areas within the country were separated by religion. Visited places I’ve learned in religion as a child – Jerusalem (Jesus died), Bethlehem (Jesus born) – a bit outside of Israel, Nazareth, Dead Sea and Masada. Bethlehem as very different – I felt scared in the area as our tour was dumped with another tour guide that basically brought us around, and people at the stores were trying to scam me money for my magnets. I’m poor at Math – but I can do simple multiplication for the currency conversion! The Masada was very unique as its impressive on people’s reliance on man-power in the past to think of amazing ideas for a kingdom to exist. It’s sad to see how slaves were tortured to make it happen. We stayed at Tel Aviv near the beach area and it was beautiful walking down the path – oh, and marathons are popular in the area. Israel food is not my cup of tea as it was difficult to find food that I liked – we had some fusion food. But fish was a popular choice – even the Coke tasted a bit different….
Egypt
From Israel, we flew to Egypt – third world country. When you walk on the streets, a lot of children and people will run to you asking for money. Every other person is bound to have a scam for your money, or i their providing service – they will ask you for a tip directly. There is a limited amount of gas in the country due to political reasons – so when our private tour drove out to Black Desert. We did not have sufficient amount of gas as it was 4 hours away from Cairo. Citizens of Egypt would line up 4-5 hour for a tank of gas. At the end, our tourist had to contact the tourist police who checked up all our passport information – and a representative from the police followed us and filled up the tanks of our mini-bus. I’m a bit naive – but that is epic to me. Black Desert is lovely. We visited the Egyptian Museum, Valleys of the Kings (Luxor), Giza (pyramids) and many temples. It was indeed a cultural experience in history, society, etc. It’s sad to see we are all humans but living in different parts of the world – and Egypt citizens are poor and faced with no freedom. Very cheesy but makes me believe we should cherish the existing right – and consider ourselves very lucky? Egypt food was not bad – although we had fusion buffets a few times due to my Dad’s avoidance in Egyptian food. But we had some local food for lunches and very good. There were was a heat wave that hit Cairo/Luxor – and it was up to 37 degrees every day – at one point I thought I had asthma. I could not breathe and I lacked water. Luxor was a very poor area – where people still wore robes, woman could not find jobs (unless your airport security), people rode on donkies and farming and tourism were the main sources of income. A monthly income of $1000 was high standard, $400 was medium standard, and $200 was low income. Surprised?
Scotland
We flew to Scotland and it was from hot 37 degree weather to 5 degrees. We spent one day at the area and visited Edinburgh Castle and shops. We ate smoked salmon. I fell in love with the usual M&S – oh how I miss it when it was in Toronto a long time ago. I am aging myself. Scotland is beautiful – indeed I will visit it in the future by hiking on the mountains. We stayed at a lovely B&B – Queen’s House. People are very friendly but the area lacks good jobs and people, and expensive food. Very quiet. Edinburgh (main area) was very small and people are very well-dressed. But I got a lot of stares – I guess Asians do not visit the area often.
London/Paris
In London, we took day trips to Cambridge and Paris. Cambridge was nice but I would prefer Oxford although both universities have a vast amount of history with known scholars that graduated. It was cold in the city – so it was a nice bus tour around the area. In Paris, it was mainly accompanying my sister shopping – not sure if I want to do that again but she was very happy so that matters. We had some lovely lunches and dinners around the area and my wallet hurt mad from Uniqulo! I really like London and guarantee I will be here in the future.
Thoughts
This ends my 3 week trip – tomorrow is back to reality – living on my own, working, training for my runs / dragon boating, and catching up with friends. Time to think of priorities in my life – work and activities. From this trip – I’ve learned a lot – I consider it one of my best trips in the world. Although I can confidently say – I do not want to live with my parents again – I love them but we are very different. And what’s ahead of me? I do not know – I’ll let the challenge begin – but I know what’s important to me.
