egypt

hello. well yes i went to egypt the other week. i was getting a bit sick of freezing everytime i went outside or opened my window, so i thought id go somewhere sunny and warm. suggested the idea to a mate from the gym, and my old travelling mate andy. found a cheap deal on the net. sorted. its a 6 hour flight to egypt. bit of a mission, i wasnt used to it after all my short flights around europe, ill seriously have to prepare myself for the long haul home. i bought a little soccerball. named patrick, which was an awesome investment, we were kicking him around the airport- and then when we got into marsa alam (our part of egypt) we were juggling him while we waited for the immigration line to subside, a few of the security guards joined in. fun times. we met our resort rep- davey, on the bus, he was 21 and had only been in the job for 3 weeks, had the worst jokes ever- dont worry over the week we gave him a few pointers in the comedy arena. most of the people in our resort were older than us, and there was heaps of italians. the resort was exclusively italian until about 3 months ago. so we were the young boys, with a guitar and a soccerball. but the end of the week everyone knew who we were. everyone loved us. like cult figures. whenever we walked into the resturant all the chefs and waiters would come out and hand shakes and high fives would be flying around. in the pool throwing patrick around turned into a italy vs australia waterpolo match. (the italians took a beating). and we also had an aussie vs egypt soccer match (the aussies took a beating, fair enough thou. egypt did win the african nations cup 1 month before). great fun. the food there was fantastic, it was 4* buffet. and we got our moneys worth. our resort was right on the red sea, you walked out onto the pier and at the end there was beautiful coral with millions of beutiful fish, had fun jumping off the pier did a few flips and stuff, and eventually got a few other boys to join in as well. spent the first few days just lazing around. most of my trips through europe thus far have been quite short and hectic- cramming every sight possible into the time i had. but as we were pretty much living on an oasis in the desert there wasnt anything to do outside of the resort, which suited me just fine. it was great to just laze around, got for a bit of a swim, eat great food, and make a stack of new mates.

but, i dont think i could have lazed around for an entire week, i think it would have been a bit of a waste to come to egypt and not see any of the sights, andy and i decided that we probably wouldnt have to chance to come back anytime soon- so we did a few of the excursions that davey,our rep, offered us. on tuesday- andy and i were up at 1:45am to catch our bus 3 hours up to hurgarda airport and fly to cairo. we we jumped on a tour bus and raced around a few temple and mosques and stuff like that. then we got to the pyramids, they were awesome- the largest one it 132m high, absolutely giant, we got to go insnde the second largest pyrmid, the tunnel was tiny, you had to double over just to get through. it was amazing actually standing inside one the burial chambers of a pyramid, one of the wonders of the world, something so massive, that had been handcraft over 4000 years ago. it blew me away. i cant even describe what i was feeling. amazing. (im sorry my descriptive words are a bit rubbish). we were taking a few photos and these tourist policeman offer to take a few photos of us, then asked for a tip. sorry mate, thats boardering on bribery. there heaps of guys trying to scam tourists- they give you a gift, than make you pay for it. we also checked out the sphinx and the surrounding areas. quite incredible. also went to the cairo musem which is filled with artefacts for burial chambers, statues, carvings etc. all the stuff from tutankhamens tomb is there, all the furniture, his sarcophargeus, his golden headpeice. all in really good condiditon as well. theres also a mummy section- there was about 10 of them, all in such great condition, all their hair, fingernails and teeth were still intact. very interesting. Ramesses II was in there also. after a few minor dramas at the airport we were back in hurgarda at about 9:30pm, the bus ride took a lot longer that 3 hours and we were back at our resort by about 2am. then...

we were awake at 3:45am for our bus ride to luxor. it was a 6 hour journey. i was tired. but it was to good a chance to let go by, we stopped at the valley of the kings and saw the tombs of Ramesses I, IX and IIX (i think) they were awesome, so well decorated- one of them was dug about 65m deep into solid rock, and all the walls were covered with inscriptions, painings, carved pictures- it was awesome, so much work had gone into it. we also paid a bit extra to get into tutankhamens tomb, which isnt as well decorated as some of the others and was quite small. but still just as interesting, his body is still in the burial chamber as well. after lunch we saw the karnek temple, which ramesses II built to honour amon rah, the sun God. it was fantastic. 134 huge carved coloums, stacks of statues. it covered about 300 square metres. unbelieveable. once again i apologise for my poor description of these places. also went and saw how papyrus is made, which is pretty much strips of plant, layed in a criss-cross formation and pressed- until dry and there you go. you have paper. we left luxor at about 6pm. got home about 1am.

left egypt at 5pm, it was 27 degrees and beautifully sunny, the security guy also made me deflate patrick (the soccer ball), but the guy with his pocketknife got through. great work security. we arrived back at gatwick, london. and it was -4 degrees. welcome home boys.

so there you go, i know it was quite a rushed description of what i did in egypt, but im running short of time so itll have to do. i seriously had so much fun over there, and saw and experienced so many wonderful things, it was actually quite daunting to try and condense the main points into this blog, there was so many smaller random incidents, which i didnt include that made the trip so good. im not convinced ive done a good job in this entry, but ill put some pics up soon, which i hope will help you form a better more comprehensive picture in your mind. anyways i have to run. going snowboarding next week. cant wait. ill write some more after that, providing i still have full use of both my arms. take it easy. andy

serutcip (work it out)

another building in paris. cant remember the name. saw to many buildings over there.

random chrissy party pic to break up the monotomy of buildings and history.

dotre dame with banana

thinking man: by auguste rodin. see you do know it.

catacombs (paris)- yes they are all bones- and theres another 1km of that. its big.

sacre coer- paris

edinburgh

me riding a cannon in edinburgh- for some reason

ok. so theres a few more pics to show you what ive been up to in the last few months. some pretty cool ones there, although kate has the best ones of paris (inc. disneyland). got some ripper photos from egypt(like me pretending to eat a pyramid) which i havnt got on cd yet. but you will be the first to see them, (apart from me, the laptop owner and everyone in the hotel) i promise. hope life is mint where you are. take it easy. andy

trainwash.

it was thursday night the 23rd of feb and i went into london to meet up with andy, one of the blokes i was going to egypt with on friday, he lives/works up in leeds (northern england) so he came down the night before to stay down in the south with me. another mate from summer camps had also recently come over to london, so it was a good chance to all hang out. i met up with andy a few hours earlier and we just chilled in a nice pub, as it was about 2 degrees outside. had great fun just mucking around and having a laugh. then met up with anna, and did much of the same. the night wore on and it was about 11pm- and i knew the last train back to mine, left about 11-11:30 pm. thought we'd better make a move. so said goodbye to old schraffty (as shes affectionately known) and jumped on the tube to waterloo. the train heading back was at 11:34pm on platform 19. plenty of time, so we grabbed a seat. time to go, walked over to platform 19 and there wasnt any train there. weird. went back and check the board, and there was nothing about our train to reading. mmm. walked back to platform 19 and a train was there. sweet. jumped on and settled in for the ride. but the train left the terminal really slowly and crawled along for about 20 min at a snails pace. then all of a sudden we were(the train) showered with water and these giant washer/scrubber wheels ran over the windows. yes you guessed it. we were in a trainwash. like a mechanical carwash at the servo- but for trains. it was then we realised that we were the only people on the train. unlucky. the train then stopped in the middle of nowhere and the lights turned off...with us still inside. so i reefed on the emergency handle thing...and the driver came out. we had a bit of a laugh, then had to walk over 'live tracks' back to the station. it turned at that we hadnt heard the announcer at waterloo saying that the train platforms had been switched. thanks for telling us.

so by this time it was about 12 :30am, and the only train we could get was back to waterloo, all the tubes where shut, so we ended up chilling at the eurostar terminal with a christiano ronaldo look-alike and his girlfriend from spain, and also a couple from greece. was actually a bit of a laugh. andy had all his gear so he went straight to the airport in the morning. i caught the 5:15am train back to bracknell. caught the bus back to the hotel. showered, packed, ate brekkie and got my ipod charger back from a mate all in 20mins- then my other mate picked me up back to the train station to get to the airport. bit of a mission but it all worked out well and was a bit of a laugh. turned out ot be the best packing job ever. didnt forget anything. got to the airport, no worries and we were off to egypt. 6 hour flight to northern africa. had a wicked time over there. am to tired to even start typing those adventures, but i will soon, so dont worry. anyways i must be off. i put a few more pics up and start on egypt soon. take it easy team. andy

colour photographs.

the end of the world. cornwall. it was cold.

outdoor ice-skating: windsor castle in background

urquart(?) castle overlooking loch ness

quality snow action in the scottish highlands

me and bagpipe man chilling sideways

the year is 2006.

heres a few pics form the last few months, i seriously have thousands more, ill whack a few more up in the coming weeks, just got home from egypt-some ripper shots with the pyramids, and im also going snowboarding in 2 weeks, should have some good snowy pics, (or the inside of a hospital room..haha) take it easy :) andy