Lessons learned by Gekas

Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Greece in a paragraph

2009-04-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

We are still in Greece for a couple more days.

It's been a while since I've posted. Mostly because I forgot my password and I'm too lazy to look it up. Don't judge. The rest of Israel we did our obligatory float in the Dead Sea, went to Eilat, and crossed over in to Jordan. This whole part of my trip I like to call "let's get out of here". Mainly because every place we went we would get frustrated and overwhelmed. Egypt, I have to be honest, was a very stressful place for me. I stick out like a sore thumb. And having a 5'10'' half asian as my traveling partner didn't help. Although I did enjoy when people would yell "NE HOW" at Sumi. Either that, or they would say "You look Egyptian!" like it was a compliment (it wasn't). And also enjoyed seeing weird things like 3 year old children buying balloons on the street, no parent in sight. But in general, I felt like a walking dollar sign. Hence, let's get out of here.

So in Jordan we went to see Petra which is like an ancient theme park. I was like...wow, this where Indian Jones was...even though I've never actually seen the movie. Lame. I bought a bracelet from a lady who lives in a cave. And we met Bedouin boys who tried to woo us with their donkeys and camels. Got out of that sitation and headed to Dahab Egypt. I have to say, Arab culture is VERY different from what I know and understand. Some of the most polite people and rudest people I met on my trip, I met in Egypt. The problem is, you can never tell who you are going to get when you meet someone. In Cairo we would ask for directions and get led in the complete opposite direction. I think we were led to three, maybe four perfume stores when all we wanted was a cup of coffee. The worst offense was if we refused to have tea with someone. Egyptians would get so mad at us if we didn't want their stupid tea.

Dahab was a nice little hippie town. We just rested a couple days there, I went scuba diving in the famous blue hole. We met some guys we THOUGHT were gay, but turned out they weren't. Look guys, if you wear a pink button down shirt and do feminine hand gestures, I'm gonna think you are gay. Sorry. Got out of there, and took a 20 hour bus ride to Luxor. I enjoyed Luxor a lot actually. Sumi and I rented bikes and went to the valley of the kings. Sumi almost got married to a 17 year old who sells postcards. We met his family and everything. This is how it happened. We rode all the way up to the valley of the kings where this kid tried to sell us postcards. Later, we found out that my bike had a flat tire...and we were about 20-30 km away from our hotel. Luckily, this kid sees us and decides he will help us out. He takes us back to his home where we meet his family, have dinner and he fixes our bikes. All this without any of us being able to speak to each other. He gave Sumi his addidas ring, a photo, and promised his love for her always. Then we got out of there.

Cairo I think is the biggest city I've ever been to. 8 million people. It's such a congested, chaotic city too. Crossing the street takes some serious guts. We spent most of our time there doing the usual tourist things: the Egyptian museum, the pyramids, warding off child beggars and strange men, etc. The Egyptian museum was kind of a disppointment for me. It was so antiquated but there were so many people there so you would think they had money to keep it updated. But it looked like the descriptions of the artifacts were written on kleenex. And some didn't have descriptions at all. The pyramids though were amazing. So incredible. Sumi and I got horses and just galloped around for an hour. Our guide was like...uh, do you want to touch the pyramids or go inside one? We were like, nope, we just want to go fast. The only bad part was that my camera fell out of my pocket, lost somewhere among the pyramids. Then we got out of there.

Greece was such a sigh of relief after Egypt. We flew in to Athens Mar.3. Our first couple days was just traveling: train, other train, bus, ferry boat. Our destination was Corfu. We arrived in Corfu and met Madalena and Spiro. I told her we were looking for jobs, and right away she said she was looking for volunteers. So Sumi and I decided to work for accommodation while we looked for jobs....little did we know...The hostel, Sunrock, is located on Pelekas beach. It's probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It's on the beach with mountains behind and a gorgeous sunset. This is where we spent our first month in Greece. Adventures were had. More later...

2009-03-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

Man, it's been a long while since Israel. So much has happened I can't even remember. But I'll try my best. The next day Sumi and I decided to tour the Golan Heights. We are really bad at touring though because we don't have a guide book so wherever we go we are like "meh, let's get out of here". The Golan heights are really beautiful though. We ended up in Tiberias and we drove around the sea of galilee and had coffee. Then we ended up back at Aliza's apartment and made pita pizzas. The next day we packed up all our stuff. We had an issue though. The day before, I had dropped off my laundry. I thought they said it would be done in a couple hours, which made sense, but when we came back later that night, the shop was closed. And the next day was the election, so the shop was closed yet again. The connection between why a laundry shop would be closed on election day is still unclear to me. So we decided to go to Nazereth for the day and then come back to Zefat at night. It was pouring raining in Nazereth. We went on a walk through the town, went to some significant churches and sites like where the angel Gabriel came to Mary. Our problem came at the night time. We had no place to stay, and we didn't want to pay for a room for the night since we had the car. But we had to go to Zefat to get my clothes back....so we went back and spent the night in Zefat. BAD IDEA. Zefat is in the mountain and it just happened to be freezing cold and hailing that night. It hailed pretty much the whole night and it was the worst night of our lives. We almost died. The next day was even crazier. After the worst night ever, we wanted to get the hell out of Zefat. I went to the laundry place, and the girl there was like "sorry, clothes aren't done, come back tomorrow." And I was like no no no. You don't understand, we have to get out of this place. But of course the girl didn't speak English, so I had to pull someone off the street to translate that I needed my clothes whether they were done or not. Laundry places are strange in Israel. They apparently don't do the laundry in the shop. They send the clothes to some laundry factory outside of town. So I had to get the address from this girl and then we had to find a taxi driver to follow around for an hour to find this laundry factory. The taxi driver didn't even know where to go. We went down the mountain, past the plastic chair factory, past the car factory, past the soda factory, over some bridge, in to the magical forest, past the unicorns and we were still lost. Eventually we made it to a laundry factory, but it was the wrong one. So we had to fine the OTHER laundry factory. This whole wild goose chase took about two hours and I was not in the mood after almost freezing to death the night before. But finally I found my dirty laundry, and we hit the road to Jerusalem. Thank the lord. The drive was pretty uneventful, except for the part where we almost drove in to the West Bank. We were just driving along when all of a sudden there were fences and barbed wire everywhere. I felt like there were 100 guns pointed at me. So we made a quick backtrack and went around the West Bank. Scary. Later we returned the car, and we got to our new hostel in the old city: the Citadel. This hostel was really strange. It was like staying in a cave. Jerusalem was not at all how I pictured it. I thought it was supposed to be really biblical with donkeys and stuff. Jerusalem is divided in to three parts: the old city, the new city, and some other part I forget. The old city is where all the really touristy biblical stuff happened and where a lot of famous sites are such as the dome of the rock, the place where jesus was supposedly crucified, buried, and resurrected, the western wall, and other countless religious places. I think every rock had a history there. The old city itself walled in and is divided in to quarters: the armenian, jewish, christian, and muslim quarter. The next day Sumi and I toured the old city by walking along the wall of the old city. It really made me appreciate what a beautiful city Jerusalem actually is. Sumi and I also found our favorite kebab place. I think we at there every day we were in Jerusalem. Dang, I wish I had some kebab right now.

Haifa, Akko

2009-02-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

Haifa. Left Tel Aviv. Israel is more expensive that I had planned. It's about 4 Shekel to the Dollar. A night in a hostel is like 50-70 Shekel. But food prices and public transportation is cheap. We got on the train. So many soldiers with guns. And not just handguns. Like machine guns. And the soldiers are 18-20ish years old. I would never give Jamey a machine gun. That's just bad news for everyone. We got to Haifa, north of Tel Aviv. Ba'Hai central. Then we had pizza on the main street. Crazy how we come to Israel and eat pizza. What a universal food. Then we walked to Elijah's cave. I don't really know what that was. I wish I had read the bible or paid attention in CCD. It would be really useful right about now. I accidentally went on the "men's side" of the cave. Oops. How can there be a men's side of a cave anyways? That was embarrassing. Then we took the gondola up the hill to see a church. Not that exciting but a really good view of Haifa. Then we walked down the hill to go to the grocery store. Afterwards we got lectured by an Israeli behind us in line that we shouldn't buy hummus from the store. I dunno, I thought it was pretty good. That night we met a muralist at the hostel who was from Holland who bonded with Sumi. He just loved her painting of a donkey. Our roommates were lame. A Canadian on birthright and a condescending Californian who seemed to have an answer for everything. Sumi got along great with him. I think they talked about Macs for an hour. Then they had a competition to see who is more pretentious. I think Sumi won although I tried really hard to block out what they were saying. Then we ran in to Tom again. He seems to be enjoying himself.

Next day: The Ba'Hai gardens. We had to go to the top of the hill again and took a tour from the top down. It was so beautiful. Almost too perfect. I can't really remember what we did for the rest of the day...I think we took a nap, had coffee and played Scrabble.

Next day: Left Haifa to go north to Akko. This is where Ayelet is from, so we were going to try and stay with her parents on the Kibbutz. Only problem...I tried to call her dad, Doron, but I don't think he really understood me and I didn't understand him. We got off the train in Akko, and all I understood was he was leaving the kibbutz and couldn't pick us up. We had to take a taxi but we weren't sure where. Sumi's french skills came in handy because she got a taxi driver to call Doron and get directions. So the driver dropped us off at the Kibbutz. We decided to wait until maybe Doron drove by and saw us. We waited in that spot for 4 hours. Then we finally accepted the fact that no one was going to find us in that spot, so we started asking around. Eventually we found the house, and Sally, Ayelet's mom welcomed us in. She was astounded that we had waited that long in one spot, which we later found out was a cemetary. So was I. Doron gave us a tour of old Akko. It's a really old city...like 5000 years old. My brain can't even comprehend that. Sally made us dinner, which was really good after eating pita and hummus for a couple days straight. It was good to meet Ayelet's family. I can see where her mannerisms come from. Her brother looks eerily similar to her.

Next day: We got dropped off in the old town and saw some ancient sites: the Knight's Hall, a Turkish bath, a mosque, some museums. It was all very cool to see. Then we went and got some "real hummus" then took a nap on the city wall. Basically we will take a nap wherever it looks comfortable. We started walking back to the kibbutz and ran in to Tom again. I think he's following us. We shamelessly stopped at McD's on the way back. The man at the door asked me if I had a gun. I told him I forgot it at home today. Or at least that what I wanted to tell him...

Next day: Tried to leave but the puppy (Tooti) followed us all the way out of the hostel. So we walked back and Doron kindly gave us a ride to the train station. Today was the day we were going to rent a car! I was so excited. I'm happy everyone drives on the right side of the road again. Although my brain is still adjusting. We had to go back to Haifa to get the car, a little Hyundai Getz aka box on wheels. Freedom! Then we drove to Zefat, a really Jewish town in the Golan heights. So, Sumi and I are kind of cheapskates. We decided that because we had a car, we could just sleep in it and save money by not sleeping in a hostel. So we were driving around, trying to find something to do, and we see a girl out in the cold trying to hitchhike. So we pick her up because we were like...well what else are we gonna do? This girl turned out to be a life saver. Her name was Aliza and literally like a minute after meeting her, she invites us to stay in her house. Turns out her two roommates were away and there were two empty beds in her house. How convenient. And who were we to refuse? She made us tea and gave us cookies and a warm bed. What an awesome girl. We were so lucky.

2009-02-13T01:07:00.000-08:00

Transit from Thailand to India to Turkey to Israel was long. Most of my time was spent watching movies and sleeping. I regret that now because I "suffered" pretty bad jet lag. 9 pm comes around and I'm out like a light. But I guess that is unavoidable when you travel several time zones over 48 hours. I'm getting better though. After so many airports, I now think that you can tell a lot about a country even if you have never left the airport. New Zealand's was surprisingly small, Thailand had a huge new airport (but everything was overpriced and somewhat disorganized). India's airport was terrible. Holes in the ground for a toilet with "bathroom attendants" who think that giving you a paper towel is somehow a service, people shouting over the PA announcing flights like every 10 seconds, uncomfortable waiting areas that kind of smelled like farm animals, and boarding the plane was chaotic. I almost got trampled. But the amazing thing is I still want to go back. Turkey was cold and no one smiled. But at least they were efficient. And finally Israel where they did a thorough check of my bag while I wasn't even there. I found half my bag contents spilled all over the carousel. And I got grilled about what my business in Israel was. But everything was at least rational and very well laid out. That helped me meet up with Sumi who was in her boot because she broke her foot from walking. But seriously, how do you break your foot from walking? Anyways, Sumi and I made our way to the hostel in Tel Aviv. We met Tom Owenby on the way, and American from Arizona. He looks like Clark Kent. He was there because he is a Ba'Hai which is a relatively new religion based in Haifa. I had never heard of this religion before but I really like it. Basically they believe in one God, all the prophets (Muhammad, Jesus, Abraham, etc) and the coming of a new prophet for each era, equality for men and women, tolerance, some other things I forget, and my favorite part you don't have to go to church. Sorry mom and dad. So anyways, we got on the train, then took the bus. Israelis are rude, but they like to help too. I think they are just happy people are still visiting their country. And most of them speak decent English so it's fairly easy to get around. So we got to the hostel-pretty nice place. Free breakfast, always a bonus. We ate schwarma for dinner. It feels so late here because it gets dark at like 6 whereas New Zealand was like 10. I'm so confused.

The next day we went sightseeing around the beach. It's warm for winter here. Alot of random Israelis come up and start talking to us. We met Itay who worked at the first aid place on the beach. He gave me his number on a band-aid. I didn't call him though. He obviously thinks of himself as a playa. I wouldn't call any guy who hits on me within 5 minutes of meeting him. He told us a joke though, that was nice. Then we found a cafe-our favorite pastime. Sumi attracts so much attention with her boot. It's such a good conversation piece. Israelis are mesmerized by it and they aren't shy about staring either. Then we went to the Carmel market. It had the standard made in china fare but it also had some of the best looking produce I've ever seen. The apples were the size of my head. We got strawberries and gummies. The rest of the day we just walked around. We thought about going out but Sumi and I just aren't party girls. We just have to face that.

Next day: We decided to go to Jaffa, the old part of Tel Aviv where some biblical things happened. Something about a whale. We walked along the beach. Sumi is pretty fast with her boot. She's like a robot. We had to stop several times though because we didn't have our coffee and we are addicts. I think it's just that New Zealand coffee was so strong, I definitely went though some withdrawal. So we walked around in Jaffa and it was really pretty. Then we started petting a dog, who belonged to an Israeli named Leo. He was there with his wife and was telling us how they wanted to move to Florida. He really wanted to show us the gated community he lives in so he gave us a tour. It was really nice, he must be loaded. Later we got gelato, then went to the gypsy market. So many gypsies. They all hound you too. They got me to buy a skirt that I didn't even really want. Later Sumi and I watched the sunset and had a "date night". Which is basically just a night where we eat out...which we do most nights, but this is more special. One thing I don't really like about Israelis is that they don't understand the word "no", and they are somewhat pushy. We refused dessert several times, but the waiter gave it to us anyway. And we had to pay for it. At least the food was really good. Israel has good hummus. Although now I'm all hummused out. More later...

2009-01-30T23:06:00.000-08:00

I'm in Bangkok Thailand right now, and I've never felt more lost and confused in my whole life. I'm sure I've gotten ripped off a billion times, but I have no idea so I guess it doesn't really matter. Well, it's not that bad. I arrived last night at around 9 pm and got in an illegal taxi. I attempted to speak thai, and my driver attempted to speak english. We didn't get much further than "how are you?" He dropped me off somewhere around Ko San Rd. You could tell because that's where the white people are. I am staying at Peachy Guest House. It's really nice for 200 baht (about 6 dollars). The bed was hard as a rock though. I think it was actually just a board with a sheet over it. I got up early this morning and took a walk around. The food here is so good and cheap. I think it's the main reason why I wanted to go to Thailand in the first place. First I had iced coffee, then a watermelon smoothie, then some honey roasted seasame nuts, the some spicy green beans and chicken, then some fresh orange juice. The orange juice is probably the best I've ever had. I did some shopping in between and got a massage. I think that's pretty good for one day in Thailand. I'll have to come back here one day. Who's coming with me?

2009-01-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

Well part 1 of my trip is coming to an end. Part 2 is about to begin. I'm back in Auckland, and it's like a dream. Or maybe I have entered a timewarp, I dunno. It's like it's October again and I have just arrived to New Zealand. Nothing has changed, but everything has changed. I feel a mixed bag of emotions. Anticipation for what is to come, regret for what I didn't see, and fulfillment for the way everything turned out.

It's hard to believe four months have gone by. That's 1/3 of my trip. It's also funny how I remember my life very clearly in these months. the places I've been, the people I've met are still very fresh in my mind. I remember the American poker boys who came to Auckland to compete and blew 10,000 dollars at the Sky Casino in one night. They brushed it off by calling it a "disappointing night." Leoni, the lady who walked with me in Napier on her lunch break for a total of 10 minutes to show me the way to the top of the hill. Mika, the Japanese girl in Queenstown who I met on top of a 1500m mountain. Louie, the yacht owner who invited us on to his boat that came from Washington D.C. where we drank cheap wine. And so many more characters. This proves that I really had to get out of DC. where everything was a blur and my life was becoming to comfortable. I was like a cat nestled by the fire. So comfortable that I would probably never have left. Not that I don't miss home or don't want to come back. I do. But now is not the time. When it's time, I'll know. It might coincide with the downward slope of my bank account.

A really disappointing thing that happened was when Jota and I tried to copy pictures from my camera a couple days ago. Half my pictures were deleted which, to put it midly, was frustrating. But I have salvaged some and I will post what I have left on facebook.

Today I take the train to Waitakere to meet Phillip and chill on the beach. My last full day in New Zealand.

2009-01-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, this is why you should never plan anything more than a couple days when you travel. We ended up spending the next week at Paradiso. Ayelet left on Wednesday because she was tired of waiting for the car to be fixed. Understandable. But it was still sad to see her go. I hate goodbyes. Sometimes I don't even say goodbye to people just to avoid it. I spent most of my days lounging around by the pool. Nights were spent meeting more characters. Sebastian G. was one of them. (I originally had his full name, but I feel like he is the type of guy to google himself). He was a large German man who referred to himself as Sea Bass. He even put "sea bass" on all his belongings, just like my mother did on my tupperware for summer camp. He wanted to apply to the Department of Conservation in NZ and forced me to read his hand written cover letter. Ugh. Then he arrogantly self-proclaimed himself as the "Indiana Jones of the forest" (whatever that means). What a nerd.

Anyways, Paradiso is always nice, but enough is enough. After the Saturday market in Nelson, we all got in the supposedly fixed car, and headed for Christchurch. We didn't make it much further than Blenheim when the water pump blew. Unfortunately I had already booked my flight from Christchurch to Auckland, so I had to get to Christchurch somehow in a couple days. I unexpectedly had to say goodbye to Diego because he wanted to stay in Blenheim to pick grapes and Jota and I wanted to go to Picton. I am going to miss Diego more than I thought. He's a good friend with an extreme love for Borat, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and cigarettes. And he thinks my accent is really funny. Imagine that.

So Jota and I went to Picton and stayed at a really nice hostel called the villa. We just spent our last couple days relaxing, selling hammocks, mountain biking (which I am terrible at. and by terrible I mean i fell in to several thorn bushes), and eating subway. It's strange how I really love subway now. No wait, I always loved subway. I just never had anyone to go with me as much as people do here. There are a lot of things here in NZ that I will miss though: Tim tams, being able to walk around barefoot in stores, flat whites, i'm sure there is more. I will make a list.

Today I said goodbye to Jota. It was unbelievably hard. On a good note, he has asked me to come to Brazil in May, so I think I will spend less time in Greece than originally planned, but I will still be gone for a year. Right now I am in Christchurch. It's my last day and night in the south island. I have a flight to Auckland tomorrow. It's getting tough now. I've just realized how comfortable I am in New Zealand. A little too comfortable...

2009-01-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

So Jota, Diego, Ayelet and I hit the road back to Golden Bay, the land of hippies. Unfortunately the car has been having a lot of problems. Basically it's a piece of crap. It can't really make it up hills and between Motueka and Takaka is a mountain. So, we ended up making stops every 5 minutes or so to let the car cool down. A lot of nice people stopped for us to help but there was really nothing to be done. We finally made it over the hill and got to Takaka.

I was really happy to finally leave Motueka. I am getting antsy to start traveling again. Another problem arose when we found out that Diego's visa was going to expire in like...two days, and he didn't have all the things he needed to reapply. So most of our time in Takaka was spent fixing the car and dealing with that. I also unintentionally went to Abel Tasman AGAIN, for the third time, with Ayelet. We did the upper tip which was really beautiful and there were hardly any people. I feel really bad for Ayelet. She isn't having a great time in New Zealand and all our plans are kind of messed up because of the car. We can't go more than 100 km in one direction without serious problems. So now we are here in Nelson, in good old Paradiso, waiting for the car to be fixed. The craziest people stay in Paradiso. The other night we all made dinner together, and this Asian guy Mac was staring hungrily at our food. So we were like...ummmm do you want some? He was not shy about helping himself to our dinner at all. And then when we asked for a beer or two, he couldn't spare one. How rude.

With less than two weeks left in NZ, I'm not sure what I will do. I really want to start going north and see things I missed on the way down, but I really want to spend the rest of my time with Jota too. Maybe I will compromise and do half and half. Having a boyfriend while traveling is something I think I cannot emotionally deal with again. It just going to be really strange to be separated from someone who you have spent practically every day with for three months. But we will see what happens.

2009-01-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

I am a murderer! A couple days ago we all decided to go a little north to Takaka and travel around. We saw the "pu pu" springs (funniest name ever), which is apparently the clearest fresh water spring in the southern hemisphere. No swimming though...so it was only kind of exciting. Then we wanted to go fishing. A little advice for everyone. Never go to a fishing farm to catch a fish. The real challenge is not catching one. And they are expensive - like 18 dollars a kilo. And all of them are more than a kilo. I don't even like fish! But I do like fishing, so I did it anyways. I caught one within 10 minutes. The worst part though is that I had to kill it. When we got our poles I said to Jota "you are going to kill it, right?" But then when he found out that involves stabbing it in the head, he declined. So I took my dull paring knife and stabbed its brain. It was the worst experience in the world. That coupled with the fact that it still didn't die after several stabbings. On the upside, I actually ate the fish. It was actually not that bad. I have decided that I will eat fresh salmon from now on.

So Israel is looking pretty bleak. But I am still going. Every Israeli I've met says that the cities will always be safe. I just can't go north or south. So I think I will only go to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and the dead sea. I just think it's amazing that every country I have planned to go to has had some kind of situation. I don't believe in coincidences either.

And a total turn of events, I decided to not take the apple thinning job. Why? BeCAUSE. I don't feel like it. Haha, no because 1. When you just start out, you don't make that much money anyways (and I would only work like one week), 2. I would like to travel again for my last three weeks, 3. Ayelet needs people to travel with, and I like her. 4. Ultimately I don't NEED the money. I want it, but don't need. I will work in Greece and make much more. It's just a shame that I didn't use my visa because I can't get the working holiday visa again.

The hostel, "Motueka backpackers," we are staying at was voted the second worst in the south island. I haven't seen the rooms because I've been staying in a tent...but I don't think it's that bad. I mean, sure, it looks like a halfway house, and there are 2 spoons, 1 fork, and the carpet looks like it's from the early 1900s. But hey, I think if you want to go stay in a fancy pants hostel that gives you everything, you have plenty of options.

2009-01-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

Yup got my ticket sorted. Only cost a couple extra hundred dollars. But that's okay, I also got a job. I'm going to work on an apple farm thinning apples. Which basically means I pick the bad ones off the trees so the good ones can grow more. I'm so excited. If I'm really good I can make up to 1000 NZ dollars a week! And since I really only have like one week, that is what I'm going to have to do.

Jota and I finally left Christchurch. I liked it there, but I was getting pretty bored having nothing to do. Jota's hammocks finally came in and since we had to go north to Takaka for the Canaan downs music festival, we decided to base ourselves in Motueka. It's a pretty beachy town right before the Abel Tasman and Takaka.

New Years was so nice. Jota, Diego, Kristal, Zepe, Kristal's family and I spent it in a valley on top of a mountain. So many campervans and hippies and tents. Everyone was just really happy to be there. New Years we just spent dancing under the stars till it got light out. It kinda sucked because it was raining new years eve so of course all our stuff was wet but you know, it was still an experience, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Mainly I was just happy to have people to spend my new years with. I also met up with Marina and her friends at the festival. That was kind of a relief for me because, to be honest, being the only one who doesn't speak Portuguese in a group is a little difficult. The upside is that I can now understand what is being said maybe about 50% of the time, but I still can't really say anything. Learning French has helped since a lot of the words are similar.

So we spent three days and night camping on top of a mountain, and now Jota, Diego, and I are in Motueka. Mostly I just hang around our beat up hostel while the guys sell hammocks. Diego met and Israeli girl and we have become friends fast. She said I can come to her kibbutz when I go to Israel. :) So now I am just passing the time till I start my job. Then I will begin to make my way up north toward Auckland again. Sigh. I will miss New Zealand.

2008-12-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

So...I realized the other day that my flight from Delhi to Tel Aviv was on March 1st instead of Feb. 1st like I thought. It wouldn't be a huge problem except that I told Sumi I would be in Israel Feb.1 so that's when she bought her ticket. It's official. I am an idiot. But I will get it all sorted out and everything will be good again (for a price of course). Anyways, the last couple weeks have been kind of frustrating. I wasn't called back for any jobs. So I have just been spending my days lazing around the house. I can't really remember things that happened because it all has been blended together. It's good in a way though because it has allowed me to get excited about traveling again.

Christmas here has been somewhat disappointing. The only way you really know it's Christmas is because Starbucks is selling gingerbread lattes and you see an occasional Santa somewhere. No one decorates anything, there are hardly any Christmas trees, and it's warm. But don't think that that means they don't want you to spend a lot of money on Christmas presents. Oh yes, that tradition is going strong here. But it was nice to spend Christmas with friends. Jota and I went to Kristal and Zepe's flat to have dinner with Kristal's family. Her mom made dinner which was really good. Then Kristal's dad proposed to her mom after 20 something years of being together. So sweet. I wish I knew what everyone was saying, although I am picking up a good amount of Portuguese.

For New years we are going to go to a music festival: Canaan downs. It should be a lot of fun; it's a 3 day festival in Takaka (top of the south island) where you camp out and celebrate the new year. Also, I will meet up with Marina again, which I am happy about.

2008-12-20T13:11:00.001-08:00

Sigh, I really need a life coach or something.

times i've lost my wallet so far: 2

buses i've missed: 2

times i thought a flight was at one time but it was actually at another: 2

flights i've missed: 2

jobs i have obtained: 0

misunderstandings: uncountable

2008-12-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

As I was moving out of Around the World backpackers I walked past this one house that smelled pretty bad. I asked T.K. if he knew who lived in that house and he looked at me dead serious and said his mom. I was just like uhhhhmmmm this is going to be awkward. But he insisted I tell him what I was going to say. So I told him it smelled like someone had died. Brett was there and he laughed but I still don't know if T.K. was joking or not.

So I thought I would have a job by the end of the week...but here I am, still unemployed. The problem is mostly with me though. I need to just go out there and give my resume to everyone. Someone has gotta bite. I almost applied to Burger King. That was a dark moment. But I decided against it. My best prospects right now are Sullivan's Irish pub and the Cathedral square cafe which is a little strange because it's in the actual cathedral. I don't think God wants us to go to church and drink coffee at the same time. But maybe I'm wrong.

My flat is really nice. It's in the "suburbs" of Christchurch, like a 15 min. walk out of the city center. I have a cherry tree and a grapefruit tree and an orange tree and a lime tree. So if all else fails I will pick fruit and sell it on the side of the road. I also have a cat named Cuddles that comes around a lot. I pretend she is mine. I also have two Chinese flatmates who are learning English. Right now they are having an Asian party so I better go.

2008-12-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to stay in NZ for another two months. It's just my luck that the Thai people picked now to protest their government and of all places to take over, they take over the airport. And then India goes crazy too. Well it just wasn't meant to be...at least not right now.

So I've decided to settle in Christchurch. I was supposed to meet Jamey up in the north island, but I missed my flight...again. It wasn't completely my fault though, because I was getting a ride and I couldn't really tell them to speed up. Especially because if we did speed up, the car would have overheated. About every 100 km or so the Brazilians would have to pull over to put water in the car.

So I stayed at a hostel called the Stonehurst for a couple nights in Christchurch. It was there that I met the most disgusting person I have ever met in my life. He was a Polish man who could have easily been as young as 27 or as old as 37. He ate too much, smoked too much, and he had revolting facial hair. He was racist and sexist. He was also an alcoholic; he was drunk pretty much all day every day. One night at two in the morning he comes in and he turned on the light. Now normally, I'm not a person to reprimand strangers, especially when they are drunk because that is pretty useless. But when you disturb Kelly Gekas's sleep you don't know what you are messing with. So I told him no, and turned the light off. Then he turned it on again. Then I turned it off and told him that he wasn't the only person in the room (there were two other people sleeping) and he needs to respect that. So he started grumbling and cursing off in the corner. He kept saying "fuck you" among other things. He also said something about throwing me out the window. That was kind of funny actually. He ended up apologizing later, although it didn't seem very genuine. Maybe because he was drunk again.

So I moved to another hostel down the street, called "around the world" backpackers. It is probably the most dirty place I have seen so far. It's a very strange place. About 5 boys live there, different walks of life. I hardly ever see actual backpackers there. The youngest is Seamus, a 15 year old who was apparently dropped off by his dad two weeks ago. There's three other boys, Alex who does the dishes, T.K. who I'm not really sure what he does, and Brett. There are about 10 physical fights between the four of them a day. They have no plans on moving anytime soon.

Then there is Tony, a 40 year old somewhat washed up man. He has a ton of emotional baggage, and for some reason he tells me everything. It makes me somewhat uncomfortable because I don't really know what to say. He claims he wants to help people, but he seems to be stuck at the same time. I think he will be okay though, because he is going to school get a chef's certificate and from the way he cooks in that dirty nasty kitchen, I know he's talented.

A taxi driver got stabbed a block away last night. It's really strange because it's New Zealand...it's supposed to be safe right?

I am moving in to a flat on Monday, and I think I will have a job by the end of the week, so everything is going well.

Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim, and Nelson (again)

2008-11-22T17:21:00.000-08:00

I walked up the steepest street in the world. It's so steep that cars can't park on it and walking up it was just as hard as Ben Lomond's peak. It took me forever to find it too, I walked around for about two hours. Then I was walking up when I saw a guy coming towards me. This French guy introduced himself to me, and we decided we would walk up together. He told me that he wanted to drive up but he didn't think his little ford fiesta or whatever, would make it. We walked down and then decided that we should try and drive up. It was like the little engine that could. Going down was scarier though, I though the brakes were going to go out. Thank god I met him because he gave me a ride back to my hostel and I really didn't want to walk all the way back.

The next day I left Dunedin and headed to Christchurch (I've never heard a more Christian name for a city). On the way I met the oldest traveler so far. She was an 80 year old retired school teacher from Missouri. Although I haven't met too many Americans, there is a much wider spectrum of them, if that makes sense. The youngest traveler I met was 17 (American), and now the oldest was American as well.

I immediately liked Christchurch, I'm not sure why. The city is pretty, green, and there are a lot of sights to see. It might have helped that the weather was beautiful. A beautiful river cuts through the city on which you can kayak, canoe, or be awkwardly paddled along in a gondola.

Since I only had a day there (or so I thought), I didn't do much. I went to the farmers market and just enjoyed the day before my bus ride at 2 pm. I went to wait for the bus, where I met another backpacker named Marina from Germany. She was on her way to Blenheim to get a job at a vineyard. We were both waiting for the naked bus, but neither of us had been on it before...we waited and waited. 2pm rolled by, 2:15, finally at around 2:30 we went to the information centre and asked where our bus was. Of course we missed it. But we didn't understand! We were standing right there, how could we miss an entire bus? Then we find out that naked bus buys tickets from southern link, which is the actual bus company, and sells tickets for cheap. Thanks a lot naked bus for telling us that important fact. I was so mad, but there was nothing we could do. So we bought tickets for the next day and went back to the hostel where Marina stayed the night before.

It turned out to be a bad bus day. First we miss our bus, then when Marina and I try to get on the free circuit bus to the supermarket, the bus driver closed the doors in our face and drove away! Then after we got on the next one, the hobo in the back kept burping and farting. Ugh. After that inconvenient day we both got up early to catch our 7 am bus. Ironically, there are many prostitutes in Christchurch, and they work long hours. I counted at least 5.

So I was on my way back to Nelson to meet my friend Jota at the Paradiso hostel. We had a stopover in Blenheim and Marina and I said our goodbyes. I get to Paradiso, and Jota says we have to go back to Blenheim because he needs to work in a Persian rug store for three days for his Pakistani boss and future hammock selling business partner. Makes sense. So we went back to Blenheim. At least I got to hang out with Marina for a couple more days.

So after helping sell rugs for a couple days, we are back in Nelson, at the Paradiso. I've just been hanging out, sleeping, and reading. A good life. Tomorrow Jota, the other Brazilians, and I will go to Abel Tasman again and camp for a night.

2008-11-12T17:14:00.000-08:00

The last couple days I spent in Queenstown waiting for Laura. I met some other Americans who have been studying in Auckland, John and Josh. It seems that the few other Americans I do meet are always from California. I think I've met only one other eastcoaster. We played a lot of cards. I've come to really like gin and rummy and spoons. The last night I spent in Queenstown we decided to play spoons, only instead of having them right in front of us, we put them across the room. We were only able to play one round because we all were injured and bloody from rug burns and pushing each other.

A really good day was the day I decided to hike the Ben Lomond trail. It was supposed to be really hard and take 6-8 hours. I have realized something about myself though, I really like hiking more than any other activity I've done here. It clears you mind. So I started up the trail which is actually a mountain. It was pretty much uphill the whole way (which is hard on your lungs), and then downhill the whole way back (which is hard on you knees). But it was worth it. At the top of Ben Lomond's peak, I met a Japanese girl named Mika. She is in New Zealand studying English and she works at Fergburger (bless her soul). Fergburger, by the way, is a legendary burger place in Queenstown. My real reason for climbing the mountain was so I could justify eating a whole burger and fries there. The night before my hike though I found out that Fergburger was closing for a couple days to renovate. I was eating dinner at the time when Josh and John told me, so I had to throw dinner away, and we all rushed over to Fergburger. I really wanted the Little Lamby, but all they had left was the Bambi burger. So I settled for that.

Anyways, so I was talking to Mika, and we decided to hike down together. It was a long hard hike, so we went to get a beer. Mika then invited me to have dinner at her house. So later that night she picked me up with her friend Naho. She said there was a change of plans: her house was too small so we had to go on her friends yacht and eat tacos. She asked me if I was okay with that, and I was. :) So I met Louie, a Kiwi fly fisherman who owns a yacht that originally comes from Washington D.C. We drank rum and cokes and ate hokey pokey gelato (which is a NZ flavor of ice cream: creamy vanilla with butterscotch pieces). Then Louie invited us to the yacht club for more drinks. Little did I know what was about to go down. I met the bartender, Blake, a kiwi who also works on yachts and paraglides. Laura had just gotten back from her hike, so I invited her to come to the bar. Blake and her really hit it off, and I decided to go home since we would be leaving in the morning. So I get back, and Josh, John, two of their friends who had joined them Evan and Kayln, and Danish guy were like WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN. And then we decided to go out and drink some more. So we did. I may or may not have gone swimming in the lake that night.

The next day I found out that Laura and Blake hit it off more than expected, so my ride to Dunedin was delayed. But we still had fun, we went on a rope swing and jumped in to the lake, bummed around Queenstown another day, and Laura agreed that we would leave the next day. Yeah right. She's still in Queenstown and I'm in Dunedin now. All because I met a Japenese girl on a mountain. Sigh.

Dunedin is an okay city. A lot of Scottish influence. I just got back from the Cadbury chocolate factory. I ate all my chocolate samples already. I'm so sick. Next I think I will go walk up the steepest road in the world and maybe go see some penguins.

Punakaiki, Franz Josef/Fox Glacier, Queenstown

2008-11-07T14:25:00.000-08:00

Queenstown is nice. I think it thinks it's a little more awesome than it actually is. It's a cute ski town though. Home of the first commercial bungy, Queenstown attracts so many people looking for crazy activities like bungy, sky-diving, rafting, etc. I did luging with Johnny, Jamey, Laura, and Anna, which was fun. I would have done bungy but it's just too expensive. I swear I'm not scared.
The nightlife here is really good too.

It was miserable when Johnny, Jamey and I left the glaciers. The day before, we went on a hike in a tunnel (after I was assured that I wouldn't get my only pair of shoes wet). The upside is that we got to see a ton of glowworms (for free!). That's another thing that irritates me about New Zealand. Everything has a price tag. Even holidays! On Labour Day, if you go buy something there's a surcharge. Happy Holiday - you get to pay more money! But anyways, the weather was terrible at Franz Josef. apparently it gets 7 m of rainfall a year, which is second most in the world. I believe it too. I was happy to leave because I was stuck on the glacier in my flip flops, excuse me, my jandals.

Traveling with the bros has been good overall. It's always nice to be with family, even though that are embarrassing (Johnny asking for American cheese at restaurants, Jamey telling a random German guy he sounds like Arnold Swchwartzenegger). But it's been good. Johnny and I drove to the Milford Sound yesterday which was absolutely beautiful. Plus I got to drive probably the best road in the world. Perfect combination of curvy, fast, remote, and scenic. If only I got to drive on the right side it would have been better. But you get used to it relatively fast. I will be here a couple more days, till Laura gets back from her hike, then we will go to Dunedin.

Abel Tasman

2008-11-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

I wrote this on Oct 29-30. It is so cold right now. Jamey and I are at Bark's bay. We hiked, or "tramped", for 7 hours yesterday in the Abel Tasman National Park. Our bus driver was in a very talkative mood. I have to admit, most of the time I like people to just shut up in the morning, but he was interesting so it was okay. We started hiking and we realized we didn't really have that much food...6 granola bars for each of us, a sleeve of ritz crackers, and a lemon. I was in charge of the food so I guess it was my fault. But whatever, we will be hungry, but we won't starve. My other problem is that I am developing some serious blisters. I walked barefoot for a good part of the trail because my sandals hurt too much. Later I found out Jamey had a first aid kit the whole time.

Walking the Abel Tasman is strange. The landscape changes rapidly. One minute your in a marsh, then a desert, then jungle, then beach. It's very pretty, and the water is so blue.

I will not camp again though. I thought it would be sufficient to unzip Jamey's sleeping bag, use half his thermal pad, and layer up but it wasn't. Probably the worst decision I've ever made in my life. The ground gets so cold whether you are on it or not and just sucks the heat from your body. And even with 4 layers of clothes, not moving and going to sleep lowers your body temperature anyways. Another mishap is that we thought we could get away with just setting the tent down without pre-booking the site for 12 dollars each. But nope, a ranger came by so we ended up paying 15 dollars each as a penalty. What a rip off. How can they charge per person for a camp site. So that was Jamey's fault.

Then we had to go back the next day. It was extra hard coming back. My blisters re-opened, plus my muscles felt like they were about to tear. Plus we did double time so we could get on the bus by 5:30pm. So instead of a 7-8 hour hike, we did it in 5. We got the same crazy bus driver. Jamey and the bus driver started talking about how much citrus grows on the trees in the area (Jamey has been stealing lemons left and right), and then the bus driver was just like "there's some!" and he pulled over and ran out and grabbed some oranges from someone's yard. He said that's how they used to do it in his day. He also told us about how he shoots cats. Only the feral ones though so I guess that's cool.

We got back to Nelson and we were starving. Nelson is weird though. From about 2-5pm all the restaurants close till dinner. So the only places that were open was good old fast food chains. So we went to Burger King and spent like 30 dollars. It was delicious. Our host at the hostel was really nice too, she gave us the camping discount for a room because she insisted we needed a bed that night. Thank god.

2008-10-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

Current location is Nelson, top of the south island. Took a ferry early this morning from Wellington. It's weird how many people you run in to who you have met in hostels. I guess everyone is sort of on the same backpackers track. Laura and I drove from the drop off point in Picton to Nelson. Just as we were arriving in Nelson, I saw a strangly familiar hobo walking alongside of the rode. It just happened to be Jamey Gekas. Good thing too, because he was headed back the opposite way. So Jamey and I are now in Nelson. It's sunny and warm. I think we will do a trek in Abel Tasman before Johnny comes down...if he ever makes it.

2008-10-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

Amazing! After spending way too much time in the Napier Museum, I lost track of time. My bus was at 1:40 and it was 1:00. I was really hungry though...and I was like sandwich...bus...sandwich bus.....so I got a sandwich of course. Fortunately, my sandwich was really good. Unfortunately, by the time I got it it was 1:25. Fortunately, my hostel was really close and all I had to do was grab my pack and run to the bus station. So I ran down the street like a crazy person, grabbed my bag. Fortunately, the girl at the desk asked what was wrong and I explained so she said she would call the bus company and tell them I would be right there. I was just like, great you do that, and I will run. Unfortunately, NZ buses don't mess around. It was 1:37 by the time I turned the corner, two buses were pulling out, and I was dooooomed. I ran to the lady at the front desk at the bus depot and asked her to ask them to come back, but she said no and that the bus was full. Which I don't understand because I had a ticket. Then suddenly my savior, Shirley, appeared in a beat up manual diesel hatchback, with the windows perpetually locked, and an intentionally broken spedometer (so she doesn't have to pay some sort of road tax). Although, she says, every once in awhile she pays, so it's fine. She yelled at me, "GET IN!" So I did. And she was like "Were going to catch thoses buses." And I was cool with that. So she ended up driving me to the next town over, where I got on my bus. So I learned two things. Never underestimate the kindness of strangers in NZ, and never indulge yourself in a sandwich when you have one hour before your bus leaves. I hope I can repay Shirley's kindness to someone else in need.

2008-10-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

Napier is nice but I don't think I could stay here longer than a couple days. It's a sunny beachside town, except you can't really go on the beach. It has a lot of pretty Art Deco architecture; apparently the highest concentration of Art Deco architecture in the world.

The first night here was kind of lonely. I hate moving to a new place where you don't know anyone. But yesterday was good because I met two really nice girls. Anna is from Germany and Laura is from England. I think we will meet up later in Wellington. I think it's always good to have time alone though, because not only is it extremely difficult to travel with the same person all the time, but it keeps you in a good sociable mood when you are apart from others for a while.

I went on a hike up Bluff's hill, which is supposed to give the best view of the surrounding area. A lady named Leoni, who was on her lunch break and said she walked up the hill everyday, guided me to the path. Everyone is so nice here it's unbelievable. People will just walk up and start talking to you like they have known you forever.

Next I head to Wellington, the capital of NZ.

Arrival till now

2008-10-22T15:45:00.001-07:00

It's been really hard to find cheap internet here, so this is my first update. I've spoken to most people anyways. Everything is backwards here! Fall is spring, everyone drives on the left side of the road, day is night, up is down! Ok maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration. Actually, it's been pretty easy to assimlate here. Other than random slang terms: jandals=sandals (that's even worse than "slippers", kris), a boot= a trunk, wop wops = the boonies. And instead of saying "sweet" they say "sweet as". That's been hard to get used to.

But everyone has been very nice. I've been trying to keep Lord of the Rings jokes to a minimum. I arrived in Auckland on Oct.7. Cafes are everywhere and I've come to really like the flat white coffee, which is basically cream with a little bit of coffee in it. The coffee here is very strong though, so I am wired all day. The hostel I stayed in was huge. Probably around 500 people there. I've never seen so many people in one place. And the elevators were the worst I've ever seen and you weren't allowed to take the stairs for some reason. One didn't even go to my floor, the other two usually went to the wrong floor a couple times before you got to the right one. No one seemed very bothered by it except me...maybe we are spoiled in the U.S. with our fancy elevators that go to the right floor.

I met my roommates who were all very nice. I think I was the only one from the U.S. the whole time I was there, which was a week. I didn't really know what I was doing, so everyday pretty much consisted of coffee, walking around town and seeing sights, and drinking at night. The drinking part was a little too easy to get in to. I think I spent about an hour or two in a tree one night.

It also rains a lot here. Too much, I think. But when it's sunny it's beautiful. NZ is so hilly, and almost every house seems to have an amazing view. Another thing I wasn't really prepared for was that the ozone layer here has a hole in it, so you get burned much quicker than expected. And yet another thing I should have thought about is that this is the 21st century, and everyone has cell phones. Not having one is extremely debilitating.

After seeing the sights in Auckland and spending way more than planned, I decided to do WWOOFing on a farm. Basically you volunteer to work for a farmer and they give you a place to stay and food to eat. It's a pretty good deal. I spent my last week with Sue and Marty McCardle. They lived in Rangiriri in the Waikato region. It's claim to fame is being the home of the Shire from LOTR. It does look like that too: blue skies, nice breeze, green rolling hills, and sheep and cows everywhere. My tasks where mostly to feed chickens, help Sue put up fences for the cows, housework, entertaining the kids, and other odd jobs. It felt good to be a part of a family again.

But now I'm in Napier, on the west cost of NZ. It's a little foggy now, and there is not much to see here. It's pretty though and I think I will walk around and see some sights. Check out pictures on facebook.