Bluebird's Nest

Before we left I started writing things down about things I would miss. And on the flip side, things I wouldn’t miss. My hubby said “No one’s going to want to read that.” Which got me all self-conscious about what I should and shouldn’t be writing.

I still have that list and until just yesterday I hadn’t looked at it since well before we left. But having reflected on my list now, and after revisiting who the heck this website is for (it’s for me in case you were wondering) I decided even if people think it’s boring as hell, it’s something that I want to remember about our time there.

So here goes – let’s start with the negative and get it out of the way.

Things I WON’T miss:

1. 96 stairs.
2. Having to pay for laundry (and having nasty apartment dwellers to deal with).
3. The itty bitty kitchen we had.
4. Squeaky floors. I was almost off my rocker right before I left with all the squeaks that followed me around the apartment. Damn parkay! Coming home and everything was eerily quiet. Heaven.
5. The sideways shower. So picture this: a regular shower in a bathtub scenario. Usually the shower head is at one end of the tub right? Well, our damn shower head was right in the middle so the water shot out onto the shower curtain. Serious.
6. Our broken bed. It was an Ikea special I’m sure. I hated everything about it. Hard, flat, bent, squeaky, small – I could go on. We even ended up sleeping in the living room on the pull out bed for the last 2 months cuz the bed was sooooo horrible.
7. The recycling area. What recycling area? I was so over joyed to get home to our custom holes in the walls.
8. The stinky fridge – although the stink that came from the fridge came from the good cheap cheese so I actually kinda miss the stinky fridge.
9. The lame knives. I was begging for my Tupperware knives the whole time I was gone. We even broke a knife they were so tragic.
10. Smokers. They are E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. It sure smells a lot nicer here.
11. The covers on toilet paper. Seriously, why do you need a little cover on a toilet paper roll? You have to lift it up to gain access to the toilet paper square more times than it not being able to have access. And really, if it’s there so it makes it easier to seperate the paper, can’t you just use your hand? Do Europeans that come here think that we are prehistoric cuz we don’t have little toilet paper covers? I don’t get it.
12. Recycling plastic. As in, they don’t recycle plastic. It took me a while to not want to bring all the plastic home with me as they just throw it in the garbage and I don’t know if you use as much plastic as we do but we would have almost entire garbage bags full of plastic packaging.
13. Bubbly water. These Swiss don’t drink tap water – it’s only bubbly water for them. So they use a lot of bottle water and spend a ton of $$ on water. From what I understand, bubbly water isn’t even good for you.
14. Paying with cash. These people’s main currency is currency yet hardly any of them have heard of a credit or debit card. Maybe that’s a good thing actually.

Things I WILL miss:

1. The stinky fridge. Or more accurately – the stinky cheese.
2. The glorious view from our apartment. Oh man – I NEVER got sick of those mountains and that glorious lake. Tear.
3. The heating system. Water radiators that heated up the whole apartment to a nice level, no burns, no dust, you could put your clothes on the to dry or warm up. You could put them on just a little bit or a lot. I liked them.
4. The shitter – I mean toilet – in a completely separate room from everything else. It’s a small room mind you but then you don’t tie up one whole room while other people are needing it. Completely logical to me.
5. The windows. Every house/apartment in Switzerland has windows that open from the side and from the top. Ingenious when you just want a little bit of fresh air but don’t want the toddler to escape.
6. The sun. Where or where is the sun in this country!?!?!?
7. The proximity to the city and shopping by foot.
8. L’eglise de St. Martin.
9. Walking to school in the mornings with the tweenager.
10. Watching the sun rise over the mountains.
11. The fountains.
12. Not having EVER to tip.
13. Pizza Taxi. I think I just might open a franchise.
14. The food! Oh my gosh, I’m in love with eating with the seasons. Meals change depending upon what season you’re in. That doesn’t really happen here too much.
15. Family and friends.
16. The public transit. Trains are expensive but sure are a good way to go.
17. The castles. Always a story to be had.
18. The Migro.
19. The walks along the lake.
20. Fondue, raclette, and rosti.
21. The outdoor markets.
22. There’s always something happening for you to go and do within walking distance.
23. Having dinners at the lake.
24. The cheap cheap GOOD wine.

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be able to go and visit this beautiful country for 5 months. The things that irked me are only things that don’t jive with me. None of it is a deal breaker of course. And given the opportunity – I would move back to that sun/snow filled country in a heart beat.

So we don’t have a car. Which makes getting around a little tricky. Luckily, the weather here in Switzerland is downright amazing. Coming from the wet coast where I understand it’s snowing as I write this… I look out my living room windows to the gorgeous mountains facing me, blue lake, cloudless sky and dread just a little bit to return to Victoria. I’ll have to get the sun to send me a postcard when I leave here.

Anyway, back to the no transportation. In order to take advantage of the beautiful weather and scenery, we walk around the area.

When my mom came to visit 2 months ago, we walked to Montreux. We also did a photo shoot around Vevey. She’s as big into taking photos as I am (maybe even a bit more!). It was a peaceful, warm sun filled day, both days.

Additionally, our family caught a bus to Chateau de Chillon and then walked back beside the lake – it was stunning. Although, I think I can’t take any credit for the photos on our walk from Chateau de Chillon – I’m pretty sure it was all the hubby’s handiwork behind the camera.

And there you have it, three photo galleries for 3 amazing days. Enjoy

Montreux

Vevey

Chateau de Chillon

This was the day that we headed to the beach. The hotel provided us with a free bus to get there. The bus was a little sketch but at least there were seat belts we could seat belt our baby into.

After arriving at the beach we laid down our towels on the beach chairs, lathered on the sun screen, put the baby in her swim suit and headed quickly into the warm water.

We frolicked (I love using that word) around for a bit, passing the wee babe back and forth. I was finally tired and headed back into the shade to dry off.

Not long after that a local showed up and started trying to peddle us some trips around the area. We were a little wary of him at first but then he had some other tourists come over and let us know that they had been on the same snorkeling trip that he was offering and it had been a great experience for them. We were sold and decided to go the next day.

Not long after that, we walked over to the area where the bar, food, and a henna tattoo shop were. The woman began trying to sell us the hair braiding (it was crazy expensive) but instead the tweenager ended up buying a henna tattoo on her arm (which we evidently paid too much for…). She also negotiated four massages for us scheduled for the last day of our trip. It was a tough negotiation but she had one of her masseuses come over (Tito) and he gave everyone a free 5 minute massage.

We had lunch and before you know it the sister-in-law had brought back another local who wanted to marry her. It was nice to talk to a local and get an idea about Egyptian life, politics in Egypt, more info on the local scene… but after what seemed like an hour, I found that I wanted him to leave so that I could enjoy the beach again and the beauty that laid before me.

I need to interject here and explain one thing: In Egypt they speak Arabic. But they also speak English so this worked quite well for me. I understood everything. The interesting thing though was that the family that I was travelling with spoke French all the time. So we were constantly switching back and forth between French and English and it was quite normal for either Luc’s mom or I to not know what was being spoken about as it’s impossible to translate everything.

We left the beach and everyone was pretty tired for the day so we cleaned up, had dinner and got ready for a big day the next day by having an early bedtime.

The next morning we ate and set of for the beach to catch up with the boat which was going to take snorkeling and to an island. We grabbed some snorkels, masks and flippers and walked the plank to the yacht. The music was booming and there were already a bunch of other people onboard from other hotels. We set sail.

First stop: snorkeling with about 10-15 other boats loaded with people.

Before I recount what happened for me, please understand that everyone else in our party had a GREAT time snorkeling. I was an anomaly.

I was holding the wee babe as everyone was getting the masks, snorkels and flippers on. Bad idea. I should have been getting ready myself but I was to concerned that the wee babe was going to cry and I wanted to leave it to the last minute. Everyone was pretty much off the boat so I passed the baby to my mother-in-law and put on my mask – it broke. I asked one of the staff if they had another and they did but it was too small. Now I was getting anxious as everyone had taken off and I wasn’t planning on wearing any flippers in the water (not really into them to be honest).

I finally caught up with everyone but it was like a swarm of piranhas. There was people, elbows, flippers, arms, legs everywhere. I’m not one to feel claustrophobic but I was really feeling it. I was getting poked, hit, jabbed all over the place. On top of it, my mask wasn’t suctioned properly so every time I put my head in the water, water would enter it. And it was fogged up. So you can imagine my frustration. I made a motion to the guide that I wanted to go back to the boat. I could barely make out which boat was ours as every time I looked over at it the sun was shining directly into my eyes and I could make out what the names of the boats were as my mask was all fogged up. The guide said 5 more minutes and everyone would go back. I endured but after what seemed like 15 mins I finally packed it in and headed back myself.

So here I was swimming back. Salt water in my right eye (hence swimming with one eye open), mask fogged up, sun shining directly on me and I can hear faintly as I’m swimming back, the wee babe crying her eyes out. Swimming, swimming, swimming… getting closer…. I couldn’t get there fast enough. So as I get to the boat there are two people hanging off the ladder to get up. I basically just pushed them out of the way and barged straight up the ladder. Grabbed a towel and then grabbed the sobbing baby.

Phewf, I made it.

There were two other places that everyone on the boat went snorkeling but after the experience I had, I wasn’t planning on going in again. And from what I understand, it was much better as there wasn’t barely anyone else at those snorkeling spots. What I was most happy about was that the tweenager had a great time swimming around with my hubby. She adores the water.

We then had lunch which was supplied for us. I tried desperately to stay away from the uncooked veggies that they lumped on my plate.

And then everyone piled into a little boat and headed off to a white sand island. It was hot and around 1pm and there was next to no shade except for a little hut that had no access to get inside it. I guess this is where all the boat tours go as the beach was packed full of people.

We went swimming again with the wee babe and tweenager and after we thought that the baby had had enough, I took her out and joined my in-laws in the little hut for some shade. We rested there for the remainder of the time at the island (about an hour).

After that, we headed back to the beach and then back to the hotel. It had been a really nice day out on the ocean. We were all pretty tired from all the swimming and the sun and we had another early wake up call the next day.

Tomorrow we head out on our two day tour of Luxor and Cairo (the Pyramids, a museum, Valley of the Kings, a temple…oh and I get sick).

Our family just came back from a trip to Egypt. Not a destination you would think of to bring a 9 month old baby but if you notice my Life List I can easily knock of the “Visit to Egypt” and “Visit to Africa” in one blow. Although, I think I’ll keep up my visit to Africa up there though as my intentions are more to see some wild African animals and to experience the African culture.

When I say our “family” went, I wasn’t kidding. It was my hubby, the tweenager, the wee babe, my sister-in-law, and my parents-in-law. 7 all together.

We took two cars to the airport and had to be there for 4:30am. Yikes. The airport was not really too interesting and then we boarded our 4 hour flight. Arriving at the airport was when things took on an Egyptian flare.

We had decided to wait to get our Visa’s until we arrived at the airport as they were cheaper there. After a short bus ride from the airplane to the terminal we were greeted with many men yelling and strongly urging us to go in their queue to purchase a Visa. As the in-law’s were already ahead of us I said no that I wanted to stay with them. The man continued to reassure me that it was ok, I could go with him. I continued to say no. The tweenager was looking at us with freaked out eyes wondering what was about to transpire. Finally I pretty much yelled “NO!” and he finally walked away. We walked up to the rest of our family a little worse for wear after our first encounter.

We got our Visa’s ($15 Euros each) and then headed into our next queue. There must have been 400+ people waiting to get their Visa’s stamped. And get this, only 3 windows open to all the people. I think we must have waited about a half hour until we finally got our Visa stamped.

Then onto picking up our luggage. Yep, they were the last suitcases turning around. I hate that. Anybody can come in and get your luggage if they want. We had checked in my mother-in-law’s stroller and a little attachable bag on the back of it had gone missing.

Then there was either 2 or 3 more check points you needed to get through and you had to show your Visa at every stop along the way. Imagine a huge bottle neck with your kids and your luggage and trying to show 4 passports. I needed my Rescue Remedy badly. After finally pushing through them all we arrived outside into the hot Egyptian air. It was about 10am.

Next task: getting a taxi. So the first thing you need to know about Egypt is that everything is a negotiation. A game if you will. My sister-in-law is well versed in playing this game so we left it up to her to get us a good price. She spoke with one guy who we negotiated the price of the taxi (for 7 people and all our luggage) to be 8 euros. He ushered us off to another guy and once we got to his van we asked again to make sure that this was his price as well. He said “absolutely not”. Something about how many people there were, how much luggage we had… My sister-in-law continued to stand her ground and before you know it the guy was yelling at her and some other Egyptian taxi drivers who had come up.

For me at this point I was just interested in getting to the hotel. If you’re feeling this way, you’re bound to get ripped off. But to be honest, I didn’t really care. After the stressful airport, I was ready to be at the hotel getting situated in our room and with the 3:00 am wake up call we had had, I was already feeling a bit tired.

The price was finally negotiated to be 15 euros to get us to our hotel (Pyramisa Blue Lagoon) which is only about 8mins away. From what I understand, we didn’t get ripped off but I think we could have shaved a couple of extra euros off the price if we were even more persistent (if you’re reading this and thinking of going to Egypt with 7 people, keep this in mind.)

So with the luggage strapped to the top of the van, the baby seat belted in (we brought her car seat), we set off for our hotel.

This was my first taste of the desert and the garbage of Hurghada, Egypt. There are palm trees there but it’s also very dry and desertish. And there’s garbage all over the side of the road.

We arrived at the hotel. It was beautiful. The staff were amazing. Very accommodating. We got checked in. My hubby’s family heading off to a place close to the pool (with stairs) and us over to another area of the resort (with an elevator). The room was great. Big king size bed (hard but good), a mini-fridge to keep your water cold (every day you would get 3 free big bottles of water), a bidet (that we once gave the wee babe a shower in), 2 TV’s, a porch, and a living room area. The tweenager got the short end of the stick on the bed though. It was a cot that totally sagged in the middle. We put two mattresses on it but it still was pretty pathetic. As for the wee babe, we had to ask 2-3 times for them to bring us a bed for her. The first bed that was brought was intended for a baby who couldn’t roll over or crawl or stand up. The second one was better but it had a hole in the back of it for her to crawl right out of if she wanted to. There was no other options, so we had to take this one. We pushed it up against the wall and draped an extra sheet over it to try and block the hole. On the opposite side of the hole the other end of the playpen was falling down so the hubby mickey moused the side of it by putting a table on it’s side and propping it up. It wasn’t too bad but we would find out the next day that the wee babe would hit her eye on one of the table legs jutting into the bed and cut herself. Sigh.

We headed down for lunch. This was an all inclusive resort so food was supplied as was free drinks. The food was buffet style and for the first day was pretty good! Ask me by the 7th day and I would say, ugh… it’s the same every day. It was Egyptian fare so rice, potatoes, steamed or fried veggies, some sort of meat in a sauce. There was a whole salad bar that I steered clear of. DON’T eat the salad in Egypt, you’ll get sick. An entire table of different kinds of bread and another whole table of different kinds of deserts.

As for the free drinks. The rose wine was disgusting. The white wasn’t much better. I never tried the red. The beer was good. The spirits all tasted the same. What we realized afterwards from talking to some of the staff is that over in Europe and North America, we let our spirits age (rum, whiskey, vodka, etc…) for years before serving them. In Egypt, they don’t, so they all have a kind of odd same taste to them. Instead of Gordon’s gin it’s Gordoon’s. After 3 days of drinking 3-4 of these cocktails a day, I couldn’t take it anymore and just drank a few glasses of beer.

After lunch, I went back to the room with the wee babe for a little sleep and the tweenager went swimming with my sister-in-law and hubby. It was crazy windy and the temperature was probably around 28 degrees.

Then down for dinner where we sat outside around the pool. It was an early night for the hubby, tweenager and wee babe. For me I stayed up with the rest of the family and watched a dance show put on by the animation team. It was pretty good.

Tomorrow we head to the beach and the next day on a snorkeling trip….

We had a BBQ yesterday. We had an awesome, amazing, stellar, kick-ass BBQ yesterday.

It definitely helped that the weather was stunning. The most stunning day of the year so far.

It definitely helped that the 2nd game of the finals was on. Canucks vs Bruins. It helped that they won too.

What made it so incredible was that so many friends and family showed up. People who we really wanted to see before we leave. After all, the party was so we could see our friends before we go. (25 days and counting.)

We had new and old work colleagues, friends, book club friends, neighbours, cousins, parents, our realtor and his bride, tenants and our new tenant who will be looking after our home while we are gone.

I reflected at the end of the night, the people we missed. For a few minutes I was forlorn. Even disappointed by some people who said they would come but didn’t. People replied maybe and didn’t. People who didn’t reply and didn’t.

But then I turned it around and saw all the wonderful people who came. My cousins family came all the way from Kirkland (and he didn’t cheer for the Bruins even!). People who said they might come and they did. People who didn’t reply at all and they came.

What was also interesting was the way people said they would try and see us again before we leave. I think people find it hard to say good-bye. So instead they say that they would like to get together again for one last drink before we leave. I think in all honesty, we aren’t going to have time to see people again before we go, because that’s what this party was for.

But the good times rolled. We had: hot dogs, hamburgers, steak, pork chops, baked potatoes, bocci, badminton, sprinklers, music, and the game on.

There was beer, near beer, ceasers, ciders, wine, and even slurpees spiked with Vodka.

And there was sun. Glorious sun.

We ate from our regular BBQ and when the propane ran out, we ate from the brick BBQ that burns wood (and my wonderful steak) my hubby built.

When the sun began to set around 9:30 and it started to cool down, we moved the fire to the fire pit and we all dragged chairs around to keep warm.

In the morning, we cleaned up. We found sun glasses, a water bottle, steak rub, a sweater, a book, two hamburger patties, 10 beer, oodles of leftover salad, some smokies, a diet coke and some sun tan lotion. We’ve since eaten some of the left over salad and both of the hamburger patties. Thank you to whoever you are who left those yummy patties.

Tomorrow night we’re having smokies.

What was truly the greatest part for me was seeing all our friends and family come together and laugh and play in the sun. There wasn’t any segregation, people who knew each other from various events we’ve had along the way, all chatted together and it felt like one big happy party where everyone knew everyone.

What a great memory to start our trip with. I’m already looking forward to the coming home party. I guess since our wee babe will turn one just before we come home, our coming home party will be her first birthday party.

And we’ll get to see all those wonderful people all over again.

Woot woot!!

If you weren’t able to attend the BBQ, you were missed. Hopefully, you can make it for the wee babe’s first birthday in 2012.