Today we had a lazy morning in Aswan. The guide gave us a much needed sleep in (well till 10) and then we checked out of our hotel in Aswan and embarked on our felucca journey. A felucca is a type of sail boat used on the Nile in ancient times. It consists of a canopy covering a deck. A large mattress covered the whole deck and this is where we spent the day and night all together. You might think that's pretty crazy to sail on this boat especially since many of us have been getting sick, but fortunately we had the help of a support boat. The support boat spent much of the time right next to us as we cruises the Nile. That's where we ate lunch, dinner and breakfast the next morning ... read more

Wow. That'd be a pretty good description of day 1 in Egypt! We started off this morning with a quick breakfast in our hotel (for the most part breakfast was really good) before hopping on our bus to Giza. Suddenly, while we were driving along some random street, a pyramid jumped out of nowhere; a few moments later and a second one became visible. Now we have all seen the pyramids on TV, and know what they look like. We all also know that they are really big. Our first impression, though, wasn't that they are really big, it was the they are frickin' huge!  Absolutely magnificent structures! The pictures really don't due them justice, but we will post photos anyways.  In the vicinity of the pyramids there are many merchants trying either to sell you ... read more

2nd day in Bruges (Brugge) To the sea and back This morning we decided to be adventurous and explore the Belgium countryside- by bike. After a very crummy hostel breakfast, we rented bikes and found ourselves navigating the medieval streets by bike. We got a bike map from the hostel which has a bunch of suggested bike routes. We chose the seaside route- to the Belgian coast of the North Sea. They told us it would take about an hour to get there and an hour back (a 40K trip). What we didn't consider is that the average Belgium/Dutch person rides everywhere, so there is no way that us out of shape Canadians can keep up with their pace! One hour for these people does not = 1 hour for us! So naturally it took us ... read more

Today we experienced the real Dutch cliche of the windmill. We woke up in beautiful Utrecht and met annelie and sander at the train at 11:30 for our day trip to Kinderdijk, which is a boat ride away from Rotterdam. At the trainstation we experienced the efficiency of the European train system; apparently there was a problem on he tracks between Utrecht and Rotterdam so instead of he short 40 minute train ride straight to Rotterdam, we had to take a detour train which first went to the Amsterdam airport (approximate 30 minutes) then to Rotterdam from there (40 mins). Plus a 20 min layover, we were about an hour behind schedule. It was a bit disappointing though because it meant that we'd fully miss the start of the tour de France (which randomly was going ... read more

Today we spent the day walking around Ameterdam and checking out the many amazing sites. We started in the Rijksmuseum, where we got a taste of Dutch art. There were many English speaking tours on the go all the time, so we were able to get a bit of insight into many of the paintings. Only a small portion of the museum was actually open to the public, because they are currently renovating (and they have been for the last eight years!!).  After the museum we had a nice breakfast at a nearby cafe (the Cobra Cafe) and we met up with Sander and Annelie. Sander's brother, Tom, also me us there and he played tour guide for us for most of the day. (Tom has been living in Amsterdam for the last ten years or ... read more