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I just got back from a long personal trip overseas touching 3 continents, 4 countries, and 2 oceans. What an amazing journey! I started planning the trip a few months ago when I found out that my friend and co-worker Ralph was going to be visiting his family in Egypt. He always half-jokingly invited me to meet up with him in Egypt to tour his homeland. This year I finally had the time and resources to pull it off.
I figured that since I was going to be in Egypt I should try to fulfill one of my other dreams — scuba diving in the Red Sea. Jacques Cousteau always said that the Red Sea offered the best diving in the world. I’ve always heard so much about the famous wreck dives in the Red Sea and I wanted to check them out for myself.
I flew to Egypt and stayed on a scuba diving liveaboard boat for a week diving mostly ship wrecks. I brought along my new Canon 7D underwater camera system to record the memories. After diving for a week I traveled to Cairo and toured the city and surrounding region for several days.
Cairo was absolutely amazing — totally alien and foreign (in a good way). I felt completely safe and welcomed by the people in Egypt. Visiting during Ramadan was also an unexpected treat. I learned quite a bit about the Islamic culture and history of Egypt. I toured many of the significant historical sites like the Pyramids, the Citadel, and the National Museum.
August is a heck of a time to visit northern Africa. All I can say is that it was really freaking hot. I had to drink water constantly and even at that I probably lost at least 5 pounds on this trip. The hot weather wasn’t a problem when I was diving underwater but climbing up and down pyramids was a different matter.
After spending time in Cairo I made my way through Europe (via Prague) to Barcelona Spain. What a beautiful city — such a change from the absolute chaos and madness in Cairo. I think I walked the entire old district of the city including the full length of the famous Las Ramblas. When I wasn’t checking out the sites I was sitting in a Tapas bar drinking sangria. I could live in Barcelona. Seriously.
After a few weeks I was glad to make my way back to the U.S. and my family. I can’t wait for my next overseas adventure!
