After Israel we went to Paris and met the Treismens again (the ones we met in Crete and Japan).

We walked to the Eiffel Tower and and it was super cool.

After we walked to lunch and it was delicious. Then we went to the Louvre and did this cool scavenger hunt were you have to find specific pieces of art and it was hard but fun. After walking around for three and a half hours though we were all really tired!

The next day Quincy made amazing pancakes and we hung around at the house all morning. When we finally left the house we went to Notre-Dame Cathedral and it was amazing! It was huge and so pretty!

Then we went to lunch and walked around going in to all the candy and macaroons stores.

After that, we went the scenic walk back to our house and even passed the yellow vest strike. The next day they left and we were all really sad. From there we went and met my mom’s friend who lives in Paris. We had lunch there and they were super nice. We had walked to their house, but we were now going to the Pompidou, so it was too far to walk. Our new friends told us that there was an electric scooter app that let you rent them and there were two already in the neighborhood. So we spent ten minutes trying to find them and when we did it took us a while to figure out how to use them.  Eventually we where on our way and we got to the museum.

It was amazing and I liked it because a lot of the art was hands on and super fun.

We spent the night at our house and then flew back to the US.

From the border crossing we drove to Tiberias, Israel, a town on the Sea of Galilee. We spent two days touring everything religious.

Next we went to Jerusalem. We walked the Via Dolorosa, the path that Jesus walked to get to his crucification. We went to the Wailing Wall, the most holy place for Jews. We did this cool 4D video that is a tour of Jerusalem and at the same time also a history lesson. Nice move dad. There was a cool playground close to where we stayed and we went there a few times. We also went to a market that sold everything and was really cool.

We stayed in Jerusalem for 4 days and then drove to Tel Aviv. When my mom and her good friend Stephi traveled around the world, they met this guy who lives in Israel. My mom found him on Facebook and we arranged to meet them. His name is Yuval and he has two kids and a wife. We had them over for a beer and chips. They took us to ice cream. We took them to a burger joint. And they played catch with us. All is right with the world. Until… Just kidding.

We spent two days in Tel Aviv and then flew to Paris!!!

After Petra we drove to this weird little camping place. We slept in a little cabin. There were the cutest puppies ever!!!! They were only a few weeks old and could barely walk. There were two of them. There was also this really cute cat that was fun to play with. We stayed there one night and it was really fun because we got to hang out by the fire and talk to these other people. It rained all night and into the morning. We left early and drove back to Amman for four days. In Amman we didn’t do much. We just hung out, went to dinner, and went to a movie. On the fourth day we packed up all our stuff and took an über to the border to get into Israel. We had to go through these crazy steps that included a bus, a taxi, a few security checkpoints, a customs building, a fee building, and some very overpriced food.

Imagine that two thousand years ago, some people decided to build a giant treasury that looks like a castle into a huge rock cliff and the only way to get there was to walk two kilometers down really tight canyon walls. Then once you got to the giant treasury you would walk another something miles to an even bigger treasury, that is actually a monastery that also looks like castle, carved in to the walls. And on the way there would pass a city square, an amphitheater, and a bunch of giant tombs. And if that wasn’t enough, you could walk a whole different route around all of that stuff and pass the High Place of Sacrifice. Then imagine two thousand years later you bring your two kids to that very place, and you walk that whole thing in one day. There are people you can pay to give you a camel ride, a donkey ride, or a horse ride, but at the end of the day when your nine year old son is too tired to walk after walking 14 and a half kilometers and having a total elevation gain of 2,400 feet, you are too cheap to get one. So you end up carrying him.

Now, the day before when you got to Petra at 2:00pm, you decide to do the night walk. The night walk starts at 8:00pm so you have a lot of time to kill. You hang out at the hotel till dinner and then eat some camel to fuel you up. You then drive the car to the entrance, scan your tickets, and walk through that very same canyon when it’s dark. Candles are lighting your way, you are in a crowd of people, you don’t know what the heck the night walk even is, and you’re amazed by the beauty of it all. How skinny the canyon is and how tall it is. And then when you finally get there, you are greeted by rows and rows of candles with people of all sorts sitting cross legged in the dirt, very kind people handing out warm tea, and a tuba player. And in front of it all is that very same treasury carved into the wall. It’s lighted by all of the candles and is one of the most magnificent things you have ever seen. You sit down in the dirt and just take it all in. Suddenly, the tuba has stopped and a guy is talking, you can’t understand him because, you know, you’re in a different country. When he’s done the castle is lit by giant disco lights and everyone stands up. People are all leaving and you go to get some tea. You walk back down the canyon, drinking your tea, and talking to your family about how incredibly awesome that was. When you get back to the car you are wondering what tomorrow is going to be like.

The night show

The Treasury

The Monastery

Eating lunch at the Monastery

High place of sacrifice

On the 16th of November we flew from Luxor to Amman, Jordan. We got there at night so we just drove to our hotel. The next day we did school and then we took a taxi to the citadel but it was closed. So we took a taxi to Beit Sitti. It’s a Jordanian cooking class. My parents had signed us up for it a few days before. We cut the vegetables and mixed the dough. We made Maaloubeh, Moutabbal, Farmer’s Salad, and pita bread. Maaloubeh is dish with rice, eggplant, chicken, and tomatoes. You make like a cake in a big pot and then in the end you flip it upside own. Moutabbal it eggplant cooked over an open fire mashed up and with tiny diced vegetables and some fruits. Farmer’s Salad is like Greek salad but smaller vegetables. We made our very own pita bread. We also made desert. All of it was delicious.

The next day we picked up our rental car and drove to Aqaba, a town on the Red Sea. We went down to the beach and swam in the water. The next day we drove to a different hotel on the beach and went snorkeling. It was so cool! The spot we went to was called the Japanese Gardens because it was giant clumps of colorful coral and fish. It was one of the best snorkeling places. The next day we drove to Wadi Rum. It’s a nature reserve in the desert we’re the Bedouins used to live. They have made it sort of touristy and you can stay in a tent like the Bedouins. It was amazingly pretty! It was just red as far as you can se with amazing rock cliffs and sand hills. We got there pretty late so we hiked on the cliffs till it was dark and then had the Bedouin dinner they had prepared for us and then went to bed.

The next day we woke up early and got in the back of a pickup truck. Our driver drove us to a sand boarding hill and we sand boarded for a while. We drove around Wadi Rum and hikes through a canyon, walked on a giant arch, hiked in  another canyon, and then drove back to our car. At the place where we parked our car were these adorable puppies! They were the cutest thing ever! We then drove to Petra.

On the night of the 5th our grandma, Deedee, came! The next day we went to the Cairo museum and it was awesome. It had all the treasures of King Tut, mummies, statues, sarcophaguses, and much more.

King Tut’s sarcophagus

Mummified hawk

Kid mummy

After that we went to the airport and flew to Aswan. In Aswan we stayed three nights in the Old Cataract hotel. It was built in 1899 and is where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile. It was fancy but had a lot of character and history. It has an awesome pool and Decker loved it because it had robes.

On the last day we packed up and a guy drove us to a boat named the Zekrayaat. This is what Decker had picked for his one thing. He first wanted to do a cruise ship with a pool on top on the Nile but Deedee’s friends had told her about this boat. It was smaller that any cruise ship so it could go to other places and was super cool so Decker agreed. The Zekrayaat had four rooms and two suites. On the deck were a hammock and chairs and beanbags and a table. My parents and Deedee got the two suites. They were in the back of the boat and there was a cool balcony. The Zekrayaat has two sails but when it wasn’t windy a tugboat pulled us. There were four other people on the boat with us, two guys from Australia and Germany, Göertz and Craig, and an aunt and niece from Belgium, Jane and Vicky.

When we got to the boat Decker and I were so excited! We all hung out on the deck and played Rumikub and swung in the hammock. We motored for a while and then stopped at the temple of Sobek and Horus, the crocodile and hawk god. Our guide Abdullah told us lots of interesting things about the temple. Apparently this is the only place in all of Egypt with a calendar. It was really cool!

Horus and Sobek

Calendar

Horus

Sobek

After the temple we went into the tiny museum. It had like 12 mummified crocks and even some baby ones! After that we hopped back on the boat and motored on to where we would stop for the night. We had a wonderful dinner and then went to sleep. The next day we had breakfast and then went to the quarry where the Egyptians got the stone for the tombs and temples. We also stopped at a really big tomb for King Horemhep. We stayed there for a long time because Abdullah told us about everything. He also said that there are quite a lot of wolves in the area. He even showed us tracks!

It was a really long excursion so we didn’t do anything else that day. We had a great lunch and another wonderful dinner and then went to bed.

The next day after breakfast we took a horse carriage to Edfu Temple. It was so awesome!!! It still had a roof and was like a maze. Abdullah explained about the temple and the hieroglyphs. Then he let us explore for half an hour. We took the horse carriages back to the boat, set sail, and then had lunch.

After lunch we got off the boat in this tiny village where all the kids were trying to sell us stuff and hiked up to some more tombs. They were super cool because they still had some color. There were lots of them but only three were open for visitors. We hiked back down, tried to avoid all of the haggling kids, failed, and then hopped back in the boat.

We had dinner on the side of the river in a grassy field the crew had set up an amazing candlelight dinner. It was delicious! My mom said that is was the best chicken she had ever had! After the delicious dinner we went to bed. When we woke up we were all really sad because we would have to leave after breakfast! After our last good meal on the Zekrayaat we all said goodbye and drove to our hotels in Luxor. Decker said that the Zekrayaat was his favorite part of the whole trip!

In Luxor we stayed in the Hilton! It was really nice. The next morning we had another tour for the Valley of the Kings! It was awesome! The tombs were really colorful! They were pretty big! After that we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut.(Americans nicknamed her Hot Chicken Soup!) She was the only woman pharaoh!  It was so cool but it wasn’t real. They build a new one that they guessed the old one looked like. After that we had lunch and then went to the Tomb of the Workers. It had the old remains of the of the village the workers lived in. They were the ones who built the tombs of the kings.  There were a lot of tombs but only three were open. There tombs were so, so, so, so, awesome! The king couldn’t know that workers were making tombs for themselves because if they were better than the kings he would kill you. The tombs were really small but they literally looked like that were painted yesterday!!! You would think that the paint the Egyptians used would be really dull, but it’s so bright!!! It was one of the best tombs!

After Tomb of the Workers the guide drove us to a tiny boat. We said goodbye to Deedee because she was being driven to the airport. It was so sad! We then took the boat back to the Hilton.

On November 2nd, we flew from Istanbul to Cairo, Egypt. On the 3rd we got picked up at our hotel by our guide, Mohamed, and drove to some ancient ruins called Saqqara. It had the first pyramids and a lot of tombs. The pyramids were sort of like the “practice pyramids”. You could see all of the mistakes they made. The tombs were so cool! The ancient Egyptians believed that once you died you would go to the afterlife. So they made the tombs and put your body in it and all of the stuff that you loved and was valuable to you could be brought with you to the afterlife. The only people who really had tombs were rich people, like kings and priests.

Saqqara

After Saqqara we went to The Great Pyramids of Giza. (theme music playing)

When we got there we looked and admired the pyramid. It was so awesome!!! It was closed for an hour for lunch and prayer so we rode camels!!! It was awesome! Camels are soooo tall! They make horses look like baby goats. I think camels are my new favorite animals. They are so dopey and funny looking. Unfortunately no camels spit on Decker. This guy took us around and took some pictures. By then the pyramid was open again. We had bought the tickets to go inside so in we went. We walked on a ramp up and up and up. It was so low we had to crouch. It was really claustrophobic and cramped. We kept having to wait for people to pass. It was so hot and humid I could barely stand it. Once we got there it was worth it. It was this dark enclosed space with a bunch of people standing around. There was the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Khufu in the middle. The mummy wasn’t there. There was a bunch of people standing and closing their eyes. Apparently some people believe that the pyramids are too perfect to be made by humans that long ago so they think that some higher power created them. They go to Giza and stand in the room so that they can absorb the “special energy”. After Giza we hopped in the car and drove to the Sphinx!!! It was awesome but short.

At the foot of Giza

The next day Mohamed picked us up and we had a 3-hour drive in the desert to Valley of the Whales. It’s this valley in the middle of nowhere were they found whalebones from millions of years ago. Apparently back then whales had feet and walked on land!!! After that we went to a lake and sand boarded! It was awesome. It was like snow boarding but on sand.

Driving back

Driving back

On October 26 we flew to Istanbul, Turkey. We met this great family in Japan who lives in Istanbul. The mom’s name is Zeynep Unlu, the dad’s name is Burcin Unlu, and they have a son my age named Kaya Unlu. We became good friends and they invited us to stay with them. We took a taxi from the airport to Kaya’s aunt’s house. She had extra rooms so she let us stay with her. Her name is Sanem. On the night we arrived it happened to be Kaya’s birthday. His family and other aunt, with her daughter, came to the party at Sanem’s house. We had dinner and opened presents. We got him Uno.

The next day the Unlus took us around the city and went we went to the Hagia Sofia Church and the Blue Mosque. They took us to a delicious Turkish lunch and we had meatballs. My dad almost cried tears of joy.

In the Blue Mosque we had to wear head scarfs

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia

Hagia Sofia

The next day the Unlus picked us up and we drove to the university that Burcin teaches at. It was a really beautiful university. There were stray cats and dogs everywhere but they were really nice because they were neutered and spayed. We then walked down to the water and had lunch. We ordered  fish and sardines. We got the whole fish! Kaya said that the eyes of the fish were delicious so Decker tried to eat it.  After that we walked back up to the university and drove to their apartment.

Do you see the eye?

Decker has been asking all year long when he gets to see Kaya because then he gets to play video games with him. So that night we had dinner with them and then Decker and Kaya got to play video games for hours. Burcin had a really big IPad with a Bluetooth pen so I drew stuff. 

The next day we were really excited because we got to do a Turkish Bath. We were naked except for our underwear and we lay on a big stone circle with other people and then some lady comes and scrubs all the dead skin off of you. Awkward, I know. It was not what I had expected! Unsurprisingly, my dad hated it. On the way there we passed a carpet store. My mom said that she just wanted to take a quick look real fast. We ended up staying there looking at carpets for three hours.After the Turkish bath my mom went back to look at carpets, we didn’t even end up getting one, and my dad took us to look at a mosque. It was closed. When we were going to meet my mom at the subway station my dad got a text from Burcin.

It takes a certain kind of person to understand my dad’s jokes. Most people are not that kind of person. 

The next day my mom walked around with Zeynep and we did school. We met them for lunch and then me and my mom went and got our haircut. The last time we got it was in Sri Lanka and it was really bad for both of us. This time it was really good. We also got a mani-pedi.

That night we took Sanem out for dinner. She picked the restaurant and it was delicious. 

The next day we packed up and got on a ferry to the Princes Island. It is an island right off of Istanbul in the Mediterranean Sea. We had lunch and then we borrowed bikes. We rode around the whole island and it was beautiful! There were very few cars and a lot of horse carriages.

The next day my mom went for a run, we had breakfast, and then we got back on the ferry. That night we went over to the Unlu’s apartment and had dinner and played video games again.

The next morning we flew to Egypt.

On the 12th of October we met the Treismans at the airport in Crete. (They are the ones we saw in Japan.) We got our rental car and drove an hour and a half to a nearby town. We stayed in this awesome house right on the water. When you walked down the steps you can jump right in and go swimming. There was really good swimming and snorkelling. What was really weird was that there were two really big teepees. They had six mattresses. Harper slept in her parents’ room and Quincy, Decker and I slept in the teepee. There was also a big house. On the beach we made an awesome movie that I’m not going to post because it is embarrassing to all of us. On the fourth and last night we had a birthday celebration with my mom even though it was two days early. We had a lot of fun on the beach and we made a lot of clay. 

Find the goat!

Find the goat!

On the 8th of October we arrived in Athens, Greece. On the 9th we hiked up to the Acropolis. First we went to the museum. The Acropolis is so amazing. It was kind of hard to imagine how long ago it was built. Over 2,500 years ago!!! Athens was named after Athena, the greek god of wisdom. She and Poseidon, the god of the sea, both wanted the city,  so they decided whoever gave the best gift would get it. Poseidon gave the mortals a spring, but they didn’t really like it because it was salt water. Athena gave the mortals an olive tree, and they liked that best because it gave them oil, wood, and food. At the Acropolis there used to be a statue of Athena. 

The next day we went to this awesome park. We played in the fountain and on the playground. The next day we went to the Olympic Stadium where the first modern Olympics were held. It was awesome.

The next mornig we flew to Crete.