Wow! Travelling halfway around the world is really tiring, even on a pretty good airline like KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines). Though, it beats travelling domestically because of all the amenities you get on international flights. I did get to watch "The Blind Side" while eating dinner; that movie provoked a self-reflection about the meaning of volunteering and charity. I related to Sandra Bullock's character because her character was not continuing with her acts of charity for recognition, the character did it because it felt right, maybe it felt simply human to do what she did. I kind of feel that way too; I volunteer hours and hours at the Berkeley Free Clinic and I'm volunteering a whole summer in Tanzania not because I want to put a trophy on my shelf, but because it just feels right. These opportunities have presented themselves to me and I know that I can make a difference and potentially help improve the quality of life for so many people. I think humans are naturally altruistic; with that said, I think this trip just feels right and it is ultimately going to make me more human.
Anyways, onward to our first layover in AMSTERDAM!
San Francisco Golden Gate Park from above.
Our flight trajectory…we even saw icebergs near Hudson Bay and Greenland.
Vivian and I made it safely to Schipol Airport!
We were so excited that we ran out of the airport and made our way to downtown Amsterdam! Mind that this is my first time ever to Europe so I was kind of scared, but Vivian was fearless and wanted to explore so we just walked around town. However, we spent more money than expected on the taxi ride so we didn't go to the Anne Frank House, the line was super long anyways... As we walked around, we found canals, bridges, chapels, big historical buildings, cheese shops, small fashion boutiques, and lots of different cultures. Speaking of cultures, it was fun to see tours from all over the world in Amsterdam, each one with their own way of herding their tourists along: some had clipboards with signs, some had more seemingly make-shift batons made from a piece of colored cloth rubber-banded to a stick so that people wouldn't get lost. For some reason there were these small shops all over just selling fries, so we purchased fries with mayo and at them at a plaza called DAM, where we spent our afternoon watching the different tours, locals, ambulances, and pigeons pass by. We met a lonely fellow from Morocco who was visiting a friend and was wandering the city by himself so we chatted with him for a little while.
After DAM, we went to the train station, which was faster and much more affordable than taxi, I would recommend it. Yikes! We almost missed our stop because we were so tired from walking all over Amsterdam and from that entire day of travelling… However, it was really hard to try to sleep on the connecting flight from Amsterdam to Cairo because there were two small infants screaming at the top of their lungs for four hours straight. I think they were hitting close to high C, so I guess I applaud them for their stamina and endurance in producing such sound for so long…=P
We arrived in safely at around 3am Cairo time and met Hassan who was really nice and helped us set up the next few days in Egypt. We headed to our room and wanted to knock out on our beds, but we had so much on our minds we had to write in our journals. Also, we got our first experience with the Islamic prayers that occur at around 4:30am, it was projected on loud speakers. So around 5:30ish - or something, I started to lose track of time at this point - we turned off the lights and went to sleep...knowing that we had to wake up early the next morning to shower and prepare for our tour of Cairo….
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