Monday, August 29, 2005

The Trip...

I have definitely am going overseas next year to Egypt, Greece and Austria (yes it is a strange combination but the stopovers to Cairo happened to be in Greece and Austria and I said what the hey I may as well spend some time there as well)

The Plane (Austrian Airlines)leaves Australia on the 12th of Feburary at 6:30pm and arrives in Kuala Lumpur at eeek 11:45 pm after running to the next terminal the next plane leaves at 12:55am to arrive in Vienna at 6:05am (breakfast at McDonalds?). This is only a stopover of 4 hours then the next plane leaves for Athens 10:45am and arrives at 1:45pm and for some strange reason, have to stay in Athens overnight for a connecting flight to Cairo the next day at 1pm unfortunately the trip to Cairo is with air egypt- SCARY(now the question is should I rough it at the airport that night or should I stay in a comfy hotel room?)

Arrive in Cairo at 2:55pm on the 14th of Feb and check into the King Hotel for the night. The next day the tour meets up for 15 days of treking around Egypt.
Quick trip notes:



Day Description
1 & 2 Cairo (Pyramids and Sphinx)
3 & 4 Luxor (Karnak Temple and Bazaars, Valley of the Kings Donkey ride)
5 Luxor - Aswan
6 - 8 Abu Simbel - Felucca Cruise (no toilets, I was told by a conerned friend that I would have to crap off the side of the boat, but apparently they make scheduled stops)(Abu Simbel temple, relaxing on a boat)
9 Luxor - Cairo (train ride)
10 & 11 Cairo (Lazy around Cairo)
12 & 13 Mt Sinai - Dahab (climb up a big mountain to see a scrawny looking bush-just for the record I dont think that this is the real "Burning Bush" nor the real Mt Sinai, snorkelling in the red sea, possible camel ride)
14 & 15 Dahab - Cairo (More train)

Arrive back in Cairo on the 1st of March in the morning, tour parts ways..spend one more night in Cairo (have a Bath, get sand out of shoes).

Depart back to Greece but this time spend a week there in the Phillipos Hotel. Wonder around Athens climb up the acropolis to see the parthenon up close, day trip to delphi, ummm haven't quite worked out all the details here yet, but a greek friend at work will write me up a list of "things to do" as this will not be a tour just a free for all. Oh she did say to go to the cliff where king aegeos jumped cause its a spectacular sunset. Might also visit the cemetary. And sample the resaurants in the Plaka region.

Head back to Austria to spend two days in Vienna. I have been told to go see an opera, take the tram cicuit around the city and to sample the Pastries and coffee.
Its will still be the skiing season there so I think a lot of warm beverages will be consumed in that 48 hours.

Head back to Sydney via KL (again). I'm buggered.

Starterbutton has shown a keen interest in this trip and I hope she does come cause it would be nice to have a travel companion and well it cheaper TWIN SHARE :)