Travel changes lives. The journey that changed my life. Travel changes the mind of a person
Some travels are remembered because they were at a certain time - honeymoon or graduation. Others - by being the first: the first trip abroad, the first flight, the first trip. And some travels are made because it's time for a change. They give a new outlook on life, a breath of fresh air and a chance to change everything for the better.
Here are just 15 places that can really change your life:
Denali National Park, Alaska
More than 100 km of road through the park on a subarctic landscape, which is not found anywhere else in North America. Golden eagles fly overhead, deer climb the slopes, and grizzlies make their way through the tundra. The mountain that gives it its name rises above the park. The protected natural area extends over an area of 25,000 square kilometers - the size of a small European country like Macedonia.
There are many campsites here, and it is easy to get lost in nature, untouched by the passage of time, in such a huge space, where everyone will feel negligible.
Istanbul, Turkey
Although Turkey is in a not very prosperous neighborhood with Syria, Iraq, and in itself there have been a lot of conflicts lately, but if we abstract, then Istanbul is just a joyful reminder that everything should be different. The ancient Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque ... Everything is combined here: the historic city center, modern architecture and art, vibrant nightlife and modern cuisine.
Bagan, Myanmar
A thousand years ago, this city was the capital of the kingdom of Southeast Asia, which built 10 thousand Buddhist temples along the Ayeyarwaddy River. More than 2 thousand of them remain. Unlike Cambodia, where crowds of tourists go, it is even more spacious here and the locals themselves will show you the sights.
There are no big hotels or resorts here. This is a real journey back in time to Asia, which no longer exists elsewhere.
Caribbean sea
Feel like real pirates, but without robbery and bloodshed. Hiring a private boat is much easier than it sounds and not very expensive as they say. Spend a few days at sea, stay on small islands that seem to have never been discovered by anyone.
Holi Festival, India
A riot of colors is celebrated every spring in the Indian cities of Mathura and Vrindavan. The festival has spread all over the world, but it retains a special significance right here - at the birthplace of Krishna. It is a holiday of spring and a day of forgiveness.
Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Swim here, of course, under water, and you will realize how really our world is huge and majestic. The 2,900 reefs, which make up one Big, are home to billions of tiny living creatures, corals, which together create their own separate underwater space.
This is what is best done sooner rather than later. Every year, due to global warming, the reef rises to the surface. Even experienced divers will discover this unearthly world.
Paris
Romance and art, fashion and food. The French capital offers it all year round, but the pinnacle of it all can be seen at the Salon du Chocolat chocolate fair. Every autumn, the world's best chocolatiers, pastry chefs and cocoa experts prepare the most delicious desserts. This year there was a 6m chocolate bear and a fashion show of clothes made from or inspired by chocolate.
Kyoto, Japan
High-speed trains and LED street lights dimmed in Kyoto, the ancient capital of the empire of pagodas and temples, where tea ceremonies can last for hours. Here you can meditate for the entire journey, walking under the sakura trees near the shrines. Many temples have guesthouses where you can stay.
Chicago
Amazing architecture, jazz clubs and ethnic festivals every weekend all summer. In the Second City Theater, you can learn to be a comedian, because this is where famous American comedians came from. The full course of classes lasts 8 weeks, but there is also a short intensive course. They seriously believe that laughter can change your life, therefore they offer appropriate courses for those suffering from depression or autism.
Drakensberg, South Africa
There is a kind of otherworldly landscape, which is indicated by the very name of the main local attraction - the Drakensberg Mountains. Jagged ledges, sheer cliffs, snow-capped winter peaks. For thousands of years, people have admired the special mystical mood of this area with the largest collection of ancient cave paintings in Africa. Some of them are 4 thousand years old and are accessible only to experienced climbers.
Buenos Aires
Everyone knows about his tango, good wine and steaks, but many are missing out on another attraction - the books. The Argentine capital is a botanist's paradise with more bookstores per capita than any other city in the world.
One of them is located inside the old theater El Ateneo. The seats have been replaced with shelves, but the theater boxes have nooks and crannies to read a couple of pages before purchasing.
Forbidden City, Beijing
This is the largest palace complex in the world, the main "white house" of the Chinese emperors of the last centuries. The two main gates are located almost a kilometer from each other. Every year this place is visited by more than 15 million people, most of whom are Chinese, for whom it is a real center of power, a national symbol and historical pride.
California Highway SR 1
You might have seen this track in movies, advertisements or NFS. Sharp turns, sheer cliffs, large bridges are great places for chase scenes or a romantic trip. More than a thousand kilometers from San Diego to the north of San Francisco. And don't plan to just drive them around with a breeze. There are many places to stop and take in the views. The mountains cut into the Pacific Ocean in the Big Sur area, the picturesque town of Carmel invites you to walk, and Hearst Castle will allow you to plunge into luxury.
Finding the gorillas of Rwanda
Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is certainly not for everyone. Not everyone can stand hiking in the rainforest, on steep mountain slopes, and sometimes on slippery trails. There are only 700 mountain gorillas left, and meeting them can radically change the very idea of what it means to be human. In Rwanda, only 10 groups of gorillas are used to humans.
Bali, Indonesia
The name itself is already associated with a tropical paradise, and not without reason. Bali has long been a haven for artists and writers seeking the inspiration it offers in abundance. Stunning scenery, great food, nightlife and peace to come. And although many tourists come here, there is still a place to escape from everyone.
You will see the whole world even before you start thinking. I am sure that traveling in childhood, even unconscious, forms an excellent imagination and develops intelligence. Unfortunately, I do not yet have confirmation of my theory on living (already grown) examples, although I traveled in early childhood, this cannot be called travel.
Traveling from birth?
If you know Polish / know how to use Google translate, the opinion of the mother of two such children, Anna Albot... Traveling parents took their children, Hannah and Mila, from the age of 6 months around the Black Sea, across Central America and the islands of Oceania. The eldest girl recently went to school, and has already visited several dozen countries. I was lucky to meet Anya and Thomas in person almost 10 years ago, when they first met, and now it is very interesting to follow their adventures on The Family Without Borders blog. They now live in Berlin and are actively helping refugees.
Perhaps these girls will be completely tired of traveling by the time they come of age and will not have this delight of knowing the world, which all beginners already at a conscious age have travelers ("Oooh, first flight by plane!"). And maybe they will travel around the whole world, which will seem to them all the same amazing and they will never get tired of making discoveries.
And if you are from a family of couch potatoes?
But if you have ordinary parents, then, most likely, they took you out only for a typical "mattress" rest once a year or did not take you out at all. And then a lot of discoveries await you! Traveling will make you you and you need to use every opportunity to get your hands on another cherished ticket or hitchhike beyond the horizon. In general, for now, the choice is obvious to you: the road to nowhere is much more useful than buying a cabinet. It is during these years that travel brings the greatest pleasure. As the saying goes, when you already have stability and money, you can buy as many pleasures as you like, but will they bring joy? Over the years, emotions fade away, and in the end it can be different: for example, you come to the country of your dreams and feel nothing. Therefore, it is better not to delay.
How travel shapes personality
I have been traveling for as long as I can remember. Starting with trips with parents to sanatoriums and to relatives, then there were trips to Germany, performances in other cities with a school theater, trips for weeks of science and technology with a circle of astronomy and hiking in Belarus and Russia with a tourist club, then hitchhiking began (mostly Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and a little Poland), then I traveled a lot around the world as a young naturalist and civic activist. Yes, it's very funny now, but then the banal command of English, the desire to know everything, the ability to speak and burning eyes, a naive belief that something will change in Belarus during my life helped. There were countries like Indonesia, Peru, Egypt, South Africa, Thailand, etc. And, of course, there were sudden independent low-cost sorties, like, and in close Europe.
How travels are remembered at different ages
Here's how travel changed my life at different ages:
0-10 years old
There is little left from these trips, but the memories are very vivid, like yesterday. I remember Palanga most of all. I tried to run to him, and my parents were constantly catching and bringing back. I remember. Probably, this time gave me to nature in general. There was almost no memory of the people I met then.... But I guess I'm just still learned to communicate.
10-15 years old
The first trip abroad, it changed a lot in my head: even then I began to think why they have it, and we have it differently. From this period, many connections remained for life. A lot of hobbies, hobbies and patterns for life... Traveling around Belarus strengthened the love for the homeland, now against the background of other countries. Then this feeling grew, but this time only in relation to nature, not to the state. Traveling helped me understand my location in space, assess my capabilities (and their limits) and how you can apply what you learn at school (travel helped me at the age of 10 for the first time to speak with German children).
15-18 years old
The first independent hitchhiking and trips to (by school standards) serious scientific conferences. A unique experience of communicating with completely different people. I realized that I feel people very well, I know how to find an approach to them, and I intuitively avoid dangerous situations and solve problems spontaneously on the road. Trips around Ukraine made me think about the situation with the Belarusian language. Except for the lessons at school, then for the first time I spoke Belarusian in Transcarpathia.
18-25 years old
Students, the most generous time for travel. They appeared out of nowhere, organized by me or my friends spontaneously, some kind of conferences, trainings, gatherings ... A lot of new faces, new foreign languages, new information, a new level of communication, taking into account all the experience and new knowledge. It was accumulation period, sponge period: I take everything they give but for now I don't understand what I need that no. Travel is the ideal source for this phase.
25-30 years old
That's about where it started filter phase... I sort through everything that I have accumulated in travel for all previous periods, build my own coordinate system, stop looking for inspiration from outside. It is already clear that the world is very similar, wherever you go, only the scenery changes. Therefore, the scenery finally begins to matter: in these years, and happened at the right time. Traveling makes more sense but become even more spontaneous and rooted out of reality in a good way. Finally there is a place for detailed travel plans, although before everything was always spontaneous. The plans do not make travel any less cool and this is very surprising. I already love to come back and take on life from a new angle, with a new point of view and with new conclusions. Conclusions, by the way, are finally appearing, because earlier all travels were more for emotions than for reflection.
What's next?
I dont know. Probably, if you are over 30, then instead of giving up where your eyes are, your priority is things, loans and family concerns. A little later, other expenses will be added to these expenses, then a link to one city, visits to doctors and stupid medical prohibitions to go to a too humid or too warm climate will be added. I am already silent about traveling with children: not everyone can do it and can afford it.
At some point, a person begins to prefer comfort and ceases to want to stay in smelly, but cheap hostels. Or he starts to want personal space instead of stopping God knows who through couchsurfing. Then you want to keep the noise behind the wall at night and also to have bacon for breakfast or to have a vegan menu. Then the list of things you need on the road will increase. And then one fine day you will no longer be able to pack everything you need in a suitcase the size of a low-cost airline and you will have to look for a better job in order to fly more impressively. Travel changes with the person. If you change dynamically, you will be very surprised what will happen. For example, I cannot believe that at 18 I only needed my Zenit camera and $ 50 for the whole summer ...
Dream in time
If you think that all this will not happen to you, so be it. I thought that this would not happen to me, but I'm tired of driving corny. It seems to me, travel has already played a role in my life, they are unlikely to give me more. Yes, adventure will still be in my life, but it won't seem so important. For a couple of years I wanted to go to Australia so badly, but now I don't want to. Probably, I was already late with Australia. Yes, I still plan to travel, but with all these cool modern deals like € 100 round trip to Iceland or $ 300 to New York, I feel like an adult in no one's sweet shop. That's it, at arm's length, and now you don't even need to be rich to ride. And then it will be even cheaper! But I don't really want something anymore, and the priorities are different. This is neither good nor bad, it is just different. I know those for whom the Road is their cradle and medicine, and it is good that they were not afraid to take a step and start discovering the world on their own. This is knowing yourself, albeit in a roundabout way. For some, it lasts for decades, and it's not very cool anymore.
Book your accommodation through Booking (if you want a cheap hotel) or Airbnb (if you want to live like a local).
I wish each of you that your Road leads home.
I am writing this while hiding from the typhoon, hurricane wind and rain on the east coast of Taiwan. When it's over I'll try to finish mine huan dao 2012, full island trip, over 1000 km by bike. I made a similar journey in 1992, my first year in Taiwan. But, both my life in Taiwan and my passion for cycling tourism - and I have 100,000 km and more than 24 countries behind me - stems from my cycling vacation in Malaysia 25 years ago.
In fact, the story began even earlier, a year before, when I first came to Asia, to Thailand. And that was a big disappointment.
Do not misunderstand me. I love Thailand as much as I love Malaysia, Taiwan and many other countries.
But I made a mistake that many neophytes make. I followed the directions in the guide to find popular destinations, shopping malls and beach hotels. And, although I had a good time, it was not clear to me where in the end Asia was, since I did not come across anything that I could not see without leaving home.
So for next year I packed my bike and, despite the fact that I had never traveled further than school or the beach, I decided to ride it through southern Thailand, all of Peninsular Malaysia and enter Singapore. Everything is in the place a little more than 2000 km. I was going to fly from Kuala Lumpur.
It looked like the most stupid thing in my life, but it turned out to be the smartest thing to do. And, as I said, it changed the course of my life, and more than once.
I didn’t have to give up visiting attractions, but between them I had to drive past “real” villages and cities, interact with “real” people, live in small hotels, along with truck drivers and merchants, and there is one like them , writing. Despite the pain in my legs, arms, back, and especially in its very lower part, the trip won me over.
In Alor Setar, I celebrated my arrival in Malaysia with a can of Guinness beer. I was pleasantly surprised by the widespread availability of beer. But what I was even more surprised was that my favorite Irish stout was among the popular brands.
The next day I pedaled, and in Georgetown, Penang, I realized that I had fallen in love with Asia. I can't say what exactly I liked so much, but tongue-tied is not an option for a writer, I have to try. A mixture of peoples, or at least a mixture of culinary traditions. Or the architecture of old cities, study taiqi in the park, trying to master a few phrases Bahasa Malay - I still didn't realize how widespread English is here - and bike rides along the beaches late at night for a swim.
My planned two days turned into two weeks, and even then it was difficult for me to leave. The next stop was Tanakh-rata, at an altitude of 1500 meters in the Cameron Mountains. I spent four days on this halt.
I got by with two. One late evening I arrived in Ipoh, the next stage, which included a five-hour climb in a thunderstorm, took me to Tanah-Rata, a small town in the middle of tea plantations, at a very pleasant altitude. The hotel manager said my schedule was perfect. Early the next morning, the Indian Tamil holiday of Thaipusam began, during which devotees surrender themselves into the hands of the Indian gods, injecting dozens and even hundreds of hooks into their bodies before a 5 km parade through the streets. Then a treat awaits them at the local church.
I quickly rolled down the mountain and arrived in Kuala Lumpur before midnight. This was the first time I drove 200 km in a day. Time passed even faster than my savings, however, soon it was time for me to return to England to work, so I left the capital, counting on my next visit.
I made a short stop in Malacca, where the old city conquered me, and Muare, which is still a lovely sleepy port.
After that, the trip to Singapore did not cause difficulties, I already knew that cycling in Asia would become an important part of my life, and not just one of the vacations.
If you find this article interesting, we invite you to learn more about travel to Malaysia by visiting our website:Tourism in Malaysia
Mark Caltonhill (Taiwan)
Mark Caltonhill, writer, actor and amateur cyclist based in Taiwan, was born in Manchester, England. Read his other works: http://markcaltonhill.blogspot.com.au/
Translated from:The journey that changed my life - Cycling Malaysia in 1987, by Mark Caltonhill
"The search for oneself cannot stop. You cannot say to yourself:" I have experienced everything, there is nothing further. "
I thought about this when my old college friend called me and offered to go to study surfing in. By this time, I had already quit my job for 3 months and was looking for a new one. There was no money. Surfing in the Canary Islands seemed very distant and very unreal. Although, like many snowboarders, I have long dreamed of learning to surf. What if? The next day was my birthday and to a bunch of invited friends, I said that there was no need for gifts - the most desirable gift was a trip to the ocean.
A month and a half later, I was sitting on a plane, waiting for the start of the most incredible journey of my life. The travel that changed my life forever.
Surf training
How do people imagine surfing? Differently. I, like many fans of boarding in the mountains, thought that surfing and snowboarding are similar and that I, an experienced snowboarder and football player, will succeed very quickly. A cruel delusion. I realized this on the first day of learning to surf in the Canary Islands.
Surfing is not only physics, and the hardest physical activity, it is also an art. The art of understanding the nature of the ocean. Floundering and exhausted, I realized that I knew nothing about the Ocean. About where the wave comes from and how it is formed. After the first workout, everything hurt me - the muscles of my arms, legs, joints, back.
I also understood one more thing. Surfing doesn't start in the water, but on land. Firstly, it is imperative to stretch and warm up your bodies before entering the ocean, and secondly, and they absolutely should not be neglected if you do not want your surfing training to slow down.
Besides, there is one more thing that is very important in surfing. Learn to row. Swimming, of course, is a good thing, but it is not too much help, especially after 5 hours of rowing. The ability to row correctly, quickly and without wasting extra energy comes only with experience.
All that I understood with my own skin and in the evening sitting in the hall of our surf pitchfork in Famara thought that I had no strength left the next day of surfing. However, these thoughts I drowned in hot fun and ice-cold beer and the next morning I woke up completely ill.
However, I could not miss the surfing lesson! The salty ocean water will cure me. On this day, I finally got up on the board on the foam. First small victory!
Entering the ocean, I seemed to have changed forever! It seemed to me that I washed out of myself all the foreign and unnecessary litter that was sitting in my head. Now I am the only one left.
I got into a real surfing environment, and day after day I became a part of it. Surfing every day was not a compulsion for me, but a necessity.
... And I also really liked the island of Lanserote. People, food, clothes, life in general. Fish, rum, bunk, ocean, mountains, flat bellies of surf girls, music on the streets, Spanish slow-life lifestyle in a fishing village - I really, really liked it all! It doesn't matter who you were there in the city.
… What is surfing? For me, first of all, this is freedom. I feel freedom in everything here. In the bright blue sky and the burning sun. In a piercing wind, breaking waves and throwing sand in the eyes. In the sand itself, which is everywhere: in the sandwiches on the shore, in the water, in the lungs. And there is also freedom here, it is salty splashes in the face and undercurrents that steal the bottom from under our feet. And in the uncertainty that the ocean carries.
The line-up is quiet. You sit on the board and feel how yours is balancing. You just look into the ocean because there are no thoughts. Just a sense of respect for the ocean, to which you give all your attention. Giant masses of water calmly and majestically move around you. And suddenly, 20 meters away from you, you see a wave. It still does not tell you anything about its size and where it will gain maximum height. You unfold your board and lie down on it. For a second, your hands are lowered into the water and relaxed, but the next moment you are all - one desire to ride the wave. "Paddle !, paddle, paddle" you command yourself, rowing strongly towards the shore, but looking over your shoulder at the wave so as not to overtake it and not miss it. 3-4 seconds of frenzied rowing pass, the wave has already gained height. Hands with all their strength are almost completely lowered into the water, rowing from nose to tail of the board. The wave hits your legs, lifting the back of the board. The heartbeat is accelerating. Now. One, two, three powerful strokes, stop and jump. If you didn’t have time to get up, the wave spun you, spitting the board up a couple of meters and jerking you with Lish! And if you have time, then you can take a ride ... For now, it is not important for me yet. So far, only the attempt to interact with the strongest element on earth - the Ocean - is important to me. Yes, this is enough for me now to feel boundless happiness.
The island of Lanzarote, composed of rock and solidified lava, tied me to itself. I can watch the sunset here high in the mountains above the ocean. People from all over the world become my friends because we share a common passion with them.
Surfing is now my spiritual path. I chose surfing to live every day, to control my body and enjoy the feeling of health, strength and flexibility. To be happy today, not sometime in the future. Join us!
Egypt, November
Before meeting my beloved, I had no idea that you could travel on your own, plan the route yourself (and change the route along the way), buy plane tickets (and even be late for it). That is, when all responsibility lies only with you - both for a correctly planned route, and for awareness of certain interests.
When you are both a guide and a tour operator. Everything to itself.
The style of travel of a loved one in numerous joint trips has shown that one should rely only on oneself (sometimes - on LP) and, in extreme cases, ask random people for information.
I found myself in an amazing position, when my beloved one was for a tour operator and a guide, and all I could do was to admire the beauty and attractions of this or that country.
This also happened when planning a trip in November 2010. True, for this trip we used the services of a tour operator and bought a last minute ticket to Egypt $ 93 for each (prices decreased due to shark attacks, but this did not frighten us, since everyone understood that we simply would not get to the sea). Beloved himself planned the trip, but the nuances were not conveyed to me. At that time, it was not necessary - I knew that he was traveling with us and the journey would be, as always, interesting and memorable (we were traveling in three: me, my beloved and a friend (Snake).
The unpredictable happened - the beloved refuses to travel at the very last moment, precisely at the last - at 07.00 in the morning, when already at 11.00 it is necessary to leave the house for the train to the airport. Naturally - panic - how, where, why and why?
The beloved calmly took the LP, handed it to me (for awareness - I don’t know English) and said: “I believe in you and you can handle it without me !!!”. In frustrated feelings, I packed my backpack, took LP and on the way to the Paveletsky railway station, my beloved in the metro talked about the planned route, and I frantically jotted down word by word.
The route turned out as follows: we arrive in Hurghada, the next day we sail by ferry to Jordan (we were supposed to visit Petra, but since the entrance a month before the trip suddenly became expensive, we had to penetrate the city at night, hiding from the guards), further to Israel - Jerusalem, Aqaba ... that is, only the days of arrival and departure were planned for Egypt.
Let's go, that is. One and a half tourists, without language, without understanding the peculiarities of the countries planned to visit ... well, there is insurance against stupidity - a paid hotel with food and a beach.
Whiskey, Baileys. We flew to Hurghada relaxed.
We settled in, got used to it - immediately look for a port to cross the Gulf of Suez to Sharm el-Sheikh, then from there to Jordan. We walked for a long time, the port was not found. We returned to the hotel with nothing.
The next day we will find out - there is a storm in the bay, the ferry does not go - maybe it will, but only the next day. At the same time, there is no certainty that the ferry will, in principle, even in a week (that is, we could not have made it back home on the plane). We make a decision - to walk only in Egypt, according to its interests, and, as we all know perfectly well, there are a lot of them !!!
The next day we went to Cairo.
Be sure to visit the world's largest repository of objects of ancient Egyptian art - the Cairo Museum. Photography is prohibited in the museum. The Egyptian Museum contains the richest collection of cultural treasures of the dynastic period. More than a hundred halls and galleries house about 150 thousand exhibits. At the entrance to the museum, there are giant sculptures depicting Amenhotep III and his wife Tia. Contrary to tradition, her figure is the same size as the figure of the pharaoh himself. Works from the Amarna period are exhibited on the ground floor of the museum. They are much more realistic than anything that was created in Egypt before and after them. What is the head of the famous Queen Nefertiti worth? First of all, these are the treasures of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, exhibited at the far end of the second floor. This tomb was discovered in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings, near the city of Luxor. This find became an archaeological sensation in the twentieth century. The tomb of Tutankhamun is the only one of the royal tombs that was found undisturbed, in its original form. Her treasures were so numerous that it took five years to describe and transport them to the Egyptian Museum.
In front of the entrance to the museum, work is underway to restore the exhibits.
Inspired after the positive emotions we received from visiting the museum, we wanted to continue and went to see one of the seven wonders of the world - the greatest architectural monuments of Ancient Egypt - the pyramids! But then we were faced with the fact that none of the locals at the bus station knew how to get to the pyramids. We were surprised! And they began to check the information specified in the LP. But this information turned out to be erroneous, from the stop indicated in LP, buses have not been running for a long time. Benevolent people appeared who helped us. A minibus was passing by and people told us that it was necessary to get into that minibus. And immediately grabbing us in their car, caught up with the necessary minibus at a traffic light, we jumped into it and reached only the station (we are in shock). But then we got our bearings and found a minibus, talked with the driver. He also decided to help us and took us to a travel company near the pyramids. There they began to "breed" us. But we quickly understood and got away from annoying selling our services.
Shortly wandering in search of an entrance, we got there and saw ... BEAUTY!
The pyramids are located near the city of Giza.
The largest is the Cheops pyramid. Initially, its height was 146.6 m, but due to the fact that now there is no facing of the pyramid, its height has now decreased to 138.8 m. The length of the side of the pyramid is 230 m. The construction of the pyramid dates back to the XXVI century BC. NS. Presumably, the construction took over 20 years.
The pyramid is composed of 2.3 million stone blocks that have been fitted to each other with unrivaled precision. No cement or other binders were used. On average, the blocks weighed 2.5 tons.
The locals ride on donkeys and everyone proposes to ride camels.
The next city that we have received our attention is Alexandria! The city is in the north Egypt and is a port on the Mediterranean, founded by the great Alexander the Great.
While walking along the embankment, we visited the library - one of the largest libraries of antiquity.
The Library of Alexandria was founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC during the reign of the king of Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
The library contains many rooms dedicated to different areas of art.
Sculptures next to the library building once again show us to ancient Egypt.
Continuing the walk along the embankment of Alexandria, we visited the Kite Bay fortress, which was built on the ruins of the Alexandria lighthouse.
Visiting the fortress is active.
The fortress was founded in 1477 by Sultan Kaitbey and since then has been rebuilt more than once, but, as you can see, it has survived to this day.
Here you can visit the military barracks where the soldiers lived, see the holes in the mighty walls, where the cannons were previously located.
Climbing up to the observation deck fortress kite bay, enjoying the stunning landscape: on one side - endless golden sands, and on the other - the turquoise Mediterranean Sea.
On the coast, fishermen have settled down peacefully, waiting for a big catch.
Without thinking twice, we decide to climb Mount Sinai and meet the sunrise there. Of course, I regretted a little that the sunrise at the top of the mountain would not meet with my beloved, but with a friend.
The cities of Egypt traveled only by buses. Sometimes they forgot to change the currency, but they found people conducting the exchange unofficially (whoever seeks, he always finds).
We got to the city of Suez late at night, and we were warned, as if by chance, of a possible deception by taxi drivers. And there is nowhere to go, the buses do not run !!! The taxi driver offers to go to the tunnel through which buses pass to Sharm. But as soon as I imagined that we alone would be standing somewhere in a vacant lot, being in the unknown whether the bus would go or not ...
In general, I was scared. And there was no strong male shoulder nearby to keep calm. My fear turned out to be stronger than Snake's confidence, and we just went to the hotel for the night. The next day, it turns out that the first bus to Mount Sinai will only be after 14.00. I didn't want to wait at all - we went to the desired intersection by bus to Sharm. From the turn to the mountain, you see, we will hitchhike.
Hitchhiking turned out to be not entirely simple, and far from free. Still, we got there, into the night.
At the hotel we will find out how best to climb to the top of the mountain. And then a surprise - tomorrow the bus will be in a single copy and at 6 o'clock in the morning, because all the locals suddenly had a holiday, about which they are massively resting.
The Monastery of St. Catherine is closed. We are upset, but we want to go to the top of the mountain, and then how will it turn out (for information, we have 1.5 days home from the plane).
We got up at 4 am. Very cold. We dress securely - T-shirt, sweater and windbreaker. We hurry to the top. Two paths lead from the monastery of St. Catherine to the summit: a short and a long one, they connect near the summit. We go up a long path, overtaking groups of tourists, and the locals follow us - strong. We got to the steps - they are so imperceptible that they displaced us on the powder - I almost fell, slipping down. previously located cannons.
A sign calling for the disposal of garbage exclusively into bins is carved into the rock.
All along the way, with sad eyes, camels gaze at tourists, on which you can reach the steps leading to the top of the mountain without fatigue.
We are not sadists. We love sad camels and go on our own!
The northern wall of the Church of the Holy Trinity at the top and a cave near it.
We reached the top of the mountain. And then we were greeted by a religious chant of a group of African pilgrims. Sounds spilled over the summit and created an absolutely magical atmosphere.
A stunning view opens up from the top of the mountain.
When the sun rises, looking at the beauty emerging from the twilight, I am once again convinced - I am the happiest person in the world!
Satisfied, we went down the mountain.
There are no buses. We negotiate with a minibus for $ 20 for two, although the same cabbies carry Americans for $ 30 each (lucky).
In the evening we were in Hurghada.
Global Organizational Findings:
I'm afraid, but I can!
It's bad to live without a loved one, but you can survive!
You can go without a language, without a guidebook - it is more difficult. Blue eyes will bring you to Cairo.
Next time I'll tell you how my beloved left me alone in the middle of the wild, wild Philippines.
Tags: Egypt,
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