The most expensive 22 days of our lives

The last weekend in July, we journeyed to Moscow, Russia with our fellow Americans living abroad Heather and David (who currently live in Paris). We took a four-day weekend and apparently got there just in time to miss the Russians starting a war! I think the best way to describe the trip was…interesting. The first night that we were there, we went to dinner at a Uzbekistani restaurant that came highly recommended from the Moscow Marriott’s concierge. The menu included Russian, Uzbekistani, and Arabic foods and was written in 20% English. We did the best we could and the food was actually really good but the entertainment was even better. There were scantily-clad belly dancers around every corner (one who was well over 300lbs) and a band with two female singers dressed in short 70’s style dresses with go-go boots singing all Abba songs all night long with a dance floor filled with everything from teenagers drinking in shorts and flip flops to cross-dressers to ladies in sequined ball gowns. Needless to say, we ate in silence, wide-eyed, and tried to take it all in. Wow. We had other interesting adventures such as holding two monkeys and an eagle in Red Square, getting denied entry into the Kremlin because it was randomly closed for reasons that were “not for us to know.” But eventually we did get to see the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin’s Mausoleum, St. Basil’s Cathedral, and all of the amazing sights that Moscow has to offer. We bargained for Russian nesting dolls, ate some borscht and a lot of meat, even saw a man on his balcony in a way-too-small speedo talking on his cell phone (don’t worry, I won’t post that one on the blog), and thankfully didn’t manage to anger Russian Mafia! Moscow was easily the most difficult city that I’ve been in to communicate as few people speak English and at one point Scott actually clucked like a chicken to communicate to a waiter what he wanted to order. Apologies, again, to Heather and David for that one! Seriously though, Moscow was an awesome trip and being with Heather and David (our new favorite travel companions) made it that much more fun.

After a quick week back in London, and my last week at work which was followed by a great goodbye celebration with my friends from The Wellington Hospital, we were off to Africa! We started off by flying into Johannesburg and then on a Zambian Airways flight into Livingstone, Zambia. We saw Victoria Falls, which was absolutely breathtaking and got to pal around with the animals in the nature preserve that our hotel was on including monkeys, baboons, impala, hippos, zebras, and giraffes. Scott and I got to venture into town before his family came to join us and saw a completely different way of life in Africa from what we are privileged to have grown up in. Very eye-opening experience. After Coach Roy, Bub, and Kimmie made it to Livingstone (albeit a little tired) the restaurant staff at the hotel gave Coach a fantastic African rendition of “Happy Birthday” when they brought out his b-day dessert after dinner. Then we had a crazy experience being led through immigration out of Zambia, across a ferry and into Botswana, then out of Botswana while stepping on a disinfectant pad to prevent foot-and-mouth disease, and then into Namibia and onto a safari boat. We cruised down the Chobe River which lies in between Botswana and Namibia in Chobe National Park which is well known for it’s overpopulation of elephants. It was crazy to see all these elephants in their natural habitat – running to get water, nestling their babies, having politics with each other – so cool! We also got to take out the speed boats and go fishing, see amazing sunsets, and come frightening close to crocs and baboons. We also got to see more types of antelopes than we knew existed as well as giraffes, tons of birds, warthogs, etc.

Our next two stops were into South Africa in Krueger National Park. The first was in the middle of Krueger at The Honeyguide which was a tented camp – luxury tents, that is, with a concrete slab floor, running water, shower/toilet, electricity, and a king size bed! But it was a little scary that animals walked through camp all day long and at night you needed to be escorted to your tent and asked not to leave until you were woken up in the morning by the African drum because you would probably get eaten by a leopard! At night, I would lie in bed and just watch animals walk past the tent – amazing! We got taken around in safari land rovers and got to see animals super close up including elephants, giraffes, antelope, baboons, lions, rhino, vultures, buffalo, endangered African wild dog, African wild cat, etc. We even tracked a momma leopard who had killed an antelope and left it in a tree for her babies for later. Next we were off to The Outpost. The two planes that we took to get there were four seaters (that’s right, if you do the math, we could not all fit in one plane – yikes!) and easily the scariest part of the trip. They took off the dirt airstrip which had to be cleared of antelope before we went. Kimmie and I might have held hands the entire flight while Scott was loving every minute of flying co-pilot. Once we made it to The Outpost, we stayed in rooms that were built into the side of a mountain and only had three walls – the fourth was just an amazing view of the river below. So cool! The first night we were there, Scott and I heard Bub scream and we heard three big smacks – we figured that she had taken care of whatever bug had scared her and didn’t think anything else of it. Come to find out, Bub could have been killed if the poisonous centipede that Coach Roy killed had bitten her. So we got lucky on that one! Otherwise, The Outpost was awesome and we got to take super long safari rides and see lots of animals that we had seen before as well as some amazing scenery and some new animals that we didn’t even know existed like a gannet and a civet. We also saw a lion and heard her growl to protect her cubs and then come up close and personal with an elephant when he cornered us during his dinner.

After the Outpost, Scott’s family returned Stateside and Scott and I journeyed to Capetown, South Africa and the winelands. We were amazed at what a cool city Capetown is! We got to learn all the Nelson Mandela history on a tour to Robben Island, had some awesome South African seafood, toured around Table Mountain, and bargained our way through the craft markets. We finished up our trip with a tour of the winelands in Franschhoek – even though Scott doesn’t even drink wine, we both loved seeing the miles and miles of vines and all of the science that goes into winemaking on our tours of the Mont Rochelle and Boschendall wineries.

Overall, we had an absolutely amazing time in Africa and is has just topped off our time here abroad. Sorry for the lengthy blog but there was so much to cover!!! And to finish off the most expensive 22 days of our lives, we have reservations at Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant on Royal Hospital Road (which was voted #4 restaurant in the world this year and incidently is two blocks from our flat). It's gonna be Kraft Mac and Cheese for weeks and picking up spare change off the ground for the piggy bank once we get back home! We have one week left in London and then we’re headed Stateside so we’ll see y’all soon!