Oktoberfest

Unfortunately I had less than a month of time to spend in Africa, so I didn’t get to go to many of the places that I would like to visit. Oh well, guess I will have to plan another trip there some day. But I needed to leave Egypt and backtrack into Europe again. The 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest was something that could not be missed.
Even though several of my previous new travel friends were also going to visit this festival, I was not able to line up timing with any of them, since it covers a three week period. So I just had to make some new friends.
The festival was pretty much what I expected. The festival grounds were enormous, with streets lined with vendor stands and carnival rides. The ‘beer tents’ were actually giant banquet hall type buildings that were packed to capacity all day with joyous people drinking, eating, singing and dancing on top of the benches and tables. All whilst the entire city was speckled with lads in lederhosen and busty women in dirndls.
I met a couple the first day from Russia, who I shared many beers and a couple of tours with over the next few days. I also met what I can only assume is one of the few true German Rock-abilly girls. Not to mention two really funny guys from Colorado, and not surprisingly, countless Australians at this beer fest.
What I was surprised about was how interesting and beautiful Munich is as a city. I forced myself to get up early one morning and take a walking tour of the city. The history and culture were fascinating. I also took two day trips outside the city. One was to Neuschwanstein Castle. It, and the surrounding mountains, are breathtaking. I can see why Walt Disney used it as the basis for the Sleeping Beauty Castle design. Then I traveled to the medieval town of Rothenburg. It was the quintessential Bavarian charm you would think of Hansel and Gretel living in. It would probably be a boring town to grow up in; but boy could you just loose yourself there for a couple of months. To sum it up, I had a great time in Bavaria.

Egypt

The week and a half in Egypt was just what the doctor ordered. I was lucky enough to have met Mona’s aunts from Cairo when they were visiting the US last summer. The collective Barrada family was immensely gracious for my entire Egypt stay. Mona’s aunt Mona (I know, it is hard when they have the same name) invited me to stay with them at their place outside Alexandria for the beginning of my stay. A cousin, Nevine, who is a local tour guide made sure I saw all the great sites in Alexandria, and organized my itineraries for Luxor to see the tombs and temples, and Sharm El Sheikh for an adventurous scuba diving weekend on the Red Sea. Uncle Rafik took me two afternoons to play some tennis with his friends, at an absolutely amazing villa. And I didn’t even embarrass myself too bad. At least not until I missed a shot while running toward the net and ended up falling over it backward, and ultimately breaking the rusted support post. That ended tennis for the day. Another cousin, Hussein, met me one evening in Cairo to show me around some historic and cultural neighborhoods. This was quite a nice change from the crowded, dirty parts of downtown Cairo that I had been seeing. And, obviously you can’t be in Cairo (or Egypt for that matter) and not go see the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, which were astounding.
It was great to be around people that made me feel so comfortable. After two and a half months of travel so far, I greatly enjoyed this comfort break. Which is odd to say it was a comfort break, because most of the time I was running on an extremely tight schedule to get everything in. So it says tons about my Egyptian friends if I still considered the time to be comforting.

Maasai Mara

You can’t go to Africa and not do a safari. With the help of my new friends that were so gracious to host me while I was in Nairobi (and a side thank you to John at Healthpartners for getting me in contact with his family there), I was able to organize a three day safari in the Maasai Mara. The wildebeest were migrating, the lions were mating (in the middle of the road), and the elephants, giraffes, gazelles, buffalo and hippos were plentiful. I joined a couple from the UK and two guys from South America. Along with our driver, who had a very unique sense of humor, we all had a great time together over the three days. In addition to the animals, we also visited a Maasai village (which is the local tribe). Outside of them relentlessly trying to sell us souvenirs, it was very interesting to experience how they live, learn some of their rituals and go inside of their huts.

Standing Atop Africa

I have conquered Mount Kilimanjaro….well maybe not conquered, but I made it to the top and survived. I came away feeling the affects of the struggle; while the mountain, I am sure, was completely oblivious to the battles I forged upon her peaks and valleys. So I don’t think you can conquer a mountain, merely meet the challenges she presents to you.
Going into this adventure I was not sure what to expect; or even what I wanted to feel once it was accomplished. I wanted to climb Kilimanjaro because I wanted to challenge myself and feel a sense of accomplishment. Yet, I never truly felt like reaching the top would be something that was a great physical accomplishment, since most people that start the trek are able to finish. I have a few friends, and know of many friends-of-friends that have reached the Kili peak. I guess I associated it more with the accomplishment of deciding it was something I wanted to do, and then actually following through with doing it. So once I actually got to the mountain base, I thought the biggest hurdle was over. Now it was just a matter of some long hiking days, with some sore legs. But I was wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, the hiking was difficult. I am not sure if it was more or less technical than I expected, because I really did not think about it too much. But the mental and other physiological impacts were greater than I anticipated. I suffered from severe physiological effects each of the six day trek. I cannot say if they were all caused by the altitude, or, more than likely, a combination of outside factors and some unfortunate timing of common ailments, accentuated by poor acclimation. Regardless, the unexpected complications started the first night. Because of delays all day long, we got to camp very late in the day; causing me to eat a very heavy meal right before going to bed. That first night I did not sleep hardly at all. My body was in overdrive; my heart beating so fast and so hard I could hear and feel it in my ears and throughout my body. Over the next days I battled against neck and back cramps, severe headaches, lack of appetite and dehydration. I found myself wanting to do nothing but lie in my tent every chance I had. Mustering up the ambition to get out of bed each morning was a challenge. Plus, being so isolated made me feel like I was missing out on a social aspect with the other climbers that would make the experience more enjoyable. Although I soon found out that wasn’t the case because none of the climbers really socialized. They retreated to their tents right after dinner every night as well.
Getting the headaches under control by the third day helped a lot. And I was able to eat a little more. Which was good because I found out that doing the climb in 6 days instead of 7 did not mean a little extra hiking each of the 6 days. Instead, it meant the 4th and 5th days of the longer schedule were just combined into one really grueling day. Start hiking at 8:00 am for 4 hours, then stop for lunch at the next camp. But when everyone else stays there for the day, the shorter schedule hikes again for 4 hours after lunch to arrive at the pre-summit camp around 4:30 pm. You try to grab some sleep, eat dinner and re-organize your pack. Then at midnight you are off again for the 6 hour hike to the summit (where you are supposed to only stay for about 15 minutes, but I will explain that next), then a 2 hour decent back to the camp. You can try to get about 2 hours of sleep there before you set off yet again for the 4-5 hours down to the last camp for the last night. Overall, days 4 and 5 is a painstaking chain of 18 hours hiking over a 30 hour period.
Now for the supposed to part. Everyone is affected by oxygen deprivation in a different way. I know from my training in the Air Force that my first signs are with my vision. I start to go slightly color-blind. What I didn’t know is that it also makes me act like I am very drunk. So after we had been above 19,000 feet for awhile, I began to get very happy and very talkative. I wanted to make friends with every other climber on the mountain. And the more I spent time talking to people, the slower I hiked…and the longer I was at the high altitude…and the drunker I got…until we had been above 19,000 for close to 2 hours. Who needs alcohol on their birthday when you can just get an altitude high!
But then the reality of that affect on my brain was apparent as I was completely non-functional for the rest of the day. There were times when I actually needed help walking because my legs would not work properly. Although I got to be drunk without the worry of an actual hangover, the residual affects were just as bad.
But boy did I have a great time while I was standing on top of Africa !!