August-September 2005. Turkey, Kemer Hotel Kaftan, 3 stars, beach holidays.

His first trip abroad, I remember now, though it was already 2.5 years ago.
On the whole trip turned out very instructive and fun.

So, we went together with a friend in Turkey, Kemer.
The hotel was called Kaftan, 3 stars, the tour operator - Sunrise.

We ourselves from Chelyabinsk, but the plane was flying from Yekaterinburg, there we delivered for free bus travel from the company where we bought tickets.
The aircraft we flew for the first time, too. At first it was scary, and then even cool.

In Antalya, we arrived late at night, the flight took 4 hours, the time difference between countries of 3:00.

When we left the airport there was a feeling that he was in a sauna - the air was very humid and it was very hot. Then we got into the bus - transfer and we were taken to hotels. Nights in Turkey is very dark, so the windows could not see anything except the lights of the city. But at night in Turkey is not less beautiful than the day - everything sparkles, shines and lights up.

Our hotel was the latest in a bus and we were left alone. The girl, who accompanied the tourists on the bus and helped to settle in the hotel, citing the fact that we passed the area where she lives and on the street is already late and dark, she came to my stop and told the driver to take us to the hotel. It is now, over time, we realize that it was wrong of her, but then we thought it was quite normal and we let her go, saying that everything is OK.

The driver drove us to the hotel and throwing in the literal sense of the word, our bags from the bus on the pavement, rode a further, showing us a hand in what side of the road to our hotel. At first we were confused - where to go, and then saw in the alley to our hotel. After going 20 meters, we found ourselves at the door of our hotel Kaftan. Then the real fun begins ...

We entered the hall. He was not great. Here was placed a sofa, two armchairs, a large TV and a reception. We have come to the reception. Behind the counter stood the Turks, who at first did not pay attention to us. More precisely it was so. When we entered the hotel, he noticed us, having taken some homely look, and turned away, continuing to communicate with their friends, who at that time sat on the couch watching TV, and embraced with Russian girls, who are always loud cackle. In general, the feeling was not pleasant akin to, if not got to the hotel, and somewhere worse. Well in okontsove we do not solve the situation and we still gave the keys to the rooms. The blessing was a lift and we did not have to haul our own "bags" on the stairs.

Further, even more interesting!
We go into the room and turn on the light.

It was something. You should have seen our faces. Imagine. Local time after midnight, on Russia for about 3 nights, we are tired, want to sleep, unfriendly reception spoiled the mood and then the lights go, and what we see.

In the morning we had an appointment with the hotel guide from Sun Rise. Our guide's name was Vugar, it was the Turks. The meeting went well, we bought several excursions went to the beach. This hotel is located on the third line and we did not know in which direction the sea. Behind the hotel were the mountains, so we went to where the mountains were not. We walked and walked and realized that we were not there because the sea was still no, but as we were told it had to be over 200 meters from the hotel. Then we decided to ask a passing man. As it turned out he was not in Russian ponime, but in English we have found a common language. And lo and behold we found the same SEA. It was great!

The coastline was made up of many small plyazhik who have had their owners. The beaches were related and differ only in color shizlongov and umbrellas, and even at the cost of entry. Each had its own small beach entry and number. As we said our hotel guide, that the firm Sun Rise contract that all the tourists, vacationers at the Kaftan and bought tickets and firm Sun Rise, can walk on the city beach number 21 for free. Well, we went to this small beach. We were met by a swarthy young Turk, who spoke very well in Russian. He was very surprised by this news and explained that they had no agreement with the Sun Rise no. OK. We paid for 2 bucks a nose for the whole day.

The sea was just as fresh milk. The air temperature around 38 degrees, but because of its moisture content can be transferred, however, difficult to heat it. The water temperature around 28 degrees. The level of salinity in the Mediterranean Sea is three times higher than in the Black Sea, so you can swim like a float without straining. The first day I went out for half an hour out of the water several times. After lunch, the sun and the fatigue I was mowed down in a room and it was very hard.

In the evening when the heat has subsided, we went for a walk through the city. Even when we went to the beach, we always admired the local nature and the private houses of the local population - the streets are clean, the hand does not rise to chew sunflower seeds, beautiful flowers of different plants and swimming pools in each house. At night, all the locals come to life and pour out onto the streets, even in the 12 children of the night about five years, frolic on the playground. Very nice! Of course, the local representatives of the male population shout something out there after - someone in Russian, some in English. No one's hands is not enough and if you dont pay attention, let alone just being rude or kA are we called the "send", then you would be treated to a fine.

The next morning we rode the bus to the first so-called "background free" tour, we just paid 7 bucks for lunch. Ride the buses in Turkey - it is something. Standing at a height of serpentines and the edge of the earth, followed by a precipice, cliff, and only the stones and the sea bottom, with no fences to the edge.

First, our bus stopped at a waterfall, where we are all a little pofotkalis, bought cheap souvenirs, and rode on. Guide, we had just left, he knew the Russian language, native history, lots of jokes, always something to tell, unfortunately I can not remember his name.

Still, we were diving, or rather my friend sank, and I'm not, I just swam, sunbathed, took pictures. Obviously to each his own. But she liked it. There were two dives. How many feet do not remember, I will not lie. By the way this tour we took on the beach - there is work station for every type of extreme form of entertainment. The girl from Moscow, with which we met, was flying with a parachute behind a boat. She also liked the pictures we've seen from a boat as it flies - nothing, in principle, but they are too expensive for them to ask.

I almost forgot to tell you about that situation at the beach where we took a $ 2 entrance fee. The same day later, we saw Vugar in the hotel and just told him about it. To which he replied that he will deal with it. And indeed it was. We were given a business card of a brow, he seemed to be the owner of the shoreline, which was apart from others and our beach, there was something written in Turkish. Vugar said that next time when you come to the beach show this business card that brow and all. What we have done. Man who worked on this beach, called Maurice. He was a little surprised when I read the card, but the money did not take us more. We asked him what it says, but he only smiled enigmatically and said. This we learned when we were already home and moved with the help of a dictionary that was written - These two ladies are my guest. And then it was not clear handwriting - well, probably something like not to take money from them or something like that. Maurice was way cool guy, he knew very well Russian, even knew how to read. And when once we are at three o'clock in the eyes came to the beach to see and hear the surf. He was on the beach and politely told us that we do not go here at night because at night the beach becomes a place for couples. By the way if not strange, but working on the beach and generally living next to the sea, he could not swim and wanted to learn, and always just looked at those who swim far out to sea.

Solar Desert of Egypt
Date: October 30, 2008

November 2007. Egypt, Hurghada, the hotel Sanny Days Palma de Mirette, 4 stars, beach holidays.

In Egypt, we went to four of her friends. We were in November 2007, in Hurghada. Hotel Sanny Days Palma de mirette 4 stars.

The main activities:
1 day. Arrival. Difficult accommodation (3 stars instead of 4). Bathing. Martini.
Day 2. Relocation of 4 stars. Beach. The choice of tours. Hookah.
Day 3. Jeep safari. The Bedouins, a terrarium, camels, ATVs, accident on the square, dancing Bedouin.
Day 4. Karnak Temple. Walking along the Nile. Valley of the Dead. Basalt "factory." Temple of Hatshepsut. "Factory" papyrus.
Day 5. Holidays. Beach. Martini.
Day 6. Cairo. The National Museum. Mummies. Giza. Pyramid. Sphinx. Alexandria. 5 star hotel.
Day 7. Alexandria. Walking through the garden city. Mediterranean Sea. Fortress. Amphitheater. National Library. It is very hard to move.
Day 8. Beach. Lunch at the "restaurant" - a pizzeria. Tennis. Martini.
Day 9. Boat trip. Paradise Island. Swimming in the mask. Dancing. Fishing. A trip to the city center for souvenirs. McDonald's.
Day 10. Waterpark. Slides. Rafting. Night Club "Havana." A lot of tequila.
Day 11. Rest of the tequila. Sleep. Beach. A trip for souvenirs. McDonald's. Martini and hookah.
Day 12. Farewell bathing. A trip for souvenirs. Farewell photo. Fly away.

The city of Hurghada, the climate, nature, underwater world.

Hurghada - a young city, he was only 30 years old, and tourism began to be engaged here 10 years ago (the information from the guide). The city is built, we can say is being built right out of the sand. Everywhere the huge sand hills and the huge construction site, the huge hotel complexes. Dirty in the city, as in many other cities. The only clean city, which we saw during his stay in Egypt - is Alexandria.

Climate - hot, but not wet, such as in Turkey. We were in the winter in November. Degrees in the sun, and perhaps rising to 35 Celsius, but due to strong wind from the sea almost feel the heat. Sometimes the wind was well, very cool.

Nature - a beautiful sea of ​​course awesome, and the underwater world more beautiful. So much fowl is very bright, I have not seen anywhere else. Sea urchins, corals, fish, even moray eels. Course greens in the city a lot, mostly palms.

A special place is occupied by the movement of vehicles around the city. There is almost no traffic lights, cars are driven very fast, not to pass the road, and crosses. Because the cars go very fast, they are constantly honking. So when you are on the streets, you hear a constant hum of the machine.

Palma de mirette 3 stars.

Oh, how many times the words we spent arguing with our guide and the reception, when we did not want to settle in to our hotel 4 stars, saying that there are no rooms available and offered us a one-night 3 stars. I think all the Russian tourists, who were in the hotel went through it, well, can be many. The hotel itself was okay 3 stars.

Here are just on the second line, a small pool and no restaurant. That is, breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as swimming you need each time to walk across the street to the hotel 4 stars - funny, is not it. In general, the rooms are very large and spacious, there are tennis courts, health club, gym.

Palma de mirette 4 stars.

Still 4 stars does not compare with 3, no matter how good they are. Making the hall and the entire hotel and really enjoyed it. Well, we got a number of simple luxury with sea views. Wake up, and the window the sun and the sea surface - SUPER!

Two swimming pools, a small beach, beach volleyball, aerobics, a bar in one of the pools. Two restaurants plus the principal, where breakfast, lunch and dinner. Billiards, hookah, entertainers every evening showed an entertainment program.

Power tolerable, especially when preparing the "Russian" dish, or rather something similar to our kitchen.
Room service - not very. Sex is not washed even once, yet did not cause the cleaner and we have not washed it.

Reception is well "settled" - when they need something from you they understand in Russian, when you need them, they all of a sudden forget our language. Honestly rescued the girl at the reception - Mary. Good for you, knows very well our language, English, helps us in everything.

Tours.

Excursions I love, love of antiquity, archeology. The only negative - tiring journeys on buses, for example, only to Cairo, we went around 6:00 and returned to Alexandria about 7:00. That's it. So who dares to go always take the pillow from the hotel to the bus!

We managed to visit four more cities than Hurghada. We were in Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor Gizah.

From the ancient sights of ancient Egypt and we have seen

Karnak temple - a very tall building, there is still a large number of ancient hieroglyphics, huge pillars and statues;

Valley of the Dead - a kind of sandy valley of the mountains, at the foot of which are the entrances to the tombs, there is the tomb of Tutankhamen;

The temple of Queen Hatshepsut - This famous queen that ruled Egypt a pharaoh without a very long period of time, and even on all the statues, it is shown with a "beard" - a symbol of the pharaoh;
Pyramid - a very impressive when you think that these buildings have stood for so many years and how much more downtime, a fascinating idea, and takes into eternity ...;

Sfinsk - sorry for the Sphinx's nose is almost completely destroyed, but still no substitute for real experience to share any pictures that we see in books or magazines;

National Museum of Cairo - a very large room, so that there is placed a statue excavated from the ancient temples, a large number of mummies, and not only people but animals, the famous golden sarcophagus and mask of King Tutankhamun and much more;

The old castle siege - a large building with big steps and big dungeons;
Amphitheater - check the acoustics amphitheater;

In Alexandria, we visited a morning walk on a large urban garden, where a lot of green plants and flowers, saw the castle where the president stopped and the Mediterranean Sea is very beautiful and thermal, in spite of the strong wind and huge waves.

It was a walk on the Nile - Egyptian sacred river, which can only bathe Egyptians.

We were at the National Library in Alexandria, which once fully burned with all the books and archives that are now re-built and books were collected from all over the world.

Other entertainment.

Under other entertainment, I understand all that you can take yourself to the rest, except for excursions. So.
The hotel was very good with almost any hookah tobacco. Also, we often played billiards. Just a ping-pong table. Every night was an animated program.

As for entertainment outside the hotel, we chose the jeep safari, which included the train in the desert by jeep to the village to a Bedouin, riding there on camels and quad bikes, a visit to the cage, lunch and dinner, and a small representation of the national dances.

I really enjoyed riding on camels - new and strange and a little exciting, because the saddle on my camel almost slipped to the side and I was afraid all the way as it does not fall, and fall would have a high as well as the Bedouins in our ponime not, then and had to go, sorry I was not able to take pictures from a height of camel's flight.

Then he was riding on quad bikes - a very exciting ride, and let the speed is not as high as you eat in a car for example, but given the terrain, on which account to go, and this sand mounds with endless potholes and keep the necessary attachment some effort to control the rudder, impression of the ride are very good.

In our group really was a bit unfortunate incident with a girl - at the start, it lost control and the wheel drove into a ditch and overturned ATV straight at her. Fortunately, nothing happened. But I would just warn tourists - if you think you have four-wheel ATV, and hence it is quite safe, I advise you not to relax behind the wheel, even a four-unit.

We also went on a sea voyage on a yacht. It included a walk along the Red Sea. Visit Paradise Island, swimming out there in masks and tubes, and then swimming in the seas off the reefs and snorkelling, traditional dances on the deck, dinner, fishing.

Paradise Island is so named for good reason - a large sandy island with a thatched bungalomi and restaurants. With a mask, I swam for the first time in my life, and so at first afraid to suffocate, because immersed in the water and begins a sort of vacuum. The entire catch to set up rhythmic breathing, and then everything is normal and you can safely swim and to surrender completely admiring the underwater world.

A very memorable swim inside a large shoal of bright shiny silver fish. Snorkeling on the reefs is also interesting. I was lucky enough to see a huge moray, which just got out of his body half out of the cave - scary. I saw sea urchins, to touch a variety of corals, colorful fish have seen a lot in cartoons, such as in "Finding Nemo." An unforgettable sight. I advise everyone.

In the penultimate day, we visited a local water park, "Titanic." This is not my first foreign water park and I have something to compare. So I can safely say that the complexity of hills and beautiful decoration water park is good, that's just the problem of where to eat, and most importantly what - the menu is not very diverse and the prices bite.

But some of the hills just raise unique and unforgettable experience - a wild terror, and after the coming rapture. By the way this water park, we even ride on the so-called rafting (on an inflatable boat on the river with a simulated mountain wave) - Very Cool and new.

Learning to ride the boards in the Zavyalikha
Date: November 3, 2008

March 2008. Chelyabinsk region, Zavyalikha.

As we drove Zavyalikha 1 and March 2, 2008. The weather was warm and the snow on the road was wet. Just the other day, somewhere under the snow avalanche Ashoy was on the road and we are worried that, as we would have no problem passing on the roads.
As we drove, all the time was wet snow, which close up all of the windshield. Under the wheels of cars was a thick layer of wet snow, which at high speed is also very dangerous.
On the way we got a big plug of the many trucks that are standing on the flat spot and skidded to pull away only with a large slip from wet snow and a small slope of the road.

Cottage we rented in the village Pervuha, which is located very close to the GLA Zavyalikha - just 10 minutes drive away.

When we arrived at Zavyalikha, himself a ski center, to me personally, seemed quite modest - the number of administrative buildings. In addition, the center is only a light day - up to 18 hours, as the slopes are not covered further.

On the first day since we arrived late, we were able to ride on only three tracks. Lift - a six, locked glass dome, which is very convenient to the mark, it protects from the wind.

In my personal opinion, the slopes on which I could drive, seemed to me very gently sloping. Only at the beginning of one of the tracks were really interesting to go down, even though its on my skis there was nothing to do, because the thickness of the snow was up to the knee (on such a layer of snow you need special skis with wide waists). Nevertheless, always interesting to try something new. In general, we nurtured skiers at Sun Valley was very pleasant to drive on this snow, and not artificial - feeling completely different - it is soft, not lumpy, it nice to do turns and slow down a lot easier.

Again, gentle slopes, plus the fact that while the slow katishsya can look around and enjoy nature - very nice! In general, I think that beginners learn on the slopes of such a sweet deal. And so we decided on the second day to rent a snowboard and learn to ride on them. In addition, we have long wanted to do and learn this new kind of riding for us. But more on that later.

After skiing we went to the house of course, which was removed. The beauty of these trips that are almost always in these houses have bath-house. And this time was no exception.

Sauna after skiing - it's super! It should just try it.

Lodge, we had a "medium", but the floors and fireplace. Inexpensive cost 500 rubles a day per person.

The next day, sleep, we headed back to the slopes Zavyalikha learn the skill of snowboarding. Frankly, I did not think it would be so hard.

First - this is what the difference is that you have to ski on their own feet, and each is free in a certain sense of the word, and on the board with both feet attached to a board that is unusual.

The second - always hard to fall and get up. And it is inevitable in the early stages of learning. Personally, I have from the constant falling and rising with the latest hands are tired, so when we went home I found it hard to turn the steering wheel - my hands were literally hanging on the handlebars below)).

Third - quickly tired legs, so they are constantly on the half-bent position, and therefore often have to sit and relax in the snow. And for that, respectively, and the form of special need, which does not soak through to the seat in the snow and freezes one place, respectively.

But, and most importantly, a sense of the direction of the board and sliding down the slope can not be compared with anything! And I promise myself that next season will continue to need to learn to ride a board, no matter how hard it was and always will conquer this sport!

And what you wish! )))