We were so fortunate to be able to spend an entire 8 days together as a family in Egypt. Søren had the week off so we took advantage and got a cheap travel package with all inclusive to Hurghada, Egypt. The weather was beautiful around 82 degrees and sunny EVERY day! We stayed at a hotel/ resort called "Jungle Park". It was huge! It had 30+ pools, a huge waterslide park for adults and older kids, 2 smaller aqua parks for smaller kids, a playground, and over 8 restaurants plus lots of bars, etc. It was very clean and the staff were very friendly....sometimes too friendly..they apparently love babies there and sometimes they would ask to take Liam and then pretend to walk away with him.."my take beautiful blue eyed baby!" We had a wonderful time!
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| Family hotel room |
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| Breakfast outside every morning |
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| Benjmin's favorite spot by the steps |
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| Mini disco- Silas was really in to it - following the instructors dance moves |
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| Down time at the hotel |
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| Beach time |
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| Give a good tip to the cleaning guy, and get suprises |
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| Afternoon nap |
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| Enjoy our terrace after a long day of swimming |
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| The duplo fun |
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| TV time afte baths |
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| Okay...he is just too adorable in his hat! |
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| Zebra fish! |
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| Zebra fish! |
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| Resort Pictues |
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| Resort Pictues |
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| Resort Pictues |
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| Waterpark for kids #2 |
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| Favorite steps and Waterpark for kids #1 |
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| Crazy U slide! |
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| The big waterpark |
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| Silas and his new friend |
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| Naps are good! |
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| Evening enterainment |
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| Ironman |
To go into more detail for those who care...and mostly for us!
The boys were counting down the days for weeks before we left. Benjamin would wake up every morning and say "Today my go Ebit". So they were excited. When we landed in Egypt Silas was so excited to see palm trees and he started saying "Hello Sun, it's time for fun" over and over again with his incredibly sweet smile.
We arrived at the hotel around 3:30 pm and every one was very helpful. We quickly got aquainted into our family sized room and got our swimsuits on to hit the pools. Søren had misplaced his phone so we went back to the reception to ask about it. In that time it started getting darker and before we knew it it was 4:30 and we found out the pools closed at 5pm..at sunset! It was really dark by 6pm every day. Anyway, so we had to put off the swimming until the next day. We made our way down to the restaurant area for dinner and ended up sitting right in front of where they were showing a kids movie on a big screen outside. The boys were a little wound up and Benjamin kept running off so we decided to got back to the hotel without seeing the entire movie.
The next days were filled with lots of water playing. We spent lots of morning at the little aqua park near our hotel room where we had a sun bed that Liam could lay on and Benjamin also fell asleep on a few mornings. Søren and I took turns going to the big water slide area with Silas and we had a great time on some really unique slides.
One day we went to a mall near the hotel. It was a very western style mall and we even had Cold Stone Icecream at 10am. Vacation!!
We were mostly at the hotel, but on our last full day we did venture into downtown Hurghada to feel a bit more cultural. We took a cab into town...with no car seats, etc...and got dropped off in the bazar area. It was really "bizarre" and I did not feel comfortable at all lugging my 3 kids around. Luckily we had Mr. Run Away (Benjamin) in the stroller and Liam in the baby carrier so we had them close by. I don't really think we were every in danger, I guess I have just become a bit more cautious after becoming a mother to 3. After some panicking on my part we made it down to the harbor and there I felt a lot better. We walked around a while looking at the boats and a shop owner came up to us and asked where we were from. We told him Denmark and he said.."Yay, it's great to see Scandanavians again....bla bla bla...there used to be a lot coming here, but not anymore, tell your people to come to Egypt, it is safe." Anyway, I write about him because we had an experience with him later as well. He told us his name was Lenny Kravitz (he did resemble him a bit) and told us to stop by his store on our way back. So we did. It was a store filled with knick-knacks...not our style,..but at this point I started really liking the guy and wanted to find something. It was Silas however who found something, but we didn't buy it straight away. First we went on a glass bottom boat ride where we went over some reefs and saw lots of fish. The boys really liked it. To quote Benjamin "I love all these fish...I love the Zebra fish", It was a beautiful day to be out on the Red Sea. So yes, back on land and time to eat. Benjamin ended up falling asleep in the stroller and slept through lunch. On the way back to the taxi "Lenny" found us again and we went into his store. We asked about the Pyramid that Silas hadn't stopped talking about. He said it cost 560 Egyptian Pounds ($31 or 220kr) Okay..way crazy! We only had 70 Egyptian pounds ($4 or 30kr) in cash left. So we were going to leave. Then he showed us one of the pyramids in a smaller size...200 Egptian pounds he says...hmm. Still don't have that much. In the end he reluctantly sold it to us for 70, making Silas very happy. On our stroller we had one of Liams toys out and he admired it a lot, asking if he could buy it from us for his daughter. They didn't have toys like this in Egypt. (one that blinked and made noises, etc). He would give us 70 pound for it...then 80 after we said no...anyway, in the end we ended up giving it to him for free and made his day. We enjoyed getting to make Lenny happy and showing our boys the happiness in giving. So yes, that was the adventure of that day.
Back at the hotel we enjoyed that last half day at the pool again, making an ice cream store by the steps (Benjamins favorite game) and Silas found his friend again and they played for almost 2 hours together. *Silas met a german boy the very first day and they just hit it off, laughing and playing together multiple times during the week when we just happened to be at the same place at the same time. Silas ran over to us the day he met the german boy and said "Mommy and Far, I made a new friend, I don't understand what he is saying, but then I just shake my head like this...(shakes his head) and point and we figure it out". It was really fun watching them!
We had a nice travel back to Denmark and the boys were happy to sleep in their bunk beds again. We are so grateful for this amazing experience together.
Other things we wish to remember:
- Liam would sleep anywhere, in his stroller, in our arms, he was a trooper.
- There was a long area connecting lots of pools. The boys loved swimming there past the "Zebra butts"
-Eating dinner outside in front of the movie. It made the buffet style dinner of having to go back and forth many times more enjoyable and time for Søren and I to enjoy eating.
-After our experience in town buying the infamous pyramid, the boys made a pretend shop in our hotel room and Silas was imitating what all the sellers had said "where are you from", I'll give it to you for....",,etc
-Benjamin only really wanting to play by the steps dumping water in and out of buckets. He asked to borrow other kids' toys and was content just playing in the shallow water. A few times he would say that he wanted to try the slides and when you got up to the top of one with him, he would turn around and say "not now".
-Silas' friend...we found out his name was Wilhelm after I taught Silas how to say what his name was in German
-We had a favorite bedspot near the small water park..so did a Dutch family and we were next to them multiple days in a row
-All 3 boys were so easy to put to bed and they fell asleep right away, giving Søren and I time to sit on our terrace with a drink just talking and enjoying the warm evening.
-Silas at pizza for lunch and dinner most days! They had pizza making stations that he could create his own...but it was always just sausages and cheese.
-Wad had a very little bit of Duplo with and the boys could play with it for a really long time...they also fought over it a lot.
-Liam started eating "regular" food like bread and pasta in small pieces. As well as rice cereal with fruit that we brought.
-Egyptians really like to tease. The would pretend to give you the fork you asked for and then hold it too high or whatever....the same with high fives. The really gave a lot of attention to picking on kids and trying to make them laugh. Benjmain went along with it and thought it was fun, Silas was a bit more skeptical.
-We went to the beach one day and met a really nice Syrian family who loved holding Liam and talking to us the best they could.
-At the Egyptian airport on the way home we had to go throught lots of checks and lines. Benjmain was really tired after not having a nap and he was really acting up, running away, sitting down and wouldn't move, etc. We had to keep a close eye on him.
-Silas having to pee really bad in the long security line...in the end a security guy helped him to the bathroom while we were still going through security.
