From Russia With Love

Hmmm - well, I just hit a magic button and this entry posted without any content. Hope that hasn't bothered people who have subscribed to the email entries!

Am currently in Gothenburg, Sweden, for Erik (our former exchange student)'s wedding tomorrow to Elin. This event has been the focus point of a very loooooong trip from my family, in which I have joined for a few weeks. They first came to Africa and I met them in Tanzania. This was oodles of fun - I flew there the night before them and went to Dar Es Salaam to stay with my former boss and his wife and son. I was close to the family in Uganda and have missed them since they moved to Dar, so it was great to see them all again. After dinner we went to have drink on the ocean, and they made me jealous with all the great shopping (I couldn't believe how much stuff was just on the shelves in the supermarket!) and I had to send a message to Bettina to make her jealous too... The next day we all caught the ferry over to Zanzibar and had a great day wandering around Stonetown before they went to their hotel and I went to meet Mum, Dad and Alex. It was great to see them and welcome them to their first visit to East Africa (and Alex' first time in Africa). After four days in Zanzibar, with the highlight of scuba diving and swimming with dolpins, we headed to the mainland and a week of safari that was absolutely awesome. We drove through Lake Manyara and down to the Olduvai plain, seeing where the Leakeys found the oldest skull in the world. Then on to the Serengeti National Park where we saw all the game, including a leopard and cheetah (which I was most excited about) and finally heading back to Uganda. We had a few days in the north (I think they were pretty alarmed at the trip up there as I drove on the Uganda roads surrounded by Ugandan drivers!) and the family were able to see some of my project work and go to a camp to talk to the IPDs. Then we finished with a weekend at Murchison Falls, where the Nile passes through a thin waterfall before continuing on to Sudan. All fabulous and sad to finish when they left.

I then finished up at work (am taking two months off as am totally burned out right now) and flew to Europe to meet them a week ago (they had been with Jan in Italy). We then went to St Petersburg, which is something I have dreamed about since Mrs Fergus first talked about Russian History to me in 1993. Not much opportunity to give details here as the internet cafe is about to run out of time, but I will be back with details and photos. Suffice to say, it was awesome beyond words - we went to The Hermitage, ballet at the Mariinksy, Tsarskoye Selo, the Peter and Paul fortress (where all the Tsars were buried) and I was in heaven. Four days was not nearly enough - will have to go back. We then caught the train to Helsinki and had a day there, before coming on to Sweden.

And now time's up. More details and photos later...