Zambia- the happiest place on earth

The adventure begins!!! 

As I didn't know anyone on this trip, I was really praying to meet someone on the plane that would be a great travel buddy to run around and explore Dubai with. Not even 5 minutes after I got out of the car at the airport Andrew I ran into a fellow Teach One girl!!! Nayibe! I was so excited and so relieved instantly. God answered my prayers and made it obvious he was going to be there to ease my fears. 

After a little shuffling of bags at the airport in Dallas (all my bags were at 60 pounds and the limit was 50, oops, luckily I brought an extra bag to throw stuff in, and paid the extra $175 fee 🙄 but it was all worth it to bless those teachers and kiddies with the school supplies) I spent some time alone, decompressing and praying. Then I set out to get some breakfast and find my new friend. As we began to chat, I quickly learned that not only had God blessed me with a travel buddy, in His true fashion he also blessed me more than I deserve with an AGGIE who grew up in Arlington... I mean, really?! Haha, I love it when God does that! 

I was super excited about my window seat on the 15 hour flight, when I got to my seat there was a mother and a daughter who asked if I would switch seats with their father so they could sit together... I of course said that was fine... 

Then I realized his seat was in the very middle of the middle.. In between two very grown men. They were friendly, but needless to say, I didn't sleep quite as well as I would have liked. My Fitbit said I slept for 3.2 hours 😫.  But I watched some great movies and I ate some yummy food... Braised lamb and some yummy mushy stuff! 

And I watched the live feed from the plane... SO cool!! 

I'm pretty sure that is the ballpark in Arlington... If it's not, I'm believing it anyways!! Hehe. 

We landed in Dubai around noon (3am Dallas time). Nayibe and I navigated the airport with each other to find the transport to the Emirates hotel for the night. That airport. Wow! 

Luckily the airline kept my 4 bags of luggage so I only had my carry on to lug around. We checked in, signed up for a 4 hour city tour, and then decided to lay horizontal for an hour before we set out. I slept hard for that hour, it wasn't easy to get up but I knew I had to take advantage of the time we had in Dubai! We grabbed some lunch at the hotel buffet (included with our boarding passes) and I tried some new foods! 

New favorite treat: Baklava. Don't ask me what it is, but it's good!! :) it's up in the corner of my plate. 

Because it is Ramadan and they fast during the day, we had to eat our lunch behind the curtain 

Dubai. Wow. Everything in Dubai is over the top extreme. From the buildings to the indoor waterfalls to the luxury cars. On our tour we first visited the Mosque at Jumeriah - beautiful Turkish architecture. Just snapped some pics outside since Friday is their holy day. 

Next we visited the beach (we think it's the Arabian gulf, but we don't have google so we aren't sure!) it was pretty though! And HOT! 104 degrees.. I mean it is a desert! 

We also had a view of the Burj Al Arab the only 7 star resort in the world. The cheapest room is $2000 a night. Oh what I would have given to go inside!!! 

Next up the Atlantis! Again, just got to see it from outside, our tour guide was pretty strict. 5 minute limit everywhere. I might try to go back to see the inside on the next layover. 

After that we went to the Dubai mall- the largest shopping mall in the world!! The Burj Kalifa is at the mall, they had a fountain show (like the bellagio in Vegas) at 7:30 pm. Our tour guide dropped us off at the mall and said "go straight. Do not look right, do not look left. Go straight to the fountain and come straight back when it is over." I mean how do you take this girl to the largest mall in the world and not let me shop?!!! What?!! I followed the rules well, I mean I can go to Pottery Barn in the states any time I want, there were mostly American stores any way. It was pretty wild though seeing all of the restaurants closed because the sun was still up. There was a long line outside all of the restaurants with closed doors. Check out these bobble heads! Hehe. 

 

We made it out to the fountains and it was beautiful!!! 

It was at the base of the Burj Kalifa, the tallest building in the world. Again, I was hoping to head to the top, but there wasn't time :( As we were waiting for the fountain show while the sun was setting we heard a loud boom like a firecracker. Of course my mind did not go to firecracker first... Nayibe and I grabbed hands and fear struck our eyes. We looked around and nobody else seemed to be concerned so we relaxed. Shortly after that the Islam prayer started over the speakers, so I'm thinking it was maybe to symbolize the end of the fasting for the day??? It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. The fountain show was really cool, again the biggest fountain show in the world. These people in Dubai must be really competitive because everything has to be the biggest or the best in the world! Haha. What's crazy is how young most of the city is. They said that about 20 years ago the city area where we were was desert! 

When we got back on the bus, we finally got to drink our water!!! I don't know how they go all day without water! I kept thinking how hard it would be for mom to go without her water bottle everywhere! Haha. Did you know it's cheaper to drink gasoline than it is to drink water in Dubai? Pretty fascinating! 

At this point Nayibe and I were taking turns nodding off on the bus ride to the market... Haha. I was really excited to check out the market and get some cool stuff! Every time I saw a rug store I couldn't help myself from singing "take me on a magic carpet ride" from Aladdin.  Dubai is nicknamed the "city of gold" I get it now!!! Haha. This is what almost every store window looked like. 

Of course we couldn't afford anything, but as we walked around every other man we saw tried to get us to go in their store. I kept thinking about the beginning of Aladdin, "it will not break, it will not break, it broke".. Why does every adventure in life remind me of a Disney movie?! 

They would say "oh madam, you need a purse! Prada, Gucci, Louis Vitton?! This way, follow me" and they all started to try to lead us down a dark ally way. Ya no thanks! I'd like to not be captured just because I wanted a cheap purse... Haha. If they would have had just one store up front in plain sight I would have been very interested, but not in the business of getting taken! We finally got too creeped out and found a guy on our bus we met from Ghana and decided to walk back to the bus with him and call it quits on shopping at the market. Instead we watched fancy boats go down the river from the bus :) 

Our tour ended, we grabbed dinner at the hotel, this time with the curtain open because it was after dark:). And went to sleep- the shuttle was leaving at 7am for our flight to Zambia!! Woooohoooo!!! 

I woke up this morning with pure excitement I felt like a kid on Christmas morning waiting for mom and dad to wake up! Of course, in the elevator I met a group of sweet girls heading to Camp Life! They were precious and invited me to eat breakfast with them :) behind the curtain of course. We jumped on the bus and got to the airport in plenty of time to explore the airport AND get a Starbucks! Yay for no fasting at the airport! We saw some interesting toilets, rode a bus to the plane and we were off!!! I'm not going to lie,  kind of excited to not be on a plane for awhile. If my feet swell anymore they won't fit in my shoes! 

Brisbane- Day 11

Today we got up, packed the car and headed to Brisbane, about an hour and a half drive. I absolutely love being around Amanda's kids, but it also made me so happy that I was able to take this trip before I have kids and I have twice as much stuff to pack! 

We got to Brisbane and checked into Amanda's hotel and my hostel which was just about a 5 minute drive down the road. Brisbane is another really neat city, super urban and modern more similar to Melbourne. The Brisbane river goes right down the middle of the city, so there are lots of really neat bridges. We checked into Amanda's hotel, check out the views from her balcony! So cool! 

I got all checked into my hostel.. not bad at all!! Nice and clean, just the way I like it! I had a roomie from Manchester UK, Italy, and Germany. The lady from Germany was in her 60s and traveling alone... see Nanny, you could do this too!!! :) 

Then we headed out to dinner, which was just across the river. We got to see some sights on the way. 

They had this little swimming spot on the other side of the river that was super neat, Amanda and Josh said it is packed during the summer months. I just thought it made for some pretty pictures! 

We ate dinner in "Southbank" yet another super cute shopping and dining area. Check out this daredevil in the sky! 

Just kidding, it was a statue, but I'd really like to know the story behind it! 

We ate dinner at a really fun Turkish restaurant called Ameht's. It was really neat. The chairs were really low, kinda like we were eating on the ground, but much more comfortable. :) 

FIRST time to eat Babaganoush! 

After we ate dinner, we had to burn the calories so we shopped!!! We got to have a "nosey" around the night markets. Really fun! 

Then low and behold... heaven's rays shown down and revealed yet another NITROGENIE!!! Yep, I had the world's best $8 ice cream two nights in a row! You only live once right?! This time I had salted carmel popcorn. Yep. It was awesome. 

That's MY kind of bar... 

After dinner my stubbornness wouldn't allow Josh to walk me home, so I set out on my own. Of all the 5 beautiful, well lit bridges in the city to walk across, of course the only one with no lights and no traffic was the one I had to go across. Blonde moment, I was thinking I would call 911 if anything were to happen until I realized as I was walking across the dark bridge that that probably is just an american thing...Let's just say when I got back to the hostel, I decided it would be a good idea to ask the receptionist what number you would call for an emergency in Australia. Luckily, I was totally safe, but just for future reference. It's 000, just in case you were wondering! But the lady did say that she thinks if I called 911 it would transfer me there. Good thing I didn't have to find out! :) I got home safe and sound and got to FaceTime with my sweet boy while enjoying the rooftop views... 

Sunshine Coast-Day 10

Today we went on a little drive up the Sunshine Coast (and yes, named very appropriately today, sunny and 70! Another Goldilocks day!) With the kids in tow- they were SO good- our first stop was the little town of Noosa. It was so cute, full of boutiques (very expensive!) and restaurants.

I just love the road signs here!!! hehe.

Of course the best part was the beach! BEAUTIFUL! The water was so crystal clear you could see the shadow of the surfer's surfboards on the bottom of the ocean floor! We went on a morning walk down a trail that followed the ocean edge. It was so pretty. I would walk about 10 steps, stop, take a picture, walk another 10 steps, stop take a picture. I felt like each view was even better than the last!! 

The hip cool thing to do in Australia apparently is to rent a "camper van" and drive up the coast, Amanda said they had kitchen areas and all! I really wanted to ask if I could take a tour of one, but I felt a little awkward doing so. It was interesting seeing all of the hippies "express themselves" through the artwork on the camper vans. I tried to snap a few pics discreetly without looking like a complete tourist! These guys were brushing their teeth outside their van- that's true camping style. 

This guy had a pop up roof!! (I stopped to take this pic and I didn't see the guy in the front seat, I put my camera down and he started waving at me- I just waved back, I thought about saying "I like your van dude" but I decided that sounded funny, so I just waved and walked on... haha) 

We saw a wild Koala!!! One of my tour guides told us the secret to spotting them... Look for people with their cameras pointed up. Yep, it works! Can you spot him??? :) 

I stopped at an overlook and rested while the girls jogged on up the hill- no thanks, not on vacay! Sorry mom. Plus, I couldn't pass on a view like this!!! :) With the help of some other tourists enjoying the scenery, I even spotted a dolphin!!! So fun!

Next stop was Mooloolaba (?) Try saying that 5 times fast! We stopped and had lunch there and met up with Julie, a friend of Amanda's. Yet another adorable beach town. Morgan and I split an order of Wedges- my favorite Aussie food. Fried potato wedges, dipped in sour cream and sweet chili sauce. When Amanda told me about them I was skeptical. BUT, wow, seriously amazing!! Its the sauce that makes it. I'm going to try them as soon as I get home! Just get ready to have your socks knocked off Andrew! We also stopped at a Juice Bar- mom would love this! I took a picture of the menu, so we can make our own at home! :) I'm amazed with how much Australia is beating America in the health food market! 

*Note the school girls in uniform-- they all wear uniforms! Even to "state school" (public)! 

Our next stop was Caloundra. It was a good bit more windy, and a perfect place for KITE SURFING!!! There were so many! It was so cool to watch them do tricks and go flying in the air doing flips and spins! It was like Xgames in real life. They stand on a wakeboard looking thing and hold on to the handle to the kite. I could totally see my brothers doing this (Don't worry, I took lots of video for you guys so you don't have to take lessons). 

The best part about this beach was the amaaaazing sunset!!! 

On our walk back, sweet McKinley took a fall and faceplanted in the sand. It was so sad, but we couldn't help but laugh--- don't worry she was laughing with us! 

Amanda and Morgan kept talking about this "magic ice cream" place. After some hard work and dedication, we stopped at "Nitrogenie" in Noosa on our way back. OH MY GOODNESS!!! Blue Ribbon.  Grand Prize, best ice cream EVER!!! It was worth every penny of the $8 we paid for it. I got "Nutella Ella Ella". I seriously felt like I had stepped into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. They use Nitrogen Oxide (I think that's what it is, its the dry ice stuff) and blend it with the cream in a big blender. But when doing so the smoke from the dry ice flows up and all over the counter. Truly an amazing experience. I already told Andrew to start looking into how much it would cost to start one up in Dallas. It would make millions, maybe even billions. Don't steal my idea! 

And I got to see another didgeridoo player! This guy was playing 5 at the same time!! 

The ride back to the hotel was the quietest it had been all week. The little kids were asleep and the big kids were stuffing their face with ice cream! :) Awesome day on the Sunshine Coast!