Egypt?

Many years ago I found myself in the Giggling Grizzly, a local establishment, with my good friend Ben Jammin'. We were drinkin' beers talking about how much we each like to travel. We decided that in 2010 we were going to go to Africa. This convo would come up every now and then after we'd been drinking, "Hey Liz, you remember we're going to Africa in 2 years, right?!" "right Ben." I'd say, not really giving it much thought.

Then, 2010 rolls around and I find myself at Thai Basil with Ben and Corey discussing...a trip to Africa. Only this time, it's not after 6 beers, it's been planned and we're actually serious :)

We did more than just discuss logistics, like how long we spend in Cairo, cruisin' the Nile, Petra, Jerusalem, etc. We talked about our chances of remaining friends if we traveled together for 18 days...

We spoke frankly with each other; what if we want to stay an extra day somewhere, are we all going to be flexible? What if we need to take a flight from Cairo to Petra and it is $100, are we all down with that if the alternative is a 12 hour bus ride for $3.50??? It sounded like we all had similar travel styles and the same kind of idea of how our trip might go.

I'd rather not go travel with Ben if we're just going to fight about this and that and not be friends when we get back to D-town. But after we talked and discussed how we should travel (ex: with open communication, pre-travel planning, equal input, etc.), I feel grrrrreat about going on a trip with Ben!

I grabbed my notebook and my calendar from my bag....Ben grabbed the books he'd checked out from the public library, his printed maps, currency converters and notes...clearly he'd been looking into traveling to Africa for quite some time. We hashed out some places we'd all like to see, dates we might be able to go (over Christmas) and how long we think we'd like to stay in each place. So as of today, we have a very rough idea of where we're going over Christmas and who we're going with (Amanda said she might be interested...so we're waiting to hear from her!).

I need to renew my passport, it expires in November of this year, check out some of my own books from the library, do some research, get a visa to travel to Israel and BOOK MY FLIGHT. But from the looks of it, we're headed to Africa and the Middle East in December :)

Ill let you know when I buy my plane tickets...that's when it becomes real!