why we...

...were told it would be a bad idea if we left our hotel room.  it was getting messy not very far away...what a great last day in Beyrouth.

The Monastery (Al Dier) - This sum bitch was about 4,000 steps up.  Not even shitten.  worth the walk though.

Petra Jordan.  This is where they filmed parts of Indiana Jones and the last crusade.  This is the beginning of the walk.  This building is called the Treasury -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Khazneh

 

MOARRR...Beirut

Flying in to Beirut..it looked as large as NYC...SICK!

View from our hotel...The Gefinor Rotana...Nice place..Big up to my man Youssef.  He kept me watered down.....here...

Most of you have seen this picture...my second favorite one i think.

And Club B 018.  Underground club...Then they just pop the roof if it gets to hot...or close it if bullets are flyin..

And just a building full of bullet holes next to an amazing Lebanese Restaurant.
The link below will give you an idea of how messed up it got here from one day to the next  :

 http://www.habeeb.com/lebanon.photos.18.beirut.war.destruction.htm

Our Hotel was about 5 miles straight north of the pictures on the website...BUT...The Holiday Inn was a very important building was about 5 blocks from our hotel.

RPG and Bullet holes everywhere.  From what we heard also we should not have been taking pictures of this place. 

You can see the Holiday Inn from our hotel as well.  Under large crane just to the right of the tallest building.

MOAR Tunisia

Where we stayed the first 2 nights.  Worst bed ever.

Our first class view!  There is a club down there that says Gentlemen Club.  Never really seen anyone walk in or our but it was loud as hell at night and strippers aint exactly tolerated in this gem of a city.

Roman ruins in Carthage which is about 30 kl maybe North of Tunis.  Beard was kickin at this point! Carthage seemed to be a town where they built large ships.  The next picture will show you where they launched them...

If you can see the close canal (not the large bay in the background) that used to be a fort of some kind to build and launch ships.

The Cafe....

The View....And....

The View...

MOARRR

Pretty sure I sat next to this dude at a pub in Amsterdam..no shit..

 Typical street in the evening (didnt get dark till like 11pm and light at 3am) in Amsterdam.  I think that is the Homomonument in the back ground.  It's a real place.

 Typical Amsterdam street...There are quite a few canals that run like an octagon around the city.

pictures

A view from Hotel Exchange in Amsterdam..Our first stay of the trip.  This street during the day is swamped with heads.

Our hotel room in Tunis, Tunisia Africa.  Quite possibly the worst bed I have EVER slept in.  Should have broke out the hammock this night!

A sunset in Beirut.  Funniest part of this evening was while we were standing on the pier a couple guys in a VW Golf started doing doughnuts in the middle of a main intersection.  Pretty damn entertaining!

My "Soul Brother" Alex.  We met Alex in a very funny way in Sousse, Tunisia.  This was the beach town I spoke about.  Very cool place.

Pretty much sums it all up in Cyprus.  I would like to thank Keo beer, Condor Airlines, (not you god...you're not real), The Greeks, The Turks, (more the Greek's...we didnt get to the Turk side) and most importantly the two hot chicks with their cans out on the beach that windy morning.

More pics to come...stay tuned.

Made it home....fairly safely.

Sorry I havent updated recently but during our last two stops (Berlin then Amsterdam again) we had either zero down time (Berlin) and then zero wifi (room in Amsterdam).

We ended up at 6 countries (Netherlands, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Germany), on 3 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia), with 10 major cities (Amsterdam, Tunis, Carthage, Sidi BouSaid, Sousse, Beirut, Jbeil, Petra, Lanarca, Berlin) in 18 days...Bring it.

There are definitely places I will return to and others I wouldn't even think about going back.  Not that I had a terrible time...there's just no reason to. 

There were hotel front desk people that told us not to go out tonight due to fighting in the streets and there were some that were curious why we were back in so early...

Photo's are getting loaded today and I will have plenty to share throughout the next week.  fornow....Here's Sidi BouSaid, Africa.

Cyprus

In Cyprus now, which makes my blog come up in Greek, so no pics yet. We got in late last night, and this place was pumpin! It's a small island North of Liban (Lebanon)and half is owned by turkey Nd other half by Greece. We floated in the dead sea yesterday, and lived, but what a very weird feeling. The salt content is so high you float like a bobber..very cool. I'm headed to the beach now to rent a bike and pedal around like I'm in Newport again. Oh yeah. Can't wait to tell you about our drinking table the last night in Petra. I'll fill ya'all in when we get back in tonight...it was a shit show.

In Petra Jordan today. If you ever want to feel small...come here. Staying at the Petra moon hotel. Internet almost nonexistent...so instead of reading hop on google and search Petra. We're going to smoke some cheche. Not sure I spelled it right but it's flavored tabacco everyone in the middle east smokes. I'm outtie. Oh yeah. Did we get outta Beirut JUST in time. Was getting pretty hairy there on Sunday after the army killed a sheik. Told to stay in hotel and most non-lebanese Arab's were told by their embassies to get the eff outta there. I was thinking about stayin and helping them through their issues but I told the Prime Minister I had plans. He understood but I gave him my info anyway for future referance.

I showed beirut how we do it last night. I almost got a waiter fired on his first night cuz his manager said he wasn't serving me fast enough. Made best of friends with them both by the end of the night though. Went to a club called B 018. The god damn roof opened up like a sunroof on a car!! Off the charts AND we were underground. I smoked 3 or 4 cigarettes last night?? I need to learn Arabic I need another Almaza My man Youseff is money I'm goin to the pool Last day here That is all. DD

good morning all.  First time waking up in Beirut Lebanon.  This for now will be the highlight of the trip.  As soon as I am able to read Arabic I will be able to post pics but for now get your jealousy pants out and check out Hotel Rotana (http://www.rotana.com/rotanahotelandresorts/lebanon/beirut/gefinorrotana) in Downtown Beirut.Un real!! We are located about 300 yards away from the Holiday in that was notoriously televised during the Israeli fighting and it is still here standing.  Its quite a sight.  Bullet holes and mortar shell marks litter all sides of the hotel and most of the other structures still standing from that time for that matter.
 When we got in last night (took a shower as I am averaging about three per day) and we headed  straight for the rooftop pool that you will see on the website.  We had a couple beers then we started the small trek around the city nearby.  We stop at a small bakery cuz we wanted needed more Almaza and they had it. Our waiter was named Akl Bassir who was from a Lebanese family and he was actually born in Ohio.  He was probably late 20's and moved back here with his family in 2004.  He gave us pointers on where to find pubs (open until 2am) and the clubs (open until "you fall over").  This is gonna be fun!  We will probably meet up with him at a place called BO 18 this evening which I think is Saturday.

Now for a little hotel neighbor juice.  We get back from our stroll, take another shower and we are heading back rooftop.  As we walk out of our room there are three asian woman getting ready to knock on neighbors door...i say hello...we come back down to switch bars an from the noise we realize we passed three hookers servicing our neighbor...rather loudly...it was a gooda good laugh.

Today we are off to a town called Byblos..This is where our ol pal Ms. Mahshi's family is from.  I am confident she has no idea we are here and this should really piss her off once she finds out.

For now our whore count is low
our beer count is high
our city count is 6
and our continent count is 3

currently in Sousse, Tunisia Africa.  Ummm whoa...Excellent beach scene and I have finally seen women in bathing suits...It is definitely not acceptable for woman in this area (tunisia) to show skin in any way but I guess it's ok here.  Still plenty of women on the beach fully clothed in the traditional clothing which is kinda weird.
When we got in last night we had to step outside of our hotel grounds (Marhaba Beach resort) and Benny had a San Fran type of shirt on.  The gentleman at the gate as we were walking out (our "soul brother" Alex) asked us if we were from San Fran...we said LA...he then immediately asked us "ah...how is the weed?"...we about fell over laughing.  He used to live in San Fran and his wife and children are from there..He invited us to his home for some cous cous and fine tunisian wine and there is zero doubt in my mind that we would have went if we were here for more than one night.

When we returned we headed out to the beach for time in the sun and water and what do we see??? Two camels chillin like they own the place...Pretty damn funny in my mind.We  stepped in the water and it was probably about 65-68 degrees, maybe nicer cuz I had no issues getting in.

I have lots of photos but I am still in an Arabic country and my blog page is still un-navigatable (not sure if thats a word but deal with it).   

Planning our exit strategy now...Be good

I am pretty sure its Wednesday here and it seems each day is getting better by the step.  Visited Carthage (Kartagos) yesterday. Took a train from Tunis to Carthage fairly early in the morning and what an experience that was.  We get to the station (not 1/2 a mile from hotel Carlton {everyone do your best Carlton dance now} ) and the amount of people that cram into a train car is quite unbelievable. So everyone finally pushes themselves in (yes Benny and I had a seat but we gave them up to a couple very old woman...they really didnt seem to care that we did) and we finally shove off.  About 200 yards into the trip all of the young teenage boys open up the doors and basically hang out the side of the car.  Benny's comment was "I think that would be a safety violation back home"...I agreed.  BUT if they didnt do that the odor of the car and the people would have probably been unbearable for the 30 minute ride or so we had.
The ride there was fairly uneventful and we exit the train in Kartagos.  First stop were the ancient Roman bath ruins...Very cool(when you see the picture of me doing a Tebow thats where we were).  We walked around there for maybe about 45 minutes or so and then we started to walk up the road to our next destination (when you get to the baths you need to buy a ticket to get in and it has I think 8 destinations on it).  As we were walking a cab pulls up and asks us if we would like a ride...After some intense negotiations (price didnt change) we accept for 25 Dinar.  Best idea of the day as we covered quite a bit of area in a short period of time.  We visited grave sites of children, the Kartagos Museum, and some other random ruins...Once we were done with our Kartagos run we shot up about 5 miles to a place called Sidi Bou Said (City Boo Said).  This place was quite amazing.  All buildings are blue and white...ALL buildings.  Its a small town on a fairly big hill overlooking Tunis Bay.  Large ships, a small harbor for the rich people's boats and a cafe called Del Delicioso (I tried to post a picture but my blog page is in Arabic and I have NO clue obviously how to navigate) ...This cafe quite possibly has the best view I have EVER seen.
Sorry I have more to write but I have to plan my day...Benny finally woke up and we are destination surfing...
-The Dizzle

Tunis

Just got to Tunisia. I wish there was one word to explain this place but there ain't. An amazing shit hole with people who seem to love their life after some guy named Ben Ali (he used to be in charge of this place). Not Ben Wamsley Ali (even though waMsley's an evil tyrant as well) but the 'evil no gooder old bastard' Ben Ali himself. Now back tO more important stuff...me. What a great place for this guy (Donnie D) to be chillin. For some guy whos travel plans typically included a flat grill around the corner or a towel on the beach I would have never guessed I would be In A country who just had a revolution. We were headed out for dinner and on our way we were "greeted" by a man..he asked us what time it was and neither of us knew. He then asked where we were going and we told him dinner. He then said..."follow me, you no want to go to these touristy shit holes"..so we did..(this also happened earlier in the day when we were walking towards the Medina) we followed that guy too. So we had company for dinner and what a dining entertainment experience. We definitely overpaid but who cares...It was fun. Today we're off to Cathage. From the plane this area looks amazing...ruins on the Crystal blue Mediterranean waters of Africa..can't wait. I should bE able to post more pics soon. Stay tuned.

Currently at the Schiphol airport on our way to Tunisia. Three days there then off to Lebanon. The wild and craziness some off you may want to see me report...ain't happenin. Some of the places we plan to see are Carthage, Djeerba and Medina.

Pretty amazing "first day" to an 18 day trip.  Benny had his boy Vic the limo driver pick us up at his crib in LA.  Great guy and even better....we learned what our Russian names are...Benny Johnovich and Donnie Russovich...Its actually fairly simple...It's your first name and your father's first name with a 'vich", this is a sign of respect for your family or a way to really get yourself in hot water...if you do something screwed up your fathers name gets drug into it and I'm sure he'd be pissed.  Russia...watch out...I'm coming some day.

The flight...I guess was your typical 9 hour flight...we left about 45 minutes late but somehow el capitan said we would make it up...make it up we did...was suppose to be 10 hour flight but we made in in 9:15...probably a good thing because there were more crying kids on that flight than I ever want to see again.  I really thought Benny of all people was going to give pointers on parenting to some of these people and show them exactly how to slap their kids. 


The train ride into town was non eventful but once we get off the train and out of the station the amount of people is staggering, especially with a small person strapped to my back aka my pack.  Our hotel www.exchangeamsterdam.com is very cool.  Small place 2 blocks from the station right in the middle of the shit show as there are people everywhere.  During our nappy time yesterday a fucking marching band goes under our window...bass drums on bellies, trumpets...the whole shabang...are you kidding me?  As for the people who know benny....slept right through it.

Last night was fairly uneventful...some excellent Heineken's and a stroll through the redlight district and let me tell you what entertainment...we were on a street corner and must have heard 10 different languages in a matter of 10 seconds... Woman everywhere...behind the glass and walking around...crazy little town...going to enjoy more of it now...renting bikes and I think I'm gonna roll with the gopro...stay tuned

11:32...just got in. Goin drinkin. Then nap time. Zero sleep on plane and it's 2:35 am our time. Since when does kettle one not work?

On the plane. Outta here. See yA'all soon

Day 1

No pictures yet ya'all. Got massage last night to get ready for this flight! When will we have teleportation available? I'll be a much better traveler then but for now I'll KCCO. Got a car picking us up at 1030 flight leaves @ 1400.

Ready...Set..

First Stop...LAX, always an adventure of it's own. 

We're flying out Friday at 2pm and should be arriving in the Netherlands at 9:15 am Amsterdam time.  10h:15m's on a plane will be by far my longest flight ever.

First Question...Who's the first crazy person at LAX I get to take a picture of...Stay tuned.