Twister1680

My family flew Space-A into Naples a few years ago. I think of it as my second favorite vacation. Drivers in Italy are some of the craziest people I have ever seen. They are only rivaled by the natives of Saudi Arabia. My father often told me that the driving mentality we experienced in these two countries was: “I am the only driver, I have the only car.” Lucky for my family we were only on the roads of Naples from the airport to the train station.

In Rome we traveled around and saw all of the statues, monuments, buildings, and tourist attractions you would expect to go see when you visit Rome. My Sister and I climbed the cupola at the Basilica and my dad slowly followed.

The food was great, the Vatican was great, and the delicious food was great.

When it was time to leave.. our Space-A flight back home was delayed because a hurricane swept up the east coast of the states and our plane was not leaving. A plane from Switzerland flew down to take our planes place, but upon arrival they had some mechanical problems and were grounded. We flew down to Sicily to grab a flight off of the American Air base down there, but the runway we were landing on had a hole in it so the plane couldn’t land. The plane landed on the other side of the Island and everyone had to take a three and a half hour bus ride to our original airport.

An unforgettable ending to an unforgettable vacation!

I spent two weeks in Sri Lanka. This touring company gave my parents and I a small bus and a driver named Sinivee. He drove us from Colombo—where we flew in—All around the southern part of the country. We did all sorts of touristy things like visiting the herb gardens and tea house, the wood carving shops, the Elephant zoo, the public temples and historic castle/fortress all along the way.

While I was there I became dehydrated right around the time we went to see the Elephant zoo so my biggest piece of advice I can give is drink lots of water! And drink it often! I missed out on a day or two of my vacation there because I was dehydrated and sleeping in the back of the bus.

Around the end of our tour of Sri Lanka our driver took us back to his house to meet his wife and daughters. His wife made us dinner and we sat and talked to them for a few hours before we got back on the road.

I can say with all honesty that the people in Sri Lanka have to be some of the happiest people I have ever met.

My goodness, I lived here for five years and I miss it a lot now that I’m gone. If you ever get the chance to swing by Saudi I recommend you do it. But be careful! When I left it was getting awfully dangerous for westerners.

The thing I liked the most about Saudi was driving out into the desert on camping trips. It was always very scenic, and since Riyadh is on an escarpment there was always something for me to climb around or go “exploring” along.

I lived there for two years in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. The people there were very friendly and always helpful. It’s just something you have to experience to understand.

If you’re there between October and February, I highly recommend the Global Village festival they have annually. It is a lot of fun to go to.