Headin' Home

Sadly, we left Rwanda on Thursday. We flew to Bujumbura, Burundi en route to Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya Airways is pretty nice, and they served food even though our flight was just 1.5 hours. In Nairobi we had an overnight layover, so we opted to get a hotel.
The drive to our hotel was the first time we'd been out of the airport in Kenya. Cars drive on the left side of the road, like in England. On the way to our hotel, we passed through a particularly poor neighborhood, and didn't see any foreigners anywhere. This, coupled with our guidebooks depiction of the city as "Nairobbery", enforced our decision to stay in the hotel and not wander around the streets. Our hotel was nice, and the attached restaurant served good food. We watched the Germany v. Croatia match in the EuroCup (soccer). We were not too excited about the long flights ahead of us, but we are ready to go home. We had a great time and all of us are leaving without illness...the elements of a successful trip!

The next day we got up early to catch our flight from Nairobi to London. Again, this leg of the trip featured a partially-full flight, so we got to stretch out and relax. I sat next to a Canadian guy that had just climbed Mt. Kilmanjaro. He had some altitude sickness and said he was glad he never had to do that again. The cool thing about our flight was that it was during the day, so I got to watch the African continent go by out the window. I saw the landscape transition from the Kenyan scrublands to the Sudanese sahel to the Libyan desert. We flew right over Darfur, and I thought about the fighting going on down below us. The Sahara looked sandy, flat, and hot, a far cry from the lush hills and cool temps in Rwanda.

I saw the African continent disappear into the Mediterranean Sea. We flew next to the tiny island of Malta, which looked like every foot of land had a road or a building on it. We flew over Sicily, next to Corsica and Sardinia, and over the Alps. Some of the highest peaks still had snow. The views were beautiful! Finally we passed northern France and the English Channel. I thought about that woman that swam the English Channel, and it looked like a crazy-far distance from my vantage point at 25,000 feet. We flew into London, it was cloudy again and very green. Josh J. left us to catch his flight to New York that night. We had a night here in London too, and Alvin got us set up at a hostel. We took the Underground (subway) from the airport, a 1.5 hour trip. Elliot and Josh A. were staying with friends in town, so just 3 of us were at the hostel. We stayed at Saint Christopher's, which is ranked the best hostel in England (I don't know how we ended up there!). It ended up being very loud here (music playing till 2am!) and the adjacent bar encouraged drinking. We walked across London Bridge, which was cool but didn't look that old. The buildings were all very cool. We passed a church that was rebuilt in 1212 after a fire! Old building in the US don't hold a candle to old buildings in London! We wished for another few days to further explore the city. We ate dinner at the bar, which was very tasty but pricey (thanks to the crappy exchange rate). I tried to sleep early, but the bumping music made it a little difficult. We woke up early to head to the airport and made it no problem. The flight was full and lasted 10+ hours, but the entertainment was good.
Again, the daytime flight was nice...I saw Greenland with its mountainous, glacier-covered shores. I could see the glaciers entering the sea. We flew over the Hudson Bay, but it was covered with clouds :( I saw the farmlands of Saskatchewan and Alberta. We crossed the Rockies in Montana, which had totally awesome views of snow-capped peaks. I also saw some of the western Cascade volcanoes, including Mt. Baker and Mt. St. Helens. We flew really close to Mt. Shasta and Lassen Peak. I also saw Tomales Bay and Point Reyes. Finally we reached the SF Bay and familiar landscapes.
We got all of our luggage without any problems, and all of our gifts made it home without breaking. Hooray! Now we have to get back on schedule and post some photos. Thanks everyone for following our adventure in this blog and for supporting our trip!
-Maureen