Salam Aleykum! Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Sharm El Sheikh is the biggest town of the Sinai Peninsula (the most southern point of it) at the Red Sea. It is a real diving and snorkelling paradise, it’s abounding with scuba divers and snorkellers. We’ve never seen such a clear turquoise-blue water and such a beautiful colorful fishes right in shore. By the way, there is desert everywhere.

The Three Corners Palmyra Resort is located in bay of Nabq. The beach of our resort was located 10-15 minutes drive by the bus of the hotel. It started at whole from the hotel hourly and at half from the beach. It was hard to get used to the sight of the men furnished with weapons all over the place, in front of the resort, at roadside everywhere. The tourist police takes special care of the safety of the tourists because they exactly know that Egyptian (and many other) people do well at the tourists’ expense, they make their living by tourism (think of terrorist attacks, attempts).

This holiday was different than last year. Not better in some respects, not worse in many respects. Krisz cherished the hope that we had an easier job with a 2-year-old. I knew exactly that he was mistaken. He has legs to use and will to work, can achieve his object – that is the difference between a toddler and a little boy. As for the rest… live and learn! Our main struggle was meal-times. Most of the times Dominik wanted everything else doing except eating. Even the mere approach of the restaurant generate the following sentence: „We shouldn’t have breakfast” (=Nem kell reggelizni!) regardless which part of the day it was.

Day One: The flight time was 4 hours including one more landing in Hurghada. Dominik slept a little and he said halfway „we should get out” (=kiszállunk). When he looked out of the window he saw the air-wing and said „it’s coming with us” (=jön ő is). We got to know at the Egyptian Airport that we’re not infected by H1N1. It was a really exhausting long day because we had to get up at 3:20 AM.

Day Two: The discovery of the possibilities and each aquatic environment including firstly the sea, secondly the amazingly giant water surface of the resort. We feeded the fishes from the floating stage on the beach. That night we started up from our sleep. Somebody was knocking on the door loudly. It was created some scare, our frightened eyes met in the dark sitting up on the bed. We thought of a kind of alarm or emergency. It was me who (was less undressed) opened the door. It was three guys what I was seeing and one of them was holding a cake with a candle on top. „My husband has birthday today!” said without hesitating. „The baby is sleeping” added immediately. I think this was the sentence which saved us a Happy Birthday song in tenor voice from three kind men in the middle of the night. They lit the candle up and said a quiet Happy Birthday and wished to have a good time and to enjoy the cake. What a surprise! What a courtesy!

Day Three: Dominik got up very early in the morning so we tried the playground in the light of the rising sun. A little bird stole pancakes from our little son’s plate at breakfast. He was seeing that scene a little bit frightened with wide open mouth and eyes. We had fun seeing the dolphin show in the afternoon. The cleverness of those animals was fascinating and touching at the same time. After Dominik’s nap we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and arrived the hotel with the last bus. The athmosphere was stormy on board, the song of Ali Baba howled from the cassette recorder. Everybody felt extremely well, the driver became one with the rythm that was expressed by his handling the steering wheel and the brake. We got to know Mustafa, Said, Ahmed, Miina by that time. Latter is the seller at the pool and asked Dominik „Whether you want to be my friend?” and lended a beachball to him while staying at the pool.

Day Four: Being on the beach in the morning and had fun with the staff on the bus. One of them especially symphatized Dominik and took some picture of him and was kidding all the way long. A cat joined us at the sea and Dominik asked repeatedly „What are you doing here?” (=Mit csinálsz itt?) By that time, our little son felt his feet and exactly knew where to go, what to do and what he wanted. In the afternoon we sat into a taxi in front of the hotel and asked the driver to give us a lift to the Old Market Bazar. We wanted to get an inside view of the life of the local poeple and buy souvenirs. Our driver was a very kind person and really helpful and useful, he seemed to be not only our driver but also our guide in the not so friendly, red-blooded, money-hungry environment where we dropped in.

Day Five: Glassboat – we saw the bottom of the sea, the colorful fishes, corals and coral islands through the glass bottom of the boat that left Dominik quite cold. He just said that „we couldn’t take them out” (=nem tudjuk kivenni). In the evening we visited Dominik’s favourite place in the resort as a rule. It was a cosy place for those who wanted to try hubble-bubble/water pipe. It was the colorful bulbs, pillows, poufs, carpets that he liked most. The staff smiled patiently in advance seeing his approach.

Day Six: Swimming in the pool. Dominik bended his knees so that the water was shoulder-high for him and said „I’m swimming about” (=úszkálok!) We got to know a nice black-white couple on the stage with their cute children.

Day Seven: We spent the whole day at the sea (gone back at noon). Krisz instructed Dominik in swimming and he proved to be a promising pupil. Mohamed entertained us in the rest of the afternoon with his biography while we were sitting on the sunbed. He’s 28 and wants to be a diving instructor, his brother lives in Australia and he lived four years there… and Dominik is so cute and we are lucky to have him. Amen.