Spent a lovely day on Wednesday 23rd April wandering around the Argentinian side of Iguacu Falls with a charming Columbian called Norma

The only exclusively neck-up photo she took all day.

who was kind enough to teach me and let me practice a few words of Spanish.  I’ve subsequently been informed that her “jho” becomes “yo” in the motherland… it’s a South America / Europe thing apparently… but I remembered a good portion of my list and have remembered the translations too.  Here we go:

1. Hello  . . . . . . Ola
2. Goodbye  . . . . . . Ciao
3. Please  . . . . . .  Por favor
4. Thank you  . . . . . . gratias
5. Yes  . . . . . . si
6. No  . . . . . . no
7. Good  . . . . . . bueno
8. Bad  . . . . . .  ????
9. Excuse me  . . . . . .  desculpa me
10. I’m sorry  . . . . . .  desculpa
11. I don’t understand  . . . . . .  jho no intendo ??
12. I don’t speak  [name of language]  . . . . . . jho no ablo espangnol
13. Do you speak English?  . . . . . .  do ablo inglays?
14. Pleased to meet you  . . . . . . ????
15. Where is [this]?  . . . . . .  donday es?
16. How much is [this]?  . . . . . . ?????
17. I would like…?????
18. Help  . . . . . . ?????
19. Hospital  . . . . . .  ???
20. Police   . . . . . .  polizia??
21. Plane / airport  . . . . . .  avion / ???
22. Train / train station  . . . . . .  traine
23. Bus / bus station   . . . . . .  bus (estacion)
24. Ticket
25. Hostel
26. Minute
27. Hour
28. Days of the week
29. Toilet  . . . . . .  bayno
30. Water   . . . . . .  agwa
31. fruit
32. bread
33. ham
34. cheese   . . . . . . kayshoy
35. beer
36. meat   . . . . . . carnay
37. chicken
38. fish
39. salad
40. wine
41. 1 uno
42. 2 dos
43. 3 tres
44. 4 quattro
45. 5 cinqo
46. 6 says
47. 7 seite
48. 8 ocho
49. 9 nuove
50. 10 dee-es
51. 20 benta
52. 30 trenta
53. 40 quarenta
54. 50 cinqenta
55. 60 saysenta
56. 70 setenta
57. 80 ochenta
58. 90 noventa
59. 100 cien

A few more to add, but I’m increasingly pleased with the list itself and hopefully my time here in Arraial willl give me space to learn a little more Spanish and maybe get one other ticked off as well.

Okeymadokely.  Gonna have to understand and make myself understood, and the only languages I speak – English, conversational French and passable German – are no bloody use whatsoever.  Well, that’s not true; I have to work on the assumption that English will suffice in most places, otherwise I’m entirely screwed.  But as my current experience in Brazil has taught me, being in a country where you don’t speak a word of the language is a very different experience to more recent excursions to, for example, Burgundy, New Orleans and Vienna.

So, need a phrasebook and a language list. The latter should be straight forward enough:

• Spanish
• Italian
• Greek
• Turkish
• Hebrew
• Arabic
• [French]

That’s six new languages, including two entirely new alphabets.  So probably can’t aim to commit to memory that many words and phrases in each.

From previous experience in Tunisia I’m hoping that my French will suffice across North Africa, but some Arabic will be necessary for Jordan, Lebanon and the Territories.  I’m not expecting to learn how to read Arabic or Hebrew, but to learn a few key words and phrases phonetically. Romance languages will be easier, God only knows what difficulty Greek and Turkish will represent.  Looks like this might be a good starting point: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/turkish/guide/phrases.shtml

So here’s a skeleton for my phonetic phrasebooks, which will follow in other posts:

1. Hello
2. Goodbye
3. Please
4. Thank you
5. Yes
6. No
7. Good
8. Bad
9. Excuse me
10. I’m sorry
11. I don’t understand
12. I don’t speak  [name of language]
13. Do you speak English?
14. Pleased to meet you
15. Where is [this]?
16. How much is [this]?
17. I would like…
18. Help
19. Hospital
20. Police
21. Plane / airport
22. Train / train station
23. Bus / bus station
24. Ticket
25. Hostel
26. Minute
27. Hour
28. Days of the week
29. Toilet
30. Water
31. And then some food-related words, because the biggest pot luck here in Brazil has been trying to order from a Portuguese-only menu.  I’m eating a lot of frango [chicken], but how it’s cooked or what it comes with is anyone’s guess.  I sat down for what I thought would be a classic Brazilian-style rice/beans/mandioca with some chicken… what arrived was deep fried breaded chicken breast with fries.  Humpf.  But at least I knew what frango was.  So even if I can’t read a menu in Hebrew, I can at least order something from a waiter.  So let’s choose ten words: fruit, bread, ham, cheese, beer, meat, chicken, fish, salad, wine.  That’ll keep me going.
32. Numbers (1-100 preferably, but certainly 1-10 and then 20 30 40 etc)

So all in all that’s about fifty words, plus about thirty numbers, once you’ve allowed for repetition. (Please let there be repetition… there’s gotta be, right? Our whole number system was founded in Arabic wasn’t it?  “Thirty-seven” in Greek or Turkish or Hebrew surely has to be made of the words for “thirty” and “seven”??? … Fingers crossed.) So eighty words or short phrases, in six languages.  480 little quanta of information to absorb.

Easy peasy.

Eeeeek.

Spanish and Italian are the first I’ll need and the ones I’ll find easiest, so I’ll try to get Spanish out the way by the time I’ve come back from Brazil – perverse, but there are a lot of Spanish speakers here who might be able to help – and then it’s a language a week basically.  To know these eighty words and phrases would have made me a lot more comfortable here in Brazil than the mere half-dozen I bothered to commit to memory on the plane over here, and less dependent on the kindness of strangers.  Better to be self-sufficient in case of necessity.  And it’s a fun party trick.  Oh, on the subject of which, an eighty-first word to add to the list: cheers!

Gov.uk and Nathnac have between provided pretty comprehensive info on what I’ll need for the trip, and I’ve tried to collate that on the Route page.  But it seems sensible to put it all together here then update this post as I get stuff sorted. So…

Health risks and vaccinations

Diptheria – not needed but had as combined on 02/04/2014, lasts 10 years

Hepatiitis A  –  Had in 2000, lasts 25 years

Hepatitis B  –  Will cost £150 and take 21 days to administer.

Polio – Had on 02/04/2014, lasts 10 years.

Rabies  –  Will cost £150 and take 21 days to administer.

Tetanus  –  Had on 02/04/2014, lasts 10 years

Tick-borne encephalitis – vaccine not deemed necessary

Typhoid – Had on 3/5/7/04/2014, effective 17/04/2014 for 3 years

Tuberculosis – vaccine not deemed necessary

Yellow Fever – Had on 02/04/2014 effective from 12/04/2014 for 10 years, have certificate.

Visas

Turkey – get it in advance for $20 here

Lebanon – get it on arrival (may be problems if passport contains Israeli stamps)

Jordan – get in in advance from the Jordanian embassy in London, (3 working days)

Egypt – get it on arrival

Algeria – get it in advance from the embassy (can take up to four weeks) UPDATE: the webpage says 10 working days. So allow four weeks for Algerian and Jordanian visas is probably fine.

So the biggest determinant factor in when I can leave is how long it takes to get an Algerian visa.  Algeria and Algiers aren’t the most important parts of the trip… but in addition to Algeria (and the familiarity of being in a French=speaking country) it would be a shame to miss the Tassili n’Ajjer… so I think I’ll go straight to the embassy when I get back from Brazil.

I don’t think I’ll need a second passport though.  Lebanon can give you grief if you have an Israeli stamp, but I’ll hit Beirut before Jerusalem.  They reckon Jordan won’t give you a problem as long as you have a visa in advance (since none are issued on the crossing from Israel) and that’s what I’ll have.  So, only reason to get a second passport is in case one gets stolen; but  then the second wouldn’t have visas in in any case.