Earlier this month was another religious holiday for members of the dominant faith. This holiday is called the Eid El Adha, and is centered around the story of Abraham sacrificing Ishmael (they believe it was Ishmael, not Issac). The story remains quite similar to the account of Abraham and Isaac with a ram being substituted for Ishmael’s life just before the time of sacrifice. The following is what I experienced during the Eid El Adha earlier this month. I must warn you, though, that some of these descriptions are somewhat graphic. If the thought of blood or animal slaughter makes you uneasy, then I would suggest you go read one of my blogs about how much babies suck.
The days leading up to the Eid El Adha were quite unusual. No matter where I was in Cairo, the sound of baa-ing sheep, moo-ing cows and… umm, whining goats could be heard in the streets. This is because every family that is a part of the dominant faith purchases a goat, lamb, or a cow to sacrifice on the first day of the Eid in commemoration of Abraham’s sacrifice. My bike happened to be broken during this time (what a surprise), so I walked through the streets on my way to and from the office, and I was able to observe some of the slaughtering that happened during the day. Once again, the atmosphere of this day was like nothing I had ever experienced before. As I walked along my regular route, every so often I would meet someone coming from the opposite direction who’s clothes were splattered with blood. Some people would even have the blood of animals sprayed on their faces as well! I recall one man in particular who caught my eye during that walk. He wore coveralls that were once white, but were now festooned with blood. It looked as though he had just come from the front lines of a bloody battle. Soon I arrived at the front line myself. Before me there were large red stains on many parts of the streets, as well as the sidewalks and even some of the walls of shops. As I walked on, I passed a small stream of blood trickling down the side of the road. I followed the stream with my eyes and saw the source of it lying on the sidewalk ahead of me. A family stood around and watched the cow struggle for its last few seconds of life before it gave up the inevitable battle and fell silent. Further ahead I saw a shop-front littered with pieces of meat, intestines, and other random animal parts. The bloody killing of animals and the celebration of the participants makes for quite an interesting combination of events during this festival. After the animals are sacrificed, families will keep 1/3 of the meat to eat themselves. Then they will give 1/3 of the meat to friends and family, and the last third of the meat to the poor. This festival is a holiday from school and work and it lasts for three days. The slaughtering takes place on the first day. I have a few (very few) pictures of this festival, but am not going to post them here because they are quite graphic.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Why I Returned to Blogging
I'm sure you've noticed that it's been quite a long time since my last entry. To all of my faithful blog readers, I apologize for this. I took a look at some of my past blog entries and noted the length of them. I also noted the details within them. Then I began to wonder if anyone really wanted such detailed descriptions of my life. I don't want to have one of those blogs where people come and see this huge entry and then get overwhelmed by the length and don't bother reading. Nor do I want a blog where the entries bore my audience to death. So, for quite some time I didn't write any blogs because I didn't know what my audience would want to hear. After neglecting my blog for a couple of weeks, three things have helped me to come back to blogging.
Reason #1: This week I recieved an email from my sister Holly (yeah, she's the one that's prego). It was about the funeral for my aunty Pam, who died earlier this month. When I found out that she died, I didn't really react. I felt kinda bad for my mom, cause I'm sure it's not easy to lose a sister. But for myself, I didn't grieve or anything. Then I got this email from Holly. It was a detailed description of the day of my aunt's funeral. She described how different family members were exhibiting themselves on that day, she described the different atmospheres throughout the day, snd she described the order of events for the day. This email was detailed in such a way that it felt as though she brought me there with my family to experience the day for myself, despite the fact that I'm stuck in Egypt. I felt the grief, I saw everyone's sorrow, and I experienced the heartache of saying goodbye to aunty Pam. I sat there by myself and cried, but it felt like I was with my family. So what does this have to do with blogging? While reading that email, I realized the potential that detailed descriptions of events have. I realized that well written accounts can bring you closer to the people or places that you are so far away from. Then I decided that I would do my best to detail my adventures for those of you who are so far from me. Maybe then it would make it feel as though you are experiencing some of crazy these things alongside me.
Reason #2: This week I also recieved some fanmail from my friend Tom Ross. An excerpt of his email reads as follows:
"We long for news and stories from our friend in Egypt. What's happened to said friend? Where have you gone soooner? We miss your blogs. We wail in despair like a woman who has lost her baby, we long for things to be as they once were. Happiness is fleeting when friendship is diminished. How can our internet experience be complete without the witty commentary on your egyptian adventures? Well I hope you get the purpose of this email. We would still like to hear from you. Even if you don't have much to say a little note is better than nothing. We keep wondering why you have not blogged recently."
From that I might conclude that Tom misses my blogs, and the way he wrote that makes it sound as though he's not the only one who misses my blogs. Who knows if this is true, but at any rate, I shall try to continue blogging.
Reason #3 - I'm not going to worry about what people want to hear or read about. I am going to publish my adventures so that months and years from now, I can relive these adventures when my memories of them begin to fade away. If other people enjoy them, then great! If not, at least I will.
But I have to go now, so I will write again soon... hopefully.
Reason #1: This week I recieved an email from my sister Holly (yeah, she's the one that's prego). It was about the funeral for my aunty Pam, who died earlier this month. When I found out that she died, I didn't really react. I felt kinda bad for my mom, cause I'm sure it's not easy to lose a sister. But for myself, I didn't grieve or anything. Then I got this email from Holly. It was a detailed description of the day of my aunt's funeral. She described how different family members were exhibiting themselves on that day, she described the different atmospheres throughout the day, snd she described the order of events for the day. This email was detailed in such a way that it felt as though she brought me there with my family to experience the day for myself, despite the fact that I'm stuck in Egypt. I felt the grief, I saw everyone's sorrow, and I experienced the heartache of saying goodbye to aunty Pam. I sat there by myself and cried, but it felt like I was with my family. So what does this have to do with blogging? While reading that email, I realized the potential that detailed descriptions of events have. I realized that well written accounts can bring you closer to the people or places that you are so far away from. Then I decided that I would do my best to detail my adventures for those of you who are so far from me. Maybe then it would make it feel as though you are experiencing some of crazy these things alongside me.
Reason #2: This week I also recieved some fanmail from my friend Tom Ross. An excerpt of his email reads as follows:
"We long for news and stories from our friend in Egypt. What's happened to said friend? Where have you gone soooner? We miss your blogs. We wail in despair like a woman who has lost her baby, we long for things to be as they once were. Happiness is fleeting when friendship is diminished. How can our internet experience be complete without the witty commentary on your egyptian adventures? Well I hope you get the purpose of this email. We would still like to hear from you. Even if you don't have much to say a little note is better than nothing. We keep wondering why you have not blogged recently."
From that I might conclude that Tom misses my blogs, and the way he wrote that makes it sound as though he's not the only one who misses my blogs. Who knows if this is true, but at any rate, I shall try to continue blogging.
Reason #3 - I'm not going to worry about what people want to hear or read about. I am going to publish my adventures so that months and years from now, I can relive these adventures when my memories of them begin to fade away. If other people enjoy them, then great! If not, at least I will.
But I have to go now, so I will write again soon... hopefully.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
The Chronicles of Egypt – The Khan Al Khalili
I forgot to mention in the last post that when we left the pyramids, Andrew, Heagy and Tom got another 5 minute head start in their taxi ride back to Maadi. Interestingly enough, Frodo, Geoff and I beat them again. Turns out there’s a McDonald’s in New Maadi as well as the one in Old Maadi. Good to know!
After we all met up again, a few of us decided to head out to the ‘Khan al Khalili’. The Khan is a massive market that winds its way through numerous streets and alleyways lined with shops of every kind. This place is saturated with people. The Khan was at least a half hour walk from the metro… or maybe I should say a thirty minute fight for your life. The entire walk was similar to walking through a crowded stadium just after a hockey game ended (I’m Canadian, I figured it was time I brought hockey into my blogs). We took many streets and turns on our way to the Khan, and the entire way was lined with table after table of people selling their goods on the streets. I later found out that this practice is actually illegal in Cairo and if the police showed up everyone would have scattered into nearby shops and hidden.
I didn’t actually know how to get to the Khan from the metro, so I had to keep stopping and asking people which way it was. It seemed like every person we asked pointed in a different direction, and after following these directions for half an hour, we began to wonder if the Khan was just a made up place that exists only in people’s comatose dreams. Eventually we started seeing white people, though, and it was then that we realized… we had finally made it to the Khan! It was a neat place. Lots of useless stuff to buy. We got taken up to a silver factory to see how silver jewelry is made. I think I offended the guy when I offered him five pounds for a piece of jewelry that I didn’t want. He told me that if I didn’t want the jewelry I should’ve just said I didn’t want it, rather than insulting him like that. Whatever. I said I didn’t want it at least three times before I offered him five pounds for it. A similar incident happened with a fake Rolex dealer. Guess his cheap watches haven’t been selling too well so he’s a little touchy. Poor little feller. After exploring a few more shops, we had to take a cab back home so we could meet the other guys and head over to the train. That night we were to take a ten hour train ride down to Luxor. Our day was far from over.
After we all met up again, a few of us decided to head out to the ‘Khan al Khalili’. The Khan is a massive market that winds its way through numerous streets and alleyways lined with shops of every kind. This place is saturated with people. The Khan was at least a half hour walk from the metro… or maybe I should say a thirty minute fight for your life. The entire walk was similar to walking through a crowded stadium just after a hockey game ended (I’m Canadian, I figured it was time I brought hockey into my blogs). We took many streets and turns on our way to the Khan, and the entire way was lined with table after table of people selling their goods on the streets. I later found out that this practice is actually illegal in Cairo and if the police showed up everyone would have scattered into nearby shops and hidden.
I didn’t actually know how to get to the Khan from the metro, so I had to keep stopping and asking people which way it was. It seemed like every person we asked pointed in a different direction, and after following these directions for half an hour, we began to wonder if the Khan was just a made up place that exists only in people’s comatose dreams. Eventually we started seeing white people, though, and it was then that we realized… we had finally made it to the Khan! It was a neat place. Lots of useless stuff to buy. We got taken up to a silver factory to see how silver jewelry is made. I think I offended the guy when I offered him five pounds for a piece of jewelry that I didn’t want. He told me that if I didn’t want the jewelry I should’ve just said I didn’t want it, rather than insulting him like that. Whatever. I said I didn’t want it at least three times before I offered him five pounds for it. A similar incident happened with a fake Rolex dealer. Guess his cheap watches haven’t been selling too well so he’s a little touchy. Poor little feller. After exploring a few more shops, we had to take a cab back home so we could meet the other guys and head over to the train. That night we were to take a ten hour train ride down to Luxor. Our day was far from over.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
The Chronicles of Egypt - The Pyramids
Welcome to the Chronicles of Egypt. This is a series of posts where I will tell just a few of the stories about the escapades (anybody remember the ice-capades from the 80's?) that my friends and I had while they were visiting. As I promised in my last post, today we begin with our journey to the great pyramids of Giza. There were six of us guys making the trip this time around. These men consisted of Andrew Shareski, Frodo, Frodo’s dad, Heagy, Tom Ross, and myself. To get to the Giza pyramids, we needed to take taxis… and since there were six of us, we needed to take two taxis… and since I’m the only person in this group who is familiar with Cairo and Arabic and other such useful things, this was bound to be an interesting venture. Well, I found the first three guys a taxi, negotiated a price with him (taxi drivers don’t use meters here), and explained to him where to take his passengers. So, Andrew Shareski, Ryan Heagy, and Tom Ross hopped into that cab and were on their way! Frodo, Frodo’s dad (I suppose we could call him Goeff for simplicity’s sake, since that’s his name and all), and I stood around for another five minutes while we tried to find another taxi. Eventually we found one and were off to see the pyramids!
Now, logic would suggest that the taxi carrying Andrew, Heagy and Tom would arrive at the pyramids first, right? Well, as our taxi pulled up to the main entrance of the Giza pyramids, it seemed apparent that my logic was flawed. It was fairly evident that Frodo, Geoff, and I were the only white people at the entrance of the pyramid grounds. At that point I nervously thought back to what I said to their taxi driver when I was telling him where to take them. I’m pretty sure that I said “harum,” which means pyramids. But as I thought about it, I remembered that I often get ‘homar’ and ‘harum’ mixed up for some reason. What does ‘homar’ mean, you ask? Well, simply put, ‘homar’ is the Arabic word for donkey. This is a word you use when you want to call somebody a nasty name. But don’t worry, I’m almost certain I didn’t say that!
After we waited in front of the entrance for a good fifteen minutes, a taxi carrying white people slowly worked its way up the hill. Sure enough, there were my Canadian friends sitting inside it, looking slightly shaken up (Especially Tom. Poor little guy wanted his mommy). I think the story, as Ryan Heagy told it, went something like this:
“Apparently the driver knew a ‘short-cut’ that probably went past a shop he wanted to show us. This short cut weaved us through a bunch of tiny alleyways into a remote part of the city. Somewhere along the way, a man jumped up onto the taxi and started shouting at us. Apparently he wanted us to check out his shop or something. Our driver looked a little nervous when the man started jumping up and down on his car. Eventually we got out of there without getting murdered or mugged and our driver took us to the pyramids.”
I wasn’t surprised when I heard this story. It seems that Heagy attracts incidences such as these. I recall a time when he was walking through downtown Calgary with a bunch of girls and some dude came up, stole his hoodie and punched him in the head. Ok, so maybe I don’t have all the details there, but I’m sure he’ll tell his version of the story when he comments on this post. Let’s get back to the pyramids now.
Eventually the six of us tough guys got through the gates and found ourselves standing at the foot of three of the world’s biggest pyramids. Who knew they were so big. Well, I guess I did, cause I’d just seen them a few weeks earlier. But yeah, it was pretty cool being there with my friends from back home. Poor Heagy had another little incident along the way, though. Actually, four of the guys got roped into this particular incident. We were walking along the base of one of the pyramids when some hasslers (people who hassle you to buy junk) pounced on us. It was like a whole swarm of them. They each had these cheap little Arabian headdresses (I don’t know what the real name of them is) that they were trying to pawn off to us. Their method was this: they would pull it out of its wrapper, plop it on your head (the whole time you’re saying “NO NO NO, I DON’T WANT IT”) and then they’d say, “Take it. It’s free!” But then they’d go on to ask you for money… and a picture… and a foot massage (I don’t know, I just tune them out after a while). With hasslers such as these, your best bet of getting rid of them is just to continue walking and to ignore them. This was the method I was employing, and I was expecting the others to follow suit. You can’t really look back, either, cause that just encourages more of them to swarm you. So here was Andrew and I, walking side-by-side, trying to shake off these hasslers, and behind us (we thought) were the rest of the guys doing the same thing. Well, once we got rid of our hasslers we looked behind us and saw that the other guys were gone. They had vanished! We had the boat museum on our left, and a pyramid on our right. There was really nowhere they could’ve gone! Andrew and I rushed back to where we last saw them and noticed an alcove in the rocks. We peeked in there and saw four Canadians wearing Arabian headdresses, posing in pictures with Egyptians. Each of them had their wallets out. Andrew and I laughed when we saw their misfortune (that’s just the kind of friends we are). All we could do at that point was to wait it out. One by one the guys sheepishly hobbled out of that alcove, back into the sunlight.
Heagy said that the hasslers plopped a headdress on his head, took his camera from him, and wouldn’t give it back until he got on a camel and had his picture taken. I think he ended up dropping like 50 pounds on that little incident.
All episodes aside, though, I think we really enjoyed our time at the pyramids (some more than others, heh heh).
Now, logic would suggest that the taxi carrying Andrew, Heagy and Tom would arrive at the pyramids first, right? Well, as our taxi pulled up to the main entrance of the Giza pyramids, it seemed apparent that my logic was flawed. It was fairly evident that Frodo, Geoff, and I were the only white people at the entrance of the pyramid grounds. At that point I nervously thought back to what I said to their taxi driver when I was telling him where to take them. I’m pretty sure that I said “harum,” which means pyramids. But as I thought about it, I remembered that I often get ‘homar’ and ‘harum’ mixed up for some reason. What does ‘homar’ mean, you ask? Well, simply put, ‘homar’ is the Arabic word for donkey. This is a word you use when you want to call somebody a nasty name. But don’t worry, I’m almost certain I didn’t say that!
After we waited in front of the entrance for a good fifteen minutes, a taxi carrying white people slowly worked its way up the hill. Sure enough, there were my Canadian friends sitting inside it, looking slightly shaken up (Especially Tom. Poor little guy wanted his mommy). I think the story, as Ryan Heagy told it, went something like this:
“Apparently the driver knew a ‘short-cut’ that probably went past a shop he wanted to show us. This short cut weaved us through a bunch of tiny alleyways into a remote part of the city. Somewhere along the way, a man jumped up onto the taxi and started shouting at us. Apparently he wanted us to check out his shop or something. Our driver looked a little nervous when the man started jumping up and down on his car. Eventually we got out of there without getting murdered or mugged and our driver took us to the pyramids.”
I wasn’t surprised when I heard this story. It seems that Heagy attracts incidences such as these. I recall a time when he was walking through downtown Calgary with a bunch of girls and some dude came up, stole his hoodie and punched him in the head. Ok, so maybe I don’t have all the details there, but I’m sure he’ll tell his version of the story when he comments on this post. Let’s get back to the pyramids now.
Eventually the six of us tough guys got through the gates and found ourselves standing at the foot of three of the world’s biggest pyramids. Who knew they were so big. Well, I guess I did, cause I’d just seen them a few weeks earlier. But yeah, it was pretty cool being there with my friends from back home. Poor Heagy had another little incident along the way, though. Actually, four of the guys got roped into this particular incident. We were walking along the base of one of the pyramids when some hasslers (people who hassle you to buy junk) pounced on us. It was like a whole swarm of them. They each had these cheap little Arabian headdresses (I don’t know what the real name of them is) that they were trying to pawn off to us. Their method was this: they would pull it out of its wrapper, plop it on your head (the whole time you’re saying “NO NO NO, I DON’T WANT IT”) and then they’d say, “Take it. It’s free!” But then they’d go on to ask you for money… and a picture… and a foot massage (I don’t know, I just tune them out after a while). With hasslers such as these, your best bet of getting rid of them is just to continue walking and to ignore them. This was the method I was employing, and I was expecting the others to follow suit. You can’t really look back, either, cause that just encourages more of them to swarm you. So here was Andrew and I, walking side-by-side, trying to shake off these hasslers, and behind us (we thought) were the rest of the guys doing the same thing. Well, once we got rid of our hasslers we looked behind us and saw that the other guys were gone. They had vanished! We had the boat museum on our left, and a pyramid on our right. There was really nowhere they could’ve gone! Andrew and I rushed back to where we last saw them and noticed an alcove in the rocks. We peeked in there and saw four Canadians wearing Arabian headdresses, posing in pictures with Egyptians. Each of them had their wallets out. Andrew and I laughed when we saw their misfortune (that’s just the kind of friends we are). All we could do at that point was to wait it out. One by one the guys sheepishly hobbled out of that alcove, back into the sunlight.
Heagy said that the hasslers plopped a headdress on his head, took his camera from him, and wouldn’t give it back until he got on a camel and had his picture taken. I think he ended up dropping like 50 pounds on that little incident.
All episodes aside, though, I think we really enjoyed our time at the pyramids (some more than others, heh heh).
Thursday, January 12, 2006
The Battle of the Mind
Alright. I’ve finally pushed myself to start detailing some of the adventures my friends and I had while they were here. I guess I’ve been slightly reluctant about doing this over the past couple of days because I’ve been feeling slightly depressed. I never feel like writing when I’m feeling down. So why am I feeling depressed, you ask? I just had weeks of fun with my friends! I just celebrated Christmas not once, but twice, with two amazing sets of people! I had the pleasure of meeting a number of young adults who came home for college for Christmas! The past number of weeks have been a huge blast! But now they’re over. My friends are gone. Everyone my age has returned to their schools overseas. Holidays are over and it’s time to get back to work. I had to say goodbye to my visiting friends and watch them return to Calgary without me. I guess all the fun and excitement over the past few weeks have left me with a bit of a non-alcoholic hangover. It’s not the kind you can just sleep off, either. I tried that. Multiple times this week I have gone to bed at 9pm, (which, if you’re below the age of 50, is quite early in my opinion) and slept until 8am. Doing that made me want to stay in bed even more! It seemed that when I slept for that long, my body finally got the hang of sleeping and perfected it. Suddenly I found myself wanting to sleep just a few hours more cause it felt oh so very good to be in bed. But I know it’s a bad idea to sleep and sleep, especially when you’re feeling down about life. So I dragged myself out of bed and spent the next couple of days trying to figure out how to experience joy rather than sadness.
I talked to friends back home, and friends here, and everyone gave their own advice. But I think the best advice was always the simplest: ‘pray about it.’ So that’s what I have begun to do. I try to pray while I am walking around the city, and since my bike is broken again, this is a fairly common occurrence. One day I was praying for God to provide me with loving people to surround me during this after-holiday-blues season. Shortly after praying this, people in the streets began waving to me and saying hello. Now this is not an uncommon experience here, but it seemed that most of them wanted to say more than just ‘hello, what’s your name?” Many of these people walked right up to me and cheerfully engaged in conversation. One group of Egyptian students came up to me and introduced me to each person in their group, filling me in on their nicknames and what they like to do for fun. After that they invited me to go out for lunch with them. I realized at that point that there is no shortage of people who really want to get to know me, even right here in Egypt. I continued walking home and shook a lot of hands and said a lot of hellos to many smiling faces. That was a good day.
But then I went to bed. And the next day I woke up feeling just as crappy as the day before. At that point I decided to make a change in my daily routine. I decided to wake up an hour early (half an hour early to start out with, cause I despise mornings) so that I can have my daily devotions at the beginning of the day, rather than at the end of the day when I usually have them. This practice will allow me to focus my day on God and allow him to rejuvenate me for the day. I’m surprised how something so simple will, at the very least, change your perspective on the day, not to mention continue to bless you throughout it. In these days of loneliness I am learning lots about depending on God, rather than depending on others. People come and people go, but God is always there. I hate how cliché that sounds, but hey, I’ve found it to be the truth.
Now, I apologize for using up a blog on this serious hootenanny, but hey, I’m in charge so I can do what I want. Tomorrow I’ll start you off with our trip to the pyramids.
I talked to friends back home, and friends here, and everyone gave their own advice. But I think the best advice was always the simplest: ‘pray about it.’ So that’s what I have begun to do. I try to pray while I am walking around the city, and since my bike is broken again, this is a fairly common occurrence. One day I was praying for God to provide me with loving people to surround me during this after-holiday-blues season. Shortly after praying this, people in the streets began waving to me and saying hello. Now this is not an uncommon experience here, but it seemed that most of them wanted to say more than just ‘hello, what’s your name?” Many of these people walked right up to me and cheerfully engaged in conversation. One group of Egyptian students came up to me and introduced me to each person in their group, filling me in on their nicknames and what they like to do for fun. After that they invited me to go out for lunch with them. I realized at that point that there is no shortage of people who really want to get to know me, even right here in Egypt. I continued walking home and shook a lot of hands and said a lot of hellos to many smiling faces. That was a good day.
But then I went to bed. And the next day I woke up feeling just as crappy as the day before. At that point I decided to make a change in my daily routine. I decided to wake up an hour early (half an hour early to start out with, cause I despise mornings) so that I can have my daily devotions at the beginning of the day, rather than at the end of the day when I usually have them. This practice will allow me to focus my day on God and allow him to rejuvenate me for the day. I’m surprised how something so simple will, at the very least, change your perspective on the day, not to mention continue to bless you throughout it. In these days of loneliness I am learning lots about depending on God, rather than depending on others. People come and people go, but God is always there. I hate how cliché that sounds, but hey, I’ve found it to be the truth.
Now, I apologize for using up a blog on this serious hootenanny, but hey, I’m in charge so I can do what I want. Tomorrow I’ll start you off with our trip to the pyramids.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
The Overture
At last, my brief hiatus from blogging has come to an end. The past couple of weeks have been filled with countless experiences and adventures. I am back at work at Maadi Community Church now, so over the next number of days I will do my best to fill you in on some of what I have been up to over the past few weeks.
This first entry regarding my previous weeks is simply an overview of where we went and what we saw. The next entries will attempt to narrate the adventures in a little more detail, though everything I write is from memory because I didn't think to bring along a notebook to write down any of our experiences. Malesh.
So, what have I seen and done to explain for my absense? Well, first I took the guys to see the Pyramids of Giza where they experienced a few of their own hilarious (from my point of view, anyways) adventures. I'll tell you my point of view of those adventures later on. After the pyramids I walked the guys around MY side of the tracks (the more Egyptian portion of Maadi) where we zigzagged our way through alleyway markets, past sheep and goats, beneath the doorsteps of locals, and out the other side where my house is located. Next up was a relaxing felucca ride on the Nile. Other sights we saw around Cairo were: the Khan al-khalili (large touristy marketplace that sells pretty much everything if you know where to look), the Deaf Unit, the Egyptian museum, the gravesite of Oswald Chambers, the Cairo zoo, and probably a ton of other little things that I have forgotten about already.
A day or two after the guys arrived, we headed down to Luxor on a 2nd class night-train. I will definately blog about this experience one of these days. In Luxor we visited the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Temple of Karnack, the Luxor Temple, Luxor museum, Queen Hatchepsut's Temple, and who knows what else! They were a busy couple of days. After Luxor, we made our way up to Alexandria where we saw the ancient roman catacombs, a roman ampitheatre, Fort Qaitbay (a nifty little castle-type thingy), not to mention the Mediterrainian sea. We also visited the ridiculously massive library there (you have to pay admission to go to this library). We finished our trip to Alex off by going to a football (soccer) game of Egypt vs. Zembabwe. It was awesome. Anyways, those are a few of the sights that we took in while my friends were here visiting. I'll try to tell you a little more about some of these sights in the days to come. In the meantime, check out my latest photo albums from Alexandria and Luxor.
This first entry regarding my previous weeks is simply an overview of where we went and what we saw. The next entries will attempt to narrate the adventures in a little more detail, though everything I write is from memory because I didn't think to bring along a notebook to write down any of our experiences. Malesh.
So, what have I seen and done to explain for my absense? Well, first I took the guys to see the Pyramids of Giza where they experienced a few of their own hilarious (from my point of view, anyways) adventures. I'll tell you my point of view of those adventures later on. After the pyramids I walked the guys around MY side of the tracks (the more Egyptian portion of Maadi) where we zigzagged our way through alleyway markets, past sheep and goats, beneath the doorsteps of locals, and out the other side where my house is located. Next up was a relaxing felucca ride on the Nile. Other sights we saw around Cairo were: the Khan al-khalili (large touristy marketplace that sells pretty much everything if you know where to look), the Deaf Unit, the Egyptian museum, the gravesite of Oswald Chambers, the Cairo zoo, and probably a ton of other little things that I have forgotten about already.
A day or two after the guys arrived, we headed down to Luxor on a 2nd class night-train. I will definately blog about this experience one of these days. In Luxor we visited the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Temple of Karnack, the Luxor Temple, Luxor museum, Queen Hatchepsut's Temple, and who knows what else! They were a busy couple of days. After Luxor, we made our way up to Alexandria where we saw the ancient roman catacombs, a roman ampitheatre, Fort Qaitbay (a nifty little castle-type thingy), not to mention the Mediterrainian sea. We also visited the ridiculously massive library there (you have to pay admission to go to this library). We finished our trip to Alex off by going to a football (soccer) game of Egypt vs. Zembabwe. It was awesome. Anyways, those are a few of the sights that we took in while my friends were here visiting. I'll try to tell you a little more about some of these sights in the days to come. In the meantime, check out my latest photo albums from Alexandria and Luxor.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Quick Update
Hello! We're back from Luxor now. Quite a journey. I'll try to update all of you on the adventures we had once my friends leave. Since they've gotten here we've: gone on a felluca ride on the nile, gone to the pyramids, gone to the Khan a Kalili (huge market in Cairo), and gone to Luxor. Next up is a visit to the Deaf Unit, the zoo, the citadel, St. Mark's Cathedral, Alexandria, and the Egyptian Museum. It's 1:30pm now, so we're gonna go eat some breakfast (we're still recouperating from the night train). It's been great to have my friends here! ...and tiring too. These crazy tourists just never want to stop. Ok, bye.
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