menHey everybody! I'm writing from Cairo Egypt!
"What?" You may ask, "Egypt? The last time you spoke to us you said you were going to write about Paris, what gives?"
Well, I'll tell ya. I wrote four lovely Paris blog entries telling about the fabulous time I had there and all of the awesome things I did there, like visit Napoleon's tomb, and see the Moulin Rouge. But unfortunately I forgot to send them into blogabroad before rushing out the door to get to the airport for Cairo, so wait for just a little bit longer and I promise I will send Paris as soon as I get back! Right now there are photos online, though, and you can check those out.
But enough about Paris, let's talk about Cairo.
Actually, my Cairo trip begins in Paris. We were flying on air France, so we had to transfer at Charles DeGaull Airport. The only problem is the French were having an air transit strike, so our flight from Heathrow was delayed. We got there with about half an hour before our flight was supposed to leave, but the airline was really nice about it and had a bus drive us from one flight to the other. We just barely made it, which was great, but our luggage was not so lucky. In truth I shouldn't be complaining though, I had the forsight to pack deoderant and a tooth brush in my carryon. One of my travelling companions, Katie, packed her epilepsy medication in her bag, and now can't get to it. Sweaty clothes are nothing compared with that. So we're hoping to get our bags today, which would be nice because twenty four hours in the same clothes in the Cairo heat is not to pleasant.
The Cairo heat, however, is very pleasant. It's been in the eighties and nineties since we got here and sunny (except at night and for the past hour or so when it has started to sprinkle lightly). Do you have any idea how longs its been since I felt eighty degrees? It's wonderful! Compared to cold and rainy London, this is paradise!
I should say a few words about my traveling companions. I'm with a group of six other students, only one of whom I'm friends with, two who are vague acquaintences and three I met for the first time at the airport.We are a healthy mixture of English, Scottish and American, though only one of us, Luke, our fearless leader, speaks any Arabic.
Once we got in last night and sorted out the luggage debacle we parked our carry-ons at the hotel. We went out for a quick walk around the streets of Cairo, which is amazing! It was about ten thirty by the time we got around to wandering, and the streets were filled--people sat out on the sidewalk smoking hookah's, drinking coffee and playing backgammon. By people, I mean men. There were practically no women out, and none in the coffee houses. It was a little disconcerting, but one of the things I liked was that men in Cairo walk arm in arm or holding hands, which you don't see back home. It's nice to be somewhere where men can express affection for each other--I wonder if the absence of women has anythign to do with it?
We stuck out like so many pasty sore thumbs and everybody was hissing at us, and all the cabs were honking and trying to get us to take a ride. We had to kind of fight everyone off, and it was a little frightening, but also fun and exhilerating to be some place so different from anywhere I've ever seen before.
The next day we got up late-ish and went to Coptic Cairo--a section of the city that has lots of old churches, most of which date from the twelfth century, although one dated from the third! That one was the Hanging Church, which was built on palm tree planks, suspended thirteen meters off the ground. There was a fabulous tour guide there who was nice enough to show us around and explain the symbolic meaning of the art and the carvings around the church.We also saw a synogogue (the first I"ve seen since coming abroad), but that was very heavily guarded and we had to walk through a metal detector to get there.
In the afternoon we went to a street bazaar, which was like something out the Arabian nights. People were trying to hawk things on all sides of us and there was massive amounts of everything you could possibly want (and an even more massive amount of things that you would never ever want--how many mini pyramids can you sell?). The merchants try and drag you in by complimenting you or starting a conversation. My favorite conversation starter is "Hey, are you Egyptian?" Which I think is really fnny because if they actually thought we were Egyptian they would speak to us in Arabic, and probably wouldn't ask us that any way. It would be like walking up to someone on the streets in America and asking them in French if they were American. Silly. I ended up buying a scarf, because along with forgetting the blog entries I had forgotten to pack any sort of head covering. After a fare bit of haggling we stopped in at a cafe called fishally's (or something like that--it was in arabic) which has been open for two hundred years and has never closed once. Ever. It's been open twentyfour hours a day for two hundred years--can you imagine? We ordered turkish coffee and a hookay, which I'd never tried before, but which I found quite pleasant.We had apple flavored tobacco, and it left a sweet taste in my mouth, though as it burned on it got stronger and then it was too much for me.
Well, I think I have to go as my time on this computer is about to run out. I've been taking lots of photos, but I wont be able to post them until I go back to London. Tonight we are going out to dinner at a restaurant Luke reccomends from last time. Things here are ridiculously cheap (It's twenty dollars for a four night stay in our hotel, which comes with a bathroom in the room and Breakfast included!) so we are living in a level of luxury I'm not used to, but could very easily become accustomed to. I'll tell you all about it next time.
"What?" You may ask, "Egypt? The last time you spoke to us you said you were going to write about Paris, what gives?"
Well, I'll tell ya. I wrote four lovely Paris blog entries telling about the fabulous time I had there and all of the awesome things I did there, like visit Napoleon's tomb, and see the Moulin Rouge. But unfortunately I forgot to send them into blogabroad before rushing out the door to get to the airport for Cairo, so wait for just a little bit longer and I promise I will send Paris as soon as I get back! Right now there are photos online, though, and you can check those out.
But enough about Paris, let's talk about Cairo.
Actually, my Cairo trip begins in Paris. We were flying on air France, so we had to transfer at Charles DeGaull Airport. The only problem is the French were having an air transit strike, so our flight from Heathrow was delayed. We got there with about half an hour before our flight was supposed to leave, but the airline was really nice about it and had a bus drive us from one flight to the other. We just barely made it, which was great, but our luggage was not so lucky. In truth I shouldn't be complaining though, I had the forsight to pack deoderant and a tooth brush in my carryon. One of my travelling companions, Katie, packed her epilepsy medication in her bag, and now can't get to it. Sweaty clothes are nothing compared with that. So we're hoping to get our bags today, which would be nice because twenty four hours in the same clothes in the Cairo heat is not to pleasant.
The Cairo heat, however, is very pleasant. It's been in the eighties and nineties since we got here and sunny (except at night and for the past hour or so when it has started to sprinkle lightly). Do you have any idea how longs its been since I felt eighty degrees? It's wonderful! Compared to cold and rainy London, this is paradise!
I should say a few words about my traveling companions. I'm with a group of six other students, only one of whom I'm friends with, two who are vague acquaintences and three I met for the first time at the airport.We are a healthy mixture of English, Scottish and American, though only one of us, Luke, our fearless leader, speaks any Arabic.
Once we got in last night and sorted out the luggage debacle we parked our carry-ons at the hotel. We went out for a quick walk around the streets of Cairo, which is amazing! It was about ten thirty by the time we got around to wandering, and the streets were filled--people sat out on the sidewalk smoking hookah's, drinking coffee and playing backgammon. By people, I mean men. There were practically no women out, and none in the coffee houses. It was a little disconcerting, but one of the things I liked was that men in Cairo walk arm in arm or holding hands, which you don't see back home. It's nice to be somewhere where men can express affection for each other--I wonder if the absence of women has anythign to do with it?
We stuck out like so many pasty sore thumbs and everybody was hissing at us, and all the cabs were honking and trying to get us to take a ride. We had to kind of fight everyone off, and it was a little frightening, but also fun and exhilerating to be some place so different from anywhere I've ever seen before.
The next day we got up late-ish and went to Coptic Cairo--a section of the city that has lots of old churches, most of which date from the twelfth century, although one dated from the third! That one was the Hanging Church, which was built on palm tree planks, suspended thirteen meters off the ground. There was a fabulous tour guide there who was nice enough to show us around and explain the symbolic meaning of the art and the carvings around the church.We also saw a synogogue (the first I"ve seen since coming abroad), but that was very heavily guarded and we had to walk through a metal detector to get there.
In the afternoon we went to a street bazaar, which was like something out the Arabian nights. People were trying to hawk things on all sides of us and there was massive amounts of everything you could possibly want (and an even more massive amount of things that you would never ever want--how many mini pyramids can you sell?). The merchants try and drag you in by complimenting you or starting a conversation. My favorite conversation starter is "Hey, are you Egyptian?" Which I think is really fnny because if they actually thought we were Egyptian they would speak to us in Arabic, and probably wouldn't ask us that any way. It would be like walking up to someone on the streets in America and asking them in French if they were American. Silly. I ended up buying a scarf, because along with forgetting the blog entries I had forgotten to pack any sort of head covering. After a fare bit of haggling we stopped in at a cafe called fishally's (or something like that--it was in arabic) which has been open for two hundred years and has never closed once. Ever. It's been open twentyfour hours a day for two hundred years--can you imagine? We ordered turkish coffee and a hookay, which I'd never tried before, but which I found quite pleasant.We had apple flavored tobacco, and it left a sweet taste in my mouth, though as it burned on it got stronger and then it was too much for me.
Well, I think I have to go as my time on this computer is about to run out. I've been taking lots of photos, but I wont be able to post them until I go back to London. Tonight we are going out to dinner at a restaurant Luke reccomends from last time. Things here are ridiculously cheap (It's twenty dollars for a four night stay in our hotel, which comes with a bathroom in the room and Breakfast included!) so we are living in a level of luxury I'm not used to, but could very easily become accustomed to. I'll tell you all about it next time.
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redpineapple on
Re: What? You're in Cairo?
Everything sounds amazing. Are there a lot of other tourists around? I know, I know- such American comments.
P.S. I was duly impressed by the fact that your name was first on a senior seminar sheet in Barnard Hall- you being continents away and all. I always knew you'd gone to Hogwarts.
P.S. I was duly impressed by the fact that your name was first on a senior seminar sheet in Barnard Hall- you being continents away and all. I always knew you'd gone to Hogwarts.
Cairo rocks, things are very touritsy, but that's partly our fault for doing things like going to the pyramids. Tomorrow is a town day, so it should be a little better. And yes. Hogwarts is in Egypt now.
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