Home sweet home

I'm sitting at home on the couch watching tv, life in America is good haha. I'm happy to be home, it's a relief really. Being in a place where everyone speaks my language, I know the area, and fit into the culture is quite comforting. Not to mention, seeing my family and friends(which I haven't yet actually) is awesome. I absolutely love traveling, and the middle east was amazing, but I'm glad to back.

The story of how I got here is fairly interesting. Wednesday morning I woke up in Cairo for my last day in Egypt and the middle east. I went to the Saladin Citadel in the center of Cairo to meet up with my friend Mostafa. The citadel was built by the legendary Muslim general Saladin to defend the city against the Crusaders. He eventually moved from Egypt to conquer much of the crusader held territory including Jerusalem. The citadel itself is pretty awesome, the mosque inside is gorgeous. I'm not a Muslim, but being in these incredible mosques did make me feel something. I'm not sure how to explain it. Mostafa is a really cool dude too, and it was great to hang out with him for awhile. It's too bad we didn't get to spend more time together, but I'm sure he'll come to the US soon enough.

After the Citadel I said goodbye to Mostafa, and his country. I headed back to the Cairo airport to start my journey home. I was given a bit of a hard time trying to board to the plane because I had a one way flight, but hey I'm going home. The flight to London, yeah I didn't have a direct flight unfortunately, was painless and I saw a couple decent movies. Once I was in Heathrow Airport though, I had a ton of time. 13 hour layovers ftl haha. But I met up with my friend Thomas, and we hung out at a 24 pool hall/bar. It was a lot of fun and I got a taste of London for a few hours. Tom is awesome and hilarious too, it was good meeting him. Oh and it was so nice to be in a place where people speak English, well I guess THE place where people speak English.

At 6 in the morning I headed back to Heathrow to finally fly home. The flight sucked, I couldn't sleep. When I finally made to Newark I was really happy to be home. My dad picked me up, and an hour later I was home for the first time in weeks. The trip was amazing, one of the best experiences of my life. I did and saw things that blew my mind, I met awesome people, and experienced cultures very different from my own. شكرا תודה Middle East, you've been great to me. All that said, I'm excited to pick up my life at home.

A crazy end to a journey in a crazy part of the world

Yesterday I woke up feeling better than the day before. Perhaps it was the massive amounts of bottled water I drank, or the less than $1 Egyptian antibiotic that I took, I don't know. Sleep may have helped as well, and I didn't get up until about noon yesterday. I decided to go to Coptic Cairo, the oldest part of the city. For those of you that don't know, "Coptic" refers to the Egyptian Coptic Church. Yes there are still Christians in Egypt, about 10% population, and the Coptic Church may very well be the first church ever. It's amazing that it still survives to this day. The first thing I saw was the Coptic Museum, which was awesome. So many artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods really gave me a pretty good idea what Coptic life and worship was and is like. The collection of icons was particularly impressive, but I really like icons in Eastern Christianity. My favorite thing was the bible in both the Coptic and Arabic languages, really cool to see. Oh, when I was walking in the security guard gave me a dirty look and said, "You Jewish?". I told him no and he said "Oh my Christian brother welcome!".What would he have done if I said yes?

After Coptic Cairo I met up with Marnie in Tahrir Square and explored the urban space which formed the backdrop of the revolution. There isn't much to say about it that hasn't been said, pictures say more. The exhibit about the revolution done by AUC, helmed by Sean with contribution from Marnie and others is quite inspiring and very well done.

The night ended with a Tannoura show, which is like a whirling dervish. It was amazing to see, but again not much to say. I'll upload the video to Facebook eventually.

Finally, this brings the blog to today. I did a lot and have crazy stories, and am too tired to get into all of them. But here is a brief overview. I went to the pyramids, both at Saqqara and Giza. Saqqara is older than Giza and actually the oldest pyramid in Egypt. This is also the oldest still standing stone building in the world, pretty amazing.

Then it was onto Giza. I know you've all seen a million pictures of the great pyramids. They are the only still existing wonders of the ancient world, possibly the most famous landmark on the globe. Huge tourist trap as well. But the impact that standing in front of them has really can't be recreated with a photo or description, they are simply awe inspiring. Here's a fun picture:

Most ridiculous story of the trip award goes to this though. When entering the pyramid complex tourists and locals alike are hounded by people relentlessly trying to get you to give them money. Some have things to sell, mostly crap. Others are fake guides. The most annoying are those that want to give you a photo opportunity. A guy came up to me on a camel offering me a ride....about a hundred times. He is not licensed and I would have only been able to ride that camel for about 10 minutes, but he claimed it was "no charge". I refused time and time again. So he then resorted to offering me a pose with the camel for a picture, which I again refused. This guy would not leave me a lone though! When I stopped at the third pyramid to go inside this asshole snatched my camera out of my hand and said "Yes picture, I take picture". My guide started yelling at him in Arabic to give back my camera, but he was having none of that and I was getting super pissed. Instead of giving my camera back this dude called his friend over who came up behind me, picked me up, and threw me on top of the camel. Yes, some strange Egyptian asshole lifted my fat ass off the ground and literally threw me onto a camel! The other guy took pictures, then he said "Now you have to pay me to get down". I told him I would, got down and got my camera back, and gave him 5 pounds(less than $1). It was more of an insult than not giving him anything because I knew exactly what it was worth, he wanted $20! I really wished I knew how to curse in Arabic. The pictures did turn out pretty cool though.

My day ended with a night out at a bar close to Marnie's apartment to say goodbye to the Egypterns. Thanks guys, it was a blast! Oh who am I kidding, they don't read this. Tomorrow I'm leaving the Middle East and heading home, with a long stop in London along the way. Expect a wrap up post in the near future.

Alexandria: a city that does live up to its namesake

On Friday morning I woke up early and headed to the train station to catch a train from Cairo to Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. Ramses Station in Cairo is a disaster, debris everywhere, no rhyme or reason, no signs, and people running around crazy. I got lucky that my train was the first one I saw as I entered the station. Apparently the station has been under construction for years, and it looks like it won't be finished for years. The train ride was pretty nice, only 3 hours and I had a first class ticket.

Once in Alex I met up with Marnie and the other Egypterns(yes they call themselves that). They stayed at a gorgeous 5 star hotel paid for by AUC, and I stowed away. The hotel had great restaurants and a private beach on the sea, quite a difference from the cheap hostels I've been staying in. We went to an awesome seafood restaurant, and its Alex so you sort of have to try the seafood. I don't like stuff that swims all that much but the food was pretty good. After that we went to a sheesha cafe overlooking the beach, it was a great way to watch the sun set. I tried sheesha and I just don't really get it, I didn't like it much. The night ended with some craziness in the hotel which I won't go into haha.

Yesterday we had a tour guide who showed us around the sites of Alexandria. She was pretty good, spoke perfect English, and even cracked a few jokes. Some of the sites were a bit underwhelming like Popmey's Pillar, which was not built by Pompey and is not actually a pillar. Others were pretty awesome though, specifically the citadel and the catacombs. The catacombs showed an amazing fusion of Egyptian and Greco-Roman culture that existed in classical Alexandria. People were buried with Ancient Egyptian gods along side Medusa, incredible. Regrettably, I left my memory card in Cairo! Ugh so no pictures. :(

I'm back in Cairo now, and sick. I've got a case of Pharaoh's Revenge, pretty much the same as Montezuma's revenge. It is not pleasant, and I scrapped my plans to see Coptic Cairo today because of it. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow. 

Welcome to Cairo

"Welcome to Cairo", a phrase that I've heard at least a hundred times in the three or so days I've been here. It gets thrown around a lot: traffic; welcome to Cairo, sweating your ass off; welcome to Cairo, something or someone is late; welcome to Cairo. Despite what many have and will say, Cairo is a pretty amazing city.

On Tuesday I woke up in Wadi Mousa, Jordan and had to get my ass to Amman, the capital for my flight that went to Cairo. Turns out the airport is not actually in Amman but about 18 miles outside of the city, common theme for much of the world it seems. I wanted to take the bus but the bus driver said I would have to wait two hours for other people to show up, and that he wouldn't go to the airport. I'd have to walk 2 miles, no thanks. So I took a taxi and probably got ripped off, oh well. I got to the airport with a lot of time and just sat around reading my book on Egypt. Boring story short, got on the plane 45 minutes late because well middle east time is slow. The flight was super short, only one hour, and didn't fly over Israeli airspace likely on purpose.

Once in Egypt I was in for a hell of a ride, literally. Marnie set up an American University in Cairo driver to pick me up, who was nowhere to be found for awhile. But he spoke no English, so I couldn't talk to him at all. The ride from the airport to Marnie's apartment was one of the scariest of my life. I thought we were gonna hit someone or get hit every 10 seconds. No traffic lights, few stop signs, and lanes on the road might as well not exist! Cairo traffic is legendary too, cars all over every street. I made it there in one piece though, and we hung out on the roof terrace of the building for the night. It was awesome.

Yesterday I was a bum and slept until like 1pm, I loved it haha. When I woke up I went downtown to Tahrir Square, yes that Tahrir Square, to see the Egyptian Museum. God what a place! Thousands of years of history all thrown together with few labels and little rhyme or reason, but that's part of what makes it cool. I hired a guide to show me around, and she was extremely helpful and funny. She asked me weird questions though, like "do you have a nickname for Obama?". Seeing tons of artifacts from the time of the pharaohs was really mind blowing. The best part though was to see actually mummies, I saw king Ramses II! Pictures are not allowed but I did manage to get this one covert shot.


After the museum I tagged along with Marnie and her co-workers farewell dinner with their den mother of sorts. Could have been awkward but everyone was really cool and it wasn't. The main reason I wanted to go was the place is called "Carnivore", yeah my kind of place. Slabs of meat are thrown on your plate one after the other before you can even finish what is in front of you. I had beef, chicken, turkey, ostrich, veal, lamb, and probably something else too. The restaurant is on boat that sits on the Nile too, just a really cool experience. No pork though unfortunately.

Today Marnie's friend Mohamed took me in and around Islamic Cairo. I saw many mosques built during the Abbasid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and even contemporary periods. The idea that some of these mosques were built more than a thousand years ago and still stand and are still in use is mind boggling. What's more is that they are considered "new" in this country! Williamsburg seems kind of weak in comparison haha. I really enjoy Islamic architecture, and it doesn't a whole lot better than here in Cairo. Perhaps Mecca, Damascus, and Jerusalem rival Cairo, but much of what's here is unique and not found in those other cities. I can't really do a good job of describing how beautiful and awe inspiring these structures are so you'll have to just look at the pictures.

Tomorrow I'm off to Alexandria, and I'm really excited. This city better live up to it's namesake!  

Nazis. I hate these guys.

If you've seen "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" the title of this post should sound familiar. If you haven't; what is wrong with you!?! Harrison Ford and Sean Connery are great and it's a simply awesome action adventure movie. Before I side track myself and turn this into a movie review blog, there is another reason I mention this. The movie was filmed in Petra, Jordan, where I just happen to be. Indiana Jones found and drank from the Holy Grail in Petra, and he beat the Nazi bastards to it!

Getting to Petra suuuucked! I took the bus from Aqaba to Wadi Mousa(which is the town just outside of the ruins), which was maybe the most uncomfortable 3 hours of my life. In Jordan it is extremely taboo for a man and woman who are not married or related to sit next to each other on a bus. This meant that the open seats next to women stayed open and men filled in the seats next to me. So I had two guys almost sitting on top of me with my bags actually on top of me. But once we got to Wadi Mousa I took a taxi to my hotel and I relaxed and got comfortable for a minute. Then I was off the Petra, but at this point it was like 2pm and my taxi driver told me I would not have enough time to see all of Petra. He recommended going to Little Petra, which is another ancient town that dates about 500 years prior to Big Petra.

In Little Petra I got a Bedouin guide to take me around. Now when I say Bedouin I mean it, this guy lives in a tent in the desert and herds goats for a living. He was really cool, and knew a ton about the site, he showed me everything and I really got a sense of what Nabatean life was like. It was amazing. He recommended I come back the following day and go with him in the back way to Big Petra, he assured me it was quicker and no tourists know that way. More and that in a minute.

Following Little Petra, I went to Big Petra for a leisurely walk around and was not worried about seeing everything, as I'd be back the next day. I really started to realize how god damn hot the Jordanian desert is, I was tired as hell when I got out of Petra. Instead of walking around more I went back to my hotel and chilled for an hour or so. I had some dinner, Arabic chicken which is delicious, and then went to bed.

7:30 this morning I was awoken by trucks driving by, but I needed to be up anyway so I wasn't pissed. I returned to Little Petra and met up with my Bedouin guide again for the walk into the backdoor of Big Petra. Wow, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. At first it was just walking through the desert, which was great because it wasn't hot this morning and the landscape is breath taking. But it got much crazier. Eventually we got to mountains...which needed to be climbed. The two guides live their lives in nature and do this sort of thing all the time, but it kicked my ass. I kept wishing I had a Jeep to drive over this shit. It was long, all told once we reached the end of Petra about 5 miles! At points I literally climbing up the side of a damn mountain, and a few times I was trying to figure out what the hell I had done to deserve this.





It was all worth it though, really. I had such a feeling of accomplishment after finishing, or was that just the lactic acid build up in muscles I never knew I had? It was quite the experience, I got to live a Bedouin lifestyle for a few hours. My guide was hilarious too, he made jokes the whole way. My favorite was "Why does woman go to bed?", "Because bed not go to woman!". The guide told me that I was not just a tourist anymore, that I was now someone who lived like a Jordanian. We also went to all the amazing sites of Petra; Nabatean, Roman, and Byzantine. I can't do a good job of describing just how awesome they are so just look at the pictures. Once everything was said and done I was dead, I've never sweat so much in my life, but like I said so worth it.

Tomorrow I leave Jordan and head to Egypt! I have a flight from Amman to Cairo tomorrow and I honestly can't wait. Jordan has been great but its expensive and I can't keep spending money at this rate. Plus I'm excited to see another new country, and be reunited with Marnie again. Funny story, this time last year I was walking around Wenceslas Square in Prague. Is all of this real?

Welcome to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Yesterday I woke up early in Jerusalem, said goodbye to the people I met there and headed to the central bus station bound for Eilat. Eilat is the southern most city in Israel and is right on the border with both Jordan and Egypt. It was once a strategic military port on the Red Sea, but is now a resort town. Getting there was not fun at all. A 5 hour bus ride from Jerusalem on an overcrowded bus, there were not enough seats for everyone. When we finally made it to the city I got off the bus and was overwhelmed with heat, it was 102 degrees! But I only stayed in Eilat long enough to cross the border.

Going from Israel into Jordan to Aqaba should be easy enough right? Wrong! The taxi took me to the border and dropped me off, they're not allowed to cross the border. I had to walk, really I had to walk across the border! My passport, bags, and person were checked on either side, but in between was about a quarter mile of nothing but scorching hot pavement for me to hoof. I then had to get a Jordanian taxi once in Aqaba, one of the weirdest things I've ever done.

When I finally made it into Jordan I took a taxi to my hotel. The driver spoke little English but he was nice, although he smoked the whole ride. Turns out the hotel is in South Beach which is outside the city of Aqaba, like a good 10-15 drive. The bank was closed because of the Muslim holiday so I had to pay him in a combination of Shekels and Dollars, I think I got ripped off. There isn't much to do here other than hang out at the pool and the beach across the street. And there isn't much in Aqaba either, but that didn't bother me. I had spent a week running around seeing shit and on buses so relaxing for two days was a nice change of pace. I really didn't do anything, Tomorrow I'm off to Petra though to recommence seeing shit and ruining around crazy.

Tiberias doesn't live up to its namesake

Yesterday I took the bus from Jerusalem up through the Israeli countryside and into the Galilee to Tiberias. The bus ride was long(3 hours), boring(nothing but hills and valleys, hills and valleys), and uncomfortable. I sat next to a hundred year old Orthodox man and behind a mother with two babies. The old guy smelled bad and the babies cried the whole way. Once we got to the hills over the city it all seemed worth it, as the sea of Galilee came into full view. Upon entering Tiberias I thought it was really hot, ugly, and a bit dirty. I made it to the hostel, which was actually a shitty hotel with a bunch of beds in shoved in each room. The staff at the hotel were not helpful and generally not nice to be around. So I thought I'd out of there and explore the city, too bad there isn't anything to explore. Well there are Roman/Crusader/Ottoman ruins, which can be seen in an hour total, and a water show. Someone tell me how shooting water in different directions is exciting at all.

The Sea of Galilee however is gorgeous. The view is incredible; perfect blue crisp water, boats sailing across, and the slopes of the Golan Heights peering down. Swimming is allowed in part of it as well, but I didn't partake. It was too cold right on the water, but scorching a block inland. Sitting on the promenade eating ice cream, listening to the water crash against the rocks, and watching the boats sail by was quite nice. That said aside from the sea Tiberias is very underwhelming, and doesn't compare to the epicness of the second emperor of Rome where it gets its name.


This morning I took the bus back to Jerusalem, which took even longer because the bus broke down in the middle of the road. Except it actually didn't, the bus driver was just too stupid to realize that you can't drive fast in first gear! Once he learned to shift the bus ran again. I didn't do much in Jerusalem today. Most of the time was spent figuring out where to go next. But I did go out for dinner and hanging out with some cool people from the hostel, three Mexicans and a Brazilian. We made fun of the seemingly 1000 birthright kids being obnoxious all over the city, it was a good time.

Tomorrow I shall leave Israel, which is a bit sad. The next stop is Jordan, which I'm sure will provide me with much to blog about.