Our Reactions on Egypt

A quick update from us about what's going on in Egypt.  Somehow, because we've been there, this whole ordeal seems much more real to us than similar past events.

Steve found a picture in the AP slideshow (it's copyrighted so you'll have to click through to see the image), and a mere two and a half months ago we were sitting in this exact restaurant eating dinner, twice.  Yes, we ate Pizza Hut on our vacation and yes we did it twice, please don't judge.  It's the only Pizza Hut in or near Tahrir Square, so there's no doubt that this is where we were.  This restaurant was always packed when we were there, and this is one of the first places in Egypt we struggled to pay with credit.  The waiters screwed up our drink orders both times we visited.  We have memories in this place that we won't soon forget.   But to know that a place we have visited and enjoyed no longer exists feels unreal and in a very indescribable way makes this feel so much more real.

Additionally, we read that looters broke into the Egyptian Museum and destroyed two mummies.  This is so sad.  There is so much rich history in the museum, despite it's shortcomings, to destroy public history for short term gain sours the whole ordeal.

Things are shifting and moving in Egypt, and we sincerely hope that in the end, it is the citizens of Egypt that benefit the most.

Jeddah and Cairo Make the News

I was going to post the next part in our Athens vacation recap, but instead I want to show you a bit more about what's going on near us.  So I'm going to talk about rain again.  It might seem strange that the only weather I talk about here is the rain, but it's because it has a huge impact on the people here in Saudi Arabia.

It rained again on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning here.  It wasn't really worth updating about, because for us, it had little negative impact.  The leaks we had last week had been fixed, and held tight this time, so the only inconvenience was having to ride our bikes home in the rain.

Sadly this was much worse in Jeddah.  Here are two videos of the flooding.  I saw the first one on Facebook from another student on campus, and the second one was posted at Susie's Big Adventure.





As much as I wish I could say this was a one time weather catastrophe, it wasn't.  The same thing happened in November 2009 and left Jeddah in much the same state.  Promises were made to improve the infrastructure, but in Saudi fashion, 14 months later, little has been changed.  What makes this sting even worse is that as part of WEP, a Saudi businessman came to speak.  He talked about how Saudi Arabia has benefited by avoiding investing in foreign countries.  He expressed how much better off Saudi Arabia was because they kept their money working at home.  Clearly there is some disconnect when keeping Saudi Arabia's money in the country can't even provide a safe city for it's people to live in.

In other news, there have been huge riots in Cairo and throughout Egypt about the recent elections.  Considering that we were just there a few months ago, it was shocking to see places we recognized filled with angry protesters.




So that's what's going on in our little part of the world.  We'll be back tomorrow with more pictures from Athens!

Traveling Back to Saudi Arabia

We're on our way back to campus from Athens (with an eight hour layover in Cairo), and hope to start updating everyone on our amazing trip starting tomorrow.  We have truly had a great time in Greece and hope to come back and explore some of the islands!

Here are only a few of the amazing photos from our trip.  I promise there will be many, many more to come.

The inedible orange trees that were planted all over Athens.  It seemed so wasteful.

Temple of Olympic Zeus as viewed from the Acropolis.

Group picture in front of the Parthenon and Acropolis from a nearby hill.

Changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Temple of Hephaistos

Posing in front of the Temple of Olympic Zeus

View of Cape Sounion on a quick day trip to the Temple of Poseidon.

Screaming bald eagle at the Attica Zoological Park.

Ancient Greek ruins discovered when building the metro.  These are actually in the metro station!  Practically everywhere in Athens was a museum.

View of the Philopappou.

Peaking out from behind a wall at Keramikos.

*Catch up on our entire Athens adventure by checking Our Travel Page, or our Greece tag.*

Restoring Faith in Traveling

Cairo really did a number on my desire to travel.  It seemed like every thing was set against us, and despite having a great time, it wore me out and stressed me out.  When we got back, I had in my mind decided that if all traveling was going to be like Cairo, that I was done with it.  I didn't want to go anywhere else, deal with more foreign languages, feel like a directionally challenged 5 year old, or have to navigate the Jeddah airport unless it was to fly back home.  As a result we drug our feet about winter break until we finally had to decide if we were actually going anywhere or if we were going to spend an entire month long break in Saudi.

So we hit the airline sites and hostel booking sites.   We gave up on Italy; I didn't want to deal with planning three or four different cities and the travel between them.  I was convinced it was going to be too expensive.  Then we embraced Athens.  I was too tired and stubborn from trying to decide anything to be reasonable, so Steve found us plane tickets and a place to stay.  So it was done, and we were going to Athens for 13 days.

Since it takes twelve hundred years to get anything shipped to Saudi Arabia, and bookstores in Jeddah are lacking, we've resorted to making our own travel books using OneNote and my obsessive compulsive organizing habits.  I began sorting through the various options of sites, shopping and restaurants we might frequent while in Athens and started to get excited about going.

And now that we're here, I can't imagine not traveling.  Athens is amazing in so many ways, but mostly it is a breath of fresh air in regards to traveling.  It is beautiful, urine scent free, easy to navigate, and downright impressive with the history that shows up everywhere even in the metro.

Even though it was a struggle to get to where we are, I'm so grateful that we're here, because I can't imagine having Cairo as one of our only experiences with international travel.

*Catch up on our entire Athens adventure by checking Our Travel Page, or our Greece tag.*

English or Um Sort Of

We've had a really interesting time handling some of the language barriers that appear when dealing with non native English speakers, and we thought we'd share some of our more funny experiences with you guys.

When we were in Cairo, we saw a couple of laughable English translation errors at the military museum.

 Apparently they have trouble spelling trebuchet too, but since it's from French, that might have something to do with it.

Poor Jimmy Carter had to meet with the Prim Minister, I bet he was just a buzz kill.  I think I've heard of that place Israil, isn't that the one with all of the great trains?  And I bet Obama didn't realize that he was living in the Light House.  Or maybe it was renamed sometime since Jimmy Carter was president?  There are several other errors here too, but these were just three of the six or so problems with that sign.

This photo showed up in our Cairo recap, but since it has an important message, we'll highlight it again.

Remember, "The Safaty Fitst" always!

We got a cryptic text message a few weeks ago from the vet clinic that services campus.  See if you can translate the "text" speak into real sentences:

"gud a.m. this fr. happy pet vet clnc, sori 2 inform u that d vaccines 4 cats are not yet available. tnx"

That clinic can text like a champ.  In case you couldn't figure it out, they were trying to say "Good morning.  This is from the Happy Vet Clinic.  Sorry to inform you that the vaccines for cats are not yet available. Thanks."

And finally, Steve found a great vibrating reindeer toy for ages 3+ advertising "Provides infinite pleasure."  Enough said.

Cairo Day 8: Urman Gardens and Cairo Zoo

On our last day in Cairo we decided to go check out the Cairo Zoo.  We read a lot of bad things about how the animals are kept and the excuses the keepers make about it, so we figured we'd only go if we had time.

On our way to the zoo, we ran across the Urman Gardens, and since it was only 50 piasters (9 cents!) each to get in, we decided to take a stroll through the park.  It was quiet and relaxed, quite the opposite of Al-Ahzar Park where we were overwhelmed by all the people around.

After relaxing in the park reading our Kindles, we headed on to the zoo.  The zoo is also ridiculously cheap at 2 pounds (36 cents) but as soon as one of the ticket sellers saw us, he turned and went into the ticket booth and told the other ticket sellers that our tickets were going to be 20 pounds.  While it still would have been around $7 for us both to get in, having them force us to pay 10 times more just because we were Westerners just wasn't going to happen.

We decided to skip out on the zoo, and it turned out not to be a bad decision, because as we were walking by we saw their white flamingos and trashy grassy areas and realized we weren't missing much.

On the way back to the hostel, we snagged this picture at a nearby construction site, which bears a very important message we should all keep in mind:

The Safaty Fitst.  Apparently the English language isn't however safe.

Catch up on the rest of our trip:
Holy Mother of Chaos
Cairo Day 0
Cairo Day 1

Cairo Day 2

Cairo Day 3: Part 1

Cairo Day 3: Part 2

Cairo Day 4

Cairo Day 5

Cairo Day 6: Part 1

Cairo Day 6: Part 2
Cairo Day 7

Cairo Day 7: Abdin Palace and Al-Azhar Park

By now, Eid was in full celebration and this proved to be the downfall of our day.  We started by going to the Abdin Palace, and had to walk all the way around the building just to figure out where we were supposed to enter.  Turned out that it was closed for the holidays so we didn't get to go in.  The palace which is one of the residences of the Egyptian President and a huge museum is supposed to be very lavish and ornamented, so it was a shame to miss out.

We then decided to walk to Al-Azhar Park, which was "relatively" nearby.  It turned out that relatively was not quite as near as we had thought, about a mile and a half actually.  We walked through a really slummy section of Cairo, but still managed to stumble upon some interesting historic buildings.

We passed through Bab Zuweila, an old gate to the old city of Cairo.

(source)

After walking a ways further we stumbled across the Sabil Muhammad Ali Pasha, which although it was not open to the public, was recently renovated.  A sabil is, according to Amazon, a public cistern and water dispenser and was apparently a tribute to a deceased son.  In case you were wondering what some of your tax dollars were likely doing, the funding in part from the US Agency for International Development whose acronym is fittingly USAID.  Who knew.  It was truly surprising to find something so beautiful hidden amongst small, winding, garbage ridden streets.

The Sabil had beautiful details which were obviously well maintained during the renovation.

Walls of the round Sabil.

Details at the top of the walls.

After trudging onwards, including a brief stint walking a long a very busy highway-ish road, we finally made it to the park.  To say it was packed would definitely be an understatement.  Since it was Eid, most families weren't working, school wasn't in session, and the park seemed to be a nice place for everyone in the whole city to try and visit at once.

There was a zero percent chance of us getting some peace and quiet here, but alas we paid the $2.50 it cost to get in and tried to find a place to sit down.  The park despite being filled beyond capacity, was very beautiful, and since it was situated on a big hill, there was a great view of Cairo.  Because of the huge crowds, I didn't even try to take pictures so here are a few great ones from the internet:

(source)

(source)

After a very long tiring day, we flagged a taxi that drove us back to the front door of the hostel.

Catch up on the rest of our trip:
Holy Mother of Chaos
Cairo Day 0
Cairo Day 1

Cairo Day 2

Cairo Day 3: Part 1

Cairo Day 3: Part 2

Cairo Day 4

Cairo Day 5

Cairo Day 6: Part 1

Cairo Day 6: Part 2

Cairo Day 6: Alexandria Part 2

After leaving the fort we went to a small aquarium nearby. it was basically a dozen tanks in a little room. It was pretty good, except for the turtles. There was a large softshell turtle and a sea turtle in tanks that were way too small for them (maybe 1/4 the minimum size I would consider humane). We felt really bad for them, but we didn't really know what we could do.  Since we only paid 5 pounds each to get in, I have trouble believing they make enough for expansions or anything.  One of the young boys caught up to us in the Aquarium, and we tried to teach him that "I LOVE YOU MAN!" isn't a great thing to yell at strangers, much less stranger's wives.

Poor sea turtle stuck in a way too small tank.

After the aquarium, we got some "ice cream" from a nearby shop.  Due to the number of kids around, the shop was packed.  We only managed to order because the cashier saw us looking bewildered and helped us order.  This ice cream wasn't really quite ice cream, it was kind of a mix between sherbet and ice cream.  We both got multi flavored scoops and they were pretty tasty.

We then went to Pompey's Pillar, which was beautiful, especially at sunset. The pillar is a Roman triumphal column, and boy is it huge! There were some catacombs nearby, which provided us with the only real peace and quite we ever found in Egypt. We couldn't hear any of the honking horns, or bad mufflers, only the very gentle hum of some dehumidifiers. There was a big scary bull statue too!

Headless sphinx

Pillar and sphinx

Pillar over looking the city.

Steve at the base of the pillar.

View from the bottom of the pillar.

Quite large when compared to say, the moon!

Talking with more strangers.  The older of the two girls was really forward and friendly, but the younger one was pretty shy.

Replica of the Apis Bull.

Steve playing around in the catacombs.

One of the two sphinxes near the pillar.

Pillar in the early evening light.

Steve poking the pillar.

Another taxi ride left us at the train station, exhausted.  We wandered around until we found a bakery and got some tasty baked treats to eat for dinner.   After getting on the train, we eventually found a car that wasn't cold enough to be confused with a refrigerator car, and took a snooze till we got back to Cairo.  We're not even going to talk about how I had to go to the bathroom so badly, or how it was the most disgusting bathroom I've ever been in.

Riding the train back to Cairo.

Catch up on the rest of our trip:
Holy Mother of Chaos
Cairo Day 0
Cairo Day 1

Cairo Day 2

Cairo Day 3: Part 1

Cairo Day 3: Part 2

Cairo Day 4

Cairo Day 5

Cairo Day 6: Part 1

Cairo Day 6: Alexandria Part 1

The writing style might be a bit different today, Steve is writing it.

On day 6 we went to Alexandria. We went to the Roman Amphitheater, the Alexandria National History Museum, Fort Qaitbay, a little "aquarium", and Pompey's Pillar.

We managed to wake up early enough to make the 8am train to Alexandria (just "Alex" to the locals), from the Ramses train station. Tickets were very cheap, 35 pounds, about $6, per person each way. The trip lasted about an hour and a half. Immeadietly after walking out of the station in Alex we bumped into a group of students from our university. We chatted a bit and went over to the Roman Amphitheater with them. The acoustics were pretty good, and there was in impressive line of standing columns (does it become a row if it falls over?).

The view overlooking the Roman Amphitheater

Steve in front of the theatre seats

Standing columns

Corinthian column detailing

Then we went off on our own to look for the Alexandria National Museum. It was quite difficult to find, we ended up walking about for half an hour, and then just taking a cab to the address we had. Finding a taxi driver that spoke English was difficult, much more so than in Cairo, and the one we did find had never heard of the museum.  On the way the driver stopped to ask several  people how to get to the museum, but we eventually navigated our way there. This little museum is almost the opposite of the Egyptian Museum; everything was wonderfully displayed, well explained, and well taken care of. The museum itself looked fairly new, housed in a converted mansion. The planning for the museum was excellent, even using the wine cellar as a sort of tomb, with a sarcophagus down there. The greco-roman artifacts were very interesting, and on the top floor there were artifacts from the early Islamic period.  Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed, so no pictures from there.

Then we took a cab out to the tip of the peninsula beside the harbor, to Fort Qaitbay. The fort, which was built a long time ago, is really big. It was crowded with locals, who only pay about 50 cents to get in, and some of the younger boys took great interest in us. One group of tweens just wanted to test their English curse words on us.

The Harry Potter transport van we saw outside of the fort! So cool!

Exterior of the Fort.  It was very impressive.

Entrance to the Fort.

Tiling on the floor inside the Fort.

View of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina from the Fort.  Unfortunately we didn't get to go due to time constraints, however we heard later it was closed because of Eid.

Steve looking dashing in the Fort.

A very common question in Egypt was "Where you from?," and I had gotten bored of ignoring people, so I started naming off the moons of Jupiter. This led to some confusion, and so it was that one young boy became convinced that my name was "Ganamie" (a mispronunciation of Ganymede). I decided that his name should be Stanley, and his two friends should be George and Micheal. It was pretty funny to argue with them about their own names. We had a really good time humoring these boys for almost an hour. Here is an example of how the conversation went:

Stanley: Hey Ganamie! How you like Egypt man!? You have a good time?
Ganamie: Yes, we are enjoying ourselves pretty well. How are you?
Stan: OH MY GAWSH! It is so beautiful here! You like WWE?
Gan: Huh?
Stan: WWE, John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple X!
Gan: Oh, like wrestling? No, not really.
Micheal: Hey! Look! (gives me a thumbs up and a big grin)
Gan: Ha Ha, very good! Shouldn't you be in school?
Stan: OH MY GAWSH! No way man, school is no good. Hey, take our picture. You know Obama?

One group of boys who followed us around inside the Fort.

George, Michael, and Stanley clammoring to follow us on the Fort grounds.

They followed us around wherever we went. I had to tell them that Abby was "my woman", and "no, don't touch her, she is mine" in order to get them to give her some space. Eventually they got themselves in trouble with the security by climbing on the crenelations, and we lost them in the crowds.  We had several other photo ops with the locals while at the fort, it was like a day of being a mini-celebrity.

A group photo with some of the boys.  The two in the middle are Stanley and Michel.  George is behind Stanley's elbow, and the other kids just jumped in when they saw us taking a picture.

Another view from the Fort. 

The Fort was so crowded.  This is the pier outside of the fort.

We tried really hard to get more photos of both of us together on this trip!

Our trip to Alex ended up being jam packed full of awesome fun and pictures, so we'll have to finish the day in the next post!

Catch up on the rest of our trip:
Holy Mother of Chaos
Cairo Day 0
Cairo Day 1

Cairo Day 2

Cairo Day 3: Part 1

Cairo Day 3: Part 2

Cairo Day 4

Cairo Day 5