Merry Christmas!
The prospects of having anything close to a 'normal' Christmas in Egypt were looking pretty slim, as the typical elements were nowhere to be found - no Christmas tree, no family, and no snow.
Somehow, I ended up with one of the coolest Chrismases ever. Although my typical Christmas elements didn't magically appear at my doorstep, I had some interesting replacements. No tree though. Luckily, some of my good friends from Kalamazoo had some time off their respective study-abroad trips, and had the money to come to Egypt. I've spent so much time with them, they're as good as family. And we found an interesting snow substitute.
My friends/roommates from K, Erin and Sarah (and Sarah's brother Stephen) came to Egypt for a while during their winter breaks. Sarah and Stephen stayed for about five days, and Erin stayed a little more than a week. After the first few days, we had pretty much visited all the typical Egyptian tourist spots, and I wasn't quite sure how to entertain my guests after that. Fortunately I happened to have made friends with a guy named Omar from AUC a few weeks before school ended. I told him some of my friends were coming to visit me in Cairo, and he offered to help show them around/whatever. He also offered to set us up on a trip to the desert if we wanted to go. Since I had already shown my friends some of Cairo, we decided on the desert.
Christmas in the desert was surreal. By pure chance and coincidence (and help from Omar) we had ended up in the only white place in this entire usually-a-strange-shade-of-brown country, and had ourselves a merry little Christmas. So, we found ourselves camping in the White Desert on Christmas Eve, watching the most brilliant sunset/moonrise I've ever seen.
It was awesome. I didn't get any pictures, because my camera was out of batteries, but I could probably paint a pretty sweet picture. We were standing in the middle of the White Desert (which really does look snow-covered), and had just watched the sun set from atop one of the many odd rock formations in the desert. We climbed down and walked back to our little camp site, and waited a little bit while our guide set up camp. Suddenly, in the eastern sky, an orange light broke the horizon. For a moment, I thought it was just the light from the fire of another camp site. But a few seconds later, a luminous, orange, full moon began to rise over the eerie rock formations. It was amazing. This was the biggest, orangest moon I have ever seen. And it was even cooler, because the sun was still going down on the other side of the horizon. The big ball of sunlight had disappeared, but it was still casting an intense rainbow on the horizon. So, we could stand there, and turn from east to west, and see the big orange moon, and also the strong colors from the sun. As the moon rose higher, it lost the orange color, but still kept its brightness. It ended up being really light out all night long - I had to hide my face under the blankets to fall asleep. But it was really cool to walk around the desert under the light of a full moon.
We also saw a desert fox.
And in the morning, we drove past one family's camp site where they had set up a Christmas tree and done presents - apparently Santa does come to the desert.
Needless to say, it was definitely a different experience on Christmas.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Luxor, Alex, 3 Bendaryl and a Shot of Epinephrine
Well, as is typical of me, this trip started out with a bit of "excitement".
My friend Adam, who spent the semester at Oxford, came to visit me in Egypt. We had decided to see a bit of Upper Egypt (Luxor. "Upper" is south, because of how the Nile flows), and some of Alexandria.
We started our trip with a night train from Cairo to Luxor. This train seemed to be a pretty good deal - at least a lot nicer than other Egyptian trains. We got our own car, and two meals included. One of those meals, however, almost killed me.
Probably about ten minutes into the ride, the steward knocked on our door to give us dinner. It looked like typical airplane/train/travel food - mostly unidentifiable. There was some bread, a dessert, some brown meat and noodles, and some other REALLY unidentifiable meat. I started with a bit of bread, because I was sure I knew what that was. Then I moved on to the brown meat, because I was fairly sure that was beef. After that bland experience, I decided I'd take the plunge and try the mystery meat.
Turned out to be a bad idea. I ate probably two bites of what tasted like chicken. But it was a little strange, so I decided to nix eating the 'chicken'. I returned to the brown meat and noodles, and sipped my Coke. After a few minutes, my mouth started to feel strange. Fearing something awful, I turned to my Adam, and said, "This is chicken, right?"
"I think so," He replied.
I popped a benadryl, just in case. The steward popped by a minute later to take our trays. I asked him what kind of meat the mystery meat was. Turned out... it wasn't chicken. It was fish. And in case you don't know/habitually "forget"(Dad), I'm allergic to fish. So... as my mouth began to feel stranger and the back of my throat started feeling a little tight... I reached for the EPIpen.
"Adam, you're going to have to help me with this. Because I can't do this myself."
"Okay, what do I need to do?"
"Stab me with this."
I explained the EPIpen procedure, squeezed the shit out of Adam's arm, and, man, did that thing hurt like one hell of a motherfucker. (It must be said that Adam was surprisingly calm, and administered the shot of epinephrine expertly. Although, he somehow managed to bend the needle, and for that I will not forgive him. It hurt.) With hands shaking from the epinephrine, I popped another benadryl, just to be safe. And about an hour later, I took one more, just in case. After that, I passed out (sleeping).
I woke up the next morning. We were in Luxor.
In case you know nothing about Luxor... Luxor is part of what is known as Upper Egypt. Again, Upper Egypt is actually located in the south and called Upper Egypt because of the direction the Nile flows. During Pharaonic times, when Egypt was officially divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, Luxor was known as Thebes, and served as the capital of Upper Egypt for many years. Needless to say, there is a lot of history here, and a lot of monuments to match. For example, the Temple of Luxor, Temple of Karnak, the Rameseum, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. (Finally!)
Well, Adam and I arrived at our hotel quite early. We ate breakfast and wandered around the hotel until our room was ready and we could check in. Once we got settled in, we stopped at the desk to ask about possible day tours, etc. We got ourselves hooked up with a private car to drive us around the West Bank area (not THE West Bank, as in Israel... that was my last trip. JK). Anyway, the West Bank of the Nile is where the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and Hatshepsut's Temple are located. Because of the prices of all the tickets, we decided to see the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple. We didn't get to see every tomb in the Valley of the Kings though, because one ticket unfortunately only covers entrance into three tombs. We originally decided to see Rameses II, Hatshepsut, and Ahmenotep; however, many of the tombs in the valley were closed, so we ended up seeing Tut III, Rameses I, and Rameses IX. Not disappointing at all. Well, a little disappointing that we didn't see Hatshepsut's tomb, after all, she is the only woman buried in the Valley of the Kings. But, we also got to see the tomb of Tutankhamun. I'm guessing not many of you follow Egyptology very closely... BUT, Tutankhamun was recently unveiled inside his tomb. That means that his mummy is now on display inside his tomb. It was pretty cool.
After that, we made our way to the Temple of Hatshepsut. I have been waiting SO long to see this! It was probably the most exciting thing I've done yet while in Egypt. Adam has some great pictures of me at the temple... I'll have to steal them and get them on my [nonexistent] photo site. Anyhow, it was amazing to be there.
The next day, having exhausted the most feasible tourist activities, we slept in and then spent some time at the pool. This whole time I had been relatively sick, so a day at the pool was nice. That evening, we took another night train from Luxor back to Cairo. And from there on to Alexandria. I made sure to avoid suspicious foods this time, and another episode was avoided.
Thanks to STA, Adam and I stayed in a sweet hotel in Alexandria for a fraction of the real cost. We stayed at the Palestina Hotel, which is located in Al Montaza, right next to King Farouk's palace. Our room had an amazing view of the Mediterranean. Since we got in to Alexandria in the late afternoon, we just kind of roamed the city til it was time to go to sleep. The next day, we kind of got ripped off. But we saw a lot of stuff. As we left our hotel, a taxi driver approached us, and went to his taxi, thinking that he could at least take us to our first destination. On the way there, he proposed being our driver for the day. And he surprisingly gave us a really good price. Unfortunately the majority of the talking up to that point had been done by me, in Arabic. So my understanding was a little muddled. We later found out that he had meant that good price for both legs of the journey - to our destinations and back. Although I was pretty sure that I had asked him if he meant that to start with, we ended up paying double what we thought we would. But I guess, for having pretty much a personal driver for more than half a day, it wasn't so bad. It was still frustrating to find out that communication had failed though. We went some cool places though, and had a good time with it. So in the end, mish mushkela.
The next day we went back to Cairo. And then Adam left and was off to some adventures in the more western part of the world.
My friend Adam, who spent the semester at Oxford, came to visit me in Egypt. We had decided to see a bit of Upper Egypt (Luxor. "Upper" is south, because of how the Nile flows), and some of Alexandria.
We started our trip with a night train from Cairo to Luxor. This train seemed to be a pretty good deal - at least a lot nicer than other Egyptian trains. We got our own car, and two meals included. One of those meals, however, almost killed me.
Probably about ten minutes into the ride, the steward knocked on our door to give us dinner. It looked like typical airplane/train/travel food - mostly unidentifiable. There was some bread, a dessert, some brown meat and noodles, and some other REALLY unidentifiable meat. I started with a bit of bread, because I was sure I knew what that was. Then I moved on to the brown meat, because I was fairly sure that was beef. After that bland experience, I decided I'd take the plunge and try the mystery meat.
Turned out to be a bad idea. I ate probably two bites of what tasted like chicken. But it was a little strange, so I decided to nix eating the 'chicken'. I returned to the brown meat and noodles, and sipped my Coke. After a few minutes, my mouth started to feel strange. Fearing something awful, I turned to my Adam, and said, "This is chicken, right?"
"I think so," He replied.
I popped a benadryl, just in case. The steward popped by a minute later to take our trays. I asked him what kind of meat the mystery meat was. Turned out... it wasn't chicken. It was fish. And in case you don't know/habitually "forget"(Dad), I'm allergic to fish. So... as my mouth began to feel stranger and the back of my throat started feeling a little tight... I reached for the EPIpen.
"Adam, you're going to have to help me with this. Because I can't do this myself."
"Okay, what do I need to do?"
"Stab me with this."
I explained the EPIpen procedure, squeezed the shit out of Adam's arm, and, man, did that thing hurt like one hell of a motherfucker. (It must be said that Adam was surprisingly calm, and administered the shot of epinephrine expertly. Although, he somehow managed to bend the needle, and for that I will not forgive him. It hurt.) With hands shaking from the epinephrine, I popped another benadryl, just to be safe. And about an hour later, I took one more, just in case. After that, I passed out (sleeping).
I woke up the next morning. We were in Luxor.
In case you know nothing about Luxor... Luxor is part of what is known as Upper Egypt. Again, Upper Egypt is actually located in the south and called Upper Egypt because of the direction the Nile flows. During Pharaonic times, when Egypt was officially divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, Luxor was known as Thebes, and served as the capital of Upper Egypt for many years. Needless to say, there is a lot of history here, and a lot of monuments to match. For example, the Temple of Luxor, Temple of Karnak, the Rameseum, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. (Finally!)
Well, Adam and I arrived at our hotel quite early. We ate breakfast and wandered around the hotel until our room was ready and we could check in. Once we got settled in, we stopped at the desk to ask about possible day tours, etc. We got ourselves hooked up with a private car to drive us around the West Bank area (not THE West Bank, as in Israel... that was my last trip. JK). Anyway, the West Bank of the Nile is where the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and Hatshepsut's Temple are located. Because of the prices of all the tickets, we decided to see the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple. We didn't get to see every tomb in the Valley of the Kings though, because one ticket unfortunately only covers entrance into three tombs. We originally decided to see Rameses II, Hatshepsut, and Ahmenotep; however, many of the tombs in the valley were closed, so we ended up seeing Tut III, Rameses I, and Rameses IX. Not disappointing at all. Well, a little disappointing that we didn't see Hatshepsut's tomb, after all, she is the only woman buried in the Valley of the Kings. But, we also got to see the tomb of Tutankhamun. I'm guessing not many of you follow Egyptology very closely... BUT, Tutankhamun was recently unveiled inside his tomb. That means that his mummy is now on display inside his tomb. It was pretty cool.
After that, we made our way to the Temple of Hatshepsut. I have been waiting SO long to see this! It was probably the most exciting thing I've done yet while in Egypt. Adam has some great pictures of me at the temple... I'll have to steal them and get them on my [nonexistent] photo site. Anyhow, it was amazing to be there.
The next day, having exhausted the most feasible tourist activities, we slept in and then spent some time at the pool. This whole time I had been relatively sick, so a day at the pool was nice. That evening, we took another night train from Luxor back to Cairo. And from there on to Alexandria. I made sure to avoid suspicious foods this time, and another episode was avoided.
Thanks to STA, Adam and I stayed in a sweet hotel in Alexandria for a fraction of the real cost. We stayed at the Palestina Hotel, which is located in Al Montaza, right next to King Farouk's palace. Our room had an amazing view of the Mediterranean. Since we got in to Alexandria in the late afternoon, we just kind of roamed the city til it was time to go to sleep. The next day, we kind of got ripped off. But we saw a lot of stuff. As we left our hotel, a taxi driver approached us, and went to his taxi, thinking that he could at least take us to our first destination. On the way there, he proposed being our driver for the day. And he surprisingly gave us a really good price. Unfortunately the majority of the talking up to that point had been done by me, in Arabic. So my understanding was a little muddled. We later found out that he had meant that good price for both legs of the journey - to our destinations and back. Although I was pretty sure that I had asked him if he meant that to start with, we ended up paying double what we thought we would. But I guess, for having pretty much a personal driver for more than half a day, it wasn't so bad. It was still frustrating to find out that communication had failed though. We went some cool places though, and had a good time with it. So in the end, mish mushkela.
The next day we went back to Cairo. And then Adam left and was off to some adventures in the more western part of the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)