Back from Alex

12/11/06:

Well, this was one of the best weekends I've had ever since getting to Egypt for a very simple reason: I remembered that I'm supposed to be spending the weekends traveling and seeing the country, not sitting in my apartment planning lessons.

So, after a laid-back Thursday night, spent schmoozing at the Rugby club with some of the other Cairo Hashers, Friday morning I hopped on a train from Cairo to Alexandria. As soon as we walked out of the train station, I turned to my travel companion and said "I like this city so much more than Cairo." For a few reasons: 1) the ruins here are amazing, and they're all still standing. In other words, Roman ruins comprise a significant portion of the buildings in the city, 2) the town feels very European, and 3) it's somewhere different. and travelling is always exciting. Anyway, we saw the Greco-Roman theatre, ate seafood 3 times in 24 hours without getting the least bit sick of it, walked around the famous Alex library, saw the fort Qaitbey, and at night chilled out on the gorgeous mediterranean beach.

1/8/07:

It occurs to me that there's things people want to know about Egypt that I haven't answered very well, so I'm going to answer some questions posted by my friend, the famous Dr. Bart:

i'm curious: what are the temperatures like now? do you have to run early to avoid the heat? or has it cooled down for 'winter'? what is your house like - do you share? what kind of neighborhood? and Indian food aside, what do you eat? Do you cook? Does every car driver still beeps his horn at every intersection? Are there still police men with machine guns behind metal plates on Midan Tachrir? Have you seen the Egyptian Museum yet? You know that is where the mask and bathtub-size solid gold sarcophague of Tutankamon is. i mostly think gold and gem stones are kitsch, but those two peaces made my jaw drop. (for real)

first of all, the weather is anything but overly warm this time of year in Cairo. Its typical desert: very high variability btw. night and day. So this time of year it is in the 70s during the day but drops into the 40s at night. Anyway, running is no problem from that standpoint. A bigger problem is the air pollution. Fortunately, I live in campus housing at my school, which is in a suburban area called New Cairo, and somewhat removed from the really heavy, exhaust-producing traffic in downtown.

The Egyptian food is quite good. Now that I've eaten the hommus and babaganug here it will be really hard to go back to the American stuff. Also the produce is amazingly fresh and cheap: when you have a city surrounded by farm villages it tends to be that way. Some of my other favorite dishes are pickled eggplant and mango juice. Finally, good staples are fuul (mashed fava beans with tomatoes) and felafel.

Driving in Egypt: yes, everyone does beep his horn at every intersection. But it isn't done maliciously like it is in America. In America, when somebody beeps his horn it means: "get out of the way you moron!" whereas in Egypt it means: "excuse me, I'm coming through, please be careful." The fact that there are no stop signs and traffic lights are only found at the busiest intersections makes this a necessity. So basically, people drive in Egypt the way they walk through busy malls in America. I think in general though the roads are pretty safe just because cars tend not to move very fast, so accidents don't happen that often.

And yes, there are guards with machine guns positioned at every corner on Midan Tahrir. It's funny you mention that as salient in your memory. The thing is, you see guard stations like that everywhere in Cairo; all the downtown neighborhoods and even in the suburbs. But it doesn't mean that the city is a violent one. It's actually extremely safe here. I don't know anybody who has ever seen those guards do anything where they would need to be the least bit armed.

However, the Egyptian government has this thing where they fund everybody's university education, and then furthermore they guarantee employment to every university graduate. Sounds good right? The problem is, there are 18 million people in this city. So finding legit employment for all the graduates can be quite a stretch. So by hiring somebody to guard every corner of the city they've made a dent in the problem.

And yes, the Egyptian museum. That exhibit on King Tut is absolutely phenomenal. I had to laugh when I saw it, because last summer in Chicago I saw the travelling King Tut exhibit that passed through America. That thing was a huge deal, had people lining up out the doors to pay like $25 to see it. But now I see that it's just a small fraction of the real deal.

Also, over the Christmas holiday I visited the valley of the kings in Luxor, and walked through the actual tomb itself. That was pretty neat.

But I think the most disillusioning thing for me was hearing about the other Pharohs of Ancient Egypt, and realizing that King Tut was really quite insignificant from a historical and even cultural standpoint. He was really just a little kid who acted as a figurehead leader of Egypt for a few years before dying at age 19. The only reason he is so famous in the western world is that his tomb was the only one not looted by robbers, so his treasure is all we have to look at. So its pretty incredible to think about what else was once out there.

Still, that gold sarcophagus is pretty amazing. I think its neat how you can see all the different layers of casings that were used to store the mummy.

Anyway, the Christmas holiday was very nice. I finally took the time to see all the big Cairo sights: the great pyramid, the more primitive Sakkara step-pyramid, and the old Memphis Village. The rest of the time we were in "upper egypt." We saw the great temple at Abu Simbel, then flew to Aswan and began a 4-day cruise down the Nile, ending at Luxor but stopping along the way at the ancient temples along the riverbanks. Though the Karnak temple in Luxor was probably the most impressive of all of them. It's hard to beat something that was constructed over a period of 3400 years and contributed to by every single Pharoh from the early kingdom in 3100 BC all the way up to the Macedoneans who perpetuated the Pharonic traditions up until 300 AD.

For the last few days of the holiday I was back in Cairo, getting re-settled and taking some time to explore Islamic Cairo. These mosques are really beautiful works of art. Their designs have a great geometric appeal to them. It gives them something that even the European cathedrals do not have.

Now it's back to work. Upcoming travel destinations include a return to Luxor on February 16th for the Egyptian Marathon, and most likely a safari to the White Desert during a long weekend on February 22-25. I will be sure to keep you all posted.