Well... What am I going to do now??

This year eid al-adha (The festival of sacrifice) fell in mid-November. Similar to thanksgiving, it is a festival where Muslims slaughter animals and donate portions of it to the poor. For them it is an important time remembering how God made Abraham sacrifice his son, and then saved him at the last minute (Ishmael, not Isaac for Islam). For Harry and I, it meant we had a full 10 days off. We decided to head down to Dahab, on the Sinai, for a little rest and relaxation. We definitely picked the right place.

We spent the Monday of our vacation on a long bus ride from Cairo up north, across the Suez, and then down again across the Sinai to Sharm al-Sheikh and finally to Dahab. The absolute barren nature of this land reminded me of Jordan and Israel, and made me wonder why there has been so much conflict over this land. Land with no water, natural resources, or even dirt/shade. It wasn't even cool desert, just barren wasteland. I slept for most of the 8hr trip, woken only by the Arabic movies blasting on the TV and the numerous checkpoints. The bus only had one TV at the front (which I couldn't see), but the driver compensated by turning the volume up to a nearly ear-shattering level. Makes sense...

After coming down through the mountains, we finally saw the beautiful Red Sea. Dahab used to be a tiny bedouin fishing village that slowly gained popularity due to the excellent diving and liberal atmosphere. It became famous as a hippy hangout in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, and its roots show through even today. Dahab isn't very touristy at all, but is more of a budget backpacker/hardcore diver destination. Cheap hostels/boarding houses overlook a boardwalk, with tons of bedouin-style (cushions and sheesha) restaurants on the other side of the boardwalk directly on the water. In many of the places you can get sprayed by the waves as they crash against the sea wall. We spent many an afternoon with our books and a few beers relaxing in what became our favorite spot Meya Meya. It means "100 100" in Arabic, basically it's a response to how are you, similar to awesome or perfect (I feel 100 percent). Our boy "Smiley" had a restaurant a little off the main drag (still on the water), so he was happy for any business at all. After a long morning of snorkeling off the beach, it was awesome to go and nap/relax at the Meya Meya. They also made excellent Chocolate and Banana "thick shakes". Basically a really thick, delicious, milk shake.

A typical day for us consisted of:

• getting up around 9am (that got earlier as our bugbites got worse, more on that later)

• a quick shower (aka swim)

• a nice relaxing breakfast at "Yalla Bar"

• a few hours snorkeling on Lighthouse reef

• a few hours relaxing at Meya Meya

• happy hour at Yalla Bar

• the rest of the night bouncing from place to place bargaining for a cheap dinner and free drinks, typically ending up at a place with a view like this:

Pretty awesome.

Our hotel was absolutely the worst part of our trip, but that's our own fault for paying $2.75 a night for it. If we had sprung another $6 a night we could have been living in luxury. but c'mon! That is 6 bucks we can spend somewhere else! It was one room with a small bathroom attached (a luxury we later grew to regret having). We had asked for a two person room, but got stuck with one (big, thank god) bed. The issue wasn't the sleeping arrangements, but the room itself. The orange paint behind the bed preferred to stick to your shirt/head instead of the wall... we learned that one the hard way. There were only a few bed bugs the first night, but I think the sustenance of two bodies allowed them to breed rapidly, and by the last night we were pretty miserable. The bathroom was... well gross is a nice way of putting it. Both the shower and the tap were salt water (kind of defeats the purpose), and there were holes in the wall where the plumbing came through. When the light was on, bugs from outside decided that inside would be a lot more fun... Harry and I killed around 5-6,000 bugs with the bidet faucet (seriously, we clogged the drain with bug carcasses) before realizing it was a battle we couldn't win.

More about the rest of the week in my next post.

This post is much belated, I visited the pyramids over a month ago. Finally however I have been able to upload pictures from the pyramids. Just text is boring, and defeats the whole purpose of this blog!

We left our hostel fairly early (9am) to avoid the bustle at the pyramids. Our guide said that it wasn't that busy... if that was the case I can't imagine what it was like when it was busy. Tour buses and individual groups covered the whole area. It's definitely the most crowded tourist attraction I've been to. Looking at the pyramids, it's easy to understand why.

Pyramids at Giza

These things are MASSIVE. I can't even begin to describe just how big they are. Until the Eiffel Tower was built in the 19th century they were the tallest man-made structures on earth. If you look at the pictures above you should be able to see how many "blocks" there are. Below is a picture of Harry standing on the pyramid. Look at the size of the blocks for some idea of scale.

Harry at the Pyramids

Unfortunately they don't let you climb up the pyramids anymore. I guess there is too much liability and too many people wanting to do it. We did get to go inside one of them. I was bent almost double descending, and then ascending into the tomb. The entire pyramid was built just for this one, little, room. Needless to say the air was pretty musty and disgusting, and it was pretty scary thinking about how many countless tons of stone were above us. One of the most incredible things about the pyramids is that the engineering is nearly perfect. Due to the design of the pyramid there is no pressure on the roof of the tomb, the weight of the stone above is distributed evenly around it. It was pretty cool. Claustrophobia kicked in when a "large" American man got stuck in the tunnel coming down as we were heading back out. I had a brief panic attack and thought McDonald's had finally killed me.

The sphinx wasn't nearly as big as I thought it was going to be, or maybe the scale of the pyramids had changed my mind as to what "big" was. What made the sphinx awesome was that it was carved out of solid rock, a gigantic sculpture made in the quarry where the stone from the pyramids was mined.

I've heard that Angor Wat is the only ruin that compares to the pyramids in pure awesomeness, and I'm inclined to agree. A visit to the pyramids is a necessity on anyone's bucket list.

Sorry it's been so long since I posted, it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. I feel kind of stupid writing in a "travel blog" when I haven't really done any traveling haha. We did see the pyramids the other day, and they were just incredible. A post on that will follow as soon as I get internet in my new place and can upload photos.

That's right, a new place! Harry and I moved into an apt yesterday, pictures will follow. We'd been staying in a hostel for the past 2.5 weeks, and it was getting very, very tiring. The apartment search turned out to be a lot more complicated than I had expected. Harry and I found a place almost immediately, and decided to take it. Unfortunately the landlord was out of the country and kept postponing her flight home. After the 2nd week of waiting we decided to look somewhere else. During those two weeks we looked at a ton of apartments, but none of them were quite right. We had our hearts set on the apartment we were waiting for, and it wasn't until Saturday that we found another one.

It's even better than the first. More expensive, of course, but perfect. It's in an awesome part of Maadi, a district of Cairo that has a very "Bahamas" feel to it. Very tropical, and very British Colonial style. Wide grid streets with parks and almost jungle in parts. It is definitely worth the extra money to move out of the bustle of Cairo. It's a short walk to the metro (less than 10 minutes), so we're still only 30 minutes from just about anywhere in the city. Two bedrooms, one and a half baths, a big kitchen, and a gigantic living room/dining room are topped off by a spacious balcony off the bedrooms. It's going to suit us very well.

It is also, thankfully, very close to where I got a job. I'm working for a Petroleum Company in their legal office. Right now I'm doing menial, paralegal stuff but hopefully I'll be challenged more as time goes on. Harry is still looking for a job, but we have a couple of leads that hopefully will pan out this week and he too will be gainfully employed.

It has been a tough last few days for us, nothing seemed to be working out, we don't have much money, and we were beginning to doubt ourselves. Things are looking up now though, and they can only get better. I hope.

I'll work on a piece about the pyramids, but I'll say right now that they are the last remaining Wonder of the Ancient World for a reason, and they are worth seeing.

Our last night in Amsterdam was quite a good time. We went out on a 6 club "clubcrawl" with one of the guys we met in the hostel (the aussie that I mentioned before). It seemed like everyone we ran into was Australian. Except for Harry and I, the only other Americans that were there were some kids who had went to URI. Small world. We spent a good part of the night with some German girls. Everyone was awesome, just there to have a good time and meet new people. We had had a light dinner around 5, so around 2am the night ended with the best burger I've had west of Belgrade.

We checked out the next morning around 11 (that was fun), and Sam (the Australian kid) was nice enough to keep our big bags in the hostel while we wondered around the city for a few hours. Harry and I didn't want to spend any more money, so we just finished up the Euros we had. That was enough for 2 espressos and a grilled cheese (8 euro), and our train ride back to the airport (7.60 euro). We were pretty hungry by the time we hit the airport around 4.

It was strangely comforting landing in an Arab country again. It was warm at 2am, probably 75 or so. the first thing we noticed getting off the plain was a massive pile of rubble in the middle of the tarmac. At least it was fenced off. After getting through passport control and customs we were met by our driver from Hostel Meramees. We were a bit worried he wasn't still going to be there at 3am (our flight was supposed to arrive at 1), but he was. We'd heard numerous stories about drivers in Egypt, and this guy didn't disappoint. we spent most of the time doing 120kmh in a 45 zone, mostly in the middle of the road so he only had to move over half a lane to pass people. Thankfully he would honk repeatedly and flash his brights as he came up on a slower moving vehicle so they would know he was there. The scary thing is we were getting passed too. It was the middle of the night, and we haven't been in a cab during the day yet but the deal with red lights was to honk if you weren't stopping. I guess it's a good thing to announce your intentions...

Our hostel is on the 5th floor of a really old building, very British colonial type stuff. The elevator in the middle was described to us as "old but good". The thing looks like it's main propulsion is a very long bicycle chain. Still, we made it. Our room isn't too bad, it has a sink and a shower with the toilet out in the hall. Initially we were pleased with our balcony and view, but I can almost reach out and touch the speakers on a mosques minaret. I've never heard anything louder in my life hahaha, but it helps us get up in the morning.

Today was spent wandering around the city. It's nothing like Amman. 20 million people, all bustling around honking horns and running across the street. We were told today that to cross the street like an Egyptian you have to "close your eyes, pray to Allah, and walk". We're not ready for that just yet. The metro seems like its going to be incredibly helpful. It's cleaner than the NYC subway, about on par with most DC or Boston "underground" stations. At least the stations we saw today. 20 cents to go as far as the metro goes. Not too bad.

We're going to start looking for a place to live soon (hopefully tomorrow). We need a place of our own shortly or we're going to go crazy pretty fast. I'll post some pictures when we find faster internet.

Well, Harry and I are off. The flight wasn't so bad, and we managed to get to Amsterdam without any issues. Considering the State Department warnings and the apparent "highly likely" attack, we breezed through passport control and customs in Schipol airport yesterday. It was the only time I've ever not been sure that that an area was customs because there was no line at all. After a little trouble finding the correct train, Harry and I had to lug our 45 pound duffel bags around until we could find our hostel. We should have got a map, but we found it eventually.

Our hostel is an interesting little place one street over from the red light district. A picture will follow of the leather/latex/lingerie shop next door, but its not a bad spot. The Irish Pub downstairs is "quaint' I suppose, but the food is good and not too expensive. Buy one get one free Heini's. This is the first time I've stayed in a dorm-style hostel, and it's pretty interesting. More than once last night I was woken up by people trying to tell me that I was in their bed. Apparently the hostel doesn't have itself together as all night there were small arguments while people were trying to sleep. The Aussie guy on the bed next to us is a champ. He's here until his money runs out. Last night when Harry and I were crashing (9pm, it'd been a long day) he asked if anybody wanted to go grab a beer downstairs. He didn't roll in until 530am... must've been quite "a beer".

We've really just been walking around. I wouldn't say that we've ever been "lost" per se, but very rarely do we know exactly where we are. Harry put it well, it's been like we've been lost in Suburbia for two days straight. Amsterdam all looks EXACTLY the same, and many of the shops have the same and/or similar names. there isn't a building over 5 stories high, and they're all incredibly alike.

Pretty much they all look like that.

I'd love to insert some of the pictures of the sex shops and whatnot that I've taken, but unfortunately they all include naked girls doing terribly inappropriate things. Travellerspoint might get mad hahaha. The museum excursions haven't been so successful. We've been to the Tulip Museum and the Cannabis Museum. In both cases they were basically the basement of a house with some display cases. Not so awesome at all.

We're doing a pub/club crawl tonight. Should be interesting.

Everyone has been asking me if I'm ready, if it's "set in" yet that I'm in fact moving to Cairo. I've been laughing it off and saying "no worries", and "what's the worst that could happen?".

Well ladies and gentlemen, it just hit me today. About an hour and a half ago. "Wow... I'm actually doing this. Oh Sh*t!". I don't remember how I felt when I was heading off for abroad, but this has to be different. No plan, no return ticket. Just Harry and I, doing "our thing". It's exciting, but (I've gotta be honest) scary. I've re-come to terms with everything. It's a vacation, then a "stay"cation. Then who knows? Maybe I'll be home in a month, maybe in 2, maybe 4, maybe 6. Who knows? More importantly, who cares? If its fun and it works and I'm enjoying myself than I'm going to stay. If it doesn't... screw it I'm coming home. Or going to Jordan, or Serbia.

What you see above is what I'm bringing. A Duffel, and a Backpack. Man I hope I know what I'm doing!

Anyways, I wanted to check in and get my thoughts down for the night before leaving. It's a weird feeling. It was so great seeing everyone this weekend at Trinity, I'm so happy I had the opportunity to race before heading out. I'm going to miss you all. Time to go research about Amsterdam so I have some idea of what we're going to do when we land Tuesday morning.

Miss you all already.

After my glorious two week couch-surfing expedition up and down the east coast I'm finally back home. The last time I really counted down the day's until Harry and head out the count was 78. It is now 6. My To Do list is long, and as of now not much is checked off, hopefully over the next few days I'll be able to get ready to go. If not, well I have my passport and my credit card... what more do I need?

It's going to take me a while to get used to simply writing my thoughts down like this and hoping someone is interested. Well I guess if you're sitting here reading this you're at least semi interested. I'll do my best not to disappoint.

Right now I can't decide if I should be getting ready for Cairo, trying to find a job and an apartment etc. or getting excited for our three-day layover in Amsterdam! Hopefully I'll be able to do a bit of both. It's tough to pack for a trip of which I don't know the duration, location, or really anything about it. I'm going to be based in Cairo, yes. The unanswerable question is where will I go from there? Tanzania again? SE Asia? Serbia? (of course). Maybe Madagascar, or Russia, or Central Asia. It's going to be an interesting few years ahead.

I'm ready to get started.