I am back, faithful reader, after a short respite. The visit with David's family was a smasing success - we visited much of northern Germany and we capped the visit with NY Eve in Berlin. Wow. So much fun. There was downhill tubing, Christmas tree theft, lots of sneaky leaks and of course, much beer. I would definitely recommend it to a friend.
We went back to work for about 1 week and then started the whole vacation process again. This time in Egypt. We spent a week in Cairo, mostly for work. Cairo is completely crazy. And fascinating. It is so polluted, crowded and absolutely overwhelming, I have no words. Other than those I just typed.
They pyramids were great. Much better than I ever expected. So amazing and 5000 years old. Sheesh.
Then it was off to the Sinai peninsula for snorkeling, hanging out with Bedouins (not such an authentic experience) and hoofing on sheeshas over coffee. Nice. We climbed Mt. Sinai and saw where Moses is supposed to have received the holy commandments. Regardless of the truth of the matter, the place had energy - it was desolate and beautiful. We also saw the burning bush at St. Katherine's monastary. The bush, of course, dates to BC. The monastary, 300 AD. That's old.
We spent a horrible overnight mini-bus ride to get back to Cairo and stayed in a dumpy hostel - blech. After we spent an entire afternoon at the Egyptian museum of antiquities (more old stuff), we decided we needed to escape Cairo again.
So, off to Alexandria. It was really special. People were so friendly and genuinely interested and curious, not just trying to swindle tourist dollars. Alexandria has an amazing state-of-the-art library and more old stuff (of course). We saw catacombs dating to ~100 BC, an old Roman theater and Pompei's pillar - all very cool. We also stopped into a McDonalds and now David has sworn to visit Mickey Ds in every country we visit, it was such an odd sociological microcosm of culture and Egyptianess. There is something about being if completely familiar, standardized surroundings yet be surrounded by the absolutely unfamiliar and exotic. I would also recommend it to a friend.
Then it was back to Cairo for yet more old stuff and a sneaky swindler who posed as a guy on vacation who just so happened to be going to the bizarre, too! He was canny, but knew WAY too much about Cairo to be just visiting. And, wouldn't you know it, he just happened to have a cousin with a perfume shop at the bizarre. It took a bit, but we managed to give him the slip. Egypt is so weird with that stuff. The whole of the country is essentially violent crime free. There are occassionally pick-pockets and that is about the extent of it. But! It's a whole other ball game if the would-be crook can get you to believe his lies. That's different and not wrong. Once you acquiesce, you are fair game. I guess it beats clutching your bag for dear life, but it's still annoying.
We also visited Coptic Cairo - a district of Cairo populated with Coptic Christians (a really old Christian schism, related to the Catholic Church). Lot's of old churches there and a nice museum of Coptic and other Christian history in Egypt.
Our final night we went the most amazing whirling dervish show. It was in an old merchant hostel. Really old. Like 1200 years old, old. There was a large courtyard where the dervishes whirled and played for an hour and a half - it was great. And free, which made for an interesting entry process - a semi-violent free for all to get in the front door. Humanity is just so sad, sometimes. But the dervishes, they are just so happy doing all that whirling. The guys look like they are in a state of ecstasy. It inspires envy, to be sure.
So, that's it. Sorry for the disjointed post, I wanted to get it all in without writing a novel. And I feel I did not do justice to the Christmas break, which was wonderful, too. So little to say, so much time. Strike that. Reverse it.
It's so nice to be back in clean, not so crowded, unpolluted, orderly Hamburg. So, of course. I still love Hamburg.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
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