Wow
It's the end of our second day, and soon we're taking a sleeping train to Aswan.
We arrived two days ago at midnight, and got into our hostel without experiencing any of Cairo so far. We then ventured out in the morning and experienced Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo, The Citadel, and the Egyptian Museum. The sights I have seen have been some of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life. At the museum they have Tutenkhmens tomb and everything in it, he must have had a big ego. It's almost unbelievable until you see some of these things, and then learn they're 3000+ years old!
Today we got up at 4am, and got on some camels and went to the Giza Pyramids and watched the sunrise. What an experience, it just seems so surreal what we did this morning, it was dawn, in the desert, just sand dunes and us, until we saw some guys riding and yelling on horses. They weren't a threat though. Then we went to the Pyramids and climbed one of them, they're really big. We saw the Sphinx, which was OK, and then rode the camels some more. Parts of the Pyramids are really close to the city, it's odd actually.. We then went to some other tombs, and I have to tell you, I am getting sick of the way here people try to get your money. They act as a tour guide, show you a few things, then ask, or try to persuade, you to give them money. We tell them from the start "we don't want a guide, we have no money to give you" but they come along, and then ask for money and get really angry when you don't give them money. Frustrating. And people ask for tips all the time, I mean, we do have more money than them, but we soon wouldn't if we gave stuff to everyone that has asked us over this entire trip so far.
The sleeping train should be nice, first class apparently. As long as it's air conditioned, because the done near Aswan and Luxor is hot. Can't wait though. It's such a unique place. Cairo is completely mad, 22 million or so they tell us...
-Andrew
What a crazy place. We got up so early thismorning and our lovely taxi driver was waiting for us to take us to Giza. We get there and start riding out to the desert while its still dark. My camel was called Ali Babar. The area around the pyramids is now fenced off and they close the area until 9am everyday. Well, our 'guide' knew some guy whole lived in a shack just inside the fence and bribed him to let us in. Then he bribed the tourist police (such a joke in this place) to climb up the pyramid and inside one of the tombs. We were there for 2 hours and it was just us and these amazing structures. He even gave Andrew some souvineer rocks from the pyramid. After we got back we went to some more pyramids that are less know but the insides are a bit more intact. We are so thankful for our tour guide because he told us exactly how to go about getting tickets. Its crazy because ou get your tickets at one place then you drive to the site and the police tell you you have to buy more tickets, you dont. I quite like the struggle with the hagglers, its fun just sticking up for yourself all the time if you know how to do it.
Anyways tomorrow we are starting this crazy hard core non stop tour of Egypt. Highlights incluse a miltary convoy to Abel Simel and waking up on Mt Sinai on Andrews birthday. The spray from my work pressie is awesome in this heat- thanks guys!! Love you all
-Alice
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Freedom to Lobsters
A phrase they have on the back of our map to learn in Spanish?!!
Well anyways its 6am and Andrew is in bed, I cant sleep so this is my third entry. Last night we went out for a Flamenco show and Spanish tapas meal. It was fun and we meet a crazy Aussie who is living here in Madrid and has the job of being the pub crawl girl AND the breakfast girl at our hostel, harsh. I think our hostel has a big sign on it welcoming all the teenage american girls on college vacation. There´s one guy here who spends all his timei t seems on the internet, funny!
Perhaps its a tad premature to make this announcement but here we go....
I have begun to walk the road of vegetarianism. I havent had meat for about a week now, actually not alot of meat on the trip at all. Its something thats been on my mind for a long time actually, ever since Mandy and Dave introduced me to the idea of my ecological footprint. It started in Morocco when we went to the chicken markets. As you can probably imagine they wouldn´t have got the SPCA seal of approval and they made me sad and sick. I decided that I couldnt be a part of that happening and gave up chicken then. And then I thought is it so different back home, I dont think the chicken we have had has been free range (can you even get that) and it made me realise that I have no idea where the meat I eat comes from or much about how it gets to my plate at all. So, thats it, no more meat, for now anyway. Its going pretty good so far, they have amazing falafel here and even Andrew prefers it to the meat sometimes. I´ll have to talk to Mandy (are you out there sister?) and find out all about how to get my iron and protein.
Well anyways its 6am and Andrew is in bed, I cant sleep so this is my third entry. Last night we went out for a Flamenco show and Spanish tapas meal. It was fun and we meet a crazy Aussie who is living here in Madrid and has the job of being the pub crawl girl AND the breakfast girl at our hostel, harsh. I think our hostel has a big sign on it welcoming all the teenage american girls on college vacation. There´s one guy here who spends all his timei t seems on the internet, funny!
Perhaps its a tad premature to make this announcement but here we go....
I have begun to walk the road of vegetarianism. I havent had meat for about a week now, actually not alot of meat on the trip at all. Its something thats been on my mind for a long time actually, ever since Mandy and Dave introduced me to the idea of my ecological footprint. It started in Morocco when we went to the chicken markets. As you can probably imagine they wouldn´t have got the SPCA seal of approval and they made me sad and sick. I decided that I couldnt be a part of that happening and gave up chicken then. And then I thought is it so different back home, I dont think the chicken we have had has been free range (can you even get that) and it made me realise that I have no idea where the meat I eat comes from or much about how it gets to my plate at all. So, thats it, no more meat, for now anyway. Its going pretty good so far, they have amazing falafel here and even Andrew prefers it to the meat sometimes. I´ll have to talk to Mandy (are you out there sister?) and find out all about how to get my iron and protein.
New Photos
This is a our hang out loungey area in Amsterdam, had to put this one on there, so many good times!
This is a horrible cheese wrapped in bacon heart stopping kebab we got in a Japanese restaurant in Paris.
This one is of the catacombs in Paris, crazy place where the walls are completely lined with peoples bones. The bones came from an old graveyard and were moved there ages ago due to a funny idea that the cemetary was making the people sick.
The next one is us in Madrid at the royal palace. The gardens in the backgound are the royal gardens.
A spice market in Morocco
This is a horrible cheese wrapped in bacon heart stopping kebab we got in a Japanese restaurant in Paris.
This one is of the catacombs in Paris, crazy place where the walls are completely lined with peoples bones. The bones came from an old graveyard and were moved there ages ago due to a funny idea that the cemetary was making the people sick.
The next one is us in Madrid at the royal palace. The gardens in the backgound are the royal gardens.
A spice market in Morocco
Me, standing in front of a doorway in Morocco. You can't see the detail it was amazing.
Alice sitting by the pool in the Riad, taken from the 3rd floor where we stayed.
A cheesy as hell photo of Alice and I above the big square in Marrakesh
Alice standing down the street we took to get to our Riad every day.
Hello Barcelona
Well it didnt take us too long to get over the craving of own bed. Its been a glorious day in Barcelona today. After breakfast, groceries, posting, Andrew having a hypo we finally hit the beach. Such a lovely blue water, yellow (but coarse) sadny beach. We found a wee second hand bookstore thisafternoon and spent a bit of time browsing all the books. Tonight we are going to a Flamenco show. I have to log off now so Andrew can put some photos on.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sleeping in airports
We had our first exciting homelessness night last night. Got in from Morocco just after 10 and being the tight asses we are decided to bunk out in the airport for the night instead of paying for a hostel. We wandered around for a while and saw heaps of people trying to sleep in an assortment of positions an locations. Some were across chairs, some had found chairs with wheels and out them together and lots were just on the hard marble outside the police station. I think ours was the best. We found a few checkout counters right down one end of the airport where nobody was and decided to set up beds on the luggage scales ( the rubbery belt you put them on before getting on the plane). This was quite sqeet because we could put our bags at one end so that if anyone wanted to steal them they´d have to walk over us first and the rubber was much softer and warmer than the marble. I was quite worried that we might get into trouble but after a few police, cleaner and security rounds we realised that noone seemed to care at all. Got about 5 hours sleep all up I reckon. It was heaps of fun. We´re in Barcelona now until tues night when we go to Cairo. We have bought tickets to go from Barcelona to Berlin when we get back so we´ll be coming down Europe instead of up.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Morocco
Morocco, where do I start?
This place is amazing, I've never been anywhere like this place, it's completely unlike anywhere else we've been so far in Europe. We got in late Tuesday, got a taxi into the medina to get to our Riad (Like a B&B), I knew cars couldn't drive into the Medina (It's the city centre that was built before roads, so the streets are tiny), so I knew we'd have to walk some, the driver told us it would be 100m, so we thought that was fine. We get there and straight away this guy comes up to us asking if we want somewhere to stay, we told him we already have somewhere, and he asks us where so we told him and he tells us he'll take us there. I was skeptical but before I knew it we were following him, I knew nothing would be for free. At one stage we were walking down this dark thin alleyway (it had been way further than 100m) and I'd never been more weary of being mugged but it turned out fine, he got us to this place and asked for a tip, he said something like "come on man, just 100 dirham" and I didn't really know how much that was worth to him so I gave it to him, not really the situation for thinking straight, anyway we got inside to our GLORIOUS Riad, and told the owner about it, and he chased the guy and got us our money back, I actually think he didn't catch the guy and took it out of his own pocket. We got our bags inside (completely stunned at the place, so beautiful, but so completely unlike any fancy place we'd stayed before, nicer imo) and went to go out for an explore, and lucky us, saw a couple we recogised from the (better than you'd expect) easyjet flight, found out they were aussies (they are EVERYWHERE in europe) and decided to play it safe and venture out with them.
We are staying in a real mint location, only 5 minutes from the big square, and what a unique place that was. In our visits there we've seen a snake charmer, with the cobra and the flute/trumpet thing, random music gatherings, which is so people can collect money from you (nothing is for free here), we saw one woman (often they're all covered up because this is a muslim country, it's not all that extreme though, just everywhere) with a duck and two hedgehogs... I don't know what she was trying to do with them or how she was trying to get money from people by displaying these two rather ordinary species, but lots of people were gathered around, probably wondering the same things. There are stalls that come out at night for food too, lots of spicy smells. We saw this big ring of people surrounding two people, so we had a look, and it was a spontaneous boxing match! When we got there we saw the people all gloved up (no face pads no mouthguards) and wondered if they really would box. The guy "running" it spent ages saying stuff in arabic and I think he was asking people to give money (I think the winner got the money) and after a while it started, and it was hardcore, instantly the fight would end up on the edges of the crowd and it was full on street fighting with gloves. Interesting..
We've spent time, and gotten lost, in the souks, which is the street markets. They're all in tiny streets, unlike other markets, and they hound you all the time to come into their store. It's not as cheap here as I would have hoped, €1 gets you about 11 dirham, but a can of diet coke can cost 10-15 dirham, so for some stuff it's about the same price as europe, which makes it more expensive than home!! Amazing when you consider the relative poorness (is that a word) of this place. The food is a bit cheaper, I'm partially addicted to tangines, which is a sort of stew thing in a special cooker, with (obviously) morrocan spices.
An odd thing here is that most people are bilingual Arabic and French of all languages. So we just try to use french to communicate, it works, but it's odd. We're gutted we couldn't visit the desert, but the only trips out there were overnight. And it's unusual, and creepy, to hear the muslim call to prayer, four times a day, it's an unusual call really.
Wow, there has been so much other amazing stuff we have seen here, but I can't write it all, it's by far my favorite part of the trip so far, it'll stay in my memories forever I hope. Oh, and people, feel free to comment, I feel like I'm writing to no-one..
Addition: I forgot to mention we both got this traditional massage thing called Hammam, actually, the massage isn't part of the traditional thing. The got us into our underwear and covered us in this brown goo, then made us bake in a sauna for what seemed like way too long, then threw water over us and rubbed these abrasive gloves over us and stripped a whole lot of skin off, and more sauna time and more goo. I forgot how the order went, then they massaged us. Since the girls and the guys can't do it at the same time Alice actually had the massage first while the goo dispensing was laid onto me, and then we swapped. I also forgot to mention how insane these people are with their motorcycle riding. Everywhere you go people are buzzing past you on a little scooter or bike, at high speeds, dubbing people and generally risking their lives, because while it's just a bit insane them doing it in the big crowds of people (dodging the donkey drawn carts) it's completely mad when they do it down the thin alleys of the medina because they are going fast and they really are thin. Haven't seen an accident yet.. Amazing.
We're leaving tonight, I'm sad to go, but I'm also ready to go. While it's pretty awesome to be here, there's not a hell of a lot to do really other than just be here experiencing it.
This place is amazing, I've never been anywhere like this place, it's completely unlike anywhere else we've been so far in Europe. We got in late Tuesday, got a taxi into the medina to get to our Riad (Like a B&B), I knew cars couldn't drive into the Medina (It's the city centre that was built before roads, so the streets are tiny), so I knew we'd have to walk some, the driver told us it would be 100m, so we thought that was fine. We get there and straight away this guy comes up to us asking if we want somewhere to stay, we told him we already have somewhere, and he asks us where so we told him and he tells us he'll take us there. I was skeptical but before I knew it we were following him, I knew nothing would be for free. At one stage we were walking down this dark thin alleyway (it had been way further than 100m) and I'd never been more weary of being mugged but it turned out fine, he got us to this place and asked for a tip, he said something like "come on man, just 100 dirham" and I didn't really know how much that was worth to him so I gave it to him, not really the situation for thinking straight, anyway we got inside to our GLORIOUS Riad, and told the owner about it, and he chased the guy and got us our money back, I actually think he didn't catch the guy and took it out of his own pocket. We got our bags inside (completely stunned at the place, so beautiful, but so completely unlike any fancy place we'd stayed before, nicer imo) and went to go out for an explore, and lucky us, saw a couple we recogised from the (better than you'd expect) easyjet flight, found out they were aussies (they are EVERYWHERE in europe) and decided to play it safe and venture out with them.
We are staying in a real mint location, only 5 minutes from the big square, and what a unique place that was. In our visits there we've seen a snake charmer, with the cobra and the flute/trumpet thing, random music gatherings, which is so people can collect money from you (nothing is for free here), we saw one woman (often they're all covered up because this is a muslim country, it's not all that extreme though, just everywhere) with a duck and two hedgehogs... I don't know what she was trying to do with them or how she was trying to get money from people by displaying these two rather ordinary species, but lots of people were gathered around, probably wondering the same things. There are stalls that come out at night for food too, lots of spicy smells. We saw this big ring of people surrounding two people, so we had a look, and it was a spontaneous boxing match! When we got there we saw the people all gloved up (no face pads no mouthguards) and wondered if they really would box. The guy "running" it spent ages saying stuff in arabic and I think he was asking people to give money (I think the winner got the money) and after a while it started, and it was hardcore, instantly the fight would end up on the edges of the crowd and it was full on street fighting with gloves. Interesting..
We've spent time, and gotten lost, in the souks, which is the street markets. They're all in tiny streets, unlike other markets, and they hound you all the time to come into their store. It's not as cheap here as I would have hoped, €1 gets you about 11 dirham, but a can of diet coke can cost 10-15 dirham, so for some stuff it's about the same price as europe, which makes it more expensive than home!! Amazing when you consider the relative poorness (is that a word) of this place. The food is a bit cheaper, I'm partially addicted to tangines, which is a sort of stew thing in a special cooker, with (obviously) morrocan spices.
An odd thing here is that most people are bilingual Arabic and French of all languages. So we just try to use french to communicate, it works, but it's odd. We're gutted we couldn't visit the desert, but the only trips out there were overnight. And it's unusual, and creepy, to hear the muslim call to prayer, four times a day, it's an unusual call really.
Wow, there has been so much other amazing stuff we have seen here, but I can't write it all, it's by far my favorite part of the trip so far, it'll stay in my memories forever I hope. Oh, and people, feel free to comment, I feel like I'm writing to no-one..
Addition: I forgot to mention we both got this traditional massage thing called Hammam, actually, the massage isn't part of the traditional thing. The got us into our underwear and covered us in this brown goo, then made us bake in a sauna for what seemed like way too long, then threw water over us and rubbed these abrasive gloves over us and stripped a whole lot of skin off, and more sauna time and more goo. I forgot how the order went, then they massaged us. Since the girls and the guys can't do it at the same time Alice actually had the massage first while the goo dispensing was laid onto me, and then we swapped. I also forgot to mention how insane these people are with their motorcycle riding. Everywhere you go people are buzzing past you on a little scooter or bike, at high speeds, dubbing people and generally risking their lives, because while it's just a bit insane them doing it in the big crowds of people (dodging the donkey drawn carts) it's completely mad when they do it down the thin alleys of the medina because they are going fast and they really are thin. Haven't seen an accident yet.. Amazing.
We're leaving tonight, I'm sad to go, but I'm also ready to go. While it's pretty awesome to be here, there's not a hell of a lot to do really other than just be here experiencing it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Bye bye Madrid
Today we are leaving Madrid. We have packed up our bags already and are going to walk around the city for a while till our flight to Morocco. Madrid is such a cool city. Last night we went out walking about 11 and the streets were packed with people, drinking sangria and having tapas. We got invited to have free drinks at a bar so we went there for a while. Meet some nice people in the hostel and had a chat to the Browns.
-Alice
Before I got to Madrid, I couldn´t help but think the country would be a bit like a third world nation, or more like Mexico to be honest. I couldn´t imagine that they´d have technology (that worked) like the rest of Europe, but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. This country isn´t in fact third world and is instead quite enjoyable. People are a bit different here, they have dinner at 10pm and the pet stores have hairless cats. Less people speak English here, so I´ve had to pull out my spanish skills, often talking up a storm the locals and impressing all the girls. Not really.
Andrew
-Alice
Before I got to Madrid, I couldn´t help but think the country would be a bit like a third world nation, or more like Mexico to be honest. I couldn´t imagine that they´d have technology (that worked) like the rest of Europe, but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. This country isn´t in fact third world and is instead quite enjoyable. People are a bit different here, they have dinner at 10pm and the pet stores have hairless cats. Less people speak English here, so I´ve had to pull out my spanish skills, often talking up a storm the locals and impressing all the girls. Not really.
Andrew
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