First Rapid Game and Weekend in Vienna

As my previous post noted, we only have German class three hours of the day and the rest of our time we get to spend doing whatever – whether it’s exploring the city, going to museums, sleeping, doing homework, going to the Naschmark, or just lounging around.  Thursday night, however, there was a soccer (football from here on out) match of large importance.

From left: Ashley, Patrick, Allison, Me, Roger

Rapid Wien is one of the two Vienna football clubs, and it was the one Pat and I chose to align ourselves with while we were still at school last year.  Our student assistants are also big Rapid (ra-peed) fans, so they agreed to take us to a place to watch the game.  Rapid played Aston Villa, a club that competes in the English Premier League.  Thus, their budget (and probably talent) level is significantly larger than ours.  Interestingly enough, we played them in this exact same competition last year and pulled off the upset.  So we had a very small amount of hope.

Pat, Liz, Megan, and myself - watching the Rapid game

The match is played over two legs.  In the first leg (played in Vienna) we forced a 1-1 draw.  This was good, but slightly troublesome.  Scoring is done on aggregate, which means whoever scores more goals over the two games gets to advance.  If the aggregate score is even, the next tiebreaker is away goals.  This means that a 0-0 tie would not be acceptable in the second leg because we needed to score at least one goal to keep the away goals even.  If we did that and the aggregate is still even, then overtime is played in the second match, and if it is still tied, it goes to penalty kicks.  The winner of the two legs gets to advance to the group stage of the European championships.

We missed the first little bit of the match because the place Tobi (our student assistant/friend) took us couldn’t pick up the right channel.  So we went to another bar instead.  This was a blast – there were about 10-12 of us students there with another 10 native Austrians who all were so into the game, which exactly what I wanted it to be like.  Also, because the Austrian Bundesliga doesn’t have the funding other leagues have, they have to split the airtime between the Rapid game and the Sturm Graz game (they were playing Juventus on the same night in the same type of set-up), so we could only watch about 5 minutes at a time.  But we still had fun.

Pat and I celebrating

The game started a little slow, and eventually Aston Villa punched in a goal.  This put us in an even deeper hole.  We rallied though, and were able to flick in a header a few minutes later to tie it 1-1 (and tie the away goals), which remained the score until the half.  Unfortunately, early in the second half, Aston Villa knocked in a second goal, taking the lead on aggregate goals.  This was reasonably deflating.  However, in the 74^th minute Tobi leaned over and said something to one of his friends who was there.  It was a German phrase and not really translatable but it means something like “ok now it’s after the 74^th minute so we can score” – apparently this happens so much they made up a word for it.

Five minutes later, we took a shot on goal that the goalie got a hand on, but not two, and it dribbled across the line.  Tie game, and we’re ahead on away goals.  Less than three minutes later, we scored again on another cross into the box. 3-2. 

That’s how it would finish.  Everyone in the bar was so excited.  It was really fun to see just how into it people actually get (after hearing about how important it is in Europe for so long).  Even more exciting, our win means we qualified for the cup, which means we’ll have three home games the rest of the semester against other European clubs in addition to our regular league games.  The cup starts with pool play, and each pool has four teams.  It’s a round robin, and we’ll play each time twice (home and away).  In our pool we drew FC Porto (probably the best team in the Portuguese league), FK Besiktas (likely the best Turkish team), and CSKA Sofia (the best team in Bulgaria).  Our draw honestly isn’t that bad – there aren’t any teams in our pool from the major four leagues (Spain, France, England, and Germany) which means it is pretty wide open.  Porto and Besiktas are the favorites, but we’re certainly not out of it.  Which is going to be sooo much fun.

Afterwards Tobi and Katya (another assistant) took us to a restaurant/club place in the Museums Quarter for a while, and then Pat and I walked home (it was relatively impressive how easily we found our way cause we had no idea where we started).

8 hours later I got up and showered, went to class, and took my first German test.  (Yes, I had studied before going to watch the game.)  And I’m pretty sure I did really well, so no need to worry mom.

A view of Vienna

After the test I took a nap, and then we prepared to have our first Friday out in Vienna.  To start we had a few people over to our apartment, and then we left to explore the Bermuda Triangle.  Apparently it’s the area of the city where there are three of the best bars that form a triangle.  I’m not sure if the place we ended up was even one of the “three”, but that’s ok.  First we stopped at a place called the Funky Monkey, but we had left far to early so there weren’t really many people there.  After hanging for a little while we killed another half hour by walking around and then ended up going to a place named the Salzbar.  We hung out there and danced for a long time, and when we finally left to go outside it was raining reasonably hard.  We were going to try and walk home but instead we just grabbed a cab cause it wasn’t worth figuring things out in the rain. 

Saturday we went on a bus tour of the city.  It was pretty neat to see a bunch of the older stuff and we got to go to the top of a hill outside the city and had a gorgeous view of the entire city.  Afterward our RA (resident Austrian) Alex took us to explore the Donau (the island in the middle of the river).  There’s a big theme park, so we did go karts and rollercoasters and hung out for a long time.  When we finally went home Alex told us he’d pick us up about 10 and take us to an area of town where there was a bunch of live music.

A few stops down on the metro there were a variety of different clubs and bars that had bands playing.  This part of town doesn’t have a “quiet hours” law, and there were a lot of people there.  Also, the crowd was mostly Austrians, which was pretty fun because we weren’t just walking around in a mass of American students.  After spending the night visiting a variety of places, pat and I we’re pretty tired so we started to walk in the direction of our apartment.  It was our plan to find a night bus to take us back, but no one really knows where they stop, so we ended up just taking a 40 minute walk home, which wasn’t really that bad.

The lower Belvedere

 Sunday we pretty much just lounged around.  I went and did homework at a friend’s apartment and eventually went back to our apartment and hung out there for the rest of the night.  About 1 I started watching the DCWS game, but I only made it to halftime before I fell asleep (but we were up 1-0 and we won so I saw everything that was important, right?). 

Oh one final note about going out - what really hangs with you after you go home is the smell.  Everyone here smokes so most of the bars are just filled with it.  I've desensitized to the smell while I'm in there but then once I get home and smell my clothes it's terrible.  I usually take showers before I go to bed just so my sheets won't smell bad.  Most clubs are big enough that they are forced to have separate areas which is really nice, but I guess that's just the way it's going to be here.

Sorry this was so long…I meant to post Saturday, and then Sunday, and then before class, but I just finished now.  So I hope it’s worth it.

Reorienting in Vienna

In an effort to retain my viewership levels, continue appeasing my immediate family, and because I finished my homework a couple hours before planned, I’m putting up my second post of the week.

A couple of these are a little blurry, sorry.  But this is
our double.

Vienna is a wonderful place.  For starters, the public transportation all runs on time, and it is clean.  But that’s just the beginning.  I’m living on a street named Dürergasse - which happens to be about a 90 second walk to the closest U-bahn (metro) station.  This was kind of luck of the draw, but Dürergasse also has plenty of other benefits.  It is the closest student housing to the IES Abroad center in Vienna where I will be taking all of my classes.  There is also an open-air market, the Nashmarkt, right down the street (actually between my apartment and IES).  It has everything from organic foods to pastries to sturm to football (soccer) jerseys to huge watermelons.  It’s great, but also bad because it could just be a drain for my money.

Monday started our German intensive class.  For the next three weeks I have class from 12:30 – 3:30 (with a short break).  So far it hasn’t been that bad.  We have about three pages of homework a night, and most of it is just drilling to try and get some patterns established.  I, having never taken German before, am in the Elementary I level, but Patrick is in the Intermediate II and a couple of my friends here are in the Advanced levels, so if I ever don’t get something help isn’t far away.  As of now though, it’s all coming fairly easily.  3 hours is just a long time to try and sit and comprehend a language you don’t know at all (though it helps to do it in a country where that is all you hear anyway – definitely shows how helpful integration into a society where you have to deal with the language really is.

The main hall.  Straight is the common room and slightly left is the door
to the triple.

Yesterday Pat and I walked through the Naschmarkt on our way home from class and ended up buying two knock-off jerseys of the football team here – Rapid Wien.  At 50 Euros cheaper than the real ones, they’re certainly worth it.  Also, tonight Rapid Wien plays Aston Villa (an English Premier League team) and if they win they advance to the European Cup.  They’re big underdogs, but it was good timing for us to buy something that we can wear tonight when we go watch the game.

Our kitchen: complete with table, chairs, oven, stove, toaster, microwave,
coffee pot, two refrigerators, a freezer, and plenty of utensils.

 Most of the pictures that are up are of my apartment.  I think I gave a description last time, but to summarize: I live with 6 suitemates.  Pat and I share a double on the far right wing of our apartment.  It is connected to the bathroom that has a shower and a washing machine (but no toilet), which is in turn connected to the kitchen (which is kind of nice because ours is the only bedroom connected to anything.  As soon as you walk in the door you may turn right into the kitchen, proceed straight into the common room, veer slightly left into the triple, or take a left into the other double.  The common room has three couches, a tv, and cable.  The triple has three pretty awkwardly placed beds and a table and desk, and to be honest I haven’t set foot in the other double.

Great face, Grumpy.

 It’s a great place to live.  And I’m probably going to be really upset when I have to move back into a dorm room at Davidson.  The last picture is of Roger and Allison.  This was about the 5^th try at the picture, and Roger messed it up again.  So I put it up because I’m mad he wouldn’t actually take a real picture.  And now it’s up for the world to see. So there.

Saturday we have a bus tour of Vienna, and next Thursday we’re going on a biking tour.  Not sure how often I’ll be updating, but hopefully if I get some more pics it will make me more inclined and I’ll have more of a reason to do it?  I guess we’ll see. 

Vienna. This could be special.

Cairo was unbelievable.  We had a blast there, and it was so amazing to see things that old and special.

And as cool as Cairo was, Vienna has been every bit as good.

You'll see from some of the pictures below - what hit me first were the colors.  Egypt was pretty much the blue sky up against the orange/brown desert.  In Austria, it starts with the mountains, which are covered in green trees.  But it goes much, much farther.

View of the mountains and the basilica from our hostel in Mariazell

We started our trip with an orientation trip to Mariazell.  Mariazell is a very small town up in the Austrian Alps, particularly famous for its grand basilica.  All 144 of us stayed in a hostel with all of the IES staff.  It was kind of like doing freshman year all over again as people tried to find people they liked and wanted to hang out with.  Pretty much what happened was Patrick and I ended up being friends with a few people who also wanted to people-watch, so we just sat around and watched other people navigate the new social scene.

The church in Mariazell

One day we went into town, and it was really pretty.  Every building was a different color, and the church was majestic.  The other afternoon we went to a lake that was also really pretty, not to mention really clean.  There we spent some time on a paddleboat, I may or may not have taken a nap in the shade, and we got some ice cream. 

In the mornings and evenings we always had meetings.  Their themes always varied a little – who you were living with, where you were living, how to get around Vienna, what classes you were in, etc etc etc.  There was still plenty of free time plus meals to hang out, and the nights were generally really fun because we all got to hang out and do the same thing.  It’s an interesting group of kids – about 35-40 percent are music students, and the rest are “society and culture” – a.k.a. everything else.

Sunday afternoon we took our buses back to Vienna where we picked up the luggage we had left and split to all of our various apartments around the city.  Patrick and I are living in the 6^th district on a street named Durergasse.  We have five other suitemates, and the seven of us are divided into rooms of 2,3, and 2, and we all share one bathroom – the toilet is in a separate room.  Still, the apartment is pretty spacious, and incredibly conveniently located.

The colors were absolutely amazing.

It is going to be fantastic here.  I’m so excited.  Today we start our German intensive and do a variety of other things at the IES center.  It’s going to be great.

Day 14 and half of 15: Speak "friend" and enter

From here on out I’ll probably only do a few days at a time, but I thought I’d at least describe our exit from Cairo and arrival in Vienna briefly.

Wednesday (the 14^th day) we rose about 8:30 and began putting the finishing touches on our suitcases.  Breakfast was the same as usual, and after spending a little more time organizing and making sure we had everything, we left the hotel about noon.  Our cab to the airport shared many qualities with my car at home.  It had the added bonus of a luggage rack on the roof where we put our two suitcases, but I’m afraid this only exacerbated the other issues.  Every time we went up a hill we got passed by a multitude of other drivers, and we never pushed above 4^th gear.  But, in the long run, we made it to the airport with all our stuff.  So I guess it doesn’t really matter how.

We checked in, and the guy at the Austrian Airlines desk was nice enough not to charge me anything for going over the weight limit, so I had two bags checked which meant I only had to carry around my backpack.  Our flight was reasonably nice.  The in-flight entertainment was Night at the Museum 2, which I decided to watch after missing the first 15 minutes due to sleep.  They served us lasagna with shortbread for desert (and tea).  After three hours we landed ten minutes early.  Pat and I picked up our bags and prepared to go through customs.  We followed the arrows to the area marked “Nothing to declare” and when we got there it was just a regular exit.  No one asked us anything; I’m not even sure there was any official airport people anywhere near the area.  Oh well?

Our bedroom at Dr Geissler's in Vienna

We took the CAT (city airport train) to the Vienna city center where we switched to the U4 to go to our hotel for the night – the Pension Dr. Geissler.  Unfortunately we didn’t have particularly clear directions, other than we needed to keep the river on our left until we turned right onto a specific street (after exiting the underground).  Due to this ambiguity, the lack of particularly clear street signs, and everything being in yet another language I don’t understand (though Pat knows enough German to find our way around), we proceeded to walk about ten blocks too far, make a loop, and discover half an hour later that the place we needed to take a right was actually at the underground exit, if not on the opposite side.  Anyway, eventually we made it, and compared to our last hotel this place was a mansion.  A bedroom separate from the bathroom (which was separate from the toilet), two comfortable beds with large, fluffy pillows, and a small tv (which we didn’t watch).

After getting settled we went out to look for food.  We found a fastfood area right around the corner, and each ordered some pizza and something to drink.  After eating we went and sat on a bench just to enjoy the 70-degree weather and people watch.  There we went through a significant amount of culture shock (or revert).  For starters, we hadn’t seen much more than the face of a woman for the better part of two weeks.  Beyond that, it was difficult not to notice that the women here are generally taller than they were in Cairo.  And by generally taller, I mean it felt like I was shorter than every other one who walked by.  At which point I realized that most were wearing heels.  There also wasn’t really an open-container law, which is significantly different from a Muslim country where alcohol isn’t encouraged, and in fact no one even sells beer during Ramadan.

One view from our window.  Pretty different.

Eventually we went back to sleep.  It was quite a different environment to doze off to than the noise of Ramadan in the streets of Cairo.  We got up about 9, showered, and went up to the Pension (the O is supposed to have an accent but I don’t want to figure out how to do that…alt plus something...) for breakfast that consisted of rolls, salami, cheese, tea, and strawberry jam.  They had cereal too, but I controlled the overwhelming urge to eat 4 or 5 bowls.  The internet café near our hotel didn’t open until 11, so we sat around the room for a while, and then headed out to get a bit of internet before we go meet everyone from IES.

Another view

Which brings us to now.  In a little bit we’re going to leave and head to the Hutteldorf station, at which point our orientation will begin.  It’s probable that I won’t have internet tonight or much of tomorrow, at least until we get settled in our apartments.  And even then, I’m not sure what the plan is for tomorrow night, and I may just want to sleep.  So this may not be updated for a couple days, and I may not be in touch, but the important thing is we made it to Europe, Vienna, and the next 4 months, and I’m really excited to be here and to meet a bunch of new people.  I’m sure we’re going to end up doing all the classic “ropes course” activities or whatever, but hopefully there are some interesting and fun people to be around.  Like I said, when I get the time to post about all of it, I will.  Thanks for reading, sorry there aren’t any pictures here.  Maybe I’ll take a couple of our room or view from our window and add them in later?

Day 13 - End? No, the journey doesn't end here.

I'll add more pictures later; I was finishing this in a bit of a rush before we left for the airport.

Today was extremely different from every other day, except maybe day 3.  We got up about 9:30 and walked down to breakfast, and then came back upstairs and rested for a while.  We also spent a significant amount of time packing and organizing for our flight to Vienna tomorrow.  In the middle of all that, we watched a couple of episodes of How I Met Your Mother (which we’ve almost finished) and I finished my book, Open by Andre Agassi – I started it pretty much on our trip to Luxor and was almost done by the end, and then we got a little busy back here so I just now got all the way through it.  But it was a really good read.  Unfortunately now I don’t have another book to read, and I have to carry around a big hardback I’ve already read.

This is the view of the cafe in front of our hotel from our window.  It's a little blurry, but you can see all the tables
and people outside.

 About 2:30 we went out to eat lunch.  Since we discovered yesterday that nearly everything is closed during Ramadan we went to the Peking Chinese restaurant again.  I had fried fish and Pat ordered a certain type of chicken but they brought him beef instead.  Which wasn’t a giant deal but we weren’t particularly pleased.  Afterwards we needed to break a few bills for the next day, so Pat went to the bank while I wandered across the street to a men’s clothing store.  I realized that after having packed my suit and a variety of shirts, new and old, I don’t believe I packed a single tie.  Maybe I’ll find out I’m wrong when I open that part of my suitcase, but I don’t recall pulling one out of my closet.  Plus, ties at this store were only 15 L.E. (livre egyptienne), or 15 Egyptian pounds - about 3 dollars.  So I bought 4.  I probably won’t have 4 reasons to wear a tie in the next year, but whatever.  I expanded my color and pattern collection, and it set my back $12.  So sue me.

The upwards view from our window at night.  Our last night there was a bright half-moon.

 And then, in the traditional Egyptian way, we decided to continue to stay out of the heat as long as possible.  Tonight we went to the light show at the Sphinx, so before that we decided we would just sit inside, pack a little more, and just relax.  We watched another episode or two (we’re one away from being done), and spent some time “blogging”.  Finally, at about 7, we decided it was time to actually start our day.

We went downstairs at 7:30 to take an arranged cab/bus to the Light and Sound Show at Giza narrated by the Sphinx.  It was pretty neat to see all of the pyramids in the dark – their grandeur struck even truer at night.  Then used a variety of colors, patterns, and designs to illuminate the pyramids and tell the story of ancient Egypt for about an hour.  Like I said, it was cool, but pretty cheesy at the same time.  I’m not sure how you would make something like that not cheesy, and I’m not complaining; it’s something that I can say I’ve done and was cool and I won’t ever do it again.  Which isn’t saying a lot because we leave tomorrow.  But you get the point.

Everything all lit up at the Sound and Light show

Afterwards we had our driver drop us off at a new restaurant (for us) named Abu al Sid.  This place was great.  The atmosphere Egyptian, it was a social restaurant and bar, and the food, at least what I ordered, was supreme.  I don’t remember the name but it was some kind of chicken in a walnut sauce, and on the menu it said in parentheses: A very old recipe.  So I ordered it, and it was great.  After we ate we ordered some tea and sat for a little bit.  There were people playing cards, tables gathered just socializing, and a couple other duos scattered around the room.  Most people were smoking sheesha.  We pretty much enjoyed people watching for the better part of the hour and a half we were there, and we wondered what it’d be like if they were serving alcohol and it wasn’t during Ramadan.

The restaurant we ate at. Quite the atmosphere

After we left, we took a cab back to the Khan al-Khalili market.  Even just on the drive there, there were people everywhere.  Most nights of Ramadan so far we had fallen asleep early, but determined tonight to stay awake (plus we needed to buy a trinket or two), we got to see what Ramadan is like into the early hours of the morning.  And boy is it a sight to see.

Khan al-Khalili bazaar. Soooo many people.

At the bazaar we both were looking for a small pyramid, I was half-heartedly keeping an eye out for an Egyptian national jersey, and Pat was looking for an elephant.  We decided to wait and buy a pyramid at the bazaar because we wanted the experience of walking around the different shops and bartering for what we liked.  It turned out a little differently.  Most of the owners have figured out that the bazaar is now a definite tourist destination, and they all give you similar prices for the same item.  Only instead of bargaining, they just say that’s the price, they can’t go any lower.  Which was actually kind of nice to discover that there was consistency around the entire place, and that when we went back to the man who offered the lowest price we knew we weren’t getting hoodwinked.  At the same time though, we didn’t really get to barter…

Unfortunately, there was no suitable elephant to be found.  We both bought little pyramids (which usually come in sets of three and no one really wanted to just sell one), but since we aren’t in the elephant section of Africa, the elephant selection wasn’t particularly high.  We did, however, eventually see a shop that had Egyptian football jerseys, so we went inside.  I ended up getting an Abou Trika jersey, Egypt’s star player and pretty much plays the same position as Landon Donovan, so I left satisfied.  We walked around a bit longer and Pat ended up replacing elephants with a shot glass that had a camel on it and another that had a cat.  By the time we were finished and returned to the hotel, it was past 1:30 a.m.  I’m not sure there were any fewer people out than there was when we started at 11.

Our experience with the man yesterday was at least helpful last night.  Every time someone asked to show us something in their shop we turned them down, and on several occasions people “just wanted to give us their card” so we walked away.  Any time you stop in front of a store to look at something owners just immediately hover, which is a little annoying and intimidating (and also one of the reasons I bought 4 ties – no one said a word to me in the shop before I was ready to check out, which I appreciated).  They try and guess what you want to see and then say they have more varieties and start pulling boxes out of the woodwork.  Fortunately, it was late, and I was still mad at that other guy, so I didn’t have much of a problem brushing people aside.  And any time someone so much as mentioned papyrus, I immediately left their store.

I think I should make it clear – I’m not mad that the man we met yesterday scammed us.  Quite the opposite, actually: I’m reasonably impressed at how fluid and well it was run until Pat finally put up a stand at the end and he had to resort to pulling the “geez, Americans” card.  If I’m mad at anyone for the scam, it should be me for falling for it (but I’m not: 1 – it’s a good story, 2 – you have to learn somehow, and 3 – I still got two papyrus paintings for cheaper than I did at other places).  I’m mad at him because I wanted, really wanted, for someone like that to pull us off the street, serve us tea, and be genuinely about knowing someone from a place near where his “son lives”.  I’m glad I’ve had contact with people like Hoda (thank you again by the way) and Yehia because they both have been quite helpful, and Yehia’s tour program was great.  In addition, the man who arranged our tour in Luxor (Mohammad) was also sincere.  But they work in professions that deal almost exclusively with tourists, so they have to have set prices, etc.  For once I wanted someone who pulled us off the street to “not care about money” like this man said.  Alas, it was not to be.  I didn’t even need more papyrus; I would have been content to sit and sip tea and talk.  But oh well.

Tomorrow we’re getting up, eating breakfast, and then packing and leaving for Vienna.  I think we got the timing of the trip exactly right.  Most of the things to do in Egypt that we haven’t done are either day trips or places much farther away (oases, the Red Sea, Aswan, etc.), so I think we’re both a little ready to head to Vienna and be with a bunch of other students.  We’re staying tomorrow night in the “Pension Dr. Geisler” or something like that, and it is possible we won’t have an internet connection.  Thursday starts orientation, and we’re staying in a hostel that night, so we probably won’t have internet then either.  Thus, the next post will probably go up sometime Friday evening/night, or maybe even Saturday depending on how tired we are.

We have had a very enjoyable time.  I’ve seen things I likely won’t ever visit again; I’ve seen things that are thousands of years old (and will remain for another thousand years); I’ve had the pleasure of spending two weeks with Patrick; I’ve stood where a variety of important historical and biblical figures and stood and observed the world.  It has all been fantastic, and despite the sickness and trauma in the early days, and despite all I’ve whined about the bartering stuff, if you told me ahead of time how the trip was going to go, I wouldn’t hesitate for one second. I’d definitely still go and do it all over again.  Many thanks to Patrick for all the planning he’s done, to Hoda for all her help, to my Uncle David for helping connect us, to everyone for reading this (I’ve cracked triple digits on the number of hits on my blog), and finally to my parents for being supportive and encouraging me to go.  I’m sorry if this was one of those times you thought you would just let me talk about something because you didn’t think it would actually get planned, but I’ve had a great time, and I’m getting to see the world.  So thank you.

Day 12: Egyptian Museum (take 2) and the Nile - "Commandeer. We're going to commandeer that ship. Nautical term."

The Egyptian Museum and I just do not get along.  But more on that later.

This morning, after going to bed aroung 10:30 last night, we woke up before our alarm on our own for the first time all trip.  After taking it kind of slow and showering, we ate breakfast (the breakfast ladies gave us a warm welcome back, and it was nice to return to our usual toast, jam, and tea) and then finished blogging about our trip.  We then set out to try and see more of the Egyptian Museum than one little corner where I sat and recovered for a half-hour the first time we were there.

In front the Egyptian Museum, at least I made it through
this time.

Fortunately, we had a bit more success.  We walked through the places and skimmed the things we had already seen, and then we proceeded to see as much else as we could.  The problem is it is roughly organized.  Most rooms are grouped with things that all come from the same time period or ruler, but the museum doesn’t exactly flow.  In some places there are no descriptions on the pieces in the hallway, and in others the collections will jump from century to century.  At one point there was just a gold head plate that had covered a mummy in a glass case with no description sitting outside the Greco-Roman era room.  It didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Our felucca captain

 Anyway, we did get to see a variety of really old and cool things.  There’s ancient stuff from the Old Kingdom, including the Narmer Palette and giant statues.  There are interesting collections of pretty much every ancient artifact discovered: the coin room from the Greco-Roman era, animal mummies (huge crocodiles, baboons, cow, cat, dog, birds, etc), Nefertiti stuff, models of armies, chariots, bows, etc etc etc.  But most importantly, there were the mummies and the King Tutankhamen exhibit. I’ll describe each briefly.  The mummies: ancient and gross.  The King Tut: dude was rich.

The Nile

Ok now I’ll elaborate.  King Tut was really cool to see.  They had a variety of very large boxes that had enclosed his sarcophagus, and then his sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?), which were made of gold, and then the head plate that covered his mummy that evidently weighed 22 pounds (his innermost sarcophagus weighed 250 lbs).  Beyond that, they had the 15 rings he was found wearing and his 13 bracelets.  What was really amazing about his tomb was that it seems like after he died and was buried they just chucked a bunch of other stuff from the time into his tomb.  It has now all been relocated to museums (which is why it isn’t really worth it to pay extra to go into his tomb at the Valley of the Kings), but there was a bunch of stuff.  Even just in the Egyptian museum there was an entire wing of the upstairs dedicated to, and much of it was just out in the hallway.

Now, bring me that horizon

The mummies really were gross.  But also really neat.  Most still had hair, some you could see eyelashes, some had manicures (which meant they were well cared for), and all that we could see still had teeth.  The funniest one was Queen Hatshepsut’s.  Evidently it was found in a weird place and thus originally discarded as just another mummy.  However, someone suggested it could be her, and some tooth they found in her tomb fit perfectly into her mouth.  Now they’re pretty sure its her, but the card says something like “this mummy of an obese woman with bad teeth is believed to be Queen Hatshepsut…).  She was only the most powerful Queen until Cleopatra, and may have even been more powerful.  But no big deal, she was just fat and ugly.  Also, one of the kings had died in battle, and his body was maimed and his arms were in really awkward positions. It was really gross.

However, once we got downstairs, I realized I didn’t have my sunglasses.  Please, do not ask where I left them, or if I retraced my steps, or whatever.  1 – Patrick already did. And 2 – I literally have no idea where I would have set them down.  I can’t even remember when I last had them, but I do know I wore them on my way to the museum, which means I probably set them down and they are now gone.  Which is really, really frustrating for two reasons: first, because when my mom graciously bought them for me, she said, “don’t lose these,” and second, because I don’t like how I look in sunglasses, but I legitimately liked this pair, and I know I’m not going to be able to find another like it around here.  Fortunately, I’m only going to be here another day.  But unfortunately, I’m still really mad I lost them and I feel bad.  Sorry mom.

After the museum we went to walk down the Nile and take a felucca ride.  On the way we passed a local who, like all the others, asked where we were from.  We said America and he went off about how his son lives in Tulsa and his daughter is getting married tomorrow.  He says he’s the director of something, and then asks if he can give us his card and a cup of tea so if he ever is in the states we will return the same hospitality.  So we had some tea (which was great cause I love tea now) and he starts going through some of his papyrus paintings.  He let us each pick two we liked and said because he liked us, and didn’t care about money, he’d give them to us for free.  He proceeds to have his daughter who was to “be married tomorrow” write our names on them.  Then he starts to talk about how much they are worth and what we should pay for them, which was confusing given he said they were free.  Then he tried to sell us that he’d just give them to us for the material costs, and that was a good deal, and that whatever he made today he was giving to his “daughter” for her honeymoon.  At this point we were a little annoyed, especially when his material price was more than what we paid for another painting at other stores.  It was also growing more sketch cause he offered to send paintings with us to Vienna that we could give to a guy in a store and send him half the profit we made.

Yeah I shouldn't be in charge...

Why did we trust him more?  Not sure, when we sat there over tea, pat told him he’d been to Japan he spoke fluent Japanese, and then he talked to us in German for a while.  He also knew a lot about the states, which I guess made it more believable.  At any rate, I actually kind of wanted my paintings, so I gave him a 20 cause I had it on me (which is as much as I paid for one at another store, and I now know was way too much, which is why it would be nice to have a Egyptian with me cause we way overpaid for almost everything on this trip and it’s really frustrating to just get sucked in like that, but 20 was way less than he asked for anyway so I guess I got an ok deal for two), but pat had less on him and also knew it was one big scam.  

Another felucca boat

So he offered a pretty low price and pulled them back out and said if it wasn’t enough, the man shouldn’t have offered them for free.  To which the man said he didn’t say that and he said he’d give us them at what the materials cost.  Pat responded that he never said what that was, and the man said we didn’t ask.  They argued for a bit, the man ended up lecturing us about how Americans don’t trust people (the second time we’d been lectured today).  Funny enough, despite saying he didn’t care about money, he was pretty upset, and ended up taking the tube pat’s paintings were in and putting it on his desk.  So pat didn’t get any, but then again it was one big scam anyway and now the guy has two paintings with stuff written in Arabic and hieroglyphs on them that he won’t be able to sell to anyone.  So I guess what goes around comes around.

It was pretty relaxing

Finally we left and we’re a little annoyed and mad so we walked down the Nile and found the felucca rides.  We probably over paid for our ride, but it was a total of 12 dollars for an hour ride on a sailboat on the Nile, so it was worth it.  It was peaceful and relaxing.  We rode with Captain Aswan, who also told us he was from Aswan, so we assumed he was named for where he came from.  But it was really nice to just relax on the Nile and enjoy the breeze.  We then walked back to the metro and came back to the hotel to relax before dinner.  And that brings us to now…so that’s all for today.  Tomorrow is our last day here before we leave, and all we have on our slate is the light show at the Sphinx tomorrow night besides packing.  I think we’re about ready to take off – we’ve seen everything we wanted to, and we’re getting a little tired of fending off (sometimes unsuccessfully) people trying to sell us stuff.  But it has been a fantastic trip so far, so hopefully it all ends on a good note.

The sun was a little bright, but whatever it was nice of Aswan
to offer to take a picture.

Days 10 and 11: The Sinai Peninsula

The center of the red circles is the area we stayed/the mountain we climbed.
If you were curious about our geographic location over the last couple days.

At 5:15 on the morning of the 14^th our alarm went off.  We both showered (separately) and packed our backpacks.  At 6 we met Mohammad Naguib in front of our hotel with our van and driver for our trip the Sinai Peninsula and to hike Mt. Moses (Musa/Sinai).  We drove around the corner to Holiday Tours to meet Yehia who had arranged our tour.  I would like to extend a thanks first to him, then to Hoda Mahmoud (who suggested Yehia and his company), and then to my Uncle David, who has put us in touch with Hoda who as been so very helpful, and then to my mom for being David’s brother, and then to her dad for having them both, and then…ok you get the point.  Oh also to my dad for marrying my mom…ok whatever.

Fox Camp nestled in the desert mountains

It was about a 6-hour drive to Fox Camp where we made base.  Unfortunately, this meant we got there about 1, which meant we had a long time before anything was going to happen, and we were in the middle of the mountains in the desert.  Fortunately, the ride down there wasn’t all that bad.  We didn’t really find any comfortable positions to sleep in, but we skirted the Red Sea part of the way - which was really pretty.  The last hour or so we spent winding through the mountains, also providing a variety of scenic views.  It was especially interesting because these are desert mountains, not the Colorado ones I’m used to.

Our brick housing at Fox Camp

Luckily enough I had packed my ipod, so I had a little something to do at Fox Camp.  Unluckily, I did not bring my book because I had envisioned us scaling the mountain with our backpacks and didn’t want to take it up (this did not end up being the case).  Patrick did – he actually finished his whole book over the car ride and our down time.  But the luckiest thing that happened was we happened out of our room right when they served lunch, and then we did it again for dinner, so we didn’t miss any meals.  Eventually I picked up a copy of Kate Moss’ Sepulcher because it was there and I wanted something to read.  I actually got about 100 pages into it, but it’s a 600+ page book so I have no idea how it ends.

Lunch was some kind of beef, cucumbers and tomatoes, and scrambled eggs, while dinner was a different kind of beef, rice, and potatoes.  And there is always bread, which isn’t particularly great, but it is very filling and satisfying when you didn’t get to eat breakfast.  Anyway, what was kind of worrisome was that our driver (Ahmed) dropped us off and was supposed to introduce us to our guide (Musa), but he kinda just pointed us towards the camp.  We checked in and got our room but then had no idea what to do.  Our room, by the way, was in a brick building and had one low wood shelf with three pads on it each with a reasonably firm pillow.  And by reasonably firm I mean unforgiving.  It was also really hot in our room, but conveniently it cooled down outside at night so we left our door open and shut the screen.  But it was an experience, and it definitely would not have been worth the extra $95 a night to stay in a hotel.

Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me

Anyway, after dinner we finally asked someone if they knew Musa and after a while they told us not to worry that he would be here.  So we went to our room where it we baked in our brick oven, took off a reasonable amount of clothing and turned out the lights.  At this point it was about 9, and since we had to get up at 1 a.m. to start our hike we were ready to at least try and sleep.  About 15 minutes later our driver shows up and says something in Arabic followed by “Musa”.  So I kind of flipped around on the bed so my head faced the doorway and Musa came in and said hello in about as many words.  He then asked if he could turn on the light and I kind of stuttered so he did, and there we were just lying in our boxers.  They were both a little taken aback and I started to get up and put on pants but they told me not to bother.  He talked to us for a little bit and then said he’d wake us up at 1:30 so we could get started by 2.

Our view right as we reached the top

We set an alarm anyway and it went off, we dressed and we’re about ready by the time Musa showed up at our door; I think he was mildly relieved to see we were fully clothed.  About 1:45 we set out to climb Mt. Moses (so named because it is alleged to be the mountain on which Moses received the ten commandments).  At first we just walked along a road, which seemed kind of stupid to us once we actually started our ascent because other groups had been driven down the road while we walked.  Seemed like an unnecessary use of energy, but whatever.  Eventually the road turned to gravel and for a while it was a very slow incline.  Keep in mind, it is 2 in the morning so its almost pitch black except the flashlight our guide has and the light Patrick brought (which was unbelievably bright so we didn’t use it except when we needed to).

It was gorgeous

We walked for about 50 minutes and then took a break.  Musa offered us some bread (croissant-like stuff) and yogurt to put on it, so we ate a little and drank some water.  We spent a couple extra minutes resting and stargazing, and then continued our journey.  After this stop the road slopped more dramatically upward.  There was a clear path the entire way (that is to say, in the daylight we likely could have found our own way fairly easily), with only the occasional awkward step or set of rocks to make it more difficult.  We continued on like this for an hour or more, Musa leading and Pat and I following behind carefully picking our steps.  Every once and a while we would stop to drink and adjust a bit to the altitude.  Once in the dark we came across a Bedouin leading a camel down the path we were on (Musa also is a Bedouin; apparently this is what they do, but he knew everyone we ran into).  Eventually our path connected to a much wider path that had many more people on it.  This, Musa told us, was the main road up from the monastery area.  Evidently it is an easier path (though ours was not that difficult), so we joined the dozens of people also walking up the path.  Most went at a slower pace, so we passed as many as we could.

Near the top we started encountering stores that sold water, tea, coffee, and candy bars like snickers and twix.  Of course everything was far over priced, except the small waters.  Once you pass these stores, however, all that’s left to the top is a “staircase” that Musa tells us will take ten minutes.  I guess Musa usually works with world class athletes, because there was no way we came anywhere close to ten minutes.  A half-hour of steps later, we found our way to the top of the mountain, about 4:45 a.m. local time, and prepared for the sunrise.

It slowly got lighter

It was already growing light by the time we got there, but the sun didn’t appear for a while.  It was beautiful though.  So entirely peaceful; we were able to see ridge after ridge (I’ve included pictures to better describe this), and it was almost chilly right before daybreak.  We probably took way to many pictures, but it was definitely worth every second.  I wish there was some way to better describe.  The way the sun came up but the delay it takes for light to reach the earth that allows you to look directly at it for a little bit, the light casting shadows across the sea of ridges, the colors, the breeze; it was all amazing.  I guess the best way to put it is that it almost – almost – made up for not getting to go to Colorado and stargaze out there.  But it really was beautiful, and I can’t thanks Dr. Berkey enough for suggesting it.

The sun rising

After the sun was up high enough that you could no longer look directly at it, and we had observed the scenery as much as possible, we made our way back down all the stairs to find Musa patiently awaiting our return.  Upon our arrival he asked if we wanted to see St. Catherine’s Monastery, or at least the outside, because it was closed today.  We said yes, and he asked if we wanted to take the stairs or the camel path.  We said the stairs.  So, slowly but surely we plodded down the 3000 Steps of Repentance.  I wish here was more to say about it because it took forever, but it was just a bunch of rock steps weaving down in between two ridges.  So it wasn’t that exciting.

We walked around the outside of the monastery and took a couple pictures, then Musa led us down a road that he said would take us back to our car.  Again, we were on a road, and we didn’t know why we hadn’t been picked up, especially cause we had walked up and down 4,000+ steps and covered thousands of feet in altitude.  But, we didn’t really have much choice.  For a while we were a bit confused about which direction we were going until we finally rounded a bend and saw Fox Camp.  Over the entire journey we had completely circled the mountain, and reached the top of it.  Looking back on it, it was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. 

Once back to camp, we were supposed to be served breakfast, but somehow we got back after the kitchen had closed (which was alright because I think we had only paid for two meals, and we had eaten lunch the day before which I don’t believe was in the game plan).  So, we loaded up the bus and started the return drive.  It was pretty much the same as the drive there, except our driver did stop at a rest place and let us order food.  And by order food I mean he told the people working something and they brought us out about 6 different things that we tried to eat as much as we could, but there was too much of some and other stuff we weren’t particularly fond of.

Finally we made it back to our hotel through the Cairo traffic.  We relaxed for a while (and showered, I finally shaved for the first time since arriving), and then went out to get some much-needed food about 6:30.  As usual, the streets were relatively bare except people setting up for meals, and the subway was completely empty.  Literally there was no one waiting for the train when we got down there.  There were a couple people on the train, but not many.  We went back to a place we like named Felfela; Pat tried the lamb cutlets and I had the mixed meat platter.  Afterwards we went back to the hotel, each spent some time skyping (video or audio chatting with people back home), and then decided it was time to sleep since we’d been up since 1:30.

A couple final notes.  First, my family seems to have deemed it necessary that, despite the fact that I asked the second day I was home this summer, they should wait to get a kitten until I leave.  On top of this, there are plenty of stray cats (and some kittens) around that I have repeatedly wished (and spoken aloud) to send home.  On top of that, my mom must have thought it was funny to send me a picture of the kitten right before I left to go into the desert.  So if anyone was wondering about my mood – well I’m really good, except also really jealous.  Jessie thought it would be nice as well to tell me on skype tonight that it likes to sleep on my bed.  Great.

Finally, a couple observations.  Children here really have the run of the mill (which isn’t altogether or surprising, or that much different from my neighborhood I guess – it’s just a different setting).  It reminds me a bit of the movie Little Manhattan.  I’m sure they’re all supposed to stay in a certain area, but they just run around and play pretty much anywhere they want to.  The only English word they know is “hello,” and there has been more than one occasion when they’ll see us and say hello, and when we wave their face just lights up.   Sometimes they get up and run behind us saying hello for a number of blocks.  

A view of the Monastery from above

Also, tonight on the subway we saw four teenagers (15, 16?) – two guys and two girls.  They were dressed and acted pretty much like American teens, which is a stark contrast to how most everyone else we’ve seen has dressed.  It was interesting to see the new generation trying to change norms, but at the same time I even felt a little awkward for them around the older, more traditionally dressed people on the train.  

The gap between ridges contains ALL of the
steps we walked down 

Lastly, the good news is I’ve discovered I really like tea.  The bad news is, I really like tea.  It’s been great to have with breakfast, but I am beginning to find I want it more and more often, which isn’t the greatest thing from a budget standpoint.  Oops?