Wanting to sit for a moment

Here's some art from that gallery (see last post)



Thank you all for the well-wishes after my last post. Yes, overall I'm doing pretty well at keeping people from taking too much advantage of me being in a strange land and away from home.

I made my way, yesterday, with some other travelers to Giza to see the Pyramids. Landon, Dewey, and I boarded our taxi at 11am. An antique in its own right, it reminded me of Julie's car: the engine works (with a few quirks) but every accessory has failed. In Cairo, however, accessories include seatbelts, windshield wipers, any sort of defrost/ventilation...

The ride was fascinating. Traffic was horrific with six lanes of cars squeezing into the space of three, but our driver, whose name I have unfortuneately forgotten, navigated its complexity expertly.

One of the more amazing sights along the way were the large housing complexes which appeared to be only half complete - rebar sticking out the top of concrete columns, stairs built up to a non-existent next floor - with people living in the lower floors. I have heard that there is a desperate housing shortage here and perhaps people move in as each floor is finished!

The weather was quite cool (with a high of about 54F) and very foggy which we hoped might keep the tourist crowds at bay. After arranging with our driver where and when to meet and avoiding his friends with a "special government permit to allow them to sell us tickets at the student price", we made our way in. The pyramids are amazing! We walked completely around the pyramids of both Khufu and Khafre (the two largest) and were just in awe. The blocks of stone are enormous, something like 2 x 2 x 4 meters each!




We spent some time exploring an ancient cemetery too. This area was completely unprotected (Egypt has so many artifacts, i imagine some of them just aren't good enough to bother) and you could actually touch the hieroglyphs.



The Sphinx, though smaller than I had imagined, was no less stunning. Darn Napoleon for shooting off its nose!



We're currenty in the midst of the All Africa Games of Football (soccer) in Ghana. This has, of course, taken over the continent completely. We went out to watch the Egypt vs. Cameroon match at a nearby cafe - cheering right along. The streets were amazingly empty as Everyone else had the same idea. I believe the final score was 4-1 with Egypt passing better the whole night long. Cameroon never had chance.

So Julie confirmed her arrival dates as April 20. I'm VERY excited. It's nice to have an actual date to think about. Today I was looking at hotels in Senegal, starting to learn re-learn French, and asking around in the hostel for tips on West Africa. It looks like a completely fascinating area with live music everywhere.

I am currently happy for two more things in particular. First is my strong stomach. Occasionally one reads on travel guides and especially on travel blogs how one should Always Avoid the Roadside Food Stands. Its always written in that capital letter sort of way. Anyway, at about 45¢ for a sandwich, it's too good a deal to pass and I really wouldn't feel that I had even been here if I missed what most people eat regularly. Half the fun is saying "I'll have whatever that is". Now keep in mind that I have been vegeterian, vegan, or more recently fisheterian for something like 12 years. I've now had chicken, beef, and ´meat´ (who knows). Not a problem (knock on wood) so far. And pretty good, though I did seek out a Chinese place yesterday for broccoli and tofu.

The second is my sense of direction - though it fails me indoors, outside, I am quite good. Today I went walking again. I finally know the city well enough to keep my sense of north and the vague direction home so I have taken to deeper exploring. This morning after visiting the train station to look into my next city, I decided to head in a roundabout way to old Cairo and eventually to the Citidel of Salah Ah-Din. This route led me deep into a slum. Aside: Don´t worry, I wont do this exact same exploring with Julie. There are very few Egyptians with freckles and while I'm obviously western in dress I actually do look fairly Egyptian (Thanks to what Julie calls my miscellaneously ethnic appearance). It was a wonderful experience. More spice stores, oh and the heads of two cows, sitting on a table. Surprisingly, the beef liver I saw had been imported from Kansas! Kids everywhere playing soccer and tea and shisha is ubiquitous.

The Citidel of Saladin is the largest in the Islamic world. Quite stunning, it towers over the city from its hilltop perch. It was most peaceful walking the grounds. I watched the Fiery red sun set between the towers of various mosques. I could even see the Pyramids rising from the desert just outside the city.

As night fell, I wanted to head back home to watch the football match. I had walked about 2/3rds of the way around the Citidel and decided to finish the task. Of course, you can't get there from here held true again, as it so often does. I did wind up at a beautiful park where I climbed a hill and heard the call to prayer rise from every part of the city at once. Now THAT was something to witness. Usually, I hear my local mosque start the chant, but here above the city, I could hear every single one. Individually, and rolling together into a quite intimidating roar. Can you imagine being one of the 10% of Cairoans who are Coptic Christians in the city?