Trip to Aswan - Day 3

We had to wake up at 3 am to take a bus to see all the touristic places around Aswan: Abu el Sid, Philae Temple, the Dam and unfinished obelisk..

We were all tired and sitting in a packed little mini van; one Russian lady was sick and she threw up. It was a nice day, althoug tiring and we decided to go and see the unfinished Obelisk.

it has been an amazing trip, we enjoyed seeing all the monuments, making fun of the Brits (even though Rach was with us), trying to survive one more temple, or one more Egyptian trying to get an unrealistic amount of money off us just for a 5 min ride on a boat...

When we got back to Aswan we were exhausted! We walked on Sharia El Souk to get some food and most of the shops were closed. What we found, though, were piles of cows' skins, as they slaughtered the animals that morning. It looked and smelt like blood everywhere.

Trip to Aswan - Day 2

So, we found our way to Aswan ... got picked up at the train station by somebody from our hotel. We shared a room, the three of us. Next morning we had breakfast and right after that we adventured ourselves down the corniche, having in mind all the touristic places the Lonely Planet guide talks about: Elephantine Island, Botanical garden etc.

We found a guy and after bargaining we got a felucca for 50 LE for 2 hours. Captain Ziko and his felucca "Relax". We had a good laugh in the beggining of our trip about his felucca and the sign on it, as you can see, but it was only later that we figured out that that was the name of the felucca.

We had a relaxing day ... saw the botanical gardens and just chilled on the Nile.

After that we went to the souk ... that was a challenge.. even for me (and people say i am a good bargainer). Most of the shops had signs that said: "No hassle", but that is what exactly what they were doing. All the vendors were trying to get us to come into their shops. We have met an Egyptian guy who was trying to sell me a silver bracelet.. i have to admit that i liked the bracelet, but could simply not afford it. He was charging 350 LE; he was so funny and kept saying: "What does the computer say?" "The computer says no!". This is from an English commercial. he was married to an English lady. :)

Later in the evening, one guy was shouting that he sells scarves for 5 Le, so we went into his shop. We kept asking how much ofr a particular scarf and he kept ignoring us and showing what he has in his shop. I got mad and said: "how much is this? is it 5 pounds?" He said: "Of course not, madame... who sells this for 5 pounds?". To his astonishment, i said "but you said you have scarves for 5 pounds!". Then he tried to explain that he was just joking to attract us in his shop. I looked at him and said: "Listen, you cant do that! You are wasting my time!!! the foreigners do not like these kind of jokes!" and i left.

We had tea in a very obscure place, but we had so much fun there!! There was a little boy - he was not more than 3 yrs old and he loved Esther's camera.

It seemed that Aswan was very quiet that evening, at least down on the corniche where we had dinner; there was nobody at the restaurant. We had pizza on a boat restaurant that smelled like gas, but we were done quickly and headed back to our hotel for a good rest.

Trip to Aswan - Day 1

We had a short break, for the December Eid, so we decided to go to Aswan. the whole group was suppose to go, but people changed theird mind - so in the end it was just me, Nichole, Rachel and Esther. After a busy week, Esther and Rach went to the train station to get tickets the day before we left. Surprise: there were no more tickets. We decided to go early in the morning - maybe they will add another car to the train.
Early in the morning - we wake up - NIchole is sick. We make it to the metro station ... Nichole throws up. My oppinion - she will get better once she's thrown up. We manage to buy our tickets for 136 LE, French class (whatever that was suppose to mean) while NIchole keeps throwing up.
We were told to go to car 7, where 1st class was - we get on through the crowd of people, find our seats taken. Rach talks to them, NIchole is still sick, telling me she wants to go back home. I feel bad and try to convince her to stay. At the same time, men on the train laugh and make jokes. Angry, i turn around and shout - then the crowd starts calming down.
We found some empty seats, surrounded by Egyptian men. Nichole decides to get off. I accompany her. When i returned, there's a new scenario: our seats might be at the end of the train.
Let me try and describe you how the train looked: PACKED!!!!!!!There were people on the seats, under the seats, on top where you put your luggage, in between seats, on the aisle, pilled up on top of each other like a pyramid.... etc
Me and Rach adventure ourselves to the end of the train, passing from car to car, to see if we can find our places, telling Esther to keep the seats that we already occupied. We get to the end of the train and to ur surprise there was no 1st class there. We come back. Meanwhile, new people claim our seats - the ones we were sitting on. Esther willingly gives them our tickets. At this point we are all standing, led by a man who claims to know what he is doing. He tries to tell us that we have seats at the back of the train, so there we go again. We take our bags and carry it through the train, through the crowd of people. The man didnt even give us the chance to tell him that we've already checked the back of the train. We get to the end of the train - car 12
At this stage we dont knwo what to do ... We talk about getting off the train and heading back to Cairo. Hardly anyody spoke English on that train - our Arabic was limited ... and all around us there are oppionionated people - some say our seats are at the front of the train - car 1. At this point all i wanted was to get off the train and go home. I almost had tears in my eyes. After many debates, plus finding out that the next stop is in 2 hours, we decide to adventure ourselves and walk back - this time through the whole train to get to 1st class.
I an't describe how people were sitting, standing ... unbelieveable!! We managed to get to 1st class, but other people were sitting our on seats. At this point we are standing. I texted Nichole and told her she should be happy, that she returned, coz i was almost in tears.
Many people tried to help - Egyptian help - but htey had no idea what to do. We managed to get two seats - after an old man stood up and let us sit down. I felt so bad and tried to explain that i am ok and i feel bad having him standing. Rach is on the floor...
There was one man, in his 20's that tried to help us - his English was good and he said those are our seats, we paid for them bla bla .... while i was trying to tell him how bad i feel. Later, during our journey, he came back to check on us. After many smiles, he turned to me and said: "you know, earlier, your behavior was totally unacceptable here". Luckily, for him, i kept calm, smiled but inside i was burning .... Don't you tell me what is acceptable, or not acceptable!!!! It is not acceptable for me to argue that i cant have an older man standing, but it is acceptable for men to grab my ass while i go through the train!! Whatever... But, once again, i live in a country that is not my own, so i guess i should live according to their rules.
If you hadnt been through all the hassle and classes, we wouldnt have appreciated as much our 1st class seats.
The train ride was 16 hours, btw ... we got to Aswan at 11 pm... completely tired!!

Christmas present

Hey!

Right before i went to Aswan, i arranged Nichole's Christmas present to be delivered to our house. We've both been waiting for it anxiously - a piano!! Nichole loves playing the piano and missed it a lot, so i decided the best present would be one.

I didnt buy it, i just rented it!

Anything is possible here in Egypt!! It is not a lot of money, so we are sharing the cost. Nichole asked me if it can come with a red bow on it, but i couldnt really arrange that, so i improvised something that evening, as you can see in the pic. It is a beautiful piano and it adds a lot of "flavour" to our flat.

My computer is back!!!!!!!!!!

After 4 weeks i got my computer back!!!!!!!!! It's been out of order and i gave it to some guys to have it fixed ... it took them a while....

Anyways ... i am happy i can blog :) I will try and update asap.. probably during this weekend, as we start our winter hols and i am kind of stuck in Cairo over the break. Tomorrow we have Chase's cousin coming over for 3 weeks, so we need to accomodate her in my room. Luckily, Mohammed is coming tomorrow to clean, coz our house is a bit of a mess. However, i did tidy up more than usual while i did not have my comp.

Funny thing: we always make fun of Egyptians, as they cannot say "Pepsi" but "Bebzi"; Arabic doesnt have the "p" sound". The funny part comes now: i went to Saudi today to buy bread and i looked around to see what kind of meat they have; well, it was written in English: "Lamp meat". It cracked me up! They try and use the "p" sound, but it always comes out wrong!

Btw, talking about Arabic, both me and Nichole admit that we are rubbish at it! We've

been in such an international context that we hardly speak any Arabic; actually, the Arabic we know is called "taxi Arabic" - enough to tell the taxi driver where to go. We keep talking about enrolling in a course, but we never have time!

Our morning terror!!!!!

Some time ago (weeks ago) the door bell started ringing at 5 am ... that is not something usual here, but once again, there are so many things happening here, that there is no definition for normal or usual. It happened that i opened the door the first time. It was a young boy and he was telling me that he is the garbage man and he collects the garbage every morning from our door and that we need to pay him 5 LE. He woke me up ... it was 5 am, so i looked at my watch very puzzled, i looked at him, looked at my watch again and gave him a look that said smth like: "you must be kidding me!". I was too sleepy to react in any way, so i told him to come the next day, coz it was too early in the morning, pointing at my watch.
Surprise!! Next morning he came again... it was around the same time, or earlier. This time, Nichole woke up and gave him 5 LE.
Well, he came again last week, while we were waiting for our piano to be delivered, so i opened thinking the piano was here. Of course not!! It was our dear friend, the garbage man, coming to collect the money again. One thing that i need to mention before is that he is NOT the garbage man and we are not suppose to pay him, but we didnt know this before.
So, he shows up at the door (we had lots of garbage, as Mohammed cleaned our house the day before and he took all the junk from our balcony out).
He says to me: "madame, i collect the garbage every morning and you owe me 5 Le!".
I said: "No, i am not paying you!".
He says: "Madame, kiteer garbage!!" (a lot of garbage)
I said: "I know!"
He says: "Madame, 5 pounds!"
I said: "I am not paying you! Mefeesh money!!"
He says: "Madame, i collect garbage from everybody and they all pay me 5 pounds!"
At this point i am getting frustrated so i go: "Listen, if you dont want to take the garbage it is ok! Leave it here, i dont mind!!"
He goes: "Madame ...."
Then, Nichole comes out of her room, coz she hears me raising my voice; he sees her and jumps with excitement: "Aha!!! Madame arfa!!" (Madame knows!!) - coz Nichole paid him last time. i get even more upset and say: "Laa, madame misharfa!!" (No, madame doesnt know!). Nichole goes back to her room and tells me to call Nora - the landlady - but i was in the mood, and i didnt mind arguing with him. I guess i needed an Egyptian man to throw my anger at.
Me: "what dont you understand?? Leave the garbage here and go away!"
I am trying to tell him that our landlady told us not to pay him, because we have somebody else collecting our garbage. So, i tell him to go and ring the bell at flat 1 (our landlady), and ask her for the money. Then, he asks me if he should take the garbage or not, so i tell him to do whatever he wants. I go back to bed, he takes the garbage down. 15 minutes later, the doorbell rings again. He tells me that he rang the bell at flat 1 but they sleep.
My reaction: "Of course they sleep!!!!! I dont blame them!!! IT IS 6 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!" At this point, i was very upset and i was almost at the point of switching to Romanian and talk him about all the saints.
He backs off coz he sees me going mad, and tries to calm me down; i start shouting at him, saying i am not paying him, so in the end he leaves.
At this point i couldnt go back to bed, so i just made coffee and got ready for school.
Today, at 7 am i was coming back from the train station, after 12 hours on the train - guess who was at our door? THE GARBAGE MAN! He sees me ... i am like: "you again!!". He asks for money, i tell him i am not paying him ... I tell him it is too early and ask him to come at 9 or 10 having in mind to take him downstairs to the landlady and have her talk to him. he never came - i expect he'll be here tomorrow morning. Our landlady advised us today not to pay him at all and not to open the door, coz he is dangerous. I dont know if i will be able to put up with all the ringing at 4-5 am for half an hour - if he drives me really mad, i might just get a stick and run after him on the stairs.
All our conversation was in Arabic - as he doesnt speak English - his only English words were: money, 5 pounds, garbage. My Arabic is limited to a few words as well, but i think i made myself understood...

Ahelen to Israel!

I seem to be behind with my updates, but is only because my computer is out of order and i've been waiting for it to be fixed for 3 weeks now.

At the beginning of November i made a short trip to Israel. I was not planning to, but dont know how much you understand when i say that i HAD to. Anyways, Freddie came with me, so that helped a lot, as i was clueless of buses, hostel, etc. me and Freddie took the night bus to Taba - an Egyptian town by the israeli border. After a turbulent night (loud Egyptian music, incantations from the guy behind us, movie at 2 am, 120 km/h) we made it there and we walked over the border to the city of Eilat.

We managed to get to our hostel (Corinne Hostel - very clean and nice people who speak very good English); we took a shower and headed to the Egyptian consulate to do our business. Israel was very hot - hoter than i expected. One thing that slipped my mind was that Israel is a different country, where the dress code is different than in Egypt, where sleveless tops are allowed and shorts trousers as well; i had only jeans and decent tops, so i burnt!! In the bussiness of packing i forgot to take my swim suit, so i didnt get to swim there at all.

After getting everything sorted, we went back to the hostel and slept - it was too hot to do anything anyway and we were tired.

We went out at night to the mall and had dinner by the sea at a nice restaurant.

We had falafel for lunch earlier that day, when i texted everyone to say that i got everything sorted! We didnt pay a lot for it ... and it came with a drink, fries and salad.

Next day i wandered around by the sea to the little shops there; i bought some little things and enjoyed the scenery.

Israel is very expensive, especially when you come from Egypt. Coming from Europe, might seem affordable, but i found it quite expensive. For example, a night at the hostel costs around 40$ which is a lot, for a hostel. Actually, hostels are cheaper in Europe.

I was happy to be back to Egypt and the girls had cake prepared for me as it was my name day - St Gabriel. We went straight to Pieter and Sid for coffee and cake.