[Volcanic Trip, Part 2] Goals 18 & 60(under review): Egypt

[2] Egypt

What can I say about Egypt? Other than, of course, it's the most absurd and different place I've ever been to. Egypt was a trip all its own.

We arrived in Cairo at 1 am with no plans beyond arriving in the airport at 1 am. We're approached minutes after walking out of the terminal about what our plans are in Egypt, and how we can get our whole trip planned for us and we can get our hotels and book them and we can get drivers and we'll be taken care of and... and... it goes on. We refused for the most part, knowing that there must be something sketchy going on, but we did need a hotel, (we had planned on sleeping at the airport, but it was too small) so we went ahead with it.

The airport featured Egypts only known skybridge.

On the way to our hotel it started to set in how different this place was. There were monuments and hieroglyphics everywhere, the mosques were humongous and beautiful, and nothing looked familiar. We arrived at the hotel (which was only on the top two floors of the building) and started settling in.

It was about 5 am singing began in the loudest way possible. It was prayer time. I started to get up, and when I went to get on the balcony, it was hard to believe I had traveled so far.

All buildings seemed to have some sort of shack built on top of them, sometimes made from little more than scrap wood and trash.

When we were checking out, we were again heavily bothered by a man trying to sell us vacation packages and plans to see Egypt. I think I broke his heart a little when I told him we were just going to walk around Cairo... and walk we did.

While we walked around, the world around me was flipped upside down from what I was used to. Obviously it was apparent that we were not Egyptian, and the locals constantly reminded us of this by commenting "Welcome", "Welcome to Egypt" every chance they got. As we walked through the streets, we walked past markets that sold breaker boxes and car parts in extreme excess. To cross the street, you don't wait or look, you just go for it.

We got lost about four times in Cairo, and found ourselves walking the wrong way. One time we were given directions by an Egyptian who really loved Sweden (we told him we were from Sweden...) and insisted that he make us some tea after he showed us his shop. He told us about his essences that were only 2 £E per gram, and we were thinking 'alright, that's cheap, we can buy some and not even feel bad about drinking this tea in this nice air conditioned shop.'

wrong.

As we were considering what to buy, the transaction began to speed up when we realized you can only buy this stuff in amounts of hundreds of grams. Well cuss. We couldn't back out now, and they had started pouring different essences into bottles and telling us that we were buying four different kinds, or we could buy six and get one free or we could get a deal or we could buy only fifty grams or, and, but...

We did well to not buy more than we needed, and only spent 200 £E. At the end, they even tried to take a 10 € bill I had in my wallet, but wouldn't tell me what I would get for it, just that they'd "make me smile." I had had enough, so we quickly left.

We were a bit uncomfortable with what had happened, and after consideration of it all, we realized we spent around 40.00* € on 100 grams of sheisty essence... We got Egyptianed in a bad way, and we had only brought 460 £E for the entire trip.

*It was 40.00 € with our quick conversion, but in reality, it was a little under 30.00 €. The mis-conversion did well to make us feel seriously sheisted though, and it made us over cautious for the rest of the trip, which caused us to save quite a bit of money.

The streets are a lawless place where people drive wherever they fit, and go as fast as they can. Trash is thrown where it's convenient, and if there's enough in one place, the petting zoo shows up. It was extremely common to see stray cats wandering around eating trash also.

Goal 18: See the Pyramids

Every day we were in Cairo we went to the Pyramids, but we didn't actually get up close to them until our last day in Egypt. Every day we seemed to get there just as they were closing. The first night, however, we walked from the Giza metro station to the pyramids, which was much, much further than we had expected, and took us a ridiculous amount of time, something like four hours... We got there at sunset.

(This picture is blown out so that you can see the pyramid) We ate at a pizza hut that looks out to the pyramids. The pyramids are literally right outside of the Giza suburbs. If you check them out on Google Maps, you'll see that they are just right there.
After two days of trying to see the pyramids and Cairo, we wanted to get out to a town called Dahab, on the coast of the Red Sea. We bought our bus tickets, and took a nine hour bus ride to Dahab. About every hour or two you're on a bus in Egypt, it stops at a checkpoint so that everyone on the bus can get their passports and IDs checked. This made it near impossible to sleep.

Going to Dahab was the best decision of the trip. Dahab is a desert paradise on the Red Sea that is built around scuba diving and snorkeling along the reef they have. We arrived in time to see the sunrise over the Red Sea.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and walking around this beach town. We got sunburned reclining on the roof of one of the restaurants, and it was the laziest, most relaxing day. It was superb.

Before the end of the day, I bought some swim trunks for 20 £E (3.00 €) and rented a snorkel. I went just off the shore and found a Red Sea Reef of tropical fish, eels, anenomies, spikey things, sea cucumbers, and all kinds of cool stuff. It was a last minute decision that was well worth the experience!

This was 'Ped.' He was a stray dog that we claimed while we reclined in the morning. The best thing about him was that after he spent the morning with us, he remembered us when he saw us again later in the day! He got super excited and wanted to play with us a bit, and it made him worth noting.

The water pipe (hookah) is a huge part of culture in Egypt. For this reason, I felt like I should give it a try here, if anywhere. Plus, it was just another excuse to chill at a new lounge area by the beach.

As the sun began to set, every place along the beach gets out their fresh fish catches, and tries to sell you their dinner as you walk by. Because we had already been sheisted, and because I was getting a hang of haggling, we drove a seriously hard bargain all the way down the beach until we found a place that fed us well at an absurd price. The above pictured dinner included:

2 Fresh Fish

4 Large Prawns

Diced Calimari with vegetables

5 Salads with Pitas

1 Dessert

All for a price of 90 £E... about 12 €. The best thing about the deal was that they felt shamed that they had given us such a good deal. When the guy we bargained with told the waiter, the waiter was distraught, and there was a quick exchange in Egyptian. Plus, it was delicious.

The next destination took plenty of convincing on my part to get into the itinerary. Mt. Sinai was about 2 hours away, to be climbed at night, and created a dangerous situation for getting back to Cairo. In the end, it was well worth it.

The problem was this, the bus from Sinai left at 6 am. The sunrise on top of Mt. Sinai is at about 4:50am. They usually quote that it will take 2 and a half hours to climb. We were told by an Egyptian Bedouin that we weren't going to catch our bus.

We arrived at base camp at about 2:00 am, and started up the mountain. Two eagle scouts have no problem passing people on the way up a mountain, and we continued to pass everyone we saw.

Goal 60 (under review), climb a huge mountain.

It was about 3:15 am when we reached the top of Mt. Sinai, and realized that we were the only ones. We had climbed the mountain in about an hour and a half, and beat everyone else doing it. *The reason this is under review is because I'm not sure if I can really count this as a huge mountain. It was definitely a mountain, and it's huge as far as religious history goes, but I'm not sure if I can claim this goal as complete just yet.

At the top, I rang the church bell in victory, and occupied the highest point of the mountain long enough for this picture to be taken.

The sun began coming up at about 4:30 am. We knew that we were going to have to run down the mountain to reach the bus station (which we didn't know where it was located) at 6 am. Kenny took a head start because his toe was seriously injured, and I started down at about 4:50am. I was running at a speed I was uncomfortable with, and people were confused as I ran past them in the opposite direction they were going.

This is St. Catherines monastery. It's at the base of the mountain, and pretty neat.

We made it to the bus stop with time to spare once we found a taxi at the bottom. We headed back to Cairo. Once the bus reached Cairo, it stopped in the middle of the street as if for a stoplight, and people started getting off. People get on and off from time to time, so this didn't seem like our stop, but then the driver came up to us and informed us that this was the stop, and it was time to get off. We left the bus to find ourselves in the middle of a Cairo street with no way to get to the sidewalk... We had to walk through traffic quite a ways before we were safe, and it was the most ridiculous spot I have ever been let off of a bus before.

In the final day we hired camels, and finally got up close and personal with the pyramids. I flexed my haggling muscles, and was able to get two hours camel ride with entrance to the pyramids for only 240 £E each, a little over 30.00 €.

That night we were to leave Cairo at 4 am. Just before we left we were told about the volcanic eruption that would soon seriously change our travel plans...

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[Volcanic Trip, Part 1] Goals 16 & 54: The Netherlands

My most recent trip exploded like the the volcano that exploded it. It started out as a two week trip to accommodate an intercontinental trip to Africa. However, while on return, Iceland blew a load of plane-downing ash into the atmosphere, grounding Kenny and me for five days while our train and plane tickets expired.

I'm splitting this trip into 5 parts (1 for each country). It will include 19 days, 5 countries, 5 goals, 2 continents, and one volcanic eruption. This is part 1.

[1] The Netherlands

Rotterdam

Flying into the Netherlands was surprisingly beautiful. The cities are built from beautiful designs by excellent architects. We began in Eindoven, and moved towards Rotterdam for our main event, Motel Mozaique, where we were planning to see Mumford & Sons.

Rotterdam was bombed during WWII, so nearly all of it is rebuilt into fabulous contemporary buildings. It was a great town to be in, and our couchsurfers even loaned us bikes to ride around with. The best thing about Rotterdam, however, was the festival. Motel Mozaique was so much more than I expected it to be, and well worth the (cheap) 30€ pricetag.

With a single day ticket, we were entitled to a list of artists playing at different venues around the city, as well as entrance to art exhibitions and performances. It was a cultural 'splosion all around Rotterdam. (I'll include the concerts we caught, but not the exhibitions)

Concert 1: TV Buddhas

Concert 2: Mumford & Sons Preview in the Motel Mozaique Chapel

This was a little construction in the middle of a plaza outside the main hall where Mumford would play later. We stumbled upon a crowd of people gathering outside of it, so we pushed up on it, and eventually got inside. Upon being inside, it turned out there was a little concert by Mumford & Sons with a HUGE camera recording. It was neato.

Concert 3: The Irrepressibles (Goal 16: Go to an awesome concert)

This was an amazing band that I'm tempted to count as "Experience something I never expected." The Irrepressibles are a 10 piece orchestra that put on an amazing and mesmerizing show of choreography and sound.

It was incredible luck because the only reason we went to this concert was so that we could assure front row seats for Mumford & Sons, who would be playing at the same venue later in the night.

Unfortunately, the lead singer's shoulder piece started falling off, so you can hardly see it in this shot, but he was wearing shoulder pieces with the color of mirror and magic.

It was like a mix between a rock show and an opera.

The pianist, Sarah Kershaw, picked a spot just above our heads to stare at the whole time, so it usually felt like she was looking directly at us. With her makeup accentuating the degree of open-ness she persisted with, it really added to the eerie effect of the entire show.

The whole show made me giddy and excited, and it was so much more than I ever could have expected. It was wonderful and magical.

Concert 4: Mumford & Sons

Definitely the most popular band at the festival, the show was packed full, and for good reason. They were an excellent band in concert, with a lot of energy, and you can tell that they really love the music they play as much as the fans like to listen to it.

Concert 6: The Strange Boys

Concert 7: Admiral Freebee

This was a concert we went to just because our Couchsurfers, Leen and Charlie said that they have heard of him before. So heck, why not? Well we went there about half way through the show, and at the end, he started pulling people on stage, so I ran up and got on it.

Shortly after, he started handing the mic over, and he got these eyes on me that said "You with the hat, you're next." Well, all I could think of was "Cuss, I've never even heard of you dude, I haven't even been here long enough to figure out what kind of music you play, and I certainly have no idea what to do with the mic you're handing me."

Well, I just kept on yelling the last words that he was yelling, which were "Nicotine nicotine." I did my best to play it off, but it ultimately didn't matter, I had just performed on stage at Motel Mozaique.

Concert 7: Veenf Abriet Erckhardt

A dutch band that I didn't understand a single word when they were talking, but sang folky songs in English.

Concert 8: DJ St. Paul

This concert ended the night for us, and we really only went to his DJ set to see the club, WATT. Apparently it's fairly known and 'in,' and since we could get in for free with our Motel bracelets, we went to check it out.

Amsterdam

After Rotterdam, we moved onto Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a nice place, but it didn't have the same appeal as Rotterdam. I liked Rotterdam a lot more because of it's lively nature and it's lack of heavy tourism. (I think I also might be biased because our couchsurfers in Rotterdam were spectacular.)

On our way from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, I completed one of the ongoing goals of mine, number 54, Read "Notes from Underground" by Frydor Dostoevsky.

This book is was on my list of goals for good reason. However, I won't speak of it now, but later, in some sort of review or something. I think this 5 part trip is already going to be too much to speak of, so I'd rather leave the heavy stuff for another post.

The rest of Amsterdam was spent as usual, seeing the sights, doing the things to do.

Of course we had to go to the Red Light District at night. While we were there, I wouldn't feel like I had really been there unless I actually talked to the 'merchandise.' However, I couldn't act like normal, or pretend to be a customer, so I came up with a few ridiculous things to say.

The first was in mockery of the Flight of the Concords song, "If You're Into It" (YouTube Video). I was eating a sandwich while we walked around, and I motioned to one of the products to open her door and talk to me. She quickly quoted me a price, and I squinted my eyes past her as if I was contemplating. My next move was to take the sandwich (which I had behind my back) out, and pose the question:

"Can we get lewd with this food?"

She was confused, but insisted that the sandwich could be finished, or put to the side. I sighed, and continued with the next indecent thing I knew from a song that had recently come into favor with my eardrums (Crank That Soulja Boy - Tetrastar):

"Can I superman you, hoe? You know, 'Superman that hoe'?"

She looked at me confused.

"It's where I supersoak you, hoe. Then you watch me as I flow."

At this point, she was annoyed, and practically slammed her door on me. The look on her face made it more than worth it.

We also saw a street performer. He took a long time to get his show going, but while he was getting everyone ready, he got thrown a couple of curve balls that made it interesting. First, a drunken hobo (seriously sloshed) wandered into his circle. He very smoothly shook the man's hand and pulled him out of the circle. The second was a laughing heckler that laughed loud and obnoxiously. The performer made a few verbal warnings before physically pushing him out of the circle. The guy came back, and was pushed out of the circle again by his collar. It was interesting and the performer had certainly made his point.

In the end though, he just ate an apple while juggling. It wasn't really that impressive.

From Amsterdam we flew to Cairo, Egypt. That's a whole other story which will be continued with Part 2.

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