Almost Paradise

We took our last overnight bus from Cappadocia to Cirali last night. We will be here for three nights, then have decided to forego the 14-hour-overnight-ride back to Istanbul for a one hour plane ride instead. For around $30, we think it will make a world of difference on our last couple of days.

The place we are staying here in Cirali (pronounced chi-RAH-lih) is GORGEOUS. I just finished reading my third book of the trip in a hammock outside our room, surrounded by bushes of geraniums, pink and white oleander, lemon trees, abundant bougainvilla (sp?), and a troop of hens pecking in the grass near the pool. We've opted to have dinner at the hotel during our stay here-- four-course meals with fresh seafood every night (good thing we did so much hiking in Cappadocia to make room for all this lushness).

We went out on the beach for a while this afternoon. The water is turquoise and emerald green, and the mountains literally reach all the way to the coast. It is cool and beautiful (though I was feeling a little overindulgent on sun and pide, so we called it an early afternoon).

Turkey is SO wonderful, as are the Turkish people. We noticed yesterday that we're really the only Americans we've encountered on our journies so far, though we have met a great number of smashing Brits.

Alright, I think I see them setting the tables for dinner... tomorrow we're doing a day boat cruise around the area. Should be lovedly (as long as I remember my long sleeved shirt! Unlike Anissa, my lilly-whiteness can't take the sun for hours and hours on end). Photos will be there when they get there. :)

Oh, and for some reason, Mom, youtube seems to be blocked by the entire country of Turkey. Weird. Kiss Murph for me!

Istanbul/Cappadocia pics are up and available!

New pics have been uploaded to my Picasa site. Check them out!

Thanks for the many comments/e-mails I received lately. I love hearing from you all, even if it seems like not much is going on there.

Love, love, love,
m

Turkish Delight

We are safely and gladly in Istanbul (although there was one point this morning at which I did not think I'd make it safely to Istanbul... that is another story, entirely).

Our hotel is lovely with a most beautiful view of the city, including the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia, the Bosphorus Strait, and the Marmaris Sea from the rooftop terrace.

I got TOTALLY lost on the way to the hotel, but made some excellent friends who were very helpful to me who (a) called the hotel, (b) served me tea, (c) sat and visited about life, travelling, the world in general, and the benefit of having a postive outlook, (d) sent his nephew with me to walk me to the hotel and carry my heavier bag. I love Turkey.

We are going to find dinner now, then going back to meet up with my new friends at the carpet shop. Tomorrow we are touring Istanbul and will be on an overnight bus tomorrow evening.

More soon...

Back in Cairo, exhausted

So, since we woke up Wednesday morning at 7:00am, we've slept about 10 hours. Now it's Friday evening at 11:00pm, just to give you an idea.

It's a little hard to pinpoint where all we've been in the past almost 72 hours. We spent Wednesday in Aswan off the cruise boat. Though we didn't really spend much of a night, as construction started on a building across from our hotel at about 10:00pm and continued into the night. Then we had to wake up at 2:45am to head to Abu Simbel (which was awesome, though getting there was not).

The ride to Abu Simbel was about 3 hours... we got trapped in the back of a FULL mini-bus on the wheel well--Anissa sat with her legs propped up on the way there and we switched on the way back. Although having the non-wheel-well seat didn't turn out to be much of a walk in the park, as there was a rotund stinky European man with no concept of "personal space" on the other side. Needless to say, it was a long trip.

The temple of Abu Simbel was pretty amazing--one of my favorite things I've seen here so far. What's really astounding about it is that the whole temple was moved to avoid it being covered by Lake Nasser when the Egyptians built the High Dam in Aswan in the early 60's.

So after we got back from our day trip ordeal, we were pretty heat exhausted. We napped briefly, found some delicious dinner (at a tiny hole-in-the-wall place recommended by the folks from Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, and the front desk). We were to fly to Cairo at 1:00am, arriving at 2:25, so we took it easy most of the day.

Around 10:30, we hopped in a taxi toward the airport. The sky had gotten really hazy and was highly reminiscent of Lubbock. On the way out to the airport, sand started pouring in through the slightly-rolled-down-windows and pelting us in the face. Apparently, the Sahara was on the move.

This did nothing to facilitate our easy return to Cairo. On the contrary, we were told our flight would be slightly delayed "due to bad weather in Cairo and we will have news in 30 minutes." About an hour later, when A & I approached the desk to find out what was going on, we again got the unhelpful, "There is delay. Due to weather."

Very long story (and very long night) condensed to be very short, we spent 7+ hours in the Aswan airport, as our original flight was cancelled due to the sandstorm. It was a very VERY long night. We ate Arabic Sbarro Pizza (no lie), saw what's underneath a gallabeya (a sight that burns the eyes), and were basically delirious for hours. I yelled at the airline man twice (after being sweet and reasonable wasn't working, of couse), stormed past a security guard at one point (who was mostly sleeping all night), and felt general rage toward several eye-gropers.

Finally we boarded a plane at 6:30, and got back to Alice's around 10:00am. It's good to be back here... we slept for a long time, did laundry, made chicken enchilada bake for dinner, and just hung out with Alice and Anthony. So, it turned out to be pretty cool.

Don't know that I'll be posting new pics in the next couple of days, as we're going to try to recuperate a little before heading to Turkey on Sunday. Thanks to all who've sent messages of love or just what's going on. I miss being able to talk to you all easily! More updates will be forthcoming.

With love and sand...

Trip Photos and where are you people?

So, the photos have been interesting to deal with. As you may have noticed, they're currently posted in three different places: Flickr, Kodak Gallery, and now Picasa. I think the Picasa format may work the best for me personally, and I'll let you see them, but only if you leave me comments. It's a lot of work to travel, blog, and post photos at regular intervals and even my own mother isn't e-mailing me.

So, enough preaching... photos from the cruise up to now are available at Picasa. You'd best comment or otherwise send me messages of love. :)

Back to Cairo tonight... on to Turkey Sunday! Home in 2 weeks.

Luxor Temple/Call to Prayer

So, this is the road of sphinxes (or "Sphinxy" as I like to call him/her/it... a subtle tribute to When Harry Met Sally) in front of the Luxor Temple. In the background, you can hear the call to prayer resonating from the surrounding mosques... I think this was the fifth call of the day. It usually starts around 5:00am and there are 5 at varying times throughout the day.

Guess who's back

Hello all! Greetings from Aswan! Our cruise has been MARVELOUS (and I'm back to health now, so mostly all is well with the world).

This is going to be a quick and dirty post, as we've got to get back over to the boat very soon... I have a whole slew of photos that are being uploaded to Kodak. I should be able to get online aghain this evening to continue that upload and update you on all that.

Our tour group is a lovely bunch of folks--there are 7 of us (4 from the US and 3 from The Netherlands) and our less-than-lovely tour guide. I mean, he's fine, but he's sort of annoying and sexist (like most all Egyptian men). We've had such a great time on the boat and are looking forward to our last few days in Egypt before heading to Turkey on Sunday.

OK, so I'm going to run back to the boat and post more this evening before dinner. Much love and big hugs to you all!!!!!

Ramses' Revenge

My, my, but it's been a long 20 hours or so.


It seems that something at the fancy restaurant on the Nile where we had dinner last evening did not sit so well with my delicate American digestive system. I am feeling more like myself now, thanks to fabulous prescriptions medications (which are delivered to your home without even having to see a doctor), the food of infants (popsicles, pudding, apple juice, and saltines have gotten me through the day), and the kind consideration of my friends.


Since our respective others are away in foreign lands, Anissa and I have decided we're sort of like a couple on this trip. Indeed, she was there to bring me "a cup of water in the night" all last evening (actually cups of club soda & apple juice). Then, though she hardly got any sleep, either, Anissa spent the day touring the Egyptian Museum and several mosques with a tour guide (who apparently was drop dead gorgeous). I spent the day in bed/in the bathroom, moaning. It was anything but gorgeous.

However, I'll tell you that God really knew what was up with our scheduling today. We were supposed to be on an overnight train bound for Luxor by this point in the evening, but instead will be flying there (tomorrow morning at 7:00am). So, if I had to be sick, at least it happened while we were still here in Alice's lovely and comfortable home, which has an abundance of medications and child foods, and not stuck on some ratty train, tiny boat, or questionable hotel.

Since we'll be cruising the Nile from tomorrow until next Wednesday, I'm guessing that blogging will be limited. As soon as we're again near a computer, I'll update you on our comings and goings throughout the land. Also, photos have been somewhat challenging to upload--you may have to be content with the pyramid shots for now (though those from the Coptic church are so delicious that I can hardly wait to post them).

Much love and happy tummy thoughts to all... I'll be in touch as soon as I can. :)

Tourism and Real Life, Egyptian-Style

OK, so something bizarre has happened to my e-mail. It's all disappeared. If you sent me any messgaes of love in the last 24-36 hours (which you surely should have), then they've somehow disappeared into the void. Perplexing, yes, I know.



So we saw about... 9? 11? pyramids yesterday. Today's tour guide, Ayman (on whom I may have the slightest major crush) informed us that there are 110 pyramids still in existence in Egypt.

Anyhow, Ayman the tour guide (our driver's name was also Ayman) took us around Coptic Cairo--the part of the city where some of the oldest Christian churches in the world are. It was pretty cool--the main church is 1200 years old (although Ayman was sure to remind us numerous times that there had been many, many restorations, so that parts of the church were 1200 years old and other parts relatively new by standards of Egyptian history).

We also visited a synagogue, a Greek Orthodox church, and a crypt where the Holy Family supposedly hung out for a while when passing through Egypt. We then took a stroll aorund a sort of "normal" neighborhood, where we were the only tourists in the area. It was nice to see.

This afternoon we booked our travel arrangements to Luxor/Aswan/back to Cairo. We're going to fly, as we couldn't pay for train tickets with our credit cards. Lame.

Anyway, we're headed now to the Khan (a big street market), then are going out tonight with some of Aice's girlfriends to (a) see the sun set from a fellucca on the Nile (b) have drinks and dinner.

HERE!

Hey everybody!

So after a long day (day and a half? two days?) of travelling, Anissa and I have arrived safely and soundly at Alice's lovely home in Cairo. Here are some things you should know about this trip thus far:

-my style of the trip has been named "Tousled Safari." When the pictures start appearing, you'll understand.

-We slept the whole flight from Chicago to London, thank you very much. I tried to watch There Will Be Blood (aka: Will There Be Blood?) en route, but that didn't go over so well.

-I am pretty darn closed to finished with High Fidelity.

-London's Heathrow airport is just kind of gross.

-After a short walk off the plane in Cairo, we were met by our expeditor, who indeed got us through immigration, customs, and all with lightning speed. We were then passed off to our driver [and I was reminded of a great number of midnight arrivals I've made to various countries... perhaps most interesting among them were Costa Rica--where I was met by a man with a cell phone; on the other line was a woman who told me this man would be driving me 2+ hours into the jungle {in the middle of the night, mind you}, and that I should trust him. I did and all was well-- Taiwan-- similar situation, except without the jungle, but no language whatsoever-- and Mexico (I think... somewhere where I was with a friend and I sat in the front and yammered away with the driver en español while my friend sat silently in the back the duration of the drive). Anyway, these are all long stories within themselves.

The gem of tonight's drive was that the playlist of the ride included the following songs (I am not, and likely could not, make this up):

1. "I Have Nothing" - Whitney Houston
2. "Lady" - Kenny Rogers
3. "I WIll Always Love You" - Whitney Houston
4. "My Heart Will Go On" - Celine Dion
5. "Breathe" - LeeAnn Rimes

I don't know what's more surprising, that this was the music that welcomed us to the Middle East, or that I knew the words to all of those songs [sad, but true].

Anyway, it's 2:30am, I'm stinky, and we're being picked up to tour the pyramids at 10:00am [it is an 8-hour time difference, J]. I'll post again when I can!

Mid-east may not be the right term

So, this is my travelblog for Egypt and Turkey, 2008. I depart on May 5, but have had some requests to let people know what my general itinerary will be before the departure. Voila, the lovely sidebar calendar, from whence one may glean a general idea of our comings and goings (or at least have an idea of where in the world I'll be sleeping at night).

Please check back throughout May for updates on travel, anecdotes, adventures, photos, and all the greatness you've come to expect from mjp.

:)