I'm in Garmisch right now and it's absolutely beautiful, so I've got to sit here and try to write as much as I can about Egypt before my bicycle seduces me and I end up out side rolling around. I promise to do my best but I can only realistically hold out for maybe 30-45 minutes at most then the sun and the birds will have won me over.
Well... the bicycle won that battle a bit quicker than I had expected it to. About 5 minutes after writing the beginning of this post I looked out the window and then shut the computer. So I'm back now it's almost dark the night before I leave on my bike trip and I'm still completely unpacked, I've really got to get my shit together. However I still need to write about Egypt and at very least just get some pics up.
I'm not sure how to best describe my experiences in Egypt, the country had a bit of everything, there were times when I felt happy and free totally in awe of what I was looking at, and others where I was so pissed I would have killed children. Thankful though I kept a pretty level mind during the whole trip so no children actually were choked. I first arrived at the airport in Cairo with only a map drawn on a yellow sticky note to guide me. I had talked to a lady in Istanbul who had visited Cairo before and she armed me with a bit of knowledge about what to do when I arrived. Not much though, I knew there was a bus from the airport to downtown and from there I should be able to find a place to rest my head using my sticky note. So I headed out of the airport and listened to the cabbies tell me there was no bus and that the station been destroyed so the buses weren't running anymore, all lies of course. I found the bus station and only then realized that Arabic numbers are quite a bit different than the ones we do, so finding a bus using numbers was out of the question. I did meet a really cool kid though who helped me get on the right bus and to downtown. After I was were I needed to be finding a place was very cheap and not really a problem. The only other exciting event of the evening was eating the local food dish Koshari. Koshari is a weird mix of pasta, rice, spaghetti sauce and a whole lot of other shit that without whit's help I can't really explain. It was super spicy though, the guy who recommended it said that I would need 2 liters of water to eat a bowl. He obviously didn't know I keep that shit scharf (spicy). After one bowl I was in love and ate little else other than Koshari and Falafel off the street for the rest of the week. Not to mention a whole meal with a drink was about a dollar, very nice on the wallet.
That Amstel Zero is non-alcoholic and tasted like cotton candy, it was nasty. I didn't realize it wasn't a real beer until the first sip.
My second day in Cairo started very early, I was stirred awake by Egypt's favorite alarm, huge flies. Something about a fly trying to get into your nose while your half asleep just makes me feel ready for the day. After a bit of breakfast I headed out to Giza on the train to see the Pyramids. When you leave the train station you can see them looming in the distance, you start to realize then how big they actually are, but it isn't until you get right up next to them that you're totally blown away by their size and age. The whole morning I could barely believe I was actually there, I kept spinning around in circles smiling the whole time trying to make sure that I took it all in.
I know I suck but... I had to pack and eat and now it's 1 am and I've got to get some sleep before I wake up tomorrow and have to ride 160 + km with my heavy ass bike. I'm going to throw some pics up and I'll try to write a but more when we hit an Inet cafe on our ride.
Cut a hole in my backpack to get some pics of the
bazzar this pic above is of the back pack.
Well... the bicycle won that battle a bit quicker than I had expected it to. About 5 minutes after writing the beginning of this post I looked out the window and then shut the computer. So I'm back now it's almost dark the night before I leave on my bike trip and I'm still completely unpacked, I've really got to get my shit together. However I still need to write about Egypt and at very least just get some pics up.
I'm not sure how to best describe my experiences in Egypt, the country had a bit of everything, there were times when I felt happy and free totally in awe of what I was looking at, and others where I was so pissed I would have killed children. Thankful though I kept a pretty level mind during the whole trip so no children actually were choked. I first arrived at the airport in Cairo with only a map drawn on a yellow sticky note to guide me. I had talked to a lady in Istanbul who had visited Cairo before and she armed me with a bit of knowledge about what to do when I arrived. Not much though, I knew there was a bus from the airport to downtown and from there I should be able to find a place to rest my head using my sticky note. So I headed out of the airport and listened to the cabbies tell me there was no bus and that the station been destroyed so the buses weren't running anymore, all lies of course. I found the bus station and only then realized that Arabic numbers are quite a bit different than the ones we do, so finding a bus using numbers was out of the question. I did meet a really cool kid though who helped me get on the right bus and to downtown. After I was were I needed to be finding a place was very cheap and not really a problem. The only other exciting event of the evening was eating the local food dish Koshari. Koshari is a weird mix of pasta, rice, spaghetti sauce and a whole lot of other shit that without whit's help I can't really explain. It was super spicy though, the guy who recommended it said that I would need 2 liters of water to eat a bowl. He obviously didn't know I keep that shit scharf (spicy). After one bowl I was in love and ate little else other than Koshari and Falafel off the street for the rest of the week. Not to mention a whole meal with a drink was about a dollar, very nice on the wallet.
That Amstel Zero is non-alcoholic and tasted like cotton candy, it was nasty. I didn't realize it wasn't a real beer until the first sip.
My second day in Cairo started very early, I was stirred awake by Egypt's favorite alarm, huge flies. Something about a fly trying to get into your nose while your half asleep just makes me feel ready for the day. After a bit of breakfast I headed out to Giza on the train to see the Pyramids. When you leave the train station you can see them looming in the distance, you start to realize then how big they actually are, but it isn't until you get right up next to them that you're totally blown away by their size and age. The whole morning I could barely believe I was actually there, I kept spinning around in circles smiling the whole time trying to make sure that I took it all in.
I know I suck but... I had to pack and eat and now it's 1 am and I've got to get some sleep before I wake up tomorrow and have to ride 160 + km with my heavy ass bike. I'm going to throw some pics up and I'll try to write a but more when we hit an Inet cafe on our ride.
Cut a hole in my backpack to get some pics of the
bazzar this pic above is of the back pack.
No comments:
Post a Comment