More and More Adventures

After many e-mails and verbal threats asking me to update my blog, I've decided to take some time, sit in front of the computer and bring it on!!!

Many things have happened in these past few weeks, some pleasant and some unpleasant, don't worry though; I am safe and sound and adapting to the Cairo Culture!!!!! As what I've been though is too long to list right now, I am going to start by updating you on my travel adventures around the never ending splendors of Egypt.

Islamic Cairo
Once again this is a part of the big city which I will never get sick of!!!!! It is the most authentic area in Egypt, which does not only contain muddy and grubby streets allies, with people shouting and playing in the streets, vegetables still sold on donkey carts, and food made in the old traditional way, but there are also the most stunning Mosques I have ever seen. As soon as you walk into these mosques you feel an air of tranquility, the majestic splendor makes you (or rather me) feel closer to God and feel more aware of what you are and who you are. It does not feel as though you are in the heart of the most chaotic city in the world!!!! Totally breath-taking!!!

Donkey drawn cart selling carrots

Islamic Cairo also has one of the most preserved Islamic Houses, with its authentic balconies and little courtyard. As soon as you step into the house, you can feel the past, you can almost hear the hosts entertaining their guests, feel the women looking through the peepholes in the windows, and feel the family ties as generations and generations of a family live all under one roof.

Preparing for prayer An Islamic House

It was a great excursion organized by one of the Cairo LCs which ended up with lunch in Khan el Khalili and a Felucca ride down the Nile!!!

Al Alamain
Finally thanks to the Alex LC I got to go to the place I have been wanting to go to for ages!!! – Al Alamain – most notable as the place where the Allied forces of WW II gained a decisive victory of the Axis forces. This place is around 103Km West of Alex and now harbors WW II Cemeteries, a War Museum and a beautiful beach!!

We thus started off by visiting the British Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers who fought under the British were buried!!! It was interesting to see the tombstones, read the names of the people and see their age, and it was shocking to discover that half of the people buried there were not even as old as me!!! The age ranges from 16 to 33!!!

A visit to the museum was next on the agenda, where we not only jumped up and down old war tanks, and planes, but we also got to see and understand how intricate it was to fight in the ruthless conditions of the Sahara Desert!!!

I also discovered that Malta played a massive role in making sure the Nile is well protected:-

Rosetta
Rosetta is another town I really wanted to go to!! It is a typical tranquil and highly green town with vast gardens, orchards and date-palm plantations. In addition it contains a multitude of beautiful historical houses, inns, and mosques adorned with exquisite decorative inscriptions and woodworks.

Moreover, Rosetta is a part of the Delta region, that is, where the Nile meets with the Mediterranean Sea.

We started off with a coffee over looking the Nile, after which we enjoyed a felucca ride to what they Rosetta people called the floating Mosque (don't put your expectations to high, its just a Mosque next to the river!!)

The floating Mosque

We then went hoped into the car and drove to the actual Delta, to where the Nile, which carried the Pharos to Heaven, finally reaches its destination and encounters, the Mediterranean which has see hundreds of battles and also carried afloat one too many dead bodies. I stood at a point where I could see my two favorite bodies of water!!! It was cool to see the waves the encounter creates, and to see the change in color within the two waters.

The Delta The cool Rosetta Taxis

Finally we went on a tour round the city which was distinctive in character. There were 22 Islamic houses, with vast reception rooms, decorative inscriptions, domes and densely ornamented doors.

Finally it is good to know that Rosetta is also the place where they discovered the famous Rosetta Stone, a black basalt slab bearing an inscription that was the key to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics and thus to the foundation of modern Egyptology.

The immediate importance of the Rosetta stone lies in the fact that the Egyptian hieroglyphic text was accompanied by the Greek translation which could be read. A third inscription on the stone was written in Demotic, a cursive script developed late in Egyptian history and used almost exclusively for secular documents. Thus the stone displayed the same text in three scripts, but only two languages, Egyptian and Greek.

It was quickly discovered that all three contained the same message. The Greek could be translated immediately, so providing clues to the others.

Mount Sinai and Basata
The last place I have been too will forever be embedded in my memories!!! Tom, Brodie, Arthur and I went on a 3 day mission of total physical exhaustion to total physical and mental relaxation.

We ventured off to the peninsula of Sinai, and thus decided to go and see sunset on the top of Mount Sinai (the place where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments). Little did we know that this involved a 3hr climb around the mountain and 30 min of horrible satanic stairs!!!! Tom and I, obviously the most fit of the four (note the sarcasm) almost hoped that Moses would rise out of the dead and carry us to the top. We started at around midnight, and it was a smooth climb for the 1st 2hrs, and we started feeling the tiredness coming over us, and we could not feel our limbs anymore!! We then dragged ourselves to the bottom of the stairs, and climb the stairs to get to the peak resting once every 5 stairs!!! We eventually made it to the top to find thousands of tourists young and old, nuns and priests waiting for the sun to come up! It was a great view, the colors of the sunrise reflecting on the red Sinai mountains was breathtaking, and thus at 5am, we decided to head down the mountain to our next destination.

The view from the top of the Mountain

The tempting Camel and the view of St Katherine Monastary

We then decided to take the other way which meant 3725 stairs down the mountain!!!! Easier said than done!!!!!!

The exhaustion was then rewarded with 2 days of ultimate bliss in paradise – Basata!!!! What else could you wish for, a place where mobile phones are banned, and where you could spend the day either lying in the sun, or snorkeling and seeing the color reefs of the red sea, and the most amazing and colorful fish I had ever seen!!!!

Can you beleive i was actually lying and swimming there!!!

Egypt and its splendours!! How could I ever get sick of them!!!