Egypt in Three Kingdoms- From the Nile to the Red Sea

Early Kingdom: Act 1

 

 It was our first official well deserved semester break. Two weeks of freedom and we rode the magic carpet to Egypt. We booked our tour through Imaginative Travel, and our agenda was set. Arriving in Cairo late in the afternoon we had our first bargain with three different taxis. If you go to Egypt, rule number one, never take the

first price (or the fourth for that matter) on any purchase. We accepted the cheapest ride and headed into Cairo. Cairo is like NewYork city on steroids! With 20 million and only rule of the road, survival of the fittest. It's crazy. We settled into our hotel and prepared for our first adventure in Islamic Cairo.

Our first day was a walking tour of old Islamic Cairo. Taking the Metro (subway) and walked the back alleys where tourist rarely venture. We were met by curious faces and welcoming eyes.







 







We stopped for the best falafel in town,  hand made and without a store front. After winding our way out of the  dirt alleys, we toured the ancient city dwellings and the Islamic bazaar and started haggling for prices. We walked back along one of the busiest streets in the world at rush hour to find the Metro station at last. A full day deserves a cold Stella beer, an Egyptian local brew.







The next day was packed with sites. Starting early again we had a guided tour of the Cairo Museum. Extremely educational and overwhelming to see the antiquities of the Pharaohs. These were truly advanced artisans, engineers and craftsmen.

                                                               
Boarding a small bus we were off to the great Pyramids Giza. Now we can say we've been inside the Pyramids-Wow!

and of course the Sphinx! Amazing!

At the hotel we packed our bags again and headed to the train station for an overnight rail south to Aswan. This was business class seats, big and lounging. Of course they were last cleaned in 1975, but it was a smooth ride. We did our best to sleep with visions of mummies dancing in our heads.

Day 3
 

 Arriving in Aswan we found our next hotel and boarded a tiny boat for the island of Philae and the Temple of Isis. The temple, once buried in the Nile, now sits in its new location and we had a beautiful sunny morning to explore it with an informative guide. 

 As we hit the the main land we all decided we had not had enough of the Nile and choose to have lunch on a felucca and spend the afternoon sailing. This felluca was a huge futon, with reggae, sunshine and relaxation. Laid back...We sailed for a few hours and docked on the west bank to climb the sand dunes and get a birds eye view of Aswan. 

Another full day had not ended- there was still the bazaar in the evening and we took a ride to a perfumery to get some local essential oils. Now you know a day like this deserves a beer!

In Egypt, sleeping is for mummies!

Act II- We head to the Sudan border.....stay tuned!

Camel Wrestling... "we gotta see this"

  

      Mating season for camels is mid-winter and to celebrate this event Turkey hosts camel wrestling festivals. We heard of one near Selçuk and decided it was a must. We rented our first Turkish car, packed the picnic basket, grabbed some friends and headed south along the Aegean.  Now we had  of the same thoughts....What is camel wrestling - our first question..."is it like a cock fight", "do the camels get hurt, "is this dangerous"? These are all good questions, but most importantly, our biggest concern on the drive down... "Do they wrestle if it's raining." Answer is No! Mostly the two bulls half-heartedly butt each other and lean on the other until one of them gives in and runs away and so to the victor goes the she-camel. Apparently the fun part is the losing camel runs off, usually through the crowd and everyone must scatter.  We will have to tell you about it another time because they do not wrestle in the rain.

It was Sunday  and we were driving along the coast on a road similar to US101 when we heard the camel news-"cancelled due to rain". Well, we had a car and all of Turkey. We stopped into Ephesus and headed towards the caves of the Seven Sleepers. Legend has it seven persecuted christians took refuge in these caves outside of Ephesus and the emperor sealed the cave. 150-200 years latter the caves were opened by an earthquake and the sleepers awoke to find crosses on building and there coins from Decius worthless.

Anywho, it was raining when we stopped to see the caves. We gave a quick look at the dwelling cave houses and sat in the huts nearby for tea and gozleme. Gozleme is a flat bread, hand rolled with wood dowels, stuffed with cheese, spinach, or anything you'd like. It's cooked on metal pan over open fire and is delicious!!







Then we decided to head towards Tire (tear-A). Tire is known for its hand made production of felt. It is one of the few places in Turkey that is still producing felted products. Decorative pads, slippers, handbags, and a few local  modern artists are taking the traditional techniques to create large scale landscape and abstracts. We drove around and found the felting quarter and had a look around.

In an antique shop while drinking tea we were told of an artist that lived in the owners storage house for a few months. He showed us a stack of Fatih Urunç paintings. Fantastic modern art. Amazing! The shop owner insisted we go with him to see his storage spaces that were packed to the rafters with all sorts of cool stuff- I mean everywhere you looked... something crazy! Talk about pack rat, but with an eye for intrigue. Below is a stack of trunks too high to fit in the frame and each one incredible and outside a yard full of fabulous pots.

 After this he insisted on taking us to his favorite place in Tire. He drove us to the original part of Tire. A short drive away and the girls put me in his car.  I heard Rena whisper she loves me(just in case!) as we drove off to this renovated wooden tea house. It sits in on a park with terraced pools and its original flour mill waterwheel. A nice place to stroll, enjoy tea and if you'd like, you can be served your breakfast at any park bench!     

 

We caped it all off with a drive to Yalı for a great fish dinner by the sea. 

Let me tell ya- Turkey is great!     

                

Hiking the Cihanbegendi Tepesi

You may remember from an earlier blog where we went hiking to Nazarcoy with Fahriye. Well, lucky us, she also runs the high school hiking club at our school. She invited us to join the hiking club on their latest adventure. We met the students at school early Saturday morning. There were only 12 students in attendance, normally a group of 30. There was testing the following week so many students stayed home to study. We drove 30 minutes outside of Izmir proper and jumped off the bus onto a quaint city square. Here we drank tea and rested before the long hike. When it was time to go we walked out of town down a street that produced less and less houses until we were in the woods. In Turkey, there really are not hiking paths and you end up following goat/shepherd trails or hunting paths.

This hike was a combination of both. It took us 2 and half hours to reach the top of Cihanbegendi Tepesi. To see the top of Cihanbegendi Tepesi, see the picture to the right. A couple of times we had to blow a whistle to warn both hunters and the wild boars that we were coming. Once we reached the peak we rested and enjoyed our sack lunches. The view from the top was great. we could almost see all of Izmir and could hear the tinkering of goat bells far below in the valley.  The students were great! They were talkative, playful and interested in their surroundings. After lunch we began our two hour decent back to town. Once in town we enjoyed more tea and snacks and headed back to school. It was a great day. Its hard to believe how much hiking we have done here compared to Seattle, were there is so much hiking  (and with clearly marked paths). The next hiking trip with the club is to a place called Goat Castle in February. check back for details. Thanks for reading our blog and looking at the pictures.

Karaburun New Years-WOW!

 

We have always enjoyed getting out of the city for New Years and 2010 boast our furthest destination. 6220 miles from Seattle -as the crow flies. There were four of us in tow- Gary, Rena, Sarah M. (you've may remember from such trips as Cappidocia) and a new friend Laurie (whom we met on the bus one day). A fine traveling tribe.

We took a dolmuş, or minibus or literal translated-stuffed. Stuffed is probably the most correct. Don't get me wrong it's a comfortable ride and, to some places in Turkey, it's the only option.  We rode until the end of the line- Karaburun which translates as' black nose". It is a beautiful seaside village located on a peninsula about a 2 hour west of Izmir. 

We stayed on a hillside house with a lookout view of the Aegean Sea. The weather was sunny and warm, 15-20˚C but Eurus was blowing his fierce east winds.  Each evening was lit by the light of the moon including a slight eclipse on New Years eve. As the evening cooled we gathered around the hearth.                                                  

We realized we could not bbq on the grill with such evil winds, so here you can see our solution. A couple roof tiles to prop up the grill and problem yok, lamb chop grilled slow to perfection!

We spent new years eve, like most folks, eating, drinking, and playing games. When the clock stuck 12 we were on the balcony ringing in the new year with pots and pans!! Somethings never change.

On New Years day we had to do some relaxing. We strolled around the village's marina and sat on the dock. We meandered along the shore to picked up some rocks, some for keepsake and others to just to enjoy before making a splash. By afternoon it was again happy hour again. We were invited  to another friends home for cocktails in the village of Saip.  Now, if we had known we could have taken an ancient Roman road straight to their backyard! (R photo) They have built a beautiful home and this is there backyard. Can you see the ruins? (L photo)

Saturday the 2nd we headed back to that jaw-dropping mountain. We had a few of Laurie's Turkish colleges visiting for the day hike. This could be the best hike we have ever been on. Words can not describe.....so here are some shots of day hike -çok güzel!  Enjoy!

"When you find the sycamore tree near the artesian spring follow the goat trail up."
                           - words of advice from the shepherd.

 

What more can be said in 2010 but.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

OR

MUTLU YILLAR!