Friday Morning: 2/22/08
I am writing this initial entry from the Cairo Airport. My flight got in at 2:15 a.m. from Amsterdam, however, my flight to Luxor is not until 7:00 a.m. I had originally booked the 7 a.m. flight just incase my flight out of Amsterdam was delayed…it seemed the perfect option to avoid running around like a crazy woman in a foreign country looking for my next terminal. So here I am at 3:00 a.m. the only person in the entire terminal with the exception of some security guards who cannot speak any english, except to tell me I have pretty eyes. When I try asking questions they smile and shake their heads, but go on and on about my eyes…it is oh so helpful. At least they are friendly. They all seemed to find it HILARIOUS that I am here so early. But before I talk more about my adventures so far alone in Cairo, let’s backtrack a few days (man is my perception of time completely warped as of right now).
I left Detroit a little after 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night. The flight was wonderful…I was so exhausted that I didn’t even stay awake long enough for take off. As the plane ascended into a night adorned with a lunar eclipse, I lay asleep. I slept for most of the flight surprisingly which made it seem quick. I would wake up here and there and talk to the woman next to me. She was a physician. Upon finding this out I immediately thought about how pleased my aunts would be knowing that I was just about as safe as I could be for that flight. The woman was originally from India, though now she lives in Memphis. She was flying to India to visit her mother whom is currently ill and in the hospital. Naturally, we talked about how I will be flying out there come september as well. The most entertaining anecdote from my exchanges with her happened when the dinner cart came:
Flight Attendant: “Vegeteable Curry or Chicken” (repeats to each passenger)
Physician (to me): “But what is the curry?”
Me (utterly perplexed): “I’m sorry what?”
Physician: “He keeps saying curry, but what is it?”
Me: “…oh… the vegetarian entrée?”
Physician: “Yeah..I hear the vegetarian option, and the Chicken…but what is the curry?”
Me: “Curry…it is a spice….”
Physician: “OHHH the vegetable curry is one option…I thought there were three…Vegetable, Curry, or Chicken..but didn’t know what was supposed to be curry.”
Me: “Oh thank God…I don’t mean to be presumptuous or naïve, but I was pretty dumbfounded because I thought you were asking me what curry was…”
Physician (errupts in laughter): “Oh yes it would definitely be backwards if I was the one asking you what curry was.”
It may not seem as funny in blog format…but the idea of an Indian Woman, who was raised in India, has all of her family living in India, was asking me what curry was…it had me and her laughing pretty hard to say the least.
Like I said I slept throughout most of the flight. Last year I was completely dependent updon watching movies back to back to kill the time…this year I only watched one, Michael Clayton, and it was a very fragmented viewing since I kept falling asleep and rewinding.
So after sleeping some more I finally arrived in Amsterdam where I was met by Frank, the boyfriend of one Mary Casey, whom I met on New Years. Frank was dead set on giving me the Sparknotes cultural experience of the Dutch beginning with breakfast. After a train ride- which I sneakily boarded without a ticket and didn’t get caught- some amtraking and some walking, we stopped at a market near his apartment to pick up some dutch breakfast essentials. We then went back to his apartment and made the food. We had fruit salad (raspberries, bananas, and oranges), juice, coffee…pretty standard. But then we also had this little mini toastish/biscuity things with jam. But that by no means compared to the next two items. Apparently the Dutch really enjoy putting chocolate sprinkles on bread…they butter the bread, add the sprinkles and enjoy….and it isn’t just a matter of being crafty with sprinkles and bread, the sprinkles are actually advertised for the sole purpose of putting them on your bread in the morning
…it was pretty sweet for breakfast I thought, but it was actually kind of an interesting texture- the soft bread and the sprinkles…I don’t like butter though so I had an interesting time trying to eat and not make a mess as all of the sprinkles fell off. After that we had these other popular breakfast treats. It is two small waffle cracker/cookies with a sugary, syrup/caramel in the center. You put them in them in the microwave. They were REALLY sweet but pretty good.
After breakfast, Frank let me take a shower in what has to be the world’s smallest bathroom….I barely had enough room to get clothes back on after I was done, however, beggars can’t be choosers and I was damn glad to have a shower. We then left so that I could see some of the fun things Amsterdam has to offer (I’ll spare any build up, no I did not go into any of the “café’s” I kept this a pretty PG visit. We did visit the Anne Frank House though. We were able to walk through it and everything, walking behind the bookcase that hid the only entrance way into the area that house Anne Frank and her Family. After that we walked through some of the really expensive shopping areas of Amsterdam. I took some pictures because I really enjoyed the archtecture.
What isn’t to love about a quaint and cozy downtown with that classical/gothic character to it…inviting and welcoming…but low and behold don’t get all warm and fuzzy yet…lurking in the center of Amsterdam is none other than Death Itself…Double Death to be exact. I didn’t really figure it out, but for whatever reason, two individuals dressed as the grim reaper were collecting donations or something…what a pitch, “Donate to this cancer fundraiser so that we don’t have to go collect the dead children…” I don’t know if that was what was really going on.
I also took a picture of this man and his music box. The cane makes me think he’s blind, but my cynicism (read: intelligence) makes me think he’s not actually.
After some of my picture taking in the downtown area, Frank and I went to the Van Goh Museum, which was totally kickass even if I was verging on incoherence from jet lag. It was decided that afterwards, I could probably use nap. So nap I did, for 3 hours. When I woke up, Frank and his roommate had made dinner, a spinach pasta. When dinner was done, it was time to return to the airport and prepare for my flight into Cairo, of course not without having one more cup of European coffee.
Again, the flight was pretty speedy and easy. I slept a lot again, this time watching Atonement. I arrived to a much calmer Cairo compared to last year (which makes sense since I was getting in at 2:15 in the morning). As soon as I walked in from the shuttle bus, I saw a man holding a big sign for me. He told me exactly how to do everything, how to get my visa, where to get my luggage etc. It was kind of hard for me to understand his English, but when I told him how excited I was to be here he replied, “You have no idea what an honor it is to hear you say that.” All did not follow smoothly however. While I was most pleased with the fact that he got me through customs VERY quickly and painlessly, he was also supposed to walk me directly to the terminal for my next flight to Luxor…well he certainly walked me somewhere…and after standing in a long line for the security check in, I was told that I was at the wrong terminal, and that I had to go next door. So I did…and when I tried asking if I was in the right place, this is when I was told “No English- but those eyes, Beautiful!” So I show the guys my itenerary to see if they have any idea what’s going on (I’ve learned that most Egyptians really have no idea what is ever going on). Again they shake their heads, apologize, but then say I have pretty eyes. Finally I find someone with infromation and he basically starts freaking out, shouting in arabic about the fact that I’m so early (I’m sorry?) They agree to let me come in anyway, but tell me that I am not allowed to leave once I come in…seemed simple enough because I assumed this terminal would be connected to the rest of the airpoty (it isn’t). So here I am, in cairo airport, FREEZING. It’s only 40 degrees outside right now and whereever I am, there are open doors (despite the fact that I’m forbidden from walking out of them). I am sitting at a café…but I can’t tell if it’s open or not…a nice hot coffee would definitely be ideal right now….but I don’t know…I get the feeling if I try to ask for coffee or if the stand is open (there is a guy sitting there, but there are no lights on) there is just going to be some language barrier that will frustrate me futher. Ugh only, 4:15, still 3 hours until my flight!
Friday Night 2/22/08
Well…eventually I wound up in the right place at the right time in Cairo in order to board my flight to Luxor…I was getting pretty nervous for a bit there. I think I held it together quite well seeing as though at that point I had not had a night’s sleep in a bed since Monday evening, I was alone in a foreign country, at the wrong airport terminal, surrounded by people who did not know any English. I figured things out eventally…Check In for Egyptair was a nightmare. I was fairly certain my luggage was not going to make it to luxor. I stood in this line preparing to check my suitcase. In theory it should have been a a quick line to stand in…but sure enough for every ONE person that was in front of me, moments later, their family of 15 would come and meet them in line (hence cut in front of me) with each individual having their own bags to check…I was getting frustrated until I reminded my self that with all of these people I was just going to be waiting around somewhere until 7 anyways…doesn’t really matter if I was waiting in the luggage check in line for a long time. I got through that chaos and by 8 am I was in Luxor. I was met by Richard, and he brought me back to our hotel where I checked in. Luckily, Richard had things he had to do all day and I just got to do whatever I wanted. Now, as I said…I’m getting into luxor 8 am Friday my time, which is about 1 am Friday in Detroit and this all considering the fact that the last time I slept through the night was on Monday (and even then I’m pretty sure I only slept for around 4 hours since I know I got up that day to drive my aunt to work and use her car to run errands). So we might as well say that the last time I slept beyond a nap frame of time was Sunday Night. But I had slept a lot on my various flights and even took a 3 hour nap at Frank’s in Amsterdam, so while I was definitely tired when I got into my hotel room, I thought I would sleep for 2, maybe 3 hours tops. Richard said lunch was at noon and there was a reception party everyone was going to at 5:00. I start to get ready for my sleep…I go to pee and then when I flush…the flusher gets stuck and as a result, just never stops flushing….beautiful. I am exhausted, verging on incoherent and now I am living with the forever running toilet. Obviously this would not do, so I had to have my room changed. No problem I get settled in room 2 and I fall asleep at 9:00. I don’t bother to set my alarm because I am certain I wont sleep more than a few hours since it is the middle of the day….foolish me, I fell asleep at 9:00 only to wake up to my phone ringing at 4:00. It was Richard calling to let me know that we were meeting for the reception at 6:00 instead of 5:00. I could not believe I had slept all day. At that point I got up to take a shower. Now, for whatever reason there is no shower curtain, but at this point I just don’t care…fine, the bathroom can fucking flood for all I care…I go to start my shower and of course something breaks and the showerhead wont turn on…I’m not about to stop everything I’m doing just to change rooms again, or ask for help from the staff and be nodded and smiled at, so I just take a bath- probably the more relaxing way to go anyways. I took my shower, I got ready, met the crew at 6:15 and then we went to this rooftop party downtown.
I mingled and got to know everyone else currently working in Luxor. At around 10, I walked home with two other girls, came home and fell asleep until 3:00 am.
And that brings us to today/tonight
So i woke up at 3:00 a.m. fell back asleep by 6:00 a.m and then woke up at 1:30 p.m. At this point I decided to get up and shower. Unlike last time, a timid girl likely to opt for hanging out in my room until people from the project were back, I decided that I was not just going to sit in my room waiting around. I decided to walk around the city a bit. Luxor is a wee bit calmer than Cairo, obviously its not nearly as densly populated, but it is pretty similar...everyone asking you to shop in their bazaar or get in their taxi, or carriage...everyone asking you to give them money more or less. After walking around I ran into mary ann, recall that I worked with her last year, she is the ethnobotanist. She was taking some students to the office to look at some charred plant remains under a microscope. I tagged along and afterwards found Richard in the hotel lobby. We agreed to meet up in a little bit and he took me around Luxor, showing me where Luxor temple, the winter palace, and karnak temple were. He bought me an excellent guide book on luxor for me to use. I am waiting on my antiquities pass (the neatness that allows me to get into every site for free) before I explore the monuments around here. I will take plenty of pictures and provide ample explanations for those interested. Hopefully Monday, I can go off to Luxor temple on my own, as well to karnak temple (about a 2 mile walk) and then on Tuesday or Wednesday, Richard will go with me to the West bank and to see the Valley of the Kings and der el Bahri. If i get bored enough tomorrow, i will take pictures of my hotel room and talk about that for a bit so that you can get the full experience of my stay. I'm only here until Friday evening and then I head back to Giza. I thought I started working that following Saturday, but I will actually have Saturday off and will begin work on Sunday March 1st.
There...plenty of reading material for you all. Ma salama!
1 comment:
I was kind of expecting you to tell us that maggot toast was a specialty in Amsterdam...that's really what I thought that was a picture of at first...maggot covered toast...
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