Read On!

Courrier international is one of my favourite means of learning about what is
out there besides GQ mag.
I love the fact that I get to learn about topics that are rarely discussed
in North American media,so insular, they put the I in island.
Basically, it is a French The Economist.

Pyramids and Churches

Hello everyone,



Since the last time I sent an email, I have been to Cairo twice. The first trip, I went to Coptic Cairo, the oldest part of town where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived in peace for centuries.I was able to visit the oldest synagogue in Egypt, built inside a 4th century church.Since it was Friday, I also witnessed a bit of a Coptic mass.

The Coptic churches are very dark inside and they are full of candles.It was beautiful to see. I also saw and touched the chains that held St Georges, an important

saint for Coptics and patron saint of England.

I tried to go to the Coptic museum but it was closed for restoration. I hoped back on the metro and I walked a bit by the Nile. I would say it's as large as St Lawrence river.

My objective was to find a boat serving as a bus that would bring me to another part of town. After a few minutes, I gave up and I just walked to my next destination, Manial Palace Museum. It's one of the many royal palaces of the late Royal family. These people really lived "large". It's actually quite shocking to see the difference between the endless rooms full of treasures and the common Egyptian hut.

After so much bling bling, I went to the Cairo Tower, it's a big tower in the middle of an island with a revolving restaurant at the top. I took a bunch of pictures but somehow,

all these beautiful pictures failed to show when i developped the film. I was not too happy about this. I also tried to go to 2 other museums that were closed once again for

restoration. After all this walking around I gave up and went back to Alexandria.

A few days later, I was ready to leave Alexandria for good. I took a taxi to go to the city. On our way, I was hungry and we stopped at a bedouin restaurant.

I was sitting on the floor on cushions and having spaghetti with mutton. It was pretty good!

Since the company was paying this time around, I stayed at Le Meridien Pyramids in front of the Giza Pyramids. The plan was to see the laser show at night.

Well, I was so tired that I mostly slept that afternoon and didn't leave my room. My room had no view. It was a change from my Alexandria room with the stunning view of the Meditterenean Sea.

The next day, I ventured to the Citadel, a huge complex overlooking the city. There a bunch of (beautiful ) mosques there and the weirdest museums as well.

Fierfighting museum, police museum, military museum, that one was huge! I think Egypt spends a lot of money on its military since they seemed to have all the new

One funny thing, happened, I met once again the boy who had brought me to the minaret my last trip. What are the odds in a city of 20 million people. It's a nice I had been there long enough.

I am really happy about this experience I went through. Not everything was rosy but for the most part, it was great! Egyptian people have the biggest hearts and i felt comfortable most of the time. I picked a lil arabic now. Out of all these beautiful sites I saw over the weeks, I cannot say which one was the most impressive.

Maybe the Giza Pyramids but just seeing how the people lived and walking the dirty little streets were as exciting.gadgets.

There, I met up with a MIT student on holiday, who used to be part of NSBE, Her name is Danielle and after talking a bit, we realized that we knew some people in common (like yourself Galen). The more the merrier so we ended up meeting with her friends and we all went to Khan Al Khalili, a huge bazaar where you can find anything. It's really a maze outthere and there are some streets where they only sell scales for instance. It's weird. The people selling their stuff are not shy at all. Some of them are downright hilarious. Girls get extra attention for sure... I wouldn't not advise a girl to go there by herself. They kept calling my friends "chocolata"and were trying to pick them up like 12 year olds. Jewelry is very cheap there. I bought a silver chain with my name in hieroglyphs for less than 10$....

I'd advise anyone to go to Egypt, it's cheap and safe. Maybe one day, I will return since there is so much I haven't seen yet like Nubia, the Red Sea,etc....

Thank you for being an appreciative audience.Over the weeks, I will add much more pics. I have 5 cds full of pics but this will have to wait till next week until I arrive in Calgary.





http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4288356397



Shukran gazilan ( thank you very much)

Happy New Year...

Ralph


Hello faithful readers,
I hope you all enjoyed the New Year's Celebration. I managed to get 2 days free this time around and ventured to Cairo, once again. Now that I knew my way around the metropolis, I was able to enjoy it
much more. On Wednesday night, I arrived in the city and stay at my cheap hotel of choice.
I declined to go to this New Year's eve party that was not cheap at all (300LE , about 50$US ). I am sure you all partied on my behalf!:-)
The next day, I went to the postal museum in Cairo ( I used to be a nerd who collected stamps) and met up with a friend .
We went exploring Islamic Cairo, the old neighbourhood of Cairo.
It felt like turning back the clock. Many of the streets in this area have not changed since 1200.
We went to the oldest university in the world, Al Azhar Mosque where the Qran is still taught centuries later.
There are still students there and it is a huge building with 3 minarets, the towers used by the imans for the prayer calls.
Not far, there is this huge bazaar selling all kinds of stuff from sheeshas to Toutankhamon t-shirts. Most of it is garbage.
We started walking in the area, trying to share the muddy road with the donkeys, mopeds and cars. I had this guidebook and I couldn't believe how much history was cramped in such a relatively small place.
There were wikalas, hotels for the caravan travellers and their camels, old houses with very nice windows and ton of mosques. On our way, we met up with this 14 yr old boy who started to show us a book about his neighborhood. He gave us somewhat inaccurate directions for a site and 5 minutes later, we met up with him again "by accident". Usually, I would have brushed him off but he was very friendly and harmless ( crime rate is almost inexistent in Egypt). He brought us to an old mosque and we got to climb the top of the minaret at night . Usually, they are closed at night but here, with small change, anything is possible.
The climb was tough and as I was touching the walls, I was glad the staircase was pitch black. It was very grimy. However, when I arrived at the top, the view of the city was amazing. It was so beautiful to see all these minarets and the skyscrapers from afar.
The mosque was built with remains of an Egyptian temple.

Afterwards, we followed our improvised guide and saw the outer walls of Cairo, still standing after 1000 years.
Right away from the walls, there is the weirdest thing in Cairo. 1000s of people now live inside a cemetery. They call it the city of the dead. Their houses have numbers
and they use the tombs to sit, be goal posts for their soccer games,etc..
I didn't take the risk to walk inside at night but it was something to see from the little I was able to see... As you can imagine,the people who live there
are not living in the lap of luxury.

It was time to leave from our little guide, I gave him like 2$ US and he was super happy. This kid deserved more. He was very knowledgeable.I entered in one and while, it was a great experience,it's not for the claustrophobic. It's a shock to see the contrast between the desert where the pyramids all are and 10 metres further, the green crops. Egypt is truly a gift of the Nile.

The next day, I took a tour to the Pyramids. One might think there are only 3 pyramids in Egypt but the truth is that there are over 20 of them, most very close to Cairo...
I saw the bent pyramid, the red pyramid, the step pyramid, the huge pyramids of Giza that are the most well-known. There was a ton of tourists as expected.
The Cheops pyramid is so big. It looks like a mountain. There are a few smaller pyramids next to the 3 main ones. I was glad I took a guide this time around
since all the sites are not close enough to walk from one place to the other. He had also tipped some of the folks in advance so they didn't bother us.
I also saw the Sphinx. It's much further from the Pyramids and I expected it to be bigger somehow. Yet, it's still very impressive. I took a lot of pics...
I also met a Dutch couple who is biking around Egypt for one month. They are even going in the desert. Maybe I can bike in the winter time if they can bike in the sand...

much more pics very soon....

Keep sending the fan mail, I appreciate it.....

Ralph