“I’ve decided that Toronto would be a good place to finish my studies.”
“That’s great! But… you do know, it gets cold there.”
” …right. Snow, cold, yada yada.”
He paused and looked me straight in the eye as I passed him the salad bowl. “No.. It gets cold there.”
“I know! I know! I’ll have to buy a better coat.”
He stopped everything, took a long pause and burned a hole through my head with the seriousness in his stare and said, “You don’t know. It gets COLD.”
“…um.”

Well, he was right. A San Franciscan has no business living in Toronto.

Day One: What do you mean it takes 18 hours to get out of Ontario!?!?

First thing in the morning I grab Mr. Gray’s fancy harness and pop him in the truck with the both of us. The vet recommended that we keep him in a carrier with food, water, and some sedation to keep him less stressed… but being the crazy outdoor stray that he actually is we decided that he was more stressed out in the carrier than out, so we set up a nice pillow for him in between us and he turned out to be an angel. So off we went on our trek.

Going through the states with a cube van full of the three of us and all our belongings, regardless of the fact that it would’ve taken fewer days, was something that we decided might’ve been more trouble than it’s worth (customs is that much more annoying these days). So, going around Lake Superior was the thing to do. Obviously the universe wanted us to really hate Ontario by the time we left it so that we’d know we were making the right decision. We managed to get pulled over twice— once for speeding (and we were, so we deserved that) and once for not having a logbook. Wait, what…? Isn’t that only required for commercial drivers on a job? If he gave us a ticket for that then he’d have to give tickets to RVs and passenger cars who didn’t have logbooks. Well, he decided to take advantage of the fact that it would be near impossible for us to get back to Thunder Bay, ON to contest it so I guess he figured that we’d be like most Ontarians and just pay it even though there was no reason to give it to us. Douchebag. We’re not paying it, and instead launching a formal complaint against him. Ugh, there I go again…

Anyway, we stayed for the first night near Timmins, ON, which is just where it started to look like what Canada is supposed to look like.

Day Two: Okay, let’s aim to be in Manitoba for the night!

Fat chance. At least this arm of the trip was nice to look at… Northern Ontario is straight out beautiful. Nothing but trees and forest and more trees and forest. I got very excited because we kept seeing those cute yellow “moose crossing” signs. We managed to see one (very large) moose hanging out in the middle of the road at one point— he was just chilling out there and didn’t seem too phased about the large white truck that was slowing down in front of him (he was easily taller than the cab of the truck) but freaked out and ran into the bush once a bicyclist came up on the opposite side of the hill/road. I was too slow with my camera to take a decent picture.

The closer we got to Thunder Bay, Ontario, the prettier and more hilly it became. I’ve never seen so many lakes in one place in my entire life. The entire landscape looked like this picture to the right. I could definitely live there for the beauty, but that’s about it. No worries, I would soon be living in Vancouver— one of the most desirable places to live in the world, according to some polls I keep hearing referenced but still don’t know where they actually come from.

We also managed to see what I think must be the world’s largest Loon (though it’s missing all the pretty speckles that dapple the back of the actual bird, which sucks big time). I don’t remember what the name of the town we found it in was called, but it was very tiny and it was on Canada route 1 and hard to miss. Yes, you are in Canada now, kids.

By the end of the day we just barely made it to Kenora, Ontario. Whew… I wondered if we took the long way but no, it does actually take somewhere from 18-20 hours to get out of the province of Ontario. They weren’t kidding. In any case, we crashed and geared up for a major push the next day.

Day Three: Four Provinces in One Day! Beat That!

The next morning we awoke early and set up fresh kitty litter for the big push. Finally, we made it out of Ontario. We seriously were beginning to think that it couldn’t be done. I was pleased with the “Welcome to Manitoba” sign because it was shaped like the province. Unfortunately that was the only interesting province sign there was on the entire trip. Lame! In any case, Manitoba is a pretty… flat place. Everyone kept telling us that but really, it’s exactly the same as my dad telling me that I really don’t know anything about cold. That said, it was still fun to drive through, and we could see Winnipeg from a distance. PS: I had no idea that perogies were such a staple in the prairies.

Next we went through Saskatchewan, another very flat province. Unlike Manitoba, there were virtually no trees whatsoever but it was definitely more interesting. We passed salt flats which pressed on for miles in the distance. That’s a lot of salt… The amount of salt there was could probably season the dinners of every person in the world at least for a week. That is a good example of something that I definitely didn’t expect from Saskatchewan. Another surprise was just how beautiful flat can be when you’ve got a nice sunset. Epic!

We drove right through Regina and Moosejaw (Moosejaw having not only one of the coolest names, but probably the biggest moose statue in the world. This trip is all about oversized Canadian animal statues), and we can safely say that we got a feel for the town by driving through. According to my handy dandy Canada Lonely Planet guide, there’s a tonne of cool history revolving around Moosejaw (and consequently some cool things to do to learn about that cool history) so I’m sorry that we weren’t able to make the trip more of a mosey through the country rather than a straight move, but it was important not to stress out Mr. Gray too much. Although as you can see here he obviously didn’t care much about most things that were going on during the trip…

Day 3.5: Mr. Gray’s Escape

We stopped for the night in Medicine Hat, Alberta, which turned out to be quite the party town. It didn’t help that we were there on a Saturday night and that we had all had a long day, but Mr. Gray was really ready to be outside and not be in the truck any more so he was threatening to bolt. I had a good grip on him until we got into the hotel room where I figured that we were buckling down and not going to have to stress the poor cat out more. That was when there was a knock at the door and before I could get a hold of the cat T opened the door and he was gone in a flash of gray! Before I realised what happened, we began to run out to get him and remembered that we were in our underwear. Throwing on clothes as fast as we could we ran out and yelled for him. There was so much traffic and chaos that it aggravated the situation unbelievably. We searched almost all night but decided that it was impossible to find him in a city that we don’t know and that was that crazy.

Early the next morning we awoke from a pathetic attempt at sleep and looked again, hoping that the calm of the early morning would make it easier to find him and hear his little collar bell jingle, but we came back with nothing. I was hearing cats in my head and could’ve sworn that I heard the jingle a bunch of times, but it was definitely my imagination and my extreme hope of finding him.

Disheartened, and sure that we would probably not hear about him for months, if ever (he did have tags on him so if someone finds him they’d call), we left Medicine Hat hoping that he was at least okay.

200 kilometers later we stop the truck for fuel at a station/rest stop and get out. The drive was somber and quiet— I was holding back tears all morning and we were both exhausted from searching and a lack of sleep. Terrance got out to start fueling and I got out to stretch my legs and pee, when I heard a meow. I was pretty sure I was still hearing things until I caught a glimpse of Terrance’s face, which was sporting a look mixing confusion with awe that I’d never seen on his face before.

“…Did you hear that, too!?” I asked.
He nodded, “Yeah! Mr. Gray??”

I ran over to him and we both looked under the truck synchromoniously. I immediately burst into tears and started laughing/praising the gods— “Meow?” said Mr. Gray curiously. He was sitting on top of the gas tank underneath the box of the truck. Terrance was speechless and stood up with his hand over his mouth for a good minute, and then proceeded to tell everyone at the rest stop the miraculous story of Mr. Gray making damn well sure that we didn’t leave him behind by coming back, finding the truck, and securing himself on the gas tank for 200 frickin’ kilometers! I was still beside myself with relief that the crazy cat didn’t get hurt or thrown off on the highway and that the universe obviously wanted Mr. Gray to stay with us for some reason, so I sat on the floor, cried, prayed, and then talked with Mr. Gray until I could get him out and put him back up front in the cab with us.

Day 4: B.C. BABY!

Once again we were one complete happy family, so we continued on our path to our new Vancouver home. Alberta turned out to be a very nice province, and at first glance it reminded me very much of southwestern Germany’s cow fields full of super green grass, dandelions, cows, and alps (or in this case rockies) in the distance.

Calgary was another city that Canada’s route 1 basically just goes right through the downtown core, which I think is totally weird and not particularly useful when you’re trying to get somewhere beyond the city and you have to deal with downtown traffic and stop lights. But hey, it’s obviously a cool city and I’m sorry that we didn’t really get to spend time there. Everyone that I’ve known from Calgary is pretty awesome, and from Vancouver you could potentially get there in a long day of driving, so I can see myself going back there at some point. Alberta has some really cool dinosaur museums and that’s totally up my alley.

From the road just west of the city you can see the ski jumping slides from when the Olympics were in Calgary, which is crazy— I’ve never seen these things in real life and they are freakishly huge. I’d be terrified up there. Well, I will probably be seeing more and more of these silly Olympic things as the year wears on because this February the Olympics are being held in Vancouver. I’ll probably be sick of the event when all is said and done— let’s hope it creates some work for me! Mr. Gray on the other hand obviously didn’t care (as usual) but he was very happy not to be under the truck any more because he being cuter than he’s ever been before. What a dork.

Day Five: New Home Sweet Home

We stayed the night in Revelstoke, British Colombia, and I daresay that I’ve found the place that I want to live for the rest of my life. That little town is by far the most beautiful and peaceful little town and I fell in love with it right away. The only issue is that it’s kind of hard to get to unless you drive (if that can really be considered an issue in the long run), but once I’m all established in my career choice then I can be more flexible with where I live, and that’s it, baby.

The drive through the Rockies was beautiful. In fact it was so beautiful that pictures really don’t do it justice, so I’m only posting one of a particularly cool-looking crag to encourage you to drive through it yourself. Besides the beauty the ride was uneventful, and frankly we were glad for it after the day before.

We made it! Greetings from Vancouver! The road to real life lays ahead and I’m totally ready for it.

Stuttgart Hills

Because I was living in Stuttgart, it seemed weird to talk about travelling to there and around the city. Consequently I only wrote about other places that I went to when I was blogging at the time. Now I’m back home and I’ll tell you about Stuttgart!

There isn’t way too much to say about the city. It’s particularly beautiful because it was one of the few German towns (that I visited) that had hills— like big SF hills that brings me back to a feeling of “home.” It also has some fun things to do and has it’s special quirks, too.

The downtown core of Stuttgart has a long interesting history going back to the Roman Empire and beyond, and you can learn all about the history of the region by going to the museum at the “Altes Schloss” (the old castle). Which is exactly what it sounds like.

Das Altes Schloss

It’s a big, old, castle. The museum is fun to go through, not just because of the history but because of the fact that is a big old medieval-style castle (and honestly, I don’t know how much you’ll actually learn about the history unless you can read German really well).

Das Neue Schloss (“The New Castle”) is indeed newer; the architecture is in the style of Baroque (and was built in the right period). That said, most of it was completely destroyed in WWII, and even though they did their best to keep it in the Baroque style it definitely feels like a recreation rather than an original. My favourite part of the New Castle, is the rather large courtyard where there are a couple fountains with some… interesting sculpture.

Das Neue Schloss, in the winter

Axe-wielding child!?

Thinking outside the cube

The modern art museum is a giant class cube (these Germans really love their cube-shaped buildings) and has a pretty decent collection. When I visited it had a large Otto Dix exhibit, which makes me very happy. In the permanent collection they had a number of “organic” pieces of art made of dirt, plants, and other earthy and biodegradable items. There was also a large, half disintegrated chocolate gnome in a plastic box. The artists justified putting dirt (and chocolate gnomes) in a box and calling it “art” by saying “earth is art! and this piece of art, like the earth, is constantly changing due to mold and decomposition, etc.”  All it does for me is put a couple more items on my list of “why modern art drives me crazy.”

The quirkiest thing about the city is inside the city hall. There is an elevator that never stops moving— so you literally have to jump in and jump out, and time it properly. There’s a little sign that has pictorial versions of “no baggage” and “no old people.” It’s pretty awesome. I wonder what happens if you don’t get off? :O

Better pay attention…

And that, is the end of my Germany experience. Remember when I first got here and I showed you a picture of the forest path where “the Running Goth” did her stuff? Well, that was in the winter. 5 months and a whole lot of travelling later, I pack my bags and say goodbye to my personal ladybug army, language frustrations, lamacun, and football (with a spherical ball). I’m very happy to have gone there and I hope I can go back with new knowledge I’ve gained.

Auf wiedersehen, Stuttgart.

<–PS: King Crab says “GET IN MAH BELLEH!”
During my Europe adventure I went to two zoos. That’s pretty pathetic in my book, but I tried to make up for it by going to the Stuttgart zoo at least once a month when I was there. It was definitely one of the nicest zoos I’ve seen— Southern Germany lays such importance on horticulture, not just at the zoo but everywhere, that when spring hits you’re bombarded by pure colour and enough flowers to kill someone with moderate allergies. That, along with the beautiful, clean, and spacious enclosures for each animal made it extremely peaceful and a beautiful place to go. They also had bugs and fish and lots of other fun things!

First you walk through this long greenhouse-type building that is filled with tonnes of plants, each section being from another part of the world. After that you come to small mammals and rodentia as well as small birds and things like that. once you get out of that there are a slew of buildings to check out, including an aquarium with the biggest crab you’ll ever see (see above), an insect zoo, monkey house, ape house… very fun.

Hopping along to each of the buildings is also pleasant because there are so many well placed horticultural designs that lead you uphill to the many outdoor enclosures. Probably one of the most interesting things that I came across was the trend in Arabesque architecture around the park. I kept trying to figure out if those buildings were already there when the zoo took over the property and they just decided to keep it because the buildings were beautiful, or if there’s another reason why there were Koranic passages in Arabic inscribed in parts of the buildings. In any case, they were gorgeous and I loved it!!

In Köln, the zoo was equally as fun to check out, and we managed to arrive at the llama pen just in time to witness a birth from start to finish! In total it took 30 minutes for a baby llama to poke its nose out of its mom, then feet, then body, then plop on the floor, then stand up and walk! It was pretty incredible… That’s when I noticed another cultural difference between North America and Germany (or probably just the rest of the world). Very few people in North America would take the miracle happening in front of them as a great educational opportunity for their kids and instead would cover their children’s eyes and walk away. Or be embarrassed… or something along those lines. When we were sitting there watching the first breaths of this little llama I kept hearing parents talk around me, saying things like “Ohh! Er ist frisch geboren!” (“Ooh! Freshly born!”) They would sit there and watch the event with their kids, big and small. I know there are people in the states that would do that, too, but you can take it from me as someone who has worked at a zoo for 8 years— most parents cower away and aren’t really sure what to do. But that’s a whole other rant…

Anyway, the Köln Zoo was very nice. Not as nice as the Wilhelmna (Stuttgart) Zoo, in my opinion, but they did have an EXTREMELY nice lizard section which is definitely worth noting!

I shall leave you with a particularly beautiful hornbill and a spoiled mountain goat:

Köln— the Furthest North I Got

I was told by many people that I needed to get up to Berlin and Hamburg, and as much as I wanted to, I just didn’t have the funds this time around. But, I did manage to get up to Köln (or Cologne, as most Americans know it) for a week where I got to experience the magic of Lindt chocolate, a BIG church, and behind the scenes primetime television.

Above all, it was a beautiful little city. It definitely felt small, though I have a feeling it’s bigger than Stuttgart.

It is the birthplace of scent for men— and you can even go visit the boutique that first made the stuff. That would’ve been a useless trip for me seeing that I have no sense of smell, but it’s an interesting piece of history… I would’ve thought that cologne was invented by the French! But no, it was the Germans that decided that men should be allowed to smell “pretty” too, so… surprise!

Köln lies on the Rhine River, and is pretty much split by it. I never made it to the East side, but I was told that it was pretty industrial and there wasn’t really that much to see out there. Actually, by the end of the week we made the conclusion that there wasn’t really that much to see anywhere in Köln, but I was happy to be there and to have a relaxing week, regardless.

There were a couple things definitely worth mentioning, though. And overall I liked the city— people were very friendly and I found that the dialect of German that was spoken was the clearest and the easiest for me to understand. In Stuttgart they mumble horrifically and throughout the entire semester I was definitely feeling like my German had come to a standstill until I went to Köln and found that I could understand almost everything! I did learn German!

Here are some of the highlights of the general city:

Looks like God dropped his ice cream cone… That sucks.

To Finally Complete This Particular Church Could Mean The End of the World

The Kölner Dom is the main attraction in the city, and it’s easy to see why. It’s REALLY big. I mean, I remember seeing the tallest church in the world back in Ulm and thinking… wow, that’s really tall. But this was not only tall, but WIDE. I mean, it’s like a fortress. All in all, a very impressive church. The city likes it so much that you can buy things shaped like it— like a little square plush toy with two pointy rabbit ear-like towers sticking out of one end. I wanted one so badly, but I had no money.

I just like the expression of both the figures in this picture. The shiny gold bishop guy seems to be very concerned about who he lets in.

The church has lots of fun stuff in it, including a crypt that you can walk down into (but is ultimately not that impressive) and a swallow’s nest organ. There were also lots of crypts on the main floor where dead religious people have lain for hundreds of years. My favourite was of one that basically had this castle built around the statue of his body. It was painted and everything! There was another one that had these two little medieval animals at his feet looking up into the air in some sort of terrible fear (oh noes!). The massive front doors, made of solid iron or metal, were also worth mentioning because they were sculpted so nicely.

The other fun fact about the Dom is that there is this conspiracy concerning the construction of the site. Basically, it’s unfinished. The church we see today was first starting to be built in 1248, though it was always a religious site, at least since the Roman empire. Now, 800 years later, it’s still not done. The gist of the conspiracy is, that the day the cathedral is officially finished, is when the world will end. Well, we’ll see about that…

I thought that this particular apparatus looked like some sort of futuristic mechanical spider sitting in this medieval church… Just like in the game Obsidian (whatever happened to that? That was a kick ass game)!

Oh Chocolate, My Ultimate Weakness

Of course, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria are known for their really good chocolate, and of course, when we’re in a place that has a chocolate museum and we’re chocolate fiends, then we have to go. The Lindt chocolate museum (and small factory) is located in Köln, and it’s a pretty nice museum. It sits right on the river and they give you free samples. Definitely a must-do if you’re in Köln.

They showed you how they made all sorts of chocolate goodies, and also showed their football pride. It also of course told about the general history of chocolate, and then the history of German chocolate. This included little nerdy loves of mine such as the packaging histories of many of the chocolate brands that we see today. Many of those companies have been around for a VERY long time, and the logos and packaging take their evolutionary turns. I love seeing how the latest design differs and is similar to the original package that it was put in back in the 1700-1800s!

Here they’re moving little chocolate things from one tray to the next.

Here they’re making those big hollow chocolate things like bunnies, footballs, and bears:

Yum.

Car Flips

The couple that I was staying with were the parents of a friend of mine back in Canada, and their son works on the set of a popular German prime time crime drama. So, we got to go watch some of the stunts get filmed! We were going to watch a gas tanker explode, but the weather sucked so they just flipped cars and made everything crash into each other instead. Oh well. In any case, I think the photos/bad movies off of my little camera will explain it all better:

and some photos to supplement:

It turns out that the stuntwoman in the silver car was actually a grammar school teacher for her day job. Can you imagine being in grade 2 or 3 and seeing your teacher come to school with cuts, bruises, broken bones, and/or black eyes and missing limbs? I mean, it’s really COOL, but it’d also be potentially frightening for the kid!

Anyway, in the end, Köln was definitely worth visiting. I went for beautiful runs through Beethoven lake/park even though it was pouring rain and covered in swans (literally), and I could actually understand what everyone was saying to me in German because they speak much more clearly there than in the south. So, it was a good trip and a much needed week of relaxation (and schokolade).

Before I continue with more parts of Germany (and other places), I have to take a moment to talk about the phenomenon of football. Being from North America, “football” usually brings up memories of epic Monday Night Football music, a brown “pigskin” oblong ball, and college. Everywhere else in the world, “football” = PARTY TIME/NATIONALISM!

Not really for Germans, though. They only just started to raise their flags for their national team as of when they hosted the World Cup in Germany a couple years ago. Raising the flag and cheering for a country is a new (and still widely debated) occurrence. When asking an American if their proud of being American, most will say yes (politics aside.. just the basic principles of being American). Ask a German and they’ll just ask “why?” It’s not that they don’t love their country or are happy to be there, it’s just that why should one be proud of his country? It’s a piece of land! Pride is a sinful state of being! “German” is not an identity, it’s who you are as an individual. I can respect that… it’s just weird for me to comprehend because as an American where you come from is just as much a part of your individual identity as everything else. Like when an American asks another American what they are, he/she will talk about their ancestry (for example, I would say German, Italian, Bulgarian. Not American. Even though, ultimately I am just an American). That confuses Europeans so much!

In any case, most places in the EU (or around the world, for that matter) love football and are so passionate about their country winning that they go nuts. Here you can see the German Polizei ready to jump into action should a riot break out in the public viewing area. This was during the semi-final between Turkey and Germany. Turkey is the largest minority group in Germany by a long shot and they tend to be pretty rowdy. This was proven to me by when I was in Turkey a few days before to witness Turkey beat the Czech Republic:

They were ridiculous. The entire city of Istanbul was honking, screaming, and waving flags. It was utter chaos! Germans make it much more organized by all parading to and congregating on one particular street to raise flags and cheer:

In any case, it was darn fun to be there for the semi-final victory. After beating Turkey they went on to the final game, where they beaten to a pulp by Spain. Still, not bad considering the fact that Germany was basically pegged to lose in the first round!

Although there is a heavy degree of rivalry in Football matches, there is some love shared despite the national intensity. There is lots of crying if your team loses, and there are lots of IN YOUR FACEs when your team wins, but football can’t stand in between true friendship (awww).

These two were each yelling passionately about their individual teams— starting chants, jumping up and down, etc. They would start to scuffle, as if they were going to start a full out fight, but then they’d break out laughing and hug each other. It was cute.

Anyway, I can now say that I was in Germany when they hit the Eurocup finals (even if they only got 2nd place) and I myself managed to get all decked out in Deutschland swag:

We pretty much just hopped in a car and drove aimlessly around the region (although there was an overall destination in mind). We drove through Ulm, Ravensburg, Weingarten, Lake Constance, a bunch of random tiny towns that I can’t remember the names of, and ended up in Füssen for Neuschwanstein for the second time— except this time it was spring and not winter, so it was incredibly more colourful (and warm). We passed by many cows, dandelions, and the Alps were almost always in the picture dead ahead. Here are two of the highlights which I found the most interesting.

Bodensee: Zeppelin-land

Lake Constance, known to the Germans as Bodensee, is the area in which the Zeppelins were birthed and mostly produced in the time of the Zeppelins. It’s obvious that they are very proud of their Zeppelin-building history and they express that pride in the form of über-modern sculpture. There was a lot of it in the town. I mean, there’s a lot all over Germany… they love their modern art! But the stuff here was even weirder because it tried to integrate the Zeppelin motif as much as possible. I’m not completely clear on why this particular man-headed Zeppelin figure has horns, but whatever.

Across the lake you can see Switzerland and if you so desire, you can take a ferry across and spend a couple hours there. I always get really excited when I’m in a place where I can see another country from where I’m sitting. I got the same feeling when I was in Biarritz, France and looking out down the coastline to Spain. Coming from the United States, where the land space is just so ridiculously big, I never really get that feeling. I mean, you might feel that if you lived on a border, like in Buffalo or south of San Diego… but most people in the US will never look out and see another country across the way and have it be normal, like it is in Europe or other parts of the world where the countries are so small and close together.

It’s like when the international office people here at the German school at which I’m studying say that 85% of their exchange students stay on for another semester (and give us Americans/Canadians puppy dog-eyed faces when we say that we want to go home after just one semester). It takes us 6 to 8 hours to fly back home to our families and it can cost us thousands of dollars. 85% of the exchange students here are from somewhere else in Europe or Persia. They can hop home for a weekend for €20 on a flight that only takes them an hour or two (and they do… multiple times during the semester)! This is commonplace for them. It’s not magical or weird to be able to see another country/culture/world across a lake because they’re all so close together.

Ottobeuren Abbey, or Why I Find It Hard To Take the Baroque Period Seriously

The Abbey at Ottobeuren is this huge, over the top building that sits in the middle of this town that can’t have more than a population of 50. It was originally founded in 764, but the building you see here today was built from 1737-1736 (the past five or six incarnations of it were either torn down or consumed in flame). It’s got three organs, including one of the more historic ones in Europe— and if you know me, that’s exciting!

Overall, this place was so over the top that I couldn’t decide if I was nauseus with awe from the beauty or with disgust from the kitsch. There is so much to look at in this church that it would take a lifetime to find every detail. That said, would it be worth it? It’s just so frilly and crazy that I think that would go too far. BUT… it is definitely worth seeing if you’re in Germany because you’ll never see anything like it again!

The crappy one was a band called Eagle Seagull, which was an interesting band with a few really interesting songs (the rest were kind of generic, too), but the interview was horrible. Actually, the first time I interviewed them it was turning out to be a great interview! Then my recorder completely failed and I embarrassingly had to go get another one and wait to redo it after the show. So after the show, not only did they keep me waiting for way too long, but the lead singer was PLASTERED and was saying all sorts of contradictory things to what he said earlier in the day. He came off as extremely self-centred and put down his band a lot. Who does that to a journalist? I mean, I know that journalists aren’t usually treated well, but you’d think he’d have some degree of professionalism or AT THE VERY LEAST not say things that make you sound like a big jerk. I mean, you do want to actually gain fans right? It sucked.

The last band I interviewed was a small San Franciscan band (that made me happy!) called Bellavista. They put on a great show but unfortunately there was almost nobody there. I still have to put together the feature for them.

My biggest band was We Are Scientists. I was going to interview Dinosaur Jr., but they cancelled on me at the last minute.

We Are Scientists was an interesting interview. They didn’t really take it seriously, which frustrated me a little bit at first. But in the end it turned out to be a quirky feature and it’s my favourite so far. Not to mention that they put on a GREAT show and they showed wonderful musicianship. At first I didn’t like the music, but their latest CD really grew on me as I kept listening and now I have to admit that I like it a lot.

I’ve really lucked out with this particular job, and I have to say that this was probably the best opportunity that’s presented itself to me here in Germany. I can only hope and pray that it leads to something more substantial in the future. Fingers crossed!

Friday: The City of the Dead

The poverty in Cairo is overwhelming everywhere you go, but the greatest concentration of the poorest of the poor in the city live here, in what’s known as the City of the Dead.

The City of the Dead is a graveyard, filled with Islamic-style tombstones, tombs, and mausoleums. The area is noticeably shorter than the rest of the city partially because all the tombs are less than a storey high, and partially because the overall ground level of the city has risen considerably over the past 100 years. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon to walk past a window, door, or archway that was half buried in the ground all over the city! It was just way worse here because it was even more unkempt than the rest of Cairo.

What I found the most interesting about the city was that it is actually listed in the Lonely Planet guide as well as some other tourist guides and websites as something to see, but we were definitely the only foreigners there. It was yet another example of why most people come to Cairo and what those people completely miss out on: what’s relevant to today! As I’ve said before, as cool as that ancient stuff is, it has little to nothing to do with current Cairo— which is ultimately more important.

This raises another issue. The City of the Dead is a cemetery. A rather beautiful one, I might add. However, it has also become the living space for the poorest people in Cairo. The families that literally have no money or food take shelter in random tombs. This has a bit of symbology for them. Apparently in interviews with some inhabitants, they’ve said that they might as well be (or wished they were) dead because they were so poor (I know that I should cite this, but it was told to me orally through the friend who is living there and he’s very informed and well researched). Therefore, they live in the tombs.

So what’s the issue? Well, because many tourists only visit Egypt for the Pharaonic artefacts, they sort of see the rest of modern-day Cairo as an annoyance. So they’ll go out of their way to make sure that they are as far away from the reality of poverty as possible. I think they’re missing the point. Americans in particular should care about that stuff, especially in countries where lots of their tax dollars are supposed to be helping these people and it’s obviously not.

Anyway, I thought the area was amazingly beautiful and I was surprised at how colourful it was! Lots of mustard yellows, deep pinks, bright blues, greens, you name it. And there was a lot of random writing on the walls that were usually very colourful as well. At first I thought it was graffiti, but eventually I started thinking that it was just writing on the walls from the family of the person(s) buried and memorialised there. In any case, it was quite beautiful.

There was a point in which we were mobbed by a gang of 8 year old boys, all smoking cigarettes and talking to us in Arabic with the movements and gestures of a typical Italian mobster from an American film. That was surreal, to say the least. They were really interested in the pins on my bag (and I made the grave mistake of giving one to them… they wouldn’t leave us alone for a while after that), and they kept calling us “friend” so it was truly an experience. The leader of the gang wrote out his phone number and hands it to my friend saying in Arabic, “You need something? You call me!” These kids have seen The Godfather Trilogy one too many times.

There were also many parts of the city that were so similar in look and feel to the American south west that it was seriously not funny at one point. The same colours, the same plants… It was very surreal to see a cactus plant growing out of what could’ve been a saloon from the cowboy days in Arizona or New Mexico. Still, I loved the area and I highly recommend that if you go to Cairo that you face the reality of poverty and visit it— even if only to see the tombs and the mausoleums. It’s definitely different than Pere Lachaise in Paris..

Saturday: The Citadel Overlooking Cairo

Probably the most dramatic building in Cairo, as well as the hardest to miss what with it being on top of a hill overlooking the city, is the great mosque at the Citadel.

Similar to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, it has cascading domes and lots of pointy bits. The mosque is situated in the middle of what is basically what’s left of a fortress/palace, where there’s a couple of military and police museums, a few smaller mosques, and a whole bunch of great views. Historically, it was built to protect Egypt from Crusaders in the middle ages, but it was then ruled by a couple of different rulers until the Ottomans took over in the 1500’s. What’s left at the current citadel site is mostly from that era.

The fortress part of the citadel is just like any typical fortress, with the exception that it’s obviously Ottoman/Arab. It’s got fountains and gardens where barracks used to be, and the buildings that are now museums were basically where ancient rulers used to live. There’s a room in the military museum (which I didn’t get a chance to go into) called the “Summer Room” where there is a system of fountains that was made specifically to cool down people. The old fashioned Arab air conditioner? Apparently it’s the only room of its kind left in Cairo today. Supposedly it also very obviously used to be part of a palace because it’s supposed to be adorned with gold and jewels and such. Ah to be a Sultan in the 1100’s! If only those pesky Crusaders would get off my back.

In any case, because all the buildings inside are basically from different rulers, there are all sorts of different architectural styles. I’m sure someone could write a book on all the different things found just inside this complex! Unfortunately I’m not an expert so I won’t go into too much detail. But the great mosque is obviously Ottoman as well are many of the walls that still stand, and the police museum had a bunch of fancy lions on the side from I think it was the Malmuk rule. They were cool. At one point there used to be a nice building in which they ended up using as storage space for the explosives and weapons but someone wasn’t paying attention and it exploded. Oops. The picture to the left shows what’s left of it. I think that the sign on the right side makes it look like a Looney Toons cartoon in a way.

The mosques are all pretty different in style. There was a very small one, a medium one, and the big kitschy one. Goldilocks would’ve had a heyday. I think was the most beautiful one was the little one, with gold, red and blue inlaid mosaic everywhere. It also had this black and white inlaid strip going around the entire interior with words from the Koran written. Arabic is one of the most beautiful languages to look at, and when they make pictures and designs out of the calligraphy it just makes me go nuts!

Then there was a medium one that had more of an open courtyard and these bright green domes (pictured above). It was nice but ultimately not as interesting as the smaller one, in my opinion. Finally there was the great mosque that everyone can see from miles away! The courtyard was huge and clean, with polished white stone and a big fountain for cleaning your hands and face to get ready to enter the house of Allah for prayer. At one point the French gave the ruler at the time a gift of a French-style clock tower (which you can see on the right of the picture here), which I have to say sticks out like a sore thumb. It was also funny to learn that the clock has never worked. Ever. That’s so typical…

Another thing to notice is that the mosque has two minarets instead of one, and that’s not typical. In fact it was Ottoman law that only a Sultan could build such a mosque with two, but the ruler of Egypt at the time may have built an Ottoman style mosque because he was technically under Ottoman rule at the time, but he put two minarets in an act of rebellion— we won’t stay under Ottoman rule forever!

The inside of the mosque is just ridiculous. There is no other word for it. Yes it’s incredible with the gold and the green and the high ceilings, but dear god this was just gaudy! There were grand chandeliers and fancy painted windows on the walls and gold up the wazoo. This level of extravagance is only possible if an overindulgent ruler built it.

That said, it was definitely worth seeing!

Police and the Omnipresent President

When you’re an American watching the news, almost all you see of the Arab world are women who completely cover themselves against their will, bombs, terrorists, and policemen dressed in white with black berets. When I was in Cairo and was able to see the bigger picture first-hand, the only thing that I saw was the policemen. They were everywhere. Now, I say all this with the realization that Egypt is a relatively safe and open-minded place compared to
many other Arab countries (there the women are not required by law or necessarily pressured to cover themselves, and America is not at war with anyone in Egypt so I wasn’t a walking target), but I still stand by the fact that I would probably be just as/more likely to be hit by a car back in Toronto than get blown up somewhere there.

In any case, the police were, in fact, everywhere and I have to say that most of the time it didn’t look like they were really doing anything. There were a few instances where I would see these big prisoner trucks driving or sitting on the side of the road with a bunch of policemen standing guard with a huge rifle. I don’t know who was being kept in there or what they were for. Apparently over the past few months there have been some riots in the southern part of the city regarding a bread shortage, so maybe they were trying to take care of some of that. But it was definitely intimidating at first to see so many police officers and military people standing around with large guns. I would say that it was the most stereotypical thing that I think I saw when I was there… at least in regards to what I remember seeing on television back home.

Also, there were many instances in which I saw the president painted on the side of a wall or posted up in front of things. He was almost always depicted in a suit with large sunglasses. It made me think of Men in Black or something, which just made me laugh. It definitely wasn’t intimidating… in fact I don’t think they are meant to be. If anything he just comes off as “cool” and I think that many Egyptians think that too. My Egyptian tea/shisha buddy from Wednesday night said that he liked the president because he liked the way he talked. He also liked that he always had this entourage of beautiful women around him. Good times.

So there ends my all too short trip to Cairo. There’s a lot still out there and frankly, I can’t wait to go back! I learned tonnes and it has completely opened my mind and my desire to explore more of the middle east and Arab cultures. I can only hope that some of the conflict there comes to an end in my lifetime, not just so I can go visit without being in danger, but for the sake of what I’ve come to love about the area. It deserves to have some peace.

On Thursday we decided we’d go to the pyramids in Giza. On the way there we passed by a lot of agricultural lands which had been illegally built upon. The illegal buildings were basically made out of brick and were just big red cubes stacked on top of one another. All of them were unfinished and most of them intend to keep it that way because only finished buildings are taxed. That said, the housing is illegal and not supposed to be there anyway, so it’s all just a weird situation. There are hundreds of them (maybe thousands?) and it’s all because there’s just no other place for these people to go. If they can afford a bunch of bricks then they can just build a place on one of these unfinished buildings and they’re all set. Unfinished or not, they are densely inhabited.

The suburb of Giza goes right up to the edge of the pyramids themselves. Imagine having 9 ancient pointy tombs in your backyard. I’m sure most of the Egyptians there don’t care too much unless they make their living off of scamming tourists as much as possible around the pyramid grounds. …And as annoying as it, frankly I don’t blame them. The exchange rate from the U.S. dollar to the Egyptian pound is about 1/5.40. Even if you splurged at a fancy restaurant in Cairo, like really splurged and stuffed yourself silly, it would come out to about 40 American dollars for two people. That’s how bad the economy is doing there. Makes you wonder what they’re doing with all the money that the U.S. is giving them… They’re obviously not helping the population crisis or helping the poor. Anyway, that’s a whole other post.

First thing you notice when you finally get to the complex: Damn that sphinx is small! I was under the impression that it was much bigger. Then again, you don’t realize how just freaking enormous the pyramids are until you get close to them. So… all those pictures of them that you see on TV and in touring magazines are all misleading in more than one way. You’ll think that the pyramids and the sphinx are proportional to each other until you get there. Here’s an idea of how big the base of that big one is (there’s a person at the bottom left hand corner of the picture sitting on a block):
Yeah. I’m sitting there trying to imagine how on earth they put these things together 3000+ years ago without cranes. Then we tried to make bets on how many fingers were stubbed in the building of this one.

The sphinx very interestingly looks out over the city, and his paws are extremely long. Not to mention that his head is very small. That was probably easier to build, which is why it’s like that. Lots of it has been eroded away over the years, too. They’ve been trying to restore some of it, and I have mixed feelings about that. The parts that have been restored are way too clean and smooth— it’s too obvious. Soon the sphinx and the pyramids will just be completely brand new and won’t have anything ancient about them at all… and why? Because they are the reason for 90% of the tourism in Egypt. They would all just go to Luxor and not even bother with Cairo if these weren’t here— which I find very sad, because Cairo is an exceptionally cultural city and the modern stuff is just as important (if not more) than the ancient stuff in this country.

I did manage to get a camel ride. If you ever go and wish to ride a camel, you should. It’s insanely fun. They’re another thing that you forget exactly how big they are until you’re standing right next to one and you realize that they’re almost as tall as a giraffe…

The other thing you should know is that there are all sorts of people who will try to get as much money off of you as possible. I paid 30 Egyptian pounds (which is maybe US$5 or so) for an hour. That should be about the right price for right now. But wow, it can be very tiring to keep saying “no” to everyone who passes you. And it’s even more tiring to keep saying “no” to the person who you did eventually pick. “One more hour for 20 more pounds!” or something similar is constantly being thrown at you. Then at the end of everything service oriented (not just camels, and not just service stuff sometimes… annoying!!) they’ll ask for “bak-sheesh” (I don’t know how it’s actually spelled) which is the Arabic word for tips. A lot of this comes from a sneaky practice of the person proclaiming him or herself as your guide without you asking for one and then at the end pestering you for a tip to thank them for their time. This happened a lot in Mosques, too… Everywhere, actually! Anyway, camel was fun. You get a little taste of the actual desert and you’re riding on this particularly vocal huge creature.

I liked my camel, even though he wouldn’t shut up the entire time. Apparently that means he’s happy.I also got a chance to go inside the Great Pyramid, which was just like a scene from Indiana Jones. There’s a very small passageway that goes up at a sharp angle, and you have to really crouch down to get up there. Then there’s another passageway where the ceiling just opens up (pictured) and you’re climbing up a steep narrow passageway instead! It’s pretty amazing. This picture doesn’t really do it justice.. it was hard to get a picture because it was so dark and you weren’t supposed to have a camera. Thankfully security isn’t exactly great all around Egypt. In any case, at the top was one more narrow passageway and then you were in the tomb itself, which was a big, square, BLACK room with amazing acoustics. I wish I had an audio recorder…

Friday: The Holy Day

We decided that Friday would be the best day to walk around what’s known as Islamic Cairo (which is silly because the whole city is 90% Islamic…) because Friday is the main day of prayer for Muslims, like Sunday is for Christians. Therefore, literally every minaret we passed by was talking at us very loudly, which made for a very interesting experience.

Almost every one that we visited was adorned with lots of green in some way, be it green carpets or green neon lights (which likened some of the minarets to a Vegas casino). This is because the colour green is known as the prophet’s favourite colour.

Our first famous mosque was Ibn Tulun, which was a particularly ancient-looking mosque, with it’s half crumbled minaret and fort-like structure. You first enter into a surrounding courtyard-type thing, and then you can go up to the top of the minaret, the roof of the main building, and the inside as well. It made for some really amazing sights and it was a particularly interesting mosque. One big reason is because of the trim on the roof— If you look at it, it almost looks like one of those paper cutout lines of people holding hands, which apparently caused a big stink when it was built because there aren’t supposed to be any depictions of people in a mosque. I personally like the trim, so I’m happy they kept it.

On the walk around the town we passed by lots of really interesting architecture, ranging from ugly modern residential buildings to ornate Ottoman style buildings and almost European residences. My favourites were the random little bits of Arabesque that would pop up… I kinda thought that that would be the most common style, but it’s not. That said, there were always really interesting doors that would be hiding in between buildings or behind something else, and these doors were almost always brightly coloured in some way. It was very cool.

We also came across marketplaces that had these big dramatic gates marking the entrance and the exit. The marketplaces were very crowded and completely full of people and stuff of all kinds. Most of it was pretty useless, but you’d come across some cooler stuff if you got out of the touristy area. You would still get pestered just as much by the store keepers to come in and check out their amazing collection of junk, then try to give you a great deal on something. Boy are they persistent…

But as I was saying, once you hit the marketplaces where the natives actually buy stuff you could come across some really interesting items. Mostly clothing and food. Like, beautiful long dresses to cover up your women, or the entire back end of a camel hanging from a meat hook. You name it, it’s probably there…

We also passed by these huge fort-like mosques, which unfortunately I can’t remember the names of. But they were huge… and they were obviously pretty sturdy because the French basically went to hell with trying to take one of them down by force of cannon ball and failed miserably! The mosque has these cannonball scars all along one side of it— basically just dents in the wall. It was funny because it obviously didn’t take very much damage at all. That must have frustrated the French immensely… You can sort of see the holes in this picture on the right. I guess during an attack the best place to be is in there!

We continued even further on our walk and decided that we needed to watch the sunset at Al Azhar park, which is basically at the top of a hill and has a 360° panoramic view of the city. We had to pay to get in, which was weird considering it was a public park, but apparently it’s like that for all public spaces. I guess that ultimately it’s a good thing, because those spaces are the only parts of the city that seem to be actively kept up by caretakers. And I must say, this park was VERY well kept. The grass was perfectly mowed and green, there was a fancy restaurant, the washrooms were super clean, the fountains gushed as if we weren’t in a desert that got an average of .02 inches of rain a year… it was a beautiful park. If only the same amount of care was put into the rest of the city…

There was also a live band playing Egyptian/Arabic pop-type music, with really cute little kids dancing everywhere. So we went up to the topmost point and steaked a claim on a piece of grass to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, despite the thick pollution that was cast over city. Consequently, we couldn’t really see the sun actually set because it basically just got enveloped by smog at a point, but being in a Muslim country on a Friday makes it easy to know exactly just when the sun sets!

As if someone had just let go of the mute button (and I say that keeping in mind the fact that this is in fact the world’s loudest city 24/7) every single mosque let out its call to prayer at the exact same time. As chaotic and loud as it was, it was quite possibly the most moving audio experience of my life. I had to keep my emotional self from crying because the pure sound was so amazing to me — it’s something that a westerner like me will never hear outside of a country like this, and I feel like it’s something that is completely missed out on and severely under-appreciated by most other westerners. I’m honored and moved to have experienced hearing all of Cairo, the 16th largest city by population in the world with a density of 9,031 people per sq km (2nd most dense in the world), pray at the same time.

The Random Scarab Appearance

A long time ago I got one of those little stone scarabs that they make in Egypt that look like the ancient ones. Since then, I’ve turned it into a hemp choker which I actually wear more than any of my other pieces of jewelery— I think it’s always been my favourite. In any case, on Monday I was walking along the student living center here in Stuttgart with my friend when she stopped to look at something hidden in the hole of a buried sidewalk cinder block. She poked it around with her foot as I turned to look at her, quizzically. “What did you find?”
“Isn’t this one of your bug things?”
“What?” I have a couple of “bug things” ranging from jewelery with fake (and real) bugs to a very large dragonfly tattoo on my back, so that was a pretty vague question. “What do you mean?”
“You know.. you have one on that necklace you always wear! That is a bug, isn’t it?”
“You mean a scarab??”
“I guess so?” She bends down, picks it up, and hands it to me. Sure enough it’s an egyptian stone scarab.
“I can’t believe you just randomly stumbled across this the day before I leave for Cairo…” I was absolutely dumbfounded by the coincidence. It was truly meant to be! I kept it in my pocket and brought it with me to Egypt so I could tell my friend there who I was visiting about it.. Later in the week I think it jumped out of my pocket at some point because I lost it. So, we came to the conclusion that it just wanted to come back to Egypt, and it sensed that I was going!

Tuesday: Getting Acquainted with Downtown

When I arrived in Cairo the first thing you have to do is buy an entrance visa for US$15. So I bought my large fancy sticker visa and put it next to all my other weird visas that I’ve acquired this year. I swear, this is the most interesting passport I’ve ever had!

Once I got through passport control I was immediately bombarded by people coming up to me and barking “TAXI????” in my face. Ack! Thankfully I found my friend and we escaped the madness to my hostel.

The hostel was on the 7th floor of a building which looked like when it was first built it was a grand European building with shiny stone floors and extremely high ceilings. Now it looked like it had just survived a war with its broken, soot-covered windows, old fashioned gate lift, and stray cats fighting here and there. Once I got my stuff settled in the room, we went exploring the downtown area of Cairo.

Downtown is one of the most interesting parts of Cairo because it looks like post-apocalyptic Paris. All the extremely European-looking architecture that once was very light and clean has been encrusted with years of sandstorms and pollution, turning it all dark brown. Not to mention that much of the architecture hasn’t really been properly maintained, causing many of the buildings to start crumbling. But that certainly doesn’t stop people from living there! A roof is still a roof, even if part of it is missing.

As far as navigating around the streets, it takes a little getting used to. Thankfully my sense of direction has always been fairly decent, so if I get lost I can usually figure out where I am pretty quickly and not have much of a problem. But there’s really only a little bit of a grid in the downtown core, which I would even say is a little skewed thanks to the river and the plethora of traffic circles or city squares which all involve a tall pedestal with a statue of a well-dressed man in a fez pointing almost accusatively in front of him. Maybe they’re all just frustrated that they can’t direct the horrendous traffic.

Among the European architecture downtown you can find some more modern housing as well as some randomly placed Ottoman influenced buildings. I LOVE these.. Most of them are older than everything else in this part of town (with exception of some of the mosques) and they’re black with soot. It’s pretty incredible what pollution and sand can do when they join forces.

As I was walking around I kept finding myself trying to imagine what it must have been like when everything was brand new. When the French occupied for the short time that they did they wanted to make Cairo “Paris of the Nile” and knowing the French, it was probably extraordinary at one point in time… my friend was telling me that when he was in Syria about a month ago he saw someone pressure washing a building, and the difference was night and day. That dark, dirty beige was actually white??? WHAT?? Flying over the city and looking out the window has a weird effect, because it just looks like you’re looking at desert that was somehow turned into big blocks with windows. Everything is the same sandy colour. It’s only when you look really hard that you find small splashes of colour on a balcony or a window.

Eventually we walked along the Nile for a bit. There we passed by the Cairo tower, which apparently was an entertaining restaurant when it was first put up (gee sounds like the CN tower back home!) but eventually they couldn’t afford to keep it up or something. Not to mention that a government official at one point expressed his concern for the decency of Cairo because there was this large, phallic object causing a stir in the loins of the women of the city (oh please…). I thought it was cool-looking because of the pattern that basically enshrouds it— it’s distinctly Arab compared to most city radio/restaurant towers like in Toronto or Seattle which try to be the Jetson’s version of space age.

Walking along the Nile is cool because it’s the Nile. You definitely don’t want to go swimming in it, and god forbid you meet up with the world’s largest living reptile, a Nile Crocodile, but come on. It’s the Nile! Years of civilization have been sustained thanks to this river! The birth of many different cultures as well as agricultural technology were founded here. Lush greenery
lines its banks all up and down it… it’s the ultimate life giver in the ultimately big desert country that is Egypt.

Yes, the river had a slightly different course then than it does now, but it’s still a significant part of history as well as the ecosystem of today.

For dinner that night we were treated by an old family friend of my friend to a Lebanese restaurant right on the waterfront. We splurged majorly on crazy dips and foods that we just pointed to on the menu without actually knowing what we were getting into. That said, the food was so good… I wish I could eat middle eastern food every day!

As we ate we got to watch tourists (who probably got ripped off) on Falouka rides (Nile sailboats) as well as the bright flashing lights on some of the Nile ferries. They were reminiscent of casinos in Vegas.

The night was warm, the air was like Los Angeles (it was a particularly light smog day), and we had some extremely tasty dips to experience. All in all, it was a good first day.

Wednesday: Museum or Storage Space?

I woke up the next morning knowing that my friend would have class, so we decided that I should check out the Egyptian museum that day. Not only was it apparently so big and dense that you wouldn’t be able to get through everything in one or two days, but Cairo is not an ancient city and I wouldn’t have time to make it down to Luxor to see the real ancient stuff on this trip.

At breakfast I met a kiwi who didn’t really know what to do on his first day so I invited him to explore the museum with me for a couple hours. After a crazy amount of security points we finally got into the place. And dear god… the second you step inside you’re overwhelmed. There are two colossal ancient pharaoh statues staring at you from the other side of the building, with multitudes of rock pieces in between them and you. These rock pieces were statues, tombs, mummy paraphernalia, sarcophagi, furniture… There was just so much stuff!

I realized at one point that museum itself was not actually that big! You could in fact go through the entire thing in one day (if you were willing to spend 8 hours there), but there was no way that you could see every little thing in the museum in less than I think 3 full days. Even then you won’t completely comprehend or truly appreciate the meaning in the sheer superabundance of STUFF. It was like, every ancient artifact someone found they found a spare inch to put it on display. Very little was labelled, and there was no concept of putting something in storage. The museum was a warehouse, plain and simple. The funniest part was that when something was on loan somewhere else (no matter how small) they put a little picture of it saying that it was on display somewhere else in the world. If much of the stuff I saw there was sent to a museum in the US, I guarantee that they would have made a big dramatic deal about it and put on a separately paid exhibition to “experience a rare piece of ancient Egypt,” but here there was just so much of it that it made both of us laugh.

The highlights I have to say, were Tutankhamen’s stuff and the mummy rooms. King Tut’s death mask was quite possibly one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. And coupled with his multiple sarcophagi, which were also beyond perfect in construction, it was made even better. We decided that the Russians got the idea for the nesting dolls from the ancient Egyptians because the pharaohs were put in nesting sarcophagi which was then nested into nesting tomb box things… Tut himself had about 5 or 6 boxes that fit into each other, each one completely covered in gold. Talk about extravagant. Then we felt bad for Tut because all his stuff was here in the museum and he was put back into his tomb to be its own tourist attraction. So it’s like, “well we’ll respect his body and his religion by putting him back in his sacred space, but we’ll take all the treasure. Muahaha!” Part of the religion was keeping his earthly belongings with him in the afterlife— the tomb was essentially his afterlife apartment. So he’s been robbed and the afterlife police can’t really do anything about it…

Then the mummy rooms, which were two rooms filled with ancient kings. A bunch of the Ramses were there, a couple daughters were there… it was creepy. The fact that people are essentially looking at perfectly preserved 3000+ year old corpses is a weird thought. As cool as they are, I felt a strange feeling of inappropriateness come over me— I felt like the souls of the kings were speaking to me as if they were feeling exploited. According to ancient Egyptian religion, the body of the deceased went with him/her to the afterlife. Therefore, much care and respect was put into preserving the body and keeping it in a safe place where it wouldn’t be desecrated or gawked at. All the vital organs were removed (except for the heart, because they needed that part to gain entry into the Valley of Eternity), all the liquids were drained, and all their earthly possessions were put into their tomb so that they could live on forever in their sacred space. Now I was sitting there, looking at these people who never expected to be put on display like this, and now they don’t even have their stuff around them in their afterlife. I found it to be incredibly disrespectful. And it was weird how this feeling just came over me so immediately… I was so excited to see them, too!

My friend later made the argument that if they were in the afterlife watching their bodies in the context in which they are in now, they would probably still be happy because ultimately they still achieved a form of eternal life. This is modern eternal life… on display to the world. I guess he’s right.

Shisha, the Egyptian National Sport

Shisha is a flavoured tobacco that is smoked in a Hookah pipe. Because of its clean feeling and social draw, it’s exceptionally popular in Egypt. There was at least two shisha cafes on every block, and each one always has a couple men smoking and drinking tea.

I got stopped on the street that Tuesday night by an Egyptian who was especially excited to meet an American. He invited me for tea and shisha and I continually said no because I’d gotten that offer about 10 times already that day and I was warned that they pretty much all end up wanting money (or an American wife?) in the end. So I was on “NO, THANKS THOUGH” autopilot. But he actually was genuine and he said some things that the others didn’t… like “I’m a language student and I just would love to practise my English with someone— and I want to prove that there are Egyptians who won’t rip you off!” I saw he was truthful and part of my reason for coming was to get some Arab views about the world, so I said yes and we just went to a cafe across the street from my hotel.

He was very generous and he completely treated me. My character judging skills have grown dramatically this past year and he was proof. He told me what he thought about America:

“It is great country. But I am Egyptian and I live good Egyptian life. So I have no desire to go there. I like being Egyptian! Why change things when God has given you something good?”

He was from a very small town in upper Egypt. His family are farmers and send down goods to him that could be sold in Cairo. He is also in his third year of university completing a language degree in English and Japanese. He is a devout Muslim and prays 5 times a day, and he spoke a lot about what Islam means to him and how it is not the true will of Allah what extremists do:

“The Koran says that if you kill one man, in the eyes of Allah you have killed them all. In the Koran, all men are brothers. There are no enemies. It is greedy men in power who take over governments and teach their children that they have enemies. Then they grow up thinking that they do.”

He was pro-Israel, too… which I thought was interesting. Maybe he was just saying that because I’m an American and America loves Israel. Not to mention that Egypt gets so much American money. But I got the feeling that he really did disagree with the way that Islam was being taught in places like Saudi Arabia and Palestine. He was also very pro-Clinton. “Hillary will win. She must. It’s either her or that old Bush man…” That made me laugh!

He was extremely philosophical and I found that he could read right through me. I mean, I’m honest with everyone at all times (and that has gotten me in trouble sometimes because some people don’t like to hear the truth), but when you meet a person who can see your core it’s a weird feeling. Terrance can do that, too… I think it’s a natural talent. In any case, I learned a lot about myself and the world that night. I hope I meet him again someday so that I can take him out to tea and shisha!
PS: I know that this one of the most frightening photos of me, ever!