Aswan

I have to apologize for my last post.  There are so many spelling mistakes, typo's and repeat of pictures, it's ridiculous but the only place to sit and use the internet is in the hotel lobby which is bustling with people coming and going so it has been hard for me to not to be distracted.
  I forgot to mention, that today, which is Nov 28th, is the assembly house elections here in Egypt.  This has ramped up the energy all over the country.  We are lucky to be out of Cairo, because there often is violence during election time.  We are told that we will see fighting the street today, but they will be fighting with each other, not with tourists.  OOOOOooooKay, this should be interesting. 
So our day yesterday started off when we got off our train in Aswan. 

 This is the home town of our tour guide so he knows everything there is to know about it and it seems everyone in the town knows him too!
We checked into our hotel and went up to the roof top terrace to look at the view.

 The Nile river is across the road.  For some reason this seems mystical to me, some place I only dreamed about but here it is, right there!  We had some free time this morning to explore the town so Joe and I and a couple of the woman in the group went for turkish coffee.  None of this whimpy espresso coffee they give you in Italy, no no, we are talking coffee thick like mud!  It is the size of an espresso but the last 1/4 cup is literally mud.  The tradition is that when you are finished your coffee you flip the cup upside down then someone will come along and read your fortune from the sludge. 
After coffee we went to see the market.  The first stop was the spice stall. 

OMG, I have died and gone to cooking heaven.  Baskets and baskets of ever spice you can think of.  At one point the stall owner took my hand and added 5 spices crushing them with his fingers before dropping them.  He told me to smell them.  It was like the most rich curry aroma that you can imagine.  There are vendors of spice in every other stall.
The vendors all come into the street to convince you to come to their stall.

 There are thousands of stalls. Because Joe was walking down the street with 3 woman the stall men  would yell out to him "You must be a rich man if you can afford 3 wives"  Others would say" Hey you must be a virile man  to have 3 woman!"  The further down the street we went the bigger his ego got. But according to Muslim law, a man is allowed 4 wives so the running joke is he needs to find one more before he goes back to the market.
When we got back to the hotel it was quite hot (around 28 degress so Joe and I went to the pool for a swim. We quickly had to get changed as we had to catch a boat to go down the Nile to our next destination.

  The ride on the Nile was peaceful and beauiful. At one point 2 little boys paddled up in their home made boat with with thin little boards they used for paddles.  The driver of the boat usually slows down when he sees them so they can catch a ride.  When they pulled up beside us they began singing in several different languages, little songs on the hopes that the people in the boat will give them money.  Our tour guide told us he wished his father had built him a boat when he was that age because he would be rich by now if he had.  The kids by the way couldn't have been older than 6 or 7. 

Can you imagine sending your kid down the Nile River in a boat that leaks when he was 6 years old???
The river at this end is very clean and blue.  The closer you get to Cairo the dirtier it gets.  There is a huge dam just before Aswan so the water in the Nile is probably the most clean here.  That said, I am still not swimming in it or drinking it.
Our boat ride took us past monestaries and temples, and the hotel where Murder on the Nile was filmed.
  The final stop was a big desert sand dune.  We were told to walk up the dune and our camels would be waiting at the top for us.  This wasn't just a little ride around a field on a camel kind of trip, this was a get on the camel and ride for almost an hour through the desert kind of trip.

  I don't know if any of you have ridden a camel but they are really tall and most of them are quite ornary.  Anyway the camel kneels down, you climb on and hope and pray you don't fall off.  It is a long way down.  Some people were given a camel and a rope to ride like a horse and others were led by a man holding the reins and walking either in front or behind.  I was led by a man but Joe, Mr Indian Jones Camel rider was given his camel and set free.  I have never laughed so hard than during that hour.  Camels are not comfortable to ride and the guys were complaining profusely about how "crushed their manhood was getting" by being on the camel.  I would like to say, it wasn't comfortable for woman either but the men said it was torturous.  We rode for about an hour through the desert.  By this time it was about 30 degrees and there was no way you could drink anything as we were all holding on to our camels with a death grip for fear of falling off.  I was ecstatic for the experience and just as happy when it was time to get off.  One woman, Cheryl, had a camel that she named Muffin the race camel.

This is Cheryl, she started at the back of the group and beat us all by 15 minutes.  She is still in agony today!

 It ran the whole time.  She was bouncing like a wild woman on  a crazed animal, but I must add she was unbelievably composed during her desert version of the Indy 500.  Our smiles lit up the desert yesterday and every time we think about it, we laugh aloud.
 We left our camels in the desert and transfered to the back of a pickup truck to be transported to a Nubian village where we were to have a traditional dinner with a  family.  The ride through the village was fun in itself, if for no other reason than we were riding in the back of a pickup truck.

  I haven't done that since I was a kid riding in Uncle Gilbert's truck on the way to Dairy Queen.  Sorry, I digress.
A Nubian family can have huge homes because up until recently land was free so they would build a house as big as they want.  Saeed has a friend who has a house that is almost 2 acres for just the three of them.  Dinner was much like what we had at the restaurant last night but the highlight for me was seeing the kids playing with their father.

 They had gone out to the desert and picked up only the most pretty rocks (these were desert rocks that weren't pretty at all) to show him.  He in turn oogled over every one saying this one was prettier than the last one and the kids would giggle with delight.  I could not contain myself, the whole thing was just so touching.  When we finished eating we were asked if anyone in the group wanted to get a henna tattoo.  The daughter of the man who owns the house will paint a tattoo for you for 20 Egyptian pounds, or about $3.60 Cdn.  A couple of people in the group got it done and it was amazing how quick they artist was

Joe standing beside our dinner table in the Nubian house

.  We thanked our host and said good bye to the kids, (we never saw the women, they were doing all of the work of course) then we were off again to catch our boat back down the Nile for a short but beautiful ride down the Nile at night.  We climbed back in the pick up truck and drove for about 30 minutes through the village.  There were children lining the streets yelling Hello and waving madly as we drove by.  These kids are taught from an early age that tourist mean money so smile and wave, they were all so cute but it also made me realize what a hard life they must have. We arrived back at the hotel about 8 o'clock.  We have to get up early in the morning to head to Abu Sempel which we have to have a police escort to get to it. 
I will tell you that 3 a.m. wake up call came as quite a shock but it was okay because the hotel had hot coffee waiting for us as well as a box breakfast.  It seems that the universal breakfast food here is croissants and jam.  Just for the record if I never see another white bun/croissant I will be fine and dandy with that.
We boarded the bus then drove to the convoy meeting spot.  All the buses go together and they all come home together like I said with a police escort.  I asked our guide why we needed the escort and he gave me some "pc" answer about tourists safety was Egypt's priority.  I don't know the reason but we saw a lot of oil wells and drilling going on and perhaps that had something to do with it, but I don't think I will ever know for sure.
The ride was a long 3 hours thru nothing but the Sahara desert.  The sun rising on the desert was spectacular.
Abu Sempel is the place where Ramses 2 built the temple for himself and one for his wife.  It was jaw dropping. In the 1960's the government decided to dam the river but the flood waters would have covered over the temples so in 1964, they painstakingly took the temple apart and moved it to higher ground.  The amazing part is you cannot tell where one part was moved from inside.  It is seamless.  No pictures allowed inside the temple unfortunately but the outside speaks for itself...

This is a long distant zoom shot inside the temple

After we left the temple we got back on the bus for the long journey home.  All of us fell asleep because of our early start but by noon the temperature outside had reached 30 degrees and because we are in the desert, the mirages started to appear.  Our tour guide woke us up so we could see a real mirage.  These pictures are a bit blurry because we were still on the bus driving 130 kms/hr but you get the idea.  There is no water in this picture, there is nothing but sand! 

And that wraps up Aswan.  Tomorrow we board our felluca to sail down the Nile and sleep under the stars on the deck of the boat.  It's rough, but somebody has to do it!

Cairo

Our plane from Rome arrived 1 hour late so I was worried that our hotel transfer would not be there.  Coming through customs was a breeze.  No questions, no lineups, no problems, Canadians are very welcome in Egypt and there are a lot of us.  Not so many Americans. 
The transfer from the airport was crazy!  The cars have no sense of following the lines, everyone is just all over the road cutting each other off and honking at each other.  It was dark when we arrived so I couldn't take pictures of the guys riding motorbikes with no helmets, no lights while talking on the cell phone.  A pickup truck full to the point of tipping over with garbage, (sort of like Max from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas with the gifts on the sleigh) only Max wasn't on top of the the garbage there was an 8 year old on top!!!  OMG!  The streets are lined with people.  There are all sitting out in the street smoking their hooka pipes (which were told was 80% tobacco 20% hashish).

Our hotel was comfortable enough and we were exhausted and Joe's foot was very tired of walking so we went straight to bed.  Our wake up call was at 7:30 so we had a long day ahead of us.
The plan for Cairo was to leave the hotel by 8:30 and take the bus to the Egyptian museum.  Our guide who is a native Egyptian, has a masters degree in ancient history so the guy is like a walking encyclopedia.

 Saeed told us that for 4 years he went to the Egyptian museum everyday to study.  He literally could tell us about each and every thing (all 100,000 of them) in the museum. 
So when we arrived at the museum we were not even allowed to bring our camera into the building so again I cannot show you the 3 hours worth of amazing things we saw.  But to say that I was a foot away from King Tut's mask, is no joke.  Again it isn't like in Canada where you have to be miles away, the mask, the tomb, the boxes all were just behind glass that you could touch.  When we came out of the museum we sat in the garden waiting for our departure time.  It is Friday so all of a sudden, loud speakers start to blare.  It is prayer time so they recite the prayers through a loud speaker through the whole city of Cairo.  We could hear it all the way in Giza.  Our heads were swimming with information, just in time for us to climb back on the bus and head to Giza.  On the way we saw hundred of people praying in the streets.  It took about 30 minutes to arrive then all of a sudden we start to see little peaks.

Do you see this!!!  I took this picture!!! Me, and Joe, here in Cairo!
Let me tell you about this tour thing.  I have never felt so safe, so well taken care of, and so pampered.  Cairo seemed scary to me but our guide has just been so full of tips and advice it has been great.  He even showed us the body language that means "NO- Go away, I don't want any"  without saying a word.  It works great too!
So when arrive at the pyramids he gives a 30 minute history lesson on why they were built, how they were built, where the stones came from, how they extracted the stones, etc etc.  The we were set free to take pictures...

Can you see our smiles???

            

I am just letting the pictures do the talking.

I keep asking myself if this is real.  Yup, it's real and it is fabulous!

Next we are off to the Sphinx.  First a 10 min education then we are set free for an hour.

isn't he cute!!!!

After seeing the Sphinx we got back on the bus and headed for a restaurant that Saeed had suggested. The Alezba Village didn't look like much from the outside so we had no idea what to expect when we got inside.

          

Inside was something outrageous.  There was a woman making pita bread at the door\

A camel that you could ride as well as wandering bands, and just an incredible atmosphere.  But the most amazing thing was they had a lion cub that you could snuggle.

Something I must add here is nothing in Egypt is free.  All of these lovely things were available for a price.  Not much money but you are literally nickel and dimed to death.  If you took a picture of the camel or lion they expect money.  If you touched the goat, it cost money.  If you used the toilet it cost money and if you wanted soap to wash your hands after the toilet that cost more money too.  We are talking not much money but enough that you felt like everyone is after your wallet, and they are in some shape or fashion.  It is after all a third world country.  They see ever tourist here as rich and they are poor.  The hardest times for me are when the little kids come up and ask for money for food.  Saeed told us the small kids are the ones that will pick your pocket.  In the market, you are more likely to be robbed by a kid than an adult.
Dinner itself was amazing.  We didn't order, food just started showing up.  First, tahini, pita bread, baba ganoosh, and tomato salad.

Next was rice, and vegetables and a bbq full of chicken and lamb still with the hot coals burning under neither the meat.  It was quite the introduction to our first meal in Egypt!   

Behind the main restaurant they were getting ready to host a wedding.  We were allowed to go see what it looked like because in Egypt weddings don't start until 8:00 at night. 

That is when the ceremony starts then the reception is around 9 p.m.  Here is the funny part of the story.  In every country we have ever visited at some point in time we have heard Celine Dion's song "My Heart Will Go On".  We have a few Canucks on our tour so I was telling them that I can't wait til we hear Celine sing on the radio.  They laughed and said it wasn't likely because so far we have heard nothing but Egyptian music.  The minute I went back to see the wedding setup the DJ is doing a sound check and guess what he plays.  I roared with laughter. 

Anyway that is not the end to our incredible day.  At 8:00 p.m. we were catching the overnight sleeper train to Aswan, which is south of Cairo.  The train station was fasinating.  Everywhere we went, we had people take our bags off the bus, new ones to carry it on to the platform and so forth. Saeed, greased a lot of palms today and we have had nothing but the most incredible service.  After all, tourism is their number one industry here and unemployment runs at about 30%.

So tomorrow I will post again.  We are fitting into one day that which most people would do in 3.  It is unbelievably exciting and I keep asking people to pinch me to see if this is really happening. 
It is, and tomorrow is another day.   Camels, I think tomorrow we ride camels...hmmm,  sounds like fun!

Bye bye Italy, Egypt here we come.

Our last full day in Italy started out rather early.  3 a.m. to be exact.  That is when Joe's woke up with a raging case of gout.  Luckily (or not so much) a couple of days before we left Canada, he twisted his ankle and it seemed like he was having a flare up.  I panicked a bit and got Dr. C.Hall to write him a prescription in case it turned into a full blown attack.  It didn't, fortunately enough, but to be on the safe side, he brought the meds with him. We knew it was full on last night when  even so much as the bed sheet touching his foot sent him groaning. It is now 2:00 in the afternoon and he is sleeping off the pain.  I am praying that he is able to walk by tomorrow when we catch our plane.  We have been so incredibly lucky, other than a head cold each, we have had no ailments to speak of.  Thanks again to Chris for being the "doctor on call".  The meds have started to work and he says he is at 7 out of 10 for pain instead of the 12 he woke up with.

With this particular blog I am going to try to wrap up our fondest memories of Italy.  I will try hard not to make this an epic War and Peace novel although I could see how it could get to be that long.

Our first Gelato in Italy was eaten in the square beside the Hotel Victoria looking over the Arno River in Pisa.  The flavour was pistashio and I remember thinking that it tasted like ice cream did when I was a kid, but somehow better.  We had only one other gelato that we both agreed was better and that was in San Gimignano at a little gelaterie that claimed it had won the best Gelati award 6 years running.  We had pine nut gelati and we have not had better since, although we keep trying and trying.  The stuff is as addictive as crack cocaine, I am sure. 

The sight of Leaning Tower of Pisa was the first moment we realized were weren't dreaming and this icon of Italy was standing crookedly in front of us for real.  A perfect choice for the perfect first day in this beautiful country. 

The Cinque Terre was magical to us for so many reasons.  We met the most wonderful people there,

Marlo and Sebastian and

Denise and Richard.  Our time there wouldn't have been half as great without them and that to me, is what great travelling is all about.  Between doing the hikes between the towns, watching the fisherman bring their boats in at the end of the day

 and the amazing fresh food we had there, it is really hard to pick just one.  Oddly enough, while we were dining with Marlo and Sebastian at Billy's Trattoria*, Denise and Richard who we hadn't met yet, were sitting across the room having the same free bottles of port and limoncella that we were and enjoying every moment of their evening just as we were.  We met them them at the train stain on our way to Venice.

*We have since met so many people who went to Billy's in Manarola that it has become the first question we ask people after they have told us they stayed in Manarola.  Billy's gets our vote for best dining experience while we were here.

I can't decide whether my favourite moment in Venice was drinking Belinis beside San Marco square,

 going to Murano in the luxury water taxi

 , the cheesy (but had to be done) gondola ride through the canal,  or the impromtu picnic in the sun on the steps of one of the small bridges in the back alley

all done btw, with Richard and Denise from Australia.  I knew we would be friends  from the first moment Denise and I saw the Grande Canal and she grabbed my hand and said, "Can you believe we are here?!", more like a long time friend than one I had virtually met only 3 hours earlier.

Years ago, my sister Debbie came to Italy. When she came home I remember her telling me that she thought everyone in the world should see the statue of David before they die.  I put David on my bucket list because she told me to.  I can in ernest understand and also agree with her, that everyone should see the Statue of David.  Never has a work of art brought tears to my eyes but this one did and left me breathless.  Florence for me is just David, and if I ever come back here, you can be sure, I will go and see him again.
(Shopping the market in Florence was quite fun too but Dave was the highlight)

this is fake David, you are not allowed to take pictures of the real one

When we left Florence we only got one memorable night in San Gimignano.  Our balcony overlooked the Tuscan hills so Joe and I had a picnic on it consisting of fresh bread, pecorino cheese, Montepulciano wine, and some fruit.  There was a little day bed right beside the balcony door so after lunch, Joe went for a long leisurely bath and I laid down on the day bed with the balcony doors open for a nap.  Believe it or not a man with an acoustic guitar came with a chair during our lunch and sat and played under our balcony serenading us both for over an hour.  It was the most beautiful guitar music and we felt like he was playing for no one else but us.

The whole time at Reniella was incredible and for the most part hard to describe.  From my, oh so pathetic, attempt at painting a water colour, to being in the trees with the men, being sous chef to Gordon Ramsay aka Bill, to eating ribolitta at La Botte, to drinking Laphroaig at the riddler and Reniella red in the evenings, all in all I am hard pressed to find any experience I have loved more than this.  Thanks to Bob, Elfride and Owain for their hospitality.  (and for putting up with us!)
I will have to add two things here.  I have never seen Joe double over with laughter like the day Roy played us a Jerry Seinfeld routine on the ipod while we were picking olives.  He literally was bent over with laughter.
This trip has renewed a lot of laughter in our lives which makes us appreciate it all the more.
And the second one is the day of travelling to all the little hill towns.  Prosecco in Pienza

 and Brumello at lunch in Montalcino, then dinner at the Grotto where they took the steaming hot pasta out of the water and straight into a huge hollowed out round of pecorino cheese, swirled it around with some cream and hot pasta water and called it sauce... how fantastic is that!!!
We met one more couple when we came to Rome.  Their names are Olivia and Ethan.

  We met them while we sat in the sunshine having wine in Piazza Navona.  They were doing the same.  This was their honeymoon trip.  We ended up spending the entire evening wtih them.  We used our goofy little picnic board and had a picnic on the Spanish steps until it was so cold we had to go to a restaurant for dinner. 
What I am realizing about this trip is that it is just as much about the people we were with as the places we have seen.  We have had a great time, that is for sure.
Our trip isn't over, but it has been one incredible journey so far!
Oh and I can't forget to mention the pizza in Italy. It was made at Reniella. Elfride and her neice Laura, get the award for most amazing pizza!

Now to see a man about a camel...