Epicuriosity

Saturday May 22, 2010

Our rented apartment is considered pretty nice because it has an AC window unit and hot water in the shower. The hot water is a breaker that you flip and basically burn your ass off. So it’s an interesting experience flipping a breaker, with exposed wires, on and off throughout your shower so you freeze and then scald yourself. At least there isn’t any water pressure. I think it would be worse. I have a feeling we’ll be taking cold showers from here on out.

We got ready and headed to my aunt’s for breakfast. She made papaya juice, mango juice and we ate bread with butter while we drank cafe cubano. Then we loaded up a bunch of the meds and stuff in the car and headed for a drive through Havana. The homes are really pretty but it is very expensive to maintain them, so many are unpainted and falling down. As we drove throught the neighborhoods, Mark and I were imagining what it all would have looked like 50-60 years ago. We stopped at a cousin’s house to drop off some coffee my dad brought from the US. WOW! She lives in an area considered “ghetto” but the stunning 1920’s tiled floor, arch entrance and huge bathtub wasn’t ghetto to me. I can’t imagine the architecture in some of these homes. My cousin was very happy to have the coffee, but not as happy as her son was when my dad handed him an electronic Sponge Bob toothbrush, a pair of sketchers and his very first tootsie pop ever.

We drove through downtown Havana and discussed the political history of Cuba. There were signs that said “Revolucion is Progress” Progress my ass. We were dodging potholes, passing homes made of leaning sheet metal and passing out coffee and shoes to family.  This place is a beautiful and is an unknown world that we are lucky enough to get a glimpse of, but progress it is not. Monuments, tourist spots and government buildings were the only maintained structures.

This is one of the well kept historical structures in Old Havana. A place where tourists frequent.  This church is hundreds of years old.

But I digress….next stop was my 82 year old great aunt’s house. A cousin lives there and he showed us their new 20 day old piglets. They were SO cute. It’s still hard for me to understand how someone can raise animals from babies and then still kill and eat them. But it’s all about necessity and culture.

My cousin went to University and was a veteranarian. That is his passion. He told us he made the equivelent to $20 a month as an educated vet! But he left that profession because he can make that much in one day driving a taxi. So he is fixing up his 1950’s chevy and will join the profession so many other well educated vets, doctors, etc have had to accept.
We dropped off vitamins, coffee, razors and a few other items and then headed to my uncle’s after a stop for rum and beer.  So here we sit at my great uncle’s house, food and alchohol free flowing and the sound of dominos hitting the table. My family is wonderful. I can’t believe we have this opportunity to meet them. I may never get to see them again, but for now we sit around and enjoy the time we do have together and continue to attempt conversation. However, day 2 and I already understand about half of the conversations. Maybe by the end of the trip I will prove my cubanita side and assure everyone I’m not an adopted little white girl. Mark on the other hand, will always be a gringo!

Just got to our apartment after a long wonderful, yet long day. My tia took us for a walk around the famous Tropicana.

This place is beautiful! Right out of the 50’s! The trees, gardens, statues…..gorgeous!

My aunt has lived just a couple of blocks away for fifteen years and first saw the Tropicana grounds just two years ago. Prior to that, Cubans were restricted from there. If you are a tourist and take a bus or cab to the Tropicana you are shielded by the “real” Havana. The road leading to it is well kept, paved and clean. The walls surrounding the grounds are so high you can’t see the run down neighborhood just on the other side. I’m so glad we get to see the REAL Cuba and not just the parts the government wants you to see.

During the walk we got to discuss a lot of the political side of Cuba with my cousin. Found out that my great grandmother spent nine months in prison for being a jehovah’s witness (religion use to be against the law). The government pretty much tells you what to do, what to think and what to like. It’s gotten a little better over the years, but he said it’s hell for anyone that thinks differently. He started building a raft several years before he moved to the US. He said he would rather have died trying to get out than being stuck here. He lives in the US legally now and has only been back twice in the last nine years to see his mom. Both times were this year.

Family is very important in Cuba and a big part of everyone’s lives. We’ve met so many family members in just a day and a half and we haven’t even left Havana yet!

Friday May 21, 2010

We arrived at Havana airport and while we were standing in line at customs, an officer came up to us and wanted to see our passports and visas. I guess we stood out as illegals. We joked about it being racial profiling. haha

My aunt (tia in espanol),Lourdes, met us outside and I got teary eyed when I hugged her for the very first time. My first encounter with a part of my family I never thought I would meet. We got a rental car, loaded our 270 pounds of luggage in the trunk and backseat and headed through the streets of Havana.  1950’s cars, giant billboards with quotes about the Reveloucion and socialism and lush palm trees lined the streets.

My aunt felt so bad that we couldn’t hold a real conversation. Her English is about as good as my Spanish. Once upon a time I was pretty fluent, but the less I saw my South Florida family, the less espanol I spoke.

We arrived at my aunts apartment and were greeted by my cousin, Lester, who had moved to the states over eight years ago, but flew in to visit family too. I also got to meet a new cousin. There was a blown up condom that said, “Welcome Deanna and Mark” They don’t have balloons, so inflated condoms are the party favor of choice. Besides, the government gives them out for free down here. The mojitos, rum, beer and cigars started flowing and the Cuban music cranked up. Soon my aunt was salsa dancing with everyone. My family can really move their hips! Of course I had to try it and my aunt said I move my hips like a cubanita. The whole night was surreal.

My aunt’s tiny apartment has a kitchen the size of my bathtub, she boils all her water and breaks ice up with a stone. The everyday comforts are missing, but the love and family atmosphere in that place tonight would fill the largest house in the world.

It’s about 10pm, Mark and I are about to fall asleep in our tiny little apartment in Havana. We’re full of rum, full of happiness and full of love for my amazing Cuban family! And it’s only the first day.

Thursday May 20, 2010

Mark and I are off on our next adventure…..CUBA! My father was born there and still has a sister, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins there. That means he can legally travel there. Since I have immediate family in Cuba I can travel too and since Mark “lives in the same dwelling” he can go too! YAY! Family vacay!

We’re sitting at the Birmingham, airport to catch a plane to Ft.Lauderdale where we will repack all our luggage in three giant bags and fill the remaining space with medicine, toiletries and other everday items to take to my family. We are only allowed 40 pounds each of luggage so we packed super light and fit all our stuff for 12 days into only two carry on bags. I was pretty impressed with ourselves. I guess I really don’t need five pair of shoes everytime we go somewhere…huh. go figure.

We have no idea what to expect when we get there. All I know is there will be plenty of family, food, coffee and rum. Everything else will just be bonus!!

Well our final day in Egypt and I still was not feeling 100%. But I was not about to miss the marketplace! It was our last day there and I had bought ONE gift. So, off to Khan al Khaliji we went. This market is HUGE. It winds through streets and alleyways. Everyone yelling at each other, everyone asking you to come into their shop and everyone trying to bargain a price if you even show the least bit interested in something. You can pretty much bargain for at least half of their original asking price. For instance, I found a shirt. The guy wanted 390LE for it and when he couldn’t meet our offer and we walked away, he ended up chasing us down the street to sell it to us for 150LE.

We found saffron really cheap (yum, can’t wait for Mark to use it), a tapestry I had wanted to get for my mom and a present for Mark’s mom. Other than that we really didn’t see anything we wanted. All the sellers were a bit overwhelming, but honestly most of that stuff was cheap tourist stuff that was probably made in China. Pyramid paperweights, pashminas, stuffed camel toys, keychains, etc. I found a few jewelry shops but the prices were the same as I could get on ebay or from father Dunn so I didn’t bother. A bit disappointing since I just KNEW we’d come home with an entire suitcase full of goodies. But nope……a few nice gifts and a nice stroll through a market that was hundreds of years old and we headed back to start packing.

We absolutely loved our Egypt adventure. I don’t think either of us really knew what to expect. The three cities we visited were overpopulated and way over polluted.  Everyone wanted a tip and everything was double for foreigners (seriously, there were even signs that had different prices). BUT, despite the craziness of it all, the people we met and the ancient monuments were absolutely worth the trip! It was truly an experience of a lifetime and we are so very grateful for such an awesome trip!

Next on the list……Cuba!

We took the early morning train to Alexandria. We got to see some of the countryside. People working their farms (no machines), riding their donkeys through town and lots of ducks and cows eating along the bank of the Nile.

Alexandria was somewhere Mark really wanted to go. He’s fascinated with ancient Rome and Alexandria is the closest we would get so far. We found an ancient Roman theater. Still had original mosaic tiles, marble columns and even what was left of crumbling walls that once used to be homes. It was SO cool.

We wandered through town and found the seaside. We decided to walk to find lunch and we ended up walking about 2-3 miles along shore to an old fort that used to be the site of an ancient lighthouse that was used for over 1,000 years. Alexandria’s seen a lot of wars and natural disasters, so many of it’s ancient monuments are no longer standing or are laying at the ocean floor. Every day divers are still finding statues and relics of Cleopatra’s palace.

Ah, finally….lunch! I had so been looking forward to lunch overlooking the Mediterranean. As soon as we ordered I felt sick. Oh no….that darn stomach junk Mark had finally caught up to me. Luckily I was able to finish touring for the day, but needless to say, my lunch went to waste and I was highly disappointed to miss that. On the other hand, I was so very grateful I wasn’t bed-ridden for a day like Mark had been.

We hired a cab driver for a few hours and as he drove us through the busy streets of Alexandria, he told us about the monuments, the people and the culture. He was from there so it was an added bonus. We hit the museum next. This museum is really well organized. It had three floors. The first one – ancient Egypt. The second – Egypt when the Romans began to move in. The third – Roman Alexandria. It was so fascinating to see the transformation of the images of Kings and Pharaohs to the deities of ancient Rome.

Next, the catacombs! Very creepy. These are tombs under Alexandria that used to house Egyptian mummies and Roman bodies. Eeewww! Some of the parts were flooded and you had to balance on a plank to cross. I told Mark, “gross, ancient mummy water!” I couldn’t help but wonder what was really floating in that water. Blah!

Carved into some of the more elaborate tombs were hieroglyphs AND Roman images like grape vines and deities. What a total mix of cultures and yet it worked beautifully.

A stop off at Pompei’s pillar (the tallest standing monument in Alexandria) and then back to the train station for our journey back to Cairo.

Today’s seaside walks and Roman views was so wonderful and yet so different from the desert and ancient temples just a few hours away.

Mark has been talking about Mohammed Ali street since we had our tickets to Cairo (February). This is a famous street in Cairo that is known for it’s musicians, instrument makers and pretty much any thing Middle Eastern music related. So, we headed that way. We got out of the taxi and we were definitely not in the touristy part of town. Fruit stands, ladies selling bread on the street and bicyclers balancing huge trays of bread and food who were weaving through the sea of people and cars. As we walked we saw a ton of furniture makers and shops, we were really hoping the music stores had not all disappeared. We had asked one of our tour guides about the street and she said she thought all the music stores were long gone, but we really wanted to go there anyways…just in case. Ah-ha! There was one, and another. We found the reminisce of this once bustling musical street. Some of them were selling keyboards and drum kits, so not what we were looking for. Most of them were selling and even making Ouds. We walked past one store and you could see the whole family (including a young boy) making beautiful Ouds. I picked up some zills for a friend and we continued our stroll. Mark checked the doumbeks in a few stores, but the quality wasn’t what he was hoping to find. I mean, we are in Egypt, on the famous instrument maker street. Where the heck are the drums?? We walked into the last store and Mark began inspecting the drums again. The owner said “I have higher quality in my house. I don’t put them out here because people copy my designs. Would you like to come see?” And against our better judgment, once again we were following a strange Egyptian man through the back streets of Cairo. As though we had not learned our lesson in Luxor.  Through a narrow passage and up a dark staircase we entered this man’s home. He brought out a few drums. They were the most beautiful drums ever. Mark began to play and the guy kept bringing more out. All with very intricate and gorgeous designs. He asked where we were from and we said “America”. He said he has a cousin in Chicago and a friend in LA. His friends name was Souhail Kaspar! YES! REALLY! Mark told him he was a student of Souhail’s and they are friends as well. The guy said he designs and makes all of Souhail’s drums. OK, so the very freakin drum Mark has and plays all the time is designed by this guy we happened upon in a little shop and we were now sitting in his home. How do these things happen?! Amazing! Needless to say, we walked out of there with a couple of new doumbeks. One in which Mark is currently the only owner of the design. How very cool!! We still don’t know exactly how we will get them home, but we’ll figure it out!

Every Wednesday evening there is a free show of Sufi dancers at this 600 year old building connected to a mosque. Again, something we always wanted to see and the fact that it was free, well, these things just don’t happen in Egypt. We got out of the taxi and had no idea where to go, this man asked if we were looking for the dancers and when we said yes he took us right to the place. Usually this is where they ask for a tip. Even if they just point you in the direction they expect a tip. Instead he asked us if we wanted to see the handicraft street where people are making copper and other things. Sure, why not. So here we go again, following a man through the back streets of Cairo with no idea where we were or where we were going. I just knew we had not been mugged or anything yet so what harm would it be. This little old man spoke English so well. He told us all about the area, the building where the dancers would be, introduced us to all the workshop people we passed (like we were his new best friends)  and then took us to a coppersmith. We met and watched the men make copper lanterns. What art, what patience, how beautiful. These men learn from their fathers, who learn from their fathers, etc. A very old art still being done the same way after all these years. No machines. A piece of copper, a design and a saw. Wow. Then we went to see a man that was making mother of pearl and camel bone inlay-ed boxes and other wooden things. We saw the actual camel bone that he uses and watched him glue the little designs in the chess set he was making. Again, he learned from his father and his brother had a workshop a few blocks away (we met and bought something from him). This unexpected field trip was so awesome! The little man took us back to the old building and of course, we gave him a nice tip. You just can’t get that experience from a tour guide and certainly not on your own. I am so grateful that little man took us to all those places. THAT’s the Cairo I wanted to see.

So we walk into this huge, very old building and waited for the show to start. The musicians came out and as soon as they started Mark’s jaw dropped. It stayed dropped for the entire hour of the show. The musicians were the best we had ever heard, ever. The dancer came out and he spun for 40 minutes. All the while the musicians were playing, other dancers were circling him and playing frame drums. I can’t even explain this experience. Mark and I both teared up. The show continued with more music and different dancers. Mark managed to get some audio so I hope it came out ok. I’m going to stop here about this because no matter how hard I try, I just can’t describe the feeling that came over us at this show. THE best experience ever (besides our wedding day).

Too high on life to sleep, we ended the evening with tea and shisha. We had an early train ride to Alexandria in just a few hours!

Well, after spending all day Sunday in the Cairo hotel I was really worried we weren’t going to make our trip to Luxor. Mark had caught the travelers bug and was in bed ALL day Sunday. Miraculously (and several drugs later) he woke up Monday morning perfectly ready to catch our 6am flight to Luxor. WHEW!

Apparently I had accidentally purchased us business class tickets so it was a nice surprise to have big comfy seats, fresh juice and breakfast on our flight. I don’t think Mark would have done so well that morning in coach. I love how these little mistakes work out like they were meant to be!

We arrive in Luxor and once again, our hotel room isn’t ready so we catch a cab and head to the Luxor Museum. This museum is probably the size of one room in the Cairo museum, but it was so nice, well organized and well labeled that we really enjoyed the artifacts even more. We saw two mummies! One looked all peaceful and one had his mouth open and it was kinda creepy. You could even see the linen in his skull through his eye sockets….ewwww…..and cool!! These mummies are like 3 or 4 thousand years old! And you could see their teeth!

Back to the hotel for lunch and to make our 1pm tour. Our room was ready and since we are Gold members (eh-hem) we were upgraded to a suite! SWEET! Our room had a dining room complete with complimentary cheese tray, fruit tray and bottle of Egyptian wine. Two bathrooms, a jacuzzi tub, a toilet that warmed your butt when you sat on it (seriously and really quite nice). But the best part was our wrap around balcony overlooking the Nile river. Ahhhh,,,, This ended up being a sanctuary for us the last two days as the afternoon sun is just too much after a while.

OK, first stop on our tour…..Karnak Temple! This is the reason I wanted to come to Luxor so bad, Karnak temple is the largest temple complex in all of Egypt. I remember seeing photos of Egyptologists in a room full of columns that were the size of sequoia trees. I’ve always wanted to stand in that hall. As we walked through with our very own egyptologist, Dina, she explained who all the kings and pharohs were, what stories were on their statues and temple walls, what each tomb was used for and how the offering room would have been filled with the scents of perfumes and incense. And then we saw it…the very room I had always dreamed of standing in! We walked in and it was so overwhelming. There is still original paint on the uppermost parts of these columns. Just think….134 columns that would take 6 people stretched arm to arm just to go around one of them. Each column is 50 meters high and they are all covered in heiroglyphs!!! I could go on and on about this temple but would never be able to explain how you feel walking into that room.

Luxor temple was next on the list. This temple used to be completely covered in sand and the town of Luxor was on built on top of it and no one ever even knew until it was discovered. Then they moved the town and excavated. You can see parts of this temple had to be restored, but it was still totally amazing.
As we walked into the temple the call to prayer began over the speakers at the mosques throughout town. It was totally a surreal moment. It’s these little moments that I love so much about our travels. Luxor is about 1.5 miles from Karnak temple and there used to be an avenue of sphinxs connecting the two temples! So throughout the city you can see remains of these sphinx. Very very cool!

Speaking of cool….we were so ready for the hotel by then so off we went to have dinner and relax on our balcony while we watched the sun set over the Nile river. This was a totally unexpected treat, but after the flight, the touring, the heat, the fighting off beggars and being tricked to follow someone to a “market” that ended up being his friend’s shop and the ATM eating Mark’s debit card, we were SO ready for this wonderfully relaxing evening and were so very grateful for our sweet suite! There were two mosques across the Nile and one behind our hotel so as the sun set and the fallucas filled the Nile we could hear the Call to Prayer all around us. No matter what your religion or beliefs, this was a magical, once in a lifetime moment.

Day two in Luxor and Dina and our driver met us at 7am. Off to the Valley of the Kings we went! There are over 60 tombs in this one area. You can’t possibly go in all of them (not on a 4 hour tour anyways) so we hit the three most decorated ones. I’ve heard so many kings and pharoahs names in the past four days I can’t even remember the ones we went in. No photos were allowed so I’m likely to never remember again, but it was still totally amazing. Hieroglyphs and original paintings filled the tombs with stories of the King, offerings made to the Gods and symbols to guide him in the afterlife and help him find his body again. I wonder if the egyptologists left a note when they decided to move it several hundred miles away to a museum? Someone’s going to be pissed! Hehe

We also saw the Colossi of Memnon and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. I think this was the first official transvestite! She claimed herself to be a King (and later a God) and dressed in men’s clothing, even wore a fake beard so people would take her seriously as a King.

Can I just say I don’t know what we would have done without our tour guide?! These temples are not marked or explained so we would have just been wandering around looking at all the “pretty pictures” and never really know what the heck we were looking at. Now we can look at a heiroglyph of an offering and tell you how many of each offering the God was receiving. Oh, and that a frog represents 100,000 years (just don’t ask us why a frog)

Time to head back to Cairo, but first I just had to finally tip these Nubian musicians outside our hotel. There were these four men (two playing spike fiddles, a doumbek player and a riqq player). Every time someone entered or left the hotel they would start up their song and they had big smiles. As soon as the person got in their cab or entered the hotel the music just died and their smiles disappeared. But like a wa-wa-waaaaa kind of way. It was SOOO funny to us. Whenever we were in the lobby you could hear them start and then stop, start and then stop. They never even finished the song. We began to wonder if they even knew the end of the song because nobody every tipped them or stayed long enough to watch so they ended up playing the same first four measures and then died out. HAHAHA (ok, you just had to be there). But, as we got in the cab headed to the airport I reached in my pocket and had 10 pounds. I looked over at them and they had already stood up, big smiles on their faces and by this time had already gotten further in the song than we had heard in two days. I handed one of them the 10 pounds. Their smiles got bigger, their instruments played louder and they began to sing, “Bye, bye, bye…lalala….bye bye bye!”

We ended the evening eating mezzas with beladi bread being made by two women in front of a fire, a veggie fatir and a dessert fatir covered in almonds, raisins, honey and powdered sugar. YUM!!

So it’s 1:30am (still not on Egypt time yet) and I’m ready for a day of shopping in Cario! We’ve gotta get our sleep and be ready for some haggling tomorrow!

Well, after 12 hours of sitting in airports and 14 hours of flying we made it to Cairo at 1am. Needless to say…..exhausted! We had arranged for a driver to pick us up and not only was he there waiting for us, he got our visas while we stood in the customs line. Nice!

We got about 5 hours of sleep and after a breakfast of foul, baba ganoush, mango juice and pastries we were met in the lobby by our Egyptologist for our private day tour!

Let me just tell you…..this lady knew everything we ever wanted to know about current, historical and ancient Egypt. As we rode through the busy streets Cairo (you can’t watch the road, just trust the driver!) she told us about the palaces, new buildings, pros and cons of their government, social classes and so much more we wouldn’t have learned on our own. We drove past the City of the Dead. It’s a huge area (city really) full of mausoleums and people actually live there. Like squatters. There’s a whole history I don’t have time to share here….but it was eye opening to see what some people have to do just to survive in this highly overpopulated city. Cairo is huge! And every square inch is quickly being covered with apartments. So close together that in some areas they have to use these little motorcycle things to get through the streets!

Just at the edge of the city, through the haze, we could make out the first pyramid! YAY! I don’t know what’s most fascinating about them. Their age, their purpose, their construction ingenuity? Something amazing to experience for sure. We walked around the first one, through all the other tombs of wives and children, around the second one and then to the panoramic for a full view of all three. It was super hazy out so it really added to the mystery. Our Egyptologist, Noha, explained each one, who built it, how they are different and what has been found in them. I thought I knew a lot about them, but Noha really explained it all so well.

One thing about the pyramids….so many tourists, so many people trying to sell you something (including police letting you past the rope restrictions for a tip) and so many camels. Even though we did not ride one I was really just as happy to see them, their decorations and the trail of them off in the distance of the pyramids. There was so much to do that day and Mark was not really into riding one so off we went to the Sphinx.

I think the Sphinx was our favorite. The symbolism in the lion body and King’s head, his paws, the fact that it’s all one GIANT stone. Very very cool! The pictures really don’t do the Giza plateau justice. Maybe we’ll get a chance to go back when the air is clear and really get some good photos.

As I’m sure every tourist does, we visited a papyrus museum and perfumery. We learned (and saw) how true papyrus was/is made and of course walked out of there with our very own beautiful piece of art, and we later saw the actual original design on a piece of furniture that was in King Tut’s tomb!

After a quick stroll through Khan al Khaliji (the market) we headed to the Egyptian museum. Now….let me just stop here. Please note…..this little stop off at the market was purely just to “check it out” we fully intend to spend several hours there on Wednesday.  I saw way too many many things just on one street that I’d like to go back to. Including a whole shop of old tribal jewelry!

The Egyptian museum is gi-freakin-normous! It would take days to visit everything. Today we focused on King Tutankhamen’s treasures. Again, Noha amazed us with her knowledge, her embalming explanations and her ability to read the kartouches (hieroglyphs) on the pieces. I wish I could share with you everything that we saw. It was so overwhelming! The jewels, the furniture, the little statues and their symbolism, the jewels, the sarcophagi, the actual CLOTHES and shoes of King Tut!! Did I mention the jewels??
I think we spent two hours in there and still didn’t see everything in this one exhibit much less any part of the museum! Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed in the museum. But again, photos would never do it justice. I mean, the freakin clothes and sandals of King Tut?! Amazing!

OK, so at this point you’d think the day was over, yes? Well no way. Our tour was over, but our adventures weren’t. We checked into our hotel (last night’s was just a one night thing). We are staying in a palace. Seriously. It’s the Marriott in Cairo, but it was originally built as a palace and then the two towers of rooms were added on later. Let me just say that we are staying at this five star palace by using my dad’s Marriott points (this whole trip is actually thanks to my dad and his millions of points!). So, we check in and our room isn’t ready yet so a manager escorts us to the executive lounge where we have free snacks and drinks. It’s because we are Gold members.  Of course…..I didn’t mention that it’s my dad that’s a Gold member (details details). Room was ready shortly after and we soon received a plate of pastries, a fruit basket, a card and a call to make sure everything in our room was acceptable. This was FOUR separate instances! Needless to say….our five star palace that has 15 restaurants, tons of shops and an executive lounge open to us whenever we want is certainly acceptable!

A quick nap and we were off to dinner…..a Nile cruise. Live music, whirling dervish and a bellydancer was the entertainment. Definitely for the tourists, but that’s what we are so we really loved it. The food was just average, but we had a bottle of Egyptian wine and really enjoyed the entertainment. Mark was so fixed on the drummers at one point I asked him if he saw the bellydancer and he said “yeah, she kept blocking my view of the doumbek player!” HAHAHA!! That’s my man alright!

We ended our evening with hot tea and apple shisha in the courtyard. Ahhhhh….it’s was truly relaxing after such a full day. So relaxing that Mark is passed out and sleeping like a baby. Meanwhile it’s 1am, we’ve been here for 24 hours and after typing this I am so amazed at what all we experienced today! Even if we only had one day in Cairo today would have been totally satisfying. But just thinking about the 6 full days we have left in Egypt has me so excited I can’t even sleep!

Tomorrow….sleeping in, lunch in the park, mosques and a preparing for our trip to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings!

It’s been a while since we’ve updated the site. It’s certainly not due to a lack of interesting things going on! On the contrary, we’ve been so busy with life in general it’s been hard to remember our little site.

So, the last time we posted it was day 7 in San Francisco. No, we are not stuck there like many people teased us about since our posts suddenly stopped (although, being stuck in SF forever wouldn’t be a bad thing).  In short, when you are on the road stopping wherever you feel like it, almost driving off cliffs on Hwy 1, watching the seals lay on the beach at some random stop in the middle of nowhere, it’s kinda hard to find an internet connection. Even when we got to Phoenix (which rocked by the way), our hotel’s internet was down. It was like we just weren’t meant to update…..so we didn’t. But just know that the drive is absolutely stunning and to go from the mountains and lush forests of Washington to the desert and cacti of Arizona in two days is a beauty
I think everyone should experience!

SO, what are we up to next?  Would you believe…….EGYPT?! Yes! I can hardly believe it myself! The land of ancient mystery, mummies, pyramids, marketplaces older than our country….Arabic music and dance…ah….Egypt!

Twenty four hours from right now Mark and I will be headed on a loooooong journey to Cairo. It will take about 20 hours of travel, but oh will it be worth every lame movie, crappy airplane meal and every attempt to get a “good night’s sleep” while sitting in a way too small chair for 12 hours listening to a couple hundred people snore.

Why Egypt?  Why not!  Mark and I are explorers. We love to experience different cultures, foods and traditions (not to mention the whole belly dancing and middle-eastern percussion thing). Egypt is the most exotic place we will travel so far! I think over the years we have watched every History and Travel channel show about Egypt. It’s always been a place I never thought I’d even get close to, much less spend a week exploring. But here it is. WOW.

We have so much planned I can’t even fit it all in this post (plus I don’t want to spoil all the anticipation of what we are getting ourselves into!) Just know that Cairo is only one stop on our Egyptian adventure.
So, with our Arabic phrasebook, headscarf and passports in hand…..we are off to experience what we had once only dreamed of!

Our second day in San Francisco was more laid back. We slept in, took the bus to Haight Ashbury and ate, walked and shopped all morning. Haight is the part of San Francisco where the hippie movement started. The Greatful Dead lived there and a lot of musicians got their start out there. These days it’s full of tie-dyed filled stores, tattoo and piercing stores, juice bars and bums, mostly 20 year olds, looking for their next high. Aside from the getting high thing, this is one of my favorite parts of town. Anywhere you can get fresh carrot-ginger juice, a great vegetarian meal and all natural fabric clothing I am in heaven. Of course, Mark was more into the books, music stores and tattoo shops.

After the Haight we took the bus and BART (Bay area rapid transit) to the Mission district in search of the best burritos ever. Every time I come to San Francisco I eat a giant burrito from this place a few blocks from the studio. Mark said he was tired of me teasing him with the yummy burrito stories so after walking around for about an hour through the Mission we finally found the place. We ate so well! Plus the watermelon juice was super yummy!
We also went to Lark in the Morning. This is a music store that only has world music instruments. This was definitely Mark’s happy place! He was trying out all the drums and a couple of guys that were playing Oud asked him to play. Suddenly the place was filled with awesome Arabic music. The guys were jamming and I had a personal concert right there in the store. They sounded really great and it was so cool to see Mark just jamming with these guys.

We were so tired after day seven we just wanted to go to bed. But when we got back to the hotel we realized we were pretty hungry so once again we headed out in search of food (this has become the theme of our trip). We figured we would just grab a sandwich from a street vendor, but we ended up in this fancy restaurant overlooking the bay and Golden Gate bridge. Two whole crabs, a glass of wine and a glass of scotch later we were practically falling asleep at the table. So relaxing, so full…we stumbled back to the room and ended our stay in San Francisco passed out and dreaming of ocean views and Big Sur.