Istanbul and Cairo

Warning: The next couple of posts are going to be long!:)  If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you know that I am already long winded, but trying to write about everything we did in Egypt and Jordan - well, it's gonna take a couple pages!:)

Wednesday, March 31st
On March 31st we headed to Cairo (via Istanbul) for our 8 day Middle Eastern Vacation!  It all started on the train back from Colmar, France when Sarah, Zann, Nathan and I were discussing places we wanted to visit.  Egypt was the first placed discussed and we were all like - Let's Do It!  A bunch of planning emails, phone calls and dinners later we were booked!  I seriously couldn't believe it happened!  Yeah for living in Europe and the flight not being expensive or long to Egypt!  (It defnitely helped with my case of let's go NOW while we live in Switzerland!)

Once the trip was official, I put "Tickets to Egypt are booked " as my status on Facebook.  Sarah and Josh Teitelman saw it and asked to join the party!  After a bunch of yes we are coming, no we can't come, yes we want to, no we can't do the same itinerary, we finally get a "we are booked" from them - thank goodness!  I love it when a plan comes together - and thank you Facebook - you are a great thing:)!

The best priced flight we could get gave us a 5 1/2 hour lay over in Istanbul, Turkey.  We weren't pysched about that, but it was way better than paying the $500 extra per ticket to fly straight to Cairo.  The night before we left Zann had the brilliant idea to post "What to do in Istanbul on a 5 hour layover" on TripAdvisor and everyone said to go to the Sultanahmet District.  Way better idea than hanging out at the airport don't you think? Absolutely!

We actually ran into The Teitelmans in Istanbul (they had missed their connection), so they ended up on the same flight to Cairo with us.  Problem was - a bunch of people from their flight out of London missed their connections so they had to hang out at the airport to wait on their official boarding passes while we headed into the city.:(  Totally sucked but at least they made it on the flight with us.

To get into Turkey you have to have a Visa, so we headed to the Visa counter, paid the $20 bucks and were on our merry way (yes it was that easy).  We were advised to be back 2 hours before our flight which didn't give us much time, but still didn't deter us!

Everyone on TripAdvisor had suggested taking a cab, but my cheap wonderful husband was adamant about taking public transportation.  In hindsight, this was a wonderful idea - the traffic we saw from the tram was really bad and the Istanbul public transportation system was very nice and easy to use (but do remember to take out Turkish Lira before heading to the metro)!  The public transportation officials spoke great English and helped us get our tickets (fyi - it takes two coins to get there and two coins to get back) and told us where to switch to the tram.  Great first impression of Turkey!  (Just in case anyone wants to do this, take the train from the airport to Zeytinburnu then switch to the tram and get off at the Sultanahmet stop - it takes about 45 minutes). 

From what we saw, Istanbul was a very clean city and was even named the European Capital of Culture for 2010.  I would love to spend a weekend there to see all the sites (especially the Grand Bazaar:)) and eat some doner kebabs (I can't believe we didn't do this - I LOVE doner kebabs and to have one in Turkey?  be still my heart!). 

In our (very) short time we were able to see the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, and just walk around and soak in the atmosphere for a bit.  We probably had enough time to see the bazaar, but we decided that actually making our flight to Egypt was a better idea!  (I also can't believe we missed the Hippodrome because I think it was right there where we were.  We didn't plan very well for Istanbul as we just thought about going into the city the night before!)  It was still a cool experience though and as Nathan and I count countries we visit - we got to "check off" Turkey!:)

The Blue Mosque

So you know Nathan's humor with the camera - he thought this was hilarious -

the Turkish version of Duke Power:)

After landing in Cairo, we all needed to buy our Visas to get into Egypt (we could have done this in our own country but we were all too lazy). This is also pretty easy to do but the line was kind of long  (because everyone else on our flight had to do the same thing).  The Visa cost $20 and they took Egyptian pounds, Euros, and Dollars (no credit cards so make sure to have cash)- funny enough we ended up paying in dollars!  Not sure where they even came from considering we all live in Europe:)!

Once we got our luggage we had bad news - Sarah and Josh's bag didn't arrive.:(  This was a major cluster because the same thing happened with everyone else from the original London flight.  I swear Egypt Air acting like nothing like this had ever happened before and major chaos ensued.  Really?  Can't you just check the computers - they had their bag tags?  About 1 hour and 45 minutes later they were told that their bags would "probably" arrive tomorrow.  Awesome - thanks for the vote of confidence guys.

We had heard that a driver was imperative in Cairo and that a tour guide would be nice.  Memphis Tours was rated #1 on TripAdvisor, so we decided to book our entire trip with them before we arrived.  We have never participated in a planned trip (as in - every hour is planned for you), but I will have to say it was nice in Egypt.  The cool thing about Memphis Tours was that we were able to "make up" our own itinerary and it was just going to be the 6 of us the whole time (no big bus of tourists - thank God!).  It was so great to not have to worry about anything once we got there, because all the "work" had been done prior to our arrival.  Nice change for once - no stress at all!

Although there were a few blips, we were very impressed with Memphis Tours and would highly recommend using them when heading to Egypt & Jordan.  Our drivers were safe and all our guides were very friendly and knowledgeable!  I have no idea how they do all the coordination for hundreds of people per day, but all in all it was way more smooth than I ever thought it could be - worth every penny in my book - for sure!

Our first guide - Hamada - who waited for almost 2 hours while holding this sign - and look he's still smiling!

Memphis booked all our hotels and we stayed at the Barcelo Hotel near the pyramids while in Cairo (it took about 1 hour to get there from the airport).  I thought the hotel was nice and clean (I would recommend it to you) and it was in a great location to start our tour of the Pyramids on Thursday morning.  Note: the traffic in Cairo is insane so it was great to already be near the pyramids!

The night we arrived in Cairo the boys set out to find money and drinks and to attempt crossing the street.  They ran into a police man that told them there was an ATM at the end of a dark alley (one of the only shady things that happened the whole trip and thank goodness they weren't dumb enough to find out if this was true), then an Egyptian street peddler left his ice cream stand to walk them to a "grocery store" - so nice!  They also crossed the street (twice) which was a major feat, because it was a free for all - with 4 actual lanes but 8 rows of cars mixed in with people and donkeys - definitely an experience!  And they didn't have street lights or stop signs  (only U-turns) so the traffic never actually stopped!

Night Cap at the Barcelo!

Thursday, April 1st
Thursday morning we met our guide, Mido, around 10 am and headed to the Great Pyramids of Cheops, Chephren, and Mykerinus.  (Cheops being the biggest and the "Great Wonder of the World").

Were those there last night?:)

  View of the pyramids from our car (about 5 - 10 mins from our hotel). I'm not sure what I was envisioning - but I didn't expect them to "pop up right there" considering we were in the city on a very busy street!

Mido was a very good and knowledgable tour guide who although was patient also kept saying "Yalla beina" translated from arabic to english as "Let's Go - quickly".  This soon became our favorite word as we were always "yalla beina"ing!:)   Mido also told us up front that he would never remember all of our names so he nicknamed us "Ramses" after Egypt's most powerful and celebrated pharoah - Ramses II.  So we heard a lot of "Yalla beina Ramses.  Yalla beina" all day!:)

Posing like the Egyptian Pharoahs and Queens - Mido made us do it - seriously!

You feel really small when standing next to the Great Pyramid!

See what I mean - tiny?!

The Great Pyramid is actually the one to the far left - it just looks smaller from where we were standing.

Me "picking up" the pyramid - you HAVE to take the cheesy tourist pictures - right?:)

I just thought this was a cool shot looking off into Cairo but yikes the smog is bad!

We decided to go into the Chephren Pyramid as they only give out so many tickets to the Cheops pyramid and we were too late.  Not that there is anything to see inside the pyramids (everything had either been stolen or taken to a museum) but you can't go all the way to Egypt, stand in front of the pyramids, and not go in - right?  However, if you are clastrophobic, I vote that you think twice about going into the pyramids.  The walk way into the pyramid is only 3 feet high, so you are bent over the whole way in and the whole way out.  We were forbidden to take pictures (they even confiscated cameras on the way in), but somehow Sara's point and shoot made it!  So here we are at the pharoah's crypt - you can see this room had higher ceilings than the walk way - so it was a nice break from being hunched over, but it was about 15 degrees hotter and a lot more humid than the outside so no one stayed for very long:)!

The Pharoah's crypt

Then it was on to the Sphinx and the Valley Temple.  The Sphinx was truly amazing to see in person - it is said to be the oldest known monumental sculpture having been started around 2555 B.C.!  The whole time we were in Cairo I kept thinking about how intelligent the ancient Egyptians were and what they accomplished so long ago - it is almost unfathomable!  Wow!

Great shot of the entire Sphinx - thanks Josh!

It took this photo while standing out in front of the Sphinx - if you look closely you can see that the red awning in the middle fo the photo is a Pizza Hut! I definitetly wasn't expect that!:)

In between the pyramids and the museum we saw how Papyrus paper is made (and I had to buy a souvenir - of course), ate the best Chicken Swarma I have ever had, and saw the city streets.

You know if I was this focused during the demonstration... 

 I was definitely going to buy one!  We got the "Tree of Life" and I can't wait to frame it for our house!

It was really sad to see how some of the Egyptian people live today.  We were amazed at how many apartment building were started and never finished, but yet people still lived in them - including on top of the top level that was completed with blankets/tents.  Cairo is a very polluted city - not surprising since we didn't see one public trash can they whole time we were there!  That coupled with the fact that almost 7 million people live in 83. sq feet (plus tourists) it isn't surprising there is trash literally everywhere.

These buildings aren't really "under construction" they are basically done - at least that is what we were told - it is common for builders to run out of money so that is how the building will remain until more funding is available (which might be never).

I do like how everyone has Satelite TV though:)

Excuse me - can I park my donkey here?

Can you see the trash every where?  Very sad.

We ended our tour with a trip to the Egyptian Museum.  The highlight was King Tut's tomb collection, but we also really enjoyed the mummified cobra - we aren't that hard to please!:)  Again no photos were allowed so you are going to have to go for yourself!:)

Entrance to the Egyptian Museum

After a little siesta at the hotel we were picked up for our Nile Cruise - you know how I love to be on a boat!  The food was actually pretty good for a buffet (the hummus to die for), but the highlight was most definitely - the belly dancer and whirling dervish dance!  They were the best we saw while in Egypt!  We all recommend this Nile Cruise company - Nile Crystal.

"Mr. William, you have a phone call."

Cruising down the Nile - baby!

Belly Dancing (or just shaking it) on the Nile!

Whirlish Dervish!  This guy was amazing!

Put your hands up -  Put your hands up!

Finally after an exciting/exhausting day we headed up to bed.  And by we, I mean Sara T and I.  The rest of the clan waited up for the Teitelman's suitcase to arrive.   How much trouble could they get into without our supervision for a few hours- not that much right?  Wrong.  All I am going to say is that there was a bar - with alcohol - unattended.  And when you are not being waited on by the staff - what are you supposed to do? 

I'm not sure what happened between here and...

Here.  And I don't think I want to know for fear of imprisonment!:)
FYI - so they don't get into trouble (not sure if you can joke about this kind of stuff when in a Muslim country) - a waiter eventually came, and they told him exactly what they had poured.  And, that is their story and they are sticking to it!

Next up - Sharm el Sheikh!

p.s. - Here's a link to the rest of our pics from Istanbul and Cairo.

Sechseläuten and the burning of the Böögg

Yesterday I witnessed the most un-American thing I have yet to see in Switzerland.  Well, America would have a parade, and they might blow up a snowman, but there is no way in hell that they would allow whomever wants to, to have a picnic around a burning bonfire (that the city created) all while random people with shovels dig out hot ash from the bonfire and then carry it through said crowd of thousands of people to their picnic area so that they can roast their weenies (without any law enforcement or supervision - of course).  Wow - it really must be nice to live in a country where you can't sue anybody.  But digress...

Sechseläuten is a tradition in Zurich, that possibly dates back to the thirteenth century, where the guild workers agreed that with the beginning of Spring they would stop their day's work when the "bells strike 6 o'clock".  (During the winter, they would work from dusk till dawn).  If you would like to read more about the Sechseläuten I think this site does a good job of explaining it (to the best of my knowledge).  I'm not 100% sure how many guilds there are, but I think it is around 26 (if you are Swiss please help me out here). 

All the guilds (well except for the women's guild) participate in a parade in their traditional garb and with marching bands, etc.  I especially liked this guild (I'm guessing they were the Butchers) because they got to carry around really big axes through the whole parade because you know - that is really safe (I know I sound like an American)!:)  The women are not allowed to participate in the parade because this is Switzerland and they are more about tradition than equal rights (my opinion).  Another Swiss Expat blogger wrote an article about this for the Swiss News if you would like to read it.

The BIG Axe carrying guild!

Following the guild parade, a snowman called the Böögg is burned and the quicker his head explodes, the better the summer weather is said to be.  Kind of like Groundhog's Day on steroids, but much cooler because there is fire involved :)!  This year the Böögg's head exploded in around 13 minutes. Last year we was told it took 15 minutes and the summer was amazing, so this year should be unbelievable!

The snowman before being lit on fire...

The huge crowd watching the burning of the Boogg...

He's just starting to catch on fire - not much longer...

BAM!  His head exploded - now let's BBQ!

After the explosion and some more parade type stuff, they allow the crowds to get near the "bonfire" and picnic.  I went with my friend Kelly and we thought we came prepared with Bratwurst and sticks to grill them on, but since we had never done this before we were (very) ill prepared.  We were amongst professional Böögg brat grillers and our sticks were a bit of a joke when you saw what everyone else brought (in hindsight I'm not sure what we were thinking, but I had no idea how big or hot the fire would be)!  So here is a note to self if you every attend this affair:  Bring a blanket to sit on, lots of beer and wine to drink, brats, other picnic type stuff, and most importantly a GRILL.  You can also bring a shovel to get the ash from the bonfire to the grill or you can just pay someone who already has a big ass shovel to do it for you (I recommend the later). 

So this guy with the shovel of hot ashes is running TOWARDS the crowd - well in his defense it was really hot!:)

OR you can just cut down a tree like the dude in the picture below and grill your brat right on the burning bonfire from about 20 feet away!:) 

Do you see this mental giant?  If you look closely you can see his brat grilling on the end of the stick - I guess he gets props for his props?!

Also, wear old clothes because there were several times where burning ash fell on us when the wind blew - yes it was hot and yes there is a whole in my shirt.  Kelly's hair had ash in it and her husband said that her hair was basically "burnt" in places - awesome - not!)

We ended up taking our weenies and going home to "grill" them in our ovens:( - but nonetheless it was a great experience and I will definitely come more prepared if I do it again!

I did try to grill my brat over a random pile of ash, but it didn't even get luke warm:(

This will be our last SwissTradition as we are now leaving in 11 days.  However, we were here for an entire calender year, so we tried to see as many as possible including the Knabenschiessen, an Alpabfahrt, and Zurich Carnival.   I love Switzerland and all their traditions! What an amazing year!

"Checking Out" of Switzerland and our 10 year Anniversary Celebration!

Yesterday was bittersweet.

In the afternoon we had to go down to the Stadthaus (basically City Hall) to let Zurich know we were checking out of the country on April 30th.  I can't believe this year is almost over - it flew by!  The process for checking out was WAY easier and less time consuming than checking in (not surprising I guess) and the whole process only took about 10 minutes.  Then we had a picnic by the lake and Nathan splurged on Sprungli Luxemburgerli (I call them little hamburgers) - one of my favorite things in Zurich to cheer me up!  So sweet - especially since it KILLS him to buy them because they are 1 franc per hamburger:)  But ask anyone else who has had them - it is worth it!

Bye Bye Swiss residency:(

Sprungli "Hamburgers" - yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

Then to possibly pour salt in my wounds - these moving boxes had been dropped off by the moving company when I got back.:(

Does this mean I have to pack my own stuff? boo!

BUT - the day ended well because we went to the "Top of Zurich" to celebrate our 10 year anniversary with a Champagne Picnic!  Nathan totally lucked out because now in the future if anyone asks him what we did for our 10 year he can say "Oh I took my wife to Zurich and had a romantic picnic over looking the city" - he of course won't mention that we were living here at the time.:)  Either they it was a great night (albeit a little cold for a picnic) and the PERFECT 10 year anniversary dinner!

Celebrating with Champagne (in plastic cups) on the Uetliberg

The celebration was made even better by having friends to share it with us - and yes we were the only fools outside:)!
(L to R - Sarah, Zann, Pawel, Me and Nathan)

Highlights from our trip to B.F.E.

Nathan and I just got back from an amazing 8 day trip to Egypt and Jordan with Sara & Josh Teitelman and Sarah & Zann Hawkins.  (We were there from March 31st to April 8th.)  I won't be able to write a detailed blog about all our adventures for a while (lots of "real" work to do), so I thought I would hit the highlights!

1.  We made the most out of our 5 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey - that's Istanbul not Constantinople:)
The day before we left Zann asked the question, "We have a 5 hour layover in Istanbul - what do we do?", on Trip Advisor and everyone suggested heading down to the Sultanahmet District - so that's what we did!   In the short period of time we actually had (about 1 hour once we got down there) we were able to see The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia (also a mosque).  Istanbul looked like a really cool city and I would love to head back there! 

Self Portrait in front of the Hagia Sofia - check

Self Portrait in front of The Blue Mosque - check!  Now back to the airport!

2.  We walked like an Egyptian!

3.  I "belly danced" on a Nile River Cruise while 200 Asians took my photo.  (Just click on the picture to view the video).  p.s. - you can definitely make fun of my dancing - I TOTALLY deserve that :) but you can NOT make fun of my old lady shoes - first of all I AM getting old and my feet hurt okaaaaaaaaaay and second I was such a nice person and let Sara T borrow my other sandals because her luggage was lost in transit and all she had was her tennis shoes:)! (Here is the link to YouTube if you can't view it)

I had obviously been overserved - okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

4.  Nathan, Josh and I got to scuba dive the #5 dive site in the world based on this website (although the Top 10 dive sites vary by who you are asking, most dive sites do rank the Red Sea in the Top 10) - Shark and Yoland Reef in the Red Sea!

5.  We rode Camels!  Nathan had our camera during the ride and these are his two *best* shots.  Needless to say he didn't have our camera for the rest of the trip!:)

A "camel thong"...

and a "camel toe"!  Thanks Nathan:)

6.  After living above a Hookah Bar for the last year, we finally got to try it in the middle of the desert!  Special Note to our Parents: Don't worry we can all still run for office - no one inhaled:)  No - it's just  flavored tobacco (ours was apple) that you smoke from the hookah - I swear!

7.  Josh and I got to "Comb the Desert".  (So this isn't funny if you haven't seen Spaceballs the Movie - if not you can watch the clip here.  We both grew up on this movie and I think I must have seen it 100 times when I was a kid - classic for sure!)

"We ain't found shit" (watch the movie)

8.  Nathan backpacked through Israel. We found out quickly when planning a trip to Egypt and Jordan that you need to hire a driver whenever you want to go anywhere.  We used Memphis Tours (they were great - we definitely recommend them) to coordinate this for us.  Before we left, we received an email from our contact about our transfer from Egypt to Jordan - it said - and I quote:

"Our representative will transfer you to Taba Border (of Egypt) and then you walk via Israel to Jordan.  Our representative will then meet you in Jordan"

The Egyptians nor the Jordanians can cross into Israel (without a hard to get Visas) so we had to go it alone.   We thought this was pretty funny (my Mom didn't :) ) because we had no idea how long we would be "walking through Israel" for:)!  The whole Israel process took about 1 hour and 45 minutes but actually went pretty smoothly!

Almost to Jordan!

9.  We saw Petra - one of the New Wonders of the World!  It is crazy to think that Petra was established sometime around the 6th Century B.C. - truly amazing - you have to go to fully appreciate what these people built!

10.  We covered ourselves in Dead Sea Mud and then floated in the Dead Sea!  We now all have amazingly smooth skin - we're going to have to go back for sure!

I'm normally against bathing suit photos, but I'm covered in mud so I guess it's okay!

It was hard to choose just 10 things because the trip was so amazing!  One of the best trips we have ever been on for sure!  We loved the sites, the local people, the food, and our group!!!

Ain't that right uh-huh?  Uh-huh!!!:)