I Can't Think of a Good Pun for Amman

So we made it to Amman... and now we're about to leave. It was pretty nice, not quite as full of sites as a lot of the other places. We got to meet up with Prunie, though, which was nice. Okay, we gotta go catch a bus to Petra, and then tonight: Israel!

I Cuss, You Cuss, We All Cuss for Damascus!

So our train was pretty comfy, though the ride was kinda short. We got into Damascus early this morning and have been wandering around the city/napping since then. It's pretty nice, though I think I prefer Aleppo. Tomorrow we get up bright and early to head to Amman, which should be great. After that it's off to Petra and then the place which shall not be named here, or Alaska as some other travelers have begun calling it.

!الحمد لله

We made it to Syria! Woot!!!! Our bus left Cappadocia a little after 9 PM last night, and we got to Antakya (the Biblical Antioch, where Christians were first referred to as Christians) around 8 AM, after some bus ticket related snafu. Antakya is the general point of departure for Syria when coming from Turkey. It's about fifty kilometers from the border. We got to the border around 10 AM and, when they found out we were visaless Americans, they took us back to a little office to get all our details. As I may have mentioned in a prior blog entry, Syria's official policy is not to award visas at the border to citizens of nations which have embassies, especially where America is concerned (since Bush repeatedly makes stupid remarks about how he thinks Syria is a "rogue state"). Most people we'd talked to who had tried it had found success, but only after waiting as much as ten or twelve hours at the border. We decided it was worth the effort, but as we got closer and closer, our confidence began flagging more. My Lonely Planet guide to the Middle East was no help, as it told us we'd be wasting our time even trying. At least we had a backup plan, though admittedly not a very good one. If we hadn't gotten in, we were going to take a ferry to Turkish Cyprus, cross the border into Greek Cyprus, and pray that we might find a ferry to either Israel or Egypt. Failing that, we planned to resort to begging for passage on a cruise ship headed to either of those locations or, worst-case scenario, booking a flight. Fun though that might have been, it would also have been ridonkilously expensive.

Needless to say we were quite relieved when, after waiting for only five hours, we got our visas. It was pretty rough with how little English the officials spoke and how little Arabic we speak, but after lots of misunderstanding, we got through. We're in Aleppo for the night, and we head to Damascus late tomorrow evening on a sleeper train. So far Syria is sweet. The people are absurdly friendly, and it's even cheaper than Cairo! We just got three (delicious) shawermas, three Fantas, and an order of French Fries for less than three dollars! Whaaaa!?

Anyway, we feel great, and the trip from here on out should go quite smoothly! Catch you on the flipside.

Cappadocıa!? I Marrıed Her!

Oh man these tıtles are gettıng better and better! So Ankara was actually cooler than our fırst ımpressıons had us assume. There was an ıncredıble museum about Anatolıan culture and such, and the Cıtadel offered an amazıng vıew of the cıty. At 6:30 PM we got on a bus for Göreme, where we are now. The landscape here ıs rıdonk. Do a google ımage search for Cappadocıa ıf you wanna see what I mean.

Anyway, slıght change of plans. Instead of stayıng here for two nıghts, we're gonna head out thıs evenıng for the Syrıan border. Hopefully the next post wıll be from Aleppo!

Anatolia Lately That I Love You?

Goofın' off at Ephesus.

So we made ıt to Ankara thıs mornıng around 10:30. For those of you who don't realıze ıt, Ankara ıs Turkey's capıtal, not Istanbul. It's kında ındustrıal lookıng, but we haven't explored much yet. Our traın rıde was long long long, and we faıled to get a sleeper, but oh well. Tonıght ıt's off to Gorëme ın Cappadocıa. I'm wıcked pumped! And then after that, we try for Syrıa. Wısh us luck!

Asıa Mınor Dıffıcultıes

Hello agaın. Here's the newest update from our trıp. We are chıllın ın Kuşadasi rıght now. It's a pretty cute lıttle town. We went to an old pırate castle thıs mornıng, and now we're off to Ephesus to see what are allegedly the best preserved Roman ruıns ın the Eastern Medıterranean. We've had a couple ınterestıng adventures ınvolvıng traın tımes and lack of money, but unfortunately I don't have tıme to dıvulge more ınfo about that now. Let you know when we get to Cappadocıa.

PS The normal i here has no dot, apparently.

Not Constantinople

Well, after numerous polls and mentions in the blog, constant harrassment by John, and literally thousands of emails from all of you fans, I've decided to write a blog entry.

So we made it to Istanbul. We took a sleeper train from Thessaloniki that left at 8:00pm, and got here around 10:00am. The train ride was really nice. John and Matt were together and I was with a stranger, but he disappeared part way through the night and I got a single. The hostel's great and it's a beautiful day. We're going to walk around the city and see the sights. Then tonight we're taking Turkish Hamams, where we'll sit in a sauna for a while, then we'll be "severely scrubbed" by fat Turkish men followed by a massage. Apparently it's a big tradition here and tourists we've talked to say it's amazing.

I've been told I'm taking too long for this sort of blog entry. I guess it'll take some time for me to get back in the swing of things. More later!!!

This is definitely not worth a blog post, but....

... a Norwegian fellow named Rob who is studying in Greece just told me I remind him of Darkwing Duck, and that's effing amazing. Thessaloniki is awesome.

Thessalonik-awi (it's an Arabic pun)

Our train got in a couple hours late, but we made it from Athens to Thessaloniki with no other problems. We're hanging out in Kasia's apartment right now, about to get some spanikopita. Woot! We might climb Mt Olympus tomorrow! Holy eff! The rest of Athens was awesome. We climbed all sorts of hills and saw all sorts of temples and whatnot. Perhaps most importantly, we can finally get a little sleep... before we exhaust ourselves entirely on that dayum mountain. We'll write from Istanbul!

Our Journey Has Begun...

Hey everybody. We made it to Greece early this morning with no problems, and we've been trying to see as much of the city as possible since then. It's been great so far, even though we're all really tired. The only real problem we've had was when we went to book our train to Istanbul and found the date we wanted was unavailable. We're going a day late, then, which gives us one day less in Istanbul, which is too bad, but one day more in Thessaloniki, which should be good. I'll keep you guyz posted!

To Helwan and Back

Peter, Matt, and me in front of the Pyramid of Djoser. Our camels are named (from left to right) Ramses, Whiskey, and Banana.

Hello again. So here we are, on the cusp of another ridiculous trip. Tonight at 11:30, we head out to catch a bus to the airport for our 2:45 AM flight to Athens. It's pretty crazy. We're of course incredibly excited. We'll get into Athens around 6 AM and spend the whole day there. Athens is way too diverse and

Green water pouring out of a canal pump "on the way" to the camel market.

interesting a city to be seen in a day, but we're gonna try our best. At mid- night that night, we'll catch a train to make the five-hour journey to Thessalo- niki, Greece's second largest city, where we'll see Peter's roommate Ka- sia for a few days. On Saturday night, we'll hop on a sleeper to Istanbul, which should get us in around 8 AM the next morning. I've never taken a sleeper before, and we'll be taking three during this trip. Awesome! We'll do Istanbul until Tuesday morning, at which point we'll board a ferry to cross the Sea of Marmara. When we hit land, we'll grab another train that will take us to Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. Allegedly it's pretty boring, so we won't stay there long before taking a bus to Kusadasi, a little town on the Aegean Sea that is really cute, if a little touristy. The next morning, it's off to Ephesus to see some sweet Roman ruins, and then that night we go back to Izmir to catch our second sleeper, this one to Ankara, Turkey's capital. We'll do Ankara for the day and then that night head for Goreme, our new destination in the Cappadocia region (in lieu of Kaysari), where we'll stay in a cave for two nights! Then, on Saturday morning, it's off to the Syrian border, which should take up the greater part of that day. Hopefully we'll make Aleppo by midnight or so, find a hostel, and get a little rest before trying to see that city in one day. At

Birqesh Camel Market.

midnight, our third sleeper train leaves for Damascus, getting us there at 6:30 AM. We'll stay in Damascus until 7 AM the next day, which once again isn't enough time to do the city justice, but oh well. After that, we'll head to Amman, where we'll try to meet up with Prunie Brox from Oberlin. The next morning we take an early bus to Petra, another place we won't spend enough time in, apparently. That same night, we'll try to make it into Israel at the southern border. We probably won't be able to get to Jerusalem that day, so we'll get a hostel in Eilat, an Israeli resort town. There's a bus to Jerusalem at 7 AM the next morning (we're now at Tuesday, May 1), which should take about four hours. Then it's just hanging in Israel for three days with Sari Gardner from Oberlin, her boyfriend Casey, and my mom, who will be flying in the day after we get there. On Sunday we'll take a bus to the Israeli border, cross it on foot, and grab another bus to Cairo. Et voila... our krazy trip will be at an end. I really can't even begin to believe such a thing is about to happen.

Ross and Sam and the others look angry while Stoo argues with cab drivers.

Nor can I believe that, once we get back, we've got less than a month left in Cairo! Our time here has flown by. I've tried to pack the last few weekends with places around Cairo I haven't seen yet, since there's so much of the rest of Egypt I still need to check out, and I'm going to be using every weekend in May to do so. The strangest thing about it is how detached I feel from the me that came to Cairo in late January. I don't think I've actually changed that much, but I just feel like something big happened between now and then, something that took a long time and that makes the beginning of my time here feel different. It's hard to explain.

But anyway, two weekends ago, we didn't do quite as much as I would have liked. In truth, we did almost nothing. We tried to do something, but had very little luck. Early Friday morning, we got up and headed for the Birqesh Camel Market. This is where the majority of the camels in the Cairo area are purchased after being led up through the desert all the way from the Sudan. Apparently it's supposed to be

Peter, Martha, and Matt in front of the Pyramid of Djoser.

crazy and fascinating, in a fairly grotesque way. The camels are herded around and beaten for incentive, peo- ple are yelling, and there's so much activity that there's barely room to move. Unfortu- nately, our cab drivers had no idea where it was and got lost for an hour or so. Once we finally showed up, we'd all but missed it, and they still wanted to overcharge us to get in. We decided it wasn't even worth it anymore, and so we demanded to pay less than what the cabbies wanted to charge us (which was way too much anyway). A long argument ensued between Stoo and the drivers, impressively all in Arabic, and he managed to get us rides back for half the price. On the bright side, we did get to see some camels, and the taxi drivers' crackpot route home took us by the Pyramids of Giza, which is always fun.

Martha rides off into the desert.

This last week- end I felt pretty good about how much we got done, even if it was slightly less than I'd planned. On Friday, Peter, Matt, Martha, and I got up early to go see the Saqqara Pyramids. A lot of people don't realize that there are many more pyramids in Egypt than just the famous trio at Giza. Right near Cairo, there are two entire other complexes: Saqqara and Dahshur (which we'd also hoped to see, but we ran out of time). Saqqara is famous for its step pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser. This was the first major pyramid completed and was also the first major stone construction ever built in the world. When it was created almost five thousand years ago, it was the world's tallest building, a title it didn't hold for long, as its creation ushered in the greatest wave of pyramid building in Egyptian history. The complex is located about ten miles south by southwest of the city center. We had hoped to take the metro as far south as we could to Helwan, picking up Martha along the way in Maadi. At Helwan, we planned to grab a taxi, which would

More cameling.

take us across the river to Saqqara. However, it seemed that the con- ception of the Pyramids at Giza as the only Pyramids does- n't just exist in the West, as that is pre- cisely where our driver took us, backtrack- ing all the way to Cairo and then going over to Giza, all in spite of the fact that I repeatedly told him in Arabic that I wanted the Pyramids in Saqqara, not the ones in Giza. It was a terrible parallel to our camel market experience from the week prior, especially when we finally got to Saqqara an hour later than we should have and I proceeded to argue with the driver in Arabic, at which I am much worse than Stoo. He was demanding twice the acceptable price, so finally I just threw the money on the passenger seat and walked away, a very effective method for dealing with someone who is trying to rip you off.

St. George's Monastery in Coptic Cairo.

After that unpleasantness, Saqqara was very fun and wicked cool. We checked out the Im- hotep Museum, which is filled with neat artifacts and even a mum- my! Imhotep was the architect of the Pyramid of Djoser, as well as a bunch of other stuff, I think. After the museum, we continued along to the pyramids. The step pyramid was the only really impressive one. The others looked more like heaps of stone and sand than like pyramids, but they were neat in a run-down, prototypical kinda way. After walking around for a little while, we decided to ride camels, except for Martha, who opted for a horse. It was really fun, though our guides were a little too in our face about asking for more money and trying to provide us with prostitutes and hashish on the side. But they were still very friendly. We never

Ross and Sam are captivated by the Coptic God.

went faster than a slow trot, which was okay by me. Those things are freakin' tall! Our friend Adam fell off one at Giza, and even though you're falling on to sand, I wouldn't want that to happen to me. After the camels, we wandered around the ruins, which are poorly guarded. This was both a blessing and a curse: a blessing in that it allowed us total freedom to explore and touch hieroglyphics and look in little temples and caves and whatnot, a curse in that it also meant that there was copious graffiti, which was also something of a blessing and a curse in and of itself. These temples have been poorly guarded since their creation, which means that while, yes, there is stupid American graffiti, there is also Greek and Roman and Arabic graffiti. Pretty neat, actually. All in all, it was a very fun trip. The pyramids weren't quite as cool as those at Giza, but they are definitely a must-see.

The ruins of Fustat, the third city to be established near modern Cairo and the first that was Islamic.

The next day we decided to stay a little closer to home, and so we went to Coptic Cairo. For those of you not fa- miliar with them, the Coptic Chris- tians have been in Egypt longer than the Mus- lims, dating back to the first few centuries after Christ's death, which also makes them some of the oldest Christians. They are neither Orthodox, Protestant, nor Catholic, though they are probably closest to the last one. They have their own pope, who was only recently recognized by the Catholic Church, which means that they've finally stopped badgering the Copts after a couple millenia. The root of the word "Copt" is the same as that of the word "Egypt," which shows how closely intertwined their histories are. Also, I read that since Copts are far more strict than Muslims about not marrying outside of their religion, consequently they are more closely related to the ancient Egyptians, which is kind of neat, if somewhat pointless. Anyway, Copts make up almost all the Christians in Egypt, who comprise about five percent of the total population. Most of them live in Cairo or Alexandria, where their pope is. Coptic Cairo is one of the oldest parts of the city. It is at the site of Babylon-in-Egypt, which was founded by the Romans and was the second city

The Mosque of Amr, technically the oldest mosque in Africa, though as you can see it's been extensively renovated.

created in the basic area where Cairo is (after Mem- phis). Alleged- ly, this is where the Holy Family lived while in Egypt. It was a pretty cute area, and consequently it didn't feel much like Cai- ro. We wander- ed around through churches and monasteries and cemeter- ies, and then we headed away from Coptic Cairo to see some other nearby sites, including Fustat, the next city after Babylon-in-Egypt and the first Muslim city. It was inhabited from the seventh century until the twelfth. By that time, it was mostly abandoned anyway, and as the crusades neared the new city which had sprung up to its north, Al-Qahirah (Cairo), they decided to burn Fustat to keep it from being used as a base from which the crusaders might attack. It burned for more than fifty days, which means that unfortunately the ruins nowadays are pretty much nonexistent. It's just a bunch of bricks and rubble in the middle of a large open field. But it was still pretty neat to see what something that huge can turn into.

From Fustat, we went on to the Mosque of Amr, which was built around the same time as Fustat and is thus the oldest mosque in Africa. However, it has been rebuilt and revamped extensively since then, which is why Ibn Tulun often gets that distinction. I was much more impressed by Ibn Tulun overall anyway, though Amr was very peaceful. On our way back to the metro, we hit the Ben Ezra Synagogue, which is the only truly functioning synagogue in Egypt, though there are others. There are apparently only around two hundred native Jews left in Egypt. There were more here a hundred years ago, but in the period leading up to and immediately following the creation of Israel, most left. Anyway, the ones still around are stingy about pictures, apparently. I tried to snap one (without a flash) inside the synagogue and got kicked out as a result. Whatever.

Other than that, we've been doing a lot of work mostly, catching up from our Eurotrip. Peter has been especially hard hit recently. As much as I get on his case about not writing blog entries, he has some pretty good excuses. First of all, unlike just about everyone else studying abroad, his grades transfer, which means he

Ross, Stoo, and me... dayumn...

has a slightly less "relaxed" time here than the rest of us. Second of all, the engineering department happens to be one of the only departments at AUC that is comparably difficult to a university in America, so he has a signi- ficant amount of work to do in general. Lastly, he has charitably volunteered his time to build a website for STAR, the organization with which we are teaching refugees English. They have fundraising issues, and they've decided putting a cyberface on the group could help them get some support. Peter's never actually made a website before, though he is familiar with HTML coding. Still, he had to do a lot of research and spend a lot of time trying things out and working out the kinks before he got it right. Additionally, STAR is absurdly disorganized, which means he keeps getting told to do one thing which then gets negated and so he's told to redo the website in this way and that way. Fortunately, after about a month of fairly regular work on the site, it looks like he's just about done. So yeah, I guess that stuff is a little more important than the blog... I guess. He does plan on writing, though, I think. Hopefully before we leave in June.

The last big presence in my life during the last few weeks has been Naguib Mahfouz. You probably don't know him, since he's criminally underrated, but he's the only Arab ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died a few years ago, but for most of his incredibly long life, he wrote prolifically and excellently. In the last few weeks, I've read two of his books and am working on a third. Miramar was the first, and so far definitely my favorite. It's about a bunch of people living in a pension in Alexandria in the 1960s, just after a major revolution in Egyptian politics and life. They all appear okay on the surface, but underneath, each are unhappy, and thus they serve as an allegory for the nation itself. It's really great. The next was Mirrors, which is a very strange concept. It's a series of about thirty-five short (two to four pages each) descriptions of all the important people in the narrator's life. Through each one, you learn more about the other characters as well as about the narrator himself. There wasn't much of a plot, and at times it got a little boring, but it was a very interesting style and parts of it were really well done. Now I'm reading Midaq Alley, which is one of his most popular. It takes place on a real alley in Khan El-Khalili (see a previous entry) and, like Miramar, discusses a group of people who serve as a microcosm of all of Egypt, or even all the world in this case. It's good, though not as good as Miramar, which I highly suggest to everyone, regardless of their interest or lack thereof in Arab culture. It's a great book. One of the best things about Mahfouz is the degree to which he has informed me about recent Egyptian history, which is really fascinating, especially considering how close I am to the spots where so much of it happened. Just down the street at Midan Tahrir, Egyptians protested the British presence in the 50s, and they were answered by British tanks which rolled in from across the Nile and shot into the crowds. I read about that in a novel describing it happening while sitting in the middle of Midan Tahrir. Very crazy.

Anyway, I have to get all ready to head out in a few hours. I'll try to update here and there along the journey, but since we'll be very busy traveling and afterwards entertaining my mom, it might be a little while until another significant entry. Have a good April!

One last picture of the Step Pyramid. I suppose the world's oldest major stone construction deserves it.

I Saw the Sinai

A map of the main points we hit on the Sinai trip.

Hello, hello, hello everybody. So now that things have sort of settled down a little bit, I can tell you about our last weekend.

We got back from Europe late last Wednesday night, and then Thursday night at 11 PM we met with a bunch of AUC kids to head to the Sinai Peninsula! Peter and I managed to get an in with the event because the girl who was heading everything off, Alison, is in my linguistics class. There were thirteen of us in all, six of whom were from George Washington University, so that was the foundation of the group. Besides Peter and me, every one knew each other and it seemed to be a group that hangs out pretty regularly. It was a little weird just inserting ourselves in, but it worked out really well. Everyone was really nice and fun, and we had a great time, as I'm about to describe to you more fully.

Sunrise from the place we ate breakfast. That's Saudi Arabia in the background.

So at 11 PM, we all met outside the McDonald's near campus and piled into a microbus. I say microbus, but this was defi- nitely the biggest micro- bus I've ever seen, and prob- ably the nicest as well. There were just enough seats for all thirteen of us, plus the driver, and while it wasn't the comfiest ride of my life by any stretch, it was better than a lot of microbuses I've been on since I've been here. Our driver was named Osama, and group opinion toward him varied from being pleased by his friendliness to awed by his ability to make good time to aggravated by his inability to meet up to the standards we had for a paid driver. Alison put a lot of effort into arranging the whole trip and hiring Osama, so she was in charge of directions and communications with him.

I gotta admit, I was a little peeved to find that I couldn't bring my camel to the beach.

As soon as we started to head out, he claimed that, since we now had thirteen people instead of twelve, he wanted to raise the total price from 1900 pounds to 2000 pounds. I thought that seemed rea- sonable e- nough, but apparently when Alison had originally dealt with him, they had set the price based on distance, not on number of people, so she perceived this increase as a breach in the deal. They argued about it for a little while before we finally agreed that an extra one hundred pounds split thirteen ways wouldn't be that bad. I don't really know if Osama was trying to rip us off, but it didn't matter that much to me.

Dahab.

So the bus got on its way. There was some talking and excitement for the trip ahead and getting to know one another, and then slow- ly we all started trying to fall asleep. It was tough, as some of us (like Peter and me) had almost no leg room, but I got a little bit of sleep in. It was crazy to open my eyes every now and then and see nothing but... well, nothing, out the window. Until we crossed the Suez Canal, and for a little while afterwards, it was just flat desert through which we were traveling. And yet the ride was very bumpy. When we'd manage to fall asleep, we'd soon be woken up by a checkpoint. At like three or four points during the trip, we'd all have to get out our passports and hand them over to the authorities so they could make sure that we didn't have malicious intentions for the canal or the peninsula or God knows what. Anyway, as we neared our destination, the desert began to rise into mountains, which looked very ominous against the slowly brightening night. We rolled into Dahab around 5:30 AM, very good

Me trying to examine my sunburns. The camera could never fully capture the extremeness of the pain.

time actually. It's usually a ten or eleven hour drive. Anyway, the sun had just risen and we went to hang out on the roof of a restaurant (hilariously named "The Funny Mum- my") and wait until the chef showed up. It was breathtak- ing. The sun had been up for maybe half an hour or so and it was already unbearably hot and bright. You couldn't even look near it, let alone at it. But it was really beautiful. We could see the mountains of Saudi Arabia across the Red Sea (actually it was some little offshoot of the Red Sea... I don't remember the name), and the mountains of Egypt were pretty amazing behind us as well. The town itself was very cute, but I got this impression that the whole thing was temporary, that within a day they could just take the whole thing apart and put it on trucks and move it to a new place. We all chilled out, some of us slept, then we ate, then we walked down the boardwalk to a new place to eat and sleep and chill out, and swim a little, and that's pretty much what we did the rest of the day. Oh, and get sunburned. I got really really sunburned. Everyone did, some worse than others. I think I was one of the worst, for sure. I've never been burned so badly in my life! My legs were atrocious, but my face and shoulders and chest were pretty bad as well. I've spent all week moisturizing my face and thinking all was well and then hopping into the bathroom only to discover that skin is peeling all over my face. Pretty gross.

Yeah ATVs!

So anyway, we laid on the beach and swam and had food brought to us, and even though it was all wicked cheap, it still was really crazy to be in that sort of atmosphere. I've never been to a resort before, and I have to admit, it was pretty nice. Who wouldn't like that? After we became so absurdly burned that we knew we had to do something else, four of us decided to rent ATVs. That's right, ATVs! It was so nutty. I've never done that before either, and it was really fun. We drove all around the mountains and over bumps and around corners and then we went to a Bedouin village in the middle of this valley. It was pretty incredible to walk around that place in the middle of the desert where those guys just live and sleep and chill all day. We did that until nightfall and then rejoined the others, covered in sand and dust. It was dinnertime, and we all wanted to relax a little (believe it or not), so we went down the beach to this little fish restaurant where

The gang at dinner in Dahab.

some of the girls had worked out a great deal: a five-course dinner for only thirty-five pounds, or seven dollars. The waiter was one of the most ridiculous, friendly guys I've ever en- countered. The food was pretty good too, and it was a great place to chill out until we got back on the bus at 11:30 PM. It was right on the beach, so there was a cool evening ocean breeze soothing our burns. There was an entire section with just cushions and pillows to lay on. Some of us took naps, but I just sat around and talked, and then picked up some aloe and painkiller for my sunburn. It was really starting to hurt. I was not pleased to think that I'd be climbing Mount Sinai in a few hours when the simple movement of my pants moving against my legs hurt. The painkiller helped though, so all was going to be okay.

Sunrise from the summit.

The ride to Mount Sinai took a couple hours, which wasn't enough for those of us who were ex- hausted. I was so reluctant to get out of the bus and climb a seven thou- sand plus foot mountain, but once I did, I woke up pretty quickly. There was some confusion and discussion about whether or not we should get a guide. We finally decided to, and then had to wait around about half an hour for the guy to get ready. We ran into our friend Hannah though, totally out of the blue. When our guide finally showed up, we started walking, but he soon ran back, saying he had to get something. We didn't wait and just went on from there. The trail was amazing. It was 3 AM, and yet there were probably a thousand people making their way along it to the top. Most had a flashlight, and it was pretty powerful to see that thin line of white light snaking up to the summit. While I'm

Sweet sailor guy taking a picture near the top of Sinai.

hardly a Christian, and even aside from that there's still a lot of doubt as to whether this Mount Sinai, or Gebel Musa as the Egyptians call it (it means Moses' Moun- tain), is the Biblical Mount Sinai, but just the fact that a thousand peo- ple would turn out a few nights every week, would screw up their sleep schedules and spend three our four hours hiking a huge mountain, it was pretty powerful. The atmosphere was really interesting as well. There were a ton of people, but no one was being very loud. Conversations were kind of hushed. Every now and then you'd pass a Bedouin with a camel or two, calling out to try to sell a ride to the top. About five or six times on the way to the top, we passed a little shack that sold, get this, soda and chocolate and candy. It was pretty silly, but somehow they didn't really take away from the experience.

Peter and I at the top.

The hike was long, but it wasn't that tough, and I surprisingly felt very awake all the way to the top. Our timing was perfect as well. We made it to the summit just as the sun started to rise. But it was frigid up there. I'd been told it was going to be cold, but I was thinking, "Oh yeah... Egypt cold. Ha!" It was freezing. The whole way up we were working hard so we didn't feel the wind, plus the mountain blocked a lot of it. But as soon as we hit the top and sat down, I got the coldest I've been since our Dutch bike ride. That probably doesn't sound like much since that was only a week prior, but trust me, I was very cold. We hung out up there and watched the sunrise. The summit was covered with people, and for good reason. The view was amazing. But I could only take the cold for so long and then I had to go down. After everyone had made it and we were satisfied with the view, we headed down a level to the nearest

Heroic, I know.

coffee shack. In we went just to sit around and warm up a little, but the climbers emp- tied off the mountain a lot faster than I expected, and before long we were some of the only ones left. Tired as we were, people just started spreading out on the cush- ions in the coffee shack to have some rest. I felt a little awkward about it, but the Bedouin selling coffee didn't seem to mind. Eventually I gave in and started to get people blankets, but I still felt bad, so I turned to the Bedouin and said, "Mish mushkela?" which means a lot of things, but here it meant "Is this a problem?" "La la la la la," he said, "mashi," which means "no, no, it's okay." He then motioned to some better blankets and just sat around drinking coffee and chatting quietly with the other Bedouins while we napped. It was incredible. I love how nice people are here. I could never see that happening in a cafe in America, let alone one at the top of a mountain. That was the other thing: it was really cool to take a nap on a beautiful morning at the top of Mount Sinai! I wonder how many people can say that?

So after a while we headed down, got a little lost and took a different path this time. It was nothing but steps... thousands and thousands of steps. Apparently some wicked pious monk spent some absurd portion of his life making this path, which takes only about half the time but would probably destroy your legs if you went up it. Even going down was tough, constantly having to stop yourself as you fall to

Sleeping in the Bedouin coffee shack... and proud of it!

the next step, especially with the sunburns. It was worth it though, as the steep descent made for beautiful scenery. Prob- ably three quarters of the descent was just in this huge steep cliff-like valley, and we could see St. Catherine's Monastery most of the way. St. Cath- erine's is one of the oldest mon- asteries in the world, and I believe it's the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world. It was ordered to be built in the sixth century by Justinian, then emperor of the Byzantine Empire. It's Greek Orthodox, and it's really beautiful. When we got down the mountain, we went in and explored it for a little while. It contains the well where Moses allegedly met his wife, as well as a supposed descendent of the original burning bush. Unlikely as that may seem, apparently it is the only bush of it's type in the Sinai Peninsula, and attempts to root sections of the plant elsewhere have failed. Pretty weird, huh?

After St. Catherine's, it was finally time to go home. As bad as my burns hurt, the ride back was pretty painless, mostly since I was so exhausted that I slept the whole way. We got back to Cairo in the mid-afternoon and headed straight back to the apartment to have a very relaxed night. The last week has basically been recovery from our vacations, both physically in terms of sunburns and academically in terms of work we missed and got backed up on. I have a bunch of reading to do, but it's okay... I enjoy it at least. It's just a question of getting myself into the groove, which admittedly can be tough with such fun-loving flatmates.

St. Catherine's seen while coming down the mountain.

The other big happening of the week is the cementing of our Spring Break plans. I don't know if you guys re- member, but earlier we were planning some sort of a trip through the Middle East. We were going to fly to Istanbul and take trains and buses back, hitting Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel along the way, and meet my mom in Israel. But the escalating situation in Beirut made us decide it'd be better to play it safe and avoid Lebanon. That also freed up a couple days, so we started thinking about whether we just wanted to stretch out our stays in other places or try to hit somewhere new. Originally I was only considering stopping at other spots along the way, but then it occurred to me that we could go somewhere from Istanbul in the other direction, or even fly somewhere else and then continue on our way to Istanbul. One of our big goal's while here has been to meet up with Peter's roommate back home, Kasia. Kasia's currently studying in Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. We realized that, for an even cheaper flight than the one to Istanbul, we could fly to Athens, hang out there for a day, take a train to Thessaloniki, which is on the way, and hang out with Kasia for a couple days, and then take a sleeper to Istanbul to continue our vacation as planned, minus Lebanon. The trains between Athens and Istanbul cost about as much as we're saving by flying to Athens instead, so it all works out very nicely, and we get to see more! I've been to Athens once before, but I loved it so I'm very excited to go back, and I never hit the northern part of the country, so that'll be sweet. Then we'll do Istanbul for a couple days, which should be awesome as well. Once again, I've been there once, but it was very brief and I loved it, so I'm pumped.

The burning bush, allegedly.

Peter's never been. After that we'll take a ferry across the Sea of Marmara to get to a train south to Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, and Ephesus, the site of some of the best preserved Ro- man ruins in the world. I've been to Eph- esus once as well, and it was incredibly cool. I've never seen Izmir, though. From Izmir we'll take a sleeper to Ankara, the nation's capital, which I don't believe is supposed to be that incredible, so we'll only stay the day there before heading southeast to Cappadocia. I don't know that much definitively about the region, but I've heard it's phenomenally beautiful, both in terms of landscape and culture. After a night or two there, we'll try for Syria. It can take a while to get a visa at the Syrian border, but the majority of people with ten or twelve hours to spare get in. I think it'll be a bitch, but also a really good story. And we have a sweet backup plan in case we don't make it. There are cheap ferries from the south of Turkey to Cyprus. We can do Cyprus for a few days, and then take a ferry or a plane to Israel to pick up our trip there. Assuming we get in to Syria, though, insha'allah, we'll do Aleppo the first few nights and then head south to Damascus. I'm really excited for Syria. Aleppo and Damascus are two of the oldest, most culturally rich cities in the world, the people are supposed to make Egyptians seem rude, and we'll be back into the amazingly cheap part of the world. Most transportation between the Syrian border and our entrance into Israel will be below

Mount Sinai.

ten dollars, and that's a big area to cover! After Damas- cus, we'll cross the border into Jordan, where we'll head for Amman first. Prunie Brox, an acquaintance of mine from Oberlin, is studying there, and hopefully we're gonna get to meet up with her so she can show us around. Unfortunately, we won't get to see her for long because then we'll have to keep heading south to Petra. Petra is supposed to be amazing. I should probably stop saying that since everything on this trip is supposed to be amazing, but Petra might be even more so. It's an ancient temple built right into a cliff face. I'm very excited. Finally, we'll head to Jerusalem to see my old Obie pal Sari Gardner and her boyfriend Casey, both of whom are studying there right now. We'll stay with them for only a night or two, though, because then my mom flies into Tel Aviv, and we'll stay with her in a hotel. We'll explore Israel and try to see as much as we can until Sunday, May 4, when it'll be time to take the bus back to Cairo. This ridiculous 2200 mile plus trip will happen in the seventeen or so days between April 17 and May 4. It's gonna be breakneck, but also very awesome. Oh, and just recently our flatmate Matt decided to come with us, so now it's gonna be even krazier! That's right, krazier with a k!

Anyway, I'm wicked excited. It's gonna be sweet. And I can't believe how soon it's coming up! We just bought our tickets to Athens last night, and we'll be there in two weeks! WOW! I hope all is well back in Amrika, and drop us a line to let us know what's up.

The route of our Spring Break trip. The red will be our flight; the blue will be overland.