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Armenian Catholic Church

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    • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

      Kushary Dinner

      December 14, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

      Well, we had heard so much about kushary that we decided to try it out. THE place to try it was at a restaurant called Abu Tarek, a short walk away but …we had to cross a few streets. As I mentioned before, Cairo streets are treacherous places! Cars, trucks, donkey carts, busses, skateboarders, motorcycles, tuktuks and people make streets a nightmare to negotiate.

      As written in our guidebook, “Playing Chicken. It may sound silly, but the greatest challenge many travellers face in Cairo is crossing the street. Traffic seldom stops, so you have to trust that the cars will avoid you.” Once you step off the curb, you can’t stop or hesitate. Do it fast!

      The first street that we had to cross looked impossible but a kind man saw our distress and took charge. He signalled us to follow him and we crossed the road with him. Phew. Chris finally got the hang of it.

      Now back to the restaurant Abu Tarek. It is quite the place, 5 storeys, all lit up with lights and flashing signs. People can take out kushary or dine in. We opted for the full Abu Tarek experience, dining in the elaborate decor upstairs. Little did we know what we were in for.

      We were seated next to a group of men on a short trip to Egypt from Abu Dabi. One fellow spoke a English quite well and he offered to help us out. Kushary is a mix of noodles, rice, black lentils, fried onions and tomato sauce dressed with lime, more fried onions, a garlic and olive oil dressing, hot sauce and chick peas. We were told that the waiter would mix it for us, which he did expertly. Delicious!

      Then the guys beside us told us that they had paid for our dinner and a rice pudding dessert! What?! That was such a surprise but we have found that people are very kind and generous here. We feel like superstars. After telling us that they raise and race camels, they got up, said goodbye, and left. What a night.

      As we walked back to the hostel, the kindness continued. A women sitting beside the sidewalk made sure that we noticed a puddle on the sidewalk, other people wished us, “Welcome”, and a young boy smiled at us as we passed the nut store he was working in. We are not in Canada!

      Tomorrow, we will go to the Black and White Deserts and sleep under the stars.      Read more

    • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico
      1

      Cairo First Impressions

      December 12, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      We left home at 1 p.m. on a snowy, cold Sunday but Red Car got us to the airport in plenty of time. We went through the usual glitches in the YYZ airport but in general, things went well. With the snow, our plane was delayed, runways cleared and de-icing so we left 1 1/2 hours late. Seven hours later we arrived at a snow covered Heathrow airport, waited for 1 hour and then caught our 5 hour flight to Cairo.

      Arriving at the Cairo airport was quite easy. It isn’t very big and the process was straight forward. A couple of weeks ago, we bought our Visas for one month, online, a couple of weeks ago but realized we could have bought them easily at the airport.

      We took out money from an ATM machine and bought Vodofone phone chips for $15 for 20 gigs. Should do us for the month. Pretty cheap.

      We went outside to meet our driver, Omar, and were transported into another world! Drivers here are absolutely crazy and with no fear. Omar told us ‘horn blowing’ is the music of Cairo and he opened the car window so we could hear it better. Haha. Cairo is chaotic, noisy, big city that is home to some of the world’s most magnificent treasures.

      With more than 25 million people living in the metropolitan area of Cairo it is not only the largest city in Egypt but also in Africa and the Arab world. Actually it is the 6th largest city in the world. It was founded in 969 AD, set on the Nile River, it is considered the center of the region’s political and cultural life.

      The hostel we are staying in is right downtown. An interesting place to say the least. But more about that later. Antonio, the manager, got us settled in our clean room and told us where we could go for a great shawarma. Once again kind strangers helped us out and at $1.50 each for a chicken shawarma, we were not disappointed Wow!

      People are friendly and kind. Many strangers who we met spoke English and went out of their way to help us without us asking. We only got good vibes and lots of helpful tips.

      We had a hot shower and are ready for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow after an early breakfast, we are off to see the pyramids. It looks like it will be a busy day!      Read more

    • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico
      1

      Holy Sheet Hostel

      December 17, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      We had read a blog about Cairo that recommended a hostel with excellent reviews, located in the centre near Tahrir Square and the Egyptian Museum - the Holy Sheet hostel. So this is where we are staying while we are in Cairo. The outside isn’t very pretty but the inside is great. Egyptian buildings are taxed by what they look like on the outside, like Mexico.

      We find that hostels are the best option when you arrive in a new country or new city. We meet other experienced travellers who are not on set tours and who have lots of great tips and suggestions. Also, hostels often have the best recommendations for guides and tours at reasonable prices.

      I booked a twin room with private bathroom and a balcony for $40 Cdn/night including breakfast for both of us. Mina and Antonio, the young owners, have been excellent. They were very welcoming and communication has been very good. They love helping people out with their plans and have given us lots of tips and information. Our room was clean and quiet and had an old world charm to it. Restaurants and stores are close by and so is a mosque with its Daily Call to Prayer songs.

      We can watch real life on the street as people and animals walk by, from comfort of our balcony on the third floor.

      At the end of our trip, we will finish up by staying here once again for a few days.      Read more

    • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

      By Bus to Cairo

      January 5, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

      Pre bus trip…

      How would we get to Cairo from Hurghada? Well, there is an airport and it takes 1 hour by plane to get to Cairo…There are no trains that go to Cairo. A private driver would work … But we decided on taking the 6 hour Elite Gobus for $14 each. We have time and we will be able to see some of the countryside along the Red Sea before going inland to Cairo. And the bus is ‘elite’.

      It was easy to find a place that sold bus tickets. Most people here do speak a fair bit of English so Chris didn’t have any trouble buying them. Thursday, January 5 at 9:30 a.m. Check out the ticket in the photo.

      I forgot that Arabic is written right to left so when I saw the ticket, I thought that it said that it was a ticket for Cairo to Hurghada!

      I believe that we get a snack box of goodies to eat on the way.

      Post bus trip…

      Not bad. The 6 hours went by pretty quickly and we had a good driver. Almost the whole trip was through the Eastern Desert and the mountains.

      We were given a snack box with water, Nescafé coffee and Lipton tea, a croissant with cream cheese and a little chocolate cake.

      Each seat had a monitor with a charging station and a TV screen. We had a choice of 99 movies in English. We were given earphones too. Chris watched a Reacher movie with Tom Cruise and I watched a show called My Spy.

      We didn’t stop until we reached Cairo. There was an outhouse-like washroom in the middle of the bus. Everything was clean and a man made sure that we had what we needed.

      We were able to walk to the Holy Sheet Hostel from the bus station which was great since we had been sitting for so long. It was good to see all the young guys who work at the hostel again. They wanted to know how our trip went. A nice home coming.

      Lastly, we decided to go to the same restaurant we had gone to before - a koshery place. The last time 3 men who were sitting near us paid for our dinner. This time, a big family from Jordon sat next to us and guess what? They paid for our dinner too!!!!! We couldn’t believe that if could happen twice. We have no clue what the dinner cost.      Read more

    • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

      Pompey’s Pillar

      January 7, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

      Not far from the catacombs but still in the heart of Alexandria, is an amazingly tall memorial structure that was built in 297 A.D. and called Pompey’s Pillar, or The Pillar of Masts.

      The column is now standing in the heart of Alexandria on top of the old Serapeum temple ruins.
      The Serapeum was one of the most magnificent temples in the area, it was heavily plundered and possibly destroyed by Roman soldiers or a Christian mob. Nothing much remains today except a cave that contains a small branch of the famous Library of Alexandria. It contained the overflow from the big library.

      As we wandered through the ruins, we saw lots of butterflies. So did the kittens who were in stalking mode. It was fun to watch them hide in amongst the flowers before pouncing.

      The pillar's base diameter is 2.7 m and it was carved out of a single block of red granite brought from Aswan city. The net weight of the pillar is 285 tons and reaches 26 meter high with the base. The column was built to commemorate the victory of Emperor Diocletian over an Alexandrian revolt.

      After the revolt, there was a terrible famine and the Emperor gave a portion of the corn, which was sent to Rome annually, to the people of Alexandria.

      He dropped the taxes on Alexandria during this period too in order to restore the calm, stability, and prosperity of the city. He was a pretty caring leader.

      So, in cooperation with the people of Alexandria, he built the Pompey Pillar as a sign of gratitude. There is an inscription on the base that verifies this.

      At the front of the pillar there are two granite sphinxes guarding the tower.

      Below the column, we were able to ‘enter’ the Roman period in Egypt. One set of stairs took us down into the overflow library. Niches were carved into the rock to house scrolls. I must say that it was really dark and creepy down there. Not a lot of lighting and lots of unseen steps up or down. We went back up and through another doorway with more steps going down.

      These led us into the cave-like temple (the Serapeum) of the god Serapis, who was believed to be the protector of Alexandria during the Roman era. It has been damaged due to the revolts of the Jewish population in Alexandria sometime between 89-118 A.D but rebuilt again later.

      At the end of a long, dark tunnel we met up with a copy of Anubis, the bull god of death and mummification for the Greeks . What a scary creature to meet face to face looking out from his dark burial tomb! The real bull statue had been moved into the Roman museum in Alexandria for safe-keeping.      Read more

    • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

      Stuffed Pigeon Dinner

      January 8, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      Wherever we have travelled in Egypt, we have seen standalone pigeon houses, or dovecotes. They are constructed from mud brick and are supposed to resemble the rocky ledges and crevices in which the birds like to roost, nest, mate, and rear their young in the wild. Actually to me, they just look like big pine cones sitting in farmers’ fields.

      Egyptians have been eating pigeon, a popular delicacy since 3000 BCE, and continue to do so even today. Hamam Mahshi is pigeon stuffed with rice and onions and spiced with nutmeg, cumin and coriander. Actually the 6 week old birds in Egypt are stuffed with a interesting grain called freekeh, not rice, which is a cracked green wheat that has a unique flavour, almost nutty. The pigeon is then fried or grilled and served. Sounds tasty as long as the pigeon is healthy and has some meat on its bones.

      We have been saving eating this delicacy for our last night in Egypt, and tonight’s the night!

      We have been advised on numerous occasions, to eat this meal at a Cairo hole in the wall restaurant called Gomhorea that is known for its pigeon dish and is close to our hostel. An alternative place would be at the Kababgy El Azhar Farahat restaurant.

      Well, we did find the place by looking at Goggle Maps but we never would have found it on our own as It’s sign is in Arabic. Of course, the place was packed and everyone stared and smiled at us as we entered as we were the only non Arabic people in the place. It was really a hole in the wall type of place. In fact, the waiters entered the eating area through a low hole in the wall. Lol.

      We got a mug of pigeon broth to start and then we had to wait and wait, and wait before we could even order. Maybe, they had run out of pigeons? We watched how other people were eating their bird and then going to a big sink to wash their hands and faces. Finally, a waiter took our order - one grilled pigeon with rice and one beef plate. A salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and cilantro came with pickles, pita bread and dips. And we waited some more. Resident street cats wandered in and out looking for tidbits. And we waited some more.

      Finally, a little tiny pigeon came and a good amount of braised beef. It was really hard to find the meat on the pigeon but the few bites that we had were good. The rice was excellent and so was the beef.

      We now understood why people lined up to wash their hands and face. We were only given a fork and spoon and noticed that other people were eating the pigeon with their hands. A knife would have been useless.

      We were a little underwhelmed by the dinner but, while in Egypt, we had to give it a try. It was another new experience for us.

      I also want to add a little note about some of the tasty drinks that we had here.

      The first one is Karkade, a hibiscus-flower infusion with a lovely ruby color and can be served cold or hot. Mexico has a similar drink called, jamaica. The dried hibiscus flowers in Egypt come from Aswan. By the way, Karkade is known for lowering high blood pressure.

      A second drink is called Sahleb. It is a warm milk-based beverage that we had in Luxor that is topped with chopped nuts and raisins and is better than a dessert. It is made from the ground roots of an orchid plant. Sahleb has several healing qualities and is said to help with heartburn and indigestion.

      The limeade here is even better than Mexico’s limonada. I am surprised that I could even say that as we love this drink in Mexico.

      We have enjoyed the food and drinks in Egypt as there is a lot of choice and food is always served very hot and well cooked. We have heard of people who have had Egyptian Tummy issues but we were fortunate not to have had this I. The month that we were there. Was it the Dukoral or due to the fact that we were careful by drinking bottled water and avoiding raw foods unless we bought and washed them ourselves?      Read more

    • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

      Worst Of a Great Trip - the Flight Home

      January 8, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

      Early on Monday morning, 3 a.m., we started our trek home after one very educational trip to Egypt. How can it not be educational with all of its amazing history and very different culture?

      We left our hostel at 3:30 a.m. and it took about an hour to get to the airport. We knew our driver as we had used him when we started our trip and he was interested to know how our trip had gone.

      The Cairo airport is all pretty modern but the process to get through was hectic. Foreigners couldn’t get their booking passes or book seats online because passports had to be checked in person, etc. So we had to wait in line, but we had time. We went through 4 security checks with pat downs and luggage inspection. I guess that all those young, conscripted army guys needed to be working.

      The plane was absolutely full but it left on time. It was a small plane and not very comfortable. No food was served as it was a 5 hour flight and rules have changed re when food is served. No food unless over 5 hours now. We had brought a few things to eat though.

      Heathrow was a zoo and the service people didn’t move very fast. Once again we had to go through security checks and our luggage went through scanners. It all seemed very disorganized and chaotic. Even though we had a 1 1/2 hour layover, we almost missed our connecting flight home. We were the very last people to board. Getting to the gate was our workout for the day.

      The baggage check people said that I had liquid in my bag. Something very, very small. Could they find it? No. Could I? No. It was either my mascara or a tiny bit of hand sanitizer. They were removing everyone’s makeup and putting it in a little clear bag so the lineup for this check point was long. I kept telling them that our plane was taking off in 5 minutes but they said don’t worry and continued to work pretty casually.

      In the meantime, Chris lost one hearing aid in the craziness. An employee actually spent time helping him look for it and of course it ended up being in Chris’ pocket, haha.

      We ran. Thanks heavens we had backpacks that weren’t very heavy. Down some stairs, along a hallway to a slow elevator to go down 2 floors, caught a subway to another area, rain up the elevator and to our gate. Everyone had already boarded and we ended up being the last ones to board. We were so thankful not to have missed the plane home.

       At least we got some exercise to put it mildly. We felt pretty cramped for the next 7 hours but al least we got fed about 4 hours into the flight. By then we were pretty hungry. We had counted on time to grab some food before boarding but not a chance. We were offered lots to drink though and the meal was okay.

      Toronto was a zoo too. For some reason, immigration was checking everyone who got off the plane. Once that was done we moved on to getting our declaration of goods pass. Several of the machines were not working and it took us 1/2 hour to get our papers.

      Finally, we were through. Thank heavens we didn’t have to collect luggage!

      The best part of the whole experience was the Red Car service to take us home. The driver was right there in 5 minutes and we were the only ones in the van. He originally was from Poland and offered us his house if we ever go there! He gave us his WhatsApp number and said that he’d give us ideas of where we could go in the cheap parts of Europe and where to get a cheap car rental. He even offered us his house!

      When we got home at 5 pm, everything was so nice and clean. Except us. For some reason all of our clothes stunk. I did a load of laundry immediately and we had a quick dinner. Our neighbour had picked up a few things for us from the grocery store. She’s the best.

      We tried to stay up until 9 pm but didn’t quite make it. So of course, we were up at 3 a.m. for a couple of hours. But we were okay because we had had a good sleep up until then. We were able to sleep a little longer later in the day.

      It is so quiet here. No honking horns, donkeys, people talking on the street, etc. But … a big spider was hiding in the sheets of our bed. What a greeting!      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Armenian Catholic Church, كنيسة وبطيريكخانه الارمن الكاثوليك

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