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Goethe Institute

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    • TravelerItaly and Egypt 2022
      11
      Day 28

      Cairo - moved to a different hotel

      October 19, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      Fairly relaxing day. This morning our official tour part ended, and we moved to a hotel in the centre of the city to be easy to get to places. In the interval between checking out, and checking in we first visited a school friend of Amr’s - also called Amr Ibrahim! - who lives in a beautiful apartment just round the corner from the Marriot. The building is one of those lovely ones built in the 1930s and right facing the Nile. It was like walking into another era with furniture from his parents - almost a museum. We had tea there and pastries, and then moved on with the second Amr as well to the Gezira Club which is very exclusive now, but Amr (both) and Omnia have been members since high school, and we went in as visitors. We sat outside under the trees and had one of the beautiful lemon juices they make, and very happily filled in the time between hotels.

      Went back to the Marriot and had a bit of a wait - Egyptian time - for the mini bus to take us and our luggage. Not a huge distance, but much too far to walk with bags - even for us! - along the very uneven footpaths and risking life and limb crossing the roads! Now we are staying in the Steigenberger for 3 nights, and then moving to stay with Omnia in her flat. The others will stay on at the hotel. Omnia has organised some excursions - tomorrow we will visit the Islamic area of Cairo, and visit some mosques not on the tourist route, and on Saturday there is a visit to the Coptic area.

      Tonight everyone did their own thing. I think people have enjoyed the Egyptian experience, and all us oldies have managed the quite strenuous activities!! But it is good to have a break…

      We had dinner with another school friend of Amr’s - Magdi - and his wife and Omnia. Quite a posh dinner in a French restaurant in a boat on the Nile. Lovely evening. Not French food as in France, but I had a beautifully cooked fillet steak, perfect medium rare. Amr and I walked there from our new hotel (the restaurant was just near the old one!!) which entailed ducking across busy roads at peak hour….I used to find this an adventure, but think I am a bit over it now…just getting around anywhere in Cairo is a battle - either you sit in traffic and take hours to get a short distance, or walk into the busy roads…Peter and Louise started off with us just for a walk, but waved us goodbye when we plunged into second lot of cars…I can understand!!      Read more

    • TravelerItaly and Egypt 2022
      11
      Day 29

      Another Cairo day

      October 20, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

      A little weary to start, but it turned into a magical day. Omnia had organised a minibus to transport us to and from the Islamic area, and a wonderful guide - a professor in Islamic medieval history and architecture. We left early - you have to pick the moment here, after the school traffic (school starts at 7am) and before the commuter traffic..Pinpoint timing, and our drive was relatively easy - i.e. not standstill gridlock. Met our guide, and she led us through such interesting buildings, with history and background that we would never have found or known. The mosques we were hoping to see were closed for renovation, but there are so many amazing buildings anyway, with beautiful Islamic decoration…a complex which was mausoleum, hospital, school…

      We stopped for a tea break at one point, and were each delivered a little pot of tea and a plate of fresh mint….just delicious! We finally ended with lunch in the same place where we ate on the tour’s Islamic market day (so we knew what we wanted to order from past experience!) and it is all amongst the bazaar shops and we did a little shopping after before getting the bus back to the hotel. Angela sadly was feeling a bit seedy and didn’t come (sad as she would have loved it)…most people have had a touch of the funny tummy, but Omnia and Amr are handing out pills, and most not too dramatic! I had a little way back, but it started in Italy, so can’t blame Egypt!! All totally fine now…

      We got back in the early afternoon and everyone did their own thing for the rest of the day. Omnia, Amr and I went to visit the wife and daughter of their cousin who we will be visiting in Kuala Lumpur next week. They are back in Cairo as the daughter is in university here in her final year. Had a wonderful home cooked meal with them and a very nice visit. We took an Uber there, and got a taxi back as it was easy to hail one…a hair raising ride - no seatbelts and we were actually speeding between intersection jams…as I said before, getting round in Cairo is a complicated and difficult business!!      Read more

    • TravelerItaly and Egypt 2022
      Day 30

      Yet another Cairo day

      October 21, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

      This morning after breakfast across the road at a café called La poire - which has THE best coffee (and even has flat white!!), even including Italy, so that is a real compliment….we all met in the lobby (actually not Sally and John) and Amr and I shepherded the herd across the road to the museum. It is just a stone’s throw from the hotel, but does entail crossing a busy road. It is Friday, which is like Sunday here, and there were many people visiting the museum, and many large groups. We felt smug to be individuals wandering round, and could dart to where there wasn’t a crowd. Arranged a meeting place and we all wandered and had a lovely time, filling in the gaps from the last visit when we went as part of the tour.

      Then we all met at 3 as Omnia invited everyone to her apartment for “high tea”, and some of her friends came too. It was lots of fun and a highly successful but the stressful part (for Amr) was getting people there and back. We are used to walking there in the past, but it is too far and difficult (with the road crossings and uneven potholed paths) for most of our friends, so amr organised 3 carloads of people….had to explain where (addresses are hard to explain here apparently, as the government changed street names which muddles Google - I think that was the problem, or some difficulty when there wasn’t an Arabic speaker in the car!). It is all an adventure, but stressful for Amr trying to make everything run smoothly.

      We all got there safe and sound, and it was lovely to see their apartment again, which we hadn’t stayed in since the early 90s. Omnia has done great renovations and it looks very good. Then we had the same procedure for getting home to the hotel…this time a complication as the first Uber with Evie, Robin, Sally and John went to the wrong Steigenberger hotel - or was on its way to it, way out near the pyramids!!! They realised something was amiss when they found themselves driving out of the city and fortunately it did get sorted out before going the whole way and they were delivered back to the city central one near Tahrir Square!! Phew…but Amr was stressed even more and once it was over we sat at the bar by the pool with Peter and Louise and had a bottle of wine. Now finally settling down and unwinding….      Read more

    • TravelerEgipto 2022
      Day 2

      Dia 2 piramides!

      June 26, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 34 °C

      Nos levantamos a las 6 menos cuarto, desayunamos y 7;30 salíamos para las piramides. Visitamos las pirámides de Giza y luego la de Sacara. Hacia mucho calor pero es el desierto y el espectáculo es maravilloso. Por la tarde almorzamos en un restaurante típico y a la noche tomamos algo con unos amigos nuevos.Read more

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    • TravelerEurope 2023
      Day 16

      Athens Day 4

      May 19, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      Our last day in Athens came around way too quick. We felt like there were many things left to see and explore and wish we had a few more days. Athens wasn’t originally on our list but we absolutely loved it and would love to come back and do some day trips to Delphi etc.

      Due to our late late night of washing we slept in and checked out around 11 am. We went to go see the theatre of Dionysus but when we got to the entry the line was ridiculously long as it was Friday so we decided to explore the gardens around the area instead. We saw Socrates prison, where they hid some of the Parthenon relics in ww2. We also saw where they used to hold assemblies prior to moving to the agora.

      We headed to our favourite vegan place - Veganaki and ate some pizza and wraps. We hope the place is still there when we come back. After dinner it was time to pick up our bags and head to the airport. We had a lovely cab driver who hit 150kms and so we arrived at the airport ahead of schedule!

      We encountered our first line to check in our luggage. We’ve been very lucky at airports so far. The flight was less than 2 hours and before we knew it we were at Cairo airport buying visas and in a cab with another great driver who pointed out lots of amazing things. There are no road rules here. It was a crazy drive but we made it safely to our hotel where you have to go through security every time you enter. By the time we settled in it was time for bed.

      We both cannot believe we are in Cairo.

      Athens highlights/facts:
      - veganaki - delicious
      - cats everywhere
      - lovely people and amazing things to see and do      Read more

    • TravelerEurope 2023
      21
      Day 17

      Cairo Day 1

      May 20, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

      There was some sort of celebration last night near our hotel that had loud live music and was going until past 3am, so Steve didn't sleep that well (it didn't seem to bother Tegan). Steve was awake just before 7am so decided to watch the footy in bed while Tegan slept. Once the game finished and we were ready to head out we met Sam, Christina, and Nick at a nearby cafe for Turkish coffee, which was very strong and oily. After coffee we went to a local place for lunch and had some nice falafel wraps, and discovered how cheap everything is here -- the wraps were 20 EGP, approximately $1 AUD.

      Christina had to go and meet her family after lunch so we went off to explore the Cairo Citadel, which was a huge fortress type area with multiple mosques on site. From the terrace of the Citadel you can see the pyramids in the distance which was pretty amazing. We spent quite a bit of time exploring and then decided to grab an uber back to town and find somewhere to have a drink. It took some work, but we found a nice rooftop bar/restaurant and ended up spending the rest of the day there. The roads here are insane, there are no walking lights, you just have to walk with confidence and pray that no one hits you. The roads have constant beeping to let the other drivers know not to hit you or to beep because you're in the way.

      We found a cool bar called the Cartlon Rooftop bar where we spent the rest of the evening drinking and smoking shisha. It is amazing to be catching up with friends in Cairo -- we had the best day/night talking and laughing. Amy and Burnso met us there after the long flight from Melbourne. They were both exhausted by the time it got to 10-11pm (and so were we) so we caught an uber back to the hotel with them. Burnso fell asleep in the back of the uber and we took photos of him snoring with his mouth open, which the driver thought was hilarious and made us show him the photos whilst he was driving.      Read more

    • TravelerEgipto 2022
      Day 1

      Dia 1 llegamos a El Cairo!

      June 25, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

      Salimos 3 y media de la mañana de Denia, viajamos a Madrid, dejamos el auto y luego nos subimos al charter de Iberia que nos trajo a El Cairo. Viaje normal, nos sirvieron unas tapas de almuerzo y sobre las 15:30 llegamos a destino. Luego de migraciones tomamos un bus al hotel Steinberger que es del 2017 y es súper lujoso. Contratamos todas las excursiones posibles, dimos una vuelta por los alrededores y cambiamos algo de dinero. La ciudad impresiona, es sucia y oscura pero sus edificios son antiguos y majestuosos.Read more

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    • TravelerEurope 2023
      Day 18

      Cairo Day 2

      May 21, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 32 °C

      Today we saw the pyramids! We are still pinching ourselves that we’re in Egypt. Christina had booked a tour for us but then cancelled it a few days beforehand because we wanted to go to a different museum after the pyramids. She ended up getting another guide while we were having coffee yesterday morning, so we jumped in the cars and went off hoping for the best.

      We had two separate cars and we were in a car with Sam, and our driver didn’t speak English. Our first stop was Sakkara — we saw the step pyramid and also went inside the best preserved tomb that had a 3D imagine engraved on the wall that you can only see in a certain light.

      We then headed to Dahshur to see the red pyramid and the bent pyramid (from a distance). We went inside the red pyramid which was a very long steep tunnel that meant walking down being hunched over. It was very claustrophobic and there wasn’t much down there!

      We finally headed back up towards the Giza pyramids. We all did camel rides and Tegan’s camel was a pest, bumping and biting everyone. The ride was bumpy, long and extremely hot (39 degrees) but they took us to a pretty good view of the pyramids where we got a bunch of photos. We then headed to the Sphinx, but by this stage we were all very hot and tired. The size of the pyramids is incredible.

      Unfortunately the guide we had wasn’t very good — he took us to two unplanned stops, a carpet making school and a papyrus art shop, both of which gave us short tours and then tried to get us to buy something. He also wasn’t an informative guide, and came up with some pretty ridiculous answers to a few of our questions.

      But we had a great day and loved seeing the pyramids and tombs in person. We were supposed to go to the civilisation museum after the pyramids but we ran way over time and so we just got the drivers to drop us home.

      We went out for a quick dinner after a rest and then came home and slept very well.      Read more

    • TravelerEgypt and Beyond
      Day 4

      Saqqara- ancient burial grounds

      December 8, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

      First on the agenda today is the Burial grounds of Egyptian Royalty- ever going excavation continues to expose hidden tombs. Steps of the Pyramids reflects different evolutions of dynasty periods with some pyramids being abandoned because of bad structure - a quick lunch stop at the Palms for a wonderful buffet.
      Made our way to a Carpet making school where young children learn the art form parents. Final stop was the Mosque of Mohammad Ali (not the boxer).      Read more

    • skip's retirement travelEgypt
      Day 1

      Tahrir square

      April 9, 2021 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

      Aka Martyr Square. The name may be familiar from 10 years ago. This is where the Arab Spring happened in Egypt. The national Museum uis along at one end. (see another post).
      2 pictures at night and 2 during the day.Read more

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