Weekend

Well it's the weekend now, here in Cairo.
We've had a quiet week - staying in every night this week. We caught up on TV watching and made a mean chilli. This was because I was back in Cairo so late on Sunday morning and had a lot of sleep to catch up on from my trip, and because last weekend Scotty got a cold and has been struggling through school. The colds we get out here are a bit of everything; a bit of a sore throat, a bit bunged up and hedache-y. This cold has been going around work, and so maybe it was only right that after being back five days I now have it!
So what is the remedy? Tea and pink wafers at the moment!
I'm feeling a bit better already, so hopefully will be well enough for dinner at La Bodega tonight(if we can find this restaurant which is on the first floor of an unmarked building!)

Bomb blast in Midan Hussein

We've just heard from our good friends Caroline and Dave that this evening there was a bomb blast in Midan Hussein - one of our favourite places to take visitors, as it's at the entrance to the Khan El-Khalili market.

You might remember us visiting the square for Iftar during Ramadan back in September. The video of that visit is below.

You can see the mosque from about 35seconds in.

This footage of the square shortly after the bombing is a stark contrast to our experience at Iftar.

I'm not sure whether we're shaken up by this or not. In a way we are - it's an area we like to visit and show people to - but at the same time it feels so distant as it's a place that requires some effort to get to from where we live. The attack appears to have been targeting tourists (why else would they attack a tourist market?) so as ex-pats I don't feel that we're at risk.

For people planning to visit us, please don't worry. Remember that Egypt is usually a very safe place - helped by the swarms of police. Until more details are released I don't think we'll know how the people responsible managed to carry out this attack, but as tourism is the life-blood of the Egyptian economy I am sure that security will be increased and checks carried out more frequently than ever.

Reports are nwo saying that the police have arrested three suspects, and are questioning other witnesses. It is widely put forward that the attack was the work of amateurs, as the bombs were simpel devices, who were protesting Egypt's response to the current issues in Gaza. Why qould they attack tourists? Well, mainly because attacking tourists hits the government where it hurts. It guarantees massive media coverage, and damages the government's revenues from teh industry as people are scared away. Sadly, the tourists are just innocent bystanders who are being used for political means.

Returning to the Casbah

I know my feelings were confused with the tiredness of travelling in the early hours of the morning, but it struck me that I was getting a flight home from Eastern Europe that wasn't a flight to the UK.

I've just spent five days in Prague, accompanying a small group of students on an exchange trip. The trip was really interesting and successful in terms of the educational experience, but for me it was also really nice to be visiting a city I had enjoyed discovering about six years ago with Scotty.

I knew that there was going to be a significant difference in terms of the weather - having had a lovely weekend in Cairo in the mid-20s and turning up to find a good foot of snow everywhere the eye could see in Prague. Most of the time this was manageable, because we went out prepared - although my scarf-wrapping technique has definitely suffered from six months in the sun.

I know it sounds a bit mushy, but I do have to say that it didn't feel right being there without Scotty. Walking around Prague, and then briefly Rome, there were little sights and sounds that I wanted to point out and laugh at, look at closer, talk about or just share.

All-in-all though, it was really nice to go on this trip, but it was also really nice to come back. To come back to my hubby and my new city.

"Dangerous Driving in Cairo"

This news article is fascinating...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7904171.stm?lss

The Guardian, Saturday - Travel Section, Reader's Tips

The Guardian newspaper have a reader's Top Tips section on their Travel website and a few weeks ago I got a bit overexcited adding some of our tips to their pages. It all paid off though, as today they published my tip on finding the "real" Alexandria and their markets.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/feb/14/travel-readers-tips-accommodation-hotels-shopping

Egyptian Monopoly

February Catch-Up - Wissa Wassef and the APE Project

PART 1

PART 2

The Ramses Wissa Wassef Centre http://www.wissa-wassef-arts.com/

The Association for the Protection of the Environment http://www.ape-egypt.com/index.htm

New Year - walking back down Mount Sinai!

The thing about mountains is that once you're up there you know you've got to get back down again. The great thing about this walk, though, was that as we'd climbed in the dark we had the bonus of actually being able to see the landscape when we walked down again in the morning.

And, boy, was it amazing.

Instead of taking the camel trail down, we walked down the 3,000 "Steps of Penitence" which were built by a monk from St Catherine's Monastery at the foot of the mountain.

By the way, I've just realised that although I uploaded the video of us climbing the mountain I never actually linked to it. I've added it now, but you'll need to scroll below the sunrise video to see it.