Another Trip to the Pyramids

One of my friends studying here at AUC had a friend come visit, so naturally we had to visit the Pyramids. The first (and only) time I had visited the Pyramids, we went with four tour buses of students from AUC. This time it was only four of us. We hopped into a taxi and headed to Giza. On our way up the street to the Pyramids, some young boys and men were jumping on our taxi or standing in the way of our car so they could convince us to pay to use a horse, camel, or donkey for the trip to the wonder. The cab driver was yelling at all them, it was kind of crazy. I don't remember our bus having to stop, but I'm pretty sure no one wants to walk in front of a bus.

We bought our 30 EGP ($4.90) student tickets and went in. We climbed some of the steps of the two big pyramids and just enjoyed the shade provided from the massive structures.



I got to ride a camel for the first time in my life! It was so amazing. I was really surprised how strong and smart these animals are.  Anyone who has visited the Pyramids knows it can be a pain in the ass to haggle with the guys with the camels. Some tourists pay CRAZY amounts of money, but since our friend Ahmed spoke Arabic, we haggled the ride to 15 EGP($2.45) per person. They took us from the Pyramids to the Sphinx on camel.




This kid straight up kissed this camel.





We had a great time. It was cool to show someone else all these amazing places we've already seen. It's really cool to come back to all these places I saw the first couple days after I arrived here. Three months later in Cario, I can comfortably chill on the steps of the Pyramids knowing this trip will be replicated many more times before I leave.

Egyptian Food 101

So now that I'm back in Cairo, I can start updating you guys with some basic living info, starting with food. Bread is the backbone of most Egyptian cuisine and a lot of popular dishes in Egypt are vegetarian. Thanks to globalization, you can find whatever food you want in Cairo, but Egyptian food tends to be on the cheaper end of options.




So here's some of the typical Egyptian dishes:

1. Koshary/Kushari is a very popular Egyptian food. It's usually made with rice, lentils, chickpeas, and macaroni topped with tomato sauce and fried onions. It tastes really good and it's super cheap. For 3-6 EGP (or $0.65-0.89) you can get a variety of sizes. I've tried a couple of places, and my favorite is Alex Top in Zamalek.




2.  Falafel (ta'meyya) is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both. Falafel is usually served in a pita, which acts as a pocket, topped with salads, pickled vegetables, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces. Falafel will costs you anywhere from 1.50-8.00 EGP (or $0.25-1.33)




3. fool/ ful- is a dish of cooked and mashed fava beans served with olive oil, chopped parsley, onion, garlic, and lemon juice. This is one of my favorite out of all the options. It reminds me of Mexican refried beans. Ful is also eaten in a sandwich option. Ful can cost you anywhere from 1.50-8 EGP (or $0.25-1.33).



 4. Shawarma- is my least favorite of options because it usually involves this huge stick of meat catching all the particles of pollution and dust from the air. It's a mixture where lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beaf, veal, or mixed meats are placed on a spit (or rotisserie). The price of one of these sandwiches 10-14 EGP (or $1.64-2.29).




5. Roasted Chicken- also a big favorite of mine, roasted chicken is very popular in Cairo. I always make sure to order rice on the side.The cost of one of these dinners seems to run around 16-20 EGP (or $-2.62-3.25).



There's also a very popular dish, wish I have yet to try, called Mahsi ḥamām (or stuffed pigeon).  I promise when I try it, I'll take pictures and do a post. I will also do a post about Egyptian drinks. For now, this is meant to introduce you to the basics of Egyptian cuisine. 

Jordan Part 4: Last Day in Amman

So here's the final blog about Jordan. My Eid trip was supposed to be spent in Lebanon, but plans changed. I went to Jordan a little disappointed about the change in plans, but the trip was prefect. Everything went smoothly and I had no complaints. Jordan has definitely won me over.

We spent our last day in Jordan back in the capital of Amman. We meet up with some friends from AUC that we ran into at Petra. We went to this really cool T-shirt spot called Jo Bedu. They had really cool shirts written in Arabic.




We went back to Graffiti Cafe and had to represent AUC on the walls. I tagged AUC in green spray paint and then we all signed our names in Arabic.



Later that night we all went to this American wing restaurant downtown on Rainbow Street. Rainbow Street is a super popular spot, full of restaurants and bars. On our way down the street, I started to talking to these two teenage boys. They started telling me how they rapped. I grabbed one of the guys in our group that raps also. We started out as a small group of 10 watching them rap, to a group of about 35 people (the only chicks were in our group, the rest were all dudes). It was pretty crazy. All the guys had their phones out videotaping the whole thing. We tried to exit the crowd, but they followed us down the streets until we snuck into a restaurant. I went outside to talk with a taxi driver, and found out some people called the police. Basically we started a mini-riot.


Overall, I had a blast. Don't get me wrong, I missed Cairo, but Jordan was an adventure. The Eid was amazing and I can't wait to visit again. 
 

Jordan Part 3: Dana

So after walking around Petra all day, we decided to head to Dana for our next adventure. Our taxi driver stopped off at some amazing spots for us to see on the drive.


Dana is a tiny village near Tafilah in the central-western part of Jordan. There really isn't much to say about the little town except it's surrounded my moutains. There's no store (not even for food) and someone told me there's only 16 people that live in the actual village. The village consists of three hotel/hostels for tourists who want to hike the nature reserve. If you are ever in Jordan, please visit Dana. You wont be sorry.

Again there isn't anything to do in Dana except for the nature reserve. After we arrived at night, we walked around the village and this is what it looked like. The sign says it all: hotels only!



We stayed at Dana Tower Hotel for the night.We watched the sun set, while talking with an amazing Australian couple who lives in Saudi Arabia.





They let us bring mattresses up to the roof to sleep under the stars. We awoke the next morning to the view of the mountains. It was perfect.



This was our view when we woke up the next morning.


The next day we woke up and hiked the two and a half hour path. Along the way down we ran into two goat herders. It was so cute how the dog was right behind all the goats making sure they stayed in the group.

Jordan Part 2: Petra

We only had three full days in Jordan, so after spending the day in Amman, we went to Petra. Now normally we would have taken a bus, but instead we hired a taxi driver for the day to take us from Amman to Petra and then from Petra to Dana. We couldn't have had a better taxi driver. He took us to get food at a place he normally frequents for breakfast and stopped at locations along the way he thought we'd want to see (and we did).

So I went to Petra. Check it off the bucket list. Petra is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It's a historical and archaeological city carved into rock mountains built in 312 BCE. It wasn't discovered to the Western world until 1812. It's indescribable how beautiful Petra is.You may recognize Petra from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.




I seriously want to know why these random guys were dressed in costumes.




It's a pretty good walk to get to all the major parts of the city, but for a nice fee you have the option to go by horse, camel, or donkey. How convenient! I do have one complaint about the entire experience: the cost to get into Petra. It costs $50 Jordanian Dinar (or $70 dollars!!!!) for one day!!! The entire experience is worth whatever charge at the gate, but damn that's a lot of money just to look at some shit. Then again it is a wonder of the world!






While at Petra we ran into another group of AUC students that were also in Jordan for the Eid break. We ended up spending our last night in Amman with them and causing a mini-riot, but that's for another post.

Jordan Part 1: Amman

So this is Jordan Part 1 in a series of posts about my trip to Jordan over the Eid break(see prior post).

So I'll start with the capital Amman. Amman is really a beautiful city. I was really surprised, even though I was warned, how expensive Jordan is compared to other countries in the Middle East (specifically Egypt). We had some recommendations from another AUC student about a bunch of cool spots to visit while in Jordan, so we got visit a lot of cool spots we may have overlooked. We started our day visiting the Roman Amphitheatre and the citadel. The Citadel hill of Amman is home to the Temple of Hercules which is said to have been constructed under the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

We went to this really cool cafe called Graffiti Cafe near Paris Circle in Amman. It's a very cool cafe where you can spray paint or draw whatever you want on the walls. They have really good coffee, cute cupcakes, and really awesome art all over the walls.




We went to a lot of different places and had an amazing time. The city of Amman is very beautiful. Here are some pictures of some cool spots we stumbled upon while walking around.

Bombs and Beirut

The students of AUC have our first major break this semester for the Eid. Eid El Adha, simply called the Eid, is a major Muslim holiday that translates into "the Feast of the Sacrifice". It's a major religious holiday to celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened with a sheep for the sacrifice instead.

I could really care less about why I have days off from school, but I do. We have a 5 day weekend and it's a very popular time in the Middle East to travel. Some of the other students are going to Greece, Spain, or Turkey. A friend and I booked our trip to Lebanon in advance, thinking all would be good in Beirut the week of Eid.  Unfortunately, a car bomb exploded in Beirut on Friday(October 19th) killing an anti-Syrian intelligence official and 7 others, and wounding 80 people. The people of Beirut called to the streets to protest the attack, blaming the Lebanese government's involvement in the Syrian Civil War. They've called for the resignation of the Prime Minister, Nijab Miqati.

I decided to change my flight to Amman, Jordan for the Eid because people in Beirut said we really wouldn't be able to see a lot (many places were closed due to the attack and the protests). I leave for Jordan tomorrow, and will definitely update you guys about the amazing things I get to see there.