As I'm sitting here on the eve of my last holiday break before the end of the school year (about 37 school days left), I am reflecting on our latest long weekend. Earlier this month, we had our normal weekend of Friday and Saturday off, but we also got the Coptic Easter Sunday, and Sham El Nessim, which is an Egyptian holiday marking the beginning of spring. For this four-day break, we wanted nothing more than to relax and do pretty much nothing else. What better way to do that than go to the beach?!
Zach and I went with a couple of friends to Dahab, Egypt. According to Wikipedia, Dahab used to be a Bedouin fishing and is now considered to be one of Sinai's most treasured diving destinations. Dahab is also the location of the famous Blue Hole (Red Sea). However, our mission was to relax on the beach, read, and drink some alcohol.
We found a hotel right on the beach for $55/per night. (I think it cost this much because it was a holiday weekend. I think it's usually less.) This price included breakfast, lunch, dinner, and beer. Was it a 4 or 5 star hotel? No, but it was perfect for what we wanted to do. Let me tell you: mission accomplished! Those 2 1/2 - 3 days on the beach was just what I needed.
On one of the days, the four of us decided that we wanted to go snorkeling at the Blue Hole. The only logical way we knew to do that was by quad bikes, of course! We drove the quads from our hotel to the Blue Hole, went snorkeling, and drove them back. We all wished we could have spent more time on the bikes just exploring the area. For me and one of our friends, we didn't have the best snorkeling experience. Our masks and snorkels kept leaking which is no bueno considering the Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world! From what we could see of it, the coral was really neat. Zach really enjoyed himself, though.
Our last long weekend of the school was a success! Though I don't have a lot of pictures to "prove" that we had a wonderful time, you will just have to take my word for it. Enjoy the pictures I did take.
Nearly empty beach
Camels lounging at the beach
Quad bikes to the Blue Hole
Quad bikes to the Blue Hole
Quad bikes to the Blue Hole
Do you see those mountains in the background? That's Saudi Arabia.
No, this post has nothing to with religious or governmental change in Egypt. This has everything to do with currency and making change with money. Whether you go to a street vendor or a department store in the mall, no one seems to be able to make change. Where are all of the small denominations of money??!!
There is an acceptance here that if the total is 19 LE, you might actually just end up paying 18 LE (roughly $1). Maybe the bill is 12.50 LE. You may actually pay an extra .50 LE, or the establishment might swallow the .50 LE. I know, in the grand scheme of things, this is very minimal. The problem really comes into play when you order things to be delivered.
When Zach and I order things to be delivered, we usually order extra just to round it up to the nearest big denomination. If a food bill comes out to be 164 LE ($10), we will usually order more to make it closer to 200 LE so we don't have to mess with asking the delivery guy for change. And, yes, I say delivery guy because I have never had a delivery woman.
So, here's an anecdote about making change that happened to me three days ago:
After school, I went into a pharmacy about one block from our apartment. I bought lotion (which turned out to be body wash) and a nail file. The total came to 87 LE. I gave the guy a 100 LE bill. So, if we all do our math, I should get back 13 LE. He gave me a 10 and... a granola bar because he didn't have small change. Haha!
It's that time of year again. Spring break!!!! This year, we went to Munich, Germany with a friend. Another friend and her daughter joined us later in the week for a couple of days.
When I go on vacation, I am the type of person who likes to see and do everything there is to do in a city/area. Zach, on the other hand, hates my type of vacation. He would rather sit in a coffee shop or bar the whole day and people-watch or chat. This vacation, I tried to have a mix of both. We were in Munich for seven nights. I feel that we had a good combination of sightseeing and relaxing.
This is the first time we used Airbnb, and I was pleasantly impressed with our apartment. It was about a 15-20 minute walk to Marienplatz, Munich's main square.
We arrived in the early afternoon on Friday. One of the very first things the three of us did was find a bar to eat pork and drink a beer. I did't really miss pork until I ate it.
On the second day, we decided to take a Sandemans Free Walking Tour. If you are traveling in Europe, check out this company to see if they give tours in your area. We learned a lot about Munich in the 3-hour walking tour. For example, look at the picture below. We learned that lions represent something important in Munich (much like everywhere else in Europe). The lion in the picture has his mouth closed. That is because he is facing a church. The lion that is mirrored on the other side has his mouth open. He is facing where people used to make laws. We were told that it's this way because you should not speak out against the Catholic church, but it is more than okay to speak out against lawmakers. I thought that was just pretty interesting!
This next picture also has some importance. It has something to do with a baby who will one day be king and his pet monkey. The monkey carried the child up the tower, and it only came down when it smelled bananas. However, it wasn't bananas at all; it was beer (or something to do with the making of beer). Munich sure does have a strong beer identity!
The next day, we took another Sandemans Tour of Neuschwanstein Castle, which is also known as the Disney Castle. We learned a lot of history about it, but I'll just let you look at the pictures. We did tour the inside, but weren't able to take pictures.
One of the days, we all just got our haircut. It was the coldest day we were there, and while we were in the salon, it started to hail and snow. I'm really glad we weren't outside walking in it. By the time we all finished, about 2 1/2 hours later, it was clear outside.
Even though it was pretty cold, I really wanted to take a walk through the Englischer Garten. From what I've read, it's even bigger than Central Park. It also houses the 2nd largest beer garden in Munich. Unfortunately, we didn't stay and have a beer, because it was just too cold outside. I think everyone else agreed with us because there were only about 15 people sitting outside. Another reason I wanted to check out the Englischer Garten was because of the Eisbach. The Eisbach is an artificial river where surfers are able to "catch a wave".
Though we drank a lot of beer the whole trip, we didn't go on beer tour until the last night we were in Munich. Yes, we took another Sandemans tour. We were able to taste some beer and visit the beer halls. We also made some new friends. What a great ending to a great trip!
Let's face it, since moving to Egypt, I've hardly blogged. I really want to get into it again, but I'm so far behind. So, I'm just going to pick up from this point forward. I may come back and write about what we did for the past 4-5 months, but maybe not. So, here we go!
Today, I was lucky enough to be able to take a walking tour of Old Cairo. A guy that I work with is a wonderful photographer, and he sets up these walking tours occasionally and invites other teachers to join him. It's neat to walk around with a small group of people who share an interest in taking photos.
Approximately ten of us started at the base of the Citadel and walked the streets of Old Cairo. We then we went inside the Mosque of Al Rifai and the Mosque of Sultan Hasan. After that we walked the streets to the Bab Zuweila, the last remaining southern gate of the wall of the Old City of Cairo. Then we walked through the Tentmakers Market.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our walk.
At the end of October, we camped out in the desert. I had no idea what to expect, but it was definitely something I want to do again!
We were gone for one night and two days, but we packed so much into that time. We took a van to Fayoum. We stopped to get a light lunch before heading into the desert.
View from where we ate lunch.
After lunch, we packed into vehicles that were able to drive in the sand. Our first stop was Wadi El Hitan (Whale Valley). This place contains fossil skeletons of whales. I had a hard time wrapping by brain around the fact that millions of years ago, the place where we were standing, was under water.
After visiting the museum, our drivers played around in the sand!
Leaving the main road to drive in the sand.
Driving up and down the sand dunes.
When we got to the campsite, we did some sand boarding before it got too dark. We were provided dinner and entertainment. Instead of sleeping in the tent, most of us just slept under the stars in our sleeping bags. The wind was insanely cold, but it felt so good to sleep outside.
