Friday, April 30, 2010

guava juice

Guava was one of the first local fruits I came to know in Egypt. That was probably due to the fruit processing factory nearby from which came the sweet fragrance in the air. When I tried it, I didn't really like it though. It was the same disappointment with the juice. That is until I tried it again with the right combination. Get a good quality guava juice and mix it with milk. That's all I can say.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

airport guardian

hotel pigeons

It's a funny contrast. Old cities were designed to welcome birds. The city walls had holes built into them to be pigeons and sparrow nests, storks lived on the same walls. Modern city building window sills in contrast are lined with metal needles to keep the "flying rats" away. Marrakech and Casablanca are an example to this contrast. Having said this, a pigeon cooing endlessly in front of your window is something I can live without...

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Friday, April 23, 2010

train to marrakech

this color reminds me of the bathroom in Linz, Austria. The color made you dizzy and after you stepped outside, you had to sit down for 10 sec before you could go back to the acceptable layers of the color scala

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Friday, April 16, 2010

tea

One of the few things I have from Brussels. Brussel's full of tea shops selling oriental tea and I got hooked on. I brew green tea jasmin tea or red tea throughout the day when I'm home. But I have to say this doesn't keep me from craving the strong Turkish tea...

Monday, April 12, 2010

indoor panorama

My rental home in Egypt is pretty large, so it's giving me a lot of 360 opportunities where I can pose with the scarves I got from Mt. Sinai...

Sunday, April 11, 2010

confrontation

Actually Egyptians are not very temperamental. I'm not talking about Scandinavian sort of not temperamental of course. You just need to spend 10 min in Cairo traffic to understand that this does not mean calm and quiet, just that they're not hot blooded like us Turks which I very much welcome.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

egg crystal

Supposedly, they dig this out from 2m underground and they break it into two to reveal the crystal. Here's the egg from Sinai as a souvenir...

Friday, April 9, 2010

listening to a cassette

When you don't have the cable for your ipod in the car, what do you do? Do you listen to a CD instead? No, because CD is dead. I might as well listen to a tape. This is what happened on the way from Sinai. The tape which belonged to one of our companions was left in the car and last week I've been listening to this tape obsessively. The female voice which I can't understand except for the habibis and the elbis is reminding me of something I'm not quite sure what, but I can't stop listening to this one tape over and over. It feels like what it must have felt like listening to an old LP 10 years ago.

And it also reminds me of this in Turkish: doktor doktor

Thursday, April 8, 2010

this is lokma...

... a Turkish dessert. At least, that's what I thought until I saw it in Egypt tonight. This is what traveling a lot is good for. It reinstates your confidence for the world. No matter where you're in the world, you can find something similar to what you have at home. I found lokma in Egypt, guess what's next?

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

oh no, I missed one!

This is what happens when you decide to go to bed early and when you wake up you realize you haven't taken a photo!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

kirkar

Egypt is a country of weird drinks. Tonight, I added to my list a new one: Kirkar. It's this week's favorite for me.

Monday, April 5, 2010

egptian crate

my wife has loved this when she was here. egyptian style wooden crate for the groceries in the market. it's hand made. looking at the labor on this thing with all the little holes and each individual stick placed one by one, it would have belonged anywhere else but the grocery store. when I saw it again, I offered to buy one from the store owner. he was happy to sell one. labor is so cheap in this country, he made a profit.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

pharaoh's bath


on the way up to ras sudr, the pharaoh's bath. I guess this is where the pharaoh has his sauna break on the way to chase the israelites. Hot sulphuric water was pouring into the sea...

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Friday, April 2, 2010

first night in St. Katherine

Driving through the Sinai Peninsula, we're finally in St. Katherine. We have to rest now because we're going to wake up at 1 am and head to St. Katherine monastry to climb Mt. Sinai (Gebel Musa). In front of our hotel is the ubiquitous pick-up. In the background against the dark sky are the rocky mountains. It's such a great feeling to be in such a weird landscape. It reminds me of Death Valley in Nevada.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

small steps for mankind

We were visiting friends and the new member of their family. Recently, most of our friends seem to have a new member in their family. Is it a coincidence or a sign? He he..