Monday, July 26, 2010

Ethiopia, or, Where I Freely Walk Into Oncoming Livestock

Everyone has to visit Ethiopia. It's where we come from people! The history of human evolution and civilization that exists in this country is mindblowing.

We started in the capital city of Addis Ababa, where we arrived very early from Cairo (after hilarious times at the Ethiopian Airlines check-in desk and with a security guard who literally GROWLED at Broseph and then fell about laughing saying "Obama!" Random, but we do appreciate our esteemed prez for giving us so much street cred in Africa!). Once landed and visa-ed, we took a cab to a well-known travelers spot, the Baro Hotel, and hoped they'd have a room available. (We had initially booked a room at Mr. Martin's Cozy Place, but Mr. Martin never confirmed our reservation or inquiry about being met at the airport, so we gave up on him and his, um, cozy place.) The Baro did have a room, which was dank, dark and totally grody, but it was eight bucks a night, so how much can I ask for really?

After a nap we set off to find an ATM. It's no joke that there is about ONE in the whole country, and even that is not known to be particularly reliable. People practically laughed at us when we asked where we could find one (there wasn't one at the airport, in case you're wondering!). Eventually we did find it and it worked, and there was much rejoicing. We were feeling a bit peckish, so we found a little cafe for a burger lunch. Food in Africa is SO CHEAP! We got massive burgers for about $1.50 - I am really going to think twice about going out for meals at home. "Really, waiter, this burger says $9 but I think you can do it for $2. Ok, ok...$3?"

Anyway, we had been told it was the rainy season in Ethiopia (it was actually quite chilly) and as we were munching away, the heavens opened and it came CRASHING down! (Literally - it tore down one of the gutters of the restaurant!) I've never seen such intense rain in all my life. It went on for about 15 minutes and then as quickly as it came, it stopped. Bro and I couldn't help but sing a bit of Toto about the rains down in Africa - we've seen them and we bless them too!

After lunch we hit the Internet cafe - slowest connection in the WORLD, but we managed to bang out a few emails and whatnot. There we met another guy from our hotel, Matthias from France so we had a chat with him about what there was to get up to in Addis. The city itself is quite chaotic, loads of people roaming around and stark poverty right up next to office buildings and banks and things. Everyone is very friendly though - more on that later.

In the evening we took a cab to Habesha restaurant, a recommended touristy place for its traditional food and dancing. It was fabulous - we had a traditional meal of injera (a sort of flatbread) topped with all sorts of different veggies and curries. You basically just wrap everything up in the bread and eat it all with your hands. The waitresses come around with soap and warm water so you can wash your hands before and after, and again it's super cheap!! There was a wedding celebration or something going on, so there was lots of lively music and dancing and some people in traditional costume bouncing around. Fabulous, except for the, um, rather nasty (read: smelly) tummies we both had afterwards. Dang.

The next day we got up quite late as we were both feeling a bit rubbish, which we put down to the incredibly crazy meal the night before and our bodies adjusting to the malaria pills, which can really wreak havoc on a fragile little thing like moi (ha!)! We only had one full day in Addis left, though, so we took a cab to the centre and set off on a walkabout, during which we found precisely nothing to see, so we took another cab to the National Museum where "Lucy," the oldest human of sorts, lives (or a replica, at least). It was a brilliant museum with all sorts of art and artifacts - some several thousands of years ago. There was also a fabulous exhibition about human evolution with loads of crazy skulls and teeth and things, all leading up to the replica of Lucy, which is about five bones total (I said to bro, as it's only fake, I would have thrown in a few extra bones to make it more interesting) but we can say we've seen her!

Afterwards we went back to our hotel area and looked around a bit for a bureau de change. As we were walking, a lovely guy called Thomas came up to us and asked where we were from, telling us that his English teacher wanted him to practice whenever he could. We've learned to gauge quite quickly when someone is after you and when they just genuinely want to chat, and Thomas was in the latter group. He was about 19-ish and in university, and loved that we're American. He said: "When you are here in Ethiopia, you can be like in America! You can run, you can jump, you can fly. You can do whatever you like because we are brothers from another mother!" YES! He actually said that. It was brilliant. He kindly took us to a place to change money (not an official place, mind you, some guy in a hole in the wall doing it under the table), but he couldn't change our Egyptian pounds. Still, it was lovely to meet Thomas and we were very impressed with his English, especially as our Ahmeric isn't really up to snuff!

That evening we grabbed some food at our hotel and sat with Matthias and a doctor from Israel doing volunteer work in the country (Ack! All these good people!) and a French/German guy called Cedric. We crashed quite early because we had to the airport at 6am for a flight to Lalibela to see the rock churches...this is where the livestock comes in!

We arrived quite early in the morning to Lalibela on the tiniest plane in the world into the tiniest airport in the world (when we left two days later, we were given a hand-written boarding pass and there's no intercom - an airline employee walks around telling everyone it's time for boarding!). Anyway, after getting our luggage our hotel man was there to meet us, and he drove us along a seriously bumpy road where we had to stop about 900 times for 5-year-olds herding goats and donkeys and things! Our hotel, the Mountain View, was ABSOLUTELY beautiful - incredible sweeping views of the valley. It was really breathtaking! Even so, we were exhausted so had a little nap and got up at lunch time. We arranged to go and see seven of the 11 rock churches that very afternoon, and at 2pm we met "Indie" who would be our guide for the next two days. Brilliant guy - super knowledgable and funny.

The churches in Lalibela are famous because they are literally dug out of rock in the ground and were all built from the top-down. A number of them are free-standing and don't use the rocks around them for support. The locals, extremely devout Orthodox Christians (Indie kissed all the church walls and things) believe that King Lalibela built them all about 3000 years ago with the help of God and an angel. Don't bother asking how he really did it (you know, maybe with tools? Or slaves?) as you'll get a blank stare that means, "I told you God helped him, you dum-dum."

To see all the churches you have to do quite a bit of hiking around the rocks, but we also got to see some of the mud and thatch homes people live in, as well as lots of priests chanting away. Really beautiful, and whether or not one is religious, I'm quite confident that even the non-believers would find the whole thing quite spiritual with the landscape and the sounds and colors and fantastical legends and stories. I certainly did.

After Churches: Episode 1, we went back to the hotel for dinner and were quite excited to watch the World Cup final on the big satellite telly in the lobby. No such luck! It was only being broadcast on the national channels so this particular telly wasn't getting it. No worries though, we piled into the back of an old van with a few members of a visiting American church group (from Menlo Park, of all places!) and set off in search of a TV! The driver had no idea where to find one, so we bounced along (again dodging a variety of farm animals and children) until we found a few folks crowded around the tiniest telly in the universe in the lobby of a "hotel." It was very grody, but we could see the match and there were chairs, beers and friendly locals, so we were quite happy!

The next day in the afternoon it was time for Churches Vol. 2, so we met up with Indie to see the remaining four. It was much the same as the day before, except when we had to pass through a pitch black tunnel that connected two of the churches. For about ten minutes we couldn't see a THING - I was holding on to Bro's shirt who was holding on to Indie's shirt who expertly navigated our way through the darkness with no broken angles or banged heads to speak of. It was SUCH a relief to see the light at the end of the tunnel though - I won't take that cliche lightly anymore!

As our tour of the churches concluded, we were lucky enough to see a traditional wedding taking place. It was gorgeous! The bride and groom walked under colorful umbrellas and were surrounded by young altar boys and girls, priests and nuns singing songs as they all walked them to their new marital home. About half the townspeople appeared to be tagging along, and some of the children approached me, fascinated by my digital camera! They all wanted a photo of themselves and then excitedly looked at it and squealed. It was fabulous - such a treat.

That evening we had some dinner, but the Bro wasn't feeling too hot. Unfortunatley this was the beginning of a three-day bout of travelers tummy for him, poor guy. He was up all night, barely made it through our plane ride back to Addis and once we arrived he couldn't face going back to grody old Baro, so we pulled out the emergency credit card and booked a room just for the night at a proper hotel so he could recover. I was thrilled to have accessibility to a hairdryer for the first time in ages, so I was happy!

We set off for Dar Es Salaam the next morning with the Bro feeling much better and had a fabulous 12 days in Tanzania, arriving in South Africa this morning, which is also lovely. But back to Ethiopia for a second - Go there, go there, go there. Motherland Africa hasn't seen the last of me!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Egypt, or, Where I Freely Walk Into Oncoming Traffic

WHAT a nightmare! I almost died about five times a day (make that hour, actually), but somehow we survived six days in Egypt.

It didn't start well (it's actually my LEAST favorite place thus far, you'll hear why...). We had booked a hostel online, as this is how we've been operating everywhere, we just sort it out on the way. All we knew about how to get to this place was to take "Bus #356". OK. We got off the plane in Cairo and walked out into the stifling heat and set of to find the bus terminal, which turned out to be the sketchiest place in the world. EVERYONE was staring at us (although we would get used to that) and all the buses were about 100 years old with ancient Egyptian men hanging out of the windows smoking and there were no numbers anywhere. A super dodgy policeman tried to help us, but he didn't really speak English so we gave up on him but he proceeded to follow us around for the next 15 minutes saying "Bus three-six-five, bus five-three-six, bus six-five-three?" Eventually we decided to go back to the airport terminal and there we were able to arrange for a taxi to take us into Cairo. Things were looking up...until we got to our "hostel" and realized that actually THIS was the sketchiest place in the world. NO other tourists or backpackers or anything, just more old Egyptian guys sitting around on worn out sofas staring at us. We already knew we wouldn't be there for long, but it was quite late in the evening already so we decided to stay one night. We barricaded ourselves in the room with a plan to get up early and get the hell outta there - we were seriously quite scared.

In the morning we took advantage of the free breakfast (again quite dodgy - some brown bean things and a lump of weird cheese?) and then got our stuff and told the guy at the desk we were leaving (having found something better in our Lonely Planet book). We got into a shouting match with him about trying to get our money back, but he wouldn't do it and kept telling us we had to give him our receipt, which he had never given us. Eventually we gave up because it wasn't worth the $50, so we set off for an hour-long walk to another place, which ended up being lovely and a great deal. Phew. We didn't do much for the rest of that day, as we were quite exhausted from our ordeal and we had gotten no sleep in our nasty, un-air conditioned room the night before.

The next morning we got up to out with a driver to the pyramids. His name was Hosani and he was brilliant - kept telling us he was our brother and went in for a high-five about every three minutes. We set off for Giza where we rode horses out to the pyramids and the Sphinx. They're amazing to see, but the area is actually a bit of a hole - trash everywhere and whatnot. Still it was fun to essentially ride around in the desert on a horse called Michael Jackson. After that we went to see another pyramid at Sakkara and had a lovely lunch. We also stopped at a papyrus shop and a perfume shop, and I bought a beautiful painting on papyrus of the Goddesses of Beauty and Justice. I'll hang it over my bed when I get home, and hope I'll wake up gorgeous and fair!

We got back in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day walking around the streets of Cairo. We were trying to find a bazaar that we'd read about, but we basically ended up in the ghetto (or, well, just in another part of Cairo - it's all a bit grody) being visually assaulted by everyone. Seriously, I was covered up and everything all the time - I'm not a dummy- but I might as well have been naked. It is SO frustrating to have everyone looking at you constantly. It put us both on the defensive and took away from our experience, for sure. Too bad because Egypt is a great country and there's lots to learn, but it's SUCH a hassle just to walk down the road, LET ALONE trying to cross the road. I don't ever want to hear that Italian or French or New York drivers are crazy. I would HAPPILY lie down in the middle of 5th Avenue or at the Arc de Triomphe, as I would be safer there than just trying to cross the street in Cairo!

Anyway, the next day (which happened to be July 4th) we went to the Egyptian Museum which was great - especially the royal mummies! I love all that death ritual stuff and the belief in the afterlife. They're very well preserved - Ramses I, II, IV, VIII or whatever, every Ramses you can think of basically, lying there in a glass case. Some of them still had hair and eyelashes - crazy.

In the afternoon we went to the train station to buy our tickets to Alexandria, as we had heard it can be a nightmare trying to get them on the day. It was a total zoo, but a nice guy helped us by translating to the ticket guy, so it was much less painful than we were expecting. We had made plans to meet up with Broseph's mate from college, Jordan, whose parents are ex-pats in Cairo. We took the metro (another hilarious experience) out to his neighborhood where most of the Western families live. It was lovely, and we went out for some hookah and beers (our first in a while - no booze in Egypt people!) at a couple places where the Americans and Brits hang out. Especially nice on Independence Day!

The next day we checked out of our hotel and went out wandering again until it was time to catch our train to Alexandria. We went up the Cairo Tower, which offers really spectacular views of the city (if you can see it through the smog). In the evening we set off for "Alex", as they call it, which was about two hours and we were met by a guy from our hotel. It also ended up being a bit of a hole, with a disgustingly smelly bathroom and ants on the floor. We had to change rooms, but for the most part you get what you pay for in these places!

Our first full day in Alex was a day of strolling around basically. It's a beautiful city right on the Mediterranean and we were staying on the water. We found a nice cafe for lunch run by this crazy guy called Cece (a red-headed Egyptian - bizarre!) who wanted to talk to us for hours about his American wife and son in Hawaii. He was practically grabbing our ankles when we left! Afterwards we walked to the Citadel, went to the "fish museum", which we thought was going to be an aquarium but was actually just faux tanks of paper-mache fish, and watched women in full burkas swimming at the beach. THAT is a trip, let me tell you. I hate when my jeans get wet in the rain - I can't IMAGINE swimming in all that get-up. I was quite fascinated by the whole thing.

The next day we set out for the Greco-Roman museum which is supposed to be excellent, but just our luck it's closed for repairs. In the summer. When the place is full of tourists. Nothing about Egypt makes sense, really. Instead we went looking for the catacombs, but again got lost and ended up in such a dodgy part of town that some old dude came up to us and said, "What are you doing here??" Beats us, mate. We did eventually find the catacombs, where a policeman demanded a massive tip to basically show us nothing, but we ended up in the main catacomb by ourselves. CREEPY. It's quite far underground, and goes on for miles and there was NO ONE down there. We were just surrounded by dark, empty tombs and total silence (actually a nice break from the constant honking and shouting in the streets). We walked around for a while in these caves and things, but I actually got a bit scared and had to get out of there! I was also worried the policeman was going to lock us in for not giving him enough "baksheesh" or something.

Our last day we checked out of our hotel and decided to go to the beach until our train. We walked for hours, found this supposed amazing beach which was actually total rubbish and I couldn't sit in the sun or anything because I had to keep all my clothes on. Sigh. I was really looking forward to getting out of Egypt by that point - the whole thing had been exhausting. We walked back after an hour or so and went to see Cece again, who almost imploded when we walked through the door he was so happy. He REALLY didn't want us to leave this time: "But Cece we have to catch a train," we said. "No, this is not important," was his reply. Eventually we escaped and got back to our hotel and on to the train station. Once back in Cairo we went straight to the airport where we sat around for five hours until our flight to Addis Ababa left at 3:30am.

So, summary on Egypt. Definitely go, but go with lots of money and ride around in a tour bus and stay at the Hilton (or the Intercontinental if you are well posh) and do a cruise down the Nile and you'll LOVE IT! I WILL give it another chance, but not until I can meet the above criteria!

Next up, Ethiopia (amazing) and Tanzania (where I am now, also amazing. Am considering joining the Maasai for real. Sorry Mummy. Jokes. Maybe).

Friday, July 2, 2010

Istanbul, I wanna give you a big Kisstanbul

The week in Istanbul was, hands down (as someone I met there would say), the most fun we've had so far. We arrived safely from Athens, and got settled into our hostel - the Orient Hostel - which was full of excellent people having a great time. Still being so full from our massive lunch in Athens, we passed out quite early on our first evening, but were up bright and early to go exploring the next day.

After breakfast we set out to see some mosques and whatnot, but not ten minutes out the door we were caught in a downpour, so we haggled with some 9-year-old kid for some crappy umbrellas and stood in a doorway for a while. When it sort of started to ease off, we got walking again and decided to change our plans and go the Grand Bazaar instead as it's covered and huge. There's loads to look at, but we weren't really feeling like shopping (especially as a lot of the stuff is fake designer duds and accessories, and as I'm not exactly on holiday, it's not like I have the space or the cash to bring home an oriental rug!). We ended up wandering through until we were at the end where the locals shop - totally different experience. Strangely enough, there were loads of mannequin shops. It was super creepy, but I suppose answers that age-old question, "Where do store mannequins come from?"


Eventually we sat down for some lunch, and I pulled out the Kindle just to see what was up on email (Um, LOVE that thing by the by, thanks so much CMay!), and saw I had a note from the secretary of one of my dad's clients inviting us to dinner that evening with said client's nephews! You know when I mentioned we DIDN'T feel like shopping? Well we took off back to the Grand Bazaar like we were on fire, because now we DID need things! Bro needed a shirt, I needed jewelry - we were like crazy people running around! It was successful - Bro got a nice 'Ralph Lauren' button-down and I got some beautiful silver and turquoise jewelry. After that, we walked back to the hostel (took us ages, because we were lost now and couldn't figure the map out) and got ready for dinner. We weren't exactly sure where we were supposed to meet these folks, so the guy at our hostel spoke to one of our new friends on the phone and threw us in a cab. We assumed we were being taken where we needed to be, but we got dropped off in the middle of the city with no idea where we were. We were talking to Berat (one of our new friends), but he couldn't figure out where we were either! Eventually we had to hand the phone to some ancient Turkish guy on the street with a dodgy glass eye and have HIM tell Berat where to find us! Eventually Berat turned up in a taxi and took us to meet his cousin and two of their friends for dinner, miles away from where we were supposed to be! It was a lovely dinner (again, backpacking is rough, people) and everyone was so nice and spoke excellent English. They took us to a few bars afterwards and we had some drinks - it was a real treat of an evening!


The next day we got up to do the Blue Mosque (brilliant), the Aya Sofia museum (fab) and Topkapi Palace (EXCELLENT). I loved the palace - it's where the Sultans used to live and there are so many shiny sparkly things and places to recline! If I ever own a house, I will model the decor as such!


After all the sightseeing, we went back to the hostel and watched some, you guessed it, World Cup with our new roommates, Laura and Lissa from Kansas and Arizona respectively, and Wouter from Holland. One of the guys who worked at the hostel (Freddy - what a loon, no words can describe. Oh wait, yes they can...sleaziest Turkish dude you've ever met but love him anyway) was organizing a bar crawl so sometime around midnight we all hopped onto two buses and ended up in some crazy area with club after pub after bar. It was a nightmare trying to keep everyone together, but we had a great time dancing to the Turkish DJs' odd choice of music (ranging from "Lyrical Gangster" to "These Boots Were Made For Walking") and just absorbing the culture, I suppose! Everyone petered out around 3am and we somehow managed to explain to a taxi driver where we were going. Bro kept saying the name of the hostel in this funny Borat accent as if talking that way would help the driver understand, but we made it home, so who knows!


I proceeded to sleep from the majority of the next day (I think I just needed a rest in general!) and in the afternoon we went with Laura, Lissa and Wouter to the Turkish Baths. Here, again, is the TMI alert - more nakedness. We arrived and haggled the price, and after being handed a scrubby loofah thing each, the three ladies were led to the female section of the baths. We changed (into nothing) and went into the Hamam (the name of the actual bath). It's a beautiful room with marble and little sinks where you sit and pour pans of hot water over yourself. After a little bit, a topless lady came over and took my hand. She took me over to a huge marble slab in the middle of the room, where other naked ladies (not attractive ones, sorry fellas) were being scrubbed and cleaned. She had me lie down, and then disappeared for a minute, and came back with a bathing suit on (phew- wasn't sure I could handle nude on nude). Then she got to work with my scrubby thing - she exfoliated me to within an inch of my life, in every area of my body, getting dirt out I didn't even know was in there. Dang, I felt clean. Then she gave me a full body massage (I think with dishwashing liquid, but whatever), and took me over to the sinks to wash my hair and give me a head massage. Then she rinsed me off. It was AWESOME! I felt so clean, and it was kinda nice to just chill out naked - liberating, you know?Afterwards we were given huge warm towels to dry off with, and we went and sat outside the Hamam and had a girly chat for about half an hour before we dragged ourselves out to meet Wouter and Joseph, who had had an equally interesting experience on the men's side. We were all so Zen after that, but strangely energized as well, so we strolled around until we found some supper at a rooftop restaurant with gorgeous views of the Blue Mosque and the Bosphorus and then went back to hostel to smoke some hookah. I slept so well that night - delish.


The next day (this past Monday) we got up and found out that a few people were planning to take a boat to the Prince's Islands and go to the beach. It was a lovely sunny day, so we decided to join in. We set off with Laura, Lissa and three new friends, Christian from London and Maris and Jane from Estonia (the new loves of my life, all three). We found the ferry, paid $2 for the ride, and an hour and a half later arrived at an island that we still don't know the name of. We went looking for the beach, but from what we could see, it wasn't so much that people went to the beach as sat on grass next to the road and jumped into the water off the rocks. Hmm. We walked on, and learned from some locals that the sandy beach was the other side of the island, but would be an hour and a half to walk. As we contemplated this (it was already 3pm), we saw a guy with a horse and carriage by the side of the road... hmm again. Christian approached the guy as he speaks a bit of Turkish, and before we knew it we had haggled our way onto the carriage - all seven of us! The driver had to take a route to avoid the police as we were overloaded, and after a bit, dropped us off by a sign that said "Beach, this way". Brilliant! We jumped out, and merrily followed the sign until we came across this beach. Foiled again! It was really just concrete slabs with cushions that you had to PAY to sit on, and this band of backpackers wasn't parting with any of its precious cash for that. (We did nick some fruit off some trees though, to make up for it. Little green things called "Gregs." Really.)


Our carriage (ha!) was long gone, so we set off walking back to the grass and rocks situation, during which we were caught in a brief thunderstorm. No worries, we grabbed some food and after that Christian and Joe decided to go for a nice swim. They enjoyed it for about two seconds, until they realized they were swimming next to two giant sewage pipes - yum. Desperate for showers, we all hopped back on the ferry to the city. We decided to "go out" that night, so we walked approximately eight steps across the road from the hostel where we haggled a free hookah, chowed on some hummus, watched football and played card games. Delightful.

In the morning, we went back to the bazaar with Christian, Maris and Jane, but this time to see where they sell all sorts of animals. It was sensory overload with regard to cuteness - baby bunnies, puppies, kittens, little chicks...I about lost my mind. Then Christian and Bro killed the mood by attempting to have leeches suck on their arms- nasty. I would only go as far as holding an Iguana, and even then I squealed like a little girl. The rest of the day was pretty mellow, and in the evening we ventured more like 20 steps across the street for MORE free hookah, but also because a guy who worked at the bar was in love with Jane and would have done anything for her. In broken English he asked me to put in a good word for her, and concocted a master plan involving roses and things to hook her. He kept coming over to me to check on the progress. "These things take time, Hidar," I said, for 'twas his name, "Easy does it." Unfortunately I couldn't get Jane to come around, and poor Hidar (pronounced 'Hi there', sort of), was desolate when we moved onto a dance party at a bar that he'd managed to get opened only for us, as things close at 2am in the Sultanahmet area where we were.

The next morning, our last full day, Joseph and I went for a long walk to the military museum. It was, ya know, ok. War and whatnot isn't really my thing, but Bro was psyched to see a million guns and swords and things. We rushed back to say goodbye to Jane and Maris before they left for Olympos (another spot in Turkey), only to find out that instead of taking a bus, they were planning to hitch a ride in a van with two Brazilians they'd just met. OK, such is the backpacking life. It meant they were hanging around for a bit longer, so we spent most of the evening at the hostel bar until the Brazilians turned up to drive down to Olympos in, wait for it, AN OLD ROYAL MAIL VAN! (For the Americans, that's like if someone turned up in a USPS mail truck). It. Was. Amazing. They had bought it in England with a bed already installed in the back...crazy. I was SO jelly, I almost hopped right on in there!

After a somewhat teary goodbye to my new buds, Christian, Bro and I hung out on the roof terrace with our new friend Seana from South Africa (who Bro and I will hopefully see again in a few weeks). It was really hard to part ways in the morning when Bro and I left for Cairo. It's really the only, excuse me, shitty part about travelling - meeting all these fabulous people who eventually all have to move on to do what they do best. I do trust that we'll all meet again somehow, though, and of course we have the magic of the Internet. To my Istanbul friends: Laura, Lissa, Wouter - Stay fresh, stay clean. Jane, Maris, Christian - my heart will be in blood until I see you again.