Cairo & Giza!!

We start June 18th with only about six hours worth of sleep. That makes my count for June 17-19 about 14 hours, but oh what an amazing time I had in those second two days. So many amazing sights have been checked off my bucket list!! Here is the record of the first day of touring Egypt.

First stop for the day is Cairo Citadel.

This is the citadel of Saladin. He built this fortress after ousting the Fatimid Caliphate from Misr. Misr is the Arabic word of Egypt and you see it everywhere in Cairo. Saladin built this citadel to secure his power and protect the city. It has a fine view of Cairo...

After building this citadel, Saladin went on to liberate virtually all of the holy land from the Crusaders, becoming one of the greatest historical Muslim heroes. He was highly respected, and feared, by his adversaries. Kaiser Wilhelm put it this way: "A Knight without fear or blame who often had to teach his opponents the right way to practice chivalry."

Inside the citadel is the famous Muhammad Ali Pasha...
It is also called the Alabaster Mosque because the entirety of the mosque's exterior and interior walls is either composed of or covered with this beautiful marble-like stone...Here are a few highlights of the mosques' inner walls.

The inner courtyard with the central fountain used by Muslims for washing prior to prayer...
Close up of the fountain itself...

Here is the inner prayer room...

Looking up at the dome...

Some ceiling calligraphy...

Two different pulpits for Friday prayers...

After the stop at the citadel we were off to Giza on the other side of the Nile. Giza is the location of the last existing ancient wonder included on the list of seven...

That's right...the pyramids!!! Biggest check on my bucket list. I am still not over my excitement!! That picture is of Khufu's/Cheop's Pyramid. It is first to be built and the largest of the three. It was completed around 2560BC. Let me let that sink in...

It has been standing for nearly 4600 years!! And tourists have been coming to see it for just as long ;) It was built after only about 20-25 years of work. Which is about how fast we would be able to do it today, by the way. Plus, recent discoveries have reveled that it was probably not built by slave labor, but by highly skilled engineers and stone masons. The other two pyramids were built by the son and grandson of Khufu. Both of there pyramids took around 30 years to build, and both are smaller. To top it all off, there is another pyramid built during the same period by another son of Khufu, Djdefre. It was at least as big as pyramid number three, but it was covered in polished granite (not limestone like the three I saw). So, of the three it was probably the most beautiful, and the first target for scavengers. So, in three generations, four pyramids were constructed. Here is pyramid number two, built by Kafre/Chepren, the second son to succeed Khufu. I got to go inside :D It was a claustrophobic, stuffy, & short experience, but it was fun.
And here they all are. From left to right: Khufu/Cheops, Khafre/Chephren, & Menkaure/Mykerinos.
A few of the traditional silly pictures were taken here, you can see one of them on my Facebook profile. Then it was time to travel to the other side of the pyramids for this...

The sphinx was pretty cool, but it doesn't take much time to see it and get your fill. So we moved on to a perfume shop. Sounds rather boring, but it turns out that the shop also has a little glass blowing workshop, so we had a little excitement right at the beginning. They were excellent showmen. "Egyptian hospitality," according to our salesmen/guide, means that we you get something to drink free of charge, and refusing is not allowed. Turns out to be the case in virtually every little shop you go to anywhere in Egypt. After ordering, our guide plunged into a full description of the Egyptian perfume business. Sounds a lot like making spirits, but it is flower juice and sap that the essence is extracted from. Apparently they have a near monopoly on these essences and they sell to virtually every expensive brand you have ever heard of.

From there, we went to a little shop where quality papyri are made. They use real papyrus and showed us how ancient paper was by the ancient Egyptians. First they cut off the outer skin and cut the insides into strips and roll them out...
Then they lay the strips out on one piece of fabric, cover it with another, and place it between the press.
Pretty simple, but some of the results are fantastic once they are painted.

We had an awesome lunch in an outdoor restaurant, then it was off to the Museum of Antiquities, no cameras :( So you will just have to imagine what it was like to gaze at the mask of Tutankhamen and the gold they collected from his tomb. It was very surreal to stare into the eyes of the mask that Howard Carter discovered after a 26 year search. It was also very strange to see the mummified remains of Thutmose III, Ramses II, Nefertiti, and Akhenaten. The museum was so big, and had so many things to see, that you would have to stay in that building as long or longer than you would have to stay in the Smithsonian.

After that we traveled to the oldest part of Cairo to see the Khan el-Khalili market. It has been used as a bazaar almost continuously since 1382.
It was big and crowded, and my feet hurt, so another student and I decided to sit with our guide and Professor Wing, sip Turkish coffee, and smoke shisha in the shadow of Al Azhar University, a seat of learning since 970.
It was altogether one of the most memorable days of my life!!

Where we are staying in Cairo

We arrived in Cairo around 10pm on June 17th. We had a little hiccup at customs, so we didn't get to the dorm until about 1am the next morning. As you can imagine, after a full day of traveling (we started at 4am) I was in no mood to take pictures. So here are a few photos from the next morning and some info about the place.
We are staying at the Zamalek Student Dorm. It is affiliated with the American University in Cairo. Zamalek is an island on the Nile where a number of embassies are located. It is radically different from France. The greater Cairo metropolitan area, which includes Giza, has population somewhere between 18-22 million people. It also has over six million cars on a road system made for around 250 thousand. Needless to say, the city is crowded!! Anyways, here is where we live...
The entry hall with a few of the flags of represented countries...

The dining hall...
Looking back down the hallway that leads to the men's dorm. Men and women are housed in complete separation. No one is allowed in the other residence hall of the other sex. Also, there is a security checkpoint at the front entrance that aside from watching out for us, checks for contraband in our baggage. Alcohol is on the list so it posed a problem for those in the class who bought French wine to save for graduation.
Here is the nice courtyard right outside the dining hall...

After these pictures were taken we were off to see a whole lot of Cairo in a single day!!

Boat Trip on the Bassin d'Arcachon

Thursday the 10th was a fun little day for us. We got done with class, had lunch, and then crammed onto a tour boat to have a look around the Bay of Arcachon. I haven't been fishing in far too long, and I so wished that I could toss a line in the water. Wrong kind of boat unfortunately. Here we are crammed onto the tour boat with some of our Russian friends.

The view of Arcachon Beach...
This picture is looking towards the Atlantic Ocean, but the Peninsula of Cape Ferret is in the way, and separates the bay from direct access to the ocean.
Aside from tourism, the main industry in Arcachon and the surrounding towns is the oyster farming. Vast fields of oysters are to be found all over the bay wherever the tide levels are right. They are marked by posts, barely visible at medium and high tide...
In the middle of the bay, is a unique island. It is called the L'île aux Oiseaux (birds island), because around ten thousand birds use it as a migratory stop. When they aren't there, these two raised houses are probably a very nice vacation spot.
The other side of the island, looking back towards Arcachon.
Here is a modern flatbed oyster boat used to work the fields.
As we worked our way down the Peninsula of Cape Ferret, we saw some of the poor fishing villages that rely on the oyster beds.
Here is a traditional French boat. It is called a pinnace. Apparently it was a very popular sailing vessel (you wouldn't know by this picture) from roughly the 17th to 19th centuries. It was primarily a coastal vessel, but it is fairly fast, even against the wind. So it was popular with smugglers and pirates.
Here is a little church that was also used as a mosque simultaneously. You can't really tell from this angle with the tree in the way, but the doorway has a very Spanish/Moorish style to it.
Here is the front side of the Dune de Pyla, if you remember it from one of my earlier postings.

That wrapped up our little afternoon. Three of us, myself included, got some ice cream and waited for Professor Wing to come back to the beach house and take us to the Lafayette Club. It is a French American friendship club. They all spoke English, some very fluently. Professor Wing, her son (because one of the law students originally slated was sick), myself, Brian, and Amy Hirst, gave short presentations on different parts of the Obama administration and what Americans think of him. I presented from the conservative side, showing them that there are those of us who distrust all American politics. I actually had several people come up and say how refreshing that was and that distrust and anger over politics between parties is something that we all share. So dad, you can tell uncle Jerome not to worry.

Bologna

After a good long sleep, and an all you could eat continental breakfast, we all set off for a morning in Bologna. We divided up again. Brian and I were headed to off to see the sights, while the ladies went off to do some shopping. The only plan was to catch the Ryanair flight out of Bologna at 3:40.

Yet again, a big church is there to great your adventure in an Italian city...

Bologna itself isn't as packed with things to see as the last two Italian cities I was in. The city does, however, have the unique honor of being the home to the oldest continually operating center of higher education in the world. As this seal says, the University of Bologna has been operating since 1088. It has less than 80 years to go before it is 1000 years old.

We took a little peak in here, just for you dad :)

Most of the University's campus straddles the Via Zamboni. The buildings are clearly old and there is a lot of character on the University campus, both its people and its history. I took this picture just for the benefit of those friends of mine which also suffer from hockey madness.

Here are a few random photos from the city just to give you an idea of what it was like to walk through Bologna.



Here is my picture of the "Two Towers" of Bologna. Both of them are leaning fairly significantly. The buildings in the foreground should give you a good reference point.

Here are two pictures of the San Petronio Basilica. I know it looks unassuming in these two pictures, at least in its appearance. You can even see the unfinished front facade. If you haven't noticed already, take at the size of this church. It is huge, especially when you look at all the surrounding buildings. San Petronio is the fifth largest church in the world.


Here is the other famous sight at the center of town. The Fountain of Neptune in Bologna. It's fairly scandalous. Neptune is pointing with one hand and apparently from a certain angle on the other side of the fountain, it doesn't look like his finger. Alas, the sun was at that angle and I was unable to capture the image. Oh well, you can still see the naked mermaids at the base, each of which have two spouts. That's right two. As I said, scandalous.


So after this brief morning in Bologna, I walked through this little park, jumped on a bus and went to the airport. I was home by 9pm. It was a crazy weekend in Italy.