De-nile...

So we went on a boat ride on the Nile.... and this is it. Yea.

A little more Egypt

a mosque in downtown cairo

jenny and mischa infront of our hostel

the taxi ride from Taba to Cairo

eating something fried in a pita.

turns out fitting five people into a cab isn't as hard as you might think.

one more pyramid picture

the appropriate dress we were given to enter the mosque

Gimme an I!

I- Irresponsibility. Although ostensibly this could be referring to not booking a hostel in advance, showing up in Istanbul, finding out it was the weekend of a music festival, calling every hostel we could find, being turned down from all of them, debating sleeping in a park, and finally following some random men who "had a place to stay" to a really beautiful unlisted hostel, it isn’t. No no. What, my dear friends, I am actually referring to is much more dangerous. Dessert. Turkish delight, turkish chocolate, turkish coffee, bachlavah, "Barack"lava (chocolate bachlavah)... and.... two desserts which have been anthropomorphized to something resembling a best friend and a first child, respectively. #1: The Waffle a.k.a my new BFF. Unlike a child, the waffle gives you an incredible amount of  choice: spread (white chocolate, regular chocolate, dark chocolate, nutella, hazelnut spread...), fruit (kiwi, strawberry, banana, candied oranges....), and additional toppings (almonds, candied walnuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts....). You just point and somehow end up with pure happiness grasped between your hands.  #2: Raspberry Chocolate Thing: This was much more dangerous because it was across the street from our hostel. Think a chocolate shell tube thing filled with chocolate mousse, cake, and dark chocolate, topped with raspberries. Unconditional love. 

 

S- Sultanamet. This is the place where we stayed. It’s a pretty touristy area, but the Aya Sophia, Blue Mosque and Palace were all within walking distance. I felt a little like I was living in Narnia with all the turrets and castles all over the place. It’s a pretty big shock after the Jerusalem stone. It also always smelt like  fall because there were these little carts all over the place selling roasted chestnuts and corn on the cob (which, as I found out, sound way better than they actually are).

 

T-Taxim. The major party area of Istanbul. We went here to watch the big soccer game. It was pretty funny. I have never seen so many grown men so intent on anything, and I live in walking distance from the kotel.

 

A- a millionaire.  Kim has friends studying in Istanbul. They have a friend who goes to this restaurant a lot. Somehow this friend made friends with the owner (who apparently is a millionaire and owns a bunch of really nice clubs in Istanbul/is likely in the mafia) a couple years ago and now has basically free reign of the place. We just showed up at this place and all of a sudden someone was bringing out a fruit plate and hooka and dinner and hot chocolate and tea. All for free. Just because we were friends of friends of this guys friend. Now that’s Turkish hospitality for ya.

 

N-national junior cycling champion of iran. We met him. One day, we walked out our front door and couldn’t cross the street because there were barricades and bikes all over the place. Turns out it was the Istanbul stage of the Tour of Turkey (the poor man’s version of the Tour de France). We stayed and watched for awhile. It was pretty cool. They were doing about 10 minute loops so we got to see a bunch. And we were trying to pronounce the name of the race in Turkish and they guy next to us, first laughed, then told us how to say it and we started talking and turns out he is the junior cycling champion of iran trying to make it big in turkey. what did you do today?

 

B-Bikes. This is defiantly one of the highlights of the trip. We took the ferry to one of the islands off the coast and it was beautiful. We rented bikes and road around the island in the sun and found this little tiny beach and went wading and had a rock skipping contest with some Argentineans we met on the ride. It really was one of the most beautiful places (and men) I have ever seen.

U-underwhelmed. By the Grand Bizarre. Maybe it was just some weird manifestation of Jerusalem pride, but our market is way cooler. Smaller, yes. Less English, yes. But when you pick something up and then pretend to walk away because its too expensive, they call you back. Not in Istanbul. They just let you go man. Also Kim got food poisoning and threw up in there. Definitely bizarre.

L-landing in Israel. I don’t think I have ever been as freaked out as I was when I first landed here in January. And now it feels kinda like coming home. I never thought I would be so happy to hear someone choking angrily in my general direction (aka speaking Hebrew).

 

 

Also. My new address is

13 Nisim Behar, Nachlaot, Jerusalem, Israel 94509

 

Love

P.S. I can't believe I almost forgot this but we went to a Turkish bath. I'm not exactly sure who is reading this blog anymore, so I'm not really sure how much detail I want to go into but lets just say that a huge half-naked Turkish women slapped my butt, and leave it at that.

TURKEY

walking by the water.

drinking chai tea on the roof of our hostel 

the Aya Sophia: a church built by Constantine that later was transformed into a mosque.

washing up after the call to prayer

beach on Prince's Island.

Are you looking for a nice Egyptian husband?

that face pretty much says it all

we walked in here and asked for a menu. They looked at us like we were crazy and proceeded to plop five of these bowls down in front of us.  best decision i never made. seventy five cents for lentils chick peas pasta fried onions tomato sauce.... 

cool right?

little cheesy right?

sufi dancing!!!!

I would just like to preface this by saying that this might not make much sense. i was there and i'm still trying to figure out what exactly happened. 

so after midterms on thursday, we all ran home, packed, and jumped on the bus to eliat. Eliat is a town in the far far south of Israel and is somewhat comparable to Las Vegas. We stayed there for a night in order to catch the bus to Cairo in the morning. We woke up at about 5 and took a cab to the egypt border. we waited in line for about an hour while we got all the necessary stamps and visas and what not. Then we walked across the border and to the bus station. We found out that the only bus left at about 10 and it was currently 6. The bus also takes about 3 hours more than a taxi. So we took a taxi. After a 7 hour cab ride crammed into the back of a sixteen passenger van with a bunch of men we picked up on the side of the road because their taxi broke down, we made it to cairo. The driver dropped us off at the central bus station and drove off. we figured our hostel was in the middle of town with all the other hostels and spent about and hour wandering around looking for it. eventually we came to realize it was in an entirely different part of town all together and we decided to take a cab. after flagging down a taxi and hopping in and managing to communicate the address to him, the cab driver drives off.... to some coffee shop. where he proceeds to go in and ask the owner where the address we gave him is. at this point, Mischa got out of the cab and went in, and they managed to find it on google maps. 

so- we made it to our hostel. called Arabian Nights. classy. anyway- they were so nice. there was a rooftop balcony and they brought us tea and breakfast and moved us around until they found us all rooms together and helped us figure out places to go and come and hung out with us when they weren't working. one girl even walked us down town. it was so nice. I can't do them justice, but we really really lucked out. and we were in the middle of islamic cairo so we got a much more down and dirty experience than the other hostels. it ended up being really nice.

the same day we got there, we went to the market. it was so cool. kinda like the markets in israel, but in arabic. i can't count the number of times someone said to me, "are you looking for a nice egyptian husband." or "i will make you a special price because you are so beautiful." It was especailly funny becasue it was four of us girls with Mischa. Men kept saying, "ah- how lucky to have four wives." or "you have four, can I have one? how do i be like you?" The best response i heard him come up with was "I actually have six, two are at home sleeping." It was pretty silly. At one point, someone offered 200 egyptian pounds for me. needless to say, I'm glad we had a guy along on our trip. but honestly, once you got past all the surface stuff, people were incredibly nice and willing to talk with you. we met tons and tons of really interesting and kind people. 

the next day we got up really really early and went to the pyramids. I still can hardly believe I was there. They were SO HUGE! i'm starting to understand why people claim that they were made by aliens. anyway. we hiked around and climbed inside the great pyramid and rode camels and it was really really amazing. all the little egyptian girls who were walking around kept wanting to touch us and saying "welcome, welcome". there isn't really much to say about the pyramids except wow. also we saw the sphinx- really cool. really really cool. that same day we also walked around and explored downtown and the coptic churches near by. we also got invited into a beautiful mosque as the sun was setting. 

AND THAT NIGHT- we went and saw Sufi dancing. I think this was maybe the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Sufism is a branch of islam and they do these really amazing dances. Usually you aren't allowed to see but there was one sect which lets you watch. It was so beautiful. You walk into this beautiful mosque and these men come out all dressed in white, playing different instruments and dancing. They were amazing. There were a couple drummers and a guy who played the finger symbols and all sorts of weird instruments. and they were so happy. before they even started they were sending these little mischievous glances at eachother and as they were performing, kept breaking out into these HUGE smiles. it was so cool. my favorite guy looked all super serious at first but at the end was just grinning like a little kid. it was amazing. AND THEN. these guys came out and started spinning. for like 30 minutes straight. it was really unbelievable. and they have these beautiful skirts which they do all these amazing things with. it was just so beautiful. and it is this really special religious experience for them. it was just really really incredible. 

the next day we went to Alexandria. it was an absolutely beautiful city. on the water, really colorful neighborhoods. we took this wild break neck cab ride through the city. i can't believe we didn't hit anyone flying through these packed side streets listening to crazy music at top volume. there are no road rules here. there aren't even lines on most of the roads. and in order to cross the streets you just have to run. but there is never really a break in traffic, so you really just have to run across and hope that no one hits you. and no one does. but its really scary. REALLY scary. anyway- alexandria was really cool. we went and climbed around in some tombs and then we went to this really beautiful citadel overlooking the ocean. we also stopped and had lunch at the fish market. it is this really fancy restaurant where you go and look over the sea and pick the fresh fish that you want to eat- 10$. it was great. we also went and saw the library. Obviously it wasn't the old library but it was still amazingly beautiful. one of those places that you could just walk around for hours. the only bad thing about alexandria was the stares. if we stuck out in cairo, we REALLY stuck out in alexandria. every single person we walked passed would either start giggling or give us a really dirty look. mostly just giggling. we were defiantly the only women without head scarves and also the only women with bare ankles. i never realized before what it felt like to be so alienated. i can't imagine what it would be like to be in a position like that every day. it was really lucky we had Mischa along because he was really good about keeping our spirits up and making me really think about why it bothered me so much. it really does make you feel ashamed to be stared at like that. anyway- we took the train home and collapsed into bed. 

the last day we went to the nile and to the egyptian museum. it was so fun. the museum is unbelievable. there are just rooms upon rooms of old egyptian sarcophaguses and these beautiful necklaces and sculptures. there is so much stuff there. its like a giant warehouse where they just threw all this incredible stuff that they keep unearthing. its actually kinda a shame that they don't leave the stuff where they found it, because when it is all grouped together like that, it makes it really hard to appreciate how amazing each individual thing is. while we were there we saw the mummies. so cool. they actually look like people. its incredible. we also saw mummified animals, including a fifteen foot mummified crocodile that they used to keep as a pet. i mean come on. 

after the museum we went to the nile. we paid two pounds (less than fifty cents) to go on a boat ride down the nile. it was pretty silly. there were all these teenagers who were belly dancing and laughing and throwing things. it really confused me more than anything. then we went up to a nice hotel by the nile and sat out on their balcony and looked over the river during sunset. it was amazing. 

the trip home was a little hectic. we actually had to run across the border and caught our bus back to jerusalem by literally one minute. but we made it all in one piece. 

i just got back from seder at jess's cousin's house. they live in modain which is a little town about forty five minutes outside of jerusalem. it was really nice. we all sat around and read out of the torah and talked about what everything meant. they have a son who was really really cute (5) but didn't speak any english so we had to talk to him in hebrew- really good practice. they also had a son and a daughter who were our age, and in the army. it was really interesting talking to them. today we went for a walk in the park. it was just really relaxing after all the smog and excitement of egypt. 

tomorrow we are leaving for turkey. i was really hoping that i could write this while i washed my laundry but everything is closed for passover, so i guess i am going to turkey with a little bit of egypt with me. 

hope you are all well. sorry this post was a little discombobulated. i am exhausted. i love you and miss you a ton!

Nile, Alexandria, Pyramids

April Fools

I almost forgot the best part of my day.

In Hebrew class we had to act out the passover story. Being in Hebrew is really a little like being in first grade again. We even sang passover songs today and my old roommate volunteered for a solo in front of like sixty people- the only volunteer- and she nailed it in this crazy opera voice. who knew? anyway...I was Moshe's dad who doesn't really do much (because maybe isn't even in the actual story) but say MA?MA? LAMA? (what? what? why?) to the mom who dumps him in the river. We all acted out our parts and when we got to the end, the jewish slaves who were supposed to go with Moses decided to stay with Pharaoh. APRIL FOOLS. People laughed, I was confused. 

I hope your april fool's day managed to measure up... doubtful.

This weekend was the Israel-Greece soccer game. It was pretty fun. The main cheer was just "IS RA EL WAR". They don't really tip-toe around stuff here. 

Besides the soccer game I have just been taking midterms and doing work. And running around Tel Aviv trying to get our visa stuff sorted out. Apparently there is only ONE Egyptian consulate in Israel (in Tel Aviv) and it is only open from nine to eleven in the morning. Obviously they are pretty eager to have Israelis come to Egypt. 

Also the picture that isn't of soccer is of a shabbat dinner we had awhile ago. I'm a little afraid of coming home and actually having to work on the weekends.

I will write more when I get back from Egypt and Turkey but right now it is just life as usual (in Jerusalem). Miss you all!