I am sorry I have not written for awhile. My laptop crashed and in addition to losing all my log in information and thing saved on it as well as Internet access for a short time I have also been very busy this last week with school. I have been in the midst of a large role play interactive project in my history class and I have a midterm on Thursday.
To start off before I get into details I had a really great spring break and feel very fortunate that I was able to do as much I did. I spend the first half of Holiday in Istanbul Turkey and the second half in Dahab Egypt with about three quarters of a day in Cairo between my flight back from Istanbul and catching the bus to Dahab.
Istanbul was beautiful. I went there with my friend sheehan and other then a couple main tourist stops we did not have a formal plan for what we wanted to do. We primarily ate doners (A street vendor type sand which with chicken, lettuce and some other stuff that I am not sure what it was called) and bread off of guys selling it on the street. We where able to see the great Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia Museum, Istanbul's Museum of modern art, Galata tower, The Basilica Cistern and Asia. It rained for two days while we where there but we didn't mind much, it was a nice change from being in the desert.
My favorite site was the Basillica Cistern. It is a large opening under the city and is supported by large columns about every 16 feet. The entrance is just a small building on the side of the road and you descend stairs into the cistern and then are in this huge open room under the city. The buildings and roads above you, it had been hidden and unknown to anyone for a long time. It was made that much cooler by the two days of rain because while we where there the water crept through the roof and fell from the ceiling giving the Cistern a little bit of life. I posted some long exposure pictures of it because it was pretty low lit inside.
We also took the ferry from the European continent side of Istanbul across the Bosphorous Straits to The Asia Continent side. I actually made a video blog while we where on the ferry. (as well as when we where in the Cistern and at Galata tower but I regret to inform I lost them when my Laptop crashed)
We walked around the Asian side for a few hours not really knowing where we where going or what we where doing. We stumbled across a group of people singing and doing some kind of Turkish traditional dance so that was pretty cool. We bought some fruit for lunch at one point, found a Gelato ice cream place and of course indulged in that, how can you pass up ice cream? One of the more interesting stops was down by the waters edge where we came across a guy with several guns and balloons set up; we paid him a few Lira and he let us get our John Wayne on for a short bit. I must say, Sheehan looks pretty intimidating with a hand gun.
We flew back to Cairo the afternoon of the 31st and had the evening there to relax, do laundry and chill. The morning of the first we met up with our Friend Hans at the bus station around 7:00 am to catch the 8 hour bus to Dahab Egypt.
Dahab is a relaxed and nicer way to experience Egypt. There are still Egyptian aspects in Dahab but it is much more secular, more relaxed and the air is clean. It is located on the far side of the Sinai Peninsula on the bay of Aquaba (part of the Red Sea) from main Egypt. I snorkeled on the Coral reefs there everyday and it was amazing. One of the days I was there I took a day trip up to the blue hole and snorkeled there for a little while, then our group (Sheehan and Hans where not with for this) rode Camels north along the shore for about an hour to a Bedouin Village where we did more snorkeling and had a very good Bedouin lunch. I named my camel Steve, he was awesome. He liked to lead the group so we spent most of the time up in front. We where pretty much the tip of the spear.
Because of its location and overall level of awesomeness a lot of students from AUC ended up going to Dahab at the end of spring break. That being said the third evening Sheehan and Hans left me and headed to Amman Jordan. Although the people I went with left I was able to hang out with Rachael, Harmony, Chris and Brendon as well as a few others the last couple days. The 4Th I was there I actually did not stay in Dahab. Doing this trip again on my own, I boarded a bus in Dahab around 11pm and rode it for two hours into the Sinai mountains. Several check points later myself and the others aboard the bus arrived at St. Catherine's Monastery. After a short rest we began hiking around 1 am. After four hours of hiking and a 2.6 kilometer elevation change I found myself perched on top of Mt. Sinai watching the sun rise over the barren eastern mountains. I have to say that although it was freezing and exhausting, it was well worth it.
I rode the bus back to Dahab that morning and spent the day relaxing. Although I tried to keep the day pretty low activity level I did do some more snorkeling and free diving on the reef. At 10 pm Harmony and I took the over night bus back to Cairo. As I had pulled a very physically demanding all nighter the previous evening I slept pretty much the entire bus ride. Harmony was even nice enough to hold my passport so I didn't have to wake up at the check points.
Again I apologize it took me a week to write and I know that this does not do the trip justice in full. If you have an questions of comments message me! I figured out that I do have all of my photos from Egypt stored on two memory cards so at some point I will figure out a way to post my pictures from Dahab but all the videos are gone. I will be taking my laptop to the tech services people on campus tomorrow and maybe they can take the hard drive out and recover the information on it but I think its a long shot.
until next time, Phil
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