Today, after many weeks of making little effort to see the few sights Alexandria has to offer, a few of us ventured out to Kom Ashuqafa to see the Roman catacombs (discovered, incidentally, by a donkey which fell through the land above into them) which were built in the second century AD. The landmark is located in one of the poorest areas of Alexandria, and perhaps the poorest area of Egypt I have seen thus far. A glance up any of the side streets running off the main roads shows the Egypt most tourists would not see, an Egypt a world away from that of Sharm or Zamalek or Luxor. The people, however, are extremely friendly. Literally every child I saw on the street gave me a grin and a welcoming "Ha-lo" and the men sat in the ahwas (cafes) smoking waved and gave us an ever comforting "Welcome in Egypt". We arrived and having paid the Egyptian Student entry price (25 times less than the full adult tourist fare) we descended into the catacombs, which were pleasantly fairly free of tourists, and worked our way through the chambers in true Indiana Jones style. Sadly no pictures were allowed but if you click here you should see some along with more info. The main tomb featured in the picture is really spectacular and has a weird mix of Greco-Roman and Pharonic Egyptian decoration that I think you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
After our underground adventure we thought we'd head to Pompey's Pillar, another touristy monumenty style site close by. Buoyed by our earlier success at getting Egyptian prices, we asked to be charged the same rate to see the pillar, at which the woman behind the desk balked and pointed out that we weren't Egyptian and would therefore have to pay 15LE as oppose to 1LE. Angrily we left, knowing that there must be another vantage point to see said pillar, which really is just a bloody tall, well, pillar. We wondered up the hill to see what we could find, unaware of the adventure awaiting us. In order to protect there precious pillar the authorities have built fairly high walls around it, making seeing it without paying annoyingly difficult, however after our encounter with unfriendly Coptic lady we were fairly determined. As we reached the top of the hill a kind group of locals offered us the roof of their one room house as a vantage point, which we happily agreed to. Sadly, as you can see from the photo below, the view of the pillar was still fairly obscured by the annoyingly high wall probably built by the hands of the annoyingly stubborn woman who tried to charge the extortionate tourist price.
Tomayn (2 Toms) on aforementioned roofAfter our brief and unsuccessful excursion onto the roof we descended to find something of a small crowd gathered around the house. Various people had understood what we were trying to do and pointed us in the direction of a nearby apartment building so we, determined as ever, made our way to the bottom of the stairs being followed by an ever growing crowd of locals. As we went up the stairs and through the building, women and children seemed to be coming out of the walls and forming a hive surrounding us laughing and shouting.
One of the smaller children showing us their buildingThe situation was both terrifying and fascinating - the people were curious and delighted to see us in their building and were so proud that we were going to see the pillar from their building. By the time we reached the second floor of the most colourful and social housing building I've seen in Egypt, everyone in the building was either in the crowd surrounding us or looking on from their doorways.
Tom with his new best friendsMy words cannot really do the ensuing 10 mins of chanting and singing and dancing justice, I hope the video gives a glimpse of the wonderful and yet ridiculous scene!
Tom led the crowd in the chanting and dancing and even at one stage had his name chanted by the hundred or so children surrounding and amongst us. For just that short time everyone seemed so happy. I can't think of a time when I've laughed so much for such a long time, it was just one of those moments that no-one can plan nor predict nor expect, and more than once on our way leaving the building we were thankful for the stubborn lady at Pompey's Pillar. How often things turn out to be blessings in disguise. We did get a look at the pillar - a view far better than any from the ground - but the day was no longer about sightseeing; what we had experienced in the poorest of buildings will for a long time be the richest of memories.
Back from Dahab after a long and uncomfortable journey on a minibus with a shouty policeman and a driver who had never been to and had no idea where Alex was. 9 hours of unadulterated fun. Once again I feel I must apologise for the lack of photos. I'm all too aware that I'm getting textually heavy and after some criticism about my style (mainly from my own dearest mother) I would have liked to break up the blog with some nice visuals but the internet is still lacking here and, in fairness, I've not taken too many pictures of late. There's always room for improvement!
Back into university on Monday I got my results from the mid-term exams I sat before my oh-so-strenuous week on the Red Sea. I'm very pleased and have been moved up a level, although I'm not too sure what this means as quite a few of us have moved up and most of the group above has moved down: along with many other things Egypt may need to work on it's concept of streaming. Tomorrow will be my first day in my new(ish) class, so I'll have more idea about what the new level is going to involve and maybe, just maybe, I'll let y'all know in the next week or so.
Last night I started back at training and was somewhat rusty, once again I'm blaming Dahab. No matter, I'm in the team to play in Cairo on Friday. Prayer would be much appreciated!
In other news, my housemate Tom and I have decided to solve the problems we've been having with the flat (see earlier posts re: irate neighbour, floods and droughts) by moving out. Alas to where we do not yet know, but there are some enormously helpful people looking around for us and hopefully we'll be sorted before the end of the week, although this may be an optimistic estimate. Really we'd just like to live somewhere that works, as although what we're paying here is cheap by UK standards, it certainly isn't by Egyptian standards. I wouldn't mind this if we had everything functioning as it should, but after a visit to one of the Germans very swish pad for a party last week I reckon we could do much better for the money! هنشوف - We'll see!
More soon - providing I still have both arms intact after Friday and am thus still able to type - hopefully avec photos.
توم xxx
NB. For the Arabic speaking literati amongst you, you may have noticed that after much pressure and yet more chastisement I have replaced the apparently offensive "توم في المصر " with "توم في مصر ". Yes I knew it was there it's just taken a while to get around to changing it. Tsk, there's no pleasing some people!
Thursday afternoon saw the end of our first real set of exams, which passed without event. Seeing as we had a whopping 10 day break, a group of 8 (it's always 8, but never the same 8) decided the destination of our next jaunt would be the hippy backpacker town of Dahab on the eastern coast of Sinai, and 'tis from there that I write the latest update to the TomInEgypt saga.
10 hours overnight on the bus here wasn't the most fun you can have but I seem to have developed an excellent ability to fall asleep anywhere I'm sat for longer than about 20mins or so, so the journey was all too easy. This is actually the second time I've been to Dahab, I was here the summer before I started Uni for a day with Michael my godfather (MichaelInPakistan.blogspot.com) and my memory of Dahab is a little hazy but I'm fairly sure that it's quite a lot more developed than it was 2 years ago. It's fairly touristy here, but unlike Sharm, it still manages to retain some of it's small-town charm. The views over the sea to Saudi are amazing, and it's enormously relaxing to watch the sunset (or sunrise if you're still up from the night before ;) over Sinai sat by the Red Sea with a sheesha and a beer. It's also really nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Alex and to not really have anything to do apart from sit on a beach or go snorkeling, which is really unbelievable here. I'm fairly easily pleased when it comes to snorkeling - if I see a fish I'm happy. But here the colours and the movement and the shapes and the sizes....unreal, an absolute wonder of creation. I don't think I could ever get tired of swimming over the drop-off and seeing a new world open up underneath you.
Sadly, my living the high life on the Red Sea Riviera has once again cost me my place in the Alexandria rugby team for the game in Cairo on Friday, although I have my sights set on the return in Alex in a couple of weeks. We watched the big match last night in a bar shaped like a boat with a name that means something very rude in Mexican Spanish, and I have to say "we was robbed". Even the American girls we were watching with knew that it was a try. What a travesty. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday we're off to Mount Sinai and St.Catherine's monastery, which is something I'm very much looking forward to. For now though, I'm off for the aforementioned sheesha and a beer although it looks like I've missed sunset. Adios amigos I hope the weather back home isn't too depressingly wet and rainy, life the 30 degree heat here is tough, but someone has to be here.
txx
So, after some chastisement regarding the infrequent of late nature of my postings, I have returned to the fold of TomInEgypt.blogspot.com to bring a clearly long-awaited update to how things are going.
Looking back at my last post rugby seemed to be something of a leitmotiv, so an update on the progress of my late blossoming career may be appropriate. After two very different training sessions last week (the first of which I was somewhat shown up by the first team backs, the second of which I displayed a much improved passing game and was fairly comfortable on the ball) I was selected for the squad to play vs.Cairo on Friday! With the delight of being selected came the frustration of having to tell the coach I couldn't play because I'd already booked to go to Cairo that weekend as I wasn't really anticipating the call up. Anyway, I was selected and can now wear my Alexandria Rugby Club shirt with pride. Oh, and we beat Cairo :D
Since my 3 1/2 weeks update I've also spent two weekends in Cairo, both of which have been hugely enjoyable and very interesting. In Egypt there is a general consensus that Alex is like Cairo's calmer, more beautiful little sister, and over the last two weekends I think I've come to agree. It's very hard to explain or even describe how crazy a place Cairo is. I can't think of anywhere I've been that's so, well, chaotic. Chaotic and yet, in places, totally amazing and breathtaking. The contrast between the mad crowds of Khan el-Khalili and Al-Azhar mosque only across the road couldn't be more stark.
*later addition* Also forgot to mention the defining moment of my second tour of duty in Cairo: the McChicken Sandwich that poleaxed me on the train home. After a fairly big and entirely surreal house party with a bunch of "hipster" Americans, I dared a visit to the golden arches in the morning to give me the extra energy needed to see me through the 2 1/2 hour journey north. Little did I know that the very same sandwich would strike me down en route home and rule me out of Uni for a day, vomiting on the train was amongst the least enjoyable of my experiences over the entire five weeks, and it's going to take much rehabilitation and considerable time before I once again am able to trust Ronald.
In other news we've had various rows with the police captain neighbour about the legality/appropriacy of us having females in the flat. At the moment it's looking illegal/inappropriate so we're keeping a low profile, although this is one of several irritating inconsistencies in Egyptian society and is an issue that will be raised again in the future when I'm feeling more eloquent or when I learn how to say "stop being so bloody unreasonable".
All in all an action packed few weeks, this weekend is Eid al-Fitr (Little Eid) which should be fun and hopefully (inshallah) we're off to a nice beach town about 300km west of Alex for Sunday and Monday before our midterm exams next week. I hereby solemnly swear to update more regularly, sorry mum!
Love to all,
Tom xxx
Maybe I've said this before, but it feels like I've been in Alex for ever! One full week of Uni has flown by, and I've been hugely impressed with the teaching here, if less than enamored with 09.00 starts every day. The schedule also feels fairly intensive at times, but I've already noticed an improvement in my rusty Arabic which has been almost untouched since I finished in Manchester in May. Whilst I'm fairly sure I could/should have done better on the placement exam, the class I'm in is great and I've even been able to bust out some of my creaking German chatting to my colleagues from Bremen.
Aside from my Arabic fun, I was also invited to - wait for it, laugh at your own peril - the University rugby training, along with Big Tom, my housemate in Egypt. Whilst my rugby experience is limited, as are my fitness and physique, I put in an enthusiastic performance in what was a fairly chaotic game of touch rugby. Only in Egypt can you play touch rugby with 25 a-side. There are two more training sessions this week for me to prove myself as the devastating outside centre I could so easily be, before the big game vs. Cairo on Friday. I do feel that I have a slight advantage in that most of the team is fasting for Ramadan, making them somewhat more sluggish than usual, thus allowing me to fully exploit my lightning turn of speed. I'll let you know if I make the team/squad, there will be pictures if I play my first game a game in the oldest stadium in Africa! Prestigious eh?!
Much of the rest of my time has been spent at the illustrious Portuguese Club, which is a somewhat seedy ex-pat bar near in a villa near the British Consulate. Good fun though, they have cheap beer, pool and it seems to be the only place in Egypt showing any of the Rugby World Cup, which means for the next few weeks it's going to be a winner!
After starting Uni on Monday, we were hit with a fantastically difficult "placement" exam on Wednesday, which left us with a long weekend from Thursday to Sunday, and an ideal opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and head somewhere more exotic: Siwa Oasis.
Siwa Old Town
The Desert Rose by day
Sunset in the Western Desert
Due to it's fairly remote location in Egypt's Western Desert (the first tarmacked road to Siwa was built in the 80's) the views of the stars after sunset are simply stunning. From both the hotel roof terrace and the desert, we sat for hours gazing at the myriad of stars that I've never seen shining so clear and bright. So many stars, in fact, that finding constellations proved difficult. Spotting shooting stars became popular, if a little competitive from some members of the group (no names mentioned :P ) and the Milky Way stretched right across the sky.
Perhaps equally due to the remoteness of the town, the Siwan people are amongst the most hospitable I've met here in Egypt. From Muhammad, the man who helped us find our hotel, to Ali, the hotel manager who saw to our every need re: accommodation and food, to Mahmood, Hassan and Nasser, our guides in the desert, without exception we were welcomed sincerely to Siwa. Shop owners, who in Cairo or Alex or anywhere else in Egypt would fast lose interest if you didn't buy their wares, were more than happy just to sit and chat and make you a traditional Siwan tea.
All in all, an awesome weekend and I can't wait to get back to Siwa, although I don't think it will ever be quite the same somehow. There are many more stories to be told, most poignant of which regarding "Timmy", but alas these will have to wait. Many thanks to all who came, it wouldn't have been the same without you.
Keep me informed of what's going on back home and wherever you are in the world!
Tx
PS. Answers on a postcard regarding the title ;)
Wow, I can't believe that it's only been a week since I arrived in Alex, many apologies for a lack of communication - I really didn't want to post without being able to put up a few pics of here and Cairo and the internet has been fairly scarce thus far (at the moment I'm stealing some bandwidth from some unsuspecting neighbour). There are really too many stories to tell, so I'll just give a brief idea of things here and then hopefully in future posts I can embellish more on various experiences.
Alexandria Library
Me and the legendary Roushdy girls in Cairo
My room in the Gabarti Street Penthouse, overlooking the Saudi Consulate
Following are a few initial impressions and difficulties I have found in Egypt:
1) Taxi drivers. Where to start? Driving here is absolute madness, when we arrived in Cairo our driver somehow managed to stack all our bags onto the roof and then "secured" them with a something he insisted was rope, but believe me there was nothing secure about the whole affair. Up here in Alex another common problem is that no taxi driver seems to have the faintest idea where he's going, but they won't let you know that until you're in the car and halfway to your intended destination. This is immensely frustrating and takes a lot of time trying to direct people who've lived in a city for 20 or more years round somewhere you've been for about 20 minutes. The other night I also had a somewhat bizarre experience (attention John P) when, after a night at a bar called the Portuguese Club, I jumped in a taxi on my own and subsequently had my leg stroked by the taxi driver whilst he said "Anta hilw awee" - literally translated as "You're very sweet". I made me digust clear. Finally, they all seem out to rip you off (a general problem over here) with people thinking you'll be happy to pay three or four times the going rate just because you're white and you're Arabic is shaky, which brings me onto point no2:
2) Egyptian Arabic. Having studied Arabic at uni for two years now, I would hope that I could have a fair conversation with your standard Egyptian, and make myself fairly well understood. Not so. For those of you not au fait with the nuances of the Arabic language, what is generally taught in UK universities is Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which genuinely bears almost no resemblance to what is spoken by everyone here in Egypt. The last week has been a steep learning curve in this new colloquial language, and I feel I still have a long way to go, although listening to someone speak in MSA today and understanding nearly everything gave me some encouragement. All in all, an amazing first week and I feel very at home here already.
That's all for now, hopefully I'll post soon if I can get back on this person's wireless. Let me know how everyone is and what's going on, my email is thomas.trewinnard@student.manchester.ac.uk, or you can use the ol' Comment function.
Tx
NB. Photos currently taking an age to upload, more to follow, these just prove I'm actually here and not hiding somewhere in the UK.
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