Stockholm quickly became one of my favorite cities in the world. It's got the perfect mix of lively activity, clean air, and active citizens. People walk or bike nearly everywhere, and there are lots of cute shops, delicious restaurants, and fun sites. It's a bit less expensive than Norway, but can still be fairly pricey. The city spreads over about 14 islands and the buildings are as cute as can be. Despite being a fairly big city (around 2 million including the suburbs) the town has lots of green areas close by.
Spent the first day exploring with the wimmers and then drove up to their friend's house in Uppsala. Picked arman up from the airport the next day and then drove to their cabin on an island on the baltic sea. spent a wonderful midsummers eating strawberry cake, listening to traditional music, and watching kids play many traditional races. The kids were dressed to a t, and seemed to have been taken straight out of a polo/ralph lauren magazine. We also all danced around the maypole and sang songs....hands down it was one of the best holiday celebrations yet....everyone was smiling and laughing and having a blast. That night we had a traditional midsummer's meal, including herring and aquavit. The wimmers supplied us with wonderful french wines, so the meals were five course meals including the drinks;) champagne to start, a shot of aquavit, a glass of wine, a glass of belgium beer, followed by some brandy at the end. not too shabby;) Took a ride on the sailboat one day, as well as the little two-person sailboat. Went swimming in the freezing water (18c or thereabouts). also went fishing for herring...although I seemed to have brought the bad luck as we only caught about 6 and they claimed they usually grab a bucketful in under 30 min. went back to stockholm and explored the city more with arman. went to see the vasa ship, which sank 30 min into its maiden voyage due to being top heavy. an absolutely stunning ship though. so many detailed wood carvings and detailed work went into it.
Headed for two days over to vasa, finland to try to trace my grandma's family down. Didn't get too far as we think my great grandpa may have changed his name when coming to the states...we found a karl oskar nordberg who was born just 11 days earlier, but he had only sisters compared to my great grandpa's 7 brothers and only one sister. anyhoo, vasa was a rather dull town with common shops and not much to do. met an amazing bartender the first day at the hotel though, who brought us to vora, a geneological place that had lots of information. finland was quite different from norway and sweden as most people did not speak much english. they also tended to look much more russian. the swedes and norweigans have perfect english with hardly any accent, which they say they get from watching tv with subtitles. they are also the most beautiful people i have ever seen.
have been back in stockholm the last few days and have been enjoying the time strolling through the city, doing some shopping and snapping pictures. looking forward to being back in the states shortly!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Norway
Flew from Iran to Stockholm and then Oslo, which was an adventurous day. Topped it off by meeting my aunt and mom, who had managed to nearly lose a passport twice that day (all the while it was somewhere on the body). Finally we arrived in Oslo, after much hysteria. A nice Norweigan man offered to drive us to our hotel and he gave us a brief tour of Oslo on the way. It's a cute little city, much like Minneapolis. Laid back and quiet but very cute. Spent the next day wandering around the city-it is ridiculously expensive. The city bus cost $8 per person one way! We went out to dinner at a "nice, inexpensive" italian restaurant...one personal pizza, a pasta, and a caraf of wine later, and it cost us $100. Went to see a few viking ships, which were pretty cool. Spent the rest of the day walking around town and shopping. On the bus ride we saw a bunch of young norweigan school children who were as cute as could be...all blond hair and blue eyes which was quite a contrast to Iran;) The next day we took a train ride out and saw the beautiful norweigan countryside....rocky, very green with trees everywhere and in the middle of the country we past by a region with a few feet of snow everywhere and not a thing in sight. Got of in flam and took a very scenic little train through the valleys and by some amazing waterfalls. Then boarded a boat and rode through the fjords to our hotel...in the middle of nowhere on a fjord with stunning views.
The next day we went to see a glacier and enjoyed some more boating expeditions on the fjords. Talked to some kids working at the hotel and found out that they were mostly austrians, as Norweigans only work an average of 6 hours a day, and they expect too much pay. The Scandinavian countries serve amazing buffet breakfasts with a huge variety of food. Everything from fresh breads, cheese, meats, fruits, eggs, meat, fish, pancakes and sometimes even espresso. Quite a change from flat bread and feta cheese everyday for 3 months;) Next morning we nearly missed the boat to Bergen, a cute little town on the coast with lots of old style houses and fun little shops. It's quite a big city (for norway at least) and had a lot of character to it. Hands down, Norway is the most beautiful country (landscape wise) that I have seen. It's a beautifully rugged country, that reminds me of a more hilly northern minnesota, although mn pales in comparison. words and pictures just don't do it justice.
The next day we went to see a glacier and enjoyed some more boating expeditions on the fjords. Talked to some kids working at the hotel and found out that they were mostly austrians, as Norweigans only work an average of 6 hours a day, and they expect too much pay. The Scandinavian countries serve amazing buffet breakfasts with a huge variety of food. Everything from fresh breads, cheese, meats, fruits, eggs, meat, fish, pancakes and sometimes even espresso. Quite a change from flat bread and feta cheese everyday for 3 months;) Next morning we nearly missed the boat to Bergen, a cute little town on the coast with lots of old style houses and fun little shops. It's quite a big city (for norway at least) and had a lot of character to it. Hands down, Norway is the most beautiful country (landscape wise) that I have seen. It's a beautifully rugged country, that reminds me of a more hilly northern minnesota, although mn pales in comparison. words and pictures just don't do it justice.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Isfahan and Kashan
Headed to Isfahan to visit haleh and kia and had a blast. It is one of the most beautiful cities in iran that i have seen thus far. the fresh air up at the base of the mountains where they lived was also well needed. spent a day touring the city and learned lots of amazing things. all the ancient buildings had some inciteful trick built into them. also saw a pigeon tower where thousands of years ago they collected pigeon dung for maneur...apparently england wants to copy this now. they killed the predators of the pigeons-rats and snakes by ingenious methods...snakes by pitchers filled with milk that they would get stuck in, and the rats by putting wet flour on the ground that would harden in their stomachs and kill them. also saw the shaking minarets which were impressive. sat out and enjoyed some of the lovely bridges also. saw an old armenian church still in use today which was absolutely beautiful...also saw the piece of hair on exhibit there where a guy wrote on it with diamond. had a memorable moment at the abbasi hotel cafe where i asked for the bill by asking for the "hissab surat."
kia, haleh and i then took the bus to kashan, in between isfahan and tehran. went out and saw the little mountain town of absineh which was somewhat similar to sirince in turkey. you could wander the streets and buy lots of local foods they made...the faludeh was amazing. we also went to see how they made rose water and about 30 other eraghs. had a cute little taxi driver who on the way, offered us tea, cookies, sugar cubes, nuts and fruit. i joked that he had the kebabs in the trunk;) also saw an underground tunnel/cave area where the worshippers of mitra built many, many years ago. walked around and saw some beautiful and huge housed in kashan. we saw one that was so big it was being turned into a hotel and was absolutely gorgeous, with a hamum inside.
all in all, it was a great getaway from the busy, crowded and polluted streets of tehran;)
kia, haleh and i then took the bus to kashan, in between isfahan and tehran. went out and saw the little mountain town of absineh which was somewhat similar to sirince in turkey. you could wander the streets and buy lots of local foods they made...the faludeh was amazing. we also went to see how they made rose water and about 30 other eraghs. had a cute little taxi driver who on the way, offered us tea, cookies, sugar cubes, nuts and fruit. i joked that he had the kebabs in the trunk;) also saw an underground tunnel/cave area where the worshippers of mitra built many, many years ago. walked around and saw some beautiful and huge housed in kashan. we saw one that was so big it was being turned into a hotel and was absolutely gorgeous, with a hamum inside.
all in all, it was a great getaway from the busy, crowded and polluted streets of tehran;)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Iran part deux
ooo boy, time has flown by. life is going well, no complaints. well, actually there is one itty bitty major drawback. Tehran the last few days has been in the 90s, which is INSANELY ridiculous for april. I can't begin to imagine what august will be like here this year. My aunt informed me that usually this time of year it is cooler and rainy, and unfortunately I choose the year when it's a burning flipping inferno. although I can't honestly say where I'd rather be right now...heard that it snowed a few days ago in minnesota and it's in the 30s there....how about the average of the two, bueller? bueller? arman just informed me that I shouldn't limit my options to just two places, and why not try boston? after all, apparently its in the 70s. good point. san diego is starting to sound extremely appealing where it's a whopping 70 pretty much all year long. one good thing about tehran right now is it is a dry heat, but unfortunately with a coat and scarf on it doesn't earn too many bonus points. but, with that said, I am actually amazingly starting to get used to wearing a coat and scarf.
ok ok, enough weatherly complaints. things are going well. a nice mix between occupied and lazy bum, which suits me wonderfully. my dad got me in touch with a friend of a friend who's the leading genetique counseling doctor/clinical researcher in iran. he does research on predicting genetique diseases such as thalassemia and hemophilia. saw his lab/clinic, and it's pretty dang cool. got same stuff just like back home. has anyone seen lab benches that are made out of granite??! yeah, that's what I thought. plus, hands down the cleanest lab I have EVER seen, and in a decent sized lab they had about 30 girls (b/w 20 and 30 years old) doing research/clinical tests on patients. Pretty crazy/fun group of girls. they go crazy about science which was pretty sweet to see....made me think about the engeland lab and all us 5'5" brown haired girls;) he then put me in touch with his sister in law who is a general surgeon. went to the hospital and watched surgeries which was pretty....interesting. without knowing it, the first surgery I witnessed from 2 feet away at 9 am was an optional (cosmetic) breast reduction surgery. umm, yeah. apparently the surgeon's favorite type of surgery, but personally I think she's a bit wacko to feel this way. was a rather dull 2 plus hours in which she just cut out huge chunks of fat. we're talking over one kg from each one. almost put me off ice cream...almost;) the surgeon at one point was like, "jeez, what did this lady eat?!.....must have been a lot of kalepache" hehe...good thing I don't like it;) it was rather artistic though...I'll spare you the details, but just think, they had to make them both even....which when you are hacking away globs of fat left and right is a rather challenging chore. brought me back to the first year of snow sculpting, and bryan working the sphinx=) umm, yeah well anyways, you get the idea. chatted a bit with the anesthesiologist and other surgeons...really nice, fun group of people. this one really old guy after his surgery (forgot what he had done) started singing some old persian poems and made everyone laugh. also saw oral/plastic surgery done on this guy who had been shot about a year or so ago with a gun to the cheekbone. two awesome male oral surgeons were doing it, and they had the most fun I've ever seen. You'd think they were watching a futball (soccer) game if you heard them;) kept telling jokes left and right and then showing me the craziest things. at one point some of the other surgeons were trying to pull me away to eat lunch, but the guys wouldn't have it and sent someone to fetch me back and said this is the best part, you can't miss it. they had managed to break the guys jaw bone, and had pulled the upper lip all the way back (with the nose just flapping around) and all you could see was this huge bloody cavity. they then dug away and produced some bullets which they excitedly showed me. at this point the guys upper/lower bridges were wound together with wire and were at the bottom of his mouth. oh, and if this wasn't enough for you, to break the jaw bone they had giant tool box equipment...big screw drivers and hammers and such. yeeeaaaahhh. they realigned his jaw though and put in a plastic cheekbone and screwed his bridges back together. all in a days work. awo, and apparently they claimed he would heal faster than the lady who had her breasts downsized. but honestly, please, take it from me. if you are even remotely considering an optional cosmetic surgery, don't. it's just not worth it. to watch them cut and sew and poke around a perfectly healthy (to some extent;) human being was a bit much.
hmmm, what else. been taking a farsi conversation lesson twice a week, just me and my teacher. it's helping immensely and the best part is they bring in tea/coffee and dessert;) score. baked chocolate chip cookies a few times, which is a hit. even baba haidari tried one without anyone coaxing him to eat. awo speaking of which, we were watching the persepolis soccer game one afternoon and the funniest thing happened. baba haidari (80 some year old, cute as can be) was watching and the only line that came out of his mouth the entire game, but mind you was repeated about 15 times-every single time the camera showed someone falling-was "bah! *smacking his right hand to his thigh* yeki khord zamin!" which literally means "one ate the ground, but means that someone fell. absolutely downright made my day...ok maybe week;) other than that, my days have been spent lounging around the house/parks and reading...which seeing as I still have a plethora of books to go, has not lost its charm.
mohammad reza and I have been having a grand old time. for my bday, he took me to an indian restaurant which was delish and spent the rest of the day bumming around tehran. we've also managed to have a few colorful encounters with the park police which thankfully ended pretty quickly. the funniest thing I've learned so far, is that there are different types of police. there's the ones that are for cars, that could *note-hypothetically* see you kissing right in front of them and the only indication they give of witnessing it is a smile and salute-and then there's the park police that assume that a young boy and girl talking together albeit not touching are obviously up to no good. thankfully I have the fortune of being an "innocent american girl whose farsi isn't so great" so after a few minutes of confirming this and showing off a few words of english, they skidaddle. on a brighter note, tehran is blessed with some of the most beautiful parks. they are quite a haven from the rest of the busy city. and climbing in the mountains has quickly become a favorite pasttime as the air is clean, the peaceful sounds, and the wonderful omelettes;)
anyhoo, hope yall are doing well. I have about another 6 weeks in Iran and then I'm heading off to Sweden!
ok ok, enough weatherly complaints. things are going well. a nice mix between occupied and lazy bum, which suits me wonderfully. my dad got me in touch with a friend of a friend who's the leading genetique counseling doctor/clinical researcher in iran. he does research on predicting genetique diseases such as thalassemia and hemophilia. saw his lab/clinic, and it's pretty dang cool. got same stuff just like back home. has anyone seen lab benches that are made out of granite??! yeah, that's what I thought. plus, hands down the cleanest lab I have EVER seen, and in a decent sized lab they had about 30 girls (b/w 20 and 30 years old) doing research/clinical tests on patients. Pretty crazy/fun group of girls. they go crazy about science which was pretty sweet to see....made me think about the engeland lab and all us 5'5" brown haired girls;) he then put me in touch with his sister in law who is a general surgeon. went to the hospital and watched surgeries which was pretty....interesting. without knowing it, the first surgery I witnessed from 2 feet away at 9 am was an optional (cosmetic) breast reduction surgery. umm, yeah. apparently the surgeon's favorite type of surgery, but personally I think she's a bit wacko to feel this way. was a rather dull 2 plus hours in which she just cut out huge chunks of fat. we're talking over one kg from each one. almost put me off ice cream...almost;) the surgeon at one point was like, "jeez, what did this lady eat?!.....must have been a lot of kalepache" hehe...good thing I don't like it;) it was rather artistic though...I'll spare you the details, but just think, they had to make them both even....which when you are hacking away globs of fat left and right is a rather challenging chore. brought me back to the first year of snow sculpting, and bryan working the sphinx=) umm, yeah well anyways, you get the idea. chatted a bit with the anesthesiologist and other surgeons...really nice, fun group of people. this one really old guy after his surgery (forgot what he had done) started singing some old persian poems and made everyone laugh. also saw oral/plastic surgery done on this guy who had been shot about a year or so ago with a gun to the cheekbone. two awesome male oral surgeons were doing it, and they had the most fun I've ever seen. You'd think they were watching a futball (soccer) game if you heard them;) kept telling jokes left and right and then showing me the craziest things. at one point some of the other surgeons were trying to pull me away to eat lunch, but the guys wouldn't have it and sent someone to fetch me back and said this is the best part, you can't miss it. they had managed to break the guys jaw bone, and had pulled the upper lip all the way back (with the nose just flapping around) and all you could see was this huge bloody cavity. they then dug away and produced some bullets which they excitedly showed me. at this point the guys upper/lower bridges were wound together with wire and were at the bottom of his mouth. oh, and if this wasn't enough for you, to break the jaw bone they had giant tool box equipment...big screw drivers and hammers and such. yeeeaaaahhh. they realigned his jaw though and put in a plastic cheekbone and screwed his bridges back together. all in a days work. awo, and apparently they claimed he would heal faster than the lady who had her breasts downsized. but honestly, please, take it from me. if you are even remotely considering an optional cosmetic surgery, don't. it's just not worth it. to watch them cut and sew and poke around a perfectly healthy (to some extent;) human being was a bit much.
hmmm, what else. been taking a farsi conversation lesson twice a week, just me and my teacher. it's helping immensely and the best part is they bring in tea/coffee and dessert;) score. baked chocolate chip cookies a few times, which is a hit. even baba haidari tried one without anyone coaxing him to eat. awo speaking of which, we were watching the persepolis soccer game one afternoon and the funniest thing happened. baba haidari (80 some year old, cute as can be) was watching and the only line that came out of his mouth the entire game, but mind you was repeated about 15 times-every single time the camera showed someone falling-was "bah! *smacking his right hand to his thigh* yeki khord zamin!" which literally means "one ate the ground, but means that someone fell. absolutely downright made my day...ok maybe week;) other than that, my days have been spent lounging around the house/parks and reading...which seeing as I still have a plethora of books to go, has not lost its charm.
mohammad reza and I have been having a grand old time. for my bday, he took me to an indian restaurant which was delish and spent the rest of the day bumming around tehran. we've also managed to have a few colorful encounters with the park police which thankfully ended pretty quickly. the funniest thing I've learned so far, is that there are different types of police. there's the ones that are for cars, that could *note-hypothetically* see you kissing right in front of them and the only indication they give of witnessing it is a smile and salute-and then there's the park police that assume that a young boy and girl talking together albeit not touching are obviously up to no good. thankfully I have the fortune of being an "innocent american girl whose farsi isn't so great" so after a few minutes of confirming this and showing off a few words of english, they skidaddle. on a brighter note, tehran is blessed with some of the most beautiful parks. they are quite a haven from the rest of the busy city. and climbing in the mountains has quickly become a favorite pasttime as the air is clean, the peaceful sounds, and the wonderful omelettes;)
anyhoo, hope yall are doing well. I have about another 6 weeks in Iran and then I'm heading off to Sweden!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Tehran
Made it to Tehran, sans problems a few weeks ago. Things have been going well and the weather is great…I’ve been doing a lot of swimming lately, and my favorite place is the Simorgh hotel. They have the four nicest ladies working there…always asking if I need anything and making sure I can make it back home ok. There isn’t hardly anyone there during the week and I pretty much have the place to myself. Which is sweet, cuz once you get one other Persian in the pool, the order goes to the sky;) The other day I was swimming laps, and this one girl comes in and starts swimming perpendicular to me…unawares, I ended up running into her. Then a third girl came in, and the genius started swimming diagonally across the pool. Mumbling wonderful words under my breadth, I started swimming in circles;)
Went to school with my aunt one day..she teaches chemistry to high schoolers. The girls were adorable and absolutely went crazy when I came…I spent the morning in the gym talking and playing badminton and ping pong. As soon as I’d walk out into the courtyard, the girls in the classrooms would see me and start screaming and run out, grab my arm and shove me into their room…at which point the teacher would shoo me out. It was pretty crazy…I couldn’t stop them they literally shoved me along. Nice girls though and we had a long conversation where they questioned me about the US and what I thought about Iran. It’s an all girls school where they have to wear chadors to school, and even though there are no men in the place, they still have to wear scarves in class (I was told to get them used to it??) They told me it wasn’t a big deal for them at all though and they were really used to it. They were very curious about school and hw in the US, how much make up girls wear, what movies/music I like, and which place I thought was better. I had a lovely Eman moment while playing badminton where I did a skillful fall flat on my face after going after the birdie and tripping over some box on the ground and crashing into the wall. Not bragging or anything but I think it would have earned me a 10 at the Olympics. They were pretty worried about me after that and didn’t leave me alone much;) After one of the other chem. teachers found out I was also a chem. major, she went off on a 10 min speal really fast in farsi about chem. in Iran, and then she asked me if it was the same in the US, and I was like “uhh…ozmikham?” she was a little annoyed, so I just said “are are, chemie tuye amrika mesle injust”…she wasn’t very satisfied. She then asked me to read some chemistry paper in English, and then had me sit and listen to her try to read it, which was hilarious and I was biting my lip very hard trying not to laugh. Another hilarious thing is how they pronounce IBprofen….I made my aunt say it about 20 times the other day and I was rolling on the floor crying my eyes out….”ibb booo pruuuu feeeeen”said really fast and with a thick accent. I have to capture it on video for yall. Ridiculously hilarious. My aunt then said, “eman jan, man sarma khordam, maghkse man kar mikone uncorrectly” which sent me back rolling on the floor. I can’t be too harsh though, my Persian is nowhere near to perfect. I’ll leave the details out=)
Today is the first day of Nowruz, or Persian New Year and I’ve never seen Tehran like this before. It’s amazing….a city of roughly 15 million with horrible traffic/drivers, is deadly silent. The streets are empty and it’s so peaceful. The weather is beautiful sunny and in the 60-70s, and you can look up the tree lined vali-e-asr street by my aunt’s house and see the snowcapped mountains. Gorgeous. The past week has been full of people scrambling around shopping like during xmas. Wednesday night was chahar shambe souri which is where people out in the streets explode fireworks and jump over bonfires in the streets. A few days before I saw a boy no more than 5 warming up with one that shot fireworks about 20 ft….he was kheyli shaytoon and instead of shooting them into the air, started shooting them off horizontally and almost hit two girls walking farther down the sidewalk.
After the past month and half of horrid nescafes, I am spoiled with one of the best coffee shops I’ve ever been to. Amazing espresso that without fail keeps me up to 4 am. It’s soo good, and those of you who know me will be shocked to know that its so good I can drink it without adding sugar;) yes, it’s quite a feat;) anyhoo, my dad comes in a few days, and it’ll great to have my laptop finally…and see him of course=) hope yall are doing well…send me some emails…and for those of you wondering why I’m ignoring your facebook messages, facebook is blocked in Iran, sorry;(
Went to school with my aunt one day..she teaches chemistry to high schoolers. The girls were adorable and absolutely went crazy when I came…I spent the morning in the gym talking and playing badminton and ping pong. As soon as I’d walk out into the courtyard, the girls in the classrooms would see me and start screaming and run out, grab my arm and shove me into their room…at which point the teacher would shoo me out. It was pretty crazy…I couldn’t stop them they literally shoved me along. Nice girls though and we had a long conversation where they questioned me about the US and what I thought about Iran. It’s an all girls school where they have to wear chadors to school, and even though there are no men in the place, they still have to wear scarves in class (I was told to get them used to it??) They told me it wasn’t a big deal for them at all though and they were really used to it. They were very curious about school and hw in the US, how much make up girls wear, what movies/music I like, and which place I thought was better. I had a lovely Eman moment while playing badminton where I did a skillful fall flat on my face after going after the birdie and tripping over some box on the ground and crashing into the wall. Not bragging or anything but I think it would have earned me a 10 at the Olympics. They were pretty worried about me after that and didn’t leave me alone much;) After one of the other chem. teachers found out I was also a chem. major, she went off on a 10 min speal really fast in farsi about chem. in Iran, and then she asked me if it was the same in the US, and I was like “uhh…ozmikham?” she was a little annoyed, so I just said “are are, chemie tuye amrika mesle injust”…she wasn’t very satisfied. She then asked me to read some chemistry paper in English, and then had me sit and listen to her try to read it, which was hilarious and I was biting my lip very hard trying not to laugh. Another hilarious thing is how they pronounce IBprofen….I made my aunt say it about 20 times the other day and I was rolling on the floor crying my eyes out….”ibb booo pruuuu feeeeen”said really fast and with a thick accent. I have to capture it on video for yall. Ridiculously hilarious. My aunt then said, “eman jan, man sarma khordam, maghkse man kar mikone uncorrectly” which sent me back rolling on the floor. I can’t be too harsh though, my Persian is nowhere near to perfect. I’ll leave the details out=)
Today is the first day of Nowruz, or Persian New Year and I’ve never seen Tehran like this before. It’s amazing….a city of roughly 15 million with horrible traffic/drivers, is deadly silent. The streets are empty and it’s so peaceful. The weather is beautiful sunny and in the 60-70s, and you can look up the tree lined vali-e-asr street by my aunt’s house and see the snowcapped mountains. Gorgeous. The past week has been full of people scrambling around shopping like during xmas. Wednesday night was chahar shambe souri which is where people out in the streets explode fireworks and jump over bonfires in the streets. A few days before I saw a boy no more than 5 warming up with one that shot fireworks about 20 ft….he was kheyli shaytoon and instead of shooting them into the air, started shooting them off horizontally and almost hit two girls walking farther down the sidewalk.
After the past month and half of horrid nescafes, I am spoiled with one of the best coffee shops I’ve ever been to. Amazing espresso that without fail keeps me up to 4 am. It’s soo good, and those of you who know me will be shocked to know that its so good I can drink it without adding sugar;) yes, it’s quite a feat;) anyhoo, my dad comes in a few days, and it’ll great to have my laptop finally…and see him of course=) hope yall are doing well…send me some emails…and for those of you wondering why I’m ignoring your facebook messages, facebook is blocked in Iran, sorry;(
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Cairo
After arriving in Cairo, Louise and I headed to a koshary place…it’s a popular dish here that isn’t too bad. Rice and lentils on the bottom with some macaroni noodles added on top, covered with a tomato sauce and fried onions. You can add hot sauce or a garlicky vinegar to it. Interesting combo that is actually quite tasty. Our hostel is on the roof of this old building and there are chairs/tables right outside our room to sit outside and enjoy. It’s nice to get away from the crowded, noisy streets below. Like Tehran, car horns are an essential for driving here;) We’re right in the center of town and have lots of fun crowded streets to walk around at night. Tons of coffee shops, cheap restaurants, pastry shops, and Louise’s favorite-yummy ice creamJ
Headed to Giza and the pyramids one day….amazing. A guy named Mohammed (surprise;) helped us get there and back super cheap. He invited us to the tourist shop where he works at after we were done at the pyramids. The pyramids were huge…it was crazy how the city just sprawled out all the way to the foot of the pyramids practically. The sphinx was cool also, though not as big as I had envisioned…at the base of the pyramids it looked rather puny. Considering they were built around 2000 bc though, they were incredible. There were lots of locals there when we went, and surprisingly we had tons of people coming up asking if they could take their picture with usJ weird…we even had girls taking their boyfriend’s picture with us, which was just downright creepy. I credit it to Louise’s beautiful blond hair, and kept telling her we asked for a small fee, we would be rich=) Met this absolutely adorable little girl selling souvenirs, and it turns out her name is Eman also!! I told her we had the same name, which she got a kick out of….she got a huge surprised face, then a ginormous smile and then started giggling. Cutest little girl….her friends came up too and started talking and they were super cute kids….took some pics with them and ended up buying some stuff from them. Cute as a button;)
Kept getting asked if we wanted a camel/donkey/horse ride…finally I started joking with one of the guys and told him I was just a poor university student. He cut the price in half, and I told him sorry but I have no money expecting that he would leave us alone. He then told me he would give me a ride as a gift. After I ditched all my stuff off on Louise and ensured that it was a free gift, I hopped on the horse. Started galloping pretty fast and I got freaked….he then offered to take me over the hills to get some drinks and make me happy….yeah, pretty much flipped out at this point and was like “crap, what did I do?!” I kept rejecting this idea profusely and finally he took me back to the road. He then asked what gift I would give him….I literally had nothing on me and told him I had nothing. He pointed to the ring on my finger and said, “what about that?” The guy had balls….I lied and told him it was my wedding ring and my husband would kill me if I gave it away...he laughed at this and after trying a few more times he finally gave up and rode off dejectedly. Man, it’s gonna suck traveling when I’m older and can’t pull off the poor little student thing;)
Went over to Mohammed’s shop afterwards and had some tea. Turned out to be a really nice kid and told us a lot about Egypt and his life and such. Told us not to buy anything in the store as it was extremely over priced;) He helped us get on a local bus back to our hotel. The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum which is absolutely packed full of stuff….and tourists;) pretty cool to see all the stuff they have…the cute little knick knacks were my favorite, and they even had cloth that was preserved pretty well. They had a room full of animal mummies which was pretty crazy as well. Egyptian script is sooo cool. At night we met up with Nathan (who we had met in Petra) and Mohammed. We tried to get into the Cairo Jazz Club, but found probably the only place in Egypt that has rules that they actually stick to…apparently you have to be 25 to get in. Took a felucca ride along the Nile, then headed to an excellent restaurant for dinner and walked back near to our hotel and had some shisha and an amazing yogurt/honey/milk drink called Zabadi. Talked a lot to Mohammed about life in Egypt and it was cool to hear his views on life…..he got a degree in mechanical engineering but can make more money working in the tourist craft shop. He told me about how most Egyptians didn’t support the government and wished it would be more like Iran in terms of sticking up to the west. He also told me that most Egyptians were aware of a lot of corruption in the government, but didn’t want to do anything drastic so they didn’t do anything about it. We walked by the building where an Egyptian writer wrote the books that he won the Nobel Prize for. He also told me about how he wouldn’t drink any alcohol but he had tried drugs “because the Holy Quran doesn’t say anything about not doing drugs.” I love his logic…of course Allah would approve of us getting wasted; it’s soo much better than drinking a glass of wine.
The next day we walked, and we walked, and we walked…saw Abdeen palace, the citadel, al-azara park, and khan-el-khalili market. You could see the pyramids at giza from the citadel which was pretty cool. Al azara park was beautiful…it was like a little mini US park in the middle of Cairo. It was clean, (with garbage cans!!), lots of plants and well groomed, quiet and clean air with a few restaurants with good food. Had a young guy as our waiter who was really nice at first and was trying to teach me Arabic and wanted to learn English. Things got pretty bad though after he kept trying to get us to hang out with him after work and we (as in Louise bc I played the “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say role) kept refusing as politely as possible. He came back about 4 times and kept saying “so I’ll see you at 5 when I get done?”..the kid would not take a hint. Finally we had to flatly refuse him, at which point he got pissed and was really rude to us. The kid had it coming.
There is one thing in Egypt that I find absolutely appalling/intriguing. They get people’s attention (whether it be a waiter, or a girl passing by) by hissing. It is extremely and amazingly effective…I have no clue how it came to be so prominent. But it infuriated me after a few days bc walking by guys and getting hissed at isn’t necessarily the best feeling. Walking the streets in tiring, as you have to pay attention to the crazy drivers, uneven side walks, and avoid eye contact with guys. Louise and I had fun roaming the streets and laughing at the horrible fashion sense. The girls were wearing the most hideous outfits known to man. Lots of ugly patterns with pinks and purples and sparkles and fuzzy fringes and weird triangular cut shirts….as Louise put it, any one item of their clothing was way over the top, but they made it 100 times worse by have crazy shoes, pants, shirts, scarf and purse at the same time. We’re talking like striped bright colored shirt, with leopard print pants, huge silvery shiny purse, bright pink patterned scarf and funky shoes….hideous. It was good though, because at least it kept us from spending money on clothes;)
My last day in Egypt we went to Ma’adi and met Nathan and he showed us around town. Ma’adi is a nice suburb of Cairo where most of the expats live. The place was full of French people. There was a little grocery store that had tons of stuff from home like Nature Valley bars, gushers, and cereal. Louise and I were amazed. Gave Uncle Abby a call and he had his driver pick us up and we met him at his office. He then took us out for an amazing dinner in a restaurant on the Nile, where we ate tons of delicious appetizers and he sneaked in a few crazy ones like liver and friend brain….He was kind enough to let us crash the night at his place. It was great seeing him after so long…had me thinking of the good old days of driving around parking lots in my saab and *somehow* busting the engine, Arman “driving” Gina’s stick shift golf and looking like a fool in front of the police, sleeping from 5 am to 11 am and playing sims, going to the grocery store and making chocolate dipped strawberries at 1 am, driving crazy uturns in florida, the “bouncy ball” breaking the glass oven and walking through the drive in at Taco Bell at 2 am. Ahhh, good times.
Headed to Giza and the pyramids one day….amazing. A guy named Mohammed (surprise;) helped us get there and back super cheap. He invited us to the tourist shop where he works at after we were done at the pyramids. The pyramids were huge…it was crazy how the city just sprawled out all the way to the foot of the pyramids practically. The sphinx was cool also, though not as big as I had envisioned…at the base of the pyramids it looked rather puny. Considering they were built around 2000 bc though, they were incredible. There were lots of locals there when we went, and surprisingly we had tons of people coming up asking if they could take their picture with usJ weird…we even had girls taking their boyfriend’s picture with us, which was just downright creepy. I credit it to Louise’s beautiful blond hair, and kept telling her we asked for a small fee, we would be rich=) Met this absolutely adorable little girl selling souvenirs, and it turns out her name is Eman also!! I told her we had the same name, which she got a kick out of….she got a huge surprised face, then a ginormous smile and then started giggling. Cutest little girl….her friends came up too and started talking and they were super cute kids….took some pics with them and ended up buying some stuff from them. Cute as a button;)
Kept getting asked if we wanted a camel/donkey/horse ride…finally I started joking with one of the guys and told him I was just a poor university student. He cut the price in half, and I told him sorry but I have no money expecting that he would leave us alone. He then told me he would give me a ride as a gift. After I ditched all my stuff off on Louise and ensured that it was a free gift, I hopped on the horse. Started galloping pretty fast and I got freaked….he then offered to take me over the hills to get some drinks and make me happy….yeah, pretty much flipped out at this point and was like “crap, what did I do?!” I kept rejecting this idea profusely and finally he took me back to the road. He then asked what gift I would give him….I literally had nothing on me and told him I had nothing. He pointed to the ring on my finger and said, “what about that?” The guy had balls….I lied and told him it was my wedding ring and my husband would kill me if I gave it away...he laughed at this and after trying a few more times he finally gave up and rode off dejectedly. Man, it’s gonna suck traveling when I’m older and can’t pull off the poor little student thing;)
Went over to Mohammed’s shop afterwards and had some tea. Turned out to be a really nice kid and told us a lot about Egypt and his life and such. Told us not to buy anything in the store as it was extremely over priced;) He helped us get on a local bus back to our hotel. The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum which is absolutely packed full of stuff….and tourists;) pretty cool to see all the stuff they have…the cute little knick knacks were my favorite, and they even had cloth that was preserved pretty well. They had a room full of animal mummies which was pretty crazy as well. Egyptian script is sooo cool. At night we met up with Nathan (who we had met in Petra) and Mohammed. We tried to get into the Cairo Jazz Club, but found probably the only place in Egypt that has rules that they actually stick to…apparently you have to be 25 to get in. Took a felucca ride along the Nile, then headed to an excellent restaurant for dinner and walked back near to our hotel and had some shisha and an amazing yogurt/honey/milk drink called Zabadi. Talked a lot to Mohammed about life in Egypt and it was cool to hear his views on life…..he got a degree in mechanical engineering but can make more money working in the tourist craft shop. He told me about how most Egyptians didn’t support the government and wished it would be more like Iran in terms of sticking up to the west. He also told me that most Egyptians were aware of a lot of corruption in the government, but didn’t want to do anything drastic so they didn’t do anything about it. We walked by the building where an Egyptian writer wrote the books that he won the Nobel Prize for. He also told me about how he wouldn’t drink any alcohol but he had tried drugs “because the Holy Quran doesn’t say anything about not doing drugs.” I love his logic…of course Allah would approve of us getting wasted; it’s soo much better than drinking a glass of wine.
The next day we walked, and we walked, and we walked…saw Abdeen palace, the citadel, al-azara park, and khan-el-khalili market. You could see the pyramids at giza from the citadel which was pretty cool. Al azara park was beautiful…it was like a little mini US park in the middle of Cairo. It was clean, (with garbage cans!!), lots of plants and well groomed, quiet and clean air with a few restaurants with good food. Had a young guy as our waiter who was really nice at first and was trying to teach me Arabic and wanted to learn English. Things got pretty bad though after he kept trying to get us to hang out with him after work and we (as in Louise bc I played the “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say role) kept refusing as politely as possible. He came back about 4 times and kept saying “so I’ll see you at 5 when I get done?”..the kid would not take a hint. Finally we had to flatly refuse him, at which point he got pissed and was really rude to us. The kid had it coming.
There is one thing in Egypt that I find absolutely appalling/intriguing. They get people’s attention (whether it be a waiter, or a girl passing by) by hissing. It is extremely and amazingly effective…I have no clue how it came to be so prominent. But it infuriated me after a few days bc walking by guys and getting hissed at isn’t necessarily the best feeling. Walking the streets in tiring, as you have to pay attention to the crazy drivers, uneven side walks, and avoid eye contact with guys. Louise and I had fun roaming the streets and laughing at the horrible fashion sense. The girls were wearing the most hideous outfits known to man. Lots of ugly patterns with pinks and purples and sparkles and fuzzy fringes and weird triangular cut shirts….as Louise put it, any one item of their clothing was way over the top, but they made it 100 times worse by have crazy shoes, pants, shirts, scarf and purse at the same time. We’re talking like striped bright colored shirt, with leopard print pants, huge silvery shiny purse, bright pink patterned scarf and funky shoes….hideous. It was good though, because at least it kept us from spending money on clothes;)
My last day in Egypt we went to Ma’adi and met Nathan and he showed us around town. Ma’adi is a nice suburb of Cairo where most of the expats live. The place was full of French people. There was a little grocery store that had tons of stuff from home like Nature Valley bars, gushers, and cereal. Louise and I were amazed. Gave Uncle Abby a call and he had his driver pick us up and we met him at his office. He then took us out for an amazing dinner in a restaurant on the Nile, where we ate tons of delicious appetizers and he sneaked in a few crazy ones like liver and friend brain….He was kind enough to let us crash the night at his place. It was great seeing him after so long…had me thinking of the good old days of driving around parking lots in my saab and *somehow* busting the engine, Arman “driving” Gina’s stick shift golf and looking like a fool in front of the police, sleeping from 5 am to 11 am and playing sims, going to the grocery store and making chocolate dipped strawberries at 1 am, driving crazy uturns in florida, the “bouncy ball” breaking the glass oven and walking through the drive in at Taco Bell at 2 am. Ahhh, good times.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Alexandria
Alex seems to be the favorite destination of Egyptians, but Louise and I weren’t too impressed. Not much to do besides shopping and walking along the Mediterranean (which isn’t nearly as nice as it sounds since the path is right by a busy street). Maybe it was the wrong time of year though….too cold for swimming and the public beaches were rather dismal anyways. We did meander our way into the famous Bibliotecha (a ginormous library), which you have to pay to get into and has a surprising dearth of books. It was right by the university though so it was cool to see all the college kids. The nightlife, aka walking along the streets and shopping, seemed to be the thing to do in Alex. Although my personal favorite was going into the little fruit juice shops and getting fresh squeezed juice for amazingly cheap (strawberry-lemon was the best). We kept going every day, although I think it was the cause of some stomach unrest. We went for a run one morning along the water….got a lot of looks from the locals, a cute old grandpa told us “hurry, hurry, faster, faster,” and a young boy snapped a pic of us on his cameraphone as we were passing, which was…awkward.
Ate THE MOST AMAZING schawerma in Alex at a fast food chain called Gad. Chicken with sautéed onion, green pepper and tomatoes, with tahina in a pita bread for a whopping $1. Egypt is amazing…Louise and I were eating like kings for a few bucks a meal. We managed to get away with pretending to not know what “bakshish” is (a term basically meaning they want you to pay them a tip)….we learned that a confused, innocent face with an added “huh?” did the trick…they were either too polite or didn’t know enough English to accurately describe what they wanted. It’s not that we were against giving them some money (after all it was so cheap) but it was more that they wanted bakshish for doing absolutely nothing. This cute little old man showed us to our hotel room in Alex (which was literally 10 feet away from where we were), and then he just hung around the door moping around obviously expecting some bakshish…
Oh…forgot something funny that happened in Petra. We were walking up the steep path in the middle of nowhere to the monastery, and this cute little Bedouin boy, probably about 4 years old, was playing on the stairs with a broom. He had a cute smile and was looking at the chips in my hand longingly. I offered him a few which he quickly grabbed, and then proceeded to grab the entire bag…I just started laughing, and next thing I knew, he was trying to grab my camera off my neck. At this point, I was like “nooooo! Sorry you can’t have that” and he started pouting. I started to walk past him, when he whipped out his broom and blocked the path so I couldn’t get by! I tried to walk around it, and he kept moving to block my path…..finally managed to sneak my way around him…yes, I’m proud of the fact that I got around a 4 year old…after all, his broom was pretty big and ferocious;)
Ate THE MOST AMAZING schawerma in Alex at a fast food chain called Gad. Chicken with sautéed onion, green pepper and tomatoes, with tahina in a pita bread for a whopping $1. Egypt is amazing…Louise and I were eating like kings for a few bucks a meal. We managed to get away with pretending to not know what “bakshish” is (a term basically meaning they want you to pay them a tip)….we learned that a confused, innocent face with an added “huh?” did the trick…they were either too polite or didn’t know enough English to accurately describe what they wanted. It’s not that we were against giving them some money (after all it was so cheap) but it was more that they wanted bakshish for doing absolutely nothing. This cute little old man showed us to our hotel room in Alex (which was literally 10 feet away from where we were), and then he just hung around the door moping around obviously expecting some bakshish…
Oh…forgot something funny that happened in Petra. We were walking up the steep path in the middle of nowhere to the monastery, and this cute little Bedouin boy, probably about 4 years old, was playing on the stairs with a broom. He had a cute smile and was looking at the chips in my hand longingly. I offered him a few which he quickly grabbed, and then proceeded to grab the entire bag…I just started laughing, and next thing I knew, he was trying to grab my camera off my neck. At this point, I was like “nooooo! Sorry you can’t have that” and he started pouting. I started to walk past him, when he whipped out his broom and blocked the path so I couldn’t get by! I tried to walk around it, and he kept moving to block my path…..finally managed to sneak my way around him…yes, I’m proud of the fact that I got around a 4 year old…after all, his broom was pretty big and ferocious;)
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