9th of November we headed for Alexandria. Stopped at Cultnat, which is dedicated to preserving the cultural and natural history of Egypt. You really should check them out: www.cultnat.org They aren't even close to being finished with their numerous projects, but they're still rather impressive.
Then we headed to Abu Mina, which was once a very important pilgrimage site. Not quite as ancient or as pagan as I prefer my archaeology to be, but still an amazingly cool site. The structure of the city was still apparent, so there were plenty of doorways to crawl through, and crumbling streets to wander down. And it was completely silent. No sound but the crunch of sand as you walked and the gentle whisper of wind. Everyone wandered in their own direction, and the city quickly came to look absolutely deserted. Not a living thing in sight, and not a sound. Just the wind. Amazing.
The coolest part was that I found something. I was following some animal foot prints in the sand, and stumbled upon a terra cotta jar, fully intact! These were given to pilgrims filled with holy water as a souvenir. Sure, at best it was roughly Roman era (which is to say modern trash ;-p) , but I didn't really care! Of course, being the good person that I am, I dutifully put it back in the ground where I found it. And then I bought a replica at the monastery gift shop. :-P
First night in Alexandria was interesting. We wandered the streets (our hotel was in the shoe district) and ate at a pretty nice restaurant. The waiters wouldn't leave us alone; every few minutes they were rearranging the silver ware. To close out the evening, Kaz, Quentin and I hung out by the sea and had a drink in the lobby.
10th of November. Headed to Taposiris Magna. Very cool temple of Isis, albeit, once again, Greco-Roman. Kenny, the adventurous one, immediately climbed into the pylon. I was a bit uncertain of it myself, since it looked a bit unstable, and was almost a meter over my head. But once all the boys had made it up without collapse, and I found that even Illona had been dragged up, I decided to risk it. Turns out, the walls in the room had perfect hand and foot holds. As if it had been made as a practice room for bouldering. So getting even my short self up was nothing close to the challenge I had expected.
The view from atop the pylon was amazing. The Mediterranean shining blue blue blue right in front of us, the Temple of Isis scattered at our feet.
Then the Egyptians came and sort of chastised us, but the guy didn't seem to upset. "You shouldn't have climbed up there, we aren't done working yet. So, wanna go see some mummies?" is my paraphrase of the conversation he had with Illona.
So we went and saw some mummies. In situ. They were still lying where they were laid! And when you squeezed into the little tomb shaft, they were just inches from your face. Face to face. Beautiful. There was also the skeleton of an infant. Very cool.
The rest of the day was free, so we all opted to check out the catacombs. Again, very cool. Heavy, humid air, and almost absolute silence. Silence is just not easy to come by in Egypt. The catacombs were also modern trash, but at least the guys were attempting some traditional Egyptian iconography. Even if the gods look all weird in Greek costumes. :-P
Afterwards, I decided to attempt to find a geocache hidden at the Library. Despite my best efforts (and a little theatrics, thanks Brenda!) I couldn't find it. There was another hidden on the street outside the hotel, but it was entirely too crowded to search. I decided to wait with the boys until midnight or so to search again, and it was a noble effort, but alas, nothing was found. Oh well.
11th November. Argh, mind numbing. Not only was it modern trash (4th century CE at the very oldest, blah) it was just a bunch of monasteries. Ok, it was interesting, and the places were all pretty cool, and the Coptic monks were decidedly awesome, but, gargh!
First we got a tour of the Syrian monastery by a monk. Whose English was... iffy at best. Then we got the same tour by one of the guys working on restoring and preserving the paintings in the monastery. His English was much better, but he spoke with such a monotone, and with such a dead look in his eyes I was afraid he might fling himself to the ground in despair at any moment. Then we got THE SAME tour by Karel Innemee, a Dutch researcher there. That was in Dutch, and very clear, but by that time I did NOT want to hear another word about saints, or 6th century monks, or 11th century paintings.
At least we did get to see some pretty cool ruins. And again, Coptic monks are pretty awesome. But, I was not particularly sad to see the place disappear into the desert behind me. I did learn something very interesting, however: flies are the servants of Satan.
Westerners have no idea what it means to be bothered by flies. Flies in the West are just these sort of goofy little buzzy things, that sometimes land on our potato salad. In the East, they are evil. When you swat a Western fly, it flies away. And stays away. When you swat an Eastern fly, it just lands on another part of your face. Instantly. You always see those pictures of starving children in Africa and figure that the poor thing is just too hungry to swat the flies crawling on their lips. The truth is, they probably don't even know the fly is there. Eastern flies have softer toes, I think, and it's really easy to just not notice them. Until they start jumping up and down on your forehead, or flying into your eyes. Up your nose. Evil little jerks.
The monks who lived at these monasteries, which are literally swarming with flies, saw the beasts as servants of Satan who were sent with the express purpose of breaking holy concentration.
Then back to Cairo, which brings me to 12th Nov. I headed to the NVIC in the morning to work on a few things. Hung out in the library down stairs, then met up with Illona and the others. We got our assignments for papers, and another mini-presentation. Then I hung out in the library upstairs with Quentin, Kenny and Cathelijne until the lecture. It was a rather interesting lecture too, on whether 18th Dynasty kings ever actually went into battle themselves (nope, prolly not.) The guy had a very nice presentation, and a very cute accent. :-)
Afterwards we all fled the scene, and headed to Ciccio for some dinner. Then back to our place with the Belgians for some hot tea under warm blankets. :-)
And finally: Friday, the 13.th of November. Oooohhh.
Yesterday was a pretty good say. I met up with Brenda and Quentin at the NVIC and worked in the library there until about 3. Then Brenda and I went shopping, and found some really nice stores with fun souvenirs. I got a bracelet, a wooden ankh symbol, a nice hamsa, and a sign that says Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest) in Arabic. I found it to be a rather appropriate memory of Egypt since the phrase gets sung out of minarets five times a day.
Brenda and I then wandered most of Zamalek. Then back to her apartment where Quentin made some rockin' Arabic - Moroccan style chicken and tabouleh. After a delicious dinner, the three of us grabbed a couple of bottles of red wine and trekked back to my apartment to join Kaz and Sandra on the balcony to blow off some steam.
Which we did until 2 am or so. :-P
So that's been my week. :-D
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