Days 15, 16 & 17 - Mykonos, Greece

Santorini has the breathtaking views, but Mykonos has the beaches. The beaches are all white sand, no pebbles, and there are plenty to choose from - some small and more secluded, and others more party oriented. In general, Mykonos is known as more of a party island. The clubs start getting crowded around 2am and don't close until after 7 in the morning (true party goers sleep during the day). The beach close to our hotel, Platis Gialos, was a good beach in my opinion and on the relaxed side, which was nice.

There are buses and boats to get to other beaches and to travel into town. However, it is far easier to get around by renting a car, moped, or 4-wheeler (many of the visitors rent mopeds). Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me rent a moped without a motorcycle license, so we opted for the 4-wheeler. This turned out to be a great decision . . . we had so much fun!

We nicknamed our 4-wheeler the "Silver Slug" due to its inability to get up hills, but it was perfect for riding around most of the island. We visited the town of Ano Mera in the center of the island and a few other beaches (Paraga and Paradise . . . both good beaches). Below is a picture of us at Paradise Beach, the "party beach." Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Super Paradise Beach, which is supposed to be even crazier than regular Paradise Beach.
Mykonos Town, the main town on the island, is mostly pedestrian, full of shops, cafes, creperies, bars, and restaurants. The vast network of streets/alleys is a huge maze, making very easy to get lost. We had fun in Little Venice last night (we also caught a sunset here).

Additional Notes:
- This is an example of an authentic Greek Gyro. Note the massive amount of filling, as well as the meticulously placed french fries:

Days 12, 13 & 14 - Santorini, Greece

Santorini - A vacation within our vacation. There's not much to say about it, except that it was beautiful and we had a great time, so we'll let the pictures do the talking. In brief, we stayed in the main town of Fira, and ventured to Perissa (a black sand beach and our favorite), the Red Beach (red sand obviously), and the western-most town of Oia for sunset. We soaked in a lot of views (we had a great view of the Caldera from our hotel), watched a lot of beautiful sunsets, and ate some tasty Greek food. We give a special recommendation for Nikolas, a great taverna in Fira - no view, but the best food in town for the money (see the picture of Brian eating below).

Additional thoughts/notes:
- Greeks love their Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.
- Greeks also love their Frappes. So does Kim (see picture of Kim below drinking probably her 20th Frappe since entering Greece)

Day 11 - Athens, Greece

Kim: Today was supposed to be even hotter than yesterday, so to beat the heat, we hit the Acropolis and surrounding sights first thing in the morning. We started at the Theater of Dionysis, where the first works by the famous Greek playwrights Sophocles and Aesceylous were performed during the festival of Dionysis, the God of wine, inebriation, and partying in general (that’s Brian sitting in the seats).

Then we entered the Acropolis (the large fortification on top of the hill) through the Propyleia, or gate to the city. Near the Propyleia is the Temple of Athena Nike, however, they had removed the temple piece by piece to do restoration work and were currently in the process of putting it back together again.

In the center of the Acropolis is the Parthenon, the main temple dedicated to Athena, protector of Athens. Different types of structures preceding the Parthenon had existed on the Acropolis since Mycenaean times, but the current structure dates from the 5th century B.C. The Parthenon is the largest example of a Doric temple in the world, although it also began to incorporate some Ionian elements. Its proportions were modified slightly from a perfect rectangle so as to appear in perfect proportion from every angle (below is the view from the back of the Parthenon).

The structure was built very soundly, but is in its present condition for several reasons. First, earthquakes. Second, explosions during a Venetian raid on the Ottomans in the 1600s (the Ottomans kept their gunpowder in the Parthenon). And finally, various archeological “lootings” throughout the years. Even though only a fraction of the temple remains, it is still extremely impressive.

The final site on the Acropolis was the Erectheion, a temple to some other gods. Most notable about this temple is the porch of the Caryatids, a porch with six statues of women as columns.


After the Acropolis, we wound our way down through the Ancient Agora, a site for trading, politics, and meeting for the ancient Greeks. Hungry from our climb, we sampled some souvlaki for lunch. It was delicious!

Needing relief from the 104 degree heat, we decided to spend the afternoon in the New Acropolis museum. The museum just opened in June, and houses many of the artifacts found during excavations of the Acropolis and many statures and sculptures reconstructed from the ruins. One of the coolest things about the museum is that much of the floor is glass, allowing you to see below to the ancient ruins discovered during construction of the museum.

On our way home, we had our first gelato of the trip and walked by the Temple of Zeus. We also caught the changing of the guard at the Greek Parliament at 5pm. The soldiers do a weird kind of march and their uniforms are . . . interesting to say the least. Check out those pom-poms on their shoes.

Later in the evening, we met a friend of mine from business school and some of his friends for dinner in Kiffisia. We handed total control of ordering over to them, and everything was delicious. The ordering process itself was comical to us as observers. Imagine seven Greeks, shouting haphazardly to each other and the waitress, in Greek, for approximately 10 minutes. Somehow the waitress got everything correct. For dessert, we tried a new favorite, Loukemades, fried dough soaked in honey. Yum!

Day 10 - Athens, Greece

Kim: After a long-lasting love affair with Egypt (note sarcasm), today we were thankful to fly to Athens, Greece. First sign that we were no longer in Egypt: no one was smoking in the airport. Second sign: traffic lanes on the roads (that cars actually stayed in). However, one thing that did not change was the temperature. Athens is in the middle of a heat wave, and it was close to 100 degrees today. Nevertheless, we settled in at our hotel (after a minor bus hiccup), and set out to enjoy the city.

Since hosting the Olympics, Athens has cleaned up and improved its public transportation system, and we took full advantage of it while we were here. We took the metro down to near the Acropolis and took a nice stroll on a pedestrian walkway that encircles the Acropolis for 3km. Then, around dusk, we hiked up to the top of Fillapapou Hill (we were more fit for this hill than the one in Istanbul). The views of the city were amazing, and the hill provided a great vantage point for seeing the Parthenon from a distance at eye-level.


Click the parorama thumbnail below for a larger picture:


After soaking in the views, we hiked down and strolled through the shops in Monastiraki to kill time before dinner (which doesn’t happen until 9 or 10pm in Greece). We had some delicious meze in Plaka, including our new favorite, Saganaki, a kind of hard cheese that is fried. After dinner, we leisurely walked back to our hotel and finally got a good night’s sleep to prepare us for our full day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Day 9 - Luxor, Egypt

We got up at 5:30am this morning to do our tours before the heat of the day. I still was not feeling 100%, as I had been bed-ridden half of yesterday and was still a little dehydrated (the Pharaoh really showed me who was boss). Luckily, before the trip we got strong prescription antibiotics for just this kind of thing, which I started taking yesterday to help kick it. I decided I would at least try and do some of the tour, and if I felt bad, we would skip the lesser sights.

Our guide took us to the Valley of the Kings first. The history: During the Old Kingdom, kings buried themselves inside the pyramids. This turned out to be a bad idea. The pyramids were basically huge signs for all grave robbers saying, “please come steal me and all my treasures.” Starting with the New Kingdom, Kings got very secretive about their burial spots. Instead of putting their tombs inside a pyramid, they were buried in a mountain that was shaped like a pyramid just west of the Nile in what was then Egypt’s capital, Luxor. This is now known as the Valley of the Kings. Pretty much all of the kings in the 18th – 20th dynasties were buried there (62 tombs have been discovered, some yet to be found). The kings were so secretive about their place of burial that only a few select priests and the workers who built the tombs knew about the locations, and the workers were never allowed to leave this area for generations. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very long after the 20th dynasty before the tombs were discovered by grave robbers anyway, which is why most of the tombs have no treasures in them today. King Tut’s tomb wasn’t discovered here until the 1920s, and was filled with massive treasures (now in the Egyptian Museum). The latest tomb discovery was 3 years ago, and there are more tombs to be found.

Of the 62 tombs, around 10 are opened to the public. Your ticket only gives you a choice of 3. Our guide, Ahmed, told us his favorites, so we went to those. There are pretty impressive drawings and stories on the walls, giving much insight to the religion and Gods of that time. Overall, the Valley of the Kings is a definite must-see in Luxor. (We don’t have any pictures because they are not allowed to be taken inside the tombs.)

Next we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which looked much different than the other temples from that time, with multi-level terraces (picture below).

After that, we visited an Alabaster factory. Many of the sarcophagi throughout the Kingdoms were made of alabaster, and all of the alabaster came from Luxor. This factory has been handed down for generations, and they get their alabaster rocks from just 100 meters away. Below is Kim carving an alabaster pot.

Kim - Alabaster Factory, Luxor, Egypt from Brian Burns on Vimeo.

I was still feeling ok at this point, so we decided to go ahead and visit the Valley of the Queens. The Valley of the Queens was not just for tombs of Queens, but for children, wives, mothers, and nobles. One of the tombs had a mummified fetus in it. That was probably the highlight for me.

We then stopped by the Colossi of Memnon, then headed back to our hotel to relax and beat the heat (and in my case, get well) the rest of the afternoon. As we were hanging around the pool later, we were asked to be in a promo for the Sheraton hotel website. They sat Kim and I at a table with fake cocktails and took lots of video of us smiling and having fake conversations and watching the sunset over the Nile. So I guess that was our 15 seconds of fame… you may see us on the Sheraton Luxor website in about 2 -3 months!

We are looking forward to Greece… we fly to Athens at 8 tomorrow morning (another morning of getting up early).

Additional notes/thoughs:

- Luxor is more our speed… we definitely prefer it to Cairo. Laid back, no traffic, and seems safer/cleaner. Its population is only 400,000 compared to Cairo’s 20 million.

- More on driving in Cairo: We just heard a really good Rick Steve’s quote: “Cars stay in lanes in Cairo like rocks in an avalanche.” Perfect analogy.

- As with Cairo, getting a guide for Luxor is highly recommended.

- Don’t get into an argument with an Egyptian over who was the best King. I told our guide that I heard Ramses II was the best King, and he almost took it personally. He said, “Don’t even get me started….” If you were wondering, he is a die-hard Thutmose III fan (and yeah, I’ll agree that taking over 350 cities without losing a battle is a decent resume).

- I most likely got sick from eating tomato our last night in Cairo. Our guide said that no one in Egypt eats lettuce or tomato for this reason (restaurants either do not wash the lettuce/tomato or they wash them with the contaminated tap water).

Day 8 - Luxor, Egypt

Early this morning we flew to Luxor, where we were picked up by our guide. While it was still cool (i.e. less than 100 degrees), we visited the Temples of Karnak and the Temple of Luxor.

They were amazing. The temple complexes were huge, with one engineering feat after another. Both temples were built mainly by King Ramses II for the god Ammon-Ra, during the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom (sometime around the 1300 B.C.) Hieroglyphics were everywhere, and even in some places, you could see traces of the original colors.

A highlight for me (the nerd that I am) was seeing what appeared to be the world’s first spreadsheet - a table of how many offerings to the Gods were required on certain days.


The statues below depicting Ramses II stand at the entrance to the Luxor Temple.


It was a good thing we finished the tour fairly early. Not only did we miss the hottest part of the day (110 degrees plus), but Brian also got inflicted with the “Pharaoh’s revenge.” We spent the rest of the day resting and recovering in our air conditioned room along the Nile.

Day 7 - Cairo, Egypt

As much as we dreaded having going back, we arrived at the Giza train station at 9:50am this morning. This time, however, we had reinforcements: our Arabic-speaking guide, Amira. This turned out to be a life saver! We walked up to the window of the shack, and low-and-behold it was closed. Immediately, Amira started talking Arabic to the rifle-carrying guards, who informed her that the shack opens at 9 (not 8, as we were told), and the man is on his way. We stood around for 15 minutes, but no one came. Amira conversed with the guards again, and they called down the sharp-shooter from the guard tower (why they need a sharp-shooter at a train station is beyond me). He told her that 3 guys run the ticketing, and is surprised no one is there yet. Kim and I now discussed our options. We mentioned that we might want to try flying to Luxor at this point, especially if it was close to the same price as the train, which wasn’t cheap to begin with. Immediately, our guide got on her cell phone with Egypt Air and gave us prices (which were comparable to the train), so we decided to change our plans and fly. In a way we were relieved, as I don’t think Kim especially wanted to take the train after the train station experiences (and friends have told us the train is a little shady). Amira spent the rest of the morning driving us to the Sheraton (we were able to book extra nights with our Starwood points), then to the Egypt Air office to buy tickets. Amira was awesome.

So our Cairo tour didn’t really get started until the afternoon, and since we were running behind, we decided to skip lunch. We visited three famous Mosques in what is known as Islamic Cairo, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, and then Coptic Cairo.

In Islamic Cairo, it seems like there is a Mosque on almost every corner. The mosques we visited, Ibn Toulud (dating from around 640 A.D.), Sultan Hassan, and Al Rifa’I, were definitely huge/impressive. While visiting the mosques, we witnessed an Imam doing the actual call-to-prayer, and learned a lot about Islam from our guide along the way.

After having visited the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, the bazaar in Cairo seemed less impressive. Plus, it was like a maze, so it was very easy to get lost in sketchy back alleys.

In Coptic Cairo, we visited the Hanging Church, a church from the Byzantine times, which was built on top of a Roman fortress.

On the way back to Giza, we visited an Egyptian cotton factory, where, by the way, I purchased my “Egypt” t-shirt. We ate a huge dinner back at the hotel to make up for not eating all day, then hit the sack, preparing for our 6:30am flight to Luxor the next morning. By the way, the Sheraton upgraded us this night, since we booked with Starwood points. Below was our new view.

Additional thoughts/notes:
- Having a guide in Cairo is a must. They are inexpensive, we learned a lot, and a driver is included to drop you off at your destinations and navigate the tricky streets of Cairo.
- The population of Egypt is ~80M, and even though Egypt is huge, the entire population lives along the banks of the Nile (97% of the country is desert). The population of Cairo is 20M (larger than Istanbul), ¼ that of the entire country.
- Tourism is Egypt’s largest industry, providing 60% of Egypt’s GDP. Second is cotton, and third is fees from the Suez canal. The tourism industry, and thus Egypt's entire economy, has been hit badly because of the swine flu.
- One piece of advice - In Egypt, stay at American hotel. We are glad we did.
- Turkey = beards; Cairo = mustaches
- Cairo - The Good: The pyramids and our hotel. The Bad: Everything else. I think our friend in Istanbul, Jonathan Pascual, put it best: "Take Cairo and then remove everything that's bad about it, and you have Istanbul."

- Below is a video of the call-to-prayer we meant to post while in Istanbul. The video is taken of the Blue Mosque from the roof of our hotel, which should give you an idea of how loud it was in our room. This happens 5 times a day.

Call To Prayer (Blue Mosque) - Istanbul, Turkey from Brian Burns on Vimeo.

Day 6 - Cairo, Egypt

At 9am we met our local guide, Amira. After last night’s fiasco at the airport, I was so glad we had an English-speaking guide for our two days in Cairo. Without her, I don’t know if I would have made it out of the hotel. Our first stop was the pyramids at Giza. While there are over 100 pyramids scattered across Egypt, these three are the largest, most well-preserved, and most famous. They are the burial sites for three generations of kings from the Old Kingdom, dating from around 2700 B.C. The pyramid of King Cheops is the largest (the Grand Pyramid), followed by his son Cafferin, followed by his son Menkaure. There are a few “baby” pyramids surrounding the larger ones for wives and daughters.

The Grand Pyramid is estimated to contain approximately 2,300,000 stones, each weighing several tons. The Egyptians quarried the stone several kilometers to the east and transported it to Giza by boat during the flood season of the Nile. We entered the second pyramid and saw the king’s burial chamber, although it was discovered empty, probably the victim of grave robbers.

While at the pyramids, Brian convinced/told me that we were going to take a camel ride. While this may seem innocent enough, I had just been told a story of how a woman broke her back falling off a camel, and had to stay months in an Egyptian hospital (aka hell). Add to this seeing one too many camel-related challenges on the Amazing Race, and I was fairly scared. It is not like riding a horse. You are about 8 feet up, and bobbing all over the place, and that’s only after you get up. Brian got some good video and pics of me as he was holding the camera – there was no way I was releasing my kung fu grip on that saddle. After we made it safely back and my feet touched the ground, I was much happier and glad we did it. However, I will probably not be riding a camel again anytime soon.

After the pyramids we saw the Sphinx and then stopped by a Papyrus factory to learn how papyrus paper is made. We then journeyed into downtown Cairo to the Egyptian Museum. Although only a few kilometers away, the trip took about an hour because of traffic. In the museum, we saw artifacts from the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms of Egypt, including the contents of Tutankahmen’s tomb (aka King Tut). He only ruled for seven years, and he had a lot of treasures, so one can only imagine what is in the undiscovered tombs of other kings.

After our tour we decided to go to the train station to purchase our tickets for the overnight train to Luxor the next evening. We couldn’t reserve tickets from the U.S. because you need to go in person with your passport. We left around 7pm, to try to avoid what we assumed would be rush hour. Little did we know that the worst traffic in Cairo is around 9pm [Note: there is no rush hour in Cairo, but instead, rush days (excluding Fridays, which is the Muslim holy day)... traffic usually ends at 1 or 2am, then kicks back up in the morning]. The cab ride to Giza station took about an hour (after figuring out exactly what train station to go to, which in of itself was unsettling). The driver dropped us off outside a dilapidated building with crowds of rowdy men outside it, indicating that this was the train station. We cautiously approached, and thankfully saw a sign in English indicating the line for foreigner reservations on the overnight train. And then we waited. Imagine me, the sole white woman, nay the sole woman, in a crowd of Arab men. Much oogling ensued. It was extremely uncomfortable, and I told Brian he was not to let me go. As we waited in “line,” men started pushing their way in front of us, and we kept getting pushed to the back. After 20 minutes, one friendly man helped us (i.e. me) get to the window. We asked to purchase tickets for the overnight train for the next night. The attendant asked, “Sit or sleep?” We responded, “Sleep.” “That’s the next window over,” he said. Great. Just Great.

Thankfully there’s no line at the next window. Unfortunately, there’s no attendant either. We wait for another 5 minutes, through another round of gawking, until a man leisurely approaches and asks us what we want. Again we tell him, and he says “Next window over.” But there are no more windows! We are thoroughly confused. Brian tries to get a better explanation from him as to the location, and the attendant calls over another rifle carrying guard. Awesome. They have a lively conversation in Arabic, with much pointing at us. Finally the guard approaches, and points to a small shack next to the building. This, he says, is where they sell tickets to the sleeper train. One minor problem. It is closed. He confidently tells us the window will open at 8am the next morning. Defeated, we find our cab driver and return to the hotel.

By this time, it is around 10:30pm and we are starving. We make our way through an Egyptian wedding happening at our hotel, to what else, than a Tex-Mex restaurant. We enter, and there is American rap music pumping and disco lights flashing. Apparently, it is “Party Hour” at the restaurant. The waiter asks if we want smoking or non-smoking, and we respond “non.” Then he proceeds to seat us next to the only other occupied table in the restaurant, where people are smoking. Non-smoking in Egypt is a relative term apparently. Alas, I am too tired to protest. With nachos in our belly, we go to bed, hoping to be more successful tomorrow.

Brian:
Additional Notes/Thoughts:
- Traffic: All I can say is wow. I thought Istanbul was bad - add to it no lanes, no traffic lights, no crosswalks, tons of pedestrians darting across the streets/highways, ten times the traffic, and you've got Cairo. If you happen to hit a pedestrian on a street (which seems highly likely), it is your fault, and you could be sentenced to death. However, if you hit a pedestrian on a highway, it is the pedestrian’s fault.
- True story: I saw two babies cross a busy 6 lane highway. I wish I had a picture.
- Below is a video we meant to publish in the Istanbul blog. It goes on for at about 5 - 10 minutes. I don't know how these guys don't get dizzy.

Whirling Dervish - Istanbul, Turkey from Brian Burns on Vimeo.

Cairo Airport - Ransom, Bribery, and Utter Chaos

We land in Cairo around 11:15pm. In order to pass through immigration, we had to get a Visa stamp in our passports. Our friends in Istanbul had already given us a hot tip that you have to get the Visas from these small bank windows before you get to immigration. Cool... we are a step ahead of everyone else. So, of course, we are one of the few people who actually get in line at the bank booths before proceeding to immigration.

[As quick background, we made sure to spend the rest of our Turkish Lira before leaving Turkey, as they would do us no good anywhere else. I also only had 5 US dollars left at this point. It is normally the easiest and most cost effective (exchange-rate wise) to get cash from an ATM once you are in the destination country, so we did not have any Egyptian Pounds yet either.]

When we get to the window, I hand the teller my debit card, but he shakes his head, says something in Arabic, and points to the ATM across the way. Ok, fine... they only take cash, so we'll go get cash. Minor problem - the ATM is out of service. So we look around for another ATM, but find none. We find an Egypt Air employee. The gist of the conversation is as follows:

Us: Hi, we need to get cash for a Visa stamp.

Airport employee: There’s an ATM over there.

Us: The ATM is out of service

Airport employee: No problem, there’s an ATM downstairs.

Us: Don’t we have to go through immigration to go downstairs?

Airport employee: Yes

Us: We can’t go through immigration without our Visa stamp.

Airport employee: No problem, you can get your Visa stamp at the bank teller over there.

Us: But they only take cash!

Airport employee: Oh, well there’s an ATM over there.

Us: Ummm… It’s broken!!

Airport employee: No problem, there is an ATM downstairs.

[Conversation continues in a circular manner without a solution]

So we locate an information desk and ask how to get cash for our Visa stamp. The conversation goes about the same as above, interspersed with interruptions from immigration guards asking what the problem was. Finally, he directs us to another bank window. The teller takes us through the same circular steps. After a while, he remembers that Thomas Cook bank has a working card reader. Thank goodness! We go to Thomas Cook and . . . their card reader is out of service. Great. And wouldn't you know it, we go around and around in circles with the teller trying to find a solution.

Keep in mind that no one we have spoken to yet understands us very well. And they are speaking to us in a mix of broken English and Arabic, making the situation even that much more frustrating. However, this time we aren’t leaving his window without results. After some time, we have apparently annoyed him enough. He calls over the guards. Uh oh!

They proceed to have discussions in Arabic. I take a look around and notice that there are only 3 non-employees left: myself, Kim, and an 80 year old hysterical lady, screaming at some of the guards in Arabic. We are now feeling very uncomfortable, as we are two Americans who can't communicate very well with anyone in this sketchy airport. One guard finally points at Kim and says "She stays," then looks at me and says, "You . . . follow him," pointing to one of the guards holding a rifle. My mind is now racing. I'm not sure what's going on, but then again, do I have any other choice? They mention I am going to an ATM. I'm pretty sure they are holding Kim here as ransom until I come back with money. Fine, I'll just come back with money. But what will happen if the foreign ATM rejects my card?! It happened a few times in Istanbul. I will try not think about this scenario.

As I start exiting immigration with the guard, the guard motions to the hysterical lady, now in tears. She joins us. Fantastic. The lady proceeds to yell at the guard in Arabic the entire time we walk. We make it to another guard checkpoint. The lady is now going up to every guard, grabbing their uniforms, pleading with them in Arabic (I can’t determine what about). I am just standing to the side watching this surreal scene. The guard who escorted me down comes over smiling, and asks (probably the only English phase he knows), "How much you pay me?" Thinking it is a joke, I don't answer. After about 15 minutes, the guards are still trying to calm the woman. In my head, all I'm thinking is, "PLEASE, just get me to the ATM." I know Kim is worried sick by now.

They finally let us pass, and we enter the baggage claim area. To the right, I see the ATMs. Hallelujah! However, I suddenly hear a loud uproar coming from the mob of people to my left. A brawl has broken out. Guards are joining in as the brawl grows, and the circle of people around it expands. This kind of thing only happens in movies. But then again, I'm in Egypt. I'm just praying that no gunfire breaks out. Our guard decides to watch for a little bit, unconcerned (almost like this was a common thing), then takes us toward the ATMs. As I use the ATM, I try my best to ignore the chaos behind me. My card is accepted!

Myself, the guard, and the hysterical lady (still hysterical), walk back toward immigration. The guard asks me once again, "How much you pay me?" He was dead serious. The ATM had only dispensed me 200 Egyptian pound bills (~$35 each), so I offered my last $5 bill. He gladly accepts the offering (i.e bribe). Whew!

I finally get back, and thankfully Kim is still there (and not detained somewhere). I can't wait to tell her what had just happened. Below is a picture she snapped of her captors.



By this time, it is almost 1am, and all we want to do is get a cab to our hotel in Giza (~45 mins away). A guard motions over the seemingly last cab driver left at this hour. Somehow, the hysterical lady has joined us again, and is now following us out to the cab. Oh no no no. I tell Kim (and subsequently, the cab driver) that we are not riding in the cab with her. So we make it to the cab, no hysterical lady, on our way to Giza at 1am. As if we hadn't been through enough, now we get to experience driving in Cairo (yes there’s traffic at 1am) . . . . more on Cairo driving later.

Day 5 - Istanbul

Our last day in Istanbul. We decided to do a little bit of shopping up at Taksim Square/Istiklal St. (the trendy section of town). I purchased my obligatory t-shirt with the city's name on it (yes, I plan to do this in every city). Actually, I ended up getting two only because I felt like haggling. For lunch, we went with our go-to meal: Doner Kebabs. It hit the spot.

After this, we headed to a Hamam (Turkish Bath). We weren't quite sure what to expect. The Hamam we went to, Cagaloglu Hamami, is listed in the "1000 Places To See Before You Die", and they made sure to let you know this fact. When we arrived, I made a critical error by entering unknowingly into the women's side of the Hamam. In my defense, the entrance was not labeled and was on a separate street from the guy's entrance. I walked in, pranced through beads, and before me sat dozens of half naked women. Before I could even realized what was happening, one of the women Hamam workers (who could've easily snapped me in two) came at me with a horrified face, and "corrected" my error.

Still shaken from the incident, I went to my side of the Hamam. In the changing room, I wasn't sure how much clothing they expected me to be in. I came out in my bathing suit at first, but they said "No no no... towel only". They gave me oversized, wooden clogs to wear (they got much amusement watching me stumble around in them) then took me to a huge (and I mean huge) marble sauna. I sat there alone for about 15 minutes (dousing my face with cold water at the bathing stations to keep from passing out) and was starting to wonder if they had forgotten about me. Then the dungeon-like door opened. It was my Turkish "bather." With towel on, I got heavily scrubbed, soaped, cleaned, and massaged. Some of it was intense (almost painful), but all-in-all I felt pretty good afterwards. I would say the Hamam is something you have to do once, but I'm not sure I would do it again. Kim later gave me a similar report from the women's side.

Afterwards, as I was waiting for Kim across the street from the women's side of the Hamam, I made friends with a Turkish native, Mario. Great guy... we talked for 30 mins or so about life, politics, marriage, etc... and we even drank tea together. Then he tried to sell me carpet. Oh well.

In the evening, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Cairo. At the airport, we finally broke down and ate some good ole American fast food: Burger King. Fully relaxed and recharged, we were now ready for Cairo!

Additional notes/thoughts:

- Istanbul has a lot of hills.
- It is very hard to dispute a restaurant bill when the waiter only speaks Turkish (they usually win the debate).
- In Turkey, just remember that Ataturk is the man.
- The infrastructure is so old in Turkey that nobody drinks the tap water, but that's not a problem because bottled water is cheap and abundant. You can buy it from street vendors on every corner for ~35 cents.
- Besides water, Turkey is big on street food. Everywhere there are stands selling ice cream and doner kebab, but more interesting are the stands selling hunks of watermelon, roasted chesnuts (in July?), simit (pretzel-like bread rings covered in sesame seeds), and the ubiquitous corn. Yes corn - on the cob. For ~75 cents, you can get an ear, either boiled or grilled over hot coals. The grilled one kind of tastes like popcorn.

Day 4 - Istanbul

This was the first day we woke up feeling refreshed with a good night's sleep. We headed out early to catch the Bosphorus Cruise. The Bosphorus Straight separates Europe and Asia (Istanbul spans two continents). There are many palaces, summer homes, fortresses, and other cool sights to see on both the Europe and Asia side during the two hour cruise. We disembarked at Anadolu Kavagi on the Asia side and decided to walk up a small "mountain" (er . . . hill) to see the remains of a Byzantine castle (most people chose to cab it). We quickly found out how out of shape we were. Thirty minutes later, we made it, sunburnt, sweaty, and tired. However, the views from the top made the journey worthwhile (Istanbul to the South, the Black Sea to the North). Castle #1 (of hopefully many): check.
Going back down was much easier.

We grabbed lunch at a seafood restaurant by the water. We were told not to eat seafood from the Bosphorus (it is very dirty/polluted), so we made sure to order non-Bosphorus fish. Our table was so close to the water that we had to lift our legs every time the wake came in from passing boats!

That night we dined at Mikla on the roof of the Maramara Pera Hotel. The 360 degree views of the city from up there were absolutely unbelievable (they are supposed to have one of the best views in Istanbul). The food was fantastic as well. After we were finished eating, we moved up one floor to the swanky restaurant bar for a drink. We chilled on the outdoor couches for a while taking in the breathtaking view and the fireworks shows going on in different areas of the city (there was no occasion... maybe it happens every Saturday night). Also, we are pretty sure the guy next to us on the couch was the Linkin Park drummer.

Day 3 - Istanbul

So for the second night in a row, we had trouble falling asleep... we were awake until 4am this time. Our bodies don't want to switch over to Istanbul time. And once again, we got a late start in the morning, eating breakfast then setting off around 11:30am.

We spent most of the day at the Topkapi Palace. Since I am not really a jewels guy, I wasn't too interested in the imperial treasures (though quite impressive). However, I did like looking at the relics the Ottoman's captured during their conquest of Egypt. Where else can you see Moses's staff, John the Baptist's right arm (yes, his actual arm), and Mohammed's beard and tooth? We paid the extra admission fee to go further into the palace and check out the Sultan's Harem. The Sultan had an interesting set up. He had hundreds of concubines for the choosing living within the harem walls, arranged in a hierarchy according to his favorites. There was one sultan who had his entire harem of 280 women tied in sacks and throw into the Bosphorus Strait when he tired of them. The men who guarded the harem had to be castrated (the Eunuchs). Despite all of this, being a Eunuch or concubine seemed to be highly coveted positions.

After the palace, we traveled to the Grand Bazaar, the largest covered bazaar in the world with over 4000 shops (employing 30,000 people). The Bazaar was basically a huge maze . . . we got lost many times and vendors accost you with the few English phrases they've learned, such as "Let me sell you something you don't need." Items have no set price, so you basically have to negotiate with vendors. I didn't really want anything, but after a few minutes Kim decided she wanted some small bowls. Time for me to start haggling. After surveying the prices of bowls at 10 different vendors, I engaged. Kim's job was to walk away as if disinterested. Eventually, after Kim started getting frustrated with my cut-throat negotiations, I settled on what I thought to be a good deal. Mission accomplished.

For dinner, we met up with a few American friends who now live in Turkey.

Days 1 & 2 - Welcome to Istanbul

Day 1

Brian: After 15 hours of flying we arrived in Istanbul safe and sound. Turkish Airways rocked. Dinner and breakfast, socks, eye masks, foot rests, on-demand movies/games... you name it, they had it.

Once we arrived, our driver, Dennis, was there to pick us up. As it turns out, Istanbul drivers are about five times more aggressive than Boston drivers. During the half-hour journey to the hotel, Dennis almost ran out of gas once (we were literally in neutral coasting down a hill to the gas station), and later on while Dennis was chatting on his cell phone, we almost got hit by a train. I think Kim had her eyes closed the rest of the journey

We are staying in Sultanahmet, or the old town, which is within walking distance of all the sights. Our hotel has a great view of Istanbul from the roof deck (where we ate breakfast the following morning). It was fairly late when we got in, but we decided to venture out for some food. We grabbed some Kebabs and met this nice couple from Isreal. The Kebabs were inexpensive, and really hit the spot.

Day 2

I was not able to sleep much last night, as my body was still in Atlanta time (I don't think we both fell asleep for good until after 5am). It doesn't help that the call to prayer starts blaring through huge megaphones around 4:30am from the Blue Mosque (right across the street from our hotel). Earplugs may be in order tonight.

Kim: After a restless night, we finally awakened at 10am. Even though we got a late start, we were able to see Sultanahment Camii (the Blue Mosque), Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern, and the Hippodrome.

Hagia Sophia was awe inspiring, dating from the 5th century A.D. It was really interesting to see Islamic art and religious symbols next to Byzantine Christian mosaics. The church was converted to a mosque by the Ottoman Turks around the mid 1400s, and they plastered over all of the Christian mosaics. When Ataturk declared Hagia Sophia a museum in the 1930s, they began a restoration process that included uncovering some of the mosaics. This is all that is left of the most famous mosaic depicting Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist.

Besides sights, one of the more interesting things about Istanbul is the juxtaposition of East and West, tradition and modernity. Last night we were having beers with locals during the Islamic call to prayer, and today I saw a woman totally covered in a black head scarf (even her eyes), but carrying a Louis Vuitton bag. Turkey, and particularly Istanbul, is experiencing an interesting transition as it tries to positions itself as a modern European nation.

Brian - This evening we walked up to the Spice Bazaar. The number of spices on display is quite amazing. One thing that's tough for me to understand is how these vendors make money when competing with 50 other vendors selling the same spices. They certainly weren't shy about trying to get you to buy some. As much as we wanted to, Kim and I didn't really have a need for 1 kilo of paprika. However, I definitely had a need to try some turkish delight (lokum). It was... delightful!

Kim: After the spice bazaar, we walked across the Galata bridge and up to the Galata Tower for amazing views of the city. We took a time out for some pre-dinner drinks on what turned out to be our very own private terrace (a bar on top of a nearby hotel).

After a peaceful respite, we trekked uphill to Istiklal Caddesi, the main street of the new town. In this swanky area of the city, you're hard-pressed to find a headscarf in site, and shop after shop is evidence of booming consumerism. We chowed down on Turkish pizza and lamb shish kebab for dinner at Konak, and then headed back across the Golden Horn for bed.

Additional notes/thoughts:

- I was very happy to find out today that Turkish people know Georgia as the land of peanuts and Jimmy Carter.
- Turkey has lots of stray cats.
- Turkey blocks YouTube :( This is making it difficult to upload all our video clips... may have to wait for a country with less censorship.

Departure Day

Alright, we are headed out today! I'm hoping we are not forgetting anything. We have made sure that our bags to be checked are under the 20kg (44lbs) limit for some of the European discount airlines. Right now, we are under the limit at ~29lbs for kim's suitcase and ~37lbs for my suitcase (I have 10lbs of travel guides in mine).

Here's a quick look at some of the gadgets and accessories we packed.

And we're off!!!

Packing is Fun

Today we're trying to get every little thing done before we leave, which can be tiring, especially when you're a cat. Zoey desperately wants us to take her along.