nicole visits

Our friend Nicole came to visit. Within a couple of hours of getting off of the plane, we had her with one of our local watery beers in one hand, a hookah in the other, and a plate of babganough in front of her. The pyramids were right in front of us. We waited for sunset to watch the laser light show since we had arrived right at the moment when the park closed, so we waited for the light show instead.


We experienced that same night the sound and light show at the pyramids in all its splendor. For those of you who have not attended this magnificent performance, the Sphinx narrates the history of the world, briefly, to the most dramatic of orchestral music imaginable while hundreds of tourists sit on folding chairs in rapt attention.

This is part of Islamic Cairo. Modern concrete buildings sit side by side with historic mosques.


This is a typical house from, probably, a hundred years ago. The windows have intricate wooden lattice work so that the ladies of the house can watch the happenings of the street while no one can see inside.


This is the wadi close to Maadi - the rhyming was unintentional there. Wadi means a dry river bed. This is our typical Thursday exercise route/ happy hour spot.



We took a trip to Hurghada, which is a beach town on the west side of the Red Sea - on the mainland, not the Sinai peninsula. It's the middle of the winter here, so one day was sunny and hot and the other was cloudy and cold.

We took a small trip into the desert. Basically every tourist in Hurghada is taken to the same spot to check out the Bedoins in the desert. I look alone on the hill, but there are many tourists down below.
All three of us in front of a spot where you can see a mirage.


Sunset.

Camel.