Half Hour of Moaning

The other day from 7:00 am until 7:30 am there was some craziness in the house of
Paqui. Paqui was at work and Maribel (the oldest sister) was in charge of the kids for the morning and I don't think she did a good job. Pablo was moaning the entire morning, out of control. I am not sure if he was eating his breakfast and stroking himself or just hanging out on the couch moaning. There was also lots of fighting going on with crazy, loud, fast, angry, Spanish being thrown around. I also think I might have heard a minor beat down, but I'm not sure. I heard what sounded like hitting but I don't know who was doing it or who the victim was. I think Maribel tried to scold Pablo for his noises but the end result was a continuation of loud moaning until he left. I really wanted to walk out of my room and create an awkward situation but I did not have the balls to do it because it would have been really awkward for me too.

I Love Friends, Who Have Friends, Who Have Friends With Cool Shit

Very true. I would like to live off of these friends of friends forever but unfortunately it's not possible so I'll take the weekends that I can get. The white house below is where I took my weekend.

Lauren came to visit Granada last weekend with Jesse and it was really good to see someone from home and speak English. I had Spanish overload in Egypt which is good, but sometimes I can only take so much of not knowing what was going on so it was nice to be able to fully understand a conversation. They spent a few days in Granada and then we went to La Herradura which is on the coast about an hour and a half from Granada. Jesse's friend was and still is house-sitting and invited us to stay for the weekend. I was actually almost reluctant to go since I had been away for so long. I guess I though it would be good to spend some time relaxing in Granada. Luckily I came to my senses and went with them. The house was absolutely amazing. It's one of those houses you think you will never be able to actually see. The view was perfect and it was hot out. I was sweating doing nothing and got a little tan. I now have a retirement goal, haha.

I have been in school about two weeks. Right now I only have one class a day until I start my classes at the university February 18th. I missed the orientation week so I have not had a chance to meet everyone. Unfortunately I can already tell there are many people I need to stay away from, a sorostitute nightmare if you will. I have met some people that I can potentially hang out with so I am happy not everyone is obnoxious. My friend Kelsy will be in Spain this weekend so I know I'll see her a lot. But I think this semester I am going to focus on the Spanish friends and hopefully I'll meet some more through the university.

So far everything has been back to normal at Paqui's, although Pablo has been out of control lately. He has been having at least three loud, crazy fits a day. Paqui needs to slap him upside the head and tell his ass to grow up. I actually find his fits humorous but I do bad for Paqui.

Hola Hola Pepsi Cola, Te Engaño Menos Aquí

You can barely see me but I'm to the left, and this is the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza.

The Spinx at the Pyramids of Giza

Hello Pepsi Cola, I deceive you less here

The combination of the above phrases might be my favorite thing about Egypt, well not really but I think it's funny. I was never lucky enough to hear these two together but the Egyptians should really think about combining them for ultimate fun. I probably heard Hola Hola Pepsi Cola at least 100 plus times throughout the trip. The vendors knew the group I was with was Spanish and this was the greeting we received in the markets, hotels, cabs, and walking down the street. I really got a enjoyed it and probably said it 100 times myself. The "Te engaño menos aqui" I heard in a the Cairo market and thought it was very appropriate and a great way to lure people in your store. It shows that the Egyptians have retained some of the genius of their ancestors from 5,000 years ago.

Anyway I have a lot to say about Egypt so this post might be a little disorganized so bear with it. I thought I would by mapping out where I went. I flew from Spain into Luxor and took a four day cruise down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan. The first day was hardcore sightseeing (we started at 5:30 am and went until 4:00 pm) in and near Luxor including Karnak Temple, the largest but not best preserved, and the Valley of the Kings, where many of the tombs are including King Tut. I saw a lot of stone and hieroglyphics in one day, I am almost fluent. When we returned to the cruise ship we were greeted by locals in their rowboats ready to sell us chilabas (the long dress/shirts, of course I bought one but not off the boat) and other crap. This was highly entertaining and a bit of a shit-show. The vendors basically just start launching items onto the cruise ship and then from there you have to fight for your price like you do with everything in Egypt. The Spanish say "regatea hasta la muerte" which means barter to the death and it's true and actually a lot of fun.

We cruised through the night and then landed up in Edfu to go to another temple and check out some more stone and then we had a cruise during the day to reach another temple to view at night. The cruise down the Nile during the day was fantastic and beautiful. After the night visit to the temple we cruised again during the night and landed up in Aswan where I stayed up until 2:30 am to take a bus to go to Abu Simbel which is the best preserved temple in Egypt. It was quite impressive, even though they had to move the temple from it's original location because of the creation of a lake. I spent about two full days in Aswan and from there I flew to Cairo which is where the pyramids are located. I have been so lucky to see a lot while I have been traveling and living in Spain but The Pyramids of Giza are by far the most insane site I have seen. They are beyond impressive and it blows my mind that they are 5,000 years old. They are massive, even the smallest of the three is huge. I was able to go into the second largest one and that was kind of scary. There was a really narrow passage about 4 feet tall that went down and then back up and into the tomb. I got kind of a claustrophobic feeling but now it's worth it to say I have been inside a pyramid.

In Cairo we also saw the oldest pyramid in Egypt called Zoser. Also impressive but not as much as Giza. (pictured above)

My new Spanish Friends

On top of all of the sites being breathtaking I actually made some friends!! After I arrived in Luxor we took a bus to the boat and there happened to be a group of 8 Spanish people staying on my boat and we were the first and only ones there so they immediately told me I could hang out with them and from then on I had friends. The first night I felt awkward because when 8 Spanish people are speaking rapidly, telling jokes, and asking you questions and everyone is silent for the answer, it can be a little intimidating. But I adjusted, although I still had some trouble with the jokes. I think that is one of the hardest things, when everyone is laughing about something and you can't because you don't understand. It's frustrating but hopefully with time I'll get there. They were patient and attempted to explain things to me and I attempted to understand.

It's hard to say what I think of the Egyptian people because most people I encountered wanted my money. But for the most part, the sincere people I did meet, I really liked. Our guide who was from Cairo and spoke amazing Spanish was great and very intelligent. He was really helpful and spent some of his free time just hanging out with us. The bartenders on the boat where also very cool, the Spanish people I met could not say one of the bartender's name, Chezley, so we changed he name to Antonio and he took it well. I actually think by the end he liked his new name. In Cairo I met a cool guy named, well take a guess...Mohammad in the street selling bananas, which were probably the best bananas I have ever had. They were small, but I think I ate like 10. Anyway he was eating something that seemed to be hummus like and I wanted in so he took me to another street vendor to buy it. Thankfully I got it to go because it was not at all hummus like and it tasted like ass so at least I did not have to pretend to like it. Overall thought, I liked the food. They use a lot of eggplant and spices. I think I ate eggplant almost everyday.

Traffic. Cairo has the most insane traffic I have ever seen in my life. Nearly 20 million people live there, about 4 million cars, and there are no traffic lights. OK well there are some but they don't work and everyone ignores them if they do so there is horn honking at all hours of the day nonstop. Many times you can't make a left hand turn where you want so you have to drive all the to the end of the street (sometimes really far in traffic) and make a u-turn. I took a few cabs and I thought I was going to die because on top of horrible traffic they don't know how to drive and therefore drive CRAZY. The one positive regarding the taxis is that they are cheap but you have to work for it. One always needs to barter with the drivers, but you can always find a good deal. We had one cab driver for almost 3 hours because he drove us out of the city to another pyramid, waited for us, then took us across town to the market and the total cost was about 3 euros per person, not bad. Pedestrians also have not rights. There are no cross-walks or anywhere safe for people to cross the street. You just have to walk across and hope people stop. I was not a fan of this and therefore only crossed the street 2 when I was went to eat with this Egyptian from the travel agency and he had to drag me across. Not fun. I thought the Italians drove crazy but they don't even come close to the Egyptians.

Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir al Bahari (Near Luxor)

Cruising Down the Nile River

At Abu Simbel (South of Aswan) in front of King Ramses's Temple

As it should be no surprise to anyone Egypt is poor and the result is everyone wants your money and tries to sell you stuff. Any time we left our cruise ship we were chases by people selling all sorts of crap from cigarettes to jewelry and more. A few times I said hi or waved to some of the kids and they would respond the same and then look at me and rub there fingers together asking for money. I usually just laughed, in fact I laughed at a lot of people because some of their methods of persuasion.

The City of the Dead is where people live in Egypt for free among graves and mausoleums. It's a huge part of the city, about 8 km. We took a ride through some parts in a taxi which was interesting but sad. I kind of wanted to walk through it but we were advised not to.

City of the Dead

Below is a good example of what a lot of the buildings look like in Cairo. Again this is where a lot of the poor people live but these are not free. The reason the top of the building looks unfinished is so that they can add on when they have kids, their kids have kids, and so on. So once more space is needed they add on to the top. The construction is not of very good quality It blows my mind that the Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids but the Modern Egyptians can's seem to figure it out.

So that was a rambling mess. I'm sorry!

¡Reyes Felices! (Happy Kings, it´s a Spanish Holiday)

Granada

Barcelona

¡Feliz año nuevo! Matt has already come and gone. He did finally make it to Granada on Christmas day. We had a fantastic time together. It was almost like we had not been apart for four months, so I am happy to say that I know we can make it another 6 or 7 months. I was not really worried but it´s good to have the reassurance. We spent a few days in Granada and really did not do much besides wander around and eat (big surprise). Then we went to Barcelona and we stayed at a B&B. It was a really nice place but it was kind of up a hill, maybe more than a little hill, haha. Matt was not to happy about that situation and had some super dramatic moments walking up, I am sure some of you can imagine. This time in Barcelona I went in the Sagrada Familia and I must say the inside is not very exciting considering it is almost completely filled with Europe´s favorite addition to it´s landmarks, scaffolding. I can´t believe they charge people to go in and see the inside, but on the one hand I know the money goes to the completion, with will not be for another 50 years. So I guess I am saying if you go to the Barcelona you don´t need to go in. We also went to the Picasso Museum and although I liked it more than Matt we both agreed the highlighted feature was a drawing of a man, holding a turkey, masturbating, and a turd hanging out of his ass. Quite interesting, I´d love to have a copy. We also meet up with Rooney in Barcelona, we are friends again, yeah!

From Barcelona we went to Paris. I forgot how crazy expensive Paris can be, like in most restaurants it´s 4-5 euros for a Coke. Maybe there is actually cocaine in the Coke in Paris and I don´t know about it, that would at least make the cost reasonable. My new year´s eve countdown was spent in a metro car. At least Matt and I had our own car so it was semi-romantic. We were on our way to the Eiffel Tower and were running a little late. We mad it and hung out and watched the lights go off. It was crazy crowded, but we found a bench to chill on that was away from the crowd. We actually got quite drunk, drunk enough where I lost my gloves and I was hungover as hell the next day. My first hangover in Europe, I guess the 11.6 % Amsterdam beer was not a good idea. We also went to the Lourve, Matt did not seem to like it so much and two trips have been enough for me. I did achieve my goal of finding a reasonably priced, good meal so I was happy about that (Thank you Rick Steves). Of course we had to go through a really bad over priced meal before we could find a good one.

We ended our trip in Madrid and I am still here. I actually like Madrid much more than I expected, although I did not get to go to the Prado (a museum) that I wanted to see because today is a holiday in Spain, The day of the Kings. Today is the day the Spanish exchange gifts and I am an ass and did not think about it when planning my time here. Yesterday I went to Segovia which is about an hour north of Madrid. It was really cool, but it rained all day so I walked around in the rain for 4 hours. I´m irritated with my poor planning, but I know I´ll be back here before I leave since I fly out of Madrid so I´ll make it to the museum eventually.

Segovia

It´s been a little lonely since Matt has left, but tomorrow I am leaving with Egypt and will be thrown into a group of Spanish people that will have to be my friend whether they like it or not.

I met an American tool in my hostel yesterday. I went out with some hostel people and he was getting drunk American style, yelling, arms in the air, sad attempts at trying to pick up Spanish chicks, haha.

I am so behind on pictures. Expect loads when I return in a little over a week.