Summer Travel 2011

---

This summer I planned to go to Istanbul by car once again but fate brought me to Cairo and almost all plans I had went to hell, which wasnt a bad thing cos it brought me to the craziest places and put funny adventures upon me.

The trip to Istanbul went surprisingly well, Couchsurfing in Austria, staying at a Badukschool in Budapest,chilling out in Romania and then camping for 3 days in Bulgaria living off Pizza and melted cheese. Also Turkey didnt make any problems and Istanbul has great nightlife and a lot of interesting sights. But now to Egypt ;
Cairo is huge, dirty, loud, unfriendly, often rip-off and complicated city. After taking bus and metro twice I decided to stick to cabs and bargain about the price. For me it all went well but almost all my friends got ripped off by taxi drivers. To keep it short : Cairo sucked. The city itself at the moment is only interesting because of its people and the aftermath or ongoing (subject for discussion) of revolution but not as a city itself. Yeah pyramides and markets are worth seeing but once u've seen them you're bored. Unless you know Egyptians..And here we come to the important part : I never met so many interesting and cool people who wanted to be my friends as in Egypt, they welcomed me, helped me if needed and even their families made me feel welcome. Also the political situation is strange - there is basically no government but military is in control. In spite of the situation its relatively safe. It's extremely interesting to talk to young people - almost all of them participated in the demonstrations in Tahrir and have a strong political opinion.

As a tourist (woman) you are spotted from miles away and some run after you telling bullshit or even insulting and others want to engage you in a conversation or welcome you to Egypt.
I must admit I had a lot of difficulties with being a single redhead white woman in Egypt since it was much more conservative than I had thought and also much hotter (up to 40°C without wind and superpoluted). People see you from miles away and walk after you, call all their friends and stare, sometimes in a friendly situation, sometimes not so much. However with my mean person skills I always stayed away from trouble although it was really close sometimes :o)
Also a typical thing all people say - the poorest were the nicest. Stereotype but also fact.

After flying back to Istanbul I jumped into my car and drove to Macedonia but couldnt enter it so all my plans meeting friends went to hell and I went back over Bulgaria & Romania all alone, sleeping in the car on mountains and sometimes only eating bread for days. Only me and Muffin and adventure.

Some pics were contributed by David

---

Comments

[chriss]

<3
omg omg this dog was sooo amazing! i met him through sibiu several times that weekend and he was soooo nice and friendly and dkajsdahdsajkdad had the most beautiful dog-eyes ive ever seen!