merry christmas

k+ a: hello friends. merry christmas!

k: until last night, we were in jewish/muslim countries for a while ...

k: the nile, as seen from our hotel's rooftop pool/bar/cafe. it was about 75 degrees outside, sunny every day.









k: ann's favorite activity: menu browsing


k: I, of course, went for a swim.

*****

a: we said good bye to sunbathing and hello to frigid berlin weather. it was actually kind of nice to have it cold for xmas eve when we arrived.

k: yeah, I'm not so in love with the whole cold-weather-for-christmas thing, but it's nice to be back in berlin. the middle eastern part of the trip was interesting and fun and weird and nice and upsetting and revelatory and surprising, etc (more on that to come) and now Berlin seems like home or something. there's christmas music. women aren't wearing veils. the water's safe to drink. that kind of stuff. very nice.

a: this is me posing with the nice 40 cent christmas lights we bought at the sort of dollar store in cairo



k: our attempt at a bad christmas post card shot


k: here's the view from our 10th floor "wintergarten" bed. I almost want to move here.

*******

a: more catch up pictures to come (jerusalem/cairo/luxor). we are in berlin till jan 11 so we expect to try to get some work done. I will talk more about the great place we have...and it has a drawing/studio/writing room with two desks - awesome!

*******

a + k: merry christmas!

luxor

k: after a somewhat grueling 11-hour train ride, we're in luxor.
a: ah, yes...good ol' day train trip in first class....or wait?...
k: let's see ... I once took a 22-hour train ride through rural china. this was only 45% better.
a: I enjoyed the "wet and cozy" bathrooms...oh, so inviting.
k: anyway, we're in luxor now. I like to think of it as "the egyptian las vegas" to cairo's "middle eastern version of a mostly third world manhattan in the '70s."
a: wait, keith, did they slaughter sheep in the road in ny in the 70's?
k: hmm, I guess that's the third world part.
a: ah, yes.
k: our hotel ($52/night) has three things we're excited about: 1) internet, 2) tv, and 3) a heated rooftop pool. we know, we know - we didn't travel halfway around the world to sit around in the hotel on the internet, etc., but after the exhausting mess that was cairo, this is a really nice break/temporary luxury.
a: I still wouldn't say luxury - there isn't a fancy lobby, in fact it looks like a cross between a jewelry shop, 7-eleven and a disco. let me clarify though - I haven't said I was "this happy" in a while! but kidding aside, we are excited to see the James Bond sites of Luxor (just hope Jaws doesn't get us...)
k: and now, at 9:49 pm local time, we will probably start falling asleep. our train's early departure had us up at 6 this morning ...

cairo

so ... cairo. where to begin? ... the cows roaming the dirt streets downtown? the "do not flush toilet paper in the toilet" sign (and the accompanying "poop paper basket") in our bathroom? tomorrow's impending "sheep slaughter in the streets" holiday? (we're totally serious on that one.) the headless cow carcass being butchered in the middle of the mud road on our way through a small village on the route to some (not-Great, just these other ones they will gladly tell you are "so very nice and beautiful and you will like...") pyramids? or the french-owned, half-egyptian-run hotel/hostel we're staying in that is so up in your business at all times that you think they may come into the room (while you're there ... say, like, sleeping) and ask if "you are enjoying the nice and beautiful rooms of this wonderful hotel place?" (last night, we asked for a roll of toilet paper around 11 pm. this single, simple request was fulfilled with the assistance of no less than three hotel employees - and required that they come into our room to deliver it. but it's not really in a "wow, this is amazing customer service" sort of way, it's about 1000 times creepier and more annoying. like, don't you guys have anything to do?) but the place is ok, we just have now completely confirmed that we don't like hotels. we like renting apartments/flats and BEING LEFT THE HELL ALONE. yes, oh yes, the ameri/euro way. it's so touristy here it's nuts - everywhere you go there are tourist touts.

still, cairo is fun and interesting, and we look forward to heading down to Luxor for a few days (staring with a 13 hour train ride on Friday), but we're looking forward to getting back to berlin after this weirdness. a lovely christmas present.

ps - we really are excited about sheep slaughter day. it should be memorable! ahh ... one for the old scrapbook.
-a & k

athens

the ride from the port town of patras into athens, greece was seriously beautiful and, remarkably, entertaining.

I'm usually bored of looking out of a window after, oh, say, 5 minutes ... but this was different. we took a sort of commuter-express train along the coast from the town where the ferry dropped us off (patras) into athens. it was sort of a train/tram hybrid, and there were a lot of shady dudes hanging out on the tracks, doing who knows what. but the view from the windows was dramatically dynamic: picturesque coastline one minute, mountains and cliffs another, rough rural villages the next.







one of the first things we did in Athens (like every other city we've been to/go to) was to head to the central food market. athens' market was hectic and large, with each stall specialising in particularly narrow ranges of specialties, like "the olives guys" (who have who stands that only sell olives) and "the small fish guys" (you get it), etc.

the pita we got here was unmatched. the rest, eh, it was just "euro good," but not super remarkable.

this is one of the best ideas I've had - taking digital pictures of maps/info. instead of copying it down onto paper or pulling out a big, dumb tourist map, we just discreetly zoom in to the map/info pictures on our digital cameras (we hold them like we're checking text messages on cell phones while doing this to further help the tourist camouflage). it works beautifully.


this view of the Parthenon at night was everywhere around the city. look up and ... hey, 2,500 years of history.


we went out to dinner at a place in this touristy-but-you-gotta-see-it part of town call the Plaka (sort of like any "old city" part of any town - small, winding streets, lots of tourist junk shops, etc.). ann made friends with the greek dish moussaka ... and a stray cat we named Mr. Moussaka.
a: yeah, he jumped onto the chair next to me and fell asleep on my purse. I asked when the bill came if the cat came with the bill and the waiter said, "you like, you take cat!"


on sunday, we went to the market/flea market in a central part of town called monastiraki. we then stumbled into some ruins called the agora. they were more intact than the parthenon and, in many ways, more interesting.


ann got new sunglasses in italy.











here's the flea market


here's me with a giant donut. they were popular with the locals - and me.


this is souvlaki. it's a pita rollup with a weird kebab/hot dog hybrid meat in it that is spiced well and actually quite delicious. it's the "hamburger of greece."
a: this place also had the best fries ever!



we took a day trip to the island of Hydra. the ferry left early in the morning and took about an hour an a half.

hydra has been protected from cars and development for many years now, so it retains an "old greece" feel, however artificial it may or may not be.


the first thing we saw there was locals buying fresh fish right off of recently returned fishing boats pulled into the harbor. the cats (hydra is completely covered in wild ones) all gathered looking for handouts.


hydra is the island leonard cohen lived on in the '60s and where he wrote most of the "songs from a room" album (you know, "bird on a wire," etc.). here's me sort of recreating a photo of him on the island at the time that I once saw somewhere.


ann, crazy-cat-lady-in-training once again made friends with the wild ones.
a: I can't help it...they come to me!

meow!



the water was clear, but we suspected it was also quite cold.











this qualifies as a "beach" on hydra - a ladder over the side of the rock cliff. I love the Europeans sense of personal liability and their lack of public liability lawsuits. this type of thing - so cool, only a little dangerous - sadly would NEVER be OK in America. but here, whatever, swim, try not to die - it's up to you. and your responsibility.


the water was cold. and the air was about 62 degrees.

this was another "beach." but we kept it in mind ...


we hiked to the top of the island. it's a harbor and then a large, large hill.


this was the view.


this was the hike.


most people use donkey taxis to get their things transported around the island. we saw one donkey carrying huge loads of drywall and plywood!


back at the old swimmin' ledge.


ann decided to dip a toe in the aegean sea.


it was cold.


confirmed.


then ann went for the playful splash ...


and a half-dip!


I stripped down to my travel underoos.


and dove in.
a: so did I....I think looking back it wasn't much different to swimming in lake michigan when it is on the cold side. oh, but much saltier!


it was cold, but great.


another view of the sweet swimmin' cliff.





a post-swim walk around the other side of the island's outer ring.


to find a secluded second harbor.


waiting on the dock for the ferry home.


back in athens, the grocery stores stocked some unusual items in the freezer case.


out first athens apartment.
a: I think it smelled like a wet dog who just had a perm died in the attic. keith said he couldn't smell anything. I think his nose is broken. but maybe not, because we seem to have another run at a smelly place in jerusalem (this time sewage smell) and he can smell it :) oh, but our second place in athens was a dream...more pics hopefully to come!


more insta-map/guidebooking.


hello!





the 1896 olympic stadium in athens.





my coat's "breadstick pocket"
a: A real life-saver!

temple to zeus in downtown athens.








hey hipsters!


a stray dog (one of about a million in athens) on the hike up to the parthenon.





the parthenon.


the temple next to the parthenon














view from the parthenon (with sea in the distance)





we went out to dinner in a trendy part of town called Kolonaki


got the lamb - delicious.
a: seriously amazing! the meat fell off the bone and it was in a light lemon/egg sauce with giant artichokes.


and "giant beans" (that's really what they call them) - also good.


we snuck up to the bar at the top of the hilton hotel. it's famous for the view - and charges about $20 a drink!


ann realized she really likes fancy hotels.
a: yes, I can't deny it. I think I am fancy at heart.


more agora.














more soon.