Egypt & Jordan

Olga & I found ourselves with quite a bit of free time at the beginning of January and decided to escape the fine winter weather here in Moscow. I know the weather here has been mild compared to what our friends and family have just endured in the midwest, but hey, you decided to live there! I believe the sun has been out maybe 5 days here since the first of November and while the snow is pretty when it first falls it gets quite dirty here due to the amount of sand put down.

We found ourselves with this free time because: a) I have nothing to keep me from taking off at a moments notice except a dual-entry visa; and b) Russia had a very long holiday period from January 1 - 10. The only real hurdles we had to overcome were finding a reasonable price and an available flight. With the entire country basically shut down for 10 days and the weather being snowy with temperatures between -18C and -7C, everyone was looking to get away!

We spent some time relaxing on the beach in Sharm El Sheik and took two day trips. The first trip was to Cairo and the second to Petra, Jordan, also known as the lost city. Here is a link if you want to know more about Petra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra

Here's what we thought about the cities:

Cairo - This city is HUGE and is only dwarfed by the size of the pyramids that literally sit at the edge of the city. There are approximately 18 - 20 million people that live in Cairo, which combined with the desert being at its doorstep caused it to be quite dirty. There are over 70,000 mosques in the city, which adds to the architectural qualities. The housing is much different than we are used to in the western world. When looking around it appears as though most of the buildings are still under construction, but our guide informed us that most are actually completed. In their culture it is common for the family to continue to build up as the family grows. For instance, the parents live on the ground floor and the first son to get married will then add a second floor for his family, and so on. The economy is struggling so the street hustling can get a bit overwhelming, one just needs to be vigilant and either continue to say no or just ignore. It was also a bit strange to be in a car and see a donkey or camel go trotting by.

Petra - We literally walked through a canyon until it opened up into a small area where the most impressive 'building' was found, The Treasury. This is not a bank, but rather a tomb which we found quite odd. In retrospect, all of the architecturally fascinating 'buildings' were tombs. We still don't know exactly where the people lived, but we do know where many of the important ones were buried! The beginning of the trip was a bit overshadowed by the temperature, which our tour folks failed to inform us of when we purchased the trip. We left the resort at 15C and when we arrived in Petra it was all of 7C. That's the low 40's and that, my friends, is NOT shorts and sandals weather (see the pics to understand more on this).

I'll post the pics in the next posting.