recap of a life unterwegs

As promised, my fifteen favorite photos I haven't posted yet and:


a map of all the places I went (excluding the US). In dark green are the countries I went to over the semester, in red are the specific cities, and in brown are the countries I've been to before.


Constance, March
gravestone of a Jewish soldier from WWI who died fürs Vaterland (for the fatherland)
ironic, seeing as what would happen a few years later


Berlin, April
Jewish memorial


Berlin, April
Berlin Wall, East Side Gallery


Moscow, April
That disgusting statue of Peter the Great towers over Christ the Savior, one of the most beautiful churches ever.


Cairo, May
An odd statue stands in front of skyscrapers. No one knows what the statue means anymore, tho, as the lettering at its base was rubbed off.


Cairo, May
Red sails on the Nile stand out in the smoggy evening.


Luxor, May
statue of a pharaoh towards sunset


Radolfzell, May
Birds fly over the Naturschutzgebiet on Lake Constance.


Augsburg, June
sea green and yellow light


Augsburg, June
near the entrance to an art museum


Montreux (Switzerland), June
A cruise boat crosses Lake Geneva in front of the Alps.


Zurich, June
The captains of Europe's EM 2008 teams dwarf visitors in the Hauptbahnhof.


Oslo, June
Vigeland


Dubrovnik (Croatia), July
Where's the Cheshire cat?


Constance, July
I pose for the first and only time with those weird blue statues in front of the university.

So in closing, thank you for reading, thank you for all of your comments, and I hope you enjoyed. I know I did ;)

Alex w/o Alex - ألكس بدون ألكس

So today we went to Alexandria, about a three-hour drive from Cairo, and right on the Mediterranean!


Alexandria


the Mediterranean


some fishers
It was here that we got applauded by a group of young boys, apparently for being from the same country as Batista, for whom they loudly proclaimed their love.


Sara and I waded into the Mediterranean - for a photo-op, not in order to escape the heat: Alexandria (or Alex, as it is called by the locals, I think) was only high 70s for the whole day. Right after this photo was taken, a little boy came up and shook my hand… and then asked for a dollar.


This is the Mosque of El-Mursi Abul Abbas. Sara had to go in a different building, because she's a girl, and they're not allowed in here (boys' club!). I also had to tip the guy I gave my shoes to. I'm pretty sure this is actually the first mosque I've ever been in.


And my favorite part was the LIBRARY (Bibliotheca Alexandrina)!!
It's amazing. The original was destroyed by the Romans in the last century BCE (we took a tour). The library we went into was built in 2003, was designed by the Norwegian architect Snøhette, and is amazing. Above is a statue of Ptolemy II (who built the original), and the facade of the modern building, which is engraved with words in over one hundred languages.


interesting sculpture inside the Bibliotheca


And this is the inside of the library proper.

And before I close: Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers!

Welcome to Alaska!

Yes, the title is odd. You'll have to wait until further on to find out what it means. (Suspense draws the reader in…)

So Sara and I took the train from Constance to Zurich today. Here's what the view from the train was like:


Switzerland: not a bad place

It was only a little over a three hour flight, and I sat next to this nice Dutch woman who thought I was German until told her the bad news. She was shocked that I, as an American, had somehow managed to learn another language.

And then we were in Egypt! As soon as the airplane started to descend, I started to have this problem: I was so excited that I couldn't keep from smiling like a moron - hah!


This is my amazing room in Cairo at the King Tut Hostel on Tahrir Square. And yes, that's a private bathroom. And I have a queen-sized bed. It costs €12/night and comes with breakfast.

After we got settled (around 3:00 pm), we just wandered around Cairo.


near our hostel


This is already one of the coolest, most different things I've ever done. We are such a minority: I, especially, stick out like a sore thumb as about the palest thing around. But I love it (remember, I've only been here for half a day).

Another funny thing is the number of cat-calls Sara has already gotten. About every block some one whistled at her, or (in the case of a six-year-old Egyptian boy) called out, "I love you. I love you!" People also have constantly been shouting at us (even from across the street) "Welcome to Egypt! Welcome to Cairo!" One young man, for whom I would assume English is a second or third language, even welcomed us to Alaska.


Cairo at dusk

And in closing, I would like to propose the following: Since my awesome hostel has free wireless, I was considering posting about every day or every two days, but only if people would be able to keep up. So it remains up to you: Would you read one post a day?