Year 1 Adventures: August 2008 - April 2009

One of the amazing things about living in Egypt is the travel opportunities it has offered.


According to my tripadvisor map I have visited 21 countries. (for some reason, on the map at left, all of my Egypt pins are on the Arabian Peninsula?...and when I post it, a bunch of pins disappear? grr...anyway...)

I am SO grateful for these opportunities and it's been an amazing four years of travel.



My goal is to post ONE favorite picture from each of my destinations from the last four years in my last four weeks in Egypt. I doubt I get it done...but I'm going to try!!!

Below are my favorite photos from each of my trips from my first year in Egypt, starting with my arrival in Cairo in August, 2008, and ending with a trip to Alexandria in April 2009. I will do summers in separate posts because summers are always packed with trips.  

During my first year in Cairo, I really explored the city, from the Island of Gezerit el Dahab - an island in the middle of the Nile accessible only by boat, to el Manyal Sheeha, to Saqqara...you get the picture. But THE picture; the one that is possibly my favorite picture I took in Cairo my first year here, is from a trip to the Khan with my photography club...a little boy running down the street carrying pretzels on his head:

Cairo

 

Red Sea / Sharm el Sheikh

Dahab

 

Athens

 

Cyprus

 

Istanbul

 

Alexandria

The Red Sea

Last weekend I boarded a van at school on Thursday (our weekend is Friday/Saturday) bound for Sharm-el-Sheikh. We drove through the Suez Canal Tunnel and along the coast of the Red Sea for seven hours until finally arriving at our destination.

Once in Sharm, we boarded a ship called Brina and headed out to sea. For the next two days I was stunned at the beauty of the Red Sea Coast, marveled at the myriad colors of blue in the water, and snorkled with the fishes - mostly safe ones but a few that could have eaten me had they wanted a snack.

The trip was amazing and one of the best parts was laying my sleeping bag across the top deck on one of the mattresses tied down there and looking at the stars. We were far enough from any city to see the true blackness of the sky, the creamy middle of the milky way, and so many stars that I couldn't fathom them all.

The food was also good. The trip was with 20 teachers from my school, so I got to know a few of them a bit better and also talked to Adele, who was one of the crewmen of the boat. Adele said they stay on the boat for 2 or 3 months at a time and then get 10 days off and do it all again! What a life!

I'm very much looking forward to taking the trip again - perhaps even doing an introductory SCUBA dive! I think we're all going again in the Spring.

--posted from Dahab; which will be the subject of the next post!