Defining Irony

In the last five years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot.  In the beginning, I was one of those overcautious travelers that took no risks when it came to food, drink, and hygiene.  I never touched the local water.  I avoided fruit and veggies whose cleanliness I couldn’t vouch for.  I even brushed [...]

Texas is the Reason

In my pension, there are a variety of locals who seem to hang around the front room. Four of them are regulars, and then there are about five or six others who fade in and out. The whole scene is very Egyptian. It’s only men. They don’t really seem to be [...]

Alexandria: A City in Three Acts

Alexandria seems different from most other cities I have visited.  I prefer cities with a rich history that are cosmopolitan.  Some of my favorites are New York, Istanbul, Venice, and Shanghai.  I expected Alexandria to be somewhat like these cities.  It has a rich history, and at times it has been among the most cosmopolitan [...]

Learning to Read in Cairo

I’ve spent the past week learning how to write and read the Arabic alphabet.  This seems like a lot of time to learn an alphabet, but I assure you it’s not.  It was an awesome feeling over the weekend as I was in Alexandria (more about that later) to be able to at least read [...]

Cairo Update

I arrived two days ago in Cairo after two surprisingly pleasant flights. I had an entire row to myself from New York to Paris, and then I had two seats from Paris to Cairo. You gotta love Air France – it’s a national airline, so they just run the flights regardless of how [...]

Turkey

Here are some photos from my trip to Turkey.  The rest can be seen on flickr.  I’ll post more tomorrow about Cairo  – I arrived here yesterday.
Suleymaniye Mosque:

The city:

Topkapi Palace and a roof design:

The Blue Mosque:

Princes’ Islands:

Aya Sofya:

technorati tags:middle-east, travel, turkey, istanbul, aya-sofya, ottomans, mosque, architecture

Israeli Aggression

On Sunday, Israel bombed Qana and killed fifty-four Lebanese civilians, most of whom were children.  This is the same town that Israel bombed the UN base in 1996 and killed over 100 people.  It seemed as if  the public outcry might have caused the Israelis some uneasiness about this war.  The Israeli government even called [...]