Falafel-Off 2010! And more pics from Cairo

After an expensive few days in Israel, we were looking forward to getting back to Egypt. The border crossing at Taba was even more of a hassle than we'd anticipated, since the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv gave us the wrong information and said that we could just buy a new visa at the border. After paying the exorbitant Israeli exit tax and walking over to the Egyptian side, we discovered that this isn't true--you either need to get your visa in advance in Israel, or be on a tour operator's list to be able to get your visa at the border. Long story short, after a lot of flipping out at officials (yeah, that really got us somewhere) on my part, Andy calmly paid a tour operator a "fee" to get on his list, and we got back into Egypt.

We managed to catch the last bus of the day to Cairo, and were ensconced in our favorite grubby but cheap hotel in the center of town. This time, they "upgraded" us to a suite with a bathroom far bigger than many entire hotel rooms we've stayed in in the past.

The next day, after booking our flights to Turkey, Andy and I made for Felfela, our favorite falafel joint in Cairo, for Falafel-Off 2010!

What, never heard of Falafel-Off 2010? That's probably because we made it up. It all started when we were sitting together one day in Dahab, eating (what else?) falafel.

Tara: I love falafel.
Andy: I know.
Tara: I think I could eat a lot of falafel.
Andy continues chewing.
Tara: I bet I could eat more falafel than you.
Andy: Bring it on.

I don't know what got into me, challenging a survivor of the gallon challenge, the cinnamon challenge, and the 50-hot-peppers-in-five-minutes challenge to an eating contest, but now that I'd thrown it out there, I couldn't back down.

We agreed to wait either until we reached Syria or until we got back to Cairo to do it, since falafel is cheap in those places. Since Syria rejected us, Cairo it was.

We chose Felfela Takeaway because the falafel is delicious there and it costs around 25 cents a sandwich. The surroundings are pretty, too!

We paid at the cashier and then I took our receipt up to the order counter. Twelve falafel sandwiches, please!

The sandwiches were delivered within minutes. Let the games begin!
First bite! Each sandwich consists of a white pita, a flat falafel patty, a tomato slice, and a glob of tahini sauce.
Within a short time, Andy was on sandwich number five.
But I was not far behind! Here I am just a few minutes later with my own fifth sandwich.
Startin' to feel a little queasy, though.
As I dug into sandwich #6, Andy went back to the counter to procure us two more sandwiches. Sadly, halfway through #6, all the falafels seemed to hit my stomach at once. "This is my last falafel," I conceded. I did manage to finish it, though!
Andy has finished his seventh already, so, assured of the title, he does the happy dance...
...and polishes off sandwich #8 for good measure.
Final score, 8 to 6. Andy is the champion! But I did much better than either of us really expected I would, so I was happy with my performance, too.
As a final note, I'll point out that 14 falafel sandwiches in Cairo cost us less than $3...which is the price of around half of ONE falafel sandwich in Israel. Advantage, Egypt.

Our return to Egypt also gave us a chance to try a few foods we had missed the first time around...like Fanta Canta! It actually tasted more like honeydew than cantaloupe, and was a scary fluorescent green color. I enjoyed the first few sips, but felt pretty sick by the bottom of the can. Then again, that may have been the six falafel sandwiches still digesting in my stomach.The day of Falafel-Off 2010 also happened to be the first day of a major Muslim festival, Eid al-Ahda, a.k.a. the Festival of Sacrifice. To commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to God, and the fact that God told him to substitute a ram at the last minute (phew!), Muslim families the world over sacrifice a ram of their own, keeping some to eat and giving some of the meat away to loved ones and the poor.

Anyway, this meant that you could find freshly slaughtered ram carcasses hanging all over the city. And tons of live rams being coralled in the streets, too, before they met their fate. And, um, some blood in the streets. Not really a holiday for the squeamish or vegetarian.

In between bouts of feeling rather ill (Falafel-Off!!), Andy and I wandered around some parts of Cairo we hadn't visited before, including the fancy, island-in-the-Nile Zamalek quarter.
On the banks of the Nile, we caught a lovely sunset.
I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to eat again after Falafel-Off, but had plans to meet Emma and Rashad for dinner for some fiteer, or Egyptian stuffed pizza. The sausage-and-vegetable one Andy and I ordered was so good that we actually had no trouble polishing it off...
...and a raisin, coconut, and nut-stuffed dessert fiteer...
...um, and part of a honey-and-cream dessert fiteer, too. Fiteer is tasty!
Proof that we have friends: Here we are at the fiteer joint with Emma and Rashad. We must thank them again for all their guidance, culinary and otherwise!
If you thought we were done eating for the day, you were wrong. We accompanied our friends to a nearby cafe, where I tried Emma's favorite drink of hot milk with tons and tons of cinnamon. It was pretty much like drinking a milky stick of Big Red gum. Emma tells me that there's not usually quite such a ridiculous amount of cinnamon floating in this drink. I think the cafe staff must've been feeling extra generous with the holiday spirit.
And that was it for our second Cairo adventure--after a healthy breakfast of some delicious, cheap baklava, we flew out the next afternoon for Istanbul.

But I'll leave you with two pictures from our first visit to Cairo that we'd forgotten to upload for the last post. Both are from Coptic Cairo, though neither are from churches.

This one's from the Ben Ezra Synagogue, in which you are officially not allowed to take pictures. Andy had to be very sneaky. It's a beautiful little chapel. (Jan, if you're reading, this pic is for you!)
And this one's from the oldest mosque in Cairo, Amr Ibn El-Aas. They happily let Andy in clothed as he was, but I was lucky enough to get to play dress-up in this snazzy green thing, which they provided me at the door in exchange for my shoes (and a demand for baksheesh, of course). I felt ready to chant with the monks in that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail...
Thanks for reading our bonus Egypt post!

Jewing (and Christianing, and Islaming) it Up in Israel

Israel was not on our itinerary. OK, not like we have a real itinerary, but we usually at least know what country we're heading to next, and after Jordan, the plan was to go to Syria, spending about a week there en route to Turkey.

But Syria didn't like that plan, and wouldn't grant us a visa when we showed up at its border. Technically, Americans can only get a Syria visa in their home country, but we'd heard about other lucky travelers who'd recently managed to buy one at the border (though none were American), so we came to try our luck, too.

But no amount of discussing, explaining, begging, or offering to pay "extra fees" was budging these border guards. Americans, take note: Syria is strict on its buy-your-visa-in-the-USA-or-else policy.

So, it was back in the taxi and back to Jordan, which, I must say, has the kindest border guards on earth. They canceled our exit stamp no problem, offered us coffee and handfuls of nuts, and told us that we were most welcome back into their country. Which we then only stayed in for a few more hours, en route to another border post...the bridge over the Jordan River to Israel.

Knowing that there was a chance we wouldn't get into Syria, Andy and I had formulated a very hypothetical backup plan a few days earlier: If we got rejected, we'd go to Israel instead, travel south back to Egypt, and fly from Cairo to Istanbul (the cheapest Istanbul-bound flight in the region). But we'd really hoped Syria was going to let us in, and had not planned one bit for an Israel trip. When we got across the border, night was falling...we had no guidebook, no idea what city we wanted to head to first, and no idea how much things cost in Israel.

Well, we got schooled fast in that last one. Israel is EXPENSIVE! I actually spent two weeks there in 1999, but that was on an all-expenses-paid tour for college students (thanks, Birthright Israel!) and I'd barely had to shell out for more than the occasional ice cream. So, I had no memory of whether the country was pricey or not.

Turns out that just about everything here costs way more than in the neighboring countries--hotels, transport, and especially, food. A falafel sandwich in Egypt or Jordan costs around 30 cents US. In Israel, you can't find one for less than $4. Eep!

But I'll try to keep my complaining to a minimum (or at least save it for the next finances post). I'll just say that for us, Israel has been the French Guyana of the Middle East, meaning that we shell out over $50 a night for cheapest hotel room in town, live on grocery store white bread and hummus (which still costs us $10 a meal), and grumble a lot.

All that said, a lot of the religious sites and tourist attractions in Israel are free to visit, so that helps ease the pain a bit. Here's a taste of what we did during our six days in the country.

At the end of a day that saw us take 12 different buses or taxis in three countries, we arrived in Tiberias, Israel, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This is where Jesus supposedly walked on water. The next day, we attempted to duplicate his feat, but we fell in. Luckily, we had thought ahead and were wearing our bathing suits.
Two of those claw machines at the local mall, where you put in money and can pluck out a toy, also had cigarettes as a possible prize. What the ?@#$%! Words fail me.
Next it was on to Tel Aviv, Israel's glitzy, modern, second-biggest city. It has some impressive skyscrapers.
Less than a week left until Harry Potter 7!!! The caption says "Harry Potter" in Hebrew, by the way.
Tel Aviv's beachfront boulevard looks like a cross between Rio de Janeiro and Miami. There are no pink buildings in this shot, but trust me, they exist.
As you may have gathered from the pictures, we didn't really do much in Tel Aviv other than wander around. It's a very pleasant city with lots of plants, bike lanes, and stylish cafes that would probably be to eat and drink at if they weren't twice as expensive as such places in New York. At the big Carmel Market, we finally found a few good food deals and stocked up on cheap candy bars and cereal, which kept us nourished for a couple of days. If I had to live in a city in Israel, I would definitely pick Tel Aviv. Part of its appeal to me is also that it's very secular--if it weren't for all the signs in Hebrew, you'd probably hardly know you were in Israel at all.

Quite a different vibe is found in Jerusalem. It's only an hour from Tel Aviv, but has a totally different fashion sense.
Jerusalem also has many more important religious and historical sites. Many are found in the "Old City" part of town, which is surrounded by stone walls like this one and entered only by various gates.
Inside the old city, here's a night shot of the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. It's the only remaining structure from the great (but long-destroyed) second temple on this site, and pretty much the holiest spot in the world for Jews.
The first time I visited, it really annoyed me that about 4/5ths of the wall is reserved for men, and women have to crowd three people deep into the tiny section off to the side that's set aside for them. Ten years on, the situation is the same, and it still annoys me.

Many people who come to pray at the wall write a note to God that they then stick in a crack in the wall. The wall is now jammed with these notes in every crevasse, and the ones that have fallen out are all over the ground near the wall, too.
In the "New City," Andy and I visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. I went to a Holocaust Museum when I first visited Israel, but apparently this one is new since 2005. Here's a shot of the main hall--very modern architecture on the outside, to match the very multimedia experience on the inside, I guess. It's still a moving and educational experience, but I found all the video and different-colored and -fonted posters and such a bit overwhelming at times.
Overlooking the old city is the Mount of Olives, a significant area for both Christians and Jews. There are several churches, but the Basilica of the Agony pictured here probably has the best name.
The inside of this church does have cool windows made out of purple-stained alabaster stone, which filters the light a lot and keeps things appropriately gloomy.

I really like the golden domes on top of the Russian Orthodox church in this area.
And speaking of golden domes, let's not forget the Dome of the Rock, the huge mosque built in the 600s on the Temple Mount (site of the destroyed Jewish temple, and a bone of contention between the two religions ever since).

The Mount of Olives has a huge Jewish Cemetary. My great-grandfather is buried somewhere in here, but I had no idea where to even begin to look...and it was Shabbat when we visited, so the info center was closed. Maybe next time...
Nearby is a church built on the site of the assumption of the Virgin Mary. Andy was really impressed not only with the number of chandeliers hanging in this church, but with the fact that their candleholders have all been replaced with CFL bulbs! Who knew Mary was so green?
Back in the Old City, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on the site where many branches of Christianity believe Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead. The centerpiece of the church is this shrine...which to me, looks like a cardboard cutout wrapped in tin foil, but it seemed to impress a lot of other visitors.
I liked the painted dome with the skylight within the church much better.
And that pretty much wraps it up for Israel. We haven't had a bad time, but it probably would have helped if we'd done a bit more advance planning. Budget travelers will definitely want to try to couch-surf in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where cheap lodging is pretty much impossible to find. There are plenty of free sites, museums, and beaches to visit, though!

In closing, I realize that there is not a single picture including Andy in this post! I promise, he really did get into the country, even though he is not a Jew. Though the border guards did pull him into a little room and practically strip-search him when we came across the border from Jordan, while I sailed through security with no problems... Hm. Maybe he just looked a little crazier than I did.

Cities of Morocco: Not a Single Camel

From the natural surroundings of Chefchaouen, we dove straight into the cities of Morocco. We began the major city tour in Fes (sometimes spelled Fez). Cities have numerous interesting sites and history, though many also come with the unwelcome harassment of people who follow you and then demand money for getting you to where you were already walking. This means that when a kind person offers help (which is frequent in Morocco), you curse at them and walk away quickly. In any case, here are some city pictures.

In Fes, hotels are more expensive. The hotel pricing schemes in Morocco are worthy of an economics PhD. They vary dramatically by city, with no obvious link to supply and demand and not necessarily to quality. In Fes, we saw rooms that we wouldn't keep a pet in for the same price as the place we stayed, which was the poshest place we have stayed yet.
We went to visit the Medersa Al-Attarine, which is an Islamic school in Fes. The main courtyard that is open to the public is beautiful and ornate. While work has obviously been done over the years to maintain it, it is essentially original, unlike most of the heavily restored work we have seen.

This is a close-up of the mosaic work. You can generally tell how important a place is in Morocco by the quality of the mosaic. The bus stations, for instance, are also all mosaic, but it looks like they brought in a class full of first graders for the day to do the work. This one looks more like they paid someone to do the work.Mules and donkeys are very common in the streets of Fes and many other medinas (the walled part of a city that mostly has small walkways to keep it cool). This is because they are cheaper than cars and they are able to get through the small alleyways of the medinas where cars cannot go.

Fes has the largest tannery in Morocco. They start the tanning process by soaking the hide (sheep or cow mostly) in a solution of water, salt, and pigeon poop. That's right--pigeon poop. The ammonia causes the hair to fall out, which is then washed and used for stuffing. The hide is then washed before being dyed it the pits to the right below. They do different colors in different weeks, with red and brown being the colors the week we were there. The hides are then dried in the sun.

While it doesn't seem very smart to us, the method of dying is to have a guy jump around in a pool of dye with the leather. They say that the dyes are all-natural and they told us what creates the colors (red is from poppy and brown from henna), but this still wouldn't be my job of choice. Workers at the factory get paid a whopping $5.00 per day.

It isn't just the hides that need dyed. So does the yarn that they make from wool. This job looks just about as safe as jumping up and down in the pool of dye, though these guys at least wear gloves.

The streets are filled with mosques that we can't enter because we are not Muslims. You can often tell how religious someone is by the shoes that they wear. Because you must remove your shoes to enter the mosque, a religious person that goes to mosque every day will invariably have shoes that are easy to slip on and off.

After Fes, we headed to Meknes. Meknes is another of the four imperial cities, meaning that the king has a palace there. This is Bab al-Mansour, considered one of the fanciest-pants gates in all of Morocco. Behind it a ways is the king's private golf course surrounded by 30 foot walls so that no one can see it...

In Islam, it is considered rude to have a big, ornate tomb. So, they are all like this one with a simple marker. However, if you are special, it is apparently perfectly appropriate to have a palace and/or mosque built around your simple marker.

A popular carnival game, often played on the main squares, is to try to loop a round hoop at the end of a fishing line over the top of a bottle of soda. You get a couple minutes of trying for a few cents. If you are successful (which we saw only once), you win the bottle of soda. The lines for these games were always so long that we did not partake.

In Rabat, the city is separated by a "river" (more of a large creek) from Sale, a smaller town on the other side. One bridge connects them, but it is far more fun to pay people to row you across (25 cents each). Here is Tara enjoying her time in the rowboat.

One of the nicest parts of Sale is that it allows you to look back at Rabat. Rabat has a couple of very nice attactions, one being the Kasbah, or fortress of the city. The Rabat Kasbah is one of the few that has a large population living inside. It also happens to sit on a cliff.

The other main attraction in Rabat is the Hassan Tower. In the 1100s, some ruler decided that he was going to build the biggest minaret in the world. It was an ambitious project since it would still be one of the largest had it been completed. Sadly, he died and the new administration had better things to waste money on, so they stopped it at the height it was. Hundreds of columns are next to it from an old mosque. The last couple kinds have been buried in the same park.

On to Casablanca. But first, a special thanks to Hamid in Rabat, who was an amazing host for the couple of days we visited. He showed us some of the best the city has to offer. Now, back to Casablanca. We searched in vain for a half day for the Jewish Museum, which only the tourist office had heard of, but didn't know the location of. They suggested taking a taxi, but about 20 taxi drivers later, we gave up. So, off to the Hassan II mosque. Hassan II was the king of Morocco until 1999 and this mosque is his legacy.

Built between 1987 and 1993, it is the third largest mosque in the world and has the largest minaret. It can hold 20,000 men and 5,000 women (who have to go to special balconies). This is the bottom of one of the women's balconies, which are all ornately carved.The cost of the mosque is a secret, but is estimated at around a billion dollars, maybe two. Surprisingly, the architect is not Muslim, but was a friend of the king, so the king paid him some insane amount to design this mosque right on the ocean. It is also the largest mosque that can be entered by non-Muslims. Here is the main chamber:

Underneath the mosque, they built a hammam, or bath. They have never opened it to the public, however, because it is too popular as a tourist destination. This is the main pool of the baths.

Here Tara and I are outside the Hassan II mosque. As our tour guide said, "Before this mosque, tourists had no reason at all to come to Casablanca. Now they have to stop to see the mosque." That sums up Casablanca perfectly. For all the romantics out there and lovers of the movie, I suggest not getting your hopes to high for the city if you decide to visit.

After Casablanca, it was on to Marrakech (sometimes also spelled Marrakesh). The main attraction of the city is the night life around the main square, the Djemaa El-Fna. Dozens of full scale restaurants are set up in the middle each night and taken down by morning. Hundreds of nearly identical stalls sell dates, nuts, apricots, and figs at usurious prices to unsuspecting tourists. Here is one such stall:
The walls of the kasbah in Marrakech are home to many storks. The walls are in a state of disrepair, which along with the fact that the city seems to be about 50 percent European tourists at any moment, makes me think that if you want to invade a major Moroccan city, Marrakech is probably your best bet.

From Marrakech, you can see the lovely Atlas Mountains, still covered in snow at this time of year. Marrakech would go up to about 80 during the day and then fall to the high 50s at night while we were there. Not a single camel anywhere.

When in Marrakech, we found the Jewish cemetary. The caretaker was very nice once Tara said she was Jewish. He let us in to look around and told us that there are now only a couple hundred Jews left in Marrakech. Apparently, a lot of them went to Israel after it was formed. Some of the graves date back 1500 years.

In the early 1900s, they discovered the Saadian Tombs from a royal family in the 1600s. How you suddenly discover such an ornate set of tombs in the middle of your city after 300 years, I don't really know. It's like losing the Empire State Building, only to discover 300 years later that there is a quarter mile high building in your city. In any case, you can read about the tombs here if you like.

At the tombs lived a cute tortoise who moved with lightning speed (for a tortoise). I believe he would have easily defeated the hare in a race. Tara took approximately 150 pictures of him (or her--sexing turtles is notoriously difficult).

Well, that about does it for the cities of Morocco. Next we head to the coast and down to the desert. Deserts always remind me of dessert, and so I think the trip to the desert should be really great.