Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Arrival in Egypt

Ray, Adam, and I went to Egypt. Daniel was supposed to come but at the last minute had to cancel. When we arrived in Cairo, we had to buy a 'visa' before going through customs. This you just buy from one of the money changers, and they decided they were going to give us a discount. Very official. As we exited customs, we were swarmed by taxi drivers. One was very persistent and would not leave us alone. Little did we realize, this was how Egypt was going to work. He wanted to charge us 120 Egyptian Pounds (roughly 25 or so USD), but we knew he was obviously aiming high. Eventually we got him down to 70 Pounds. One of the first things we noticed was that even though there are lanes and dividers, they mean nothing. Everyone drives where and how they want to. And without headlights. They only flash headlights when they are honking at someone to get out of their way. This was a bit unnerving. The driver was already a bit ornery from the haggle, and was driving as fast as he could to get us to our hotel. Then someone cut him off. He slammed on the breaks, literally screeching tires, burning rubber, near heart attacks from us his passengers. He barely missed the guy who was texting and trying to exit on the left from the far right lane. The other guy didn't even look up. We eventually made it alive to the hotel and went directly to the room and poured ourselves some stiff drinks to calm the nerves. We were all a bit shaken up and went to bed, as we arrived at about 3 in the morning. Was this an omen for how this trip was going to go?

Friday, September 10, 2010

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Berlin Zoo








On a nice Spring day we went to the zoo.

Prague


The Monday before Easter I went to Prague. We took a train from Berlin, about a 5 hour trip. Luckily we took an early train and I slept most of the way. We found our way to the hotel and wanted a good place to get food. The concierge recommended a good place, not far. The directions led us to a dead end. So we asked someone else and were led in a different direction. We asked 3 more people, all of who kept telling us to go straight a little further. Then the road would fork off or turn around completely. We never ended up finding it.

Old Town Square was decorated festively for Easter, and there was a huge market set up for the week.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp


You will immediately be shot without warning
Some ovens that were not destroyed in the war

A painting done on the walls in the basement where they peeled potatoes .