No musings, just the blather of a returning expat

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times”. No, that’s not right.

“Four score and seven years ago”. Nope.

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth”. DEFINITELY not.

The countdown to my return home continues

The leaves don’t fall from the trees in Italy. They don’t turn color. At least I don’t see it if they do.

Nevertheless, it is autumn, my favorite time of year. I’m seeing breathtaking photos of Oregon on my Facebook page from friends. The colors are dazzling, as they are every year. It makes me a little homesick. Will there be any color left for me when I return next month?

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Musings on Egypt

I’ve been back from Egypt now for three days. It was the experience of a lifetime, a visit that ranks up there with Israel. A few observations…

Back in Italy, the countdown to America begins

I absolutely could not sleep last night. My flight from Cairo arrived in Rome at 8:30 p.m. My bus from Leonardo da Vinci was at 9:30 p.m. which didn’t give me a lot of time to get off the plane, through Passport Control, into the john, to the ATM and then the bus. Fortunately, everything fell right into place.

CAIRO! Day seven

My last day in Cairo wasn’t as rushed as I feared it might be. With a 5:00 p.m. flight, I had the entire morning to spend in the Coptic area. Gamer, my favored driver, arrived on time to pick me up. I placed my carry-on and satchel in his trunk and off we went to Old Cairo.

Gamer dropped me off at the entrance to the Coptic area. Several Christian churches are crammed into a this small area. There is also a Jewish synagogue. Across the street is the first mosque ever built in Cairo. I was impressed that three of the most influential religions in the world (and also the three that seem to have the most problems with each other) were existing peacefully together, side-by-side.

CAIRO! Day six…nothing special

I shouldn’t be heading this post with an exclamation point as I just relaxed again. I was up at 4:30 a.m., my alarm blaring AC/DC’s “Back in Black”. Is there any other song that would better prompt a person to get up in the morning?

At 5:00 I met my driver, Adam, who had wanted to take me to the airport. I tip well which, I believe, is the primary factor he was waiting at the entrance. I had forgotten how close the Luxor Airport is to the Sheraton. We were there in no time and I realized I could have slept in another half hour. This was frustrating because the alarm woke me up at the best part of a dream. Isn’t that one of Murphy’s Laws?

LUXOR! Day five

I started bright and early today to make up for lost time. I have decided that Luxor will be on my “re-bucket” list. That is, a list of things I want to do again. It will join Budapest, Prague, Paris, Israel and Morocco as places that I’d like to re-visit.

I made it to breakfast and pigged out on the elaborate spread. I’m not feeling too guilty about eating a lot. As I stated earlier, I seem to be keeping the weight down and now I feel the need to bulk up. There is no chance that I will ever waste away, but I don’t want to be too thin. I’d like to have a bit of meat on my bones. It will be interesting to check my weight at my health club back in Italy.

LUXOR! Day four

OK, so I took another day off. My flight was at 5:00 a.m. and I had been awake all night. Arrived in Luxor just after 6:00 a.m. It was already 78 degrees, well on its way to the forecast of one hundred and three. The sun was rising over the Sahara horizon and there were a few clouds that made it a bit humid.

For eleven dollars I got a cab to the Sheraton Luxor Resort Hotel. For only sixty-one dollars, I got a spacious room in a cabana that looked out onto the pool. Featuring a sitting area, marble floors and a marbled bathroom, I was stylin’.

I have to admit that I was starting to feel really guilty about paying so much for a room. Throughout this expat experience, I have been booking rooms through Airbnb or Booking.com, living the life of a starving author (save for the starving part). Since Luxor was a last minute decision, the Sheraton was the best I could do. Yes, I could have gotten a room for ten dollars a night but I wanted something that would have good internet access and information on the sights I wanted to visit.

CAIRO! Day three–take it with a boulder of salt, if need be

Today was an off-day. I went to bed about midnight and woke up at 2:00 p.m. I hadn’t realized how much I was burning the candle at both ends, touring around in this extreme heat. Today I looked at my self in the mirror and I appeared to be much thinner.

That, in and of itself, is a good thing. I’ve been working on losing weight and was down about seventeen pounds at one point. But today I looked kinda sick. I’m chalking it down to the shape of the mirror. I will weigh myself when I get home–and get back into lifting again, too.

But at least my thighs feel better.

CAIRO! Day two

My thighs. My thighs.

My thighs have been utmost in my mind today. After spending several hours riding my camel, Michael Jackson yesterday, I woke up this morning with my thighs stretched from here to Alexandria. As I walked down the stairs to my waiting driver, I moved like a stick figure.

With breakfast (pita bread, cheese and Egyptian tea) already finished, I hopped into the car and my driver whisked me off to the Egyptian Museum. I had heard that this particular museum has the best Egyptian artifacts in the world. Made sense to me. After all, it’s in Egypt.