I wanted to write a proper post with tons of pretentious cultural and literary remarks but it is already day 11 of our arrival here and we are headed to the internetless land of the Maldives tomorrow (because we will be on a boat). So instead here is a bunch of pictures and some hopefully not too pedestrian, or provincial, comments.
Yup, that‘s a George Orwell semi-reference (Burmese Days) and a shout-out to my high school english teacher. I’ll have to re-read that book.
Walking off the airplane after three flights, each averaging around seven hours, I reflect on the saying that it’s not the destination but the journey that matters and wholeheartedly disagree. We are greeted by a large Buddha statue with the hand in the blessing pose (if I remember correctly, I was too crazy tired and in no shape to think about taking pictures). Later there was a large sign saying that carrying illicit drugs was punishable by death.
Today is the solstice, my pagan roots are happy. The shortest day, the longest night. As I get ready for Christmas (my Christian roots are happy) and the new year celebrations, my thoughts turn, unavoidably, both backwards and forwards.
2018 was a very interesting year. I’ll spare you the details, but it was about things coming full circle, about new things desired and old things no longer needed. It was about shaking things loose to see what sticks and what falls away. There was also the very clear feeling that sand is shifting ever quicker through the hourglass, that the bottom part perhaps now holds more than the top. That generated some resignation but mostly, mostly, defiance. Insert Billy Idol sneer and fist pump.
Scuba diving the Red Sea had always seemed nearly impossible. It was faraway, expensive and, let’s be honest, seemed a little dicey. However, when opportunity knocks, you open the door, and when a friend called with a plan to charter an entire boat and dive the Red Sea, the D&C said yes. In the end we did not manage to fill up the whole boat, but it was close enough, and we got to meet some cool new people in the process. Win-win.
There’s no real way to easily do justice to a city like Cairo, so please indulge me. I’m on a small ship just south of the Sinai as I write this and it has been a few days since we left, I wanted to jot down my observations earlier, but you know, between drinking by the pyramids and diving on a WW2 ship that was sent to the bottom by the Luftwaffe, time was both a rare commodity and wisely spent.
Cairo is hot, dusty, dirty, sprawlingly huge, polluted, loud, ancient, intriguing and hides secrets and treasures. You also get the feeling of a city trying to burst free from its broken shell, without quite managing it just yet. An imperial ugly duckling so to speak.