Soccer Champs--a celebration extraordinaire

CELEBRATION

Here are soccer fans Larry Nilsson, left, and my husband, Jack, on the right. They are watching the first play-off soccer match between Algeria and Egypt, for the African Cup of Nations Championship.

Fans painted these two and got them in the spirit of the game. Egypt played Algeria this game. Algeria and Egypt enjoy a heated rivalry, often resulting in one or the other's embassador being recalled. To say that spirits ran high would be an understatement!

Fans were in rare form. They brought their own noise makers and high spirits.

Egypt scored! (Can you tell??) They won!! On to the African Cup of Nations championship game against Ghana!!!

EGYPT WINS THE AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! The streets were packed with fans celebrating .

Fans improvised flares using aerosol cans of automotive starting fluid and lighters.

Television camers were there to record the festivities. There was singing in the streets, dancing in the intersections, lots of flag waving and general good fun as fans celebrated this phenomenal win. No one believed that Egypt could pull this off, yet all were hopeful. And when it finally came to pass, they were estatic.

Jack and I noticed that the crowds were very civil, even polite. There were no cars set on fire, no vandalism, no rowdy drunken brawls. People were out to celebrate Egypt's Championship. They were not out to destroy their city. For six hours the fans had a wonderful time. Yes, they left lots of litter in the streets, but that was all. And yes, there was noise all night long, so sleep came very late, or early, depending on your point of view. But Egypt had something to celebrate and celebrate they did! And so did we.

Ain Soukhna on the Gulf of Suez

Last weekend we went to Ain Soukhna, a resort area on the Gulf of Suez, which is part of the Red Sea. We stayed at the Palmera Resort, an older, but pleasant all inclusive resort. Friday was a beautiful, sunny, windless day. Jack captured this picture on our way to breakfast. Not a ripple on the swimming pool.

We sat on the beach along with all the other Egyptians at the resort for a little rest and relaxation. I began knitting a sweater, and Jack read. It was a very pleasant day. In the evening we went into a pavillion area after dinner to watch Egypt win a very important soccer match that was part of a play-off series for the African Cup of Nations.

Everybody was out enjoying the balmy, delightful weather. Kids were swimming as their parents watched.
But it was not to last.

During the night the weather changed from the balmy and beautiful, to stormy. The waves kicked up and built. The next day was dull and blustry. It was a 180 degree difference from the day before. There would be no lounging on the beach this day. The beach was underwater.

After the storm we walked down to the sea front to see what damage had been done by the high wind and waves. We found these. GRENADES! (or whatever they are called) Washed up on the shore.

At the height of the storm the water came well up the beach and did damage to the resort's beach area.

You can see how high the water came. This storm was the day after the full moon when the tides are at the highest for the month. Combine high tides with wind and you have the makings for damage to the seafront and beach erosion.

These pictures do not do justice to the amount of water coming up the beach or the height of the waves. We suspected that at the height of the storm the waves averaged about 5 feet as they came onto the shore, and the winds built to about 30-35 mph., gusting to, maybe, 40 mph. It was enough to move you backwards when you stood still.

It was a wild storm, that the locals said happens about once a year. It was fun to be there and see how churned up the sea can get. It reminded me of my summers on Lake Michigan when the waves crashed ashore like that and you went out afterwards beachcombing. No bombs, though.

Shisha Smoking

This is a hooka. It is a water pipe that is used for smoking shisha. Shisha smoking is a favorite pastime all over Cairo. There are shisha places everywhere. Many restaurants offer shisha for after-meal relaxing.

The tobacco is placed in a clay cup at the top of the pipe, then covered with aluminum foil punched with holes. Hot charcoal is placed on top of this -- just a few very hot pieces. When you draw on the pipe it lowers the pressure in the water chamber and the hot tobacco smoke is then cooled as it passes through the water, then through the long pipe to the mouthpiece. (You purchase a new mouthpiece each time--they are cheap.) The attendant comes around periodically to renew the hot charcoal.

There are many flavors of tobacco commonly used here. The one I smell the most often as I walk by, is the apple flavored, but there is mint, and watermelon, among others.

These men are enjoying shisha after their meal. You can see lots of shisha pipes if you look carefully.

Shisha pipes are for sale. Almost nobody smokes shisha at home when it is so easy and cheap to smoke in a shisha place. These pipes are not very hardy so they need replacing often. They are glass and they break. The tubes and pipes wear out.

One of the small charcoal fires going in a pan on the street getting ready for use in the shisha pipe.

An attendant bringing around the shisha to customers. You can see the few bits of charcoal in the top. See the little clay pot the tobacco goes in and the charcoal on top. This charcoal has cooled a bit, and needs renewing.

Shisha is not for men only. Women enjoy shisha as well. Often in restaurants you see couples smoking shisha, as well as groups of women smoking.

I haven't tried it yet. I quit smoking over 20 years ago and just can't bring myself to try this stuff. It isn't something that appeals to me. But millions of Cairenes love it.

Alexandria, Egypt

Jack and I took a three day road trip to Alexandria at the western edge of the delta. We took the train up and back. The trip takes about 2&1/2 hours from Cairo. Alexander-The-Great is credited with being the founder of Alexandria, Egypt.

The city is the second largest city on the African continent, with a population of about 7 million people. It sits along the Mediterranean coastline at the western edge of the Nile Delta, and is the summer playground of Cairenes escaping the heat of the city.

The new library is probably the most prominent landmark along the lengthy Corniche highway that runs next to the Mediterranean.

It was completed in 2000 with a capacity of over 8,000,000 volumes. It is a major research library, housing a super-computer that can handle most any research need. The library is proud of its ability to archive internet work as well digitizing some of the ancient Egyptian scrolls from the original library dating from before 74 BC.,and other major works of Egyptian antiquity, all available to anyone with an internet connection from anywhere in the world. It does all the other library stuff as well, like discussion groups, literary presentations and discussions, as well as movies and planetarium shows in the planetarium, to mention a few of things on the calendar.


The interior space is over 11 stories tall, but deceiving from the outside, as it is built into the side of a hill. There are solar shades that follow the sun and control the amount of sunlight coming into the building. There is exhibit space, a rare book museum, calligraphy exhibits, printing presses used in Egypt from early times, as well as the ordinary stacks for books and periodicals one usually finds in libraries. There are internet connections and headphones at all the study carrols, as well a viewing rooms for micofiches and digitized materials.

Besides being available to students it is quite a tourist attraction, with tours given in various foreign languages throughout the day.

The original library at Alexandria was the respoitory of all known scientific and literary work in the world at the time. It burned down around 74 BC. Only a few or the original scrolls were saved and they are now housed here.

This is an artistic rendering of the original Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was built in the 800's, destroyed in an earthquake in the early 1300's and never rebuilt. Historians are fairly certain of the looks and dimensions of the building because it was so well known at the time it was built. Drawings of it appeared in many deocuments that have survived.

Today on the site of the old Pharos lighthouse stands this fort, built out of most of the block from the lighthouse and standing in approximately the same location.

We stayed close to the water in a little pension on the 7th floor of an old building. Our room had a sea view, for which we paid extra, but the view was from between other tall buildings. Oh well. Live and learn. The place was what I would describe as cheap and cheerful. AND it came complete with breakfast. It served our needs quite nicely.

We had a great time discovering this city. The fresh air and sea breezes were a pleasant change from Cairo.

More about the Roman ruins in my next post.

Israel -- Golan Heights

We went on a four-wheel drive expedition up onto the Golan Heights. Until one of Israel's wars, the Golan Heights area was controled by Syria. There are no roads other than farm and four-wheel access roads, into the area. Much is rock-strewn and of not much use other than grazing, and even that is slim picking for the animals. We did see some wild pheasants and ibex, as well as cattle grazing. You can see the Land Cruiser mired down in the muddy road.

This is a broad view down from the hills. You can see remains of old Syrian army installations that were destroyed in the war when Israel recovered the Golan Heights.

There is a story about an Israeli spy in the confidence of the Syrians who convinced the Syrians to plant fast growing eucalyptus trees around the gun installations and armaments to provide shade for the poor Syrian soldiers who must be on duty in the harsh, hot and open Golan Heights. Of course it also provided targets for the Israeli Air Force as well. The spy was discovered and killed in the main square in Damascus and a book written about him called Our Man In Damascus . His exploits are legendary in Israel.

The area has not been entirely cleared so these signs appear all over. There are large tracts of fenced areas off limits to man and animal alike. Our Land Rover driver told us they lose a few animals to unexploded land mines every year.

Israel is now at Peace with Syria. The Golan Heights provided Israel with a more secure border, as well as a great four-wheeled experience for us tourists.

Israel -- Caesarea National Park

This little fellow is the mascot of the National Park System in Israel. He is an ibex, with a little bird on his shoulder. Ibex are native to this area and wander wild on the deserts. This little fellow greets you as you enter the National Park at Caesarea.

Caesarea is a huge archeological site, now a National Park and completely protected and partially restored. It was a large city from the Roman period, of particular interest to us because of its large harbor--large for the time--created by the Romans to service their troops stationed in this area of the empire.

The remnants of this harbor still remain to be seen today.

The city was a phenomenal find, because it was in remarkable shape after so many years buried in the sands of the Mediterranean, as well yielding immense amounts of information about the Roman occupation, life, and historical documentation of the military presence of the Romans in this part of the world.

It now is completely uncovered, somewhat restored and open to the public. People are free to wander the entire site, scramble around and even ride a chariott around the hipodrome--well they can imagine themselves doing it.

We spent several hours here wandering the ruins of store rooms, homes with beautiful mosaic floors, riding the chariott, and inspecting the harbor.

Trip to Israel

We returned to Cairo, from our Christmas trip to Israel. It was a trip full of insight into the interaction of religion, politics, geography, culture and the simple vagarities of life all mixed together. This picture is probably the most photographed in all of Jerusalem. It shows the Temple Mount, a mosque with a golden dome, along with the many Christian churches that dot the Jerusalem landscape.

The curent day Mosque is built on the site of an ancient Jewish Temple. This Temple was the holiest of holy places for the Jewish people because it housed the Arc of the Covenant--the tablets given to Moses containing the word of God. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans and the tablets scattered or destroyed--no one knows what became of them. They are lost. All that remains of the Temple is the foundation--the famous west wall, affectionately called the Wailing Wall. It now is the a most holy place and designated as a synagogue with its own rabbi. At all hours of day and night people come to the wall to pray.

The most famous church is probably the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site of the Cruxification. It is at one end of the Via Dolarosa, which was the road Christ walked from his imprisionment to his cruxification. Along this street and in the church are the 14 Stations-of-the-Cross; those places where something significant occurred along the way.

More about our trip in future posts.