Travel-Stained Life

As soon as we arrived to Cairo, our Couchsurfing guides, Mohey and Mahmoud, invited us and our host, Dawn, to the wedding of Mahmoud’s cousin. We had not quite recovered from our flight from South Africa to Cairo, but we agreed to attend because I love weddings, especially those in other countries. When evening came, [...]

Somewhere in the middle of the chaotic city of Cairo lies a series of side streets and dusty alleyways known as “Old Cairo“.  Although located right behind the busy subway stop to the tourist frequented Coptic museum, one would never guess that this quiet area was related in any way to the urban sprawl outside [...]

Middle East Lonely Planet countries: Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey,Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Iraq Countries we visited: Eypyt, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Turkey Introduction: The Middle East is a highly controversial and misunderstood region of the world.  We did not feel like we really began to comprehend the cultures that make up these parts until we were here for several weeks.  [...]

Things we learned: Currency: Rand (7.5 Rand=$1 USD) Cities Visited: Kalk Bay, Stellenbosch, Cape Town There are 11 official languages in South Africa and we met many people who spoke at least two of them.  Afrikaans is the language of the Dutch settlers who came to the country (I didn’t know this until our visit). [...]

Although our time in Cape Town was short, we still had the opportunity to learn more about the history of South Africa and how it had affected those that we met during our time there.  The downfall of apartheid and the rise of the ANC and Nelson Mandela during that time was discussed many times [...]