first breakfast:

and a look around from my tiny balcony:

I can even see the river Nile 

(hardly to recognize but it's in the right corner behind the buildings...)

well, again some words about the quality of the pics: I'm very sorry but my camera died before I started and I had no possibility to get a new one on short notice or even let the old one be repaired. So I shoot all the pics with my mobile and hope you do not bother. I do but that's the way it is... Since I did not publish all the pics from the last trip to Cairo maybe I will show some of them too.

a little later, after strolling a bit through downtown and along the Nile

 

immediate silence, pretty surprising. This park is next to main roads but for some reason the noise is almost inaudible.

 

my flight acquaintance unfortunately had to work so we will meet Thursday or later somewhere in Germany. Instead I met a nice girl in a fast food restaurant - there were no other places, so she shared her table with me. Amal works for a ministry and talks not so much English, so we had to talk Arabic and she agreed that we meet again. I certainly will call her, it was real fun to talk to her.

And I made two sweet girls laugh very hard when they asked me if I was alone in Cairo. Because of my former trip through the Middle East I know that people usually pity you when you confess that you're on your own so I said that a friend of me stayed in the hotel sleeping. The snoring noise I made because I forgot the proper conjugation of "to sleep" for a moment seemed to be very amusing :)

So since about four hours I'm back in town, in the mother of the world, the Egyptian capital Cairo, after some difficulties concerning my accomodation and transport - heard of the Lufthansa strike? My flight was cancelled and it was impossible to get some information by phone because the hotline was so overloaded that I was not even put on hold. And I tried really hard to get through... So Sunday I went to the airport in Düsseldorf and there could change my flight to Egypt air.

In the airplane I met a very nice guy who will work for the national TV station in Cairo for some days so the four hours flying just spun away. Maybe we will meet tomorrow and stroll through Khan Khalili a little.

I was picked up at the airport by a guy sent by the hotel I checked in. Traffic is still crazy and even now I hear the noise although it is past midnight and I'm aloft the city in the 16th floor. The hotel is simple but the guys at the reception seem to be nice. We chatted a little Arabic/English and then I bought a new SIM for my mobile and some water, bread and cheese around the corner. It seems as if I stranded again in the car repair shops area like in Aleppo but the people at the street were friendly and did not seem to care about me walking around after dark.

So now I will smoke one more cigarette, read a bit Kerouac and then get pretty sleepy and have nice dreams :)

the flight is booked, starting on February 22th and staying till March 17th.

Main missions: improving my arabic skills, preparing my PhD and getting some sun :)

I'm exited!


aah, and by the way, although DHL worked kind of blowzy, the package finally arrived at my friend's who brought most of the toys to a hospital for children again. He and some friends collected additional toys und hopefully I will get some pics for the blog from him. When I'm back I will send the toys that are still waiting in my kitchen.

A happy new year to everyone!

For me I wish I will post more again cause that will mean that I travel more. Does not look too bad for this year.

Bad news from Iraq - the last package has not arrived yet. My friend there is looking for it. I do not know what happened...

And for you some winter fun I had during the last weeks. It's snowing. It's cold. I can not ride my bike. But still ... there is fun ;)

First small fun at home:




and some really big fun.


We named her Elisabeth. And I'm sorry the pics are this bad but I only had my mobile with me.

washing time again...


only the plush underneath will stay with me ;)

three days of sun, music and happiness in Haldern

my castleand what made me smile every morning when I crawled out of bed

The beautiful Spiegelzelt


beer, coffee and other good things


mainstage



the day after

biking again. unfortunately only for one day.

So maybe the saying is true that haste makes waste, that the good things need their time to ripe. I've got mail from Iraq. One of the two boxes I filled with the help of some friends and beautiful plush toys arrived in a hospital for children who have cancer. I got some pictures and it is very moving to see one of my old toys in the arms of a pretty little boy who lost his hair.

feeling homey

61 hours in Berlin. and I fell in love again with the city.