Spring Break in Poland

For Spring Break 2010 we decided to head to Poland. I have been asked a few times why we chose Poland, and the answer is simple - it's an European, non-Muslim country that is not on the Euro, thereby making the holiday good for the belly and good for the wallet!! The worst part of the trip was actually the flight times. We had a 2am departure from Cairo early Thursday morning and arrived back at 1.30am early Tuesday morning. I was most concerned about how Ezekiel would cope with the flights, but he was a real trooper and slept heaps. The little tike is not even 8 months old yet, but has already set foot in 4 countries (well 5 if you count the airport in Prague) and on 4 continents.

Ezekiel and 'Spike' the sheep getting ready for take-off

breakfast Polish-style - mmmm pork

Spring in El Rehab

Every week I walk many, many miles around our housing estate, going to the supermarket, the souq (outdoor market area), taking Ezekiel to playgroup, etc. I enjoy our walks as El Rehab is, for the most part, quiet, reasonably clean, and has useable footpaths. El Rehab is, however, not very environmentally freindly. I say this because all around us is great swathes of grassed areas, loads of flower beds and hundreds of trees - all flourishing in the desert!!!

On one recent walk to the souq I was admiring the blossoming trees, when it suddenly dawned on me that I was looking at a Callistemon citrinus, a Crimson Bottlebrush, an Australian native plant that I absloutely love. Suddenly Australia didn't seem quite so far away.

Crimson bottlebrush in El Rehab

Rain

Last night it rained. So what, I hear you say ... well when you live in the desert rain is a big deal. Now it has rained before in the 3 years we have lived in Cairo, if you can call a light sprinkle here and there, rain. But nothing like the apocalyptic proportions of yesterday, with its thunder, lightning, torrential rain and even hail in some suburbs.

As you can imagine in a country that averages only 2 cms of rain per year normally, its citizens are not accustomed to driving in the wet, so there were many accidents and broken down vehicles yesterday. A friend wrote this on his Facebook page, to describe his trip home. "Took me 5 hours to get home from the airport. Cairo streets, including highways, dangerously flooded. Driver prayed out loud as we passed colonies of dead cars in 3-4 ft. deep water on the Autostrade. Prayers worked until we had to push our car out of a small lake."

And this is also a country that, for the most part, has no working drains, so there was major flooding all over Cairo. The photo below is from our housing area, and much of the collected rainwater was still there this morning.

Flooded street in El Rehab

Weird and Wonderful Egypt - pt.3

This was written on Facebook by my husband, David, and since it is so succinctly written I figured I'd repeat it here.

"Living in Egypt can be hard at times, but every now and again a suprise happens that makes living here enjoyable. Tonight, Michele, Zeke and I were waiting at a corner for a bus to go home at 9pm. A delivery driver for the Metro we were just shopping in, pulled up and gave us a ride home. Egyptian hospitality!"

One of the ubiquitous Metro supermarket delivery vans, nicknamed 'the Metro missile' by a neighbour of ours, because of the excessive speed with which they drive around our neighbourhood.

New Year, New Discovery

The new year has brought me a new culinary discovery - red carrots. I came across these courtesy of Emad, a private driver we hire occassionally (instead of a taxi). When driving me home recently, Emad stopped at a road side cart, and bought me a bag each of regular (orange) carrots and these amazing red carrots. Not exactly red, these unusual carrots are more of a purple, not unlike the colour of beets. They have a great flavour raw and are also fantastic roasted.

The red carrot - straight out of the ground

... and peeled

... and sliced.