Bernie Grafe

Whooo R Yoooouuuuu

So we think we have a flat!!! Not the one previously celebrated… but a 3  bedroom, 2 bathroom with a balcony off each room in a very safe, very green,  very expat location…

The other flat was nice, but a little smaller and the landlord had reservations about Bernie being there alone during the day with his wife and daughters. He had a traditionalist view, and we thought he might not be so accommodating if we wanted to have people over for a few beers… Plus Bernie can’t clean the house and make my dinner if he’s not allowed to be in the flat!!!

The up side of flat hunting is also the opportunity to see a lot of neighbourhoods, and the agent we went with is a really interesting guy who… like Bernie… always seems to know someone that can help you ‘get shit done’! He took us to at least 20 different places all shapes and sizes in our price range. Some kinda scary, a couple that Bernie describes as ‘embassy like’ or, ‘I’d have to hire a guy to come in and play the baby grand we have to get for that corner’… Because it’s Ramadan, days are reversed for most of the Egyptian people. They sleep from 5am to 1pm and then break their fast at 6:30pm and are up all night shopping, cleaning, building; so we had been going out to look at places at about 9:30pm and getting home 1-2am. After flat hunting the other night, we went to this really cool bar (that isn’t serving alcohol right now because it is Ramadan) and had cold NON-alcoholic drinks and smoked a sheesha pipe. Neither of us had cameras, but it was a perfect Egypt experience… sitting on couches with the long tube of the pipe in our hand, talking about life in Egypt and travel destinations… I was doing my caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland impression that I thought was much funnier than everyone else did! The tobacco was fruit flavoured and had very little kick of nicotine. Looking forward to going there with some of you when you come to visit!!!

So the short story is that we are going tonight to sign a lease, we can move in on Thursday… neither of us can wait to unpack!

Missing everyone but loving the comments and the Skype chats so keep ‘em coming!!!

xoxox

Home Sweet Home

It looks like we may have a place! A teacher who is on her own with her teen-age daughter found something a little cheaper, so is signing her flat over to us. It’s in a good area, near many of the other teachers and my school’s bus stop… Address and other information when we have it!

We were glad because looking was starting to feel a little disheartening. In true Egyptian (I could say Hong Kong or any other country where red-tape seems to make life much more difficult than it should be…) style, we went out with the agents my school provided and saw some flats (apartments). As Bernie said, we were sorting through the scraps at the bottom of the barrel at this point… a few were okay, a few I felt I needed a shower just because I’d stepped through the door. Of course the agent started us with those because they were ‘lower cost’ then tried to up-sell with flats that were better, but above what we were willing to pay. We made the mistake of asking them to take us to the flat of the teacher we are trading with, much shouting and confusion ensued as we think the agent we were with was trying to hustle an additional commission from the landlord, and no one would explain what the issue actually was. Bernie’s new task is to learn arabic so we can yell back!!!

Looking forward to no longer living out of a suitcase!!!

And on the 8th Day, God gave the Egyptians the Car Horn

So Egyptian driving and traffic is something I can try to explain and visualize, but unless you’rer here, it is something quite remarkable and amazing to see, and my words may not do it justice. Traffic laws, pfft… there are no traffic laws here. One way street, merely a suggestion. People from Montreal think they got some crazy drivers, come to Egypt and be prepared to be eaten alive. I can not even begin to fathom driving here yet, and I tend to think I am a pretty great driver. There are no traffic laws here, no stop lights, and the 3 stop signs I have actually seen are more seen as pieces of relic art work then legal obligation. Basically the way the system works here is that if your there first, no matter who or how many people you cut off, you have the right away. That includes direction !

3 lane highway means 5 cars across, zig zagging constantly, vehicles braking, dodging and honking. It is quite a dance of lights, metal and the constant sound of car horns. Police are all over the place attempting to guide people when there is an altercation of vehicles, whereby both cars are at a standstill…usually neither budging and trying to inch in closer to see who has the dominant position to get into a driveway or throughfare. Or, sometimes, both vehicles going head to head on a one way street, neither budging and yelling at each other.

Oh.. that is a whole nother story. Egyptians have two ways of speaking, yelling at each other loudly, or yelling at each other really loud. Then they laugh. Slap each other on the backs and all things are resolved.

As well, almost every intersection is a round about with 5 exits, meaning cars are coming in at maximum velocity cutting people off, dodging in and out. Someone making a left hand turn from the 3rd lane in front of you and into on coming traffic is quite common. Like I said, if you feel you can make it, and other cars are forced to stop, go for it.

The same goes for crossing the street. If you feel they are not going to run you over, you force yourself across the street and they have to stop otherwise the military police that are everywhere will not be happy. It is quite common to see people froggering across the highway.

But dont get me wrong, it is quite a dance, and no one hits each other, and so far, the road rage seems to be at a minimum !

Day Something or Other

So it is Thursday and we are still waiting for an apartment. Because we got here a little later then the others, the real estate agent contracted by the school has not exactly been all that co-operative, meaning us, and 2 others are still lurking for a flat. All is not bad, the accommodations at the Hotel Maadi are pretty good, but it would be nice to un pack our bags and stretch out a little.

Egypt so far is a really interesting place. The place where we are living is primarily an ex-patriate community so bumping into other teachers and people from abroad is quite common. The local people have been nice so far. Generally they are really nice and helpful as they either view you as someone interesting, or a person with money to spend. The streets here are littered with tourist police with semi automatic weapons so the crime rate is next to nill, but you still have to be careful. Everywhere you go though, people are generally really happy to show you around or point out where to go.

We have also landed during a time of heavy religious holidays. Ramadan is a month long celebration that controls the entire city. The worst is being a fat man with an appetite and nothing is open during the day. As well, some other holiday just hit for three days so the Call To Prayer speakers are blarring pretty heavy.

We have found a few great places to eat so far. Vittorio’s Italian restuarant is quite awesome. Vittorio is half Italian and half Egyptian, a former British ex-pat. He made some killer Italian food, and he is my new pisan. Food so far has been interesting. Egypt persay has no specific dishes that they claim to be their own, but that does not mean they do not do Indian, Lebonese, et al.. really well. Egyptian desserts on the other hand, are money. They make these awesome honey donuts almost like timbits that are to die for.

Rant #1 – Call to Prayer

Ok… small rant. Other then the streets being extremely dangerous to cross, and tons of peddlers trying to hock their wares to you near Giza and any tourist attraction in Cairo, is the Call to Prayer.

5 Times a day, starting at 5am, and ending at 9pm… unsure when the other 3 occur, 4000 different mosques; including the one directly across the street from our hotel and on our side of the building, load speakers ring out with the Call to Prayer. Islamic religion dictates prayer 5 times a day with worshippers splaying small carpets to bow and pray to Mecca. To ensure that not one of Cairo’s 15 million Muslims can miss or not hear the prayers, the streets ring with the clerical chants constantly.

Good for them, nicely organized and tidy without the annoyance of a collection plate, but 5 am…. REALLY.

Day 3 – Giza, The Pyramids and the Sphinx oh my !

So finally day 3 we get a phone call from the school, and we are going on a road trip with the rest of the teachers. Destination; awesome.

After a short car ride we hit Giza:

What an awesome place, shortly followed by even more awesome, the Sphinx:

Later we hit the Cairo Egyptian Museum and the exhibits were to die for !

And to top it all off, some drinks in the market district.

To top everything off, its Ramadan for a month, the whole country turns dry…. NO BOOZE.

Tomorrow, Haley goes to work, and I get to house husband find a phone, apartment and other fun stuff !!

Day 2 – Waiting for Godot

So, where we left off. Landed in Cairo, and then waited 90 mins in line to get our visas and clear passport customs. Our luggage is already waiting for us, and like a swarm of deadly bees carters are on standby to help you load up your luggage for tips. Swatting them aside, like a true professional voyeur, Haley and I made our way to the exit to be greeted by a man standing with a sign “Ms. Haley Crane”. He motions and makes some sounds to suggest we need to follow him and he says a few words that sound like Canadian Institute. With that legitamacy confirmed, we head into the dead heat of Cairo, now 5am their time.

He says a few more words about a bus, drops the placard onto our luggage and disappears at a sprint into the night. Haley and I exchange a few worried looks, and start to look at all these people loading onto these crammed buses that obviously lead to another staging area for people to load and unload luggage. These carters are constantly harassing us to load stuff into the buses, and we keep waiting to see what is going on. Finally, when our patience has worn out, the original guy shows up with a bus from the school we will be teaching at. We load in, and make our way through the night to god knows where.

An hour later, we arrive at the Maadi Hotel. A suburb of Cairo, some what like the beaches. Across from the hotel is a mosque, and morning prayer call is being let out. To our surprise, all kinds of guards dressed in white line the streets with ak 47′s, MP5′s and handguns. Egypt takes crime and tourism like serious business, and the government does not want any messing around. We unload into the hotel, and are given a welcome basket by the school, we some snacks, maps and other nice’ities. The only thing that is missing is any instructions on where the hell we are supposed to go.

We snooze for a few hours only to get a phone call @ 8 am advising that we are to get on a bus that was supposed to leave 10 minutes previous for a meet and greet at the school. After some talking we figure that this event is misable and decide to spend the day inside. After a well deserved nap, we awoke and decided to comb the streets of Maadi. I got some coffee and cake for breakfast…. this was the coffee.

So after a nice Italian dinner and some more walking in the streets we retired for the day.

Day 1 – Athens

Hello all !

So we get to Toronto airport on time; thanks Tracey for the great lunch at St. Louis. We trudged our over laden cart to the Olympic counter and were greeted by this awesome attendant who started off our adventure by first scaring us, then being a saint. The Scare. We hand our papers over only to find that the school has arranged my name incorrectly on the flight ticket. Oh-oh, we may not be able to get me on the flight. Our attendant goes into action and makes sure everything is alright. We check our bags in, only for the guy to barely glance at the weight. Haley and I had freaked out for 3 days prior worrying about weight only to come to find it was not an issue at all. The Saint. So our attendant then advises that we are going to have a 13.5 hour lay over in Greece. Haley and I both exchange looks that say “your on first watch the bags while I sleep on a bench in the airport”. The attendant must have noticed this because he gleefully advised us that while we were to be in Athens we would get a free hotel room during the lay over. (Haley over my shoulder is advising that it was far more casual then that, and I may be glamouring up the story).

So after 11hrs in flight, including a pitstop in Montreal, we land in Athens. We load up onto this bus operated by this awesome driver that had nerves of steel, and no remorse for the passengers as he sped through the streets of Athens to our destination. We arrived at the hotel, and after a quick bean and chicken lunch we arrived to an air-conditionless room. After getting refreshed we made our way out to the streets and found a great beach where we relaxed and had a pint !

Well, boarding soon, will have further updates and pics later.

Should be in Cairo by 1:15am Cairo time, 7:15 Toronto.

Talk soon !

First Post

Welcome everyone to www.berniegrafe.com. Our goal is to keep everyone in touch with our adventures in Cairo !