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Slade's Elucidation

a travel blog by Slade's Elucidation


Our journey out of American society and into the world
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Fun Times at Trove

Petroio, Italy


The past few weeks have passed by in a blaze of , well blazes for one. Barbara decided that the Calabroni (aka big fucking hornets that are creepily smart) had lived in the big stump by the house for too long and set the whole thing ablaze. It smoldered throughout the day, and come evening it was still going. To attempt and get water into the centre of the stump the guys tried standing it up and it proceeded to roll down the hill taking out several small trees and landing just a few feet away from the field of dried grass. For obvious reasons this wasn't a good home for the giant flaming log. Never fear, Barbara has a big tractor :P Everyone pitched in to get it back up the hill and onto the gravel drive in a position where it could be properly hosed before we all turned in for the night.


James unearthed a nest of baby lizards in the process of hatching too, arnt they cuties?

A day or two later there was a wine tasting in Montepulciano of local wines. Local wines here means the rather famous Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Rosso di Montepulciano., yummm.


We met two friends of theirs in Montepulciano, Leslie (who is their colleague as well) and Karla (who also does tours back home in Czechoslovakia), and had a lovely evening sipping good wine. On the way home we saw this little cutie hanging out by the road...

That weekend Leslie and Karla came to stay at Trove and Saturday Ugo took us on a little sightseeing day trip. One of our first stops of the day was at the monastery where some of the movie The English Patient was filmed. It boasted some wonderful frescos and views of the surrounding countryside.




After leaving we drove through the countryside for a bit, just enjoying the stunning senary.

Ugo suggested we go to the little village of Lucignano d'Asso, so we could take a walk through it. Honestly I think he just wanted an excuse to visit the little grocery/deli that was there. He orded us a bottle of wine and we thought some light nibbles of cheese and what have you. We got a bit more then we anticipated but out of courtesy to the hostess couldn't do anything but eat the juicy fresh cantaloup, tantalizing slices of local dried meats, and cheeses. The meats we superb, I think Beth might have cried tears of joy had she seen those plates coming out ;)

Eventually we ended up at the hot springs on the side of Mont Amiata. We swam in a modern swimming pool which has several sections of varying size and temperatures, all fed by thermal waters heated by the volcanic activity of Mont Amiata.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love bathing in really hot water? Like hot to the point it chases James out of the shower. I could really do with a hotspring in my backyard...would certainly lower our electricity and water bills :P Of course I would also need a backyard again to have a hot spring in it.

We also visited one of my new favorite places again, the garden Bosco dela Ragnaia. This time it was a whole diffrent experiance having Ugo there to play the guide and tell is the meanining of all the words inscribed around the place. I swear this guy reads Conversations With God, and must have a lusty obsesion with good philosiphy.

We were luck enough to meet the creator, and he is the most unassuming guy youd ever meet. There he was just working away on a flower bed in his beat up denim and floppy wide brim hat, humility and warmth eminating from every gesture. He stopped his work long enough to have a quick chat and then politly excused himself and got back to it, he is obviously not a big socializer but still makes you feel welcome.

It's finally cooling off a bit and we've enjoyed several dinners outdoors in one of the courtyards. Nice breeze, good vino, good company...


I think I might have mentioned this before, but just in case....

I DONT EVER WANT TO LEAVE!

Love you all!

permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on September 4, 2008 from Petroio, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged HotSprings, Italy, Tuscany, Petroio and Pienza

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For Patrick and my other Morbid friends

Petroio, Italy


A month and a half after the weed trimmer fiasco this is what im left with.

Remember it used to look like this.

The scar healed up fine, not to tight or anything. Under the skin things seem to still be sorting themselves out. I get wierd stabby and tingly pains and dont have the same strength or range of motion. All things taken into consideration though I think it's doing quite well.

I never got around to writing up a Florence blog and I doubt i will so go look at the pictures, and all thats worth knowing is that the two best things about florence had nothing to do with florence.

1st best thing was the awesome sushi place we found. Hot sake and raw fish, nothing has tasted so good in a long long time.

2nd best was my new sandles which i somehow didnt get uploaded. They're braided cord woven into a cool strappy pattern, and they can get wet. Flipside footware ftw!


Hmmm florence is less then two hours away, and the train ticket was less then 7 euros. Is it extravagent to travel across italy for good sushi? Cuse now im craving it again :(


permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on September 8, 2008 from Petroio, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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Cellar Slave

Petroio, Italy


Many of you have been wondering what the hell I've been up too here in the wilds of Tuscany. Vino baby, god I love this stuff, rather surprisingly so considering my original antipathy for everything related to wine.

I've been cleaning out the Mariotties cellar, bottling previous vintages, all in preparation for this years harvest which is just around the corner.

It starts by cleaning out the bottles, anything can effect the taste of wine, and the smallest speck of god knows what can turn a whole demijohn of loveliness into vinegar before you could shout Baccus!


I washed all the bottles, and stripped the labels off of many using industrial soda (recycle people!), before drying and crating them to be filled.

Next up you grab a big demijohn from the cellar floor and put it up an the stand. Then you un cork it and suck the oil off the top to see what you have underneath. You top off the wine with oil for preservation reasons. Providing the vino has survived the ageing process your then ready to bottle.

Next you fill up various sizes of your sparkling bottles and then move them over to the 'corker'. Pop a cork in, slap a label on them and then stick them on the shelves.

In the end you wind up with something looking a lot like this.


Things here at Trove are, well, rural. They do not sell any wine commercially, the vines and cellar merely support the Mariottie's yearly Vino needs. Yes. Tuscan families DO need their own vineyard and cellar to provide the years wine... God, can I have a villa in Tuscany, pleaaaaase?!?!?!?!


Don't worry, they dont have to hang out in the dark cellar for very long. The 2007 red is my particular favourite. In the states Id never touch reds, here id plug it into an IV if only my veins had taste buds.

Disclaimer for the Moms reading this:

Nope I'm not an alcoholic. In Italy, it is very shameful to be drunk. A mentality I quite agree with, I hate bring drunk and haven't been in a very very long time. Wine, is just....life... here.

Two weeks and counting until the harvest!! I plan to blog the whole process here at Trove so stay tuned ;)


Peace ya'll,
Amanda

permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on September 17, 2008 from Petroio, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Italy, Trove, Petroio and WineCellar

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Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore, Italy


Before leaving Austin we went to the Art City Austin show and one of the exhibitors had a picture on display of an unbelievably picturesque village clinging to the coast of Italy, well we decided we we're going to go there right on the spot, and this week we did.

We had been working hard on the farm for several weeks and our hosts thinking it was high time we had a break lovingly kicked us out for a few days. Four train connections later we we're in La Spezia and caught a bus from there to the hamlet of Biassa. Biassa is perched on opposite side of the hills from Cinque Terre and many of the National Parks hiking trails start in or pass through Biassa.

The first day there we wanted to take it kinda easy and get our bearings, so we opted for a short hike just over the hill to to first town in Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore.

Five hours and 15-20km later we decided the trail map would have been a good idea, but had a good time none the less. We passed a few bars a long the trail and grabbed some fruit and bread in a small village along the way, so we didnt fret about not being where we wanted to be and enjoyed the amazing views.


Midafternoon we finally arrived in Riomaggiore and had what was probably the crappiest meal we've had while travelling, but the gelato made up for it. We wandered down to the water and found a sunny rock to lay on and just baked for awhile in the warm sun while our feet dangled in the cool waters.



Being thoroughly exhausted we didn't do much the rest of that day and went back to Biassa for an excellent dinner at the only proper restaurant in the town. Butter and sage became my new favourite pasta sauce that night. Ohm, nom, nom, nom.

Day two we took the bus. We also bought a day pass for the ferries that run to each of the towns, and went to the second town in Cinque Terra for breakfast. It would have been awesome but they were outa waffles, much suck. After breakfast we opted for more hiking, sane choice...nahhhh, and hiked along the cost from Manarola to Corniglia.

The trail literally clings to the cliffs and every step of the way your a banister away from the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean, which happen to be a long way down.

On the other side of the trail you could see the odd house or rows and rows of vines. Nope, there are no roads of any sort going to these peoples houses. Only the occasional small rail car. The must have legs of iron...

When we got to Corniglia we were faced with the fun prospect of climbing 382 stairs, just to reach the town. Who knows how many were in the town its self. There was a nice suprise waiting for us though when we got to the top, it came in the form of stuffed mussels and pesto spaghetti,mmmmm. We sat at a table up against the railing dividing the restaurant from the hill we had just climbed. Olive trees acted as the ceiling and wide open views of the Mediterranean provided the walls.

We strolled through the town after lunch, just enjoying the sites.

Eventually we caught the train to the next town, Vernazza, to catch the ferry from there to the last town in Cinque Terre, Monterosso. After a failed hunt for lemon gelato we caught the last ferry back to the first town, which stopped in each of the towns with a harbor along Cinque Terre. We got to enjoy the views of each town from the sea and I was able to snap some nice shots of each town.

Our trip to Cinque Terre could be described as a visual assault of the natural persuasion, the 400 or so photos I've had to sort through the past few days is testament to the beauty of this place.

Tomorrow we start the harvest!!!!!!

Love you all!

P.S. We got your postcard today Savannah!! We'll try to call you soon, Hugs and Kissies :)


permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on September 30, 2008 from Riomaggiore, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Italy and CinqueTerre

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Vendemmia Time!

Petroio, Italy


Vendemmia, Italian for grape harvest.

The vines are starting to turn hues of orange and red, and the grapes are juicy sweet. It's harvest time.

Two days before the harvest was to start we pulled out all the bins, baskets, tubs, and tubes and gave then a good rinsing. Grapes don't like dirt, or soap, so everything gets a good rinse as you put it away after the previous years harvest and again right before this years to insure things are as clean as possible.

The morning of the Vendemmia we had one last thing that needed rinsing, having decided to harvest a day earlier on account of the weather turning. The final thing to wash was the de-stimmer. The name says it all, this machine removes the grapes from the stalks smushing them a bit in the process and them shoots them into the tube you hopefully have aimed into the holding vats. Having quite a force behind it, if the tubes off for cleaning and you don't have a catch bucket over the hole you can shoot dried grape bits leftover from last years harvest quite a way into your nice freshly swept cellar. Blasting anyone in the way. Not that I'd know from experience or anything.... Sorry Paul.

Around noon we headed down to the vineyards to get started. Barbara and Ugo knew this years would be a small harvest thanks to the very dry spring and summer, what they hadn't really counted on was the local deer eating at least half of the grapes they did have this year. Normally they move the dog kennel down to the vineyard so Billy and Mary Moon can chase deer to their hearts content and protect the grapes. Alas that didn't happen this year and as a result there are some very very well fed deer in the area. I think the local poachers owe the Mariottie's a couple venison steaks and such for feeding the damn things.

Regardless of the small yield there were still grapes that needed picking and the whole gang pitched in. Ugo and Barbara of course, James and I, as well as Martine and Paul; another couple here helping who also hail from the land of Oz. Even the animals came to help.

Normally the white and red grapes would be harvested separately for white and red vintages but due to the small quantity this year Ugo and Barbara decided to combine them to make and old school Chianti wine.

Disclaimer, I really have no clue what I'm talking about here. Apparently, before “Winemakers” moved into the area Chianti was made by combining the red,Sangiovese,and white grapes, Malvasia. Doing this would still make a red wine, not a rose or blush, as its the skins of the red grapes that make a red wine red. These days Chianti is primarily just made with the Sangiovese grape.

Back to the harvest, after collecting grapes for a few hours it was time for a picnic lunch in the vineyard and a short rest before collecting the last of the grapes.

After all the grapes were picked the buckets were taken up to the cellar, where we ran them through the de-stimmer and the juice was pumped into the big holding vat where it eventually becomes wine.

There is of course more to that process of grape juice to wine but that's another blog.

Cheers mates ;)

ps To see all the harvest photos click the photos link then scroll to the bottom of the page and find the Vendemmia tag.




permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on October 7, 2008 from Petroio, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Tuscany, Trove and Vendemmia

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Day Trippin

Radicofani, Italy


After staring at this mountain for the past two and a half months, when James and I got permission to take the car out for a day trip to Mont Amiata we went. Before heading up Mont Amiata though James wanted to go investigate a near by fortress. He has a little boys fanaticism when it comes towers, gun turrets, and such.

From the road the place looks pretty damn impressive. Can you imagine being the invading army? Having marched hundreds of miles you get here and realize not only do you have to fight these guys you have to run up that hill to do it while they're firing unfriendly implements of war at you. “Naw I'll pass on this one Sarg....”

We found or own hostile force on the way up, but he fled at the sight of our mighty siege weapon aka the 4wd suzuki.

Being the end of the tourist season the place was practically deserted and we sat on a bench and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the middle of an ancient fortress overlooking all of Tuscany. And we found shrooms, yes those kind of shrooms. No, we didnt eat them.

After lunch we went and explored the fortress proper and climbed up the big tower which has been turned into a museum of sorts. Heres something I bet you didnt know about Tuscany, there are a LOT of ants here. Not the mean demon spawn ants we have back home mind you, just the happy eat everything in sight sort. Anyhow, its matting season for the ants. So all the winged ones have taken to the air, at the same time, and there are millions of them. Apparently the party invite said the dance was on top of of the tower, because the entire way up we passed the dead and dying ants twitching on the stairs. I naïvely figured they must of flown up from the door below but was relieved of that notion as soon as we stepped out on top of the tower. A mass of flying and dying ants filled the air and covered every horizontal surface of the ramparts. Yum...

Having had our fill of flying insects going places they shouldn't we decided to head down and make our way up Mont Amiata.

The drive up to the top was in my opinion almost the best part of the trip. The bosco were breathtaking. A veritable fairyland.

At every bend I was waiting for the gnome to climb out from under his mushroom and take my into a barrow to meet the King and Queen of the Sidhe. Ok not really, I didn't eat those mushrooms remember. But still that place was magical.


Most of you i'm a bit of a nature nut, but perhaps not to the extent I really am. I don't need religion, philosophical self help books, Conversations With God even; no Tolle, no string theory, or pagan rituals. I need trees, trees to climb in, big grey rocks to climb over, moss to run my hands through, tempestuous wind blowing through my hair, I need sunshine, and thunderstorms, and babling brooks.

Mont Amita had it all, yes I climbed trees and yes I hugged the mossy rock. Cant help it, it was too cuddly. Save me? I might turn into the crazy lady in the woods who talks to the animals and has a pet name for every tree. There are ski lodges for rent on Amiata, perhaps I could just play the crazy lady in the woods for a few weeks outa the year :P

It was a good day, a little known part of Tuscany that might have been my favourite.



permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on October 18, 2008 from Radicofani, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Italy, Tuscany, MontAmiata and Radicofani

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Ciao Trove!

Petroio, Italy


I almost succeded in not crying today, almost. It was the damn animals that did me in. Barbara is strong enough for two chicks so I didnt get teary when she said bye this morning before heading into town. Its when I went down to the out-door courtyard to give Fluffy a goodbye cuddle and Billy came over to join me that I got a wee bit misty eyed. Fluffy was purring in my lap and Billy was doing his wierd but adoreable dog moan as a scratched his butt. Cute huh :P

I even kept it together when Ugo dropped us off at the station.

Damn animals....

See ya later Trove, it's been a blast.



permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on October 21, 2008 from Petroio, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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Greece, the place we may never see...

Athens, Greece


Well... 10 hour layover and a 1200 Euro fine later we have entered and left Greece. We found out our visa was over by 2 weeks when passing through customs here and thus fined 1200 Euro's which we must pay the next time we come to Greece. Yeah doubt we'll make it back here. On to Cairo.

permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on October 22, 2008 from Athens, Greece
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tagged AthensGreece

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Egypt!

Cairo, Egypt


We arrived in Cairo after a ten hour overnight layover in the Athens airport feeling drained and a bit wary at the thought of what we were about to get ourselves into. The first day we spent sleeping off the jet lag while puttering around the hotel and local neighbourhood.

A bit about the area were staying in; it's the Muslim neighbourhood of downtown Cairo. I am probably the only female over ten without my hair covered I've seen in this area of town. Grocery stores? Hah. English speaking shop-keepers? Hah. People who don't gawk at long blonde hair? Hah. The girls all seem to giggle when they see James's ponytail too, it's cute when they do it though. They guys are kinda creepy about it. That said though, after staying here a few days I've grown pretty comfortable with the locals. Everyone has been very kind to us, and a few have even greeted us on the streets in English.

Our first day of sightseeing we went to the Egypt Museum, the repository of Egypt's artefacts, open for a hundred and fifty or so years. The building is huge and packed with pottery, statues, sarcophagus, and papyrus manuscripts. The galleries with King Tutankhamun's treasures and the jewellery were my favourites.

The coolest part of this day though came later in the evening. The terrace of our hotel was booked for an engagement party that evening and the music started blaring before the sun went down. And when I say blaring, I mean making stuff in our room several floors from the roof rattle sorta blaring. Have I mentioned yet how much I'm digging the local music? I've always got the TV in our room turned to a music channel :). When the celebrants arrived they did en mass, the women doing that cool allllalalalalala thing in super high voices that for some reason western women seem incapable of copying. The party had been in full swing for awhile when the hotel's owner invited us to go up to the terrace and watch the festivities with another employee of the hotel who we'd chatted with a few times. The roof was packed and I felt pretty awkward being up there, but we found some seats out of the way and watched the dancing, which was a total treat. The guys were on the floor and danced soooo expressively, using their full bodies and rather sensuous movements in a way I'm more accustomed to seeing women dance. A gentleman, a relation of the couple I think, even came over and offered James and I some sodas. It was a once and a life time chance to get a glimpse at the Arabic culture. One thing I can say for sure, these people know how to party.

The next morning we were up early as we had booked a tour to go see the pyramids!! Our driver for the day collected us from the hotel and we headed out to Dahshur to see the first pyramid of the day, The Red Pyramid of Sneferu.

This is one of the few pyramids you can go into without making special arrangements so we hastily climbed our way to the entrance to be meet by a hysteria inducingly small tunnel which led into the inner chambers.

Thighs burning, we made it down into the first chamber where we could look up at the interior structure of the pyramid.



Next up we headed to Saqqarah to see the famous step Pyramid of Djoser. Unfortunately, you cant go inside Djoser, but there were some tombs in the Djoser complex that we were able to go into. Photography isnt allowed in the tombs but me being me snapped a few anyhow.

At one point a worker invited us to take some photos on the sly and then took us into another tomb beside the first we went into and allowed me to snap a couple good shots in their while telling us a bit about the reliefs.

This would have been awesome if he didn't expect an exorbitant basheesh in return.

On our way from Saqqara to Giza our driver stopped at one of the many hand-woven carpet schools and we were given a demonstration of the three kinds of woven carpets the students learn to make before being taken to the sale room/gallery upstairs.

Here James and I came to the realization that were weak in the face of gorgeous material objects and not the best bargainers. We came away with a good-sized rug woven of all natural un dyed wool with a rather modern linear design. Sure we don't have a house, but we have a damn fine Egyptian hand woven rug to put in one. :P

Continuing on our way we came to our final destination for the day, the Giza plateau, home of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid.

By this point in the day our moods had taken a down turn due to the constant barrage of people expecting money. We tried to set this aside though and booked our camel ride around the pyramids.

The pyramid complex is quite large and to attempt to get all the vantage points I wanted for photographical reasons on foot would have been exhaustive. On our way out of the stables my mood started taking even more of a down turn when I saw the state of some of the animals kept in the stables not authorized by the government as ours way. Horses with saddle sores and way to many bones sticking out. The animals were in no condition to be worked but all had saddles on their backs. Making our way along the trail to the pyramids we came across the most unsettling part of the trip. In the not so far distance were the well picked over but still fleshy skeletal remains of a horse. I looked away and tried to shove it out of my mind so I could enjoy the pyramids but at this point both James and I were feeling morally filthy.

By being tourists here we were inadvertently encouraging a system where men relied on underhand and dishonest practices to weasel money out of ignorant tourists and animals were apparently underfed and overworked for the amusement of tourists and financial benefit of their owners.

We continued on our tour of the pyramids, but at this point neither of our hearts were really in it. I wanted more than anything to leave Cairo after our visit to Giza and get to India stat.

On our way back to the hotel though we ate a nice lunch with our guide and then he stopped at a papyrus gallery so we could see how papyrus was made and look at the paintings. A really nice guy gave us a demonstration of how papyrus was made, which by the way is really easy and we plan to try it when we get home, and then explained some of the stories behind the historical and religious painting reproductions they had. We viewed the gallery for awhile and in the end selected a few for ourselves and as gifts. I wish I could take pictures of them to show you how cool they are but the paintings are all in a tube being mailed to the states as we speak. They, like the rug, will look splendid in that house we don't have hehe.

As we were checking out we got into a conversation with our salesman and the other clerks about American politics and how distorted the media's representation of Muslims and their quality of life really is. Sure Egypt isn't Iraq, but their ways of life aren't to dissimilar, though totally foreign to an American. That was one of the more rewarding moments of the day.

permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on October 26, 2008 from Cairo, Egypt
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tagged Pyramids, Cairo and Egypt

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The Cairo experience - Yin side

Cairo, Egypt


Ok, I need to Yin Amanda's Yang of Cairo. Not that I don't totally
understand it, as we get a lot of attention and women are treated a
bit different here. The culture is far from our own and it can take a lot out
of you. That being said... I am having an awesome time here. After holing
up for a few days in the hotel after our pyramid run the energy
returned.

Getting our Visa's for India has been a test in patience over
that which you cannot control. Sunday (which is like Monday for us) I was
too tired and worn out to go try for our Visa's, decided to go on Monday
instead. So Monday we realised we hadn't gotten our passport size photo's
done so had to get them before we could go to the Indian consulate
office. So to town we go. The owner of the hotel personally drove us into
downtown Cairo and was a really nice gesture. Dropped us off in front of
a Kodak photo center and bid us farewell. The process of getting the
pictures was painless and cheap and we got 8 copies each. Little more
than we needed but hey you never know. It was probably around 10am and
the consulate closed by 11. We figured we wouldn't make it so blew doing
that off til Tuesday. *FYI the Indian consulate office is right around
the corner from the photo shop. who knew? :| Ok so Tuesday we head down
to the Indian consulate office and low and behold... Indian holiday and
they're closed. sigh... Oh well wont let that get us down, we can just
come back tomorrow. Which went quite well, found out we had to wait til
Sunday for the paperwork to go through and to come back then. Amanda is
ready to GTFO of Cairo at this point. I must point out she gets lots of
attention and together well it's almost 2 fold. Wears on us a bit, but
personally I get used to it in doses. So.. I'll skip the boring stuff.
It's now Sunday, Visa's should be done today and all will be golden.
Hurray.

I've been making lots of friends here, everyone is so friendly its hard
not to.

I can't understand everyone but it doesn't really matter. I find
using sounds, hand gestures and a smile works real well. The women who
work here in the hotel tend to talk or hand communicate with me a lot.
It's quite fun "talking" with them.

One in particular, Doaa, whose name I can never say right is pronounced something like Dew Eye but stress the eye with a hint of A. Yeah I can't do it either.

Anyway she speaks a fair amount of English and is always trying to learn more. We use Google's language translator a lot to get our points across. Now she's Muslim, 20,
single and I'm not. Being as I like to flirt... lol things get
interesting. She's an amazing person and Amanda wants to put her in her
pocket and bring her home with us. In the hotel she's very open and able
to be more social with me, in public however she an Amanda hang on to
each other as we walk about and well... I hang by myself. Here the guys
hang together and hold hands and the women stick to themselves and do the
same. It is what is I reckon. No matter we have a great time. Doaa thinks
very highly of Amanda and mirrors her actions. It's very cute.

She has taken us to all the places we would have never found on our own and
personally has made the last few days here perfect for me. From eating at
local restaurants up narrow stairs I wouldn't think of going up to eating
street cooked corn and riding the music party boats on the Nile.

Had some of the bestest chocolate shakes ever while enjoying a licorice shisha.

Also toured the local park that allows you to see most of Cairo and has
really nice cafe's to relax in.

Went to the Khan El Kalili Bazaar which is the largest and I think oldest in the world, showed us how a real Egyptian handles the vendors and just has a good time with herself and us.

I do wish she could be free of her religious boundaries but I respect
them and acknowledge as much as I can. She's pretty lax about them which
is good. We're really going to miss her, I feel she will be a great
addition to the circle of friends.

I must mention then entire hotel staff here at the Arabian Nights. They
go out of their way, are totally caring and very generous people. I feel
more like a friend than some tourist and that means a lot to me. My
journey to Egypt now feels accomplished and I have learned a lot from
them. BTW... These people being scary and bad is total horseshit. These
have been some of the friendliest people ever. They openly welcome us at
every turn and no where else have I ever experienced that to that magnitude. Far as
negatives.. its like any other tourist trap, in those spots it's about
money and how they're going to get it from you and that's anywhere on the
planet. Knowing that and knowing how to say no will save you a lot of
problems. I'll miss this place.
One last note. Riding around here in a taxi or any form of vehicle is
INSANE! I love it, I laugh and laugh and laugh while riding around. The
lanes on the road don't mean anything. There are no traffic cops, they
don't even drive with lights on at night. They use their horns like
they're going out of style and they're headlights are used to get ur
attention. They drive fast and sometimes against on coming traffic. Yet I
haven't seen an accident and I've been riding a lot. Tons of fun!!!

Addendum: Scored a few Shisha pipes that look awesome, Have gone wandering through a large section of the Khan bazaar and the scope of the place is mind boggling. The city has so much history it would take a very extensive amount of time to see it all. I hope I can come back someday to continue seeing it. We're off to Pondicherry India's Auroville and it will probably be a bit before we do another major blog update. Will do our best though.

<3<3<3

permalink written by  Slade's Elucidation on November 4, 2008 from Cairo, Egypt
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Cairo, Egypt, AlAzhar, ArabianNights and KhanElKhalili

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Slade's Elucidation Slade's Elucidation
1 Trip
1000 Photos

James & Amanda...Amanda & James.

If anyone feels the urge to donate to our cause or would like us to pick something up for them along the way you can send funds via pay-pal to jameswslade at gmail.com. Just shoot us a message of what you´d like and we´ll do our best to make it happen. Any...

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