2010 Elections in Egypt



Egyptian Military lining the highway, overlooking a neighborhood prone to protests concerning the election



Election Campaign Poster

Election Campaign Posters line the streets

This afternoon I stumbled across some interesting information about the parliamentary elections currently going on in Egypt that I would like to share. While we were in Egypt, we were in numerous situations in which we noted armed militia lining the freeway for what we was told as riot/crowd-control in case another uprising occured. On Friday, we also crossed through a square (although, when we saw the crowd we quickly walked along the outskirts of the square) that was full of men who looked like they were in the midst of organizing a large crowd, and then we had to get through several security checkpoints to walk down a street that seemed like it would usually be traversable. While in Luxor, our guide also told us that this was the first election in which women were allowed to run for office. Our Giza guide mentioned that there were fourteen different political parties and sometimes groups cared very intensely if they didn't win the seats they wanted. ...All of these experiences, knowledge nuggets, etc, are all coming together as I saw this article today and did a little digging:

1. Here's an interesting video clip from CNN, evidently many are realizing the elections are quite unfair:

2.  This is one of the headlining topics on Human Rights Watch, another organization that believes the Egyptian elections are unjust. 
3.  Women aren't just allowed to run for office (evidently they had been before), what is significant, according to this article is that over the next five years, through elections, women are supposed to hold a minimum of 12% of Parliament.  The article also notes that this is not going well. 
4.  There have in fact been riots, as are detailed by this article. 
5.  There are groups that were discriminated prior to the election, as explained in this article.
6.  People have been paid to vote, people have voted multiple, multiple times, people have been blocked from entering election stations, and election posts have closed prohibitively early...Check out the videos on this blog...

Very interesting things to think about... this certainly explains why many of the guides were very vague and cryptic when answering questions about the elections.

Pyramids, Camels, and Mosques - Oh My!

Giza Highlights

(click on the image above to view the album)

Wednesday, November 23^rd – Pyramids and Camels and Mosques!

Today was magic!  From the first glimpses of the pyramids poking out over the city buildings to the breathtaking realization of how huge they actually are as you stand in their shadows to the exhilarating duck walk we did down into the depths of the third pyramid to indulgently fun camel rides and stepping into gorgeous mosques – it was one of those days that makes the trip.  

We woke up, excited to head to Giza, grabbed breakfast and met with our guide and driver.  The seven clambered into the van and braced ourselves for another day of Cairo traffic and our forty-five minute drive to Giza.  As we drove we noticed one particularly alarming thing – when we reached an especially rough-looking area of town that was full of unfinished brick apartment style buildings (keep in mind, a tremendous amount of Cairo would qualify as “rough,” this area was moderately worse than some of the areas…we actually such much, much worse.  Anyway, as we drove through this area, we noticed men in black uniforms standing at attention on the freeway looking down into this section of town.  And it wasn’t just a few men in uniforms, it was dozens and dozens of men with transport trucks, automatic rifles, tear gas guns, shields, helmets…and in some places they were standing shoulder to shoulder.  We quickly asked our guide what was going on and he said that Egypt was in the midst of their parliamentary elections and that some groups rioted and protested when things didn’t go the way they wanted.  He said the election had been going on for ten days now.  We asked, why this area and he explained that this is the area in which protests have occurred and that during this election there have been two mosques and several churches damaged or destroyed in the area.  Our Luxor guide also told us (the next day) that this was the first parliamentary election in which women were allowed to run for office and I saw political posters for both women wearing traditional Muslim dress and women that looked like modern politicians.  All throughout the cities there were pictures of different politicians (mainly male) draped from buildings.  We were told that there are 14 different political parties and that the current leading party is the National Party, which is also the oldest party in Egypt.  The military is volunteer-based. 

On the way to Giza, the level of poverty and quality of living plummeted.  And then, as we peered at the city apartment buildings, we caught a glimpse of the pyramids jutting out over the rooftops!  By the time we pulled up to the pyramids, we could scarcely believe how immense they were!  We bought tickets to enter the third pyramid, were given the main admission tickets by our guide, and were ready to go!  We had seen the pyramids from the airplane and they had almost looked small.  As we walked to the base of the first one, the Great Pyramid, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, small was anything but the right description.  We stood in the shade of an awe-inspiring, three million stone pyramid!  We were even able to climb up the first few steps and take pictures ON the pyramid!  So cool!  During this, I was approached by several sweet Muslim girls (teenagers) who asked if they could have their picture taken with me – when I agreed they all excitedly crowded around and took picture after picture on their little cameras, showing me the results and saying “ah, fantastique!”  After this, we headed to the third pyramid and were able to take great pictures of the second and most intact one. 

And then!  We got to head down into the third pyramid!!!  Excited we had to squat and walk at a downward slant for quite a distance before were could comfortably stand again.  At the bottom, we reached a room that led to the top of the sarcophagus and actually climbed on the granite that had covered the tomb.  Further down we saw the room where his goodies for the afterlife would be and then got to go into a smaller side room that provided spaces for the pharaoh and his family to be interned – they each had little cubbies.  From there, we climbed back up and out and headed over for a more panoramic view of the pyramids and also decided we were going to go for it – we were going to ride camels!  Oh, and a fun fact?  We learned there were over 95 pyramids built by the Egyptians.  

I was worried the camel ride was going to be cheesy…but I didn’t want to have come this far and not do it…so Emily, Daniel, Michael, and I all decided to go for it – it really was fun!  I thought I would feel silly, but we headed down a sand dune into the Sahara and got a great view of the pyramids as well as excellent photos with the pyramids in our background.  It was really cool!  We didn’t see a camel spit, but we certainly got to see their crazy gullets and got to hear the ridiculous slobbery-grumbly noises they make – they were very funny.

After all of this, we got to visit the Sphinx as well!  From there our guide tried to add in a visit to a “market” which meant perfume store that took us back and tried to sell us things – thankfully Daniel stopped them mid-demonstration (it could have gone on for a very long time) and we left, worried we wouldn’t have enough time to enjoy the Citadel.

We decided to forgo lunch and to try to visit the Citadel and Mosques before eating – daring, yes, but everything closed at four.  This is the Citadel that Saladin built to protect Cairo in case the Christian Crusaders attacked Cairo as well.  It’s a really cool fortress at a pinnacle point within the city – and at the top, there is a beautiful Mosque.  So, we got to don our scarves, take off our shoes, and walk through a beautiful Mosque – the interior was very different from the ones I had visited in Bosnia.  Several of us sat down and spent a while studying the intricate artwork of the domes.  I taught Michael and Stephanie about arabesque and calligraphy.  After that, we enjoyed the city views from the edges of the Citadel and finally caved and bought lunch (around 3:30).  The remainder of our day was spent relaxing, going over pictures, working out our Luxor day trip details, and trying to grab a few hours of sleep before we left at 3:30 am for Luxor.  It really was a fantastic day – the best group day of the trip!

Navigating Cairo

Tuesday, November 23rd – Our first moments in Egypt!

Our first evening in Cairo was quite an adventure. Our bus from the airport fit all seven of us (and luggage) and quickly allowed us a crash course in Cairo driving – it’s insane. There are very few lane indications, but a good rule of thumb is that if it is a traditionally three lane road it’s a five lane road in which people do not use turn signals, but instead communicate to “make way, I’m coming through whether you like it or not” by honking. People run in between the cars to cross the street at any point they like, motorcycles zigzag amongst the cars like they’re a maze, and bicyclists do the same. Even at night not everyone uses their lights, people stop for no reason with no warning, u-turns are possible at any point and any time, and if you hit someone the driver usually honks and waves at the person. It’s truly crazy.

After our daring airport transfer, we cleared security at our hotel (which we later found out has 24 hour security with metal detectors, bag searches,…the hotel across the street even had a bomb detecting dog), checked into the hotel, and settled into our rooms. We wanted to find a restaurant for dinner – we were all hungry and excited to try new cuisine and a restaurant called “Receid”…or at least that’s what it sounded like when they said it in Arabic. We asked about getting a taxi, but Gary and I had read that they overcharge when you try to get a taxi straight from a hotel. So the hotel concierge recommended that we walk around the corner and across the bridge – much easier said than done. Cairo is a bustling city of over 32 million people and nearly all of them drive. And while it seemed immense, we learned that its square kilometers are fairly small for a city that holds that tremendous population. We soon found ourselves weaving through the crowds and attempting the unthinkable – crossing the street. In our hands we had the name of the restaurant recommendation written in Arabic. Ultimately it took multiple cab attempts, seeking the help of three different police officers, a shop keeper, and a man on the street to help us get two taxis and locate the restaurant. It was worth it though and was the best meal we had the entire time – tahini, falafel, creamy walnut chicken, fava bean dip, and more. After that we hit up a pizza place for Michael and Stephanie, found a convenience store and bought several liters of bottled water, and hailed two taxis home using the trick I had learned in Korea – when in a foreign country that uses symbols other than your traditional Roman alphabet, grab a hotel card to show your taxi driver. (I suppose that goes for any country or hotel so you can return, but when I don’t speak or write Arabic, it’s helpful to have a card that says it all for me). I also gave cards to multiple people and to Michael and Stephanie so that should they ever get separated they could explain where they needed to go.

Our taxi back was awesome – Daniel, Emily and I had a modern guy who was closer to our age and drove like he was in vice city – we had many close calls in which we were “inches from people” as Emily has since exclaimed. When we asked him if he thought it was a video game he laughed very hard and we were able to banter back and forth with him a bit. We survived our ride and spent the rest of the evening lining up our Giza tour and gear up for our trip to the pyramids!!!

Journeying onto Mycenae!

Day 4: Journeying to Mycenae

Epidaurus and Mycenae

(Click above to view the album)

We were excited to have a slightly later start and enjoyed a little more sleep, another scrumptious breakfast overlooking the acropolis, and were in the lobby by nine ready to check out more of Greece. We were promptly greeted by our guide Vassi who was warm, but very down to business/no-nonsense in her mannerisms and we soon were assured that she was not going to stop talking until we were almost back to Athens. We learned lots from her, enjoyed her stories, were sometimes lost by her side tangents, and occasionally were able to interrupt to ask questions, but really, she was an incredible wealth of information.

There are a list of tidbits that don’t necessarily go with anything else that we picked up on the Sounion tour, or on this tour to Mycenae.

Here’s a few things we’ve learned:
When someone on our Sounion tour asked about the current state of the Greek economy, this is what we learned:

-The average salary in Greece used to be 800€ a month, now it is 500€ a month.

-1 in 3 people can’t pay their bills

-1 in 10 can’t feed themselves. The gov’t is currently providing assistance, but is beginning to struggle to meet everyone’s needs.

-for a ton of fuel to heat your home, which in the winter lasts only a month, it costs 700€, so most people bundle up and do without. Lucky families sometimes use their heat 2 or so hours a day.

I also found it interesting that when our guide (for the Mycenae tour) mentioned countries like Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, FYROM, etc, she referred to them as the “ex-Yugoslavian democracies”

-During the era of Venetian dominance, which lasted over 800 years, there were times of intense Venetian-Ottoman conlifcts over Mediterranean dominance. The Ottomans hired Algerian and Tunisian pirates to sink Venetian ships, but the Venetians usually won because they hired mercenaries and boasted a fleet of over 1,000. As the Venetians won each major conflict, they steadily gained Greek isles from the Ottoman Turks, including the Cyclades and Crete. Crete and Venice have an extremely good relationship and currently Cretien ships are the only foreign ships allowed to traverse the Grand Canal of Venice.

-Pre-World War II, Athens was a city of only 150,000. Since then, it has become a city of millions. Greece is a country that has never stopped receiving refugees – it is possible that there are over 2 million refugees in Greece. One of the predominant refugee ethnicities were Albanians.

-Half of Greece’s population lives in Athens.

-85% of Greece is mountains

-In size, Greece Is slightly bigger than Alabama

Okay…back to the trip

During our drive we passed many interesting sights and stopped at several significant places.

We passed the islands and Strait of Salamis (which encloses the Bay of Eleusis, goddess of Agriculture).

Which is the site where the Athenians defeated Xerxes (the Persians beat the Spartans and then headed for Athens, the Strait of Salamis is where the Athenians defeated them using battering rams and fire). So cool!

We stopped at the Corinth Canal – which is an impressive, incredibly narrow, man-made canal that connects the Ionian and Aegean Sea. There’s even stoplights to manage the traffic.

Then we were onto Epidaurus which is famous for two key things – the medical center and the theatre. The theatre of Epidaurus is the last intact Greek theatre in the world and is has incredible acoustics. We sat at the top row and were able to hear our guide drop coins, light a match, and shred paper from the center of stage hundreds of feet below – it was amazing! The theatre also had beautifully worn marble seats and a fantastic view of the mountains. Our guide claimed that for the Greek people, by attending a play, you could learn more about life and psychology and human nature in a few hours than you could in several years of formal education.

Epidaurus also was a medical center that had many hospitals and doctors, the most famous of which was? You guessed it Hippocrates. The Greeks developed two main cures for their patients – snake venom and herbal mixtures – hence the medical symbol of a snake wrapped around a chalice (from which you would take your herbs. People traveled from all over to seek cures from the doctors of Epidaurus and would often wait several days for treatment. When diagnosed, you would be given a specific diet, exercise regimen and “potion” (medicine). They even kept a snake house to be able to administer medicine when necessary.

We also learned that when the Roman’s made Christianity the official religion of the empire, while the Greeks did convert, there were three locations that they chose to maintain. Not for pagan purposes, but because they found them to be three centers that were very precious for other reasons. Delphi was the source of wisdom, Epidaurus was the site of medicine and healing, and Olympia held the Olympics every four year united the Greek people for healthy competition. An especially harsh Roman emperor was outraged that the Greeks were still worshipping pagan locations and ordered Epidaurus to be utterly destroyed, so unfortunately there is not much left of the snake hut, hospitals, or other monuments.

From Epidaurus we charged onto Mycenae to visit the civilization of the earliest mainland Greeks – the Greeks who fought in the Trojan War! I have to say…while the Mycenaean city was smaller than I anticipated…it was pretty spectacular. I think Emily and Daniel really just saw it as a pile of rocks, but I found it truly enchanting. Not only did you have the impressive massive rocks that they believe were brought in from “Cyclops quarry,” but there was also the stunning Lion’s Gate – which is a carving that predates any other Greek sculpture by 700 years! And the Lion’s Gate carving is beautiful! Smooth, distinctive, realistic, absolutely beautiful! As we climbed up through the citadel in a spiral, it was fun to envision the walls of the homes rising up and creating a the different rooms of the fortress and to look beyond the citadel at the foundational walls of people’s homes. I should also mention that the scenary was gorgeous! There was even a set of hills that you could look at, knowing the Spartans had lived 60 kilometers over that hill. I finally managed to lag behind enough that I was able to stand at the top by myself, soaking in the view, sensing the history, and delighting in the fact that I could hear birds chirping. And then, on one of the upper levels, was the most picturesque of all the sites – a lone olive tree timelessly growing in the shadow of a majestic mountain peak.

I finally caught up with everyone and found Daniel in the fortress area. When I asked where everyone else was, he pointed to a big, cavernous black hole. ? We headed in to find them and were almost instantly thrown into complete darkness. I soon found myself inching my way into the depths of a cave, hands feeling the smooth, Mycenaean-created-water-proof-stucco-walls (Pam and Gary wanted to know why this wasn’t the type used to do their house the *first* time), toes cautiously outstretched, feeling for each step. They finally realized we were there and rounded the corner with a flashlight – and showed us a cistern, the Mycenaeans had created. After visiting the ruins, we headed to the famous tomb of Agamemnon, which was also amazingly sophisticated. The inside is a giant, 14 meter beehive, stone made tomb with an adjoining, smaller stone conic tomb that contained the actual graves. Daniel’s favorite part – it had a tremendous echo…and we embarrassed ourselves greatly playing with our echo capabilities.

After all of this we had lunch at a local restaurant, enjoyed some of the best oranges any of us have ever had in our lives – freshly picked from the orange groves that are all over, and headed back to Athens. We spent our evening walking up to a neighborhood called Psiri and eating in a more modern, hip, part of Athens for dinner. We ended our day laughing through the photos we had taken and headed to bed early to rest up before heading out for Cairo!

Ah, Athens!

The Hals family in front of the Parthenon!

Poseidon's Temple at sunset

View from the edge of the Acropolis

Daniel and me posing in front of the stunning Parthenon

Today we woke up feeling fairly refreshed and excited to have had a night of sleep and enjoyed a delicious breakfast from our hotel’s rooftop – which has a spectacular view of the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus! After an early morning breakfast vote we decided that ultimately, we really did want to see the Temple of Poseidon and the coastline, so after a few attempts, I managed to dial out of our hotel and reached the tour company we were seeking and set up an afternoon tour. Our day was set: morning explorations of the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora, yummy lunch, and leave for Cape Sounion to see Poseidon’s Temple at 2.

We walked to the Acropolis and enjoyed the spectacular views of the city – it was a fairly clear, bright sunny day, and as we later discovered, we beat the crowds, because as we were leaving there were flocks of people heading up to see the Parthenon – and since it was Sunday, admission was free! (Which was actually a 16€ per person savings!) I still can’t get over how beautiful the marble is – and how much of it comprises the steps, blocks, pillars, benches, everything. It’s wonderfully smooth and cool and beautiful. We walked around the top of the Acropolis for over an hour, soaking in the spectacular views of the city, the Aegean, the olive trees, the Theatre of Dionysus, the ionic columns jutting into the blue sky, beautiful!

From there we headed down to the Ancient Agora – which had once been the civic and commercial center of Athens. We strolled through the beautifully green and lush foliage that grows around the ruins that are the fragments of the buildings that once existed and enjoyed imagining Socrates strolling through the Agora with his intrigued students at his side. After visiting the Temple of Hephaestus we headed back, meandering through markets and had a delicious lunch in the middle of Plaka that involved lots of pastas and fresh salads.

We headed back to the hotel and were soon off to Poseidon’s Temple. The views on the way were gorgeous, but the lull of our the bus and our tour guide’s voice made it difficult to stay awake and we each enjoyed a nap at some point on the heading out or returning trip. Poseidon’s Temple perches atop the Cape of Sounion, which dramatically juts out into the Aegean Sea. It was often the first major mainland sight for those coming from the islands and the Aegean Sea supposedly earned its name from King Aegean’s suicide as he hurled himself from the cliffs when he mistakenly thought his son (the minotaur slayer) had not returned home safely. The view truly was amazing, we were surrounded by water and islands and mountains and a majestic temple that omnisciently rests at this pinnacle point along the water’s edge. Beautiful.

After a long, rush-hour like (on a Sunday?) drive back, we regrouped and headed out in search of dinner. We found ourselves at a restaurant that Michael, Stephanie, and Gary have deemed “the best yet” and enjoyed another meal of Greek goodies – including! BAKLAVA! …and absolutely amazing baklava, I might add! We wrapped up our evening with a meandering, gelato stop (of course), walk back and spent the last thirty minutes looking through pictures, oohing, awing, and laughing pretty hard. Our first full day was definitely a success! Time to collapse, sleep, and gear up for another day! Tomorrow we are off to Mycenae!

Onto Athens and Cairo!

I am currently sitting in the Newark airport, several hours into our looong layover before our flight to Athens and I am breathing a big sigh of relief. My final project for my fall graduate class, several days of thoughtful lesson plans, a clean house, packed suitcases, tentative day-to-day trip plans, I made it! I am now in the midst of my husband, his parents, two younger sisters, and younger brother and am working to coordinate what everyone's "hopes" for our adventure actually are...

We will be arriving in Athens mid-day on Saturday and have lots and lots to see! So whose job is it to organize, prioritize, map, and strategize? Mine, with Daniel as my steady side kick and voice of reason-as-to-what-is-possible-with-seven-people.

Other highlights of plans? We have a day trip to Mycenae on Monday, fly to Cairo on Tuesday, and will be splitting off Thursday as Daniel and I fly to Luxor to visit the Valley of the Kings, and the rest of the Hals clan heads up to visit the city of Alexandria for the day.

We're really excited. Everyone is a little tired. Personally, I am exhausted. But, the mental break is incredibly welcome and I can't help but to break into a big wide grin everytime I envision the Parthenon gloriously watching over the city from the Acropolis. :) ...And then the smile gets even wider when I realize that I am actually going to be standing in front of the pyramids and one of the wonders of the world in just a few days!

I don't know what the internet situation is going to be, but I'll post when I can. :)
~Mrs. Hals