2005-04-02:
Since I got a week off, I decided to go on a trip somewhere. Although I had planned to go to another European city, I all came different: because going e.g. to Amsterdam was too expensive, I took a journey to a club in Egypt, instead.
The plane was going extremely early: 8:40 from Linz Airport. I arrived at around 7:20, got my tickets, and then checked in. In the duty-free shop I had a quick look at all the different vodkas they have, and well, they feature all the good (and bad) stuff: Absolut, Smirnoff, Stolychnaya, Moskowskaya, and my favorite, Danzka. I didn't buy any of them, though, as I'm not interested in getting drunk (alone) in Egypt. So I went on to passport control, which went smoothly. Unfortunately, the area between passport control and the gate didn't have any toilet, and it was impossible to get back. Boarding was about 15 minutes late. The bill actually said that we would fly "Austrian Airlines" but when I went to the plane, I discovered that it was "Lauda Air"! Austrian would've been OK, but Lauda is absolutely the best! Not only do they have excellent catering (Do&Co), but the stewardesses literally bring everything to your bottom.
In the plane I had a wonderful breakfast, consisting of scrambled eggs without grilled tomatoes and toasted bread, two croissants with butter and jam, yoghurt, fresh fruits, tea, orange juice and ... sparkling wine! I was feeling really luxurious, also because the stewardesses were really caring about us and asked whether we would like to have more tea or orange juice, or another croissant/bread, and so on.
After finishing breakfast, entertainment started, and they showed a really nice movie, "Wimbledon". The good thing about Lauda Air is that they show the movie not only in German, but also in English. Oh, I could get used to that. When the movie was finished, we were already landing in Sharm El-Sheikh. Most of the passengers left, and others were boarding: the flight goes from Linz to Sharm El-Sheikh to Hurghada (where my hotel is) and back to Linz, but I left in Hurghada.
The flight over the peninsula Sinai was actually quite interesting: it contains of basically nothing but desert and mountains. Absolutely nothing interesting. Unbelievable that anyone would start a war on this piece of land. What is interesting from the plane is that you can clearly see the highways, as they can be easily distinguished from the desert. And on Sinai, it looks as if there were only trucks on the streets.
When we were in Sharm El-Sheikh, we got late because the other passengers couldn't board because some very important statesperson was arriving, for whom they rolled out the red carpet. We didn't see the person, but we did see the preparations, especially the rolling out, and it looked like they weren't sure how long they should make it, because first they rolled out on carpet, and then they added another one, which was later removed again.
The trip from Sharm El-Sheikh to Hurghada was pretty short, only about 30 minutes. When we got out of the plane, we had wonderful weather: just the right temperature, blue sky, and some wind. I quickly got my visa and went to passport control, which went flawlessly. Then, something very interesting happened: the signs showed that our luggage would be at belt 4, but it was at belt 3! Strange, but the whole luggage thing went really smooth, and so I went on to the Gulet representatives, who then checked out my hotel. I took one of the Gulet busses, which then dropped
me at my hotel.
The way from the airport to the hotel was short, but surreal: the airport seems to have been a military base, as there were a lot of huge bunkers on the area. After probably 3 minutes we entered some kind of "hotel area", which was guarded by two soldiers armed with AK-47 assault rifles, both in a well-fortified bunker. That seemed so totally weird, but of course, they fear terrorist attacks on their "cash cow" tourism. At the hotel entrance, there were also guards, and I had to go to through a metal detector, which beeped, but nobody seemed to care about it, and the Gulet guide told me that it was OK. Oh, well...
I was brought to my room, the peson who carried my baggage showed me my room, but he seemed to be kind of pissed off when I tipped him with 2 Euros, and I kindly explained him that didn't have the opportunity to change some money.
Regarding money: I wasn't sure about the exchange rate, as I didn't have any time to inform myself. First, they gave me the information they at it was 1:5 (i.e. 1 Euro are 5 Egyptian Pounds), but when I really changed some money, they gave me 7 Egyptian Pounds per 1 Euro. But after that another person told me that the exchange rate is currently actually 1:7.5. Damn... What I still have to try is whether my EC card works (it's also a "Maestro"), but I'm confident as the personell told me that the hotel next to us, which is only 3 minutes away, has an ATM which accepts
Maestro. All hail the little plastic cards!
After changing some money, I went for a walk, to check out the hotel area. Immediately, some guy, whose name is Hassan, spoke to me, and asked me how I was doing, etc. He was selling diving expeditions, Safaris and all that stuff at the "Aqua center". I was having a nice chat with him, he was very friendly, and served me tea. His German wasn't perfect, but good enough. As I was interested in doing some diving anyway, I booked a diving expedition for Monday, and Hassan showed me the beach and explained what was part of the hotel and what not. He also complained about the Russian tourists, they all seem to behave like snobs and idiots, as many of them destroyed corals, and so everybody basically hates them. But since they're the ones who bring the money into the country, they care for them. Touching, breaking, destroying corals is actually quite expensive, US-$ 3000 (another sign says US-$ 5000) or 6 months of prison.
And still walked around at the beach a little more, and enjoyed the breeze and the typical smell of the water. After a little bit more walking around, I went to my room again, watched TV and wrote down today's experiences, while waiting for dinner. TV is actually quite cool, they feature Egyptian TV stations, German TV stations, and some other TV stations in English. On some Egyptian station I saw the end scene of the legendary "the good, the bad, and the ugly", in English, with Arabic subtitles. That was gorgeous.
Dinner was quite OK, with what you expect from Egyptian food. But what was outstanding was the falafel. Absolutely delicious. In the dinner room I saw for the first time how many Russians there exactly were, most of them quite greedy, especially at the fruits & desserts section at the buffet. What was interesting was that they all were crazy for the mandarines, everybody taking lots of them with them. I tried them too, they weren't really great, as the many cores inside almost made me choke. The mandarines that we usually have don't have any cores in them.
After that, I went to bed, as I was quite tired already, and wanted to
sleep out.
2005-04-03:
Woke up at two, fell asleep again, woke up at 6, watched some TV. The sun was already shining brightly, but again, very windy. First breakfast, then I'll get myself some more information from some Gulet woman that will arrive at 9:40.
One more word on TV: there's this TV station, "mbc 2", bringing only movies 24/7, and all of them in English, with Arabic subtitles, which is great. I know, I didn't come here to watch TV (why not actually?), but I have to take the chance and see some movies in English that I otherwise wouldn't be able to see. Another word on TV: having only ZDF, RTL and VOX actually really sucks. According to the TV programme hanging in my room, they should also have ARD and RTL II, but as usual, reality diverges.
The Gulet information woman was very friendly, and told me what is available at Hurghada. The city lives from tourism, so the street traders are very open and super-friendly, because they all want to sell you as much as possible. She also recommended a few very good restaurants, and as a rule of thumb, she told me that the food is usually good and cheap when there are mainly Egyptians in the restaurant.
After that, I finally packed my things to go the pool, to test and adjust the snorkling equipment that I bought at home. The water was quite OK, not too cool, but the wind was very strong, which made everything quite chilly. Then, I went to the beach (the hotel has an artificial laguna, so it's not 100% natural) to read a bit, and to relax. Unfortunately, the strong wind blew quite a bit of sand around, which made the whole thing a little bit less pleasure, but looking at the h0t ch1xx0rz (all Russians) balanced that.
Lunch was quite OK, and reasonably priced. I had a lemon drink and a pizza (which is more like the local thin bread with some meat and fresh vegetables on it), which was excellent, all for 26 L.E. (about EUR 3.50).
Then I bought a bottle of water (not too reasonably priced, 5.50 L.E., about 70 cents), and went to beach again. I spent the afternoon there by reading. Then taking a shower, and dinner. I wasn't really interested in night-life and stuff, so I went to bed early.
Today I saw two people who liked like (more or less) celebrities. Well, their skinny version. At the pool, there was the small and skinny version of Peter North, and at the dinner, there was the skinny version of Wladimir Kaminer. Which other celebrities will I see the following week?
2005-04-04:
This is the day that I've been waiting for since I arrived: diving. I woke up very early, had an extensive breakfast, and then prepared myself for departure. I had to be there at 8:30, and they brought me to this other diving center, where I had to sign that they are not responsible for any physical damages that could be a result from the diving, and that I'm healthy, and not drunk. After that, I checked out the diving suit, glasses and all the other stuff, and then had to go to the boat. I put my stuff there, and was introduced to two of the divers, Gamal (as in El Gamal) and Mahmud, both of them very friendly and (more or less) fluent English speakers.
We still had to wait for the other people, which were mostly Russians. Then we set off, and drove about 1 hour to the coral riffs, where about 8 other boats were waiting already. We were introduced into the usage of the equipment, and then made our first dive.
We first went down on a rope, always a meter, and then pressure balancing, until we were at about 8 meters. Then we swam to a "pillar" of corals, which was awesome: so many fishes around, in all different colors and shapes: red, orange, black, blue, long, small, big, thick, round. We then dived further to other corals, going down to about 15 meters.
What is interesting about diving is the way of breathing: it feels strange, and in the beginning it is uncomfortable, because you think you don't get enough air. But as soon as you've found the right breathing rhythm, everything gets really comfortable. Also, the water actually feels warmer. Probably that had something to do with the fact that I wore a diving suit, but my legs weren't covered below the knee, and didn't feel cold, cool or chilly at all.
After we came up again, we had lunch, where they served traditional Egyptian food, which was wonderful. After some relaxing in the sun, the second dive started. This time, we took anoother route, and saw other beautiful fishes. The absolutely best thing was a huge fish, disk-shaped, with a diameter of about 40 cm, completely colored in blue.
After that, and a bit more relaxing, we took our way back. The wind was getting stronger, which I totally enjoyed, sitting in the sun, just relaxing. We came back at 4 pm, and after bringing back the equipment, I went back to my room, took a nap, and prepared myself for dinner.
At dinner, I finally learned to know an Austrian couple, both in their mind-twenties, and both from Vienna. They were really nice, and since they're here for already more than a week, they told me a number of things about Hurghada that didn't know yet.
After dinner, I went back to my room, and ended the day with some TV.
2005-04-05:
This day was relaxing day, as the day before was really exhausting. It all started with a big brekfast. The bread in the hotel is really the best bread that I ever had. Then I jumped into the pool, which was extremely cold, but when you're almost frozen, you actually begin to feel comfortable.
Then I moved to the beach, where I started reading the German translation of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci code", a wonderful book of which I've read about the half during the day.
I totally burned my knees, which sucked badly. It makes everything so much harder. During the day I also witnessed several starts of F-16s of the Egyptian Air Force. It seems like Hurghada Airport is really also an air force base, just like Linz. Well, I thought so already, as I saw a lot of bunkers besides the airfield, and F-16s during diving.
During dinner, I again met the Austrian couple, which took me to down-town after dinner. We had quite some fun, although the the traders on the street are extremely annoying. They showed me a bar where we paid for a beer only 6 L.E., which is a real bargain.
What we also experienced is young women with kids begging for drinks. That's right, not money, but drinks. They asked for our half-empty cans of coconut drinks and Dr. Pepper. Generous as we are, we gave them the cans.
2005-04-06:
After a strenghtening breakfast, I did the sightseeing trip to Hurghada. We had a German-speaking guide, although his German wasn't very good and full of generic phrases. The first stop was the old harbor, whose only purpose today is to be a place for repairing boats and small ships.
The next stop was the coptic church. According to the guide, almost 20 % of all Egyptian citizens are christians, of which the majority are coptic christians. The church was quite interesting, in some ways similar, but still different to orthodox churches. The similarity was the use of icons, but they were different in style, with less brown and golden colors. There were also several pictures of the current patriarch, and other pictures of holy figures. All writing was interestingly in Arabic (except for the hints to the tourists), and what I found most interesting was that there was not a single picture of the crucifixation of Jesus. It seems like the coptic church doesn't really want to emphasize this negative picture as the roman-catholic church does.
After that, we drove to the main mosque in Hurghada, which was just huge. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to enter it, but were only able to take a look from outside. The mosque was wonderful, with great ornaments, but not a single picture.
After that, the next stop was the graveyard. Very simple, but the graves of all important religions in Egypt were there. There was even a special graveyard for the "heroes" of the "october war" (?) against Israel 1973 (of which I'm absolutely unaware).
Then we drove to a manufactoring company producing papyrus prints. That was the "Kaffeefahrt" part of this free sightseeing trip, but we weren't forced to buy anything, so everything was fine. Then, the most ridiculous thing of the whole trip was next: Hard Rock Cafe. Awful. Just awful. Read the lyrics of Heinz's "Hard Rock Cafe", this explains everything.
The final part was then shopping. I bought a package of Kumin, a wonderful spice, two Arafat scarves (they're called just "Arafat" by the Egyptians), and a beautiful bracelet made out of blue stones for my mother. I was short of money for the last one, so I had to search for an ATM, which took pretty long, as two of them didn't accept my card, although they claimed to accept "Maestro". The third one worked, and I had to hurry back to the bus.
In the late afternoon, I went to the pool a little bit, and then went for dinner in the evening, where I again met the Viennese couple. They again invited me to go out, and I gladly accepted. We went to Sakkala, looked around and had a few drinks. We even entered a side street, where no tourist stuff was going on, just to observe the people. Finally, we sat down to have another drink and smoke a waterpipe with apple tobacco, which was really smooth and nice. After that, we went back to the hotel again.
2005-04-07:
Today, the nice Viennese people left. We had a final breakfast together, and then I said them good-bye and wished them a pleasant ride back to Austria.
After that, I went to the pool and finished reading "The Da Vinci Code", which can be really recommended.
In the afternoon, I was in a restaurant, eating pizza for 10 L.E. (about EUR 1.35) while writing a few postcards. All in all, the day was only about relaxing.
2005-04-08:
In the morning, I was at the beach, trying to catch a few morning impressions with my camera, and took a few pictures of the rising sun. I even saw a few jellyfishes but it's practically impossible to photograph them properly in the morning, due to the bad light conditions (and flashlight looks even worse).
Some more relaxing on the beach, I got sleepy and woke up again at around 12. That's because I woke up way too early, I just got to little sleep that night.
At 13:30, I started the final adventure of this holiday, a safari through the desert to a beduin village. We were riding dromedars, saw how the traditional bread is made, and how the beduins live. We watched the sun go down, and then had some traditonal food. We then went back, and I went to buy a few more things to drink. I then went on the search for an ATM, to draw some more money for the duty-free shop tomorrow. A super-friendly taxi driver stopped by and drove me there, answering the question for the price with the answer "It's okay". I should have been suspicious, but they really charged me the way from my hotel to the next ATM, and back, that's 50 L.E., about EUR 8! Fucking sand niggers. If I had been in Austria, I would have called the police.
2005-04-09:
The day of departure. Having an extensive breakfast, and then saying good-bye to a few people, enjoying the sun at the beach a last time. Then I packed my things, and waited until I was picked up by bus from the hotel.
The airport was interesting, as our luggage was x-rayed even before entering. The check-in was a little bit chaotic, but OK. Then passport control, I was totally surrounded by Russians. In the duty-free shop, I bought a bottle of Stolichnaya, for only EUR 6.50. All the Russians bought "western" things like Cognac and Sherry. Unfortunately, they didn't take Egyptian Pounds, only Euro and US dollars, so I still have 60 L.E., but fortunately, I had enough Euro coins to pay the Stoli.
During boarding, I saw that the Russians seemed to have a second passport control. Very interesting. Anyway, departure and flight went smoothly, the only thing that sucked was the bad weather back in Linz. During exit, I was stopped by a customs officer, but I told him that I took no cigarettes and only a bottle of Stoli with me, so he let me pass.
