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I moved the blog to my main blog so everything is in one place….get daily updates of my travels in Paris/France/Provence/Italy

c-bStudios Blog

So I’m at it again!

I don’t have a blank ticket this time, but I am making plans to see some more of the world this summer.

I just got the word that I’ll be heading to France again this summer. New location though; Provence. Then Paris for a day and then Italy! Never been to Italy but it’s a day in Torino, then Rome for a few days.

Then, after France and Italy, Canton, Ohio for the football hall of fame for the Canon photo contest that I won.

And if that we’re not enough, I’m heading to CHINA for the 2010 Asia games in the fall through the Study Abroad office for the Journalism school.

I’m going to be traveling a lot over the next few months, and taking a HELL of a lot of pictures. Stay tuned.

Photo Gallery!

Here is a photo gallery from the trip to Egypt!

MobileMe Gallery – Egypt

A Paris album will be coming soon.

The Khan El Khailoi Market – THE MOVIE

This place is NUTS! People and stuff everywhere. Here is a walk through a less congested area of the 2 hour walk from end to end.

Traffic in Cairo – The MOVIE

Here is a raw video of the traffic situation in Cairo. As you can see, it’s need for speed, meets rush hour, meets frogger.

Back in the USofA

I got into Chicago ORD last night and got home around 8pm CST. In bed by 10pm (that’s like 5am in Paris). I am Jet Lagged!

I working on getting some pictures and video up so check back in the next few days for a complete overhaul of media from my trip. I’ll still be posting blog entries and a final thoughts post in the next week or so.

The market

On day 3 of my trip in Egypt we went to the Khan El Khailoi in Cairo. It’s a very busy place, as is all of Cairo. There is one main street filled with mostly touristy things; scarves, fake label clothing, fake watches, stereotypical Egyptian gifts, mini pyramids: real crap. Plus you had to bargain for everything and if you read one of my last post, that is a pain. (It’s day four and I’m tired of being sold to).

But the market is more than the main street/ally, there is side streets that if you are a local, you know where they are. A man took me around and showed me some of the more local aspects of the market. Here is what I saw.

A view of the main street of the market from the beginning. It's estimated that it would take you about 2 hours just to walk one end to the other because of so many people.

One of the many side streets that go to more secluded parts of the market. These are safe to go down, just leave your wallet behind.

Spices were everywhere. I don't know the names of all of them, but it's a standard in Egyptian cooking and the merchants will try to sell them to anyone.

People showed you with a smile, mostly because they wanted your money, though some, like these guys, didn't bother you.

More to come!

Some Egypt photos!

These were some of the many pillars in the Karnak temple holding up what is left of the roof.

It's not just in movies and there are real snake charmers still asking for money in the Egypt.

Change in plans

So while wi-fi (or any type of internet other than the data plan on my phone) has been hard to come by, I will be posting much of my trip in later posts. I’ve been writing local entries on my laptop and will update the blog every day or so.

But why have plans changed you ask? Well, a combination of events in Egypt and abroad (as in the USA) have lead me to leave Egypt early and head to France. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED EGYPT and would go back in a heart beat, but things were a little more, how you say, adult, then I expected. Granted there were many other 18-year-olds on the tour, but things were not as I had planned. And instead of making me uncomfortable for the next 5 days, I traded some of my tickets for a flight to Paris.

So, lets start with Egypt. It was amazing! I got to see everything I wanted (except the Valley of the Kings) and the tour itself was incredible. You honestly couldn’t do Egypt without a tour group, it’s just to overwhelming in multiple ways. If you ever plan on seeing Egypt, which I highly recommend, do a group, but FIND THE RIGHT GROUP, it’s key.

So why leave? Well, things were uncomfortable, and I say that vaguely because I’m still trying to get some money back for the part of the tour that I am going to miss. The tour itself was well planned and organized. We were well fed and had a lot of freedom. But there lies the problem. I was alone, and while that choice was my own, my next trip I would take someone with me because if a situation arrises like on this trip were people were not exactly what I expected, you would want someone to hang out with. It would just make things easier to assimilate into the group setting. Travel is a delicate planning process; you don’t want to go for too long, but you want to see what you want to see, you want to get your moneys worth, you want a good group of people, and you want to have as much fun as possible. So while I am leaving early, I got to see what I wanted and the only things I’m really missing are a few days in Hagada (a party town) and a 9 hour drive back to Cairo.

Moving to France. It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Changing flights and getting things organized wasn’t a challenge at all. I just made a few phone calls and things were set. I am meeting a few friends in Marseille and then moving to Paris for a few days. It’s a nice little change of scenery. An expensive change, but a nice one at that.

So now I am on an express train to Marseille and then will take a local train to Cassis. If I can find some wi-fi I’ll start treating this blog like a blog and give everyone the scoop on what went on in Egypt and what’s going on in France. (I know there is free wi-fi in the hostel were staying at in a few days).

Until then…

(Drafted July 20th 2008)

Concentrated Sugar Tang

I found some Internet so here goes…

In other counties, products are produced differently. But none is no different in my opinion than the orange juice.

They have fresh orange juice at many resturants. But in the hotels, at the breakfast buffets, it’s this warm, Kool-aid like, water mix. It tastes orange, but not like juice. It’s like Tang (which I did see in the super market). It’s not very good, but it’s serving to quench your thirst.

Drinks change the most in other coountries. Coke and pepsi are close, but Fanta is an entirely new drink. Then hey hav things you’ve never heard of: Lift?

It’s fun to try because you know there not going to be bad, just different. And it’s interesting to see how different it is from home.

We leave Aswan today and board a cruise boat to Luxor. I know I said we would be on a Falucca, a traditional Egyption sailboat, but they are not operation down the Nile because it’s too hot. Imagine that.