The loss of my credit card on day one in Egypt (I managed to 'misplace' it at the airport - granted, I had a fever and was sick as a dog!) has resulted in me still being in Cairo after almost two weeks. While V. hopped on a train to Aswan on Wednesday to visit the ancient temple of Abu Simbel, I am (im)patiently waiting for my replacement card to arrive from NZ. So with this extra time on my hands I've decided to take a vacation from travel: I have ceased all intercultural activities and am instead catching up on reading & writing in my airconditioned hostel :-). It might sound utterly ridiculous to need a break from what many perceive as one long holiday, but low-budget independent travel can be quite tiring both physically & mentally. On any given day you have to not only make sense of unfamiliar surroundings, but you need to figure out where & how to find an ATM/sleep/eat/go to the toilet (!)/stay cool etc. Most of the time this is great fun but it's also lovely to take a break once in a while. So downtime, here I come! I'm currently spending my days 'productively' with the following excellent blogs and books:
- One Giant Step & Lives of Wander: two very well-written travel blogs by couples who made an around-the-world journey
- The Yacoubian Building: best-selling novel by Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany. A great yet depressing insight into modern Egyptian society
- The World from Islam: a study of Islam culture by Australian journalist George Negus
5 comments:
Hey Inge your blog is fantastic - a great way to get a feel for the places you've been and the people you've met - definitely sounds like you're in need of some chillaxing time out though!
Can't wait to see you when you get back to Welly!
-Hannah Lawrence
Things your grandchildren should know by Marc Everett (Mr. E) staat op mijn verlanglijstje. Maar op dit moment niets aan het lezen... (behalve De Morgen;)
Just read A Christies, Death on the Nile, which was perfect time-out travel reading, and am now onto A Week in December, by S Faulks. It's not something I'd normally pick up and set in London, which is oddly disorientating as we've just arrived in Wellington, but again good time-out travel reading.
Enjoy the rest of your travels.
Best,
cc.
I'm reading "The Cig Four" by Aghata Cristie. But this is not my favorite book that she did. I love "And then there were none"... It's an excenlent book!!!
Thanks for the comments everyone - it seems my desperate plea has worked ;-).
Two Agatha Christie books huh, maybe I should pick one of those up again (last time I read her work I was in high school).
Hannah & Corinne, see you in Wellington in December!
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