I spent today visiting the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara. The Giza pyramids are the most famous ones, and what most people think of when referring to Egyptian pyramids, but they are far from the only pyramids in Egypt.
The Giza necropolis (burial grounds) consists of the three large pyramids for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure), six smaller queens’ pyramids, and the Sphinx.
Saqqara was the necropolis for Memphis, a capital of ancient Egypt, and is about 10 miles (17km) from the Giza pyramids.…
I headed into Cairo this morning still not exactly sure what to expect. For the most part there is little evidence of the protests that swept the country just weeks ago. The area around Tahrir Square, the center of the protests against Mubarak is still heavily militarized, with tanks and soldiers lining the street near the famous Egypt Museum, and there are army checkpoints in front of most of the more famous tourist sites (although I don’t know if that is new or if if they were put in place after some of terrorist attacks that Egypt experienced several years ago).…
Landed in Cairo about an hour ago. Before you start to wonder if I’ve lost my mind, I did check out all the various travel warnings before booking the flight and it seems with a little common sense travel in Egypt should be fairly safe now. Or at least I hope.
I have a break from French class this week, so I started looking at flights from Geneva, and eventually settled on Egypt.…
Sorry for the brief hiatus; I’ve been dealing with a minor visa fiasco. After about two months and three weeks of traveling through Schengen Zone countries (most of the European Union and Switzerland), I learned that I was only allowed to spend three months in Schengen countries without a visa. Since I am studying in France, I assumed it would be easy for me to get a student visa. However it turned out to not be that simple.…
Bonne Année! Here are some photos of Chamonix over the holidays.
Here are a few more photos from around Chamonix:
At last, an update from Chamonix. Sorry for not posting sooner, but I’ve been busy settling into life here and figuring out my plans for the winter. I’m on Winter Break from French, so I finally have time to take photos and update this blog.
It looks like I am going to spending a good portion of the winter living in Chamonix studying French and skiing. I’m still planning on traveling to Asia and New Zealand, but right now I am enjoying being in once place for a little while.…
I awoke this morning to find Venice covered in water. Being a city of islands and canals has a few drawbacks, one of which is occasional flooding (not just when it rains, but also when the tides rise). Still residents seem to have adjusted to the flooding and make-shift bridges quickly sprung up, shop owners went about mopping out water, and enterprising businesses sold rain boots.
By noon most of the water had drained away, and I was able to spend the afternoon visiting some more the more famous areas of Venice– Piazza San Marco and the Bridge of Sighs (which was a little less impressive than usual since it’s under construction).…
I arrived yesterday morning in Italy after an easy ferry ride from Croatia. I took the train from Ancona up to Venice and have have been spending the past two days exploring Venice.
Like Amsterdam, Venice is a city of canals. Venice consists of 117 islands connected by bridges and canals to form one city.
This means, while beautiful, Venice is hard to navigate. Narrow, old streets weave around canals and buildings with seemingly no order.…
Trains are a great way to see Europe- no worrying about overweight baggage fees, no hassles trying to find a parking spot- but they aren’t always cheap. A little advanced planning can sometimes help bring down the cost of train tickets.
Each country in Europe has it’s own rail system, but it is possible to buy a Eurail pass that is valid across multiple countries and may save you some money.…
