Egypt

country in north Africa

Guides and Guidebooks: Reasons Why I Rarely Use Them

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The massive interior of the cave church of St. Simon the Tanner in the Garbage City neighborhood of Cairo, worth seeing, unlike the mural that Lonely Planet recommended.

I’d been to Garbage City a couple of times already but agreed to return with a new friend from Sydney who just moved into the Holy Sheet Hostel where I was staying in Cairo.

“Justin” was traveling solo on holiday from his job managing a bar, restaurant and gaming facilities in Australia’s largest city.

He had a four-year old Lonely Planet guide book with a paragraph about Garbage City which mentioned a French-Tunisian graffiti artist who had created what Lonely Planet described as “one of the most astonishing pieces of street art in the Middle East” in Garbage City in the 1970s. But it could only be seen in its entirety from an upper floor of a particular building near the massive cave church of St. Simon the Tanner.

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Life On The Backstreets of Cairo: Take A Walking Tour of ‘Garbage City’

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Entire families are involved in the collection and processing of Cairo’s rubbish in the area know as the City of Garbage, a neighborhood where they live and work.

I read about this part of Cairo before even planning my trip and was intrigued with the idea that an urban neighborhood would be almost entirely committed to the business of collecting and recycling municipal solid waste for its economic well-being.

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Camels and Chaos: My First Week In Crazy Cairo

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Camel drivers lead their livelihood home after a day carrying visitors at the Giza Plateau outside of Cairo.

On arrival in the early evening at Cairo’s international airport I beefed with the taxi drivers who told me that the metro doesn’t go to the airport.

All the info I had was that they do. I wanted to take the metro. But I saw no signs for the metro at the airport terminal.

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Exploring Athens The Old-school Way: On Foot

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The City of Athens sprawls like this in every direction from the Lycabettus Hill, perhaps the best viewing platform in the city at about a thousand feet. Only about a 30-minute walk from my house.

I’m breaking in a new pair of hiking boots so walking has been my principal mode of transportation of late. But that’s OK since walking through unfamilar cityscapes is one of my favorite travel pastimes.

So far so good with my new bargain boots.

I’ve been in Athens now for a week. You’ve probably seen my first post on the Acropolis; now I’ve got some other photos taken on various other walks, starting with the Wednesday open market on Kavlou Street, in the Gizi neighborhood of the city, where I live.

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Farewell Crete, Hello Athens! With Cairo On The Horizon

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The Boutakas River begins in the White Mountains of western Crete, flows through the village of Vrisses, and empties into the Mediterranean off the coast of Crete. This scene is a few steps from the door of where I stayed for the past nine days in the lovely village of Vrisses.

Sunday I leave Crete for an 11-day stay in Athens.

Although it was my second time on the island of Crete, I previously had not given myself the opportunity to spend any time in Athens outside of a few layovers in airports.

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