Introduction
As has been the case over much of this year, I am consistently behind on publishing my recaps. Life and especially my work, has gotten busier as the year has progressed. And by the time I have free time, I find that my drive to write has been lacking. I never want this site to feel like a chore, so I have just let my self-imposed deadlines slip. And then here we are a couple months late. For August and September I will do a combined post. A late summer recap if you will. But enough of that, on to July!
Finishing up in Bulgaria
I celebrated the beginning of July and American Independence Day in Bansko, Bulgaria where I had been for a digital nomad festival and conference as I explained in my June writeup.
One of the local bars threw a big party complete with a Cher/Tina Turner impersonator who had an impressive vocal range. The super quirky entertainment aside, the day-into-night event was an absolute blast (pun intented), capped by an impressive 30-minute long fireworks display. As proof of how much fun I had, I badly stubbed my big toe while line-dancing and would later lose the nail! Ouch.
Red Sea Diving
After Bansko, I briefly flew back to Vienna to meet up with my friend Julia, and collect my suitcase full of diving camera gear. The two of us then met two more Austrians at the airport and we flew to Hurghada, Egypt. Landing super late, I was nonetheless excited for my first time in Northern Africa and my first reaction was “sand!” Sand everywhere, ha. But we soon collected the rest of our group, a mix of native German speakers leaving me to occasionally chime in in English to find out what was being discussed.
We made our way to Port Ghalib a couple hours down the coast to meet our ship, the MY Blue Storm, our home for the next 7 days. We hit the top sites in the southern Red Sea known as Brothers, Daedalus, and Elphinstone. The week was a mix of wreck diving, wall diving, and large swaths of undulating reef. Our group was organized by Mirko, a German dive instructor who now calls Egypt home. My friend Julia had met him on a previous trip to the area and he was our guide over the week.
It was great diving in our own little group separate from the rest of the boat. It felt like we were on our own private tour. Even with a bit of a language barrier, the group was very kind to speak English to include me further. I quickly became close with my dive buddy Tina and the rest of Team German.
The underwater highlights of the trip included Manta rays multiple times, my first Hammerhead shark encounters, and the elusive and sleek Oceanic White Tip shark. The visibility was another real treat, oftentimes exceeding 30 meters (100ft).
After too short of a week, it was time to return to port. But not before we already started plotting a new trip – this time to my old haunt Thailand. Look forward to April 2023 for more on that! Back in Port Ghalib we had one last night together before heading to bed to sleep off the Egyptian beers.
Luxor
The next morning, my transit to Luxor from the boat involved a long mini bus ride through the desert. It was the same kind of small van I had taken countless times along my travels but this was the first time crossing such desolate terrain. Hours went by of yellow sand stretching as far as I could see. We traveled along an embankment for the first few hours that should one day host a tourist train from Luxor to the coast, but even that eroded to nothing.
After thee hours we stopped for a bio break and to grab some snacks. Since I had left the liveaboard just after breakfast, there had been nowhere to get food. This little bazaar/tourist trap/snack bar/bathroom stop left me wanting for real food. My only options were chocolate wafers, Oreos, pringles, and sodas. My van mates browsed the market then quickly realized the patrons of this little stop had not seen tourists for a long time.
Shops like these were immeasurably harmed by the global pandemic and I’m glad restrictions are easing, if only to help support the livelihoods of so many who have suffered over the last two years. A few Egyptian pounds lighter, we all piled back in the van and headed for Luxor.
Once there, I found myself in a tourist situation I’d never experienced before. Everywhere visitors go, beyond the immediate area of their hotel, you are tracked. If you take a tour or hire a private guide, the Egyptian government tracks your moves and you’ll experience checkpoints throughout the countryside. I ended up hiring a guide a friend had worked with previously and she would have to call ahead to the local authorities, who would note my moves into and out of various municipalities. It was an odd experience.
The highlights of Luxor by most counts are the Valley of the Kings, where legendary pharaohs such as Rameses III and King Tut are entombed, Luxor Temple, and Karnak Temple. These three locales all deserve their own articles and I hope to knock those out in the coming months. Until then, my surprise favorite from the region was one my guide had recommended otherwise I would not have visited.
Hathor Temple is dedicated to the goddess of love, fertility, music, and dancing. The 2000-year-old temple is in exquisite shape compared to many of the others I saw throughout the country. There are two main reasons it is so well preserved. First it is a couple thousand (!!) years younger than other famous sites and then second it was repurposed by the Romans and later Christians as their own places of worship.
Located in Qena, be sure to check out the impressive relief carvings in the ceiling, still sporting the baby blue hued sky. It is also famous for a mural in the underground crypt that appears to depict electrical light! See this article on the Dendera Light on Atlas Obscura for more info.
Cairo
How do I begin to summarize my 7 days in Cairo, a city I have dreamt about visiting for years and years? It is a dusty, dingy city sandwiched between the unrelenting desert and the fertile banks of the Nile. It is infamous for its Pizza Hut restaurant just outside of frame of the Great Pyramid at Giza. And it is awash in thousands of years of continuous human history.
My 7 days there just began to scratch the surface of the eons of history that have occurred there. I visited the “Must See” tourist spots of the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, the Egyptian Antiquities Museum, and the Pyramid of Djoser, the world’s first stone cut pyramidical structure. I also really enjoyed a tour of the Coptic and Islamic parts of Cairo too.
And finally, I did a one day tour out to Alexandria to see the Citadel of Qaitbay, Serapeum temple, and Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa. After three weeks of tombs, temples, and sand I was burnt out. I will have to go back and revisit what I want and just absorb the weight of history without feeling like I have to cram in as much as I did on this first trip.
Cyprus
Like much of my travels this year, I ended up visiting Cyprus on a whim. I had been looking at my planned schedule for the rest of summer and decided that in order to see all the things and people that I planned for in Europe, I needed to be sure I didn’t overstay my visa. Americans get 90 days out of every 180 to spend in Europe without arranging for a special visa. To date, I have spent 5 days in Austria. My time in the Balkans (Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bulgaria) don’t count while though Croatia is in the EU, it and the other non-EU states are not subject to the Schengen agreement (the governing free-movement region on the continent).
So after Egypt, I looked for somewhere reasonably priced, still in the area, with decent flights, and settled on Cyprus. Like Croatia, it is in the EU but not the Schengen. I spent a week just getting a taste of the small island nation. I would not recommend any shorter if you plan to visit more than one city (I saw three!).
I started my time there by flying from Cairo to Larnaca on the east coast. The nation has two international airports, one on the east coast and Paphos on the west coast. The island has been divided into the Republic of Cyprus and The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus since Turkey invaded in the 70s to establish a protectorate for Turkish Cypriots. To say that there are still hard feelings, would be an understatement. I spent two days in the capital city of Nicosia and even crossed over the border one afternoon to explore the Turkish side.
On my last three days in country, I visited the west coast of Paphos which I enjoyed a lot. It is very beach resort-y which has easily became my favorite style of place especially when the heat often exceeded 40C (104F)! I rented a car for my time on this side and did one day driving up in the mountains going for hikes, and the last day I drove up the coast to explore the northwest portion of the island.
Where I’ve Been
COUNTRIES VISITED: 4
Bulgaria, Austria, Egypt, Cyprus
CITIES VISITED: 8
Bansko, Vienna, Hurghada, Luxor, Cairo, Larnaca, Nicosia, Paphos
Where I’m Going
For August, I’ve so far arrived back in Vienna for a single night after Cyprus, then took the train south to the city of Graz. There I met a friend who had some days off work and owns a car and we spent 5 action-packed days exploring northern Italy. Now I’ve set up shop in Vienna while I wait for my passport to be renewed. It still had a couple years validity left on it, but it was completely full of stamps! I looked all over Europe to see which US Embassies had appointment availability and Vienna was the only one that could get me in for the next two weeks! Hopefully it won’t be too long (they said 7-10 days). Afterward, I have no clue where I’ll go next! Any suggestions?
