Cairo and Alexandria

It's being really hectic over the past week, not just going around Cairo but also to the Giza Pyramids and Alexandria which its located on the north east coast of Egypt, right where the Nile River flows into to the Mediterranean Sea.

Cairo, as I said before its chaos if you don't know your way around, even just going across the street you need to be alert at all times if you don't want to be ran over by a taxi (every hour in Egypt a person gets run over) or for any women whom is used to dress of certain way in our side of the world dresses just like they do in their hometown (skirts, tank tops, short shorts, T-Shirts etc.), in Cairo they will attract a good deal of unwanted attention at the subway, Downtown or any other public place. However, there's a side of Cairo that has a Westernized way of thinking and are more open to see foreigners walking around them.

That has become a little issue in the past 2 weeks of my trip. When I go to villages that consist of small alleys were people instantly notice someone that's obviously foreign, but I've taken a few measures to be able to take a frame or two of something or someone I want before they hide their face or yell "NO PICTURE" or yell things I have no idea what they mean but I'm more than sure it's not something nice.

Here are a couple pictures I've being able to get over the week.

A seller at the pyramids smoking a cigarette; I guess he was around 10 or 12 years old. I didn't try to talk to him because all he knew how to say in English was, "NO PICTURE".



One of the passengers at a train at the Egyptian Railways before living to Alexandria.


--

She obviously did not like me.

Sakara

The feeling you get when you walk around ruins that have more than 5000 years its just indescribable; but then you wonder, how is that buildings today have less than a 100 years look like they're going to fall apart, but some of this ancient places have even the colour on the walls they were painted with back then. Who were this people? How did they live? So many questions come to mind but only a few have an answer. All you can do its admire the place and enjoy the weather.

Sand... Lots of It.

Arriving at night, its very little what I could see in a Country I've never being at before. And so I waited 'til the next Day and found out how different it is from the organized world I came from. Forget about pedestrians having the right of way and turning lights.

Hectic as I could ever imagine, even more than my place of birth Venezuela, where driving its not the best ever, I can easily qualify this city as one of the most reckless driving places there are in the world.

And just to make it clear I don't mean to disrespect anything about this country which I completely respect and found very amusing in many ways, but I do find unusual several aspects of it, like it is with any other situation or place anyone have ever seen before and I do apologize if I offend someone at any giving moment.




As old as this might be, it certainly is way more reliable than a car with a pinched tire.



--

This morning I had the opportunity to be at the AFP (Agence France-Presse) head quarters here in Egypt where I meat with Photo editor and Photographer Chris Bouroncle from Peru, who has being around for almost 25 years and working on this side of the world for 8 years where 2 of them he was Head of AFP in Baghdad and the last 6 here in Cairo.

Delayed

It's impossible to believe that things will go smoothly through out a trip, regardless of how much you plan it. Our flight got delayed for a hour to embark the flight and people were anxious (or retarded) but it was a pleasant flight nevertheless.




-

Once in Paris you forget about anything that might have happened during the flight, its a very different country, for those who have being in Quebec City, it's very similar but ten times better (don't mean to say Quebec its bad, at all) this is a city that goes way back to the Roman Era, more than two thousand years old. Its instantly noticeble, the buildings, undergrounds and landmarks.



It's hard to take pictures of a place that has being shot in so many ways, and its even more difficult to come up with an original shot of the Eiffel Tower. However, in dispite of it, if you pass by Paris you need to have a picture of this incredible place.

Going up L'Arc de Triomphe