Ismailia and my Birthday Gift

It is my 31st birthday and I don't want a party... all I want is to see MORE of Egypt! 

We decided to take a day trip to Ismailia and visit the open air military museum. The drive there only took about 3 hours (that includes the ridiculous amount of time we spent at a military checkpoint). They did not understand why a foreigner was so interested in this place. Mohanned tried to explain that I am interested in everything Egypt has to offer. They still didn't get it. The ending results is Mohanned simply said I was crazy and wanted to go to every single point in Egypt. They accepted the "crazy" part and let us pass. 

We drove our car slowly onto the ferry (which was FREE!) and waited until all the other cars and people loaded. We were off! We slowly made it across the Suez canal from the Africa side of Ismailia to the Asia side of Ismailia. The difference from one side of the river to the other was amazing. On the African side it was lush with vegetation and people, buildings, animals and color. The Asian side was the vast desert with few passing cars and mainly strict military posts. 

After driving a few kilometers we reached our destination. We got out of the car. Egyptian law states that if you are married to an Egyptian then you are an Egyptian yourself when it comes to paying the fees (which are dramatically different prices). We bought our 3 tickets 3 le each and entered. We began our walk up the steep hill and began looking at the military stuff that were placed within the cases. 

After moving from the cased items area we got to explore the tanks and trucks that were left behind from the Israeli Army several years before during the Sinai war.

After the tanks and the trucks we went into the bunkers and got a great view from above!

At the top we saw....

After playing in the sand at the top of the barracks we decided to go below and see what we could find and get into!  

Enough playing it is time to eat! 

After crossing over the Suez Canal again I used Google to find a place to eat. When we went in we were the only customers. Most people would get curious about why... me, on the other hand, viewed it as more of a diamond in the rough. The owner waited on us and was extremely nice. The food was great, huge quantities and fresh! This is a place that we decided we will come back to and visit again. 

There is a lot in Ismailia that we didn't get to see. It is definitely a city that is overlooked by many Egyptians and foreigners. 

Halloween 2014

Halloween came very fast this year! Jackson and I were both sick the weekend before Halloween so no shopping was able to be done to prepare for the holiday. Luckily though Mo was not sick so he could take care of both of us. 


This Halloween Jackson was a pirate and I was a mime. We both had so much fun at school! He had a class party and so did I. Jackson told me, after school, that there were 2 other pirates in his class besides him. This was a great Halloween! 

 

New Restaurant on the Radar

Hi! We are back again in Egypt and I stopped doing my blog...boo on me! I really do want to keep this up. I will try soooooooo much harder this time.

After being back in Egypt we fell into the trap of doing the same thing over and over and over again. After all, this is "home" for us. So the other day I decided that we would break out of the mold and start doing new things each month, at least once per month we would experience something new to us. There are so many hidden gems in this country and I want to explore them and show them to the world!!

So this is kind of a boring first post considering we just decided to break out of the mold and do new things. Most posts will have pictures to go along with it but since this blog was an after thought there are none (however, I will take some when we go back to the restaurant because it was THAT amazing!)

Anyways, the month of October is simply that I tried a new "restaurant" to eat at. My husband grew up eating there but it was the first time Jackson and myself went.  The place in Arabic is called عبلة in English is "Aabla".


The "restaurant" which is better described as "an upscale street vendor with a permanent location", is located in an area of Cairo called Kerdasa off the street (it appeared that this was the main road). The grill was placed by the road and makeshift tables and chairs were strewn around. Most men had beards and all women were wearing a niqab (veiled faces except for the eyes). Next to the grill was a small walkway opened up to a larger sitting area and a small green garden area for the children to play. Cats were found throughout the eating areas in hopes to get leftover food. (smart smart cats!)


When we arrived it was night (about 10:00pm). The weather in this part of town was much cooler than I expected so I was chilly in my short sleeve shirt. Keep in mind I am the ONLY foreigner in this area, so that caused looks. Then add in the fact that I am wearing a short sleeve shirt while all the other women are fully veiled created even more looks. That's okay though, my hubby and I were completely oblivious to it all. ;)   We walked right in and sat on a table located in the middle of everyone else.


My hubby was greeted by several of the workers, who obviously remembered him from all his years of dining there. Jackson was bored pretty quickly and left in order to go play with other children in the small garden. My hubby ordered for us. It was the BEST choice he made!


The food came: 1 order of chicken livers, 1 order of camel kofta, and 2 orders of chicken. Each of us received a green salad, fresh bread and tahina salad. The food was amazing! The livers were cooked perfectly with just a hint of spice. The kofta, had a wonderful smokey taste while still remaining juicy inside and the chicken was the BEST I have ever had. We completed almost everything and took the remaining chicken home.


Waking up the next morning the first thing I said to my hubby (even before "Good morning" or "I love you") was "Man, I am craving some more liver."


And that is how I found my favorite restaurant in all of Egypt.


P.S. If you are wondering, Jackson does it it all....his favorite sandwich is roasted cow tongue. We are very lucky not to have a picky eater child and one that is rolling with the punches in all of our wild adventures.

Price for meal including tip: 77le
Converted to USD: $10.71

Restaurant on Facebook

Jackson's 5th Birthday

We love celebrating Jackson's birthday and we look forward to it every year! This year was different though,  Jackson was excited for his birthday this year too! He started practicing singing "Happy Birthday" to himself in both English and Arabic months before the actual day. He didn't hesitate to prepare his list of "I want this!" months before. He included everything he saw on TV (and by everything I mean even the infomercials about spray hoses for the garden). LOL

A week or so before his birthday I posted on the Expat Women in Egypt Facebook group asking for suggestions on custom made cakes for his birthday. Since he was excited we were going to go all out for him this year. A woman contacted me via Facebook and told that she makes custom cakes and had a Facebook page. I check it out reluctantly. I mean, anyone could say they can make cakes but I wanted someone special AND look good. I also wanted something that tasted like back home. Cakes here in Egypt are typically tasteless or gobs of sugar are packed into it you get 20 cavities by just looking at it. I checked out her page The Honey Bee (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Honey-Bee/263765557009613?fref=ts) the cakes and cupcakes looked amazing! We were sold and asked her to prepare a Spiderman one.

A few days before his birthday we went to HyperOne, Kids Island, Spinney's and other locations searching for all of his items to make the party worth wild. I am such an amazing mom I even got tons of balloons for him (I am terrified of balloons) and decorated the house while he was in bed the night before.

The night before his birthday his cousin Amr came over to paint his wall. Amr is an amazing art that often works on movie and sitcom sets designing and creating the scenery. We asked him to come and paint a large Spiderman on his bedroom wall. It was completed about 6 hours later and it was so much better than we could have ever imagined!! It included not only Spiderman's face but also the backdrop was a city at night. There were glow-in-the-dark starts placed in the sky.

When Jackson woke up in the morning we escorted him to his bedroom for him to look at the wall. We expected him to have an "out of body" experience being overwhelmingly excited about the outcome like we were. Instead, he was very subdued. In a monotone voice he said, "Wow. It looks nice." 

His reaction was a let down, to say the least.

After seeing his bedroom we allowed him to go to the living room where his new blue shiny bicycle waited for him. He quickly perked up (I think because he was more awake by this point) and ran to it. He climbed on it and tried to peddle it away. He was very happy for this gift.

Later in the day family came over the for the birthday party. It was supposed to start at 7pm (since that is Jackson's bedtime) because I didn't want it to be too late. We are in Egypt and forgot about Egyptian time, so therefore, everyone showed up at 9pm. While waiting Jackson became very sad and asked several times why no one liked him and why no one wanted to come for his birthday. It was heartbreaking to hear. I became furious with everyone and wasn't very friendly during the whole party.

Overall, Jackson was happy with the day and his gifts. That is all that really matters. It was HIS day!

ESMA (Egyptian Society Mercy for Animals)

Animals, animals, animals! Our family loves animals! There is a non profit society here that works with baladi (Egyptian street dogs) and other unwanted animals here in Egypt.

The society is called ESMA (https://www.facebook.com/esma.egypt/info)

Every Friday a group of volunteers meet to walk the dogs around two pyramids. For Mother's Day this year I wanted to walk the dogs and see these two pyramids.

Off we went at 10:00am in order to reach the shelter early enough to play with the dogs before walking them! Once we arrived we were greeted by over 100 dogs! Some were in large spacious cages while others had the ability to roam free and mingle with other dogs.

I got to walk Roy. An older baladi that has never had a home.

Jackson got to walk the amazing Smilie!

Mohanned was camera shy and I don't remember who he walked.

Off we went! The walk was great! All the dogs really enjoyed it and the group often stopped to take pictures of the amazing scenery and for water breaks for all.