Friday, June 02, 2006

Travel: A week in Egypt

A travel article describing a holiday to Cairo, taking in the Western Desert. It looks mainly at the authors attempts to reconcile, the ancient and on the modern, and at how Egypt lived up to her expectations: "And that's just the thing: if there's one thing about this crazy country, it's that new and old are entwined and concomitant, and the contradictions are ultimately redeemed in the flux and fervency of each generation of life.In one moment, I stare out over the Nile, contemplating the bushels of bulrushes that line the banks — Moses' first and reeded savior. And then, looking up, my face is aglow with an enormous florescent-yellow TGIFriday's sign, which is itself flanked on both sides by Pepsi-Cola billboards and advertisements beseeching tourists to participate in "belly dancing aerobics." In one moment I'm awed by the Sphinx, its paws shiny with the erosion of thousands of years, and the next I'm seated in a 5th-floor Pizza Hut."
See the above article for the full story.

No comments: