Bedstemor's 85th Birthday ( 13
- 20 Nov 2004 ) |
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Ancient Egyptian stories and legends have
long made their mark through movies such as "Cleopatra", "The
Mummy" and wowed us women with Omar Sharif's performance in "Lawrence
of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago" and more recently in
cartoons such as "The Prince of Egypt". There is a certain
mystic about middle east portrayed to us from a very young age when
we hear bedtime tales like "Ali Baba the 40 Thieves"
or "Sinbad the Sailor" - most of us have a dream of seeing
the pyramids.
I was very lucky to have the opportunity
20 years ago to come to Egypt with my parents and at 10 years old, there's
only so much a child can remember. But this year, the Pallesen Family
once again get together for the Matriach's 85th birthday. It is tradition
for the family to come together and travel to an exotic country - in
the past Tunisia, Morocco, Gambia and for Grandmother's last wish, to
see the pyramids of Egypt, that her husband saw 45 years earlier.
The Matriach's three children, six grandchildren
(Nikolai could not make it), four greatgrandchildren and respective
spouses all came together for a week in magical Egypt. It is autumn
with warm days and cool nights - a contrast to the approaching winter
in Denmark.
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Saturday 13 November 2004
Departure for Egypt
Our family had to leave Falster at 2:30am
to catch a 6:30 flight, 4½hr later we arrived at Cairo Airport.
I have dim memories of a very warm airport in complete chaos, with people
pushing to get their luggage through, shouting over a mad din. Instead
we found a rather clean and uncrowded airport. We were met by the AB
Travel Agency representative, taken to a Hotel Pyramisa, left in a closed
piano bar
and promptly forgotten until one of us had the bright idea to ask for
our keys.
Our family shared a two-bedroom hotel room
with a large living area. Our first afternoon was spent walking around
the streets of Cairo trying to find a place for the family to have dinner.
Our hotel was located across the river from downtown
Cairo, so there was not a lot to see, combined with the fact that
many shops were closed during the day over Ramadan, the Islamic period
of fasting from dawn to dusk. Sunday heralded the last day of Ramadan,
so many were preparing for the final feast.
In the end, the whole family had dinner
in the hotel's "Oriental" restaurant of Egyptian style. We
figured we would get some decent Egyptian food but were disappointed
to find most of our food luke-warm. The rice was very dry, little meat
on the lamb and rather bland food. To our surprise, after our comment
about this, we were presented with a complimentary platter of fruits
native to Egypt such as fresh dates and guava. To our amusement, no
matter what kind of Egyptian wine we ordered, they all tasted the same.
There was plenty of Egyptian beer and of course the danes lived up to
their drinking prowess and Bedstemor ("grandmother") treated
us all dinner.
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Sunday 14. november 2004
On the first night we didn't sleep very
well - sleeping in a different bed combined with quranic prayers coming
from a nearby mosque didn't exactly leave us with a peaceful sleep.
However we were all up early to get together in Bedstemor's room for
a "surprise" get-together - to sing the danish birthday song
amongst a flutter of red white flags, and present her with a small
gift. This family "surprises" the birthdayee and all sing
in unison this rather cute birthday song.
The Citadel Muhammad Ali Mosque
 Our
first destination was the Citadel. It is the
city's fortress that once housed the royal family and although most
of the complex is open to visitors, the military still have a foothold
and some areas are out of bounds. It takes a half day to explore all
areas of the Citadel but we didn't have the opportunity to do so, and
instead spent most of our time in the Muhammad
Ali Mosque.
<== There is a magnificent view of the
city from the Western Terraces - magnificent had most of Cairo not been
filled with the same shade of mud-bricked buildings. What
was most notable about Cairo was its lack of colour or rather its ability
to blend into the desert.
 Our
guide Adam/Mohammed provided little insight to the function or history
of the Citadel, and instead sat the group in one corner of the Muhammad
Ali Mosque like a bunch of school children, and gave a lecture on Islamic
laws and behaviour.
When René ventured to ask more about
the Citadel, he was scolded for interrupting and told to listen. We
never got the opportunity to find the number 7 Napoleon's troops had
painted above one doorway to avoid using the unfamiliar Arabic names
or the twin half-round towers because our guide simply didn't know where
they were.
During this time, I had the opportunity
to wander off and walk the beautiful alabaster-lined arcades of the
mosque. the soaring central prayer hall was a glimmer of hundreds of
lights hanging in concentric circles. Arabic inscriptions in gold were
painted on the ceiling. Women had to be suitably attired and could not
wear sleeveless tops or short skirts or shorts. In one corner lay the
sarcophagus of Muhammad Ali - the builder of the mosque and an albanian
mercenary who was the founder of the dynasty that ruled till the revolution
in 1952.
Cairo Egyptian Museum
I
have memories of wandering around this museum, peering into smudged
glass cases, staring into the shrivelled faces of some once well-known
pharaoh like Ramses II and wondering if the ancient Egyptians were giants
in their large coffins.
20
years later, it was almost impossible to push through the crowds of
tourists - only useful because their guides provided more information
than ours. With only two hours, there was no way that we could view
the whole museum or see the royal mummies.
The museum
was celebrating its centenary and there was a special exhibition dedicated
to TutAnkhAmun - the most famous archaeological find. With travel guide
in hand, we oohed and ahhed over the gold treasures found in his tomb
- a gold throne featuring the famous scene of TutAnkhAmun's queen anointing
him, chests made out of ebony ivory, cheetah-skinned hunting shields,
bows, arrows, alabaster canopic jars holding King Tut's mummified organs,
gold sarcophagus - if Howard Carter had found such treasures for a little
known boy-king, imagine what the tomb of a pharaoh like Ramses II would
have been like? King Tut's inner coffin of solid gold and the famous
mask of gold that everyone wants to see and is portrayed in many egyptian
images.
The museum
has become another money-making expedition for the Egyptians with an
exhorbitant price to view the royal mummies. We had to content ourselves
with the animal mummies - cats, dogs, birds, goats, Nile perch (yes,
fish as well!) and most amazing was a 7-metre crocodile mummy.
The exhibitions
were arranged by themes on the upper floor and chronological on the
lower floor, going clockwise from the Old Kingdom, to the Middle and
finally to the New and later kingdoms. There were rooms full of giant
sarcophagi that would've weighed a tonne each, a room full of miniatures
showing the egyptians' daily lives, a room full of ancient papyrus long
faded and rooms full of bits and pieces from ruins, statues, palace
floors - a place where one needs a days to spend with a decent travel
guide.
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Khan Al-Khalili
 After
a stop at an egyptian perfumery and some lunch,
we headed to Khan Al-Khalili - the oldest
bazaar in Egypt that has lasted since the 1300s. Ancient buyers visited
the khan for goods brought in on merchant caravans. No longer do we
find slaves, silk, jewels or diamonds, but wooden guitars, brightly
patched pouffe covers, clothes, t-shirts, crappy papyrus paintings,
bongs/water pipes, bright bolts of cloth, the aroma of spices is very
much present and stalls are heaped with bright red, gold and blue powders
and sacks of seeds pods. Coppersmiths hammer out platters, tureens,
coffeepots and enormous crescent-shaped tops for minarets. It is a ritual
of the bazaar to expect to bargain - locals or foreign visitors - usually
a 10th of the offer price - if you have paid a third, you have paid
too much. We had only an hour to spare but many of the shops were closed
for a siesta after lunch. Ulla I pointed to bags of multicoloured
spices. He wanted £50 (AUD$10, 50DK.Kr) and after I said "da
ketir awi" (it costs too much) and walked away, the shopkeeper
doggedly followed us for a kilometre reducing the price from £40
to £30, £25, £20 and after we shouted £10 in
jest, he offered £15, £10 and finally £5 before finally
giving up on us. After much haggling, we managed to bargain for two
ornate glass perfume bottles for £20 (AUD$2.50; 20DK.Kr)
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Bedstemor's Birthday Feast
 Irene
Ole had organised a private room for Bedstemor's
birthday party. A single long table in a room of egyptian style.
Small silver pots lined in two rows in the middle of the table kept
the food warm.
We feasted on cumin-flavoured fried fish,
chicken fillets egyptian-style, cinammon-flavoured ravioli, rice, mashed
potatoes and beef steaks in pepper sauce, sang and toasted with bottles
of egyptian wine and beer to Bedstemor.
Whilst the children played in one corner,
there was much chatter througout the table and the evening finished
off with chocolate and fruit cakes topped with "Happy Pirthday"
(note, it's not an error) and we laughed in amusement in a plethora
of egyptian sweets - baklawa, semolina tarts, rose-water flavoured tarts,
and tarts that tasted like liquid honey... Ulla almost wanted to take
the rest of the desserts with her (except for the rose-water flavoured
ones - it was funny to watch her expression - rosewater almost smells
like cosmetics). The waiters were extremely attentive, coming by every
two minutes to serve us.
Best of all, Bedstemor turned 2 years old,
as she blew out each candle on the cakes. As the danes would say, "det
var meget hyggeligt!" (it was cozy)
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Monday 15. november 2004 (7:30am start)
From the brown buildings and streets of
Cairo, we travelled 24km southeast of the city to Saqqara, changing
from a uniform brown to lush green fields of large cabbages and hundreds
of date palms. It was like an oasis, a gentle mist gave a surreal sense
of the fertile plains of ancient Egypt. Women in full-length black abeeyas
squatted in the fields, the odd man walking around - such a contrast
to the intense crowds of central Cairo.
Saqqara's Step Pyramid
Founded as a necropolis (burial city) for
the Old Kingdom and is one of the richest archaeological sites in Egypt.
The Step Pyramid
is less that ½ the height of the largest pyramids at Giza, but
this monument served as a predecessor of the smooth pyramids. Previously
tombs were made of mud brick, rectangular slablike structure covering
a burial pit. But the architect Imhotep had the bright idea to construct
in stone and  build
the slablike structure 5 times one on top of the other, creating the
first pyramid.
We entered through the Great South Court
- the size of a soccer field, down a corridor of 40 pillars inspired
by bundles of tied reeds. Whilst Adam was making another one of his
speeches, I was tempted by a turbaned egyptian in a dress who took me
to the top where I managed to get one shot of the magnificent pillars
up top, before being scolded by Adam and being asked for baksheesh (tip).
I was gratefully rescued by a couple of Italians when the egyptian would
not let me go without a baksheesh. However, once I surfaced from the
building, I was blinded by white sands and the immense pyramid sitting
solitary amongst a few ruined stones, with a much smaller triangular
heap of stones in the background. Although the morning had been cool,
the sun soon warmed us up as we wandered round to the north.
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Memphis
 Once
the capital of ancient Egypt, it remains unexcavated
due to villages built on top of it and a high water table as a result
of the Aswan Dam. There is a small garden with small finds - bits and
pieces but the most exciting thing to see is a colossus of Ramses II
lying on his back as the lower legs are missing. The colossus would've
been 5 stories high had it been standing. Nearby lies the largest alabaster
statue ever found - 80 tons of sphinx - imagine what treasures that
could've been found if Memphis could've been excavated, especially as
this ancient city lay halfway between Upper and Lower Egypt.
Our final stop before lunch was a papyrus
museum - another place of commission for Adam. Bedstemor purchased a
papyrus of egyptian alphabets. Some of the paintings cost a massive
£3,500 (AUD$900, 3,500DK.Kr). For lunch, we had a splendid egyptian
meal in the middle of nowhere that served excellent mezza (egyptian
tapas) of baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip), tzatziki (cucumber dip),
hummus (chickpea dip), fuul (beans) served with freshly made pita bread,
warm vine-leaf rolls, lamb kofta and freshly roasted chicken in thyme.
It was feast fit for a king and the most egyptian meal we had on the
whole trip.
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 Pyramids
of Giza
From air the desert pyramids were
right on the edge of the city, 16km from Cairo.
I remember vaguely, as a child, hunched
over, walking up a surprisingly warm shaft lit by a single light bulbs
and emerging into a very chilly dark room that held a single stone sarcophagus,
the room empty except for occasional square holes in the wall where
food was left for the afterlife.
I had entered the Queen's chamber in the
largest pyramid and 20 years later, only the first 300 can enter these
pyramids - for an exhorbitant fee. |
The largest of the three, Cheops' pyramid was
the largest, standing at 146metres at one point, took 920 metres to
walk around it and contained 2.3 million blocks! Each block was at least
one metre high, so you can imagine how massive these pyramids were.
The 2nd largest, Khefren's (Cheop's son) pyramid
still had some of the smooth shiny limestone casing that once used to
cover all these pyramids.==>
The massive solar boat that once carried
the pharaoh's body from Memphis to Giza and the
three smaller Queens' pyramids stood at one corner of the massive Cheop
pyramid. We didn't have the opportunity this time to enter the tombs,
but I feel priveleged that I did and that I still have some memories
of the event.
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The Sphinx
 The
pyramids loomed in the background as it sat silently on the hot sand
under the glaring sunlight for 4,000 years. Napoleon's troops once used
it for target practice, so its nose and pharaohs beard and long fallen
off and lies in a British museum. The Greeks called it "the
Sphinx" as it was based on a mystical creature with the head
of a man and body of a lion, which would stop any traveller along the
way with a riddle - if the riddle wasn't answered, it became the sphinx's
dinner. Throngs of crowds surrounded the sphinx and we could only enter
in single file. Over time, it seemed that tourists could view it from
further and further away. 45 years ago, Bedstefar's (grandfather) could
touch the Sphinx and even climb to the top of the pyramid; 20 years
ago, it was simply surrounded by a small wire fence but I could stand
close up to it; now it lay in a very large pit where visitors could
only view it up close if they zoomed in on their cameras. 4 millenia
later, it still manages to awe all of us.
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Tuesday 16. november 2004 (2:30am start)
Yes, you did read that right - we were
all waiting in the lobby at 2:30AM. Last night, Bedstemor's grandchildren
treated the family to a Spanish-Egyptian Italian
dinner, which was followed by a  cacophany
of tambourines, oboes and drums played for an Egyptian engagement couple
in the lobby.
This morning we were flying to Aswan, to
board a 3-day cruise up the Nile, sailing up to Luxor. When we arrived,
we were taken for a short felucca ride along
the Nile with a fantastic view of the Tomb of Nobles.
When we returned we were given our rooms onboard a four-storey
17. April 2011 11:27 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments
This weekend we went with the Heng's onboard one of the last Tall Ships of Sydney harbour called 'Svanen. The day before it had been pouring with rain but we were lucky that the day we had booked was dry and sunny most of the day.
'Svanen' was built in 1922 in Denmark in Fredrikssund of danish oak frames, where she traded as a grain
carrier between Denmark and Greenland for the tuborg beer company until
1969. She and James Craig are now the last tall ships in Sydney (The Bounty was sold to china some years ago).
She ain't a big ship, but large enough to carry about 90 passengers.
The interior of the ship is almost in its original state. It is still possible to see all the hand chiseled timer in the cabins.
The ship itself is pretty much still operated as it was back then (although she now has a motor...not sure if she would have had that originally).
And all the rope work is still the way it should be as well.
The cruise lasted a couple of hours and during the trip we were served lunch, beer and wine. This was one of the special deals that Kim had found us so it ended up being a great day.
15. April 2011 11:04
by Rene Pallesen
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Every year there is an Ester show at Fox Studios...it is not as big as the show out at Homebush, but it is a lot closer to where we live and entry is free. Last year and again this year we brough Dylan there as it is difficult for his mum to go there. We normally allow him to get 1 ride or one game at the show, but because we this year brough Aiden along he got three rides as we though we'd check how Aiden would reach to the rides. The first ride that Dylan chose was a Camel ride (Although they are not actually camels, but Dromedary's).  Afterwards he was complaining about how smelly they are. In the mean time Aiden was watching the action (It was a pretty cool day and he had been sick the week before so he was dressed in his bunny outfit).  We tried to get Dylan to look scary with some of the local performers, but I think this is the best he could do.  After this I took Aiden and Dylan on the Ferris wheel and the Merry go round.   These are Waaaaayyyy to scary for Kim, so she was waiting down on the ground taking photos.
11. April 2011 04:32
by Rene Pallesen
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This Sunday we went to Ethans 10yo Birthday at Maroubra. It also happens that Aiden was 10 Months a couple of days ago and it was a nice and overcast day, so good to take some monthly photos of him.  He is pretty happy to show off his new chompers (teeth)...he's got four now. He's been a bit sick for the last week with a cold. Probably something he picked up in daycare, but he is a lot happier now.  He now knows how to sit up straight, but he is still not able to crawl or get to/from sitting position, so the way he gets around is by rolling. He has learned to repeat one word from up and that is 'Dada'...but he still doesn't know the context or meaning of the word. He is also a lot more reserved when it comes to other people...the general rule is that he likes me and grandad, but everyone else depends on the day...even mummy is sometimes given the cold shoulder (which Kim gets slightly upset about when it happens). 
7. April 2011 10:26
by Rene Pallesen
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Last month we received our new bi-folding doors to the garden. The old doors were old aluminium sliding doors that didn't allow us to open up the dining room towards the garden properly, they only allowed us a metre of opening to walk through.  We really wanted to open up the outside and inside areas. The old door really wasn't ideal. Before christmas we ordered new bi-folding doors that would allow us to open up the whole area (about three metres and would allow us easier and better access to the garden). It took the two tradespeople the better part of a full day to remove the old door and install the new one.  The new door looks really good, it was delivered in raw cedar wood and yesterday I spent most of the following weekend sanding and varnishing it.  The new door comes with a sliding moscito net that allows us to open the whole area and still keep the little critters out. It is almost invisible to when we have the family over we will need to keep it open to prevent the kids from running through the net. The trades people couldn't take the old door with them so I had to find a way to dispose of it. Eventually I put it on Gumtree (a free site similar to eBay) and said that whoever wanted the door could come and pick it up for free. Within a couple of hours I had a dozen interested people and a couple of days later hey came to pick it up.
28. March 2011 10:06
by Rene Pallesen
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Saturday Kim and I went with a couple of friends to the Lyrics Theatre to see the Doctor Zhivago the Musical. It is a large production that they hope eventually will make it to broadway. If you would like to know the story then rent the movie of the same title...worth watching. For those of you not familiar with the story behind the story: It is about the cultural revolution and civil war in russia during the years 1917-1921 (mainly). The book was written by a russian Boris Pasternak during and after the cultural revolution. It was smuggled out of Russia in the 1950's and the author was awarded the Nobels literature price much to the dismay of the russian government (the book is very critical of the revolution).  We did have tickets booked a couple of months ago, but when we turned up then they said that the lead actor (playing Zhivago) had an injury in the afternoon. They said that they would still show us the first 20-40 minutes of the performance as this was all that the understudy (replacement) was familiar with and then let us either rebook or get a refund. Very dissapointing, but not much we could do about it. It was actually worth seeing the whole performance (and not just the beginning). The acting and singing was great (Kim was so-so about the actual songs, but I thought they were ok).The stage setup was very clever and added a lot of depth to the stage, it allowed them to show what was happening in several locations at the same time using the same stage.  We had left Aiden with his grandad for the evening and this time we decided to let him sleep there all night rather than wake him up really late to take him home.
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