We leisurely left our hotel in Hurghada Egypt at the Red Sea and caught a short taxi ride to the airport for our departure to Istanbul. Everything had gone very smoothly in Egypt and we were ready for the last leg of our trip: Istanbul Turkey!
Our time in Aswan has ended, after a peaceful nights sleep, it’s time to take the train to Luxor where another adventure awaits us. In the early morning hours we again drug our luggage through the sand of Elephantine island on our way to the ferry We glided across the water and scrambled through the city streets to the train station in order to catch a 7:30 train.
Day two in Egypt and we wake up at 3:30 am to take our Uber to the Cairo airport. It’s time to travel 12 hours south of Cairo along the Nile to Aswan. We speed up the trip by taking a flight instead of driving. We read that many choose the overnight train instead of flying but that is $100 US per person, Jeff is a pretty light sleeper and probably wouldn’t sleep well on an overnight train so I think it’s best to fly. Some say it saves the price of a hotel but a hotel in Aswan is only $40 a night, so it didn’t seem worth it. I was happy to find airline tickets for $70 each so that seemed like a “win-win”. We talked to other budget travelers who took the day train for only $11 per person but that sounded grueling to be on a train for 12 hours!
On our first day in Egypt we stayed in Giza, a part of greater Cairo, you can read the account of our arrival into Cairo in my last post. I woke up early because our hotel had a beautiful rooftop overlooking the great pyramids and I hoped to see them at sunrise. However, alas, the sun sets on the pyramids, it does not rise. But I still enjoyed walking upstairs and casting my eyes on the pyramids looming on the horizon larger than life in the early morning light. I sat there drinking my coffee and checking my Instagram as I do every morning.
Giza and Cairo
During our two and a half years living in Italy, we always said we need to tour around Europe while we are so close to everything. But alas, we just kept enjoying our Italy. I guess first we needed to see everything near us, enjoy the abundant history of Florence, Rome and Naples and savor the natural beauty of Sperlonga and the Amalfi Coast.
It’s Fall in Italy and the early rains combined with the warm October temperatures have created the perfect conditions for mushrooms! Italians love to forage for mushrooms, it’s practically a national pastime.
Mojitos are a refreshing cocktail made with mint, lime, rum and sparkling water or tonic.
As you know from my last post, my fig tree is busting with fruit so in a attempt to keep up with its bounty I have been making this Savory Fig & Feta Tart. I serve it as the antipasta course alongside an Arugula salad. It is an elegant dish made with a pie crust or puff pastry as its base topped with fig jam and caramelized onions that are finished in balsamic vinegar. Then it is sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese and fresh sliced figs. It was beautiful and a big hit!
It’s mid September and the current “fruit of the Season” here in Italy is figs! We have a large fig tree on our property and I have been walking past the fig tree for months eyeing the dangling figs, I reach up and squeeze one hoping it would be ripe but the waiting continued. Finally it is fig season and they are ripe and ready for harvesting.
I loved our stay in Tropea and snorkeling in the clear turquoise water of Capo Vaticano, but it’s time to go and continue the adventure. Next on our itinerary is Monasterace, an ancient seaside city about two hours from Tropea straight across the instep, from the top to the bottom of the sole. We decided to take the mountain pass and we were not disappointed. It was so surprising to start our climb and leave behind the tired roads of the coastal area of Calabria and enter into a totally different world.
