Supermoon over the Red Sea

Super moon. 14% bigger than a normal moon.

low tide

deserted beach

And here we have various failed attempts at capturing the moon while keeping the camera still.  The last few are pretty cool.

Photo Essay: Tiring department store Adventure

An quick visit inside the Tiring Building off of Midan Attaba. You've probably seen it from the bridge when coming back from the Azhar/Hussein area. It was finished in 1912 and owned by an Austrian fellow but he soon got kicked out of Egypt by the British at the end of WW1. Then Egyptians took over and...

A general view of the entrance

nice glass work on the overhang

A nice man (after checking we're not spies of bad people) showed a back entrance. in it, go down some stairs on the right, walk back, and you'll see a very old elevator. or you can just browse around all the belt shops until you find the staircase.  

A nice dome right above a staircase, which probably let in lots of nice natural light back in the day. 

Staircase leading to the roof top

There was someone sleeping in the dome, so we didn't bother them.

Iconic: The slaves carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. notice the pharaonic hairstyle, and super pronounced abs

This must have looked cool when it was all lit up.

Yet another view of Cairo's rooftops...

A cool rooftop garden!

remnants of of a mannequin... forever sunbathing 

back down to the organized chaos... and off to azhar to get some books mended...

For more information on this building, please see:
http://www.egy.com/landmarks/97-02-22.php
and this lovely CairoObserver article:
http://cairobserver.com/post/38678056409/

Photos taken on July 2nd 2013

Photo Essay: Mall of Arabia

A friend and I went to the "Mall of Arabia" in a Cairo suburb close to 6th of October city, to check it out (for me) and buy clothes (for her).
Here's my report:

A very confusing map.

Beautiful inner courtyard thing. with fountains, cafés,

and little trains for kids and lazy adults to ride around in

Hash. for sheesha only...

Intersport and adidas, using Zamalek soccer players for promotion

lots of shoes. and lots of tiny sizes for kids.

Buzzy Cafe. It had advertisements all over the mall. Seemed like a busy place for kids and parents (to relax)

A Zara leather belt. I liked how it was written in so many different languages

Light up the night with your inflamable night gown.

The mall is only half finished. There's going to be a whole underground section soon. 

Posing. 

I had her carrying all my shopping bags. mouhahaha

reminds me of Gap, France, and my little cousin. It's his favorite store.

the Food Court. Green glasses (bottom right). KFC bottom right. Mayhem everywhere.

He's bringing the Sugar Canes to the store called Asabeta (previous photo). There, they press the canes and make sugar cane juice.

movies. James Bond, Django Unlimited

spinneys. boom.

Inside the Spinneys. huge surface area.

Sit el-Koll means "woman of all" meaning "just a normal, Joe lady". I learned this from the lady I used to buy bread from so that I could give the bread to the fuul/tameya shop for them to make my lunch.

A store for conservative Islamic clothes. with only male salespersons inside. weird.

EXPERIENCE THE ADVENTURE FOR YOURSELF!

This is a nice, typical message that people living abroad tend to get:

"Wow, stunning photos "Joe". it looks like you're having a surreal experience. i can't wait to hear about your adventures someday! ♥"

Stunning? okay, maybe. thanks. How flattering of you. or maybe you're just impressed by what's in the photos more so than my photographic skill. meh, either way, thanks. 

Words like "surreal experience" and "adventure" are what get to me. I might just be quibbling over semantics here, and perhaps there's an element of "every person's experience of something depends on their background"... 
But, I guess, what I mean to say, is that for the natives who live in foreign countries of whatever photo in question, the stuff that you see in the photos isn't an "adventure" or "surreal"... it's routine life... ( إلى حد ما ). Sure, for you it might be surreal to see the pyramids, but I guarantee that a majority of the people living with a view of the pyramids would rather be living in bumble-fuck-dingle-berry Arkansas. 

But, I guess, my point regarding "i can't wait to hear about your adventures someday!" is: 
GO, GET OUT THERE and EXPERIENCE THE ADVENTURE FOR YOURSELF!

A couple Pyramids, with Cairo's informal urban areas in the background. 

someone just installed a new airconditioner line in their flat...
Grey in a week (like the unit above it).