Pictures From Europe-Africa Trip

To view pictures from my trip to Europe and Africa, please click on this link: http://cubscorner.shutterfly.com/

I hope you enjoy them!

Johannesburg -> Cairo: Cairo From Above

I arrived in Cairo early this morning, 6:40. By 9 o'clock I was at the guesthouse, and by 11 I'd checked into my room (my room wasn't ready when I arrived, check-in's at noon), and being tired from the 7.5 flight northward accross the African continent, I immediately went for a long nap.

By 3pm I'd regathered my energy, and decided to step out into the blistering sun to experience some more of Cairo. I decided to visit the Cairo Tower, a 30 minute walk from the guesthouse.

Here is Cairo from top, at around 5pm. The river flowing right through the city is none other than the Nile:

In view here is Zamalek, the district in which the guesthouse is situated. In fact, the cathedral (across from which is situated the guesthouse) is barely visible in this next picture: right above the rounidsh wall on the left side of the picture.

Note the desert dust, whirled into the air by the wind. Cairo is a really dusty place:

In this next picture, the pyramids are visible ever-so-faintly, way in the distance, on the top right of the picture:

The above shots were taken with a 50mm lens. After about 45 minutes of playing with this lens, I decided to put on my 17-85mm lens, giving us a broader perspective:

A local convinced me that I really should have a picture taken with me in it. I let him take my camera and he took this picture:

Then, I went inside and in the following order, drank an iced tea, ate vanilla ice cream, and a club sandwich. I think the reason I messed up the proper eating sequence was because I was so hot and sweaty when I got inside that I just wanted something to soothe my dry throat. Only later, when I realized that I was going to hang around inside until sundown, did I order the sandwich.

I went back outside at sundown, close to 8pm:

Little by little, the city transformed itself from a dry dustbowl to a colourful light show:

One final picture, this time, the tower, from below:

Johannesburg: Paraguay 0 - Spain 1

We left Blyde River Canyon earlier than planned actually, in order to get to Johannesburg in time for settling in at the guesthouse and getting a quick breather before heading to the big quarter final game at Ellis Park. On the way to Johannesburg, we stopped for a pancake breakfast at Graskop, a small little town 51 km south of the Blyde River Canyon.

But the highlight - and lowlight, too, I suppose - was the game between la albirroja and la roja.

I'd mentioned to Christian prior to the game that this would be Paraguay's best game, and I was right. The usual intensity displayed by Paraguay was supplemented with intelligence and calm of mind that the team did not display since the second game of the tournament, against Slovakia.

The favourites were Spain, of course, ranked number 2 in the world, but Paraguay did not back down, and played a smart game. The style - long airballs - was not to my liking, but given the opponent it made sense. The game had everything: excitement (2 saved penalty kicks within 5 minutes, 1 by each team), intensity, great skill, and even controversy. In fact, Paraguay scored a goal in the first half that was unjustifiably called offside. That goal should have counted, and had that been the case, who knows how the game could have turned out.

In the end, we lost 0-1, Spain dominating the possession of the ball, and controlling the midfield with marvelous one-touch futbol.

Our team was disappointed, Cardozo above all was devastated, unconsolable over his missed penalty kick. Now the World Cup is over for us, having achieved a best-ever, very respectable quarter finals, among the world's top 8 nations.

Here are some pictures of the game, beginning with our view of the field, before the game:

Christian anticipating the excitement:














National anthems:














Cardozo, fouled in the penalty box in the second half:














Cardozo's penalty shot, saved by Casillas:














Now it's Spain's turn. Great save by Villar:

All in all, it was a very good tournament not only in terms of following Paraguay, but overall. In fact, it was probably the best World Cup trip I've had yet.

Now I'll begin turning my attention to my trip home. Tomorrow is Sunday, my last full day in South Africa. I plan to use it as a day of reflection. On Monday I return to Cairo, where I will spend 3 days before returning home to Vancouver.

Significantly, I am not looking forward to my return to Cairo. At one point I thought my vocation may lead me there, but I do not think that is the case any longer.

Blyde River Canyon: Braai And Hiking

One of the frustrations of this trip has been the lack of accessibility to internet. Almost all the guesthouses we've stayed out have WiFi, but they require you to have your own laptop to access the internet. I should've known, I suppose, but I expected to have more access to computers. Next time I go on a trip like this I'll have to bring my laptop along.

The place I'm at now is a resort, but even this place only has one public computer, which does not allow the use of any USB application, so, I can't download my pictures to a memory stick, much less uploading pictures onto my website.

But needless to say, I will catch up on daily entries as soon as I have access.

In the meantime, a brief update on the past few days:

* June 29: this was a great day. Paraguay beat Japan 5-3 on penalties, after what I think was a rather boring 120 minutes of play. I am happy that we beat Japan, but I'm very disappointed in the way the team played. The team is supposed to play a more attacking futbol than in the past, but the past two games have been anything but attacking. They have been slow, indecisive, with a shocking lack of creativity in the middle and up front. Still, I am happy that we won, and made history in doing so. Next up is Spain, and while on paper the Spanish are the better team, I have a feeling this will be a good game. Spain's natural mode of operandi is attack, and Paraguay's style has always been to counterattack, and so the Spanish style actually bodes well for us.

* June 30: early in the morning we got on the road, destination Blyde River Canyon. After a couple of stops along the way, we arrived here at 4pm. We are staying in a one bedroom chalet that does not really have a spectacular view, but is a short hike away from the spectacular canyon (the 3rd biggest canyon in the world)

* July 1 (happy Canada Day!): after sleeping in yesterday, I had breakfast around 9am. Then I checked emails, did some reading, and by noon I went on a 4 hour hike. All in all, I hiked close to 7km, and soaked in the wonderful views. I have close to 60 pictures to show for it, but as said above, unfortunately I cannot share them (yet). We ended the evening with a braai, the South African version of a bbq (although in their view, there is a significant difference between a braai and a bbq). Christian had picked up some t-bone steaks, and since our chalet was equiped with an outdoor braai (bbq grill), we grilled ourselves some steaks, as well as some vegetables. The meat here tastes like the meat in Paraguay, tender and tasty.


* July 2 (today): it's 10am, I've had breakfast, and I'm currently looking for a guesthouse to stay at for the final 2 days in South Africa. We'll be leaving Blyde River tomorrow morning, heading for Johannesburg.