Le Spleen Baudelairien and the Habit theory

·                                             Le Spleen Baudelairien

Baudelaire, in his spleen, wrote the most powerful and inspiring poems.

His concept of spleen, exposed in les fleurs du mal, refers to a state of mind with feelings of isolation, of anxiety, sadness and despair. I can guess it is the best state of mind for good writing, as the best authors were tormented souls.

There is a theory that if you move, not travel, to another countries, you may experience the Spleen Baudelairien after a period of six weeks, more or less.

·                       The theory that it takes 66 times to develop a habit

We have been in Cairo for 6 weeks today and have spent a little less than 66 days. Nevertheless, according to both theories, we should feel down but get used to life here.

Well, in our case, I can't say that I feel the Spleen. 
I guess what helps is that this is our third host country and therefore, you do get used to other cultures and become slightly more adaptable than if you are a first time traveller. 
However, to me, the most important factor that makes me feel happy is the sense of community. The community that we have seen has been really lovely, and takes the potential spleen alerts away from me. Once again, we do keep an eye on the situation, we do reflect on the Kenyan tragedy and feel incredibly sorrowed, but I can't say that I am feeling the travelling spleen, on the contrary.

I am happy to be in Cairo, I feel we have a strong group of people at work, who care about and for each other, support each other. The young generation I teach has been extremely welcoming and has the most incredible sense of humour.

The people we have been around have lived up to our hopes of Egypt's kindness and welcoming nature, very similar to the Turkish culture, which we enjoyed so much.

The habit theory is true, in my opinion. I do wake up without wondering what the weather will be like, I do turn the air conditioning system on without questioning myself, I do walk around and gaze at the landscapes in a non judgmental way, accepting the landscapes, the way things are:  neither shocking or saddening, it is just the way it is.

Life in Cairo is NOT bad and as I watch pictures from a friend in Dubai, looking as though several modern architects have been designing each of their ideas, and built their own buildings, a 'futuristic' (let's hope not) and incoherent glass clean jungle, I do feel happy, the exact opposite of the spleen, to be here.

In Cairo, you will find the poor, the rich, the chaos, the noise, the traffic but it feels real here and that matters more to me.

A tale of two cities: Istanbul and Cairo

Analogies, dissimilarities and discoveries…

Travelling between places, the only point of reference that you know is where you have lived yourself; it influences your vision, understanding and open mindedness to the new host country.

Having experienced life in France, England, a snapshot of the Estonian culture and Turkey, I expected the latter and Egypt to have a lot in common. They have the obvious similarities as for the predominant Muslim religion but also the distinction of cultures, as Atatürk radically changed the future of Turkey by making it a secular country. Both countries took very different paths ever since, as Turkey, once an Arabic speaking country, developed the Turkish language and its entire country’s dynamics changed economically and politically, using the European models.

Each country has its turmoil and it obviously shapes its future, the Egyptians are, as we “speak”, creating their future today and I can only put things in perspective as an eye witness, as I insist on remaining unprejudiced and objective (The best way to travel and enjoy travelling as Paul Theroux implies).

My love for Istanbul is still strong and I know that this is a passion that I will keep forever. I cherish the wonderful city of Istanbul, its incredible history, the beauty of the people whose kindness never ceased to amaze me. I miss Istanbul every day, and it is not only because I am in the city of Cairo, I will miss Istanbul every day in any city.

One analogy that I can make between both cities is the size. Both are incredibly big, with more than 15 million people, buzzing with life and wonderful people.

There is also the culture of “temper”. People here and in Istanbul often have heated discussions and on appropriate topics, the body language, the intonations in voices would make one believe that people are arguing, even though they aren’t. I am myself very fond of this, the temper, the passion in people, it shows authenticity and livelihood.

Another one is the “kolay gelsin” attitude, which is exactly the same here. It stands for “take it easy” in Turkish and it is a great saying. Coming from Europe, where everything work, life passes you by as you run around and everyone is being judged on how quickly they can deal with you, you learn in Turkey and Egypt that you have to take it easy, in every shop, institutions and restaurants! Yes, forget stressing, it will happen, in its own time, inshallah and I personally love it (most of the time).

Nevertheless, there are enormous dissimilarities between both cities.

The first one is the hardest on the eye; Istanbul is simply astonishing, the Bosphorous, the buildings, the colours are vibrant, whereas Cairo’s main colour is beige, and small patches of green if you are lucky. 

Another one is about us ladies. I saw many more women on the streets of Istanbul, either moderately dressed or wearing the tank tops and shorts or skirts that you would see in any European city. Istanbul is a place of freedom as a woman, where you don’t have to think twice before stepping outside. Well, if you remember the grading scale, Cairo is different. The reputation of this country and the harassment towards women is unfortunately real; yet, I would like to stress that generalisation is never applicable or fair and not every man is going to hassle you.

The buildings are also very different here compared to Istanbul. The Turkish landscape changes almost overnight, as they build so much and so fast, however, the buildings are all finished. It isn’t the same here, as most buildings are unfinished and the ones which are, are partly inhabited, partly abandoned.

Some things are not quite the same but you can identify some patterns.

The litter is one. Now, Cairo is DIRTY and that is the best way to say it! There is trash all over and it is smelly and chaotic. There is the strong culture of throwing garbage pretty much everywhere and not bother about anything ecological. Istanbul is much cleaner of course, and most places are cleaned on a daily basis. Yet, there are remnants of the trash culture to be found on the sideways, also in the forest in Istanbul, where it is a habit to have a picnic, put your trash in a bag and leave the bag behind (hoping the trash troll will come and dispose of it).

Another similarity is the driving culture, even if Cairo is MUCH worse. I used to be very anxious in Istanbul, when the taxi would drive on the hard shoulder, slalom between cars as if we were on a racing circuit, and hate when they could use the brake at the last minute! Well, here in Cairo, I have learnt to miss those crazy Turkish soförlar, because I don’t recall seeing someone coming the wrong way, or cutting through the entire lane, or seeing donkeys on the motorway (even though I did see horses once)!

“A tale of two cities” is a work in progress and I will surely be adding to it once I visit more of Cairo, one of the greatest historical capitals, as Constantinople was.

5 days in the gulf of Aqaba

Living in the semi clean and ordered suburb, you tend to forget what Cairo looks like. I have only seen it once on my way from the airport and this was the second time. On this occasion, the same adjectives come back to me: dirty, disorganised, unfinished and chaotic.It is sad to say that the driving culture in Cairo is just as bad anywhere else and that the local Egyptian foot is quite heavy on the accelerator, whether it is a straight road or a curvy and bumpy one.

A friend of mine qualified it all as apocalyptic and I think that it is a really good way to describe it; yet once again, I want to stress on the fact that there is something here, something that feels strangely pleasant.

After landing in Sharm el Sheikh, we headed north. Some things you expect, such as the beige rocky decor, empty and desert like, but I didn’t anticipate the presence of so much trash scattered all over it, a present from Eol I guess. Besides the litter, some men with their guns at the checkpoint also punctuate the landscape from Sharm to Dahab.

Once we arrived, we were warmly welcomed at the happy land hotel.

Dahab, I was told, has a bit more of a local feel compared to Sharm and also is THE place for diving. It is indeed a lovely town, right on the gulf of Aqaba. The shops have clearly been laid out for tourists purposes with anything from small pyramids to relaxed outfits, swim stuff and diving equipment. The restaurants are also catered for tourists, from the Thai to the Indian, passing by the shisha bar.

So, there you have it, the perfect holiday resort town, with its pretty friendly shop keepers, amazing diving instructors and staff, varied restaurants for all taste and expectations; nevertheless, I walked around Dahab with a true feeling of sadness. One thing that was going well for Egypt and bringing a lot of money was tourism, across the country. I can almost imagine Dahab, buzzing with hundreds of tourists, shops and restaurants doing well and being super busy, but this picture doesn’t belong to now.

Dahab today feels very desolate and quite abandonned place, in the middle of the desert.

I admire the people, who keep opening their shops every morning, knowing that there may not be any customer. The tenacity is inspiring and makes me hope even more that Egypt settles down.

I was extremely happy to be there and feed in some businesses. One of them was the adventure spot shop and despite my will to keep this blog objective and unbiased, I will make a point in mentioning the diving shop and all the people who work for it: Absolutely amazing!

About the actual diving experience, it is simply magic!

The most striking thing is the paradox between the land and the underwater landscapes.

On the surface, all is barren, beige, chaotic and noisy whereas the life down there is astonishing! It is colourful, calm and exotic, varied and somehow organised. In addition, it helps you focus on your breathing: an automatic activity which we take for granted and never focus on. It all creates a beautiful sensation of serenity, of inner peace (except for when you have to flood your mask repeatedly!). Also, once you emerge, there is the social side of diving, which involves relaxing, reflecting and enjoying yourself.

This trip was a success, as we now qualified, a good trip for the soul, however, it was also a reminder of how much Egypt is suffering from the situation and how much we all hope that things will work out.

If my word holds any weight to you, you ought to visit Dahab and on the grand scale, try to give a chance to Egypt. It may not be the best place where to be right now, but the people are still here.