Computer Mistakes That Rock
J left last night for Cairo. If I'm not mistaken she'll be wandering the streets of London right now (the picture is actually of Beacon Hill, but you know, Gregorian with cobblestone is Gregorian with cobblestone), and then flying the rest of the way to Cairo tonight.
While we were waiting at the Airport for her plane, we bumped into a friend of Jessica's from France. He said he was messing around online trying to get a good price on a ticket back to Paris. After 45 minutes of trying a window suddenly opened up at STA travel that gave him a ticket for $12. I'm pretty sure it had to be some kind of computer glitch, but oh my gosh. That's what a cab to the airport costs.
Anyway, I'm really excited for Jessica. Cairo is the biggest city in Africa, and from what we here one of the most exciting. I was reading some about city planning in the Islamic world and how it differs from European planning. One of the really interesting things is that in Europe, when there was a dynastic change or someone conquered someone else, they would typically co-opt the old monuments, churches and castles for themselves. In the Islamic world, you didn't do that, you had to start over and build your own power center. Typically, you'd leave the Mosques alone, but you had to build a bigger one, and everything else you'd probably rip down and build anew. I find that kind of stuff really interesting.
While we were waiting at the Airport for her plane, we bumped into a friend of Jessica's from France. He said he was messing around online trying to get a good price on a ticket back to Paris. After 45 minutes of trying a window suddenly opened up at STA travel that gave him a ticket for $12. I'm pretty sure it had to be some kind of computer glitch, but oh my gosh. That's what a cab to the airport costs.
Anyway, I'm really excited for Jessica. Cairo is the biggest city in Africa, and from what we here one of the most exciting. I was reading some about city planning in the Islamic world and how it differs from European planning. One of the really interesting things is that in Europe, when there was a dynastic change or someone conquered someone else, they would typically co-opt the old monuments, churches and castles for themselves. In the Islamic world, you didn't do that, you had to start over and build your own power center. Typically, you'd leave the Mosques alone, but you had to build a bigger one, and everything else you'd probably rip down and build anew. I find that kind of stuff really interesting.
4 comments:
I don't know about finding pictures, but Kumasi (which is the capital of the Ashanti kingdom) in Ghana and the capital of the Kikongo kingdom in Congo were probably the biggest.
There is a good discription of the Kikongo kingdom in the book Black Livingstone by Kennedy.
Kumasi was bigger then London or Paris in the 16th century and had plumbing (which no european cities other than Istanbul and Rome had at the time.
My sis did a four month tour ('94?) for a college semester (studied dance at St. Olaf). She spent a month in Istanbul, Morocco, Cairo and Jerusalem (plus a week in Spain).
This woman is not afraid of different places but Cairo was easily last on her list. I think she enjoyed it, but I think she is fine never to return.
Morocco was on the top, with Istanbul a close second. Her stay in Jerusalem was not good, but that was due to illness that limited her experience. She was able to spend Christmas Eve in Bethlehem only an hour after Arafat left though.
Check out archnet.org; I think you'll like it.
Khalid
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