Somewhere in Egypt The Patriarch of Constantinople may have spent some time at Al-Kharga Oasis , but I had to give it a miss. And I really, really hated to do that. Nestorius (c.386-c.451), to simplify a complex issue, was the loser in one of the great theological controversies in Christian history, and so he...

Aswan, Egypt One of the best things to happen to me earlier this month began in the toilet. I was staying in a super cheap hotel in Aswan, Egypt, and the shared toilet was -- well, imagine 40 people who neither aim well nor, because the flusher is broken, flush. Then imagine a front desk...

Cairo, Egypt It may seem incongruent to have a bar song come to mind while walking through the medieval mosques and alleys of Islamic Cairo. But so it goes. The bar song I'm thinking of is the theme to the old television show "Cheers." Here are the lyrics (and the one-minute youtube video , in...

Ever find yourself wandering the local food stalls while you’re traveling and catching a whiff of something delicious? Perhaps you stand, drooling and hypnotized, gawking at, well…who knows what exactly? Do you ever find yourself eying the local cuisine and thinking, “Hmm, that looks good; what is that?” One great part of travel is the...