Egypt Recap
Whew! So I have to admit that it took me a bit longer than I expected to get my Egypt stories on here! I got really sick the day after we got back and it kinda knocked me out for awhile–in fact, I am still hacking and gagging every few minutes. It’s super hot 🙂 Additionally, my 28th birthday was yesterday and my sister’s was last Friday, so we spent the weekend with birthday celebrations. I can’t believe I’m creeping up on 30, but I really appreciated all of the well-wishes and company from all my friends and family. It means a lot!
So Egypt! The entire trip began on the complete wrong foot. Brad and I had originally planned to leave on Wednesday, Feb. 10, via a flight from Den-JFK, then another from JFK- Cairo. Well, Tuesday morning we found out the Denver flight was cancelled and we had to leave THAT night at 1am–and I had class until 10pm. Needless to say, Tuesday became a whirlwind of getting ready for the trip, class, and making sure the dogs were taken care of. Even worse, when we got to DIA at midnight, we found out our Cairo flight had been cancelled cause of all the snow on the East coast. Long story short, we ended up getting to JFK and spending the night there with my friend Angela until another flight was rescheduled. She saved us and brought us warm clothes since our Egyptian apparel was definitely not gonna cut it for the snowstorm outside! Luckily, no one else was able to make it into NYC cause of the snow, so our flight was empty and Brad’s seniority got us first class all the way to Cairo! It was awesome–the food, the seats, the movies, everything!
Got into Cairo and went straight over to Dahab, a small town on the Red Sea in the Sinai peninsula, where we met up with my parents. We spent five days there beaching it, windsurfing, snorkelling, climbing Mt. Sinai, and riding camels. Yes, camels. The bastards I mentioned earlier. Of course, as it is with all animals, they don’t listen to me and absolutely don’t respond to a word I say. Mine tried to throw me off the cliff in the single most treacherous portion of the trek. I just held on and kept telling myself, “He doesn’t want to go off the cliff either!” Needless to say, my self-help talk worked and we didn’t die, but that camel and I did not part as friends. In fact, as soon as I got off his back, he u-turned it and ran off! No joke! I don’t care if they are the most versatile and adapted animals over there–they were royal jerks! 🙂
After Dahab, we parted with my parents and headed down to Luxor to start with the true reason of the trip–the antiquities of course! We stayed at a great hotel called the Boomerang Hotel which is owned by an Egyptian/Australian couple. It was a great place and we met some fun people there, including a German couple that we had hung out with in Dahab! Small world! We spent the first day on the West Bank, checking out Queen Hatshepsut’s temple and the Valley of the King and the Queens which were amazing. The tombs in Valley of the Kings were absolutely unbelievable and they hieroglyphics were remarkably intact. The tunnels below ground were so amazing to me, and it was really hard to continually remind myself that they were built thousands of years ago! We also got the brilliant idea to rent bikes and ride down to Karnak Temple for the day. Of course, this was where we got scammed for the first–and last!–time of the trip. Some security guards convinced us that we had to pay them to leave our bikes in this one area. When we came out hours later, they were gone and it was clear we had been screwed, but whatever….if 20 Egyptian Pounds ($4 American) is the worst that it got, I can handle that!
After leaving Luxor, we caught another flight and headed back to Cairo in our whirlwind tour of Egypt. We again met up with my parents and stayed at the Om Kolthoom Hotel in the Zamalek neighborhood. The hotel was definitely one of the classier hotels in the past, and it was evident. Wear and tear have started to take its toll on the place though, but it was still nice. I kept referring to the old place as “faded glory” and I still think that term is appropriate. We got a 2-bdrm. suite on the top floor with a wrap-around balcony that had amazing views of the Nile and downtown Cairo. I really enjoyed sitting out there and taking in the chaos of the city from 25 floors up–its more bearable that way 🙂
The highlight of Cairo was, of course, the Pyramids of Giza . I have wanted to see the pyramids for my entire life and they definitely did not disappoint. The things are absolutely massive. I have yet to upload all of my photos to an online album, but once I do, I’ll link it here and maybe that will give some idea of how gigantic these things truly are. We also paid to go inside the Second Pyramid and that was really cool. The tunnels inside are so steep and small that you practically have to crawl. There was a newlywed couple in front of Brad and I and the woman was freaking out when going down the tunnel. She finally asked Brad to hold her hand and he helped her down while she squawked and screamed the whole way. I was totally laughing behind him cause it wasn’t THAT bad, but I could definitely see where extreme claustrophobics would have problems. Ventilation was nil and the enclosed spaces were tiny–kinda reminded me of caving! Again, I’ll get some photos up soon, I promise!
In addition to the pyramids, we also went to Saqqara, the Egyptian Museum, and the Khan Al-Khalil (i think that is how it spelled!) bazaar. Of course, this barely touches Cairo and it’s enormity but it was all we had the time and energy for! The museum was actually pretty cool but totally ridiculous. They have so many different pieces that it almost resembles a storage closet! Stuff is just crammed everywhere with zero labels, and we were all laughing about how windows were wide open everywhere, letting fresh air in where all of the 4000 year old antiquities were. I guess if they survived this long, a little sunshine isn’t going to hurt though! I got to see King Tut’s famous gold mask which was something I had been looking forward to for the entire two weeks. We also paid to go inside the Mummy Room and that was probably my favorite part of the museum. They have roughly 10 various mummies that are inside of temperature-controlled glass cases for people to view. It was amazing that so much detail and hair and nails were still visible on these wicked old bodies! However, I have to say that as interesting and as fascinating as I found the mummies, I disagree with them being placed on display. These men were powerful in their time and they never wanted to spend their entire afterlife in a glass case in a museum with thousands of tourist gawking at them every day. I understand the science and the incredulity behind it, but I personally think it is time to send these guys home. Let them rest where they wanted–and where they belong. But that’s enough of my soap box 🙂
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