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Published: September 11th 2012
Day 2 – Cairo, Egypt 9/2/12
Today was great in Cairo. The tour group met in the main lobby for breakfast before we headed out to the pyramids. The breakfast was buffet style and had lots of falafel! We had our breakfast, coffee and juice and headed to the great pyramids of Giza. When we arrived at the pyramids, there were lots of people there trying to sell us things immediately. Our tour guide told us to be firm with them and to keep saying no, because we can get better deals when we go to Luxor and Aswan, which we will be doing tomorrow. The guys were very pushy and were actually kind of annoying, but we were successful at not buying anything.
The area was surrounded by camels, men in long shirts (for lack of a better name, I will find out what this attire is called once I have sufficient internet!) and horses. We made our way up to the main pyramid and went inside. Wow, what an experience that was! We couldn’t take any cameras in there, which kind of sucks because it’s quite a view! We had to walk at basically a 90 degree angle up the middle of the pyramid. Once we reached the top there was a room in it with a tomb. Kind of a long walk to just see an empty tomb, however it gave you a good feel for the way things were back in the ancient Egyptian days. Man that must have been a huge pain in the ass! We only went into one pyramid and then hopped in the van and rode out to the vantage point so we could take photos of all 3 pyramids. Once we arrived and took pictures, we met our camel shepherds and hopped up on top of our camels. That was really cool and a little bit terrifying at the same time. They are really really tall and when they get up and sit down, you pretty much have to hold on for dear life so you don’t fall off! We had our pictures taken and rode back over to the pyramids and then hopped off and went to the Sphinx. We also had our pictures taken there by kids that were amazing photographers! That’s basically their job and they do a really good one!! After getting all of our pictures we went back to the van and headed off for lunch and to look at papyrus art, which I bought WAY too much of.
We stopped at a little place for lunch where the driver ran in and got us bagged sandwiches. They were falafel sandwiches and fava bean sandwiches for a grand total of $1.00. They were great. After that we went to the papyrus shop and saw how they made ancient Egyptian paper and art. That’s where I bought too much, but since I’m kind of obsessed with ancient Egyptian history, I figured, why not?? I’m here! And it’s definitely not the type of place you would come more than twice, if even once, in your life. After the papyrus shop, we made our way to the Egyptian museum. All I have to say about that is WHOA! We saw King tut’s burial chambers, jewelry, furniture, sarcophagus, and real mummies!!!! They had a special section of the museum that held 12 royal kings and queens. Yes, I saw real mummies. They were incased in glass cases and you could see their hair, teeth, and even toenails. Their skin was obviously like leather and their eyes sunken and they were wrapped in linen. I have to say it’s probably one of the coolest/grossest things I’ve ever seen, but so AMAZING. Obviously the Egyptians knew what they were doing, if people 3000 years after the fact can still view them pretty much in their entirety. They even had their mummified pets there. There was a dog that still had fur on it. CRAZY! They also loved their animals and would have them join them in their tomb if they died after their masters. If they died before, they would still have them put in their tomb for their masters to join later. They wanted to be with their beloved pets throughout eternity. I find this awesome!! See? Dogs were even cool 3000 years ago!
After visiting the museum, we went to the markets. WOW, super pushy!! I was actually getting annoyed because no matter how times I said no, they would ask why? And they would follow you. I think I was actually getting rude at a certain point because I was just tired of being hassled. My mom and I met up with our tour guide and got some hibiscus tea. SO GOOD! Why don’t we have this in the states??? While sitting there and steadily getting hassled by the pushers, I decided it would be a good idea to get henna. Bad idea. It was $5 which isn’t a bad price, but I thought it was going to be like the henna I got at my friend Amy’s wedding. Not so much. First of all, the henna here is black, not brown. I got it on my hand and now my hand looks like I took a sharpie and colored all over it. Awesome. Oh well, at least it’s not permanent, right? Oh, and I also got some on my clothes J. After the market, we all wanted to go to dinner at an authentic Egyptian restaurant. That was a GREAT choice!! I got meatballs and my mom got grape leaves. It came with some of the best rice I’ve ever tasted. And the entire group got Egyptian beer. It’s pretty good, surprisingly.
I almost forgot the most amusing part of the day. My mom and I got offered camels in exchange for ourselves!! When we were at the pyramids a guy offered my mom one million camels for me and then when we were at the market some guy offered me 500 million for my mom. Haha. And then when we got back to the hotel a guy offered 2 million camels for me. He was actually kind of cute. J
All in all, fun day but once again I am super tired. Tomorrow we will be flying to Luxor to start our journey on the Nile River. We are also going to do a hot air balloon ride. Should be fun!!
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Adriane
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<3 for the tea!
Seriously... there is nothing quite like Egyptian Hibiscus tea... but I wanted to tell you that I have found it at World Market from time to time! Also, Passion tea by Tazo (that you can get at just about any grocery store or starbucks) is heavily hibiscus based. Its not quite the same cause there are additional ingredients, but it helps get over the cravings after you return home. I am super jealous that you are getting to do the balloon ride!!! That was one of the few things we never got to do. I got auctioned off for camels a couple times while I was there too. I used to joke with my husband that he didn't have enough camels for me to marry him. :)