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Published: August 23rd 2007
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First I want to say sorry that I haven't written a blog in three weeks, especially since I went to the pyramids and wanted to share that trip with everyone. First this website was down and I ended up losing the first two blogs that I wrote so they promised that it shouldn't happen again so my fingers are crossed, but so I was unable to log in for about a week and then these past 2 weeks have been super busy.
So two weeks ago we went to Cairo and saw the pyramids - my dream trip! It was absolutely amazing, very hot, but amazing. We went to all three pyramids and of course, took a billion photos. They're just soo amazing it was hard to have to leave them. I event got to go into the middle pyramid and down through the shaft (you really had to crunch down for this long hike, down and then up and then down again! It was terribly hot inside but it was soo amazing to actually be inside the pyramid. Not only that but where we went was where they found the mummy and the sarcaphagos (sorry, no clue on the
Buying my houkah
At the souk in Cairo spelling) was still there. We had a guide with us who told us all of the history and background information on the pyramids and one of the most interesting things that we found out about was the curse of the pyramids. There is the belief that people who went into the pyramids and took things died soon afterwards because of curses/spells,etc. However, the truth is that ancient Egyptians covered everything in poison before they were put into the pyramid. Then the pyramids were sealed for thousands of years and with no movement of air, the same air that had been sealed up 3-5 thousand years before was the same air that those people who entered the pyramids breathed in. So the air full of this poison since there had been no air circulation so the first to enter the pyramids were poisoned by this and for this reason they soon died. After the three pyramids we went and saw the Sphinx and took another million photos. Then we went to the National Museum of Cairo where we saw all of the artifacts that were found in King Tuts's tomb, including the famous Mask and coffin - unfortunately, no pics are
allowed inside the museum so I don't have any pics to show of them but they're absolutely AMAZING - the details of the mask and the coffins are so intricate and beautifully designed. After the museum - which was full of hundreds of tourists with NO AC! 😞 - we went to the souk - which is this HUGE open market where you get to haggle for whatever. I bought a houkah (don't ask me HOW i'm going to get it home but I for sure will) as well as ...... a belly dancing outfit! Yes, my teachers here are teaching me how to belly dance - soo fun - and I even have those lil finger chimes!
Two weekends ago we spent a day going all around Alexandria to all the really important sites that are a bit hard to get to such as the location of where they found the infamous Apis Bull, Pompey's pillar, catacombs, a roman ampitheater (older than the one found in Rome itself!), the President's palace, etc. We also went to the Alexandria National Museum which was great because we got to see a lot of pharonic pieces as well. Furtheremore, we got
The crew
My three best friends in Egypt - Adam, Ben and Meg. They're all Brits so I'm the lone yankee but I love em and we do absolutely EVERYTHING together! to be interviewed by the national Egyptian television station and I got caught being the one who had to dance to Amr Diab (soo great - he's like the Justin Timberlake of Egypt/Middle East but soo much better!). It aired this past Tuesday so that was really cool.
Last weekend we went to our first Egyptian club- definitely an experience but soo much fun. It was a big open air club right on the beach - we hadn't gone before because even though its Egypt clubs are expensive - they are between 20 to 30 US dollars!! Last weekend was also amazing because we went scuba diving over some ancient sites from the days of Cleopatra - we saw ancient roman columns, parts of the ancient lighthouse, saw and got to touch ancient wine vases and sphinxes, parts of Cleopatra's palace, etc.
http://alexandra-dive.com/main_site/home.asp
I'm still absolutely loving it here. The people are amazing and I've started to read and write in Arabic - quite difficult since there are no vowels except A and the script changes depending on the placement of the letters - if a letter is at the beginning, middle or end it looks completely different.
At Verano's
At one of our fav hangouts - with Mohamed and Adam - having dinner and smoking sheesha I got a cell phone 011-20-0105245598 - that's how you would call me from the States. Next weekend I'm going to Cairo (seriously, who can say they've seen the pyramids too many times!) for a few days with my friend Ben before we're off to Luxor and Aswan to see more pharonic sites and take a cruise on the Nile. In Luxor is the Valley of the Kings - where they found King Tut's tomb. So I'm super excited about that even though everyone says we're crazy to go because its the hottest time of the year and ts a LOT hotter than Alex/Cairo. Oh well!
I do have a lot more pics to add but these comps have been giving me a hard time trying to transfer them so I'm going to go to a different internet cafe and try my luck there. So hopefully on the next blog there will be a lot more pics from the pyramids!
Love to all!
~D
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Stacey
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I'm so glad that you're havingfun!
Love the pics and can't believe all the great things that you have gotten to do so far. I'll have to tell my girls about the poison in the pyramids - they are fascinated by the legends :-)