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My best friend from school, Meg, came to visit me after her semester in London ended. We went to the beach, wandered around Jerusalem and Yafo, and she went to the Dead Sea and Masada. When she called and asked if she could come visit, Hilary and I had already booked our hotel and flight to Cairo, so Meg came with us.
We left late Thursday night after checking out of the dorms and moving all of my stuff to my friends Jono and Jeremy's place in south Tel Aviv. They gave Meg a rough time in security (she looked pretty shady with her huge backpack and big blue eyes) and ended up thoroughly searching all of her bags at least twice. We got into Cairo around 3 am and somehow got to our hotel and slept for a few hours.
In the morning, Hilary and I enjoyed our luxurious buffet breakfast in our five star hotel--we felt so out of place--and went to go get Meg at her hostel. Meg's friend from London's brother has been studying in Cairo, and he recommended the hostel and said that the man who runs it, Amir, is really great. We met
Amir, who is fantastic, and Amir ended up planning most of our trip and making us drink tea whenever we were there. The first day, we hired a driver, Hosney, who was the funniest, nicest, and most helpful man we could have possibly hoped for. He took us to Sakkara to see the Step Pyramid and the tombs there, which were really neat. We had a great lunch of all sorts of salads and meat and great pita, and we could see the women making the pita. Then we went to Memphis to see a giant Ramses II statue. Everywhere we went, Hosney warned us not to talk to anybody, but of course Meg ended up getting caught by people who would get us fun pictures and then ask for money. Hosney took us to a place where they had great Egyptian cotton and then we went to a papyrus store. The people there showed us how to make papyrus and how to tell real papyrus from fake papyrus made with banana leaves. All three of us ended up buying all sorts of papyrus. After that we went to a perfume store, where we tried all sorts of Egyptian essences
and were all really overwhelmed by how many different scents there were. Next we went to Giza, and we rode camels around the pyramids and watched a light show on a rooftop. We went to a dinner cruise on the Nile that night, and we watched a belly dancer and a whirling dervish and this poor spinning man who looked like he had Down syndrome who really just made us feel badly for him.
On Saturday, we started off by going to Coptic Cairo, which is the Christian area of Cairo. We saw some churches and the synagogue there, and then we headed over to Islamic Cairo. We went to the Citadel, which is up on a mountain and looks out over Cairo, and Meg had to pay another guy for a bunch of nice photos (he was a policeman...). We went to a market and wandered around for a bit, and then got some lunch at this little stand. It cost a dollar and it was really good. We went to the Egyptian Museum for a few hours and wandered around there- we saw all of King Tut's sarcophagi and all of the jewelry that he was buried
with, mummified animals, and all sorts of statues. We rested in Meg's hostel for a little bit, because it was right across the street from the museum (crossing the street was a bit like tempting death), and then we met up with Hilary's friend Emily from high school and went on a felucca on the Nile. A felucca is a kind of sailboat, and the man who took us on it let me steer for a bit, called me captain, and told me I should get a job there. That night, we met up with Walt, Meg's friend from London's brother, and went out with him and his friends.
Yesterday, I spent the day sick and sleeping off my stomach issues. I'm pretty sure it was the $1 lunch that did it- I knew it was too good to be true. We meant to go to Alexandria with Hosney, but we ended up watching Egyptian TV and I slept quite a bit. We met up with Walt and his family for cookies in a park and went to a bar, and then Hilary and I got ready to go to the airport. I felt better in the afternoon, but
then worse as I went to the airport and finally better on the plane and after I slept through the night.
One thing that was really interesting was Egyptian hospitality. Egyptians are the most hospitable people- they gave us tea and coffee and anything we needed and really didn't expect anything in return.
Cairo is one of the most polluted cities I have ever been in. The drivers there are insane.
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