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Visiting Egypt was like a childhood dream come true. I grew up watching Egypt documentaries on the Discovery channel with my whole family on the weekends, it was sort of a "family time activity". So for me Egypt was more than just the ideal place to visit... it became an obsession. I tried to plan it for many years, and it never seemed to work out.
Then, just as I chose my route to Egypt and started planning it, everything came crumbling down with the news that Egypt was going through a revolution, and that there was going to be political unrest there for a while. The Egyptians had an uprising against the government and their president Mubarek and even though they did it peacefully most of the time, there were also moments that were violent and dangerous. The red flag was when The United States even put a ban on traveling there at all! Tears started welling up in my eyes as I tried to accept that after all the years of dreaming of going to Egypt, this must be a sign that I’m not supposed to go... maybe ever. Seeing how sad I was, my husband said we
should just book the trip anyway and get travel insurance so if things get worse we could easily cancel. This made me equally excited and anxious. I checked CNN.com and other message boards religiously to hear what other travelers had to say about the conditions in Cairo at the time. It was pretty risky to go, but we felt confident that the excursion we were taking would keep us safe if things got bad all of a sudden. That was probably a crazy move on our part, but we just went for it!
November 1st 2011, we arrived in Alexandria, Egypt. This was our first time on the continent of Africa. It was a perfectly beautiful sunny day, which was a great start! From there, we took a 3 hour bus ride to Cairo. On the way there, our tour guide spent a lot of time talking about safety, what not to do, and about what we were going to see and do; we were going to visit the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, we were going to take a dinner cruise on the famous Nile River, we were going to visit the Mosque
of Mohammed Ali, and then the Papyrus museum. Our guide was the sweetest Egyptian girl in her late 20s named Hanna, and she spoke English perfectly. She was really open about discussing the current conflicts in Egypt, and the culture. She even discussed why women in Egypt wear veils that cover their heads, and sometimes even their face. It was all very interesting, and I listened very carefully to everything she said so that I was armed with knowledge of the land I was about to see. I got the general feeling that the Egyptians here were very kind people, I just wish that the street vendors were too!
When we arrived in Cairo it was really hectic and not exactly what I expected. There are two sides to Egypt: there's the magical places you see on the Discovery channel and read about in your geography books, and then there's the harsh life of today's modern Egypt, which includes a lot poverty. You cant avoid the bad on the way to the good. To start, the traffic and driving here is the worst that I'd ever come across, and this will always stand out in my mind. There were
many times I was scared that we'd crash. I don’t know how, but some Egyptians brave crossing the dangerous roads and barely miss getting hit by maybe inches. There are even roads that guarantee fatality if you were to even try to cross!
The grounds are covered in trash and it's very dirty. At the time of our visit the trash clean up crews quit their jobs because they weren't getting paid at all. There were houses that were left unfinished with no roofs and our guide also told us that the Egyptians sometimes don’t complete building their homes so that they can avoid paying high house taxes imposed by the old government they revolted against. There's also a large amount of pollution and dust in the air, which I wish we had known about because we would have taken eye drops.
The worst part of all are the touts... you know, those horribly aggressive guys pestering you to buy whatever it is they are selling. I learned to say "La shukran" which means "No, Thank you" in Arabic. This seemed to have a double effect on people: some would back off, and then some would take it
as an invitation to continue talking and pestering us. You have to ignore them the best you can or they will continue to hassle you, and the guys selling camel rides are the worst... they will tell you it's cheap to ride their camel, and then as soon as you are physically on it, you will be charged double just to come down! I tried my best to understand their pushy urgency especially during this government crisis they were facing. I couldn't help but think sometimes that they were spoiling my entire trip, but I soldiered on and tried to look on the bright side.
The silver lining: Despite all the negative things we encountered in Egypt, seeing those ancient pyramids was so unbelievable that we forgot almost all of those negatives in a flash! Everything that had to do with ancient Egypt like the Sphynx, the Great Pyramids, and the history made me feel so happy to finally be here. Standing there in front of these ruins felt like I was transported back in time to a different era. Basically, Cairo hits you like a ton of bricks at first, but soon you will acclimate to it's chaos
and find the treasure that is there. It was ultimately the sites and history that won us over, although it did not quite win us over completely. I wish I could tell everyone to run over to Cairo but the truth is that I think Egypt, in particular Cairo, still has a long way to go before it can reach it's potential. This is a place worth seeing though, if you can handle it!
When it came time for dinner, we went to the famous Nile River. We hopped on a cruise boat which was designed with elaborate Egyptian colors and decorations. We ate from an elegant buffet style dinner, which included hummus, pita, vegetables, and meatballs. We also got to watch some entertaining performances, such as belly dancing. I’m shocked they even allow belly dancing since this country is so conservative when it comes to clothes. I danced with a funny Egyptian performer and it was a fun experience (I uploaded a video of the funny dance at the top of this page.)
On our way to the Mohammed Ali Mosque, we passed Tahrir Square where the revolution broke out and it's the
Papyrus
We purchased this true papyrus paper with art that means unity in love, and on each side is our name in ancient egyption wordsplace where the Egyptians generally get violent during demonstrations. I got chills thinking of what we avoided by coming on a peaceful day like today. We saw one of the major government buildings burned by the people during the revolution.
The Mohamed Ali Mosque is one of my favorite sites in Cairo. The best part about this mosque is the Turkish style lamp that decorates the inside. Another great thing is the view you get of all of Cairo from the citadel, although the smog/pollution obstructs the view a lot. There's not much inside the mosque besides the decor on the walls and ceiling, this is to make room for all the daily Muslim worshipers that come here to pray. The Egyptians are mainly Muslim and they pray to Allah and their profit Mohamed. When they pray it's loud, and echoes throughout Cairo by loudspeakers. Someone goes on a megaphone and prays the adman and everyone stops what they are doing and prays too, 5 times a day. We heard it once or twice while in Cairo, and I thought it was an amazing part of their culture and religion.
The last thing we
did in Cairo was our visit to the Papyrus Museum, which makes legitimate papyrus paper the way the Egyptians did in ancient times. This is the only papyrus institute certified under the government, all other papyrus you buy in the street could be made out of banana leaf which turns yellow and gets damaged after a couple weeks. We watched a demonstration of how its made, and Victor and I decided to buy an art piece made of Papyrus which signified love and had our names written on it in ancient Egyptian. We also had our names in scripted on two gold pieces of jewelry.
After all we did on day one, we were exhausted, I guess Cairo can really take it out of you! We took the 3 hour bus ride back to Alexandria where we were going to stay for one more day. We couldn't wait to wash all the dust from the desert and pollution off, and most of all rest from all we had seen and done in Cairo. Day two in Alexandria was spent relaxing and purchasing souvenirs.
This was a once in a life time experience both my
husband and I will never forget. It had its ups and a lot of downs, but I wouldn't take it back for a second. It was during those rare quiet moments on our Cairo trip, like while we were sipping some tea, or looking over the citadel, that we learnt to enjoy the lure that brought us here in the first place. It was the love that I harbored in my heart for Egyptian History, and all it's charming artifacts, that made this place worth seeing and experiencing. Like a verse from my favorite Jack Johnson song:
Don't let your dreams, be dreams...
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Anastasia78
Anastasia78
Wonderful!
Great blog and your pictures are beautiful! Thanks for sharing. :)