Egypt pt 1

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Here at the end of my egyptian adventure and headed to Greece

The week I spent in Egypt was far too short of a time to visit such a culturally rich and historical place. What I can definitely say is that this visit has whetted my appetite to learn more about the Ancient Egyptian gods and history of the people. Not to mention the willingness to learn hieroglyphics and read all the information inscribed into all of the statues and temples. But we learned many things.

So to recap my Egyptian adventure.
After arriving in Cairo after a long bus ride from the Taba border, we headed straight to our hotel where it became clear to us that we signed up for a luxury tour somehow. It was a 5 star hotel called the Sonesta and let’s just say it is gorgeous. After having a quick bite to eat, Mike was very intent on going to see the soccer game and so we head out to Cairo stadium about 20 minute walk from our hotel. When we arrived however, we were told that the stadium was in fact sold out and we couldn’t get in. We also learned the power of bribing.

After hopping 2 fences and paying the riot policemen about 40 egyptian pounds we were in the stadium to watch the Egyptian national team el alhy defeat the meleks 4-3 in extra time. It was a fantastic game and was a lot of fun to see the after party of everyone celebrating in the streets. It is here we learned that cars do not stop for pedestrians. I got hit by a car and Mike got hit by 2 but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

The next morning we woke up early as we had a very busy day. We started off by going to see arguably Egypt’s most popular attraction, the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. We learned about the kings who constructed the pyramids (or ordered them to be built) as well as the history, dimensions and recent discoveries surrounding the pyramids.

After the pyramids we went to a bazaar and learned how the Egyptians make papyrus paper. And from there we head to the National Museum where they hold all of King Tut’s burial belongings, lots of mummies, jewelry, statues and many many many MANY (did I say many?) artifacts from the old, middle and new kingdoms of Egypt (all 30 dynasties). Unfortunately we didn’t spend much time there (a couple of hours) but you could easily spend a week there and not see everything.

The next morning we woke up at 3am to catch a domestic flight from Cairo International to Aswan located in upper Egypt which is really southern Egypt. I know it sounds confusing but it makes sense as the nile flows from southern egpyt up north to the Mediterranean sea (think of it as upstage and downstage in theatre terms). After we arrived we headed to the High Dam which was built to avoid the region from being flooded.

Before I continue, I am unfortunately going to leave out some of the names of the temples we visited as there were so many that I off-hand I can’t remember them. That having been said,

We followed the high dam visit with a tour of a temple which was completely sunken by water and took 3.5 years to restore (draining the water and rebuilding). The temple was dedicated to the God Amunra. More history, more figures, more gods but it is so interesting to hear about everything.

After this temple, we went to visit the unfinished obelisk which really wasn’t too exciting. Our guide didn’t even want to go to it and very briefly explained the history saying quote “it’s called the unfinished obelisk because it is unfinished”. He elaborated a bit more but really not that much. After the obelisk we had a relaxing sail along the nile river and then checked into a nile cruise ship which would not only bring us north to luxor but would be our hotel room as well.

Unfortunately the next morning, neither me or Mike could get up because he had another bout of food poisoning and I had what can only be described as crippling diarrhea. So we had to miss the morning tours of a couple of more temples. But we were somewhat alright to see the ship pass through the luxor locks a passage so narrow that the boat only had a foot of clearance on either side (yes we crashed into the sides a couple of times).

That afternoon, feeling somewhat better, we visited the luxor temple as well as the kom ombo temple (more history, more kings). That night, mike went to bed early and I decided to head out into the town of luxor and socialize with some locals. One guy invited me into his shop where I learned that Egyptians offer such good hospitality that even when they rip you off, you feel good about it. He offered me tea, a snack good conversation and a little bit of “sikko sikko” (very special herbs if you catch my drift) all for nothing. I didn’t even purchase anything from his shop and as I left he also gave me a small gift of a scarab statuette.

Unfortunately my time is running out so I have to wrap up here. I will continue the story when I find the next internet café in athens

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