Cairo Itinerary

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I loved and miss Egypt 😞 The best part was that there was little technology...its kinda nice to not have a phone all day...

This was our itinerary... some stuff changed but for the most part, we did this...

Day 1 Fly overnight to Egypt flying the red eye sucks
Day 2 Arrive in Cairo
Day 3 Tour Memphis, Visit Sakkara, Step Pyramid, tour Giza
Great Pyramid of Cheops, Sphinx
Day 4 We flew to Luxor to board our cruise on the nile, this was exciting c. I had no idea what to expect. They told us not to expect luxury, but it really wasn't that bad!!

Some other tourist group cancelled their stay, so we had the entire cruise ship to ouselves, this was awesome. Its great how much fun you can have playing hide n' go seek on an empty cruise ship, after a couple of Sakkara's (Egyptian beer)

While on the cruise we also stopped at a couple of places... the High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk, seriously unfinished, I'm not sure how safe it was to be there, but whatever!

Day 5 Kom Ombo • Edfu • Cruise
This day was one of the best, we got to sail in a felluca to Kom Ombo
and visit temple of Sobek and Haroires, I'd never been sailing before, but didn't realize how much I can love it.

Day 6 Edfu • Luxor • Cruise
Visit temple of Horus, then more sailing 😊 to Esna and then Luxor
Day 7 West Bank • Cruise Visit West Bank, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Temple of Hatchepsut.

Day 8 East Bank • Night train This could've easily been one of the shadiest things we saw/rode on in Egypt...after we were on their some of the locals told us that some people had been shot on the train a couple years ago, but "no deaths" they assured us...right! We pretty much spent that night looking out our cabin and playing cards with our train neighbors.

That night was hectic to say the least, when the train finally stopped to drop us off (at 4AM Cairo time) we had 5 min's to get 20people out (luggage included) and we finally arrived at the East Bank, what a crazy adventure, but def. worth it!

Day 9 After we got here we went to Karnak and Luxor temples...then flew back to Cairo n' from Cairo, we spent the day visiting the Egyptian museum, n' the citadel, then basically slept in our hole in the wall hotel, n' flew to Alexandria. Alexandria by far was the most beautiful place, I guess c. it was such a contrast from Cairo, it was really more of a coastal town, you could see the Mediterranean from our hotel and at night could hear the ocean. It was a major change from Cairo. Cairo was great too, but def. just to visit, its seriously a 3rd world, w. lots of poverty and a bit dangerous if your gonna go alone, but I guess thats the point of traveling to get outside of our comfy bubble.

Days 10-12 Alexandria • Cairo

While we were in Alexandria we visited the New Library, Catacombs, El-Montazah Palace, the Greco-Roman Museum, n' were able to walk around town. Although Cairo never sleeps! Alexandria doesn't fall far behind, people n' cars, lots of cars, are always out. It was probably about 12pm and we decided to celebrate our last day in Egypt 😞 by going to a Hooka bar, were we just talked about the trip and had good times reflecting on everything n' everyone...lets just say none of us really slept that night. We were too excited to, the next day we decided to sleep a little ...more like nap on the plane, until we got to London.

Day 13 London then home...this was such a crazy trip! Crazy like the good kind though, ...the very next day I had class but of course I decided to skip that, after Egypt, London, and jet lag, I was def. not in the mood to get back. I think I just slept for an whole 2 days after that...

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Photos

Art/Rubbish
This was at Heathrow airport in London. It was part of a series of ads there. I love the way they talk over there.

View from the airplane
Cairo at sunrise.

Airplane
Check out the fire burning in the background.

Sand Dunes!
This was our attempt at climbing the dunes before going to Nerubian village, were we got some henna done, from some of the locals.

Sand Dunes2
more attempts!

the top!
Finally reaching the top!!!!!!!!!!

Sand Dunes 3
View from the bottom.

Airport
Tired as F^CK!!! Waiting in London...

Felluca
Our felluca ride.

Food
No idea what we're eating, except hummus, pita bread n' something.

Group
The group.

Hooka bar
Milly n' group at hooka bar

Taxis
This is how close the cars get to each other. This pic. was taken by my friend who was in the other taxi, while we were still driving!! But then imagine being a pedestrian, a couple of us had close calls w. some of the cars, but Hesham said you get used to it!!

Beautiful spices!!
The smell really is amazing! Its rich and indescribeable! Some of them are even imported from their India neighbors!

McD
Capitalism sucks :( But, check out the hijab's on the employees...thought this was interesting. Made me think...PS I didnt eat here, just came in w. a friend.

Bar in Cairo
Nights at the bar. Of course we weren't gonna come all the way to Egypt just to visit a bar, so this happened after all the tourism and craziness of the day. I can't even remember how late it is here.

Cairo street
One of the streets in Cairo.

Traffic
Car traffic is an everyday thing in Cairo...the 101 is NOTHING! in comparison!!

Prayer
Seeing communities at prayer time was humbling. They don't need to be inside a church to gather, it was great to see something that's usually a private and intimate ordeal happen outside in neighborhoods. We heard the call to prayer several x's our trip.

The Great Pyramids
At the Great Pyramids of Giza

Comments

[Caylee]

Egypt
Hey I recently signed up for a trip to Egypt through EFTours and when i was searching about information your blog came up. It seems to be the same itinerary as I have and I really enjoyed reading your blog! I was just wondering if you did take your trip through EFtours and if you could share any info or advice about your trip!! thanks so much Caylee

[MaggsUresti]

Egypt
Hi Caylee, Yes I did take my trip through EF tours! It was amazing! All I can say is if your able to choose your tour guide, I highly recommend Hesham Elsayad, he was the guide during my trip and he really made the whole experience GREAT! :) He has his PhD in Egyptology and he's great at teaching you a couple of words in Arabic. This is one piece of advice, do take the time to learn a couple basic words in Arabic, if you dont already speak the language :) it'll help a lot!! Especially if you go to the marketplace. At the marketplace I would just be careful to not get overwhelmed with everything, I did and my small group ended up getting lost, a little scary but ultimately worth the experience!! There's soo much that I can say about Egypt, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask! Hope this helps :) Maggie