England and Egypt - Week 6

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June 23rd 2013

Published: June 23rd 2013

Day 36 – Brighton

We’re back to dreary weather. Heading to Brighton which is supposed to be an awesome seaside town and it’s cold, wet and windy. Just great. Luckily Brighton has amazing shopping. They have these awesome laneways with all types of weird and wonderful shops. I found one crazy shop where I could have bought one of everything. Eventually the weather began to clear a little and we could head to the Brighton Pier for a looksie. Still freezing though. Come back sun.

Day 37 – Heathrow

We returned the car today. No more driving for me until September. I was ready to give it back though. I was getting a bruised heel from resting my foot on the car floor for hours at a time. Wearing thongs probably didn’t help that situation. We had a lazy, boring day which included re-packing the suitcase to get it ready for Egypt. So I was binning items, sending some things back with mum and posting presents to lighten the load. I had a ridiculous experience at the post office so fingers crossed all items make it to their destination.

Day 38 – Heathrow

The crappy weather has returned so we weren’t really fussed on being out of doors much today. We got some last minute tickets to two shows and headed back to London city. We had a bit of a walk around the Covent Garden markets which we hadn’t seen yet and then headed to the Victoria Palace Theatre for Billy Elliot. Talk about a tear jerker. I was trying so hard not to lose it. The songs aren’t show stoppers and the costumes/props/sets are pretty basic. But you don’t go to Billy Elliot expecting to see glitz and glam. It’s all about the dancing and the story. This musical did it beautifully. The acting was incredible and the boy who played Billy was crazy good. My favourite part was when the young Billy dances with an older version of himself. Just stunning. Nothing on stage except a layer of fog and the two of them.

Next up we headed to Thriller which is more a concert than a musical. They had all the best MJ songs, moves and costumes. They had a bit of information about Michael during the show and all the songs were sung in order of their release except for a few they kept for the big finale. It wasn’t what I was expecting but it was still entertaining. Half the songs were sung by a female and she did it well. There were 10 amazing back-up dancers who were pretty much in every number, going hard core and leaving nothing behind. I would have liked to have seen it on a bigger stage with more dancers. It was a lot of show with limited space. If Michael Jackson was doing a show it would be on the grandest scale. That’s what it was lacking… some extra dancers and a set that blows your mind. I would have happily stepped in however if one of the dancers injured themselves :-P

Day 39 – Heathrow

We went to Hampton Court Palace today. Pretty impressive. We didn’t go into the house, just the gardens. They were incredible. They have these massive trees that look like mushrooms. Lots of different little garden areas and water features to explore. I got my photo taken with some Tudor men who where strolling the grounds.

Day 40 – Cairo – Egypt

Much of today was spent in an airport or on a plane but at 10pm I finally arrived in EGYPT!!!!! I was met at the airport by a lovely man who helped me get my visa, go through customs, carried my bags and took me to my driver. He even taught me a few words of Arabic. My driver however was mute. I assumed he may not be able to speak English but he got one sentence out when we drove over the Nile… “This is the Nile”. I had already worked that out for myself but I oohed and ahhed to show my appreciation. The boats on the Nile were lit up with crazy neon lights and looked amazing. The drive to the hotel was pretty nuts as they don’t have lines on the roads so they make their own lanes. One man’s idea of a lane may not be another man’s idea though. I have learnt that ‘beep beep’ means ‘you’re about to squish me’ and ‘HOOOOONNNNKKK’ means ‘I’m a twat who just likes the sound of my own horn and no amount of honking is actually going to move the traffic’.

I met my tour guide at the hotel who ran me through the basic do’s and don’ts for Egypt. This is the one and only night of the whole trip where I’m by myself. Monica will arrive tomorrow so we can let the fun begin.

Day 41 – Cairo

I met a few people from the tour group this morning and everyone seems nice. Mon arrived around lunchtime and we bravely headed out into the streets. It was a little nuts but it reminded us of Hanoi in Vietnam. We found a supermarket and stocked up on the essentials… chips, chocolate and water. We had a meeting with our tour leader next and met a few more people. Lots of aussies but no one else from Brisbane so far. We headed out again but in a different direction and came across a crazy fight that had started in the middle of a street. We missed the beginning of it but it seemed a taxi driver had done something wrong and lots of people were letting him know. One man had blood pouring from his mouth and he was smashing the taxi windscreen with his fists. The taxi tried to speed off almost dragging another man along as he held onto the taxi driver through the window. There’s no chance of a speedy getaway in Cairo so he only got about 30m before he was stopped by the traffic and a policeman. All very exciting.

We braved an Egyptian dish for dinner… Spag Bol, heehee. Well it was pretty brave as it was cooked in the local water. We met the rest of our group and heard lots of other travel tales of where people have been or are going to next.

Day 42 – Cairo

We kicked it off at the Egyptian Museum which is full of lots of cool Ancient Egyptian history. We got to see Tutankhamen’s headdress and the things that were found in his tomb. Next we headed to the Pyramids of Giza. We had a great time taking all the usual photos that people do at the pyramids for example the Egyptian poses and the ones where you’re holding up the pyramids. We paid a little extra to go into the tomb of the middle pyramid. We got turned away at first because the electricity had gone out so there was no lighting in the tunnels. We came back later and they allowed us to go in with light from mobile phones. It actually made it spookier and a whole lot more interesting. The tunnel is very narrow and not very high so you have to crouch down to get through. We headed to the Sphinx after that and got a few more photos of course. It was a hot day but being on and off the air-conditioned bus made it bearable and remarkably I didn’t get burnt. Hooray!

We made a stop at a papyrus paper making facility on the way back and watched how they make the paper using the plant. They had some lovely paintings on sale all done on papyrus paper and some of them could glow in the dark. We have an overnight bus trip to Aswan so I’m typing this from the backseat of the bus that Monica and I managed to score for ourselves. If we have to sleep on it we may as well be comfy. Our overnight bus was actually supposed to be a train ride but the trains aren’t reliable so a bus it had to be. While the bus was waiting to pick us up it got hit by a car (not surprising) so we had to wait almost 2 hours for it to be fixed. We ended up eating dinner at 11pm.

England and Egypt - Week 6

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