Day 1

Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo
March 13th 2011

Published: March 14th 2011

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GeekTrek

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The very first known pyramid.

Our tour group was supposed to meet up at 4sam on saturday but do to the fact that almost our entire group was in town we meet up at 9am instead. I admit I was a little bit nervous to meet our tour group, I have never been on a trip like this and had no idea what to expect. Now that I am two days in I can safely say I am presently surprised. Our guide leader for the first 8 days is Hoda she is an Egyptoligist and has strudied Egpytion history at university for 6 years. She has so far been an incredible fountain of knowledge, guidance and patience. I can not imagine learning or experienceing all the amazing things we have over the last 48 hours without Hoda. As for the rest of our group we have a very diverse group of people from Canada, Austrailia and New Zealand ranging in age from 25-60, I admit so far there had been a couple times where our age differential was obvious but a large chunk of our group has gelled already. I have felt comfortable from the moment I said hi to Tash at 9am yesterday to now

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as I am ready to fall asleep on the sleeper train on our way to Aswan.

Saturday morning we decided to head to Sakkara and even though I was jet lagged I am so glad I went, we were able to see the first known pyramid, the first known grafitti, and even enter the tomb of King Tei-Tei.The Tomb was not much to look at on the outside but the hyroglyphs were so amazingly detailed on the inside it honestly blew my mind. The Tomb we enterested was over 4000 years old but we could see not only how Tei-Tei ruled over his people, but also see into their lives, how they hunted, fished, gave offeering and worshiped. On a day of wonderful surprises and surpased expectations the thing that surprised me most was just how much detail and color survived the thousands of years burried in sand, I only wish we were allowed to take pictures in the tomb but they are images I will never forget.

After sakkara we went to islamic Cairo and walked through the street markets, shops and even got to enter the mosque of Al-Hussein, it was beutiful and they were kind

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enough to let us walk around and see it as long as we showed the proper respect. Even though I have never had a real interest in mosques Hoda managed to make the entire excursion both insightful and entertaining. It is amazing how many misconceoptions get spread thoughout the media and politions in the world and how much better the world could be if people actually learned about religion, and cultures themsevles not relying on the self serving propaganda spewed by every polition or news oganization on both sides of the spectrum.

Hoda, Amy, Tash, and Fred decided to go to the rooftop bar at the end of the day for a beer and Shesha (tobaco smoked from a hooka). Hoda did not have any achool as she is muslim, but she stayed with us and hung out for a few hours. Around the time Hoda left Stacey arrived from Paris and the late night crew of younger travellors and the young at heart Fred stayed up for a few more hours enjoying flavored tobbaco and heinakin, We had a blast and it was the perfect end to an amazing first day of my trip.

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