Thursday: We left for Egypt in the morning around 9am on the train to Geneva and caught our flight to Cairo. That part wasn't too bad, just long. The bad part was when we got there it took us 3 hours to get from the airport to the hotel. It was pouring down rain and I guess it only rains maybe 15 days a year there (which makes sense it is the desert). Not only was it pouring, but there was hail too. Since it never rains they don't have a drainage system and the water just floods everywhere. The streets are crazy because there are already 4 million cars on the road and traffic all the time! So imagine that plus flooding on the streets and a crazy old bus driver. The ride was long.
That night we got settled in our hotel and wanted to go smoke hookah. We got crappy directions from the hotel and got lost. On the way Lindsay ended up talked to one of the boat guys (Our hotel was by the Nile and they have people that will take you on boat rides) and he said he would take us to the hookah place. Little did we know all we had to do was cross the bridge. They scammed us and took advantage of us, oh the joys of being a tourist. Once we got there we had a bit of problem ordering what we wanted. In the US when you go to a smoke shop a couple people will share one hookah. Here everyone gets there own! It was so funny, you should have seen out faces when they brought out 9 separate hookahs. Then we couldn't get the boat guys to leave because we wanted to just walk back, we ended up having to pay again just to get them to leave. All and all the first night was an experience sitting by the Nile smoking hookah.
Friday: This day was so crazy, we did all the main touristy stuff. First we went to Sakkara which is where the step pyramids are. Our tour guide got a little mad when people bought souvenirs there because he thought we would be smarter than to get ripped off like that. After Sakkara we went to a Carpet school. Which to me wasn't exactly a school, but more of child labor, however for them I feel like it might have been good. Since being there I go back and fourth on how I feel about this. I guess when I think of Egypt I never thought the country was so poor and corrupt. So for these children going to "carpet school" maybe it was better than there alternative.
For lunch we went to this really authentic Egyptian place. We had this handmade pita bread with some kind of tzikish sauce and a couple different toppings and this fired roasted whole chicken that was absolutely amazing! The food was great and the restaurant was outdoors. After lunch was the big adventure we headed to the pyramids and took tons of pictures. The size of them is indescribable and I just stared wondering how they were built. The tombs inside were a little overrated and a tad claustrophobic. It was just an empty room. I guess I thought there would be more to the inside of the pyramid if they put all that effort into building them.
The best part was riding the camels right next to the pyramids. It was a really short ride, but amazingly fun. We rode two people to each camel and when they get up and sit down you feel like you are going to slide right off because they are so unbalanced. They are much taller than I expected as well. My favorite part of the whole day was the Sphinx. The sphinx is a the body of a fierce lion with the head of a wise king and are meant to be guardians. This reminded of my mom. Our first dog, Shannon, would always lay on the floor and my mom would say she looked like a sphinx in the way she was sitting. Now, I find this ironic and it makes me think that my mom is somewhere with Shannon guarding over my dad and I.
The last place we went was a papyrus shop. The story about papyrus paper is pretty cool. Its actually a reed that grows along the banks of the nile and they cut it up and flatten and dry the strips together and it makes and amazing strong and long lasting paper. At the shop they did a demonstration and then a couple people bought different ones with egyptians pictures. That night we went on our dinner cruise.
After a pretty cool dinner cruise with a belly dancer and dancing entertainer we headed back tot he hotel. The same thing that usually happened happened. All the boys wanted to do was to drink and pretty much ditch the girls. Most of the group ended up going to bed, but Tom, Eli, Laura, Lindsay, and I went to find a hookah shop near our hotel. We finally found one that was much better than the night before. When we got there we ordered two hookahs with what we thought was mango and strawberry, but we ended up getting two smoothies and had no idea what flavored sheesha we got! The five of us enjoyed a relaxing night and the night was topped off by only costing us 17 pounds which pretty much equaled 80 cents each. At first we even asked them if they meant 17 dollars.
Saturday: This day was absolutely crazy. We went to three different Mosques and on Church. The mosques were really interesting, Im not sure I really understand the religion yet, but it was interesting to actually see a mosque where people were praying. I never realized that the women and men pray separately. Also the girls had to wear robes when we went into the mosques if our arms were showing. After a somewhat disappointing lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe we went to the market which was incredible. There were so many vendors with amazing stuff, well cheap stuff! But I feel in love with the pretty purses and scarves. I bought 7 scarves, well 4 for me and 3 for presents and it ended up being about $20 for all the scarves. What was insane was the guys trying to sell stuff in the shops. They were pretty intense and would corner us in the store and try and sell their stuff, but you just have to say no and walk through them. Sometimes they think you are really dumb. One guy tried to sell me a scarf for 450 pounds which I ended up buying for 20 pounds. So in reality he tried to sell the scarf to me for $80 which is so ridiculous, makes me wonder how many people fell for that!
When we got back to the hotel we ended up going to get pizza hut, so random and then the girls just hung out in one of the rooms and drank. The boys were off getting drunk and wanted to galavant around Cairo without us. Which was fine because then ended up getting lost/ separated and had to ask the girls for help anyway.
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