Last Day. Worst Day.

Sunday was our last day in Egypt and since we had to leave for the airport at noon there was not enough time to do anything significant, so we wandered around Cairo soaking in the sun and avoiding the skeevy boys who jeered at us. Near the Nile was a cute little garden that we tried to go in, but the guard kicked us out because you needed a ticket. I took a picture of the square near the exclusive garden because it had that statue in it. Most of the squares had a statue of a man in a fez in the center.

We walked to a little park near out hostel and were going to try to go into the mosque, but it was closed.So we sat on a bench and took pictures and wrote the hostel a little note which mentioned something about us being indebted to them because without their affordable tours we would have been lost in the desert somewhere. Which is completely true, they saved us with their tours.



We wandered some more and came across a Catholic church, which seemed very out of place especially since it was right across the street from a mosque. When it got closer to 12 we walked back to the hostel to get our things and wait for our driver. Only, the elevator is shut down from 8AM to 3PM so we had to walk up 9 floors.


So the morning was fun, the trouble began when we got to the airport. The driver tried to drop us off at Terminal 1 which was domestic arrivals, but some airport people yelled at him and eventually we pointed him in the direction of Terminal 3 which was our international departures. Once there, the security guard would not let us through and showed us the flight register which our names were not on. At this point I began to panic. He walked us over to the counter where we were told that our flight was not scheduled until Wednesday. I don't know how it happened but somehow we completely overlooked the return flight dates on our confirmation. We were directed to another counter where, since our original tickets were non-transferable we had to purchase whole new tickets to leave on Sunday, which we had to do because we had no place to go and no more money. (My bankcard doesn't seem to work outside of European Union countries, joy!) So we agreed. It was very painful, but we had too much work to do when we got back and couldn't miss 3 days of classes on top of it all. I wish I could say April Fool's!, but sadly this is a true story. Lesson learned: the airlines send you a confirmation for a reason, check the dates before you leave the country where you have food and a place to sleep.

Mummies & Bargains

Saturday, we decided to explore Cairo on our own without the assistance of a guy to drive us everywhere, although we cheated by meeting our roommate (who lived in Egypt for 8 months and is fluent in Arabic) halfway through the day. Our first stop was the Egyptian Museum, which we had taken pictures of our first day, but that had been closing. So we bought our tickets and got in the line, but got stopped at security. Turns out we had to go back outside and turn in our cameras to the little guard post. Egypt really needs to work out their trust issues with tourists. Needless to say, I have no pictures from inside the museum, because I was fresh out of my James Bond pen cameras, but take my word for it you've never been in a museum like this. It was dusty, dark, the artifacts were crowded in every corner, and if there were labels they looked about 60 years old. I'm sure the Egyptian Museum did not do it on purpose, but all those factors combined gave the museum a kind of atmosphere I'd never been in before and I loved it. In other words it felt like we had just walked into an archaeologists store room and it was fantastic. We saw tons of mummies, sarcophagi, jewelry, canopic jars, papyrus, statues, and most of Tutankhamen's burial chamber contents (including his famous mask).

Afterward we met Reese and she took us on the subway, which was not as bad as I was expecting (it was cleaner than Philadelphia's subway) and they even had a train car specifically for women, so we didn't have to deal with the skeevy men. We got off and she couldn't remember the exact way to the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar so we hopped in a cab and it took us there in 3 minutes. Instead of going in right away we stopped at a chain restaurant called GAD, and the food was so good. Give me Egyptian fast food any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

After stuffing ourselves with the food we walked over a pedestrian bridge to the bazaar which was basically a series of winding streets and alleys stuffed with people and the products they were selling: clothes, scarves, dried food, lanterns, jewelry, souvenirs, slippers, themselves(I got 2 marriage proposals), various musical instruments, toys, hookah pipes, and several men passed carrying long wooden pallets with stacks of pita bread on their heads. There were also men pushing carts through the crowds of people hissing to get through. Egyptians hiss like they're about to tell you a secret when they want to get your attention or get you to move out of the way.




We did some bargaining trying to buy stuff, and by we I mean Reese because she speaks excellent Arabic. Afterward she went to meet some friends and Lindsey and I tried to find our way back. We hopped in a cab and the guy took us to the wrong the square, but luckily I remembered it from the drive from the airport so we walked in the direction I thought the driver had taken us and eventually we came upon the Egyptian Museum and thus our hostel. Baby Jesus was on our side for that win, however he was not on my side getting out of the cab when I dropped Reese's espresso set and broke half of it. Fail.

Later that night Lindsey and I tried to find a place to have our last dinner in Egypt and the first place we went to had a menu that was exclusively in Arabic. So instead of pointing at random scribbles and hoping for the best, we walked down the street some more and found a cute little place that looked like it could have been in a movie set in the 19th century in a gentlemen's salon or something. The menu had English along with the Arabic, and as a bonus the waiters were dressed in these awesome blue robe things. All in all it was a very good day, I just wish I could say the same about our next day.

Alexandria

Friday we got up early and the Hotel arranged for us to have a driver to Alexandria. I stayed awake on the 3 hour car ride long enough to watch the pyramids as we passed them, and then I made the mistake of closing my eyes. I woke up when we stopped at a random gate and the driver told us to go in and that he would wait for us in a cafe. We had no idea what the place was we just walked up to the ticket counter and found out that we had to give them our cameras or not go in, so we gave them our cameras. The Canadians in front of us were being obnoxious and one of them collected all their cameras and waited outside for them to go in and come back. We were more trusting, and it turned out well. The place turned out to be catacombs from the time in Egyptian history when the Romans were in charge, so the tombs had hieroglyphics and Egyptian myths mixed with Roman myths. At one point we had to balance on beams of wood in order to go through some of the catacombs because there had been flooding. I felt like a real archaeologist, and then a school group came through and I didn't appreciate how closed the space got when they all came down. So we wandered back up to the daylight, got our cameras and found our driver.


He stopped in front of 2 other places that he said weren't worth paying to go in to see, so we just took pictures of a random column and an amphitheater. Then we got to the Mediterranean and it was gorgeous, although the wind was giving me trouble. The skirt was a bad choice. At this point we found out our driver's name was Timour and he dropped us off in front of the Citadel to walk around. It really was an inconvenience that he couldn't go in with us, because as 2 American girls alone we attracted a swarm of boys ranging in age from 8 to 17 and they would not leave us alone unless we stood by the tourism guards. So the Citadel was beautiful, but I couldn't really enjoy it because I had to make an effort not to make eye contact with any of our followers and at the same time pretend we didn't speak English.



We met Timour outside and walked along the little wharf and got sprayed with the sea water. He took us to a local seafood restaurant where this was placed in front of me:
But I ate it. Well, most of it, I couldn't stomach the shrimp with their little slimy eyes and crazy orange leg things. I kind of felt like I was betraying Nemo a little bit, but it was Friday in Lent so what else was I supposed to eat? Luckily it turned out to be delicious aside from the part where I had to lift up the fin...

Now that I've put that delightful picture in your mind, after lunch we drove to the Library! It is not of course the original one and the design was very modern and contemporary it didn't really fit into my image of Egyptian architecture.

Of course they had to have this dude in there:

(Alexander the Great)

We drove back to Cairo and I stayed awake longer just enjoying the desert and the random shopping mall and Africa Safari that we passed. I love Egypt.

Papyrus & Pita

After we got back from the pyramids, Mido drove us to a legitimate papyrus factory, where we learned the process of making the first form of paper. It begins with the Papyrus plant that grows in shallow parts along the Nile.


The reeds are cut into the lengths desired and then the green covering must be stripped away:
Then in order to strengthen the strip it must be beaten down and rolled over:

The reeds are then soaked in water for 6 days or longer depending on how dark you want the paper to turn out. Then it is laid horizontally and vertically on linen and put in a press (or between some heavy rocks as in the case 5000 years ago) for another few days. The final product is dried in the sun and then ready for your favorite afterlife scene, god, goddess, or legal document to be printed on it by a scribe.


This guy who worked at the shop told Lindsey she looked like a famous Egyptian star named Laila Elwi and really wanted a picture with her and a kiss. She agreed to the former and passed on the latter.
Then Mido drove us to a little outdoor restaurant and we had the most delicious pita, hummus, kebabs, and rice. There were some vegetables that tasted like death so I avoided those, but the rest was amazing.

We got back to the hotel and our roommate Reese took us to see the sunset on the Nile which was gorgeous but went so quickly that if you blinked you would have missed it. At this point the pit of dread and terror that had lodged itself in my stomach upon our arrival faded and I began to relax, because once you get to know how to react to Egypt and it's very friendly residents, it becomes one of the most beautiful and fun places to be. Just look at this:

The Desert

Thursday morning we got up early and scheduled a tour with the hostel to go to Giza and Saqqara to see the pyramids. We had a hearty breakfast of a glass of tea and two rolls and by the time we finished the guy at reception desk said our driver was a no show and that he would take us instead. This gave me some reservations but it turned out to be the best turn of luck! The guy's name was Mido and he was hilarious and he gave us some really good tips on how to respond to the locals (ignore them) and how to bargain. The first stop was a random bridge over the Nile (above photo) where he said people set up chairs and sit in the summer to cool off, which made perfect sense because it was 80 degrees already and it was only March. He bought us some water on the way to Saqqara because the desert would be even hotter. We bought our student tickets and Mido dropped us off at some tombs warning us to ignore the people inside, but we didn't really understand what he meant.

Inside a guy asked to see our tickets then motioned us to follow him into a tomb which we did because we thought he was an official tour guide. Wrong. We had to bend over double to get down on little planks across the steep rock leading down. He took our pictures inside and lead us to another tomb, and after he showed us the rooms in there he asked us for $10. We gave him $3 and learned our lesson. Don't listen to the locals! This was the next stop:

And the area around it:

I'm pretty sure this guy was just breaking rocks so he could charge tourists for the picture they took. (He didn't see me take this):

It's Djoser's Step Pyramid, the oldest of the surviving desert tombs. We ignored the locals this time and wandered around taking pictures and applying more sunscreen. After a little while we walked back to the car and Mido drove us toward Giza. Along the way he gave us a few riddles to solve, and we felt like idiots for not getting them. Here are 2 examples maybe you can figure them out: "What is between land and sky?" "What do you call a fish without an eye?" And then Spice Girls and Enrique Inglesias came on the radio and we all got more excited than we should have hahaha. We passed some interesting sights along the way such as men dumping piles of trash into the river banks and setting it all on fire and some water buffalo being led by ropes, but the car was moving too quickly to get good pictures.

When we got to Giza we did some bargaining to take camels to the pyramids, and we probably paid too much, but it was worth it. Instead of 2 camels they gave us a horse and a camel. Thank God. At one point on our way up a hill the guide, Hesham, whipped the camel, which I was not expecting, and it shot up the hill and I almost fell off sideways. I clung on for my life not wanting to fall 7 ft to the rocks and sand and spend the night in an Egyptian ER. Hesham had to push me back up and after that he held onto the reigns, hahaha. Typical embarrassment that is my life.
After this picture I got off that camel and for the sake of not wanting to press my luck, I kept to the horse for the rest of the desert tour. Hesham made Lindsey and I have a photo shoot in front of the pyramids thus the cheesey pictures:


We climbed the big one a little bit, which was not very good for my shoes, but very thrilling. And then Hesham stopped the herd and we walked to this:
I couldn't believe it. I felt like I could die happy at that moment. I really did, is that bad? Not many people get so excited to see 5000 year old buildings, but it really is mind blowingly amazing.

Where Are the Pharoahs?

At 2:30 on Wednesday morning I set out for Fiumicino, by 9 I was freezing in Zurich then by 2:45 in the afternoon I had landed in Cairo. The difference was immediately apparent: heat, dust, sand, and plenty of sun, but I was hyperventilating with excitement. I've wanted to go to Egypt since Mrs. Pyne's 5th grade class got me obsessed with the history and coincidentally that was when I wanted to be an archaeologist. So here we were! We had to buy an Egyptian Visa for 80LE and I finally got the stamp in my passport. A driver from the hotel was standing in the lobby holding a hand written sign that said the name of the hotel and my name, which gave me a bad feeling, but we went with him.

On our way to his car a security guard from the airport stopped us and asked if we knew him. We showed him our hotel confirmation and the driver showed him his ID. I'll be honest, this incident gave me an overpowering feeling of terror which only grew worse when we got into his car which was a beat up old Fiat with hand painted numbers in Arabic on the sides and a sheepskin on the dash board. I thought Italians drove horribly, but they have nothing on Egyptians, who don't recognize the significance of lanes or turn signals. They cluster around each other trying to get to the sides they need to be on and use their horn in every possible way to signal a turn, yell at another driver, make other drivers aware that they are about to crash into them, and also they beep their horn to show appreciation of something that may be written on a bumper sticker. In other words, their roads are the definition of chaos.

We finally got to the hotel and the feeling of terror yet again increased because we went into an old building whose elevator had no inside door, and whose walls were crumbling and covered in dust. We checked into our room and decided to walk around a little bit. We took pictures of the Egyptian Museum which was right around the corner from the hotel, but was almost closing, so we couldn't go inside. We walked to the Nile and took pictures of Cairo Tower which was right across the river. This is also when we experienced our first taste of Egyptian men, who are fascinated with Westerners and who crowded us and asked our names, and where we were from. We were too scared to answer, so we ignored them, which as it happens is exactly what your supposed to do. As we tried to cross the street to get away from them a teenager driving a horse and carriage snapped his whip at me. I was not amused. This was the about the time I began to think things like "What the hell were we thinking coming here on our own?!" and "Am I going to have to hide in our sketchy hostel for the next 4 days?" and "Why am I so thirsty?"

We managed to escape the men and walked back to the hostel where we scheduled a dinner cruise on the Nile and took a power nap. The driver picked us up at 9 and drove us to the boat. He brought us inside and we had to wait on the top deck for the tables to be set. Here we saw a whole wedding party coming to the dock with drums and pipes playing. It turned out that we shared the room with the wedding reception and had a delicious buffet and there was singing, a belly dancer, a spinning guy, and two guys who danced around with sticks and tried to get Lindsey and I to dance, but that was not happening. The driver ate his dinner with us which was really awkward but then he went off and left us alone to enjoy to enjoy the crazy festivities. Toward the end we went back up to the top deck and took pictures. The spinning guy was up there and chatted with us before trying to get Lindsey to kiss him which was very amusing from my perspective, not so much from hers. We docked and the driver took us back to the hotel where we fell asleep (I was comforted only slightly by the fact that my pillow had a scene from The Lion King on it and I was resting my head on Mufasa) and wondered how the rest of the weekend was going to pan out.