Discovering Egypt

Six months and 12 hours worth of flying later I got to see Nolan again…in Egypt of all places!!!  I arrived in Cairo about 5 hours earlier than him, so I waited anxiously for his arrival, which seemed like centuries, but I stayed entertained watching these Egyptian kids playing in the airport.  It was amazing to me, just to observe another culture.  Men link arms, everyone kisses each other to greet one another, and the most apparent was the way they dressed.  Usually consisted of a very conservative and I quickly noticed that only men were allowed to show there feet, because everyone was looking at my feet in my flip flops…oops!  However, eventually Nolan, with 6 months worth of hair (afro status), arrived.  I was all smiles!!

 

The next day we visited the Cairo Museum.  We both decided that we didn’t really want to go to a lot of museums while we were there, but since this one had the most artifacts and information, we decided to spend about 3 hours being enlightened by our new friend/tour guide, Ahmed.  The Museum was huge!!!  It was interesting to learn the little details about the way and reasons to why the Egyptians built things the way they did.  A lot of the information we accumulated there, carried over to our whole trip.  The rest of the day we spend walking around the city and just getting comfortable there.  The Egyptians are really nice people, but our known for ripping tourists off.  Our first encounter was with this man that enticed both Nolan and me to enter his perfume shop.  He assured us that it was only “Egyptian Hospitality,” and that we wouldn’t have to buy anything or pay for anything.  Before Nolan knew it, he was buying a bottle for 20 Egyptian pounds, which is about 10 pounds too much…haha.  It’s ok, it was a first and last scam.

 

The next day was a very exciting day.  We met up with a friend of ours from Walla Walla who is currently an SM in Cairo, Eric Barnes.  I was so impressed with Eric.  I was impressed with how well he knew the city and how much Arabic he had actually picked up.  I’m not sure if y’all know, but Arabic is one dang hard language to learn.  We spent the day in Alexandria.  To start off our day, we all got the best fresh fruit smoothies.  They were soo good that they boys had to get another!!!  In Alexandria, we saw Pompey’s pillar, the catacombs, and the Roman Theatre.  We had a ton of fun taking lots of fun/silly pictures.  We snuck our camera in the catacombs, so we all had fun taking pictures…it made us feel rebellious...haha.  After sightseeing, we had worked up quite the appetite and we were satisfied after we had our first pita and falafel.  I have officially decided that this could quite be one of my favorite meals ever!!!  I have decided that as soon as I get back to America, I NEED to learn how to make a killer falafel…it’s essential.  We ate on the Mediterranean Sea and let’s just say that there were no complaints from me.  It was beautiful and the colors were breathtaking.  The plan was to take an overnight train to Luxor, but the Egyptians had a different idea in mind.  We found out that the night trains are designated only for the Egyptians and even if the train isn’t full, they won’t let any tourists ride.  However, one of the security guys told us to just get on the train and tell them that we didn’t know.  It was crazy!!!  I just couldn’t believe it.  The ticket that we bought inside the train was cheaper than the one we would have bought from the window…oh the system there!!!

 

We arrived the next day with very little sleep, but we were ready to rock.  We had met two pretty awesome guys in the train named Rafael and Germano.  They traveled all over Luxor with us…they were great!  We met Heragy at the train station and he hooked us up with a place to stay and a tour for the day.  He took us to the Valley of the Kinds and The temple of Hatshepsut.  Also, he took us to his house for tea and to a restaurant overlooking the Nile River.  It was great!!

 

Monday we spent at Karnak.  Everyone had told us that Karnak was one of their favorites, if not their favorite thing in Egypt.  Nolan wanted to take a carriage ride there, so four of us fit into the carriage to Karnak…haha.  It was awesome and huge.  There was so much to see.  We walked around and admired all the architecture, obelisks, and columns that the Egyptians so brilliantly made years ago.  Nolan and I were fascinated with the fact that Egypt’s #2 money income (tourism) is from what the Egyptians built years and years ago.  After Karnak, we walked around the Luxor temple, which was slightly disappointing after the glory of Karnak.  We took a boat ride down the Nile river and the weather was perfect!!!  I didn’t know things could be sooo good!!!  After, it was time to travel again.  We hopped on a bus to Hurghada.  We found out that the ferry we had intended on taking to Sharm el Sheikh was not working, so instead of the 1 hr. ferry ride, we would have to take a 10 hr. bus ride.  We were not happy campers.  I’d say that that little factoid put a negative feel on Hurghada.

 

The next morning we woke us to the best breakfast we had in our hostel yet.  They had everything you could imagine.  Crepes, omelette’s, fruit, cereal, bread, fresh squeezed orange juice…I could go on and on. got on the Bus early and started our journey.  We played games on the bus, slept, talked, watched a movie, slept, and talked some more.  I guess it was a good sign that we could entertain ourselves for the super long ride.  Once we got there we realized that Sharm was an expensive place.  100 pounds worth of taxi’s later, we were ready to leave as soon as we got there.

 

The next day, we finally got to Dahab.  The place we had been looking forward to going and relaxing on the beach.  It was beautiful and the town had such a good feel.  We spent the afternoon walking around the tourist shops and making deals with the shop owners.  Everyone thought that Nolan and I were Egyptian.  Nolan is Egyptian, but supposedly I appear to look like them as well.  Every store we went into, the owners would talk to Nolan in Arabic…it was great fun.  After a huge Egyptian dinner, we were off to climb Mt. Sinai.  We left at 11:00 p.m. in hope to climb all night so that we could be on the top for sunrise.  The hike was a lot of fun!!!  It was freezing though.  We didn’t exactly come prepared for winter, considering that we were in Egypt, but it was fun and amazing nonetheless.  The sunrise was spectacular and made the all night hike in the frigid cold worth it!!!  Once we got back we were pooped, but we still managed to have enough energy to go snorkeling in the Red Sea.  It was spectacular.  All the life in the water was amazing.  So many sizes, colors, and movements.  I was so happy that I went.  Afterwards, we ran into this man promoting his restaurant and trying to get us to go there for supper.  Nolan decided to pretend that he was from Egypt and that his name was Ahmed (not even kidding, EVERYONE’S name was either Ahmed of Mohammad).  The man was soo excited.  Once we returned for supper, they treated us like Egyptians.  It was funny and great fun!!!  Again, it was time to jump on a overnight bus back to Cairo.  Our trip was slowly coming to a close.

 

Our last full day in Egypt was spent at the Pyramids.  There were like nothing you’ve ever seen.  They were so big.  It was unimaginable to think about how they made them.  I mean we didn’t have any machines or anything to construct something so massive.  They were truly genius.  Afterwards, we went to the famous open market called Khan-el-kalili.  It was so big that you could easily get lost in there.  I was super excited to go, but I was so tired that I didn’t have enough energy to buy anything.  Nolan on the other hand did some work.  He had fun bargaining with the men and I had fun watching.  I’m not the best bargainer, but I did learn a lot from Nolan.  By the end, I’d say I was ALMOST pro. =)  Afterwards, we went to this humongous mall called CityStars.  Nolan walked in and culture shock immediately hit.  He had spend the last six months in Ethiopia, so this was the first time he had been in such a nice place.  This mall was huge and nicer than any mall I had been in in the States.  We walked into the food court and Nolan said, “Ash, we are just going to have to eat, walk a lot, and then come back for some more food, because I just can’t choose.”  He was in heaven.  We ate, shopped, and got dessert.  I was stuffed!!!

 

My last morning in Cairo, we returned to the Khan, because I wanted to buy some stuff that I didn’t have enough energy to fight for the day before.  I got some fun gifts for my family and we met a super cool guy whose mom is actually from Spain.  He knew Spanish and he showed us a great falafel place in the market.  They were by far the best ones we had the whole time in Egypt.  I am going to try and remember where it is for the rest of my life, so that if I go back, I will know where it is =)  Next, we went to Heliopolis, which was where Nolan’s Mom lived when she was young.  We took pictures of the SDA church there and then sadly it was my time to go.  It was sad/hard to say good-bye to Nolan again, but my time spend in Egypt was better than I could’ve ever imagined.  Thank you so much to all of your who helped make all of it happen.  I couldn’t thank you enough!!!

 

Xoxo.