Egypt

The day we checked out of our hotel we left our stuff with them for the day and wandered, but that evening when it came to be dinner time we realized we were homeless.. We bought dinner from the grocery store then sam, chels, and I went up to a different floors hotel couch area to eat it. We had sat up there before so we thought it would be fine.. 10 min later we got kicked out and we ended up eating dinner on the side of the street!! After that, we went across the street and got a couple cheap drinks at the bar in order to kill time and drown out our sorrows.

Sooo the night in the airport was not all that fun.. We slept on the floor at the airport with all the homeless people! It was freeezing!! I only slept for 45 min all night, but i did get 8 postcards written! We met some girls at the airport in athens that were studying abroad in cairo so they gave us lots of tips which was reassuring! They helped us get our visas and transfer money. As soon as we left customs our driver was waiting for us, and he spent the hour drive trying to teach us a few words in arabic and we listened to arabic music. Until we got to the hotel I was trying to convince myself that he wasnt kidnapping us because I am a worry wart!!

The hotel was amazing.. apparently 191 euros goes a looooong way in egypt for a hotel and tour. we stayed in a 4 star hotel which over looked the pyramids. we had one room with two beds in it, a tv, and a dresser, and a second room that was a livining room with a second tv( i slept on the pull out bed) and then a very nice bathroom. room service was free, and one day we even got the bell boy to go get us food because we were too scaredto cross the street!! our first evening we ordered food from the restaurant downstairs and just vegged out and watched tv.
We were not a hundred percent sure about the time difference but we thought our estimate was correct.. boy were we wrong!! The next morning we woke up at what we thought was 7 am so we could get ready and go get free breakfast at 8. Pick up by our tour guide at 8 30. At “9” we were getting worried, so we called the person in charge. Apparently he was still sleeping, and didn’t make any sense when Chelsea talked to him. Eventually she said, “sir, are you awake now?” and when he went on with his babble she hung up. A few minutes later he called back and we asked where the guide was. He was confused.. Chelsea said, “ Sir what time do you think it is?” Turns out we called him at 7 am instead of 9… meaning we got up at 5 am!!!! Needless to say we went back to sleep for an hour!!

That first day we went to the pyramids of Giza, Memphis, the Sphinx, the Valley Temple, went camel riding, the original statue of Ramses, the Sakkara pyramids, the step pyramid, the Titi Pyramid, and the Mere-Ruka tomb. It was a CRAZY day!! The Sphinx and the pyramids were incredible. Riding a camel with them surrounding us topped off the entire experience; I don’t think I could have been happier!! I also thought the step pyramid was pretty incredible because I remember learning about Imhotep in high school. The tomb had all original hieroglyphs on the walls, which was impossible to fully comprehend. I can’t even grasp that those painting are 2 thousand years old! That day, our guide Mahmud taught us something cool about statues. Apparently if the beard is straight the person it was made for got to see it completed, but if it was curled then the important person died before it was finished.

The second day, we visited the Egyptian Museum which includes the golden collection of the burial chamber of King Tutankhamun. Then we went to see Mohamed Ali Mosque, the Hanging Church & Ben-Ezra Synagogue. The museum was unreal because there were anything from chairs to sandals found there. I can’t believe it survived so long! I really enjoyed the mosques, because the art and architecture is nothing like all the cathedrals I saw in Italy. Everything is made into geometric shapes, and they are much smaller. The hanging church was literally off the ground, which I found to be pretty neat. That day we also bought bracelets with our names on them in hieroglyphs which we had been looking for, and I also got one for my best friend Abbey. We went to a papyrus place as well, and through bargaining I bought one with the last judgment on it and a second with the Egyptian calendar on it for only 200 egyptian lbs. I am going to give the second one to my friend Ashley for her birthday! They make the papyruses exactly how the ancient Egyptians did.

The third day, we drove to Alexandria were we saw the Roman Catacombs, a Roman theater, Alexandria Great Library, Qaitbay Citadel & Montazah Royal Palace. Everything was very enjoyable except for the library… I expected it to have history relating to Alexander the Great (considering it was originally made because of him, as well as the city), however it turned out to just be a library. Not quite sure why we were brought there. The palace we saw was where all of the last king of Egypt’s wives lived. I found that entertaining! Alexandria is a coastal city, so we spent a lot of time walking around taking pictures. We returned at 7 pm, just in time for the mentalist  (a show we started watching nightly in Egypt)

Our last tour day, we went to Rifae Mosque, Sultan Hassan Mosque, and Ebn Tulun Mosque. We were suppose to visit a few other places because it was Islamic Cairo day for us, however Chelsea was feeling very sick and we cut it short. At the mosques we were required to wear the muslim head dresses on our heads, which we did only because of respect even though we felt degraded. We returned home very early, and then Sam and I decided to go for a walk for shopping. We made it about 2 blocks before we turned around.. The entire stay we had been in touristy areas and with a guide, and didn’t realize what the men are like elsewhere.. Men followed us, yelled to us, honked their horns, you name it. We experienced that in Italy as well, however Egyptian men were just too much to handle.. That’s the only negative thing I have to say about the country. Egypt is amazing. I didn’t want to leave it. I’ve never done well in ritzy areas like Italy was, I prefer how life is seen in Egypt. Yes, they are poor, but the country is getting better and has so much to offer.


The people working at our hotel were wonderful! Everyone that worked there knew who we were and what our room number was! The people at the front desk let us charge our ipods with them, and we spent a good deal of time talking. One girl who worked there, (I can’t pronounce her name) told us she was sad we were leaving and that she would miss us! We definitely stood out at the hotel, due to our age. Everyone else there was either a family or they were Asians and Indians. One Euro = 7.5 Egyptian lbs, so we must have looked wealthy! Meals were like 20 lbs.. which is about 3 euro. Which food was that cheap in good ‘ol Thess!!

My parents are coming on Thursday!!! I’m so excited to see them!! They are getting really excited, they are planning day trips and looking up stuff on how not to look like a tourist hahahha! I’m excited. That’s all for now.. There is so much more to say but my fingers hurt!!!!