Egypt!

Egypt!  WOW!!!  It was completely different than anything I have ever seen or experienced before.  Even though Egypt geographically is located in Africa, it is influenced greatly by the middle east, hence deriving much of their culture.  It was a new experience.  I never once felt like I was in danger, but I was for sure intimidated by the overwhelming amount  of veiled women.  Every female older than probably 15 was in some sort of head covering, whether it was the traditional Hijab, the Muslim head covering that concealed only their hair, or the head wear that only reveals the women's eyes, every female was covered.  And people are everywhere!  According to our local tour guide Cairo is home to more than 20 million people!  It was insane. There were people everywhere!  It was a very different experience!

There was a group of 9 of us and the first night we decided that it would be fun to do a dinner cruise down the Nile River.  We had traditional Egyptian food, which was pretty good.  Except I found out AFTER that the "chicken" was really an Egyptian delicacy, Pigeon.  I'm not too sure how I feel about that one!  Along with the traditional food, we also had traditional entertainment.  There was belly dancers and I don't know the correct term for the other type of entertainment, but he wore this big bird cage like skirt and twirled around making beautiful designs out of it.  He did this for like 15 min, I have no idea how he didn't puke!  It was really cool though.

Saturday was by far my favorite day in Cairo!  With our hostel we got a free driver and tour guide for the day.  We went and saw the step pyramid, Sakura, which was one of the first pyramids in Egypt (there are something like 96 pyramids in total all over the country...)   We actually got to go inside this pyramid and see what a "eternal house," as the Egyptians call it, looks like.  It was incredible.  It was a small little hallway leading down into the pyramid and opened up to this huge room.  All over the room where hieroglyphics which had the name of the one buried there.   There were a few little rooms off to the side which held the offerings that were left for the dead so that he had all that he needed at his disposal for when his soul returned to him and he was resurrected.   

After Sakura we went and saw how Papyrus was and still is made.  It was so interesting!  We also got to go and smell some traditional Egyptian essence and perfumes.  It was so cool!  We then ventured to the Giza pyramids!  THEY WERE INCREDIBLE!!!!  Oh my gosh!  I was in awe! Such beautiful structures just towering above the desert!  But the best part was in order to get to the pyramids we took camels!  It was awesome! We were riding camels in the desert while we toured the Pyramids!  AMAZING!!!  We got to go and actually touch and even climb the pyramids!  It was amazing!  It still doesn't seem real!  I was in awe!  After the pyramids we went and saw the Sphinx.  That was an incredible piece as well!  It was amazing!  I really have no idea how the ancient Egyptians constructed such huge monuments!  

 That day was Nick's 21st b-day so by celebrating we rented a part boat and floated down the Nile river, all for 14 U.S. dollars!  I mean you can actually do that!  It was crazy!It was quite a deal and so worth it!  It was so much fun!  And our boat driver had to be like 14, if that!  But the craziest part of the night was when the boat police came over to us.  Since it was a 21st birthday party there was a little bit of alcohol.  So when the cops drove up next to us waving his hand at us we thought we were in trouble for having glass bottles on the boat or something.  As he got closer we realized that he wasn't going to yell at us, but instead he wanted some of the alcohol.  We poured him a shot and he downed it and drove off.  What?  It was crazy!  That really happened!  It was an awesome night hanging out relaxing and floating down the Nile!

The next morning we went to the Egyptian Museum.  It was interesting, but in all honesty I was not really impressed.  The museum was not set up nicely and was just chaotic.  We saw some cool things, mummies, King Tut's sarcophagus and things like that, but overall it was a little disappointing. But we made up for it by going to the famous bazar.  That was cool.  It was in Old Islamic Cairo, which is a really interesting place.  It is more run down and it is so sad to see how people live.  But amongst all of the run down buildings were beautiful mosques.  I loved the architecture went it come to the mosques. But the bazar was cool, it was a huge market, so there was lots of shopping to be done!  And you can barter for EVERYTHING, which was a little overwhelming at times, but overall we did pretty good.... 

It was such an amazing trip and I am so glad that I was able to see and experience something completely different from what I have been exposed to. I loved it!  It was a great weekend!