Cairo!!

My trip to Egypt was absolutely phenomenal.  Words cannot even describe how amazing it actually was – I was with the greatest group of students and the greatest guide for the full 5 day trip.  I’m going to go through day by day but it might take me a few days to get it all written up since there is so much to say!  Don’t worry because we have 5 days at sea on our way to Morocco so I probably won’t have much to update about.  My descriptions will clearly not be sufficient to explain how awesome it was to see all these monuments and culture, but I will do my best!

The ship docked in Alexandria and then we left on the buses at about 10:00am to drive for 2.5 hours to Cairo.  It was really interesting scenery because it was all sand and there are little huts outside of Alexandria where people live without electricity and got the lad free from the government in exchange for farming some cotton.  On the bus ride we met our tour guide, Muhammad (the name of pretty much everyone we met in Egypt), who was a super cool Egyptologist who is currently working on a book and knew so much about all of ancient Egypt – it was incredible!  He was also really funny and every time we arrived somewhere to get off the bus (even if just for a meal), he would say “ready?...attack!” which was really funny because we always looked like a mob of Americans attacking all the monuments.  Over the course of the trip our group became known as the crocodiles.  Each bus had a different name – one was Isis and the other was Habibib.  We clearly had the greatest mascot and we often talked about how we were the best bus and were going to eat all the other buses since we were the crocodiles.

Anyway, we got to lunch at the Meridien Pyramids hotel which was right next to the pyramids.  It was amazing that you can see the pyramids like looming over the city because they actually are pretty close to everything.  We were greeted by a hotel band dressed in Egyptian pharaoh outfits and playing Stars and Stripes Forever and other American-themed songs and it was funny because Muhammad had told us to attack and this made us feel like we really were.  Lunch was delicious and was a huge buffet with everything you could want to eat – pasta, all types of meats, veggies, potatoes, hummus with pita bread, and a huge array of desserts.  Every meal of the trip was a huge buffet like this and I ate so much because everything was always delicious!!

The rest of the day was spent exploring the pyramids.  We went in three different stops along the way.  The first was at the base of the 2 larger pyramids where we stopped for about 45 min. to look around and take pictures.  When we got of the bus we were immediately mobbed by Egyptians trying to sell little touristy things for like a dollar but they were so aggressive that it was really uncomfortable and it made me freak out a little but once I escaped the mob it was ok.  Then we just walked around and took all sorts of pictures and marveled at how huge and amazing they were.  It was really surreal to be at the pyramids that we have seen in pictures since we were so young.  One thing I was definitely surprised about was how windy it was.  I guess it was a desert wind because someone said he saw a little bit of a sandstorm way off in the distance.  It was still incredibly hot and the wind is not cooling, it just brings more heat and smacks you in the face with it.  The other thing that surprised me was how close they were to the city.  The cities of Cairo and Giza basically blend together because the border is just the Nile River.  But in photos of the pyramids it always looks like they are out somewhere remote in the middle of the desert but they are actually just on the edge of the city of Giza.  Then pretty much everything past the pyramids is desert so all the pictures must be taken from the city side to make it look like they are way out in the desert.

The next stop was a place a little farther away that is the only place to take photos of all three standing pyramids in one shot.  We only stopped there for about 10 min to take our photos because it was definitely out there in the desert and there wasn’t really much else there besides some more Egyptians selling more touristy stuff.  The final stop of the afternoon was to the Sphinx.  It was really fun to take funny pictures by it.  You have to walk through a small temple to get to the good photo taking spot and there we were accosted by Egyptian teenagers who help you take really fun pictures (like you kissing the Sphinx and putting sunglasses on it, etc) but then of course they want you to buy something from them but we were always in a big group so it was easy to get away from them when they started asking for money.  After our photo time at the Sphinx for about 45 min we went to the hotel for check in.

We arrived at the Conrad Hotel around 5:00pm and got all checked into our rooms.  It was a 5-star hotel and was definitely one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in before.  It was directly on the Nile so that is what I saw out of my balcony and we had 2 giant beds in our room.  They assigned the rooms alphabetically so I was with a girl named Megan for the whole trip and she was a great roommate.  The beds were like queen size and had 6 pillows on each one and a down comforter and were so ridiculously comfortable.  There was also a huge bathroom with a giant bathtub and shower and a free bottle of water for each person which was nice because I saved it for brushing my teeth.

After having some time to settle into our rooms we had dinner at 7:00pm which was another huge buffet and also amazing desserts.  Then we left the hotel around 8:30pm to go to the Sound and Light show at the pyramids.  It was pretty cool because they illuminate the pyramids and Sphinx and have lasers and pictures going across the sides to tell the stories of the pharaohs that built each of the pyramids.  It was kind of a long show (about an hour) and since we were all so tired it was a little hard to follow but it was still a really neat experience to see them lit up at night.

The drive back to the hotel was full of traffic and we saw that lots of people were just out on the streets hanging out.  It was a Thursday night which is like a Saturday night in the USA because Friday is the holy day in Islam.   Also since they can’t drink they literally just sit in the medians of roads or anywhere really and smoke hookah or just hang out so that was really interesting to see.  The city of Cairo itself was really cool to see at night because it was all lit up – cars, boats on the Nile, buildings, everything!  Cars would like drive down the street with crazy flashing colored lights and it was completely acceptable and not against the law.  We learned from our guide that there are strict laws about everything in Egypt except for driving which has no rules.  There was even a police car behind us with sirens on at one point and no one pulls over or lets it go by – not even ambulances.  I would hate to have a heart attack or something there because you would pretty much never get to a hospital.  Anyway, we didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11:00pm and I still needed to shower after my day in the desert heat.  Unfortunately our wake up call for the next morning was at 3:30am – yes, you read that correctly.  It was a little ridiculous.  It was nice that the tour company automatically has the hotel give wake up calls to all the rooms a half hour before we have to be ready, but it was a little ridiculous to be getting up that early.  We all met in the lobby at 4:00am where they handed out breakfast boxes which were quite impressive – including like 5 different pastries, meat, cheese, fruit, hard boiled egg, and orange juice all in one giant box per person.  Then we all ate on the buses on our way to the airport for our flight to Luxor!