Walk Like An Egyptian

Words cannot accurately describe my experience in Cairo, Egypt over the past few days. When I called my mother I was literally speechless. But, I will now try to describe my amazing time in Egypt..

When our plane landed Wednesday evening, our guide Karim was waiting for us. We paid for our visas, exchanged our euros for Egyptian pounds and grabbed our bags. At the airport we did see the US Olympic Volleyball Team, which I guess was pretty neat. They all looked very tired though. We then boarded onto a minibus to bring us to our hotel. The drivers in Egypt make those in Cyprus look tame. I was scared for my life at moments during the bus ride, and during any travel while in Egypt concerning vehicles. There were technically three lanes of traffic, but there were in reality five lanes of traffic. When we arrived at our hotel, the Triumph Hotel, we were all in shock. This hotel was gorgeous! The entrance way greeted us with a very large lit up chandelier and two smaller ones leading down the hallway. We checked in and were offered an Egyptian drink, which was fruity and tasty. Since it was very late, we all then explored the hotel and then settled into our rooms. All 12 of us then went to sleep so we would all be ready to take Egypt by storm.



We ate breakfast around 8am Thursday morning and boarded the bus at nine. Our first stop was Cairo's archeological museum. Photographs were not allowed inside the museum, and we actually had to check our camera at the gate and pick them up when we left. They really did not want us to take photos. Our tour guide Rhania took us through the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms - viewing the most important pieces in each. There are over a million items on display on the two floors and clearly we would not be able to see everything. Six of us entered the Royal Mummy Room, containing 11 royal mummies, including King Rameses II. It truly is incredible how well ancient Egyptians preserved the deceased. Hair, fingernails, skin wrinkles, eyelashes were all visible. We saw the mummy of what is suspected to be Queen Hatshepsut due to her "obese body and bad teeth." The description of such an important woman in Egyptian times amused me. We also saw the animal mummy room. Animals that were mummified fell under four categories: pets, food in the afterlife, religious symbols, and sacrificial. We also visited King Tut's tomb. Although his body is laid where it was originally found, the tomb was quite impressive and elaborate. There were four layers to the tomb, one inside the other, each more adorned than the previous. Inside his tomb were three coffins - two made of gold and one wooden. He is depicted with his arms crossed as that is how royalty were buried.

After the museum, Rhania took us to a perfume shop where we sampled perfumes that are only made in Egypt and are not exported. Then, we set fourth to a restaurant for lunch - with a view of the pyramids. The food was quite delicious. Most of us got the chicken with rice and ice cream for dessert.



It was then time to head to the pyramids! We stopped at the largest, the Great Pyramid, to take pictures before heading onto a place known for its panoramic view of the main three pyramids. There are nine total: 3 representing the Grandfather (Pharaoh Khufu), Father (Pharaoh Khafre), and Grandson (Menkaure). Each pyramid is a smaller than its previous as a sign of respect for the elders. There are six surrounding those which are for their wives.

Great Pyramid of Egypt belongs to Pharaoh Khufu. It was 146 meters high when built but was worn down 10 meters through the years. Pharaoh Khafre's pyramid - 10 meters shorter than the Great Pyramid out of respect for Khafre's father. This pyramid is also made of limestone so in the day you can see the white top. Menkaure's pyramid is the shortest of the three. It was not complete when Menkaure passed away, but his song finished it in his honor.

All twelve of us then decided that we really wanted to ride camels - so we did! We chose a half-an-hour trip in the Sahara with a very nice view of the pyramids at the turn-around point. My roommate Elise and I shared a camel, whose name is Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson was quite slow, though, as Elise and I were the last people to get back. At the viewpoint, the little boy leading our camel took my camera to take pictures of Elise and I on the camel with the pyramids in the background. The camel riding was so much fun!

After all that excitement, we went to a shop where we learned how papyrus is made. Also, most shops scam people by using banana leaves instead of papyrus, but banana leaves are not as sturdy. This place used real papyrus, but I didn't buy any of the art. We also went to an Egyptian cotton place but everything was too expensive for my taste.

We arrived at our cruise on the Nile for dinner, which was buffet style, and saw a belly-dancing show followed by a performance of a really cool man who continuously spun. Overall it was very entertaining. It was so nice to be able to be on the Nile and see the Cairo skyline at sunset.



After our cruise, three of us headed off to the light and sound show by the Sphinx and the pyramids. We were unable to get into the English speaking show because there were a few ticket mixups. On the other hand, we did get into the later show, which was in French, but we received free headsets to listen in English. The light show was incredible and so beautiful. I probably took too many photographs. The three of us did not get back to the hotel until 1:30 in the morning because traffic was so bad, since the weekend starts on Friday for Egypt.

It was a bit tough to get moving Friday morning because of our late night, but we managed to eat at 8 and board the bus at 9. We went to a citadel and the mosque of Muhammad Ali, the founder of modern Egypt. The architecture was beautiful and the inside was even more elaborate. There was a large chandelier in the middle and large hanging candle bulbs in circles around it.



Our final stop while in Egypt was a bazaar. Let me tell you, it was quite bazaar. The streets were very narrow and everyone wanted you to buy what they had. We had plenty of time to kill so we went into many of the shops, but no one really bought anything. Also, Alex was with us, and he is the only guy, so everyone was cracking jokes at him about how he is one lucky man to have multiple wives. It was quite amusing! Also, our friend Sarah has blonde hair, and Egyptians are fascinated with blonde hair - no joke. She was proposed to multiple times and hit on by almost every shop keeper and his son. At one point someone did ask me to marry them and another guy said he would fight Alex for me. It was pretty intense but very amusing.

We arrived at the airport extremely early so we all got something to eat and sat around talking. Sarah drew on us with Alex's pens and we all got mini intercoms on our hands to "speak" to one another. We tried to play spoons by sticking our our tongues, but it was so difficult to tell who was the last one. We played one round with granola bars as spoons, but that ended with cards flying across the room and us being a bit too loud. Eventually we boarded the bus which took us to the plane and then flew back to Larnaca. Our bus ride back to Nicosia was quite fun and it only consisted of six of us, because the other six went off to Agia Napa for drinking and partying for the weekend.

In the end, when I found this trip information to Egypt, it was called the Cairo Spectacular package. I must admit, this truly was spectacular. We were able to do so much in so little time and I'm so glad that everything went smoothly. I do not know if I'll ever have the need to return to Egypt, but now I can check off that I've been to Africa, touched the pyramids, rode a camel, and cruised on the Nile - all in under 60 hours.