Egypt: June 22nd-26th

We left Athens at 12:50am on the 22nd. We were scheduled to arrive in Cairo at 2:45am. Our travel agent had recommended a tour guide in Cairo. Her name was Hend, and I had contacted her weeks before and set up a tour package for our 4 days in Egypt. The agency was supposed to reserve our train tickets, hotel, and provide transportation to and from the airport. Also, each day in Egypt had been planned in great detail, so we could see as much as possible in 4 days.

I think one of the best parts of our trip happened before we even reached Cairo. When we boarded the airplane and found our seats, there was a little girl sitting in the third seat in our row. Shane was by the window, I was in the middle and the little girl was on the outside. She immediately started talking to me. She told me she was from California, but she was Egyptian. Her and her mom and 5 sisters were on their way to Cairo to see their family. She was an absolute ball of energy!!! This little 10 year old demanded that Shane and I look out the window during the entire take off period, because it was here favorite part. At one point, she decided we should try to sleep, so she laid her head on my shoulder and promised to wake me up when the food came. When the food did come, she decided that she needed to try some hot tea, so I put milk and lots of sugar in it for her and she drank the whole thing. She look at me and Shane and said, "this stuff is going to make me crazy!" We didn't tell her mom what we gave her. Then, she decided that she needed to sit in the middle cause she wanted to talk to both of us. That is when she conned Shane into playing a game with her. First she told him to stretch his finger our really well to prepare. The game consisted of both of them using their pointer fingers to press the buttons on the seat arms as fast as they could. That was pretty much the game. Whoever stopped first lost...Shane gave up after about a min. We ended up laughing at her and her sisters the entire flight.

When we arrived in Cairo, it was a bit of a disaster. We couldn't find the guy who was supposed to be meeting us. I had not written down the name of our hotel, because I was just expecting someone to be there. So, we didn't know what to do. (We would later find out that the airport had not listed our flight on the arrival board, so the guy who was meant to pick us up thought the plane had been canceled.) We walked around for about and hour and making sure that every person holding a sign wasn't the person supposed to be picking us up. The entire time we were walking around, this annoying taxi driver kept following us and asking us the name of our hotel...I almost strangled him!! Finally, we decided to find a taxi who could take us to an internet point, so I could get the name of the hotel off my e-mail. The next taxi driver who walked up to us was a friendly chap, but was drinking a beer, which should have been our first warning. By this point, we were exhausted and angry and not thinking very clearly, obviously.

Our next warning sign should have been when he put us on a shuttle bus to get to his "taxi." When we finally got to his "taxi," it was a beat up old van and he had to lift the seat and fiddle with something just to get it started. Once we got onto the road, I noticed that there actually were proper taxis on the road, and we obviously had not gotten into one. That ride was perhaps the scariest ride of my life! The van was barely going 15 MPH the entire trip, and it more than struggled to get up hills. He also drove the entire journey on the center line. He never got into a lane. Shane was up front and told me later that the tank had been on empty the entire way.

The driver started taking us to various shady looking hotels and asking the people out front if there was internet. By the 2nd hotel, Shane was just mad, and demanded that he take us to the Hilton. He argued and pulled up to another shady hotel and they told us that they had internet that we could use. (really glad we didn't go to the Hilton, because it is a couple hundred a night) We went upstairs to the Isis Hotel and they turned on their computer for us. By this point the driver was demanding an extra 10 Egyptian pounds for his parking fee (he had parked on the shoulder of a road) and Shane finally just gave it to him to make him shut up. The driver left us there and we quickly figured out that he would get a commission if we stayed there. The guy who was running the hotel was nice, but obviously had some tricks up his sleeve. To make a long story short, we finally got in touch with Hend and she sent her driver to come get us and take us to our hotel. We were supposed to have a free day in Cairo our on our last day, but we asked her to change it to the first day so we could get some sleep. We finally arrived at the Mayroca Hotel at about 6am and took showers and fell into bed.

We slept until about 2:30, and then woke up to go find food. We had heard so many horror stories about Egypt and how it is dangerous. So, when we left the hotel (it wasn't in the best area) we were a little nervous. We didn't have a map, but we knew we had seen a Hardees near the Hilton hotel, so we started walking towards where we thought that was. We finally stumbled across a McDonalds (see, loving this place more and more) and we both ate a quarter pounder and then a McFlurry. There was a cinema in the same building, so we decided to take it easy and go to a movie. We went to see Ocean's 13. Something odd about movies in Egypt is that you get an intermission. Halfway through the movie, they stop it for 10 min. so you can go to the bathroom or get snacks.

The next day, the 23rd, Hend met us in the lobby of our hotel at 9am. She was absolutely lovely and so was her driver Islam. We ended up making really good friends with them both. Islam has invited us both to come back and stay for a month for free, and we have agreed to try to help Hend get into the US. She wants to travel really really badly, but because she wears the scarf on her head, she cannot get permission to go to the US. Anyway, the 23rd was our day in Cairo. We went to the Great Pyramid and the two others that were for Kings Cheops, Cherphrern and Mycerinus, we saw the Great Sphinx of Giza, the Valley Temple, the Papyrus Institute (that place was so cool! It is where they extract essense from various plants and then sell it to all the big name perfume companies to make perfume. We bought some of the pure essense there though and it smells amazing! They all have different purposes too.), the Egyptian Museum, and one of the old markets in Cairo. We saw and did so much that day. That night we were scheduled to take an overnight train at 10pm to Luxor. We ate a wonderful traditional Egyptian dinner with Hend and Islam, and then they took us to the station. Now, keep in mind, we had been touring around for about 12 hours in the hot hot sun and dust, and we had not showered.

Hend had reserved first class tickets for us and the train was surprisingly nice. I didn't get much sleep because of these noisy people in front of us, but the ride wasn't terrible. When we arrived in Luxor the next morning, June 24th, a man was waiting for us as soon as we got off the train. His name was Mohammad and he took us to our tour guide who was also named Mohammad. We didn't really like this guide as much as Hend. He was not very personable and at one point during the day, he started preaching to us about how Islam is the only religion and how it is the right one and how all other religions are wrong. We don't really know where it came from or how he even worked it into the tour, but before we knew it, we were getting preached to. It was pretty uncomfortable. However, the sites we saw in Luxor were the best of the whole trip. We went to the West Bank to visit the famous Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut that is named El-Deir El-Bahari temple, and to the Colossi of Memnon. Then we went to the the East bank to visit the Temple of Karnak, which is a city of temples built over 2000 years ago and dedicated to the Thebes triad of Amon, Mut and Khonsu, and then we visited the Temple of Luxor that King Amenhotep III built and dedicated it to Amon-Re, king of the gods, his consort Mut, and their son, Khonsu. Luxor was even hotter than Cairo, so by the end of the day, we were disgusting! We decided that before we boarded the train that evening, we HAD to have showers. So, we talked to Mohammad who arranged for us to get a day hotel room for a few hours until we had to catch the night train back to Cairo. It cost us $30, but it was well worth it.

At 9:15pm, we boarded the train back to Cairo. This train was horrible, however. We were in first class again, but the AC was broken, so, apparently, they had left all the windows open. EVERYTHING was covered in a thick, black layer of dust. Our seats, the rack for our luggage, the window sills, everything! So, we got filthy and so did our bags.

When we arrived in Cairo the next morning, the 25th, a man, Mr. Hesham, met us and drove us back to the Mayroca Hotel, where we dropped off our bags. Then, a driver drove us to Alexandria, which is about a 3 hour drive from Cairo. Our guide, Mustaffa, met us there. In Alexandria, we saw the Catacomb of Kom el-Shoukafa. These tombs were tunneled into the bedrock in the age of the Antoine emperors (2nd century A.D.) for a single wealthy family still practicing the ancient religion. These tombs represent the last existing major construction for the sake of the old Egyptian religion. Then we went to the fort and Citadel of Qaitbay, which was built around 1480 by the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay. It is believed to rest on the site and to be built from the stones of the Pharos lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Near by is a small navel museum, which was mostly devoted to Nelson's defeat of Napoleon's fleet right off the coast of Alexandria on August 1-2, 1798. The last place we visited was Montazah's Summer Palace and royal gardens. Originally itw as built in 1892, and it was the summer home of the Egyptian Royal family. Then, the driver took us back to Cairo.

The 26th was our last day in Egypt. Hend and Islam picked us up at the Hotel at noon and took us for our last meal in Egypt. We got to sit and talk with them for awhile, and Shane and I had a great time. They are incredible people! Hend sat and taught me the arabic alphabet, while Shane and Islam talked about girls. After we ate, they drove us to the airport to catch our plane to Syria. Unfortunately, at that point, Shane and I were having major stomach issues!