Under the Egyptian Sun

My last post was all about snow and skiing and winter, so today I'm going in an entirely different direction - south. Last week, my school was on half-term break (i.e. we can't possibly be in school for more than six weeks at a time, so have a week off!), so Deb, Craig, Jen and I headed down to Egypt to soak up some much needed vitamin D. We booked a five-star, all-inclusive holiday and had every intention of doing nothing at all. Mostly, we were successful.

Most days, we just lay by the water, taking in the sun and the heat, and almost managing to forget that it is, in fact, still winter. We entertained ourselves by drinking, eating, and trying desperately to avoid the attention of the amorous hotel staff by pretending we were asleep. On Sunday, we even got in the pool and joined in on the daily water aerobics. The other days, though, we contented ourselves in listening to the daily announcement of "Ladies and Gentlemen, in ten minutes we invite you to the pool for WATER AEROBICA!!!!" followed by some music, then "WATER FANTASTICA!", then music, then "WATER GYMNASTICA!!", then music. One day we are certain we heard the animation guy say "WATER EROTICA!", but there is really no way of knowing for sure.

On Tuesday, Deb and I got off our lazy butts and actually did get something accomplished. At 2 o'clock in the morning, we were picked up by a tour bus for the 6 hour journey to Cairo. Though we attempted to get some sleep on the bus, we mostly failed due to discomfort, so it was a long ride... Anyway, when we arrived in Cairo, we were shipped onto another bus where we met our own personal tour guide - sometimes, it pays off to be the only two English speakers in a group of Russians!

We started our day off at the Egyptian Museum, where our oh-so-clever guide took us upstairs first, to avoid the mob of other tour groups, all of whom start downstairs. He talked and talked and talked about stuff that is actually really interesting. Unfortunately for me, his accent was mostly indecipherable, so I only undertood about 5 percent of what he said. Deb obviously didn't have the same problem - every now and then, she would come up with some question for him that absolutely blew my socks off, mostly because the information her question was based on had gone completely over my head.

We followed up our visit to the museum with an outdoor photoshoot. It seems that being a tour guide in Cairo is synonymous with being a professional photographer, because our guide was a star! He kept holding out his hand and saying "Give me the camera and go stand over there." We did it, and he took awesome shots.

After that, we went to a Papyrus paper factory, which was pretty cool. We got a quick demo of how the paper is made and how to tell if it's real or not before being given ample time to shop (shocking, I know).

Next came lunch, which was not only delicious, but served in a cafe with a direct view of the pyramids. Somehow, I did not expect the pyramids of Giza to be right in the middle of the city, but they practically are! There we were, sitting in a cafe, looking out at the street...and across the street - pyramids. Odd, but fantastic!

After lunch, we crossed the street to the pyramids. They are...exactly as you'd expect them to be. It's funny, because every time I've visited such an extremely famous monument, it's been so much greater than any picture ever suggested. The pyrmaids, however awe-inspiring and spectacular they might be, look and feel exaclty as they do in all their photos. This does not mean I was unimpressed - I'm just stating my surprise at how photos have finally done something justice! We spent the afternoon at the pyramids, taking photos and listening to more jumbled-up history and fun-facts. We visited the inside of one of the pyramids, too, which I was not terribly fond of - I felt pretty claustrophobic and somehow got it into my head that I was only breathing the carbon dioxide other people were producing. Not cool. Then we decided that if we were going to be tourists, we might as well go big or go home - so we hired two camels and went for a ride. We once again took a million photos, then headed back to our bus to go see the Sphinx.

Of course, throughout our visit to the Sphinx and the pyramids, we were hounded by vendors selling everything from postcards to "crystal" pyramids. I think I kept Deb widly entertained with the way I turned them all down - I told the postcard guy I couldn't buy anything because I was illiterate, the guy with the wooden cat statues that I was allergic to cats so that wouldn't work, and the guy with the collector's coins that I had plenty of them in my wallet. A simple "No, thank you." would have been too easy.

At the end of the day, we got back on the bus for another 6 hours back to the hotel. After that long day, we were once again unenthused about doing terribly much, so we spent the rest of the week back at the pool, or jumping in the Red Sea.

Overall, I would say I had a terribly unproductive, super-fantastic week. I would go back in a heartbeat.