The Pyramids of Giza

Why Egypt? You would think that the pyramids would be a good enough reason wouldn't they? They were fantastic and I was in awe of them, but they weren't the reason why I had been interested in visiting the country. My Greek teacher from year 3 onwards, was absolutely fascinated about everything Egyptian. She had a particular love of the Ancient mythology from the area. I think I learned more about Egypt than I did about Greece. She just had this way of speaking about this country she loved, so passionately that I told myself I had to go one day. I just didn't realise that 'one day' was going to be in 2006. 

I visited Egypt in December, 2006 and then again in January, 2008. I am sure I got ripped off with a tour of the pyramids, but hey, I was a tourist, I didn't mind. Others have lost a lot more money than I did. I had a tour on horseback, as they were 'out of camels'. It was not a sentence I expected to ever hear, 'Ma'am I am sorry, we have run out of camels, could I interest you in a horse?'. 

I have ridden horses many times home in Adelaide, however I fell off this particular one in the Giza Desert. I thought that was pretty cool though. I'm not sure how many others can say that. Went to get back on the horse and the saddle just rolled right around the horses belly. Apart from a little limp I had afterwards for a couple of days, it was a great trip. I have now realised, it could be the source of my back pain I have just been suffering through, but ah well, I saw the pyramids!

 Seriously, who doesn't tell someone that their hair looks like this in a photo?

Scenes from Cairo

The very busy roads.

The Nile River

Just taking a nap.

  

The Egyptian Museum

I don't know what to say about this place other than I was amazed. It was absolutely wonderful and my favourite place in Cairo. I was just blown away with the exhibits. It is so huge that I wasn't able to see it all. Unfortunately at the time I was there, many of Tutankhamen's artifacts were in the US for an exhibit. Of course there was still plenty of things to see there. There is no photography in the museum allowed, but I did take a photo of the outside.

My Apartment in Cairo

It was cheaper this trip to rent an apartment rather than pay for a hotel It was a very decent sized place with 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms. The apartment was bigger than my house, though the colours took a little while to get used to. 

Egypt

I didn't sleep on the plane at all from Narita to Amsterdam or on the plane to Cairo, so I went about 20 hours without sleep, arrived at 2am at the airport and 4am at the hotel. Credit Card issues, which was fantastic to hear so early the morning, thinking they were going to kick me out of the hotel!

I went to the pyramids and saw the sphinx. It was so amazing being so close to them. There were ruins of the old houses that the workers lived in, and also ruins of their graves. I didn't ride a camel, I am sorry to EVERYONE who asked me to, but surprisingly my tour company had run out of camels. Luckily I am a horse person, offer me a horse or a weird shaped spitting animal, and I will choose the horse everytime. After the tour of the pyramids I bought some really nice perfume that will supposedly help me get a boyfriend (I am still waiting for my omamori to kick in), but it just smells so good!

Driving to the pyramids was an adventure, they are crazy drivers! I think at one point he was driving at about 140km/h down a very busy road. There is meant to be 3 lanes of traffic, but somehow Egyptian drivers manage to squeeze in 5 lanes. They all just beep each other when they want to get past. I would never want to drive there.

My driver took me to the papyrus museum, that was really interesting and beautiful. I bought a piece of papyrus with the Eye of Protection painted on it. The guy who showed me around then also gave me a free hieroglyphic alphabet on a small piece of papyrus. It was a pity I wasn't allowed to take photos of them.

I found that everyone in Cairo stared at me, men, women, children. I was proposed to about eight times, all up. I was offered many cows for my hand in marriage. One of the managers at the hotel took my photo and the staff who stand at the dining room doors would stare at me. It was the weirdest feeling. Everyone was really nice though, and so the trip was fantastic. I made friends with foreigners too at the bar...oh I was at home at the bar!

I wanted more photos, but on the tour because we were riding horses and I didn't have my bag, the guide had my camera. There were also a few places I went to that I couldn't take photos, but I had lots of fun!