Til Now -

Last week of school went by pretty quickly. I had to take finals, written and practical, pack up, send stuff home, plan for what I was going to do after and show friends around. We had the going away party on thursday at a counts house, the same one as first semesters welcoming party and it was once again very nice. I wore the Italian suit my mom got me when she was here and had great food like prosciutto, cheeses, deep fried basil cheese and vegetables and lots of other appetizers. Wine started flowing at around 9:30 and everyone had a good night although we were all saying goodbye. I met some great people and made connections all over the world which is very cool. Afterwards we went out to a club for a little bit and continued the celebration. The next day I got my ticket to Egypt with casey and a couple other kids from my school also decided to come along. I went with Egypt because of a couple reasons: one, its Egypt! and two Its alot cheaper to travel and do things there than around Europe. So I finally knew what I was going to do after school which was: Egypt for a week then Florence for a couple days then Germany to stay with Scott for a couple days then Anchorage to see family then home to Fairbanks. Friday night we had our last night at The Old Stove, which is a really relaxed pub near Piazza Republica we would all (alot of my school) go to after class or work or before going out. It has a large outside seating area and is in a great setting. This is where the real goodbyes went down. Alot of people cried but we had a fun last night together. Saturday I had to go early to the Mail box place to send some goodies my mom wanted and all the clothes and stuff I couldn't fit in my suitcases. 156 Euros! That was a killer. After that I took most of the day to walk around Florence and say a goodbye. Im definitely going to miss my baby. So many things Im going to miss. Ill do a list one of these days. All packed up and ready to go to Egypt I organized one last dinner with the remains of our gang at semolina. There was about 12 that were able to show up and we had pizza and calzones as our last dinner. Casey's friend left that night and we met Casey at the train station the next morning for our 5:50 train to Rome. To save money we took the long slow regional train. We made it to Roma Termini then took the leonardo express to the DaVinci airport. Going through airports is so much easier and quicker in Europe and we were through with plenty of time. We boarded our Alitalia flight and had an alright in-flight meal during the 2:30 minute trip. Flying into Cairo I could see the green surrounding the Nile turn into a golden desert, just like on the maps! After landing I felt the hit of hot, dry air. It had to be about 90. Right after the gate and before the baggage claim we were met by a man holding the name of our party. Samuel was the one who ran the tour group we were in and he guided us through the Visa process (15$) and helped me exchange some American money (from Grandma for my birthday!). The exchange rate is 5.35 Egyptian pounds to the dollar. So with a wad of bills in my pocket I breezed through customs and into the hot sun. Definitely like no other heat. This was Africa hot. We were led to an air-conditioned van with a bodyguard and Samuel up front. Driving into Cairo I was shocked by the craziness of the traffic and I didn't think that was possible after being in Italy. We were informed that there were no street lights in Cairo and that no one used the lines in the street, if there were any. And this is in a city which we have been told has 27, 22 or 18 million people. That is insane! Here they use there horns like we use turn signals. Constant beeping. Because they dont use lanes they beep to let people know where they are, where they are turning or just to beep. The traffic was literally controlled chaos. (with little control) We drove through the vast city that was teeming with people and old looking apartment complexes. The buildings would look so run-down but then the roofs would be covered with satellite dishes. One thing that surprised me was that most of the ads and billboards are in english with arabic on the bottom. We crossed over the Nile which is very large and seems to have a bridge every half kilometer. Sailboats, dinner cruises and all kinds of little water crafts zigzagged across the brown Nile. Right after the Nile we turned on a side street and pulled up to our hotel “King Hotel” a 3 star that looked pretty nice. The front desk man took our luggage to each of our rooms and I (before I got the hang of the money) tipped him 2 pounds. he tried to explain the money a little but I didn't understand then. When I talked to my friends we realized that I had tipped him about 40-cents. Others being tired Casey and I walked around for a while, which is when the “Abdul” scam was attempted. If you dont remember Abdul check out the blog from when my dad and I went to Tunisia in January. We were looking at a Kabob place and this very over weight Egyptian came up and told us about the Kabobs and was very friendly. When we told him we were just going to walk for a while he asked if he could come because his doctor told him he should walk more to help his back pain. He said he was on a special diet and had to be more active (while he was chewing on bread with jam). I groaned to myself the second he said “lets stop in here real quick, I want you to meet my brother”. This after one block of walking. We let him guide us in and we shook hand with a man that did not look anything like him and was much older. He proceeded to give us a lesson on how he had “real” Papyrus and how to spot fakes. We got out as quick as possible and left the Kabob guy behind. We walked through the streets which, because there are no street lights you have to just decide when you want to cross and have faith that the people are going to stop. It really is like that. There are no cross walks or breaks in the road for people to walk across and these are busy 2, 3 lane roads. You look for a little gap and confidently start walking and then start walking which sets off the honking to another level. Another thing that they honk about is every taxi that goes by will honk, pull up beside you and ask if you want ‘taxi”. Everytime. We finally made it to the river and walked across a bridge. The pollution here is terrible and after the walk my throat was hurting. Once across the bridge we walked some more and now were in the section where they try to sell boat rides so we got to hear about boat rides for the next half hour and I dont think “no” is in there vocabulary. I understand they are poor and trying to make a living but because they refuse to stop asking I will never buy from them. Once in a while Ill find one that will and Ill usually get something from them but it takes alot to keep you patience. Wait until I write about Luxor. That was the worst. Anyway the scenery was great and beautiful but we headed back to meet up for dinner at the hotel. We ate pretty cheaply and then went to the rooftop cafe where I had sheesha - the tobacco from a water hookah. The view was great from the 10th story with alot of the building of downtown Cairo lit up with neon lights. We went to our rooms and went to bed as we had to head out early in the morning. I woke up that monday to a crazy heat. It was about 7 AM and the sun was out and beating down. I had kicked of all my sheets and was still hot. I got ready and went down to breakfast which was pretty similar to what they served in Tunisia but with some meet and cheese, not just bread and jam. We all assembled in the lobby and headed out to the first museum. Our guide was Ahmed and we were in the same van as the day before. The museum was an outdoor one so I put on the sunscreen and brought one of my water bottles with me. There were large statues of Pharaohs and kings made out of limestone, granite and other stone. We learned the meaning of foot-placement, crowns, and some of the hieroglyphics. There was a sphinx that was pretty cool and large statues covered in symbols. I really liked the hieroglyphics and it was pretty surreal seeing them in person IN Egypt. The one indoor part of the museum held a huge 40 foot statue of Rames (I dont remember which Ramses) that was really cool. The leg was broken so it was laying down but it was still impressive. Almost everything at the museum was about 4-5 thousand years old. After that museum we all headed to see Sakkara, the first pyramid ever built. It had a huge columned entry building that led to a courtyard with building scattered around. Amazing how well the desert keeps everything preserved. The pyramid wasn't incredibly huge but was still very interesting. There were Egyptians everywhere trying to sell things or get you to take pictures with them. After walking around the desert for a while we got back into a van and went to the Egyptian Papyrus museum where we learned how papyrus was made and got a tour. I got a little roll for 50EL (10$). From there we headed to the real highlights : Giza. We drove up a road right on the outskirts of Cairo and the pyramids were just right there. I thought they were way our in the desert but they were very close to the city. We pulled up to the great Pyramid, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Usually most things you see all the time in pictures and movies are smaller and less impressive in person but this was the opposite. It was incredibly huge. Amazing and powerful. Each block weighs tons and were dragged from a site down river. From there we walked up to the other two huge pyramids (although smaller than the great pyramid) and went in a little bit on one and got to climb on one as well. It was so hot that the sweat evaporates of the skin but it was so amazing the heat didn't even bother me. At the hill above all three there is a little site where Egyptians sell souvenirs and camel rides. There were about 50 camel to choose from. Casey and I were the only ones interested so we had the guide choose an honest camel guy. A little kid who turned out to be 11 had me get on one and “lean way back” In a motion like riding a bull the camel jerked halfway up then paused, leaving me at a very awkward angle then finally jerking all the way up. The kid alternately referred to himself as “michael Jackson” and Mickey Mouse: and continuously asked “happy?” “happy” It was an amazing experience, riding camels through the desert towards the pyramids of Giza. The camels were a little feisty and didn't listen very well but rode pretty smoothly. Our people met us at the bottom and we drove down to where the Sphinx is. Build out of a single block to guard the pyramid sites it has a head of a man and body of a lion. Ou guide, surprised that I knew the french were to blame for the missing nose explained that when Napoleon came to Egypt he had the nose shot off and proclaimed that he had broken the nose of every Egyptian. The Sphinx is down below the pyramids and had a complex of ruins right next to it. although the facade is broken off the Sphinx the shape has help up amazingly well. We drove back to the hotel and had dinner there before waiting for the train to Luxor, which was scheduled to leave at 10pm. We had another guide take us to the train-station. Mohammed, who couldn't keep a straight face when talking about the train. “Its a nice train” laughter. “Youll be able to sleep” laughter. “Its the first class train” laughter. But he was a really nice happy guy and was just being goofy, not rude. The train showed up an hour late and we went onto our cars. Our travel partners in the next car and we were in seats near the front of the next one. It was an overnight train and we were in seats about the size of first class Airplanes but not nearly as nice. The train was pretty dirty and the bathrooms disgusting but I didn't mind. Im in Egypt and Im not picky. I grew up in a cabin without running water. One strange thing was right after the train started a guard handed the man in front of me a MP5 machine gun with 2 clips attached and he just set it in his lap. Every few minutes during the train ride we would all of a sudden jerk around and look back at the rest of the car. I didn't know whether to feel very safe or very unsafe. We got into Luxor about 2 hours late and the heat there made Cairo seem like Alaska. It felt like you had to move through solid air and breathing in dried your mouth out. The wind was like the wind out of a hairdryer and not a relief at all. Our guide was there and picked up in a little taxi. Luxor was very different that Cairo. Dirt roads and donkey carts were everywhere. The building looked much poorer and not as well kept. He drove us to our hotel and helped us check in. We had a scheduled tour at 4 and it was about 11:30 so we had some free time. We each went to our rooms and put our stuff up then met in the lobby. Suntan lotion applied we headed out. The heat was incredible. Ive never felt anything like it. Walking past a construction site we saw young kids ages 11-16 working in the heat with no shoes shoveling gravel. Pretty powerful image to see in person. I could barely handle walking in the heat, let alone working in clouds of dust shoveling rocks all day. We walked downtown and were greeted by carriage after carriage with the man saying “carriage, you want carriage” or some variation of that. Like the ones in cairo but much worse because there were hundreds of carriage drivers plus taxi drivers on the road side then boat drivers on the Nile side asking about boat rides. So every 30 second you had another guy that wouldn't take no for an answer trying to sell you something you didn't want. We walked to the main temple that was in Luxor (formerly Thebes) which was right in the middle of town near the Nile. Stone structures and columns mixed with statues of gods went on for blocks and were covered by hieroglyphics. It was so hot we stopped in the neighborhood mcdonalds for the air-conditioning and learned that it was a 4 star restaurant. Summoning up the resolve to face the endless attempts at hustling we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the tour guide. When they came we told them that because w had already walked to the Temples we just wanted a little tour by car of the city. They obliged, showing us some places to eat. We actually ended up eating at KFC, a fact I dont feel bad about because I haven't eaten American fast food in a long time. Plus alot of the places were too expensive. I went back to my room as we had an 8 in the morning start. The next morning we met up for breakfast in the hotel, which was much better than the earlier hotel. A full breakfast buffet was there along with a guy there to make custom omelets. We met the tour bus outside and headed across the nile to the west bank where the Valley of the Kings and other sites are. Going into the west bank it got very rural with fields of crops and tiny shanty villages. Ladies carrying huge loads on their heads and kids herding animals. The palm trees and green slowly melted into desert as we were about to enter the hottest place I have every been. The ancient Egyptians created the valley of the kings on the west bank because as part of their worship on the sun and Ra (sun god) they saw that as the sun set in the west the west side was for death and departure. There are over 30 tombs dug into the valley including Ramses 1-4 and king tutankhaman. Getting out of the van at about 11 it felt like stepping into an oven. The guide said it was about 39-40c and it felt even hotter because we were in a white and red sand valley that seemed to bottle in the heat. We got a little history lesson then were allowed to choose 3 of the tombs to see. Our guide recommended Ramses 1,3 and 4 so we headed into those. Going under the ground was even hotter with the added humidity sucking even more energy out. The Hieroglyphics that quickly appeared quickly made you forget about the heat. The other symbols that I had seen had been carved into stone and small but now as I descended into the 1st tomb life size paintings of gods and pharaohs sprung to life in vibrant reds, blues, greens and other colors. It went on for a while with different chambers. It was incredible how well preserved these millennia old picture stories were. I kept thinking to myself “I am in Egypt in a tomb looking at real hieroglyphics”. Each tomb had something different. The first had a large sarcophagus, the second the best, most extensively preserved hieroglyphics and the third the largest. It was a very cool experience. Coming out I took some pics of the area and we headed out. That day we were in a larger group of about 12 people. Next we went to Queen Hatshepsut’s temple and got to walk around in the desert a little bit. This temple was large and had two sets of steps leading up to a courtyard surrounded by columns. Here it had become so hot I had to wrap my shirt around my head. I had already gone through about 3 big bottles of water. Next we saw the colossi of memnon which were two large guardian statues that were pretty cool. After that we were finished with the tour for the day. I stopped by my room for my laptop and we went to mcdonalds for the free wireless which I used to catch up and try to buy my ticket to germany but I am not able to access anything from here. Wellsfargo, use my credit card or anything. After internet and ice cream we went back to the hotel where we went straight to the rooftop pool. The water felt great and it was still very hot. I got to talking with a couple guys who we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the night. One was named Marc who works in hollywood and has done some of my favorite movies the other was Logan, a canadian who works for an oil company. We got along really well and they were nice enough to buy a couple rounds of beers (stella an Egyptian beer that wasn't bad, especially in a pool on a hot day). We talked in the pool for about 3 hours then decided to head out to eat. Marc had a really cool story about how he got into hollywood and we shared alot of the same interests. Hes about 40 and gets to travel around the world for most of the year. Casey came with us from the pool and we found a little place that served Egyptian food. The food quality was pretty bad but we had fun getting to know them and smoked a good sheesha. After that we went back to the hotel and caught our car to the trainstation and another hell train back to cairo. This one took about 11 hours and was filled with snoring egyptians with their bare feet up and loud yelling in arabic on their cell phones at 8 in the morning. But what are you gonna do? When we were picked up we checked into our rooms and went straight to the first sight, the Citadel. Build as a fortress a few hundred years ago it has the most famous mosque of egypt. It was my first time inside a mosque and it was very nicely done. We all had to take our shoes off and the ladies had to cover themselves with blankets they provided. After the Citadel and a little lesson on history and the religion we headed over to the Egyptian museum which has over 100,000 pieces. It was really cool and filled with artifacts, statues and stone tablets covered in hieroglyphics. The highlight was the second floor which was completely things they found in “King Tut’s” tomb (and its a big floor). There were 5 Huge wooden box like cases covered in gold and each went inside of the other, then there were 3 gold sarcophagus’s that went into each other then into the smallest box and finally gold to cover the entire mummy along with countless pieces of gold and precious stone jewelry. The highlight was the darth vader like head piece which was 25 pounds of gold inlaid with jewels. That was just for the body. There were all types of gold artifacts and other things that had been placed in his tomb for when he was resurrected. After the museum we asked the guide to take us to a schwarma place and they took us to a supposedly famous one right by our hotel. It was really good and we actually went back twice today, for pizza then for dinner. Thats it up to now. Tomorrow we all go to Alexandria and the famous library and some roman ruins. Hopefully some beach time too. Any questions, please ask. Ill put pics up for this tomorrow.