MORE Egypt . . .

Sunrise from Sinai 9/28/08

Muhammad Ali Mosque 9/27/08

Luxor Train Station- waiting for the night train 9/25/08

Travel Dream #2 =)

Luxor Temple 9/25/08

Karnak Temple 9/25/08

Habu Temple 9/24/08

Great Day in Luxor 9/24/08

Valley of the Kings

Falukas on the Nile

My camel, Ali Baba, and Amman

The Old Bazaar 

Some Egypt Pictures!

Cairo 9/22/08

Pyramids!!! 9/23/08

The Sphinx 9/23/08

Statue of Ramses II at Memphis 9/23/08

Lady making pitas at Saqqara Restaurant 9/23/08

Travel Dream #1: Stairs to an airplane! 9/23/08

Let My People Go, Best Trip EVER continued

Wednesday, September 24- Tombs, Falukas, Camels, Kids and Creepers

         How can I even describe this day?! It was absolutely incredible. I've noticed that in the past month I have acquired the habit of describing everything as the BEST THING EVER, but this day was truly epic.

         In the morning we went to the Valley of the Kings, which was one of my favorite things I've seen. The first tomb we went in was King Tut's. His is the only tomb they have found that hadn't been raided at any time and the treasure from it is insane. Most of it is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but they left a golden sarcophagus and his mummy inside the tomb. We also went in the tombs of Ramses III and Ramses IV. The hieroglyphics and mural frescoes on the walls and ceilings were so interesting! I was amazed at how well many of the pictures were preserved and how bright some of the colors were. We also went in the tomb of Thutmosis III. It was a bit different from the other tombs and I loved it. It was one of the farthest tombs back and we had to walk up a ton of stairs to get to it. Inside there were stairs and different levels too.

         The major tragedy was that we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the tombs. I've heard talk of people who were able to bribe the guards or who just took pictures anyway, but the guards we saw meant business. One girl in our group snapped a picture in Tut's tomb and got her camera taken away. She had to get our tour guide to pay the guy to get it back. I personally appreciated the spacious construction of the tombs; it was far more pleasant than inside the pyramid. Still, I swear it must have been 10 or 15 degrees hotter inside. It was sweltering, but made us appreciate the weather outside. 

         Next we went to the Habu Temple, the funerary temple of Ramses III. It was huge and really pretty. I thought it was so cool! Again, there were tons of hieroglyphics and murals painted or carved into the stone everywhere you looked. It would be amazing to see how it looked when it was built, before things were broken and colors faded.

         We stopped briefly to see a couple things on the way back, but I don’t really have time to mention them. I hope this is giving everyone an idea of how much we are able to see, and why I’m always so busy!

         Our hotel in Luxor was the Sheraton Resort, and it was right on the Nile River. It was beautiful! In the afternoon we headed down to the water and got onto the falukas that were waiting for us. They were pretty big, colorful sailboats, each holding about 20 people. We had a very leisurely ride to the other side of the river, just hanging out on the boats and enjoying how beautiful it was on the river. It was totally fun just to be floating down the NILE RIVER listening to Bob Marley, naturally. They love him in Egypt, and we loved partying to a little reggae on our ride. I dipped my fingers in the water and then promptly sanitized them. The Nile is just teeming with bacteria and diseases, but still I couldn’t resist just touching it a little. We were also feeling sorry for all our friends back in the states who were probably sitting in class around that time. =)

          The falukas dropped us off for our camel safari!! That’s right, I rode a camel! Approaching a crowd of 40 smelly and very loud camels was pretty crazy! There was a boy in charge of leading each camel and we climbed on to begin the trek. My camel was named Ali Baba and the boy who led my safari was Amman. It was really fun to go through the neighborhoods and see the people. All the little kids ran out waving and saying hello. We went through some farmland too, where we saw things like bananas growing. It was such a great experience! Camels are probably some of the grossest animals in the world. Man, they are dirty and seriously weird looking! It’s awesome! I was only sad I didn’t see any of them spit.

         That night after dinner a group of us went out to the Old Bazaar. There were tons of people out, and lots of kids begging. It’s a good thing they were so cute, or it would have been really annoying. Lindy was teaching them to say things like “I’m cute,” “You’re pretty,” and “I’m handsome.” It was pretty funny just having them walk along with us. At the Bazaar the Egyptian men certainly lived up to their infamous reputation. We got the big lectures before we went about never ever being alone and girls always having a boy with them, but I didn’t really believe it would be that bad. They like kissy noises and we think the favorite line was. “Hey spicy girl!” Creeptastic. Aside from being on edge because of scary males, the bazaar was super fun and totally crazy.

Thursday, September 25- Temple, Temple

         Thursday morning we took a boat ride to the Karnak Temple. It was huge and, again, full of drawings and hieroglyphics. Then we took a carriage ride to the Luxor Temple. It was cool too, but not as big. In the afternoon we walked through some neighborhoods over to the Bazaar again. Walking through the streets and seeing the people was really interesting. It is hard to believe how different life is!

         That night we headed to the Luxor Train Station for our night train back to Cairo. The train ride was one of the things I was really excited for. I had never been in a sleeping car before so I couldn’t wait! The train was totally disgusting and smelly, but we thought it was pretty much a party. Another one of my travel dreams come true!

Friday, September 26- Mummies and Hard Rock

         Our train pulled into Cairo a little after 5:00 am, so we were a little worried about the big day ahead but it turned out just great. We went to the Egyptian Museum, which was really awesome. The security there was way tighter than at the airport. Go figure. You aren’t even allowed to walk into the building with a camera. They have some pretty amazing things in there. One of the best things was seeing all of the treasures from King Tut’s tomb. Everything seemed to be gold and jeweled. It was beautiful! The other main attraction is the royal mummy room. They charge like crazy to get in too: ten dollars for students and twenty for adults. We saw the mummy of Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh, and Ramses II, who ruled for over 60 years, as well as others.

         Lunch at Hard Rock Café was a blast! It was so good to eat a hamburger. Mmmm! The festivities even included dancing to YMCA with the waiters. It felt the most like home of anywhere we had been.

         After lunch we went to the Khan al-Khalili Bazaar. It was huge and packed with people. It was our last shopping opportunity in Egypt, so everybody was frantically trying to buy their last souvenirs.

Saturday, September 27- Mosques

         Our last visits in Cairo were to the Cairo Citadel and Mosque of Muhammad Ali, and to the Ibn Tulun Mosque. The Mosque of Muhammad Ali was exquisite. Everything inside was so pretty. The decorations in mosques are all geometric instead of having paintings of people like in a lot of Christian churches. The Ibn Tulun Mosque didn’t have as many decorations as the previous one, but it was really cool. We were able to go up the minaret and the view was awesome. Before the days of microphones and speakers the Imam of the mosques would have to climb up the hundreds of stairs for the call to prayer five times a day. What a workout!

         On our way out of town we drove by the City of the Dead, a huge cemetery with a bunch of big tombs and mausoleums. Our guide said there are around one million or more homeless people living there- pretty hard to believe.

Sunday, September 28- Sinai

         Unlike our other hotels in Egypt, the Morgenland Hotel in Sinai was really disgusting. People woke up with all kinds of bug bites. We were glad we didn’t have much time there. Wake up call (banging on our doors) came at 1:30 and we headed over to Mount Sinai. It was still pitch black and the stars were so bright. The hike only took about two hours and we got to the top before sunset. The main hazard was the camels making the trek to the top. The Bedouins in the area show up with their camels and tourists pay to ride them up. Seeing the sky light up as the sun peeked over the mountains was beautiful! Walking down in the later was fun because we got to see what we had walked up! It was such an amazing experience.

         Packing up was a little sad because it meant leaving Egypt, but it was sweet that going back to Jerusalem was like going home! This is the best semester ever. I can hardly believe what amazing things I am doing!

When Ali Was in Egypt's Land

I've been here in Jerusalem for a whole month now, and it just keeps getting better and better. It is totally surreal to be here. Our trip to Egypt last week was the coolest thing ever! So much awesomesness was packed into the week that a comprehensive description is pretty much impossible, so a bit of a week summary will have to do. 

Sunday, September 21- Still in Israel

I woke up early for 5:30 breakfast and loaded the buses at 6:15. We visited some cool sites in Israel along our drive. First was the ancient city at Tel Beersheba. We got to walk through the ruins and had to wear hardhats, which made it all seem very official. Then we stopped at the Wilderness of Zin Overlook and David Ben Gurion's Grave. The Wilderness of Zin is where the children of Israel wandered. After seeing it I think I can say that I definitely would have been murmuring too. David Ben Gurion was the first Prime Minister of Israel and he is super important here, so it was just interesting to talk about the things he did. Our next stop, at Tel Avdat, was the coolest. It began as a Nabatean city on the trade route through the desert from Petra. Most of what we saw was crusader ruins. It was big and so cool! Everything is so old. We stopped at Kibbutz Yotvata for a tour and dinner. Yotvata was the first kibbutz in Israel and is about fifty years old. It was interesting to see all the farm land and here about the kibbutz lifestyle. They basically apply socialist ideals on a small scale with people who choose to join. There are about 300 members of the kibbutz and it takes close to two years to get in. You have to go through a huge process. We stayed the night at Kibbutz Eilat. They get most of their income from tourism. 

Monday, September 22- Riding on a Bus Through the Desert

In the morning we got to deal with crossing the border into Egypt. We actually made it through in less than two hours, so we were lucky. There was some concern about how it would go because of Ramadan. We have learned that Ramadan changes everything. Things open late, close early, and are just a little crazy in general. Also, since Egypt is an Islamic country they had already turned back their clocks. We drove through the Sinai all day. I don't think I have ever seen so much nothingness. It is just desert everywhere you look, and we drove like that for I think about seven hours. We had two rest stops, but those really wouldn't even count as towns. It was sweet to see camels by the side of the road and a few Bedouin tents along the way. 

Driving into Cairo that evening was such an experience. The poverty there was unlike anything I've ever seen. I had thought that things were pretty bad here in East Jerusalem, but it was nothing like Cairo. All the houses/apartments were unfinished and I only saw a couple with glass in the windows. There seemed to be huge piles of trash and waste everywhere you looked with people walking through them and mangy animals roaming around. Actually seeing it is so much more powerful than the pictures and even videos. It was really humbling to see that, and seemed a little wrong to pull up to our 5 star hotel that night. 

We stayed at the Oasis Pyramid Hotel, and it was really nice. Water, fruit, vegetables, and anything not cooked are off limits in Egypt, so we mostly ate at our hotels and always at places that were very clean. I thought the food was delicious and I ate a ton! Luckily, I seem to have an iron stomach and didn't get sick like some people did. After dinner at the hotel we went to the Sound and Lights show at the pyramids! I like to call to it Egyptian Fantasmic. It was actually pretty cheesy, but so totally awesome at the same time. They just shined lights and pictures on the pyramids and went through some history of ancient Egypt. It was just fun and so exciting to be there!

Tuesday, September 23- Pyramids!!

The obvious highlight of this day was going to the pyramids! Everyone was so excited- we were difficult to contain. We took so many pictures and just walked, no- bounced, around them. We even got to go inside! That was really intense for me because it was tiny, but it was way too cool to pass up. The shaft going down was probably about four feet high so I had to crouch, and there would be people coming up at the same time. Luckily they had spots that opened up so I could stand for a minute. When we got to the room at the end there wasn't really anything to see, but it was just so awesome to be INSIDE a pyramid! Inside it was like a sauna. The heat was seriously oppressive and the air was sort of heavy and almost hard to breathe. Crazy! Going inside made the heat outside feel pretty pleasant. Just being at the pyramids was a total dream! Then we headed down to check out the Sphinx, and of course take the classic Sphinx-kissing picture. 

We ate a yummy lunch, complete with pitas cooked in a fire/oven contraption by a very native-looking woman, at Saqqara Restaurant before heading to see Zoser's complex at Saqqara. Zoser's step pyramid was the precursor to the great pyramids at Giza, so that was pretty cool to see. Next was a stop at ancient Memphis. The main event there was a huge statue of Ramses II. It is amazing how well-preserved it is. The face on it looks flawless! There are a lot of huge things around related to Ramses II. He was really into himself

The next event was the perfect conclusion to an absolutely fabulous day, fulfilling one of my transportation dreams! We made our way to the Cairo Airport to catch our evening flight to Luxor. The security there was ridiculous. We just had random boarding passes with names from various people in our group and no one checked our ideas. Security was pretty much a joke. Our bags were scanned and we walked through metal detectors, but I don't think anyone even paid attention. We all carried on 1.5 liter bottles of water too. It was so weird. The coolest thing was that we got to go out and walk up the stairs to the plane. I have seriously wanted to do that for so long. That's maybe a little lame, but I loved it! Getting off in Luxor was the most fun because when we walked off the stairs we were cheering and waving to no one. =) 

All in all, this day is just one example of why Egypt was basically the coolest week of my life!!

To be continued . . .