Egypt

It all started in the dirty city of Alexandria where our ship docked. There wasn’t much to see in this city besides trash and poverty, but I did get out to take a look at the underground catacombs and the beautiful library. Since the city didn’t have much more to offer besides a library, I decided to hop on a train to Cairo.

Cairo is a much more lively city with over 17 million crazy Egyptians living there. With almost no traffic lights or any rules on the road, you can imagine the streets are pretty ridiculous and almost impossible to cross. They say that only people that have grown up in Cairo can drive in Cairo, which made for some fun taxi rides.

I spent the first day in Cairo at the pyramids of Giza. They were so much more massive than I expected. It was much too hot to walk around the Sahara desert, so we decided to take a little tour with horses. The kid that was leading my tour asked me, “My friend, have you ever ridden a horse before?” I explained to him that I hadn’t ever rode one very seriously. He went on to ask, “Do you want to race?” I told him that I would give it a try, so before I knew it he was yelling and whipping the horses until they were in a full gallop through the open desert. Bouncing up and down with every gallop, I thought I was going to fall off the thing, but by the end of the race he said I was a true cowboy. Then with a more relaxed pace, we trotted around the pyramids and the Sphinx in the scorching Egyptian sun. To end this great day, I met up with our family friend, Becca Donaldson, for some coffee and kosheri (an Egyptian pasta with spicy tomato sauce and fried onions).

A lot of my second day in Cairo was spent finding a hotel to stay at and getting train tickets, but once that was done it was time for a great Egyptian meal which consisted of Egyptian bread with many dipping sauces, falafel (fried chick pea sandwich), pigeon, and fresh mango juice. After the meal, we stopped by a small art gallery where we bought a couple of Egyptian paintings painted on flattened papyrus (an Egyptian plant). It ended up being a valuable purchase because the shop owner who painted them led us around the city for the rest of the day. He brought us down the Nile at sunset on a felucca (Egyptian boat) that his family owned. After the boat ride, he brought us to the Bazaar and helped us bargain for Egyptian souvenirs. It turned out to be a great day, and it was nice to see the city with a local.

On the last day in Cairo, we went to the Egyptian museum where many of the things that were once inside the pyramids are displayed. There were many mummies, sarcophaguses, and jewels/gold. My favorite part was the exhibit with the anient treasures of king Tut, which included his famous mask that was on his body when it was buried. We had just enough time to grab a quick shwarma (roasted beef sandwich) for lunch before we hopped on the train back to Alexandria.

I’m spending the last day in Cairo relaxing and getting my last filling of the delightful Egyptian cuisine before I get on the boat to go to Morocco!