Egypt- Day 6

{journal entry}

Day 6

so my day in Cairo ended. after i wrote last, i was talking with my group about their jobs/life in england. then we left to go to our gate. wow. that was utter chaos. there was NO order to the airport. a ton of people-two flights worth-were just standing in big jumbles. luckily i took some pics & video of it. it was chaotic. but finally we all boareded & we landed back in Sharm. when i got off i was a bit seperated from my group and when i walked up to them i heard a mans voice say "MONICA!" i was looking all around and it was the guy from the morning who organized us into groups at the airport. it was a great welcome back.

so back to th day. we were driving into cairo-in all the traffic with the soldiers & police in disguise and then all the black cars & motorcycles passed by and the president of egypt was in one of them. we also drove passed where the presidents house is.

we drove into the heart of cairo. the drive was madness. there are lines on the road but no one follows them. people drive wherever they want and drive so close. honking is done more than would be acceptable in the US. people just walk everywhere on the streets and into the road. motorcycle riders without helmets, cars broken down, people riding on the back of trucks. no order to anything. i was so bizarre.

the houses/apt buildings look filthy. most buildings look either like they were just bombed or falling apart from natural causes. people lived in shacks on the nile, people live in shacks on teh drive up to the pyramids. such a poor & dirty city. my tour guide said that 22 million people live in cairo. that is outrageous. it is such a trashy city, trash everywhere, places (like i said) looks like it was just bombed. it was worse than china. at least china was green & beautiful, cairo is brown, deserty and dry. we saw some green but very little.

we drove first to the art museum which was chucked full of the ancient findings. it was amazing. our tour guide walked around with us for an hour & told us what things were- then we had 45 min to ourselves to walk around. i could have spent all day in there. it is amazing that they, the ancient egyptians, had so much invented. i saw everything you could have imagined- old bread, jewelry, clothe underwear, sandals, bedrooms, chairs, old writings, weaponry, coffins, figurines, etc etc etc. i wish i wasn't pressed for time. i LOVE LOVE looking at and studying these ancient artifacts. we weren't allowed to bring our cameras inside the museum which if you think about it its a very good idea because it would take sooo much longer to go thru the place if everyone(which was tons of people) inside where stopping and taking pictures. also, people would be climbing on the artifacts wanting to take pictures with them.

after we finished in the museum, we headed over to the restaurant where we had lunch. it was on the nile and we ate egyptian food. it was pretty good. it was a buffet of salads and desserts then we got to choose what kind of meat. i chose the traditional egyptian plate. my group & i sat together. i like those people. i got a can of fanta orange soda (which was the only thing i had to pay for because the food was included in the price of the excursion) which was 15 egyptian pounds which is about $4 but i think it was worth it, i needed that orange soda.

after lunch we headed to the pyramids. the first sight of them was pretty amazing. we saw them far off just the tops of them through the skyline of the city buildings. on our way to the pyramids we stopped at a papyrus shop where they showed us how it is made and i bought a couple. someday i will frame them and have them up in my house. i bought one with a boat(i love boats) and one with the famous judgement scene. i bargained with them and got a good price. made friends with the men there. we all shared in a joke together.

after the papyrus shop we headed to the pyramids. there they were. i was finally there. i was on ground where the ancients buried their kings & queens. i was in an important place. however amazing it was to b there it was a bit tainted by all the beggars trying to get you to buy something. it was obnoxious. all i wanted to do was take pictures and revel in the experience. because i was walking alone around i got stopped by someone one right after another. the first kid was up on his camel. he kept saying "madame we have same eyes. same eyes" i tried ignoring him but he just came back. then another kid came over with him. he was trying to tell me that the other kid was saying we had the same eyes. which was true. they tried to get me on the came. i said no i didn't want to ride it. they were trying to force me. they put a wrap on my head and were trying to get me in a picture. but i knew that meant they would try and get me to give them money. which of course they ended up trying. they were relentless. i told them i had no money but they said pull out my wallet. it was obnoxious. however the little boy was (okay he was like 14 so not that little) but he was adorable and i wanted a picture. so i said fine if i can get a picture of you both i will give you some money. so i got 2 pics. then i gave them some money to share. then the second kid told me to give the younger boy(the beautiful eyed boy) a kiss on the cheek. i did then he gave me one too. then finally they left then another man came over. then another. the third "gave" me gifts but then wanted something in return. i said i didnt have anything. at first he wanted my watch. NO. so then he was like how about money. AHH NO so i gave him back his things. he gave me a postcard though. gosh. finally i was able to walk around for a bit taking pictures. not gonna lie, i am pretty happy about them. then the beautiful eye boy came back on his camel to talk to me. we exchanged names but i dont remember his. it was tricky. he asked if had a phone number or email. i said no. we chatted for a bit then i left and put my bag in the car. should have left it there in the first place. then i chatted with our tour guide and driver for a bit. i told them how it was my dream to be here.

oh ps. i had to lie to allllll those people at the pyramids cuz everyone of them asked if i was married or had a boyfriend. i had to make up several lies about a boyfriend to one man. they were all like he is a lucky man. hah. but it had to be done. these people were very very friendly but hard to trust.

after chatting for a bit with the guide and driver i headed over to the edge of the hill to take pics of the city from up above. this where i met mohamed. i cant remember what he said first but i was like i don't have any money-which at this point i was just brought my cameras out. SMART. mohamed was like no i am not trying to sell you anything and was kind of offended i implied. but i had to make it known. he walked with me & he pointed out where the sphinx is. i told him he had beautiful eyelashes. he showered me with compliments. we talked about how he has never been to school. he was raised out there by the pyramids selling. he learned english there and french and italian. just from all the people he mets every year. he said he loved america. i asked if he ever wanted to move away from egypt, he said he wanted to but its too hard. he told me if i wanted an egyptian husband i could marry him (how did he know i was in pursuit of one?) he asked for my email. which i felt fine giving him. i gave him my old one which doesn't have my last name. he was kinda getting in trouble for talking with me so long. he pulled me aside and put a head wrap on me and said it was a gift. he told me he loved me. hah. i was like mohamed you don't know me. and he was like, but i do. oh boy, what did i get myself into! then i had to leave & go back to my van, oh but not before i made him take picture with me.

i headed back to the van where the tour guide was out there with some tour guide friends and we were all there chit chatting. they all loved me, i got them all laughing and riled up. 2 guys including my tour guide were pretend fighting over me saying how many camels they would buy me for. i got 300. i felt/feel very comfortable with these people. then everyone else in my group arrived and we piled in the van and headed down to the sphinx. while driving down the hill we passed mohamed & since i was sitting in the back i turned and waved and he mouthed if i was going to the sphinx. i said yes.

so when we got there he came over to me. then left. then came back and gave me his email & phone number. hah. oh boy. keep in mind anytime we were walking together he was either holding my hand, had his hand on my back or arm around my shoulders. then he walked with me for a bit but then he said he had to go to work. and he asked for a kiss on his cheek. then he gave me one. that was that last time i saw him. it makes me a tad nervous he has one of my emails, but i am choosing to think it is harmless.

GOSH there are a million flies here. i have tons of fly bites on my legs. i ahve been here @ the pool since 10:30 and its 3pm now. hah, i love it.

so i walked around the sphinx and took pics. im telling you those sellers are everywhere. they were less annoying and less pushy down by the sphinx though. if only these people realized they could make more money if they weren't so in your face. i would have gone over and bought some things if i wasn't afraid hordes of people would see i was buying something and try to get me too. i wish i was able to just enjoy the pyramids but i am grateful i was able to meet many people there and talk to these egyptians. i also learned a lot about these people by talking and interacting with them.

then we left the pyramids. we traveled out and it is awful how junky and trashy these streets and buildings were. it was so sad. here these ancient kings & queens built these egyptian cities, glorious cities and now cairo is trash.

we headed to a perfume shop. i like to think of it like the mafia of perfume shops. we went in this below ground level shop with couches and large perfume bottles all along shelves on all the walls. we were offered drinks. i got a 7up which came in this glass bottle with arabic writing so i kept it. i am a bottle collector. he told us now they made the perfumes. no chemicals or alcohol. just pressed flowers and oil. we tried on several. we tried on one that is made fromt eh same things inside one of my favorite perfumes that i have always wanted to own. so i bought a small bottle of it, its called Aida. it was 150 egyptian pounds so like $35. very good deal. marianne and jenny bought a set of 3 different perfumes. all of us kept smelling our arms for the rest of the evening. we had like 6 different ones on different spots on our arms. one of which was called Arabian nights. while we were in the perfume shop my tour guide took my necklace order in and had my name written on a cartouche which is a tradition, i guess you could say shape that the kings had with their names. my name is written in egyptian hieroglyphs.

after the perfume shop we headed back to the airport. we passed by so much poverty and again found ourselves in the bizarre cairo traffic. speaking of bizarre...the airport in cairo! NO ORDER. like i said before it was pretty ridiculous. if i was not in a fabulous mood i would have thought it annoying instead of comical. because it was pretty comical. so we flew back and i already mentioned my return back with the group. it was sad saying bye to these people i spent all day with. i'm one of those people who find great value meeting new people and find it a bit sad that i wont ever see them again. i was the first one dropped off @ my hotel and i headed right to our villa and into bed....well into sofa.

so that was cairo.

now onto today. they left me a note last night saying for me to sleep in & they would go to breakfast w/out me. so this morning they all tried hard not to wake me and went to breakfast. they came back just as i was getting up. i got ready and went to eat. my favorite breakfast waiter, again, was not there. i wonder what happened. i ate delicious heart shaped waffles alone. then i went to the pool where i have been all day. it is now 3:30 pm. we ordered lunch here and they have all been gone for about an hour now to the villa but i stayed here cuz they are all just resting.

that is all i have done today. hardly any hotel workers are working today because it is prayer day and they were all at the mosques.

there is an amazing contrast between the resort town of sharm and cairo. feels like another country almost. i have realized, once again how much i have been blessed with in my life and how much i have and the opportunities i have being american. also, i have decided to not marry an egyptian. this is a great place to visit but never to live. (not that i was ever seriously considering it.)

after the pool i rejoined everyone for some relaxation in the villa. well the kind that still entails chasing tyler around when he gets into things. then they got ready and i snapped a few family shots of them of course with the youngens it was tricky and the sun was going down. but i got a couple. we were all going to walk into town to get dinner but the parents didn't think the kids would last that long so me and the kids went back to the villa while they went to pick up the food. i was hoping for one last night "in town" but i suppose 3 nights ago was my last. i am glad i bought egypt souvenirs in cairo because i wouldn't have been able to buy any here because there was no time.

we ate lunch at this restaurant on the nile river
my delicious lunch
my group. husband to lady in black is behind jenny. i wish i would have taken a better picture of everyone together.
we stopped to take pictures of this, the only remaining area of ancient cairo. that is what we are looking at in the above picture.
areas of trash like this are everywhere

pyramids!

my friend.
they guys i paid to let me take their picture who were also hounding me to ride that camel pictured above.




part of cairo is so close the pyramids. this is me standing near the sphinx looking out
my friend Mohamed.

egyptian art museum

why the pyramids of course!

the jumbles of people at the Cairo airport