Egypt, Day 15 and 16

Day 15: OUR LAST DAY IN EGYPT! For our last day we got up had breakfast in bed, showered, got ready for the day and then went out and walked around Cairo for awhile, got lunch (our last time of having koshery!) and then we got a taxi to go to the Muhammad Ali Mosque. The Mosque was very big and gorgeous. Us 5 girls wrapped our heads with scarves out of respect and headed in. You can’t wear shoes either so we slipped off our sandals, slipped on our socks and headed in. There were a lot of people in there because it was one of the most famous mosques in Cairo. We looked around and then went and found a spot on the carpet and just sat and talked and watched people. A lot of locals that where in there touring as well, got a good kick out of us American girls with our hair wrapped. Obviously they don’t see that often and thought it was pretty funny.

After leaving the Mosque we wanted to go to the big Cairo Bizzare. We spent a couple hours there haggling with the vendors and buying stuff to take home. My favorite haggle experience was buying scarves. I had picked out three that I liked from this certain vendor…and of course as soon as you even look at their stuff they jump down your throat. He said that for the three scarves it would be 130 Egyptian Pounds…I said sorry that’s too much and began to walk away…he then followed me and said ok 120…and said sorry still too much and Carmina and I went off walked again…he didn’t like this and began following us down the street. He kept dropping the price, 115, 105, 100, 90, 85, 75. Then Carmina wanted to go back to this jewelry place that was right next to this scarf man and so we walked back….he still wouldn’t let go and I said sorry not interested so I tried to ignore him and then he said fine 70 and I said ok how about 4 scarves for 80. And he said no you can’t add one more scarf in for that low…and I said then sorry I am not interested and began walking away and so then he yelled OK FINE, I’ll take that! I was quite proud that I dropped the price 50 Egyptian pounds and added in one more scarf. So four scarves for about 14 US dollars. After a couple of hours at the bizarre we needed to go back to the hostel to get our stuff and head to the airport. Our flight was at 2am.



Day 16: The rest of the trip is pretty much the same as the beginning except we decided to spend our 20 hour layover at a nearby hotel instead of in the airport. So we went to the airport tourist office and they booked us a room at a nice hotel that happened to be pretty cheap. We took a hotel bus to the hotel, checked, took a nap, showered, ate supper, went to a nearby grocery store to buy fruit for breakfast in the morning, then went back to the hotel and went to bed. We had to be up early because our flight was at 7:30. Once getting to the airport we met up with other friends that had the same flight as us back to Bilbao. We got back to Bilbao around 9 and got back to home sweet home around 10. As my grandma Lois would have said…home again home again jiggidy jig. It felt very good to be home.
So this finally concludes the Egypt blogs. I know they were lengthy so thanks for reading or skimming or whatever you chose to do. This was by far the best spring break/ birthday present ever. Thanks mom and dad! It was definitely another experience that allowed us to grow as people and allowed us to experience many new things. It also allowed us to be very thankful for all the blessings we have in our lives.

Prayers for my dad and the others that left for Haiti today. Pray that they will be able to be a blessing to so many people in need, and also pray for safety for all of them during this week! (wow I posted this late....they have now all returned safely!)

And of course I love and miss you all!

Mom and Dad, Ill be see you in TWO weeks!!!
-Mel