Day 10: HAPPY EASTER! (We didn’t celebrate considering we were in Muslim Country) Today we went exploring in Luxor. We wanted to go to the bizarre (local market area)…and so we walked through that and as we started, this random kid (probably 17 or so) was following us and trying to show us where everything was even though we just wanted to walk. And then he said he wanted to take us somewhere, so since we didn’t have anything us really to do we did. It was this three level building that was also a bizarre but the first floor was another papyrus factory and display place. He happened to be an art student (and was also studying English too) and so he had help hand paint some of the papyrus sheets. We then wandered around those three levels for while, Catherine and I were asked if we were sisters for about the 10th time while we were there…which we always just went along with it and said yes…haggled but didn’t buy anything….got hit on while haggling, surprise surprise….and then we left.
Also during this Luxor exploring day we met a Scottish guy that was staying at our hostel…his name was Howart, so he tagged along with the 5 of us….very nice guy. So after we got done at the bizarre we went back to the hostel. At this point we needed to talk to the wife of the guy that owned the hostel. Her name was Paula. She was actually Columbian but had married an Egyptian so then moved to Egypt. She was soooo nice and helped us so much, and we could talk Spanish to her if we wanted haha. So the next day we were planning on leaving to Horgada so the following day we could go on this Scuba Diving trip that Paula had set up for us. So we talked to her about all of those plans and then she took us to the bus station to buy tickets and then to a sports shop that had swim suits since Joy and I hadn’t brought ours. Later that night Paula and some of her friends invited us to go to bar to hang out for awhile. Just the girls wanted to go. This was quite the bar. It was really neatly decorated (but also had its weirdo perks…there were two 3 and 4 year olds running around and the 3 year old girl came up to joy and wanted to sit on her lap…haha….and then they also had this dog wondering around the place…not as weird as bring your kids to the club night except for the fact that this dog was the size of a small horse) and then in the back it had an indoor pool and then right outside by the pool area there was a camel and a horse in the pen that would come up to this big open window so you could pet them. Paula took us back there to see the animals and as I was petting the horse Joy said she wanted to take my picture while petting the horse so I put my hand on his nose and turned around….well the horse apparently thought I tasted good because he lightly bit my hand….it didn’t hurt but it did scare the crap of me…so I believe Joy’s picture is of me screaming…good timing I suppose.
So we hung out at the bar for awhile and danced. Then a slow song came on (yes we were all confused by this too….who plays slow songs in a club??) and this very good looking guy that had been talking to us girls asked Joy if she wanted to dance. We all thought he was very good looking but then he began to talk, and he ruined it for himself. Joy told us later that while they were dancing he said “Do you want to know why I had these tattoo? It ‘s because I have such a nice body that I can put them anywhere and they look good”. Weirdo. Then after the club we went back to the hostel and hit the hay.
Day11: Today was a big Egyptian Celebration. I’m really not sure what it was but everyone came out into the streets near the Nile and set up picnics and had family time. It basically looked like what the 4th of July might look like in the States. Hiraji wanted to take us out and walk us around for this holiday just so we could see what it was like. So he picked us up at the hostel at 10:30am and we went to the Nile to walk around. We then crossed to the other side and Hiraji bought us Egyptian peanuts and roasted squash seeds from a vendor and then we just went and walked around. There were kids swimming in the Nile and other little kids on donkey rides, pretty cute. We then walked down to this little street restaurant that had fresh juices. They had this little cute shelter area to sit under by the river that had music and such. So we sat under there and Catherine Joy and I got fresh mango juice…amazing! After that we decided that we wanted to do another Faluka ride on the river since it was our last day in Luxor. So we got on the Faluka and sailed on the river for awhile. Because of the holiday there were sooo many people along the shore of the river swimming and playing games. After sailing we went back to Hiraji and his friend’s man hut again and had a glass of tea.
Then as leaving the hit one of Hiarji’s friends came to meet us, so on the way out of the hut we introduced ourselves…and of course I was the last one out…and so he grabbed my hand and kissed it and said some comment…thank you? What else do you do, haha. After that we went back to the hostel to get everything together because we had to get to the bus station to get on our 6 hour bus ride to Horgada. This bus ride was quite interesting. First we met an American guy (he was who Joy sat by) who was from Boston BUT he was born in NEBRASKA! He didn’t live there that long, but was born in Omaha so we thought that was pretty cool. And also his mom went to Creighton and so I told him my dad went there as well, but turns out not at the same time. Small world. We talked to him for the majority of the bus ride…very nice guy. I’d say he was 24 or so…he is working in advertisement in Boston… and now we are all officially facebook friends with the guy haha.
Then came the more interesting part of the bus ride. A couple seats in front of us and to the side there was a young couple with a little girl who I would say was probably about 4. We saw the dad get up and go talk to the bus driver and then all of a sudden the bus driver slammed on his breaks and this guy who obviously wasn’t in his seat fell forward and almost hit the windshield and so to brace himself he reached up and grabbed this shelve thing in the front of the bus and while grabbing it, it broke causing him to again almost fall straight into the windshield. His wife stood up screaming because we didn’t know why the bus driver would do this and then she went up there and then the fight began. I guess the man from the young couple went up there to talk to the bus driver about him stopping every 5 minutes (which he was doing) and told him that he had payed good money for this ticket and he had to be wherever he was going on time so wanted to know if all of the stops were necessary. Apparently the bus driver didn’t like this and slammed on his breaks causing this guy to fall. Then people from the back of the bus got involved and came up and started yelling and there were people in the middle trying to mediate it and keep people from punching each other and it grew to be a big mess. And of course as I said before we were sitting very close to these people so we were very much in the middle of all of this. I was on the isle and was then basically sitting on Catherine’s lap because there were so many people getting into this mess.
The only funny part of this was that in front of us there was also two more rows of American students and so we thought it was quite ironic that all of this fighting was happening around us and we were the only ones who couldn’t understand Arabic….all except for our Boston friend Bernie though. Bernie had taken Arabic in college and so he was telling us what they were saying. Then they also began to fight because I guess curse words were being said and the dad of the little girl got mad and said that nobody should be cursing in front of the children. This got to be such a big deal that at the next check point that we stopped at we the police were brought on the bus to handle all of this. They the police took everyone that was involved off the bus and apparently got things figured out. We also thought it was funny that all of us American Students were the main witnesses of what happened….but we obviously wouldn’t have been any good at witnessing.
Then after a couple more hours we arrived in Horgada where Paula (the lady from the Luxor hostel) had arranged for the guy who ran the hostel in Horgada to pick us up. He was there waiting for us as soon as we got off the bus and took us back to the hostel. It was about 1:30am when we finally got to the hostel and we had to be up early for our day of scuba diving and so we went straight to bed.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Egypt, Day Nine
Day 9: The next day we went to the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. We signed up for a tour for this so we could actually learn the history about it and not just go and look and guess at what we were seeing. We were in a group with about 8 other people. We drove around in a big van and then they would drop us off at certain historical places then we also had a guide that would give us the history on everything. The Valley of the Kings was most impressive. It is where all the past King’s tombs are. There are I believe 63 or so of them. In old Egyptian times when you became King they would start digging your tomb and then stop when you died/ went out of power. If they were not done by the time you died, the workers had 70 days to finish because that is how long it took to prepare the body. To prepare the body they would pull your brain out through your nose, cut a slit on the side of your stomach and pull out all of your intestines except your heart and then fill you with saw dust to dry you out. Then they would put salt on your body to also dry you out and then they would mummify you with long strips of cloth.
So when touring the tombs you could see how long people where in power by how deep their tomb was. We went down into the deepest tomb…it was quite a hike down…and sooo hot. Luxor is a lot hotter than Cairo…about 90 degrees each day….and so when we went down into the tomb you instantly started sweating allll over. We then went to the Valley of the Queens and went in some of those tombs as well. The paintings on the walls in the tombs are unreal because they still look so good even though it was done sooo long ago. After the Valleys we went to a Papyrus factory. Papyrus is a type of plant that they strip to make papyrus paper and then people hand paint on top of it. I bought one that on half of it has an Egyptian symbol that is the key of life and then the other half has my name in hieroglyphics.
That night before after the faluka ride, Hiraji invited us to his house to eat a traditional Egyptian meal, and then after that to go out “on the town”. We were so gracious and accepting of his offer. So that night after the Valley of the King and Queens we met Hiraji and eight and he picked us up in a taxi and took us to his home where he lives with all of his family (his brothers and sisters, parents, nieces and nephews). We would say that Hiraji was probably 35-38ish….not married. So his mom and whoever else was in the kitchen cooked us this huge meal….I have pictures that will help show what I mean by this….but it was this large tray that had plates and bowls of food and we set it down in the middle of us and it was a big community dinner with him and the 5 of us (his family had already eaten together). The food was amazing! There were different kinds of soups, pasta, chicken, potatoes, veggies, and amazing homemade bread. We had also gotten a few beers with dinner…but since the Muslim culture isn’t really supposed to drink beer (but most everyone does anyway) they pick up the beer from this building with one window in it…Hiraji called it the Black Market…and it looked exactly like that haha, we just didnt ask questions haha.
After dinner we all went in and thanked their whole family for dinner as well as we could considering there was a large language barrier….but we shook all of their hands and said Shukran….which means thank you. Also while we were there Hirajis nieces and nephews were pretty curious about us…they were no older than 3 or 4…they would peak in and wave and then scury away….but towards the end they would come in and sit with us…they were all so adorable. After dinner we went to Hirajis cousins for awhile and just sat around with his family again. It was so awesome for us to get to experience this. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. After his cousins we went back to the other side of the river because Hiraji said that he was going to take us to an Irish Pub. We went there for a drink and played some pool and then he said there was a disco that we could go too. None of us could quite imagine a disco in Egypt.
At this time Ish and Michaela were tired so they walked back to the hostel, but Catherine Joy and I decided we would go check it out with him for awhile. So this disco was in the downstairs of a hotel….it was pretty hilarious to see….it maybe would have had potential if it would have had more than oh 15-20 people haha. We danced for a while and then when it began to get really lame….the three of us girls wanted to go. So we got a taxi and went back to the hostel. And now here comes the creepy nice reference again….Hiraji had been drinking pretty solidly during the night and that was quite apparent when he tried kissing Joy when she got out of the taxi. It was absolutely hilarious, but at the same time a total creep move. When she denied him he said “what is kissing at the end of the night normal????” …haha we just laughed and said not for us and made a dash for the hostel door.
There was so much to laugh about from that night as soon as we got up into our room….it just proved our creepy nice moto right again….because even when we were dancing at the “disco” he tried dancing with us and it again was creepy and we just kinda stayed clear of his awkward dancing…..but none the less, still a nice guy. Getting into our room that night, we got ready for bed and as soon as Catherine went to go lay down on her bed, we heard this crash and she kind fell in because her mattress sunk in. We all burst out laughing and as soon as I was getting up off my bed to help her mine did it too. Turns out the mattresses were being supported by slats of wood that weren’t nailed into the frame. So we had to lift up our mattresses and resituate our slats of wood….this sounds easy but we were all laughing so hard that it was almost impossible. But all in all….a good night.
So when touring the tombs you could see how long people where in power by how deep their tomb was. We went down into the deepest tomb…it was quite a hike down…and sooo hot. Luxor is a lot hotter than Cairo…about 90 degrees each day….and so when we went down into the tomb you instantly started sweating allll over. We then went to the Valley of the Queens and went in some of those tombs as well. The paintings on the walls in the tombs are unreal because they still look so good even though it was done sooo long ago. After the Valleys we went to a Papyrus factory. Papyrus is a type of plant that they strip to make papyrus paper and then people hand paint on top of it. I bought one that on half of it has an Egyptian symbol that is the key of life and then the other half has my name in hieroglyphics.
That night before after the faluka ride, Hiraji invited us to his house to eat a traditional Egyptian meal, and then after that to go out “on the town”. We were so gracious and accepting of his offer. So that night after the Valley of the King and Queens we met Hiraji and eight and he picked us up in a taxi and took us to his home where he lives with all of his family (his brothers and sisters, parents, nieces and nephews). We would say that Hiraji was probably 35-38ish….not married. So his mom and whoever else was in the kitchen cooked us this huge meal….I have pictures that will help show what I mean by this….but it was this large tray that had plates and bowls of food and we set it down in the middle of us and it was a big community dinner with him and the 5 of us (his family had already eaten together). The food was amazing! There were different kinds of soups, pasta, chicken, potatoes, veggies, and amazing homemade bread. We had also gotten a few beers with dinner…but since the Muslim culture isn’t really supposed to drink beer (but most everyone does anyway) they pick up the beer from this building with one window in it…Hiraji called it the Black Market…and it looked exactly like that haha, we just didnt ask questions haha.
After dinner we all went in and thanked their whole family for dinner as well as we could considering there was a large language barrier….but we shook all of their hands and said Shukran….which means thank you. Also while we were there Hirajis nieces and nephews were pretty curious about us…they were no older than 3 or 4…they would peak in and wave and then scury away….but towards the end they would come in and sit with us…they were all so adorable. After dinner we went to Hirajis cousins for awhile and just sat around with his family again. It was so awesome for us to get to experience this. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. After his cousins we went back to the other side of the river because Hiraji said that he was going to take us to an Irish Pub. We went there for a drink and played some pool and then he said there was a disco that we could go too. None of us could quite imagine a disco in Egypt.
At this time Ish and Michaela were tired so they walked back to the hostel, but Catherine Joy and I decided we would go check it out with him for awhile. So this disco was in the downstairs of a hotel….it was pretty hilarious to see….it maybe would have had potential if it would have had more than oh 15-20 people haha. We danced for a while and then when it began to get really lame….the three of us girls wanted to go. So we got a taxi and went back to the hostel. And now here comes the creepy nice reference again….Hiraji had been drinking pretty solidly during the night and that was quite apparent when he tried kissing Joy when she got out of the taxi. It was absolutely hilarious, but at the same time a total creep move. When she denied him he said “what is kissing at the end of the night normal????” …haha we just laughed and said not for us and made a dash for the hostel door.
There was so much to laugh about from that night as soon as we got up into our room….it just proved our creepy nice moto right again….because even when we were dancing at the “disco” he tried dancing with us and it again was creepy and we just kinda stayed clear of his awkward dancing…..but none the less, still a nice guy. Getting into our room that night, we got ready for bed and as soon as Catherine went to go lay down on her bed, we heard this crash and she kind fell in because her mattress sunk in. We all burst out laughing and as soon as I was getting up off my bed to help her mine did it too. Turns out the mattresses were being supported by slats of wood that weren’t nailed into the frame. So we had to lift up our mattresses and resituate our slats of wood….this sounds easy but we were all laughing so hard that it was almost impossible. But all in all….a good night.
Egypt, Day Seven and Eight
Day7: The next day we got up and walked around Cairo since it was Catherine’s first day there. After exploring for awhile we went to the restaurant that Musa had taken us to a couple nights previous and had lunch there. After that we decided that we wanted to go to Cairo Tower. It is a verrry large tower in downtown Cairo, right by the Nile, and it allows you to see pretty much all of Cairo from the top. We went up there and took pictures and then spent awhile up there just talking and enjoying the nice weather. That after leaving the tower, we went and got supper and then went back to the hostel to get all of our stuff so we could catch out 10 pm train. I have never been on a train before….but I am guessing the ones we road in Egypt are a tad different then the US ones. In each box car there were probably 8 rooms and in each room there were 6 seats. So it was the five of us and this middle aged Egyptian man in our room. We all took sleeping pills hoping we could just fall asleep and stay asleep for most of the 9 hours we were going to be on the train. The ride wasn’t bad all accept for it was absolutely freezing…they had the air conditioner very cold and high up the whole time….its Egypt, we didn’t pack our winter coats….so of course we shivered through it. And also of course we cant go anywhere without someone hitting on one of us….I didn’t know this until we got off the train but turns out when we were trying to go to bed, the guy that was in our room was sitting next to Joy, and he motioned to her that she could rest her head on his lap to sleep if she wanted….creepy nice….that’s what we call that…and that’s just what Egyptians are….creepy nice.
That kind of became our moto because every Egyptian guy that we met or befriended…or even sat by on the train, always started out being very nice….and then they would hit on us or do something creepy….hence the name Creepy Nice.
Day 8: Our first day in Luxor!!! As soon as we stepped out of the train station taxi drivers swarmed up and other people asking where we were going. We said we were going to the Venus hotel, but that we could walk because we knew it wasn’t far. One guy grabbed another and said wait this is the owner of the Venus he can take you there….we were always a little skeptical of things like this just cause Egyptians want money and so we knew if we had someone take us there we would have to pay them even though we could do it on our own. But the owner told the other guy to lead us there and he would meet us there. So this guy lead us there…we knew he was probably just tip hungry….but little did we know this particular man would open so many doors for us. So once we got there we got checked in and the guy that lead us there said that he would sit down with us for awhile and plan the next couple days with us if we wanted…they had special packages for the hostel to go see things, but he said we could say no at anytime and it would be ok. We agreed to sit with him and just see what he had to offer….so we did so over breakfast. Some tours he had turned out to be good prices so we decided to do some.
We also chose to go on the faluka boats that night. The faluka deal was 30 pounds (a little less than 6 US dollars) to go out on the faluka (a type of sail boat) on the Nile for a couple hours. We first just sailed around for awhile ( oh and in the boat with us was the guy that planed this for us…his name is Hiraji…his friend who owned the faluka and a younger boy who helped out)….we all took off our shoes and had our feet in the water as we sailed around. Then we stopped at Banana Island which is an Island right next to Luxor. It has tons of banana trees and they use it as a stop for the falukas so people can get off and walk around the island and they have this shelter area with picnic tables where they serve you this whole plate of bananas for free. Some people live on this island, but not many….I am guessing the agriculture on the island is what they do for a living. So we walked around the island for awhile, saw an alligator that they have caged up there and then sat down and ate some bananas.
After that we got back on the boat to catch the sunset and take pictures of that. It was so gorgeous…and weird to think at the same time that we were sailing on the Nile. I wonder if Moses ever had a faluka to sail around in? Then after that we went to a little hut that Hiraji and his friend ( the owner of the boat) have right next to Nile. It basically like a man cave for them. We went there and had some tea and just chilled out for awhile. Then we noticed that they had a motorcycle…Hiraji said we could drive it if we wanted, but we all told him we didn’t know how. He then said we would take us for rides around the little country village that was near….Catherine and I kind of wanted too and he really wanted us too….so we did. So as Catherine and I were walking over to it we were both saying you’re going first, no you’re going first, no your going first….so with getting nowhere with that I volunteered to go first. It was a lot of fun…and Catherine had fun too. After the motorcycle rides Hiraji told us he would take us to a good Egyptian restaurant that was close to the Nile and it has a good view from where we ate. So we went there had a great meal and then headed back to the other side (Luxor is split into two sides by the Nile, the west bank and the east bank) by a small ferry boat.
Getting on the ferry boat the driver who was probably 18 or so asked us our names and such (sorry another detour…Egyptians had a very hard time be able to pronounce my name…and every time I would say Melinda they would think I said Mona which is a popular Egyptian name….so therefore I thought I’d make it easy on people and just say my name was Mona while being in Egypt)…so when the boat driver asked our names I said Mona and he said oh really that is my sisters name…and I said yes, I am sure it is haha. So as we got to the other side when we were exiting the boat he would grab our hands to help us out and when he grabbed mine he squeezed it and said “Mona you have very beautiful eyes”….I just laughed and said thank you.
These kind of things happened a lot while we were in Egypt....We all know that Egyptians love American girls….but for sure reason I was the favorite in the group….we concluded that maybe it’s because I was the most different looking….tall, light skin and eyes, and curly hair. Let’s just say I got a lot of crap from my friends while being there because of all the comments I got. But we just have to remember the creepy-nice thing...because it is true about all of them. But I am more thankful then anything that we were treated very nice the entire trip....i rather have someone be slightly creepy then mean :).
That kind of became our moto because every Egyptian guy that we met or befriended…or even sat by on the train, always started out being very nice….and then they would hit on us or do something creepy….hence the name Creepy Nice.
Day 8: Our first day in Luxor!!! As soon as we stepped out of the train station taxi drivers swarmed up and other people asking where we were going. We said we were going to the Venus hotel, but that we could walk because we knew it wasn’t far. One guy grabbed another and said wait this is the owner of the Venus he can take you there….we were always a little skeptical of things like this just cause Egyptians want money and so we knew if we had someone take us there we would have to pay them even though we could do it on our own. But the owner told the other guy to lead us there and he would meet us there. So this guy lead us there…we knew he was probably just tip hungry….but little did we know this particular man would open so many doors for us. So once we got there we got checked in and the guy that lead us there said that he would sit down with us for awhile and plan the next couple days with us if we wanted…they had special packages for the hostel to go see things, but he said we could say no at anytime and it would be ok. We agreed to sit with him and just see what he had to offer….so we did so over breakfast. Some tours he had turned out to be good prices so we decided to do some.
We also chose to go on the faluka boats that night. The faluka deal was 30 pounds (a little less than 6 US dollars) to go out on the faluka (a type of sail boat) on the Nile for a couple hours. We first just sailed around for awhile ( oh and in the boat with us was the guy that planed this for us…his name is Hiraji…his friend who owned the faluka and a younger boy who helped out)….we all took off our shoes and had our feet in the water as we sailed around. Then we stopped at Banana Island which is an Island right next to Luxor. It has tons of banana trees and they use it as a stop for the falukas so people can get off and walk around the island and they have this shelter area with picnic tables where they serve you this whole plate of bananas for free. Some people live on this island, but not many….I am guessing the agriculture on the island is what they do for a living. So we walked around the island for awhile, saw an alligator that they have caged up there and then sat down and ate some bananas.
After that we got back on the boat to catch the sunset and take pictures of that. It was so gorgeous…and weird to think at the same time that we were sailing on the Nile. I wonder if Moses ever had a faluka to sail around in? Then after that we went to a little hut that Hiraji and his friend ( the owner of the boat) have right next to Nile. It basically like a man cave for them. We went there and had some tea and just chilled out for awhile. Then we noticed that they had a motorcycle…Hiraji said we could drive it if we wanted, but we all told him we didn’t know how. He then said we would take us for rides around the little country village that was near….Catherine and I kind of wanted too and he really wanted us too….so we did. So as Catherine and I were walking over to it we were both saying you’re going first, no you’re going first, no your going first….so with getting nowhere with that I volunteered to go first. It was a lot of fun…and Catherine had fun too. After the motorcycle rides Hiraji told us he would take us to a good Egyptian restaurant that was close to the Nile and it has a good view from where we ate. So we went there had a great meal and then headed back to the other side (Luxor is split into two sides by the Nile, the west bank and the east bank) by a small ferry boat.
Getting on the ferry boat the driver who was probably 18 or so asked us our names and such (sorry another detour…Egyptians had a very hard time be able to pronounce my name…and every time I would say Melinda they would think I said Mona which is a popular Egyptian name….so therefore I thought I’d make it easy on people and just say my name was Mona while being in Egypt)…so when the boat driver asked our names I said Mona and he said oh really that is my sisters name…and I said yes, I am sure it is haha. So as we got to the other side when we were exiting the boat he would grab our hands to help us out and when he grabbed mine he squeezed it and said “Mona you have very beautiful eyes”….I just laughed and said thank you.
These kind of things happened a lot while we were in Egypt....We all know that Egyptians love American girls….but for sure reason I was the favorite in the group….we concluded that maybe it’s because I was the most different looking….tall, light skin and eyes, and curly hair. Let’s just say I got a lot of crap from my friends while being there because of all the comments I got. But we just have to remember the creepy-nice thing...because it is true about all of them. But I am more thankful then anything that we were treated very nice the entire trip....i rather have someone be slightly creepy then mean :).
Egypt, Day Five and Six
Day 5: We had planned our day trip to Alexandria through the Hostel, so they hired a driver that would take us to all the big sites in Alexandria and then he would take us anywhere else we wanted to go. Our drivers name was Muhammad…(we like to say of course it is after this because we pretty convinced that half of Egypt is named Muhammad)…he is 30. So we all got in his car…the three girls in the back and Ish in the front and headed to Alexandria…which is about 3 hours away. This is when we really first experienced highway driving in Egypt….there are three lanes on the road…but that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be 7 lanes of traffic all trying to get to the same place. Driving in Egypt is absolutely crazy…I am sure I will talk about it more later….but automobile related accidents is the number one killer in Egypt just to give you a clue at how crazy people are. So on our way to Alexandria, I was the only one who didn’t fall asleep, but Muhammad and I had a good time taking pictures and messing with our sleeping friends.
When we first got to Alexandria Muhammad took us to a couple sites of Egyptian Ruins. They were so amazing to see. We also saw a lot of catacombs. It is crazy to think of how old all of these things where. Muhammad was very good about driving us around, but sometime in the middle of him driving us and us exploring these sites it turned into “pick on Melinda” day. He was constantly picking on me and joking with me, but me being me I was dishing right back to him. I have older brothers; I know how to handle myself. He would continuously say Melinda you are smiling and laughing all of the time…you need to stop and just be quiet for the rest of the trip. He also told me that my mouth is always open….and I honestly I looked and him and said “Really? Because that is what my mom says too …haha”. The joking and picking on continued…and I thought it was just all fun and games until Ish told me that while us girls were in the bathroom after lunch Muhammad asked him if I had a boyfriend. Basically this told me that his “picking on me” was a way of flirting.
We then went to a couple more historical sites and then we wanted to go to the beach because it was a really nice day out and we just wanted to go put our feet in the water and hangout there for awhile. While at the beach the flirting greatly increased on his side….I was just my ordinary outgoing self…which I guess he liked…..oops. And also at this point I didn’t know about him asking Ish about me having a boyfriend…..so I was really unaware of what he was really thinking. I then was almost shoved in the water a couple of times and had sand thrown at me more than once…..and then we decided to clean our feet off and leave. As we were walking back to the car I took off running because I knew that “lovely” friends would try to stick me in the front seat because they thought what was going on was funny. I worked my way into the back seat and Ish again took the front. Then after Muhammad started the car he said “Ish are you going to sleep on the way home (he asked this because Ish slept on the way down to Alexandria)”? And of course Ish said yes….and then Muhammad said “Melinda are you”? and without thinking about where this was going I said “No, Im not planning on it”. So then Muhammad went on to say that we should switch because he wanted someone to stay awake while he was driving since it would be dark out…..so we switched….and as soon as I got into the front seat Muhammad burst out laughing….basically saying hahaha I tricked you into sitting in the front seat. I didnt think it was quite as hilarious….but none the less I did fall for it. Then on the way home my again “lovely” three friends fell asleep and that left Just Muhammad and I awake.
I will now give you the short version of the rest of the car ride ……He professed him “love” for me…even though he had only known me for 12 hours….and he didn’t understand why I kept saying I didn’t love him and I did NOT want an Egyptian boyfriend. Reading this you would think that he is a total creep…which it was a tad creepish, but he wasn’t a creep….it is honestly just a different in culture. While this was all going on I was trying to reach behind me to squeeze Joy’s leg to wake her up, but the seat was too close to the door so it wasn’t happening….so after a long while of awkwardness I finally here Joy say “Wow Melinda look at the moon…it is sooo big”….which it was because it was full, but it was just the funniest line to interrupt with. Joy had then told me later that she woke up and she was listening to the conversation for about 5 minutes and she knew it was awkward so she was waited for a good time to interrupt. Then after that the other two woke up and I turned around and said that they all better sleep with their eyes open that night for putting me in the situation. The good thing about Muhammad was that his English wasn’t very good and so if we talked fast in front of him he wouldn’t be able to understand….or we also would talk in Spanish, which worked even better. So for Muhammad or as I like to refer to him as Muhaha….he has a very nice guy…..just apparently a fast mover….haha.
Before when I had mentioned the driving in Egypt is insane…the night time driving is worst. When you are on the highway people don’t drive with their lights on. What you do is about every 30 seconds you flip on your brights to let people know where you are….or when you are passing someone you just flip them on and off on and off while passing. I asked Muhammad why this was and he said its easier on the eyes….and I said well its not going to be easy on the eyes when I am sitting in the ditch after being hit by someone. After the three in the back woke up and noticed that’s what was going on, Michaela asked about it and he said Its normal, everyone does it and she looked and him and said THIS IS NOT NORMAL….IN THE US THIS IS ILLEGAL!!!. We arrived home safely….but Im sure we were holding on to our “oh shit” handles a little tighter that night. Later we had talked to someone about the driving at night and they said that you can actually get pulled over and get a ticket for driving with your lights on the whole time…..crazy….just crazy.
That night we were tired from an early morning and a long day so we just decided to go order a pizza from Pizza Hut. As we were sitting in Pizza Hut waiting for our order, a lot of American music was playing over the speakers….but it was older stuff from like when we were in late Elementary and Middle school. Then “I Believe I can Fly” came on and we all started to sing…and then I said we should be recording this, so I got out my camera and recorded us singing….it was hilarious because the people behind the counter were just staring and laughing at us like we were crazy….which we kind of are, but to see their faces while we sang every word to that song was pretty priceless.
Day 6: On day six we decided to go get our train tickets to go to Luxor in two days. After we finally found the train station we went in to go get tickets for an overnight train. As we were doing this we ran into our American friends that were staying at our hostel. They were planning on going to Luxor the same night we were, so we bought all of our tickets together. After going our separate ways with them the four of us decided to go to Coptic Cairo which is the Christianity part of Cairo. As soon as we got off the metro (quick side note about the metro in Egypt…there are separate metro cars for women and men and a women can only be on a men’s metro car if she is accompanied by a man…also they are verrrrrrrrry packed and the doors are a tad intimidating because unlike most metro doors they just shut whenever they want too and if you are half in…it doesn’t matter. So when getting on our off you have to make a mad dash in or out so you or your jacket or your purse doesn’t get caught in the metro door)…so as soon as we got off the metro and walked down to Coptic Cairo we ran back into our American friends, so we went to the museums, churches, and lunch together.
The museum was very interesting to see all of the old artifacts that have been discovered….old bibles written in Arabic, old clothing, paintings, and many other artifacts. For lunch we ate at a little café and I had falafel for the first time. It was very good. After lunch…which happened to be at about 4 pm…we decided to walk around Coptic Cairo for a little bit longer, and then after that we decided to go back to the hostel and relax because we had to stay up late because Catherine was flying in and was going to get to Cairo at around 2am. So later that night we went and got koshery for supper again and the people from the hostel ordered us in some Cream Carmel…which is basically like Spanish flan….which is basically like really good pudding but made with eggs. That night the plan was for Ish and I to go to the airport and pick Catherine up if she hadn’t called by a certain time, because we didn’t know the exact time her plane was getting in. So we took a little nap and had our alarms set for 2 and so when I got up I called her and she was in a taxi on her way…so I waited up for her, got her checked in and then we went back to bed. The funny thing about this night was that we didn’t get another room for Catherine since we were going to leave the next day for Luxor and so Catherine, Joy and I tightly fit in a bed that was clearly only made for two….it was a pretty restless night haha.
When we first got to Alexandria Muhammad took us to a couple sites of Egyptian Ruins. They were so amazing to see. We also saw a lot of catacombs. It is crazy to think of how old all of these things where. Muhammad was very good about driving us around, but sometime in the middle of him driving us and us exploring these sites it turned into “pick on Melinda” day. He was constantly picking on me and joking with me, but me being me I was dishing right back to him. I have older brothers; I know how to handle myself. He would continuously say Melinda you are smiling and laughing all of the time…you need to stop and just be quiet for the rest of the trip. He also told me that my mouth is always open….and I honestly I looked and him and said “Really? Because that is what my mom says too …haha”. The joking and picking on continued…and I thought it was just all fun and games until Ish told me that while us girls were in the bathroom after lunch Muhammad asked him if I had a boyfriend. Basically this told me that his “picking on me” was a way of flirting.
We then went to a couple more historical sites and then we wanted to go to the beach because it was a really nice day out and we just wanted to go put our feet in the water and hangout there for awhile. While at the beach the flirting greatly increased on his side….I was just my ordinary outgoing self…which I guess he liked…..oops. And also at this point I didn’t know about him asking Ish about me having a boyfriend…..so I was really unaware of what he was really thinking. I then was almost shoved in the water a couple of times and had sand thrown at me more than once…..and then we decided to clean our feet off and leave. As we were walking back to the car I took off running because I knew that “lovely” friends would try to stick me in the front seat because they thought what was going on was funny. I worked my way into the back seat and Ish again took the front. Then after Muhammad started the car he said “Ish are you going to sleep on the way home (he asked this because Ish slept on the way down to Alexandria)”? And of course Ish said yes….and then Muhammad said “Melinda are you”? and without thinking about where this was going I said “No, Im not planning on it”. So then Muhammad went on to say that we should switch because he wanted someone to stay awake while he was driving since it would be dark out…..so we switched….and as soon as I got into the front seat Muhammad burst out laughing….basically saying hahaha I tricked you into sitting in the front seat. I didnt think it was quite as hilarious….but none the less I did fall for it. Then on the way home my again “lovely” three friends fell asleep and that left Just Muhammad and I awake.
I will now give you the short version of the rest of the car ride ……He professed him “love” for me…even though he had only known me for 12 hours….and he didn’t understand why I kept saying I didn’t love him and I did NOT want an Egyptian boyfriend. Reading this you would think that he is a total creep…which it was a tad creepish, but he wasn’t a creep….it is honestly just a different in culture. While this was all going on I was trying to reach behind me to squeeze Joy’s leg to wake her up, but the seat was too close to the door so it wasn’t happening….so after a long while of awkwardness I finally here Joy say “Wow Melinda look at the moon…it is sooo big”….which it was because it was full, but it was just the funniest line to interrupt with. Joy had then told me later that she woke up and she was listening to the conversation for about 5 minutes and she knew it was awkward so she was waited for a good time to interrupt. Then after that the other two woke up and I turned around and said that they all better sleep with their eyes open that night for putting me in the situation. The good thing about Muhammad was that his English wasn’t very good and so if we talked fast in front of him he wouldn’t be able to understand….or we also would talk in Spanish, which worked even better. So for Muhammad or as I like to refer to him as Muhaha….he has a very nice guy…..just apparently a fast mover….haha.
Before when I had mentioned the driving in Egypt is insane…the night time driving is worst. When you are on the highway people don’t drive with their lights on. What you do is about every 30 seconds you flip on your brights to let people know where you are….or when you are passing someone you just flip them on and off on and off while passing. I asked Muhammad why this was and he said its easier on the eyes….and I said well its not going to be easy on the eyes when I am sitting in the ditch after being hit by someone. After the three in the back woke up and noticed that’s what was going on, Michaela asked about it and he said Its normal, everyone does it and she looked and him and said THIS IS NOT NORMAL….IN THE US THIS IS ILLEGAL!!!. We arrived home safely….but Im sure we were holding on to our “oh shit” handles a little tighter that night. Later we had talked to someone about the driving at night and they said that you can actually get pulled over and get a ticket for driving with your lights on the whole time…..crazy….just crazy.
That night we were tired from an early morning and a long day so we just decided to go order a pizza from Pizza Hut. As we were sitting in Pizza Hut waiting for our order, a lot of American music was playing over the speakers….but it was older stuff from like when we were in late Elementary and Middle school. Then “I Believe I can Fly” came on and we all started to sing…and then I said we should be recording this, so I got out my camera and recorded us singing….it was hilarious because the people behind the counter were just staring and laughing at us like we were crazy….which we kind of are, but to see their faces while we sang every word to that song was pretty priceless.
Day 6: On day six we decided to go get our train tickets to go to Luxor in two days. After we finally found the train station we went in to go get tickets for an overnight train. As we were doing this we ran into our American friends that were staying at our hostel. They were planning on going to Luxor the same night we were, so we bought all of our tickets together. After going our separate ways with them the four of us decided to go to Coptic Cairo which is the Christianity part of Cairo. As soon as we got off the metro (quick side note about the metro in Egypt…there are separate metro cars for women and men and a women can only be on a men’s metro car if she is accompanied by a man…also they are verrrrrrrrry packed and the doors are a tad intimidating because unlike most metro doors they just shut whenever they want too and if you are half in…it doesn’t matter. So when getting on our off you have to make a mad dash in or out so you or your jacket or your purse doesn’t get caught in the metro door)…so as soon as we got off the metro and walked down to Coptic Cairo we ran back into our American friends, so we went to the museums, churches, and lunch together.
The museum was very interesting to see all of the old artifacts that have been discovered….old bibles written in Arabic, old clothing, paintings, and many other artifacts. For lunch we ate at a little café and I had falafel for the first time. It was very good. After lunch…which happened to be at about 4 pm…we decided to walk around Coptic Cairo for a little bit longer, and then after that we decided to go back to the hostel and relax because we had to stay up late because Catherine was flying in and was going to get to Cairo at around 2am. So later that night we went and got koshery for supper again and the people from the hostel ordered us in some Cream Carmel…which is basically like Spanish flan….which is basically like really good pudding but made with eggs. That night the plan was for Ish and I to go to the airport and pick Catherine up if she hadn’t called by a certain time, because we didn’t know the exact time her plane was getting in. So we took a little nap and had our alarms set for 2 and so when I got up I called her and she was in a taxi on her way…so I waited up for her, got her checked in and then we went back to bed. The funny thing about this night was that we didn’t get another room for Catherine since we were going to leave the next day for Luxor and so Catherine, Joy and I tightly fit in a bed that was clearly only made for two….it was a pretty restless night haha.
Egypt, Day Three and Four
Day 3: Well our alarms went off….except we forgot about a little thing called day-light savings…..we woke up at 5 instead of 4….Well Joy and I did….Ish and Michaela had their international phone and so when they came to check if we were almost ready we were just getting up. We decided that taking the next bus wouldn’t mess us up too badly so we got ready and went to the bus station to find out what time the next bus left….9am. So we waited in the bus station with all of our luggage. We then looked for a place to eat since we had not had breakfast and didn’t know when the next time anything to eat would be available. We found this little “café” and had “pastries” and tea. The funniest thing about that café was that they had menus out on the table and they had Hot Chocolate spelled as Hot Shoklet…..it gave us a good laugh for a long time. We saw this a lot while we were in Egypt….Egyptians sometimes spell English words out how they say them….we don’t want to poke fun, but it’s pretty hilarious.
We boarded the bus and got ready to start our “what we thought would be a 6 hour bus ride”….little did we know that this wouldn’t really go as planned. It’s quite a long story….so I will sum it up to make it better to read and make it less boring. Pretty much this is what happened…..our 6 hour bus ride turned into 9…little did we know we had to stop at every little check point to get our tickets or passports checked…..met some interesting people….a man named Dr. Pip was a psychologist that moved from Holland to Egypt because he said why would I want to stay in Europe or go to the US, their economy is crap….talked to him for a good while…he gave us tips on where to go, what not to eat or drink if we still want to continue to have a good vacation and not get Hep C, and shared some of his stories. Nice guy….a little different…but nice. Also met a guy named Daboo….looks wise he would fall right under Bradly Cooper on my list…and he was very intelligent. He was an Egyptian who lived in Cairo….but it was very clear about how he dressed and how he talked that he would rather be an American. When we first asked him where he was from he said unfortunately Egypt…and then he said No, I am proud to be an Egyptian, but I am not proud about many things that happen in my country. His dad works for a tourism business and it was very evident that they were well off. He said that he spent a lot of time around his dads business when he was little and that is why he can speak about 5 or 6 different languages. When he said “well Russian was the hardest language I have learned” all of our jaws probably dropped. I’d say he was 22 or 23.
So back to the quickness of this story….we landed in Nueva…of course three hours late…therefore we missed out fairy and had nowhere to stay. So we were stranded in this small town that really didn’t have anything right on the coast of the Red Sea with two weeks of luggage and nowhere to go. Oh and did I mention that finding someone in the little boon-dock town that spoke English was basically impossible. So we tried looking for a hostel…or the two streets that this town had….found nothing. Then we found this restaurant with a guy that spoke English and his wife was German so she spoke English as well. They basically gave us two choices….you can either sleep in a hut on the beach (which we had no camping supplies or anything...which was needed in this case) or the Hilton. We hated to be those people, but we chose the Hilton. We got the taxi driver who had been following us around since the moment we stepped off the bus to take us to the Hilton, and we went to go check in to a room. The cheapest thing that they had was a Villa on the beach….so we got two double rooms (which included a free buffet dinner and breakfast and free drinks …which by the way was amazing food). Even though we were ticked about missing the fairy we told ourselves that we would make the best out of staying here and try to have fun….plus it was clean beds and a clean shower….which he really hadn’t had for a couple days. The Villa was very pretty…about 150 feet from the Red Sea.
Day 4: The next morning we got up, ate breakfast and took a taxi back to the port to see if we could get the first fairy out. Turns out that the next fairy didn’t leave until 3 in the afternoon (It was currently 9am) and it would cost each person 160 US dollars to use the fairy for a round trip. So after talking this over we decided that spending that amount of money for two days in Jordan wasn’t worth it. And that is where out Jordan fairytale ends. But it is ok, because not going to Jordan opened up a lot more for us. So after leaving the ticket building for the port we tried to ask a couple policemen where the bus station was…just a little word of advice…if you ever end up in Nueva and the policemen say they speak English…they really mean that they don’t. We probably looked like idiots trying to describe how we needed a bus back to Cairo….so after a while of working through our language barrier we were pointed in the right direction. We spotted the buses and began walking in that direction. As we are walking up to the big lot with buses one bus was pulling out…and as we were passing it, it stopped and the driver got out…..it was our same driver from the day before! We couldn’t believe it....he couldn’t speak English either, but with all of his hand motions and such he basically said I am leaving now you guys can through your luggage in and just come with me. We quickly payed him, which we are all pretty positive he pocketed since we didn’t even make it up to bus building to buy proper tickets, and we got on. Even though it may have been “illegal” for him to do that…it was a blessing because we knew him and we knew that we would return to Cairo that night….even if it took us an extra three hours.
We finally got back to Cairo and since we didn’t know what bus stop to get off at we just randomly picked one hoping for the best. As soon as we got off the bus we had a taxi driver in our face asking if we needed him….all we needed to do at that moment was to call the hostel that we had been at two nights before and ask them if they had room for us for the next couple days considering we wouldn’t be using our hostel in Jordan. They said that they had two rooms open and that we could head that way whenever we wanted. During this whole process this taxi driver was still all over us and part of me wanted to just look him in the eye and say Please Sir, we really don’t need you, I am sorry….but we just went with the flow and after getting our reservations we began to walk to the street to look for a legit taxi….and of course he followed us….so we said fine you can take us but we are setting the price….he didn’t like our price….so we haggled for awhile…but he wasn’t being easy about it…his persistence of taking us with his price was quite entertaining and just made me laugh….we still didn’t even know if this guy was even a taxi driver cause we had yet to see his car. All of this negotiating happened to be taking place in front of a couple of police officers…they were laughing and getting a kick out of it too….and then one of the policemen looked at me, smiled, and said this guy is a really nice guy….so we finally decided on a price with the cab driver, loaded up our stuff and headed towards to hostel.
This cab ride was probably one of the most hilarious memories in Egypt. The cab driver new English very well and was an absolute hoot. His name was Jimmy, and when he introduced himself he said I’m Jimmy! Not Jimmy Carter, Jimmy the Egyptian!! It was soo funny. We had a good discussion about are presidents….he loves Obama….along with the rest of Egypt …and hates Bush….also along with the rest of Egypt. Then he said “I like Clinton, but Clinton like too many women”…haha. He then began to give Michaela and Ish tons of crap about being a couple and he clearly let Ish know that Joy and I were going to be his considering he already had a women. At the end of the cab ride we got his number just in case we needed his assistance again and went and checked into the hostel. Its instances like this that we are glad we just went with the flow…because even though Jimmy was a little too much to handle at first, he turned out to be an awesome person that we are all glad we met.
That night so of the guys that worked at the Hostel invited us out to a bar for some drinks. We said that we would go but we wanted to get something to eat first. So Musa…one of my favorite people we met on this trip ( he is an Egyptian, but lived in Canada for 18 years so he has the Canadian accent, and is very outgoing and hilarious) took us to this restaurant, ordered for us, and said he would be back in 40 minutes to pick us up and take us to the bar. This just shows how nice the people we met really where….they took care of us a handful of times….so greatful. We had a delicious dinner (and cheap for the amount of food we got) and then we met up with them again and they showed us the way to the bar.
Musa had said that there was other Americans at the bar that were staying at the same hostel that we needed to meet. So we got to the bar, they ordered us some beer, and we all sat and chatted. The two American girls where from Philly and DC area. They were friends that had known each other for a long time and they both had breaks so they were traveling for about a week and a half. One was in her first year of residency to be a Neurologist and the other was Structural Engineer. Both very bright and very nice. It was fun to be out with locals and new friends and just to have the chance to sit and chat. After I had finished my beer, Musa looks at me and he says “WOW she drinks like a FISH” with his Canadian accent this was hilarious…then he looks at the bartender and yells from across the room “Get this lady another beer!”….I didn’t think drinking one beer by myself was that impressive but since Michaela and Joy shared one…maybe to him it was. That whole night was just a hoot. Musa and the other guys from the hostel were telling joke after joke and we were all constantly laughing. Then Musa and his friend (we like to refer to him as the guy in red coat that was creepy nice because he flirted with Joy….because we still don’t know his name) led us back to the Hostel and we showered and hit the hay because in the morning we were planning on having a day trip to Alexandria.
We boarded the bus and got ready to start our “what we thought would be a 6 hour bus ride”….little did we know that this wouldn’t really go as planned. It’s quite a long story….so I will sum it up to make it better to read and make it less boring. Pretty much this is what happened…..our 6 hour bus ride turned into 9…little did we know we had to stop at every little check point to get our tickets or passports checked…..met some interesting people….a man named Dr. Pip was a psychologist that moved from Holland to Egypt because he said why would I want to stay in Europe or go to the US, their economy is crap….talked to him for a good while…he gave us tips on where to go, what not to eat or drink if we still want to continue to have a good vacation and not get Hep C, and shared some of his stories. Nice guy….a little different…but nice. Also met a guy named Daboo….looks wise he would fall right under Bradly Cooper on my list…and he was very intelligent. He was an Egyptian who lived in Cairo….but it was very clear about how he dressed and how he talked that he would rather be an American. When we first asked him where he was from he said unfortunately Egypt…and then he said No, I am proud to be an Egyptian, but I am not proud about many things that happen in my country. His dad works for a tourism business and it was very evident that they were well off. He said that he spent a lot of time around his dads business when he was little and that is why he can speak about 5 or 6 different languages. When he said “well Russian was the hardest language I have learned” all of our jaws probably dropped. I’d say he was 22 or 23.
So back to the quickness of this story….we landed in Nueva…of course three hours late…therefore we missed out fairy and had nowhere to stay. So we were stranded in this small town that really didn’t have anything right on the coast of the Red Sea with two weeks of luggage and nowhere to go. Oh and did I mention that finding someone in the little boon-dock town that spoke English was basically impossible. So we tried looking for a hostel…or the two streets that this town had….found nothing. Then we found this restaurant with a guy that spoke English and his wife was German so she spoke English as well. They basically gave us two choices….you can either sleep in a hut on the beach (which we had no camping supplies or anything...which was needed in this case) or the Hilton. We hated to be those people, but we chose the Hilton. We got the taxi driver who had been following us around since the moment we stepped off the bus to take us to the Hilton, and we went to go check in to a room. The cheapest thing that they had was a Villa on the beach….so we got two double rooms (which included a free buffet dinner and breakfast and free drinks …which by the way was amazing food). Even though we were ticked about missing the fairy we told ourselves that we would make the best out of staying here and try to have fun….plus it was clean beds and a clean shower….which he really hadn’t had for a couple days. The Villa was very pretty…about 150 feet from the Red Sea.
Day 4: The next morning we got up, ate breakfast and took a taxi back to the port to see if we could get the first fairy out. Turns out that the next fairy didn’t leave until 3 in the afternoon (It was currently 9am) and it would cost each person 160 US dollars to use the fairy for a round trip. So after talking this over we decided that spending that amount of money for two days in Jordan wasn’t worth it. And that is where out Jordan fairytale ends. But it is ok, because not going to Jordan opened up a lot more for us. So after leaving the ticket building for the port we tried to ask a couple policemen where the bus station was…just a little word of advice…if you ever end up in Nueva and the policemen say they speak English…they really mean that they don’t. We probably looked like idiots trying to describe how we needed a bus back to Cairo….so after a while of working through our language barrier we were pointed in the right direction. We spotted the buses and began walking in that direction. As we are walking up to the big lot with buses one bus was pulling out…and as we were passing it, it stopped and the driver got out…..it was our same driver from the day before! We couldn’t believe it....he couldn’t speak English either, but with all of his hand motions and such he basically said I am leaving now you guys can through your luggage in and just come with me. We quickly payed him, which we are all pretty positive he pocketed since we didn’t even make it up to bus building to buy proper tickets, and we got on. Even though it may have been “illegal” for him to do that…it was a blessing because we knew him and we knew that we would return to Cairo that night….even if it took us an extra three hours.
We finally got back to Cairo and since we didn’t know what bus stop to get off at we just randomly picked one hoping for the best. As soon as we got off the bus we had a taxi driver in our face asking if we needed him….all we needed to do at that moment was to call the hostel that we had been at two nights before and ask them if they had room for us for the next couple days considering we wouldn’t be using our hostel in Jordan. They said that they had two rooms open and that we could head that way whenever we wanted. During this whole process this taxi driver was still all over us and part of me wanted to just look him in the eye and say Please Sir, we really don’t need you, I am sorry….but we just went with the flow and after getting our reservations we began to walk to the street to look for a legit taxi….and of course he followed us….so we said fine you can take us but we are setting the price….he didn’t like our price….so we haggled for awhile…but he wasn’t being easy about it…his persistence of taking us with his price was quite entertaining and just made me laugh….we still didn’t even know if this guy was even a taxi driver cause we had yet to see his car. All of this negotiating happened to be taking place in front of a couple of police officers…they were laughing and getting a kick out of it too….and then one of the policemen looked at me, smiled, and said this guy is a really nice guy….so we finally decided on a price with the cab driver, loaded up our stuff and headed towards to hostel.
This cab ride was probably one of the most hilarious memories in Egypt. The cab driver new English very well and was an absolute hoot. His name was Jimmy, and when he introduced himself he said I’m Jimmy! Not Jimmy Carter, Jimmy the Egyptian!! It was soo funny. We had a good discussion about are presidents….he loves Obama….along with the rest of Egypt …and hates Bush….also along with the rest of Egypt. Then he said “I like Clinton, but Clinton like too many women”…haha. He then began to give Michaela and Ish tons of crap about being a couple and he clearly let Ish know that Joy and I were going to be his considering he already had a women. At the end of the cab ride we got his number just in case we needed his assistance again and went and checked into the hostel. Its instances like this that we are glad we just went with the flow…because even though Jimmy was a little too much to handle at first, he turned out to be an awesome person that we are all glad we met.
That night so of the guys that worked at the Hostel invited us out to a bar for some drinks. We said that we would go but we wanted to get something to eat first. So Musa…one of my favorite people we met on this trip ( he is an Egyptian, but lived in Canada for 18 years so he has the Canadian accent, and is very outgoing and hilarious) took us to this restaurant, ordered for us, and said he would be back in 40 minutes to pick us up and take us to the bar. This just shows how nice the people we met really where….they took care of us a handful of times….so greatful. We had a delicious dinner (and cheap for the amount of food we got) and then we met up with them again and they showed us the way to the bar.
Musa had said that there was other Americans at the bar that were staying at the same hostel that we needed to meet. So we got to the bar, they ordered us some beer, and we all sat and chatted. The two American girls where from Philly and DC area. They were friends that had known each other for a long time and they both had breaks so they were traveling for about a week and a half. One was in her first year of residency to be a Neurologist and the other was Structural Engineer. Both very bright and very nice. It was fun to be out with locals and new friends and just to have the chance to sit and chat. After I had finished my beer, Musa looks at me and he says “WOW she drinks like a FISH” with his Canadian accent this was hilarious…then he looks at the bartender and yells from across the room “Get this lady another beer!”….I didn’t think drinking one beer by myself was that impressive but since Michaela and Joy shared one…maybe to him it was. That whole night was just a hoot. Musa and the other guys from the hostel were telling joke after joke and we were all constantly laughing. Then Musa and his friend (we like to refer to him as the guy in red coat that was creepy nice because he flirted with Joy….because we still don’t know his name) led us back to the Hostel and we showered and hit the hay because in the morning we were planning on having a day trip to Alexandria.
Egypt:, Day One and Two
This is the start of the Egypt Blogs...im going to put them in a couple days at a time so its easier to read.....not quite done, but that is a goal to reach before I leave for Barcelona on Tuesday. Enjoy. I apologize in advance for all of the typos that may be found in here....i dont really have time at this point to re-read everything...sorry mom.
Day 1: Well I guess the best place to start is day one: the airport. As you all probably read in my last blog I thought we were leaving on Friday….turns out we left Thursday….I found this out Tuesday night haha….After I told my mom this she said it’s a good thing you travel with people or else you would end up nowhere haha. Anyway, it all turned out ok…it just meant I needed to actually pack before Thursday…which successfully happened. We flew out of Bilbao Thursday to Barcelona….had a lovely 19 hour layover in the Barcelona airport….I use lovely VERY loosely. We only had one bench that was comfortable enough to sleep on…so we switched on and off. While we were staying the night in the airport there was this middle aged homeless man that was trying to sleep near us. I think he suffered from some mental illnesses from the way he was acting…so in the morning when he was still asleep on the other side of this small café area, Joy and I bought him breakfast and wrote a little note that said have a good day and Jesus loves you. He didn’t end up eating the breakfast but he read the note and then left. Then Friday morning we flew from Barcelona to Prague and then from Prague to Cairo. We arrived in Cairo at about 230am Saturday morning.
We stepped off the plane, got our luggage and went to go find a taxi. This was quite the experience considering the language barrier totally took place here. After a little confusion we finally had this guy lead through the airport to a place where he said taxis where….we were all a little skeptical, but we knew we had to eventually trust someone to lead us in the right direction so we went with it. Once we got to the place where this taxi was we loaded up our luggage as the taxi driver tried to figure out where our hostel was from the information we had. He didn’t really understand the address so after asking a few people around the airport, he finally got in and we began to drive. During this drive, I leaned over to Joy and I said This will probably make number one on the list of most uncomfortable times in my life…we wanted to think positively about this situation…but at that time all I could think about was that we were in a Country we had never been in…in a car that was driving quite fast….with someone we don’t know…and also someone we can’t communicate with…at 3:30 in the morning. But now that I look back…we were completely fine, I think it was just a little initial culture shock or something to that degree. After driving around lost for about 45 minutes and asking about every police man we saw for directions to our hostel, our taxi driver finally got us there. We checked in and then went to bed.
Day 2: First day in Cairo: We got up, got ready for the day, and then decided to just wonder around Cairo and what not. Our hostel was downtown….so we were in a good place to be able to just walk around and explore. Since we had gotten up after breakfast time and had had a dinner the previous night that consisted of airplane food, we decided to look for something to eat first. We knew that we really had to be careful about where to eat because we didn’t know how things would affect our stomachs…and we also did not have a clue where any good food places where….sooo we were lame Americans and ate at McDonalds for our first meal in Egypt. Yes we know, it is pathetic and funny at the same time…but we were so hungry that we really didn’t care. We then walked to the Nile and decided to walk along that. It was soo pretty…we took picture and just stood on a bridge for a while and talked…the weather was perfect, probably around 65-70 degrees. After that we decided to walk on the other side of the river so we crossed the bridge and began walking again. We then saw a sign for a Hard Rock Café that was right on the water so we wanted to see if we could go out on the porch for awhile….turns out we couldn’t get there through the Hard Rock Café, but we went down to the restaurant anyway. We decided we would just go in for drinks and sit and chat for awhile. What we thought would be a half an hour or so turned into a couple of hours….mostly thanks to our AWESOME waiter Sayied. He was absolutely hilarious and after we were there for awhile he started to give a riddles and these little small table games that we had to figure out. It kept us entertained for quite so time. Then the other waiters were seeing that we were laughing and having a good time so they would come over and see what we were doing and such….I think we met most of the staff that night.
Before we left we asked OUR WAITER about this food that we had been told to try called Koshery…we wanted to know where would be a good place to get it. He said there was a place called Tom and Basals not far away and that they had really good koshery. He gave us directions ….well “directions”….we took pictures with him, and then we left. Finding this place wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but after asking a few more people we finally made it. We ordered to go and then headed back to the hostel so we could plan our Jordan trip with the help of the people at the Hostel. The Koshery was amazing. It is this mixed dish that contains rice, paste, lentils, Garbanzo beans, caramelized onions, and a marinara sauce. They also gave you two different kinds of spicy sauce to put on it too. Not only was this food realllly good, but it was realllly cheap. With converting from Egyptian pounds to dollars, it cost us less than a dollar….and it was a very filling meal. Let’s just say, this was definitely not the last time we ate this. We then talked to Hisann (one of the main workers at the hostel) about going to Jordan for the next couple of days. He told us that we could take a 6 hour bus ride to Nueva, a small town close to border that has a port that we would go to too take a fairy to the Jordan boarder. We got it all planned out and set our alarms very early to get up and catch the 7oclock bus.
Day 1: Well I guess the best place to start is day one: the airport. As you all probably read in my last blog I thought we were leaving on Friday….turns out we left Thursday….I found this out Tuesday night haha….After I told my mom this she said it’s a good thing you travel with people or else you would end up nowhere haha. Anyway, it all turned out ok…it just meant I needed to actually pack before Thursday…which successfully happened. We flew out of Bilbao Thursday to Barcelona….had a lovely 19 hour layover in the Barcelona airport….I use lovely VERY loosely. We only had one bench that was comfortable enough to sleep on…so we switched on and off. While we were staying the night in the airport there was this middle aged homeless man that was trying to sleep near us. I think he suffered from some mental illnesses from the way he was acting…so in the morning when he was still asleep on the other side of this small café area, Joy and I bought him breakfast and wrote a little note that said have a good day and Jesus loves you. He didn’t end up eating the breakfast but he read the note and then left. Then Friday morning we flew from Barcelona to Prague and then from Prague to Cairo. We arrived in Cairo at about 230am Saturday morning.
We stepped off the plane, got our luggage and went to go find a taxi. This was quite the experience considering the language barrier totally took place here. After a little confusion we finally had this guy lead through the airport to a place where he said taxis where….we were all a little skeptical, but we knew we had to eventually trust someone to lead us in the right direction so we went with it. Once we got to the place where this taxi was we loaded up our luggage as the taxi driver tried to figure out where our hostel was from the information we had. He didn’t really understand the address so after asking a few people around the airport, he finally got in and we began to drive. During this drive, I leaned over to Joy and I said This will probably make number one on the list of most uncomfortable times in my life…we wanted to think positively about this situation…but at that time all I could think about was that we were in a Country we had never been in…in a car that was driving quite fast….with someone we don’t know…and also someone we can’t communicate with…at 3:30 in the morning. But now that I look back…we were completely fine, I think it was just a little initial culture shock or something to that degree. After driving around lost for about 45 minutes and asking about every police man we saw for directions to our hostel, our taxi driver finally got us there. We checked in and then went to bed.
Day 2: First day in Cairo: We got up, got ready for the day, and then decided to just wonder around Cairo and what not. Our hostel was downtown….so we were in a good place to be able to just walk around and explore. Since we had gotten up after breakfast time and had had a dinner the previous night that consisted of airplane food, we decided to look for something to eat first. We knew that we really had to be careful about where to eat because we didn’t know how things would affect our stomachs…and we also did not have a clue where any good food places where….sooo we were lame Americans and ate at McDonalds for our first meal in Egypt. Yes we know, it is pathetic and funny at the same time…but we were so hungry that we really didn’t care. We then walked to the Nile and decided to walk along that. It was soo pretty…we took picture and just stood on a bridge for a while and talked…the weather was perfect, probably around 65-70 degrees. After that we decided to walk on the other side of the river so we crossed the bridge and began walking again. We then saw a sign for a Hard Rock Café that was right on the water so we wanted to see if we could go out on the porch for awhile….turns out we couldn’t get there through the Hard Rock Café, but we went down to the restaurant anyway. We decided we would just go in for drinks and sit and chat for awhile. What we thought would be a half an hour or so turned into a couple of hours….mostly thanks to our AWESOME waiter Sayied. He was absolutely hilarious and after we were there for awhile he started to give a riddles and these little small table games that we had to figure out. It kept us entertained for quite so time. Then the other waiters were seeing that we were laughing and having a good time so they would come over and see what we were doing and such….I think we met most of the staff that night.
Before we left we asked OUR WAITER about this food that we had been told to try called Koshery…we wanted to know where would be a good place to get it. He said there was a place called Tom and Basals not far away and that they had really good koshery. He gave us directions ….well “directions”….we took pictures with him, and then we left. Finding this place wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but after asking a few more people we finally made it. We ordered to go and then headed back to the hostel so we could plan our Jordan trip with the help of the people at the Hostel. The Koshery was amazing. It is this mixed dish that contains rice, paste, lentils, Garbanzo beans, caramelized onions, and a marinara sauce. They also gave you two different kinds of spicy sauce to put on it too. Not only was this food realllly good, but it was realllly cheap. With converting from Egyptian pounds to dollars, it cost us less than a dollar….and it was a very filling meal. Let’s just say, this was definitely not the last time we ate this. We then talked to Hisann (one of the main workers at the hostel) about going to Jordan for the next couple of days. He told us that we could take a 6 hour bus ride to Nueva, a small town close to border that has a port that we would go to too take a fairy to the Jordan boarder. We got it all planned out and set our alarms very early to get up and catch the 7oclock bus.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
20th birthday
Well I am sure all of you thought that this would be the first of the Egypt blogs....but sorry its not. BUT I have started on those and they will be coming soon...it will take a couple blogs to get it all in....but they will be coming.....hopefully.
Anyway I just wanted to write this blog what has happened since I have returned from Egypt....or aka my birthday.
I had a great birthday...and thank you all for the birthday wishes....its not everyday you get to turn 20 in a different country.
Amelia (my host mom) is absolutely wonderful...I honestly think that maybe she was more excited about my birthday than I was haha.
When I walked into the kitchen for breakfast the morn of my birthday there was a bouquet of flowers in front of my breakfast plate and a present on my plate. I went to go find her out on the porch and said thank you a million times....she grabbed my face gave me a kisses on my cheeks and kept saying happy birthday. I then unwrapped my gift and it was this very awesome necklace. She said I want to be your mom away from home so I want to give you a great birthday...haha she is just so cute. Then when i got home from class she had this feast prepared. We had calamari, shrimp and other appetizers first and then
we had this pot roast thing....very good. Oh we also had champagne. Then when I was finishing up lunch, Amelia left the room and when she came back she was holding this big raseberry cheesecake with a big 20 candle in it. It was so cute. She again kissed me on the cheeks and had me blow out the candles. Perfect birthday lunch! She even told me that next year when I turn 21, I will say WOW I wish I was having Amelia's Birthday lunch today....she is probably right.
That night a group of friends and I went to the bar Crazy Horse to have some drinks and then we went to a friends apartment and just hung out, we took it slow since it was a school night. Tonight is when we are really celebrating. We are going to cook in Catherine's apartment and then go out.
Perfect Spanish Birthday!!
Egypt blogs will soon be coming!
love you all...
Mel
Anyway I just wanted to write this blog what has happened since I have returned from Egypt....or aka my birthday.
I had a great birthday...and thank you all for the birthday wishes....its not everyday you get to turn 20 in a different country.
Amelia (my host mom) is absolutely wonderful...I honestly think that maybe she was more excited about my birthday than I was haha.
When I walked into the kitchen for breakfast the morn of my birthday there was a bouquet of flowers in front of my breakfast plate and a present on my plate. I went to go find her out on the porch and said thank you a million times....she grabbed my face gave me a kisses on my cheeks and kept saying happy birthday. I then unwrapped my gift and it was this very awesome necklace. She said I want to be your mom away from home so I want to give you a great birthday...haha she is just so cute. Then when i got home from class she had this feast prepared. We had calamari, shrimp and other appetizers first and then
we had this pot roast thing....very good. Oh we also had champagne. Then when I was finishing up lunch, Amelia left the room and when she came back she was holding this big raseberry cheesecake with a big 20 candle in it. It was so cute. She again kissed me on the cheeks and had me blow out the candles. Perfect birthday lunch! She even told me that next year when I turn 21, I will say WOW I wish I was having Amelia's Birthday lunch today....she is probably right.
That night a group of friends and I went to the bar Crazy Horse to have some drinks and then we went to a friends apartment and just hung out, we took it slow since it was a school night. Tonight is when we are really celebrating. We are going to cook in Catherine's apartment and then go out.
Perfect Spanish Birthday!!
Egypt blogs will soon be coming!
love you all...
Mel
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