Halloween in Cairo, Day One

So I'm back.

And whoa, what a trip.

It's really difficult to say exactly what Egypt was like beyond, well, phenomenally interesting and everything you can imagine and more. I mean, wow. It's tough to really know where to start, so I'll just start in with my trip to the airport and getting out of Roma.

The strikes I mentioned in my last blog by the students was in full effect, and it really did mess with people. On my way over to the train station and trying to get to the airport, the Metro was insanely packed with chanting students. I really like seeing young people making the effort to get out and make their impact felt (hey, any students on here? Go out and make that difference tomorrow!)

Anyway, I got to the airport over three hours before my flight, but I was not going to be late for a trip I've waited a lifetime for. My counter had to change from Uzbek Airlines to Egypt Air, and I was first in line, so I got to request a seat towards the front and got to my gate, only for them to change it, without telling anyone, half an hour before boarding.

I made it though and hopped on my flight to Egypt. Now, Egypt Air was nice, yes, but the seats were oddly sand colored, started with the 20s row, and their attendants were really conservatively dressed, which somewhere, the Alitalia people hoped it would convince the sleazy men to fly them instead. The 3 hour flight felt pretty long, but I was so excited to get there that doesn't surprise me at all.

When we did eventually land, I hopped off as quickly as I could, and there I was: in Africa, in Egypt, where I've wanted to go my entire life. I didn't check any bags, so I just walked up to customs and met a man named Amr carrying a red clipboard with "David Hill Egypt Magic" on it. I assumed since Egypt Magic was the program, and my dad was not on this flight. He eagerly shook my hand and guided me through some Middle-Eastern garbed men to the customs area and passport control, where I got some really awesome stamps and a Visa for Egypt, and 15 minutes later we were in the cab and off to Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel to meet up with the Tellams.

Now, a quick thing or two about Cairo that you may not know (I didn't, anyway): it's the third most crowded city in the world, with Twenty-Two MILLION people there. And they all drive. All the time. It was night, and there was a traffic jam. During the day, traffic jam. Any time during the any time: traffic jam. Why? The number of people and the terrfying way that people decided is optimal to drive. And man, they just go where they want. My driver honked the horn at least 50 times; I stopped counting at that point. Amr talked to me the entire time, telling me really cheesy stories that turned out to just be a trained story, but hey, I learned some things.

But what really struck me (outside the number of people) was the Arabic writing everywhere. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I mean, I had no clue what it said, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate it. Amr was interested when he heard I was a PoliSci major, and asked me what to do to solve the Economic Crisis and whether or not he should buy his house right now or see if it gets worse. I told him to not take my opinion for anything, but man, he really, really wanted my help. The all-knowing American I am not.

We got there an hour and 40 minutes after leaving, and that's a longggggg drive in traffic. Man. But when I got there, Kirsten was waiting for me and it was awesome to see her again. We put my bags away and met up with Brad and Sue to get some dinner. We actually got Mexican food at the hotel, which was really good. We had a nice time catching up on everything going on for the past week. We had a lot on the palate for the next day though, so it was off to bed for the night.

After a pretty good night's sleep, we woke up and got some breakfast at the Hotel, which was a nice way to start out. I got to have an omelette and pancakes, which I've missed greatly being in Italy, since no one seems to eat breakfast there. We met up with our Egyptologist, Abby, a nice Egyptian woman who got us in our cab and we went to Memphis to start it off. The drive during the day was nice to see the city, but man, it was dirty. Like whoaaaa dirty. Trash everywhere, canals flooded with dead animals, garbage, and lord knows what. But Memphis was very clean, full of excavated statues and hieroglyphs, which was awesome. It was my first "this is the Egypt I imagined moment." There was a Sphinx, hieroglyphs, and several statues of Ramses II, which were absolutely fantastic. They were all really tall, and they were so cool to think about being made in 2700 BC.

Yes, that's 4700 years ago.

And yes, they are as cool as you could imagine.

The most amazing statue there was the unfinished statue of Ramses, which was so undescribably huge, and the face, chest, arms, and torso were finished, but his legs were not. I mean, look at the people there next to his head, it was over thirty feet in size. Great, great stuff, and we were there just the right amount of time to see everything and yet not get anxious to leave at all.

After Memphis, it was off to the Step-Pyramid, which was where the first attempts at building the pyramids took place. All of the planning that went into the ones we know as tourists really unraveled there in the few generations before the Great Pyramids were constructed. This pyramid was interesting as the sides were not smooth not evenly distributed blocks, but rather large looking steps that unfurled in about 5 layers or so of limestone. Pretty tall, and really, really interesting to think about these being over twice as old as the oldest stuff in Rome. I mean, Rome was founded as a city supposedly in 500 BC; these pyramids were build about 2000 years before that ever, so chew on that for a minute if you want to put it into perspective.

We went through a old burial structure to get to the really large opening where the step pyramid was, and I tried to take a video that would give indication of just how it looks from actually being there, but I'm not going to say this is nearly as impressive as being there, since sorry, you just can't know it until you're there.



We spent about an hour there with Abby describing different important points and historical significance, which was a lot of really interesting things that I would gladly get into on a later date, but for the sake of trying to keep this at least RELATIVELY reasonable, I'll tone it down and remember that wikipedia is your best friend for any unanswered questions.

The surrounding tombs around the pyramid were almost as cool as the pyramid itself. There was one partially excavated tomb there that was still mostly under that sand, and I was really jazzed about seeing that. I mean, everything there was pretty much under sand until a hundred years ago or so, and it's still in the process of being excavated. I'll include the picture if I can.

So this site was awesome as well. Halloween keep on rolling I suppose. And FYI, I've taken well over 200 pictures on my stay here, and they will make it to Picasa soon, I promise. Now, from here, we went to the Carpet Institute.

A little about Egypt again: there are all these places where kids are sent to work if their families can't afford school, and the kids go their to learn a trade and they can earn money to support their families from a young age. Papyrus, Glass, Alabaster, Cotton, and Carpet were all popular ones. These places make their money by the kids making their various wares which they then sell to tourists who roll through on guided tours, and they really do pressure you into buying something, even though you may have no room. They took us down to where the children were weaving the carpets, and the way they worked the looms was magical. I mean, really, they were like lightning. They then serve you drinks and pull out tons of things to try and sell you, but the Tellams (and I'm so sorry about this) had already been to several of these institutes and knew the game, so we got out of there after tipping and were off to Giza.

Now, here's another fun game: tipping. Everywhere you go, no joke, everyone rubs their thumb and pointer finger together after doing seriously next to nothing, wanting a tip. It's really silly in some instances, but you can't go anywhere and be free from the tip searchers. They are seriously everywhere, but what are you going to do.

Anyway, Giza! The Great Pyramids were pretty close to our hotel, but due to the intense amount of smog, they are often hidden or shrouded from any real distance. But we got closer and you come around a corner and BANG, there they are, in all their glory. We hopped out and took a ton of pictures, the highlights I'll post here. This is really just the start of the pyramid fun, but you have to take pictures here! I mean, whew, what a place to see, and it's everything you imagine and then some. Really, really cool stuff. They were much more segmented than I imagined though, and maybe that will come through in the pictures. Each block of limestone is about 5 feet tall, and supposedly, as a whole, the pyramid has about 2,300,000 (yes, 2.3 million) stones in total. The three are all so impressive in size, but only get more so the closer you get.

Abby got us some tickets to go under one of the Pyramids too, but first, we had other business to attend to.

Camel business.

Yessss!

Now, you can't go to Egypt and not ride a camel now can you? I used this logic profusely to get Sue to get up on one and surprisingly enough, Kirsten got up on one too without any real convincing occuring.

Before we got on to our camels, we came to a little clearing after a short drive and got to take some pictures with the three Great Pyramids as a backdrop, and that was pretty darn cool. I took some pictures trying to get it, and a video too, so here's to hoping it gives you a taste of what it's like to really be there.



But from here, we got up on our camels, (yes, all four of us did) and our Egyptian teenaged guide took us on a brief tour of the Pyramids surrounding area, which was surely something I'll remember for the rest of my life. Between the cries of terror from the camel scares to the oooohing and ahhhhing, I really can't imagine not looking back on that ride as one of the more memorable things I've ever really got to do. Good times all around, and the pictures, I think, reflect that.

Try and tell me I'm not having fun when you look at that picture. Go ahead, try. It'd be tough to derive anything but happiness out of that'd I'd imagine.

After our 15 minutes of camel fun (which I guess I have a calling for . . . really wasn't all that tough. Who knows? Maybe it's the Hermiston in me or something . . . ) we got off at the second Pyramid and we went under into the tomb. Now, you have to bend down about half way to get into the shaft, which descends 70 meters (or about 230 feet) and then you come to a little flat space and climb back up 70 meters to the tomb. Oh, and if claustrophobia isn't the scare, then maybe the 150 degree, full-humidity environment will be. And boy was it ever hot. Brad, Kirsten and I descended into the pyramid only to leave almost immediately after we got in since it was SO hot.

But yes, it was something to remember, no doubt about it.

From there, we went to see the Sphinx, but this post is long enough. Part two will come soon enough, I promise, but Sphinx, mosques, Nubian food, and more, all coming in part two.

Until next time,

Ciao.