Andrea's Travel Blog: Egypt (Part Shteim)

EGYPT!

Monday morning (March the 9th) we awoke to the idea of traveling to Egypt.

The idea that has been spoken of and visualized but never realized until it came into being the morning of March 9th.

Ben and I took a cab over to the Egyptian Embassy from our hostel in Eilat (here's us in front of the Embassy)

After a long and drawn out ordeal about passport photos (we had to go back and forth three times until we finally got our photos taken) our Visa was approved and we were off the the border! A 15 shekel taxi ride later Ben and I arrived at the Israeli/Egyptian border (in Eilat) and walked through like a slave returning as a free man (woman) to his homeland. I don't know what that analogy was trying to say, I just wanted to recognize that I haven't been to Egypt and my ancestors were slaves there...so yeah.

We get through the border without trouble (it was painless!) and find that the next bus to Cairo doesn't leave for 4 hours. Going along with our plan Ben and I grab a cab and for $50 each and take the 8 hour tour to Cairo. Our driver was fast and I was so sick I slept the whole way! We stopped at one roadside cafe but there was no way I was going to use this toilet...

Here is a photo from our window at the Sara Inn Hostel (I highly recommend this hostel to anyone planning to stay in Cairo, it was safe and clean and everyone spoke English).

The bathroom, on the other hand was another story. If you ever want to hear the Egyptian bathroom story, just get me a little tipsy and I'll re-enact the whole situation...(In a nutshell: the shower was stuck and I had to find an alternative source of water to bathe myself in....

When we arrived in Cairo alive (I'm still now sure how because there are absolutely no traffic laws AT ALL!) Ben and I settled in our room then decided to take a walk around the city.

At this point I was still feeling a bit sick and was not hungry at all, but hell, I was in Cairo and there was nothingstopping me but myhself. The city is strangely similar to downtown NYC. Lots of hustle and bustle and lots of electronic shops!

We came upon this really neat alleyway full of hookah bars and littlerestaurants but the smell was a bit too nauseating toactually sit and eat. Eventuallythe two of us agreed to eat at a nearby small French restaurant(TOTAL TOURIST MOMENT #1- eating at a French Restaurant in Egypt). I ordered Lentil soup but kept tasting Egypt so I just ate the crackers. Ben liked the chicken. We were so pooped we went to bed after dinner. When we woke up there was a movie being filmed outside our window! Look!

(Below) This is the Egypt museum, we went here on our second day in the morning.

Unfortunately no cameras were allowed inside the museum so all I have are shots of the outside. Thanks to my International Student Identification card I received a 50% discount at the museum so I only paid 30 pounds (around $6)Here are two of the shots I took outside...

Inside the museum was sooo intense, there were so many artifacts even the Egyptians didn't know what to do with them. I swear Ben and I wondered into a corridor where objects weren't unwrapped yet! The highlights of the museum included seeing KING TUT and all of his after worldly possessions (even his tomb had a tomb) and his wife's jewelry. The mummy section cost 60 Egyptian pounds (around 12 US dollars) to get in so I didn't see any Royal mummys, just their mummified pets and some lower level not as important mummys. (but it was still awesome!)

We left the museum after an hour and a half. Mainly because it was too stimulating. We were literally drunk with knowledge and overstimulation. To let our brains take a breather, we decided to take a stroll down the NILE RIVER here are some pictures from that walk...

By the way I was walking like an Egyptian right before this picture but Ben refused to take a picture of me :(

During our walk along the Nile (to the Hard Rock Cafe) Ben and I came upon the Cairo Opera House-it was a beautiful area and the city was hosting a film festival...Here is the crew setting up the festival and a neat piece of artwork in the centre...

Soon after we came upon the opera house my wallet started tingling. I realized I'd been in another country for more than 48 hours and I had yet to buy anything touristy or tacky. It was an emergency we attempted to solve by asking every friendly looking passerby where we could find the nearest market or baazar...we were met with limited response. The one good piece of advice we recieved was to wait for Giza to shop for "those" kinds of items. Well we did and it was worth it...

After I gave up on my mission to find a good shopping post, Ben and I wandered over to the Four Seasons Hotel where the Hard Rock Cafe was located. (TOTAL TOURISTY MOMENT #2). Don't get mad at us, we planned to eat there are part of our total tourist theme. Besides, I had a 10% discount withmy International Student Identity Card!

I don't think the food at Hard Rock and my stomach agreed because five minutes after my last bite of "Joe Perry's Rock Your World Quesidillas", I was spending the next hour rocking and rolling in pain. Long story short, we high tailed it out of Cairo and over to our 5 star hotel in Giza.
(A short 20 minute cab ride)