Egypt has been on the top of my vacation list since I heard we were moving to Saudi, but with all the political unrest we didn't feel comfortable visiting with Maddy. So when Trey had a week of holiday time he needed to take and we didn't really have anywhere to go a last minute trip was born! I've learned so much about vacation planning this past year and got to put a lot of it to good use grabbing us a great vacation for under 2000 USD. I wish from the beginning I had done more research and opted to include Luxor and Aswan in this trip but we needed the relax time too. We decided on Cairo for 3 days and then Sharm El Sheikh for 4 days.
Thanks to a quick budget airlines flight from Saudi we were in Cairo with no hassle. I arranged a company to pick us up at the airport and drive us to our hotel. This is one time that I was glad I had been previously exposed to Saudi driving otherwise Cairo drivers would have been a complete culture shock to me. Instead everything we saw seemed strangely normal. Our driver gave us an impomptu history of Cairo en route to our hotel. When we arrived and checked in we got to enjoy a relaxing evening of swimming (in freezing water) and watching movies with an amazing view of the pyramids from the bedroom window. Maddy was recovering from a nasty virus that nearly cancelled our trip so we were thankful for an additional recovery day.
 |
| View from our hotel |
Day one in Cairo we meet our guide in the lobby following a breakfast buffet of assorted Egyptian foods (very similar to Arabic foods). Our guide was a 24 year old unmarried Christian Egyptian young man, talking to him gave us a great perspective of the culture around religion, dating and living at home as an adult. We started off with the biggest attraction in Cairo of course the pyramids of GIZA. Entering the ticket area for the pyramids it was evident how the tourism has taken a severe hit related to the claims that Egypt is still not safe. We were at the pyramid sights for around 3 hours and we saw maybe 50 tourists total. It was amazing to think of all the pictures you've seen in the past with standing room only around the pyramids and very sad too. So it's time that I admit I have an obsession with being able to touch things, it sounds crazy but the places we visit I love being able to actually touch the artifacts. So I had tons of joy being able to go and touch the pyramids!!! It was so exciting, this is somewhere I read about in middle school and high school, it seemed like a world away and so out of reach, yet, here I am touching it! Be still my nerd heart.
Okay back on track...we visited all three pyramids and nearly got tricked into riding a camel until I had to go mama bear on the camel owner. We heard the history of the pyramids and how each one was built smaller then the previous to honor the ancestors. Maddy really got a kick out of seeing the pyramids too because she knew mummies come from pyramids. After seeing (and touching!) the pyramids we went to see the syphnix which photos of it are very deceiving, it's quite small. Although much smaller then I imagined it was still impressive because it was craved from a single block of limestone. After my local celebrity got her picture taken by the majority of locals and we got asked about 20 times if we were from Germany (because we are so white) we headed to the van to keep adventuring. Driving you could see people burning their trash on the river bank, when I asked our guide why they were doing this he explained that since the political restructure most basic community resources, such as trash pickup, have not been resumed. It really goes to show you the things we take for granted. While on our way to our next site we saw a couple government jeeps with army men sitting in the open backs with machine guns, I will admit this is another situation where I was glad I had been exposed to similar things in Saudi otherwise it would have freaked me out. Overall though we felt very safe everywhere we went while in Cairo, we vacationed smart remembering the risks and felt reassured at all tourists spots that order was in place.
 |
| Climbing Keops Pyramid |
 |
| Keops Pyramid, an amazing sight! |
 |
| Us nearly getting tricked into a camel ride by a pushy salesmen |
 |
| The Emmitte's with the Pyramids of GIZA |
 |
| I just HAD to take this photo! |
 |
| My kid is awesome! |
 |
| Inside Keops Pyramid |
 |
| Maddy and our guide, Omar |
 |
| Egyptian mornings have the sand fog too, makes for hazy pics |
Our next stop of the day was Sakkara which is home to the first pyramid the "Step Pyramid" of Djoser and Pyramid of King Titi, which is the only pyramid with hieroglyphics craved inside to be found in Egypt. We got to descend a long tunnel to enter the pyramid and view the hieroglyphics and cravings. Also inside was the empty sarcophagus which Maddy was happy to report to everyone we met was robbed of the mummy. After walking around the Step pyramid grounds we headed to Memphis, the capital of old Egypt during the old kingdom (3200 B.C.) and got to see the giant Ramses II statue. We then headed to a late lunch and back to our hotel. That evening we headed back to the pyramids for the light and sound show, it was a wonderful presentation of history of the pyramids along with some cool effects that kept Maddy entertained. Afterwards we convinced our guide to take us to a local take away place for dinner and ended up with Tamiya (Egyptian Falafel) and Shawarma minus the french fries. It was a really good meal.
 |
| Right after our guide explained the mummy is buried behind that panel and the belief is she can come back to life and claim her body. Maddy wasn't turning her back on that mummy! |
 |
| Heiroglyphs inside Pyramid of King Titi |
 |
| Large Ramses II statue in Memphis |
 |
| First pyramid the 'step pyramid' built as an extravagant grave sight built like a stairway to the sun god, Ra |
 |
| The tunnel to enter the pyramid |
Day two in Cairo we headed to the Citadel, a stone fortress from the 12th century. The only portion currently open to tourist is the Alabaster Mosque that was created by the same person who created the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Next we headed to the Egyptian Museum which is crammed packed with artifacts. The museum itself is over a hundred years old and the construction is underway on the new museum which is supposedly going to be the largest in the world. We got to see King Tut's artifacts, some of which we had seen on tour in Houston but other larger pieces that don't tour were amazing to see. We also got to go see the human and animal mummies in the museum, Maddy's favorite part. You could have easily gotten lost in the museum for days exploring and reading. After a quick detour to find some children's books about Egypt and get some coins for my collection we headed to Old Cairo (Coptic Cairo) which is the Christian area of Cairo. According to our guide, 20% of Egyptians are Christians, which is a number that surprises me because I assumed it was another muslim country. We visited the Hanging Church (named such because it was built on the old city walls-in places you can still see the old walls through the floor) and we met our only fellow American of the whole trip. I also found out about a Pope that I didn't even know existed, the Coptic Orthodox Pope. Our guide was baffled that I didn't know about this although I don't think it's common knowledge. Next we headed to the Abu Serga Church which was believed to shelter the holy family at the end of their journey into Egypt. All this made me want to take a class on religion, it was so fascinating and very confusing, matching stories with actual current day locations would be interesting to learn about. After another late lunch and a papyrus making demonstration by a rude Egyptian dude we were headed back to our hotel.
The following day we said goodbye to Cairo and headed for a relaxing couple days in Sharm el Sheikh. It's a resort town on the Red Sea and was just what we needed to relax before coming back to Saudi. Maddy enjoyed the kids club, we enjoyed the grown-up drinks at the beachside bar and we all enjoyed the heated pools and family time. Overall a great vacation!
 |
| Enjoying the Red Sea |
 |
| Taken from my lounge chair with a book in one hand and a cocktail in the other = perfection |
 |
| Nightly kids club dance party, Maddy was the only american but she did pick up some Russian! |
No comments:
Post a Comment