Back in Cairo

On a Bridge

Now I am ridiculously far behind on my blog. I apologize for this, I think it’s because my travels have come to an end and I subconsciously think that if I don’t write to the end of my travels I will still be traveling.

January 3rd we had to be on the bus to head to Cairo by 6am. After an exhausting night of partying we all slept really well and since only half of the group was going back to Cairo the bus was half empty and I was able to stretch out and sleep pretty well. In Cairo we checked into our hotel and then went to the Cairo museum. This is where the actual mummies are as well as everything that was found in King Tut’s tomb. Inside of King Tut’s tomb was a giant gold plated box, inside that box were three progressively smaller golden boxes. Inside the smallest box was a gold plated tomb that had three smaller tombs inside of it until the final one was made completely of gold. When the tomb was opened King Tut was found inside wearing a solid gold mask, necklaces, gloves, shoes and more. The amount of gold was beyond extensive. Again pictures were not allowed and so I don’t have any to show you.

At dinner my stomach started to act up. The plan was to go to the Cairo markets, some of the oldest in the world. I don’t want to be too graphic but I decided that it would be best not to go some place that was too far away from a toilet and instead I went back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the night.

The next morning everyone else on the trip was heading home. My flight was tremendously cheaper to stay for a couple of days and get out of the Holiday Travel Season, so I stuck around for two extra nights. I checked out of the fancy hotel and put my stuff in storage to hang out with Janelle until her flight left. We walked around town for a little while but didn’t have a lot of time to see much anything. When Janelle left I was really sad, we had an amazing time together and I am so grateful to her for inviting me to join her and her friends on this wonderful adventure. I look forward to seeing Janelle and all of my new friends again soon (hopefully).

As part of the tour they take you to the airport but since I was going to be in town for a few more days they drove me to my hostel instead. My hostel was in downtown Cairo, right next to a mosque and just down the street from the Cairo museum. Checking back into a hostel for the first time in over a month it was the first time in all of that time that I felt like I was at home. It was a really weird feeling, why would staying in a room with strangers make me feel at home? It is hard to explain, but it is how I felt.

The whole time that I traveled as part of the tour group they would take us to restaurants that were nice and as such the price of meals was close to that of American prices. Egypt is a poor country and the only reason that prices should be that high is to cater to foreigners. Being back on my own meant that I could eat at restaurants along the streets that the locals frequented and I was able to get a kebab, fries, rice pudding and a drink all for less than $2.50.

In my room a Korean woman started to speak to me and asked me questions about where I was from and where I had been. I thought to myself, this woman has really good English. After I had answered her questions I started to ask her questions back and she replied that she didn’t speak English. I think she had just memorized how to say several logical questions and then nodded politely as I responded.

Tomorrow (January 4th) I’m going to wander the city streets aimlessly as usual to see what I can find, I’m excited.

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01_03_10 Cairo Small