A Little Dry
Amazingly all of my flights were on time and I made it to Cairo at about the exact time I was supposed to arrive. On my flight from New York City to Amman I sat in the middle seat in the back of the plane between two men. Luckily the flight left at 10:30pm from New York City and I was able to go right to sleep. Dinner was served around 2am, a really random time for dinner in my opinion so I tried to sleep through that. One of the two men that I sat next to was very large and he tried to compress himself but still came over onto my seat. While sleeping I think I might have cuddled up with him a little bit but he didn’t seem to mind and it helped me to sleep better resting up against him.
This trip to Egypt is for two weeks and is part of a tour group, something I haven’t done the entire time I have been traveling during the past year and I am looking forward to seeing how it compares to what it was like when I was on my own.
Upon arriving in Cairo I was met by a representative for the tour company who helped me obtain my visa, which meant paying $15 to a bank. Then he waited for me to get my bag that I had checked all the way through from San Francisco and took me to a waiting car where I was given an information packet and shuttled off to the hotel on the other side of Cairo. The entire process minus the driving to the hotel took less than 15 minutes, I was really impressed. Then once at the hotel the representative checked me into my room and waited to make sure that everything in there was good for me, I could really get used to this type of service! My friend Janelle who invited me on the trip had her plane delayed and didn’t end up making it to the hotel until an hour after me.
After all of the traveling I was exhausted and ready to sleep in but unfortunately the tour was getting started and I got a wakeup call at 7am to be on the bus to start the tour by 8am. The tour guides name is Sam and he has been with the tour company since they started 11 years ago and seems to know a lot about what he is saying. He is currently working on his PHD in Egyptology.
Here is a quick summary of why the pyramids exist according to my memory of what Sam said: When a pharaoh would die they would put his body in a tomb and then cover it with a large flat square of rocks. This was done so that after his soul went to be with the other gods it could find its way back to its tomb where it would live the afterlife. Then one day a pharaoh decided that he wanted three successively smaller square blocks placed on top of each other. After this was built they added 3 more levels to make a pyramid shape. The next pharaoh liked this and tried to make a smooth pyramid, but got the angle wrong. There were several more attempts and then they finally got the angle correct.
We went to the Step Pyramid and then to the Pyramids of Giza along with the Sphinx. We were allowed to walk inside of the pyramids but not to take pictures. To enter the pyramid you have to walk down a really short hallway carved into the pyramids to get to where the tombs were. It was pretty cool to be able to actually go inside of an actual pyramid. For Lunch Sam, the tour guide bought us some koshary which consists of pasta, rice, lentil, chick peas, onions, garlic and chili sauce it was delicious.
After a long day we hopped on an overnight train to Aswan where we hung out in the party coach until midnight and the official start of Christmas in Egypt.
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