Finally things are in English. I know what I'm doing, now.
So, this whole trip has been building up tremendously. I've sort of been prepping myself to be on my own and independent. I felt the first three weeks that I would be w/the folks would just be a little bit of practice.
Egypt is kinda the shit. I really like it, despite the fact that it's dirtier and busier than New York, or any other city you could ever imagine and that crossing the street you are pretty much taking your life in your hands, or better yet, in the competence of the cab drivers.
Return to Day 1:
We arrived into Cairo the evening before, super exhausted due to the 11 hour flight, found our hostel, napped, then went out to check out the neighborhood. Little sketch. At least the first impression was. Bunches of auto part stores. But not in the way we know them in The States, more like bodega style auto part stores.
Day 2:
=Awesome.
Had a guy from the hostel take us to the pyramids. SO fucking cool. Woah. Went inside a tomb, no biggie, checked out some ancient ruins. And saw the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, all that sweet stuff. It was interesting to see the other tourists there, most were Egyptians. It was similar to visiting our Mount Rushmore, but way older and sort of way cooler due to the fact that it was/is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and whatnot.
So, bunches of men leading/riding camels w/elaborate saddles all around, trying to get you to take pictures w/them and pay them for it. I attempted to take a pic of some guy's camel and he then began to take his scarf and wrap it around my head and tell me we would get a good picture, I knew he was going to ask for change and I didn't have any, so quickly shot out my hand and snapped a quick photo of me and the camel and proceeded to take off the scarf around my head and walk away. The guy went after my dad for about a hundred feet trying to get some kind of cash out of him. Oops!
Something I am having a bit of trouble getting used to is the attention we get as Americans. As we were leaving the Pyramids, a bus nearby was letting tons of school-age children out, they were heading in our direction and saw us. They surrounded us and were asking us all kinds of questions, mostly "WHAAT IS YOUR NAME!?" "Where are you FROM?!" it was nuts. And there were like fifty of them. Yikes.
Back to Cairo.
Crazy and insane cab ride back. They drive like there are no rules, any street is a two-way street! You want to go left, we go left!
Walking back to our hostel we ran into a guy who claimed to be an archeologist at the Egyptian Museum and did the animal mummy restoration. He was a very nice man and interesting to talk to. He took us to a tiny cafe in an alley where we had delicious Egyptian coffee, pretty much Turkish coffee and chatted, then we all sort of went on our way. Egyptians seem to be very friendly people, especially when they get the chance to speak English and talk to a foreigner. A similar incidence happened today, but the man ended up taking us to his son-in-law's perfume shop, and expected us to buy.
It seems like a cop-out and kind of is, but for dinner that night, we went to The Hilton across the road. ie highway. Crossing traffic is like a game one guy told us. And it is so true, you're rolling the dice and hope you land on the opposite sidewalk in one piece!
So, this whole trip has been building up tremendously. I've sort of been prepping myself to be on my own and independent. I felt the first three weeks that I would be w/the folks would just be a little bit of practice.
Egypt is kinda the shit. I really like it, despite the fact that it's dirtier and busier than New York, or any other city you could ever imagine and that crossing the street you are pretty much taking your life in your hands, or better yet, in the competence of the cab drivers.
Return to Day 1:
We arrived into Cairo the evening before, super exhausted due to the 11 hour flight, found our hostel, napped, then went out to check out the neighborhood. Little sketch. At least the first impression was. Bunches of auto part stores. But not in the way we know them in The States, more like bodega style auto part stores.
=Awesome.
Had a guy from the hostel take us to the pyramids. SO fucking cool. Woah. Went inside a tomb, no biggie, checked out some ancient ruins. And saw the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, all that sweet stuff. It was interesting to see the other tourists there, most were Egyptians. It was similar to visiting our Mount Rushmore, but way older and sort of way cooler due to the fact that it was/is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and whatnot.
Something I am having a bit of trouble getting used to is the attention we get as Americans. As we were leaving the Pyramids, a bus nearby was letting tons of school-age children out, they were heading in our direction and saw us. They surrounded us and were asking us all kinds of questions, mostly "WHAAT IS YOUR NAME!?" "Where are you FROM?!" it was nuts. And there were like fifty of them. Yikes.
Back to Cairo.
Crazy and insane cab ride back. They drive like there are no rules, any street is a two-way street! You want to go left, we go left!
It seems like a cop-out and kind of is, but for dinner that night, we went to The Hilton across the road. ie highway. Crossing traffic is like a game one guy told us. And it is so true, you're rolling the dice and hope you land on the opposite sidewalk in one piece!
LOVE IT!!! Glad you guys are having fun! : ) wish i could be there but i'm really happy i can read the blog!
ReplyDeleteI showed my roommate Katrina this picture and she said Dad looks like an archeologist haha soo true!!
ReplyDelete