Egypt - week 1

I'm out of Egypt almost a week now, and it feels like another world already so far away...so much happened and we covered a lot of ground and saw so many things, forgive me if this post is not as detailed as the first, but this one should have some pics this time :)

Day2:
We hit Cairo's Egyptian Museum & the Pyramids at Giza with a vengeance. The Egyptian Museum was really something to behold - as became a theme on the trip, I could have spent a whole day there, not just a couple of hours, and still not have seen everything. The best (& slightly queasiest) part was seeing the mummies - they are so well preserved you can even see their eyelashes still! If you can bear to look that closely...
Before we headed out to the Pyramids, we stopped at a par(per?)fumerie for lunch and some shopping. The guy who ran the place was hilarious, similar to Oisinn in Ross O'Carroll-Kelly books by the way he could tell you the components of almost any perfume you cared to mention (and reproduce the essential oils). After picking up some lavendar & lotus essential oils we were off to meet our camels & see the Pyramids & the Sphinx.

The Pyramids & Sphinx were super busy. After successfully dodging about 17 touts, a fella managed to wrap a towel round my head, take the obligatory cheesy photo and relieve me of some cash. All part of the experience :).
After dinner that night we took the night train to Aswan.

Day3:
We got to our Aswan hotel just before midday & after lunch went out to see the Temple of Philae. This was one of my favorite sites during the whole holiday - because there were so few other tourists around :). We were there during the hottest part of the day so there was only one other group on the temple island at the same time as us. The temple was moved from its original site to the present island to preserve it from being submerged when the Aswan Dam was built. The markers of the original site are visible in the water just off the islands shore. One of the temple guards wanted to show me around the temple but when I realised he was carrying something similar to an AK47 I decided it would be more prudent to head back to our tour leader and hide in the canteen in case he decided to press his case for baksheesh!
In the evening, we took a boat trip on the Nile and went to a Nubian village for a traditional meal. Our host was very entertaining, explaining Nubian life and customs, showing us his pet crocodiles and explaining how climate change is affecting the Nubians even in the desert: normally it rains 10 mins per year(!!!) in that area, but earlier that year it had rained for 3 hours and almost washed the village away!

Day4:
We had an early start to get to the convoy to drive to Abu Simbel. Built by Ramses II, and another temple moved to save it from the waters of Lake Nasser behind the Aswan Dam, what struck me most about it, was the work and dedication it took to move this ancient temple and faithfully recreate it and the mountain it was carved from.
This day was characterised by a number of encounters with friendly Egyptian women who complimented me on my headscarf at Abu Simbel, and who preserved my modesty at the Aswan souq when a young Nubian boy wouldnt stop staring at me :)


Days 5&6:
2 relaxing days spent lazing on a felucca on the Nile. The second day the wind made it difficult to sail but the crew took great care of us, the food was gorgeous and despite having to get used to the lack of toilet facilities, it was great fun. We partied late into the 1st night & the 2nd night, our felucca crew joined another and treated us to traditional Nubian singing.

First day in Egypt

So I started out this morning feeling like Indiana Jones due to my dirty, dusty boots which was unfortunately not the result of archaeology. The Indy feeling didnt last long, when I had 2 heartattacks because I couldnt find my epipen, and then couldnt find my health insurance card (they were too well packed).

Two things about Zurich airport which I didnt know when I lived there:
1) the post office in the train station attached to the airport has a photocopier. 20 Rappen for B&W, 1CHF for colour
2) the chemist in the train station does not have a good selection of travel size toiletries, so buy them before you get there, because the duty free shopping area only has the travel size expensive-perfume type stuff.

Coming in to land in Cairo was cool! When we came out of the clouds there were green fields below, then all of a sudden, as if there is a dividing line, the green ends, and there in nothing but sand. As we flew lower, the amount of work visible in the sand was amazing. Tracks laid out for roads went for miles & miles. My guidebook talked about how Egyptians are constantly working to reclaim the land from the desert and it was so accurate. The work going on is truly impressive.

Cairo airport Terminal 3 is very impressive. You could be mistaken for thinking it was Zurich! I was expecting chaos as per the description in my guidebook but it was calm, quiet and had western style toilets!
Tourist visas have to be bought from the bank foreign exchange counters in the arrivals hall before customs, which was a bit confusing, but passing through immigration was very quick and painless.

The drive to the hotel was not as crazy as expected, but it is Sunday so the traffic was lighter than normal. OMG there are Ladas everywhere here! (I developed a bit of a Lada obsession after visiting Moldova a couple of years ago). Lots of police and military types on the street here too, it seemed like on every corner after leaving the airport. Mostly they seemed to be directing traffic or telling people to move on and not park here.
I thought my driver understood me well enough until I asked him whether traffic was usually this heavy or if it was rushhour - and his answer was 'yes'. But to be fair, I was having difficulty understanding him as well, but he did his best to point out the sights to me on the way to the hotel and told me that there are two Nile rivers flowing through Cairo, a little and a large one (but maybe I understood him as well as he understood me??!!)

Would be Sprungli-Snatchers & the Brave Hero who foiled them

Finally packed up and ready to hit the homeward bound trail...for a whole week :)

Flying with the wonderful (NOT) AerLingus which will not happen again (for reasons other than chocolate thievery). The flight was completely booked and because I always hang back until the end to board by the time I was at my seat most of the overhead storage areas were full so I had to squeeze my hand luggage in a couple of different places. So the booze and chocolate went in one spot and my hand bag in another.

All fine with the flight, I slept through most of it. When we landed in Dublin, there was the usual scrummage to get bags and get off the plane. I was keeping an eye on my booze and chocs to make sure they hadnt fallen on someone's head, when I saw a dude reach up for the duty free that my chocs were resting on...and then he took the Sprungli bag with him!

I was in a window seat so I couldnt hop into the aisle after him, the only thing to do was yell: HEY! That's MY Sprungli bag!!
A very decent chap who was already in the aisle asked me which fella I was talking about and took off after him to intercede on my behalf. I eventually got out of the seat, collected my remaining bags and got to the terminal building to find my hero had apprehended the would be chocolate thief, who sheepishly handed over the bag with many apologies and assurances that he thought it was his wife's shopping.

The hero disappeared into the melee and I never got his name or to thank him in person. So just in case...thank you Mr. Beige-Jacket-Grey-Pants-Chocolate-Rescuer-Extraordinaire. You saved my chocolate, I am more grateful than you could realise. It was my Mammy's bribe for collecting me at the airport :)