Experiencing Egypt

Flying Over Egypt

   The whole flying process was exhausting.  However, flying over Cairo...amazing.  You're looking out the window, and you're looking, and looking, and thinking, "okay, the pilot said we're arriving in five minutes and I see nothing but desert.  Where's the city?"  And then you squint, and see a few constructs just as you're passing over it.  And then a few more...and then BAM!  Suddenly there's the city, huge, sprawling, tall buildings, and exactly the same colour as the sand.  It was amazing how a city that big could actually sneak up on you.  Reminded me a little of Hamunaptra in The Mummy.  And speaking of, guess which movies I'm in the mood to see?  The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Joseph.  Go figure.

Airporting Egypt

    Israel was fast and intimidating, Jordan was strange and smokable, and Egypt was friendly.  Very, very friendly.  We had lots of people wanting to help us (for a tip of course).  We prosperous Americans have loads of money after all.  But we were swooped upstairs and into an office where we were provided Egyptian mint tea and all of our travel arrangements before we join our tour.  I'm sure they just wait to pounce on poor, unsuspecting tourists, but since we weren't really sure how we were going to arrange everything, it was quite nice.  Then our driver took us down to the car.  We were followed by the young man who insisted on carrying my luggage...for a tip...even though I insisted that I was perfectly capable.

Driving Egypt

    Hmmm....what to say, what to say.  They have lanes.  They have turn signals.  They have traffic lights, crosswalks, and speed limits.  They don't use any of them.  They make up their own lanes, they weave, they go as fast as traffic allows (which isn't usually very fast), pedestrians push their way into traffic, traffic pushes back...and it's absolutely fascinating.  So, for those of you really worried about us, does this put your mind at ease?  :-)=  Don't worry, we've arrived safe and sound back at our hotel every time.  They're all used to it.

Living Egypt

    Our little hotel room is small but functional.  We have a fridge, a flushing toilet, a working shower, two beds, complimentary breakfast which they deliver to your room...it's nice.  We even have air-conditioning.  And we're being very good about not drinking the tap water here.  Haven't had a drop.  We've already seen the Pyramids and Sphinx once, when we went to see the Sound and Light show.  It was cheesy, but fun, and they gave a nice brief history of the pharaohs.  We also saw how papyrus paper and their fragrances are made.  Today we went to Alexandria, courtesy of our own private driver and tour guide.  We saw the citadel, the library (but didn't go in), the ocean, some shops, a fish restaurant (we picked our own fish and then they cooked it), and the mosque.  And a lot of the city just from driving around.  And also we saw two kitties on the beach, one being black, which was of course the best part.

And just in case you worry that I'm not taking in all the beautiful aspects of this place, let me assure you, there are some very beautiful men with beautiful accents.  And plenty of boyfriend offers...never mind that they were angling for tips and sales.

So, N-E-wayz, I'm going to post again with some pictures, but for now...

Did ew know...?

Haggle for a man and get him one souvenir.  Teach a man to haggle and he'll come home with more junk than you know what to do with.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.