Trip to Egypt

Having already been to the Middle East once before I was much more comfortable coming to Egypt last month. The first day I was in Cairo I went to the market in Islamic Cairo, which is known as the older part of the city. After the non-stop hassling, we went to a popular teahouse and enjoyed the hot day with traditional mint tea. After coming from the hectic market, I realized its much better to claim my Mexican heritage as my nationality to prevent further haggling and to receive instant fame! Despite many Egyptians assuming I was Colombian, or even of an Egyptian lineage, they were more than happy to accommodate to my “Mexican Spanish”.

Later that evening, me and my friend Joe, who basically played tour-guide for me in northern Egypt, met with his friend, Omar, to visit the pyramids in Giza. To say the least, Omar is a Muslim Puerto-Rican-Egyptian from New Jersey who was anything but boring! You can imagine his Christian mom and Muslim dad raised an interesting son who kept me rolling on the ground with laughter. When we arrived in Giza we rode horses into the desert and watched the sunset over the breathtaking pyramids. The ride back to the city was essentially a scene from Arabian Nights with me and my friends racing our houses through the desert past the pyramids and famous Sphinx. Afterwards, we had some authentic Egyptian food that continues to impress me.

The next day we woke up at 4 am to catch a train north to Alexandria. It was at this point that I realized Cairo was a sleepless city since it was still as busy with people all over the streets at that hour of the night as hours earlier in the day; I honestly think it is much worse than New York City. We slept in the freezing cold train for the whole three hours to Alexandria and were welcomed by another friend of Joe’s, Mohammad. Him and his American wife, Adina, were extremely hospitable and drove us around the ancient city. We saw all the ruins and even went to the Library of Alexandria that was rebuilt in 2004 in an attempt to recreate the famous one that was burned down generations ago that was the biggest of its era and housed documents very advanced and unprecedented for its time. Afterwards we headed to the beach and then drove west towards the Libyan border to stay the night at Mo’s beach house. We arrived late and fell asleep watching a Bali-wood movie (random, I know). We woke up and went straight to the beach the next morning and I have to say that the water was the most beautiful I have ever seen. White and clear at the shore and then tapered off to the dark blue as you go out deeper in the Mediterranean, surprisingly better than Greece. Needless to say I got sunburned quite brutally. Afterwards, I had to rush back to Cairo to catch a 12 hr train ride down south to Answan, near the Sudanese border.

When I arrived, I was greeted by two guys with whom Joe had connected me. They were extremely congenial and directed me to my cruise ship and reassured me I was in good hands (regarding the cruise ship that I didn’t properly sign up for…as it goes many Middle Eastern businesses!). That evening I only went to see the famous Aswan dam, Nasser Lake, and the Answan museum. With temperatures in the 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I went directly back to the ship after I finished taking my pictures. That evening was relaxing. I was coincidentally seated next to a Belgian woman so I got to practice my French extensively and then later that night they had a show that ended by 11pm which was perfect since I was already so exhausted. The next day I saw a whole bunch of ruins scattered throughout the city and even on islands. I can’t describe them all so above are some pictures of them. That night, our cruise ship sailed off up the Nile and stopped by a few sights and had a bellydancer perform. It was a great evening. The next day we spent the whole day cruising north to Luxor so I simply hung out on the deck and next to the pool where I was able to do a lot of research and take in the amazing ambiance of being surrounding by sand hills but cruising on the extremely dependent Nile River…it’s breathtaking just to fathom it. It made it really cool that what I was researching was very relevant to the environment I was in so I can see firsthand how things are occurring of what I was reading. I loved it.

When we got to Luxor, we spent 2 days there seeing all the sights. Luxor is the most historical place in Egypt (aside from the pyramids) and holds some of the most famous events on record. From the Valley of the Kings (their tombs) to awing temples, there was nothing here to keep you less than breathless. However, the second and last day I was in Luxor was extraordinarily painful since I had little time to do everything…I had to rush through everything and since the temperature was about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, it took a toll on me and the sun caused me to have heat exhaustion or sun poisoning where I was extremely nauseous, dizzy, and had a horrible headache. I have to say that it was truly a horrible experience since I wasn’t able to do anything about it. I simply had to wait for my train at the train station, in the heat, for over six hours…one of the worst moments I’ve had to experience.

When I finally got on the train and made it back to Cairo, me and Joe met up with some friends and simply hung out. Went by some of their places and even had an authentic Egyptian dinner by one of the moms. I got a chance to go to the AUC library and get a book for my research and coincidentally ran into a friend I met in Jordan! Oh, and not to mention, while in Cairo I ran into 5 different friends at different times and places from Georgetown…small world!!!! Anyways, since I was still recovering from my time in Luxor we went to the movies and watch Blades of Glory that was, of course, dramatically edited to fit the government’s idea of what is and is not suitable for anybody to see…so needless to say I have to watch it again to see the whole thing. I left that night back to Brussels via Paris and had a nice trip overall despite my dissertation in the back of my head begging to get finished!!!