Egypt for the long weekend

So, I apologize for the delay, but it has been a busy week since returning from Egypt. Here is a little overview of our amazing trip there.

We were able to go there because the UAE was celebrating it's National holiday. Happy 41st anniversary of being a country UAE, you sure do know how to celebrate. I don't have many pictures of the celebrations, but the patriotism here for this UAE is pretty unreal. People go all out and decorate their cars, and hang thousands of Christmas lights all over their houses. Companies and buildings hang giant giant giant UAE flags and the Sheik's faces are on every billboard! It was quite the spectacle even before we left, and it apparently got even crazier as we were away.

So we headed off to Egypt and got there in wee hours and headed to the hotel to pass out and get some rest for our big day ahead. I know I have said that the world's worst drivers are in Jordan, but I would like to take that statement back and claim that the world's worst drivers are in Egypt. I honestly think that they use their horns on their cars so much that the car horn will probably have to be replaced 5 to 6 times within the lifetime of their cars. SOOOO, I'm telling you this because this incessant honking never stops and was a rude wake up call well before the alarm went off. HONK! But, then again, I was pretty excited to go going to the Pyramids that day, so getting awake wasn't really an issue.

We hired a local man to take us to his friends guide service and also just to show us around Cairo later after the Pyramids. He had an amazing old Land Rover that we piled into and were off.

We got onto horseback and rode our winding way around the back of the Pyramids that morning. It was absolutely amazing and still surreal to think about. The most incredible part of this trip was the fact that there was almost no one else around, (because of the recent protesting that was happening in Egypt, it obviously was not the first place on many tourist agendas. While we were there, only peaceful protests were taking place, but after we left, some violence and rioting had occurred). I don't need to tell you how incredible the Pyramids were or are. Here are a few pictures though.

Approaching them from afar...

Nick, Katie, Me, Peter, Veronica, Kirsty

Climbing on them!

Nick

Some other tourists on camels looking toward Giza/Cairo

My horse was great until the very end where he got a little spirited. 

After a long day we cleaned up and did a little shopping and needed some food. We had our trusty driver/guide take us to "some place clean, with a view." Cairo and Giza are very dirty and have very terrible pollution. It was pretty gross, and sad to think about when they are the host city for something as amazing as the Pyramids. We ended up at this place with authentic and fresh seafood and a roof top view.

Our dinner time view at sunset

After a jam packed day, we boarded the overnight train to Luxor. This was a fun experience and it was cheap! We brought a bottle of wine and listened to music and got to relax and sleep and when we woke up we were in Luxor. Luxor is home to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and other amazing sites. The Valley's are where the tombs are. These tombs were amazing and in incredible condition as they are so protected from the elements. We couldn't bring in our cameras, but we were able to see the tombs of Ramesses the Second, Ramesses the Ninth and Mentuherkhepshef (son of Ramesses the Second), which were all amazing. Click to learn more about the Valley of the Kings and see some images, since I don't have any.

We went to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which was a beautiful temple for the female Pharaoh. It was another "pinch me" moment on this trip, as I was just in awe of the architecture of this ancient civilization. Truly unreal. 

We trucked around and saw various other ruins and temples and all were spectacular and full of the beautiful hieroglyphics that you learn about in your world history classes. It is really cool to think about the fact that all of those symbols are documentation of what was happening at that time, and that it was so so long ago, and we are able to decipher what it says. Just really hard to even wrap your head around. Check out the pics below.

These amazing pillars were huge and there were 128 identical ones, down to the cm!

We ended the night in Luxor with a falucca ride on the Nile river, which is a sailboat. We didn't have too much wind, but it was so peaceful and the sunset was absolutely breathtaking. We all definitely needed the time to relax as we had had such a jam packed day going from place to place. After the falucca ride we found a rooftop restaurant with views of the Nile. 

Looking straight up at our falucca sail.

Another falucca on the Nile

Rooftop Dinner in Luxor. Veronica, Katie, Kirsty, Nick, Peter, Me.

Views of the Nile and foothills from our hotel balcony.

We hung out in Luxor and did a little shopping in the Souk the next morning and then headed to the airport where we grabbed a plane to Alexandria, where we were flying out of later that evening back to Dubai. On our way to the airport in Luxor we were in our tourist van with our guide and driver. We hit a major traffic jam which was happening because the locals were protesting in light of everything that has been happening in Egypt. The cars and trucks were all in line for fuel and so we decided to go around the fueling station on a back dirt road so that we could continue on to the airport. As we were coming around the fueling station we hit a mob of protestors who did not want to let us through. Our driver and guide got out and started arguing with them and becoming very animated and almost got into a major fight with pushing and yelling. It probably was because the protestors didn't believe that the driver was actually carrying tourists and was just trying to jump the fuel line and get fuel. I guess we will never know, but as they were finally letting us through, it was very nerve racking to drive through an angry mob of people peering into your windows, and having no idea what they might do. 

Besides that little scrum, the Egyptians were overly welcoming towards tourists, as much of their industry is based upon allowing people to come to these ancient places and marvel and spend money on gifts and what not. 

We made it up to Alexandria and had a few hours to kill before catching our return flight. We went to visit the Library there which is historically probably one of the oldest library sites in the world. Not that the building is old, but the place where the building is and the gravity of the history behind the Library of Alexandria is amazing. The Library was closed, so we could only see the outside. The architects did a really amazing job and the outside of the building has inscribed letters of symbols from every language ever known. It was pretty crazy to look at. I was really bummed we couldn't go inside. 

Over all, Egypt was wonderful, and I still have not had the reality sink in that I just spent a long weekend there. We saw so much and had a trip of a lifetime.