Well, we made it back safe and sound from Egypt!! All in all, it was an amazing experience. Egypt has so much culture and history behind it. Even though we were there for an entire week, I felt like there was so much to see and so little time to see it in. However, I have to admit that I am so glad to be back in London. A week was definately enough time for me!
While it was a great trip, it was also an exhausting trip, both mentally and physically. I'm all for a good bargain, but I got tired very quickly of having to haggle for everything I wanted to buy and ignoring Egyptian men and children relentlessly trying to get me to buy something from them. As for the culture, wow is it different. People try and get you to tip them for everything from letting you take a picture with them (and by "let" I mean forcing their way into your picture then demanding money for it) to using public restrooms to showing you a "special hole in the wall possessing magical powers". It did seem pretty ridiculous at times, but I just had to keep reminding myself that this is their culture, not mine. And in Egypt, many men have to rely on tips to support themselves and their families.
We arrived in Luxor, Egypt on Monday and were already a little tired by the time we arrived at our hotel. We split up into 2 groups, so we could each have our own tour guide for the week, since 40 people is kind of a large group to deal with.
On Tuesday, we set out for the Valley of the Kings. We went inside a couple of the tombs, which were very smelly and very interesting. Having never seen real hieroglyphics before, I was amazed at how intricate they were for this ancient time period. Immediately after this, we rode donkeys to another tomb. It was about a 45 minute ride! I think we all looked a little silly on them, but it was so much fun nonetheless. We also visited a temple of a goddess (I think). Then, we saw Karnak Temple, which is the largest religious site in the world! They had these huge columns supporting the ceiling, and I have absolutely no idea how they built them that high! We saw some old ruins and climbed around them for awhile... Last, we visited Luxor Museum, and saw mummies!!! yea I know... pretty gross. They also had jewelry and writings and other ancient Egypt stuff.
Wednesday, about 15 of us woke up at 4:30AM to go on a hot air balloon ride along the Nile!! We got off to a rough start, with one of the balloons taking about 1/2 an hour to stay up in the air (yea... glad we weren't on that one!). It was cool to see part of the sunrise from the sky, and the landscape of Egypt. You could really tell where the fertile land with trees and plants and villages stopped, and the desert began. Everything went very smoothly... until the landing. You see, the pilot had failed to mention that it is typical for the basket to tip over and slide a good 100 or so feet before coming to a stop. So it came as quite a shock when we fell over on our backs, then proceeded to keep moving along the sand and dirt. It did, however, make for some good stories upon arriving back at the hotel just in time for breakfast with the rest of the group. We took a bus tour through Luxor in the morning, where our guide explained a lot of Egypt's history to us. We stopped at a market and had our first haggling experience. We were able to have some free time at the hotel afterwards to relax and swim in the infinity pool, which was designed to give the effect that it connected with the Nile. Pretty amazing if you ask me. That night, we went to Luxor Temple. It is illuminated at night, so it looks gorgeous. We saw the different areas of a temple, and looked at how it was built and how you can determine what period in Egyptian history something is from. Outside the temple were 2 rows of sphinxes with probably 10-15 in each row. These things are really amazing to see in person, looking at how much detail they put into each carving. Not to mention how well it has been preserved!
It's been a long day, so I'll have to continue this tomorrow. Stay tuned for more stories and pictures from Egypt!
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