Today was my second day in Egypt and was even better than the first! I woke up this morning a little after 6am.. yes 6 AM!!! I had an FDP for one of my classes to Cairo which is the biggest city in Africa, and 3rd largest city in the world!
Cairo is an almost 3 hour bus ride from Alexandira, so we left at 7:30 and got to Cairo around 10:15 and I was standing in front of the great Pyramid no more than 15 minutes later! Never in my life did I imagine standing in the middle of 3 pyramids in the Sahara desert! It was unbelievable and amazing.. the pyramids are absolutely huge.. and to think about how they were built is even crazier! The blocks that make up the pyramid are bigger than you could even imagine also.. I don't remember the exact dimensions, but they're bigger than a normal room wall in a house.. I think a block would be as big as my cabin here on the ship! We learned the blocks were moved with a lot of animal power, from elephants and camels and of course the men building it. It's so hard to imagine something that great being built without cranes and construction equipment.. and they were obviously built very well since they're still standing today!
After walking around and learning about the father and the son's pyramids.. we got back on the bus to be driven up hill to a spot where you can see all the pyramids and 18 miles worth of the Sahara desert.. it was amazing! I got some really cool pictures of all the pyramids together with the blue sky in the background and the Sahara desert off to the side from up higher.. it was so pretty!!
Once we were done with our 'panoramic view' we drove down to the Sphinx, which is also bigger than you can even imagine!!! With the Sphinx in the front and some of the pyramids in the background, those were some of the coolest pictures I took. The Sphinx was really cool and it's something I never thought I would actually see from a few feet away! All the pyramids were really cool, but it was so hot out, you would just stand and drip with sweat.. without even doing anything. I think when we arrived in Cairo it was 30 degrees and that was before 11am, so it only got hotter throughout the day!
After the Sphinx, we made our way to a really nice hotel which set up a big brunch for all of us.. it was pretty good, but thankfully they had both Western and Egyptian food.. and I found out I don't like Egyptian food all that much. Once we got off the bus and were walking into a hotel, an Egyptian type band came out and lined our walkway and played music as we were walking in.. I felt famous! The actual hotel though was really nice and big and the people who worked there were really nice to us too!
Once we were done with lunch we went to the Egyptian Museum, which is full of artifacts and things from inside the Pyramids and found other places.. it was really neat. There were whole rooms dedicated to King Tut, with all his belongings, his casket type things he was in, his masks, and many other things. The museum was really big and had a lot of cool stuff in it, but the museum is not air-conditioned, so it was extremely hot in there. Also, most of the things in the museum are original, but not in any kind of glass case or anything to help keep it looking new.. it was so weird because the museums in America have everything so protected you can hardly get to it.. and some of the tombs and statues you could actually touch here. It's kind of sad though that Egypt has all these cool things, but they are so poor they can't afford to keep them nicely. Another bad thing about the museum was that you couldn't take pictures.. you actually couldn't even take your camera into the museum and we had to leave them on the bus. I really wish I could have taken pictures of some of the things in the museum, but thats ok.
After the museum was the trek home.. which only took 2 1/2 hours this time since our bus driver flew!! I only fell asleep for about 45 minutes, though.. so I got to see a lot of rural Egypt, some things I didn't want to see.. and others I did. One thing that was weird and gross was that all the men pee on the side of the road, even when they're are cops around.. they don't care at all. I also saw a lot of different animals and things on the side of the road.. like cows, goats, and other things.. I'm not quite sure if they were owned or if they were wild or something.
Once we were back to the ship.. my friend Lilly and I (who I went with last night) went back out to the shops inside the port because all the owners there love us! I bought a few things and got even more for free! The owners will just put stuff in your bag and say 'it's a souvineer from me' and then we promise that we'll come back the next night. I feel like I am going to end up with so much stuff from Egypt since things are really cheap here, and I'm getting half of it for free!!
Now, I am off to bed early again.... another 6am morning tomorrow!!
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