So, just a quick word or two or 100 about my last few weeks here in beautiful hayastan. Green Camps are going strong, and right now I am smack dab in the middle of our 3rd camp, in Martuni (near Sevan). It is going really, really well...and I get to be a counselor at this camp, YAY! The kids are fantastic and we are working with a really good group of Armenians and PCVs. Today we had our excursion, and since the theme was WATER, we used recently acquired water quality testing kits to show the kids how to look at and analyze their water. Right up my alley, I had a great time and the kids did to. Tomorrow, we do our camp community project, and all of the 40 kids are going to be doing a trash pickup by a local river, and then some will be making signs telling people not to litter. It will be a cool time. Well, it's late, and I am beat.
Miss you all!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Done and Done...
Sorry for the delay, but that is my Egypt trip in it's entirety. It was amazing, and a perfect way for me to escape for a little while into a whole other world. I loved it, and if you haven't checked out the pictures yet on Facebook, I strongly recommend that you do. They are fantastic : ).
Since returning from Egypt, my crazy summer has officially begun. I participated as a counselor at GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp last week. While it was exhausting and frustrating at some points, the whole experience was totally worth it. There were a total of 66 girls, split into 6 home groups complete with a Armenian and American counselor. We covered everything from sexual education and HIV/AIDS (my favorite session) to journal making and personal reflection. Sexual education is basically non-existent here. Girls are expected to remain virgins until they are married, and in fact can be publicly shamed and 'returned' to their families if they are not. A complete double standard when a lot of young men grow up believing that it is fine to openly stare at and/or harass young women, and prostitution is abundant. While the broader sexual education was covered in a large group by a guest speaker, it fell on us to talk about HIV/AIDS and all that came with it. After playing a game where they spread of HIV/AIDS is shown by the exchange of fluids (non-condom users) and the clinking of glasses (condom users) to the tune of a drama, I asked the girls if they had any questions. Their openness totally surprised me. I was asked about using condoms (a not so popular thing to do here), more detailed questions about the spread of STDs, and even pregnancy. One girl asked me if using condoms at one point in your life would prevent you from getting pregnant later. I am not going to lie, when children here ask me questions like that due to the lack of basic sexual education, it makes me angry that there are groups in the US that want to push us back to the state that Armenia is in right now, where 16 year old girls have no idea how to use a condom or protect themselves. It is fairly ridiculous. Learning about condoms and STD prevention is not going to make kids go out and want to have sex, they naturally want to do that anyway. If anything it is going to scare the bejesus out of them and encourage them to wait even longer. Off track though, let's get back to it...
Nutrition (my second favorite) was especially interesting for me to teach, since so little of it is covered in school courses here. It was a favorite for a number of reasons, a) I happen to know a little bit about it b)it was a way for me to address the crazy unhealthy weight loss beliefs here and c) it was the perfect place for me to slip in a little bit about anorexia and bulimia. While it was hard to tell a bunch of young girls that have grown up on bread and potatoes at every meal that those foods aren't really the best for you, it was nice to be able to teach them easy ways to remember portion sizes and to dispel the belief that potatoes are vegetables and ice cream is dairy. If you have read some of my previous posts, then you probably remember some of the crazy dietary beliefs that are floating around this country. The first thing I crushed was the belief that drinking water makes you fat. I made sure to point out that 8 glasses of water was an integral part of the food pyramid. I also explained that no matter how many times you chew your food before swallowing, it was not going to change the nutritional make up of that particular food. I think I saved some jaws a LOT of work, and some families and additional 20 minutes at the table waiting while their daughter chewed each morsel 100 times trying to turn the 'bad' fat into 'good' fat (her words, not mine). I then asked them if they had questions or comments, and that led smoothly to the healthy weight loss and eating disorder discussion. We talked about nutrition labels and daily calorie intake. One girl told me in all seriousness that she only ate 500 calories a day. I told her she was counting wrong. She insisted, and I jumped into healthy calorie intake and anorexia. Another girl (who we had already brought to the director for not eating) asked me what would happen to her if she stopped eating for 3 days. I reiterated the problems associated with anorexia, and then did it again. The girls really seemed to be taking it all in, and I can only hope that I had some impact on how they eat...anorexia runs rampant in this country and is generally not seen as a problem.
Gender roles was also covered, but it was interesting, the girls seemed to know that things should be better, but really had no idea of what they wanted. After teaching them the difference between gender and sex, they seemed to kind of pick up on the fact that gender roles have nothing to do with physical capability, and that they can be changed and molded. Of course, my dreams were shot when I asked them to draw what they see as gender roles 15 years from now, and the entire picture existed of a young girl in truly slutty clothes and a man crying in the corner with some words like 'equality' written all around them. I like to think that a lot of that was lost in translation...
Outside of the classes, we also had mandatory exercise every morning. An experience in itself. As counselors, we led the sessions, and the girls were exposed to yoga, kickboxing, aerobics, volleyball, kickball, and running/walking. I led the walking a few times, and it was hard to get them anywhere past a easy paced stroll, which was aggravating. Kickball went much better though, they really got into the game, and it was fun to play with them. I did participate in a couple of yoga classes as well. At one point we were asked to touch our toes, and the PCVs were the only ones that could do it. Exercise is just not a big thing here, but I am hoping that these girls took something away from it. I was glad it was built into the morning too, since I was too busy at night to do my own routine and not exercising would have just made me that much more stressed out all week!
It was pretty great to watch the girls grow and bond during their 8 days at camp. I loved watching the quiet girls get loud, and the shy girls become involved. Night activities included dancing, and I was that annoying counselor that went up to all the girls not dancing and pulled them in. oh well. We also had a campfire, talent show (see mermaid pictures on facebook) and scavenger hunt. For most of these girls it was the first time they had ever been away from home, and while the first few days we struggled with homesickness, during the last few we struggled with getting them to go to sleep and STOP interacting with one another at 1:30 in the morning (exercise was at 8 sharp!). Each counselor pair was on duty during one night, and that involved making sure girls were in their assigned rooms (we had one girl lay on top of another to try and hide her), that lights were off (my favorite was when they shut the light off AFTER we knocked and told them to open the door), and that they were not on their balconies hanging out, but legitimately laying in bed. One night, this somehow turned into all the girls on their porches (which all faced the same direction) screaming and chanting all of the counselors names...while of course it was WAY past lights out, we let this one slide ;)
It was great to be involved in such a great camp, I really do believe the week had a positive impact on every single participant, camper and counselor alike.
After GLOW, I went to lake Sevan to celebrate the 4th of July. Somewhere around 27 PCVs were there at different points during the week, and it was fantastic to get together and see everyone. Despite a bout of sadness (always happens on the holidays), after some time at the water park, some great burgers complete with homemade bbq sauce, and some vodka it turned into a pretty great weekend. We had some good times around the campfire, and there was some pretty entertaining arguments over the hammock that one volunteer had thought to bring. It was a pretty chill weekend, which is exactly what I needed to unwind after GLOW.
On the 10th I head off to a Green Camp in Vardablur, my first of four. Cross your fingers for me :)...
Since returning from Egypt, my crazy summer has officially begun. I participated as a counselor at GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp last week. While it was exhausting and frustrating at some points, the whole experience was totally worth it. There were a total of 66 girls, split into 6 home groups complete with a Armenian and American counselor. We covered everything from sexual education and HIV/AIDS (my favorite session) to journal making and personal reflection. Sexual education is basically non-existent here. Girls are expected to remain virgins until they are married, and in fact can be publicly shamed and 'returned' to their families if they are not. A complete double standard when a lot of young men grow up believing that it is fine to openly stare at and/or harass young women, and prostitution is abundant. While the broader sexual education was covered in a large group by a guest speaker, it fell on us to talk about HIV/AIDS and all that came with it. After playing a game where they spread of HIV/AIDS is shown by the exchange of fluids (non-condom users) and the clinking of glasses (condom users) to the tune of a drama, I asked the girls if they had any questions. Their openness totally surprised me. I was asked about using condoms (a not so popular thing to do here), more detailed questions about the spread of STDs, and even pregnancy. One girl asked me if using condoms at one point in your life would prevent you from getting pregnant later. I am not going to lie, when children here ask me questions like that due to the lack of basic sexual education, it makes me angry that there are groups in the US that want to push us back to the state that Armenia is in right now, where 16 year old girls have no idea how to use a condom or protect themselves. It is fairly ridiculous. Learning about condoms and STD prevention is not going to make kids go out and want to have sex, they naturally want to do that anyway. If anything it is going to scare the bejesus out of them and encourage them to wait even longer. Off track though, let's get back to it...
Nutrition (my second favorite) was especially interesting for me to teach, since so little of it is covered in school courses here. It was a favorite for a number of reasons, a) I happen to know a little bit about it b)it was a way for me to address the crazy unhealthy weight loss beliefs here and c) it was the perfect place for me to slip in a little bit about anorexia and bulimia. While it was hard to tell a bunch of young girls that have grown up on bread and potatoes at every meal that those foods aren't really the best for you, it was nice to be able to teach them easy ways to remember portion sizes and to dispel the belief that potatoes are vegetables and ice cream is dairy. If you have read some of my previous posts, then you probably remember some of the crazy dietary beliefs that are floating around this country. The first thing I crushed was the belief that drinking water makes you fat. I made sure to point out that 8 glasses of water was an integral part of the food pyramid. I also explained that no matter how many times you chew your food before swallowing, it was not going to change the nutritional make up of that particular food. I think I saved some jaws a LOT of work, and some families and additional 20 minutes at the table waiting while their daughter chewed each morsel 100 times trying to turn the 'bad' fat into 'good' fat (her words, not mine). I then asked them if they had questions or comments, and that led smoothly to the healthy weight loss and eating disorder discussion. We talked about nutrition labels and daily calorie intake. One girl told me in all seriousness that she only ate 500 calories a day. I told her she was counting wrong. She insisted, and I jumped into healthy calorie intake and anorexia. Another girl (who we had already brought to the director for not eating) asked me what would happen to her if she stopped eating for 3 days. I reiterated the problems associated with anorexia, and then did it again. The girls really seemed to be taking it all in, and I can only hope that I had some impact on how they eat...anorexia runs rampant in this country and is generally not seen as a problem.
Gender roles was also covered, but it was interesting, the girls seemed to know that things should be better, but really had no idea of what they wanted. After teaching them the difference between gender and sex, they seemed to kind of pick up on the fact that gender roles have nothing to do with physical capability, and that they can be changed and molded. Of course, my dreams were shot when I asked them to draw what they see as gender roles 15 years from now, and the entire picture existed of a young girl in truly slutty clothes and a man crying in the corner with some words like 'equality' written all around them. I like to think that a lot of that was lost in translation...
Outside of the classes, we also had mandatory exercise every morning. An experience in itself. As counselors, we led the sessions, and the girls were exposed to yoga, kickboxing, aerobics, volleyball, kickball, and running/walking. I led the walking a few times, and it was hard to get them anywhere past a easy paced stroll, which was aggravating. Kickball went much better though, they really got into the game, and it was fun to play with them. I did participate in a couple of yoga classes as well. At one point we were asked to touch our toes, and the PCVs were the only ones that could do it. Exercise is just not a big thing here, but I am hoping that these girls took something away from it. I was glad it was built into the morning too, since I was too busy at night to do my own routine and not exercising would have just made me that much more stressed out all week!
It was pretty great to watch the girls grow and bond during their 8 days at camp. I loved watching the quiet girls get loud, and the shy girls become involved. Night activities included dancing, and I was that annoying counselor that went up to all the girls not dancing and pulled them in. oh well. We also had a campfire, talent show (see mermaid pictures on facebook) and scavenger hunt. For most of these girls it was the first time they had ever been away from home, and while the first few days we struggled with homesickness, during the last few we struggled with getting them to go to sleep and STOP interacting with one another at 1:30 in the morning (exercise was at 8 sharp!). Each counselor pair was on duty during one night, and that involved making sure girls were in their assigned rooms (we had one girl lay on top of another to try and hide her), that lights were off (my favorite was when they shut the light off AFTER we knocked and told them to open the door), and that they were not on their balconies hanging out, but legitimately laying in bed. One night, this somehow turned into all the girls on their porches (which all faced the same direction) screaming and chanting all of the counselors names...while of course it was WAY past lights out, we let this one slide ;)
It was great to be involved in such a great camp, I really do believe the week had a positive impact on every single participant, camper and counselor alike.
After GLOW, I went to lake Sevan to celebrate the 4th of July. Somewhere around 27 PCVs were there at different points during the week, and it was fantastic to get together and see everyone. Despite a bout of sadness (always happens on the holidays), after some time at the water park, some great burgers complete with homemade bbq sauce, and some vodka it turned into a pretty great weekend. We had some good times around the campfire, and there was some pretty entertaining arguments over the hammock that one volunteer had thought to bring. It was a pretty chill weekend, which is exactly what I needed to unwind after GLOW.
On the 10th I head off to a Green Camp in Vardablur, my first of four. Cross your fingers for me :)...
Egypt pt 4
After another night in Alexandria, we were back on a train (yes, again) to Cairo. During our last 3 days we did a little bit of everything. There was some shopping, some good food at Hard Rock, and some touring of Coptic Cairo and other sites. Hard Rock offered up a delicious strawberry shake (yum!) and walking through Cairo was interesting and quite the adrenaline rush. Crossing the streets is really like playing Frogger, you are dodging cars at every lane. Coptic Cairo was more interesting than I expected. After visiting Ben Ezra synagogue (which was absolutely gorgeous), we were able to see the place where it is rumored that baby Moses was picked out of the reeds. On a visit to an older Christian church, we were also able to look down into the rooms where the Holy Family stayed when they fled to Egypt to avoid Herod. There was not nearly as much hype as I expected there… just a rope to block the entrance, and one sign explaining what you were looking at.
After more good food (at one point I seriously considered taking up a dishwashing job and sleeping under the tables of one restaurant so I would not have to leave) and, yes, even more shopping…we met up with an Egyptian friend of Sarahs, Ahmed…who gave us a quick tour of Islamic Cairo. He pointed out some fantastic places, that we would never have found ourselves, and even spent 20 minutes arguing with a mosque caretaker to try and convince him to allow Sarah and I inside after visiting hours. Sadly, he lost, but we got in as far as the door, and even just looking in from there was interesting. After walking through the open markets, we went to eat at this great restaurant on the Nile, and ate some amazing chicken alfredo. Conversation with Ahmed was great, and we were able to ask him a lot of the cultural and religious questions we had stored up in our head for weeks. He was very cool and open about answering our questions, even the ones that got a little bit uncomfortable. We discussed gender roles (very similar to Armenia), marriage (not at all similar!), politics, and (being PCVs) food. It turned into a late night, and we crashed into bed, knowing that tomorrow was our last day.
We spent our last half day at the Egyptian Museum. The museum was easy to find, since it was right down the street from our hostel, and is painted pink. Inside the museum was a neat freak’s nightmare. After a few minutes getting over to the chaotic system that reigned, I finally gave in and just starting taking in the thousands of years of history that surrounded me. Of course, I had to see the mummies first, and that was SPECTACULAR. I couldn’t believe that I was looking at the kings and queens that reined so so many years ago. A certain sadness hit me in this room too though…these men and women had gone through so much to protect their bodies for the afterlife, and they had been buried in pyramids and maze like tombs dressed in fancy clothes and gold jewelry and elaborate costumes..And here we were…staring at their stripped naked, preserved bodies. No worries, though, I swallowed that feeling and got on with the rest of my whirlwind visit.
After the mummy room I searched out King Tut’s hall. Spent an hour or two in there. The completeness of the collection was absolutely amazing. Like I mentioned earlier, King Tut wasn’t a great and mighty king, he gets most of his fame and accord for being one of the only complete and preserved tomb collections. All of the others were raided and robbed, and his only stayed untouched because another tomb had been built on top of his, blocking the entrance. Some of my favorite pieces included the gold lion bed and elaborate copic jars (the jars that hold the organs), as well as the crazy jewelry and of course the famous head mask.
The hour or two that I spent in the museum after King Tut is really a blur of sarcophagi and statues. It was all really interesting, but now it all kind of blurs together. Sorry.
The time finally rolled around for us to lug our bags down 4 flights of stairs and negotiate a taxi to the airport. That all went fine and well, and check in was a breeze. I don’t really remember much of the Cairo airport, except that it was early and I was cranky. Oh, and we ate cinabon. I slept through the flight to Dubai, and when we arrived (finally) at our hotel, it was bed time once again.
The next morning we woke up bright and early…then went to the mall. We spent 11 hours at the Dubai mall. That is correct, 11 straight hours at a mall. In my defense though, those 11 hours included 3 meals, 2 hours at an aquarium, and a 3 ½ hour long movie (Robin Hood). But yes, the rest of the time was spent browsing and shopping. It should be noted that the mall had an ice skating rink and waterfall (very cool) and just in case you missed it the first time, an AQUARIUM. That was amazing. I saw 3 new species there that I had never seen before, and probably some of the best exhibits ever. My favorites included a tank of Giant Spider Crabs (we are talking about 3’ across here) and a bamboo shark egg progression, which showed LIVE eggs from laying to hatching. I must have spent 30 minutes in front of that window, staring at all the little bamboo sharks in their different stages of development. SWEET.
On the way to the airport the next morning, we did get to see the world’s tallest building, and then a short wait at the Dubai airport (complete with another round of DD) and we were on our way back to Armenia. I was sad that our vacation was over, but excited to be going back to what has become my familiar. In Egypt I realized that not knowing the language is annoying, and I was happy to get back to not only my own bed and host family, but also to the place where I knew what was going on around me, and could truly relax again.
Egypt was an incredible experience, and I really don’t think what I have written about it does it any justice. It is for sure not a vacation for the light hearted, but despite the ups and downs, it was a blast for us. A truly once in a lifetime trip that I will never forget : ) .
After more good food (at one point I seriously considered taking up a dishwashing job and sleeping under the tables of one restaurant so I would not have to leave) and, yes, even more shopping…we met up with an Egyptian friend of Sarahs, Ahmed…who gave us a quick tour of Islamic Cairo. He pointed out some fantastic places, that we would never have found ourselves, and even spent 20 minutes arguing with a mosque caretaker to try and convince him to allow Sarah and I inside after visiting hours. Sadly, he lost, but we got in as far as the door, and even just looking in from there was interesting. After walking through the open markets, we went to eat at this great restaurant on the Nile, and ate some amazing chicken alfredo. Conversation with Ahmed was great, and we were able to ask him a lot of the cultural and religious questions we had stored up in our head for weeks. He was very cool and open about answering our questions, even the ones that got a little bit uncomfortable. We discussed gender roles (very similar to Armenia), marriage (not at all similar!), politics, and (being PCVs) food. It turned into a late night, and we crashed into bed, knowing that tomorrow was our last day.
We spent our last half day at the Egyptian Museum. The museum was easy to find, since it was right down the street from our hostel, and is painted pink. Inside the museum was a neat freak’s nightmare. After a few minutes getting over to the chaotic system that reigned, I finally gave in and just starting taking in the thousands of years of history that surrounded me. Of course, I had to see the mummies first, and that was SPECTACULAR. I couldn’t believe that I was looking at the kings and queens that reined so so many years ago. A certain sadness hit me in this room too though…these men and women had gone through so much to protect their bodies for the afterlife, and they had been buried in pyramids and maze like tombs dressed in fancy clothes and gold jewelry and elaborate costumes..And here we were…staring at their stripped naked, preserved bodies. No worries, though, I swallowed that feeling and got on with the rest of my whirlwind visit.
After the mummy room I searched out King Tut’s hall. Spent an hour or two in there. The completeness of the collection was absolutely amazing. Like I mentioned earlier, King Tut wasn’t a great and mighty king, he gets most of his fame and accord for being one of the only complete and preserved tomb collections. All of the others were raided and robbed, and his only stayed untouched because another tomb had been built on top of his, blocking the entrance. Some of my favorite pieces included the gold lion bed and elaborate copic jars (the jars that hold the organs), as well as the crazy jewelry and of course the famous head mask.
The hour or two that I spent in the museum after King Tut is really a blur of sarcophagi and statues. It was all really interesting, but now it all kind of blurs together. Sorry.
The time finally rolled around for us to lug our bags down 4 flights of stairs and negotiate a taxi to the airport. That all went fine and well, and check in was a breeze. I don’t really remember much of the Cairo airport, except that it was early and I was cranky. Oh, and we ate cinabon. I slept through the flight to Dubai, and when we arrived (finally) at our hotel, it was bed time once again.
The next morning we woke up bright and early…then went to the mall. We spent 11 hours at the Dubai mall. That is correct, 11 straight hours at a mall. In my defense though, those 11 hours included 3 meals, 2 hours at an aquarium, and a 3 ½ hour long movie (Robin Hood). But yes, the rest of the time was spent browsing and shopping. It should be noted that the mall had an ice skating rink and waterfall (very cool) and just in case you missed it the first time, an AQUARIUM. That was amazing. I saw 3 new species there that I had never seen before, and probably some of the best exhibits ever. My favorites included a tank of Giant Spider Crabs (we are talking about 3’ across here) and a bamboo shark egg progression, which showed LIVE eggs from laying to hatching. I must have spent 30 minutes in front of that window, staring at all the little bamboo sharks in their different stages of development. SWEET.
On the way to the airport the next morning, we did get to see the world’s tallest building, and then a short wait at the Dubai airport (complete with another round of DD) and we were on our way back to Armenia. I was sad that our vacation was over, but excited to be going back to what has become my familiar. In Egypt I realized that not knowing the language is annoying, and I was happy to get back to not only my own bed and host family, but also to the place where I knew what was going on around me, and could truly relax again.
Egypt was an incredible experience, and I really don’t think what I have written about it does it any justice. It is for sure not a vacation for the light hearted, but despite the ups and downs, it was a blast for us. A truly once in a lifetime trip that I will never forget : ) .
Egypt pt 3
After a good night’s sleep we woke up and ate some breakfast, and then got on another train down to Aswan. 3 hours later we arrived and found our taxi and hotel pretty easily. We took the suggestion of the man behind the desk and went to a restaurant where for 10 bucks each we got enough food to feed a small army. I ordered stuffed chicken and quite literally got an entire chicken, stuffed with rice. Robby ordered pigeon (a local delicacy) and Sarah some lamb. Our meals all included lots of hummus, salad, bread, and even desert. The guy came by 20 minutes later and we admitted defeat and asked for a bag. He laughed at us, and brought our desert out ‘to go’. We walked back through the market (with surprisingly little harassment) and spent the rest of the night on yet another amazing roof, this one with a POOL!! Which we swam in (at least Sarah and I).
The next morning (I use that word loosely) we were woken up at 2:45a by a wakeup call from the hotel staff. We dragged our tired behinds out of bed, zombie walked down the stairs, grabbed a boxed breakfast (who can really eat that early in the morning??) and climbed onto the Egyptian version of a marshutka (15 passenger van). We (or at least I) slept pretty soundly through the next 3 hours…only being woken a few times by the force of the sand storm winds pushing our van a few inches to one side. Sadly, we missed the sunrise by half an hour…but we still arrived to Abu Simble Temple around 7 in the morning, and it was absolutely amazing. I was surprised by the number of tourists there, but not sure why I was…since on the way there we were in a ‘caravan’ of at least 30 buses and vans. The temple was incredible, the scale was amazing, and the inside of the temple was in great condition. It was hard for me to believe that not only had the temple had been around for almost 3000 years, but it had been completely relocated in the 60s to make way for the high dam! Yes, an entire temple built into the side of cliffs had been relocated and moved, and you really could not tell. We spent 1 ½ there, and it was worth the early morning wake up and fairly steep entrance fee. After Abu Simble, we continued on our way to the high dam, which in all honestly was not worth the money to get it. The view was blocked by the sandstorms that had rocked our marshutka earlier, and we stayed for all of 5 minutes. Philos Temple, next on the list, was a bit better. We paid to get in, and then had to haggle (turns out pretty unsuccessfully) for one of the 30 private boat captains to take us over to the island that the actual temple is located on. This temple too had been moved, and a new island (exactly replicating the original, including foliage) was rebuilt for it to sit on when the dam waters started rising. This temple was cool…but by this time they had all started blending in with one another! After almost leaving a couple behind, there was a brief and mildly heated exchange with the driver over whose responsibility (not mine!) it was to count heads…then it was more sleep on the 3 hour ride back to Aswan.
We bought our train tickets pretty quickly (thank you Muslim country with female only lines : ) ..and then it was relaxing (read: nap) time for the rest of the night. The next morning Robby and I went off to explore Elephantile Island (named for the rocks on the end that supposedly look like elephants bathing, I don’t see it though), starting with a half successful haggle for a reasonable water taxi. The island is not a big one, and in just a few minutes we made our way to the Aswan Museum. The inside of the museum was not that impressive, but we did have our own tour guide (mandatory guide, mandatory tip) which was ok. Then we went to the outside bit, which is an active archaeological dig site. SWEET! This bit also required a mandatory tour guide, and this one was a touchy one (see Facebook pictures)…but it was worth it, since he decided that the ‘do not enter’ signs did not apply to us. It was cool, we walked on the walls of old Roman houses and held thousand year old pottery. I loved it! There was one scary bit though, the man asked to ‘pray’ with me, and I reluctantly agreed and listened to him chant for a solid 3 minutes while holding his hands over mine, the whole time hoping that he was not binding us in marriage in some ancient Egyptian ritual. My fears were eased though when he repeated the same process with Robby. After catching the local water taxi back to mainland Aswan, we had some pool time, and then got on the train for the 16 hour ride to Alexandria.
I should mention here that for the first 2 hours of our train ride Sarah read to me. Yes, she read to me. Stories and tidbits and tips out of one of our guidebooks. It was fantastic, I forget how soothing it is to have someone read to you, and Sarah kept it interesting with voice changes, strategic editing, and eternal patience for my lack of attention span and ‘rewind’ requests. Thanks again Sarah! After that we ran into some obnoxious Australian people. No offense to any Aussies out there, but damn, these people were no good for your image, no good at all. In fact, they pretty much plagued the rest of the train ride, with their loudness at ungodly hours of the morning and constant complaints and trips to the bar. LAME. No worries though Mum, I embraced your patience and lack of temper genes, and successfully avoided causing the scene that I imagined in my head so many times that night!
After switching trains in Cairo (seamlessly, I might add), we arrived in Alexandria around 2pm. After showering (a must after an all night, crowded train ride) we went off to explore the streets in search of a bar that sold beer. Specifically a bar that served beer AND seafood. For those of you that know me well, you must be wondering, why?? I don’t like beer, or very much seafood for that matter. Robby and Sarah, the other 2 volunteers were just so excited for it though, and I had to try some seafood in Alexandria, even if it was just a little bit. We ran into a few issues though. A) We could not find the place to save our lives. After finally stopping for directions at a tourist information center, we walked in the general direction and stopped when a man on the street pointed out the fact that we were all about to walk right by the place we were looking for. Whoops. At least the lady at the tourist place had thought to call ahead and tell the owner to be on the lookout for 3 lost-looking American tourists! B) We assumed that like in the States, a restaurant would offer options other than seafood. Not so much. So I ate some salads (hummus, etc) and had a few pieces of calamari. The salads were disappointing, but the calamari was wicked fresh and pretty delicious. Not delicious enough that I could eat more than 4 or 5 pieces, but delicious enough for me to not cringe and stop mid bite of the first one. We hit a Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins on the way back to the hotel. Oh my goodness, how could I forget? Our hotel was just one teeny, tiny block away from the sea. The Mediterranean Sea. There was even a breeze coming off of it! It felt so good to be that close again, breathing in the salty air!!!! I could have sat there staring at it for hours and hours…
After our dinner excursion, we called it a night. The next morning we set off to find the catacombs of Alexandria. Being too cheap to pay for a taxi (remember now, we don’t have real, money making jobs!) we decided to walk. Not such a good plan. We got lost and (Mum, close your eyes here) ended up walking through not only the industrial part of Alexandria, but also the slums and shipping areas. Awful, but interesting at the same time. After near constant harassment, we ran into a few gregarious little girls that pointed us in the right direction (thank you mandatory English and hand gestures!) and not 3 minutes later we were there. The catacombs were pretty sweet. They were built during the Roman times, and had a crazy mix of Roman and Ancient Egyptian influence on the art and architecture. Prime example, the Egyptian god of death all bulked up and dressed in Roman army garb. While it was cool to walk around and explore, the pull of the beach won out and I was anxious to get back and be on my way to the white, sandy beaches.
After some running around and unsuccessful haggling with a mean taxi man, Sarah and I finally made it to the ONLY affordable beach in Alexandria…well, the only affordable beach where it would be ‘acceptable’ for us to walk around in our Western style bathing suits. As we walked in we noticed a group of other Western women (they were speaking English, and did not have their hair covered) and decided that we were going to sit by them, just for safety in numbers. Turns out they were a group of Canadian Airline workers on vacation, and they were hilarious. No sooner had we sat down though, did things turn a bit to the worse. We were surrounded, quite literally, by Egyptian men. The men openly stared, whistled, and snapped pictures on their phone. This lasted for hours, and at times there were at least 50 men all around us. It was ridiculous, and further tainted my view of Egyptian men. If I was not a little bit used to extra attention like I get in Armenia, I probably would have snapped, and someone would have left the beach hurting. While the water was nice, and the ocean beautiful, the audacity, ignorance, and lack of respect of the men sort of put a dark ring around the cloud that is Egypt…while men in Armenia have never been obnoxious in such large numbers, at least here the women would have shamed them.
The next morning (I use that word loosely) we were woken up at 2:45a by a wakeup call from the hotel staff. We dragged our tired behinds out of bed, zombie walked down the stairs, grabbed a boxed breakfast (who can really eat that early in the morning??) and climbed onto the Egyptian version of a marshutka (15 passenger van). We (or at least I) slept pretty soundly through the next 3 hours…only being woken a few times by the force of the sand storm winds pushing our van a few inches to one side. Sadly, we missed the sunrise by half an hour…but we still arrived to Abu Simble Temple around 7 in the morning, and it was absolutely amazing. I was surprised by the number of tourists there, but not sure why I was…since on the way there we were in a ‘caravan’ of at least 30 buses and vans. The temple was incredible, the scale was amazing, and the inside of the temple was in great condition. It was hard for me to believe that not only had the temple had been around for almost 3000 years, but it had been completely relocated in the 60s to make way for the high dam! Yes, an entire temple built into the side of cliffs had been relocated and moved, and you really could not tell. We spent 1 ½ there, and it was worth the early morning wake up and fairly steep entrance fee. After Abu Simble, we continued on our way to the high dam, which in all honestly was not worth the money to get it. The view was blocked by the sandstorms that had rocked our marshutka earlier, and we stayed for all of 5 minutes. Philos Temple, next on the list, was a bit better. We paid to get in, and then had to haggle (turns out pretty unsuccessfully) for one of the 30 private boat captains to take us over to the island that the actual temple is located on. This temple too had been moved, and a new island (exactly replicating the original, including foliage) was rebuilt for it to sit on when the dam waters started rising. This temple was cool…but by this time they had all started blending in with one another! After almost leaving a couple behind, there was a brief and mildly heated exchange with the driver over whose responsibility (not mine!) it was to count heads…then it was more sleep on the 3 hour ride back to Aswan.
We bought our train tickets pretty quickly (thank you Muslim country with female only lines : ) ..and then it was relaxing (read: nap) time for the rest of the night. The next morning Robby and I went off to explore Elephantile Island (named for the rocks on the end that supposedly look like elephants bathing, I don’t see it though), starting with a half successful haggle for a reasonable water taxi. The island is not a big one, and in just a few minutes we made our way to the Aswan Museum. The inside of the museum was not that impressive, but we did have our own tour guide (mandatory guide, mandatory tip) which was ok. Then we went to the outside bit, which is an active archaeological dig site. SWEET! This bit also required a mandatory tour guide, and this one was a touchy one (see Facebook pictures)…but it was worth it, since he decided that the ‘do not enter’ signs did not apply to us. It was cool, we walked on the walls of old Roman houses and held thousand year old pottery. I loved it! There was one scary bit though, the man asked to ‘pray’ with me, and I reluctantly agreed and listened to him chant for a solid 3 minutes while holding his hands over mine, the whole time hoping that he was not binding us in marriage in some ancient Egyptian ritual. My fears were eased though when he repeated the same process with Robby. After catching the local water taxi back to mainland Aswan, we had some pool time, and then got on the train for the 16 hour ride to Alexandria.
I should mention here that for the first 2 hours of our train ride Sarah read to me. Yes, she read to me. Stories and tidbits and tips out of one of our guidebooks. It was fantastic, I forget how soothing it is to have someone read to you, and Sarah kept it interesting with voice changes, strategic editing, and eternal patience for my lack of attention span and ‘rewind’ requests. Thanks again Sarah! After that we ran into some obnoxious Australian people. No offense to any Aussies out there, but damn, these people were no good for your image, no good at all. In fact, they pretty much plagued the rest of the train ride, with their loudness at ungodly hours of the morning and constant complaints and trips to the bar. LAME. No worries though Mum, I embraced your patience and lack of temper genes, and successfully avoided causing the scene that I imagined in my head so many times that night!
After switching trains in Cairo (seamlessly, I might add), we arrived in Alexandria around 2pm. After showering (a must after an all night, crowded train ride) we went off to explore the streets in search of a bar that sold beer. Specifically a bar that served beer AND seafood. For those of you that know me well, you must be wondering, why?? I don’t like beer, or very much seafood for that matter. Robby and Sarah, the other 2 volunteers were just so excited for it though, and I had to try some seafood in Alexandria, even if it was just a little bit. We ran into a few issues though. A) We could not find the place to save our lives. After finally stopping for directions at a tourist information center, we walked in the general direction and stopped when a man on the street pointed out the fact that we were all about to walk right by the place we were looking for. Whoops. At least the lady at the tourist place had thought to call ahead and tell the owner to be on the lookout for 3 lost-looking American tourists! B) We assumed that like in the States, a restaurant would offer options other than seafood. Not so much. So I ate some salads (hummus, etc) and had a few pieces of calamari. The salads were disappointing, but the calamari was wicked fresh and pretty delicious. Not delicious enough that I could eat more than 4 or 5 pieces, but delicious enough for me to not cringe and stop mid bite of the first one. We hit a Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins on the way back to the hotel. Oh my goodness, how could I forget? Our hotel was just one teeny, tiny block away from the sea. The Mediterranean Sea. There was even a breeze coming off of it! It felt so good to be that close again, breathing in the salty air!!!! I could have sat there staring at it for hours and hours…
After our dinner excursion, we called it a night. The next morning we set off to find the catacombs of Alexandria. Being too cheap to pay for a taxi (remember now, we don’t have real, money making jobs!) we decided to walk. Not such a good plan. We got lost and (Mum, close your eyes here) ended up walking through not only the industrial part of Alexandria, but also the slums and shipping areas. Awful, but interesting at the same time. After near constant harassment, we ran into a few gregarious little girls that pointed us in the right direction (thank you mandatory English and hand gestures!) and not 3 minutes later we were there. The catacombs were pretty sweet. They were built during the Roman times, and had a crazy mix of Roman and Ancient Egyptian influence on the art and architecture. Prime example, the Egyptian god of death all bulked up and dressed in Roman army garb. While it was cool to walk around and explore, the pull of the beach won out and I was anxious to get back and be on my way to the white, sandy beaches.
After some running around and unsuccessful haggling with a mean taxi man, Sarah and I finally made it to the ONLY affordable beach in Alexandria…well, the only affordable beach where it would be ‘acceptable’ for us to walk around in our Western style bathing suits. As we walked in we noticed a group of other Western women (they were speaking English, and did not have their hair covered) and decided that we were going to sit by them, just for safety in numbers. Turns out they were a group of Canadian Airline workers on vacation, and they were hilarious. No sooner had we sat down though, did things turn a bit to the worse. We were surrounded, quite literally, by Egyptian men. The men openly stared, whistled, and snapped pictures on their phone. This lasted for hours, and at times there were at least 50 men all around us. It was ridiculous, and further tainted my view of Egyptian men. If I was not a little bit used to extra attention like I get in Armenia, I probably would have snapped, and someone would have left the beach hurting. While the water was nice, and the ocean beautiful, the audacity, ignorance, and lack of respect of the men sort of put a dark ring around the cloud that is Egypt…while men in Armenia have never been obnoxious in such large numbers, at least here the women would have shamed them.
Egypt pt 2
The train station was an experience. Everything was written in Arabic, and it was a pain to figure out not only which platform you were supposed to be on, but where that platform actually was. Once you found the platform after being misdirected once or twice (ok, that only happened once…but hauling my big suitcase up and down those stairs was NOT a good time) you had to wait and hope that you could figure out which car you were in. The numbers were all in Arabic. Thank God for nice people willing to help the poor, confused tourists out. The sleeper train was not how I imagined. Much more modern than expected, and I was severely disappointed in the lack of dining car. You ate in your room, with little plastic trays that pulled out from the wall. The food wasn’t too bad though, once I traded Sarah my lamb for her rice. Sarah and I ‘roomed’ together, and Robby was in the room adjacent to ours. There was this little handy door that opened between the two though, and it was kind of like we were eating together. The guy came to pull our beds down (you needed a special tool, we figured out after a half hour of pushing every button and touching everything) and we fell asleep pretty quickly. You all know me, and therefore really don’t need me to tell you that I slept like a baby.
We arrived in Luxor at 7 in the morning (or 8, I don’t know) and the guy from our hotel met us at the stop. He was super nice, probably the nicest person I met in all of Egypt. Well, except Sarah’s friend of course...but he comes in later. Our hotel was a quick 3 minute walk from the station, but we were on the fourth floor and there were no elevators. I can tell you that I didn’t feel guilty at all skipping my nightly workout once while we were there. The manager gave us a few minutes to get settled, then we went upstairs for our ‘welcome drink’ (Hibiscus or regular tea, always choose hibiscus, yum : ) and to give us the low down on Luxor and things to do there. He was wicked sweet, and very understanding of our budget. Here is my shout out…if you ever go to Luxor on a budget, stay at the OASIS hotel. After some chit chat, he arranged for us not only to get student discount cards (which paid for themselves in no time-50% off most entrance fees-and boy is there a lot of those) but to also leave in a few hours for a Falluka (sail boat) trip. We showered and got ready to go. The falluka was one of my favorite things in Egypt. It was fantastically relaxing and low key. We sailed around for a little bit, had some tea, and then took a tour of Banana Island. We saw all sorts of fruit trees and animals, some irrigation techniques, and of course…a baby crocodile. When I say baby I mean it was only about 5 feet long. Then we ate bananas and were back on the water for a fantastic view of the sunset. Once we docked, we tipped the men and were on our way.
I was going to skip right to the next day, but there are some things that can’t be skipped. We were harassed, constantly, everywhere we went. We could not walk down a street without getting yelled at by some vendor, horse and carriage driver, or man. Of course, we did not help the situation by travelling in a group of one guy and two girls…but the harassment was way more than we expected. If I had 5 dollars for every time some Egyptian guy yelled ‘Casanova (to Robby), lucky man, you have two wives, give one to me’ then this trip would be paid for in full. Taxi and carriage drivers would also stop traffic, following slowly behind you for 5 minutes asking if you wanted a ride…even if you had already said no 1000 times. We are used to staring, used to getting unwanted attention (we do live in a foreign country and stand out quite a lot most of the time) but man, it got on our nerves after awhile. Walking down the streets was probably the most stressful part of the trip. Oh, and the cheesy pickup lines were abundant. The best of the trip: ‘I think you dropped something, it was my heart’. Oh yea, the Egyptian men had game.
After walking home (and being denied entrance to Luxor temple because we didn’t have small bills) we ended up just chilling out and reading on the roof, which was beautiful. It is where we ate breakfast every morning, and spent at least an hour or two there later on in the night. There were cushions spread out on the ground, and a nice canopy for sitting under during the day. The next morning was an early one; we hopped on a tour bus at 8am to head to West Bank to see the Valley of the Kings and Queens.
Valley of the Kings was the first, and most impressive, stop. We had a great guide and went into 3 tombs; Ramses I, Ramses III, and Ramses IV. Each of the tombs had their own ‘story’. The first was empty, except for the actual stone ‘tomb’ part, because it was too heavy for robbers to steal (like they did everything else). The second had immaculate paintings on the wall (including hieroglyphics and incredible colors) and it is also famous because it is the tomb that covered King Tut’s, effectively hiding it from tomb robbers. The third was known for being crooked. The engineers started digging it and halfway through ran into an older tomb, and then had to start digging at an angle to finish. Whoops. The Valley of the Queens was cool because of the stories. We were told about the insane amount of inbreeding that occurred. Kings married their daughters, Grandfathers their granddaughters, and so on. One king married his sister, had 100 kids, and 54 of them died of genetic defects. There was also a lot of murdering for power. One second wife poisoned the current king and his 4 children who were in line to take the throne before her son. Of course, she got away with it, because her son was then King. Oh and then the first wife was so sad about the deaths that she miscarried her 6 month fetus, and they mummified it (you can see it in the tombs). It could really be a soap opera.
The temple of Hasteput (I think that is it?) had the best story of all though. This woman had married her brother (see Inbreeding above) and didn’t have any children with him. When her dad died, she was the only child of the queen and had to marry her half brother to continue the line. Well, when he died, she was left to rule in place of her step son (who her brother had with his other wife) until he was old enough to take power. Well, she ruled. She took to power well, and to assert her legitimacy as ‘King of Egypt’ she began to dress like a man and wear false beards. She never did hand over the reign to her step son, and ruled until the day she died. When she was alive she had a large temple built for herself in the Valley of the Kings (of course, she is a King, so why should her tomb be in the Valley of the Queens?) and killed the architect who built it so he wouldn’t build a better one for a later King or Queen. After her death, her step son finally came to power, and destroyed everything she ever built. I would call that one heck of a hissy fit. It was only a few years ago (10 or 15) that the temple was restored and completely rebuilt.
After the temple we made our way to the Colossi of Memnon, of course with a quick pit stop to an alabaster store. The Colossi were cool, but couldn’t hold a light to everything else that we had seen that day. We took a quick hangist (relax time) on the roof before heading to Luxor Temple, this time with smaller bills. Like everything else in Luxor (besides our beloved roof) it was packed with tourists, but for sure still worth seeing as it was lit up for the night. Rumor has it that the current Luxor was actually built on top of the temple, and when it was discovered they moved everything out of the way and excavated it. Everything but a mosque that the people refused to let them touch. The mosque now sites on top of one piece of the temple. Not too much else to say about the temple, pictures are amazing though. Oh, and that night we walked to the British Pub, and ate some amazing fish and chips.
The next day was set aside for the East Side of Luxor. We came downstairs after breakfast and asked the same nice manager about renting bikes for the day. He brought 3 over and I took a quick ride down the street and was ready to go. Sadly though, Robby needed some practice. At one point, Sarah even ran behind him holding him steady as the hotel manager, street vendors, and I laughed. I was in tears, it was hilarious, but it was decided that the bikes were probably not a good plan. We, rather stupidly looking back, decided to save money and walk to Karnak Temple (about 2 miles away from our hotel). While two miles isn’t very long…it becomes quite horrific when you are walking in the middle of the day in the heat of Egypt. We were all heat drunk by the time we got there, and while I remember it being quite beautiful, I don’t remember much other than the fact that there was an A/C’d visitor’s center right next to it. The whole experience wore us out, and I couldn’t tell you what we did for the whole rest of the night.
We arrived in Luxor at 7 in the morning (or 8, I don’t know) and the guy from our hotel met us at the stop. He was super nice, probably the nicest person I met in all of Egypt. Well, except Sarah’s friend of course...but he comes in later. Our hotel was a quick 3 minute walk from the station, but we were on the fourth floor and there were no elevators. I can tell you that I didn’t feel guilty at all skipping my nightly workout once while we were there. The manager gave us a few minutes to get settled, then we went upstairs for our ‘welcome drink’ (Hibiscus or regular tea, always choose hibiscus, yum : ) and to give us the low down on Luxor and things to do there. He was wicked sweet, and very understanding of our budget. Here is my shout out…if you ever go to Luxor on a budget, stay at the OASIS hotel. After some chit chat, he arranged for us not only to get student discount cards (which paid for themselves in no time-50% off most entrance fees-and boy is there a lot of those) but to also leave in a few hours for a Falluka (sail boat) trip. We showered and got ready to go. The falluka was one of my favorite things in Egypt. It was fantastically relaxing and low key. We sailed around for a little bit, had some tea, and then took a tour of Banana Island. We saw all sorts of fruit trees and animals, some irrigation techniques, and of course…a baby crocodile. When I say baby I mean it was only about 5 feet long. Then we ate bananas and were back on the water for a fantastic view of the sunset. Once we docked, we tipped the men and were on our way.
I was going to skip right to the next day, but there are some things that can’t be skipped. We were harassed, constantly, everywhere we went. We could not walk down a street without getting yelled at by some vendor, horse and carriage driver, or man. Of course, we did not help the situation by travelling in a group of one guy and two girls…but the harassment was way more than we expected. If I had 5 dollars for every time some Egyptian guy yelled ‘Casanova (to Robby), lucky man, you have two wives, give one to me’ then this trip would be paid for in full. Taxi and carriage drivers would also stop traffic, following slowly behind you for 5 minutes asking if you wanted a ride…even if you had already said no 1000 times. We are used to staring, used to getting unwanted attention (we do live in a foreign country and stand out quite a lot most of the time) but man, it got on our nerves after awhile. Walking down the streets was probably the most stressful part of the trip. Oh, and the cheesy pickup lines were abundant. The best of the trip: ‘I think you dropped something, it was my heart’. Oh yea, the Egyptian men had game.
After walking home (and being denied entrance to Luxor temple because we didn’t have small bills) we ended up just chilling out and reading on the roof, which was beautiful. It is where we ate breakfast every morning, and spent at least an hour or two there later on in the night. There were cushions spread out on the ground, and a nice canopy for sitting under during the day. The next morning was an early one; we hopped on a tour bus at 8am to head to West Bank to see the Valley of the Kings and Queens.
Valley of the Kings was the first, and most impressive, stop. We had a great guide and went into 3 tombs; Ramses I, Ramses III, and Ramses IV. Each of the tombs had their own ‘story’. The first was empty, except for the actual stone ‘tomb’ part, because it was too heavy for robbers to steal (like they did everything else). The second had immaculate paintings on the wall (including hieroglyphics and incredible colors) and it is also famous because it is the tomb that covered King Tut’s, effectively hiding it from tomb robbers. The third was known for being crooked. The engineers started digging it and halfway through ran into an older tomb, and then had to start digging at an angle to finish. Whoops. The Valley of the Queens was cool because of the stories. We were told about the insane amount of inbreeding that occurred. Kings married their daughters, Grandfathers their granddaughters, and so on. One king married his sister, had 100 kids, and 54 of them died of genetic defects. There was also a lot of murdering for power. One second wife poisoned the current king and his 4 children who were in line to take the throne before her son. Of course, she got away with it, because her son was then King. Oh and then the first wife was so sad about the deaths that she miscarried her 6 month fetus, and they mummified it (you can see it in the tombs). It could really be a soap opera.
The temple of Hasteput (I think that is it?) had the best story of all though. This woman had married her brother (see Inbreeding above) and didn’t have any children with him. When her dad died, she was the only child of the queen and had to marry her half brother to continue the line. Well, when he died, she was left to rule in place of her step son (who her brother had with his other wife) until he was old enough to take power. Well, she ruled. She took to power well, and to assert her legitimacy as ‘King of Egypt’ she began to dress like a man and wear false beards. She never did hand over the reign to her step son, and ruled until the day she died. When she was alive she had a large temple built for herself in the Valley of the Kings (of course, she is a King, so why should her tomb be in the Valley of the Queens?) and killed the architect who built it so he wouldn’t build a better one for a later King or Queen. After her death, her step son finally came to power, and destroyed everything she ever built. I would call that one heck of a hissy fit. It was only a few years ago (10 or 15) that the temple was restored and completely rebuilt.
After the temple we made our way to the Colossi of Memnon, of course with a quick pit stop to an alabaster store. The Colossi were cool, but couldn’t hold a light to everything else that we had seen that day. We took a quick hangist (relax time) on the roof before heading to Luxor Temple, this time with smaller bills. Like everything else in Luxor (besides our beloved roof) it was packed with tourists, but for sure still worth seeing as it was lit up for the night. Rumor has it that the current Luxor was actually built on top of the temple, and when it was discovered they moved everything out of the way and excavated it. Everything but a mosque that the people refused to let them touch. The mosque now sites on top of one piece of the temple. Not too much else to say about the temple, pictures are amazing though. Oh, and that night we walked to the British Pub, and ate some amazing fish and chips.
The next day was set aside for the East Side of Luxor. We came downstairs after breakfast and asked the same nice manager about renting bikes for the day. He brought 3 over and I took a quick ride down the street and was ready to go. Sadly though, Robby needed some practice. At one point, Sarah even ran behind him holding him steady as the hotel manager, street vendors, and I laughed. I was in tears, it was hilarious, but it was decided that the bikes were probably not a good plan. We, rather stupidly looking back, decided to save money and walk to Karnak Temple (about 2 miles away from our hotel). While two miles isn’t very long…it becomes quite horrific when you are walking in the middle of the day in the heat of Egypt. We were all heat drunk by the time we got there, and while I remember it being quite beautiful, I don’t remember much other than the fact that there was an A/C’d visitor’s center right next to it. The whole experience wore us out, and I couldn’t tell you what we did for the whole rest of the night.
Egypt pt 1
So..I started writing this blog about 3 ½ weeks ago..it’s lateness being posted is a testament to how crazy busy I have been : )
It should keep you busy for awhile…
Oh man, oh man do I have a lot of catching up to do. I have officially been back from Egypt for a week now, but my brain has for sure switched into summer laid back mode. Oops. I am sure that Environmental Leadership Camps (which are starting in 2 weeks, yikes!) will get me right back on track.
Egypt was fantastic. Incredible. Amazing. There are other words, but I am sure you get the gist. The plane ride to Dubai was not bad at all; I slept (surprise, surprise) the entire time. Once we landed in Dubai though, we had a 3 or 4 hour layover (I don’t remember exactly) and we spent our time walking around and enjoying all of the wonderful things the airport had to offer. And I am not exaggerating, there were some WONDERFUL things. First and foremost, there was a Dunkin Donuts. An actual, real live Dunkin Donuts. I spotted it when we were on one of those moving sidewalks heading to the Post Office (Yes, there was a post office in the airport, and yes, I was very late mailing out Danny Pryor’s birthday card… Ooops). Honestly, I just about stopped myself from jumping over the moving railing. Instead, I embraced my mother’s genes and waited patiently (or walked rather quickly actually) to the end of the sidewalk and booked it over to the familiar orange sign and Styrofoam cups. The words “Medium French Vanilla Iced Coffee, please” never sounded so sweet : ). It was beautiful. Tasted like home. I sucked it down in 5 minutes flat (on the way to and from the post office), and got another one before getting back on that darn moving sidewalk heading toward our gate. Other amazing things to mention (and remember, I have been in Armenia for a year now, eating potatoes.) were a great visit we had to the Cold Stones, the massive Duty Free section, the waterfall, the reclined chairs, the smoothie shop, and who can forget, the free internet access. The airport was like a warm up to our actual vacation…which started when we landed in Cairo 3 hours later.
The first impression was fantastic. Since we spend more than three nights at the first hostel, they came to pick us up at the airport for free. That was nice. We were sleepy, and kept answering the taxi guys automatically in Armenian, so trying to secure transportation ourselves would have been a nightmare. The ride from the airport was about 30 minutes, and we were all kind of in awe over the massiveness of the city. Armenia has 3 million people total. Cairo has 20 million. The tall apartment buildings, huge highways, and tons of people were a little intense. Not surprisingly, after getting to the hotel, checking in, and showering we all laid down for a ‘nap’ before going out and exploring a little bit. I put quotes around the word nap because we ended up not waking up until the next morning. Before falling asleep however, we did manage to arrange a driver to take us to Saqqara, Dahsour, and Giza the next morning.
The next morning we woke up bright and early (we had been sleeping for 15 hours) and had some breakfast before experiencing our most ‘touristy’ and expensive vacation day. The first stop was Dahsour, or the ‘red pyramid’. It is called that because it is red, easy to remember, no? It was one of the oldest pyramids, and one that was cheaper to go into. So we did. You had to go up the pyramid halfway (oh boy, did my behind get fit) and then go into this tunnel. The tunnel was at a 30 to 40 degree angle, and you descended on the equivalent of a boat ramp. I should also mention that it was only about 4 feet high, so you did this all hunched over. I counted my blessings for inheriting the ‘short’ genes of the family. After doing this for 30 or so meters you get into a big room. And that was basically it. There was another big room behind it, but nothing except for the bare walls and floor. We were inside for 10 minutes tops and then headed out. Going out was easier then getting in, since you didn’t feel like you were going to fall over all the time. It was still cool though. I was in a pyramid. From Dahsour you could also see the ‘bent’ pyramid. I’ll give you one guess to the origin of this name. Yup, it is bent. This was the first attempt at a ‘pyramid pyramid’ and the angles were a bit off. It was a solid first try though. Next we traveled to Saqqara, which is the first pyramid like structure to ever be built by man, on earth, ever. It is also called the ‘step pyramid’ because the sides look like steps; kind of like those toys you buy for kids to stack one on top of the other. That one was pretty cool. We also went into some tombs near Saqqara. The painting and carvings in them were absolutely magnificent. I had a hard time believing that they were really 3,000+ years old, and not just painted a few years ago. The colors were still bright in some places, and the carvings were immaculate and unbelievably detailed.
Next we were off to our last, and biggest, and MOST expensive spot of the day, Giza. But of course, on the way, our tour guide had to bring us by some shops for traditional papyrus and oils. He dropped us at the door, and at both places (which happened to be right next to each other) we had mini presentations and some crazy buying pressure. I had no intention of buying anything at either place…and we held out for long enough that the papyrus guy got nervous and cut us an incredible deal, or at least an affordable one. He offered Robby 4 small papyrus pieces for free if he bought a big one. So of course I jumped in on that and picked out 2 for myself. One has a depiction of ‘the honeymoon’ and the other is a person praying under a palm tree. I am keeping the second…and the first will be a gift. I held out at the oil store though…I wanted none of that…but left smelling like a whole bunch of different things. We finally got to Giza though (after the presentations and buying stuff we were at the shops for an hour or two) and it was in the next three hours that I decided that my father could never, EVER visit Egypt. EVER. So, the driver passed us off to some shop owner dude who sat us down and quickly ran through our ‘tour options’. There were 3 (short, medium, and long) with an array of prices (expensive, very expensive, and unbelievably expensive). Of course, we haggled a little and then chose the short. This did not make the guy happy and he kept reminding us that this is a ‘once in a lifetime’ trip etc. etc. We still said no, explained that we were volunteers and didn’t have that kind of money. Then spent another 20 minutes pushing the price down even further, until the man came up with a price for the long trip that we could afford. Sort of. We selected camels (our other option was horses, and who would choose horses in Egypt?) and thought we were done with the drama and ready to go. Of course not. The guy then introduces us to our ‘guide’ and tells us that he, in fact, does not pay the guide. And, if we think he should get paid then we need to pay him ourselves. Lovely. We just spent 3 days worth of budget and now we need to pay more. AY KEZ BAN. Little did we realize how much this foretold the rest of the trip. Well…we got on our camels and were off. It was a pretty fantastic time. We saw the 9 pyramids in Giza (3 big for the kings and 6 little for the queens) and then the housing and tombs of the workers. We also got off the camels to take some cheesy tourist pictures (see Facebook) and to see the Sphinx. Despite the hot and the flies, it was a really fantastic time. The pyramids were beautiful, and the camel was for sure an experience. On our way back to the office, we discussed what we would tip (in Armenian) and handed our guy the tip as we were getting ready to go. He was not impressed, and told us so. Not only would the haggling have driven my father crazy. But OH MAN. Would there have been a scene. The man basically stood there scolding us and trying to make us feel bad the entire time we waited for our car. What crap. I think we were all too shocked to really react appropriately. So we just stood there. Now back to the dad thing. If you know my dad at all, I want you to sit back and close your eyes and imagine THAT scene would have unfolded if he had been there. Very, very differently. While the whole obnoxious guide kind of put a downer on the next hour or so…we got over it pretty quickly after some KFC (Remember, we live in Armenia) with a nice South American guy we met at the hostel. After that we were off to catch the sleeper train to Luxor.
It should keep you busy for awhile…
Oh man, oh man do I have a lot of catching up to do. I have officially been back from Egypt for a week now, but my brain has for sure switched into summer laid back mode. Oops. I am sure that Environmental Leadership Camps (which are starting in 2 weeks, yikes!) will get me right back on track.
Egypt was fantastic. Incredible. Amazing. There are other words, but I am sure you get the gist. The plane ride to Dubai was not bad at all; I slept (surprise, surprise) the entire time. Once we landed in Dubai though, we had a 3 or 4 hour layover (I don’t remember exactly) and we spent our time walking around and enjoying all of the wonderful things the airport had to offer. And I am not exaggerating, there were some WONDERFUL things. First and foremost, there was a Dunkin Donuts. An actual, real live Dunkin Donuts. I spotted it when we were on one of those moving sidewalks heading to the Post Office (Yes, there was a post office in the airport, and yes, I was very late mailing out Danny Pryor’s birthday card… Ooops). Honestly, I just about stopped myself from jumping over the moving railing. Instead, I embraced my mother’s genes and waited patiently (or walked rather quickly actually) to the end of the sidewalk and booked it over to the familiar orange sign and Styrofoam cups. The words “Medium French Vanilla Iced Coffee, please” never sounded so sweet : ). It was beautiful. Tasted like home. I sucked it down in 5 minutes flat (on the way to and from the post office), and got another one before getting back on that darn moving sidewalk heading toward our gate. Other amazing things to mention (and remember, I have been in Armenia for a year now, eating potatoes.) were a great visit we had to the Cold Stones, the massive Duty Free section, the waterfall, the reclined chairs, the smoothie shop, and who can forget, the free internet access. The airport was like a warm up to our actual vacation…which started when we landed in Cairo 3 hours later.
The first impression was fantastic. Since we spend more than three nights at the first hostel, they came to pick us up at the airport for free. That was nice. We were sleepy, and kept answering the taxi guys automatically in Armenian, so trying to secure transportation ourselves would have been a nightmare. The ride from the airport was about 30 minutes, and we were all kind of in awe over the massiveness of the city. Armenia has 3 million people total. Cairo has 20 million. The tall apartment buildings, huge highways, and tons of people were a little intense. Not surprisingly, after getting to the hotel, checking in, and showering we all laid down for a ‘nap’ before going out and exploring a little bit. I put quotes around the word nap because we ended up not waking up until the next morning. Before falling asleep however, we did manage to arrange a driver to take us to Saqqara, Dahsour, and Giza the next morning.
The next morning we woke up bright and early (we had been sleeping for 15 hours) and had some breakfast before experiencing our most ‘touristy’ and expensive vacation day. The first stop was Dahsour, or the ‘red pyramid’. It is called that because it is red, easy to remember, no? It was one of the oldest pyramids, and one that was cheaper to go into. So we did. You had to go up the pyramid halfway (oh boy, did my behind get fit) and then go into this tunnel. The tunnel was at a 30 to 40 degree angle, and you descended on the equivalent of a boat ramp. I should also mention that it was only about 4 feet high, so you did this all hunched over. I counted my blessings for inheriting the ‘short’ genes of the family. After doing this for 30 or so meters you get into a big room. And that was basically it. There was another big room behind it, but nothing except for the bare walls and floor. We were inside for 10 minutes tops and then headed out. Going out was easier then getting in, since you didn’t feel like you were going to fall over all the time. It was still cool though. I was in a pyramid. From Dahsour you could also see the ‘bent’ pyramid. I’ll give you one guess to the origin of this name. Yup, it is bent. This was the first attempt at a ‘pyramid pyramid’ and the angles were a bit off. It was a solid first try though. Next we traveled to Saqqara, which is the first pyramid like structure to ever be built by man, on earth, ever. It is also called the ‘step pyramid’ because the sides look like steps; kind of like those toys you buy for kids to stack one on top of the other. That one was pretty cool. We also went into some tombs near Saqqara. The painting and carvings in them were absolutely magnificent. I had a hard time believing that they were really 3,000+ years old, and not just painted a few years ago. The colors were still bright in some places, and the carvings were immaculate and unbelievably detailed.
Next we were off to our last, and biggest, and MOST expensive spot of the day, Giza. But of course, on the way, our tour guide had to bring us by some shops for traditional papyrus and oils. He dropped us at the door, and at both places (which happened to be right next to each other) we had mini presentations and some crazy buying pressure. I had no intention of buying anything at either place…and we held out for long enough that the papyrus guy got nervous and cut us an incredible deal, or at least an affordable one. He offered Robby 4 small papyrus pieces for free if he bought a big one. So of course I jumped in on that and picked out 2 for myself. One has a depiction of ‘the honeymoon’ and the other is a person praying under a palm tree. I am keeping the second…and the first will be a gift. I held out at the oil store though…I wanted none of that…but left smelling like a whole bunch of different things. We finally got to Giza though (after the presentations and buying stuff we were at the shops for an hour or two) and it was in the next three hours that I decided that my father could never, EVER visit Egypt. EVER. So, the driver passed us off to some shop owner dude who sat us down and quickly ran through our ‘tour options’. There were 3 (short, medium, and long) with an array of prices (expensive, very expensive, and unbelievably expensive). Of course, we haggled a little and then chose the short. This did not make the guy happy and he kept reminding us that this is a ‘once in a lifetime’ trip etc. etc. We still said no, explained that we were volunteers and didn’t have that kind of money. Then spent another 20 minutes pushing the price down even further, until the man came up with a price for the long trip that we could afford. Sort of. We selected camels (our other option was horses, and who would choose horses in Egypt?) and thought we were done with the drama and ready to go. Of course not. The guy then introduces us to our ‘guide’ and tells us that he, in fact, does not pay the guide. And, if we think he should get paid then we need to pay him ourselves. Lovely. We just spent 3 days worth of budget and now we need to pay more. AY KEZ BAN. Little did we realize how much this foretold the rest of the trip. Well…we got on our camels and were off. It was a pretty fantastic time. We saw the 9 pyramids in Giza (3 big for the kings and 6 little for the queens) and then the housing and tombs of the workers. We also got off the camels to take some cheesy tourist pictures (see Facebook) and to see the Sphinx. Despite the hot and the flies, it was a really fantastic time. The pyramids were beautiful, and the camel was for sure an experience. On our way back to the office, we discussed what we would tip (in Armenian) and handed our guy the tip as we were getting ready to go. He was not impressed, and told us so. Not only would the haggling have driven my father crazy. But OH MAN. Would there have been a scene. The man basically stood there scolding us and trying to make us feel bad the entire time we waited for our car. What crap. I think we were all too shocked to really react appropriately. So we just stood there. Now back to the dad thing. If you know my dad at all, I want you to sit back and close your eyes and imagine THAT scene would have unfolded if he had been there. Very, very differently. While the whole obnoxious guide kind of put a downer on the next hour or so…we got over it pretty quickly after some KFC (Remember, we live in Armenia) with a nice South American guy we met at the hostel. After that we were off to catch the sleeper train to Luxor.
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