They gave us an Easter break during the first week of May
and our destination was chosen by the cheapest place we could go to. Egypt.
With Egypt’s history I would have felt very unaccomplished being so close and
not making an effort to see it’s great pyramids and museums full of ancient
artifacts and mummies. On our first day we saw the pyramids as we explored the
desert on camels, we learned about the making of papyrus and saw the sphinx. As
a side note, let me just say that the sphinx was a lot smaller than what we had
pictured in our heads.
The next few days in Cairo were spent going through the
museum, checking out the oldest Mosque in Cairo, exploring the suq and enjoying
a two-hour ride on a felucca boat down the Nile.
Right before leaving Cairo we took a two-day camping trip to
an oasis. On our way to the camping site we hiked up a mountain in the black
desert, experienced a jeep ride thru the Sahara and enjoyed a delicious Bedouin
meal. Upon arriving at the oasis we sat down to watch the sunset before setting
up our camp at the location where we would have dinner and would later sleep. Katie
Culhane (whom I’ve already mentioned in previous posts) and I got to sleep on
the roof of one of the jeeps. It seemed like a great thing to mark off our bucket
lists, but it cost us our warmth that night.
The last day out in the desert was one of the greatest
because we were taken to a watermelon farm. If you know about my love for
watermelon, then you know I was a very happy person at that point and time. The
rest of the ride back to Cairo was filled with random stops for the sake of
dancing and picking up flower rocks.
Egypt was cram packed with people, the streets were very
dirty, harassment was intense, but most of all, Egypt was cheap. No, it was
dirt cheap, cheaper than cheap. I kid you not when I say we ate for cents and
to give you an idea, the boat ride along the Nile was private and $3 per
person. I did not have the horrible harassment stories most girls from the
program have come back with, but from the sounds of it I only lucked out.
Going to Egypt was a trip where I learned to appreciate
Jordan a little more. When I went back to Jordan the streets looked cleaner and
the men seemed less aggressive. So yes, Egypt was dirty, crowded, loud, chaotic,
and the list goes on, but I enjoyed it for its overwhelming Middle Eastern
feel.
If you have any plans to visit Egypt, be ready to sweat and
if you are a girl, dress as conservative as you can.
