Day 37 - Egypt

I am having trouble remembering or finding the words to describe Egypt. I know I was there and I have the pictures to prove it, but everything happened so fast, and felt so unreal that I kinda don’t believe that we really stopped there.

Part of the problem is that Egypt was clouded by several other things. First, we had day 35 off to enjoy the Suez Canal. That was fairly amazing. We sailed through an incredibly narrow body of water in a line of tankers, cruise liners, and other iron creatures. We actually got to the entrance the night before but apparently no one is allowed passage at night, so our ship, along with several others parked outside the entrance awaiting approval. Also, in order to get approval we had to let some Egyptian sales people on for the duration of the canal, and have the ship inspected by part authorities.

We began our trip through the canal at sunrise, and landed at Port Said, the Western entrance of the canal just before sunset. All us teachers took advantage of the ability for good food, and headed out for dinner.

The next morning we had the ridiculous call time of 5:00 am. As a gift for all of our hard work, all the volunteers on the ship were given a free tour in Egypt which included the Pyramids, Sphinx, Lunch, shopping and transport. So we all, groggy-eyed, jumped on the buses and headed out to see the sights.

I am definitely glad I got to see the monuments, but it all felt really rushed and unreal. Forty-five minutes at the pyramids, back on the bus, 15 minutes at the panoramic view plateau, back on the bus, 30 minutes at the sphinx, back on the bus, lunch, bus, shopping for one hour, and back on the bus to head back to port. Also, I always had this imagine that the pyramids were somewhere far out in the desert, like we would have to ride camels for hours to find them in the middle of nowhere, but no, they are in the middle of the city. Turn right at the gas station, left at the hotel, and there they are. Right smack dab in the middle of Cairo.

Cairo itself was an adventure. There were times I could have sworn I was in New York or some other major city, and I was just driving through. A metropolis I could have spent weeks in and not see it all, Cairo had a unique combination of traditional and modern buildings, maze-like outdoor markets, the best salespeople I have ever encountered, and yummy foods you could smell halfway down the street.