Cairo = CRAZY Day 1

Marhaba! I just got home last night from an exciting few days in Cairo, Egypt. The experience was jam-packed and very busy to say the least. Cairo was originally where I thought I wanted to study abroad, plus my professor at Villanova is Egyptian, and he was the one who inspired me to study this language and culture. After choosing Jordan, I knew Egypt was the ONE place I had to see while staying over here and I can proudly check it off my list!

We arrived in Cairo late Friday night to our beautiful Marriott hotel. It was located in the heart of downtown right on the Nile. The view of the city lights was breathtaking and I can't say THANK YOU enough to my Dad for our wonderful, comfortable, western room. We woke up early Saturday morning and traveled south, to the older set of pyramids, known as the "step" pyramids or the "saqqara" pyramids. These are located near the town of Memphis, and are some of the oldest stone structures known to man. The drive out of the city gave me a good idea of the typical Cairo lifestyle. Staying in the nicest part of town was very decieving, because a lot of the city is very impoverished, we drove through some of the poorest parts of town on the way to saqqara and I must say it opened my eyes to how many people live. It almost felt like a time warp, people were riding horses, donkeys and pulling karts with cattle. Almost no one had shoes, and everywhere you looked there were people pumping water with hand pumps, getting the water from the ground. No one looked remotely clean, and many people were making carpets, plowing crops, or carrying jugs on their heads. I was amazed at how different life was 12 miles out of the city. Anyway, Saqqara was very neat. Right in the heart of the desert, you can see the city of Cairo off into the distance. We had a nice look in the museum and walked around Saqqara and saw the ruins for a while.

After Saqqara, we experienced the "meat" of Egypt, the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx. The Pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and happen to be the only wonder that survives fully intact. Again, I can't fully put into words how amazing this place is. It truly is one of the most incredible things to see. It blows my mind that they pyramids are still standing today, and I can't even begin to imagine how they were constructed in 2560 BC. I mean these structures are HUGE and 100 percent man made, it honestly is mind boggling to think about. We drove to the "tourist" photo spot, took some pictures and then ventured towards the Pyramids and slowly made our way around. We had a great time climbing on the base rocks, taking goofy pictures and trying to escape local "hagglers" who were trying to do anything to take our money. I unfortunately was taken advantage of by a small 6 year old Egyptian girl who gave me a pyramid for free and then whose mother rushed over and begged me for money. So whoever gets the little pyramid for Christmas, there's an interesting back story. The hagglers in Egypt typically are poor people trying to make money selling random things or just telling you they'll take your picture. We all learned very fast that people would do anything to take our money and keeping to ourselves was the best bet. I honestly was a little turned off by the begging and harassing, but I guess it comes with the territory. After walking around the pyramids, we actually went in one, which was a scary experience. Basically you walk into this dark tunnel, and then slowly climb up these wooden ladders that are on an angle to fit inside the pyramid. People are going both up and down these unsturdy things and theres barely any light. To make things better, the air is so hard to inhale because there's no ventilation and probably thousands of years old. Claustrophobia was a total understatment of how I felt. I was FREAKING out. Never the less, the pyramid didn't fall to the ground with me inside and I made it out alive. It was crazy, and I'm sure would not be acceptable by America's building standards haha.

After the Pyramids we checked out the sphinx, which is a mythological creature with a lions body and a man's head. Again, how they built this statue blows my mind, but it was really neat to see. After leaving Giza we headed over to the Papyrus Museum.

Papyrus is a plant that grows in the Nile Delta region and was used by people to make the first paper. Before the plant, people carved everything into stone, so, its discovery was KINDA a big deal. The word paper in most languages is related to the etomology of the word Papyrus. It's significance was also seen in places throughout the bible, most importantly it was thought the bassinet that carried Moses to Egypt was made from the Papyrus plant. The list goes on and on but the plant started a new revolution for the beginning of many items today (baskets, hats, tools, fences, roofs, ropes, trays, mats, fuel and paper). After seeing a demonstration where paper was made, we looked around and bought some beautiful Egyptian Art that is traditionally painted on the papyrus paper. It was really neat to see, because many places in Egypt sell "fakes" that are painted on banana leaf paper.

We returned to the hotel exhausted and went to a local restaurant on the Nile for dinner. Bed time was soon to follow. Day 1 was a huge success, and our first day in Egypt was incredible.