Egypt.
Where to even begin…I had 3 days in Egypt and boy did I see a lot. Like I said in my previous post, I initially just planned this segment of my trip because Basel had suggested I stop in Cairo, but it turned out to be more than I could have ever imagined.
Starting with my hosts-Basman and his wife Reem are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Welcoming me into their home and being my tour guides-I could not have asked for more. So since my last post I swear I have walked through thousands of years of history…
First were the pyramids-obviously. Coming to Egypt my main motive was to see the pyramids-I remember learning about them in grade school and being amazed by the fact that the Egyptians were able to build such large structures without the machinery we have today. I must say, seeing them in person was breathtaking…
Reem and I were driven to one gate where we were bombarded by school children…the driver handled the situation very well-I mean if it was me driving I would have freaked out and probably ran a kid over. I am not kidding when I say we were surrounded. Kids in their teens were everywhere and as soon as they saw a foreigner (me) in the car, they started banging on the windows, screaming “HELLO-What is your name” and any other phrase in English they knew. It was kind of scary to be honest; there were people/children every which way you looked and there was clearly a lack of authority of the area. So after being bombarded and refused entrance with a car, we turned around and went to another entrance…we finally arrived at the gates around 10 am where we quickly decided to hop on a horse and buggy ride around to avoid walking the entire tour (yes we are lazy) and the crowds. The area where we loaded the buggy was disgusting…trash combined with camel and horse feces gave off such a foul odor I had to cover my nose. Reem quietly told me to ignore the mess and that we would be on our way shortly. After she discussed the price (I have found that all of Egypt is a constant negotiation) we were off.
The Pyramids of Giza consist of 9 pyramids total. The largest one standing 146 m high, with over 3 million blocks strategically put together, it was incredible. There are 3 large pyramids and each one has 3 smaller pyramids for the sons of the kings. The whole process of building these structures will never cease to amaze me. With each block weighing close to 3 tons, and each pyramid consisting of more than 2 million, I still cannot believe they pulled off building them. According to history it took close to 10 years to transport the stone up the Nile, 10 more years to carve each into a block like form, and 10 more years to build the pyramid. 30 years for one king-that’s commitment/he must have been preeeetttty important. What I found really interesting was the burial sites that lined the road side; thousands of workers were buried here during the construction of the pyramids. Mass graves always kind of weird me out, but I still think it is really amazing because the Egyptians hold it as an honor if you are buried here.
The tour guide leading our chariot was pretty informative and made sure to stop every so often for us to get some good pictures and to allow us to take it in. Although Reem only lives 5 minutes away, she said the last time she had been there was when she was in grade school!
The pyramids were obviously incredible but I still think they are a huge tourism money maker for the Egyptian government. Either way I did really enjoy finally making my way there and seeing them in real life. After about 2 hours on the carriage, we were finally done and hopped in the car and headed home.
I rested a bit in the afternoon before the kids were brought home from school. I played with Nazem and Nadim for about an hour just tossing/kicking a beach ball and running around the flat. After this we loaded up the car and the kids and Reem went to her mother's house and Basman and I went off on quite a tour.
Our first stop was a beautiful section of Cairo. One of the oldest sections of town, we walked through small alley ways, through old gate doors and stumbled upon so many historical sites.
We toured a beautiful mosque that was lit up so beautifully at night. The intricacies and details of the patterns engraved in the mosque are unlike anything I have ever seen. Islam does not allow pictures/paintings, so unlike European chapels and churches from this time, there are so many patterns and designs used to decorate mosques. It is interesting to try and understand the reasoning for no paintings and such for artwork, but due to this beautiful patterns were developed and displayed through so many mosques.
The next place we went to was one of the oldest houses in Cairo. It consisted of close to 360 rooms for all of the wives and servants of the trader who owned the estate. The place was absolutely incredible-a large foyer/courtyard area where all of the rooms looked over. The space has since been restored and is now used for artists space. The border opened up one of the rooms for me and showed me through this windy staircase up to a beautiful studio for an artist. If I was at all artistic and lived in Cairo, this is where I would definitely want my studio. The architecture was so unique and would be an inspiration for any type of artwork.
After walking through this we made our way to the Bizarre. Dating back to the 10th century, this has to be the first form of a mall. Vendors lining the alley ways selling various goods from scarves, hookahs, jewelry, papyrus, tourist gifts, and many other little things. This area reminded me a bit of the old city in Jerusalem. Probably dating to around the same time with similar influences, they both held a very interesting character that I've never experienced. The bizarre gives a new definition to outdoor market for me. People grabbing at me, saying anything in English to get my attention-everyone was trying to sell their goods to Basman and I.
We walked around here for a bit and ended up on the 2nd floor of a building in the jewelry section to meet a friend of his parents. At the top of the steps we found a fragile old man waiting there with 2 cups of tea for us. He was adorable-he has known Basman's family for over 50 years and has designed a large amount of jewelry for his family. Basman and the man chatted for a while and I sat and took in all of my surroundings. I was still in awe with the history within this part of town. After they were done chatting he walked us out and down the steps and concluded our visit telling me "you are walking down a set of stairs that are over 1000 years old." WOW.
From here we called Ali to come get us and we picked up Reem and went home. I prepared some things for the next day and passed out in a heart beat.
OK-next day in Egypt-traveling to Alexandria.
So Basman felt that I needed to see Alexandria and the more Grecian influences that Egypt has had in their history so we woke up pretty early and headed out on our journey. Ali picked us up around 9 and we started the 2 and half hour drive.
The first stop we made was at the citadel. This was built during the crusades to protect the city and the port. The building itself was amazing and the surrounding views were even better. Looking out on the Mediterranean, the archers and protectors of the citadel definitely had a beautiful view while waiting for an attack.
We walked through the entire citadel and chatted about the history and significance of the place. Basman made sure I saw each and every nook and cranny of the place-from the archers stake out places to where the grounds men rested-walking through a structure such as this that holds such character and significance was out of a book or movie.
Our next stop was to the library of Alexandria. Built in the past 10 years or so, it has a very unique architectural design. At first I was like “why are we going to see a library” but once I entered I realized how amazing it was. The interior was strategically designed to allow light in at all times of the day. With close to 8 floors, the place was massive. Housing probably 4 museums ranging from textiles, artwork, history, and manuscripts, we did it all. Taking us over 2 hours to scrape the surface of the information and displays available, I definitely got to see a lot. I saw artwork and clothing from the first centuries-I also got to see copies of the Torah, Koran, and Bible from the 3rd and 4th centuries. These documents were in dialects I have never even heard of or seen before-needless to say it was really impressive to walk through the manuscript museum and look at these historic documents.
Making our way to the rare book collections, Basman showed me a book from the 18th century that was published and created by Napoleon. Napoleon traveled to Egypt in the 18th century and brought with him 3 artists who documented everything from various historic sites to the types of reptiles in Egypt at the time. It literally is an encyclopedia for Egypt and the pictures are on a level of detail that I could never describe. There are 3 copies of this and it is a very important thing to Basman because his father actually restored one of them. It has since been donated to the University of Cairo and no longer remains in his family, but he is very fond of it and I could tell he was really proud to have once been able to claim it as his own.
Around 4:30 pm we left the library and called Ali to pick us up. At this point we were starving and couldn’t wait to sit and get some fresh seafood. Basman asked around to find out the best place for fresh fish and after some navigation difficulties, we found it. After we were seated we were instructed to walk up to the counter and literally pick out the fish we wanted to be cooked. Considering I had no idea what kind of fish each one was, and Basman was having a hard time translating to English the types of fish, I pointed to one and told them I wanted it grilled and hoped for the best.
Absolutely delicious-the fish came filleted and whole. It was grilled on an open fire and then doused in a tomato based sauce which was fantastic. Basman was surprised that I actually ate/liked the fish-he made a few comments on how people from the US think fish come in patties and thats it...so needless to say I proved him wrong as I devoured the food!
After the meal we hopped in the car with Ali and made our way back to Cairo. I fell asleep for most of the ride and when we got home Reem insisted we have some dessert before bed. Obviously I could not decline...the Egyptian delicacies she got were amazing. The fluffy little puff pastries dipped in honey were to die for! So I ate like 4 of them and then went to bed.
Next day.
SO Saturday was kind of hectic and had to be planned carefully because I had to be at the airport around 7 pm for my flight to Nairobi. I woke up in the morning and had breakfast with Reem and Basman and we were off again.
Basman decided to take me on a tour of the historic religious sites of Cairo for the morning. The first place we stopped consisted of a synagogue, a Greek Orthodox Church, a Roman Catholic Church, and the first mosque in Egypt. Each of these places was built between the 2nd and 12th centuries and consisted of such unique architecture. To explain each in detail will take me hours upon end, but I do want to make sure to acknowledge the fact that each religious site I went to in this area was more amazing than the first. The history that was present throughout the area blows my mind-thousands of years within a few square blocks...nothing that I write could ever do the descriptions justice. A few things to note about this is the fact that Jesus Christ hid from the Romans for a few weeks in this section of town and also, the place where Moses arrived is right next to the Catholic church.
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| the Greek Orthodox Church |
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| Roman Catholic Church |
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| The First Mosque in Egypt |
Similar to before, no words can describe the intricacies and details that were displayed in the citadel. The place was absolutely humongous! After about 3 hours of strolling through different palace wings, museums, and mosques, we finally headed back to the house.
Here I quickly packed up my things, had a final meal with Reem, Basman, and the boys, and Ali was there to take me to the airport.
I hate to say this, but I had heard from people that you could do Cairo in a few days and there was no need to spend that much time there, but after my experience and having amazing guides, I will have to take a trip back. I did not have enough time to explore as much as I would have liked, and I definitely did not get enough of the food-which was amazing! Needless to say, Egypt is full of culture and history-a lot more than I was aware of, but now that I know I will make a point to return at some point in the future.
As of right now I am actually on my 3rd day in Kenya and have TONS to write about, but I feel as though this post is plenty to take in. I will start my next blog in the next day or so-but in short-Kenya so far has been amazing! I started my volunteering yesterday and it has already been quite an experience. The type of exposure that I am getting to the Kenyan culture is indescribable but I am sure I will try in my next post!
Again, if you can-and now it is more real than ever-donations are still being accepted on my page. Once I get more into my volunteering I will be posting more photos and descriptions on exactly what I am doing so you can have an idea of where the money goes!
https://www.z2systems.com/np/clients/ayoga/campaign.jsp?campaign=7
Promises of a post soon!!
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