Egypt (Minus Israel and Jordan)
I am back. Yes. I have been for a week actually. OK, to be precise, a week and 3 days, but who’s counting. Possibly one person, who did actually ask me why I had not blogged. Well here it is, fellow Cat Hatter. Here it is. Here are three, actually. Well, if you're being picky, here is the first, and after will follow the remaining two. Actually, if you're really being picky, the other two will come first, so this will seem like the last of the three, whereas really, this is the first one I'll post. Confused? I am.
I’m not entirely sure where to start really. I’ve already got to that point where when people say, “Tell me about your trip!” I’m already thinking how quickly I can sum up the most important/relevant parts, and would they be satisfied if I just said where I went or what I saw, or how I felt etc, which makes it sound like I just don’t care about where I went, what I saw or how I felt, but after the 13th time of telling people, it just looses some of its magic. But! Here, I will try very hard to put down a bit of everything, but not too much, as it was almost 3 weeks, and I’m sure you have better things to do.
I can tell you now, that it’s not a thrilling read. I should have written this as soon as I got back, but, well I didn’t, so there. But this is not meant to be particularly funny/interesting (as I’m quite positive all my other entries are, despite being labelled ‘pointless’), rather, this is meant so people can stop asking me what I did. How patient am I? “Oh for Gods sake, just read my blog.” I’m such a nice friend.
Firstly, I never did pat a camel’s bottom. I had decided to leave it till the end, but I was ill, and the last thing I wanted to do was get out of my sleeping bag, let alone convince someone to take a picture of me slapping his camel’s bottom. Anyway, let’s start from the beginning, as it’s a good place to start.
My flight was meant to go (I bet you’re already thinking, “I thought she said she wouldn’t say too much…” Bear with me), from Billund to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Cairo. Instead, I went to Amsterdam, where I waited in the airport for 4 hours (which was fine as it’s possibly the most impressive, high-tech, cleanest, I dare say attractive, airport I’ve ever been in), and then waited for 5 hours in the airplane, on the runway. Then, I waited for an hour in the lounge, then for an hour in a queue to get my hotel voucher, then in the bus to the hotel, where I finally fell into bed at 3am. I got up at 6, to discover my new flight wasn’t until 4pm. I had a huge breakfast, as I don’t care if Holiday Inn had nothing to do with the fact that my flight had faulty electrics; Amsterdam was going to pay. During breakfast, as I was up getting my hot breakfast, after my cold breakfast, they cleaned my place and threw away my newspaper which I had nicked from the flight. This really pissed me off after the evening’s events. Anyway, so, I flew from Amsterdam to Paris, then finally, Paris to Cairo. Of course, my luggage didn’t. I made the hotel in Cairo at midnight, lay down on the bed, and burst into tears.
What on earth was going wrong this year? Was I just not meant to travel? I was not amused. In fact, I was wondering how I could just jump back on a flight and go back to the safe haven that is Denmark.
But the next day, of course, life was much better. I was in Cairo! Africa (I always have trouble thinking of Egypt as part of Africa. It’s very odd)! I looked out of my window, and could see the Nile, as well as half a million cars. No, life wasn’t all bad.
I spent a week in Cairo, during which I saw, I’m pretty sure, everything she has to offer. It’s a filthy, boisterous, boorish, chaotic city that all but drowns out a beautiful people, basic way of life, delicate cakes and coffee, simple side streets filled with trees and children, and an incredible mix of architecture and history.
This is the view from my room. Typical Cairo (not the best picture though, but you get the idea).
This is a side street.
I just can’t decide if I love it or hate it, which is the way I feel about many big cities. As alien as it all was, it had the same feeling as London. There’s just a feeling in the air in cities. I don’t know what it is, but it’s always there. There are parts of Cairo that are as ugly as can be, and parts that just blew me away. The City of the Dead, for example, was incredible. It’s the one thing I’d say you have to do if you visit Cairo:
I'd also highly recommend Islamic Cairo. It's very different to the rest of the city, and just beautiful. It’s also up near the cemeteries and the City of Dead, so a great days walk.
The other thing you should do is head across the Nile to the east side of the city, which is far less touristy, and just wonderful to walk through.
Of course, the Citadel, Old Cairo, the shopping areas and so on are all worth a visit, but I think a week in Cairo is pushing it. It’s just too hectic. Unfortunately, the shop owners also get a little irritating towards the end, but that’s just to be lived with.
I’m not even sure I’d say that the pyramids were a must do. They are amazing, but the amount of tourists, and people trying to get you to ride a camel or horse, is enough to make you want to just look at a postcard. It’s sad, but true. It is also incredibly messy. The whole of Egypt is, actually. Even driving through Sinai, with majestic mountains pushing up all around you; in every crevasse there are piles of plastic bags, and on every shrub; a plastic bag. I don’t understand it. The Nile was so clogged with dead cows, cans, plastic and rubbish in general, it just ceased to flow. I don’t understand how a country with so much pride and history can let this happen. It made me sad to see, and I just hope it changes.
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which is mind boggling for many reasons, is also worth a trip. The amount of artefacts in the building just doesn’t compute. I remember reading about Egyptology as a child, and being fascinated by the remnants of ancient Egypt. I was sort of led to believe that there really weren’t that many things left over, and that when some part of a temple, or something from a tomb was discovered, it was really quite an important moment, but, here, these things are literally just strewn across the floor. Looking at some colossus (and I would say who it was, but the other interesting fact of the museum, is that less than half of all the displays are labelled. I don’t have a clue what I saw), I thought I’d venture around the corner. There, on the floor, sort of tucked away in that ‘if we put it here no one will see it’ way, were busts, carvings, parts of statues and other old looking things, just sort of piled there. It’s as if they just can’t be arsed anymore. “Oh God…not more stuff…. Look, just chuck it in the corner, no one will see it.” It’s amazing. I could have just picked something up and made off with it. Come to think of it, I probably should have.
The whole place is just stuffed with things from mummified cats to ancient scrolls. My personal favourite was the description for the Graeco/Roman period; “In BC 30, Emperor Octavianus (great name), captured Alexandria and Anthony and Cleopatra took their own lives.” Oh right. So that was it? Great stuff! There’s one room dedicated to that obviously action packed period, and then its back to stepping over columns and scarab beetles.
I didn’t, as much as I was warned, ever have any trouble being a woman travelling alone. Sure in Cairo, as in any city, there were looks/things said to get attention etc, but I never once felt threatened. In fact, if anything, I felt very safe and entirely confident to just get lost in the city. The women are sweet, kind and will wave at you. The men helpful, polite (even if they do want to know your age, if you’re married, and where you’re from almost immediately), and completely unthreatening. The children are amazing, just wanting to talk, wave and play.
After Cairo, I went to the desert for a couple of days. I visited Bahariya and Farafra oasis, with 4 other girls, where we drove around and saw some amazing sights. We spent a night under the open sky, which was just indescribable, and the highlight of my trip. I could have done it over and over again, and can’t write enough about it, so won’t even try.
Then, it was back to Cairo, then down the coast to Hurghada, which was one big tourist resort. However, it was about 15 degrees warmer than Cairo, which was much needed. After a couple of days there, it was on the ferry to Sharm el Sheikh, or Sharks Bay, where I stayed for another couple of days (I also snorkelled here and saw lots of pretty fish, but don’t ask me what I saw, because to me, they are just pretty fish. It was amazing though), before heading up to Assalah, which I should have done long before. This picture below is sunrise (6.42am to be precise), over Sharks Bay.
The drive up there is incredible. Sinai is just beautiful, absolutely beautiful; red mountains that have the most incredible stratum of pinks, blues and greens running through them, with a backdrop of a deep blue sky. I could have stared at it for hours and hours. Assalah itself is on the verge of becoming just another diving/tourist area, but it’s still local enough to have an extremely chilled out atmosphere. My camp was just incredible. Basic, but exactly, exactly what I wanted:
I absolutely loved it there. I spent a lot of time reading, and just relaxing. I managed to cut my foot on coral, and see more fish, but apart from that, I just walked around, and took time out. On my last day, I picked up some God awful flu thing that gave me a fever for my last night there, and made me want to kill myself during the bus trip up to Nuweiba, my last stop. Here, my plan was to head up to Petra in Jordan, spend my last night on Mount Sinai, watch the sun rise, then head to St. Catherine’s Monastery, before moving on to Cairo to catch my 4am flight.
My camp at Nuweiba should have been paradise:
But I pretty much arrived, got in my sleeping bag, ate the drugs that a pharmacist had given me, and tried to ignore the howling gales that swept through my reed hut for 2 days straight. I wasn’t very happy, it must be said. On Friday morning, my last day, I opened up my eyes to see blue sky through my roof. I felt a bit better, so managed to find a place in the sun, play with puppies, and read my book:
I also overheard (to my joy), that Petra was snowed under, so no trips could be made, and it had been so windy that you couldn’t climb Mount Sinai. God works in mysterious ways. Besides, I had already decided that I will go back to the east coast of Sinai, possibly in August, so I will do these things then. So, that afternoon, I climbed aboard my bus to Cairo, and spent the next 8 hours driving in the dark terrified and wondering why it is that Egyptian drivers seem so hesitant to use their headlights. Needless to say, I made it back.
Overall, the trip was amazing. I did get called ‘sir’ more times than I do in Denmark, and I was mistaken for a guy more than usual, but you know, I can live with that. I had serious doubts to start with. I’ve not travelled for sometime, and being thrown from Århus to Cairo gave me serious culture shock, but after a few days, it comes back, and I absolutely loved every second. I wouldn’t change a thing; not my flight being cancelled, not my luggage being lost; nothing. Actually, being sick for 3 days wasn’t so great, especially at the end of the trip, but then, it was stormy weather and I was quite literally in the middle of nowhere, so not much else to do. I did read 3 books (two of which were ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, and ‘Children of Men’, which were both very good. The other I won’t say, as the selection at the camp was very limited, and it would be a little embarrassing), so I suppose I accomplished something.
I also set out to clear my head, to start 2008 with a fresh mind, as so much has changed, and I certainly accomplished that. I don’t remember the last time I felt so (how can I put this without coming across all new age), at ease with myself. I won’t go into detail with all this sort of stuff, suffice to say that I got rid of a lot of baggage that I had accumulated over the years; both from Denmark, and the UK. I’m happy I didn’t go to Thailand. There’s no way I could have done for myself what I did in Egypt. I’m extremely happy I was alone; it’s what I needed. Never once was I lonely. And I’m very happy to be back. I can’t wait for this year to move on. So far, it’s blooming enormous, and I just can’t wait to see what the rest brings.