The Amazing Pyramids

A must see for many tourists in the world, Chad and I made this dream come true during our February break by heading there with our friends Rick and Elizabeth after ending our tour of Israel.   Our first glimpses of the city were at the night, by taxi, due to our arrival in the evening.  My first thoughts were of the noise-so much honking in addition to the noise of the traffic.  Cars were weaving in and out and honking for no real apparent reason.  I got used to it-every time we went anywhere, we experienced the same thing.  Cairo is well, dirty and dated.  All of the city buildings are a dull cream, covered with dirt and totally run down.  Nothing really looks nice or kept up.  I didn’t realize the affects a desert has on a city, until we visited the pyramids and were smattered with sand every time the wind blew.  No wonder the city is so dirty and dark.  Our driver had no idea where our hotel was-he stopped and asked for directions many times.  We finally found it, and checked in.  We went to our rooms, and Chad and I spent about 10 minutes exploring it-because it was that big.  It had 2 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a living room, a sitting room, 2 walk out patio doors that led to verandas, a large kitchen and a separate entrance for the staff.  We figured it was some kind of mistake.  After freshening up, we headed to Rick and Elizabeth’s, who had the same kind of room.  They were a bit surprised as well, considering the cheap cost of the room and what we had received.  It was a pretty good way to begin our excursions in Cairo.

The next morning we left early to go to…. the Pyramids of course!  It had to be done first thing.  Rick set up a taxi and it took us weaving, and honking through the city to the outskirts of  Giza.  The taxi dropped us off and pointed in the direction of all the tour buses.   We began the 5-minute walk and were rewarded with a huge pyramid right in front of us.  We purchased our tickets and began wandering around.  It was windy that day, not very warm, and a storm looked to be approaching.  We examined the pyramids, watched the camels and Bedouins off in the distant sand, and walked across the ancient ruins of Egyptian architecture.  We ventured down to view the Sphinx and took some photos, while staring in wonder at the Pyramids behind us.  Being here felt like a dream-it was hard to believe we were actually standing next to these amazing structures.  Since the camels and horses were pitifully dirty, Elizabeth opted NOT to ride one around as she had desired, and because it was so windy, we jumped in a small black taxi and headed back to the city, to tour the Egyptian Museum, in the hopes of seeing some King Tut relics.

Since Rick had already been there, Elizabeth, Chad and I set off for the museum and saw many Egyptian relics from long ago.  It was like being in the Louvre, there was stuff everywhere-a lot of it of significance, but too much to take in.  We did see the tomb of King Tut, which was really cool to view up close.  We spent a little over an hour looking at things that you see on tv or in history books when they speak of Egypt. 

Then we spent the rest of the morning walking around the city, stopping in shady markets, getting stuck in the traffic, and just soaking it all in.  The market, called Khan Ali-Kalili is Cairo’s biggest open air market, or bazaar.  The streets were much like Morocco, with tiny, dirty alleys and people everywhere.  You can buy anything you need at the market.  Women are selling bread, chickens and rabbits are held in tiny cages and slabs of meat are waiting to be bought.  We stopped and had some mint tea at local tea shop.  We were pegged as tourists and were the only tourists in sight, but we were treated very well and were happily served.  We took taxis to different parts of the city.  We went to the old part of the city, where we viewed the Citadel.  This is a massive stone fortress, built in 1176  that was home to Egypt’s rulers for 700 years.  After walking around here, we hopped in a taxi and headed back to the area by the Museum, along the Nile.  We walked up and down the busy streets, looking for a boat that offered a dinner cruise.  No such luck.  While walking around, a crazy dude sitting across the busy street, flung an empty beer bottle towards us and started yelling obscenities.  I am pretty sure he was yelling something about us being tourists, and not being from the area.  Strange-I felt we fit it quite well!  (Our light skin and hair didn’t stand out at all! )

Feeling like we had had a great day, we took another taxi through the crowded streets back to our enormous hotel room.  Rick asked for a recommendation for a typical Egyptian dinner and a few hours later we headed to the recommended restaurant.  The décor was fabulous and the meals we had were great.   It was sort of tapas style-in which you ordered a couple of small dishes and shared.  I had falafel, but Rick and Elizabeth ordered crazy things like-hare?   The meal was fabulous, and feeling quite full we climbed into a taxi and asked the driver to take us to a local bar.  He drove around for quite a while, and dropped us off at a really nice place-which looked to be filled with the locals.  At this bar, they were serving sangria, but only by the pitcher, which was too much for Elizabeth and I to drink.  A few minutes later, a guy sitting at the bar turned to us and asked if we would like to share their pitcher of sangria.  We did, and then when a table opened up, we asked the 2 gentlemen to join us.  They were both from Canada and had many living abroad and travel stories to share with us.  We had an enjoyable time talking with them, and around midnight, we called it a night.  

The next morning we went to the Hanging Church.  Apparently this church gets its name from being built on the top of an old Babylon fortress, and its nave is suspended over a passage.  The original church is estimated to have been built around 690 and is one of the first Christian churches in Cairo. Of course, like many churches, this one has been rebuilt many times. As we toured it, we found out that the HOLY family made a pilgrimage to this church.  While walking around the streets and alleys in this area, we stopped for some lunch.  While eating, many stray cats roamed in and out and jumped on the chairs when guests exited.   After lunch, we again, rode through the crowded and noisy streets to the area by our hotel.  Rick then spoke with some local boatmen to take us out on a 1 hour Nile Cruise.  After our cruise we cleaned up a bit and asked for another recommendation for some good local food.  Our dinner had been so delicious the night before, that we were really looking forward to another recommendation.  We arrived at the suggested restaurant and walked in.  This place has a completely different feel from the one we had enjoyed the night before.  It was more of a “hole in the wall”, sort of looked like the place we went to for lunch.  We sat down, looked over the window, and realized immediately there would be nothing for a vegetarian to eat.  I was fine with this-I told the gang I would find something later.  However, Rick asked the server if there was anything I could eat there, and he said, “Yes, the pigeon.”  MMMM.  Sounds good?  I think that was their specialty because it looked to be served a few different ways.  Although they like to say we left the restaurant because I wouldn’t be able to eat, I think it is because they didn’t want to eat there either.  We took off, walked up and down some streets and found a great little cafe that served all kinds of food.  We all had a great meal, and I think overall, it was better than any pigeon being served.

Our departure the following day was more than chaotic.  Along with everything else in Cairo, the airport was not very well organized.  We spent an hour waiting in line just to get inside the airport.  When we finally got to the xray machines, we were told that we were in the wrong line.  (Even though, this was the line we were told to get in.)  So, an hour has passed and we have to get into another, equally long line, we were not going to make our flight.  Like many other frantic travelers, we began to get a bit pushy and basically shoved through the crowd to get to the xray machines.  Many people were yelling all around the airport, and there was a feeling of pure panic all around.  When we finally got to the xray machine, a lady threw her belongings onto the conveyer belt and blew past us.  We were a bit anxious and upset with her, and some words were exchanged.  After finally getting through this portion of the airport, we found the line for our flight to London-it was out of control!  We were never going to make the flight.  At this point, 3 different workers told us to go to 3 different lines…nobody really knew what was going on.  We split up.  Frantic, after about 20 minutes, we finally checked in-only because we had split up.  The line I was in-for a flight to Germany, was the one that actually allowed us to check in.  We were greeted with ANOTHER equally long line for passport control.  At this point, we split again.  None of our lines were moving, so Elizabeth moved to a different one.  It was moving, so I came over.  5 minutes later we were at the front, so we yelled for Rick and Chad and they came flying over and we made all of the people behind us angry.  But hey, that seemed to the way things were working, so unfortunately, we played dirty.  Out of sheer luck, we made it to our plane without about 10 minutes to spare.  Our departure was pretty much like the streets of Cairo.  Unorganized, chaotic, loud, and full of adventure.