Madaba, Jordan

My last night in Egypt was excellent.
I know I'm skipping an entire week of Egypt, but those entries will follow this one. I just want to get everything down as I remember it and I've only got 20 minutes remaining.

The day began when I arrived back in Cairo yesterday after a 10 hour night train from Luxor. The train ride was pretty uneventful aside from sharing a cabin with a large Egyptian family who spoke little English and I, "Shwiyah" (little) Arabic. Of course upon finding out I was Canadian their Egyptian Hospitality came into play four-fold and I was offered any and all of their food. The pita and sketchy cheese looked unappetizing but of course refusing their offer of "Ekel" (food, eating, etc) would only ensure they shove it further towards me and eventually down my throat so I took it and ate it... and then took the juice they gave me, and then the cake, and then the crackers, and then the etc. etc. etc... you get it.

Travelling alone in Egypt as a woman is not difficult, just incredibly annoying since you will inevitably be stopped every 5 steps and heckled to buy things from shops, told you are "gemilla" (beautiful), be offered a variant amount of dowry from your hand in marriage, receive dirty looks, receive smiles and waves and of course the famous wink and nod which basically means... accompany me to my house for a bit of loving.

Travelling alone, I generally avoid most eye contact but smile briefly... it's easier this way. Then they know you're polite and respectful but you don't encourage them to approach you one-on-one even though they will.

Travelling with Josh and Eliza it was a lot easier to wave and be outgoing and smile as we had our "husband" Josh to protect us. Remember, we were his two wives after all. Hah.

I got to the Cairo train station and because the taxis were all attempting to charge a ridiculous price because I was a woman tourist on my own I said "fil mish mish" (in your dreams) and started walking with 45 pounds on my back and 15 pounds on each arm (silly, stubborn me) to my hostel about 2 km away.

I arrived sweaty and nasty and immediately had a shower and dropped on my bed in my beautiful air-conditioned room (YAAAAYYY). Keep in mind that at this point anything was beautiful.

Later on that night I went with 3 Egyptians I met to a traditional Egyptian dance put on for free by the ministry of culture. It's incredible. You sit there and watch men twirl around to Arabic music for 2 hours. It definately puts you in a trance. Awesome pictures to come. I have five minutes left so I leave you with a quick summary....

I stayed up all night with the 3 Egyptians wandering downtown Cairo and smoking Shishah in a cafe until a taxi picked me up at 5am for my 7:40 flight to Amman which I almost missed because they changed the gate before the flight and only announced the gate change in Arabic. Gahh...

Oh well. I arrived safely in Madaba with an excess of Egyptian souvenirs and gifts and am happy to finally be sedentary for a month and a half. The dig starts in a couple of days so I will do my best to continue updating and adding pictures...

Much love,
Krysten