Egypt

I can't tell you enough how fun and amazing Egypt has been for me, so I'll start at the beginning...

I flew into Cairo Airport with a delicious view of the Nile and a very nice Egyptian man in the seat beside me who taught me my first words in Egyptian Arabic:

"Ha bi bi" - My darling
"Bousse" - Kiss
"Tanem" - Sleep

Little did I know that this flight was only an inkling of what was to come. From 100 - 1 000 000 000 camels, limitations are no holds bar when it comes to marrying a caucasian.

The airport was a nightmare due to a silly mistake on my part. I arrived at 3:25 am on the morning of June 1st. I booked my hostel for June 1st. Silly me! Since I booked my hostel for June 1st, they assumed I would be staying the NIGHT of June 1st and not the night of
May 31st. Get it? So here I was in a foreign Arabic country where as soon as you leave airport security there is a crowd of 500 Egyptians waiting for their family or foreigners they can hassle for a much over-priced taxi.

I looked around for awhile expecting to see my name raised above the crowd, but after an hour of taxi drivers following me around and asking to be my boyfriend even though I'm "married" and attempting to make Arabic payphones work and receiving only a busy signal I gave up and got a taxi to my hostel. This brief summary is only a fifth of the detail of the insanity that occured that night. I hardly want to relieve it in writing... So ask me about it when I get home.. haha

I met Josh and Eliza in Cairo my first day there; twins, travelling for 18 months from South America to the Middle East to Europe to Asia. Hilarious and very great people. I met them as they came into the hostel arguing with their taxi guide they had hired for the day to take them to Giza, Saqqara and Memphis ... apparently they decided they didn't want to go Saqqara and Memphis after Giza as they thought the guide had said "Sahara" and not "Saqqara" ... They were still going to pay the full amount, they just didn't want to see everything. In Egypt if you reject their history, you reject them. Josh and Eliza learned quickly how to be better tourists. Hahaha.

My first day in Cairo was spent at the Egyptian Museum where we saw some of the most incredible things I've ever laid my eyes on, besides Tommy (permission to puke at my lameness). An entire wing was reserved for 11 ancient mummies. Entirely preserved, the bodies laid intact in cases carefully monitoring the temperature and ensuring their hair, fingernails and other finer parts of the body would endure no further physical degradation. Seeing a 4000 year old woman lying with her eyes closed, arms extended and hair fully intact was an experience that I still can't put into words. It's just... so... cool.

Tutankhamun's tomb was definately a highlight of the Egyptian museum. Howard Carter discovered the tomb many, many years ago and died soon after it was uncovered. Many mysterious deaths followed thus suggesting the work itself, in uncovering an ancient tomb, was victim to ancient curse. Howard Carter's fellow excavator, a man who performed a purification ritual before entering the tomb was one of the few men who worked at the site to survive into old age.

Tutankamun's remains were incredible. Hundreds of golden, earrings, bracelets and necklaces adorned the mummy itself and were wrapped in bandages surrounding the mummy. A MUST SEE.

Crossing the road to the museum? Well.... an adventure. Basically roads here are busy highways or death traps as I like to call them that you simply run across when the traffic is well.... less thick (and by less thick I mean 300 cars passing you a millesecond instead of 325). Josh, Eliza and I simply stared at the traffic until we saw an Egyptian guy just running through it. So we did the same, pretty much screaming and laughing the whole way.

Khan-el-Khalili, probably the largest and most famous Bazaar in Egypt was another AWESOME experience. We showed up and were FAMISHED. Any restaurant was a good restaurant. Wading through the piles of carpets, sheesha pipes and crappy Egyptian souvenirs we came across Egypt's version of a mall's foodcourt. A bunch of restaurants cluttered together all vying for your appetite. The minute we came around the corner the shouting began.
"Here, Here! We Good Food! Here Menu! Eat! We Have Chicken, Falafel, Koshari! Good Price!"

The only tourists there, we just started laughing and the entire 500 or so Egyptians enjoying their dinners turn to look at what's causing the commotion. Finally we decided on a restaurant and found out there were not enough seats inside. According to the owners "No pob-lem, No pob-lem!" We stood there until we realized they were kicking people out of their restaurant in the middle of their meal so we could sit down. Egyptian hospitality at its finest! Of course we said NO way! Let these people eat! A table opened up in a couple minutes and we were finally able to eat.

The food was delicious, pita, meat, salad stuff etc... The hawkers were an experience. Everything known to man was being sold and little Egyptian boys, girls, women and men would approach every table in the market with odds and ends like Kleenexes, souviners, rugs, necklaces, bracelets, hennah and etc. We went wild with the hennah as it was only 5 Egyptian pounds, or rather $1 Canadian.

And THIS was created! Awesome, eh?

So we ate and continued on our merry way around the market taking about 12 steps an hour as we seemed to be barricaded by a ridiculous amount of people shouting "Welcome to Alaska" (Yes, Egyptians are crazy or "Magnoun" in Arabic), "Look at my shop, you know how much? 5 pound!" or "Two wives? Lucky man!"

The Egyptian people are the funniest and most welcoming people in the world. When we finally left the market Eliza and I had each purchased 1 item and Josh, nothing. Basically the entire time was spent joking around with the people in broken Arabic-English and turning down offers of marriage for Eliza and I by saying we were Josh's wives. In Islam, men may have up to four women... but the story goes "Four women equals four problems."

We went home very, very happy but tired and HUNGRY. We seem to always be either hungry or thirsty here! It seems less of a hassle sometimes to eat nothing then to have to barter for a cold bottle of water or a meal! Hahaha.... You wouldn't believe how cheap everything is though... it's awesome.

A 1.5 litre bottle of water? 1.5 pounds or $0.30 CDN
A meal? 2 CDN

And so I leave you with the memories of my first day in Cairo...

Next? My second day in Egypt. Hopefully soon to come.. haha

Much love,
Krysten

WOW.

There's hardly a word to explain Egypt.

I am having an amazing time. The best part though? THE PEOPLE.
Yup, you read that right. The Egyptian people are some of the coolest and most easygoing, hilarious people in the world. Of course you may still get ripped off as a tourist, but have plenty of fun with the shopkeeper while you're doing it....

... and a little game the taxi drivers play? Don't mention you're scared or they'll drive ten times more dangerously and laugh at you shaking in the back seat while they're doing it!!!
We learned quick!

... and crossing busy highways? RIDICULOUS. You look at the oncoming traffic, realize it's never going to stop and the cars going way faster than they should be of course MAY not stop for you so you JUST. START. WALKING. Sometimes running. 6 lanes of traffic and you weave your way through and get honked at about 470 times.

... offers of marriage are plentiful.... but apparently I'm married. I've been travelling around a bit with these 2 New Zealanders who are brother and sister and at the market last night EVERYONE would say to him... Oooo, two wives my man! Good work! By the end of the night he was just saying "Yes, it's a good life!" ... The Khan-el-khali markets were DEFINATELY one of the HUGE highlights so far. We had an amazing time and spent probably 30 minutes actually looking at the items and about 2 and a half hours trying to get through the markets without tagalongs while joking around with most every stall we passed....

OH and I got hennahed! My hand and arm has the most awesome design that lasts for a month and was only one dollar Canadian!

Hopefully I'll put some pictures on tonight after I go to the pyramids with a girl and a guy from Alaska....

COOOOOL

Much Love,
Krysten