Welcome to Cairo

     Our flight out of Luxor was delayed by an hour and we didn't get to our hotel, which was

connected to the Cairo airport, until 1 am. I was exhausted but once the the room I suddenly no longer felt tired as I was amazed by the massive room we were given. My parents mentioned that we might have an upgraded room, if one was available, due to them booking through a friend who had a premier status at the hotel. The room was massive and my parents generously gave the big room to my brother and his fiancé while my parents and I slept in a much smaller connected room. Although I was excited by the hotel, we had to get to bed because we were going to the Pyramids and the Cairo museum the next day.

     Upon waking, we ate a quick breakfast and headed the the Pyramids. Upon arriving at the Pyramids, I was impressed by the size but I was honestly a little underwhelmed. The Pyramids are nothing like what I was seeing in Upper Egypt. No hieroglyphics, no colors anywhere just giant blocks of sandstone.  I laughed at myself a bit when those words came out of my mouth because I recognized how privileged I was to be able to say, "Really, this is it?!" in a shocked and slightly disappointed voice. It isn't that the Pyramids weren't once just as beautiful but it is extremely easy to loot a giant, out of place pyramid vs. a tomb dug into the side of a mountain. I originally didn't want to ride a camel as the owners of the camels at the pyramids are quite inhumane to the animals: whipping them and yanking on their noses for no real reason. However, Hend knew some people a little further away who were much better to their camels and would take you on a short 15 minute ride for a reasonable rate so I decided to go for it. I was very impressed by the treatment of these camels and didn't regret riding as they had halters instead of nose rings, looked quite clean and healthy and the people leading the camels didn't have whips.
     After this we went to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities also known as the Cairo Museum. It was interesting to see some of the artifacts that hand been pulled out of the temples and tombs, some of which we had seen. The most impressive was the beautiful gold mask and casket of king tut along with all of the jewelry from his tomb. Knowing that a young boy had this much with him for the afterlife I wondered how much a really well known king who lived a long life would have had with him. We also paid extra to see the mummies of some of the kings and queens. With this we said good-bye to our tour guide and headed back to our hotel to spend one more full day in Cairo before saying good-bye to Chris and Lauren.
    Our last day in Cairo was simply a relaxing day. It was cold but we decided to swim in the heated pool for a bit anyways. We had room service for lunch and ate at China Red, a restaurant in the hotel for dinner. None of us wanted to venture back out into the craziness that is Cairo and we felt pretty tourist-ed out.
     I do think one more thing needs to be said about Cairo and i'm just going to come out and say it... I don't like Cairo. I don't like the overwhelming smog that is a result of the stale air and non-regulated pollution, I don't like the traffic and the massive amount of people everywhere, I don't like the sand that gets all over everything and I hate how it feels like everyone is just there to scam you out of money. Cairo feels different from the rest of Egypt and I think just going to Cairo could give you a terrible impression of Egypt and the Egyptian people. With that being said, it is hard to go to Egypt and not go to the Pyramids. It feels like a box you just have to check off. Please hire a guide if you want to go there. It is really hard to not get scammed and to have a good experience without being bothered without a guide. Even when you think you are doing everything right stay extremely quiet about who you are, where you are trying to go and only tell people when it is absolutely necessary. For example, our tour guide lives in Cairo and she told us she would send the van to come get us. She gave us a picture of the driver, told us the name of the van and told us when he would be there. We went outside at the right time, called our tour guide and discovered that he accidentally went to the wrong hotel and would be there in 5-10 minutes. While we were standing there, another driver approached us and started asking where we were going. We refused to tell him and he kept bugging. We thought he was trying to make small talk when he asked us where we were from so we told him America and he left us alone. When our driver showed up, we jumped into the van and this other driver who tried talking to us ran over and started yelling at our driver. Eventually a phone call was made, a few people were talked to and we were on our way a bit clueless about what just happened. When we met up with our tour guide, we asked her what happened and she said that the other driver came over and demanded that our driver show his certification for being a tourist driver. When our driver showed the certification, the driver asked if he had his first aid kit and other required things in the car which he did. Afterwards, the other driver said that he knew we were Americans and demanded to know where our armed guard was. This is when our driver called Hend, our tour guide. Hend told our driver to basically tell the guy to screw off, that we lived in Egypt and that an armed guard is absolutely ridiculous. This other driver was essentially trying to steal us from our driver but with how mad he was making us all we probably would have elected to go with a third party if our driver fell through instead of going with this aggressive man who was willing to do just about anything to make some money.  Furthermore, people will try to be your friend and take your photo but then they want a tip and will annoy you endlessly until you give them one. Luckily, we didn't have to deal with this much because our tour guide informed us beforehand. Anyways, I felt like this needed to be stated because it is really unfortunate that the majority of tourists develop an impression of Egypt when they have only been to Cairo. Not even people from Cairo necessarily like Cairo so please withhold judgement on Egypt as a country based on your impression of Cairo as a city!

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

Welcome to Luxor

Day 4: Travel, Temple of Kom Ombo, Edfu Temple, Carriage rides, Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant

     We woke early in the morning to start our drive to Luxor from Aswan, a 3-hour car ride north. I had meant to write some blogs on the drive but soon discovered the drive itself would be quite an experience in itself. Our van weaved through small villages and rural farm land that looked like scenes pulled straight out of the bible. The fields were beautifully green and lush and filled with people dressed in brown robes and sandals harvesting their crops. Along the road were donkeys carrying a heaping load of green grasses on their backs with a usually young rider on the very top of the pile.

     On our drive to Luxor, we stopped at two more temples Kom Ombo and Edfu. The first temple we stopped at being the Temple of Kom Ombo. This temple began being constructed in 180 BC. This temple was built to worship two gods: Sobek- god of fertility and creator of the world and Horus- falcon god of the sky, war and hunting. Normally temples are only built for one god so this fact makes Kom Ombo very unique. Additionally, Kom Ombo was placed very near to the Nile in an area with abundant crocodiles. The crocodiles were dangerous to the Egyptians and thus Egyptians believe that they would be good protectors in the afterlife. Therefore, near this temple, many crocodile mummies were found. This temple also had a water well that they would use to determine taxes. The number of steps above the water line would negatively correspond to the amount of tax. Meaning, when the water height was high tax was also high due to the fear of flooding. This was a real concern and today much of the temple has been destroyed by the Nile in addition to earthquakes and defacement done by other religions including the Coptic Christians who used the temple as their church.
     The second temple we stopped at, Edfu, is one of the best preserved shrines in Egypt. Edfu was dedicated to the god Horus and was built beginning in 237 BC. It evaded the disfigurement done by the Coptics and the weather because it was buried under 39 feet of sand and wasn't discovered until 1798 by the French. When the French found the temple, only a small portion of the top was sticking out of the sand and they decided to use the temple as target practice shooting holes in the top of the temple! Inside the temple, burn marks are visible on the ceiling from villagers who used the temple as their home. I can't tell you how irritated I was by the destruction that was done to every one of the temples we went to. I give others a pass for not knowing a temple was going to be historically significant and destroying it but with this temple, I can't possibly understand why the French soldiers more than 2000 years later wouldn't have had any appreciation for the ancient relic they stumbled upon.
     Once we arrived in Luxor, we walked through the market area, ate at a restaurant called Al-Sahaby Lane with a nice view of the sunset over Luxor Temple and then took a horse carriage ride. I drove the horse for awhile on the streets of Luxor and our driver took us directly through market street. This street was only a few inches wider than our horse carriage and the market contained everything from clothing strung up on the makeshift tent ceiling to produce in baskets on the ground. I was amazed that the shop owners didn't seem to mind a horse in their market and I was horrified when our horse decided to use the restroom right next to the produce on the ground. The American and future physician in me was completely shocked by just how unsanitary this was but none of the locals seemed to mind. Afterward, we went back to the Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant which we would frequent every day of our stay in Luxor. The beautiful atmosphere of the restaurant coupled with the beautiful view of Luxor temple and the really good food made it the perfect place to unwind from our adventure filled days.

Entrance to the temple of Kom Ombo

Kom Ombo

Hieroglyphics at Kom Ombo

Some of the color that has been preserved

More color on the ceiling. The entire temple would have been painted in this fashion at one point.

The crown in the middle represents the dual crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Upper Egypt crown is on the left and the Lower Egypt crown is on the right. 

The water well with steps. Currently tax would be low because the water is low.

Edfu Temple

Red Aswan Granite Horus sculpture

Driving a horse down the middle of Luxor market. Our carriage would hit the clothes hanging from the ceiling frequently

Day 5: Colossi of Memnon, Temple of Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings, Medinet Habu, Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant

     The next morning we went to Colossi of Memnon first which are two large stone statues of the Pharoah Amenhotep III with smaller carvings of his wife Tiy and mother Mutemwiya that reach up to his knees. On the side of the Pharoah's throne, the Nile god Hapy is carved. They were built in 1350 BC and made out of sandstone. The purpose of the Colossi was to guard the entrance of Amenhotep's massive memorial temple that was 86 acres large. However, this temple no longer exists because of constant flooding from the Nile as well as later rulers reusing the sandstone for their own temples.

     Afterward, we went to the well-known Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings was a burial site for Pharaohs from the 16th-11th century BC. Currently, the valley is known to contain 63 tombs and chambers but there is likely more that have yet to be discovered. Unlike the temples, these burial caves were not weathered so the paint used was not stripped off. The marvelous colored carvings inside the tombs allowed us to mentally picture what the other temples would have looked like in ancient times. To see the most beautiful tombs or to see the tomb of king tut you have to pay extra. We paid extra (50 LE or ~$2.75) for the tomb of Ramses V & VI which was beautifully decorated. Once again, we were very happy to have Hend directing us as she told us which tombs we should go into and which ones we should avoid because your general ticket only gets you into three tombs. While at the Valley of the Kings, we found out that in the Valley of the Queens, the tomb of Queen Nefertari is so beautifully kept that it is an extra 1000 LE or currently $55 to go to! Usually, it would actually cost you $125 but, currently, the Egyptian pound is being floated so the exchange rate went from ~8 LE to $1 down to 19 LE to $1.    
     Next, we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple is special as it is the only remaining temple, that we know of, that was built female pharaoh. Female pharaohs would portray themselves as strong male figures to symbolize her strength and powerfulness. Furthermore, female temples tended to be destroyed more thoroughly than the temples of males. A pharaoh after Hatshepsut sent out men to destroy her name from the temple and replace it with his name. Although they were successful in doing this they forgot about one small thing... the female pronoun was still in the sentences! Therefore, Egyptologists know that it must have belonged to a woman!
     Our last temple for the day was the temple of Medinet Habu. Medinet Habu was set up as a mortuary temple for Ramesses the third and has interesting architectural features not seen in other temples. The entrance is a type of fortified gatehouse known as a migdol and was a common feature of Asian fortresfortresses time.
     To end our second day in Luxor, we once again ate at the Al-Sahaby Lane Resturarant where we became acquainted with Sahlab, a delicious warm, thick and milky Egyptian drink and watched the beautiful sunset fall below the horizon behind Luxor temple.

Colossi of Memnon

What they believed Amenhotop's temple looked like

Ramses IV tomb in the Valley of the Kings. We went into this one however, photos were not allowed inside so this isn't my photo.

Hatshepsut's temple

Colorful offerings of food

  

Medinet Habu and Asian migdol architecture

Medinet Habu

Medinet Habu has very deep carvings on the wall. These would be filled with a shiny glass or metal so that the whole temple would glisten.

Day 6: Karnak, Luxor Temple, Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant, Plane

     Our last day in Luxor our tour guide gave us the morning and afternoon to do whatever we wanted on our own as we only had two more temples on the agenda and one we would see after dark. It was to be the only day we were able to sleep in and we took full advantage of the opportunity. We set our alarms so we would catch the tail end of the free hotel breakfast and then we decided to take a walk on the Nile before returning to the hotel to sit out by the pool, drink some Egyptian beer and eat some pizza.
     Around 3 pm we headed out to see Karnak. Karnak is a massive complex of temples, chapels, and pylons. Karnak was built during the reign of over 30 pharaohs which is very impressive considering most of the time, the new pharaohs would destroy previous pharaohs temples to build their own. Karnak is also, likely, the second most visited tourist stop in Egypt and its impressive size makes it worth it.
     At dusk, we headed to Luxor temple which is light up beautiful at night and contributed to a really unique perspective and beautiful photos of the temple. When you have seen upwards of 10 temples over the last 6 days, it can be hard not to fall into the negative mentality that you are seeing just another temple. The change in lighting combined with our tour guide who tells great historical stories about the temples helped keep the tour interesting. One interesting historical fact about Luxor temple was that it was used in a ceremony to honor the god Amun-Ra in which a boat would be carried along a road called the avenue of sphinxes from Karnak temple to Luxor temple, a journey of approximately three kilometers long. Unfortunately, most of it is now covered by the city of Luxor and will likely not be able to be recovered.
    With that we wrapped up our day, headed to Al-Sahaby Lane Resturant one last time and then headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Cairo and spend one last day with our tour guide Hend!

Sitting by the pool in the afternoon of our last day in Luxor

Model of Karnak

Karnak entrance

Karnak

Karnak

Luxor temple at night

Luxor

Look closely and you can see that this group of pillars is not exactly lined up with the previous set of pillars. This is the very last set of pillars on the entire 3 km straight road from Karnak. Due to the shape of the Nile at that time, they had to be offset a bit. 

Welcome to Aswan

Day 1: Bon Voyage!
We left at 6 pm for our 7 pm flight to Aswan, Egypt from Cairo on Nile Air. At the Cairo airport, we met our tour guide, Hend, who would become like family over the next week with the added bonus of being knowledgable in the area, Egyptology and Arabic. When we got to our plane, we were very surprised to find out that we were in first class. My family never elects to fly first class and my parents didn't plan to by first class tickets. We still are not exactly sure why we were put there but we think the most likely scenario was that my mom paid with credit card points and somehow that caused us to be put in first class. Anyways, it was a nice surprise and we took full advantage on our short 1 hour flight to Aswan! When we arrived, we checked into the Isis hotel and swiftly went to bed.

View from the Isis hotel

Day 2: Falooka rides, Stray Dogs and Markets

A Falooka

We woke up and ate the complimentary hotel breakfast that consisted of a mostly Egyptian style breakfast. Egyptian breakfast is similar to what an American might eat for lunch or dinner: mashed potatoes, salad, foul (traditional Egyptian food). They did also have omelets, bread, hard boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt and cereal. However, the omelets had some strong cheese and my family doesn't like Egyptian bread, it doesn't have much flavor and tastes sort like a marshmallow,  so we managed on hard boiled eggs, fruit and yogurt for the next few days at the hotel. Afterwards, we hopped on a falooka that Hend set up for us and we sailed on the Nile for 4 hours with a Nubian man, JJ. We were told to enjoy our time on the falooka and not worry about learning about Nubian life as we would be heading to JJ's home to learn about Nubian life tomorrow evening! While on the falooka, we were fed a large Nubian meal, had hot tea and, later on, drank some Egyptian beer on the roof! We took a break so that the workers on the boat could eat the leftovers and we could walk around a bit. While on the shore we were able to feed this small puppy who was terrified of people and cautiously took our food. There are a lot of stray dogs and cats in Egypt but I found this one particularly cute. After our falooka ride, which ended at dusk, we went to the market to do a little shopping! We spent 2-3 hours at the market and by the end we were exhausted with all of the shop owners badgering us to come into their store, the bartering and the sensory overload: people yelling and running, music playing and incense burning. We had to get to bed because our next morning would begin early!

Sailing on the falooka

Chris and Lauren relaxing on the falooka

Drinking Egyptian beer on the Nile while enjoying the beautiful sand dune views

Cute but timid stray dog. We fed him some of our left overs.

View off of the back of the falooka. You steer by pushing large dark brown piece of wood around that is connected to the rudder.

Huge cloth bags filled to the brim with spices and dried hibiscus flower found at the market. The dried hibiscus is turned into a warm tea or cold juice that is very delicious called Karcaeday. 

Day 3: Abu Simbel, Ramses II, Lake Nasser and Nubian Life
     Our alarm went off at 4:30 am to meet our tour guide at 5 am to leave for the Abu Simbel temples. Our guide told us to bring our hotel pillows with us as it would be a 3.5 hour drive through the desert just to get there. Abu Simbel is about 50 km from the Sudan border so today we would be heading as far south as I will likely ever go in Egypt. The drive there wasn't too bad as I was able to get some sleep. The Abu Simbel temples are on an island in Lake Nasser. Normally, tourists wait for a boat to load and drive over the the island however, we had Hend! Hend talked to the men and was able to get us our own boat right away instead of waiting for everyone else.
     The Abu Simbel temples are on an island for a reason, not by accident. When the Aswan high dam was created, the Abu Simbel temples were threatened by rising water and it was ultimately decided to move the temples to higher ground. Moving these temples, built in 1264 BC, is no easy task. For one, Ramses the Second liked to build very big temples and the temples at Abu Simbel were no exception. Secondly, inside the large temple are four statues, Ramses II and the gods of Ra, Amun and the god of the underworld, Ptah. Ramses II, Ra and Amun are light by the sun on two days a year: the day of the kings ascension to the thrown and his birthday but Ptah does not light up. Although, they wanted to keep the exact dates, it was not possible and they were ultimately off by one day. It took four years to move the temples 65 meters higher and 200 meters back and an entire town was built specifically for the workers. Tour guides are not allowed to go into the temple with you as it could cause congestion so after telling us all about the temples from the outside she told us she would wait for us in the tea shop outside. We took our time looking around and taking photos and as we were exiting we saw Hend, she was worried as we had took longer than normal and was coming to check on us! On our way home, I was able to see the Sahara desert that we had driven through. In many locations it was different than I expected it to look. The large rocks of granite looked like miniature mountains. However, in the middle of the drive, it looked exactly as I expected: flat sand as far as you can see. I was also surprised at the very few rest stops or gas stations. On the three hour drive, I believe I saw one small stop. I wondered if one had to use the restroom where would they go? The only privacy would be the side of your car! Another thing that surprised me was the large amount of random bus stops throughout the desert! You'd be driving through absolutely nothing and all of a sudden a bus stop with nothing around it! The only idea I could think of for their purpose was to provide a bit of shade if your car were to break down. Luckily, cell phone service was great through this segment of the desert so you wouldn't just be stranded. When we got home, we met up with JJ and his boat, motored across to his Nubian village and went to his home for a traditional Nubian meal which ended up being basically the same thing we had on the falooka which we didn't mind as it was all really delicious and we had been craving it! We learned about the way Nubians build their mudbrick homes. We learned that the rounded ceilings were to keep the homes cooler in the summer which can reach up to 122ºF! My favorite thing to learn about was the Nubian marriage traditions! JJ told us an unfathomable story for most Americans. He fell in love with a woman in his village, however, it was not okay for them to be seeing each other as marriages in the village are usually arranged to be for the benefit of the family. They snuck around to see each other but had to do so very secretively. He said he would just look at her and raise an eyebrow to let her know he wanted to meet that evening at their secret meeting place. Eventually, he decided he would ask for her hand in marriage. He finally convinced his family to ask her, which they didn't want to do but finally accepted, however, her father said no. Since the father said no he had to decide between leaving the village to be with her and never seeing his family again or finding another woman. He said it took him years to even regain the ability to look at other women. Eventually he found himself another wife and the other woman found herself another husband that was acceptable for each of their families. He also told us about the Nubian wedding night and honeymoon. He said that the tradition is that once the bedroom door is closed, the man isn't even allowed to touch his new wife until he can make her smile. He said men bring jewelry, clothes, perfumes, money and their best stories to try to make their new wife smile. He said he gave his new wife item after item and she didn't smile but she finally smiled when he said he was completely out of items and turned his pockets to show her. For their honeymoon, they go over to the wives family home and everyone is kicked out except one sister who will take care of the couple for 30 days. After dinner, we return to our hotel and called friends and family to wish them a Merry Christmas as it was Christmas day.

The large temple at Abu Simbel. The temples remained in pretty good shape and small details remained as they were covered by sand for many years. One of the heads is missing likely due to an earthquake in the area. 

Inside large temple at Abu Simbel.

Note how 3 of the 4 statues are light up. *Not my photo*

Small temple at Abu Simbel for Ramses favorite wife, Nefertari.

The Sahara desert!

Surprise!

After our first four days in Alexandria, our plan was to leave Alexandria and spend some time in Cairo before Chris and Lauren flew out of the country and then my parents and I would fly to Sharm El Sheik to celebrate my graduation. However, on our last day in Alexandria, my parents told us the truth. We weren't just going to Cairo but we were going there to get on a plane and fly to Aswan and Luxor in Upper Egypt!
This would be our new schedule:
Aswan: Dec. 23-26
Luxor: Dec. 26-28
Cairo: Dec. 29-31
Sharm El Sheikh: Dec. 31- Jan. 5

A map of Egypt with all of the countries on our new schedule. Aswan and Luxor are near Sudan and Sharm el-Sheikh is near Saudi Arabia!

Adventures in Alex

The next four days consisted of visits to all of the tourist sites in Alexandria.

Day 1:
Our friend Samay owns a coffee shop near the school and generously offered to take us out to explore Alexandria on our first day of adventures. Our first stop was the famous Library of Alexandria. The new library was built in 1995 and finished in 2002. Afterward, we ate at Mohamed Ahmed, a well-known Egyptian restaurant. For a relatively small restaurant, they have had some moderately famous people eat there including the current Queen of Spain. Then our friend Samay was kind enough to bring us through some beautiful mosques, a first for both myself and my parents. In the late afternoon, we went to the Citadel of Alexandria which was previously the site of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we went so we only took pictures from the outside on this day. When we got home, Samay invited us over to his apartment for tea and Hibiscus juice. It was very interesting getting to see a typical Egyptian home. Egyptians are very family oriented and thus Samay lives with his two sisters, one of which is married and pregnant and his parents. His sisters sleep in their living room as they have a two bedroom apartment but nevertheless, they are very proud and grateful for all that they have as so many Egyptians have much less. Afterwards, we invited Samay back to our apartment and we had a little fun making headwraps with our scarves.

Library of Alexandria

Samay, my father and I at the Library of Alexandria

Eating traditional Egyptian food including foul, fried cheese, pita, tahina, humus and falafel at Mohamed Ahmed

Samay, Lauren, Chris, myself and my father gary having tea after eating at Mohamed Ahmed.

A large mosque in Alexandria

A look inside the mosque

The Citadel 

A fisherman near the Citadel

Taking a rest and enjoying the Mediterranean sea near the Citadel!

The tomb of the unknown soldier. There are always armed guards posted here.

Samay wrapped our heads in a traditional middle eastern style

Day 2:
The following day we went to a beautiful, large park in Alexandria called Montazah. To get into the park you must pay 20 L.E. or just over one US dollar. Unfortunately, there are very few free green spaces in Alexandria so getting to sit on the grass in a park in Alexandria is quite a luxury all Egyptians can afford. Few cars drive in Montazah and the sidewalks are very large for Egypt making it a great place to bring young kids to ride bikes and run around. Montazah originally started out as a hunting camp for the ruler of Egypt. The prodigious mansion still exists and is used as a second home for the president of Egypt. There are smaller summer villas in the park of Montazah that have been passed down through families for years. These exclusive villas cannot be bought, only passed down so getting invited to one is an offer you shouldn't turn down! We skipped lunch and made it back to our home just in time to begin getting ready for a Christmas dinner party my mother had set up. We had a pre and post party at our home and it was nice to meet some of the school staff and workers. I am sure my mother appreciated the fact that she was able to have a stress-free morning and afternoon as the school cooks made the meal and our maid came to clean the day before.

Mansion at Montazah for the President of Egypt

Some private villas at Montazah located on the Mediterranian

A beautiful bridge in Montazah

A tower, possibly for water, at Montazah

Mom at the Christmas Dinner she put on. She is smiling because she didn't cook anything for the meal! ;)

Day 3:
On our third day of adventures, we returned to the Citadel of Qaitbay. The Citadel was built in 1477 AD on the edge of the eastern harbor to protect the city of Alexandria.

Citadel of Qaitbay

View from third floor of the Citadel down. These areas with tall ceilings were used to project announcements and calls to prayer throughout the Citadel.

Day 4:
To be honest, by the fourth day of intensive touring I was getting a little bit sick of waking up early and walking for miles. To make matters worse, we took the 1-hour tram ride to the end of the line and just as we exited the tram it began to rain. Rain in Alexandria is usually a 1 or 2-hour event that clears up just as quickly as it started. However, this time was different and it ended up being a total of three days before the rain cleared. Since it normally doesn't rain, the city doesn't have very good drainage so the dirty streets became muddy streets and none of us had any sort of rain gear. We kept thinking the rain would clear up and my father underestimated the walking distance to the places we were going: Pompey's pillar, The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa & the Roman Amphitheater. The Roman Amphitheatre, Kom el-Dikka, was our first stop. It is an extensive roman theatrical and residential complex that is still undergoing excavation. The Villa of the Birds, a home with many mosaics usually costs an extra 10 LE, however, since it was raining nobody was around and we were able to look for free as well as use it as a shelter from the rain. Next, we went to Pompey's pillar. It is a Roman column and is the largest of its type constructed outside of Rome and Constantinople. The pillar is one solid piece of red Aswan granite weighing an estimated 285 tonnes! Finally, we ended at the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa. The catacombs are unique in that it combines features of Roman, Greek and Egyptian cultures. By the end of the day we were drenched, cold and tired and just wanted to get home. We decided that instead of walking to the tram or Corniche to find some public transportation we'd use Uber to get us there! My parents had always had good experiences with Uber but, of course, this day couldn't go our way. Our driver attempted to scam the unsuspecting American "tourists". Luckily, we weren't exactly tourists so we didn't get scammed as badly as a tourist probably would have in this scenario. Basically, if an Uber driver calls you and asks you to cancel your ride and book another because you are too far away don't do it. The first driver will call you back, come to your location and pick you up before your actual driver is supposed to get there. This works in Egypt because they allow you to pay cash for your ride so the ride was not being tracked and we were not able to review this bad driver. In addition, it took us over 2 and a half hours to get back to our home across the city because he refused to get on the Corniche. The rest of the day we stayed at home and watched movies to unwind from our stressful day.

Drenched, cold and pretty miserable but still smiling because I am in Egypt with my family!

Roman Amphitheater

Flooring from ~AD 200 at the Roman Amphitheatre

Pompey's pillar