“You lose sight of things... and when you travel, everything balances out.” Daranna Gidel

Well, while I still have access to a computer, I want to sum up our experience in Egypt.


Egypt, You have a wonderful country, rich in glories of the past, monuments, and ancient history. Your mosques are geometric works of serene beauty and the pyramids are engineering masterpieces. The people are the heart of your body, the Nile River your soul, and your ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Persian, French, Turkish, and Arab past make you work in complete harmony.


Egypt and its wonderful people...

Alabaster craftsman

Shoeshine Man

Woman in Aswan

Man with umbrella

Man in charge of Felcucca

Barber giving haircuts. He's busy at 10:00 p.m.

Older Man on street

 Old Cairo-Khan El-Khalili   

Mosques & Market

Entrance to Bazaar

A touch of home

A local boutique Hotel

Yes, that's smog.

Ceiling of a Mosque

Mosque

The women of our tour group

After 12 busy days in Egypt, we were looking for a little rest and relaxation on Sunday, Jan. 16. It was also our 30th wedding anniversary. It started on a negative note at the breakfast buffet when no one would acknowledge us. I needed hot tea and my hubby, with a head cold, needed his black coffee before he started going into his caffeine withdrawals. Anywho...they could tell I was not happy when I had to finally seek the hostess for some service. Then, they practically stood by my side the entire breakfast.


The story gets better...we decided to go across the street to the Cairo Zoo.  The doorman helps people across the street because of the massive traffic! Now three descriptions about Cairo traffic...1. No rules,  2. Chaos, and 3. Horns are used liberally. As we were crossing, I came extremely close to getting hit by a car. When I say extremely close, I mean car screeching, the entire action seemed to be played out in slow motion...I'm thinking I'm about to get hit by a car and die in Cairo...how bizarre. Apparently, I made it but the doorman and my husband were both wide-eyed and stared at me in disbelief. I was the talk of the hotel because when we returned from the zoo, every employee kept asking Greg if his wife was all right.

Off to the zoo with only 8 of my cat lives left. Well, let's say if you're an animal at the San Diego Zoo you won the lottery, and not so good to be a zoo animal in a developing country. To earn extra money, zoo handlers let you pay a small"fee" to them to feed the animals from a long stick or even hold a (not so small any more) lion cub. You might lose an arm feeding a dangerous exotic animal but hey, you get a great story! We then got lost in the zoo because we couldn't read the Arabic signs, and most of the locals didn't speak much English.We finally made it out and back to the hotel.

It's ok, he never bites...

Our felucca anniversary dinner was cancelled due to weather and replaced with a dinner in a Lebanese restaurant. The dinner was kinda of a bust since we were seated right by the waiter's station and 3/4 of the menu contained 2 of the only 3 things in the world I won't eat...lamb and veal. The food was better than I expected but Rosa's chicken fajitas w/guacamole kept poppin' into my mind! Oh well, good news, I renewed Greg's marriage contract for another 30 years!


So long Egypt, you were glorious! Thank you for your hospitality!
Off to India...


Melissa  Jan. 17, 2011   11:20 pm