No. I don't suck. Grad school just took over my life.
Let's take it back about two months:
Back in early December we had a five-day weekend for UAE National Day.. and we decided hey let's hop on a flight and go see some pyramids. Nbd.
And those pyramids.
Were.
Absolutely.
Incredible.
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| View from our hotel.. Are you serious?! |
We were Canadian. We dodged every cab driver's questions about which religion we were. And we alert. At times bitchy. I say these things because it's the reality about traveling to certain countries. And to appease my family. It's no surprise that both my friend and I had family and friends give us mouthfuls about traveling to Egypt. Was it a little dangerous? Probably. Did we have the time of our lives? Yes. I heard a quote on some video on fb the other day that holds so much relativeness to this..
"If you listen to everyone saying, "Is it safe?", "Isn't there unrest?" etc.. you'd never go anywhere."
Truth. Truth. Truth.
Use your common sense/street smarts: You build that up over time. Don't let cab drivers put your bags in the trunk. You do that shit. They reach in the glove compartment/pocket, you are alert as fuck. They want to stop somewhere. You don't let them. They still stop? You get out. Don't be stupid. Don't be naive. It's as simple as that. Did we freak out when we woke up one day and heard the news of a bomb going off at one of the bars in the same city? Did we see the irony in it that it was the one and only night we went out? Of course. Did I want to throw up at the luck we had in not being in that situation? I counted my blessings. But. Did we have a great time that night? Yes we did. Did we let it ruin the rest of our time there? Absolutely not.
Again..
"If you listen to everyone saying, "Is it safe?", "Isn't there unrest?" etc.. you'd never go anywhere."
Those pyramids though..
WOW. WOW. WOW. #WhenHistoryBooksComeAlive was my mantra that week. But really, the first time you look up and see these massive ancient things that you studied in your history books.. you kind of lose your breath and cannot help but stare at them until you realize you've been staring way too long.
Breathtaking.
Something the two of us never do, we decided to do because of time constraints and safety concerns. And that was book a day tour. Turned out to be incredible! We were actually the only two on it, and we were blessed with a wonderful young tour guide who took us all around the city. He was so knowledgeable on the history of Egypt, and he was great at knowing when to fall back and let us do our thing. Being that it was just the two of us, he took us to additional places not on the itinerary. We went to a jewelry store to get cartouche necklaces (names in hieroglyphics) made, a papyrus shop to get papyrus paintings, and this great little whole in the wall lunch spot to have a traditional vegetarian Egyptian dish, Koshary (macaroni noodles, lentils, chick peas, garlic, and a spicy tomato/chili sauce and fried onions). WOW. A heart attack waiting to happen. but WOOOAAHHH. Amazing.
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| Mosque of Muhammad Ali |
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| Where statues used to stand.. reminded me of "The Mummy" and a little eery.. |
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| In heaven.. |
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| Koshary |
By the end of the tour, our guide said he enjoyed his time with us so much that he actually gave us a free Nile cruise in return for a review on Trip Advisor. Um HELL YES! No big deal, just ya know cruised on the infamous Nile River.
Oh.. and almost forgot how we spent our last day in Cairo.. We had met up with one of my coworker's cousins and his friend the night before and with his help, we found an underground tattoo shop.. and well.. this happened.
Cairo was magical.
That's a great word for it. Magical.
History books really did come alive. When I heard that my grandmother's wish was to get to Egypt and see the pyramids, it made it even more special. From the time I told her I wanted to go to New Zealand 6 years ago, I believe she has been with me through all of my travels and continues to be. <3
