sooo... because of lack of internet usage in egypt im going to divide up the last week of my trip into two posts.
Our last 2 days in Italy were quite an adventure. We said goodbye to becky so she could meet up with her family in Athens and it was just Brit Chels and I. We got into the routine of going to the McDonalds for some "real" coffee and muffins in the morning. It was apparently also the place we felt most "at home" yah dont ask. We then adventured out and saw the spanish steps, the trevi fountain (i made a goood wish :) ), the pantheon (kinda a bummer cuz it was under restoration), and ended up in the plaza called pialzza Navona. One of my favorite parts in the city that day because it was less touristy which was SOO nice, and it was filled with a ton of artists and their work. It was awesome to see the watercolor paintings, and my favorite was a man who used spray paint to create BEAUTIFUL paintings. Brit actually ended up buying one... i'll add a photo of it when i upload them all. His technique was soo original.. we stood there and watched him for a good amount of time. We continued walking through the square are ran into this man doing puppet shows with his fingers... he was QUITE the creeper let me tell you. but i recorded a video thats pretty halarious. Dancing to michael Jackson... thats all i have to say.
We got lost on our way back to our hostel but made it there eventually... also stopped at our fav grocery store (in the train station) and picked up some food to eat... lets just say we were running low on money... haha. The next day we had to be out of our hostel at 1030am... but our flight didnt leave until 715am the NEXT day. Sooo... we left our stuff at the hostel and adventured around town again. Starting our day at the McDonalds... as usual. looking back on it now those ppl must have thought we were nuts. We walked around... some dude made me pay 2 times for my lunch was put me in a bad mood. God over it though cuz it was a gorgeous day out. Went and saw more of the old city and walked to this other huge monument with big statues on the top.. inside was a museum but we couldnt read italian which was a bummer.
We eventually went and got food... but didnt have anywhere to eat it. So we went to this lobby in the hotel next to our hostel and decided to eat there... buttt... got kicked out. So we resorted to eating on the street (true definition of homeless) best part.. as we were eating a piece of newspaper blew at me.. i decided it would make a great blanket. soo.. after dealing with that situation we went across the street to a bar and had a couple drinks before we hopped on the 11pm train to the airport. As we got to the airport we realized there were NO more seats open for us to sit (sleep) in.. sooo along with many of our homeless friends we hitched up on the ground. Worst night of my life. Ever slept on tiled floors..with no heat. SOOO cold. Somehow we survived... eventually getting to sit in chairs.. but i will NEVER do that again. As we were getting on our plane to Athens we realized the flight only allowed 1 carry on... and we each had a carry on and a purse.. apparently not allowed through easyjet airlines (assholes). Only problem was that we didnt have time to catch our flight to Cairo if we checked bags.
Soooo.... as we are all freaking out i notice 2 american guys in front of us who have no carry ons... i did work and asked them if it came down would they take 2 of our bags.. they were really cool about it and said sure. Only problem was that there were 2 of them... and 3 of us. So I went 1st and somehow was able to swing my purse behind me so it looked like part of my backpack and sneak both my bags on.. haha I WIN :) the other 2 girls had the guys take there bags and we madee ittt. Such a relief.
Got on the plane to Cairo easily and were on our wayy.. when we landed it was crazy hot. I loved it. Went though and got our travel visas and exchanged money... egyptian pounds are sweeettt. Exchange rate was about 5lbs=1us dollar or 7.5lbs=1 euro. Average mean 20 lbs. I left loaded. haha. So we met our driver guy who didnt speak much english and were on our way to our hotel.
The city was huge. And the poverty was easily seen. For some reason i just thought it was sooo beautiful. You can see the history and how old this place truely is just when riding around in the car. So we eventually got to our hotel and had nooo idea what the place was going to be like. Ended up being WONDERFUL. There were 2 seperate rooms and a nice bathroom and shower which was so great. And when we looked out side our window we could see the great pyramids. It was an amazing sight. One thing that was nuts about egpyt that we noticed right away was the driving. I thought greeks were crazy drivers but boy was i wrong. Every night there I had to sleep with my ipod in because it was constant honking of cars. It was always sa jumble of MAD CHAOS. Our first night there we ate dinner and just crashed from all the traveling. We were also thrown off by the time changes between italy greece and egypt so had no idea what time it was.
We were suppose to meet our tour guide at 8:30am the first morning so we got up had our breakfast and were waiting... for 30 mins. But he never showed up so we started panicking thinking we just got scammed... so we called the mail director of thecompany we were going through. He kept talking to chelsea about the train station and calling her sally. Finally she goes, "Sir, are you awake?" I was laughing so hard. He called back 10 mins later totally confused. He didnt know what was going on either and eventually was like its only 7am... and she is llike, "sir you think its 7am... no its 9am." and we look at the clock in the lobby to find out it is indeed... 7am. So haha after a mess of times and getting up at 5:30am. we went back to bed.
Our guide met us... his name was mahmoud. He was an interesting fellow but very knowledgeable. I learned a lot from him about cairo and this history of sooo many places. Our first day we visited many things! We started out by going to Memphis.. the old capital of the anicent city. We saw many statues and statues of Ramses the 2nd.. the pharaoh of that time. We then went to a couple different step pyramids. We could see sooo many hieroglyphics in one of the tombs here. It was amazing that this place was thousands of years old yet we can see there original writing and art work. We also went under one of the step pyramids... down this small tunnel and could see to original tomb. Pretty awesome stuff... i thought about my mom and how she would have definatly been claustrophobic in there.
We then went to another larger step pyramid that we couldnt go into but it was aweomse to see... it had 7 different layers. After this we went to a store that sold papyrus's. This was authentic egyptian art. The paper is made from a plant similar to like bamboo but they cut the peices into thin layers.. soak them in water and then lay the pieces on top of eachother to form the paper. An artist then paints on the "paper." I bargined a ton with this women and ended up getting 2 of them that I loved! We then finally made it to the pyramids of Giza!!
They were huge and sooo amazing. The coolest thing i have ever seen. We took many pictures by them and got to ride camels down by them and take more pictures. We even got our camels to run... kind of. haha. Mine was awesome and i named him Micheal Jordan. He was the shit. We then went to see the Sphinx which was also an amazing sight. Seeing it with the pyramids in the background. Honestly just amazing.
After spending a lot of time there we went back to our hotel and became friends with a girl and guy that worked the front desk. They were really cool and would charge our ipods and cameras for us. I think to the people at the hotel it was a weird thing to see 3 20year old GIRLS travel alone and affording a trip. I feel like the women there arent use to that kind of freedom and to see it being done was pretty cool. We also became obsessed with a show called the mentalist. We watched it everynight we were in Egypt because it wasn't safe to go out at night... especially being 3 young american girls.
Our last 2 days in Italy were quite an adventure. We said goodbye to becky so she could meet up with her family in Athens and it was just Brit Chels and I. We got into the routine of going to the McDonalds for some "real" coffee and muffins in the morning. It was apparently also the place we felt most "at home" yah dont ask. We then adventured out and saw the spanish steps, the trevi fountain (i made a goood wish :) ), the pantheon (kinda a bummer cuz it was under restoration), and ended up in the plaza called pialzza Navona. One of my favorite parts in the city that day because it was less touristy which was SOO nice, and it was filled with a ton of artists and their work. It was awesome to see the watercolor paintings, and my favorite was a man who used spray paint to create BEAUTIFUL paintings. Brit actually ended up buying one... i'll add a photo of it when i upload them all. His technique was soo original.. we stood there and watched him for a good amount of time. We continued walking through the square are ran into this man doing puppet shows with his fingers... he was QUITE the creeper let me tell you. but i recorded a video thats pretty halarious. Dancing to michael Jackson... thats all i have to say.
We got lost on our way back to our hostel but made it there eventually... also stopped at our fav grocery store (in the train station) and picked up some food to eat... lets just say we were running low on money... haha. The next day we had to be out of our hostel at 1030am... but our flight didnt leave until 715am the NEXT day. Sooo... we left our stuff at the hostel and adventured around town again. Starting our day at the McDonalds... as usual. looking back on it now those ppl must have thought we were nuts. We walked around... some dude made me pay 2 times for my lunch was put me in a bad mood. God over it though cuz it was a gorgeous day out. Went and saw more of the old city and walked to this other huge monument with big statues on the top.. inside was a museum but we couldnt read italian which was a bummer.
We eventually went and got food... but didnt have anywhere to eat it. So we went to this lobby in the hotel next to our hostel and decided to eat there... buttt... got kicked out. So we resorted to eating on the street (true definition of homeless) best part.. as we were eating a piece of newspaper blew at me.. i decided it would make a great blanket. soo.. after dealing with that situation we went across the street to a bar and had a couple drinks before we hopped on the 11pm train to the airport. As we got to the airport we realized there were NO more seats open for us to sit (sleep) in.. sooo along with many of our homeless friends we hitched up on the ground. Worst night of my life. Ever slept on tiled floors..with no heat. SOOO cold. Somehow we survived... eventually getting to sit in chairs.. but i will NEVER do that again. As we were getting on our plane to Athens we realized the flight only allowed 1 carry on... and we each had a carry on and a purse.. apparently not allowed through easyjet airlines (assholes). Only problem was that we didnt have time to catch our flight to Cairo if we checked bags.
Soooo.... as we are all freaking out i notice 2 american guys in front of us who have no carry ons... i did work and asked them if it came down would they take 2 of our bags.. they were really cool about it and said sure. Only problem was that there were 2 of them... and 3 of us. So I went 1st and somehow was able to swing my purse behind me so it looked like part of my backpack and sneak both my bags on.. haha I WIN :) the other 2 girls had the guys take there bags and we madee ittt. Such a relief.
Got on the plane to Cairo easily and were on our wayy.. when we landed it was crazy hot. I loved it. Went though and got our travel visas and exchanged money... egyptian pounds are sweeettt. Exchange rate was about 5lbs=1us dollar or 7.5lbs=1 euro. Average mean 20 lbs. I left loaded. haha. So we met our driver guy who didnt speak much english and were on our way to our hotel.
The city was huge. And the poverty was easily seen. For some reason i just thought it was sooo beautiful. You can see the history and how old this place truely is just when riding around in the car. So we eventually got to our hotel and had nooo idea what the place was going to be like. Ended up being WONDERFUL. There were 2 seperate rooms and a nice bathroom and shower which was so great. And when we looked out side our window we could see the great pyramids. It was an amazing sight. One thing that was nuts about egpyt that we noticed right away was the driving. I thought greeks were crazy drivers but boy was i wrong. Every night there I had to sleep with my ipod in because it was constant honking of cars. It was always sa jumble of MAD CHAOS. Our first night there we ate dinner and just crashed from all the traveling. We were also thrown off by the time changes between italy greece and egypt so had no idea what time it was.
We were suppose to meet our tour guide at 8:30am the first morning so we got up had our breakfast and were waiting... for 30 mins. But he never showed up so we started panicking thinking we just got scammed... so we called the mail director of thecompany we were going through. He kept talking to chelsea about the train station and calling her sally. Finally she goes, "Sir, are you awake?" I was laughing so hard. He called back 10 mins later totally confused. He didnt know what was going on either and eventually was like its only 7am... and she is llike, "sir you think its 7am... no its 9am." and we look at the clock in the lobby to find out it is indeed... 7am. So haha after a mess of times and getting up at 5:30am. we went back to bed.
Our guide met us... his name was mahmoud. He was an interesting fellow but very knowledgeable. I learned a lot from him about cairo and this history of sooo many places. Our first day we visited many things! We started out by going to Memphis.. the old capital of the anicent city. We saw many statues and statues of Ramses the 2nd.. the pharaoh of that time. We then went to a couple different step pyramids. We could see sooo many hieroglyphics in one of the tombs here. It was amazing that this place was thousands of years old yet we can see there original writing and art work. We also went under one of the step pyramids... down this small tunnel and could see to original tomb. Pretty awesome stuff... i thought about my mom and how she would have definatly been claustrophobic in there.
We then went to another larger step pyramid that we couldnt go into but it was aweomse to see... it had 7 different layers. After this we went to a store that sold papyrus's. This was authentic egyptian art. The paper is made from a plant similar to like bamboo but they cut the peices into thin layers.. soak them in water and then lay the pieces on top of eachother to form the paper. An artist then paints on the "paper." I bargined a ton with this women and ended up getting 2 of them that I loved! We then finally made it to the pyramids of Giza!!
They were huge and sooo amazing. The coolest thing i have ever seen. We took many pictures by them and got to ride camels down by them and take more pictures. We even got our camels to run... kind of. haha. Mine was awesome and i named him Micheal Jordan. He was the shit. We then went to see the Sphinx which was also an amazing sight. Seeing it with the pyramids in the background. Honestly just amazing.
After spending a lot of time there we went back to our hotel and became friends with a girl and guy that worked the front desk. They were really cool and would charge our ipods and cameras for us. I think to the people at the hotel it was a weird thing to see 3 20year old GIRLS travel alone and affording a trip. I feel like the women there arent use to that kind of freedom and to see it being done was pretty cool. We also became obsessed with a show called the mentalist. We watched it everynight we were in Egypt because it wasn't safe to go out at night... especially being 3 young american girls.
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