NILE CRUISE

8. September - 11. September 2011

Since I spent three weeks in Egypt, I decided that I had to go south to see the great Egyptian temples. I opted for a four-day, full-board, cruise on the Nile with frequent stops to visit the temples First, I took an overnight train from Cairo south to Luxor. I bought a first class ticket and expected the car to be full of tourists. Well, that wasn't the case. I was the only foreigner and the car was neither clean nor comfortable. Anyways, I slept quite well until the morning. I didn't know where to get out and couldn't read the station signs either. Luckily there was somebody who spoke a little English and told me when to get off.
I was picked up at the train station by someone from the agency that I booked with and by taxi we went to the cruise ship. A three story boat with bar and pool at the roof. It seemed like I was the only person younger than 60 years. There were a few younger people but mostly there were older German couples. After relaxing a while on board, I met the guide for the first excursion to the Luxor and Karnar Temple. Very impressive. Huge columns and colorful paintings - and all this thousands of years old.
The next morning was spend visiting the "Valley of the Kings” - with many tombs of pharaohs. Most of them are long tunnels underground with a burial chamber at the end. In some tombs it is till possible to see the colorful wall paintings. In other tombs there is not much too see.
From there we went further down the river with stops at more temples. It was very impressive but after three days, all looked quite the same. Huge columns, colorful paintings, huge statues.
Check out my pictures at picasa - or just use the slideshow below.
At the end of this trip, I went to visit Abu Simbel. It's difficult to explain but the sight of these huge statues is amazing. And the chambers as well. It's also interesting because, the temple was moved from it's original position to the hill higher up when lake Nasser was build between 1960 and 1970.
From Aswan I took the train back to Cairo for a few more days with my friends and more sightseeing.

CAIRO – Part II

4. September – 7. September 2011

After we got back from the North Coast it was time for some real sightseeing.
With Heidi and Anas, I went to the Egyptian museum. There is sooo much to see there. Unfortunately it doesn't feel like a museum at all. It's more like walking through a warehouse stuffed with lots of very old, dusty things without much information. We paid a guide to show us around but he wasn't very good either.
We also went to the Pyramids in Giza. Impressive! So big and so old. I have no idea how they managed to build these. We hired a camel and a horse and went on a little tour around the pyramids with them. It was interesting to ride on a camel and we had a great day.
We also went to several mosques and walked around town. I also set out on my own one day to walk around Cairo. It was interesting to walk the busy streets and narrow lanes with market stalls. I was greeted many times by friendly people in English.

RELAXING AT EGYPT'S NORTH COAST

31. August - 3. September 2011

Together with two other families and there kids we went to the north coast for a few days. We stayed in a house that could have been very pretty if the owner would have taken better care. It was a little run down but still had a great terrace and a nice garden. Our days there were very relaxed. We spent the morning in the swimming pool, the afternoon relaxing at the terrace and swimming in the sea.

The sea had beautiful blue water but unfortunately there was a lot of garbage. As everywhere in Egypt. It's very sad to see how little Egyptians care about their country and nature. Garbage is just everywhere you look and especially Cairo is extremely dirty. In South America I sometimes thought it's quite dirty there but compared to Egypt that was nothing. Especially coming from Germany.

We went swimming anyways and had fun.
Nights were spent on the terrace again with playing backgammon, drinking tea and political discussions and stories about Egypt.

 

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CAIRO – Part I

27. August - 30. August 2011

After a great time in Europe it was time to discover a different continent. For three weeks I ­was visiting my good friends Heidi and Ayman with there kids Lamice and Anas. A very long time ago (15 years ago to be exact) I was living with Ayman in a student house in Hamburg. Since then we've been friends. 

My trip to Cairo didn't start very good. I got a cold the day before the trip. After a four hour train ride I arrived at the airport to find out that my flight was delayed almost two hours and I arrived in Cairo quite late at night. Ayman picked my up at the airport. At their house, Heidi and the kids where already waiting for me. We stayed up until 3 am talking and had dinner before going to bed. When I went to bed I could already feel that my stomach was a little upset. I spent the night with regular trips to the bathroom. Not the best way to arrive at a friends' house. My first day in Cairo, I didn't see anything from the city but spent all day inside. Sleeping, hanging around, talking and playing with Lamice and Anas. Since it were the last days of Ramadan – the month of fasting, meaning that it's not allowed to eat between sunrise and sunset, we stayed up until three or four in the morning, had dinner (or breakfast) before going to bed and slept late. Therefore the time until sunrise was fairly short. Originally, my plan was to try fasting as well but since I wasn't feeling that well the first days, I skipped that. So, the kids and me had a little snack in the afternoon. 

On my second day in Cairo I finally set out to explore town. My friends are living in Maadi, a fairly wealthy neighborhood, and in the afternoon I was checking out the area. At night, Ayman, Heidi and me went out to Cairos old town. We walked through small streets with many small stores selling souvenirs and other stuff. The buildings were quite old and there were lots of people - mainly locals - walking around. We drank tea at a nice old cafe in a very narrow street. The atmosphere was very nice and I liked walking around. Back in Maadi, I went to a cafe with Ayman to play Backgammon. But there was a soccer game going on and the cafe was packed with people – men. I think, besides me, there was only one other woman and it was kind of strange to be there, surrounded by 100 men. Especially in a culture were women are not commonly seen in situations like this.

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