We left at 6:30 am. Woot woot...except not. I don't have any pictures from this day because I was saving room on memory cards for actual Egypt. We went to Tel Beersheba where something important regarding Abraham happened. Then we went to the Wilderness of Zin Overlook and Ben Gurion's grave (same place). It was cool to look out on the wilderness of Zin, where something else important happened, but I can't remember either :) Avdat was super cool. It was a huge ruin site and it was super fun to see the baptismal font they had and to take pictures with all the pillars and old pots and stuff. We then drove for quite a few hours to the southern tip of Israel. Once there we went on a tour of a Kabootz, a communial socialist type of living place. Most agricultural in Israel is done by Kabootzes. We then had dinner at the Kabootz and it was pretty good. The ice cream was the best. The Kaboots we were at makes 60%-70% of all the milk produced in Israel. We then drove for another hour south and stayed at a super cool motel. We played niht games all night and the temperature and humidity were just right. Oh boy it was awesome.
I am almost missed the bus this morning because we guessed wrong with what to do with our keys. We then drove to the Taba border Crossing, which only took like an hour or an hour and a half, which apparently is record time for the JC groups. It was pretty uneventful. We then drove across the rest of the Sinai peninsula, which is a very large desert. It really is rocks with an occasional bush or small tree. We then drove under the Suez Canal, which I was sad in not being able to see. We just drove and drove until we came to Cairo. We drove from the Kabootz all the way across the Sinai Peninsula to Cairo. It was a lot of driving and the border crossing was interesting. That night in Cairo we went to the light show at the pyramids. It was cool, but I was so exhausted form the past fefw days that I fell asleep haha that is a normal thing for me. There some random bag pipers there to.
Day 3
We got up early and went to the pyramids. They are literally in the city, but on the dge. We got there early enough that we were able to go inside the Great pyramid. Holy crap it was awesome! I love the pyramids! The sphinx was pretty amazing too. After that we went to Memphis and Saqqara to see the step pyramid and some mastabas. Mastabas are tombs for high society people. The colors in the mastabas were cool. Let's be honest the pyramids were better than the step pyramid or the mastabas. WeE also went to the papyrus factory, where they showed us how thye make papyrus. They also have the most skilled papyrus artists and it was super cool to see their paintings. That night we flew to Luxor from Cairo. I enjoyed the plane ride and Luxor is beautiful. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel. Oh boy oh boy was it nice or what! I felt high society I tell you. The weather there at night is amazing.
Day 4
We got up and went to the valley of the kings. The valley was smaller than I was expecting, but it was pretty similar to what I was epecting. The tombs weren't as extensive or big as I was expecting, but they were still amazing. I loved the Valley of the Kings. We went in King Tut's tomb, which was very small, but when we went to Cairo museum and saw everything that was stuffed in it, holy crap the other tombs would have been an amazing find and stuffed full of gold and jewels and stuff. After the valley of the Kings we went to Queen Hatshepsut's temple. It was fun to see her temple. Her face is scratched out everywhere because her nephew King Thutmoses III wanted to erase anything that depicted her because she stole the throne from him. haha some sort of huge grudge or something. This was such a cool day because we went on a felucca ride (just a sail boat) across and up the Nile to where we were having our Camel ride. The camel ride was super cool except that my saddle was on crooked sos I always felt like I was going to fall off and I was super sore from sitting crooked. The girl who led my camel was named Eman, which is Amy in Arabic! Crazy, what are the chances? She was like 12 and has some younger and older sublings. She was really sweet. That night we went to this huge bazaar in the center of Luxor. It was pretty cool to see what they were selling and prices in Egypt were fairly cheap, but man are the vendors overbearing. I learned that the trick is to be tall, wear sunglasses, and look straight ahead. With sunglasses on, you can look around without the vendors seeing you look at their stuff so they don't start shouting at you. Oh boy oh boy oh boy I thought the vendors in Jerusalem were pushy, but that was before I went to Egypt. It was fun shopping in Luxor. It was also fun to swim in the pool at the hotel right on the bank of the Nile.
Day 5
We went on a felluca ride to the Karnack Temple, which is super cool. The Karnack temple is the largest temple and has the most religious significance to Mormons as we are called here. There were so many simliarities in symbolism and what we believe and do and what the Egyptians believed and did. I loved seeing all of the reliefs and the temple was HUGE! After the temple we took a carriage ride to the Luxor Temple which is about 1.25 miles away. Back in the day there was a straight path between the temples that was lined on both sides with sphinxes with ram faces. You can see part of the start and end of the path. The Luxor temple is cool, but not as cool as the Karnack Temple, but it is incredible looking at night. That afternoon I went swimming in the pool by the Nile river. It was fun. That night we went back to the bazaar. When we got back we packed up and hopped on a train from Luxor to Cairo. The train ride was so cool. We were riding frist class, haha but it didn't quite seem like that. It was so so so fun. I just don't know how to describe it besides I slept like a baby, like usual.
Day 6
Today we went to the Cairo Museum. On the freeway on our way there our bus driver saw that traffic was stopped ahead of us, so what do you think he did? Well, I doubt you guessed it. He pulled a U turn on the freeway and started driving down it the wrong way. Have you ever driven down the freeway the wrong way? haha it was so cool. To add to that, we got off the freeway via the on-ramp. It felt like it took forever to finally get off the freeway and start driving legally again, but it was definitely worth it. The other bus didn't get to the museum until an hour after us. The Cairo museum is huge and full of so much great stuff but we only got two hours to look through it. The mummy room was pretty cool, but the best by far was King Tut's burial tomb room. Holy cow! His burial stuff is rahter small respectively to the other pharaohs who were definitely greater (but their tombs were all robbed), but it was still AMAZING! I just don't know how to describe it. We had lunch at Hard Rock. The burger wasn't that good, but it is the best burger I have had since we left the states. Oh that morning, we had Sacrament meeting in the hotel in a rnadom room in our normal clothes. It was definitely interesting, but still very good.
Day 7
Today wasn't my favorite day. We went to some coptic churches and a mosque. We then left for the Sinai Peninsula and ate KFC on our way out. Really late that night we arrived at our hotel really close to Mount Sinai. Dinner was amazing. Loved it. The pool there was huge and looked really cool, but we didn't get to go swimming. Basically as soon as dinnerr was over you went to bed because in 3-4 hours we had to get up to go hike Mt. Sinai!!! Holy cow it was so amazing. It was so much fun hiking up to the top of Mt. Sinai but it was also an extremely spiritual experience. To sum it up, let's just say my flashlight is from the dollar store and the batteries were almost dead, I wanted to be one of the first on the top but I couldn't quite keep up with the lead group, so I ended up walking up by myself, and I was faint with hunger. haha I almost died 5 times. I tripped once climbing the hundreds of stairs to the very top. I almost fell bakcwards 4 other times. It was a serious mental strain to focus on each step to keep from falling to my death, but I was the 7th person to the top and the second girl. The first girl is on BYU's cross country team, so I don't mind being second. It was so cold at the top, but the sunrise was definitely worth it. I did not know that the sun rises so fast. Holy cow, it was only 6 minutes. Ahhh, it was so amazing. I was the fourth person down. I was so tired afterwards on the drive to the border, but sleeping was kind of difficult. We stopped and ate lunch at some hotel on the Red Sea. The red sea is beautiful and heavenly by the way. Great vacation spot, except for the sea snakes. It was low tide and let's just say I didn't wander hardly anywehre basically I didn't want to step on a sea snake and get eaten. I found three within a ten foot radius. Scary! After playing in the Red Sea for 45 minutes we had to get back on the bus and headed for the border. The border crossing took me 3 hours and 45 minutes, because I was at the end of the group. Just suffice it to say that Americans are the only people who respect lines and don't cut. Those who do cut in line in America get yelled at by the people they cut off as well as those in front of them. Here people don't understand why you physically block them from cutting in fornt of you. It was quite interesting. I definitely love America. We then had dinner at the Kabootz where we ate previously. the ice cream was still just as good and the chocolate milk was really good. I was so tired that as soon as we got on the bus after dinner I laid down in the aisle on the floor and went instantly to sleep. I didn't wake up until we pulled into the JC. It was pretty sweet. My new favorite place to sleep on the bus.
Hey! That is my tripi to Egypt. I loved Egypt so much! It was dirty, but I just didn't notice it much. The pyramids and everything that has to do with Anceint Egypt is amazing!!! Hope you enjoyed my summary. p.s. you should all go to Egypt!
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