Crazy Crazy CairoShare
11:56pm Wednesday, Sep 12
To pick up where we left off....
Michelle & I spent our last day in Athens walking around the city, going into shops & checking things out. We just took our time & enjoyed the sites & Greek culture for one last time. We went and ate some more Greek salad at a side street cafe & then headed back to the hostel for a well needed nap. We must have slept on the couches for about 2 hours, but it was good since our flight was leaving so late. By the time we woke up, it was happy hour at the rooftop bar! We decided to go & see all our new friends one last time before we left, and of course enjoy our last $1 Mythos Beer..mmmm Mythos! As we sat up on the roof, we just stared at the Acropolis & watched the sunsetting in awe of the fact that we were actually sitting there. We met a few ppl that we new from before, but most of the people were new. We said bye to Sam(our bartender) and decided to make our way to the metro. This day for some reason Syntagma Square seemed really far, and for whatever reason our bags seemed heavier then ever, but we made it & got on the metro & were off to the airport.
Once we had a bite to eat, we headed through security & to our gate. It didn't take us too long to realize that we were clearly the minority. We hopped aboard Olympic Airlines & off we flew to Cairo.
We arrived at about 2:30am. Some guy from the hostel was meeting us at the airport with a sign with our names, so we were really excited! We walk out with al our bags & are looking at the signs, but can't seem to find ours. Immediately we get pounced on by at least 8 Arab men trying to take us in the Taxi's to where ever we are going. We say no, someone is here for us, but they don't take no for an answer easily. One guy even said he'd take us to his "office" to write us a receipt for us (it was 3:30am by this time). Once we figured out we were at terminal #2 and had told them we were arriving at terminal #1, we found a phone and called them. I guess they thought we weren't arriving until the next night anyway! So we hung out until he arrived at about 4am or so...long night.
So this guy shows up in the crazy looking "taxi"(you will see pic) and takes our bags & throws them up on the roof(cuz that's what they do here) without tieing them down & off we go. We had some random arab musinc playing, the dash had shag carpet, there were 5 small mirrors coming down the right hand side of the windsheild with plastic grapes stuck all the way down too, and some dice hanging from the ceiling...not a joke! When people here drive, they don't use signal lights, they use horns instead. And they weave in & out wherever they feel like it as well, also no crosswalks. So you have to dodge people as you are driving & drivers don't stop for people. The roads are really busy & we thought we were going to die a few times (we have video footage).
We arrived by 4:30-5am to the King Tut Hostel. Most people can speak english, but it is limited & they have a heavy accent. We get into the elevator, which you just pull the door open...and there is no front so you can see all the concrete as we go up. When we arrived, we went into some little room where we had to take off our shoes, and sat on cushions & signed some papers with the guy from the desk then off to bed.
Picture horns blaring, the smell of deisel exhaust, cars driving all over the place, hundreds of people walking/crossing the street where ever they want, and the sounds of arabic speaking people, dirt in your eyes as you walk....and you've got Cairo! Oh and you can't forget the intercom anouncing in the city streets every few hours when it's time to pray. We heard that when we arrived in the middle of the night! We were very intimadated by Cario, so we stayed in the hostel for the first little while, until we spoke with Rafik(he's a local here that Michelle knew through a friend & said he would show us around). We went to find a bank down at the end of our street & the harassing began! People kept coming up to us asking us to buy things, trying to get us to go into their "shops" & just wouldn't leave us alone the whole way there & back, they were speaking english to us too, they knew we were tourists.
Finally Rafik showed up with his friend Jean..we were good to go. We went to the Egyptain Museum. It's amazing there, it has tons of artifacts from ancient Egypt, mummified animals, tombs & King Tut's Tomb! It was amazing to see! We spent a few hours there...no cameras allowed inside though, then we went to eat some coucherie(that's what it sounds like) traditional Egyptian food. It was really good! It's maccaroni, with rice, and some seeds or something, then you put some red tomato sauce & garlic oil on it. It hit the spot. After that the four of us went to see the Nile. It's a massive river, but not what I expected. It's very commercial in Cairo...lots of hotel & restaurants built up around it, and it's very dirty. None the less, amazing. We took a little boat ride along the Nile, the weather was perfect. After we were done, we made our way back to the hostel...stopping at the 1st Evangelic Church in Cairo to pee...and to see a wedding that was taking place. We had to ice cream & said good night, we were tired from our day of walking & sight seeing.
Day 2 Cairo...another hot day. Today only 31 degrees, yesterday was 33. It's hot with pants on & a t-shirt. I'm not sure how all the women here walk around with longsleeve shirts, pants, and head scarves covering their head, some only their eyes showing. I guess they are used to it & it's usually 45 here in the summer. Today Rafik came to pick us up in his car(it was in the shop yesterday getting the breaks fixed). He drives a little Fiat hatchback car...old but gets us where we want to go. He is a good driver, but it is still scary driving in the streets of Cairo. I think more scary trying to cross them though. We drove to Giza to see the Pyramids. The city of Giza is alot more poor then Cairo. It has dirt streets, with lots of garbage lining the streets & kids & women all over the sides trying to sell things to you. Atlast we could see the great Pyramids in the distance. We walked up to them, got our tickets and we entered the desert. I was in awe of these massive monuments of Ancient Egypt. They are simply amazing to see in person. We walked all around then taking pictures & climbing up them abit. We even went inside some of them down these 15 foot narrow little steps where you have to go down backwards & duck so you don't hit your head & then into the tomb where they burried their kings & queens. They were very muggy/moist & humid inside, smelled of mold or basement. Very cool to experince, until a tour group tried to come down & the only way out is the same way in & it's blocked & i don't like feeling trapped in small areas & start to freak out a little & want to get out!!!! I made it out only hitting my head once into the fresh air, safe! All the way up to the Pyramids people try to get you to ride their camels/horses or take you on tours, one guy roped us into touring with him, but at least we had Rafik with us to talk to him & translate for us. We walked to a place where we could take our picture with the 3 big Pyramids behind us, then the guy lead us to his camels. Michelle & I chose our camels & Rafik got on a horse. They scary part is when the camel stands or sits, I almost fell off twice! Off we ride into the desert on our camels with the pyramids in the distance. I wasn't quite the professional at first and I was bouncing around on the back of Humpy(that's what I named my camel...Michelle was riding Lumpy). I quickly got into the flow of riding & could go without hanging out, as long as he wasn't running. We rode around at least an hour & a half. It was pretty amazing to be walking thorugh the desert looking at the Pyramids & thinking of ancient times, until you saw a bus ride by or looked beside at the new city. We saw a dead horse laying in the desert too...I think he was dehydrated cuz he had an empty plastic water bottle in his mouth!
Our camel people(The guy got on Michelle's with her & rode with her the whole time) lead us into the city of Giza to a picture/perfume place where they tell you to use the bathroom & want you to buy they art work. One guy took us into this little room & told us all about his perfumes & tried to make us buy some. Luckily Rafik spoke to him & said we didn't want too, he got mad at us, and made us pay him for the pop he had given us. Oh also when you go into the pyramids etc. they watch you take your camera in & know you are taking pictures, so they make you pay them money when you get out because you aren't allowed to take pics, but they don't tell you that.
Next he lead us over by the Sphinx. We were off to the side of it & they said we couldn't go in front of it cuz it was closed & we needed to buy another ticket for it...so unfournately we were not right in front of the Sphinx to get good pics, but we did see it & were beside it. On the way back through town, the other guy on the horse with Rafik, gave his horse away to some random & hoped on my camel with me! I almost fell off the back when the camel got up cuz I wasn't expecting it. After the ride was over, they tried to charge us a different price then they told us it would cost at the beginning, they always try to do this. Rafik argued with them for awhile, and luckily Michelle & I said we had no money...cuz we actually didn't, so they finally left us alone, and let us pay what we had.
We headed back to Cairo after a long but exciting day. My ass is very sore from Humpy, but well worth it. We found a little Egyptian food place GAD just down the street to eat supper. I had like a Lamb & vegetable stew with rice, salad, pita bread & hummus, water and dessert for about $5 Canadian. Our money is worth about 5 times theirs. Michelle got this Kebab thing which was questionable meat...as in we weren't sure what animal or what part of the animal it came from. She ate some of it & I think it tasted ok. Rafik couldn't meet us tonight, which was good because we are tired anyway & wanted to shower to wash off the layer of sweat, dirt, and camel from us.
Tomorrow morning we are getting up early & meeting one of Rafik's friends to drive us to the City Stars...a mall apparently, then we fly out tomorrow night at 0145 to Cape Town South Africa!!
Must get our rest...
Miss you all & love you all...
Wendy & Michelle