Big 'ole Cairo bus trip

Friday was a big day for the TEFL Alex crew- trip to Cairo! It came as part of our tuition with the program and I'd been looking forward to it since I arrived two weeks ago (has it really onlybeen two weeks?!). We started the day by hopping on our mini bus at 7am. Despite the early rise, everyone was pumped for the day.

After an hour and a half of driving, we stopped at an Oasis for a quick break. Now, these types of Oases exist in Morocco as well- generally a few stores, restaurant, bathrooms, but this one was pretty wild. Besides the typical haunts, this place had a mini zoo and decrepit play land for kids. Of course, I had to play on some of the toys and that may have been the most dangerous thing I've done thus far in Egypt.

Ostriches at the roadside petting zoo

After another hour and a half, we arrived at our first stop- the pyramids of Giza! As we drove up, a friend next to me mentioned "huh, they don't really seem that big." I'm not going to lie, I kind of agreed. They didn't look all that impressive. Flash forward to me looking like a tiny little ant on the side of the Great Pyramid. Make no mistake people, these things are pretty awe-inspiring. One row of blocks was almost as tall as me and I'm not going to even try to guess how many rows make up the Great Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid at Giza

After taking some photos, we drove on to the 2nd pyramid and at that one I paid a little extra to go inside. I know, I got to go inside of a pyramid and you are extremely jealous. It was not at all what I imagined. The tunnels are tiny, definitely not designed for anyone with any sort of claustrophobia. We immediately had to crouch down and began walking down from the entrance into the pyramid. Little wooded boards were nailed to the floor every foot or so to keep you from sliding down. (Our suggestion for the tourism board- let's make it a slide!) After traveling down for quite some time, we were able to mostly stand and walked straight in before the tunnel curved up and we had to once again crouch and use the boards to keep moving upward. Once in the center we found a single room. Fairly small with high ceilings right in the heart of the pyramid. The only thing in the room at this time is the stone coffin of the king once locked inside. A bit eery, but pretty cool.

Me and friend James inside the second pyramid

Silly pics are a must!

After leaving the second pyramid, we stopped farther out for a panoramic view of all three pyramids in the area. Next stop, the Sphinx! Also very cool. Something I'd dreamed of seeing my entire life.

After leaving Giza, we headed to the Egyptian Museum. I think the best way to describe this Museum is crammed. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall stuff. All ancient, all cool, very little rhyme or reason to the layout, not nearly enough labels, lots of guesswork and wandering. It's almost as though Egypt has so much stuff that they can't possibly lay it all out in any sort of logical manner and have it all fit. Overall rating- mediocre.

After the museum was a fairly disappointing buffet lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The only bright spot in this part of the trip was an extremely delicious alcoholic beverage that I payed 11 dollars for.

Finally, we made it to one of the biggest markets in Cairo. It was right before lftur and the place was hopping. Upon entering the market I decided to try to get by on only my Moroccan Arabic. It was fabulous! The shopkeepers looked at me with confused expressions and asked "are you from Tunis? are you algerian?" HA! But I did manage to get my point across and bargained fairly well for a few key items.

The men who I wowed with my Moroccan Arabic and who sold me my sweet scarf!

As we waited for the bus to pick us up on the street, this little kid came up with a handful of bracelets and asked if I wanted one. "2 for 5 pounds (a little less than a dollar)," he said. I thought about it, but frankly, the bracelets were ugly and why on earth would I need two? So I told him no thank you and hoped that would be the end of it. No such luck, of course. He kept bothering me and I kept declining his offer. He went away.

A few minutes later, he's back. More bargaining. This time, I tell him I'll pay 2 pounds (all the change I had) for one bracelet. Nope, he's not having it. I'm not budging either. Finally, he says, "fine! take this one for two pounds" and he proceeds to try and give me a much cheaper looking, uglier bracelet. No way kid. Give me the good one or get out of here! He leaves again in a huff. This same thing goes on for the next five minutes. He continues to come back to me and tries to get me to buy the ugly bracelet. Finally, on the fifth try he yells "fine! take the bracelet for two pounds!" So I take it and give him the money. He starts to leave, but turns around. "You English?" he asks. "Yes," I respond (I know, what a liar). He raises his arm to make his point and says "English VERY BAD!" and walks away in a huff.

Just doing my part to damage the reputation of the English people in Egypt. Hehe.

The souk getting ready to break the fast

Some beautiful girls who couldn't stop taking photos of our group