Pyramids....WHATTTTT!?!?!?

Friday:

Wake up Friday morning, breakfast at the hotel, great food, no bacon but the ham was close enough for me. Load up the buses, and head to Giza...Driving through Cairo again reaffirmed my how filthy and slummy the city really is. People are everywhere with not much at all. Some ride donkeys, or carts pulled by donkeys. Some ride mopeds or bikes. Most of the cars are total POS's, but theres the occasional Benz or Bimmer. The greatest part of driving in Cairo is that EVERYONE IS HONKING ALL THE TIME! I now know that my brother Bill was right when he told me that Cairo is the loudest city. I am getting used to the noise, but it is still not something that anyone from anywhere else is used to. Driving further we come around a bend in the highway and there they are, 3 gigantic pyramids. It seemed like a joke how huge they were and we were still a good 3 to 4 miles away at that point. The air was very sandy, but you could see them clearly and it was amazing. Pull off the highway, and drive through the back alleys of Giza. Dirt roads, shops with Hookah and Shisha outside, with donkeys horses and yes…camels everywhere. We finally reach the destination which is an open square in a back alley with our camels lying everywhere. We get out of the vans and the camel boys start helping us pick out our camels. I wish I had a sound recorder for the noise that the camels made; it was like Chewbacca from Starwars mixed with a diesel engine…Hillarious. I look around and I find a camel that looks like it can do the job, and my camel boy Rober says “hop on and lean back”…hop on the camel, follow his advice and the camel rears up once to get to its knees and then again to its feet, a very cool feeling. Also the first time I have ever ridden an animal…The group heads out, with everyone taking pictures and laughing about how crazy it is that we are riding camels, through the desert to the Pyramids. Through some more back alleys on the camels and then we turn the corner, and the Sahara is right there with the Pyramids in sight. Another 25 minutes of “oohs and aahs” from the Pyramids and the desert and we arrive at the Pyramids. Many a group shot, and many a glazed look. These things were HUGE! Each Pyramid has over 1 million bricks, the biggest one with over 2 million. We walk up to the step Pyramid for some more group shots and better photo ops for the other Pyramids as well, and after another 30 minutes we head back to the camels and ride to the Sphinx. This was an interesting little camel ride. Each camel boy tried to take their rider a little out of the group to try to swindle some “baksheesh” from us. But thanks to Professor Sullivan, we knew how to handle it. Just say “bah neen” (later) or “Dr. Dennis” and they understood.

Side Note: Dr. Sullivan is like a celebrity here, we will be walking down the street and random people will know him and give him a huge hug. His good friend Abdu usually helps us out with our group trips as well, Abdu is a wheeler dealer kind of guy who seems to know everyone as well. He helps with the Police, and can pretty much talk his way out of anything…very fun to watch Dr. Sullivan and Abdu together.

So back to the days events…off the camels, and off to the Sphinx. A ridiculously awesome view. The Sphinx with the great Pyramids behind it was unbelievable. So many times I’ve seen it in a text book, but until you see it for real, it’s crazy. With a bright blue sky, and the sun right above, it was perfect…more group photos and photo ops and we are outa there. Back to the vans and off to the papyrus museum. The group listened to a lecture about how the ancient Egyptians made papyrus, and than everyone looked around the shop and many of us purchased some papyrus paintings…Then off to lunch in a paradise under the palm trees. The trip to the lunch took us by the Nile valley. We saw farmers working the fields, which was intense...No sanitation, completely primitive…but when we arrived at lunch it was a whole other story. We get out of the vans and there is a traditional Egyptian musical group playing for us, and Professor Sullivan started dancing. We watch for a while, but then our stomachs told us to get moving. We walk in to the place and there are platters of food laid out for us. We all dig in and relax under the shade of palm trees, a great finish to a great day…back to the vans, and we drive through Cairo back to the Hotel. After the Hotel we settle in, try to email my parents, but the internet is so terrible that I could barely do it…walk around Cairo a little more, grab dinner at Cilantros and pass out…more to come tomorrow.

Peace

-Al