Cairo

After two short days at sea, the ship reached Alexandria, Egypt. I was signed up on a trip through SAS, so right after we cleared customs and got our passports stamped, I got on a bus to Cairo, headed for the pyramids!

My trip leader was actually the same trip leader I had for my trip through Italy, and she was great, so I knew we would have a good time – she didn’t take too much seriously, and if you wanted to skip out on part of the day, she had no problem with it.  Our Egyptian tour guide was a hilarious woman named Iman, but she insisted we call her mom. She always addressed us as her kids, even to the hotel staff and waiters at restaurants.

Anyway, after a relatively short three hour drive, we reached Giza City and saw the pyramids in the distance. All 30 SASers on the bus were buzzing with excitement! Instead of heading to the pyramids straightaway, we stopped at a really nice hotel to have lunch. When we walked in to the hotel, a band was playing Jingle Bells for us! It was so funny, and obviously the only American song they knew.

After finishing our teas, we hopped back on to the bus and drove over to the pyramids! There are 3 main pyramids in Giza, and 2 are big, covered with granite to keep the structure intact. The 3rd one is smaller  because the pharaoh who is buried in there didn’t want his pyramid to be covered in granite. Anyway, since words can’t describe it, here are some pictures of my day at the pyramids!

 Me riding a camel in front of the two big pyramids

Me and my camel driver who was not a day over 10 years old.

At the pyramids, there are tons of locals who offer to give you camel rides, most of them are  young Egyptian boys.  They are usually fluent in Arabic, English and French. My tour guide told me they never go to school and will work their whole lives  at the pyramids. It’s actually really sad to see.

After about half an hour at the pyramids, we hopped back on the bus. It drove us about two minutes away to the other side of the pyramids where the Sphinx is. At the Sphinx, a little girl gave me a “gift” of a postcard and proceeded to follow me around. I was warned earlier that day to be wary of the kids giving gifts at monuments … they tend to be pickpockets! Luckily, it ended up okay. She did try to grab my camera at one point, but I yanked it away and she didn’t try it again. When my friend and I left the area, she started freaking out, yelling at these older Egyptian thugs about how we needed to pay her .. so we bolted. It was scary, but we ran out of there pretty fast and didn’t see her again.

Me in front of the Sphinx

The Sphinx in front of the 2nd pyramid

Since it was getting really hot out there and we were all getting sandy and irritable, we all hopped back on the bus and headed to the hotel. We stayed at the Cairo Marriott on the Nile!

This was the view from my room:
Yep, that’s the Nile!
AMAZING!

We rested up for a little bit, then we headed back into Giza to see the Son et Lumiere – A really tacky light show at the pyramids.

The pyramids were unforgettable!!!