people are afraid of time, but time is afraid of the pyramids

hello from egypt :)

Huan and I had a long journey before we finally arrived in Cairo this morning at 3:30am. First we flew 10 hours to Amsterdam. Then had a 9 hour layover in Amsterdam. The customs were very friendly, helpful, and let us leave the airport to rendevous around town. We took a taxi into the city, which cost us a FORTUNE (over half the euros we had). The city was beautiful, just as I had remembered it. This time with a hint of orange everywhere you go in full spirit of the World cup. Soccer balls and orange flags all around the city. The weather was nice, a little on the chilly side, or rather.. I just wasn't used to the cold wind on my head. I was so cold throughout my whole commute! After hitting up a few stores and coffee shops, we split some fries. Eating their fries was one of 2 things on my agenda to do in Amsterdam. Soooo delicious, but we asked for mayo and he slathered the thing with mayo. As if it weren't fatty enough? and i hate mayo. gross. After hours of people watching and almost falling asleep everywhere we went, we decided to catch the train and wait at the airport instead. Train cost us like a DOLLAR (freaking taxi cab ruined us). I hella knocked out the whole time waiting at the terminal. Luckily for HUANITO we didn't miss our flight.

So another 5-6 hour flight to Cairo. The moment we walked out of the plane I could feel we were in Egypt. The warm desert air welcomed us into the land of kings, pharrohs, goddesses and gods..but also so so much more to this country. We were driving around at 3:30am and people were still up and about. As our tour representative says, "Cairo is the crazy city." As intimidating as it is, being completely immersed in another's culture is refreshing. I couldn't even try to speak arabic if I tried and nothing is in English around here. I love it. The people hookahing, children running on the streets, people selling fruits on the trucks. Even the guards.. I love them too. makes me feel safe.

We had to meet our tour guide at 9:00am today, but slept through all our alarms. We are so fortunate in that we are the only 2 people on the tour, so our guide waited around for us. Fatima is super sweet and so beautiful. She took us to the Egyptian museum where we learned about all the history, myths, and culture. Now I know what the different hats mean on the kings and what a raven symbolizes. Did you know, that the men were depicted darker because they are out working in the sun? Women are depicted with fair skin because they were supposed to stay in the homes. So much history to take in. Huan and I were super exhausted in the museum. Hadn't eaten for over 12 hours and running on maybe 3 hours of sleep in 1.5days. Random memory..the toilet exploded at me in the museum. Rather, it like sky rocketed water and I couldn't get it to stop. I had to just take a chance and jump through the water. Felt so bad but I couldn't stop it!!

After the museum, we hit up a papyrus store and they showed us how to make real papyrus. Bought a couple of paintings and finally headed off to eat lunch! I didn't realize I was hungry but once I ate, I was apparently famished. Egyptian food is really tasty and vegetarian friendly. Woot!!

Off to the pyramids :) We saw the pyramids of Giza and rode camels around to the Sphynx. Camels were rough, but fun to ride. The cutest kid was pulling my camel, and I felt bad he had to walk that distance in the heat. We got some sweet pictures at the pyramids. Truly amazing to see the pyramids last through all the years. Imagine if your backyard was the pyramids?

Then we went to a perfume store... and boy did we have a hard time getting out of there without buying anything. We ended up just tipping the guy and bouncing, because we had no use for 4 bottles of perfume. After the perfume shop, we finally got back to the hotel and I took the first shower in about 2 days. I feel sooooo goooooooooooood. Not sure how I'll last in Tanzania without showering everyday, but I'll have to make it work.

Visit Huan's blog for pictures (he is taking pics for the both of us). I can't reiterate enough.. thank Allah for huan.

http://huaninafrica.blogspot.com/
2 days down..78 more to go.
miss and love you all <3