Egypt

Egypt has been in the news a lot in recent weeks. There is just so much happening there. When Morsi was ousted, I remember watching one news report where the journalist was speaking from Tahrir Square. I stared at the tv remembering how when we first arrived in Egypt a number of years ago for a tour, we stayed in a hotel minutes from the famous location. 

The first night we spent in Egypt was in Cairo. We had a room up at the top of a hotel and our view looked out onto the square. I could see the British Museum across the way, even though I didn’t know that was it at the time. I looked out the window and saw so much activity - cars not obeying the traffic signals and people trying to get across the street like in the video game ‘Frogger’. There were scents of grilled lamb intermingled with oil or gasoline smells wafting up into our hotel window. It was the most incredible sight of a populated square I’d ever seen. And having lived in New York all my life, that really was saying something.

I couldn’t sleep that night because of all the noise in the square below. It was more the excitement of being in a country I had wanted to visit since I was a child. I also didn’t want to miss our wake up call to go to the Pyramids the next morning. And boy, am I happy I didn’t oversleep or miss that part of the tour?

The Pyramids were astounding. The sun reflected on my sunglasses making it difficult to see them completely. It was sunlight bouncing up from the sand and from the rocks onto my sunglasses. Regardless, my jaw dropped at the immensity of these structures and the unbelievable strength and intelligence of the people who created them. I loved seeing the Sphinx, just this crazy cat like animal in the desert with a big headdress. Some people took camel rides but I opted out of it because no matter how far we were from them, I could still smell their odor. I didn’t want that smell staying in my clothes through the whole trip (which it did for all the people who did that tour extra). 

We went to an archeological museum on site and had to put weird socks on our feet. My husband and I kept taking pictures of each other making sure to get the cool socks in every shot. We then made our way back on the tour bus and off we went to other parts of the tour. 

We returned to Cairo at the end of the tour. We had a day to explore the city without our tour guide if we wanted. We opted for this and walked through the city in the heat. It wasn’t so humid in Cairo but it was very hot. We went in October and it was hitting the high 90s easily. We ran across the street through Tahrir Square. We came close to losing our lives on 3 occasions. 

At the end of our walk we ended up meeting our tour without even realizing it. On our way back, we took a cab ride through Cairo (because we didn’t go with the rest of the team, we had to go on our own) and our driver was showing us where his aunt lived, where he went to school, etc. Honestly I forgot momentarily that we were in Egypt. Driving with that guy seemed more like a roller coaster than a cab ride. My husband took a video of the whole ride and I remember feeling very nauseous (I wasn’t even that nauseated during pregnancy!). 

It’s amazing to me now how things happen. When the Arab Spring happened and I watched the protests in Tahrir Square, I was equally transported to our visit. I hope that they figure everything they need to and get the country back on its feet with more democratic means. It is such a beautiful country and I hope people can go and visit it soon. It’s a shame that due to everything that is happening, people aren’t able to go and see what a wonderful place - full of amazing history - it is.