We felt very out of place walking into the Egyptian airport. 95% of the people there were fully covered. The men all wore turbans and many of the women wore black clothing, with nothing showing but their eyes. We purchased our Egyptian visas (now my favorite part of my passport) and continued on to our hostel (there were actually a lot of people dressed in jeans and t-shirts outside). The hostel provided free airport pickup and the people who worked there were very helpful (The Australian Hostel). The elevator at the hostel was weird-- it did not have a front, so a person could jump out in between each floor.
Everything in Cairo was cheap, the conversion rate at the time was 5.5 Egyptian pounds to 1 dollar. A few doors down from our hostel was a restaurant where we could purchase a 3-Eg.pound pasta meal. It was the best tasting, cheap food I've ever tried. We also discovered a place that had 2-Eg.pound rice puddings. Together, that makes a complete dinner that cost less than a dollar!
We went to the Pyramids of Giza and were able to enter a few of the pyramids. It was hot, we were wearing long-sleeves, and had to climb down a long, narrow tunnel to get to the tomb. It was hard to breath and was difficult to maneuver through, but I was inside an ancient Egyptian pyramid! Located adjacent to the pyramids is the Sphinx, which is actually a lot smaller than I had imagined. Also at the site were several school groups. We felt like celebrities; the kids would walk past us and say "hello" and "what's your name?" They all pulled out their camera phones and snapped pictures; some of the brave ones even came up and asked if they could take one with us. I was very impressed with how nice all of the people in Egypt were. We got stared at a lot, but people were very helpful and kind.
At the pyramids, we also rode camels, which were scary to get on to and off of. Egyptians on camels and horses would constantly come up and ask us to take their pictures; I learned that if you do, they will demand money from you afterwards. I was also given some haggling tips from two flight attendants from Dubai who were staying at our hostel.
That same day, we traveled to Saqqara (tiered pyramid) and Dahshur (bent-looking pyramid; they realized a mistake half-way through the building process). Both were amazing pyramid sites.
We asked our driver to take us somewhere authentic to eat lunch-- the meal was amazing! They kept bringing food out and it cost us each only $12. It was there that we discovered arabic bread (except for Sarah, who is allergic to gluten).
One night, we took a dinner cruise on the NILE. The food was no where near as good as the $12 lunch, but we enjoyed just knowing that we were floating on the Nile River in Africa.
We visited the Egyptian Museum, which contains thousands of artifacts. We went into the mummy room and saw mummies with hair and fingernails still intact. I was shocked by the state of the museum; it houses so many priceless items, yet is not in the best condition. The artifacts were just lying around in boxes and on shelves with little hand-written scraps of paper tossed in as labels. I was expecting more security and high-tech containers.
The Egyptian stores were all very cluttered; the window displays were also overwhelming. We did not have much time to shop because everything was closed on Friday, which we found out is the Egyptian day for prayers. We walked past several groups of people kneeling in streets and heard sermons being broadcast over loudspeakers. Our time in Egypt was too short-- I definitely want to go back.
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