The Egyptian Museum

A few weekends ago I woke up on a Friday morning feeling that "touristy" feeling. I've not explored Cairo much on my own as I would if I were on vacation, so I decided to take a day to do just that.

My goal was to visit the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was a beautiful, not too hot morning, so I walked the mile to the metro station and headed downtown.

The museum entrance was a bit hard to locate from the metro because of the vast construction site between the metro exit and the museum, but I realized I needed only follow the tour busses and I was there in no time, the tall black iron gates standing guard between me and the immense pink museum.
Inside the museum it could have been 1935, during the heyday of Egyptian antiquity discoveries. Crates stamped with far away locations were stashed here and there, half-unpacked with artifacts and straw peeking out. Labels, very very old labels, numbered many artifacts, but left little in the way of explanation, allowing the visitor's imagination to go wild with theories of "what on earth was this used for?". Papyrus samples had ink so bright that you would think they were only painted the day before.

There was an entire hall of beautifully painted sarcoghagi, small dark rooms of pharoah's jewels, and a long corridor with giant stone heads and statues following your every move!

Of course, I didn't do the entire museum - best to leave the rest for when I have museum hungry visitors!

I understand that there is a new museum being built that will be air conditioned and better suited for preserving the artifacts. There are also hundreds of University students from around the world helping the museum catalogue, label, and preserve the many artifacts - which seem to number in the millions - maybe even googleplexes!

After leaving the museum, I was VERY hungry and dehydrated, so I went to the outdoor patio of the Nile Hilton (just next door) and had an AMAZING cremini mushroom risotto and large bottle of water while I read my book about Egypt. The perfect end to a fantastic little adventure!

Camels

You know what I love?



That's right - camels. The best part of my recent vacation in Dahab was my two hour camel trek (an hour each way) to watch the sunset over a lagoon and mountains. (Though the sunrise over the Saudi Arabian mountains across the Gulf was also very beautiful!) The camels were docile, full of personality, and incredibly uncomfortable to ride - which just made it that much more of an adventure! I think a little practice and I'll be making treks across the desert in no time!

The Red Sea

Last weekend I boarded a van at school on Thursday (our weekend is Friday/Saturday) bound for Sharm-el-Sheikh. We drove through the Suez Canal Tunnel and along the coast of the Red Sea for seven hours until finally arriving at our destination.

Once in Sharm, we boarded a ship called Brina and headed out to sea. For the next two days I was stunned at the beauty of the Red Sea Coast, marveled at the myriad colors of blue in the water, and snorkled with the fishes - mostly safe ones but a few that could have eaten me had they wanted a snack.

The trip was amazing and one of the best parts was laying my sleeping bag across the top deck on one of the mattresses tied down there and looking at the stars. We were far enough from any city to see the true blackness of the sky, the creamy middle of the milky way, and so many stars that I couldn't fathom them all.

The food was also good. The trip was with 20 teachers from my school, so I got to know a few of them a bit better and also talked to Adele, who was one of the crewmen of the boat. Adele said they stay on the boat for 2 or 3 months at a time and then get 10 days off and do it all again! What a life!

I'm very much looking forward to taking the trip again - perhaps even doing an introductory SCUBA dive! I think we're all going again in the Spring.

--posted from Dahab; which will be the subject of the next post!