Egypt

Saturday, 24 July We left for the Pyramids at 7.30 am as agreed. Cody stopped a taxi and negotiated the price and due to his experience in India he was really good at it. With his calm, nonchalant demeanor he brought down the price to 15 EGP shared by three in each of the two taxis. I was impressed. I usually look like a stressed out hen and can't bring down a dime. And I am from Turkey. If you now think that the Turkish Bazaar must run through my veins I must terribly disappoint you. I am so bad at it that I gave up and resigned to the fact that I will never become a successful bargain hunter. In fact I remember my parents would always ask us not to say a word before we entered any store in Turkey. The Turkish hyenas would bleed you off when they heard you were from Germany. Since we would slip in German words while talking we were told to be quiet. Normally the salesperson would say: "Merhaba, welcome." And then would add right away: "Are you from Germany?" That was before we even said a word. Somehow they would know from the way we behaved and dressed. The taxis dropped us right at the main entrance which is not a given. Some of them apparently drop you off where the camel riders station in order to force you to take the camels for an extra price. It was 8.00 am and although it was not high season there were still tons of tourists, bus after bus. Once inside it didn't strike you as being overcrowded, except maybe at the Sphinx. The tickets for entering the Great Pyramid were already sold out so we were left with the second and smaller one, the Pyramid of Khafre. Michael and I had the Pyramid all to ourselves. We had to take turns because of the cameras that were not allowed inside. When you enter the Pyramid first you have to go down a narrow tunnel. There is no possibility to stand upright until you reached the bottom. Since we were practically alone we took our time walking up to the end of the tunnel inspecting everything and stopping here and there. You could see the round stone that used to close the openings. We inspected the different kind of stone blocks along the walls and how different they were sometimes in consistence. They were matched up so perfectly that not even a piece of paper could fit in. At the end of the tunnel we reached a room with a sarcophagus of heavy stone embedded into the floor. The sarcophagus was open and the cover was put next to it so you could see the inside which was of course empty. No mummies I'm afraid. After the tourists started coming again we made our way back very slowly trying to soak everything in one more time. What can I say about the Pyramids that haven't been said yet? That it is amazing to stand in front of them? To imagine that the Egyptians had build these gigantic tombs over 3000 years ago and that I had the luxury and joy to see them in 2010? That I still get goose bumps thinking about it? Therefore, I will leave it at that. We refused to do the typical tourist thing by riding between the Pyramids on camels to the discontent of Burcu who as an animal-obsessor would have loved it. So we walked to all three while fighting off every camel rider that there is. Believe me there are a lot of them and some of them asked us each time they passed us by. At some point I wanted to ask them their names since they became so familiar. Literally all of them ambushed us trying to convince us to a "super" experience. The funny thing is that we later saw several camels running away as fast as they could and their owners trying to catch up to them on their horses while shouting loudly covered in a clouds of dust. Those little (or not so little) rascals ran away in pairs and were hard to catch. We were laughing mischievously and watched their desperate attempts with overindulgence. That was our little revenge for all the hassling. We walked all the way up to the hill where all the camel riders were stationed because you had the best view from there of all three pryamids. That meant of course you had to walk in the heat cooking slowly by the sun and with a hot breeze blowing that was giving you another kick. Once we were done we made our way to the Sphinx, our last stop. By that time, we were grateful for the two men in the middle of the desert with the bucket of ice and cold water bottles. The Sphinx was breathtaking but also the most crowded. Interesting was that the Sphinx was looking at a Pizza Hut right across from it that claimed to deliver as well to the Sphinx. I know this because of Brian, my evil colleague from work (he is evil for completely different reasons). After hanging out there for a little bit we decided to go back home. We were quite exhausted and just wanted to rest. Of course we left it to Cody to deal with the cab and funnily he found one for all six of us and for 10 EGP each. What a character. For dinner we were supposed to meet an Egyptian colleague working in Sierra Leone who was on his vacation in Cairo. Not only were we waiting for 1/2 hour but he also brought his wife and her brother with his girlfriend. So we squeezed into the car on top of each other and went to Khan Khalali. Khan Khalali is the bazaar area in the Islamic district and interesting for all shopping enthusiasts and souvenir hunters. In the car my friend announced that he couldn't stay and only would drop us off there because he had to take a flight back to Freetown that night. I don't know why he didn't mention it before in all the e-mail exchanges we had. His poor wife ended up trying to do some sightseeing but it was too late already and all they wanted to do was shopping understandably. We on the other hand were already starving to death having not eaten since breakfast which consisted of crackers and pound cake. Besides, the merchandise looked all too familiar. Literally everything we could buy in Turkey too. I was so hungry that my blood sugar was dropping really fast and all strength had left me. Nille threw a little tantrum there so I had to cut the shopping short and feed the beast. Once in the restaurant she calmed down and I tried to forget everything that happened. The restaurant was called Khan Khalali and had live Egyptian music. Famous Nobel prize-winning writer Naguib Mahfouz was eating here every day. Listening to the live music we really enjoyed the cold hibiscus tea called Karkade. We also tried the Koshari for the first time.