Unexpected Egypt

Everything they told us was a lie. Everything we were raised believing about the Arab world, is as far from the truth as the USA from Egypt.

Arriving, I was apprehensive. As I arrived to the pressure of taxi drivers closing in, repeatedly saying, "Taxi? Taxi? Taxi? Where you go? Good price. Cheap price." I wondered what I was getting myself into. I was excited. I trusted what i'd read from other travelers - like usual, choosing not to focus on the fear that those who don't know like to spew.

As the weeks have flown by, a whirlwind of history and temples, peaceful Nile views and chaotic (that's an understatement) motorcylce rides through traffic that have no rules, my love for this country has steadily grown.

The twisted shapes of their writing on the walls, a foreign art with a depth and meaning that I long to understand; a culture so relaxed that the little cafes with water pipes and shisha are always full. Full of men gathered with their friends; women sitting beside their partner.

It has captivated me. Unexpected, but I came in expecting everything to be unexpected, and that is what it has been. The souls, the kindest souls. I have never met a culture that laughs so much. I have never met a culture that sounds so angry with every word they say. I have never met a culture that are so mean to their friends, yet laugh as if the bullies are comedians.

It has taken some adjusting - a slowly growing understanding of the language and how direct it is. Discussions with my friend about how it's so much easier to say, "Give me the salt" than to say, "Hey, could you please, if you don't mind, I mean, if you want to, if it's not a bother, hand me the salt? But if not it's okay!" (Yeah, that's about how my midwestern kindness compares to the direct Egyptian dialect.) But, as i've grown to learn, you can be given a command and decline. It's not a binding order, no matter what our English kindness and midwestern friendliness has us believe.

Adjusting to life in Egypt has been challenging. For some reason, getting into a routine has not been easy. Maybe it's purely because of the chaos of every part of life here, but I've realized that's why I love it, and why I am never satisfied in the USA. The chaos is an adventure. There is always a problem to solve. Always a discomfort to overcome. 

I came here with no expectations, and regardless, there are a few things that I find especially intriguing about the culture, and some of these things have become some of my favorite things about Egypt.

The first that comes to mind is the fact that no one walks on the sidewalks. Like anywhere, there is a sidewalk, then a line of parked cars, then a road. But instead of walking on the sidewalk, people opt for walking where the cars drive. Rarely do they choose the sidewalk. When I asked a friend about this, he said, "Have you seen the sidewalks!? You can either die quickly by getting smashed by a car, or die slowly and painfully by tripping on something and smashing your face on the sidewalk." Noted. He's not wrong. The sidewalks are a chaotic mess of chunks of bricks, broken glass, pieces of metal, piles of cement and wood from construction projects, and garbage thrown around.

The highways, despite multiple lanes of traffic, do seem to be a sort of organized disaster. I've seen people walk unphased across the seven lanes of traffic without missing a beat. Forward, backwards, wait, forward again. No hesitation. And somehow, i've never seen anyone get hit by a car. I, of course am a little more cautious and tend to wait until there is at least a small break in the flow of oncoming traffic, but the anxiety that plagued me with this task upon arrival has been replaced with a sort of excitement, like crossing the roads are a dangerous game. Thankfully, most streets are also one-way. 

Apart from not walking on the sidwalks and road crossing, another thing I find rather fascinating is how there ARE beautiful sidewalk areas, especially along the Nile. But, you have to pay to get in and use them, and some areas are blocked off completely. They are beautiful - with clean cement, plants, and benches and a Nile view, yet, mostly unaccessable. I learned this the hard way as I decided to take a walk along the Nile but instead found myself walking along a blue tin wall, just feet from a rush of traffic. I walked for miles, reasoning that the tin wall was temporary. A few miles later, I gave up, crossed the eight lanes of two way traffic, and got lost in a market instead of continuing my river walk. 

This wasn't the only time this happened, as I found myself in a similar situation when I ventured to the pyramids alone. Thankfully, I'm never the only one walking in a two-foot space between a wall and cars. The most adventurous is when a motorcycle also tries to use that two-foot space to get around the cars. I said it before and I will say it again: Chaos. Beautiful, wild, and somehow organized chaos.

Studying Arabic has been another area of unexpected challenges. Even though I had been studying for a year before arriving to Egypt, it was today (a month into Egypt) that I understood my first complete sentence from an overheard conversation. (Howwa byigi lama khalas ilshogal - He will come when he finishes work?) Despite the slow learning, I LOVE the language. I love how excited the locals are when they realize that "Betkalm Arabi shwaya" - I speak a little Arabic. I still can't order food completely in Arabic, but, little by little we go while loving the journey.

The metro has become one of my favorite daily adventures as well. I found a great lifting gym six miles from my apartment. Unfortunately those six miles take about an hour, and the metro is faster than an uber. For seven pounds (about 10 cents) I can jump on a metro for a quick ride to Maadi. On the metro, you're surrounded by all types of people - young, old, rich, poor, men, women wearing niqabs, abayas, hijabs, and western dress. There are also countless vendors that wander through the cars selling everything from phone cases to socks, chocolate bars and headphones. They also ask for money - kids and adults with all sorts of ailments. The most beautiful thing, is the number of people who give and buy. They smile, laugh, joke, and give generously. That is one thing that is beautiful about the Islamic culture. They are called to actively take care of the poor, and protect others. That's one reason that Egypt is also the safest country I have been to. Never in my life have I been in a place that I feel NO danger. Stares and intense selling techniques, yes, but no danger whatsoever, even walking on a dark street at night. Of course, we try not to do that anyway, but, in the rare case of a dark street walk, I feel more protected by the coming stranger than a threat.

It's definitely not all beautiful, though. Honestly, it's hard, ugly, dirty, and dark. One day a young boy, maybe around ten years old, came onto the metro, sobbing, yet still choking out his sales pitch. Everything in me wanted to grab him, hug him, and buy him some new shoes. His current pair of sliders were dirty, worn, and one of his feet slid almost completely through the shoe. But this is a common occurance. And here, the faces are somber, and the eyes look away. It is impossible to help everyone, and a few dollars may buy him a meal today, but it definitely is not changing any lives. And this is where, a revolution of education is so necessary.

And to not make this a million miles long - Here's the other observations.

All the beautiful places are off limites - you have to pay for the parks, most green space is fenced off, and a few of the nicest areas were "taken over by the military."

While adventuring to the pyramids, they call me "Shakira" and countless kids plead for pictures. But it's also one of my favorite places to be, because the inquisitive stares from the children turned into a deep smile when met with mine...the stuff of life.

They deliver bread on large wooden racks that they carry on their heads as they quickly bike through the streets.

Smoking is allowed everywhere, including inside closed spaces such as bars and cafes. Groooooooosssss.

Even though most muslims don't drink alcohol or have a boyfriend or girlfriend outside of marriage, there is a bigger "hypocritical" culture here than anywhere I've seen. Many young adults my age have left Islam, unbeknownst to their families. They escape to the clubs, get drunk, and go home with strangers they just met, just like anywhere in the world. The only difference is, here "no one knows" and everyone pretends it isn't happening. But, a follow-up question here is that yes, Alcohol is legal within certain limits - in bars, in rich or tourist areas, and only in the evening. It is forbidden during Ramadan for Egyptians, and only tourists can purchase it.

People are quite proficient scammers. One common tactic is like what happened to me - I went to the bridge over the Nile to watch sunset. There are boys taking photos with nice cameras. They try to convince me to let them take photos. I say no. They insist. I say no, I don't want any. So they say, okay, free. One of the boys was nice, and I was bored, so I let him take photos. (They were nice, but blurry)

 I told him, "but they're free, because I don't want them." Anyway. After he took and sent me the photos I gave him 200EGP - $4. He said it wasn't enough. I reminded him of our agreement. He relented. We ended up hanging out for awhile, taking lots of photos, making a tik-tok, meeting his friends, and him inviting me to tea. At the end he said I owed him more money. I reminded him we were "friends". He laughed and tried to give me my money back. I said it was fine...but, moral of the story - Free does not equal free, ever. 

And, last bit of strangness. You just...don't look at men. If you do, they will try to talk to you, and probably end up asking you to go home with them, or at least kiss them. So. Easier to not look at them. This is such a strange concept for me - the country feels incredibly safe, but the men are strange and intense. Nothing is dangerous except their minds, so we avoid the minds becoming dangerous.

I also visited a church...quite different. Quite Spirit-filled.

And that, is a small snippet of the adventures of Egypt. I'm heading off to Italy for Christmas, to take a step back and decide if Egypt will be home for awhile, or if the wind will blow me in another direction.

The Land of the Pharohs - Aswan and Luxor

I am back in Cairo after one exhausting week in Southern Egypt. It's a bit overwhelming, and impossible to recall all of the information, and a mix of the best and worst times of my life. (Okay, maybe not quite that dramatic.)

After quick flight down to Aswan, I checked into a hostel where I met some other travelers and we shared a traditional dinner - Mine was chicken, and an entire pigeon. I felt a bit of a traitor for eating a pigeon after raising them as a kid, but, it was absolutely delicious, and a common meal in Egypt. Driving along the road you see countless "pigeon towers" - tall pyramid like structures made out of clay with holes in them for the pigeons to fly in and out. These pigeons, are raised and fattened to be dinner.

The next morning, I had planned to board a cruise. It was what I considered to be my first real vacation in four years, with no work at all. I'd heard that the cruise from Aswan to Luxor is something that can't be missed in Egypt, and the price was unbeatable, so, I signed up.

I ended up a bit disappointed when the advertised "three day cruise" turned out to only be about a day and a half with the other day and a half being driving around being a tourist, but, it seems to be the norm with advertising here.

So, my four am pickup didn't take me to a cruise ship, but, on a four hour drive through the desert to Abu Simbal. 

(Passed some irrigated fields of corn and later passed the combines! Quite a strange site in the middle of the desert.)

In the very south of Egypt, almost on the boarder with Sudan, Abu Simbel was built by Pharaoh Ramses II around 1244 BC, and is composed of two temples - the larger temple was dedicated to Ramses II himself...

...and the smaller to his wife, Nefertari. 

The temples were carved into the cliffs near the Nile River, but unfortunetly in the 1960s, the temples had to be relocated to higher ground to avoid flooding caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

The guide explained how the antient Egyptians were so much smarter than us - one of the inner chambers holds four statues dedicated to their gods. The statue on the far left was built to never see the sun as it was dedicated to the god of darkness, the other three, the sun shines in the door casting a glow over them exactly once a year for 24 minutes. But, when the temple was rebuilt, they built it in the wrong place so the sun hit the dark statue - but, they had to wait an entire year to make sure it was build in the right place. 

The inside has countless beautiful carvings and paintings...

The four hour drive back (after two hours at the temple) started to get a bit long - so long that the driver started swerving back and forth on the road and playing chicken with oncoming traffic. 

Once we returned back in Aswan, we boarded the cruise ship, met with the friendliest staff ever, and an all-you-can-eat buffet, and we set sail down the Nile. 

I was a bit disappointed at the lack of communication - I thought we were going to spend more time in Aswan, but we took off right away. The rest of the trip proved to be one big question mark about communication, but you definitely learn to go with the flow in Egypt.

Even though I didn't know anyone, I met my new friend Pamela on the tour. We sat together for lunch, and for the next two days were inseperable. So thankful for her company on the trip!!

We sailed for a couple of hours before making a stop at the Kom Ombo Temple. It was a different experience as it was dark - the drawings just hit different in the night light. 

The guide explained the drawings and how the temple had been a hiding spot for early Christians who destroyed the engravings of the pagan gods. 

The temple also had holes drilled in the walls because it had also been used as a stable, and the horses would be tied through the holes in the walls.

(Notice the holes right in the middle)

(Also...They loved their fertility. Can you decipher the messages here?)

(Here we have the "holy of holies" the most sacred place)

Then, back to the boat where we had a little dance party. I happened to make friends with the 10 little girls on the boat and for the rest of the trip we danced together and taught each other Arabic and English. Definitely a highlight of the trip.

On day two we just made one early morning stop to another temple, Edfu, more of the same and just as incredible - huge pillars and beautiful engravings and artwork. We had a 4 am wakeup call, hopped in a horse-drawn carriage, and went to explore.

(I have to be honest - the temples started to blend together and by the end of day three I never wanted to see another temple in my life - Not totally sure these photos are all with the right temple. :'))

The rest of the day was more what I expected the cruise to be - laying on the deck, watching the shores of the Nile go by, and drinking wine with Pamela nearby. 

There were a few on-boat adventures, like going through a dam and being lowered 8 meters in a little canal before going to the other side, and something I found fascinating is that at each stop, all of the cruise ships would park next to each other and you would walk through four or five boats to get onto shore. One time, an inner boat wanted to leave before the others, so they all had to move to let one out. But, the boats were all so close, and the boat trying to get out was so close to hitting another one. (Ours!) The crew on our ship were all screaming and waving their arms trying to get the attention of the other crew - thankfully, narrowly missing a crash. I can't say it wasn't entertaining, but I'm glad we still had a ship to get on!

Our relaxing day went by too fast and all too soon we arrived in Luxor.

But, hey, never turn down the chance for a little adventure. Pamela and I made our way into town where we started to explore the chaotic streets, and within a few minutes started to be followed by a very well-to-do looking man. Pamela didn't notice at first, but it made me super uncomfortable as he followed us while keeping his distance, talked on the phone, followed us as we turned around (Pamela was confused why we turned around) - Thankfully there was a group of other tourists and one of the Austrian guys told him to leave his wife alone ahhaha. 

But, as soon as we split from their group he showed up again, following, talking on the phone. At this point Pamela caught on and also felt uncomfortable, told him to quit following us and that we were meeting our boyfriends. He didn't seem to care, but, thank the good Lord we ran into one of the workers from the cruise ship and his friend - we climbed on the back of a motorcycle and they took us back to the ship, and I waved at the creep as we drove by...

The motorcylce ride turned out to be pretty intense for a 10 minute ride - three people on one bike, almost head-oning a truck as the driver took a selfie, and collecting all of their friends on motorcycles and arriving at the cruise with an escort of about 10 guys and a few motos.

Talk about a lot of adrenaline for one hour.

The next day we again got up at an ungodly hour to go on a hotair balloon. For the first time since the tour started I was separated from Pamela, which was also sad. I climbed into a balloon alone with countless Asian tourists. I was terrified but...I'll let the photos speak for themselves. What an incredible experience.

Landing was also quite an entertaining experience, as a group of guys drove a truck near our landing place, grabbed a long cord, and pulled us for quite a distance before all jumping onto the sides of the basket to pull us down. The fields were muddy and they were trying to stay on the little paths between the fields, but our balloon kept trying to pull them in the wrong direction.

I met up with Pamela again for breakfast (another all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet - I'm not sure i've ever eaten so much good food in my life.) before checking out of the cruise, hugging my new dear friend goodbye, and being picked up for a private tour to about a million more temples. (Luxor, Morturary, Hatshepsuit) I think I'm templed-out for awhile, but, they were cool. 

We also visited some tombs, which were painted with endless stories.

The next four days were spent on the West Shore of Luxor - a much needed, more chill break from the chaos of the main cities. Honestly though, after three days, I was so done. The city is a very traditional Islamic city, where everyone is wearing traditional dress, women aren't allowed to work, and, quite honestly, men are intense and creepy. It's such a strange split because everyone is SO friendly, but their intensity is enough to make anyone uncomfortable. The town was overrun by men, and I think I saw a total of 10 women the entire time beacuse the majority stay at home with their kids. I did have an amazing rooftop apartment though with a Nile River view though, which was a welcomed santuary from the chaos.

 I also had an amazing horse ride through the desert, galloping over sand dunes, wandering through villages, exploring ruins and statues, and trotting mesmerized beneath the balloons yet again. They told me there were no rules and I could go where I wanted. So, we went everywhere, and we went fast.

(Nubian houses and a current archeological site being slowly uncovered and discovered.)

After the ride, the guide invited me to a traditional breakfast - quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of Egypt, the food! Falafel, beans, and who knows what else...

Some other highlights from Luxor - the lovely, quiet, and painted streets...

...camels plodding along and the cafes...

...the boat ride from the east to west bank of Luxor, and the kind boat driver who rescued me from the pushy sellers and stopped for a tea halfway across the Nile to enjoy the sunset...

And, a stop at an alabaster factory, where they handcarve beautiful artwork and figures from the rocks from the surrounding desert.

 And then, an easy goodbye to Luxor for a flight back to Cairo (and a strange far drop off from the airport where I walked to the enterance in the silence of night with no people around - but, one of my favorite things about this country is how absolutely safe it is. 

The men are creepy and intense, but due to the strong religious roots, crime is almost non-existant - at least for tourists.) (Said because apparently if a woman sleeps with someone outside of marrage she could be shot in the street and no one will do anything about it. Eep.)

Now, just a few more weeks in Cairo, living, dancing, going to the gym. I attended a fun dance event with a girl I met at the crossfit competition a couple weeks ago, and it was so fun to have a little comfort of the Latin culture amonst the discomfort of the unknown Arab culture.

And that's about it. As of now, there are no more plans for tours, just back to work and trying to create a routine again after a month of nonstop.