Egypt Trip - Days 1 & 2

Sat, July 24th
As grad school finished up, I awoke exhausted and scrambled to get my gear sorted and packed up in time. Literally, just making the bus, I sad goodbye to Rouen. It was a bitter sweet end to three great summers spent with my MAET cohort. I was really happy to graduate, having accomplished quite a lot. And the graduation itself was amazing. Honestly, it was the best graduation that I've ever been to. Small and personal, we ate, drank, and danced the night away. So as can be imagined, as I rode the train to Paris, I felt sad in a way, knowing that I would never again see the whole group together again.


After flights to Istanbul and then Cairo, both in which I slept most of the way, I hoped into a cab. It was a long day, as I finally arrived to the Wake Up! Cairo Hostel at about 4:15 am. The hostel was sketchy...


Sun, July 25th
I woke up and the hostel was not as rough looking by day. On the inside, it was small, but the people (especially Heidi) who ran it were nice and the other travelers were cool too. The outside of the hostel, though, was still pretty rough looking. I woke up surprisingly early and hit the town for some sightseeing. Hoping a subway train to Old Cairo, I saw the Hanging Church, Coptic Museum, and some religious building that I can't name. The church was nice, the museum was pretty darn boring, and the religious building wasn't much to talk about. But then I wandered through old town and that was great. Small, winding alleys, dotted with shops, churches/temples/synogogues, and homes.

Next up was a trip to the Citadel. Rising above the city, it provided a great view through the smog. The complex housed the Mohammed Ali mosque, the alabaster mosque, and a military museum. Nothing too exciting, so I was soon off to my final destination of the day, the Egyptian museum. Large and dusty, it looked in some ways like a cluttered attic or basement. But as I moved through it I soon found the Tutankaman section. Although his mummy is not here, they do have a number of the artifacts found at the site.

The day ended with a trip back to the hostel and a food stop at Abou Tarak, to get a local dish, Khoushry. I mis of two types of pasta, rice, tomato sauce, fried onions, hot sauce, and seasoned lemon juice, it's cheap (1 USD), filling, and good.

OK, that's it for now, but I'll be updating again ASAP.