June 2: Sakkara and Giza

No Internet…need I say more?

I’m really getting frustrated with not being able to connect in the café downstairs, and my roommate Meg (who is 42 or so) keeps saying, “Welcome to Egypt, you’re just going to have to get used to it.” SHE can get internet, so there’s no problem. I bet if the shoe was on the other foot she would be having as much of a problem with it as I am.

ANYWAY, this morning I got up at 6:50 or so, and got ready to go to the Pyramids. I got to ILI at about 7:15 and we left a little after 7:30 for Sakkara.

Sakkara is the place with the step pyramids, and I got a few pictures of that. It was hot…just like the rest of Egypt. We also went inside the more well preserved tombs in Sakkara to see the wall carvings and paintings. After traipsing around Sakkara for several hours, we drove back into Cairo, and ate at this really overpriced restaurant before we went off to Giza.

Giza is big…and filled with tourists. That’s one thing that I’m beginning to hate about Cairo. Everywhere there are tourists that don’t even TRY to speak Arabic, and tons of cheap merchandise that people try to sell you for 10 times what it actually costs.

I took pictures at the two larger Giza pyramids, and picked up some rocks for Mr. John. He wants to put them in his rock collection for the twins, so I got two…just in case. We went on a camel ride after that. Let me tell you what…riding a camel is fun. Riding a camel while trying to take pictures of other people riding camels…is not. I got some good pictures anyway (and I didn’t fall off) After the camels we went to see the Sphinx. That was cool…again, too many tourists for me to really enjoy it… Got some pictures close up.

After the Sphinx, we drove to a papyrus making shop, and saw how they make real papyrus. They had a lot of prints everywhere, but I didn’t really want to buy something, because the cheapest thing was 75 pounds=13.5 dollars, which is rather expensive in Cairo.

After that we went to the jewelry shop…that was another story. They had people that would put your name on a cartouche for a necklace…and I totally got one of those. Mine’s silver, with my name in hieroglyphics. I’ll put a picture of it here later. While I was waiting, a cute Egyptian guy talked to me for about 20 minutes. Our conversation was speckled with stuff like, “Do you have a boyfriend in America?” I have LEARNED that I am ALWAYS supposed to lie about this. It makes things go a lot easier, although the guys will still hit on you. I’ve never seen so many people constantly looking at my hands for a wedding ring…so weird. Maybe I should switch over my right hand ring to make this easier…

The older gentleman that was helping me brought over my necklace, “Are you married, Miss Errrrin?” “You are so nice, I can’t believe you are not married. If you lived in Egypt, you would be already married. Egyptian men treat you very good.” I just kept smiling and paid for my necklace, but not before the younger guy called my name and waved…AGAIN. Okay, all this attention is seriously boosting my self image, but in a weird ‘Marry me and take me back to America’ sort of way.

We got back on the bus and headed back to ILI. We are going to finish the trip to Khan el-Khalili Bazaar on Wednesday at 6:30 pm, because we were all exhausted, dehydrated, hungry, sun burnt, and any number of combinations thereof.

I got back to the apartment and washed out the half of the desert that had decided to tag along in my hair. Another futile attempt at the internet, and I’m back to writing this in Word to be transferred later. Super. I hate this.

I’m tempted to walk all the way down to the Pharaoh Egypt Hotel to get on the wireless there, but that’s a 15 minute walk…and it’s already dark. Probably not the best plan of action.

I think I’ll just watch Pride and Prejudice in my room and be all mopey because I can’t get on the internet. I’m too tired to do anything else.