Okay... so I've been home for over a month now, and I STILL haven't written anything about the last leg of my trip- Egypt. I know what you're thinking- I'm a total slacker!- and you're right... I have been meaning to do the final update on my blog for a month now, and I haven't. I don't have any good excuses... really what I've been doing for the last month is skiing... catching up with friends... more skiing... adjusting to being back home... oh and some more skiing! So, I would like to say thanks to those of you who have kept bugging me to write my final update, and sorry to those who have been feeling ignored by me lately. The truth is that it was a huge adjustment going back home. It sounds a bit ridiculous to say this, I know, considering I was only gone for 2 months, but this trip changed some things about me, and my views on the world, in ways that I am still trying to fully understand. I really have been sort of hiding in a hole since I've gotten home, just trying to figure out what my next step should be. I know that I would like to do some long-term volunteer work in Tibet or Nepal in the summer, but as far as what to do until then.... well, I'm just not sure where that road is going to lead. For right now, being a ski bum sounds pretty good to me! :)
Anyways, that's all kind of besides the point... let me tell you a bit about Egypt!
So, Egypt was my third and final adventure in Africa. It was a good transition back out of Africa, because the country as a whole was a bit more developed than many of the places I visited on other parts of the trip. I think that being in big cities again helped to lessened the culture shock transitioning back home from sub-Saharan Africa. I also had sooooo many amazing experiences on the trip. I think that I have said this in every blog entry that I have written, but I will say it again- there was just way too much to write about everything. We walked around the marketplaces in Cairo, traveled by night train to Aswan, visited a Nubian family for dinner and dancing, saw the pyramids and the Sphinx, traveled by felucca down the Nile, rode donkeys through the Valley of Kings, climbed to the top of Moses Mountain to see the sunrise, and relaxed on the beach at the Red Sea... it was an incredible trip.
The one thing that I really wasn't prepared for in Egypt was the fact that I would be traveling in a Muslim country. I knew in the back of my mind somewhere that Egypt is considered a part of the "middle east" but I definitely hadn't thought too much about how that might impact my experiences within the country. Truth be told, I was mostly envisioning pyramids, temples, and ancient ruins. The modern picture of Egypt wasn't something that I had given too much thought and it was, well.... not what I expected!
Now, don't get me wrong when I say this- there were plenty of temples and ruins to be seen and those were another absolutely amazing part of the trip. Seeing the temples filled me with a sense of awe and a connection with the past that I have never felt before, and is somewhat difficult to describe. It's absolutely insane to think of, and see the evidence of, how advanced the ancient Egyptians were. Standing in the middle of some of the temples that they built, I felt like I could just shut my eyes and see exactly what it must have looked like thousands of years ago. It was so amazing to me to see how well preserved the temples were. Many of them were incredibly well preserved, down to the paint on the walls, even after sitting in the desert for over 3000 years... soooo crazy! The temples definitely aren't without damage, though. Many of the temples that we visited were taken over and used as Coptic (early Christian) churches. The priests would chisel out the faces of the gods and goddesses depicted in the artwork throughout the temple. The temples were also torn apart in some places and the stone was used for building materials in other structures. All in all, however, the condition of these ruins is incredibly impressive. In any case, I could get in to the details of all the temples that we visited, and what their significance was to the ancient Egyptians, but that could get really boring. So, I think I'll focus more on modern-day Egypt. But, if you really want to know about the temples I visited, just let me know. I'm happy to tell you!
So... traveling in a Muslim country... like I said, that was really different. If you are a woman, and you are planning a trip to Egypt, get used to being stared at. From my observations, the women- IF you saw them on the streets at all- were covered pretty much from head to toe. It was something that was pretty weird... no really weird. Growing up in a country such as the US where women, for the most part, are treated equally as men, it was definitely culture shock to be thrown into a situation where women are, from my outsiders perspective, hidden away. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like we saw no women the entire time we were there, it's just that the overwhelming majority of people in public places were men. Men were the shop owners, cooks, waiters, bell-boys, hotel reception, tour guides, guards... basically anyone that we ran into on the trip that could be considered "working" was a man. The only time we saw women they were generally passing by from who-knows-where to who-knows-where.
I guess all of this doesn't seem too strange, and I suppose it wasn't too difficult to get used to, but it would really hit home in certain situations. For example, one day Brittany (one of my best friends who joined me on the trip), Jason (her brother), and I were all walking down the street. We ran in to some people on a few separate occasions that wanted to take my picture (not too many people with green eyes in Egypt I guess) and rather than asking me they would turn to Jason and ask to take my picture. It didn't really bother me at first, but after a few times of it happening, I definitely felt like I had a big sign that said "Property of This Guy" strapped to my forehead. Another time that it hit home was when we happened to wander into a party for the Governor of Alexandria. It's a long story as to how we got there, but we ended up chatting with all the high government officials in Alexandria, a city on the northern coast of Egypt. One of the guys that I ended up speaking with for a little bit was one of the religious leaders of the city. The person who invited us in to the party explained later that he was a "moderate" Muslim, and therefore was OK speaking with a woman-me. That was definitely a time where I said, "OK, this is really different from what I'm used to."
Another really interesting experience that we had in Egypt was being there during the "sacrifice feast" which is a holiday celebrating the sacrifice that Abraham made to God in the old testament of the bible. Basically every family buys a goat, cow, or sheep- whatever they can afford- and they slaughter it in memory of Abraham's sacrifice. The celebration lasts a few days, during which you can literally see streams of animal blood running down the streets of the major cities in Egypt. Most of the slaughtering happens inside the houses, usually in a bathroom where they can drain the blood, but some of the families choose to slaughter the animals outside and most of the cleaning of the animal- the gutting and washing out the carcass- is done outside so the smell of blood and raw meat literally fills the air everywhere you go. We happened to be in Alexandria during the sacrifice. One day we decided to take a public bus into the city from our hotel and after we got on, a group of guys walked on to the bus literally covered in blood, carrying a cow's head and bags full of raw meat. They plopped the cow's head onto the floor of the bus right in front of us. We just sat there for a while staring at this dead cow's head that was sliding around on the bus floor by our feet. Eventually the guys noticed us looking at it and we were able to ask them a bit about the festival. It was definitely one of the strangest things experiences of the trip.
Now, don't get me wrong when I say this- there were plenty of temples and ruins to be seen and those were another absolutely amazing part of the trip. Seeing the temples filled me with a sense of awe and a connection with the past that I have never felt before, and is somewhat difficult to describe. It's absolutely insane to think of, and see the evidence of, how advanced the ancient Egyptians were. Standing in the middle of some of the temples that they built, I felt like I could just shut my eyes and see exactly what it must have looked like thousands of years ago. It was so amazing to me to see how well preserved the temples were. Many of them were incredibly well preserved, down to the paint on the walls, even after sitting in the desert for over 3000 years... soooo crazy! The temples definitely aren't without damage, though. Many of the temples that we visited were taken over and used as Coptic (early Christian) churches. The priests would chisel out the faces of the gods and goddesses depicted in the artwork throughout the temple. The temples were also torn apart in some places and the stone was used for building materials in other structures. All in all, however, the condition of these ruins is incredibly impressive. In any case, I could get in to the details of all the temples that we visited, and what their significance was to the ancient Egyptians, but that could get really boring. So, I think I'll focus more on modern-day Egypt. But, if you really want to know about the temples I visited, just let me know. I'm happy to tell you!
So... traveling in a Muslim country... like I said, that was really different. If you are a woman, and you are planning a trip to Egypt, get used to being stared at. From my observations, the women- IF you saw them on the streets at all- were covered pretty much from head to toe. It was something that was pretty weird... no really weird. Growing up in a country such as the US where women, for the most part, are treated equally as men, it was definitely culture shock to be thrown into a situation where women are, from my outsiders perspective, hidden away. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like we saw no women the entire time we were there, it's just that the overwhelming majority of people in public places were men. Men were the shop owners, cooks, waiters, bell-boys, hotel reception, tour guides, guards... basically anyone that we ran into on the trip that could be considered "working" was a man. The only time we saw women they were generally passing by from who-knows-where to who-knows-where.
I guess all of this doesn't seem too strange, and I suppose it wasn't too difficult to get used to, but it would really hit home in certain situations. For example, one day Brittany (one of my best friends who joined me on the trip), Jason (her brother), and I were all walking down the street. We ran in to some people on a few separate occasions that wanted to take my picture (not too many people with green eyes in Egypt I guess) and rather than asking me they would turn to Jason and ask to take my picture. It didn't really bother me at first, but after a few times of it happening, I definitely felt like I had a big sign that said "Property of This Guy" strapped to my forehead. Another time that it hit home was when we happened to wander into a party for the Governor of Alexandria. It's a long story as to how we got there, but we ended up chatting with all the high government officials in Alexandria, a city on the northern coast of Egypt. One of the guys that I ended up speaking with for a little bit was one of the religious leaders of the city. The person who invited us in to the party explained later that he was a "moderate" Muslim, and therefore was OK speaking with a woman-me. That was definitely a time where I said, "OK, this is really different from what I'm used to."
Another really interesting experience that we had in Egypt was being there during the "sacrifice feast" which is a holiday celebrating the sacrifice that Abraham made to God in the old testament of the bible. Basically every family buys a goat, cow, or sheep- whatever they can afford- and they slaughter it in memory of Abraham's sacrifice. The celebration lasts a few days, during which you can literally see streams of animal blood running down the streets of the major cities in Egypt. Most of the slaughtering happens inside the houses, usually in a bathroom where they can drain the blood, but some of the families choose to slaughter the animals outside and most of the cleaning of the animal- the gutting and washing out the carcass- is done outside so the smell of blood and raw meat literally fills the air everywhere you go. We happened to be in Alexandria during the sacrifice. One day we decided to take a public bus into the city from our hotel and after we got on, a group of guys walked on to the bus literally covered in blood, carrying a cow's head and bags full of raw meat. They plopped the cow's head onto the floor of the bus right in front of us. We just sat there for a while staring at this dead cow's head that was sliding around on the bus floor by our feet. Eventually the guys noticed us looking at it and we were able to ask them a bit about the festival. It was definitely one of the strangest things experiences of the trip.
So, yea, Egypt was a bit different from the US. But I will say this, the people in Egypt that we met were absolutely amazing. Everyone was so nice and friendly and they all (well, the men and children at least) wanted to talk to you. It felt incredibly peaceful there- even the calls to prayer from the mosques, which woke us up at literally the crack of dawn every morning, made the big cities feel serene and calm. There was a kind of easiness about life there that made it relaxing. And their sense of humor... well let's just say that they're not afraid to make fun of themselves, or anyone else for that matter ("You from America? Nice to meet you! My name is Osama, I think you've been looking for me!" hahaha).
Bottom line, I would highly recommend going to Egypt. In fact, I highly recommend Africa in general. If anyone is thinking of going- GO! And take me with you! :)
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