Egitto

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!! I hope you have an amazing day and I love you.

side note: I added some pictures to my last post.

So...now to update on the rest of my vacation (first two days written about below)...So, after the day where we saw the pyramids we headed by train to Aswan. It was supposed to be like a 9 hour ride, and it turned into a 14/15 hour one. So, we got into Aswan and got to our hotel and then we were told we have 10 minutes until we need to leave again, so we quickly got ready and headed out. Oh, and this time our tour group expanded a bit--now besides me and my friends, there were also three British boys who joined our group. Our first stop was the unfinished obelisk, which was pretty lame. Just some rock partly cut out of a quarry. It was slightly interesting however, cos the ancient Egyptians had cut out the obelisk most of the way before they noticed its imperfection. So, thanks to this, egyptologists were able to learn how they would cut the obelisks from the stone. Also, it is believed that the obelisk was the intended mate for the Lateran Obelisk in Rome (which originally stood before the temple of Tuthmosis III at Karnak), so that's pretty cool, cos I well, I live there. Next we headed on over to Philae. The Temples of Philae were halfway submerged when a new dam was built in the area in the 70s, and when the government realized with the building of the new dam, the temples would be completely submerged, they were all relocated to nearby Aglika Island, which was landscaped to match the original site. Under Bishop Theodorus the temple was converted to a Christian church. Egypt was under the rule of Byzantium (I'm actually learning about all this in class right now!) and so, many of the images of the gods at this and other temples converted into churches where scratched out during iconoclasm. Even though it was cool seeing what I've been learning about, it made me pissed off that they would go and ruin these beautiful images. That night we went out to diner with the British boys. (pic: the temple of Isis at Philae)
The next day we woke up at 3 (after going to bed at 12:30) to catch the bus to Abu Simbel. I slept most of the way there and we arrived sometime around 7. Ramses II built the Sun Temple there and put four giant statues of himself out front to impress his power on the Nubians. On his birthday and anniversary of his coronation, the sun's rays reached deep into the mountain to illuminate the sanctuary in the back. Next to Ramses' temple is the Hathor Temple of Queen Nefertari (his wife). Next the bus took us to the High Dam, but that sounded really boring, and we weren't willing to waste the Euro to pay for it (yea, we are THAT cheap), so we got out of the bus and waited for it to come back. Then back to our hotel to pick up our stuff, and then we headed over to the Nile and jumped on a felucca with the boys, which is a wooden sailing boat that can hold about 10 people, plus a crew of 3. They are only allowed to sail on the Nile between sun rise and sun set, since there are no lights on them. There's a sheet draped over the top, so there is no standing room. We just crawled around the entire day, read books, sun bathed, and played cards. It was all really relaxing AND I didn't get sea sick, which was exciting. When we stopped right before sun set, Ingrid and I climbed up the bank to go pee, and we weren't up there for more than 30 seconds when, out of no where, two guys show up trying to sell us some necklaces. It's like, damnit, all I wanna do is take a leak, and this constant harassment of people trying to sell me junk jewelry for obscene amounts of money never ends. After dark, the captain offered to take some of us into town and so, a couple of us went with. Our captain asked one of the people who lived there if we could use their toilet, and it was just a hole in the ground. Nasty. That night we slept on the felucca. (pics: Ramses II's temple at Abu Simbel, us on the felucca, and sunset over Nile taken from felucca)
The next day we woke up, ate, and then were lead by the captain to a road, a bus showed up and we were told to get in. The whole ordeal was funny. Cos if I hadn't had complete trust in the tour coordinator, I probably would have been freaked out. Even though a lot of people spoke English, many didn't speak it very well and after the first day where the coordinator went over with us what was gonna happen, we were never really told where we were going or what we were doing. We were just passed off from person to person, without any real grasp on what the hell was going on. So, the bus first stopped of at Kom Ombo. There at the Temple of Haroeris and Sobek I was asked to by the ticket guy if I would marry him. I agreed, providing that he gave me my change. So, mom and dad, I guess I'm betrothed. Next to the temple was the Chapel of Hathor where there were some creepy mummified crocodiles in a case, that was pretty cool. Then we headed on over to Edfu to the Temple of Horus, and then on to Luxor. Before entering the area around Luxor, we (as well as all other tourist buses/taxis) were stopped. Turns out that like 10 days prior there was a terrorist bombing in the area, directed at tourists. So, to enter Luxor, all tourists had to go in a police convoy. One police car led the way and another one followed all the buses. We were the last bus, so we also got a police officer in our front seat, holding a very scary and large gun. When we finally got into Luxor, we had an hour to eat and shower, and then headed out and picked up a new tour buddy, Nick and then on to the temple complex of Karnak. It was HUGE. Three separate temples and was built over a time span of 1,300 years. It was really cool and beautiful. After that we hit up Luxor Temple, yet another beautiful temple. There some Egyptian guy tried to buy us off of Nick (the kid we met on our tour) for some number of camels, which was…really funny. (temple of Karnak, jumping pic of Cossella, Nick and me in front of temple of Luxor, Temple of Luxor by night)

The next day my friends and I and Nick first saw the Colossi of Memnon. This large pair of enthroned statues originally stood in front of the mortuary temple of Amenophis III, and are all that is left. They were kinda boring. Then we headed to Hatshepsut’s temple. Many of the images of her were destroyed by the pharaoh who followed her (because she had kinda kicked him out as pharaoh and took it over. But in the images that were left, she was shown as a man, which she used to legitimize her position of power. In 1997, 58 tourists and 4 guards were shot or stabbed to death by terrorists there. The killers nearly got away, but the driver of the car they hijacked deliberately crashed it and then they were chased down by villagers…while it took an hour for the police to arrive on scene. After we went to the Valley of the Kings, where many of the pharaohs were buried (Queen Hatshepsut was the only woman buried there). We paid extra money to go into King Tut’s tomb. I really only paid extra cos I remember my mom telling me about him when I was first learning about Egypt in elementary school and I figured that well, I just had to do it. Funny thing is that Tut’s tomb is very small. He died at the age of just 19 and suddenly, so they didn’t have a whole lot of time to build a tomb. It is actually believed that they just cleared out someone else’s and stuck him in there. Also, he didn’t really do anything with his life, and is really only famous because his tomb had been un-looted and was found as it was when he was buried there. His tomb was preserved because another one was built on top of it. We also got to go into 3 other tombs (there are 60-someodd there but they only let you into a couple, on a rotating schedule to help preserve them). The other tombs were way more impressive than Tut’s, but all of them were beautiful. Then we headed on over to the Valley of the Queens, where the queens and the kids of the pharaoh’s were buried. But only like 8 tombs are there. We ended up going into two of them, and they were pretty cool. That night we caught a train back to Cairo. (temple of Hatshepsut, me at King Tut's tomb, panoramic of Valley of the Kings)

Our last day we took it easy and went to the bazaars and shopped a bit. All in all, a great trip. It was the most different place I’ve ever been. Arabic sounds nothing like any language I’ve ever studied and the culture is much different. Also seeing the extreme poverty there made me realize even more so how privileged I am. We saw people living in cement buildings with the walls broken away and no roofs. I had never seen poverty to that degree or so prevalent, it’s really an eye opener. Also, I realized how lucky I am that for the most part I usually feel very safe, cos even though for the most part I felt safe there, sometimes I didn’t. Like, hearing all the stories of terrorist bombings and shootings and what not was nerve-wracking. But I ended up seeing things that I never even imagined I would see in person, and fulfilled a dream that I’ve had since I was a little little kid. It feels so good to know that I could do all this too. Survive in a country where I don’t speak the language, don’t understand the customs, and no nobody. I don’t know, it made me feel kinda accomplished. I like knowing that I can take care of myself. I’m so happy that I tested my limits, I feel like I’ve grown so much over the last couple of months because I have continually done so.

S