We were picked up by our hostel when we landed in Cairo. The seat belts in the back were purely decorative - we were quite amused.
Gad is a local fast food chain. We ended up eating dinner there all three nights we spent in Cairo.
We stopped at a street cafe so Tony could get some tasty fruit juice.
Cairo is a very busy city - it's population is a lot larger than NYC.
We tried stuffed pigeon. I didn't like it. In addition to being rather gamey, there wasn't much actual meat on the bird.
The next day we went to Coptic Cairo and saw the Hanging Church.
There was some really old art (18AD) in the Church, that was neat to see.
We also saw Roman ruins. Those Romans went everywhere!
We took the Metro out of Coptic Cairo.
After seeing Coptic Cairo we wandered around Downtown Cairo in search of lunch.
After a lot of wandering and pointing from helpful strangers and unhelpful touts, we came across Abu Tariq, a koshary restaurant.
Koshary is a traditional Egyptian lunch. It's made from rice, spaghetti, macaroni, lentils, chickpeas, browned onions, tomato sauce and garlic oil. It's really delicious.
Lunch was followed by a guided tour of the Cairo Museum of Antiquities. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside.
That evening we caught a Sufi Dancing (Whirling Dervishes) show.
Cairo was full of cats and Dave loved seeing them.
We stayed in Islamic Cairo, close to the Khan el Khalil market. We wandered through the market each day in Cairo. This is a picture of the spice store we got scammed at. It's not a good idea to let your guard down when faced with Egyptians who speak English well and seem friendly!
There was a street full of mosques near our hostel. It was the cleanest street I saw in Cairo and we saw couples holding hands and taking pictures as they strolled down the street.
Yvonne & Luke had flown in the night before and here we all are with the sphinx.
After the pyramids and another lunch at Abu Tariq, we went for a sunset sail on the Nile in a felucca.
On our way out of Downtown Cairo we happened across the Canadian Embassy.
That evening we went to a cafe for tea and hookah. This kid really wanted Yvonne to buy something from him.
Our time in Cairo was at an end and Dave, Tony and I set off for the Sahara (Yvonne & Luke went to Aswan). There was a lot of bumpy driving and Gravol was my friend.
My other friend was chips. We generally had breakfast in the desert around 7 am, lunch at 3 and dinner at 8. By the end of our time in Egypt I was quite sick of chips.
Sand! Nothing but sand to see and nothing but each other to hear. It was really neat to be so removed.
The black desert was formed by magma rocks from volcanoes.
Crystal mountain isn't really a mountain but it does have crystals in it.
Sea shells from 40 million years ago embedded in calcium rock formations.
Our driver and guide set up camp for the night. We had sleeping bags on top of the cushions and blankets for additional warmth.
We didn't see any "walk like an Egyptian" art while we were in Egypt. Our guide told us that Egyptians didn't walk like that nowadays and that type of walk was a form of prayer.
Mmm BBQ chicken.
A camp fire to warm our feet by.
Sand angels don't work as well as snow angels.
El Bahriya oasis.
7th Century ruins.
Lunch in the desert was not a fancy affair...
Playing tag in the morning to warm up.
So many sea shells in the desert!
The Valley of the Whales is a national park and active archeological site in the desert.
The fossils discovered here helped scientists figure out that whales were land mammals that went back to the sea.
We loved the rock formations found in the desert. They're all so different and beautiful.
A man-made waterfall feeding a man-made lake.
On our way out of the desert we stopped to help some people who were stuck in the sand. Having 4 wheel drive is convenient.
We also stopped by the Saqqara pyramids. These aren't in very good shape but they're the first pyramids to have been built.
Dave had some sketchy liver sandwich street food. Tony and I were more sketched out by it being liver than it being street food and passed up on it.
Our next stop was Luxor, where we took a tour of the West Bank, which started at the Colossi of Memnon. These are statues of the grandfather of Tutankhamen. They mark an entrance to a temple - the temple was destroyed in an earthquake.
The guide for our West Bank trip took us to an alabaster factory where we got to see how alabaster jars were made in pharonic times. Mostly the workers sat around and smoked sheeshah but when the guide was talking about their role they'd demonstrate.
We went to Queen Hatshepsut's temple. Unlike the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, we were allowed to take pictures here. That's probably because most of the temple was destroyed by the Queen's enemies after her death.
If this is the poorly preserved art you can imagine what the well-preserved tombs of the Pharaohs looked like.
That evening we went to Luxor temple.
The next morning we took a guided tour of the Karnak Temple Complex.
And then went to have a last look at the Nile before heading to Dahab.
Dahab is a very resorty town, full of Eastern Europeans there to snorkel and dive.
The cats in Dahab are a lot fatter than the cats in Cairo.
That's probably because they're so well fed from the remains of all the delicious fish dinners tourists buy.
Tony, Luke & Dave all went for shaves. They got more than their beards done (neck hair, ear hair, nose hair, eyebrows...)
Dave, Tony & I hiked up Mount Sinai to watch the sunrise.
And then we got to hike down again.
Goats in the street!
