YAY! Home has never seemed so sweet.
Egypt was most definitely an experience. If you've never been to Cairo, a city with 20 million inhabitants with 3 million coming in a day to work, you won't understand how busy it is. There are cars and people everywhere - I thought London was bad and it's nothing in comparison. However, the roads have no marked lanes, there are no zebra crossings or traffic lights, people don't have to wear seatbelts or have a helmet when riding a bike. The police seem oblivious to the general chaos and complete lack of safety precautions. Horns toot
continually, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No one has any care for anyone else on the road. Children play on the streets and in the road; we were in a traffic jam and two boys were clinging to the back of this massive lorry so that when it moved off they would be carried away with it. It's insane. The buildings themselves appear unfinished, although that's not the case. The religious buildings seem to be the only ones which are given any care at all. In the 'farming' part of the city, families like to live together and since they can't buy any more land they just build upon the house they already have. They're like real life versions of those wooden playhouse sets you used to get from Early Learing Centre, [sorry to the non-Brits who will be confused. It's a toyshop for children up to the age of about 10] whereby you bought a room, essentially a box, and stacked them until you had a house. That's exactly what they were like. No doors, no windows, just a heck load of bricks and cement.
That said, when we reached the hotel it was utter bliss. All marble and gold, porters to take your bags and security men abound. We arrived at about midnight and slept very well that night since it had been a really long day. Nothing worth noting happened the next day [Wednesday] as we had a pool day. Thursday we went to the Egyptian museum which must have been the hottest and equally fascinating place in Egypt. We had a tour guide who talked and walked at a mile a minute, taking us from thing to thing and taking in a monologue that had long been practiced in front of the mirror. She took us to a perfumery afterwards, where a man told us everything we'd never wanted to know about making perfume, and then proceeded to try and make us spend £700 on the stuff. A trip to a bazaar followed, as well as a visit to a papyrus-making place where we were stalked around the shop juuust in case we chose to buy anything. Their whole culture and way of selling was totally and utterly bizarre to us, it has to be said. The constant requests for tips, the stalking, the haggling and bartering...so very, very different.
Thursday evening brought a Nile cruise which gave us all bad stomaches, and on Friday we went to see the pyramids and sphynx. It was
amazing to see the pyramids, I had no idea just how huge they were. We all felt kind of ill and so we didn't venture inside any of them, but just seeing them from the outside was brilliant. Our hotel was pretty much opposite the pyramids and we could see it from the hotel grounds, and from a distance things are never quite as big as they seem. So boy was it a superb experience. The sphynx was equally brilliant, so massive, once again. On the same day we also travelled to Sharm El Sheikh, to a hotel complex which was like Butlins with sun. The Hilton company should be ashamed of the general disarray and lack of hygiene found in the rooms. Needless to say, we were not best pleased since both the hotel in Cairo and the hotel in Sharm had been given 5 stars. The Hilton was most definitely
not.
Nothing worth noting happened in Sharm so I won't bore you with the details. It was most certainly an experience to visit Egypt, not one I'd ever like to do again. The airport at Cairo was
bedlam, we waited in queues for so long we thought we would miss our flight. And to think it's like that every day! So yes, lovely green, wet, almost-cold England is heavenly in comparison to the heat and harassment in Egypt. Yay for Britain!
Ok, my rant over. Go and see the pyramids and stuff, just don't stay there for more than a week. My pictures will follow soooooon.
I was tagged by
so here it is. If you want to do it, then do it. I don't like tagging people individually. xD
Rules:
If you are tagged, you must:
1. Post these rules.
2. Each person tagged must post 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Tags should write a journal/blog of these facts.
4. At the end of the post, 8 more persons are tagged and named.
5. Go to their page and leave a comment, telling them they're tagged.
Random facts:
1. I love cinnamon buns thanks to my dear friend,
2. I collect quotes.
3. I am currently reading Richardson's 'Clarissa' as well as 'Gentlemen & Players' by Joanne Harris.
4. I only wear silver jewellery, never gold.
5. I am asthmatic.
6. I don't like sun/heat.
7. I am unhappy with my AS results.
8. I have never read the Narnia books.
~ Ladybird Lauder.
P.S. I had 160 deviations and 35 messages when I came back - not bad at all!
Tired
I feel honoured.
Excited
Joy
