Egypt, Continued

Hello Everyone!



We are finally back in civilization,after 5 days in the Sahara desert. Although I am writing this to you from a computer in the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, I am still not able to upload photos. Seriously though, at this point I don't even have a clue what picture to post because first of all, we have so many, and second of all, they don't come close to capturing the awe-factor off what Egypt has show us.



Here is a brief rundown of what and where we have done and seen: We have been to the cities of Cairo, Aswan, Luxor and Alexandria and the desert oasis' of Daklah, Farafrah, Bahariyyah and Siwa. We have been to the pyramids, the Egyptian Museum, Edfu Temple, Kom-Ombo Temple, Abu Simbil Temple, Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple (yes the one from the show Legends of the Hidden Temple), The Valley of the Kings, The Valley of the Queens, The tomb of Ramses VI, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple and now the Library of Alexandria. We have floated down, and spent a night on, the nile in a faluca (sailboat), witnessed a sandstorm, had a traditional dinner with a Nubian family in Aswan, ridden camels and donkeys, relaxed in a natural cold spring and a natural hot spring, camped under the stars in the Sahara desert, off-roaded the sand dunes in 4x4 jeeps, sandboarded the steepest dunes we could find, hiked a volcanic mountain, ridden bikes through palm tree forests, and bartered for everything we could imagine including toilet paper. I'm sure there's more but my memory just can't recall it all now. Oh yeah, we have also eaten more pita, rice, soup and tomato than you could shake a stick at.

As was said in the last post,the people are unbelievably nice and there has not been one moment where we (or anyone in our group) has felt threatened. Do not believe for a second that Egypt is not safe for Americans and immediately add it to your list of places to see. Just like anywhere in the world, you just have to be aware of your surroundings and think things through . Ok, enough lecture...

We have soooooo many stories to share, it is almost impossible to pick one. I will say though that camping under the stars in the Sahara was beyond amazing. From the sunset to the sunrise, there were so many moments where we just turned to each other and all we were able to get out was "wow". There were so many stars you didn't even have to look up to see them; they filled the entire sky all the way to the horizon. The light of our campfire was the only sign of civilization for as far as the binocular-clad eye could see in 360 degrees.

We have three more days here in Egypt and then it's off to our next adventure which shall be in Istanbul. We passed out 2 month, and almost half-way marker the other day so both of us are feeling the lows of trael - craving a bean and cheese buritto like no other, and the higs of travel - meeting people and feeling like anything and anywhere is possible to experience.

Salam!