TRIP ONE: Egypt Day 2

Day two started out with a 5am wakeup call thanks to our local mosque and its call to prayer followed by a nice warm shower and a quick packing of bags.  Everyone headed downstairs to grab some breakfast and check out.  Before we got on our tour bus, everyone decided upon which optional tours we wanted to go on.  Genevieve and I decided to do just about everything because, as the kids say, when in Egypt!  Or is it Rome?  Whatever.

Everyone hopped on the bus and we headed toward The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.  It turns out that this museum is located in the very heart of Tahrir Square, which happens to be where all the protests began on January 25th, 2011.  We proceeded to tour the museum, learning about Egyptian sculptures and the different Egyptian gods they depicted.  When we got upstairs in the museum, we went into the King Tut room and saw the actual gold mask that sat on his coffin 3500 years ago!  Once the shock wore off, Genevieve and I headed off to find the room of mummified animals -- I KNOW, RIGHT!?  We saw everything from mummified cattle organs to mummified 14' long crocodiles.  It was absolutely incredible.

After we left the museum, we all proceeded to the bus -- except for Liv and Ben, but they like to live dangerously.  We drove through central Cairo on the way to Giza, which is just over the Nile.  As we were passing over the bridge, Genevieve took a picture of one of the lion statues that guards the bridge.  These lions have been seen all over the news during the Egyptian protests because this area of the city acted as a rallying point.

Once we passed over the bridge, we drove down Pyramid Avenue toward Giza.  After a few minutes driving down the strip, we came upon the pyramids.  Wow.  This is the view that we had from the bus as we drove up to the entrance gate.

I could go on about day two of our trip for pages, but I'll try and keep it short.  So I'm going to just put up a slew of pictures and let you guys pour over them because my words won't be able to do any of it justice.  For the record, YES, we were allowed to climb on the pyramids because there was awful security due to the recent political instability.  There's always a silver lining!

After climbing on the pyramids and taking the pictures of a lifetime, we all hopped on some camels and took a camel tour out into the desert to some more pyramid pictures.  I would be lying if I said riding a camel wasn't the scariest thing I've ever done in my life.  That being said, if you ever get the chance to ride a camel, DO IT!  It was so exciting and may have been my favourite part of the entire trip.

After spending all day around the pyramids, Sherif brought us to a traditional Egyptian restaurant for dinner where we had a four course dinner full of falafel, hummus, pickled vegetables, grilled chicken, rice, and a myriad of other food that I can't remember.  Oh, and we had the most delicious fresh mango juice!  After dinner, Sherif spent a few minutes smoking sheesha and a few people on the tour found bumper cars around the restaurant and decided to give them a shot.  Once everyone was full, finished smoking, and finished bumping cars, we all boarded the tour bus and headed off to the train stop.

Not too long after arriving at the train station did we board the train.  I was absolutely exhausted, so once we got on the train, I just wanted to go to bed.  However, after bringing our bags to our car, some bellhop walked into our cabin and threw Genevieve's bag up in an overhead storage space.  Immediately after, we saw that upturned palm and heard "money?"  WE DIDN'T WANT OUR BAG UP THERE.  PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE.  But we were too polite and hadn't become numb to the whole "give me money" culture yet, so we ended up tipping him and I immediately took Genevieve' bag back down so she could get her pajamas.

I just wanted to turn the couch into a bed and go to sleep.  But I couldn't, because we had to let the cabin crew come through and serve us dinner, which Sheriff told us we weren't allowed to eat.  After we didn't eat our dinner, we had to wait for the cabin crew to come by and take away our dinner trays.  About a half hour after our dinner was taken away, the cabin crew came through and turned our couch into bunk beds so we had more room for activities!  I don't remember much else from that night because I passed out immediately once I climbed into the top bunk.  I slept like a baby, which was good because we had a big ahead of us tomorrow!