Egypt here we come!

All of the preparation for Egypt that SAS was giving us was not looking good. It's their job to prepare us for the worst so they were kind of telling us horror stories about hustlers, robbery, camel-napping, scary taxis, and terrorists. So when Kate and I stepped out of the port onto the streets of Alexandria we were wearing our most conservative clothing and had our game faces on, ready to walk to the train station to travel to Cairo. We met up with some SAS boys outside of the port and all agreed to go to Cairo together.

Egypt has the most crazy streets and drivers that I've ever seen. Cairo was the worst, but even in Alexandria there were no lines, no crosswalks, no streetlights. we were all on our own to cross the streets and we learned quickly that we just had to step out in front of the streams of oncoming traffic, walk in front of buses, and in general "walk like an Egyptian" (as a guy in Cairo admiringly called after me as I took on a line of taxis).

So after a rather hectic stroll through the slightly-sketchy city of Alexandria, we found the train station, navigated buying our train tickets with a woman who only spoke Arabic, and made our way into the station. The trains waiting at the platforms were of an indeterminite color that may have been yellow at one time, but were now indistinguishable under their thick layers of grime, and didn't seem to have any doors or windows filling the holes in their walls. Luckily we bought first class tickets so our train was nicer and even had air-conditioning. However, we were slightly put off by te sight that greeted us when we walked towards the platforms. The whole far wall of the station was filled with train cars that were smashed up against the end wall, their remnants reaching up to the ceiling of the station and the platform and vendors stalls demolished between them and the wall. At first I thought that it was a rather odd piece of modern art, but the police and workers blockading that area and working on cleaning up the wreckage combined with the crowds of people behind the blockade taking photos quickly helped me to realize that this was a real train wreck. We didn't have much time to contemplate the state of public transportation in Egypt as we sprinted past the wrecked cars and onto our train. As we pulled out of the Alexandria station we saw machinery going in the opposite direction to remove the evidence of the accident.

It was an almost four hour ride south through the Nile River delta from Alexandria to Cairo. Every empty space of the landscape was filled with crops, taking advantage of the only major source of water in all of Egypt. The Egyptian countryside is so different from anything that I've ever seen before, which makes it really hard to describe. People had said that Rome and Athens were dirty, but they have nothing on what I saw of Egypt. There was trash filling the streets and overflowing from the area beside the train tracks. The brightly colored shutters stood out strongly from their sand-colored buildings. The small villages had what looked like palm branches piled on top of the walls of their buildings as roof thatching. The irrigation canal next to the tracks had palm trees along its banks that small children played under and old wooden boats tied up to its banks. People were transporting their goods on the backs of camels and on their mopeds on the small dirt roads next to the canal. The brilliant greeness of the land was not what we had associated with Egypt, but made sense with being in the delta area.

When we reached Cairo we decided to walk downtown to our hotel. I literally had my compass out the whole time, directing us in the right direction over the broken cobbled sidewalks and through the trash. We got to work on our street-crossing skills as we walked through the busy streets of Cairo. The local taxis were overflowing with people, little boys played soccer under a highway overpass, and as we passed people they said "Welcome! Welcome to Egypt!"

We found our hotel on the sixth floor of a shopping center in the women's shopping district of downtown Cairo after an extensive adventure through the streets. The Egyptian way of life seems to be much more relaxed that what we're used to; after a long time relaxing and talking with our hosts, getting transferred to a different (nicer) hotel, and resting some more we finally made it to our rooms in time to set our bags down and leave for the Sound and Light Show at the Giza Pyramids.

Cairo has 22 million residents and is the largest city in Africa. Due to its massive size, there are no traffic laws and there is a large amount of pollution. It's situated at the base of the Nile River delta. Cairo is only the part of the urban area east of the Nile River, west of the river is Giza City with the main occupation of its 7 million residents being tourism associated with the Great Pyramids.

Our driver of the private car we rented took us to Giza City where we enjoyed the most amazing fresh, chilled mango juice at a local cafe before going to see the show. (Even Kate, who never liked mango before, loved it!) At Giza the massive pyramids dominated the night skyline with the moon hanging white above them and the stars shining through the murky sky. The show was like a sci-fi bonanza with the orchestra music coinciding perfectly with the laser light show. It was very other-worldly with the pyramids the only visible sight against the backdrop of the Sahara. They seemed like large spaceships, getting ready to take off into the night sky. It was interesting to hear the history of the pyramids and the ancient rulers of Egypt and relaxing in the warm night air watching the beautifully lit pyramids were a great way to end our first day in Egypt.

After returning to Cairo we walked across the Nile to explore one of the islands in its middle. We had drinks and desserts at a restaraunt on the waterfront. I tried the traditional om-ali, an Egyptian speciality of rice baked with milk, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, and nuts. It was delicious. Small boats lit up with multi-colored lights and blasting dancing music filled the river. On our walk back to the hotel I was very surprised at the massive amounts of people out that late at night, by this point it was almost two in the morning. Whereas in the European countries that we have been visiting most people at this point of the evening had made their way to bars or dance clubs, the streets of Cairo were filled with people. The bridges were lined with groups, mostly men, talking and watching people walk past. It was basically a party in the streets. The shops were in full swing and the street vendors were still hustling their goods; there were more people out shopping than we had seen in the afternoon. Children were playing in groups and families were out enjoying the evening air (it was still rather warm out). There were even a good amount of mothers with their babies who were out and about. However, most of the people we saw were men. All of the women were with at least one male and every other woman we saw, besides one, had at least her head covered completely. Kate and I, with our uncovered blonde hair, were definitely attracting a lot of attention, but it seemed to be interest in our difference instead of hostility. It had definitely been a long day by the time we collapsed into our beds back at Cairo Central.