November 8th To the Mosques

So today we went to a few different mosques. My favorite part about this is that some of the girls didn't meet the "dress requirement" of the mosque and so therefore had to wear these cape looking dresses with hoods over their clothes. It was really funny. Here is my friend Lia:

Also, you are supposed to take your shoes off. Which I thought was kinda fun actually :)

We also visited Old Cairo, otherwise known as Coptic Cairo. We went a few different churches including the St. George Church.

Pyramids of Giza November 7th

After sleeping on the sleeper train, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it through the day. But I kept positive because today we went to see the awesome pyramids, sphinx and step pyramid! Our first stop was the Pyramids of Giza. While we were driving, you could see the pyramids from almost anywhere...

Ki-ops is the largest "great pyramid" and has about 2.3 million blocks. One block is a minimum of 8 ton.  It is the tallest man-made structure for over 3000 years. It was built during the 3rd and 4th dynasty. Each pyramid took around 20 years to build. 20 YEARS! Can you imagine that? I would be very impatient. For all three pyramids, it took a total of 65 years. I found this to be interesting: The builders were farmers of Egypt. What they would look for before building would be 1) high ground 2) strong bed rock 3)close to their house and 4) edge of the green valley. Some of our group wanted to go into one of the tombs, but Ashlee and I opted not to because we were told there really isn't anything in there. So instead, we tried to take some cool pictures with the pyramids. Then this vendor came and took over her camera and started taking awesome pictures for us. It was hilarious. After he helped us, we looked at what he was selling and both bought a necklace from him :) Then when we were walking back to the bus, this man came up to us trying to sell us a statue and claimed "but my mother made it last night..." hahaha. We died laughing so hard right in his face! Then Ashlee got out her camera and made him say his sales pitch to us again. And he did and we got it on video...HILARIOUS. We laughed the whole day about it.

one of the cool pictures the vendor helped us out with :)

besties :)

Then we went to the museum that was at the pyramids. We were able to see one of the ancient boats there. It was one of the boats that would take the dead kings' body and coffin from where they lived to where they were buried (sometimes in the pyramids). This particular boat was found in 1954 and was 120ft by 120 ft. It is considered the second biggest finding after the tomb of king Tut. I thought that was very interesting...

After this, we went to the sphinx! This is the largest monumental statue. It was built by Khafra in 2500 B.C. I found it interesting that it is missing it's beard and nose. Apparently that means that it was added later, and must have fallen off. There are different theories for the reasons of that.

Notice my new necklace? :)

Last stop for the day: The step pyramid! The step pyramid is the oldest stone structure on earth. Crazy huh?

Then tonight we went to the papyrus shop where we got a demonstration on how they make papyrus! It was so neat! Then we got to look around. There were some really pretty designs that I liked a lot. After that, we still had time to kill before we went to Osmans house for dinner, so we decided to go to a cotton shop! Here, I bought two bandanas that I will use to wear around my neck :) They are really egyptian looking, and I love them! Then we finally went to Osmans appartment and met his wife and three kids! They were so nice and the food was delicious! We all crammed in there and sang for church and also had communion. It was a really great night.

Free Day November 6th

This was our last day on the cruise ship, and we didn't really have anything planned for the day other than our next sleeper train that night. So we got our own free day to do what we wanted. They planned a boat ride that cruised the Nile, where we could see some of the villages from the boat. It was really fun and we sang and danced again! More kids came up to our boat and sang to us and we all just had a fun time :) We sang church songs and everything.

Then we just hung out on the boat the rest of the day. I met some Australian boys who were really nice and funny and a few of us talked to them for a while. After that, Ashlee, Monica and I just talked for a while before we had to get ready to go to the sleeper train. Once we got on the sleeper train, Kalie and I thought that it was going to be better than the last. This sleeper train was actually bigger and had enough leg room to have our feet and suitcase both on the ground at the same time! Haha..but seriously. However, the night was horrible. I barely slept. I even took two benedryl thinking that it would help knock me out. It did for a while, but then I woke up around 3 or 4 in the morning and there were so many things knocking around that I couldn't even sleep at all. Then apparently the guy driving didn't know how to stop very well because every time he would stop I would be moving in my bed like crazy from the momentum. I hated it. Oh well...

Camel Riding November 5th

Our first stop today was going to the dams in egypt. I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't write anything down about them because I was really tired this morning and I also had to go to the bathroom super bad so I was not able to concentrate. But, I do have pictures! Then we headed off to the Temple of Philae. To get here, we took another little boat. This temple was built to the goddess Isis. It lasted over three different centuries and is the holiest site for Isis worshipers.

Later that afternoon, we took a boat ride to a Nubian Island. On the boat ride, the man steering the boat played drums and sang egyptian songs to us while we sang and danced a long. It was so much fun! Then, out of no where, this little boy on his water toy came to our boat and held on to the boat while we were moving and sang to us too. He sang a few egyptian songs and then also sang his version of "row row row your boat." It was the cutest thing ever! I got a video of it too :) Once we got to the island, we immediately saw the camels that we were going to ride. Of course Ashlee and I rode together. It was hilarious. She got on first, and then I got on behind her. It was hard to lift my legs up that high to jump on it though. Once we were on, the man helping us told us to lean back...we did hesistantly because we were not sure what to expect. However, we soon learned that we should have leaned back more because when the camel stood up it stood up on it's back legs first and then flung us forward...it was so funny. I took a video while we were on the camel too.

The man told us that the camels name was mickey mouse. The ride was really fun but when we were going either up hill or down hill, it really felt like we were going to fall off. There were also times where our camel would run into the other camels. Once we got to the Nubian Village, we got off the camels and went to this ladies house. It was really awesome to see the vast difference in how those people live. She made us tea, and also gave the girls henna (I didn't want to get any).

ashlee's henna :)

this is the ladies house :)

Carriage Rides and Dumpsters November 4th

Today we wake up and learn that instead of using the bus to get to our next temple that we are going to visit, we are instead going to have a carriage ride. Fun, safe, and relaxing right? Hahah. Our driver was crazy. Basically he wanted to race all the other carriages and risked our lives for it. Well maybe not really, but basically he did. We almost ran into a car and instead of running into the car, he had to move quickly so the back of us ran into a dumpster and totally knocked the thing out into the street. It was hilarious though. This ride took us to the Temple of Horace or also known as Temple of Edfu. Here, we learned the seven steps to make a tomb. 1) Dig. 2) Layer. 3) Decorate. 4) Turn black. 5) Carve. 6) Details. 7) Paint.

After this, we headed back to the ship and had lunch. Then in the afternoon we went to go to the Temple of Komombo. Here, there were some vendors that were being incredibly annoying and very pushy. We had to be very firm with them. The sunset here was beautiful and we got some pictures with it too.

After that we went back to the ship, had dinner, and later that night has a praise session on the deck of the boat. It was so beautiful just to sing as we cruised a long the Nile. Some of the people from the boat came and joined us, it was really awesome.

Temples and more Temples Nov. 3rd

So we woke up this morning, had a really nice breakfast. Then we headed off by bus to the Temple of Karnak. This temple was pretty cool. It was a lot bigger than the other Temples that we had been to so far. I was kinda upset because I forgot my sunglasses today and the sun was giving me a headache. Also, I never want to drink too much because there are few stops that we are able to go to the bathroom, and half the time they don't have toilet paper. Basically going to the bathroom in Egypt is a hassle. Anyways, this temple started in the 12th dynasty. This temple includes a very famous hypostyle hall that is "one of the world's greatest architectural places." It is actually considered the 8th wonder of the world. The Hypostyle hall was a section that was only for the priests. One thing that I thought was really interesting was at the front of the temple were two rows on each side of you of statues of rams. Underneath the chins of the rams were little statues of Ramses II.

this is some of the columns in the hypostyle hall

 Here at this temple is also where they have this "good luck cherub" that we walked around. Tradition has it that if you walk around it 3 times you'll be rich, 5 times you'll get married, and 7 times, you'll be pregnant! So, I walked around it 5 times of course with the other Skylar and Ashlee :) Kalie walked around it 7 times...haha oh dear.

the good luck cherub

After this temple, we went to a perfumery where the shop owner showed us a million and one different perfumes and oils that they sold. They were really nice and offered good prices...but again, it would have been hard to transport them back home. Also, it gave me a headache in there, so I had to leave early. After that, we went to the Luxor Museum. We were not allowed to take pictures in there, and we were not even supposed to have a tour guide but Osman was really sneaky and we used our whisper sets so it ended up working out okay. I liked this museum and my favorite part was that we actually got to see a skeleton that was mummified. It was legit.

After the museum, we went back to the cruise boat. It was actually going to start sailing today during lunch time. We were informed that we were going to go over a locke that night and that before the locke there would be vendors in other little boats that would surround our cruise ship and try to sell us stuff by throwing it up on to the top deck. So after a relaxing afternoon, we went up to the deck and watched as the crazy vendors tried to sell us stuff. I got a few hilarious videos but I will have to wait til I get back home to post them because the internet here is weak. 

here are some of the crazy vendors on a boat below us haha

After the adventure with that, my friend Lia and I watched the sunset and talked for a while on the ship while we passed over the locke. Then, we had to go and get ready for  "Egyptian night" on the cruise boat. We all got ready and dressed and had dinner in our egyptian costumes :)

Then after dinner we had a dance party in the lounge with every one :) It was fun, and then it was bed time!

Waking up in Egypt Nov. 2

This morning the train man woke us up super early and served us breakfast that consisted of two pastries, some sort of fruit bread, and a roll. Good breakfast, huh? Yeah, I didn’t eat all of it. It was nice to get off the train and finally see Egypt in the morning light and get a better look at the people around me. Once we got on our new bus, we saw a group of deaf boys that were standing in front of the station waiting to go to school. It was interesting looking at their sign language. We immediately headed to this site that was near the  Valley of the Kings. We stopped to take pictures with some statues of Pharaohs and the desert looking area. Each tour site that we go to has a million and one venders trying to shove postcards, miniature statues, books, and nonsense in your face. They really like one dollar bills so they always ask for that. They also always try to compliment you too and say we are the most beautiful girls ever.

After we were done there, we headed to the Valley of the Kings. This is where many of the Egyptian pharaohs and queens were buried and we got to actually go into the tombs that were decorated and built by the Egyptians. It took four to six years to make a tomb with 70 workers working 24 hours a day, 9 days a week (they used 10 day weeks) and in groups of five men at a time! That is a lot of work! Just for one tomb. That's one interesting thing that really surprised me. The Egyptians cared so much about preserving as much as they can, and honoring the dead as best as they can. This is somewhat seen throughout today times, but not as extreme. Of that, I am glad. I went into three different tombs here; two kings and one queen. The queen tomb was my favorite by far. It was the most decorated and the color was well preserved compared to the others making it super beautiful. 

 After we were done at the Valley of the Kings, we then headed off to an alabaster shop. Here, we got to actually watch them make pottery out of alabaster. My favorite part was when the shop owner took us in and showed us the different colors of alabaster pots and put it up to the light. They were so beautiful under the light. I really would have liked to have bought one, especially the green tinted one but it would have been a challenge to get it back home to the states, so I decided not to.

After the Alabaster shop, we went to the Temple of Habu. This was our first non-Greek temple and for that I was so grateful! Not that the Greek ones are bad, I was just getting tired of seeing mostly only ruins of them. However, this temple was beautiful! I absolutely loved it! I think it was a mixture of the beautiful sunlight that was hitting it and the fact that it was my first Egyptian temple. An interesting thing that I learned here was that when the flag is raised, this is when it is time to pray. Also, you can't have your shoes on in the holy places of the temple. When we were at this temple, I honestly totally felt God there in our presence and it felt so wonderful.

After the temple, we headed to our cruise ship! This was very exciting because I couldn't wait to sleep in a little bit and actually be on a bed that wasn't moving the whole night back and forth like the train was. When we got there we went to our rooms, and they were really nice. Then we took a little nap and had dinner. We all hung out up on the deck for a little while and then went to bed because it was a long exhausting day and we had a lot of touring to do in the morning!