I am a slacker. Yes, this I know. I haven't posted in a few weeks and they have been very busy weeks! I will try to keep things in order and start with Egypt/ Jordan. I left Morocco Saturday for a six hour flight across to the other side of North Africa. I was so excited. Pyramids! Ancient Egyptians! Hieroglyphics! What I did not anticipate was the harassment. I had looked on a couple of sites before I left about women traveling in Egypt alone and a lot of people said it wouldn't be a problem if you dressed modestly and kept your head down. Well I can definitely do that, I said to myself. Except for the one "shooma" incident (previous post), I never really had problems with the men in Morocco. Egypt was a different story. Every time I stepped out into the street, some guy was saying something to me. Sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in English, never was it flattering. I had to leave a restaurant in the middle of the meal because the owner kept coming over and trying to kiss me. I thought this guy was being helpful at the train station, trying to help me buy my ticket because my Arabic is not great and no one at the office was inclined to speak English. While waiting in line the conversation went like this... Him: After we buy ticket, we go coffee, then I go to your room. Me: (bewildered look on my face): WTF? Ummm, no! But, he hadn't even asked it as a question. And he really looked confused as to why me, a western, non-married, non-Muslim woman, could possibly turn him down. All these incidents, mind you, were in the middle of the day. Needless to say, many nights I stayed in the room just because I didn't feel like dealing with it. Yes, I could be a brazen, independent, American woman and barge into the bars, shaking off the comments but to me it just wasn't worth it. There were a few times that I latched onto other traveling people that had a man/ men in their group and guess what? Not a single comment. So ladies, if you are planning on going to Egypt, bring a man or find one there!
Egypt wasn't all bad though. The Pyramids are as amazing as you think they will be. They say the Great Pyramid (the only one that is the last surviving wonder of the Ancient World) could fit Peter's Church in Rome, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and the cathedrals of Milan and Florence. I haven't seen all of those monuments but I know that is damn big! Also, each block weighed at least two tons, how did they get them to the top? Someone told me (though I couldn't quite verify this information) that you can leave a piece of meat inside the Great Pyramid for a few days and it won't go bad even though it is hotter inside the Pyramid than outside. And just the fact that these things are still there! They are almost 4000 years old. I can barely keep a car for five years...
The Egyptian Museum was also a nice highlight. You can see some of the mummies who were buried in the pyramids! It's cool and gross that you can still see their faces, their skin and bones. And, when you see families of rulers you can really see the family resemblance. People say Americans are wasteful but to see what they buried in King Tut's chamber... his inner coffin was 110kg of solid gold! Your eyes sparkle in his wing of the museum from all of the gold and jewels.
So all in all, Egypt was OK. I spent a few days in Cairo seeing the Pyramids, walking around town, visiting Islamic Cairo (I climbed a minaret!), and touring the Egyptian Museum. I also spent a few days in Alexandria just walking along the Mediterranean Sea and relaxing. It wasn't as pretty as I thought it might be but I couldn't tell if it was because of the volcanic ash or the generally large amount of pollution in Egypt hazing the sky. The food was incredible. Koushari (a mix of pasta, rice, lentils, chick peas, onions and garlic with chili sauce on top) might sound odd but is amazing! They also make a lemonade with mint, yuuummmm!
In between Cairo and Alexandria I went to Jordan...
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