Friday, February 15, 2008

The Pyramids

Edit: I've added my pyramids and Old Cairo photos to my Flickr account since I posted this entry. I actually have more than are up there, if you're interested, but it takes forever to upload that many pictures, so maybe I can mail you a CD or something when I get home. The best ones are uploaded, anyway. ^^

* * *

So today, I went to the Pyramids at Giza, and to Sakkara (which also has pyramids, but not as impressive). It was AWESOME.

So there are three pyramids at Giza, and it's hard to get into the Great Pyramid because they only sell 300 tickets per day, so we went inside the second pyramid instead (which apparently is often used instead of the great pyramid in photos, because it still has some of the facing limestone at the top and is more picturesque). It was really cramped in a lot of places - in some of the tunnels, we had to bend over double. I also totally stumbled on the way out and fell on my butt - I'm so smooth. Still, even though I was dripping sweat by the end, it was totally amazing. I was inside one of the pyramids! How cool is that? (They didn't let us take pictures inside)

IMG_0178

Some of the group, including me and Sarah, broke off to go on a camel ride. I never realized how tall camels are... totally taller than horses, and like 90% joints. Seriously. It was mildly terrifying, but in a cool way.

IMG_0200

We also saw the Sphinx, and were totally harassed by vendors. I actually started having a lot of fun bargaining with them to see how low I could prices (usually not low enough for me to actually think whatever it was was worth buying, although I did get a pretty scarf. And there's a singing camel I may get when I go back with Kel or Aunt Liz. It was just so kitsch I couldn't stand it.

IMG_0223

After the pyramids we went to Sakkara, but by then it was already like 3 and they hadn't fed us all day, so we were totally starving and no one paid much attention. Then we went to a restaurant that was a lot of fun... there was this band that wandered around and they got me to get up and dance with them. Sarah apparently has pictures and video of me doing this, but I just have this picture of the band:

IMG_0251

I have a ton more pictures, but I haven't uploaded them all yet. Sorry! I'll do it when I get the chance.

2 comments:

Kel said...

You rode a camel!! That is so cool. I can not wait for April... two months or so, and I'll be in Cairo :)

ellen said...

Oh my god! You're just doing these ridiculously cool and amazing things, I'm so happy for you and I miss you. Holy crap, camels and pyramids and the sphinx! Way to have flipping amazing pictures as well. I still can't get over the fact that you're in Cairo!