Egypt was purely amazing. I absolutely loved every little bit of it. First, we went to Cairo where we saw the pyramids, of course, the sphinx, the Egyptian museum, and the old market. I am definitely so glad we went with a travel agent for this trip. After first arriving in Cairo I realized there was no way we would have been able to do it ourselves. The streets were absolutely crazy! No traffic laws really, everyone would drive whatever speed and wherever they wanted. There were lanes but no one really seemed to care or even notice they were there. Also, they had traffic lights but again no one seemed to care. I also saw a camel on the street - there's a first time for everything!
The pyramids were so cool to see in person. I have been wanting to see them for a really long time, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go. They were a lot wider than I expected, and also smaller in height. Still crazy! Our guide took us to a point where we could get a panorama of the pyramids [where the picture was taken] and from there we rode camels to the second pyramid - the Pyramid of Khafre. There we went inside to where the tomb was located. Pretty neat experience, a 3 x 3 - yes, feet - hallway, you pretty much had to crawl. The center was sooo hot! And very stale air - I couldn't breathe very well.
The Egyptian Museum was cool. Not a ton of stuff - everything was pretty repetitive. The mummy room and all of King Tut's treasures were cool though. The Old Market was definitely an experience. Everyone trying to get you to buy something.
Next was Sharm el Sheikh, soooooo relaxing! We did climb Mount Sinai - left our hotel at 11:00 pm to drive 3 hours into the desert to get to the base at St. Katherine's Monastery. From there we hiked the mountain - wasn't too high about 6,000 ft. There were so many people climbing it was crazy! I wish we could have taken our own time and went our own pace, but our guide kept stopping us to make sure we were all together. We summited at about 5 am just in time for sunrise. It was so beautiful! Totally worth staying up all night. After the sun rose we went back down, grabbed breakfast, and went inside St. Katherine's, where we got to see the infamous burning bush.
The next few days I just spent my time down by the beach. I went to Ras Mohammed - an Egyptian National Park - to go snorkeling, and also rented snorkeling gear at the hotel since there was a huge reef right off of our beach. The fish were so pretty and colorful. I saw about 5 large tuna fish, a barracuda, and a sting ray - along with a ton of other little fish.
Ending my trip in Egypt, I came back to Rome and met up with my family. We went to mass at the Vatican for Easter. It was kind of weird - they had the mass in the Piazza, which I definitely wasn't expecting. Of course, it rained the entire time mass was going on, which made it so cold and miserable. However, it was such an awesome experience! We were about ten rows back from the start of the stairs - which on top of the stairs was Pope Benedict XVI himself - pretty cool. To say the least, I think I was definitely holy that week, climbing the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments, seeing the first monastery, seeing the burning bush, and being in the Vatican listening to the Pope for Easter Mass.
Definitely a trip that I will never forget, and by far the best spring break ever! [Oh and by the way if you're still wondering why I have three cities, three continents, apparently the Sinai is in Asia, so I hit three continents in a week, pretty insane!]
This weekend I was supposed to be going to Aachen, Germany, but due to amount of studio work and being ridiculously stressed this week, I've decided I'm not going to go. It was a trip I was really looking forward to, but is probably not the best idea to go unfortunately. Thankfully by not going, I get to spend more time with my family though.
No comments:
Post a Comment