GEJ: Egypt (pt 1)

 Day 6: The flight from Athens to Cairo was only a couple hours so it wasn’t bad! We got to Cairo and had a private transfer to our hotel. 

Before we could even enter the lot, they had a bomb sniffing dog check our car (and all the others around). We also had to go through security when we entered the hotel. 

Our guide told us not to go out by ourselves and to be careful with Egyptian street food. He actually recommended that we eat at a New York/italian restaurant at the hotel so as not to upset our tummies. 

After dinner we had a walking tour of Cairo. We saw the bazaar and walked Al-Muizz street and it was crazy busy!!  

Walking through the streets of Cairo was definitely an experience, but I’m glad we did it. I didn’t feel unsafe, but at one point a fight broke out among the locals. Our guide said not to worry about it. He also mentioned that police typically don’t get involved, but that the elders would break it up. 

It was hard to focus on the guides explanation of things because there was so much going on around us. There were so many people and so much activity. 

Day 7: Desert day! We drove out to Fayoum and visited the Qarun Lake which is considered the oldest of the natural lakes in the world. Then we headed to Wadi El Rayan and the waterfalls. The waterfalls are a natural phenomenon and are considered to be the largest waterfalls in Egypt. It was kind of funny seeing lakes and waterfalls in the desert! 

Our jeep in the desert

Mike sand boarding 

After that, we stopped by Valley of the Whales, Wadi Al-Hitan. It contains invaluable fossil remains of the earliest, and now extinct, suborder of whales, Archaeoceti.

Stay tuned for part 2 of Egypt - the pyramids, safety, and more !