Alexandria, Egypt: Day 1

I was scheduled for a monstrous Semester at Sea trip in Egypt entitled Cairo/Luxor. As it required doing very much in very little time, we were scheduled to leave Alexandria as soon as the ship cleared immigration. Steph and I had breakfast and sat for about an hour (along with the other 120 or so participants) waiting to board the bus, which was escorted by the police until we were outside of the city. It was a three-hour drive through the Sahara to get to Cairo, and the majority of my time was spent sleeping. When we arrived, we stopped for lunch at Le Meridian, a hotel directly across from the Great Pyramids; it was a buffet, which was a style we would all get to know very well over the next several days.

After lunch, our buses headed for Memphis, Egypt’s first capital, to view some antiquities, including the fallen colossi of someone whose name has left me.. It was incredibly hot, but the place was small and we were only there for about a half hour. Afterwards, we continued on to Saqqara, which houses several tombs and ancient pyramids. We visited one tomb, touring the inside hieroglyphics before continuing on closer to the pyramids nearby. These were older than the Great Pyramids, and built very differently; there are six steps to each one instead of the smoother shape exhibited by other pyramids. We also saw a man make out with a camel—mighty unpleasant.

We then headed to our hotel (the Marriott) to check in and have some free time. Steph switched with my roommate so that we could share a room, and we spent our break ordering Kartouches from our tour guide. A kartouche is basically hieroglyphics on metal; they are popularly worn as jewelry in Egypt. At 7 PM we left for the bazaar, similar to those of Turkey, but much less touristy and therefore a bit more uncomfortable. We were hassled beyond belief, and Steph and I garnered an estimated fifteen marriage proposals. The bazaar was fun, and sold primarily authentic Egyptian clothing, gold, and silver jewelry. I bought a kartouche for myself at one of the jewelry stores for about half the price of the other one I ordered (it also turned out to be half the quality). At 9:30 we departed, heading back to the hotel for a 10:30 dinner, followed by showers and sleep.