Teen Travel Blog

Zach and I are in Egypt putting the final touches on ARCC’s 2010 Egypt Service Adventure.  We have met up with Debs and Fiona who have spent a great deal of time in Egypt and have been working hard putting the pieces in place for the ARCC Egypt trip.  We met up with Debs and Fiona upon our arrival in Cairo:

Much as first time visitors to Paris scan the horizon for the Eifel tower, Zach and I were doing the same for the Pyramids.  Suddenly they appeared looming behind a wall of brick apartment buildings.  You see, in 3000 years of development they haven’t been able to slow the crawl of suburbia from encroaching on the world’s most famed monuments.
However, as we approached these giants with our driver and local “Egyptologist” Mohammed (you expected any other name?), we emerged from the chaos of Cairo/Giza into this most serene (dare I say “oasis”) of settings, with 25 million people to the east the Pyramids and zero people and the open desert to the west.

The Pyramids themselves are spectacular and a well known ancient engineering marvel.  By far the most interesting aspect of our visit was crawling deep into the tombs via narrow passageways (definitely not for the claustrophobic) to emerge into the tombs deep underground.

At one point it was just our small gang of 4, sitting alone for more than 10 minutes in one of these burial chambers..with only a single, steep narrow passage between us and the surface–and air and sun and light– hundreds of feet above.  It was eerie and we felt pretty special having such a sacred place to ourselves.

A snapshot of Cairo:  The streets are a chaotic jumble of cars, trucks, minivans, donkey carts, and camels (yes, camels!) all racing for their intended destinations, and all ignoring road signs, traffic lanes, and each other.  Yet the drivers are mind readers, seeming to anticipate the moves of dozens around them, and all move in unison.  I have yet to see even a fender bender.

Along the roadside are traditionally dressed men and women wandering the dusty shoulder burdened with goods, the  women often balancing whatever they carry high on their heads.  Frequently a camel will rumble by loaded with bags of grain or autoparts or whatever.

The food here has been fantastic.  Freshly baked (still hot!) pita bread with hummus, babaghanoush  (eggplant spread), tahini and richly spiced kebabs of chicken, lamb, beef and sausage.  Sweet or hibiscus tea accompanies every meal (as well as the ubiquitous coke and pepsi.)

Egypt has been infected with world cup (soccer) fever the past few days. Last night was the huge grudge match vs. evil Algeria…winner qualifies for the world cup, the loser stays home.  The evening match was all anyone could talk about for days.  Egyptian flags flying from cars, people wearing the national colors of red, black and white.  In the U.S.,  this would all be punctuated by a good tailgate party.  But here, as non drinking muslims, their sports euphoria is strictly fueled by nationalism and sweet tea.

At 7pm the streets were packed with crowds seeking a view of the game.  As bars are almost nonexistent, people were crammed on the sidewalks outside of television shops, watching the game through the storefront windows.  Coffee shops installed tvs and had people craning their necks around corners to get a view.  Just as the game started, the city became quiet, the teeming streets emptied of cars and everyone focused in on the match.

Alas, Egypt lost 1-0 to the hated Algerians.  Fortunately there were no storefront windows broken or cars overturned by angry mobs in the streets.  Instead people wandered home muttering the Middle East’s universal salve to all unwanted outcomes:  Inshallah (It is God’s Will…)

Stay tuned for Part II of our adventure!

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