Luxor, Alex, 3 Bendaryl and a Shot of Epinephrine

Well, as is typical of me, this trip started out with a bit of "excitement".

My friend Adam, who spent the semester at Oxford, came to visit me in Egypt. We had decided to see a bit of Upper Egypt (Luxor. "Upper" is south, because of how the Nile flows), and some of Alexandria.

We started our trip with a night train from Cairo to Luxor. This train seemed to be a pretty good deal - at least a lot nicer than other Egyptian trains. We got our own car, and two meals included. One of those meals, however, almost killed me.

Probably about ten minutes into the ride, the steward knocked on our door to give us dinner. It looked like typical airplane/train/travel food - mostly unidentifiable. There was some bread, a dessert, some brown meat and noodles, and some other REALLY unidentifiable meat. I started with a bit of bread, because I was sure I knew what that was. Then I moved on to the brown meat, because I was fairly sure that was beef. After that bland experience, I decided I'd take the plunge and try the mystery meat.

Turned out to be a bad idea. I ate probably two bites of what tasted like chicken. But it was a little strange, so I decided to nix eating the 'chicken'. I returned to the brown meat and noodles, and sipped my Coke. After a few minutes, my mouth started to feel strange. Fearing something awful, I turned to my Adam, and said, "This is chicken, right?"

"I think so," He replied.

I popped a benadryl, just in case. The steward popped by a minute later to take our trays. I asked him what kind of meat the mystery meat was. Turned out... it wasn't chicken. It was fish. And in case you don't know/habitually "forget"(Dad), I'm allergic to fish. So... as my mouth began to feel stranger and the back of my throat started feeling a little tight... I reached for the EPIpen.

"Adam, you're going to have to help me with this. Because I can't do this myself."

"Okay, what do I need to do?"

"Stab me with this."

I explained the EPIpen procedure, squeezed the shit out of Adam's arm, and, man, did that thing hurt like one hell of a motherfucker. (It must be said that Adam was surprisingly calm, and administered the shot of epinephrine expertly. Although, he somehow managed to bend the needle, and for that I will not forgive him. It hurt.) With hands shaking from the epinephrine, I popped another benadryl, just to be safe. And about an hour later, I took one more, just in case. After that, I passed out (sleeping).

I woke up the next morning. We were in Luxor.

In case you know nothing about Luxor... Luxor is part of what is known as Upper Egypt. Again, Upper Egypt is actually located in the south and called Upper Egypt because of the direction the Nile flows. During Pharaonic times, when Egypt was officially divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, Luxor was known as Thebes, and served as the capital of Upper Egypt for many years. Needless to say, there is a lot of history here, and a lot of monuments to match. For example, the Temple of Luxor, Temple of Karnak, the Rameseum, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. (Finally!)

Well, Adam and I arrived at our hotel quite early. We ate breakfast and wandered around the hotel until our room was ready and we could check in. Once we got settled in, we stopped at the desk to ask about possible day tours, etc. We got ourselves hooked up with a private car to drive us around the West Bank area (not THE West Bank, as in Israel... that was my last trip. JK). Anyway, the West Bank of the Nile is where the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and Hatshepsut's Temple are located. Because of the prices of all the tickets, we decided to see the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple. We didn't get to see every tomb in the Valley of the Kings though, because one ticket unfortunately only covers entrance into three tombs. We originally decided to see Rameses II, Hatshepsut, and Ahmenotep; however, many of the tombs in the valley were closed, so we ended up seeing Tut III, Rameses I, and Rameses IX. Not disappointing at all. Well, a little disappointing that we didn't see Hatshepsut's tomb, after all, she is the only woman buried in the Valley of the Kings. But, we also got to see the tomb of Tutankhamun. I'm guessing not many of you follow Egyptology very closely... BUT, Tutankhamun was recently unveiled inside his tomb. That means that his mummy is now on display inside his tomb. It was pretty cool.

After that, we made our way to the Temple of Hatshepsut. I have been waiting SO long to see this! It was probably the most exciting thing I've done yet while in Egypt. Adam has some great pictures of me at the temple... I'll have to steal them and get them on my [nonexistent] photo site. Anyhow, it was amazing to be there.

The next day, having exhausted the most feasible tourist activities, we slept in and then spent some time at the pool. This whole time I had been relatively sick, so a day at the pool was nice. That evening, we took another night train from Luxor back to Cairo. And from there on to Alexandria. I made sure to avoid suspicious foods this time, and another episode was avoided.

Thanks to STA, Adam and I stayed in a sweet hotel in Alexandria for a fraction of the real cost. We stayed at the Palestina Hotel, which is located in Al Montaza, right next to King Farouk's palace. Our room had an amazing view of the Mediterranean. Since we got in to Alexandria in the late afternoon, we just kind of roamed the city til it was time to go to sleep. The next day, we kind of got ripped off. But we saw a lot of stuff. As we left our hotel, a taxi driver approached us, and went to his taxi, thinking that he could at least take us to our first destination. On the way there, he proposed being our driver for the day. And he surprisingly gave us a really good price. Unfortunately the majority of the talking up to that point had been done by me, in Arabic. So my understanding was a little muddled. We later found out that he had meant that good price for both legs of the journey - to our destinations and back. Although I was pretty sure that I had asked him if he meant that to start with, we ended up paying double what we thought we would. But I guess, for having pretty much a personal driver for more than half a day, it wasn't so bad. It was still frustrating to find out that communication had failed though. We went some cool places though, and had a good time with it. So in the end, mish mushkela.

The next day we went back to Cairo. And then Adam left and was off to some adventures in the more western part of the world.

Wonders of the World and The Promised Land

Oh the benefits of attending an American institution - Thanksgiving break. We were graciously given last Thursday off from classes, which added another day of weekend to my already three-day weekend. What an opportunity. The extra day off, my eagerness to travel, and lack of apprehension about skipping classes combined, and suddenly there was a five-day window of travel opportunity.

After much debate, careful consideration, back and forth, monitoring international politics, and consideration of possible future careers and currently held ideals, we decided to go to Jordan and Israel. Going to Jordan was not so much an issue as was going to Israel. But, much to my parents' dismay, I'm sure, we decided to include Israel in the travel plans. Mom, Dad, I'm sorry for any grey hairs.

We started our trip in Petra. Actually, that's the only place in Jordan we went. We decided to do the entire trip by land. So, we started by taking a really long bus ride from Cairo to the Taba border crossing - straight through the night. If you look at a map, there's a little area of the Sinai at the tip of the Red Sea where Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia almost touch. Taba is around there. So from Egypt, we had to cross into Israel, take a taxi a few kilometers (I could easily have run it) to the Israeli-Jordanian border, and walk across into Jordan. From there, we were supposed to be picked up by the hostel we booked, but something sketchy happened with the driver and something about owing money and police and something... don't ask, don't tell. Anyway, he didn't show up. Some of the other taxi drivers that were standing around were kind enough to ask us why we were waiting in the middle of the parking lot. We told them, and they called our hostel manager (that's how we found out about the sketch business with our driver). He then made some arrangement with some of the taxi drivers, and they took us to our hostel.

I don't remember exactly what time we got in, but it was in the afternoon. After checking in, paying, and having a cup of tea, we set off to see the Rose City of Petra.

I hope you all are familiar with Petra. If not, go rent Indiana Jones. Watch all three of them, because they're great movies, but look for Petra in The Last Crusade. Petra is where they go to search for the Holy Grail.

Well, Petra isn't really the resting place of the Holy Grail, and explorers haven't found any uncountable amount of hidden treasure. But the city is a treasure unto its own. I personally don't know the exact history of Petra, and have read some different things. The Lonely Planet guide we had with us said that it was built a long time ago, and was the dwelling place of some civilization. I've also read that it was possibly a necropolis of sorts. I know for sure that it is old. And the unquestionably deserves to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The entire city of Petra is carved into solid rock face. The carved habitations range from simple square rooms, to temples with entrances hundreds of feet high, demonstrating amazing artistic ability. I know for a fact from our donkey guide (Olivia and I rode donkeys on the way out) that an estimated 80% of Petra has yet to be excavated, and every summer Brown sends archeologists there to dig. Sweet.

We stayed at Petra just about until it closed. Then we found something to eat, and tried to get a good night's sleep. We got up early the next morning to start our long trek to Israel. Petra is located in southwestern Jordan, our first stop in Israel was Jerusalem, which is pretty much due west of Amman, in northwestern Jordan. So, we took a minibus from our hostel all the way up the side of Jordan, to the King Hussein Bridge crossing into Israel. At this point, we had to get out of the minibus, go through border control, and get on a special bus to cross the bridge into Israel - because only certain vehicles are allowed to cross the border into Israel, for security reasons. On the Israeli side of the bridge, we had to get off the bus, cross into Israel, and find another minibus to take us to Jerusalem.

Long process, and lots of changing of means of transportation. But it all went pretty smoothly, and none of our buses blew up. I'm sorry, that's not funny...

Despite the risk and (debatable) illogic of going, Jerusalem was incredible. Ok, so first off, the city was very clean, and nice-looking, and not nearly as crowded or polluted as Cairo. I love Cairo, but being clean is a nice change every once and a while. Secondly, who can deny the history and significance of Jerusalem??? No one. We had originally only intended to spend one day in Jerusalem, but quickly changed our minds and hostel bookings in order to spend as much time as possible in this wondrous city. One of my friends happened to have a friend studying at a university in Jerusalem, and he was available to show us around a bit. He turned out to be a pretty good guide. We spent a lot of time in the Old City, seeing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Wailing Wall, and (from a far) the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsar Mosque. It was awe-inspiring to be among all those ancient religious sites, and sad to think how much conflict has risen around them, and what possible damage could be done to the sites.

After seeing Jerusalem we went to Tel Aviv for a while to see a more modern side of Israel. We didn't have a lot of time to spend there - just enough to see some of it and get a little taste of life there. Then, we were back on buses, repeating the similar but backward process of getting across borders. Once we got back into Egypt, we got a minibus and blazed and uncomfortably fast and somewhat reckless trail back to Cairo.