EGYPT (Day 1)

GIZA AND MEMPHIS!

Hallooo! I just returned from a 2 week trip in Egypt. It was a family vacation with my parents and my aunt, who was researching her next book. The first day was the longest, so it has its own page.

After a 24 hour trip, we landed in Cairo. The tour guide picked us up from the airport and drove us to our hotel, Mena House Oberoi. I took the picture above from the balcony of my room. It was suite!

The first full day of my trip was partially spent in Giza and the other half in Memphis (The Egyptians name a lot of places after famous American cities, but Memphis is not one of them. In fact it is thousands of years older than our Memphis.) To beat the crowds, we went to the pyramids when they opened. Immediately, my family was accosted by vendors and people on dromedaries (There are no camels in Egypt. If a man should try to buy you for 100 camels, know that he is ripping you off by 50 humps. HAHA I'm sorry, I could not help myself.).

I, of course, was one of the schmucks to get a picture with the man on the dromedary.

Ah, let me tell you about my attire. After reading loads of articles about how a woman, especially a blonde one, should cover up, I bought a lot of long-sleeved shirts, long skirts, and pants for the trip. Though most days went over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I wore these modest and drab garments. What I realized later was that I only needed to wear these clothes when visiting Coptic Cairo, mosques, and more traditional areas. Though I did notice that many of the tourists wearing short shorts and crop tops were accosted more frequently. So without further adu, I give you the Zi/Kirkpatrick family uniform: SPF blouse, khaki safari pants, and a big-ol-hat. The tour guide loved to poke fun at us.

The tour guide, Aymen, is on the left, then Kitty, my mom, and my dad (pulling up his safari pants reaaaalll high).

 This picture was taken at the foot of the big pyramid. That opening, where you see the white figure walking, is where we entered the tomb. We walked down a small corridor and up a ton of steps. By the time we got to the tomb we didn't want to linger because it was so stinky with people's sweat.

Though we weren't supposed to take any pictures inside, this is one of my aunt crouching in the nearly-vertical corridor.
As for taking pictures in the tombs, I agree that no one should be using flashes and taking unnecessary pictures because they ruin the paintings. The inside of the pyramids had no paintings. I think that photography wasn't allowed because people wouldn't pay the extra money if they saw what they'd see in the tomb beforehand: nothing.

I put this picture in not because I think it accurately depicts the pyramid, but because it tells more about the photographer. My mother took this picture. I'm not sure if the poor alignment shows her bad eyesight or her lack of listening skills. I tried to explain that she needed to move the camera around so that it looked like I was holding up the pyramid. I think I look more like I'm trying to trip the lady in pink. On the left side of the photograph you may notice Aymen saying "YAH HABIBI JENNIFER!!!' That means "Let's go darling, Jennifer," in Arabic. We heard that a lot during the trip.

Finally, we made our way over to a cluster of dromedaries. Getting up was hard because the dromedary put its back legs up first, so you were thrown forward. My father nearly fell off!

And here we all are on our dromedaries. I'd like to make note of the 7-year-old handling all of our animals at once. Aren't they cute?!

No. They resemble Slor a little too much. :)

I kissed a sphynx and I liked it.

I thought it was a cute note to end on. Though, before this ends I must mention that all the pictures posted were taken in Giza. By the time we got to Memphis I was so hangry (my good friend Alison made up this combo between hungry and angry) that I didn't want to take or pose for anymore pictures.