Egypt!....in a really large nut-shell....

I’m back! Being home in Jerusalem feels wonderful, and I didnt get any food poisoning….which is more than I can say for some people in the group... it was pretty bad.



Traveling to Egypt we stopped and visited some sites of ancient cities( Be’er sheva) and got to wear hardhats and go into an ancient cistern. Then we hiked through Wadi Avedat which is a stream valley that’s dry except during periods of rainfall and one of my favorite things we have done so far.



The best part of this little stop was that everyone was wearing clothes to bum around on a 6 hour bus ride, not hike through a river valley and then hike out of it. It was pretty intense, we were just walking along this little stream but then to get out of it we had to scale this cliff with ladders and monk-carved steps……but it was beautiful, and I loved it.



Driving through Israel was cool. I saw camels grazing like cows, active mine fields, and lots of sand and rocks. That’s how it is here……there’s absolutely no life…until you find water and it just bursts. An oasis, in every meaning of the word.


We stayed the night at a Kibbutz which….is a form of communal living that combines socialism and Zionism. It’s sort of a utopian community where they have town meetings, everyone has a given job in the community and they all share paychecks, cars, food, etc. It was interesting to visit, and they are very nice people, but I don’t know if I could live like that…..the man in charge of guiding visitors took us out to the sand dunes.


This is where the Sahara makes its sand. ;)


We played around/had a little bit of contemplative alone time to think while sitting on the top of a sand dune…..very jedi.


Finally making it to the border was sweet. And hot. REALLY hot. From the Taba border you can see four countries, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all at once from across the Red Sea. We got through security relatively easily and loaded a bus to drive another couple hours to the city. My first impression of Cairo was how huge it was. REALLY expansive. It’s also a very dirty city. The separation of classes is very obvious. Not much of a middle class, just poverty and wealth. There are a gazillion of skyscraper apartment buildings where most of the 18 million Cairo inhabitants live. Everywhere the tops of buildings are unfinished and will probably stay that way because unfinished buildings don’t pay taxes.

The next couple days was completely filled with sites and awesomeness for which I will condense because this is getting kinda word-y.


1. Pyramids! We saw them the night before driving in. You really just can’t miss them. They are SO big. We were able to go into the tombs of the biggest one and I honestly almost couldn’t handle it. I never really thought I was claustrophobic but the tunnel is small. Really small. And there were all these Asian tour groups going every which direction, going in while you’re trying to get out. I had to sing a song to not think about how far underground this tunnel was leading me and how much weight was above me. It was something really psychologically disturbing to me that I almost couldn’t handle. But phew! I made it. And it was quite a relief to be above ground afterwards. (BUT, when I was inside the burial chamber I laid down in the stone sarcophagus, which was probably not allowed, but I did it, assumed the mummy pose and jumped out. Bucket list, anyone?)





2. The sphinx and step pyramid were way cool too. I really liked seeing all these places but I don’t like touristy atmospheres….which is exactly what the sphinx and pyramids were. Oh well.
3. Walked through the Sahara….climbed into more claustrophobic tombs.



4. Saw Queen Hatshepsut’s temple…did you know that they think she was obese? We were able to see her mummy which apparently reveals evidence of being pretty heavy. Kinda puts a wrench in the idea of a beautiful Cleopatra-esque image of a woman pharaoh, huh? All her hieroglyphics were scratched out by her son…..Oh, Thutmose III….so bitter.
5. Valley of the Kings. Dozens of tombs of pharaohs…all robbed. Except for King Tut. You’ve all heard the story. He was a little guy….and his mummy is very creepy.


6. Took a quick flight to Luxor. When we were there we had a beautiful view of the Nile. Sailed down the Nile and across to ride camels, then sailed back again and ran into some Egyptians sailing alongside…which resulted, consequently in a dance party. That’s right. Dance Party on the Nile River.
7. Taxis in Luxor, shopping in the market place, quite the interesting experience.

ok...im sorta obsessed with how beautiful it was....so....here are pictures taken at sunset while sailing down the nile.






8. Temple of Karnack and Luxor….one of the man-made wonders of the world. UNBELIEVABLE. Columns that take 11 people to circle with hieroglyphics from top to bottom. Secret rooms, obelisks, images of rituals and ceremonies…..just so awesome. 2 mile road lined with sphinxes….all at a whopping 120 degrees!!! Yes, it was THAT hot.



9. Overnight sleeping train back to Cairo……it was fun at first because you pretend it’s like Harry Potter….but…it was the most disgusting and tiring night I have ever had in my life.
10. Egyptian museum. SO. INCREDIBLE. Mask of Tutankhamen, Narmer Palette, mummies galore, statues of Ramses II….everything you ever remember seeing about Egyptians….i saw it. Except for the bust of Nefertiti….the British won’t give it back.



11. I was able to get into a mosque. We paid a man (bribed, basically) to let us in, because you can only go in if you’re Muslim, or someone’s guest….well, he offered. So we covered our heads, took our shoes off (hoping they wouldn’t get stolen when we came out) and went in and it was really cool. We saw Coptic churches and Egyptian Jewish synagogues (one of the only ones left)
12. The Citadel and Muhammad Ali mosque…..really huge. I got into this one too!

All of that and a lot lot more was what I did in Egpyt…had some pretty interesting conversations with Egyptians and a lot of in between events that I have NO TIME to elaborate on, oh well, lots of stories.

Coming out of Egypt we went by way of the Sinai desert. We slept and woke up at 2am to do a sunrise hike of Mount Sinai which was the hardest hike I have ever done and by far the coolest. We made it to the summit about 5ish, starting the hike at about 3…so…approx 2ish hours…..we sang in pitch black and waited for the sun to rise…and then it did. And it was beautiful.




Coming down the mountain was a lot easier because we could actually see the trail…and it’s downhill…duh. But instead of going straight back down we went to a monastery intertwined in the mountains and it was way cool. They have this giant bush there that they claim is THE burning bush Moses encountered…..interesting. I don’t take much stalk in things like that…the official rock or bush…or even mountain…..for all we know we’re all probably way off. But the spirit of our little pilgrimage is what counts.



The SAME day. (we were all dead and exhausted…especially after that stupid train) we started driving back to Israel and crossed the border, this time with more difficulty. I was lucky enough to be chosen to be interrogated about my activities…ridiculous. They even took my camera to look at my pictures to make sure that I was indeed a tourist/student. We waited for everybody to get through and passed the time by dipping our feet into the Red Sea. Beautiful. On the way home we did a rest stop at the Dead sea….and I put my finger in and tasted it….it was salty and gross…but im excited to go back when we do.


I had an amazing time and I still can’t believe that I’ll be out here for 3 more months! Time has flown by and I feel like I have been here longer than I have. Jerusalem really feels like home after Egypt, for which I am grateful. Otherwise I would feel pretty homesick right now. This is the farthest and the longest I have gone without seeing any member of my family. And I don’t like that so much. But this whole experience gets better and better and I cant wait to see more new things.

One more post before I go to EGYPT!!!!!!!!!

Well…this week has been very busy and very exciting……..hmm….recap….

Monday was pretty cool. We had a group field trip to a monastery…YES. That building on the side of the cliff! I hiked there! Women had to wear headscarves and I almost died, I don’t know how they do it! It was 96 degrees and humid! Anyways, the monastery, built into this rock is on the Mount of Temptations (which is where Satan tempted Christ to turn a rock into bread during his fast) It was really cool, and really far up, and really tiring. Everyone got back and slept.

I finally made it to the Dome of the Rock! Not in it of course, only Muslims can go inside but just being on the Temple Mount was awe-inspiring. Up close the Dome is very striking and incredible……..since it’s basically in every picture of Jerusalem, how could it not be? There’s a huge security check to get on the grounds (which was the location where Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac (Mt. Moriah) and traditionally in Islam, where Muhammad ascended to heaven. It’s the oldest existing Islamic building in the world, and one of the holiest next to Mecca and Medina. For Jews, the Temple Mount is where their temple was before it was destroyed…so basically that spot is one of the most contentious places in Israel and the reason that Jews or Muslims won’t give up Jerusalem for their “two-state” solution.

I also made it to the Western Wall, which traditionally is the wall of the temple that was destroyed…even though archaeologically it’s not the actual wall…oh well… Can anybody say, Shalom!? We went on friday night and IT.WAS.INCREDIBLE.....it was an experience i will never forget. Thousands of Jewish people of all different sects, ultra-orthodox (Haredi, the ones with the 18th century looking garb) and reform jews, secular jews, anyways....all gathering to pray, sing and dance to welcome the Sabbath. When we went i had previously wrote out a prayer to stick in the wall. (the dress code incidentally was essentially jewish. a long black skirt, black shirt covering elbows....we fit in pretty well.) i made it to the wall despite how many people there were. and i tried to put it in...and it fell...but it fell and landed in a short Jewish woman’s hair, who was praying into her torah.....so i awkwardly was trying to get it out of her hair without disturbing her and without laughing to put it back on the wall.....i was successful...but it was kinda funny. The men and women are separated by a little partition and the guy’s side was a lot more boisterous and exciting than the women’s….lots of singing and dancing…from what I could tell peaking over the wall.

On my free day a group of us decided to taxi to Tel Aviv and it was so beautiful! Granted, it’s a resort city since it’s a beach on the Mediterranean Sea but the city itself had really cool architecture. (don’t worry liz, I took pictures) anyways, so I swam in the Mediterranean and toured through Jaffa (where Jonah’s story took place) and hung out on the beach. It was amazing.

ah, Tel Aviv....

We went to an overlook of the Judean wilderness and it’s completely unbelievable what a wasteland it is. I can’t even imagine being lost for 40 years in there.We saw the oldest existing man-made structure in the world (10,000yrs old) in a tel in Jericho (which is the lowest city in the world…something like -800feet?) SO COOL. Then we went around places in Jericho which is a Palestinian neighborhood so we were stopped at every checkpoint because of our Israeli license plate…..

All of this is in between classes, so I never really feel relaxed. There’s so much to do all the time and it’s tiring but that’s good because it makes you so tired that you sleep through the “call to prayer”…….excellent.

I leave for Egypt in 2 days…Thursday. We had a little meeting where they told us that we’d probably get food poisoning since all the water for the fruit and vegetables and tap water is from the Nile which is where the sewage feeds into….and where they put dead animals…etc etc etc. it was so gross. But the itinerary for Egypt looks really really cool. And it’s supposed to be 113 degrees when I’m there….so…..that’ll be fun right? YES! :)