The Egyptian man with an American stomach

Wow, thirteen days in Egypt with ten friends, four drivers, a few security guards, a couple horses, a camel or two, and a whole lot of stomach problems. This part of the trip blew away all expectations. We'll post pictures when we get home but for now my story telling will have to do.

Megan and I arrived in Cairo from Rome and were greeted by one of those guys holding a sign that has your name scribbled on it. I always wanted to see "Forell" on one of those signs, cool. Even better he escorted us through and around the lines to get past immigration. We got all the necessary stamps and everything but as we learned in Egypt there are a 100 ways from here to there depending on who you know, how much you negotiate, and sometimes a little cash to greese the skids. After spending the previous 5 weeks in hostels, budget hotels, or some random old ladies pull out couch we were shocked when we pulled up to the Hilton got our keys to a room with a king bed and an amazing view of the Nile river below. Megan and I were the first of the crew to arrive so Ahmad took us for a quick lunch at an Egyptian take-out place we ate this rice, noodle, lentil, vegitable dish that was different from anything I've ever had but good grub. A few hours later Seph and April, Kendra (Ahmad's girlfriend), and Ben and Carolyn (on their honeymoon with 6 strangers). We went to eat at this basement restaurant in the marketplace where even the driver wouldn't touch the food. This is where you eat ligament soup and head and tail meat from a cow and all other kinds of leftover bits and peices of meat that historically were tossed out to the poor people. This was also our introduction to Egyptian time (which some of us thought was just Ahmad time) as dinner began at Midnight and ended around 2am. As we left the market it was unbelievable to see it still packed with people smoking sheesha and sipping turkish coffee. Even families of all ages grandma to little children all running around the center of town at 2am.

The next day we toured some sites of more recent history, by this I mean the last 2000 years. Some Coptic christian churches (Coptic Orthodox are still 20% of the Egyptian population), the Coptic museum and the two oldest Mosques in Egypt. We had a tour guide for the day, most of the fun was watching her and Ahmad discuss what site we were going to next and fighting over who got to lead the tour. Good stuff!! Ask me later about the sites and history they were intersting but that might get long and boring for a blog.

That night the last of our crew Greg and Emily arrived from London. We headed out on an evening dinner cruise on the Nile. Of course to get to the cruise was a huge production since at this point we had two cars and despite our drivers best efforts they couldn't stay together in the mess that is Cairo driving. Its like something out of a Nintendo game where you have 10 lives so it doesn't really matter too much if you bump a little here and there. Once on the cruise the views of the city at night were fantastic the food excellent and the entertainment. Well somehow the entertainment turned out to be me and a belly dancer on the dance floor in front of all the people on the boat. Yes Megan took video of this one, it started out as Ahmad and I but somehow he exited the stage and left me up there on my own. I'm sure the video will show that i'm very embarrassed and don't know what to do up there.

... to be continued gotta catch the train to Amsterdam and the wifey is giving me the 5 min warning ... shoot.