For my two weeks of CWEF vacation time, I decided that my sister Kelly and I should meet somewhere to travel and spend time together. As we brainstormed locations (and cheap flights!), we found that were surprisingly both passionate about Egypt. And as they say - the rest is history!
Pyramids
Built over 4500 years ago, the pyramids took over 30 years to build and required over 100,000 laborers. There are approximately 3 million stones in the largest pyramid, most stones averaging over 2.5 tons. What really put them into perspective for Kelly and I is when we realized that the pyramids had already been built when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.... Wow. And they stand just as majestically today as they did so many years ago.
The pyramid of Khafre and the Sphinx
No one told me I needed to practice "walking like an Egyptian"... I obviously failed and look so ridiculously awkward! haha
Kel - always capturing the kodak moments.
Love it.
Water! Egypt in August was just as hot as you would imagine. We kept track of how much we drank, and it totaled over 15 GALLONS of water!
Our Egyptian tour guide called Kel "the new Cleopatra"
So happy to be together
Sinai Peninsula
Seeing the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai are some of my favorite experiences from our journey. Situated tightly between the rest of Egypt and Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula has amazing mountains and deserts, all pictured against the colbalt blue waters of the Red Sea. We loved every moment of relaxing on the beach and laying against the overstuffed pillows while taking in the scenery. But the highlight by far (maybe of our whole trip) was climbing Mt. Sinai in the middle of the night and watching the sunrise. Words can't describe it.
The Red Sea
Our hostel was right on the water (for $12/night! love not paying US prices), and this was the restaurant and cafe attached to it. Laying on the rugs with the pillows was such a fun atmosphere and was perfect to just hang out and marvel at the sea.
Watching the sunrise - the distant horizon is Saudi Arabia.
Spending the morning watching the sunrise, chatting with my sister, and drinking Turkish coffee = Perfection
Mt. Sinai
When Kelly & I decided to climb Mt. Sinai, we thought, "Oh great, we can do that - no sweat (literally)." Because hiking the mountain is listed in many tourist packages and travel books, we just assumed that it was a pretty simple hike that was suitable for people of all ages. In my mind, I was thinking like a bike path the whole way up - maybe a little steep in places, but not really challenging....Boy were we WRONG! Mt. Sinai was a beast. For real. Moses had to have been in tip-top shape to be climbing that mountain all the time! No lie, Kel and I looked at each other at one point and were like, we should have trained for this! haha. It was intense. We began climbing at 1:30am and finally reached the summit around 4:30am.
When we finally reached the summit, we just sat in awe of all of the stars. The sky was literally full of stars - it was unlike anything I've seen before. And in a 15 min span, we saw 5 shooting stars.
The top of the mountain was really cold, so we curled up in the blanket we brought, leaned against the side of the mountain, and waited for the sun to rise. Funny thing was that we were so exhausted from the hike, that we fell asleep. Next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and saw it was almost light out! My watch read 6:12am and the sun was scheduled to rise at 6:15am -- we almost slept through the sunrise!! How terrible/hysterical would that have been?!
Just starting to get light out
The sunrise over the mountains
The sun was so bright! It was so beautiful when the sun came up because it was the first time that we saw the mountain range. Since we hiked in the dark, we had no idea what the scenery looked like until morning.
At the top of Mt. Sinai
Sitting in awe
Saint Katherine's Monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai. Here we saw an off-shoot of the burning bush.
Nile River
The flood plains of the Nile are fertile and can grow all types of crops. People grow bananas, sugar cane, and here they are growing corn!
The banks of the Nile are so beautiful because it is lush and green, filled with vegetation right along the river; then it instantly turns into sand and barren desert.
The sunset with a felucca boat
Aswan
Temples
All the temples we visited were incredible, but we literally visited too many to count. Here are a few highlights:
Abu Simble - the most impressive temple of Ramesses the Great. There originally were four statues of himself, all 20 meters high. The temple was meant to impress Egypt's southern neighbors and to warn people traveling down the Nile River of the greatness of the pharaoh.
The statues are gigantic.
Hieroglyphs
Temple of Edfu
So much detail
Hatshepsut's Temple in Luxor
Sites on the Streets
Al Azhar Mosque
Outside Muhammad Ali Mosque -it was beautiful inside and out with its Ottoman-Style Architecture
Men inside the mosque pr-ying
Koshary - one of our favorite Egyptian dishes. With noodles, rice, more noodles, lentils, tomato sauce, and what taste like French's dried onions (you know, the green bean casserole topping). All mixed together with a little chili sauce = surprisingly delicious!! and so cheap, which fits well with our "backpacker budget"
Kel was in heaven with the amazing lamp stores. She managed to get two home safely! (thanks in part to the bubble wrap Mom sent with her... the Heins girls are always prepared for shopping! : )
On one of our unexpected adventures, we wandered into a private shop where they were making Egyptian handicrafts. We started talking to the owner, and he showed us some of his work - he was carving different things. He opened a drawer and handed us these little figures and asked if we wanted to hold them; next thing we know he tells us they're made of ivory! My jaw immediately dropped and I was like, "WHAT? Where did this come from?" And he goes, "Some elephants in Sudan" (which borders Egypt to the south).... ummm..... yeah. It was surreal. You always hear about animals being killed and then expensive products being sold, but actually seeing it firsthand was really upsetting! I wanted to tell him what I thought about it, but common sense won out. I'm just going to convince myself that maybe it had already died or something, or maybe he was making it up and it wasn't real ivory to begin with...
Cairo traffic is unlike anything I've ever seen before (and that's coming from someone who lives in China!) The streets were jampacked with cars, every hour of the day. We were in this taxi when someone hit us. The driver was yelling out the window at the guy who hit him, and they both pull over to inspect the damage. Kel and I look at each other and are like we've gotta get out of here, we want no part in this! So we jump out of the car and run to find another taxi (fleeing the scene of an accident may be illegal at home, but it is the best option in another country!). As we were in our new taxi, we passed our old driver, pictured above who was assessing the damage to the front of his car.
Ramadan
While we were in Egypt, the Muslim celebration of Ramadan began. Ramadan is a holy month in Islamic Culture that is a time of personal reflection, sacrifice, and a way to gain a deeper spiritual relationship. During this month, they fast from sunrise to sunset - literally not eating or drinking anything. They eat a large meal right before sunrise, then they fast all day; and as soon as the sun sets, they all gather to eat their evening meal together (what they call breakfast, but the official name is iftar). It was so interesting to witness the traditions associated with Ramadan and to experience how the entire country is focused around Islamic beliefs - even if many people are not Muslim; the religious culture is evident in many things.
Because people fast all day, many things stop for the month of Ramadan. Businesses don't open because people sleep all day. Restaurants are closed during the day because no one eats anything. And people stay up ALL night because they can eat during this time.
A worker at the market in the middle of the day, so tired because he stayed up all night!
Our whole time in Egypt, holiday spirit filled the air. At one of the hostels, our Egyptian friends were singing and dancing around to some Ramadan jingles. Many of the streets were decorated with banners for Ramadan.
To celebrate Ramadan, mosques give out free food at sunset every day to end their fasting. In this case, we were in a taxi and drove past like a checkpoint. Two men came up to the car and handed this plate of food inside - one to us and one to the taxi driver. They wanted to be sure that we all had something to eat and could stop fasting.
We finally found food! Ramadan caused all the restaurants to close, so there were several days that Kel and I didn't know where to find lunch. These friends were nice enough to open their shop and cook us lunch. We ate fuul - a type of cooked bean mixture in Egyptian pita-style bread. Delicious!
On the side of the street, preparing for iftar, the meal after sunset that ends the fasting for the day. The men would just all gather around and eat together.
Muslim men eating their evening meal after fasting.
Egypt was a really neat country to visit and was different than anything I've experienced before. Kel and I both learned alot and just enjoyed being together. It was an incredible trip, filled with so many great memories. But I am definitely looking forward to the next time when all three of the Heins sisters can be together.
