Sunday, October 31, 2010

Egypt checklist :: an accidental visit

We've been reading and talking about the ancient Egyptians with my first born, and she's absolutely smitten by them. She wants to live in ancient Egypt, and rule the land. I thought it would be fitting to go visit a little place I always wanted to go to as a child but never got the chance-- The Pharaonic Village. Every Egyptian child probably went there on a school trip, but since I fell sick half of my childhood I missed, oh so many school trips.
On the wait:: who says only blocks are for stacking? Camels make swell stacking toys as well!

Anyhoo, we went, we bought the tickets, we waited... and waited and waited some more for our English speaking ferry tour/guide to arrive. People came and left, tours came and left and we were still there... waiting!

Finally, I realized (yelled hysterically at anyone in sight) that it's only a cheesy theme park, and we should just get reimbursed and take off . So we did...

"let's go have lunch at The Azhar Park, and then call it a day" suggested my sanity retriever.

I agreed.

But then we got lost on the way back.
"Hey look we're right by the pyramids, do you wanna go?"

"umkay" I mumbled...

Please allow me to revisit my lameness (the actual pyramids or a cheesy fake pharaonic village?) tough one huh!

It was AWESOME!
 ...and they're huge! I mean I've seen them a gazillion times, but man, every time I go there, I understand again why the big fuss. I mean dude, we were standing right in front of the PYRAMIDS! build by the hands (and unfortunately blood) of my forefathers. And they're absolutely mind blowing.

So after absolutely despising Egypt, I fell back head over heals again. And this summons Egypt for you friends. It's a constant battle between mad love and gruesome hate. You can't take it lightly, it's intense in every possible way.

We had an early dinner at (as my wise one remarked) "The best Pizza Hut in the world!"
Agreed?

 We ended up missing the opening hours, but you really can't miss them, I mean we can see them while driving down the mountain (where we live, across the other end of town) on a clear day.
 So we rented a super bumpy horse carriage with a driver who took us out in the desert (the carriage horse was indeed a trooper, pulling all five of us uphill in loose desert sand) to get a panoramic view of the sight.

 The girls had the time of their lives-- as soon as the carriage stopped they hopped off and sat on the desert sand and played with rocks. The same way ancient children played and the same way kids all over the globe still play.

Remnants of the day washed down the girls bath water, it even lingered on in my girls hair the next day. Sand can be quite tough to get rid of. We love it nonetheless.

I have so many shots from the drive to the pyramids neighborhood, the carriage ride and from the desert. But I am going to be kind on myself and on you, and stop with this amount of photos. 2 hours are indeed enough blogging time. (Had a long phonecall conversation with my mom, put the food away, and finished my bedtime routine,while still waiting for the photos to upload!)

We'll see how long I last.

Peace.





1 comment:

UmmLayla said...

I have always wanted to go to the pharonic village!!! I have those exact camels for my kiddos too;)