Nubian Hostel Cairo

... never ever take a black and white taxi. Guess what Chris accepted from the front of the hotel; yep a black and white taxi. It was the oldest jalopy you have ever seen, the middle seats tipped forward to let Ryan and Mitchell into the back seat and that we never died of asphyxiation from the fumes in the rear is a miracle. It was full of dust and the air-condition system consisted of the windows that opened so the driver and Chris could breathe in the hot ...

... Not a great way to end what had been a great trip.
Remembering the bed bug bites Gabriela and I had to endure after our first time at the Indiana Hotel, the two of us said we would refuse the room if we were given the first one we had. In fact that had become our mantra for the entire trip - No Room 304 (our first room at the Indiana Hotel). No way were we going to stay in that room again. And no one else in our group was ...

... meters of our hotel, we heard a shopkeeper yell out “spices, postcards, coca-cola” and then in a whispered voice, “beer?” We did a double take, looked at eachother, and veered back to his shop. He pulled us into a tiny store room, secured the door, and pulled two warm beers from under a pile of goat skins. After he offered 20 camels for Stephanie, Chad considered his options, but lucky for Stephanie, returned to the ...

... at reception when she went out, so I had to wait for the hotel to get the master key to let me in. Took them a while.
The hotel looked a bit dumpy when I arrived and the room wasn't exactly the best but I thought it can't be too bad. Although the fact that they charged £25 British Pounds for one night (or $65 US -ouch) seemed like a major rip off considering the condition. They also claimed they had a pool but when I went to check it out, it was obvious the pool had not ...

... showed up and kicked students off the bus since it was a bus for "new professors." Now, there were about 90-100 of us hanging out at this bus stop. When the bus left, we were told another would be coming at 7:30. When it arrived, a professor walked up to the front of the line and literally put his arms out, blocking students and proclaiming that the 7:30 bus was for new faculty as well. At this point, the bus company supervisor let him ...

... in, so a bunch of people had to go and wait in line for the two bathrooms. 5 minutes later, she’s nagging us about whether we’re finished already. Yes, obviously we just like to stand in lines outside the bathroom for fun. Clearly, we’re already done. Ay yi yiiiii

One funny part of the day was that all the sellers spoke to us in Italian. I mean, do they not see how white I am?

I got to ride a camel again. There was a little boy ...

... to arrive. It never did. Surprisingly the atmosphere was really...serene. Outside, women covered from head to toe, some completely in black with only their eyes showing. This scares me a little. Oppression ain't cool. But even they seemed fine. Couples hold hands and cuddle a bit, the atmosphere is nice. But this was airport world, I wanted to know what was waiting for me outside.

Turns out it was my airport pick up dude, right in the middle of the ...

... in the morning with our driver, Mohammed, and we began our adventure. First stop was the Egyptian museum which was rich with artifacts including the tomb of King Tut. Emad came with us through the museum and explained the highlights and I now feel I can accurately tell the direction of reading hieroglyphics but don’t ask me what the difference is between the bird man or jackal dude.

The next stop was what the whole trip ...

... we decided to spend the last night in Cairo in a shopping mall. First stop lunch and we were so happy to see Chinese food even though it was not a Chinese restaurant and was only a food court stall. Chris was delirious when he saw MacD. So we had chinese food and MacD and yeah shopping . First stop the supermarket where we bought all the nuts, nougats, sweets and even bedsheets with 100% egyptian cotton. No bargaining, no hustlers and guaranteed local price. In fact ...

CIARO! What an amazing place. I rode a camel, dribbled over the sphinx and could see a McDonalds from 3 stones up on the Pyramids. So thats the tourist bit over. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for historical awesome-ness of all of these ''must see's'' across the world. But I get my kicks and thrillsby being surrounded by their everyday life. No fakes. Just honest, REAL, people who live in these places everyday.

I wrote a little ...