More in Depth

Hi, so I figured I'd fill everyone in a bit more on the past couple of days since I didn't tell much in the last one. Like I said, I visited two temples the other day (Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple). I'd met some dutch girls who go to school in Cairo the night before, so they accompanied me to the temples. I wasn't hassled nearly as much, but since we were still a group of girls (even though we were extremely modestly dressed) we did recieve a lot of unwanted attention (some called us "spice girls" when we walked by and we didn't understand why at first but then we realized we had a black girl, a red head (me) and a brunette with us, so apparently that made us spice girls even though none of us were british). They spoke a little arabic so we got better prices on things like food, souvenirs and taxis. Karnak Temple is the largest temple ever built. It was really cool, because it was still really intact. We entered into the main hall and there were enormous pillars everywhere (somewhere around 164 pillars all in rows/columns), but my favorite part was the entrance which was guarded/lined by ram-headed sphnixes. After visiting the temples we grabbed some lunch at a little restaurant across from the Luxor Temple. I really getting tired of Egyptian restaurants. They are the most unsanitary places to eat (I always try not to imagine what the kitchen looks like). This particular restaurant had cockroaches, which we ended up killing two that crawled onto our table. I almost lost my appetit after that, but disgustingly enough I'm getting used to disgustingly unsanitary restaurants. Its very common for bugs to be crawling all over everywhere here. After lunch we hit up a couple of bookshops (I needed a book to read the following day on the beach along the Red Sea) and then took a hour long Felucca ride which was extremely relaxing and cool (it was a very hot day and I have to remain completely covered up so not to get hassled as bad). The girls left that night to head back to Cairo and I turned in early so I could get up early to catch a bus to Hurghada (a beach resort town along the Red Sea).

BAD DAY
I should have never attempted the trip to the Red Sea. It was my most horrid experience while travelling ever!!! The bus station is located out of town so I had to take a taxi there. The taxi driver was not a good person. As we were driving to the bus station he was harrassing me, I'll not go into details but basically it was the most threatening situation I'd ever been, I yelled at him to pull over and let me out when he wouldn't pull over I grabbed my stuff, opened the door and jumped out. I was then stranded for a bit in desert (5km from Luxor and 2km from the bus station). I ended up hitching a ride in another car and drove to the bus station. The person who picked me up was very nice and helpful. He didn't charge me for the ride and he assisted me in getting my tickets and putting me on the correct bus (I think he knew I was in a lot of distress). The bus ride was awful too. The bus ride to the coast is suppose to be a 5 hour drive but our bus broke down twice before we ended up having to switch buses and then that bus broke down too, so another bus picked us up. It ended up taking 8 hours to get to Hurghada. When I got there I hailed a taxi (although I was very weary of taxi drivers now) and droven to a couple of locations where I was suppose to be able to lay on the beach (fully clothed of course), but each place I went didn't workout. I wasn't in Hurghada long because I had to catch a bus back to Luxor that evening and since I'd arrived so late I basically had to turn right around to take a 5 hour bus ride back to Luxor (thankfully this bus didn't breakdown). What a waste of the day. I only had a few glimpses of the Red Sea and didn't even get to dip my toes in the water.

After such a stressful day the day before, I decided today I'd just go to a nice hotel and relax at their pool. The place I went to, I was surrounded by foreigners in bikinis so I was actually able to relax in the sun (in my bikini), swim, read (my book I'd bought a couple days before Agatha Christie's 'Murder along the Nile') and not be hassled by anyone. It was just what I needed after the horrible day before. I ate lunch at McD's before going to the pool (its the only restaurant in town that is clean and bug free). I catch an overnight train to Cairo in about a hour. I'll arrive in Cairo at 6:30am and then take a taxi to the airport. My flight leaves at 2:45pm. I'll arrive in Athens at 4:45pm. I'll try to write again tomorrow evening. TTYL. LoveYa.