Egyptians and their Antiquities

Today is our last day in Egypt before we head to Tunisia, so we excited about exploring a new place.

We got back from visiting Alexandria the other day and are now in Cairo. Alexandria was one of my favourite spots in Egypt. The people there seemed a lot more friendly and genuine, and more importantly, don't try to rip you off anytime you try to buy something. We were in a restaurant one night looking over the menu and we were so amused that I wanted to share it. The English on the menu must have been lost in the translation from Arabic, plus there was a good bit of Engrish...(if you can call it that here??). So here are some examples.

In the pie section there was:
Meat collection pie (one for Paulie and Lee not doubt:))
My favourite was
Hot dag pie (doesn't sound very nice to me though)

In the pizza section there was:
Margreta vegetables pizza
Shrimps and souid pizza and
Roast boof pizza

There were some interesting items in the sandwich section:
Brain fillet sandwich (I decided to give that one a miss)
Cheese and eeg burger and
Chips (maunize-Katshub)

The salad section was the most amusing though, with items such as:
Clau slo
Patato maunize
Patato bakduns
But our favourite items were
Authority beets and
Pickle problem???
We should have gone back and ordered some just for interest.

Egypt has been enjoyable but also hard work at times....mostly in the touristy areas of Luxor and Aswan. We really got sick of having to haggle for every little thing we bought. Not a day would pass in these areas where someone didn't try to rip us off in one way or another. The people in these area constantly try to short change you, waiters try to give you the wrong amount on the bill and they give you the wrong amount of change. Or there were various taxes added on in varying amounts, it was always different. Prices varied wildly from 1 L.E. to 15 L.E for a cup of tea!! We were constantly in arguments with the Egyptians....I think they like arguing here!

It wasn't all bad though....I found the Egyptians that didn't work with tourists on a day to day basis to be such lovely people, so friendly and helpful. We wouldn't have gotten past the airport without them....before we knew what the Arabic numbers looked like we struggles to get onto the buses.

We saw some really cool stuff here. The pyramids of course, they were so impressive and didn't disappoint. We visited the Egyptian museum, which was chock-a-block full of ancient Egyptian treasures. Tutankhamen's galleries were a sight to see! We also saw the royal mummies collection. We visited the valley of the Kings, Queen Hatsheput's Temple, Habu Temple, a light and sound show at the Temple of Karnac etc, etc. All impressive to see. We also visited the Western desert via Dakhlar and Farafra Oasis. I felt a little out of place in Farafra, I felt like the only woman around the town...it was full of men sitting around smoking their sheesha and drinking coffee or tea all day. The women stay home all day and you rarely see them out and about. We ended up in our safari guides home one day drinking tea and eating their dates etc. They were a Bedouin family, his family was originally from Libya, while his wife must have been local to Farafra...she had studied law in Cairo, I can't imagine there is much need for lawyers in Farafra. At one point our guide went off to pray at the local mosque, we stayed with his wife and 6 month year old, plus the other members of his family were there also. His wife ended up playing us some Bedouin music and then put on their wedding video. Bizarre but interesting!

The food here in Egypt has been much more interesting than sub-Saharan Africa. So we have been making the most of that....I'm sure things will get much more interesting as we head west to Tunisia and Morocco though, bring it on.