Arrival to Turkey

We have arrived safely in Istanbul, Turkey! We are staying at a small hostel on a very cute cobblestone street. We are planning to stay in the same place for 5 nights, and just do day trips from here, which I am really looking forward to since we've been moving around all of the time. The value of the dollar is hurting us already here so we will have to learn how to eat cheap!

We spent our first day in Turkey walking around the city. We are able to walk to many of the sights right from our hostel. We explored the Hoghia Sophia and Blue Mosques. We then went to the Grand Bazaar, the oldest and largest covered marketplace in the world. It was a relaxing day, and we are now relaxing in a coffee shop as I write this.

Last Day in Cairo

Jessie and TJ out front of the Egyptian Museum

We arrived in Cairo early in the morning. We spent our last day at the Egyptian Museum. We were not aloud to take pictures inside. After leaving the museum I’m not sure how I’ll enjoy any other museum that I will go to. I commented to TJ that “what other countries pull that much amazing stuff out of the ground!” I could not believe the over 3000 items that were pulled out of King Tut’s tomb. It was so cool to see everything that he was buried with, since in Luxor we saw him and his tomb, so we could picture it all there. I also wasn’t going to pay the extra $20 to go into the “Royal Mummy Room,” but I decided to. I’m actually pretty surprised that they haven’t shown up in my dreams yet.

After the museum we drove through Islamic Cairo and saw the Mohammed Ali Mosque. We then needed to have a quick Christmas dinner, because we had to leave for the airport for Turkey at 1:00AM and were hoping to get a little bit of sleep. So, from our hotel we walked to McDonalds, had dinner, met with our tour coordinator who presented us with farewell gifts, and then got a few hours seep before heading to the airport.

We definitely were amazed and exhausted by the sights of Egypt. It is a country with truly amazing history and a true commitment to their religion.


This is a picture of our Christmas dinner. :)

Mt. Sinai/St. Katherine’s Monastery

Our last big event planned for Egypt was a visit to Mt. Sinai. Mt. Sinai is the location of the Burning Bush from which God spoke to Moses.

Here is how are trip went:

9:45 PM Pick up from our hotel. Then, we were in the van for a long time picking up other hikers before we started our drive to the mountain. We also had to stop at several police checks along the way and show our passports.

3:00 AM We arrived at the mountain and began our climb. There are two ways up the mountain. One is called the camel trail and the other way is by taking 3750 stairs. Both routes have 750 stairs at the end. We had planned to take the stair route, but our guide was not happy about this. We figured that he knew best, so we started out on the camel trail. I planned to hike ½ of it, and then hire a camel in the middle to take me the rest of the way. But, I ended up hiking it all. There are shelters along the way up that sell food and drinks. There are also several offers for camel rides along the way. It was beautiful seeing the outlines of camels in the dark along the different peeks of the hills. Since it was dark, my pictures cannot properly display the unrealness of hiking at night.

5:30 AM Only 750 stairs to go! If it weren’t for the glimpse of orange peeking through the blackness, I’m not sure that I would have made it. So, at this point, the race to get to the top of the mountain before the sunrise began.

5:50 AM Made it! The sky had turned a beautiful assortments of pinks and oranges. At least a couple hundred people were pushing their way to the edge of the cliff to have the best views of the beautiful sky and emerging scenery. I could not believe how many people fit onto the tip top of this mountain. I was so absorbed in the sunrise that for a few minutes I forgot about the cold. My toes were frozen. Living in Nigeria I didn’t really have the proper clothing. Luckily at the bottom I had purchased a hat and gloves.

7:00 AM We began the descent. In the light it felt like we were on a completely different mountain. As you can see from my pictures, I loved watching the camels.

9:00 AM We toured St. Katherine’s Monastery, which is directly at the bottom of the mountain. It is one of early Christianity’s only surviving churches. It’s many highlights include a plant that is the descendent of the original Burning Bush and the Well of Moses.

2:00 PM (Next Day) We arrived back at our hotel. We took a short nap, and then went in to town for Christmas Eve dinner.

4:00 AM (Next Day) We were picked up at the airport to fly back to Cairo. Sleep is much needed at this point.

Sharm el-Sheikh

We are now staying in Sharm el-Sheikh, a city situated on the Red Sea on the Sinai Peninsula. It is a very touristy city and has a much different feel then the rest of Egypt because of this. 70% of the tourists here are Russian, and there are very very few from the United States. We originally put it on our itinerary so that Jessie could dive in the Red Sea and because it is only a few hours away from Mt. Sinai, where we are scheduled to go tomorrow morning.

Yesterday, we headed out on a boat to Ras Mohammed National Park and 2 other diving spots. Jessie went diving, I went snorkeling, and TJ went in to town to explore. The sky was clear, the air pretty cold, and the water really rough. I did ok with the rough waters until I got in the water to snorkel. Luckily I was able to see beautiful reefs, fish, and a turtle before I ran straight to the bathroom and joined many others on the boat in being sick for the rest of the trip. Jessie enjoyed the diving as well, but with the rough waters it wasn't nearly what the book had explained it to be.

You can see from the pictures how beautiful the scenery here is. You can also see our boat pulling another boat to shore, because it broke down with the mornings storm.

We continue to enjoy the relaxed environment here and we head up to the mountain late tonight.

Luxor/Valley of the Kings

We arrived in Luxor and our time came to get off of the ship. Sailing on the Nile was awesome, but we were also ready to get off of the ship. Jessie had been up all night the last night with food poisoning, which wasn’t a surprise after seeing the food each day. Our entire tour of Egypt was a great price, now we know why.

First we headed out with our same guide, Sayed, who we continue to enjoy, to the Valley of the Kings. It is a resting place for the ancient royalty with over 60 tombs in all. We enjoyed walking around and we entered 4 different tombs that were dug out of the hillside. All of the tombs that we entered were empty of their occupants except for King Tutankhamun’s. We were not aloud to take pictures inside, but King Tut (who’s tomb was an extra $20 to enter) was laying under glass. His body was small and black and covered with a small sheet besides his head and feet.

From there we visited the Temple of Hatshepsut. We will be staying in Luxor tonight and then heading to Sharm El Sheik.

Edfu Temple/Esna Locks

You can see below pictures of the Edfu Temple. We road a horse carriage up to the temple. We were back on the boat by 9:30AM to start sailing to Luxor. On our way to Luxor we went through the Esna Locks. The rest of the day was a much needed relaxing and enjoyable day sailing on the Nile.

Towels

On the boat, we enjoyed our steward Ebrahim. He was about 18 years old and would tell us each day that he had a surprise for us. Here are a few pictures of his surprises. He was so funny, because when we would return he would always check on us to see how we liked them. “our surprise”.

Aswan Day 2

Pictures below are of our Felucca ride, the market in Aswan, and the Kom Ombo temple at night. There is also a picture of Jessie and I on our boat, sailing down the Nile. It reminded us of being on Semester at Sea, except for somehow this time we ended up on an all German boat.

Aswan Day 2

We started the day with a ride in a Felucca. Feluccas are ancient, broad sail boats that can be seen everywhere on the Nile. It was very relaxing. At one point during our ride this tiny boat with two kids held onto our boat. It took us a minute to realize that they have memorized songs in all different languages. Then, they figured out where we were from and started singing for tips. After they left our boat they chased down a boat with a motor and grabbed onto it while it was moving really fast and started singing for them too. All about the tips. Tips seem to be an essential way of life.

It was a pretty relaxing day today that even included a much needed nap. Our boat actually set sail today for the first time. Our boat includes us, a lot of Germans, and a Malaysian family. Our tours are all only us and the Malaysian family, which is nice because they are very interesting and kind people. Their travel habits are similar to ours. The announcements on the boat are made in Arabic and German.

We sailed to Kom Ombo. We arrived at night and went to the Kom Ombo temple. We heard many ancient stories from our guide Sayed, and saw mummified crocodiles.

Aswan Pictures

You can see pictures below of the Aswan High Dam. There are also pictures of our trip to the island of Feelah. You can see carvings of the Key of Life and of the Tree of Life.