10:20 p.m. Whew – well, I have a whole day to write about now. I’m sitting on an overnight train between Cairo and Luxor, so this entry may be a little bumpy.
Now, where can I start? We ate breakfast at the hotel, then went down to wait for our tour bus. Hanan, Will, and I went to the little jewelry shop in the lobby. The man was very nice, and we sat down in there to talk with him. He called a busboy and told him to bring each of us a free Pepsi. I bought some really lovely lapis lazuli earrings for Mom, and I suspect that he gave me a pretty good deal on them.
We rode the bus to the Cairo museum. Our guide was so boring, but Dr. Browning couldn’t lead us because in Egypt they expect you to use one of their guys.
Anyway, it was like a flashback on dozens of photographs which are as familiar to me as the back of my hand. So, I guess a good word to describe my overall feeling about it would be “surreal.”
The Amarna letters, the Merneptah stele, King Tut’s gold mask, and the eerie "mummy room" (it cost an extra 40 pounds to enter), where I saw, among others, Seti I and Rameses II. We might see King Tut at Luxor tomorrow.
From the museum, we went out to Sakkara, where we saw the step pyramid. There was a steep hill we climbed, from which we could see the pyramids at Giza, set off by the Cairo skyline. The road to and from Sakkara was pretty interesting, with farmers and neat shops on either side. In the sand at Sakkara, I saw an empty box of "Cleopatra cigarettes." I thought that was pretty funny.
We went for a very late lunch after that. I ate lamb for the first time, and thought it was fairly decent. On my way out, one of the waiters asked my name and then said, "You are pretty girl. Marry me?" I politely refused my first proposal, which I always expected would be somewhat different.
Then was the best part of the day – and surely what will prove to be one of the highlights of the trip. We went out to the great pyramids. I touched the Great Pyramid! We couldn’t go in because they only let in 150 people a day. We also went to visit the Sphinx. Like Alexander the Great, I was awed and humbled by the complex.
We were constantly hounded by people trying to sell postcards, camel rides, and everything imaginable. "Take my picture, lady!" "Ten postcards, $1.00," etc.
After the pyramids, our guide took us to a couple of cool stores. The first was a perfume shop, where we sat down and were given samples, cards, and pencils, kind of like a wine-tasting. I bought some nice Lotus flower perfume, and another tiny bottle of it for Mom. Our “host” was funny – he kept making all these suggestive comments, like, “Hwere we have ‘Arabian Nights’ for men. This will give you happy nights!” Wink, wink. Then we went to a papyrus shop, where they gave us all free bottles of Pepsi and demonstrated how they make the papyrus. I bought a small piece with a cartouche of my name in heiroglyphics, and a pretty one for Mom and Dad, depicting the marriage of Tutankhamun, with their names in cartouches on either side. I think it’ll look really beautiful when it’s framed.
From the papyrus shop, we were informed that Shannon’s carry-on had arrived at the airport, so we waited for our guide to take a taxi out there. Dr. Browning paid for it.
Then we went to the station to catch our train. The station was nasty, and a lot of people just unabashedly stared at the "rich Americans." When we waved at people, they smiled as if we had made their day. Again, it made me feel like some kind of celebrity.
Our train is quite comfy; I’ve been writing this in my fold-out bed. Supper was decent. Dr. Browning had to cut the lock off Shannon’s carry-on because the customs people must have changed the combination – her old one didn’t work. When they finally got the thing open, Shannon discovered that her camera is gone. Dr. Browning said she could load her film in his camera and use it. He has really been so sweet to her on this trip.
Well, it’s late, and I have to wake up before 5. I have Simon and Garfunkel on the headphones, so I plan to drift pleasantly to sleep. Shannon is already passed out.