Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Egypt
Unfortunately due to the tragic loss of my laptop, I have been unable to post pictures since the class trip to Florence, Venice, etc. So, I might as well recap the spring break trip to Egypt before I forget all the details. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures again soon.
Jon and I arrived in the Cairo airport around 2 AM. We find out we need to purchase visas to pass through security, and that visa is now probably the coolest thing in my passport. We find our taxi driver and he gives us our first encounter with the insanity that is Cairo traffic. There are lanes and traffic signs, but I think they were more like implied suggestions than actual rules, because nobody followed them. We eventually got to the hostel around 3 and I swore the building looked like it was crumbling around me. It was just brutal concrete frame architecture with masonry filling in the gaps between columns and beams, and the elevators only functioned so that one only went to odd floors and the other went to evens. But once we entered the floor that the hostel occupied, it was actually quite nice, and the owners greeted us with some welcome tea.
We found out that Egyptians like to start the day early so the next morning we had to get up at 7 to meet our driver who was going to take us to the pyramids. We weaved and dodged our way through the rush hour traffic and got to the Giza plateau, only to find out that we couldn't simply walk to the pyramids, we had to ride out to them. Like on a horse. We had welcome tea again at the stable, and they then brought out our noble steeds. The guide took us through the sands and we got some amazing views of the Giza complex. We eventually rode up to the pyramids themselves and got to touch some stuff that was built 5000 years ago. pretty cool. Then we met back up with our driver and we went to the Saqqara complex. There we saw the stepped pyramid and Jon bribed some guards so he could lay down inside a 5000 year old sarcophagus and have his picture taken inside of it. After Saqqara, we drove out to Memphis and then to Dashur, which was probably my favorite pyramid site. The tour buses don't go to Dashur so there was practically no one there. We were able to go inside the North Pyramid, the first true pyramid, and hang out in the three corbel vaulted chambers. The passage down into the chamber was pretty difficult, it was about a meter high and a meter wide and it was about a 45 degree slope all the way down into the middle of the pyramid. The chambers themselves were pretty incredible, escecially when I considered that there were millions of tons of stone above my head. We spent a good 30 minutes down there, snapping some good photos and contemplating life. The site was visited by so few people that we were the only people in the pyramid for a good 10 minutes at one point. After we were done driving around the sites, our driver took us to this restaurant in Cairo for lunch. This is where he introduced us to koshary, which might be the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. They place a huge bowl in front of you, along with two caraffes of different sauces. Inside the bowl is everything one would ever want to eat- rice, pasta, fried onions, beans, beef, etc. You then take the two cups of sauce, dump it on top of everything, and mix it all up. It is incredibly delicious and I will sorely miss it. When we got back to the hostel, we asked the guy at the desk for directions to the train station so we could pick up our train tickets for our night train to Luxor. It sounded simple, just walk down the street for 15 minutes and it's there on the left. So, we set out only to find out that it was more like a half hour walk and it was through a non-touristy part of the city. So, we were the only two non native Egyptians walking down this busy street and every single person was staring at us. It was definitely kind of weird. So, we get to the train station and get the tickets only to find out that our train is leaving from the other train station which is on the other side of the city. So, after much deliberation, we decided to take the Cairo Metro to the other station. I was pleasantly surprised by the Cairo metro. It was very clean and kept up very well. Also, the tickets were only 25 piastres, which works out to be about 5 cents. But again, we were the only non-Egyptians in sight. We got to the other train station about 4 hours early so we just chilled and drank some Turkish coffee at a bar until our train came. While waiting, we saw many interesting things. For example, the third class cars on the trains (which tourists are forbidden to ride) looked like they had never been cleaned. Also, they would just leave the doors to the train cars open, so there were a few times when someone would be late for a train so they had to run and hop on the train as it was pulling away from the station. Our night train was very nice; we rode first class and got a nice compartment to ourselves with bunked beds that folded out from the wall. But probably the most memorable thing about the train was the bathrooms. There was a toilet with a pedal beneath it. When you pushed the pedal, a trapdoor opened at the bottom of the toilet bowl which opened directly to the tracks below. Perhaps the funniest thing about it was the sign that warned passengers not to use the bathroom while the train was stopped at stations (you can imagine why). But, I ended up sleeping great on the train, and I woke up to the conductor warning us that we would be arriving in Luxor shortly.
Breakfast on the train was typical of an Egyptian breakfast, which is pretty much just an obscene amount of bread. We pulled into the Luxor station around 5 in the morning, so we ended up just walking around luxor while it was still dark out. We found our way to Luxor Temple, which is right in the middle of the main town square. We just walked around until our hostel opened up for the morning. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and hopped in our van for the day's tours. Our guide's name was Aladin and he told us a lot of interesting things about Egypt during our drive over to the west bank of the Nile. We drove past this giant banner of a man standing triumphantly wearing a suit and aviator sunglasses and he told us that it was the Egyptian president who has been president for 28 years and reelected to office 7 times. He also told us that Egypt produces 10 million tons of cane sugar per year but they still have to import because they use so much. He also told us why buildings in Egypt never look like theyre finished. Most Egyptian buildings have unfinished columns on the roofs and an open, unfinished staircase. This is because the taxes on finished buildings are around 40 percent, but if the building is still under construction, then they do not have to pay taxes, which explained pretty much every building we saw. The first main site we went to was the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut and then we moved onto the Valley of the Kings where we went into four of the tombs and saw some 4000 year old frescoes which were still mostly intact. While on the tour, we met five students who were actually studying in Cairo for the semester and were spending the weekend in Luxor. So, they asked if we wanted to tag along with them to another temple after the tour was over so we went with them to a pylon temple which was within walking distance of the Valley of the Queens. We eventually got bored of the temple itself and we eventually started wandering around the complex. We eventually ran into some Egyptian guards, with whom Jim, one of the students we met, proceeded to carry out a conversation with in Arabic. He apparently told them that we were his friends visiting from Canada. Jim also later told us to tell all Egyptians that we were Australian, because they think that Americans have lots of money so they will try to take bribes for everything. We then took "public transportation" back to the nile, which was a pickup truck that had seats in the bed and a cover over it. There were also bars on the end of the truck from which you could hang off the back, so we all took turns doing that. We then took a ferry across the Nile back to the east bank. Later that day we met up with everyone again to take a sunset faluka ride up the Nile, which we bargained from 150 pounds all the way down to 35 pounds, which meant that each person had to throw down 5 pounds, or about one dollar. It was probably one of the best sunsets I've ever seen and after a while on the boat, the crew tried to start a dance party with the females on board, to no avail. The students asked if we wanted to check out their hostel before they left, and when we got there, we found out that it was called the Bob Marley hostel, and the entire place was decked out in Bob Marley apparel. So, we hung out on their roof terrace for a while until they had to check out and catch their train. Jim, however, was takign a different train so we hung out with him for a while longer. He took us to a bar and ordered us three drinks. I then saw the guy behind the bar take a sugar cane and mash it into a blender. He blended it up and poured them into glasses. So, that ended up being the first time I ever drank pure cane sugar. Finally, we went to a real bar and got the Egyptian beer Stella, which was described in our guiebook as being "drinkable," and I thought that was a very accurate description of it. After a while of wandering a market and have about 500 people try to sell us stuff, we went back to our hostel to get some sleep.
The next morning, we were abruptly awoken at 4:30 by the call to prayer, which was sung by several different old men at slightly different times and way off tune. After briefly falling back asleep, we got up again and set out to visit the Karnak Temple. We had seen on maps that it was only about a mile or two down this one road, so we decide to walk there. Along the way, we pass various different sections of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, which once linked the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple. We finally got to the walls of the temple complex and we decide to go left to get to the entrance. But, after about 5 minutes of walking, we decide it's the wrong way and we turn around and head in the other direction along the wall. This new direction takes us through the back yard of some people's house, where two children show us where to go and assure us it is the way to the entrance of the temple. So, we keep walking along the walls through the sand and shrubbery until we get to what appears to be a service area to the complex. We then come across two men who also tell us the right way to get to the entrance, and won't stop bothering us until we give them some money for their help. Once we got past them, we kept walking along the wall. We then came across two very angry looking dogs, and it was at this point that we decided to get back to the main road. We ended up going through this small town and we then finally arrived at the entrance to the complex. In the end it turns out that if we had walked 100 more feet in the original direction, we would have seen the entrance. However, we ended up walking the entire preimeter of the temple complex which is about two miles. But, once we got inside the temple complex, it was probably one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. The hypostyle hall was enormous, and it is pretty much impossible to describe the feeling of being within that space. It was kind of like the Pantheon in that respect. Just the experience itself was incredibleand there's no other way to explain it. We just wandered around the complex for a while and saw the 10 or so pylons that were on the Temple of Amon Re, which is the main temple on the site. We also went inside the Temple of Khons, which was almost perfectly intact and restored. The hypostyle hall even still had its stone roof so we really got a feel for what these temples would have been like 3500 years ago. Once we had left the complex and started to walk back to Luxor, an old man rode up to us on his donkey and cart and offered to take us back to Luxor for one pound. So we argeed to it and hopped on his cart and he proceeded to take us back to Luxor while singing some strange song and dodging the busy city traffic with with his donkey. Once we got back to Luxor we checked out the Mummification Museum and then the Luxor Museum. Once we were done with the museums, we found a house boat that was docked along the bank of the Nile. It had converted into a bar so we stopped in to relax and drink a Stella. It was a great atmosphere because it made us feel like those old 19th century British explorers who go out on safaris in their khakis, white hats and elephant guns and then come back to their grand lounge to tell their tales to each other. At this point, we were almost out of money so Jon and I pull out our wallets and he had 5 euro and I had 5 dollars. So, we went to the exchange place and got about 70 pounds which ended up lastng us the last two days of our trip. Afterwards, we just hung out in the square by the Luxor Temple until it was time for us to catch our night train back to Cairo.
We got back into Cairo around 5:30 the next morning, so we just hung out in a cafè at the train station until it got light out. At least this time the train went to the main Cairo station so once it got light out we just made the long walk back to the hostel we stayed at during our first night in Cairo. Once we dropped our stuff off, we went to the Egyptian Museum, which was just a couple of blocks away from our hostel. We also had some great experiences just crossing streets in Cairo. Since there are basically no traffic laws, you couldn't rely on just using the cross walks. At least in Rome, the drivers will slow down when they see you crossing the street. Not in Cairo. Drivers won't slow down at all. We eventually just adopted the strategy of following an Egyptian out into the street because we figured that cars would be more likely to slow down for the locals than tourists like us. Once we got to the museum, it was actually really overwhelming. There were hundreds of thousands of pieces on display. The Tutankhamen exhibit was probably the most impressive, probably at least partly because he was buried wearing a 21 kilogram solid gold headdress which was on display along with everything else he was buried with. However, the museum also showed the disgustingness of Cairo. The smog was so thick and nasty that day that you could see the smog beneath the dome inside the museum because they had the main doors open. That definitely cannot be good for the 5000 year old priceless artifacts that are contained within this building. Once we left the Egyptian Museum back into dense, smoggy Cairo, we went back to the same restaurant to have some more delicious koshary for lunch. We just spent the rest of the day chilling in the hostel watching some Egyptian soccer and we just ended up passing out early.
On our last day in Cairo, we just woke up around 9. We had the hostel call a cab for us so we could go see the Al-Azhar Mosque. The driver took us through the crazy, winding streets of Cairo and when the driver dropped us off, I honestly had no clue where in Cairo we were. So, we took off our shoes and entered the mosque and one of the caretakers of the mosque said he could give us a tour. So he took us through the different areas of the mosque and explained all the different functions of the complex and the history of it and everything. He said it is one of the oldest mosques in Cairo but it was added to until the late 19th century. He also took us up to the top of one of the minarets, which was interesting because in certain parts on the way up there were no lights and no windows so it was pitch black and you had to feel for each step with your foot. The view from the top was nice because you could see the whole complex and how it was laid out, but you couldn't see very much of the city because the smog was pretty bad again. Once we were done with the tour ofthe mosque, we got another cab back to our hostel and we hung out there until our driver came to take us to the airport. This driver may be the most skilled driver I have ever witnessed. We were tryingto get to the airport during a peak driving hour and the streets were packed. Yet he somehow managed to weave our car through the congestion and past everyone else until we finally got on the highway where he just shifted into 5th gear and floored it. At one point I looked up to the dashboard and saw the speedometer at 160 km/h. He was also a really nice guy and was asking how we liked Egypt and was explaining what life was like there. Once he got us to the Cairo airport we went through the laziest security chackpoint I have ever seen and we boarded our half empty plane back to Rome. Egypt was such an amazing trip and I'm glad I got the opportunity to do it. I think everyone should go there at least once in their life.
Jon and I arrived in the Cairo airport around 2 AM. We find out we need to purchase visas to pass through security, and that visa is now probably the coolest thing in my passport. We find our taxi driver and he gives us our first encounter with the insanity that is Cairo traffic. There are lanes and traffic signs, but I think they were more like implied suggestions than actual rules, because nobody followed them. We eventually got to the hostel around 3 and I swore the building looked like it was crumbling around me. It was just brutal concrete frame architecture with masonry filling in the gaps between columns and beams, and the elevators only functioned so that one only went to odd floors and the other went to evens. But once we entered the floor that the hostel occupied, it was actually quite nice, and the owners greeted us with some welcome tea.
We found out that Egyptians like to start the day early so the next morning we had to get up at 7 to meet our driver who was going to take us to the pyramids. We weaved and dodged our way through the rush hour traffic and got to the Giza plateau, only to find out that we couldn't simply walk to the pyramids, we had to ride out to them. Like on a horse. We had welcome tea again at the stable, and they then brought out our noble steeds. The guide took us through the sands and we got some amazing views of the Giza complex. We eventually rode up to the pyramids themselves and got to touch some stuff that was built 5000 years ago. pretty cool. Then we met back up with our driver and we went to the Saqqara complex. There we saw the stepped pyramid and Jon bribed some guards so he could lay down inside a 5000 year old sarcophagus and have his picture taken inside of it. After Saqqara, we drove out to Memphis and then to Dashur, which was probably my favorite pyramid site. The tour buses don't go to Dashur so there was practically no one there. We were able to go inside the North Pyramid, the first true pyramid, and hang out in the three corbel vaulted chambers. The passage down into the chamber was pretty difficult, it was about a meter high and a meter wide and it was about a 45 degree slope all the way down into the middle of the pyramid. The chambers themselves were pretty incredible, escecially when I considered that there were millions of tons of stone above my head. We spent a good 30 minutes down there, snapping some good photos and contemplating life. The site was visited by so few people that we were the only people in the pyramid for a good 10 minutes at one point. After we were done driving around the sites, our driver took us to this restaurant in Cairo for lunch. This is where he introduced us to koshary, which might be the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. They place a huge bowl in front of you, along with two caraffes of different sauces. Inside the bowl is everything one would ever want to eat- rice, pasta, fried onions, beans, beef, etc. You then take the two cups of sauce, dump it on top of everything, and mix it all up. It is incredibly delicious and I will sorely miss it. When we got back to the hostel, we asked the guy at the desk for directions to the train station so we could pick up our train tickets for our night train to Luxor. It sounded simple, just walk down the street for 15 minutes and it's there on the left. So, we set out only to find out that it was more like a half hour walk and it was through a non-touristy part of the city. So, we were the only two non native Egyptians walking down this busy street and every single person was staring at us. It was definitely kind of weird. So, we get to the train station and get the tickets only to find out that our train is leaving from the other train station which is on the other side of the city. So, after much deliberation, we decided to take the Cairo Metro to the other station. I was pleasantly surprised by the Cairo metro. It was very clean and kept up very well. Also, the tickets were only 25 piastres, which works out to be about 5 cents. But again, we were the only non-Egyptians in sight. We got to the other train station about 4 hours early so we just chilled and drank some Turkish coffee at a bar until our train came. While waiting, we saw many interesting things. For example, the third class cars on the trains (which tourists are forbidden to ride) looked like they had never been cleaned. Also, they would just leave the doors to the train cars open, so there were a few times when someone would be late for a train so they had to run and hop on the train as it was pulling away from the station. Our night train was very nice; we rode first class and got a nice compartment to ourselves with bunked beds that folded out from the wall. But probably the most memorable thing about the train was the bathrooms. There was a toilet with a pedal beneath it. When you pushed the pedal, a trapdoor opened at the bottom of the toilet bowl which opened directly to the tracks below. Perhaps the funniest thing about it was the sign that warned passengers not to use the bathroom while the train was stopped at stations (you can imagine why). But, I ended up sleeping great on the train, and I woke up to the conductor warning us that we would be arriving in Luxor shortly.
Breakfast on the train was typical of an Egyptian breakfast, which is pretty much just an obscene amount of bread. We pulled into the Luxor station around 5 in the morning, so we ended up just walking around luxor while it was still dark out. We found our way to Luxor Temple, which is right in the middle of the main town square. We just walked around until our hostel opened up for the morning. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and hopped in our van for the day's tours. Our guide's name was Aladin and he told us a lot of interesting things about Egypt during our drive over to the west bank of the Nile. We drove past this giant banner of a man standing triumphantly wearing a suit and aviator sunglasses and he told us that it was the Egyptian president who has been president for 28 years and reelected to office 7 times. He also told us that Egypt produces 10 million tons of cane sugar per year but they still have to import because they use so much. He also told us why buildings in Egypt never look like theyre finished. Most Egyptian buildings have unfinished columns on the roofs and an open, unfinished staircase. This is because the taxes on finished buildings are around 40 percent, but if the building is still under construction, then they do not have to pay taxes, which explained pretty much every building we saw. The first main site we went to was the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut and then we moved onto the Valley of the Kings where we went into four of the tombs and saw some 4000 year old frescoes which were still mostly intact. While on the tour, we met five students who were actually studying in Cairo for the semester and were spending the weekend in Luxor. So, they asked if we wanted to tag along with them to another temple after the tour was over so we went with them to a pylon temple which was within walking distance of the Valley of the Queens. We eventually got bored of the temple itself and we eventually started wandering around the complex. We eventually ran into some Egyptian guards, with whom Jim, one of the students we met, proceeded to carry out a conversation with in Arabic. He apparently told them that we were his friends visiting from Canada. Jim also later told us to tell all Egyptians that we were Australian, because they think that Americans have lots of money so they will try to take bribes for everything. We then took "public transportation" back to the nile, which was a pickup truck that had seats in the bed and a cover over it. There were also bars on the end of the truck from which you could hang off the back, so we all took turns doing that. We then took a ferry across the Nile back to the east bank. Later that day we met up with everyone again to take a sunset faluka ride up the Nile, which we bargained from 150 pounds all the way down to 35 pounds, which meant that each person had to throw down 5 pounds, or about one dollar. It was probably one of the best sunsets I've ever seen and after a while on the boat, the crew tried to start a dance party with the females on board, to no avail. The students asked if we wanted to check out their hostel before they left, and when we got there, we found out that it was called the Bob Marley hostel, and the entire place was decked out in Bob Marley apparel. So, we hung out on their roof terrace for a while until they had to check out and catch their train. Jim, however, was takign a different train so we hung out with him for a while longer. He took us to a bar and ordered us three drinks. I then saw the guy behind the bar take a sugar cane and mash it into a blender. He blended it up and poured them into glasses. So, that ended up being the first time I ever drank pure cane sugar. Finally, we went to a real bar and got the Egyptian beer Stella, which was described in our guiebook as being "drinkable," and I thought that was a very accurate description of it. After a while of wandering a market and have about 500 people try to sell us stuff, we went back to our hostel to get some sleep.
The next morning, we were abruptly awoken at 4:30 by the call to prayer, which was sung by several different old men at slightly different times and way off tune. After briefly falling back asleep, we got up again and set out to visit the Karnak Temple. We had seen on maps that it was only about a mile or two down this one road, so we decide to walk there. Along the way, we pass various different sections of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, which once linked the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple. We finally got to the walls of the temple complex and we decide to go left to get to the entrance. But, after about 5 minutes of walking, we decide it's the wrong way and we turn around and head in the other direction along the wall. This new direction takes us through the back yard of some people's house, where two children show us where to go and assure us it is the way to the entrance of the temple. So, we keep walking along the walls through the sand and shrubbery until we get to what appears to be a service area to the complex. We then come across two men who also tell us the right way to get to the entrance, and won't stop bothering us until we give them some money for their help. Once we got past them, we kept walking along the wall. We then came across two very angry looking dogs, and it was at this point that we decided to get back to the main road. We ended up going through this small town and we then finally arrived at the entrance to the complex. In the end it turns out that if we had walked 100 more feet in the original direction, we would have seen the entrance. However, we ended up walking the entire preimeter of the temple complex which is about two miles. But, once we got inside the temple complex, it was probably one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. The hypostyle hall was enormous, and it is pretty much impossible to describe the feeling of being within that space. It was kind of like the Pantheon in that respect. Just the experience itself was incredibleand there's no other way to explain it. We just wandered around the complex for a while and saw the 10 or so pylons that were on the Temple of Amon Re, which is the main temple on the site. We also went inside the Temple of Khons, which was almost perfectly intact and restored. The hypostyle hall even still had its stone roof so we really got a feel for what these temples would have been like 3500 years ago. Once we had left the complex and started to walk back to Luxor, an old man rode up to us on his donkey and cart and offered to take us back to Luxor for one pound. So we argeed to it and hopped on his cart and he proceeded to take us back to Luxor while singing some strange song and dodging the busy city traffic with with his donkey. Once we got back to Luxor we checked out the Mummification Museum and then the Luxor Museum. Once we were done with the museums, we found a house boat that was docked along the bank of the Nile. It had converted into a bar so we stopped in to relax and drink a Stella. It was a great atmosphere because it made us feel like those old 19th century British explorers who go out on safaris in their khakis, white hats and elephant guns and then come back to their grand lounge to tell their tales to each other. At this point, we were almost out of money so Jon and I pull out our wallets and he had 5 euro and I had 5 dollars. So, we went to the exchange place and got about 70 pounds which ended up lastng us the last two days of our trip. Afterwards, we just hung out in the square by the Luxor Temple until it was time for us to catch our night train back to Cairo.
We got back into Cairo around 5:30 the next morning, so we just hung out in a cafè at the train station until it got light out. At least this time the train went to the main Cairo station so once it got light out we just made the long walk back to the hostel we stayed at during our first night in Cairo. Once we dropped our stuff off, we went to the Egyptian Museum, which was just a couple of blocks away from our hostel. We also had some great experiences just crossing streets in Cairo. Since there are basically no traffic laws, you couldn't rely on just using the cross walks. At least in Rome, the drivers will slow down when they see you crossing the street. Not in Cairo. Drivers won't slow down at all. We eventually just adopted the strategy of following an Egyptian out into the street because we figured that cars would be more likely to slow down for the locals than tourists like us. Once we got to the museum, it was actually really overwhelming. There were hundreds of thousands of pieces on display. The Tutankhamen exhibit was probably the most impressive, probably at least partly because he was buried wearing a 21 kilogram solid gold headdress which was on display along with everything else he was buried with. However, the museum also showed the disgustingness of Cairo. The smog was so thick and nasty that day that you could see the smog beneath the dome inside the museum because they had the main doors open. That definitely cannot be good for the 5000 year old priceless artifacts that are contained within this building. Once we left the Egyptian Museum back into dense, smoggy Cairo, we went back to the same restaurant to have some more delicious koshary for lunch. We just spent the rest of the day chilling in the hostel watching some Egyptian soccer and we just ended up passing out early.
On our last day in Cairo, we just woke up around 9. We had the hostel call a cab for us so we could go see the Al-Azhar Mosque. The driver took us through the crazy, winding streets of Cairo and when the driver dropped us off, I honestly had no clue where in Cairo we were. So, we took off our shoes and entered the mosque and one of the caretakers of the mosque said he could give us a tour. So he took us through the different areas of the mosque and explained all the different functions of the complex and the history of it and everything. He said it is one of the oldest mosques in Cairo but it was added to until the late 19th century. He also took us up to the top of one of the minarets, which was interesting because in certain parts on the way up there were no lights and no windows so it was pitch black and you had to feel for each step with your foot. The view from the top was nice because you could see the whole complex and how it was laid out, but you couldn't see very much of the city because the smog was pretty bad again. Once we were done with the tour ofthe mosque, we got another cab back to our hostel and we hung out there until our driver came to take us to the airport. This driver may be the most skilled driver I have ever witnessed. We were tryingto get to the airport during a peak driving hour and the streets were packed. Yet he somehow managed to weave our car through the congestion and past everyone else until we finally got on the highway where he just shifted into 5th gear and floored it. At one point I looked up to the dashboard and saw the speedometer at 160 km/h. He was also a really nice guy and was asking how we liked Egypt and was explaining what life was like there. Once he got us to the Cairo airport we went through the laziest security chackpoint I have ever seen and we boarded our half empty plane back to Rome. Egypt was such an amazing trip and I'm glad I got the opportunity to do it. I think everyone should go there at least once in their life.
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