Mummies, cruises, sunburn and sleep deprivation.

So I got back this morning from a three day cruise down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor. This morning as in ... 4:30 am. When classes started (on a Sunday, yes) at 8:30 for me. A six o'clock alarm was my worst enemy when I got back to my room this morning and just wanted to sleep for ages. There is lots to tell about the cruise. So I'll try and shell out the generalizations and basics so I can flop into bed.

Day one.

Day one began quite literally at midnight that night. Our flight was scheduled to leave Cairo Airport at 3:55 am and we were planning to leave at one. Though, we're going by Egyptian time here, something I really dislike about this country is that nothing ever runs on time ever. We didn't get out of Zamalek until 1:45 ish and at the airport until like 3:00 am. We caught our flight, got in at around 5:00 and checked into our Cruise ship! The ship was called M/S Beau Soleil and it was far nicer than I had expected! Of course, I had paid like, $350 U.S. for this entire cruise, meals and excursions and flights included. What was I expecting, exactly? Nonetheless, it was a very, very nice cruise line. We unpacked our bags and I was really anxious for a nap, but alas, we had to get on the bus for a tour of the Aswan High Dam, the dam that essentially creates the Lake Nasser, which spreads from Egypt to Sudan.

Lake Nasser was really beautiful, but I was also very very tired! After Lake Nasser and the Aswan dam came some more exploration. I had a little bit of a nap between some events and then we sailed out on a fellucca ride towards Philae Temple and a Nubian village. Philae Temple was amazing. At first we saw it just from the side of our fellucca and I wasn't expecting to actually get to go inside of it! When we were done at Philae and a Nubian village (where I saw crocodiles, touched them, and also got to see the inside of a family's home and have soda/tea with them!) we went back to the cruise ship for dinner and then hung out on the deck as we took sail at 10:00 pm. Then, I headed to bed for a well needed rest.

Day two.

Because day two began at six am the next morning. We didn't get to have breakfast at seven that day. We actually went somewhere first. Not a big fan of going somewhere like a temple without sustenance! We went to Kom Ombo temple, which is the temple dedicated half to Sobek and half to Horus. It was fun, we spent an hour roaming around and then we went back to the ship for breakfast and we were told that we were done until four. It was about 9:00 am when I went upstairs on the top deck with some others and watched them jump into the pool and had Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by my side near the pool. Then... the plans changed.

They tended to do that a lot on this cruise. The event for four pm had been moved up to 12. So we headed to Edfu temple. The Temples were starting to all blur together in my mind and look exactly the same. I was having some difficulties staying interested in things that all looked the same. Don't get me wrong, I was so awed by the mere idea of having these huge temples built by hand and experiencing them firsthand also! Living history right there in front of me in hieroglyphics!

After Edfu temple I laid out on the deck of the boat, went swimming, and got horribly sunburnt. But it was worth it. I can now officially say I've swam in the Nile. To do so for real would be just darn stupid, but hey - it's true. I swam in a pool on a cruise ship that was in the Nile. That counts as in the Nile! Also, we were sort of harrassed as we went through the Lock on the way to Luxor. Small boats with vendors trying to sell things inside them pulled up against our boat through the lock and started shouting things at us, and throwing their merchandise (mainly towels, shirts, and table cloths) up onto the top deck! It was really inappropriate, actually, some of the things they were saying...

Something I also absolutely hated about this day was that we took a horse and carriage around to Edfu temple. I felt sick to my stomach. Not because of the motion sickness, but because our carriage owner was abusing the horse. Every horse looked malnourished and not taken care of, and our guy? Was whipping the horse every so often. I flinched every time, I felt disgusted when I got off, and I wanted to cry by the end. I sat on the way to Edfu facing the road so I could see the whip crack every time. I kept my head down but flinched at the noise. On the way back, I was facing the opposite direction... I clenched my hands so hard that I had fingermarks on the back of my hands. It was awful and I never want to do it again. I can't look at horses and buggies anymore. 

Day three.

Began by waking up at 6:30 am and heading down to breakfast, after which we departed for Valley of the Kings! Valley of the Kings is where the pharaohs' tombs were built for their afterlife; there are 62 in total in the Valley of the Kings, in Luxor. There is no photography allowed in Valley of the Kings, out of respect for the dead, as well as the fact that the tombs must be preserved as a part of Egypt's history. When you buy a ticket for Valley of the Kings, you get access to three main tombs: Ramses I, Ramses IX, and Ramses IV. Out of those three, Ramses IV was the largest, by far! Then you had the option of paying an extra 50 LE to enter the most famous King Tut's tomb! There wasn't a chance in the world that I was letting that opportunity pass me by, so I bought the extra ticket (hey, less than $10 U.S. to see King Tut himself? Count me in!) and climbed inside his tomb. On one side was the outer sarcophagus, which of course is beautiful in itself. The other two coffins that sat inside the first are in the Egyptian Museum, as is his 11 kilogram mask. At first I was like yeah okay, this is pretty amazing, his outer sarcophagus and stuff - but then, I turned the corner.

Out of respect, they kept King Tut's mummy in his Tomb in a glass case. I saw King Tut's mummy. He was darkened, and shriveled from the embalming process and the years and years of age and wear. He truly was a small pharaoh, even for being a child when he took reign. Inbred and ridden with diseases like malaria, no one is still sure what caused King Tut's death.

He still had his teeth.

It was amazing.

After Valley of the Kings was Hatshepsut's temple, just over the mountain. She was pretty awesome, and I loved the paintings of the God Anubis with the head of a jackal on the walls. Anubis was the god who decided whether or not you were worthy enough to go onto the afterlife by weighing your heart on a scale against a feather. If your heart was lighter than the feather you passed, if it was heavier... you did not.

Then we visisted Karnak temple, which is by far the biggest temple ever. It's dedicated to Ramses and all sorts of other things that I can't quite recall the history behind. We also got to go to a bazaar/market where we were shown the process of how to make alabaster vases in the ancient way. Then we were taken into the shop. I had my eye on an egyptian cat made of basalt for my memaw (= and when I asked how much (after being reassured that the haggling wasn't awful, we weren't made to agree to buy anything if we didn't want it or didn't like the price) he said 170 LE. I said no, and then he began to compliment me (he did this to Ashley too) and said that because I have pretty eyes he'd give me 130. He could tell I still didn't like the price. I offered him 100 and that was the deal. He also "snuck me" a free hand made scarab (but it wasn't free because I had to tip him). He said that Ashley and I were sisters because of our fairer hair and eyes. Whoops.

The benefits of having light, not brown, eyes in Egypt?

The flight was long and awful. We were supposed to leave at 0020, and we didn't leave until 1. Got baggage at 3:30, the bus driver was a maniac and sped over speed bumps that shot me out of my seat by like, two feet into the air (which really hurts when you're laying across a few seats using a dufflebag as a pillow), and finally got back to Zamalek at 4:30.

Whereupon I had to wake up at 6:00 for classes at 8:30. Art & Architecture of Ancient Egypt went really well. I took two pages of notes. Zionism & Modern Judaism... the professor is super intimidating and scares me. Chemistry, Art and Archaeology, may be a little too easy for me. I think I'm going to try and switch out into a grad class for Archaeological Theory/Methods or Field Work if I can.

Tomorrow: MORE SLEEP, Hieroglyphics I, and Peoples & Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa!