Sick as a dog in Aswan.

My first day in Aswan was spent in bed - I was determined to shake off the flu so I could enjoy the rest of the tour. I got into bed and piled on as many layers as I could. The fever eventually broke and I was able to join the group for dinner in a restaurant located next to the Nile River. I had my first taste of a "real" Egyptian meal and it was wonderful - many more were to come!

From lower left, it's me, Bridget, Alex, Sandy (tilting her head), Kirsten, Dora in red, Laura, Daniel and Daniel.

To Aswan.

It was early evening on our second day in Egypt. We had spent the morning seeing the Great Pyramids and Sphynx on the Giza Plateau and the afternoon touring the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. A van arrived outside our Cairo hotel to take us to the Giza train station. It was my second time riding in a motorized vehicle in the dark and I quickly discovered that Cairo drivers do not turn on their headlights unless they think it's absolutely necessary e.g., to warn a pedestrian or another car that they're coming. As a result, you see a constant flash of headlights as you drive down the street. Apparently, they do this because they think it conserves battery life...which it does but at the cost of risking human lives. It's a bit warped logic, if you ask me!

The Giza Plateau and the Egyptian Antiquities Museum

I was awoken at around 5am by the sound of call to prayer blasting from a neighborhood mosque. Call to prayer was soon followed by the incessant sound of drivers honking their car horns. Then Lei's alarm clock went off. With all this noise, sleep was impossible so I crawled out of bed and got ready for the day. Lei and I headed downstairs for breakfast - had the usual fare and then met up with the group to begin our second full day in Cairo.

First day in Cairo.

Our first full day in Cairo began with a call to prayer being blasted over the neighborhood mosque's loudspeakers. Lei was already stirring about and ready to start the day. I wanted a few more minutes of sleep and so I buried my head into the pillow and tried to catch a few more zzzzz's over the sound of the prayer which was REALLLLY loud. The constant sound of cars honking (something unique to Cairo) added to the cacophany of noise.