I am finally getting pictures posted! Good for me, right? It sure took long enough. So here's the secret about why I'm really doing them right now--I am stuck in the airport in Atlanta, Georgia, and I have nothing else I can really do. I would love to sleep some more, but it's freakishly cold in this airport; I should catch up on some reading, but the lack of sleep thing kind of hinders the reading thing... My flight from Minneapolis was delayed because of weather, so I just barely missed my connection to Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, they only have one such flight per day, so I'm just kind of sitting here for an extra day. I could have gotten a hotel, but Delta wouldn't pay for it because the delay was due to weather, and I wasn't about to pay $60 for a hotel room, so I got me a nice piece of floor and slept pretty well, although not very long. Today I'm just chillaxin' in the airport... by the way I just realized that I have in my carryon 4 or 5 replacement razor blade cartridges... I'm kind of surprised I got away with that! It was an accident, I promise, I just wasn't paying enough attention when I was packing.
So before I put up the pictures I want to say hello to my friend Allison! Let's hang out when I get back, ok?
And now for some pictures.
My first pyramid!
This is the tiny, steep, smelly, dark, hot little shaft that we had to climb down to get into the pyramid. Then you get to the bottom and there's an empty stone room. Woohoo.
Tourist police on a camel... you could say, Camel Fuzz?
The little pyramid in the background, on the left, is the Bent Pyramid. It was a failed attempt at a normal pyramid.
Cairo pollution combined with lots of humidity... the air is so thick you can taste it.
I loved how the pyramids just look like part of the city...
Pyramids and Coke. Lovely.
The Sphinx! I liked this better than the pyramids almost.
These cute little girls came up and asked if they could have their picture taken with me. On my camera....
My roommate Janell and I on a sleeper train
A boat! On the Nile!
We got to ride camels! Very fun, very scary noises!
I like the crane in the background... This is an obelisk, which were these big monuments put up at the entrances to temples. Apparently there are more Egyptian obelisks in Rome than in Egypt. Go figure.
We went to a Nubian village, and this super cute little girl wanted my glasses.
We had one temple visit at night. After 5 days of Egyptian temple, I think they all start to look the same. So this one, seeing it at night specifically, was different and pretty cool.
See? Pretty cool at night!
My roommate Janell at King Tut's tomb! We couldn't take our cameras in to the tombs at the Valley of the Kings.
Harvest time! This soil looked very Midwestern, I thought--much darker than anything we've seen in Israel, for sure.
This is my favorite hieroglyph! It's a duck. I don't have any idea what it means.
This is us taking a remarkably spectacular hike up to some remarkably un-spectacular turquoise mines.
Me with some friends in the back of our Jeep--we rode in Jeeps way out into the Sinai Desert. Sometimes there was a road, sometimes there was a trail, sometimes there was nothing. So fun.
Waiting for the sun to rise on what is traditionally known as Mount Sinai, I contemplate life, or perhaps death--by freezing! It was so cold there! Good thing I have hardy Minnesota blood... We hiked up this mountain in the middle of the night, leaving out hotel at 3 am.
I made a camel friend on the way back down the mountain.
This is the sunrise from the top. So pretty!
Well, that's all folks! I apologize, this is a really long post, but that's just a snapshot of my trip to Egypt (har, har...)
I still have like 9 more hours here in the Atlanta airport, so I plan to do a little bit of wandering around to stretch my legs, as well as some reading. I got a nice little nap in, and am working on staying hydrated... I guess that's good for jet lag. Nothing too exciting at all... but then I'll be on my way back to Israel! Now that's exciting.
Love you all!
