Even Better Than In The Movies

Excuse the fact that I haven’t posted in quite a while. I’ve been off on some adventures. Gregory and Mark came to visit on June 3 and just left this past Thursday. In that time span, we spent a week here in Greece and a week in Egypt. It was an exciting and exhausting time.

Egypt was magnificent. Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 1: Cairo/Egyptian Museum
Day 2: Pyramids of Giza
Day 3: Aswan
Day 4: Luxor/Valley of the Kings/Queens/Luxor Temple
Day 5: Luxor/Temple of Karnak/Felucca Ride
Day 6: Hurghada/Snorkeling in the Red Sea
Day 7: Islamic Cairo
By train, bus, cab, and foot, we saw the best things that Egypt has to offer. I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favorite, because it was all unbelievably interesting and impressive. Really, the whole country should be designated a wonder of the ancient world. Everywhere we went, there was something that made us stop, stare, and marvel at how anyone created such a thing.

The one thing that struck me most about Egypt though was that it was exactly the way I imagined it to be. I think this may be the first place that has been like that for me. Whenever I travel, I have an image in my head of what the place is going to be like. The image is formed from books, movies, history texts, and other people’s stories about traveling to that place. In my mind, I had certain ideas about what it would be like to go to the Eiffel Tower, to see the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, to bike through the Chianti region of Italy. My images, however, turned out to be different from the actual experience. It wasn’t that these places were disappointing, simply different than I had imagined they would be. As a consequence, I expected this to also happen with Egypt. After all, Egypt has filled the pages of our history books since we were in the first grade, has been the subject of countless museum exhibits, and has been the setting for numerous stories and movies. We’ve all seen so many images of the pyramids, the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and the wide expanse of Egyptian desert, that it seems impossible that seeing it in real life can still be impressive. Will it even live up to its hype you have to wonder. But yes, it does. It’s all as good as, if not better, than its hype. The pyramids are awesome. The desert is boundless. The treasures are richly ornate. The temples are massive. Egypt is an overwhelmingly impressive place. It’s impossible to really grasp it all. It’s all too big for your mind to get around.

I’m still recovering from the mental and physical exhaustion of my trip, but I will write more over the next week. Also, be sure to check Gregory and Mark’s blogs, which are linked on the sidebar, because they will also be posting about the trip and I’m sure they have lots of interesting and amusing things to say. But if you have a hankering to travel, I suggest Egypt. Put aside any hesitation and do as the man in Cairo told us as we were waiting to cross the street: “Close your eyes, pray to Allah, and just go.”