long weekend bliss

The past two Sundays we were not allowed to have school. Egypt was scheduled to have parliamentary elections. The reason schools would be closed? Riots. Or at least the possibility. Of course elections in this country are a bit of a joke - very few people are allowed to vote, the results are decided ahead of time ...

But what is a girl to do with two 3 day weekends in a row??? Explore Egypt, of course!

Long weekend numero uno was a close to home affair.

Now I have previously written about things we call "Egypt Tacky," but this place takes the cake.


I present to you The Japanese Gardens of Helwan. I went with a friend as far south as the metro would take us, and then walked into these gardens, which were a gift from the Japanese about a hundred years ago. Who knew that we would find countless Buddha statues in a Muslim nation? It was so wonderfully hilarious. We explored for about an hour, watching little Egyptian children achieve Zen by climbing all over the statues. Egypt Tacky yes please!


Weekend numero dos was a bit more of an adventure, Egypt style.

I had a friend in town from the US, and she wanted to leave Cairo and see something else. In order for me to go with her, we had to see something new to me. So we flew to Aswan, and took a four hour bus ride to see the sun rise at Abu Simbel. This is pretty much the closest you can get to the border of the Sudan, and risk factor is slightly higher than living in Cairo. But we did it anyways.


We were the only two women (and only two white people) on a public bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel. Upon arriving in the town of Abu Simbel, we realized we were the only two people staying at a very sub-par hotel by the bus stop. Sandra looked at me and said "You live in this country. I'm okay if you're okay. I shrugged my shoulders and said "where else are we going to sleep???"

The owner left us at our room with a roll of toilet paper and a can of bug spray saying "I see you morning." We slept with the bugs and the grossness, woke up at 5:15am and headed to the ancient temple of Abu Simbel.
It was pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. The sun came up over Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake in the world, and shone on the temples. The facade of the temples is quite impressive. One toe of the god is bigger than my head!