Warning: long post!
We had no problems getting to Vienna or making our way to the plane. That is because babi miluška/Triska insisted on taking us there by taxi instead of letting us take the bus. Niki tried convincing her otherwise but babi insisted, so thank-you Babi! The flight was nice and short (3.5 hours) and the food was unreal! We couldn't believe it. We had butter chicken as good as Dianna Downtown (an amazing Indian food restaurant) on an airplane!!
Once we landed we had to go to an airport bank and buy entry visas (35 Canadian for both) and we changed over $50 to cover our ride to the hostel and our accommodations for two nights.
Once we had our bags we headed through customs to see our driver Mohammed holding a sign for Dina's Hostel. He got the car and we were off. Somehow I was strangely comfortable. Strange considering we were flying. And even though there are lanes marked for three cars in a row Egyptians see that as room for 6. Everyone drives where they want and when they want to pass...they pass. No signal and wait to be let in- that's for polite Canadians. No they honk, flash the lights and go.
We weaved our way through traffic like nothing, our driver constantly on the horn, his cell phone, and reassuring us that it's ok don't be scared.
The ride over was one hell of an adventure but we made it no problem and some how didn't see any cars so much as bump. Crazy considering we could reach out any window and touch cars easily on all sides, no stretching out required. They were right there!!
We went down a dark alley to our hostel and the driver called us the elevator and said it was on floor 5. So we waited. And waited. And realized the elevator wasn't coming down. So we headed up the old dusty stairs feeling like pregnant backpackers with our large bags strapped to our backs and and our normal backpacks strapped onto our bellies.
We paid for our room and ride and talked to the "receptionist" to find out info on arranging a driver to the pyramids. It cost 220 Egyptian pounds ($39) Canadian to get picked up and taken for the day to 3 different pyramid sites. We gladly accepted and settled into our room. We spent the night at the hostel getting settled and set for the next day.
This morning we woke up early at 630am and had showers prepped the bag, sunscreend up and went to the kitchen/ common room for free brekkie.
After we ate our driver was waiting so we set off in disbelief to actually be setting out to the pyramids! In Egypt! How the hell did we get here!
Our first stop was a papyrus "museum" where we were shown how ancient egyptians made paper and how this "museum" makes it's paper for the art it sells.
Our second stop was......the pyramids of Giza! We thought that by getting a driver through our hostel was better than trying to hire a random cab for the day. Well lo and behold our driver took us to the exact dodgy back alley tourism joint we were looking to avoid. Of course being the only tourists in site with no ques around to enter pyramids we felt a touch stuck. They were of course asking way to much money but luckily Niki was able to barter them down a couple times then we said it is still too much and to give us a minute. We talked for a minute alone and then went back to bartering. Finally we reached an agreement that was perhaps still a little expensive but worth every penny. Oh, and by the way when they wanted to describe which trips from their imaginary packages they had on offer, they came out with what they called a "map" which is just a picture of the pyramids that was 5 feet wide and 2 feet tall. It was brought in and held by some random guy who came out of nowhere while the ring leader pointed to where the trips would go: little trip, medium trip, or big trip! Keep in mind we are talking outside in some random square near the pyramids filled with horses, camels, and many Egyptians. It was definitely very comical.
Anyway, we of course picked the big trip because it actually included going to see all of the pyramids. So we mounted up and set out ready to ride around Giza on horseback for approximately 2-2.5 hours.
The pyramids are blocked by a large concrete fence so we had to ride down the street to a horse and camel traffic jam (definitely not the standard tourist entrance).
After maybe 10 minutes we made it through and there it was...pyramids. Writing about them just doesn't do them justice... Go look at the photo section for a few pictures I uploaded. After all a picture is worth a thousand words!

We rode up a "mountain" AKA little bit of a hill and took some pictures. We then rode closer for more shots. Once we were set we rode around to the sphinx for some pictures near it.
I had no idea before today that you could get so close to the pyramids. I knew you could go inside some but general walking around I thought would be farther away. They have a perimeter fence set up but it is maybe 10 feet from the pyramids just to stop you from touching them.
After a couple of hours we rode back to our driver. I had already seen what I wanted to see and could have called it a day. Giza was so cool. It wasn't as busy as I expected and the people trying to sell you things were way less pushy then we had anticipated.
We set off toward some older pyramids. Our next stop was Dashur. Here we saw the bent pyramid which was made at too steep of an angle to start with. Once they got halfway up they realized it would not work and changed the angle to a less steeper one. There was also another pyramid build from start to finish with the second angle from the bent pyramid. Good for them for learning from their mistakes!
This second pyramid was one that we were able to go inside! Very cool but Terrible haha. It's not like walking into a doorway. More like climbing a bunch of steps up the side of the pyramid. Then you have your doorway sure.... But it doesn't go straight inside. Nope more like it goes waaaaaaay down with very little head room and a very steep angle. Kind of like a crazy steep slide at Canada's Wonderland. Minus the water of course. And make it a dark dank tunnel that's maybe at most four feet by four feet. I asked Niki her opinion and she said it felt like two by two and made her non claustrophobia turn into claustrophobia.
So there we were at the top of the entrance. We assumed a squat position and headed down. Twice I thought we must be there by now but when I looked we still had alot more distance to cover. I forgot to mention there are little tiny boards running across the ramp so you have some grip.
Once we finally made it to the bottom I felt like I had gone back in time. Not to ancient Egypt more like to Kingston training with our TaeKwonDo coach Rob after a crazy class of plyometric drills!! Our legs were jelly and we were a long way from the top. Inside there were a couple of rooms. Nothing too exciting to see it was more the excitement of being inside an ancient step pyramid! If you wouldn't find it cool because of that then it would have been dark smelly and hot for you and nothing else. I thought it was super cool!
When we finished looking around and stretching out or wobbly legs we took a deep breath and started our accent. Luckily the way up was easier then going down. Maybe it was the light at the end of the tunnel giving us hope. Or the thought of a fresh breath of air.
Once we were at the top we took a couple minutes to enjoy the view and climbed back down to our driver.
Our next stop was the pyramids of Saqqara but on the way a special treat. We were taken to an essential oils and fragrance place. Here we sat with a man who told us stories of natural perfumes. Lots of them. We also got to smell from the jars and had some put on us. We aren't talking like three or four. No I'd say more like five different smells on us and about twenty different bottles on the table that we heard stories about and got to smell. Don't get me wrong he was a nice guy and it was pretty funny. But it just kept going on and on and we thought he would never stop sharing the scents and stories. He showed us a price list and we explained we were still backpacking for awhile and wouldn't be able to take any with us. He wasn't pushy just excited to have people listen to him. Next was to be a show and tell of massage oils but we declined and headed on our way. We did not have much small change for backsheesh and didn't feel like being pressured into buying things.
Finally we arrived to the last place of our journey. Saqqara was an active burial ground for 3500 years and most of it was buried in sand until the mid 19th century and since then has been a gradual rediscovery. There used to be 11 pyramids here but we could see about 4 or 5 in various stages of deterioration. The main step pyramid here is actually being refinished. At first I couldn't decide if I thought this was a good thing or not. But when you think of it all the old castles in Europe are fixed up to look nice. And when you see the smaller pyramids here turning to sand you can see why they are doing it.
After walking around for awhile we again set off to our driver and headed back to the hostel. We crashed for a couple of hours.
Once rested we decided to brave the crazy streets of Cairo. We asked Mina at the front desk for advice and he said no worries Cairo is very safe just watch for hustlers and don't let people help you cross the street they just want money. Ummm about crossing the street? The crazy busy street, how do you do that? His words of wisdom were "just close your eyes and run"
Great. Great advice. We set out and wandered around our hostel doing a couple of blocks watching how the local pedestrians get across the busy road. Frogger. It's simply a game of Frogger. After we walked for a bit and were able to find the hostel again we went a little further and just looked around. Cairo really comes to life at night. The streets are totally packed and everyone is window shopping. The roads are packed and as you walk you hear constant toots of horns that before too long become the soundtrack to Cairo and play as background music. We managed to cross the street without too much trouble. It sure wakes you up and gets your adrenaline pumping. We ended up getting turned around and mixed up and spent a good time wandering to find familiar landmarks. In the downtown core there are so many buildings and stores that look the same. In the end we found our way and enjoyed the time searching for the street. We got back exhausted from the day and crashed for the night.
Day two of Cairo.
This morning we woke up super tired and sore. The pyramid squat and horse ride did a number on us.
We had our free breakfast and set out for the famous Egyptian museum. We had a few big streets to cross and had learned a little of the technique but we had tried on only little roads (3-5 cars side by side). I decided they all do it and so can we! I grabbed Niki by the hand, took a breath and started the game of Frogger! You kind of sort of have the right of way but so do the cars. When you first walk into the street the cars will toot the horn at you and if they must they will slow down. You have to decide if you will cross infront of or behind the car charging closest to you. Ok you pick before then quickly walk and keep your eye on the next car. They may have slowed sped up or changed lanes (not necessarily away from you, sometimes they come to the "lane" your standing close to) again you decide infront or behind and do it. Repeat the process as many times as needed slowly (but as quick as possible) working your way through the mass of zig zagging honking cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, and sometimes horses.
Mina's advice of close your eyes was good in the sense of saying just do it. But if you merely ran you would most likely run into the side of a car.
We managed to make it to the museum in one piece. Got our tickets and got inside for bag X-rays, got sent outside because I had my camera in my bag. Their website said for 10 egyptian pounds you could bring in a camera. Clearly outdated. We lucked out because there was no line but later in the day we saw people get through huge lines only to be sent to check cameras and start the line over again. No signs. Just like the rest of the museum.
We got in and started our tour. We agreed that this museum was really cool because of it's contents but probably the worst museum we have seen. There were ancient artifacts everywhere. The place is bursting at the seams with thousands of years old items. Very cool but very few signs and descriptions. For a place so massive this makes for a bit of confusion. There were many areas that were almost in complete darkness and we walked through a massive stone entranceway with ancient hieroglyphs and didn't even see it until we were leaving the area and Niki noticed what it actually was.
We got to see a large King Tut exhibit including his many enclosures from his tomb, his large wooden coffin, his pure gold beautifully etched sarcophagus, his amazing 11kg gold head dress that was over his mummy, his golden hand coverings and a bunch of small carvings and items taken from his tomb. We also went into the royal mummy museum where we saw roughly 20 mummies with wrappings removed. It was amazing and kind of creepy at the same time.
We spent at least 6 hours in the museum and still didn't see it all. There are so many side rooms off of all the rooms it would take a couple solid days to look at everything.
Very awesome experience and a great time in a terribly laid out museum. They are building a state of the art new museum near the Giza Pyramids to take some of the burden off of this one.
Once we left we set out in search of a popular local Koshari restaurant. Koshari is egypts food. It is their comfort food. It is vegetarian consisting of noodles, lentils, chick peas, fried onion, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, and hot chili sauce.
The particular place we were searching for is rated #3 on trip advisor for best restaurants in Cairo and is said to have the best koshari around.
We found it down a small alleyway a few blocks from the touristy area (we really only saw a couple other foreigners wandering the streets). We went inside and were sent upstairs. Two times. Each floor was full of locals enjoying the food. We were so excited. We were seated brought bottled water and our koshari. The waiter showed us the order to add things and how much of each sauce to put in. Sweet Jesus is authentic koshari ever delicious! It was an amazing meal from such simple ingredients. He told us after the meal that we should try some dessert so we split a rice pudding. Normally I wouldn't dare touch it but he said it was a traditional dessert so we had it. The pudding was also delicious! All in all an amazing experience. And then the bill came. I was shocked. Two big bowls of koshari, two bottles of water, and a big rice pudding.... Grand total of $27 Egyptian pounds AKA $4.80 canadian
Once finished we headed back to the hostel for our bags and a quick freshen up and our driver arrived. We set out for the airport rather sadly. We finally had the guts to roam comfortably all over the city and it was time to go. I saw my pyramids and king tut, and had delicious koshari. It was a great time but not my last time. We read in the guide book before we came "love Cairo and it will love you back." so true.
Cairo when you look around is quite a dirty place. The grand buildings of the 1920's are now old looking. There is alot of garbage around and poor stray cats and dogs everywhere. Almost all of the newer constructed buildings are unfinished with large rebar coming out of the tops, chunks of concrete left on parts they don't belong, or roofs not built with people living in the building. This is actually because if a building is not finished you pay significantly less taxes.
Even though Cairo is a "dirty" place it is a grand place with huge beautiful mosques amidst the unfinished buildings and a world far from ours. Once you build up the courage to experience Cairo it is an incredible place!
Bye for now Egypt. See you again one day.