A day to reset and many thanks

Yesterday we woke up at 9:30 and went downstairs to catch the very end of breakfast. The plan for the day was the sound and light show but we did not have to leave for that until 7:30 PM. We spent the day like Egyptians. Lounging in the cool indoors and only leaving for errands and lunch at 3. I had to go to the bank one last time and Jack needed to buy some ties for Vienna. Much of the morning and afternoon was spent getting everything in order. I have now retired my sweaty, dirty and heavily used Lonely Planet book for a brand new Vienna one. If that is not a perfect analogy for Jack and I, I do not know what is. Once we could go no further with our packing we laid down to watch some How I Met Your Mother. We now only have one episode left in Season 5 and I have no idea what we are going to watch. Our friend Paul recommended a show called Dorm Life and we watched the first episode yesterday. It was terr…wait for it…ible, terrible. Maybe I will start Mad Men but do it in a better fashion then my Dad who watched the first episode of season one, read the summaries of all the other episodes and then watched the finale. Sometimes I wonder if the $10 a month for Megavideo is worth it.

Random tangents aside, we left our hotel at 7:30 for the pyramids. Our last night on the town in Cairo and it had an odd symmetry to it. We had the same driver as the first night and he was still as reckless as we remembered him. We also were going to the place where we spent our first day to listen to a history that would recap our entire trip. The show was basically like the last day of the class before a final when the professor recaps everything. It was hard to get a good picture, but I made an attempt. The sound and light show was also one of the cheesiest events I have ever been a part of. The Sphinx narrates history as he has seen it to what is supposed to be epic sounding music. One of my favorite quotes was, “Man fears time…but time fears… THE PYRAMIDS!!” (and queue loud music as all the pyramids light up). It was cool to think about the powerful men and women throughout history who had stood and looked at the same pyramids we were looking at then: All the pharaohs, Alexander the Great, Ceasar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Napoleon. Furthermore, seeing these impressive feats of man light up at night was an experience I will never forget. If you were to ask me whether I would go to the light show again, I would probably say no but would definitely encourage someone who has never been to see it for themselves.

After the show, we headed off to dinner in Zamalek the supposedly ritzy part of Cairo. It is located on a rather large island in the middle of Cairo and has wide variety of restaurants and ahwas. We chose Abou El Sid and the ambience of the place was perfect for out last night. We walked through massive doors into a dim light, sheesha filled room with people in couches and large comfy chairs sprawled out across the space. Along the walls hung pictures of Egyptian icons and the second we walked in Jack and I looked at each other with smiles on our faces; we had found a perfect spot to eat for our last night.

Once done eating we hailed a cab and went to Khan al Khalili to purchase some tiny tokens. We arrived at 11:30 and the area was packed. The whole city was a madhouse and the traffic was almost worse then when we had been outside earlier. I took a couple pictures but again you really cannot capture the degree to which Cairo is alive at midnight with just one photo. The whole city appeared as if a football game had just gotten out. Jack and I were planning to just buy something and head back to the hotel, but the scale of it all kept us out past one. The one disappointing aspect was the lack of haggling. Yes I lowered the guy I bought my pyramid from by 20 EGP( 35 EGP to 15 EGP) but that did not take long at all. They all have prices in their head and so many people around that they do not bother arguing over smaller prices. He just said 15 EGP for one. I said what about 20 EGP or even 25 EGP for two pyramids and he shook his head and said his price again. I must say the longest back and forth I had was with the taxi driver in Luxor at the airport. That was much more fun. We left at 1:10 with two pyramids, two shot glasses and an Egyptian jersey for Jack. I had wanted to buy an elephant statue but they really did not have anything I liked. Back at the hotel we talked to friends and family for a while and then conked out.

We woke up this morning, ate and finished packing. I am writing this 40 minutes before we have to leave the hotel and will not have Internet for a while. The next time you will hear from either one of us we will be in Vienna. I had an amazing time here in Egypt and I think Jack would agree. We accomplished everything we set out to accomplish and my final cost (I kept track of it in Excel as we went along) was $1,653.9. That could be off by +/- $5, but the nevertheless a price I am very happy with since our goal was somewhere between $1500 and $2000. I would like to thank everyone for following the blog over the last two weeks. I know I was longwinded at times and understand if paragraphs were given second priority over pictures. I hope the blog gave you at least some insight into our travels and what is like to go to a Muslim country with a UGE amount of historical significance. As the title indicates, the blog will continue in Vienna but not to the same degree as it has in Egypt. Thank you again and a very big thanks to my parents for paying for the plane ticket that allowed me to have this experience of a lifetime. This is all one story that I will not forget.

And as for the last nutrition section:

We wanted something easy for lunch so we got Chinese food again and it was decent. Probably could have gone some place better but we were feeling lazy. But dinner was the big one: I ordered the Egyptian National Dish which is Chicken Molekheya. It is chicken over rice with a lentil soup and a dipping sauce. I went for it since it was our last night and it did not really pay off. The chicken was good and the dipping sauce not bad but I could really not handle the soup. I had five spoonfuls before I decided I could not have any more. The texture of it was so gross. Haha, at least I made the attempt but kind of paid for it this morning when I woke up with a little bit of a stomach ache. This trip really did have a nice symmetry to it…