Arrival in Cairo

After another early start I arrived at the airport with enough time to check in my bags and have a wander through the terminal shops. I picked myself up some snacks to get me through what was to be a long day and even got a spot of shopping in.

 My first and by far most interesting flight was London to Cologne, where I was sat next to a guy from Palestine, studying in Wales, which I made the rookie mistake of calling Pakistan. It was an interesting hour and a half conversation about rugby, Wales, football, the challenges of travelling as a Palestinian, and New Zealand culture, ending with me writing a (rather long) list of all the places he should visit in NZ.

The second flight was from Cologne to Munich, and was fairly uneventful, me being in a window seat without a window next to a beautiful German couple who didn’t speak English. Munich to Cairo was delayed due to the plane being held up from its last flight, but was pleasant enough with me getting a couple of plane movies in. Upon arrival in Cairo, someone from Topdeck was waiting there to pick me up, and very kindly ushered me along, I felt like a little sheep, following directions in what would have otherwise been a completely overwhelming experience. After about an hour we were through all the customs and had my bag and were off.

Driving in Egypt is an art form, and reminded me a little of Italy, except with the addition of donkeys and horses with carts on the highways and children sitting out the windows of the cars to add a little extra spice to the adventure. A bit over an hour later and just gone 11pm, we somehow made it to the hotel, so I had a shower and went straight to bed.

The following morning, I met the rest of the group at breakfast and we were off – first stop: Egyptian museum. It was incredible, to say the least. It is one of those places you can’t fully comprehend without experiencing personally. The history of the pharaohs, their language, their traditions, artefacts so well preserved it is difficult to believe they are originals. 

To be told the vivid colours seen in some of the artwork had no restoration process but were found like that blew me away. It must have been so exciting to be the archaeologists involved in the excavation process. 

Then there were the tombs, and the mummified animals, and of course, the mummy room with the pharaohs on display. We even found a tomb for a beetle. Clearly some of these people had too much time on their hands!