cruisin'

There is just too much to write about each temple that we visited. To spare you the gory details, I'm going to post a ton of pictures. The temples are all dedicated to gods of ancient Egypt, which we learned a lot about. It was interesting to see an entire religion and culture and how it functioned before it has completely disappeared. The drawings on temple walls reminded me of childhood cartoons of Egyptian characters, it was crazy to see where such inspiration stems from. All the drawings and carvings were very flat and prolific, with the eyes outlined as you can imagine and tall thin women and men making a variety of offerings. My favorite temple was the Philae Temple on Agilika Island. It was moved when the Egyptians built the damn and reconstructed on the island. It was absolutely huge and the surroundings were just stunning. We spent an evening exploring the ruins and being explained the ancient deities. The sun setting on such an old and incredible place was one of the highlights of my trip. Other temples we visited include Komombo Temple (which we saw at night and was lit up) the Edfu Temple, and Hatshesput Temple.

At Hatshesput's Temple I had one of those "it's such a small world" experiences. While leaving the temple I spotted kid wearing a familiar looking tee-shirt. Upon close (not creepy) examination I realized it was a Darien High School vs. New Canaan High School Turkey Bowl shirt, my hometown's rivalry Thanksgiving game! I was so freaked out and I just grabbed the kid and asked if he was from Connecticut. Turns out they were from Darien (the whole family) and were on spring break in Egypt! What are the chances? One of the daughters was a senior at the high school and recognized me from high school cheerleading. It was such a small piece of home in such a distant world. Despite the three-digit temperature I had goosebumps.

Besides visiting the temples we really got to explore some of the cities we visited. My personal favorite was Luxor. It is a little bit more of a touristy town than the others, with the entire town center running along the Nile River and cruise boats pulling in and out on an hourly basis. Right along the river was also a large temple and an even larger bazaar. Our tour guide took us to the bazaar one night to try our hand at Egyptian shopping.

Shop keeper: Welcome to Egypt! Where are you from? Sweden (to me because I am blonde) Arabian (to Brooke because she's not)? I love the United States! I have someone there. Obama! He's my cousin! What do you want? 500 hundred Egyptian for that. Okay, 405. 300. 200. 100. 50. 17. Come back, come back, give me fair price! (Continuing to follow you down the road) Okay, okay fine, 5. Ok good.

Nonetheless, I did some great shopping! Lots of gifts and a new addict to sugarcane juice, and I felt fully emerged in the culture.