Cairo

Egypt. I am in Egypt. Technically, we arrived yesterday, but by the time we landed on our rescheduled flight and made it through customs, we'd already missed our kickoff meeting and any chance to see Cairo or so I imagine as I sit in my big chair at home two weeks before leaving. I'm sick today, watching Fred Claus and working in my pajamas. It's hard to believe that soon I'll be flying halfway around the world to see pyramids, sphinxes and deserts, oh my.

A few months ago, a year at the most, I read The Egyptologist and that might have sparked my decision. Or maybe it started with Indiana Jones and his visit to Petra. Or my dad's pictures of the same. Or the pyramid my friend Autumn and I made in fourth grade, the one with sugar wafers and one of my tiny little dolls in cheesecloth. Whatever it was, all I knew was that I wanted to go to Egypt, and suddenly, here I am, with one of my best friends and a group of strangers.

Over the next couple of weeks, potential highlights will post of the places I'm going. When I get back or if I find time, a computer and access to the internet, I'll post about the places I've been. I just expect it will be spotty - camels don't have Wi-Fi - so here I am, with Vince Vaughan in the North Pole and trying to imagine a place I've never been.

Cairo.

Supposedly, we'll start the day with a visit to the three pyramids of Giza. While once located in remote desert, they now touch the suburbs of modern Cairo. They're my first pyramids. The first on this continent, anyway. We'll have a qualified Egyptologist - and not the one from the book by Arthur Phillips - as our tour leader to explain the facts and myths behind them, and we'll visit the mysterious Sphinx. (I am so stoked.)

Time permitting, we might get to see inside one of the two smaller pyramids, take a ride around the pyramids on camel back or visit the fascinating Solar Boat Museum with displays on one of the pharaoh’s funerary barges, which may be the oldest boat in existence.

Lunch. Egyptian Museum. Over 10,000 pieces from every period of Egyptian history, including the treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun, and more than a little jet lag, I'm not sure I'll know which way is up, but I'm going to try and then we're off to a sleeper train where we'll share a bunk-bed compartment.

I hope I don't fall off.

Tomorrow, we'll wake up in Aswan.

Tag: Travel Egypt