So, I've been a pretty busy kid in Cairo. Only have a couple digital pics cause my camera is not co-operating, but have a bunch on a normal camera.

The night I got back, me, Em and a bunch of her American University of Cairo friends went on a felucca ride on the Nile. Basically this is just a (windpowered) sailboat, and the captain navigates it along the Nile for about an hour. It was really nice, got a chance to see the city at night as well as sail on probably the most famous river in the world.

The next night, a group of us went to the opera for oh, about $2.50 Cdn. I mean it was no bear on the little bike of the ballet, but it was really cool. For started, we had to look nice. Now, all the other people going lived here, but me, who was traveling out of a backpack didn't really have any nice close. My nicest clothes were sneakers, a pair of cargo pants that happened to have no rips in them, and a short sleeve shirt with buttons down the front. Needless to say, Em managed to find a suit jacket for me (I bought a sweater as well as I figured I needed on anyway), a tie, but no pants or shoes. I should have taken a picture, there I was standing in line for an opera surrounded by people in nice suits and dresses wearing a suit jacket that was a little small for me, with a short sleeved shirt underneath, a blue tie that did not go with it, a pair of black cargo pants, and running shoes. Well, I guess the tie threw the guy at the door off, and he didn't see the rest of my outfit.

Once inside I changed back into my sweater as soon as I could. The opera was really neat. It was called Aida, which was written for the opening of the Suex Canal. It a love story of sorts set in Ancient Egypt. The costumes, for the most part were fantastic, as well as the orchestra. It was a cool experience, didn't feel like I was cultured all that much by it, but I did enjoy it and can now say I have been to the opera.

The next day was set aside for the museum. Now the Egyptian Museum is set up like museums of old and doesn't label a lot of stuff. They just put stuff that is the same in the same room and let the viewer make up their own pictures. This is good in a sense as you actually examine the objects instead of just reading the descriptions, but bad in the sense that you don't have much of a clue what you are looking at. Luckily, one of Emily's friends, Matty, who is studying Egyptology, and knows a lot about the history of Egypt came with us.

It was crazy seeing some of the history in there. Tombs from 2000 BC, masks, false doors for tombs, pottery and the King Tut exhibit just to name a few. You can really see the different influence among the ages there, as well as the heavy influence the Egyptian gods had on a lot of the archetechture and objects throughout Egyptian history.

After that, Em and I went to Alex (see the Alex entry), and then came back and went to the Pyramids. What can I say, when you come to Egypt you have to see the Pyramids...they are pretty spectacular, huge stone structures that have stood the test of time. I didn't go inside any of them cause it was a little expensive, but just seeing them and the Sphinx was cool.

Oh, apparently they are really trying to cut down on the number of people selling things on the actual Pyramid plateau (inside the gates). I read this in the Lonely Planet book, but didn' t know how serious it really was. Quite serious it appears...a man came up to us and tried to sell us a couple of postcards, and we said no thanks, and he didn't pester us at all after that. Well, about 10 seconds later, one of the police came up to him on a camel and started yelling at him. He then proceed to whip the man. Yes, you heard me right, WHIP THE MAN, once in the face. I can now see why there are not a lot of people trying to sell things here now.

Okay, gonna spend til about the 16th here in Cairo and then head out. Tried e-mail Air Malta twice to see about rescheduling my flight but didn't get a reply. I went today to an office (this was the second one I went to, the first one was no longer an actual office) and found out that I can't get a flight to Malta on the 16th anyway. But, I did find out that it is actually cheaper for my to fly to fly from Cairo to Athens and then from Athens to Rome than it is for me to fly straight from Cairo to Rome. So, if things work out, I'm gonna try to get a two day stop over in Athen and then head to Rome on the 18th and head home on the 23rd...