cheap!

Total expenses for Spring Break: $1565.40

Egypt portion: $1378.82
NYC portion: $186.58

Daily Egypt cost: $98.49
Daily NYC cost: $186.58

to do

1. Take fewer than seven classes in my last half-semester of business school
2. Stop buying books that I don't have time to read
3. Shave off that ridiculous facial hair
   

bizarre air travel experiences

Cairo Airport:
Having to wait outside security to check in. We waited for about two hours before we could check in, and only after going through the unecessarily complicated process of clearing security. They asked for a paper copy of our electronic tickets. What the hell? Also, even
though all checkpoints went to the same area, we could only use one, even though there was an open one immediately next to the one I was required to use.

Bucharest Airport:
More waiting for arbitrary security measures. Waited for about ten minutes to pass a security gate for reasons unknown. Guy told all of us to wait while he waited. For what I'm still not sure. Eventually someone came and said we could to through, but not anyone else. Then, we couldn't check in for another four hours (till after about an hour before the flight) because of new check in procedures where some guy has to ask it anyone has done anything with my bags or if I packed any weapons. Not sure what this is supposed to accomplish aside from make the process longer.

JFK:
TBD. Still on the plane. (-:

day 14

Today we hit up our final destination of the trip: Alexandria. Saw the new library, and then walked along the coast to Fort Qaitbey, where we people watched for a few hours. After that, we headed back to Cairo.

Right now we're sitting in the airport waiting to check in. We're a little early, and we just blew the rest of our Egyptian Pounds on a driver to get here. In other words, no more local cash, no more cheap falafel, no more koshari. )-:

Today's expenses:
Train tickets: E£58
Food: E£11.25
Drive to airport: E£22.25

fort qaitbey in alexandria

day 13

Late blog entry for today because of our hotel's severe mosquito problem. Sucks.

We spent our last day in Cairo exploring the Northern Cemetary, aka the City of the Dead. It's an old area of Cairo where people have squatted in mausoleums. It was pretty interesting. We also came across quite a few ruins of mosques and funerary compounds. It would have been interesting to explore inside of those if it weren't for the fact that people lived all around. We also stumbled across where the cabbies work on their cars. Saw all sorts of car work being done, as well as a fair share of abandoned vehicles.

For our last day, we'll be hitting up Alexandria, then making our long journey back to New Haven via Cairo, Romania, and NYC. See y'all soon.

The day's expenses:
Beverages: E£5.50
Lunch: E£3
Dinner: E£8
Hotel: E£44

Total for the day: E£60.50 (about $11).

day 6 addendum

Day 6 was by St. Katherine by Mt. Sinai. After the hike, we
immediately went to town to see if we could get bus tickets back to Cairo. On the way there we passed by a falafel place and also some cow tied to some building that kind blocked our bee line path.

Unfortunately, the ticket office was closed, so we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. This time we knew we had to avoid the cow.

After breakfast, we headed back to town hopeful that the office would be open. We passed the falafel place for the third time that day, but the cow was no longer there. "That's odd," I thought. Then I noticed that the cow was still there, it just wasn't in the same place munching away; and it wasn't any random building - it was a butcher shop. Goodbye, cow.

theft is not a problem - passing through el minia

Convenience stand is closed, but everything is still out. Water,
twinkies, tissues and probably everything else. Just like FFT.

dawn along the nile

passing through luxor station

day 12

It's the end of another day, and I'm on another night train. Today was a good mix of sightseeing and relaxing. Woke up at 2:28am to catch a bus to Abu Simbel, which was fantastic. Because we left so early, we got back to Aswan around noon. Here, we got some falafel for lunch, bought some souvenirs, and just chilled out for a bit.

The next two days we'll be chillin' in Cairo. We've already been there for four days, so we don't have much of an agenda. Depending on the weather, candidates are the Northern Cemetary, the Pyramids again, or another area downtown.

We've also been considering hitting up the place that we affectionately call "Top Falafel" because it's been the best we've had so far. Only question is whether out stomachs will handle it. Yep. It's the place I mentioned before with the alternative health practices. But it was damn tasty!

Surprisingly, we still haven't gotten sick of eating falafel and koshari nearly every day. In fact, we'll probably miss having such good, quick, healthy and cheap options. Why don't they have these
places in the US?

Today's actuals - ouch!:
Tour: E£55
Abu Simbel: E£46.50
Lunch: E£2.50
Souvenirs: E£39.25
Beverages: E£4.75
Tipping: E£1.50
Dinner: E£6
Night train: E£110

driving back to aswan

ramses ii temple at abu simbel

the temples at abu simbel

day 11

Today was a travel day. Left Luxor this morning after eating a final great breakfast at the Happyland Hotel, the cleanest, cheapest, and overall the best place we've had so far here. Yep. Happyland is the best.

After getting into Aswan, we found our hotel, which ended up being more challenging than it should have been thanks to the Lonely Planet's grossly inaccurate map. Place here is good, but Happyland has spoiled us. After booking a tour to Abu Simbel, we got train tix back to Cairo for tomorrow night, got some postcards, and some dinner. Surprisingly, Aswan has the best postcards by far so far this trip. It also has the most outrageously priced falafel. The guy wanted E£3 ($0.60) when most places charge E£1 ($0.20). We quickly left that place and found one on the non-tourist street for E£0.50 ($0.10) each. We had four each.

Today's expenses:
Tip for breakfast: E£0.50
Train tickets: E£25
Hotel: E£51
Beverages: E£7
Dinner: E£2

Today's total: E£85.50 ($16)

Tomorrow's expected expenses:
Tour: E£55
Admission: E£20
Snack: E£1.50
Dinner: E£2
Night train: E£110

approaching aswan

Through the broken train window

the nile valley

Through the broken train window

first class? second class?

Note to self: Second class trains are better than first class.

I've never been one for first class travel. I'm here in a second class car on the train to Aswan and it's actually much nicer than first class. Cleaner, more legroom, and cheaper. Only downside is that the seat is a little narrower, but leg room clearly trumps that.

day 10

Feels like we've been here for weeks, but I guess it's only been ten days. Wow. Seems like we're almost wrapping up too.

Tomorrow we take a train to Aswan, which is the southernmost city in Egypt. There we intend to book a trip to Abu Simbel, waaaaay down south to check out the temple. Then, depending on scheduling, we may stick around and chill for another day, or head back up north, perhaps checking out Alexandria, or maybe some other pyramids. We shall see...

Forgot to take iPhone photos today. You'll have to wait. The Temple of Seti I and the Hathor Temple at Dendara that we checked out today were both awesome. Good exploring and good touring of the countryside. And yes, we spent big today. E£165 each for the driver, E£30 for the sites, E£7.25 for food, E£1.50 baksheesh (tipping), and E£40 for hotel. E£243.75 each for the day. That's almost $45. Yeesh!

day 9

Today we explored the west bank of Luxor, visiting the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, Medinat Habu, and the Collosi of Memnon. Of the sites we have seen so far, Medinat Habu has been the biggest surprise. It's not listed as a top attraction by the guidebooks and we almost didn't see it. So far it's been the best temple we've seen so far. It's largely intact and relatively peaceful, without the large crowds we saw at the temples at Luxor and Karnak. Why? It's parking lot isn't big enough for tour buses.

We also spent like crazy today. E£61 each for admission to the sites, plus E£65 each for a driver for the day. That plus E£5.50 for food and E£40 for hotel means we spent an astonishing E£131.50 today (although I made E£1 today by doing some forex transactions with the locals - bought $2 for E£10). Tomorrow will be even worse. Booked a tour to see the temples at Abydos and Dedara for E£150 a head.

It should be interesting. Those are two of the most well preserved temples in Egypt. We'll also be accompanied by an armed escort for both sites. Hopefully that doesn't cramp our style. We're not much for crowds of tourists.

P.S. I finally washed my pants. Yes. The ones that I've been wearing every day since I got here except for the Mt. Sinai hike.