Egypt was INCREDIBLE!
We arrived in Alexandria at around 8 in the morning, but it took a couple hours before Egyptian officials could clear all of our passports. Once everyone got off the ship, there were about 20 buses waiting to take us to Cairo. Angela, Halle and I were on the same trip in Egypt, luckily. Emily had gone off on another one, so I didn't see her the entire time. Once we got on the bus, it was about a 2 hour drive to Cairo, through the desert. It was really cool to see the countryside of such a different country. Once we arrived in Cairo, we were taken to a hotel to have lunch. They tried to feed us "American" food, so we had a buffet with chicken nuggets, french fries and some cheese. I was disappointed that we were not getting a chance to try Egyptian food, but everyone was so worried about food poisoning, so maybe it was for the best. After lunch, we went to visit the ancient capital, Memphis.
After Memphis, we were taken to see the first pyramid built in Egypt, along with another pyramid that we actually went inside of. The tunnel to go into the pyramid was so small, but luckily I am only 5 feet tall. Inside the pyramid, the hieroglyphs were still perfectly intact. It was amazing. After roaming around in the desert for a few hours everyone was exhausted from the heat. We went to go check in to our hotel, and wow were we in for a surprise. The name of our hotel was the Mena House Oberoi and it was right by the pyramids, and from the balcony of my room I had a beautiful view of them.
After everyone had time to settle in, we met down in the lobby to go to the night bazaar. It was pretty far from our hotel, so we had a long ride to the bazaar. We drove over the Nile river, and it was soooo much bigger than I ever thought it would be. We passed many mosques, but these mosques had, what looked like, christmas lights hanging all down them. When we finally arrived at the bazaar, I was really surprised at how many people were everywhere. We wandered around and shopped for a couple hours then headed back to the bus. It was already about 10 pm by this point, and everyone was so tired and hungry. We arrived back at the hotel around 10:30 and the hotel had dinner waiting for us, another buffet of "American" food. Finally, around 11:30 I got back to my room to shower and go to sleep.
We had a 3:30 am wake-up call, so really we only got a short nap in. We had to be at the buses by 4:30 am and arrived at the pyramids at 5. Since the pyramids do not open to tourists until 8 am, we were the only people out there. It was sooo quiet. We all just sat around and waited for the sun to come up. It was the most breathtaking experience I have ever had. The pictures I took just don't do it justice. Around 8 am, a bunch of camels arrived and we took camel rides around the pyramids. Afterwards, we went over to the Sphinx, which is literally just behind the Great Pyramid. After the Sphinx, we went to the Citadel and looked around the mosque up there. From the top there is an amazing view of Cairo. The rest of our day was spent on a river boat down the Nile. We had lots of food and belly dancers for entertainment. It was so crazy to be on a boat floating down the Nile. We returned to the hotel so everyone could rest and shower. Then, we went to a sound and light show at the pyramids about the history of the pyramids. After the show we went back to the hotel and went straight to sleep because we had another early morning. We had a flight to Luxor at about 5:30. Upon arrival, we went straight to the Valley of the Kings. No cameras were allowed inside, so I didn't get any pictures :( We went into a few tombs, but King Ramses II tomb is closed off, unless you are of royal blood or a head of state. After the Valley of the Kings, we went to see the Colossi of Memnon. They are basically still intact, which is amazing. Queen Hatshepsut's temple was our next stop. The temple was also in amazing condition, and almost perfectly intact. Incredible. In the late afternoon, we went to check in to our hotel, the Sofitel in Luxor. That night we went to see the Luxor Temple, and walked around for a little while. Afterwards, it was back to the hotel and time for dinner. 
Again, we had an early morning. We were going to see another ancient temple before our flight back to Cairo. The short 45 minute flight back was not bad at all, but our groups got separated so we had to wait for a couple hours in the airport till everyone arrived in Cairo for the bus ride back to Alexandria. We arrived back in Alexandria around 6 and I went straight to take a shower and go to bed. Egypt was like nothing I had ever seen before. Luckily, we were able to visit before the country erupted. The SAS voyage for this upcoming summer will not be visiting Egypt for that particular reason. On to Morocco!
