Egypt!!! :D :D :D

Heylo!

I'm back in the freezing UK after my fantastic holiday. It was bloody amazing!!! :D :D :D I really didn't want to go home. No offence to anyone but when I was in Egypt I didn't actually miss anything at all about England. The boat was amazing though and so was everyone there. I miss everyone so much already and it's only been one day!!! D:

Aaah goddammit I'm so hungry! It's half past three in Egypt and I didn't have even have breakfast this morning. :(

Ok, so here is what I did for anyone who is interested and if I type too much, blame Hesham! : -

Sunday 20th - We had a busy morning of preparing food, hoovering, cleaning, packing and dropping off Susie and Alfie with Chris for a week. I was given a departure time of 4pm and was ready by 2pm. Mum however did not finish packing until 6pm and Dad until 7pm!!! We finally stumbled out to the car where wee sat for half an hour and ate our crisps while we waited for Dad to finish faffing!
We eventually set off and after an uneventful journey munching biscuits and sandwiches (made by moi), we arrived at the Logan's Guest House at 10pm. By 11pm, we had paid, settled into our rooms (- Mum's : a double bed complete with rabbit, single bed and ensuite bathroom downstairs just inside the front door. - Our's : upstairs with twin beds, each complete with teddy bears, ornamental shelves and towels), had a snack (yoghurt, plums, biscuits, melon, peaches, hot chocolate and bizarrely salted peanuts!) in mum's room and got ready for bed.
We got into bed but we didn't actually get to sleep for aaaages, partly due to the other families who repeatedly used the bathroom outside our room and each time left the cold tap running!!! Christian also set up a steady drum beat on the wall. We finally got to sleep at 1am dreading being woken up at 5am!!!

Monday - At 5am I got up, dressed and packed. I then had a lurrrrrrvely breakfast of strawberries, hot chocolate and croissants! Yummmy! The taxi arrived at 6am and after bidding farewell to the landlady we left for the airport. We checked in at 6.30am and got through the first security checks by 7.30am. To get past security we not only had to have our bags scanned but also our shoes!!! (Mine are purple! =D). I also had to rapidly glug down a bottle of milk which made me feel quite queasy for a while!
We looked around the shops during the two hours left until departure and me and midge both got lush sunglasses. We spent the last half an hour by the big window in Starbucks watching the planes with yet another hot chocolate! Eventually we got through to departures and into our seats after Dad vanished to the loo for half an hour!!!It rainend really heavily and when it stopped we travelled for fifteen minutes until we reached the runway and then we took off.
On the plane me and midge worked our way through our newly acquired puzzle books and mum's three bags of sweets - haribo, revels and midge's favourite murray mints! Through my 2 (!) windows I saw England, France, Malta, the island next to Malta, Africa, Egypt and many more countries! The best part was when we flew through the Alps and saw all the snow covered peaks. Although, flying over the Sahara and glancing down through the clouds and spotting island in the blue of the Mediterranean come pretty close!
We touched down in the lovely 40oC Luxor Airport and after sorting passports and collecting our bags, got on the coach (minus the tip-collecting porters) and sorted out our Egyptian visas. I finally got my passport stamped! USA, Spain, Tenerife, Malta and France couldn't manage it but I got my first stamps in Egypt! Good thing really because it expires next June.
We got to the coach after an on-the-coach Arabic lesson from Mohamed and boarded by walking straight through three other boats!!!
They moor up boats in a line going out from the bank so they are just tied together instead of to the bank. I think the maximum we had was six! Anyways, we were shown to our amazing room (No.311) diagonally opposite from Mum and Dad (No.314) and unpacked. Our rooms had twin beds, tv, desk, fridge, phone, wardrobe, ensuite bathroom and a window the length of one wall! We then had an exquisite (i lyk that word!) 3 course dinnner (:O) at 7pm of salad, beef, chicken, vegetables and rice with choclate ball thingies with coconut on for pudding along with midge's favourite angel's delight.
After a bit we went up to the lounge bar (fourth deck) to find out what we were doing. We tried this weird hubiscus drink which is an egyptian welcome drink. Christian loved it but then he has no taste buds. We listened to Mohamed rambling for about an hour. I nearly fell asleep while he was talking because it was a bit (very!) boring. We had a piece of paper and he just read out everything on it slowly and in lots of detail. After we went up to the pool and sunbeds. It was great lying looking at the stars knowing that they are a completely different set to the ones at home. We then went inside and slept after a while.

Tuesday - We got to sleep fairly late (about 1pm) and had the lovely treat of yelled Arabic from fishermen as we passed through various locks on our way to Edfu where we arrived at 2am (ish). I got up at 7.15 and had to sit through 4wake up calls! - one from Mohamed and three from Dad! He called three times the night before as well!
At 9am after one of Mohamed's talks, we were driven through Edfu by horse and carriage (No.213). It was fairly quiet so early but already over 40oC. We arrived and were given our tickets into the temple after making our first dash past the market sellers. We saw the temple and buildings and were given a looooong introduction by Hesham before wew entered the temple. The temple was in fantastic condition and is the best preserved one (the most intact) in Egypt. It is dedicated to the falcon-headed god Horus, son of God Ra. He is the god of protection. The hieroglyphs were fantastic and very complexly detailed. It was quite cool inside the temple and we went through all the rooms and past the open courtyard. The only place we weren't allowed to enter was the Sanctuary which can only be entered by the Pharoah and High Priest. As you look from the front you can't see the sanctuary but as you look back from the sanctuary you can see the entire temple. The floor also rises up so the idea is you are walking up to the god in heaven. The tops of all the archways were in a straight line as well which was quite strange. We met up outside after our tour and received our first taste of one of Mohamed's quizzes.
After another brief dash past the market traders we took the same horse carriage back to the boat. Edfu had become quite busy and everyone was out visiting the colourful markets. We got back on board at 12pm and were given cold towels and fresh squeezed lemon! When then had a six-hour relax whilst we sailed to Kom-ombo. I went swimming! It was great, being in a pool watching as palm trees go by! :D At 1pm we had lunch and then at 4.30pm tea. The Egyptians occasionally have four meals a day!
When we arrived at Kom-ombo we walked through the port and the market to the temple. It was more ruined than Edfu. It is the only temple in Egypt dedicated to two gods - the falcon Horus and the crocodile Sobek. The have on side of the temple each. Also displayed in the temple is the Egyptian Festival calendar! It was great. Hesham taught us how to read it as well. Hesham also showed us three mummified crocodiles that had been found in the temple! After wandering around for a while, we went back through the market to our boat. We got lost quite a few time s but I did manage to pick up some Gallabya for our Egyptian party as we went through.
Back on the boat we had our tea and became friends with Taher who taught us how to make a cobra, a lotus and a trick water cup! Later we went back up to the lounge bar to litsen to the Egyptian music!

Wednesday - We took a boat trip out to Angelica Island which is called Philae to see Philae temple. Philae temple was moved because when the Aswan Dam was built the island it was on submerged beneath the surface and it had to be moved. However, there were about twelve other smaller temples that couldn't be saved. The temple is for Goddess Isis - mother of Horus and wife of Osiris. The scenes tell of the lengths she went to to save her husbands body after he was killed and then cut up and scattered all over Egypt by their brother. Also depicted is the cow goddess Hatur who nursed Horus for Isis. O the way there we also went in a Egyptian perfumery where they also made amazing glass bottles and we tried some of them along with more hubiscus.
Later we went out on a felluca ride. A felluca is an old Egyptian sailing boat. It was great fun, especially when two boys in little boats clung on to the side and started singing. We saw lots of birds like ibises too. We also went round Elephantine Island and sang and danced with the Nupian sailers on the boat! The Nubians used to have land inside Egypt called Nebu but it was submerged by the dam water. They speak Arabic and Nupian which is a none writing language.
After tea in the evening we went out once more on the boat trip to Philae temple to watch the light and sound show! It was great and was the boat race in the dark that we had on the way back!

Thursday - We got up at 3am and left the boat at 4am for our excursion to Abu Simbel temple. It is a temple that is carved entirely out of rock and has four 20ft statues of Ramses 2 on the front. The whole mountain was actually taken apart and moved by hand because otherwise it would have been submerged by the water from the Dam. Inside depicts the battle of Cardis in which Ramses 2 triumphed over the Nubians. There is another smaller next to it which he built for his wife Nefetary. Statues of him her and their children are shown on the front. Ayman gave us a talk before we went in and then told us about it for another half an hour while we sat in the cafe after looking around. I also bought some things in the market and traded my hat for two scarabs. We drove through the Sahara during the sunrise on the way to Abu Simbel and on the way back we saw the mirage!
When we got back on the boat we sailed back to Edfu in the afternoon. In the evening we had a Gallabya party where everyone was in Egyptian dress and had Egyptian food. They played drums and sang and danced and we had games like the potatoes (hahahaha!) and lots of dances! I even won a prise for belly dancing!!! (and yes I know me dancing shock horror but meh never mind). After me, Dad and Mona went out to watch the football being played by the crew on the boat and then we went and stood on top deck for a while (minus Dad). We went in and found Liam and Chris and then shortly followed their example and went to bed.

Friday - In the morning we sailed back to Luxor going through Asman on the way. We went through several large locks which was great fun. We took lots of photos up by the pool and watched the video of the trip that Ali made. In the evening we went round Luxor temple. It has pieces from 5 different religions in it!!! Egyptians, Greek, Roman, Christian and Islam. The muslims accidentally built a mosque on top of it before they realised what it was! There is a long line of sphinxes there that connect Luxor temple to Karnak temple! They go on for 3kms!
After we went around the temple we went to place where they make papyrus! we watched them making it and then bought some things ourselves. Back on the boat in the evening we all sat up in the lounge bar and listened to music and danced. It was really good!

Saturday - We got up fairly early (another annoying phone call from Mohamed!) and set off for the Valley of the Kings. The tombs of the Pharoahs are buried here so that they are hidden from the grave robbers. About 63 have been discovered so far including one two months ago that contains 5 mummies! we could only go round 3 so we went around Ramses3 and 4 and Memtis (or something like that :S) The colours of the hieroglyphs were so well preseved. It was incredible. Everything was so colourful and bright! We saw several sarcophaguses too!
We met under the shade after an hour long talk from Hesham and wandering around the tombs by ourselves. We then had a very long and interesting talk about things with Hesham, Mohamed and Ayman. Mohamed also wanted to buy my sunglasses because he had left his in Cairo so we were joke haggling for a while which was good fun. We then went on this little train back to the coach and drove to the Valley of the Queens where we went round the Tomb of Titi and of two princes. The tomb had been robbed and the prince's mummy had been stolen but there was also the mummy of a six month old fetus in there which had been left behind. It was so cool! It waws just a small human skeleton! Way better than the crocodiles.
On the way back we stopped by the two statues of Memnon which are huge and abandoned. They were in front of an old temple were people used to come and worship but something (I can't remember what) happened and they were abandoned. Mum then went on to a jewellery shop while me, Dad and Midge got back on the boat.

Sunday - We went around Karnak temple which is absolutely huge! It has ten pylons - 6 from east to west and 4 from north to south! Every new Pharoah added a new pylon to it. Hesham told us all about the Queen Hadjipsut (i think) who ruled for eighteen years after she sent her stepson, nephew and son-in-law (all the same person) off to war. She built a lot of monuments and temples. Her tomb is the only one of a female that lies in the Valley of the Kings. However, everything was destroyed by her nephew when he returned. He was angry at being tricked and destroyed her temples, monuments and her mummy. This was bad because it meant that her soul could not find its body and so could not go to the second life. Karnak is dedicated to the God Amon-Ra and Hadjipsut's obelisk still remains there because as it has scenes of Amon-Ra on it, it could not be destroyed without angering the God so a wall was built around it covering her name. A small temple was built inside for the God Min. It was built by Pamses 3 to show how powerful he was. Min is the God of Fertility. We also saw the sphinx road to Luxor.
That night we walked to a cafe and all had drinks. We also played with the camels and goats! Hesham was smoking a hubbly bubbly and I tried smoking it and it was actually really fun! I actually liked it! It was basically sherry flavoured tobacco! Mona took a picture for me which should be good! We got back on board and had a disco before going to bed at about 1.30am.

Monday - I packed and took everything out of the room. I managed to fob Mohamed off for two days about the sunglasses and then tricked him by just giving him the case but eventually I was nice and I gave them to him along with a thank you letter which Mum (very embarrassingly) read out at the top of her voice! (:@). Mum tried to sell me for camels and she got some pretty good offers too! I wish she had taken them though! I really didn't want to come home. It was hell saying goodbye to everyone. Still I have emails and numbers and pictures so I should be alright for a while. It was freezing when we got back to England and there was really bad turbulence too. :( Didn't even get home till 1.30am!
So there you have it. My time in Egypt in a nutshell(ish) with most of the funny bits missed out because I didn't have enough room but if you want any funny stories just let me know. And thanks to Hesham for all the information he gave me in Egypt! Hehe, I actually managed to go somewhere with a hat and sunglasses and I came back without either....Oh well!

Aaah! I miss everyone loads - Taher, Mohamed, Ayman, Hesham, the other Mohamed, the other Ayman, Ehap, Nady, Safwat, Mona, Marion, Alex, even Liam, Dom and Tony. D: D: D': And now I must go unpack.....will the torture ever end?!? Meh only a year to wait to see them....Oh god :(

And it's London tomorrow for a makeover......so nervous......miss everyone sooooooo much............so lonely......*sighs*

Well off I go...my unpacking awaits me.......... :(

Bye V xxx <3