What a Day!

So a lot has happened since I posted the Details blog. This post will be long indeed but I have a whole hour to bust it out. After I last blogged we ate and went to the Egyptian Museum. It was very exciting there. We saw a few mummies - one was even 10,000 years old all curled/rolled up in the fetal position in a basket, one that was tiny but still had a good looking face, we saw animal mummies! Like horses, crocodiles (even a baby one that looked like a squiggly), cats, dogs, and the like. We visited the King Tut room - WOW! His tomb was absolutely amazing. They have it all undone like those Russian dolls that fit inside the other and they are in glass cases so you can see in but when you step away you can see the reflection of the one that goes inside it appear to be inside it! We saw a scribe statue with crystal eyes that are still shiny and follow you across the room. It was a great time.

After the museum we went to the train station. Mind you, this is the first time we've really been in a public place. This trip has been first class tourist city the whole was from the hotels to buses to transports - everything. The tourist police must escort us everywhere and they must know where you are at all times in order to keep you safe. Anyway, we were with the locals now. I had to use the restroom as I couldn't wait the TWO HOURS till our train got there. I must have been dehydrated and a little ill from the local bacteria because I was soooo sick. But let me tell you, this "bathroom" was a hole in the ground. I've heard of places like that but have never seen or used one. Let me tell you, I hope to never do that again. I was in my nice slacks and top (looking nice for the museum) and I finally decided to take my pants off in order to pee. There was still an accident and I was very anxious. That combined with my already sick innards left me reeling. It was all I could do to keep everything under control till the train got there. I even called my mom I was so sick and needed to hear a comforting voice. The others danced till the train came and that was cool. The locals gathered around us and clapped and made noises - they really liked the show. Finally the train came and I made a bee-line for the bathroom and stayed there all night. No dinner, no sleep, just....Pros - At least Dane didn't have to hear any of my illness pass. Cons - toilets on trains in Egypt don't have plumbing. Just a shute that you step on to release the waste. It was a bad night people. I've never been sick like this before. Poor Dane took care of me though and some friends on the tour with my group are nurses so they gave me drugs and a pedialite type drink. The train guy even gave me "special tea" that helped. He was really concerned about me. I'm sure all Dane wanted to do was party with the others in the club car but he stayed with me and watched the city slip by.

By the time we got to Luxor I knew there was no way I'd be able to make the day's excursions. I was dirty, tired, weak, still sick, hadn't eaten, and just plain miserable. We were able to get me in to the hotel earlier than our check in time and I slept. All day. From 10am till Dane got home at 5pm, then we were supposed to go to dinner but said screw it and kept on sleeping. We would have slept till about 6am but I got a call from my mom at 1:30am notifying me that my dad had had a heart attack. As I was dying myself Mom stopped me and said Dad was okay and explained the situation (he's still in the hospital and will remain till at least Mon) and then let me talk to him. I am very, very, very grateful that my father is okay and I got to speak with him. I am still very nervous but keeping in touch. In light of this, I have turned my phone on and ask that people only call or text me if it is an emergency as phone calls are $2/min and texts (each way - we confirmed) are 50 cents/each.

Back to Egypt. After the phone call and the fact that I had slept almost 14 hours I was too worked up to sleep. I went out on the patio and looked at the beautiful mosque. All the mosques here have green and white lights on them so at night they are all lit up - on the nile train it was amazing looking out and seeing all the mosques in the towns. Very surreal. There was a gecko on the porch with me. By 4am it was prayer time - beautiful to hear the call to prayer. I got some answers about that - I guess there are exact prayer times and if you can't meet those times then you save them for when you can. The idea behind the prayer times is that it keeps you closer to God. If you know you have to talk to him in 2 hours, you are less likely to sin. I thought that was very interesting. I pondered many other things during these hours on the porch and while I ironed all my clothes (I needed something to do and that needed to be done) so I thought about Egypt and what I had seen. I'll share: there is trash everywhere here it seems. Trash, trash, trash. In the irrigation waters, on the streets, even on/near the monuments. Very sad. It takes away from the beauty so much. There are a lot of donkies. They seem to be a very popular mode of transportation here and they are cute. But skinny. :-( The berkas women wear are absolutely beautiful - always pressed clean and starched, some with decoration, some entire matching outfits. Not all are black, some are very alive with color. The scarecrows here look Arabic. They wear turbins too. I thought that was funny. The kids wave at you, people are friendly. They like the tourists. I thought about the night before, I forgot to mention our hafla at the pool and the guy who fell in trying to take pictures of us. The hafla will actually be a memory of this place that will stick with me forever. I danced with a veil most the night, but to be dancing in Egypt next to the pyramids on a warm Spring evening is a memory that will be hard to beat. Afterwards we went to the hookah bar and smoked till we were so tired we could have slept on the pillows we sat on.

This morning was an early wake up call (I was already up with my thoughts) and we drove over 3 hours to Abydos. We visited Seti's temple there and it was amazing. I'm not lying to you, I have the pictures - there were heiroglyphs of a helicopter, submarine, and airplane! PROOF THAT ALIENS BUILT ALL THIS!! No one knows what those glyphs are or why they are there and they do not show up anywhere else in the temple or Egypt for that matter but it is clear as day when you look at it. It's a helicopter. Then they also make fat jokes, I'm serious. They had a skinny princess and a fat princess glyph and the story said that the bull donkey had to carry the fat one, but it didn't depict it - thus a joke and not reality. Those crazy ancient Egyptians. :-) There was also a hedgehog in the glyphs. Very cute. And a real live but dead bat in the temple. In the Isis/Osiris room.

After Abydos we drove 3 hours to Dendara to visit the Hathor Temple. This temple had atmosphere to it. And at the risk of sounding ridiculous (but the joy of not caring because this is my journal) I had certain uncanny feelings in this temple. Ones that I will mostly keep to myself but very intense, wonderful sensations. We did a grounding dance in one of the rooms and it entertained the guards and other visitors. We even danced in the main hallways with the large columns! I was given another veil to play with and danced away - it was exhilirating to dance in the halls that so many Egyptians did so long ago. One British guide was all "Those CRAZY Americans and their CRAZY ideas!" Whateve - he's just jealous that he's not leading a troupe of beautiful women dressed majestically! I have to say that I'm glad I found "majestic items". Wait till you see the pictures of me and our group in the temples. Beautiful. But Boobs McGee (me) had to wrap my wrap around my chest just so I wouldn't offend the locals and get arrested for indecent exposure. Let's see - oh, we went in to the crypt of the temple - totally cool - we had to contort our bodies and limbo just to get in there but we did and it was awesome. The colors on the glyphs in the crypt were more vivid. Oh - I will say one thing that I thought was very sad. I asked our guide why the faces of the glyphs eroded first over the rest and he said it was not erosion, it was from the Christians who did not agree with the Egyptian gods that came in and destroyed. Then he pointed to the burnt ceilings. I thought that was very sad. By 4:15 we were back in our convoy to head back to Luxor. Oh yeah - in order for us to go out to Abydos and Dendara we had to travel as a convoy with about 50 other vehicles. Otherwise tourists can't go. Weird, huh.

So that is just about it - the minute we got back to the hotel I stopped in to blog before dinner. As it is now I'll have about 10 minutes to wash up and head back down for dinner. Not sure what we'll do tonight other than shower and relax. We have a 7:30 wake up call tomorrow then we head to the Karnack and Luxor temples. Then we check in to the Nile cruise - I'm so looking forward to that. Everyone says it's really nice and if it is anything like the accommodations we've had so far, then it will be awesome!

Thank you everyone for sending me your addresses, wishing us well, making comments (especially the picture comment Tiffany, we'll try that as soon as we can), and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We really, really miss you guys. I love traveling but I really miss America when I'm away. I take for granted so much that is there. Traveling always puts it in to perspective.

Dane says hello and there are no slug bugs in Luxor or the surrounding areas. He's resting upstairs now. I'll try to pop online tomorrow morning with the 15 min I have left. Love you guys!

PS - McDonalds has McDelivery out here!! Can you believe that!! They delivery your Big Mac!!! Thank God we don't have McDelivery at home. I'd really be one of the fatties that they Egyptians glyphed about - I'd need a bull donkey to carry me around!