Egypt - It All Has to End

For those of you wishing I'd stop sending email updates from Egypt - this is my last. For those of you wanting more - too bad, this is my last.

Day 10: Mount Sinai
This morning we took a bus to St. Catherine's Monastery so that we could see, first hand, the burning bush (which, by the way, was not burning). Unfortunately, every other tourist on the Sinai peninsula had the same plan for the day. The monastery is only open from 9:30 to noon and they really manage to pack people in. After spending a couple hours squeezing our way through the monastery, we began our pilgrimage up Mount Sinai. The climb up took about 2 1/2 hours, the last 30 minutes of which were all stairs (750 steps of repentance). We could have taken 3500 steps of repentance the entire way up, but I just haven't sinned quite that much. In fact, if I get to count both ways, I have quite a few sins to give. When we first reached the top, there were only a couple other tourist around, but within a couple hours the numbers grew. Our intention upon reaching the top was to watch the sunset, however, in order to ensure that the bus didn't leave without us, we left a little early.

Day 11: Islamic Cairo
We returned to Cairo this morning with the intention of exploring Islamic Cairo. I was expecting something out of the movie Aladdin, but instead I was met with trash filled streets and crumbling buildings. Today is Eid al-Adha, also known as the great feast. On this day, sheep are slaughtered and meet is given to the poor. Although, I knew this before returning in Cairo this morning, I didn't expect to find myself in the middle of it. As we wandered the streets we constantly found ourselves face to face with men covered in sheep's blood, and worse, heads, hoofs and skins lying in the streets.

In the afternoon we turned our attention to shopping. It is amazing the prices that people in the bazaar quote. At one point I asked a man the price of a water pipe. He told me it was 175 Egyptian pounds for one, as I was walking away the price kept getting lower until it was 50 for two. I wonder how may tourists go for the first price.

Conclusion:
For two people that only came up with a basic itinerary the day before we left, we really managed to pack it all in. We were able to hit all the places we wanted and do all the things we wanted to do, which we didn't think was possible. Egypt is a country that is has an amazing history mixed with a fascinating culture. The people are friendly and always have a smile on their faces. If you are good at haggling (June is excellent) and don't mind being dirty for a couple of weeks, I highly recommend it. All of the running around the country did takes it toll... I'm exhausted, and our flight doesn't leave until 3 AM. I look forward to sleeping in my own bed, for say 12 to 15 hours.