Sayonara Cairo!

Sadly, this is my last Egypt post for the time being!  I will return to the land of soup and teen lit with vigor asap with some exciting new recipes and tasty books.  I arrived back in Cairo bright and early in the morning, just in time for rush hour!  Thusly, my epic Egyptian adventure had to come to an end.  But not before I did a few things.  Here are the things I did, followed by a few traveling to Egypt tips.


Thing 1:  I got my shoes (Dansko's) shined!  It was fabulous; they now gleam like the blackest onyx in all the lands.  I may have to start calling them my Black Beauties. We carried our own shoes there because it probably would have been really weird for the guy to shine our shoes with them actually attached to our ladylegs.  It was already taboo enough; he apparently got heckled while shining our shoes.  We gave him a large tip!  If you live in Egypt, the nameless faceless shoeshiner of Dokki is the best shoe shiner ever.

Hungry boys

Thanks to the eagle eyes of one Ms. Hawes, I was made aware of the casting decision for Peeta and Gale in the Hunger Games movie.  I am surprised and actually delighted by the choice - as Ms. Hawes pointed out, the natural coloring for these two is in reverse.  I never even thought of Josh Hutcherson in that role, but I'll be darned if his delightfully rosy and soft cheeks are not the ones I picture on the Peeta in my minds eye.  And you know what?  Gale is fine too.  He's all angular and tall and chiseled.  With some hair dye, why not? 
Remember when I claimed that Hayley Steinfeld was the Katniss of my wildest dreams?  Well, initially I was displeased and also out of the country when it was announced, thus why you never got my two cents on this moste importante of castinge decisionse.  But then I remembered I'd seen Winter's Bone.  And pretty much...yeah.  What with the squirrel eating, poverty, tenacity, Appalachia, and kickassness of her character, I'm calling it for what it sort of was: Modern Day Katniss.  I feel pretty good about the adaptation of the Hunger Games not sucking now. 
Unless they hire the costume designer of The Fifth Element.  Then we're in for it.

Deluxe Luxor, Day the second

Hatshepsut's Temple

On my second and final day in Luxor, I opted to take a tour through my hotel to see the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut's Temple, and other things.  It was a wise choice, barring the fact that our guide, though lovely, kept trying to sell us things, like necklaces of our names in Ancient Egyptian script.  That whole area is HUGE!  You can spend all day there and not see it all; we just did the alleged highlights.  By us, I mean myself and the only other person on the tour, a truly lovely Nicaraguan woman from, get this, my mom's hometown: Coral Gables, FL!  Photography is not allowed at all in the Valley of the Kings, which is for the best.  All the tombs there still have the original, beautiful, full color paintings decorating the walls.  I assure you, they are gorgeous to behold.  Our guide didn't go into the tombs with us; I kind of wish I had done a little preparing on my own to refresh myself on Ancient Egyptian mythology and art.  I later discovered that there is a whole section in the Lonely Planet Guide...oops.  I encourage you to check out the super cool Theban Mapping Project website if you are curious about the Valley of the Kings.  Of course, we could not spend all day at the Valley of the Kings, so off we went to Hatshepsut's Temple, where photography is allowed!

Deluxe Luxor, Day the First

 

I arrived in the AM fresh off the overnight train, checked into my hotel, had a bite to eat that was not pure butter and sugar, and promptly started touring!  My photo essay begins now. 
Welcome to Luxor Temple, a fairly awesome and well preserved temple that is not by any estimation, small in size. 

Overnight Training

 Okay team, I'm going to power through the next few posts photo blog style, simply because I want to get the Egypt posts done and return to the fun land of regular blog life.  Thusly, I give you the photos for my overnight train ride experience to Luxor and back!  It was definitely an good experience, and I'm glad I tried it.  It's not the most quick, nor is it entirely 100% comfortable or restful, but it sure beats a regular 10 hour train ride!

Plus, it made me feel a little bit like a character in an Agatha Christie novel.  Except for the lack of murder mystery, of course.  And it was nowhere near as elegant as the Express Train of my wildest romantic dreams.  But is the hallway on the left not capable of inducing thoughts like that? (Of Agatha Christie, not murder.)