Egypt, days 8 through 10

Day 8, we were still in Luxor. Our last big event was a visit to the Temple of Karnak. Unfortunately for me, I needed to spend the morning being no farther than about ten seconds away from a toilet. (Yup. Egypt had finally gotten to me. Tanner, though, had no ill effects, even though he went everywhere I did and ate everything I did, so I guess some things are just tough to predict.) I stayed at the hotel while Tanner took the camera and went out on his own. I can't tell you much about the temple, but I can show you some of the pictures that Tanner took.

That night, we took another sleeper train all the way back down (north) to Cairo. The plan was to spend day 9 by the pool before flying home the next day; sadly, though, an unusual cold front swept through the area, and the temperature that day was only in the 50s, not exactly ideal pool weather. We wandered around Cairo and watched lots of cheesy TV shows at the hotel.

Day 10, we headed to the airport. One funny story: As we were standing in the line for immigration, I heard a voice yell out, "Ethan!" Seeing as how I don't know anyone in Egypt, or on the entire continent of Africa for that matter, I ignored the voice, thinking that I had heard something wrong. I heard my name again. I looked around. In the line next to me was a co-worker who had also gone to Egypt with his family. They were on our flight back to Zurich. What are the odds?

And one last image from the airport. Those of you who are at least a couple of years older than Gretchen will recognize what soda cans used to look like in the U.S.:

Remember the curly pull tabs that came off of the can? They still look like that in Egypt. I guess the Green movement hasn't progressed quite as far in Egypt as it has in the States.

So, there you have it. That's all the pictures. Tomorrow, I'll write about some other interesting experiences and things we learned about Egypt that aren't reflected in the pictures.

I was talking to a co-worker today who's also a bit of an adventurous traveler, and we both agreed that as nice as it is to visit Europe's great cities, they're starting to feel a bit stale. Egypt was so different that it's made me want to visit other places like South Africa or India or China where life is very different from we know. Let's see what happens next . . . .