Cairo, Egypt

Day 6 (May 7th)
So on May 7th we woke up bright and early (notice the theme here) and shoved our belongings into a car to head to the Krakow airport. By the way – transporting 5 people each with a BIG suitcase and a carry on (including but not limited to – the world’s largest camera back pack complete with tripod, iPad backpack and backpack full of half of Julie’s room) is no easy feat in Euro-sized vehicles. It makes me even more confused about how that whole clown car thing works. Anywho – so off to the airport.

We had a layover in Vienna where we met the world’s rowdiest child. Julie, Matt and I were lucky enough to be in the back of the plane, far outside of his vocal range. Mom & Dad were not so lucky. I’m not sure their hearing will ever recover.

We arrived into Cairo in the early evening and sat in the airport for a long time waiting on a car from our hotel to come get us. While there we met at least 5 people trying to sell us things. One person may have tried to sell me their pants – I’m not sure. We also met Rafik. Rafik’s second language (everyone outside of America has a second language which is amazing considering most American’s grasp of English is questionable) was French. This did not hinder Daddio from pelting him with questions about Egyptian history. He kept trying to wander off. I think he was more excited than we were when our cars arrived.

I have to insert another awesome cab conversation here. Back story: Mom & Dad are in one car and Matt, Julie & I are in another one. Our driver was super chatty and personable. This conversation went down:


Driver: Where are you from?
Julie: Texas
Driver: *big smile* Cowboy, bang! *makes hand into a gun*
Julie: *polite laugh*
Driver: Where is your horse?
Julie: Where is your camel?


Where else in the world could two cultures (Texan is a culture) commiserate about the rest of the world’s stereotypical perception of their modes of transportation? Loved it.


We went over to the hotel and put our stuff in our rooms.

Julie bonding with her new surroundings

View from our hotel room

Then we went to grab dinner at an Italian restaurant in the hotel. We were early enough in the dinner crowd that we got seated at a corner booth overlooking the Nile river.

The Nile

I think the restaurant deemed this a mistake by the end of the night after Dad poured pepper all over the table and broke a chair. The next time we visited (day 9), we were put in a much more stable booth bench. In his defense neither of these things were his fault but they were most definitely hilarious.

This is legible to someone.  Not me.

Mom & Daddio.  Looking so happy you'd think they spilled pepper everywhere.  Ohhh, wait...

The sibs & I

After dinner, we knew that we were already on a streak of 2 bad things and we didn’t want to test fate to figure out what the third would be. So we called it a night.


Day 7 (May 8th)
We were supposed to wake up and be ready to go at 7 am to try to secure a tour to the pyramids… ONE of the rooms did this to perfection and ONE of the rooms set their alarm incorrectly (*cough* Caddy, JJ & Matt’s room *cough*). Side note: this is the 3rd time this trip Caddy facilitated an alarm malfunction. Love you Mom. I guess she was making up for all the years she tirelessly woke all of us up each day. Revenge moves well played!

We went downstairs and had the greatest buffet breakfast in the entire world. After we finished grubbing we went over to where a tour salesperson had been stationed the day before and noticed he was gone. The next tour to the pyramids was at noon. Given how hot it was, how pale we all were and our distaste for 3rd degree burns we decided to hit up the Egyptian museum and to try the pyramids the next day.

We walked over to the Egyptian Museum which was just a short distance from our hotel (Julie and I could see it from our room’s balcony). This was our first taste of the city in broad daylight. I’ll insert some of my thoughts here:


• There were guards and guard stands EVERYWHERE. Which at first is very scary… until you look closely and realized about 2 in 5 are asleep.
• Taxis. You run into someone every 2 feet trying to sell you a “taxi”. They say things like “Taxi ride – 30 minutes!” Apparently “taxi” is synonymous with “city tour.”
• Speaking of taxis. They are not yellow and black. They are not even uniform. They are someone’s car. A car which has seen a few fender benders in its day and if you’re lucky MAYBE there’s some kind of sign or demarcation that it’s a cab. Usually not though.
• Honking. These people are world-class honkers. New York, you have a long way to go to reach these Cairo’s level of horn-enthusiasm.
• Stop lights must not have fit into engineering curriculum because there aren’t any. If you want to cross a street you have two options: (1) wait for a guard (if one is awake) to realize you are a tourist and you don’t know what you’re doing OR (2) you throw yourself into traffic and pray everyone will stop (and cover your ears for the honking).


So we made it over to the Egyptian Museum and it was PACKED. While my Dad was buying tickets, my Mom, sister and I were approached by a gentleman who kept flashing us a card around his neck and offered to be our tour guide. It was obvious he didn’t work for the museum.  Other than that we really were pretty clueless as to what was going on.  He told us to think about it and have my Dad talk to him when he was done. We sent JJ over to converse with him and before we knew it we had a tour guide. BEST. DECISION. EVER.

The Egyptian Museum.  You couldn't take pictures inside, unfortunately.  Google Image King Tut's tomb and we'll all be on the same page.

Little garden in front of the museum.  The flowers on the outside are lotus flowers, the official flower of Upper Egypt (which is actually in the South).  The flowers on the inside are papyrus, the official flower of Lower Egypt (which is actually in the North).  More on papyrus in Day 8.

If you’ve ever been to any type of museum with the Boarmans you know that we are not linger-ers. We do not gaze at each exhibit and bask in its historical significance. We will look at it, make a few comments, and then move on. When we went to the Louvre, after the Mona Lisa, Matt, Julie and I posted up on a bench which is criminal, I know. Anyway, our new friend, Ahmed, immediately grasped this about us and had us weaving through crowds around the museum showing us the big exhibits and skipping over a lot of the other ones. There are a LOT of things in the Egyptian Museum. It’s one of the world’s biggest due to the sheer volume of pieces it houses.

The Egyptian Museum is absolutely my favorite museum I’ve ever been to. It’s insane to think about how old some of the pieces in there are. I also really enjoyed learning the significance of statues with white crowns versus red crowns, statues with straight beards versus curled beards, etc. This was another thing Ahmed helped with – he pointed out little intricacies or Egyptian facts that helped make the exhibits more meaningful than just reading the card description below it.

We got to see statues of Ramses, Cleopatra and all of King Tuts tomb elements. King Tut’s tomb was probably my favorite. Everything was so ornate and detail-oriented… and of course, handmade. Just some of the jewelry he was entombed in alone would have taken years to make. It’s incredible when you consider that someone had so much affection and appreciation for him that they would dedicate months or years of their life to create just one of the zillions of pieces of jewelry adorning him. The whole museum sparked an addiction and extreme admiration of Egyptian culture for me. I was awestruck.

At the end of our tour, we’d become pretty good friends with Ahmed. Ahmed asked if we’d been to the pyramids yet. We told him that we hadn’t and he offered to take us there the following day. He said he’d secure a tour bus and would meet us at our hotel in the morning. We gladly accepted after realizing how much he had added to our museum experience. We also learned that to be a certified tour guide (the badge he was flashing) he had to complete 4 years of training. We took a family photo with Ahmed and headed back to the hotel.

We rested at the hotel for a little bit trying to decide what to do with the rest of our day. We decided to go explore across the river on an island in the middle of the Nile to see the Cairo Tower. As a sidenote, I’m pretty certain this island has a name. I, of course, do not know it.

So we set back out from the hotel and made our way across the bridge amid a sea of honking and offers of 30 minute taxi rides. The first place of interest we came to was a park. I’m not sure what the name of the park is but it was very pretty. We meandered around in here long enough to take pictures of everything and get a lot of stares from the locals.

Statue in the Park

Sprinklers in the park.  I think I was really going for the statue but with me you never know.

Tourists in the park.  The tower in the background is Cairo Tower.  That was our end destination.

Then we wandered across the street and found the Cairo Opera House. We walked around the grounds. Everything there was very pretty and somehow we didn’t get yelled at or asked to pay for a ticket for anything- which was a tiny miracle and probably a first.

Matt & Julie: Big fans of awkward poses

I loved the door

Julie feigning love for the door

Smaller open air area of the Opera House (we couldn't go in the real Opera theater the day we were there).  Notice the cushions on the perimeter for seats.  They should consider these at Cynthia Woods.

This looked a lot like many of the things we saw in the Egyptian museum.  Since we couldn't take pictures in there we've created a re-enactment of what it would have looked like if we could have.  You can thank us later.

After that we resumed our original mission: trying to get to the Cairo Tower. We took what I’m confident was the longest route there. Eventually we made it and admired it’s beauty from the bottom.

Huge, beautiful tree just outside of the entrance to the Cairo Tower

Cairo Tower

Cairo Tower from the base

We would have had to pay for a ticket to go to the top and it was very hazy so we wouldn’t even have been able to enjoy the view – which is the main point. So instead we rewarded ourselves for our trekking with some drinks at a little outside restaurant at the bottom of the tower.

A little more of me being awkward.  Matt & Julie didn't get the memo.

Still can't believe this means something.

Next we headed back to our hotel to take naps, or in Julie and I’s case – to tan by the pool. After showering we went to a Thai restaurant in the hotel with our fingers crossed that no table cloths or chairs would be sacrificed in the making of this meal. We ate dinner, which was delicious, without any hiccups.

Afterwards we decided we should probably head to bed knowing that we had a full day of pyramids, camels and Jimmy James pictures in our immediate future.


Day 8 (May 9th)
This was, without question, the BEST tourist day of my life. It started off like every other tourist day you’ve read about (sans alarm malfunctions). We woke up early and had a fabulous breakfast at the buffet downstairs. We were somewhat skeptical as to whether Ahmed would really show up, but he showed up promptly at 8 and did not disappoint us.

We piled into a spacious (and awesomely stylish) tourist van. First stop: Saqqara. Saqqara is the home to the first pyramid built, the Pyramid of Djoser. This was allegedly the first major construction project in the world. It’s roughly 7,000 years old. It looks like it’s still under construction but it’s just being restored – so don’t worry, I-10 is still the only construction project that spans thousands of years. It’s also the only pyramid with this “step” type architecture.

Pyramid of Djoser

JuJuBee, Mamacita & I

Dad, Jules, Mom, Me & Matty

This is where the Royals used to enter into the Square in front of the pyramid which was the site for some huge festival back in the day.  I mostly included this picture because it's the only one I have of Ahmed.  He is the one who isn't Matt.

Close Up

Papa Razzi in his element.  Oh I lied, here's Ahmed again.  

Ahmed led us around the grounds and showed us several “mastabas,” or tombs. He had to pay off a few people to let us in. It was interesting to go in these mastabas because the paintings on the wall were original and the ink or dye used to create them was still incredibly vivid and legible. Ahmed explained that this was because they typically made dye out of jewels rather than berries.

Caddy loves Mastabas!  (My pictures from inside didn't turn out well.  Maybe I'll get some from Dad)

While wandering around Saqqara we got to experienced full-fledged Egyptian salesmanship. We climbed up some stairs and were greeted with about 4 different men in traditional Bedouin-type gear. Before we could say anything they had us all dressed up and were taking pictures of us. My Dad was eating this up… until they started following him around asking him to fork over cash.

Dad thought he was safe...

Oh, but he wasn't.

I hid the fact I was uncomfortable a stranger was holding my purse and camera well, huh? Not.

Dad in particular seemed to enjoy the salesmanship. We walked away from Saqqara with a packet of postcards, the irreplaceable photographic mementos above and I’m sure other things I can’t recall. Ahmed on the other hand was not loving JJ’s fondness of this aspect of Egyptian culture.  Probably because he knew that he was the one who would have to do the talking if bartering didn't go well.  He joked that he should have brought a leash for Dad.

I kind of love camels.

After our adventures at Saqqara we piled back into the van and Ahmed took us to one of the carpet factories we had drove by on our way out to Saqqara. Anyone who cannot afford to go to school goes to carpet school where they learn to make beautiful handmade rugs. The particular factory we went to was government run.  The kids come in to “school” a few hours a day and learn how to make the rugs. One of the little girls was kind enough to show us how she makes the knots that comprise the rugs. We learned that it takes 45 days to make one meter of wool rug and 90 days to make one meter of a silk rug. Upstairs in the store we saw a huge rug that took 3.5 YEARS to finish.

Watching a more skilled carpet-maker create a freestyle design

Adorable students.  They were all about having their pictures taken.

Next we headed over to a papyrus shop. Papyrus, as you probably know, was the first paper type product and was made out of the papyrus plant (see Day 7). A lady at the papyrus shop showed us how they split apart the plant and weave the pieces together to make papyrus. She also told us the story of several traditional Egyptian images. We then played typical tourists and purchased a few things. I walked away with a gold and brown Tree of Life image. It shows 5 birds representing the different stages of life – infancy, child, young adult, marriage and old age. Four of the birds face the direction of sunrise and the fifth, old age, face sunset.

The coloring in mine is different but you get the idea.

After loading up on papyrus we set out for the Pyramids of Giza – which are the most famous pyramids. This was what I was most excited to see and they did not disappoint. I had some high expectations and they blew them out of the water. They looked even bigger than I thought they would. The largest one, the Pyramid of Cheops (the Great Pyramid), is approximately 50 stories tall and took 20 years to build. It’s made up of 2.3 million blocks, each of which can weigh between 2 and 20 tons. The other 2 pyramids, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure, are smaller but no less impressive. We did not go in them because you had to pay for another ticket and Ahmed said that it wasn’t really worth it because it’s basically just 2 rooms.

The Great Pyramid.  See how tiny the people look up there?  Click on the picture to make it bigger.

The Fam in front of the Great Pyramid

I love this picture.

Matt & Julie headed to investigate.

All of us at the entrance to the Great Pyramid.  See how big the blocks look?

We also saw 3 smaller pyramids, the pyramids of the Queens, located on the grounds as well. They are much, much smaller. We tried to pay off some people to go in one but they were having electrical difficulties (don’t ask me why there is electricity in a pyramid) so it was a no go.

Pyramids of the Queens

More Pyramids of the Queens

At this juncture Ahmed decided we needed hats. He had taken note of the fact that we were pretty pale and the sun was pretty vicious. He bartered with some more of Egypt’s finest salesmen and acquired us these beauties:

You didn’t think we could blend in more to the Egyptian culture, did you? 5 Saqqara hats and 2 fake Ray Bans later, we have proved otherwise.


Next Ahmed took us by van over to a spot where you could get a panoramic view of the pyramids and to take the staple “me holding a pyramid” pictures.

All 3 of the Pyramids of Giza

Julie and I are tall.

We took said pictures which gave Dad the bright idea that he needed another picture – 1 of Julie and I on a camel. Ahmed didn’t seem too enthused about the prospect of going into the little camel market that was set up right by but he obliged anyway. Next thing you know Julie and I are being hoisted up on a camel. The gentlemen in charge of these camels immediately saw an opportunity – and before you could blink somehow all 5 of us were on camels and we were going somewhere. As you can see, I’m sporting a skirt and flipflops. After 20 of the most uncomfortable minutes of my life, I feel well-qualified to say that this is not appropriate camel-riding attire. Avoid it at all costs. Regardless of this momentary discomfort, I am very glad that we rode the camels because we got some AWESOME pictures out of it. That and the guy leading us around was hysterical.

Coming soon to a Christmas Card near you

Julie & I on Charlie Brown

When we returned, Ahmed helped Dad haggle with the camel-keepers, and we moved on to our next adventure. We hopped back in the van and headed over to the Sphinx (everyone there was pronouncing this as Sfink-us, which I adored). The Spinx was pretty cool. Apparently the French were responsible for shooting off half of his face. Not a very cool move, guys. We also learned that he is situated in front of the 2nd pyramid because he’s supposed to be guarding that King’s pyramid. Mission not accomplished because that tomb was indeed robbed. I like him anyway though. :c)

The Sphinx

Close up of the Sphinx

Tourist hats + the Sphinx

I took this picture for Ryan's Dad.  It looks like they're building a dirt bike park by the pyramids.  Return trip in 2k12?

After that, Ahmed took us over to a cartouche place. A cartouche is an oblong shaped piece of jewelry that contains hieroglyphic symbols representing a person. They used to only be used for royals but nowadays they will put anyone’s name in hieroglyphics on one. Julie got one from a nice Spanish gentleman. It’s actually pretty sweet. We all purchased a few souvenirs from this shop.

Cartouche.  This one isn't Julie's, but it looks similar except hers is all silver

 As you can imagine, after all this we were pretty worn down. And sunburned. Apparently the tourist hat purchase didn’t come soon enough. So we headed back to the hotel where we said bye and a huge THANK YOU to our friend Ahmed.


Then we showered and had dinner at the buffet restaurant of the hotel like any good Americans. :c) Post dinner we went home and crashed, as per usual.


Day 9 (May 10th)

This was our last tourist day in Cairo. We woke up later than usual and Julie was sick, unfortunately. She was a trooper though and agreed to join us in our adventures for the day. We once again gorged ourselves on the buffet breakfast and arranged a car to take us to the Citadel.

Entrance to the Citadel

The Citadel is up on top of a hill overlooking Cairo and was originally the palace where the ruler of Cairo would sit. The official palace was later moved elsewhere but you can still see the structure and walk around in it.

View of the landscape surrounding the Citadel

View of Cairo from the Citadel

Matt, Julie & I blocking an awesome view

The Citadel is more famous for being home to Muhammed Ali’s mosque. Muhammed Ali’s mosque is modeled after the great Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It is absolutely gorgeous. Any photographer would have been in paradise.

The outside of the mosque

Gorgeous hallway leading up to the entrance to the plaza

Plaza where people would come prior to entering the mosque.  The structure in the center is where they would wash their hands, feet and face before entering.  The clock tower in the back was a gift from France.  It doesn't work.

So many beautiful doorways, arches and pillars.  Shawna - put this on your list for potential future engagement photo sites.

Me, Caddy & Jules

Inside the mosque we met up with a lady who offered to be our tour guide. Given our great luck with Ahmed the previous two days, we said sure. She told us about the history of the mosque and a lot about Islamic beliefs. It was interesting to hear her thoughts.

Listening intently to our new tour guide friend (no flash - sorry it's blurry)

Stunning mosque ceiling

Muhammed Ali's tomb.  Its located just inside the entrance to the mosque.

Family in front of the amazing chandelier in the middle of Muhammed Ali's mosque.

After that she took us over and showed us around the old palace. It was very beautiful and had incredibly picturesque views.

A view of one side of the palace

After our short tour we said bye to our tour guide because Julie was feeling sick and wanted to go back to the hotel.  We took Jules back to the hotel and then the four of us set back out in search of souvenirs. Finding souvenirs is not an easy task in Cairo, primarily because everyone wants to sell you something. No matter how badly you don’t want it. Several people had warned us against going to the bazaar saying it was a tourist trap and that most of the things weren’t even made in Egypt. So our driver took us over to a different square with a few different types of souvenir shops. First he took us to a place selling jewelry and cartouches – which we were not in the market for.

Then he took us to a perfume factory. I wasn’t really all about this at first but it was actually really cool.  They told us how they make the perfume, what the various smells meant and the folklore behind them. In Egypt they use oil based perfume which supposedly lasts longer. The place we went also happened to have lots of pretty glass perfume holders.  I bought a few as souvenirs as well as some papyrus perfume.

These are examples of some of the beautiful perfume holders we saw.

After this we were over being sold things and headed back to the hotel, took naps and then we all went to dinner. Once again, we ate at the Italian restaurant at the hotel. This time we did not break anything. SUCCESS! It was an appropriate end to our stay in Cairo.

Egypt was absolutely fantastic. Hands down my favorite place we went this vacation and maybe my favorite place I’ve ever been. I could have done without all the sales-yness but other than that I completely loved the people. They were all so funny and had such great senses of humor. They were all such people people- incredibly friendly and hospitable. On top of that, I fell in love with the history and culture of Egypt. If you ever have the chance, please go visit Cairo. I don’t recommend doing it by yourself as a female, but grab some guys and go. :c)