Blipfoto Goes to the Pyramids!

Today was such an early start - up at 4am to be picked up at 4:30am to take us to the airport for our trip to Cairo.

We flew with a wee Egyptian airline on a fairly wee Egyptian plane, but everything went fairly smoothly and it took just over and hour.

When we got there we were told that we had better go to the toilet now, as there was no access to any toilets for the next four hours! The toilets were mingin' - truly awful, but never mind, we got on the bus and off we went.

We arrived at the pyramids around 10am after our not so well spoken english guide gave us the complete history of Cairo and Ancient Egypt... some interesting stuff, and quite a lot not so.

We were given 45mins to explore the pyramids, but unfortunatly both pyramids had exceeded their limit of tourists for the day and we were not allowed in. It was amazing how big these things were... the blocks that make up the pyramids alone were huge. I don't think you can ever get the true size of them until your standing right next to one.

We were then taken around the back of the pyramids to see the three of them together and after a few photos later, it was back on the bus to visit the sphinx. This was amazing too, I mean, you see all the photos of these things on telly, but its never the same as seeing them for real.

We then headed to a Papyrus museum to see how the ancient Egyptians used to make paper.

After this were taken to TGI Fridays on the Nile for lunch - the bus driver got a bit lost, which resulted in us going round in circles for about 40 minutes, until he eventually found it.

After lunch we visited the Museum of Cairo, which was cool. It was massive and contained all the artefacts from the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings. This included all Tutankhamun's belongings from his tomb and it was great to see the golden mask and sarcophacus. They also had a Mummy area, where you could see actual mummies from the tombs. It was a bit weird staring at dead people, but fascinating nonetheless.

A wee while later we headed back to the bus to make our way to a market in Cairo. This was an experience in itself. The streets were so narrow and close and were filled with people trying to sell you stuff. Areas were quite dark too as there were coverings over the top to keep the sun out. As we got further and further in, the space was getting smaller and the people even closer. We decided enough was enough and tried to make our way out. Easier said than done I'm afraid. We kept asking people how to get out and it seemed like we were getting ushered somewhere. I paniced a bit, but we made it out safe and sound, with money and passports still in tact!

From there it was back to the airport to catch our flight back to Sharm el Sheikh. Such a busy and jam packed day! It was really good though