From Galway to Egypt

Galway felt much more like we were in Ireland, with the brilliant green landscapes filled with sheep and cows. Galway is much smaller than Dublin, but just as lively. There I had my first hostel experience which consisted of 14-bed rooms, no privacy, quick showers and meeting new people. We have met people from Ontario, Vancouver, France, Brazil and Ireland. One night we went out with some of our friends to a REAL traditional Irish pub. I grabbed a "smiddicks" and sat down to listen to 8-10 people play Irish music with violins, woodwind instruments, and guitars. At one point the entire pub became quiet to hear a ballad sung by an old man, beautiful. Later that night I experienced more music as the Irish pub crawlers serenated me to sleep by belting "Oh What a Night." Chris and I took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher, which also consisted of lunch, stop to see a castle, a cave and grave stones. The cliffs were a wonderful end to our Galway trip.

The next couple of days were spent on buses and planes. However, once back in Dublin we had time to visit Kilmainham Prison and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, then caught our flight to London and onto Cairo.

We met our former Art History teacher, Ginger, at the Cairo Airport. It was crazy that just a few hours before we were in cold weather, then to the heat of Cairo, which had reached about 96 degrees today. We were eased into Cairo by visiting the Egyptian Museum. The entire time I couldn't believe I was there and within touching distances of some of the world's greatest treasures. After all the excitement, we visited the Islamic Cairo markets of Khan Khalili. We stopped at a restaurant that turned out to be a charming oasis, away from the sellers who would let us "look for free" at their products.

Today was very successful. After bargaining prices, we arranged a deal to take a camel ride to the Pyramids of Giza! Breath-taking. I was a bit skeptical about the safety of the camels after hearing Ginger's story about falling off. She ended up upside down because of the saddle being too loose. However, she reluctantly decided to rides camels with us. And it was a great trip! Nice photo opportunities and noone fell off! My camel's name was California, Ginger's was Ali Baba and Chris's was Mr Lover. I also snagged a piece of the limestone that once sat upon one of the queen's pyramids. We didn't have much time at the Sphinx, just rode by it on our camels, where tourists snapped pictures of me on the camel... how strange. Also, an Egyptian woman asked me to take a picture with her, noticing my good looks. I'll just tell myself that. Tonight we are joining Ginger and her friends for a rooftop get-together. Hopefully we will have some more great stories to tell about Cairo!