limited amounts of sleep

alright, so, egypt. I never thought i'd be happy to return to 2nd world hungary but after my recent journeys through parts of 3rd world egypt i'm quite happy to trade one for the other. its not that egypt was bad necessarily, parts were truly incredible (luxor temple at night being my absolute favourite) and should absolutely be experienced by everyone with the means to get there. Its just that its so, so, umm... different? I'm not sure how better to describe it. like, downtown cairo is heavy with car exhaust, traffic congestion, smells of decaying organic matter of various origins. but for all the filth, the people i found were so friendly, and so inviting and not just so they could try and sell me their wares. as an example, when lauren finally flew in, our first egyptian experience was to the Cairo McDonalds (one of many) for a McArabia sandwich (really tasty, highly recommended). We befriended the employees there and the next night we were stopped up the street from the same McDicks by one of the employees who mopped the floor where we sat. I was genuinely taken back, because at first i did not recognize this friendly egyptian and secondly I attempted to ignore him because i thought he was trying to drag me to his cousins shoe store, but he was just really happy to see us again.

that being said, when the discussion was around money, like how much for a cab, how much for dinner, how much for these earrings (not that I bought any, but from how i witnessed lauren operate with the jewelers), how much for this bottle of water, how much for a camel ride, on and on and on it gets really exhausting. tack on top the enormous supply of taxi drivers everywhere all offering rides and stopping and honking and following you down the street, and the same guys offering camel rides, horse rides, felucca rides, and children selling postcards, alabaster pyramids and scarabs and camels, painted papyrus, and carpets of all things (i wonder where the authentic egyptian 1000 thread count cotton sheet store was?) sightseeing Egypt can be extremely exhausting. So, it was really good that lauren and i got the temples and pyramids and museums out of the way and then on to the beach for five nights to relax. incredible.

We finally got to dahab and enjoyed scuba diving (I got my PADI), waterskiing (lauren tore it up so good we got the privilege of riding around in the owners sweet wake boarding boat while this brit did wild flips and stuff to laurens excitement), and i attempted to windsurf (though the wind was quite strong, my sail was too big, my board not bouyant enough for my size so i spent most of the time drinking salt water and drifting out to see until a blue eyed egyptian named Said from an hour south of Alexandria saved me in his dinghy). The bedouin dinner, with a camel ride, a hike up a mountain for some important deep conversation, dog chewed chicken and potatoes which i devoured was at first good, then shitty as we contemplated the safety of consuming bedouin prepared food, then (for me) marvelous when I ate an entire pot of potatoes and chicken and rice and veggies and then a pretty chill ride in the back of an 80s toyota pickup underneath the stars.

all in all: great trip. Interesting country. I don't need to go back anytime soon.