It’s hard to believe that Ben and I are in Egypt and saw the famous pyramids yesterday. I never imagined that I’d make it here… and now that I have, it reminds me once again how amazing this year-off adventure is: Ben and I are truly having the experience of a lifetime.

Abu Sir pyramids near Cairo, Egypt and the Giza Pyramids very faint in the distance

We arrived to Cairo in the evening and booked a private tour for the next morning to the pyramids of Giza, Saqqara and Dahshur. At 6am I woke up to this beautiful hazy sunrise over Cairo:

The pyramids were huge, impressive, and a bit underwhelming all at the same time. It rarely happens this way, but they were exactly what I expected; enormous pyramids made out of limestone sitting out in the desert and surrounded by tourists. Besides the Sphinx (located down below from the Giza pyramids to guard them), there were really no sculptures or statues or any ornamentation at all. Most of the tombs were robbed hundreds or thousands of years go, and anything remaining was moved to the Egyptian museum in Cairo.

Besides the famous pyramids at Giza, there are many other sites in the area with burial grounds, temples, and pyramids. At Dahshur there was a cool “bent pyramid” which was started with a 55 degree angle, and later changed to 43 so that it wouldn’t cave in on itself. At Saqqara, there’s a step pyramid which was the first pyramid shaped tomb ever built. The weather was great (about 70, sunny and breezy) and we had a wonderful and exhausting day!

School Girls fascinated by Alonna!

At the pyramids yesterday there were many groups of school kids. A few times, a large group of school girls would go past us, and they all stared at us and giggled and some even took photos using their cell phones. At first I thought they were looking at all of us, but eventually it was obvious that it was just me. I think my blond hair and pale skin was part of it – but the catch (I think) was that I was wearing shorts and you could see my legs. In the more strict Muslim culture, women don’t show much skin – just their face (sometimes even that is covered) and hands. When I turned to look back at them, they all had huge grins and shouted “hi! hi!” and waved. I smiled and said hi back, feeling like a celebrity. The last time it happened I was prepared, and as I waved and said hi I took these two photos. These girls actually started running towards me while waving; they were so excited! I’ve never experienced anything like this at all… it was hilarious and I loved it!

School girls running out to greet me

I think they found my blonde hair and shorts very exotic!