"Hello, baksheesh" -children on the street

I have returned from my travels to prepare for another week of school...lame! I'm beginning to realize that I am learning more from my travels here than from actual class and have decided who needs school. Unfortunately, I don't believe quitting is an option, so mom, dad, don't burst a brain vein, I'm still doing homework. But I really did have a great time and learned a lot about Ancient Egypt, and about myself in some instances.

I think I will start by telling you the bad part of my trip, so we can get over it and focus on the good stuff. Yesterday we decided to sleep in because we had a really late night and no set plans for the day. After we woke up, showered, and got breakfast, it was 11 am and we set off on the 3 block trek to the train station. Because Luxor's traffic doesn't even come close to comparing to Cairo it was pretty uneventful except for the average hoot from some random guy about spice girls or something else unoriginal. It was sweltering hot, so we arrived at the train station sweating and regretting our showers.

We went to the window and asked for 4 tickets to Cairo on the 9:30 pm. train. (sidenote: we had visited the train station the night before to get tickets and were told we had to purchase same day only) The man says, "Two only." We thought he misunderstood us, but it turns out he only had two seats left! We were of course frustrated, and after arguing and seeking the help of the tourist police, we were forced to settle on riding a bus. OMG!!! Never, ever again! I had less room than on a plane, the bathroom was out of order or something so we had to stop every 5 feet at bathrooms that were holes in the ground and smelled worse than a bad nursing home, and the BLARED Arab movies at 1 am. 14 hours of my life in a moving torture chamber. This may be a little dramatic, but it really was miserable.

On happier notes, the rest of the trip was amazing. I will have to admit, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first day there, but I still got to see some really neat stuff (those are very academic terms). Our second day in Luxor was spent touring various tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. Some of them are so well preserved with vibrant original color. It was pretty amazing. I also thought it was pretty cool because some of the tombs had Coptic inscriptions where the Copts hid in them to avoid persecution. It was interesting to see the different types of pictures they would use for the walls. Although, I must admit, after so many tombs, they begin to look the same. We also went to another temple and the Colossi of Memnon.

The last day after our bus/train fiasco we had less time than we anticipated because the bus left 3 hours earlier. We decided to take the day off and relax by the pool. The other girls tanned while I freckled, but it was very relaxing. Plus our rooftop pool had a gorgeous view of the Nile River. I hope you all can enjoy my photos that are linked to the title of the blog. I have to get to work, but happy Monday.