Rode a horse around the pyramids. Well, actually, it's a lot more than that. I decided to leave the hotel I was at as it was too expensive and smoky and I can't sleep in cigarette smoke or cold air. How did my morning begin? I woke at 2 AM even though I was exhausted and couldn't sleep. Finally, I got up, ate some chocolate, started listening to my CD player (expensive but worth it) and danced around my hotel room. I am weird. I long to go dancing and partying as I haven't done that yet, not in so long, anywhere. I didn't go in Berlin, either. But this is Cairo, and there's stuff here, but it's so different. I heard roosters this morning, and then relentless dog barking. I think someone shot the dog.....I mean it's horrible, I don't want to think about it. But I heard an extremely loud noise like something falling and then silence.......but the dogs had been barking for hours. Then the roosters. Then the prayers, at 4AM. Definitely not New York. I am glad I'm here but those first two nights without knowing a soul here........not having the comforts of home......I had paid for a hotel hoping to sleep but got none cause of the smoke and noise.
Well, today I decided to go to the Pyramids as the museum closed early, and I figured why go to a boring museum. This is after switching to a hostel. OK, back track. At the allegedly non smoking hostel there were people smoking in the lounge, and a young American guy was trying to bargain for a place to sleep for a few hours without paying the whole day. I wanted him to give it a rest, but later he gave me advice on where to travel to. It's a place on Sinai whose name eludes me.
I decided to find a bus to Giza where it said in the guide book. I asked the cops where the bus is, they pointed......and so I walked in that direction seeing many buses that could have been going anywhere. A guy approached me from behind and speaking English, said I looked lost, and I said I am, and that was the beginning of the conversation. I ended up spending the day with him. He told me where the bus is and we walked, a long way, across a bridge. FInally, he suggested a cab, and we got in. On we went til we reached Giza and I saw the Pyramids for the first time. But surrounding them is a village of horses and camels and it's just not like a city, but like some area out in the middle of nowhere. The guy bargained a horse ride for me and him after the stable man tried to get me to pay 300LE which is way too much, and I was ready to walk out. Finally, my companion brought it down to 100LE, and I agreed. Turns out, that's the standard price and the stable owner was trying to get massive amounts of money......well, who can blame them? Many Americans DO pay that price, and much more, to ride horses, but I'm not rich like them. So.....I, my companion and a tour guide rode the horses around this weird village surrounding Giza.....with camels and people with head scarves running around, horses running around. My horse was a relatively healthy one that liked to run and I haven't been on a horse since I was fourteen, and that consisted of SITTING on one for four hours. I had been thrown by a horse once when I was about twelve, and this horse started galloping and I remembered what I could of how to post which I suppose I learned from my mother. The people with me gave some instructions: lean forward, put your feet in a third way, and on it went.
I ended up going further with the guy, named Omar, to a coffee shop in Cairo after getting on what is Cairo's version of a bus: really a kind of van full of people that you flag in the middle of the street. If I had been on my own I never would have figured this out, as the signs are all in Arabic and the people all locals. I started to pay my fare, and Omar said no, that's not done here, two people together don't pay separate. THen he began to explain, it's rude for a person to eat alone. It was kind of nice, in a way.
Then Omar and I went to a coffee shop in Cairo, and I was so tired and my bad tooth in the back of my mouth was flaring up, but we sat and I got Turkish coffee and juice and I ordered milk with the coffee. The waiter got a look on his face and Omar told me Turkish coffee is not drunk with milk, and the milk the waiter brought was twice as much as the coffee. So......little things like this I struggle with.
Omar offered to drive me to Tel Basta and it turns out he was born in Zagazig right next to it. So, if I pay $50 he'll get a car and drive me through Sinai, but......is it easier than maneuvering my way through these indecipherable buses?