Sunday 17 May 2015

the land of the eternal sun: egypt

Greetings readers who still did not get enough of me!
Even in May, haha. Are you all enjoying the longer hours of sunshine these days? As for myself, it has already been sometime but roughly a month ago I visited Egypt. My parents paid for this trip for me as a birthday present and also came with me. As you might know it can be a bit bothersome to go on a trip with your parents when you are already older but I could enjoy it anyway and had a great time with a lot of cool memories. I also made the city trips on my own and they were very fun!

I will spam you with a lot of pictures now again and not too much text, I hope you can enjoy this too!



At the airport and with the pick up service~


The first day we arrived at night... the room was spacious and great!




View when going out of the room



View when you go out from the terrace





 The beach was part of the hotel, so only for its guests.
You could do kite and wind surfing... originally wanted to do it but then had too little time.

 

Different side of the beach, with a lot of new constructions outside of the hotel area



Before I went on the trip to Kairo, I exchanged a bit of money (these were ~20€) and then the trip started at night. 

The trip itself was mainly just desert. Desert at night and then desert during day. I couldn't stop looking out of the window though because sometimes there was beautiful shores and beaches and sometimes there were cool hotel complexes (in the middle of nowhere, yes!) and then some interesting buildings solo. Probably for military purposes. And I have never seen such a beautiful starry sky!



Sunrise... really beautiful but it was also really cold.


Still not sure what those houses were haha



Then finally we reached Kairo!!





First impression: amazing! So different!



Traffic impression: amazing! So different! hahaha 

Actually there was also a little commuter bus travelling with an open door and someone was sitting in it as if he was just about to jump out into the traffic haha





As far as I remember this was an old graveyard area... and allegedly the people caring for the graveyard also lived in that complex.





So beautiful! I love this kind of architecture, so oriental!




Traffic rules were explained to me TWICE officially as: everyone does whatever they want (and they honk to warn you they will be coming from behind doing whatever they want lol)

 
 

Egyptian museum!

 

Actually I was not allowed to take pictures inside but while we had a bit of free time I walked around alone and was talked to by some guy... just a bit later I regretted not talking to him but I was always told to not talk to strangers D; Ahhh next time it will be different!


I am not sure if I was allowed to take a picture of that so I did it as selfie over my shoulder quickly. But very interesting! Not sure what was up there. I think either something was burned down or some bomb was set there before. Hence the burned down building on the other pictures with the statue.








A government building that for SOME reason was not finished in time. Very interesting.
The guide kept really quiet about these happenings though.





Then - pyramids!!


The guy at the entrance who checked the tickets surprisingly flirted with me (even though I looked like a hobo lol) and I found it very charming /blush/






My friieeenndss who invited me to do a selfie with them :D
Actually just the guy asked. And then when we didn't really fit together in one picture he asked the girl to go away (& she did!). I was so shocked I just said no it's alright and went away saying bye haha. 

... Then I realized that maybe it was his sister lol


There was a perfume oil house which sold essential oils and after that we went home.

Some days later at night there was a group of people gathered by the animation team of the hotel and we all headed out of the area downtown to go to a club :D


I drank cocktails with my parents at the hotel before going haha


Hurghada is so greaaattt, so much love, such a great atmosphere~

When we went to the first area we were supposed to go to we couldn't really get in because there was a random blackout. We waited for some time but it couldn't be fixed so we decided to go somewhere else.
 

On the way there.
Don't ask me why... I have no idea. Because German tourists? Haha


 
That Hard Rock Cafe was obviously a club but we could not get in either (I have no idea why, some kind of contract issue with the hotel it seems). We went back to the other place which was now finally lit!


 Then we danced, it was so much fun! 
The cocktail prices were rather expensive though and there were mostly foreigners.

 

 

There was a blackout again after about 20 minutes? Pretty lame haha.
 We went out and a guy from our group was like:

I was like: You have a drink there! (glass and drink taken from the club)
And he was like: Oh yeah, I know, wanna drink that?
LOL


This was all followed by one of the coolest parts. We walked away from that area and walked and walked and walked until we could, sometimes on the sides, see some desert-like areas again (totally normal though, everything is kind of peripheral unless you are in the inner city or hotel complex).

Then we were picked up by some van, kind of randomly, and we went inside with another group of people (actually Germans, while we were mostly Russians and our only pure German person had parted from us to stay at the Hard Rock Cafe). While we went on the little bus/van to our next destination, we drove really fast and damn it was so fun because they also turned on some club music and it was really damn cool haha



Then we went to another location were we danced, smoked some hookah, drank a little. Then we already went home.


Actually that was one of the better tourist-y rest rooms haha


The next day I went on a Hurghada city trip!


I loved how the mosque was constructed... totally reminded me of the Prince of Persia games which I always liked since my mid-teens~










That glare. All like: KISS ME. I AM BEAUTIFUL PRINCE.







 Left: Church for the Christians. Right: THE ATMOSPHERE.




After walking around a bit, I couldn't actually gather enough courage to cross the street on my own lol. Believe me, it is a fight.

The guide came up to me a bit later and helped me pass the street while others were shopping. We sat down for some time at the cafe nearby and talked. I had hollyhock-tea, it was very delicious!






A non-alcoholic cocktail which are very popular.
When I ordered a cocktail at the hotel bar during afternoon they asked me: 'With alcohol?' with a bit of shock in their voice lol. While in Germany, they'd rather ask 'Without alcohol?', right? haha


My last day at the beach! Oops you can see I had all-inclusive in this one haha. But I was so happy!

Also that last day I was swimming in the warm ocean and a jellyfish stuck to my body in thigh-high water. I was so surprised I almost fell head-over-heels lol. Wait actually I did fall head-over-heels but luckily not flat on my face haha.


At night I went out with one of the hotel staff who I became friends with (actually he said he wanted to marry me upon first sight lol) and we walked around the same area I went to during daytime before. 

I love how crowded and full of life the streets were around 8pm. All the stores very still open and everyone was still doing business it seems. In the cafes there were not too many people but it was a Sunday night anyway.



You read that right. Sexy mexy.


I was surprised this was labeled as 'orchid fruit tea' because I expected something completely different. It tasted like rice pudding.



And that's all. You can see the outline of the place quite well. I loved it!

I can definitely recommend Egypt to everyone who ever thought of going there, it's such a wonderful, great place to stay at!
It is kind of a bit of a poorer country though so if you are used very high standards of luxury, maybe it is not the best place to go for you unless you want to constantly stay in the hotel area.

Oh but let me end this post with something pensive & meaningful. Have you ever thought that a place that you view as very interesting and exciting has a completely different effect on other people? That all your feelings and impressions and the taste of the air is literally invalid for the other people with entirely different views?
Thinking of that made me remember a quote of a book that I read recently and want to share.

'The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.' 
Franz Kafka, The Trial