Egypt & Jordan

​

Egypt and Jordan were beyond amazing! One of my favorite trips for sure!

When I landed in Cairo Egypt I went to the bank inside the airport and just bought a visa... they didn't even look at my passport! I took an uber to my hotel (yes, Cairo has uber!) The hotel had a view of two pyramids from my room window!

***Ignore tv, media and politics, book a flight and go to these countries! Go and form your own opinions! Egypt and Jordan are fantastic and the people here are beyond sweet! Multiple people would just come up to me and say ‘welcome to Egypt, you are welcome here’ love it!***

Egypt

Coptic and Islamic Cairo

• My tour guides name was ‘H’. He tells tourists they can call him H because his name is hard to pronounce lol
• Coptic means Christian.
• Mix of Muslim and Christian religion in Egypt  (Muslim mostly and about 25% Christian)
• You see people of the Muslim religion in Christian churches and people of the Christian religion in Mosques here! Most people here believe that everyone living in Egypt is Egyptian and they don't like to separate people based on religion. Such a sweet and accepting culture!
• The newest president is Muslim but attends Christmas festivities in Christian church to show we’re all one people and neighbors, so sweet!
• Arabic language spoken with ‘high’ Arabic in Cairo
• Pigeon is a delicacy here
• A few things I learned to say in Arabic: Shokran (pronounced Shook-ron in English): thank you; Laa shokran: no thank you; Salam: Hello
• Arabesque: windows with little holes so you can see out but people can’t see in your home
• What I call rickshaws are called ‘tuk tuks’ here
• Egypt is building a new capital called "New Capital" (replacing current capital Cairo)
• Egypt's progress: After the civil war and many terrorists attacks, Egypt built borders around the country and the army guards them. The police officers started doing check points on the roads to check for stolen cars (we were stopped multiple times). The government gives card vouchers for food for poor people and families. Tourism is also helping fund Egypt’s progress.
• The garbage people are very rich here, people pay them to take their trash away, they separate it, melt it down and resell it to big companies, genius!
• I had no hot water but at least I had AC in my hotel! The hotel lost power and service the second day I was there in the morning... weird feeling to be out of the country with absolutely no way to contact home, never experienced that before! I'm a complete weirdo and thought this was the coolest thing!

Top left: View from hotel room!

Top right: Standing in front of the Nile River!

Bottom right: Egyptian visa, most beautiful visa to date!

Christian church and library

Where Jesus, Mary and the Holy family lived for 3 years and route they traveled!

Top left: Holy water the family drank from

Bottom left: Actual pages from the original paper Christian bible

Where 6 pound 7 ounce baby Jesus slept!

Beautiful Mosque!

Inside a Mosque: You have to take off your shoes inside the Mosque because you put your face on the carpet to pray and they don't want the carpet to get dirty, did not know that!

Another beautiful Mosque

Turkish coffee and hookah at a cafe in downtown Cairo, so amazing! If you haven't tried Turkish coffee it's a must! So delicious and FULL of caffeine. Do NOT drink it like American coffee though, drink it like an espresso. I drank an "American coffee size" once and I thought my heart was going to explode lol

  Call to prayer while sitting at a cafe in downtown Cairo, magical experience!!!
Absolutely loved this place!

Souks (markets) in Cairo: I love souks and all the hustle and bustle of thousands of people walking around! My guide is in front of me calling the driver to come pick us up :)

A bus in traffic was led by a police officer because there were Americans on board #entitledpricks 😂 I traveled alone and I was PERFECTLY fine!

One car horn beep means thank you, a few fast beeps means ‘let me through’

Streets of Cairo

Dinner cruise on the Nile River! Seriously can't be real life! 

Small village outside of Cairo: It's common for families to have five or more children... the more children the more help for the land! lol

Memphis: oldest city in Egypt, 1st dynasty

Top left: Ramesses the Great from 1300 BC!

Sakkara: city of tombs, 3rd dynasty 2600 BC

Bottom right: Me and my guide :)

Sakkara: My guide said they find new things every day here! So neat to see the excavation sites and all the new things being found! The pyramid above is called a step pyramid and is 62 meters high.

Top left: Pharmacy in Egypt

Top and bottom right: Carpet school, I bought a beautiful rug here!

Middle right: Papyrus paper shop, some of the pictures glow in the dark! Papyrus paper is considered holy because of the triangle shape on the bottom like a pyramid. It holds into color and shape for thousands of years!

The rugs are handmade by these sweet people! One of the ladies let me try making a little piece of a rug... It's a LOT of work!

The Pyramids!

• Going inside the Great Pyramid was one of the most magical things I've ever done! Taking pictures inside is not allowed. Of course people were doing it but I tried to resist the urge and respect the request :)
• Giza pyramids are from the 4th dynasty.
• Pyramids were built while the king was alive. He was then buried with all of his riches inside the pyramid for the next life when he ‘comes back’.
• The Great Pyramid is 137 meters high! It took 100,000 people 20 years to build it with 2.3 million blocks!

Top right: Entrance to the pyramid is the small black hole in the middle towards the bottom

Bottom left: Me attempting to help some people take a picture, they didn't speak English which was so much fun! The hole in the pyramid with people standing in it is the entrance.

Had to get these wonderful cliche pictures!

I'm stronger than I look! Lifting boulders and walking a camel.

Kissing a Sphinx!

Fragrance market and lunch! Some of the yummiest food I've ever had! The dish in the bottom right picture is called Koshari. I ate so much of it I got traveler's diarrhea! First time that's happened on all my trips lol Totally worth it!

View from the rooftop of my hotel

 View from the rooftop of my hotel during call to prayer

Jordan

My sheltered American mind thought Egypt and Jordan were very similar, they’re actually very different! It was cold in Jordan and the Jordan currency is worth more than the US dollar! So neat!

• I was very surprised how nice the airport was and the nice cars that everyone drives here!
• My guide used to work for the king and has visited over 120 countries! And he’s an under cover cop! There are over 100 under cover cops all around Jordan that dress and act like tourists to watch for any dangerous situations and to help keep tourists and Jordanians safe. I felt VERY safe the entire time I was in Jordan, obviously lol The guides have GPS linked to the company so they see where they stop and for how long.
• While in Jordan I was told to watch the movies Lawrence of Arabia and Marshal. I will be watching them soon!
• It snows two meters in parts of Jordan (Shubok) during the winter!
• An eagle is worth $7,000 USD if you catch one. Wealthy people have them as pets here.
• Alcohol is sold in stores here (different than Egypt where you can't buy it in stores)
• Mix of Muslin and Christian religion here; Arabic language spoken; Jordan is considered Holy Land.
• The Bedouin people here live in Bedouin tents (pronounced Bed-wee in English; in the distance in some of the pictures, kind of hard to see so you might want to google them lol)

Top right: Plane from Cairo Egypt to Amman Jordan, the only "pale person" on the plane, loved it!!!

Bottom left: Traditional Jordanian breakfast, delicious!

Bottom right: Sayings on cigarette packs in Jordan and Egypt, kind of entertaining lol

PETRA!

Funny story: On the way to Petra my guide told me "do not follow any of the people into the caves and up the mountains for tours, just stick to the path on the map, trust me." While walking around Petra I noticed a lot of very attractive men wearing a LOT of mascara and eye liner. I asked my guide about it and turns out that is the signal that they'll take women into the caves and have sex with them if you ask! lol And that's why he said don't go with the men into the caves! He said he talks to women on his tours on the way to Petra to try and figure out if they are there to visit Petra or to get laid! I guess I put off the "I'm here to get my selfie in front of Petra" vibe lol

The road we took to the Dead Sea was only a month old! It used to be sand.

The Dead Sea

Top left: The Dead Sea!

Bottom left: Israel on the other side where the mountains are, only about 300 meters away! Israel is hard to get into even though it's so close. My guide said this is like looking in the window but it only has three doors (three land entrances to Israel).

• The Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level and is 64 by 14-ish kilometers, it’s huge! Before I came here I thought I’d be able to get the Dead Sea all in one picture lol I was very very wrong!
• Maps here say Palestinian instead of Israel... my guide encouraged me to read about why when I got back home.
• I saw several Israelian army buildings along the way AND a Bromine plant that ships to all over the world!

Way too many videos of me floating in the Dead Sea but it was just so amazing!