Spring Break 2009

The Colossi of Memnon
West Bank, Luxor, Egypt

Colossi of Memnon-
The faceless Colossi of Memnon were originally a tiny part of Amenhotep III's temple on the West Bank, the largest temple ever built in Egypt. Today Amenhotep's temple has pretty much disappeared. I guess that's just what happens when you build things out of mud fairly close to the Nile, but it's still sad- but it's a good thing because if it hadn't dissoved Pharoah's probably wouldn't have moved to using stones for their temples. The colossi are the only large scale parts of the temple ot have surfived. The colossi are each cut from a single block of stone and weight some 1000 tons, and were believed to be a tourist attraction since the Graeco Roman times when they were attributed to Memnon. Memnon- the legendary African king, slain by Achilles. One of the statues apparently made some variety of whistling noise at sunrise and the Greeks thought it was good luck, or the cry of Memnon when he greeted Eos, his mother, the Goddess of dawn. Sadly Septimus Severus repaired a crack in the statue, somewhere around 193-211 AD, the greeting was no longer heard.
Bummer deal.

The Colossi have a fascinating story, so I'm including it- but it's probably one of the monuments on the West Bank I spent the least amount of time at- we literally jumped out of the cab, snapped a couple of photographs and then jumped right back in the cab before taking the ferry to the East Bank.

But to back track to my spring break- I spent Spring Break/Easter in typical Mariya fashion- attaching myself to the family of someone I lived with/close by. Think back to the last two spring breaks/Easters. Whether it's cramming myself with Becca and Kara and her brother/sister/father in the New Yorker hotel for a weekend (Spring Break 2008), or sleeping with salt water aquarium in Ali's mother's sister's husband's sister's basement (Easter 2007), or attending Steph's mother's sister's surprise fiftieth birthday (Spring Break 2007)- you see the trend. Of course when Julia and Claire, recognizing my lack of plans for a Spring Break offered for me to join them and their family in Luxor they probably didn't know this about me- but I feel like hanging out with their aunt/uncle and cousins was pretty much right in line with what I normally do. And did I do it with the normal Mariya pizazz- Because Julia and Claire had planned their spring break well in advance, I did most of the getting there by my lonesome- and the interactions I had doing that were well worth the lonesome traveling.

Notes from the Giza Train Station: I had to take a sleeper train out of the Giza train station to get to Luxor. While the main train station is in Midan Ramses, I'd never been to the Giza train station. Julia told me how to say train station in Arabic, so I figured it'd be hard for me to go wrong, and I boarded the Metro to Giza, figuring I'd get out and then head to the train station from there. Uh wrong. The Giza train station is directly below the Giza Metro. So when I started asking all these cab drivers outside the Metro/Train station for the train station, they all thought I was insane. Finally, I was explained that I was at the train station already.
I'm not generally a bad traveler, and generally speaking being a lone female traveler in Egypt hasn't been a problem before. I did take the most expensive of budget options (or the cheapest of the expensive options?) to get to Luxor because I wanted a) to convince the parental units that I was traveling safely and b) it was a 10-12 hour train ride and I just didn't want to deal with sexual harassment. But of course as in with every other part of Egypt, sexual harassment was present. Running on Insha'allah Standard Time as usual, my train was late. In the waiting time I managed to watch a military train pass me by- the experience was insulting beyond reason, I grabbed my bags and actually hid behind a pilar to get the gawking and screeching and cat calling to stop. Last but not least- by the time the train actually did roll around, I was surrounded in every direction by Japanese Tourists, who looked perplexed and distressed at the notion of a train not on time. Between distressed Japanese women being harassed by Egyptian men, and the passing of the military train, I was certain I had made the correct decision.
It's pretty frustrating that the second I saw a white couple in the train station, I walked over to them so that I felt a little safer in a sea of leering, gawking Egyptian men. And about the twentieth time the 20-something year old passed me by with his tea-tray and made the kissing face at me I honestly did want to punch him in the face.
It wasn't a complete loss as far as cultural experiences go- I did make friends with a tour guide who shared his gourd seeds with me, and taught me the correct way to eat them-
So the rundown on Spring Break in short-
April 15th- I boarded my sleeper train an hour and forty minutes later than originally planned.
April 16th- I arrive in Luxor at around 6:35 a.m. I have written direction's to Mara house, the B&B run by a cranky Irish woman that I, my roommates, and their family will be staying at. I'm supposed to walk out of the back of the train station and go right. I go left (is anyone really surprised). The road never widens as it is supposed to, confusion ensues. I retrace my steps, find the B&B, and join my roommates and their family who fly in to Luxor and meet me at the B&B about ten minutes later. We decide to start our vacation at Karnak temple. The vacation is started aptly by our reading facts about Luxor temple from Ben's Lonely Planet while attempting to figure out what part of the temple we are standing at. After a while, we realize we are looking at the information for the wrong temple. We return to Mara's house around 12 (after lunch at Sofra's restaurant), where I promptly lock myself into the bathroom and am unable to get out. We spend the rest of the day catching up on sleep.
April 17th- We tackle West Bank and the 7 sights that we are supposed to see. As 7 people are sharing a bathroom, we get a little delayed on our start and do not make it out to the Valley of the Kings as early as possible. A man named Yousuf is our cab driver for the day, and he drives us everywhere. After Valley of the Kings (where we suck each drop from our waterbottles dry), and exploring the tombs of the ancient egyptian kings we go to the Temple of Hatshepsut, where we just stare at the temple and hit up the various other sites which include, the Colossi of Memnon, Medinat Habu and Deir al Medina. We drive past the Ramesseum.
April 18th- We go further up the Nile Valley to see the locations of the cult of Osiris and the cult of Hathor in Abydos and Dendera, respectively. This time we hire a tour guide, who makes us all a little nutty. Dr Hadi calls us his best friends and makes us want to kill him by the time we're all done. He refers to restrooms at the Temple of Pee-pee.
April 19th- We take a mini-bus to Hurghada on the Red Sea coast where we spend a day. The view from our balcony is phenomenal. Julia and I go adventuring in the water- we make friends with coral and sea snakes. I may or may not have minced my feet on the sharp coral.
April 20th- I say goodbye to my traveler friends, and spend the rest of the day in Hurghada before taking a 3 p.m. bus back to Cairo. Cairo greets me with cranky cab drivers and irritated bawabs, I more than elated to see Aggie back from Lebannon when she returns. View from my hotel room at Swiss Wellness Spa
Hurghada, Egypt (Red Sea Coast)