flashbacks 1

A week ago, I was standing in a mosque feeling thankful in a country whose culture I was totally immersed in. This morning as I crave some falafel, I am thankful that I took a vacation sandwich…days off before and after the luscious filling to readjust. You really do need that time to allow your body to find its way home from where it just came. I seem to be moving in slow motion, doing a set amount of tasks each day and trying very hard not to take a nap according to Egyptian time. Through it all, moments that I will always remember enter into my thought process which makes me pause…

First thing I notice is the absence of muzak and the presence of burning incense in the airport….

There was an ever present haze in the air, coating of sand dust everywhere and on top of buildings…

People smoke everywhere all the time and though I did not get a picture, there was a large hookah lounge in the hotel…

Traversed all sorts of terrain…

Drank more water than ever, yet I rarely visited public restrooms, seemed that every drop I drank left my body through my pores often soaking the back of my linen shirts. It was strange to step from a bus at the dam and have all the moisture in my mouth evaporate with one breath of scorched air, my throat was so parched I could not speak...

In contrast as we stood beneath the pyramids, a cool breeze caused my scarf to flutter around my head and shoulders…

Presence of security is very prominent, different than having policemen moving about maybe because these guys have machine guns!

Leaving for Abu Simbel at 2:30AM for a 3 ½  hour drive by night through the desert, in a caravan of buses with police protection, all so clandestine and a little scary as we passed through the first check point into the dark of night…

Coming back, what I could not see from the window during that drive became clear…

Museum was amazing, filled with so many sarcophagi, cases of artifacts from the minute to the mammoth that at times it felt as if there was no room for visitors especially since there was no air conditioning! Except in the mummy rooms…cold as ice in there with Rameses, Seti and others who seemed to have been short in stature. Quite fascinating to see how well preserved these bodies are (no pictures allowed inside)…

Though I am a moon girl, I fell in love with the sun in Egypt. It rises and sets as a perfectly round orb with no rays at some moment every morning and evening. It was hypnotizing as it seemed to lazily sink into the horizon but change so quickly that each time I snapped a shot it was completely different than the one prior. I could never get enough…

Which reminds me, I have yet to sort through the over one thousand photographs I took while away. I’ve decided to tackle them a little at a time but I know me...I will hunker down at some point and just get it done. In the meantime, hunger calls and I recall how very ravenous I was on that first day after a grueling full day of touring. I inhaled what I put on my plate, rushed to my cabin (we were on a boat that would cruise the Nile) and crawled into bed to address complete and total exhaustion. Mind you, the day before we had flown from JFK to Cairo where after getting a visa, going through customs, retrieving our luggage then checking back in to catch our connection to Luxor, which was delayed in taking off due to mechanical difficulties (we watched out the window of the airport as they tried to fix) we finally boarded our boat, ate a very late dinner then slept a few hours before receiving a 4:30AM wake-up call!!! I have no idea what my Sunday breakfast will be, but it won’t taste half as good as that roast turkey we had for lunch one afternoon…it reminded me of Thanksgiving, of home.

More flashbacks on Wednesday. Until then...

keep your peepers open!®