I've Been Walking In Memphis

Don't worry, I'm still alive. Didn't update last night because of, well, football (soccer). You see, Egypt and Algeria are fighting to qualify for the World cup, and they faced off last night. Egypt had to win by 3 points to qualify. Intense!

So after a rather slow day of homework and laundry, we met up with the Belgians at Picasso, a nearby restaurant, and joined Egypt in watching the game. Frankly, it was a pretty dull game. Egypt scored 2 minutes into the game, and 2 minutes before the end. Of course, the whole restaurant exploded with happy cheers. Egypt only won by two goals which means that they'll have to play Algeria again on Wednesday to qualify.

After the game, chaos ensued. The streets were filled with people. Every Egyptian in the city seemed to have grabbed a flag, and jumped in a car to cruise the city screaming "Misr!! (Egypt!!)" as loudly and as often as possible. Amazing. The streets were packed with people, stopped, filled.

Quentin went home, but Brenda stopped by my apartment to hang with me for a bit longer. Then we realized she'd probably never get home. She didn't want to walk alone at midnight in football crazed Cairo, and judging by the traffic across the Nile, a taxi would have taken a few hours. So I decided to walk her home and stay with her for the night.

Apparently, however, Zamalek is not the place to party. The streets were almost entirely empty on our side of the Nile. It was a rather pleasant walk, too. And so, I stayed with Brenda last night, and wasn't home to update.

This morning we met with the others at NVIC for a trip to Abusir and Memphis. Abusir was pretty amazing (and no, not just because of our archaeologist guide's painfully beautiful blue eyes!!) We started at the sun temple of Niuserre, and wandered through his mortuary temple. Keep an eye on Facebook for photos. We also got to see the mastaba of Ptahshepses, which is not yet open to tourists. It's one of the largest and most complicated tombs of its time. Very cool.

And then we climbed a pyramid. I think it belonged to Neferirkare, but regardless, we had entirely too much fun. From the top you could see forever. The Nile valley, Cairo, Saqqara and its various pyramids, the seemingly endless desert. So very great.

Memphis was much less impressive. There's a museum, and some stones scattered about, and a few tourist shops, boring. Then we got taken to another site, a temple for the god Ptah, I think, that tourists don't go to. And it was disgusting. Garbage everywhere, half sunken in greenish black water, and goats and their smell wandering everywhere. I found it rather depressing, and think that Ptah would be seriously put out. We went to another site too, though I have no clue what it was (oops, guess I wasn't paying attention!) and it was much better. Not a lot left, mostly looks like a pile of mud, but again, some beautiful views. Palm trees, green fields, and pyramids, pyramids, pyramids.

I've never even been interested in pyramids (the texts inside them, sure, but the structures themselves? Boring, especially when compared to the private tombs of the time, or the New Kingdom royal tombs!) but you can't throw a stone out of Cairo without hitting a few. And mostly, we hit the same few.

Then it was back home for a nap, a pizza and dessert at Pottery with the gang, and a trip home to watch Arabic and Korean soap operas. :-) Life is good.