Valley of the Kings....and the Crazies.

Airport naps.

Ahhh so in my excitement over finishing the whole spring break posts and my trip to Sinai this past weekend I COMPLETELY forgot about all the amazing things that happened in between! Like, oh you know, a casual trip to Luxor and Aswan.=] So, i know that I just put out the post on Istanbul, but let me do a filler on what happened the weekend after! Jake, Taylor and I all flew down to Luxor and Aswan where we met up with a few other friends. It was an insanely early morning flight (Whattup 5am?!) But, I was ridiculously excited anyways considering we were about to go see things i'd been dreaming about seeing since I was in second grade. But, once we got to our hostel, and got settled in we slept for a few hours before heading out to Karnak Temple. One of the absolute most stunning things i've ever seen.

The Manager of our hostel was LOVELY. He sat us down and gave us a quick overview of Luxor. He told us what there was to see and do, best places to eat, some safety tips and of course how to get places most efficiently. Really everyone at the hostel was phenomenal. One of the guys that worked there, Tarek, was SO sweet. He helped us figure out places to go, and even brought us juice to one of our meals! Juice is insanely wonderful here. All freshly squeezed and not at all like the watered down sugary mess we drink in the states.

Note the sign about check "AUT" 

So, after napping for a few hours, the gents and I decided to head to Karnak Temple. and we ended up running into another friend of ours, Eli, who joined us for the adventure. So, we walked a ways and then finally ended up taking a carriage ride there for 10EP. Not a bad deal, and Eli was doing his thing becoming best friends with our driver, while getting Jake to smile became our driver's main goal for the trip. "Mustache! Smile, mustache!" hahah it was wonderful. And when we finally got to Karnak...well it is OVERWHELMING. It's such a magnificently huge place, and in come areas (where the sun hasn't killed it) the color is still astoundingly vivid. And the size of the place is deceiving. Because there's a long, flat area you walk through after the ticket booth before you actually get to the beginning of the Temples. So, when you do see it, you can't even understand how big it is.

                  

                                       

I'm obsessed with all of the color on these things, because when you see it you can begin to imagine what these places must have looked like in their prime. I feel like i'm in The Prince of Egypt wandering the halls of elaborately painted, hieroglyph covered walls. It's amazing. too bad I can't read hieroglyphs. Or maybe it's a good thing, cause we would've been everywhere twice as long. 

Moving on: after checking out Karnak Temple for a few hours in the scorching heat, Jake and I hit the museum for a bit. the museum was pretty cool, albeit overly priced for how small it was. Then, we all headed back for nap number two before heading out for an evening at the Temple of Luxor. Conveniently, the Temple of Luxor was a 10 minute walk from our Hostel, so after grabbing some food the entire crew headed over.

It's beautiful at night, right?? I love the way it's lit up. It made it even more spectacular. We spent a while there just hanging out and chatting amongst the columns. Then headed in for a good night's sleep before doing the Valley of the Kings, Hatsheput's Temple, Medinet Habu the Collosi of Memnon and the Tombs of the Nobles. 

When we got up the next morning we headed out to the 1EP ferry to get to the West Bank and after securing a cab for the day for 150EP ($25), Taylor, Jake and I headed to the Valley of the Kings! It was so cool to see these tombs up close and personal! For the entrance fee, you can get into 3 of the tombs. So we chose tombs 2 (Ramses IV), 11(Ramses III) and 14 (Twosret and Setnakhte). Unfortunately you're not allowed to take picture in the tombs...which we found out the hard way....twice. But, after the second time I decided I wouldn't take any pictures with my own camera. So, if you want to know more about the tombs we went to and maybe see some cool pictures, please click: HERE.

After a pretty sweet morning of seeing some beautifully decorated tombs (Let me tell you, they were GORGEOUS) we headed to the Mortuary Temple of Hatsheput. Honestly, compared to the hieroglyphs and whatnot we had seen at other places, it wasn't all that amazing. But the rchitechture itself was pretty cool...and you know, it's kinda famous, so...gotta check it out=] My favorite aspect of the entire temple however, by far, was the tree out front. There were multiple depictions on the walls of the people building the temple getting the trees from elsewhere and transplanting them here. the trees would have been in the grand, open space you see in front of the temple itself. But, this little charred up twig you see was apparently one of them. I felt bad, but really guys? We had to FENCE this? We couldn't have just planted a few replicas or something?? haha oh historical sites....I love you. 

After spending an hour or so at Hatsheput's the gents and I headed off to the Tombs of the Nobles. Some pretty cool tombs, but yet again a no-go with the picture taking. We even asked this time! But, by the end of our tour, our guide asked one of the boys under his breath if he was still interested in taking photos. And so, that is how with 20EP less, in his pocket, one of the guys got photos of a sweet tomb. I'd share them on here...but they're really not mine to share. You'll just have to google it again. Sorry! But, then we headed to Medinet Habu...which is something we could and did take pictures of=]

You can't see it super well in this picture...but the picture behind us is of the Scribes counting the dismembered hands (top) and genitals (where Taylor is pointing) of their enemies....lovely.

And...FINALLY. we hit the Collosi of Memnon...which are just these two giant statues. Sorry I didn't catch anyone in the picture to show how big they are...but they are in fact MASSIVE. 

The next morning, we all got up and hopped on the train to Aswan where we would take a 3am convoy through the desert to see Abu Simbel. I COULD NOT WAIT. But, since we got there early afternoon, we chose to start our day with a lovely sunset felucca ride. Not long after we set off, this little kid joined us...asked one of the guys if he spoke Spanish, and then began to sing all the Spanish songs he knew. It was fantastic. After a bit, we stopped off at the botanical gardens and then hopped back on to enjoy the sunset.

That evening we tried to get to sleep somewhat early and only sort of succeeded. But, while the beds were absolutely terrible...I figured that was just to get us to wake up in time for our convoy. It also was not the most comfortable 3 hour journey, but we made it...and in my opinion it was totally worth it. I had been wanting to see this forever...so super pumped that it happened. The only downside was that it cost 53EP to get in, when we had been told it was 40. Well, being the savvy not-quite-tourists we are, we told the people this and proceeded to argue about the price. Then, when we finally received our tickets, after paying the 53EP, we find out that the entrance fee is, in fact, only 40EP but they make you buy a ticket for a tour guide...which we of course did not need...thereby inciting argument number two. But they insisted we had to pay for this...which makes total sense considering you never actually use a tour guide once you get in. Anyways, past that little hiccough, everything went splendidly. To prove it, here are some super sweet pictures we took:

It was pretty fantastic=] sorry for the multiples of the shots, but I want people to note how giant these things are! It's incredible! Also, that these aren't where they originally were...nope. They were moved about 200 meters...to be saved from erosion from the river. Crazy. Check out the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel_temples

So, that's what i've got for ya'll today! Check up later this week to hear about our INCREDIBLE trip to Mt. Sinai!