Home Sweet Home.
I'm Ba-aack!!!
Got home last late last night. It was wonderful to sleep in my own bed again. Had a fabulous time in Egypt - it's a great place to visit, wouldn't want to live there though!
It was actually a pretty big culture shock in alot of ways. Even simple things. I mean take Cairo for example. Greataer Cairo is about the same size as greater Sydney geographically speaking. The population of greater Cairo however is 26 million ...quite substantially bigger than the entire population of Australia!!! So you can imagine that there were just billions of people, plus it was Ramadaan - the Muslim holy festival - so there were probably even more people than normal. Such a large number of people also means major polution. I mean literally I never saw the sky properly since I left home! It was also a very dirty, ramshackle city which is I guess what happens when you get that many people in one place.
The other major culture shock was the horendous gap that exists between the very poor and the very rich. One minute you would see the ramshackle rundown tiny places some lived in and had no work etc, then you'd see these massive mansions worth millions and millions - alot were even empty coz they were just 'holiday houses' (in Alexandria particularly.)
I had a great time though. There was so much to see and take in that I feel like I've been gone heaps longer than a fortnight. I mean I've actually stood and looked at the Pyramids & Sphinx! I've walked through the temples of Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel just to name a few. I saw, actually saw the treasures of Tutankhamun!!! I walked through tmbs in the Valley of the Kings & Valley of the Queens (& the Valley of the Nobels) - you wouldn't believe the amount of colour that some of the walls in these ancient tombs still have. It's just mind boggeling to think that all of this is thousands and thousands of years old... and it's still all there!
Half of the stuff that was built back in acient times they still have no clue how they did it, let alone how it's survived for millenia. It has to be aliens. So all you Stargate SG1 fans... maybe it's not science fiction after all. Maybe it's science fact!!! Speaking of Stargate, is it sad that the entire time I was away and learning about certain things I'd be refering it back to Stargate? I mean seriously, how could I hear all about Re the sun god and not think "Jack & Daniel kicked his butt in the movie." or when I was at the temple of Kom Ombo and was told that half the temple was devoted to the worship of the elder version of Horus, Haroeris think "Ooh Apophis killed him in the first season, but they pronounced it Heru'ur." Not to mention Osiris ("Daniel's ex-girlfriend who worked for Anubis") and Anubis himself "oooh Anubis... he was half asended til Oma Desala got 'im."
You can probably tell by the aimless rambling that I'm still a little jet lagged - I was much worse on the way over there though coz I didn't sleep on the entire 22hr trip. I actually slept on the way home though so I'm not too bad now. Kinda tired though so I'm off ta bed soon. See ya.