Pyramids, Deserts, and Camels . . .Oh my!

Jeff had a work conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt last week and I was able to go along with him. The city is on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea. It's a tourist area full of beach resorts, but tourism is down about 70% with the country's unrest, so there were not a lot of people there. It was definitely warmer than Geneva, but still not beach weather with overcast skies and 65 degrees outside.

Here's a view as we came in on the plane of some of the resorts and the Red Sea.

And this was the view once we landed and were on our way to the resort.

Welcome to the desert!!

I enjoyed relaxing between Jeff's meetings. Then in the evening we headed to downtown Namma Bay where all the night life typically is. It's pretty much one hookah cafe after the other!! If you didn't know, it's forbidden in the Muslim faith to drink alcohol, so a lot of places don't even serve it. There's lot of fresh fruit juices, tea and soda. 

After Jeff's conference was over we headed to Cairo for a quick weekend to tour the city. Jeff's coworker and friend, Mohamed, is from Cairo so he was our tour guide for the weekend. The trip was very eye opening and interesting! Here's a few things I learned.

View of the Nile from our room

• Most streets don't even have lanes painted on them because it's a free for all! If there should be two lanes people find a way to make three, three lanes become four and you get the idea!
• There are over 22 million people in Cairo!
• Although the Muslim religion is the most common, 10% of the population in Cairo is Christian. 
• The Giza Pyramids are so much closer to the city than you would ever imagine!
• Everything is written in Arabic and English.
• You can get anything delivered! Fastest delivery in Cairo. . .McDonalds!! Yes, they deliver fast food right to your door step!

Jeff and I with Mohamed, our trusty tour guide!

I caught wind while we were there that Payless had recently opened in the new seven story mall so I had to see the mall (seven stories is a girl's dream) and check out the local new Payless. To all my Payless friends back home I have to say the store was looking good. Despite the way this picture looks there were quite a few people shopping.

There are so many American restaurant chains in Egypt!! 

And yes the sign below is for Dairy Queen and yes. . . . Jeff said it was delicious!!

Here we are standing between two mosques we toured 

with the mosque at the Citadel behind us in the distance.

Here's that mosque at the Citadel up close. It's pretty big! 

It's a copy of the famous blue mosque in Istanbul.

You can't go to Egypt without seeing the pyramids!!

All in all people were genuinely happy to meet us and proud to share their country and history with us. You can tell the people there definitely love their country and it's unfortunate that sometimes the media focuses so much on the negative things that it doesn't let the bright spots of Egypt show through...in turn leaving us with a clouded view of the country. Now having been there first hand I can tell you that it has a lot to offer and I hope everyone has the opportunity to experience it first hand some day.