Dusty's European Tour - Greetings from Egypt

From: David "Dusty" Roberts
Sent: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:12 pm

We made it to Egypt safe and sound, but I must confess this sure is one CRAZY country! Soooo many people around and yes, so many friendly people trying to help you out only for the benefit of themselves. Today we saw the Pyramids at Giza.

Flying into Cairo is scary. Obviously it is like flying into Iraq (from what I've seen from TV on what Iraq looks like), but imagine if NYC was covered in dirt, that's how it would look when you come in. Red dirt and tall buildings. No green. It really is like being in another world. We have been totally fine, and tell people we are from California, though now I realize that there are terrible fires going on in San Diego. Luckily we say we're from Los Angeles or something. Many people have opinions about Bush here, of course (it went all through our travels), but all we've met are all about who you are and not about politics. I did hear about the Political things about Turkey when we first got there. A restaurant owner was telling us the US was blaming the Turks for killing the Armenians or something like that, but like here, he said that it's the sadness of the political side that makes people afraid of seeing the true people/culture.

Here's a pic of me on a camel with the 'guides' little son that cost me 1 Egyptian pound (not much- 50 cents maybe?) all because I took a picture of him on the camel to begin with, then it became a 'fun' ordeal for him to get me on the camel and later... money. haha. I just told him that's all I had and walked on. But everyone kept asking us if we wanted to ride camels or to take pictures with them, etc. It is sad that it is like that, but what can you do?

Traffic here is all over the place and I don't think they have stop lights. It is all at will and crossing the street is like the video game Frogger. hahahahaha. Mind you it looks more dangerous and sounds more dangerous than it is. You just pick a good time to walk across the street along with the breaks in traffic. One gentleman told us never to run across the road as it encourages the drivers to drive faster. haha. It does work to just walk steady, but not slow or run.

I'm sad to miss Halloween. Alan and I joked that we'd wrap up in toilet paper as mummy's and walk around Egypt for Halloween. hahaha. Wouldn't that be funny?

Love ya and miss ya!
Dusty
(Walk like an Egyptian!)