Reflections in the Nile

There are so many parts of Egypt that I love. And want to share but didn’t know how to fit it into the last few posts.

Egypt is busy. Super busy, because everyone lives in a very concentrated area around the Nile. Cairo is probably the busiest city we’ve been to yet, and the tourist locations get really crowded if you’re there later in the day. Luckily, we got there early in the morning and missed most of it.

The people in Egypt are some of the friendliest I’ve met so far. We had some trouble on the last day in port trying to mail some things home, and a man in the post office spent about an hour with us helping figure everything out and even bribing some of the postal workers for us because it’s easier for a native to do such things. Plus, he took us out to tea with his girlfriend, as our last day in port was Egypt’s Valentine’s Day.

Everyone told us that Egypt was a predominantly Muslim country and that we would need to cover up a lot as women and maybe even wear a headscarf at times. I never found myself to feel out of place though just wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I was really surprised at some of the other tourist groups from Europe and how revealingly some of the women dressed, but I guess they didn’t have the luxury of getting a Cultural Preport before each country. I never found myself having to cover my hair either. Egyptians are very accepting people I’ve found, of other cultures and understand that we’re not Muslim so they don’t think it’s odd that foreigners don’t cover their heads.

I found that girls would get heckled, especially in the markets, but most of that was good natured flattery in the hopes of you buying stuff. Most people I met at sites would come up and ask my name and where I was from and then want to introduce themselves to me. These exchanges usually ended in a “Welcome to Egypt!” Only once or twice did I feel uncomfortable with the conversation. A few times at the pyramids when vendors followed us for a while, and once waiting outside the post office when a man asked to see Meghan and I again the next day and asked for out hotel. He didn’t believe that we were leaving that night.

Egypt is beautiful and has so much culture and history. The country is predominantly Muslim, although the ethnic Egyptians are Coptic Christians. They have beautiful churches. Egyptians are pretty tolerant of religion, although we did hear a bit of anti-Semitic from some people while discussing Israel and Palestine. Egyptians are a little touchy about the subject since they have lost 2 wars to Israel in recent history. I haven’t seen any of my Jewish friends actually uncomfortable though.

I can’t wait to come back!