Mt. Sinai

Mt. Sinai was a pretty incredible experience for me. We first went to the church and saw the burning bush that influenced Moses to do what he did. After that we had some lunch, and then returned back to the Mountain where Moses discovered the 10 commandments. The hike took about 3 hours to get up & was about 3,000 meters or 9,900 feet. It was so peaceful up there, and we got to see an amazing sunset.

The burning bush is encapsulated in this well like brick case.

I love this picture with everyone touching the bush.

The cave where Moses lived for 4 weeks at the top of Mt. Sinai

Templed Out

Our second dosage of other temples started with a morning donkey ride. HUBBA HUBBA HUBBA- YELLA YELLA YELLA. (Which means kiddy up in arabic our another one of our major catch phrases.)

After our donkey ride we ended up in the "Valley of the Kings" which are basically glorified burial grounds for other pharohs & wealthy Egyptians.

There were all these different chambers of sorts. Some of the coolest paintings & artwork were in their chambers where there sarcaphoguses were.

This was the entrance of a separate temple we went to right outside of Luxor. It was very impressive. Unfortunately after everything we had seen in the last 2 weeks my brain was pretty fried.

Some more people constantly working on any of the sites we went to.

4 Sheesha...

"When in Rome do as the Romans do..."

When I was in a market an Egyptian man called the "huka" their "computer." I of course busted out in laughter. Our whole group enjoyed smoking their flavored sheesha from the huka. On one occasion Sarah & I even got to play dominos, drink their delishes mint tea, & smoke sheesha with some locals which was loads of fun.

Typically the muslims do not drink, so I guess this is considered their only real "vice." Some muslims do drink, but it is a pretty underground operation. You have to go to these "duty free" shops. They will write down your passport information & everything. They say shops are only for the tourists, but you do see a lot of other Egyptians in there buying liquor as well. Be prepared: because it is super expensive, since it is so hard to come by.

Now instead of "for sure," Sarah & I say "for Sheesha," so get ready for the new catch phraze Austin.

My 2 Favorite Temples

We woke up at 3:00AM and had a 3 hour bus ride to the ABU SIMBEL temple. Sarah & I were wondering what we were doing there because there wasn't much to see in the beginning other than a great sunrise.

After I walked around the corner of these mounds then we could see massive sand mounds with sculptures on the outside. This seriously was my favorite temple that I saw!!! It was created for one of the kings mainly for his wife queen Nephertite. She was the only queen that had a temple built for her & she was 1 of his 53 wives. (Imagine what the other wives thought???)

This picture gives you an iota of how big the temple really is...

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the temple. It was amazing on the inside though. On the inside there were carvings running from the top to the bottom. The lighting was incredible. It was somehow created that on two of the most important days in the kings/ Egyptians lives the whole temple lights up on the inside at sunrise & senset.

One of the guards holding the "Key of life"

After Abu Simbel we went on the Felucca ride, then we went to another temple. At this temple we got to see mummified crocodiles & made friends with the guards so they took us to some pretty cool areas.

Perfect jean add right??

The key of life

Here are the guards that we befriended.

The way the LIGHT hit at this temple was just perfect.

FELUCCA

Aswan was a sleepy city on the Nile that was close to one of the coolest temples I have ever seen Abu Simbel. While we were in Aswan we relaxed by the pool, enjoyed the markets, but the sailing on a felucca down the Nile was definitely one of the biggest highlights of my whole trip!

The view from our room at our Baller hotel

We took a felucca ride to the Nubian village

We all had a traditional dinner at the Nebian village.

Tannis, Sarah, Laura loooungen. We had 12 small mattresses spread out over the felucca. We did some yoga, had tea, beers, a dance party, and I taught everyone my favorite British card came called "shithead!"

Here is our Yoga session on the boat!

Don the dude was giving me some photography lessons.