“So Mike, I have this feeling you’re about to tell me something cool.

“Why yes, I am.”

If you read my previous post, you know that I had a very, very brief time in Cairo. I wanted to fit everything in, so I hired a driver and a guide from the hostel which zipped me around town and told me everything I’d ever wanted to know about the pyramids at Sakara and Giza, the sphinx, and the Egyptian museum. The pyramids were just mind blowing to see and try to phantom how they were built. Equally amazing were the artifacts inside the Egyptian museum–many artifacts, older than 2500 B.C. still had vibrant and extremely detailed colorings–probably no less magnificent than the day they were painted. It’s not known even to this day what sort of pigmentation they were using. Unbelievable to think that we need nearly 4000 years to accomplish equivalent feats of gigantic structures and lasting color.

Elf got into Cairo at 1a and was under instructions from her minority investor to stay at the airport until 9:50a for her flight to Athens the next morning. I considered this just short of a travesty, so my first order of business when I arrived in Cairo was to make arrangements with the hostel to maximize her short night in Cairo. We did it in style. After a brief rest and at the hostel, we started early at 4:30a in the morning and were taken to a coffee house in Kahn Al-Kalili for some Turkish Coffee and sheesha, a favored tobacco smoked with a water pipe (also available in the U.S.). After sucking down the deliciously thick concoction, we were whisked out to Giza, where we hired a couple of camels, rode out onto the sand dunes, and caught the sunrise next to the infamous pyramids.

Yes. It was beautiful. Pictures are coming.

Now we’re in Athens, where I got my cheek pinched by a Greek woman on the bus, saw all the big sights in four hours, and playing backgammon in cafes like addicts after some locals taught us the game.