Egypt Day Six

1.28.11

After taking a large sleeping pill for the rockky night, Jenny and I were awakened by one of the train attendants opening our door to bring us breakfast at 5:30. We were so mad because our stop wasn't for another hour so we ate our bread and butter and got ready for the day.

We trudged off the train and got back to the Hotel for breakfast... Because of the riots going down in Cairo our plans for the day were under construction, so while our wonderful travel guides were re-arranging our schedules they told us we could go back to bed until 8:00. Hurrah. Probably one of the happiest moments in my life.

So after our little nap we all gathered on the bus where they told us our new itinerary for the day. They arranged for us to take a trip down to the bent and red pyramids! I was so excited because I remembered learning about them last semester in Art History and even though I was sad that we couldn't go to the Cairo museum I thought that the pyramids were a great alternative. At the bent pyramid they let us in to a site they were excavating near by which was pretty exciting because they rarely let people over there. Brother Muhlestein was SO excited... he said that he has tried to sneak over several times but the camel guards always catch him. So as great as it was to see the excavation site it was almost more fun to see how excited he was.

We got to go inside of the Red Pyramid (2nd century) and the architecture was just incredible... we were inside looking up to the ceiling while our teachers were telling us about how this triangle ceiling was supporting hundreds of tons of weight. Talk about amazing. Sometimes I still can't believe it. What I really loved about the Red and Bent pyramids was the location, unlike the Giza pyramids which were in the middle of the city, these pyramids were in the middle of the desert and all you could see was sand and more pyramids in the distance.. it was exactly what I pictured Egypt looking like. It showed the stark contrast of the desert compared to the land next to the Nile that was incredibly green and full of life.

After that we just had free time at the Hotel... It was really fun just to have free time to relax, our trip was so full of information and exciting adventures that a break was wonderful. Then after dinner we met in a room off of the lobby for sacrament meeting. It was such a cool experience to know that we can feel the spirit and take the sacrament no matter where we are. We all put on the best cloths that we had and a couple people went and gave 5 min talks, it was one of the most spiritual sacrament meetings that I have been to in a while and it was in a hotel lobby.

After that we all went to play games and then a little later a bunch of us gathered in Brother Muhlestein's room to watch CNN together. It was such a strange experience to be watching the news knowing that it was all going down just a couple miles away. We were all in awe knowing the weight of what was going on and knowing that we were in the middle of it. We were all talking about which of our parents were worried and making bets on who'd parents had called the center freaking out or how many e-mails we were going to have when we got back asking if we were okay. It was definitely and experience that I will always remember. I am just so grateful that it happened while we were there instead of even a couple days earlier because then we wouldn't have been able to go.

That is basically all for day 6... It was a great day. I'm going to try and wrap up the rest of my Egypt trip soon! Hope everyone is getting excited for Valentines day!