Day 8: Mt. Sinai

Well, the morning kicked off with a wake-up call at  2 am (after going to getting to the hotel and starting dinner at 10:30 pm). The early rise made it worth it once we hiked to the top of mt. sinai and were able to sit and watch the sunrise up there. It was BEAUTIFUL!!  SUCH an amazing view! Believe it or not, it was actually really cold at the top though, so we all had to huddle for warmth! We were able to split up into our religion classes and hold a testimony meeting at the top, which was a really neat experience. Unfortunately, this was the roughest day for me as far as my health goes, so I may not have had the same experience as everyone else, but nonetheless I'm glad I did it. I was even able to make it down alive!! (even after our group took a little detour on accident, taking a different route down.  It was basically down the Cliffside. Of course that would happen to me while I'm sick and just trying to get to the bottom so I could curl up. haha  Luckily we still found the buses after our little adventure and I was in one piece). Afterwards we stopped by the red sea before making our way to the border (Which took FOREVER!) and had dinner at the kibbutz we had stopped at our first day. All in all, it was another GREAT DAY!! =)

Sweet pic- compliments of Jenna. it goes Karen, me, Rachel & Jenna. Top of Sinai.

ELISE...my fellow redhead roommate!! WOOH!!! +red sea.

The red sea!!!!

Gorgeous sun rise on top of Sinai

So pretty...

Conquered. period. lol

It was FREEZING!!!!!

Sunrise...sunset...sunrise...sunset (the song)

Let's be honest, I look like a bear! GRR!

Body heat! Body heat!! It was SOOOO COLD!!! Also... it's like 4 or 5 am.. we started with a wakeup call at 2 am, on the bus at 2:15 am... that explains the pure beauty you see-hah!!

day 7: my birthday :)

I don't have enough time to really write about it, but pictures are always fun nonetheless.

My birthday was great and everyone on the trip was super kind to remember and continuously wish me a happy birthday. the night before a bunch of us that had birthdays got sung too and were able to blow out candles on a cake. When we arrived at our hotel in Sinai and ate dinner they did another "birthday announcement" for me, and then all of the egyptian workers came and made me stand up so they could dance circles around me and sing in another language. haha it was great!! I can't believe I was lucky enough to turn 20 in EGYPT!! WHAT A BIRTHDAY TO REMEMBER!! THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO MADE IT A SPECIAL DAY! From near and far!

3rd stop made by the children of israel: Exodus 17:1  this is the hill that the two men had to go to the top and fought, and moses had to hold his hands up (others helped him hold them up longer) to determine who would win the battle. Again, I need to look up the details.

First stop talked about in Exodus made by the Children of Israel... The second stop can be found in Exodus 15:27 I believe. For the second stop, in the scriptures say exactly how many trees (3 score and something trees) it was so true!…. It really was NO VEGITATION, until that little place filled with trees, it was just that tiny patch. Unbelievable to recognize the hand of the Lord. I don't see any other way that a little patch of vegetation could have persisted randomly among the rest of the dry, sandy plains.

mosque of muhammad ali

mosque of muhammad ali

Raven and I...& some sweet doors =)

Sydney, Kristen, Rachel, and I

Alex, Heather, and I. Say Cheese!! (while we listen to the professor on the headsets! haha)

Day 6: back in cairo

We went to the Cairo museum, but unfortunately no cameras are allowed in. It was awesome. We saw all of the gold that was found in King Tut's tomb and tons of remnants from throughout history. The highlight of the museum was the MUMMY ROOM!!! Yeah, I definitely saw Ramses II among many other amazing historical figures! It was crazy to see there bodies preserved so well from thousands of years ago!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Unfortunately We didn't have very long on the museum because our bus got stuck in terrible traffic. We tried to turn around and go the opposite direction on the freeway.... twice. haha The other bus made it through before the traffic, but we didn't so our time was 2 hours shorter in the museum.

Oh well though, because it was off to the Hard Rock Cafe!! Yum!! They turned on music and you know when you are in such a large group of college kids...its bound to immediately turn into a dance party! haha

Unfortunately my camera got dropped at the hard rock cafe and broke, so I didn't have any more pics from the day. but we headed to the world's largest bazaar. So fun! not enough time of course, but still a blast! Then it was back to the hotel to hang out for a while where we jammed with the live singer in the lobby! haha!!

Believe it or not.... my camera got better that night. It was truly a miracle because we had played with it and tried to fix it for hours, and had given up hope, but when I checked it that night, it worked again!! 

Hard Rock.... MMMM!!! 

^Dance Party in the middle of the Hard Rock Cafe!!!^

So you can't tell... but our bus is trying to turn around on the freeway, we are taking up all 4 lanes and then going to head the wrong direction on the freeway. Traffic just drives wherever they feel... I have a new technique to bring to Utah! Joke!! haha

that sign says "Diet Corner" hahah Savannah and I found it entertaining.

Day 5: Temples in Luxor

Day 4: In LUXOR

We took a boat to the Karnak Temple, a carriage through the town to Luxor Temple, a carriage back to the hotel and then did a little more shopping until it was time to leave for our overnight train ride back to Cairo. The people in the Bazaar were hilarious. They would always see one guy with like 5 girls and jokingly ask the guy to "share just one". haha I can't remember the other comments, but they were clever.

^The Nile.... GORGEOUS!!^

^The view on the balcony of our hotel^
^Right outside our hotel, Bethany took this pic, I don't know who's in the water! lol
^Waiting for our overnight train ride back to Cairo.^
^Russel and Michael really wanted to blend in.... does it work? haha!!
^LUXOR TEMPLE^
^Our transportation through Luxor to the Luxor Temple^


^So this is the sacred water that they have in each temple, and they believed that if you walked around it 7 times, you would get married! Hahah!! ..... I didn't even walk around it once, so I just might be hopeless!! lol (Karnak Temple)

^HUGE pillars...hundreds throughout the temple, all covered in hieroglyphics and used to be extremely colorful! Karnak Temple!

^this was our transportation to the Karnak temple!! :) LOVE IT!!!

Day 4: Valley of the kings, camel safari...

Valley of the Kings (where all of the tombs of the pharaohs were)

Queen Hatchepsut (her temple)

Colossus of Memnon

Camel Safari

Falucca Ride (like a sailboat) Down the Nile

Shopping J

^ Our security guard when our falucca got "pulled over"... don't worry mom, we're safe!! :)
CAMEL SAFARI!!!!
"William Shakespeare" (my camel) just wanted to eat. period. haha!

me and good ol' william.
Andy and I... don't touch the nile!
Our Falucca ride down the nile!
The "Bob Marley" Falucca 
Colossus of Memnon-don't worry its a joke.
Heiroglyphics in Hatshepsut's temple

Egypt day 3! PYRAMIDS!!

Giza Pyramids

Panoramic View of the Pyramids

Sphinx Tour

Papyrus Factory

Sawwara (Mastaba and Zoser Complex..these are the step pyramids)

Memphis

Off to the Cairo International Airport! Fly to LUXOR!!

 

We got to climb inside the GREAT PYRMID!! It was INCREDIBLE!! They only let 150 people in, and our group was 90 or 95…so needless to say we got there early to manage that one!! AWESOME! We sang inside the room of the tomb too, it was awesome. (oh and you have to basically crouch down at a 90 degree angle to climb inside… I’m so glad I’m short for that one!!

^The Step Pyramid^
^Ramses II^

THE SPHINX!!
I look retarded, but just had to do it :)


^Check out the people ON the pyramid as a scale..yeah, it's HUGE!^

^The Great Pyramid of Khufu^

Each block can range from 3 to 30 tons