REGINALD BARBOUR Journey to Egypt

To all whom it may concern,

my name is Reginald Barbour. For the past four years, ever since I got out of high school I've been travelling the world. I've been to 17 diffirent countries throughout Europe, but the furthest I've been from home is Egypt. Egypt is a country where one of the first ever civilizations started, it is a land mass of extreme and unseen beauty; a place of kind and joyful people, it is very unlike anything I've seen before but yet, after only two days my sister and I could have said that we're home.

Our journey started in Belgrade at 03:00 AM as we set off to Cairo, the 5th largest city in the World with a population of 23 million. Our first thoughts were simple: this is complete caos but in a very good and euphoric way. Yes, it's a bit dirty and yes it's completely jammed up with people, but it's simply awesome and really exciting at the same time. The people are very nice and open, welcoming us on every corner, children run up to you shouting HELLO with a big smile on their face. The food is delicious and also very cheap, most of the time we ate the local dish called koshari, which consists of lentils, rice, chickpeas, with a special tomato sauce and savory crispy onions on top, really superb!

Anyhow, on our first day, we visited Cairo tower which is by far the best seat in the house, the views from up top are spectacular and you can even see the pyramids of Giza! Later went to fill our bellies and top it up with shisha which is practically like oxygen for the Egyptians, they smoke it all day, everyday and I can understand why, it's delicious!

Day two, we took the train from Cairo heading South into the upper part of Egypt towards Luxor, an eleven hour train drive but without a doubt the most enjoyable I've ever experienced, the views of Egypt along side the Nile are simply staggering.

Day three quickly sprang into action as we got an early start and headed towards the West Bank, saw the Valley of the Kings and other various but not at all any less majestic sites and historic temples on the way. Later we set off on a felucca heading upstream to Banana island were banana's do indeed grow, had some freshly squezed fruit juice and shisha, some could have called it a state of nirvana.

Our second day in luxor, day four in total and we started by visiting Karnak Temple which blew me away, the immensity of it all, so grandeur and powerful. I still ask myself how on earth did they manage to build everything all those years ago.. Anyway, that same day we went back to banana island and strolled into a small village to have some tea with the locals, a very splendid and relaxed afternoon. In the evenings we would always come back to our hostel, calculate how much had been spent, had dinner followed by shiha and off to bed.

Day five blossoms into life as we head even further down into the upper part of Egypt into Aswan, the train left and nine in the morning and we arrived at about two in the afternoon. Knowing that our hostel was 6km from where we were we took a taxi; checked in, ate, then David, the manager gave us two bicycles and we head straight back up from where we came from, an exhilarating experience I have to add, oh and yeah, Aswan absolutely gorgeous. That same day we went to bed really early because we had a very early start to day six.

Left Aswan at 04:00 AM, got to Abu Simbel which is only 20km from the border with Sudan at about 09:00 AM, had an hour and a half to look around and then headed straight back to Aswan, no time to loose! We returned at about 13:30PM, had a quick lunch and took a minibus into the city, rode camels into the sunset on top of a hill on an island looking back over Aswan. Here we bumped into some locals with whom we very quickly became friends, later in the evenig we all went for some local tea and shisha.

It's day seven but I feel like I've been here for so much longer, our trip now heading back North into Luxor again for one more night. Being a Sunday we took things very lightly, had lunch and afterwards chilled on the roof with a beer and shisha. About 2 hours before sunset we set off again to the West Bank where we once more rode camels but this time through a more urban region, also very pleasing.

Day eight comes into to light and we have a 9 hour bus journey back up to Cairo, a bus ride with movies and free lunch through the desert; you look left, you see desert, you look right.. well, you get the picture... It's around nine thirty PM and we're back in Cairo, went for koshari and shisha, as usual, then later slunked off to bed.

Second to last day in Egypt, we decided to visit the Egyptian museum which has about 120,000 different atinquites inside, we spent the whole day there, the museum is just so vast, definitely worth a looking into. In the evening we met up with the locals we met in Aswan, can you guess what we did? I think the answer is very clear to you all.

And now we come to and end, our tenth and last day in Egypt. We saved the best till last so we went to have a look at the pyramids in Giza and boy oh boy, what a sight! It felt so strange being there after seeing them only on TV, the immense power they bestoy within is just out of this world. We spent roughly three hours there just walking around and taking pictures. Wa this really built by humans, the answer to my question will always be a mystery…

Egypt definetely made it's way into my heart, my return is definite, I count my blessings daily, it's a miracle what this world has in store for us, it's a miracle just being alive… So enjoy it while you can.