Off to the desert

Still dead tired and hungry, I went with my Chinese friends to meet our driver Karam at 7 a.m. He didn't speak English, so communication was a bit difficult. Somehow, we managed to make it clear to him that we needed breakfast. It took us 5 hours to reach the desert oasis, and I slept for half of the time. Along the way, we took a few tea breaks, which was awesome - I love the tea culture!

Once we arrived, we quickly and secretly switched to the safari car, as these desert tours are currently not allowed. We had a delicious lunch first, and then went into the desert. Our tour guide didn't speak a word to us and was acting weird. Amanda (the Chinese girl) and I imagined being kidnapped or abandoned in the desert. We went to a few spots, but it was not very spectacular. Eventually, the tour guide opened up a bit and told us that he was in a bad mood because he had lost money. After that, everything got better. We went to a cool spot to watch the sunset, and then went further into the white desert to set up our camp for the night. You wouldn't believe how exhausted I was - barely slept, the heat, and only ate very little!

The evening was nice though. When it got dark, we could see the starry sky and the Milky Way so clearly (unfortunately, the iPhone camera couldn't capture it), and we grilled fresh chicken. After dinner, I just toppled over at the table, enjoyed the sky for 1 second, and then fell asleep (I drank a lot of tea again hahaha, and it was only 9:30 p.m.)

We were woken up at 6 a.m. for the sunrise, which was beautiful, but then I went back to sleep haha.

After a quick breakfast, we set off again, visited a few more spots, snacked on a falafel, and then headed back to Cairo.

Well, spending the night under the open sky in the desert was an amazing experience, but 1. I was too tired, and 2. There was too much driving, first the journey there and then through half of the desert... well, you can probably do something like this once :p

Back in Cairo, I took a nice long shower and then Amir was already there, providing coffee again. Haha, I already love this guy! We hung out together, ordered typical Egyptian Koshtary and watched TV. When he finishes work, we will probably go to the Cairo Tower! And tomorrow he will show me the City Star Mall, which is apparently very fancy and huge. I'm excited!

I'm still quite exhausted, but I caught up on a lot of sleep in the desert and on the drive. Plus, I'm just so happy to be here! I simply love this country, don't ask why :D

I'll get back to you as soon as possible, but because I'm always on the go here, I don't always have internet. But don't worry, I'm doing wonderfully well, and it's really safe here, no matter how the media sometimes portrays it.

Ps. I would have loved to upload more photos, but the connection here is so bad that I need 5 minutes for each photo. My patience is unfortunately at its limit :D