A Journal of Mist and Adventure

It was my first time travelling as an adult without the security of my family or an English speaking country. Of course I chose a particularly difficult time to travel in Cairo because, like many of my generation, I wanted to experience all I could as quickly as I could and Egypt was first on my proverbial bucket list. I arrived in Cairo quite early in day on the 2nd of December 2013. The sun was blistering, as I stood on the sidewalk outside the airport, hoping that wild arm gestures and broken Arabic gleaned from an airplane phrasebook would help me summon a taxi to my hotel. After a few minutes of my broken speech and the driver becoming increasingly bewildered, he interrupted and asked me in clear and fluent English whether I was attempting to ask him for a ride. To my embarrassment, I discovered it was actually quite common for people to speak both Arabic and English and that I was wrong, in my ignorance, to listen to my mother despairing that my 9th grade choice to study Latin instead of Arabic would result in me getting completely lost and miss my tour connection.

After arriving in my hotel, I decided to visit Giza for the day before I needed to meet my tour group that night. Thankfully, my hotel hired a driver and after equipping myself with plenty of water, we headed to the Pyramids. Driving in Cairo is an adventure in nerves due to the fact that although there are lines in the road, they are more commonly considered “guidelines”. We arrived at Giza, shortly after midday and although I had enviously examined pictures in magazines, the sheer magnificence of the Pyramid's struck me. With some trepidation I made my way across the silky sand to the Pyramid of Khafre. My trepidation was justified, as the entrance was overseen by machine gun toting soldiers. As an Australian born after the gun regulation laws were put in place I had never come into contact with guns which lead to a great deal of nervousness on my part . After being assured that my nervousness was misplaced, I made my way to the entrance, which was a small hole leading to some stairs going down into the heart of the Pyramid. Where I had to waddle and crouch simultaneously due to the size of the stairway. The stairs opened to a large burial chamber which contained the outer shell of a sarcophagus. Standing in the middle of the chamber, surrounded by the quiet and the past, made me understand the allure of travel and adventures to forgotten places.