Egypt Continued... (raw & uncut)
Had lunch @ a little upstairs place recommended by a shop owner that sold scent oils, it was called Al Ahd Al Jadid- they brought a huge tray out with everything they had & asked us to pick what we wanted- we were the only tourists and the food was so good. really. Egyptians are so curious about us, about us liking it here, if we're being treated well, feeling welcome. & MANY of them tell us they love Obama. "Obama is for peace, Bush was for blood" one man said to me.

So... got some sleep on the train once the beds were set up. I was on the top bunk, tim on bottom, maggie stayed up the entire night looking out the window. I stared out as well & all night long we saw people out and about & about. Also, mosques at night are lit up by bright neon lights. It seemed like no time and we were being told to wake up, get ready to get off the train!

what a b!tch carrying our luggage up the many stairs, esp. at 5:30AM with little sleep in HOT AS HADES Luxor. Lord have mercy! Got a cab for 20 Egyptian pounds to Iberotel. They were kind enough to let us check in right away and we went up to our rooms, checked out the view from our balcony (AMAZING, the Nile is so lovely here in Luxor, breath taking), showered and passed out for a few hours.

I ended up getting up and checking out the pool etc. with maggie. We had tea & coffee, then came to get tim, he walked down to check out the pool too (OH, i forgot, maggie shopped her BUTT off after coffee) then we were going to have lunch in the hotel restaurant... they said buffet or a la cart? we said we wanted to look at the buffet, maggie went first and totally fell, HARD, screwing up two of her fingers badly, one looked broken & i saw right then tons of dirty water on the floor!

She was eventually taken in a cab, with the manager and tim to the Luxor hospital, it was a disaster. The day slipped by and poor, poor maggie went thru a lot. when they finally came back the hotel gave us lunch- bread, cheese, eggs & french fries? and we ate with the managers as they apologized. WAS SO WEIRD. & I am still MAD about that water by the buffet, the mgr. said it was a bottle of water spilled by one of the guests, i told him right away, NO WAY.

We then went to the pool for the afternoon, then showered and walked along the Nile to the Winter Palace for dinner. What a gorgeously furnished hotel, so Marie Antoinette. I had yellow lentil soup & sea bass. We walked back and I sorted out a guide for tomorrow's West Bank sites. 250 Egyptian pounds. We will leave at 7:30 & see AMAZING things. We'd like to take a felucca ride on the Nile while here. Until later! Prayers for maggie to feel better. Thanks to tim for being so helpful...

(the down low: i sorted out said guide with a guy at a tourist trap shop, got to be "friends" with him. he got us a brilliantly educated English speaking guide, a driver and air conditioned van for approx. $30 for an entire day, it pays to be friendly & to get to know people you encounter out there)