Visiting the Sphinx and a rough finish to the day

Hello, blogland. I'm posting here safe and sound from my apartment in Robeson County. While so many are suffering from loss and devastation after Saturday's storms, the only after affect for me are the mystery shingles scattered across my yard. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who were so much less fortunate.

I wanted to share a few more layouts and stories from my Egyptian vacation. After our exciting camel ride, we headed over to the Sphinx. Again, words kind of escape me. It's just so amazing to see such iconic sites in person. I was able to wander into the temple area just in front of the Sphinx's feet, but I never figured out how to get any closer than that. I did discover the dangers of allowing friendly Egyptians to 'show' you great places to take photos (that you were already heading towards all by yourself). If you let them engage you and they can manage to show you where to take the picture, you're gonna have to tip them. Ugh. That was definitely one of the more trying aspects of the trip. Anyway, I was feeling a little 'artsy' with this layout, so I experimented with placing the photo in an unusual location. (and I played with my Glimmer Mists, always a happy thing) I like how it turned out:

As we walked back to the bus, I told Alton that I was starting to feel pretty bad. I had been drinking as much water as I could make myself, but it was hot, hot, hot, and I guess it was too much for me. Poor Alton had to beg a plastic bag off our fellow tourists, and, yurk!, up came all that icky water. Bleh. I was pretty miserable at that point. And embarassed. And terrified that I was going to get sick every day of the entire trip (spoiler alert: I did NOT vomit again after this first day, thank goodness).

Our bus took us from the Giza plains to Saqqara, where earlier step pyramids had been built. We started our visit in a mastaba, and were admiring some of the carvings on the walls when I started to feel nauseous again. One of the 'guides' tried to convince me to puke on the floor of the mastaba. He indicated that they could just cover it up with sand. What a ridiculous idea! I couldn't decide if he was trying to be nice, or if he was going to try to charge me some outrageous fine if I actually did it, but it seemed like an incredibly disrespectful idea to me. So back to the bus I went for another round with the plastic bag, my new best friend. I stayed in the back trying to stay cool-ish and dozing a bit. Alton and the others got to climb inside of one of the step pyramids (hence my regret on passing up on the opportunity earlier in the day). I remained in the bus, feeling miserable during the visit to Memphis, and then when everyone went to lunch, I STILL kept my seat. Alton brought me a coke from lunch, and that was all I had until late in the evening. I did manage to make it off the bus for the tour of the rug factory (I shared that layout a month or two ago), but I was soooo glad when we finally arrived back at the hotel and I could stumble up to our genuinely COOL room.

Needless to say, I did not take many photos from the rest of that day. Instead, I borrowed an image that Alton took of a statue that I did see from the bus window, to create my layout about everything I missed that day:


I have one more layout from that long, miserable ride in the bus. As we were leaving Memphis, I saw these two cute little children waving at us. They were standing in front of some date plants that were drying in the sun. I thought they would make a sweet little photo. Just as I snapped the shutter, I realized that the little boy was, erm, flashing us! I was torn between laughing and being utterly offended. So I added a little modesty dot to the photo, and made a layout to tell the story:

I'm not sure what that behavior was about. Later in the tour, others, including Alton, saw another young man engaging in the same behavior. I don't know if it was a reaction to our cameras, or to our non-Egyptianness. It was one of the few examples of ugly behavior that I witnessed on our trip.

Hmm, I have shared two somewhat icky stories/layouts today. I don't think I have any more stories like this for the entire rest of my Egypt vacation. They just happened to have both occurred on the same day of the trip, and hence, to be told together.

Happy crafting, everyone, and stay safe!