Eid El Fetr in Hurghada

I am making the most out of this swine flu break! I just had yet another incredible weekend. Sherif planned a weekend in Hurghada for me, Dana, Danielle, Will, and Katie. We left late Thursday night, after I had spent the evening hanging out with Sherif and his friend Wa'el. A sleepless seven hour bus ride later, we finally found ourselves in Hurghada! After a nap, we went to the beach and swam in the Red Sea, then returned to the hotel for our first Egyptian beers! Well, first for me, anyway. Egypt's leading beer is called Stella (not to be confused with Stella Artois). It's not great, but it comes in huge bottles and is much cheaper than non-Egyptian beers. We played pool and smoked shisha with Lotfi, the owner of the bar, who soon became one of our favorite features of Hurghada.

Saturday was our desert day. This was my favorite part of the trip, although I was expecting to be sick of sand. It all started off with the six of us being piled into the back of a van with no seatbelts, while being thrown around with every bump in the sand we hit as we charged through the desert. Every once in a while we would stop to get some pictures of the Red Sea Mountains until we made it to the little desert camp. We rode camels, ATVs, dune buggies, donkeys, horses, played with snakes and turtles, watched a beautiful sunset, and watched a guy swallow a sword that was on fire. The ATVs were my favorite. As we were heading towards them, I joked around saying, "Haha, I don't want to be that kid who gets stuck at the end and winds up being left behind." So then guess what happened? I was totally that kid. As everyone else took off, my ATV shut itself off, leaving me in the middle of the desert. I trailed a group of Europeans back to the camp, completely humiliated in the most hilarious way.

Sunday was our rest day. We went to the beach and just chilled. That night, we went to Hard Rock Cafe and told our waiter that it was Sherif's birthday, but to call him Alfastar (the name of a tour group in Hurghada-- it seemed fitting for Sherif). Then Monday we spent all day on a boat. We went snorkeling, and the waterproof camera that Mom got me for graduation took the most amazing pictures! We played in the water pretty much all day, jumping off the top of the boat for fun and getting horribly sunburnt. We stopped at an island for about an hour and a half, where I was surprised to see several topless women. Crazy Europeans, don't you know where you are?

That night we took the seven hour bus ride back to Cairo. Our taxi ride from the bus station to campus was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend. Our taxi got a flat tire right in front of a military base. After our driver left us in search of a new tire (his spare was also flat, of course), some men in uniform came over to tell us not to take pictures of the base (not that we were to begin with). Then they got really friendly and offered us water and tea. They repeatedly got in trouble with their superiors for fraternizing with us. When the tire was finally replaced, we were all very sad to leave our new soldier friends. Then our driver led us in song the entire way back to campus, much to the enjoyment of the folks in the cars around us.

Now I am leaving for Morocco in about 3 hours, with very little sleep. Best swine flu break ever!