John Mark’s Study Abroad

This is a short video about our stay in Luxor.

Luxor Day 1

This morning was a special treat for me… it was my first time this trip to find cereal and milk.  After breakfast we headed to the Valley of the Kings.  This is a burial ground for almost 30 Kings of Egypt.  They all had tombs in this valley that went deep into the bedrock, and were hidden from the tomb robbers.

Just Driving around the west bank of the Nile was beautiful, there were a lot of awesome things to see.  Our next stop was at a Papyrus paper manufacturing company, it was very interesting watching the locals make the paper from scratch.

Our last stop was at the Karnack Temple.  It was so incredible hot, unfortunately it kind of took away from how amazing the building was. 

After spending all day touring around a big group of us relaxed by the pool along side the Nile River.

Luxor Day 2

Our first free day!  Man it was great. Early In the morning we all meet with out teacher to talk about the work we have been doing for our thesis.  Then the rest of the day was on our on to do what we wanted. We started off going to a nice jewelry store, then an Egyptian cotton factory.  After those stops, we walked around down town and through the Egyptian market.  Since it was a good walk home we decided to get a horse and carriage ride home.

After getting back to the hotel about 3:00 pm we all went back to the pool for a while, then piled into a Nile River Boat.  The boat took us to a local shop to get some cheap beer, and then we cruised up river for about a mile, and then floated back to the hotel.

We are drinking some Brews on the boat, which is illegal, so the cops came and we had to pay them off.

While we were on the river we stopped at an island and got out and swam in the Nile.  We also meet some local girls that were fishing in their boats… Jep and I got in the boats with the girls and paddled around the Nile.

The riverboat tour was a great end to our trip to Egypt, we got to see an amazing sunset, and really just hang out as a group for a few hours.

That night we just ate dinner at the hotel, and they had a Egyptian Belly Dancer.  Her appearance was not at all what I was expecting… lets just say she had a whole lot of belly to move around.

Just before we left Luxor in the morning, we got to see hundreds of hot air balloons rising into the sky, it was quite a site to see.

What i think i will miss most about Egypt, is how deep the culture is, over 5,000 years right in front of your eyes.  i will also miss Fil-Fila… my favorite restaurant (ate there 4 times). I also will miss our guide for the whole week, Nabil, who reminds me of Lou, in the fact that he can do anything.  He once rode up the Nile on the back of a crocodile.

Thing I will not miss is the terrible internet service, the crazy egyptians constantly selling you stuff, and the Muslim call to worship 5 times a day.

So we are in Athens now, and ill try to keep everyone updated as I can.