"Egypt - Land of the Pharaohs" Egypt by frockland

View on Cairo from the Citadel

My first visit to the Land of the Pharaohs was a disaster! After finishing school I decided to visit Egypt. I bought a cheap ticket with 'Malev' the Hungarian Airline to adventure my first flight and a new country. After a seventeen hours stopover in Budapest I arrived in Cairo at half past two in the morning. Unfortunately my luggage didn?t show up. The same problem hit a pretty blonde. It looked like everybody at the airport tried to assist her. Nobody was left to help me! I was lost! I had no proper travel guide with me and my travel experience was limited to European Interrail trips. So I ended up in front of the airport frustrated without any luggage and no idea where to go. But there this was only the beginning of the nightmare!

Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor

A couple of years later I returned to Egypt to visit the places I missed the first time! It was a wonderful trip and I was glad that I returned. After my first visit I had the impression that Cairo was a giant slum with millions of cars constantly blowing their horns and locals only trying to squeeze money out of you. Of course this was to simple and wrong!

In 2004 I came back to Egypt to start my travel across Africa here. I realised that it changed a lot again since the last time some 15 years ago. Many women were covering themselves in black and tourism much more. Hurgarda had changed from a small village into one of the major tourist destinations at the Red Sea. On the Nile are about 250 cruise boats operating and Karnak was unbelievable overcrowded and packed with visitors.

Egypt is still one my favourite countries and absolutely worth a visit! I did the typical tourist trail along the Nile from Cairo to Aswan.

Specific information will be in the chapters of the different locations when the pages are finished!*