Egypt Honeymoon

Ok, here's what we did during our fun-filled week, more pictures below:

Friday 8/17
We left from Prague at midnight and flew 4 hours to Hurghada, Egypt. We were met by our Alexandria tour company and we rode with a bus full of czechs as they dropped us off at our respective hotels. After arriving at the Hilton Long Beach resort we went exploring what this huge hotel had to offer. We walked around the 6 pools to the red sea beach and found the 2 restaurants we would eat at. This resort is the largest in the middle east. After checking in and getting our wrist bands we ate a huge breakfast. yummy! We met with our tour guide to decide which trips we were going to take. We then took a long nap and hung by the pool and beach the rest of the day. All the meals were included and each night had a theme. Dinner was a "far east" theme.

Saturday 8/18
We woke up early this morning which was great to get a head start. We went to breakfast-still so good!, then to the pool for a little while. There is all you can eat free ice cream and drinks by the pool so jumped on that whenever we could. At 12:30 we met our czech tour guide Denisa and signed up for a trip to cairo and a moto sarari in the desert. After lunch we snorkled but didn't know about the hotel's home reef. We also signed up for a scuba diving trip the next day with PADI office at the hotel. That night was Egyptian food night and it was delicious.



Sunday 8/19
We woke up tired at 7:30 but excited to go scuba diving. We rushed through breakfast and went over to the scuba place. We got on the old boat with about 12 other people. The Red Sea was tabbed as the best scuba diving in the world and it didn't disappoint. The first dive site was Giftun island about an hour away. The view was so beautiful we used all the pictures on the our underwater camera during that first dive. We both had bouyancy problems and we also learned that Tim sucks down air really quick. He had to breath off the dive master so the dive wouldn't end before returning to the boat. We had a great Egyptian food on the boat for lunch and went to our second dive site. It was a big reef that seemed to be in the middle of the ocean. This dive was more comfortable and it lasted over an hour. We saw many different colorful fish, coral, and stingrays. We were very tired afterwards and Tim had a headache for a while. We got back to the resort and ate dinner. It was French night and probably Tim's favorite one. We got a few hours sleep before our 12:30 a.m. wake up call.



Monday 8/20
Cairo! We were picked up at 1 a.m. and traveled 8 hours with a bus full of czechs to Cairo. We were able to lay down and get some sleep on the back row but it wasn't very comfortable. Our first stop of the Egyptian national museaum. It houses many of the mummies, king tut's things, and other interesting artifacts from a few thousand years ago. The great part about being the only non czech speakers is that we got our own egyptian tour guide from our tour company. He had a degreee in Egyptian history so he really knew his stuff. The bad part though, was that museum was so hot though that laura nearly passed out. She had to lay down and drink juice and water. The things from king tut's tomb were amazing, so detailed, and much better in person than all the pictures you see. After leaving the museum laura started to recover and we drove by the Nile river over to Giza where the pyramids are located. After lunch we went to a papyrus demonstration and then on to the 3 pyramids. It was soooo hot by the pyramids. We walked around the great pyramid, Tim went down into the mother's pyramid. They were better than i imagined. those pyramids are huge! It's amazing to think that they took 90 years to build. After being hustled by a camel guy, we went to a scenic site.
Afterwards we went to the sphinx. This is corroding and the nose is broken because napoleon used to use it as target practice. It probably wouldn't be there if it was buried in the sand for 1,500 years! After going to a boring parfumerie we took the trip back. Laura slept for about 4 hours and we arrived back at midnight. After European night leftovers, we went to bed.




Tuesday 8/21
We were so tired from the day before we slept until noon. After that We had lunch. Laura chilled by the pool while Tim went to workout in the fitness center. At 4 we were picked up and taken across town for our moto-safari into the desert. After a short demonstration, we had our heads wrapped up and we (along with 30 czechs) drove for an hour into the dessert. We stopped by the mountains, went to a Bedouwin village where we had tea, a tour, a camel ride, barbeque after the sunset. The ride back was an adventure and we stopped halfway as they had to retrieve one of the group members who was lost in the desert! Laura didn't wear her sunglasses (because it was night) and got dust in her eyes. She could hardly see to drive but made it back. First time for both of us driving ATV's. Dinner that night was "international tour"





Wednesday 8/22
Diving Again! WE went to 2 different dive sites and we both felt more confident. Tim continued to suck lots of air and to breathe from the bulgarian dive master. Both dives last an hour. We saw a scorpian fish, lion fish, eels, and rock fish. Laura layed out on the back of the boat and talked to a polish girl the whole trip back. We were disappointed with seafood dinner night but we did figure out that we could eat outside.



Thursday 8/23
Last full day! We met with Denisa at 10 to check our flight times for the next morning. We enjoyed one last delicious breakfast. Pancakes with chocholate sause were the hit. After Tim went to pay our scuba bill we stayed by the pool most of the afternoon enjoying ice cream and fruity drinks. In the late afternoon we went snorkling one more time on the hotel's reef. It was perfect as it was very shallow. We had an upclose encounter with a sting ray. We won the staredown contest as he retreated back under the coral. We enjoyed mediterranian dinner night by the pool. 3 hours of sleep until departure!