Ok, so today I got dirty again excavating my area (I found some stuff that was interesting to me, but it was just pottery, so that’s not interesting for you- but maybe I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, since I just read the comments that some of you are interested). So I’ll tell you about last weekend.
After site on Saturday, we rushed back to the house to eat lunch and take showers with the minimal water we had and the hour before our car came. Then we hopped in the car and cruised on to Luxor. We were all fairly hungry once we got there, and aside from Tasha (who is kind of a vegan), everyone wanted nothing more than a nice, juicy cheeseburger. Where else can you get one but McDonald’s? Yes, we went to McDonald’s in Luxor as our first non-Edfu meal. And it was glorious. There will be another post all about the awesomeness of the Luxor McDonald’s (there’s more than just a good burger).
After the glorious cheeseburger, we split up and Nadine and Greg went to Chicago House while the rest of us went to our hotel, The Nefertiti. It wasn’t much to look at, but it had decent beds, AC, and a shower where the head was mounted to a wall, so we were all pretty happy. Once we were all clean, we piled into a cab and drove out to Chicago House for their Halloween party.
I wish that it hadn’t been so dark by the time we got there, because calling it a house is something of a misnomer. This thing is a freaking complex. Seriously, google image search it- it’s crazy, with tennis courts and a place for old cars. But the party was fun and we looked really cute. I’m not allowed to put up a photo of our costumes under pain of death by my colleagues, but I wore a cute little cape and bat ears that had been my cousin’s about 20 years ago. For those of you that remember your Arabic lesson, I was a “wat-wat”. We were super tired since we’d woken at 5am and had already had a full day of excavation, so when the party wrapped at 10, we were pooped.
We were allowed to take Sunday off since we needed to get our visas upgraded (I am now considered a resident until January 16, 2012). Greg and Nadine needed to rub shoulders at Chicago House, so us ladies did a little shopping! We hit several fair trade centers for Christmas presents, an import store for chocolate, a restaurant run by a Brit-ex-pat for lunch, and a pharmacy for those of us that were running out of essentials. We also hit Luxor temple (we have these fun little things that get us into all temples and sites for free since we are fancy dancy archaeologists) and since no one was around, we had a photo shoot:
At the end of the day, while killing time before our car came, we went to Snack Time. They have the most amazing desserts. Look, aren’t they yummy-looking?
Our ride back to Edfu was interesting, since our driver was a nut-job. I wish I could say that wasn’t typical for Egypt drivers, but they are basically all nut-jobs. At least this car had seat-belts. Then it was dinner and bed and up for work at 5am, where I had my second day of excavation, which you heard about yesterday. See? Told you I’d fill you in on all the details.
- Luxor Explorer
PS. Wades: I didn’t try the cinnamon roll, I’ll get it next time. I’ll let you know how they compare to... Stanley’s? Stuckey’s? Whatever that place is on the way up north.
PPS. We’re headed back to Luxor this weekend because there’s a huge holiday (Eid- I’ll explain later) this weekend. I’m hoping they’ll have some internet so I can post daily, but I might have to figure something out. Lindsey, Susan, and I are planning to do the tourist thing hard-core (I’m talking hiking the gebel behind Deir el-Bahri all morning [Yes, I’m already planning on taking a 1.5 liter bottle of water with me. Dan taught me well.]). Woot!
