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The last leg of our big trip to Egypt brought us to the resort city of Sharm El Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula.  Although I didn’t really feel like I was in Egypt it was definitely a nice way to wind down the trip.  I’m always up for sun, sand and relaxing on the beach with a good book, which this time happened to be Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz.

Our hotel.  Cool amphitheater near the sea.

We rang in the new year at a party arranged by our hotel where they handed out these fun masks!

Most of the hotels, restaurants, clubs and shops are located in Na’ama Bay a few minutes’ drive away from where we stayed. This is pretty much nightlife central! It’s loud, colorful, and busy with people just hanging out, having dinner, smoking shisha, and dancing.

Abu Sid restaurant. (There’s another Abu Sid restaurant in the Stars Centre mall in Cairo. Food was a lot better there!).

St. Catharine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world. One morning a few of us decided to take a two hour taxi drive to check it out. The night before, though, Faiz and Sarah traveled to Mt. Sinai and with the help of a guide braved the cold to hike up the mountain. They reached the summit after several hours just in time to catch a beautiful sunrise! I’ll definitely have to experience that the next time I’m in Egypt.

Photo by Faiz.

View from outside the monastery.

On the grounds of the monastery.

Charnel House. Monks’ bones are stored here.

The monastery houses both the Basilica of the Transfiguration, which is the main church, as well as the Fatimid mosque.

Of course we couldn’t walk by this ginormous chair without stopping for a picture!

Ready to conquer the desert on an ATV! We were told to wrap our heads and cover our faces well unless we wanted to eat dirt and inhale fumes from the ATVs around us, which happened anyway but could have been a lot worse!

I really like this shot Faiz snapped of himself and Sarah before we all headed out!

After many years of thinking about a group trip to Egypt a few of my friends and I finally managed to coordinate an incredible visit to Cairo, a Nile cruise, and a relaxing stay in Sharm el-Sheikh! My brother-in-law, Ahmed, is Egyptian-American and has family who live in Cairo so it was great traveling together.  I loved Egypt. There was so much to see and do, and I was amazed by the rich history. For many of us this was our first trip there so we had a very touristy, but awesome, experience of everything as we checked out all the main attractions (pyramids, sphinx, etc.) and of course took lots of snaps of ourselves at each sight! Next time I’m in Egypt I’d love to spend more time out in the streets and markets among all the people.  In any case this was a fun trip, the people we met were so nice, and I left wanting to return soon.  If you ever get a chance to go to Cairo and you happen to have a sweet tooth like I do, then you HAVE to stop by the Mandarine Koueider bakery! So good, especially the kunafa!

A few of my travel companions hanging out in the airport in Luxor:  Sofyan, Yasmin, Sarah, and Faiz.

One of our first sightseeing stops after arriving in Cairo was the Pyramids in Giza.

We had a tour guide take us to the pyramids and on our way back to the hotel she insisted that we check out a perfume factory where an excellent salesman managed to sell us a few bottles of essential oils!  We sampled a variety of scents and watched a glass blower create some perfume bottles.

One of my favorite places was the Citadel, once a fortress, which dominates the Cairo skyline (although you can’t tell from the photo, but it really does and is a pretty amazing view)!

The Citadel houses a number of mosques and museums including the National Military Museum.

Cairo is known as the “City of a Thousand Minarets” and for good reason. The cityscape is dotted with the minarets of what seems like thousands of mosques. One of several we visited was the mosque of Amr Ibn al-As. Apparently it’s been rebuilt numerous times but the original structure is considered to be the oldest mosque in Cairo.

Old Cairo (also known as Coptic Cairo). The Hanging Church, one of Cairo’s oldest Coptic Orthodox churches.

The church and monastery of St. George, also in Old Cairo.

Sofyan checking out a bracelet at a trendy little jewelry shop in Cairo. I think it’s called Verdu.

We spent a lot of time at the Khan el-Khalili market, mostly for the atmosphere! We had a pretty nice experience with most of the shopkeepers and laughed a lot. They are so relentless in their effort to sell you something, but it was usually amusing.

Bargaining 101. FAIL! Yasmin still tries to negotiate while I snap a photo of her and Tarbia with the shopkeeper. I don’t think we left with any souvenirs from this shop.

Lots. Of. Cats.

Everywhere.