Luxor ≠ Aswan

We talked to one of the staff members from the hostel about a flight to Luxor, which was quoted the day before at €60.  She told us it was now €80...so we told her we would have to discuss it further, because a nine hour train ride would be a fraction of the price, but Rob had no real desire to sit on a train for that long.  After visiting the small museum, in which we saw actual mummies, canopic jars (the ones with disemboweled mummy parts), and some other very old items, we walked around the pyramids at Saqqara (formerly Memphis), seeing the famous step pyramid that is the first known building made entirely of stone (circa 2650 B.C.).  We were also fortunate enough to see about 50 people selling souvenirs.  One man, who was offering a donkey ride, saw me put a piece of gum in my mouth.  He came up to me and kept saying something that sounded remotely like "chicle," the Spanish word for "gum."   So I started speaking to him en Español and he kept guessing where I am from.  He listed off about eight Spanish cities until he gave up.  I ended up telling him that I am from the Dominican Republic (Somos Amigos 2006!).  Then he asked me to take a picture of him.  Then he tried to take my camera off from around my neck, so he could take a picture of me...no gracias, señor!

Our cab driver had mentioned to Georgio how great it is to take a dinner cruise on the Nile in Cairo, which the hostel would (of course) happily book for us.  We figured out a compromise.  Since the price for the flight went up (for sketchy reasons mind you...I still am not sure what she was trying to tell us), we thought to haggle a bit to get the flight and the dinner cruise for €80 collectively.  Paul deliberated with the woman over the phone for a while, saying we wanted to go from Luxor to Cairo, and return from Luxor to Cairo (a fact I had made clear when I spoke with her earlier), which differed from their itinerary for us going to Aswan.  After some heated discussion with the woman, we eventually got the price down to €80.  Gut gemacht, Paul.

We spent a little downtime at the hostel, recuperating before our dinner cruise.  The woman from the hostel had purchased the flight tickets for later that night, namely 4 in the morning.  Redeye=cheapest.  So we left our stuff at the hostel, went to this dinner cruise–which we were made to understand was all-inclusive–thinking we could stuff ourselves not only with food, but with beverage as well.  We were thirsty probably 60% of the trip.  Unfortunately, the drinks were not included in the fee, but the food was, and was a weird mix.  There was spaghetti, rice, beef, and plenty of Middle Eastern "salads" that looked more appetizing than the Egyptian desserts.  The food was nothing special, but the lounge singers who were stationed right behind me (one even had his hand on my chair during half of his song...while I was in it) were spectacular...ish.  The best part of the cruise was simply being out on the Nile.  It was a nice, cool night.  After dinner I made my way up to the bow of the boat, relaxing and breathing in the (seemingly) clean Cairo air (Oxymoron!).  Rob joined me, and after a nice conversation, Paul found us and revealed that we missed a dancing dwarf and a belly dancer.  Shucks!  

We found ourselves with plenty of time before our flight, so we went back to the hostel and took naps in the common room there.  I woke up a bit early and snuck onto the computer to quickly check if the Vikings had beaten the Packers, since we left on the Monday night with the big game.  Unsurprisingly, the destroyed the Packers. :)  We got to the airport, looked at our tickets, and thought, "Hmmm...why is our destination listed as 'Aswan?'"  Rob said he asked the woman about that earlier when we received our tickets, but she claimed it was the same airport, and one could simply go to either Luxor or Aswan.  Talking to the EgyptAir agent, we were informed that it is actually a three hour distance between cities (by train).  Thanks a bunch, hostel.  We had to pay a surcharge to change our flight, figuring we would explain what happened to the hostel when we returned to Cairo and get our money back...and then we waited---->next stop, Luxor!