My friend, special price!

            The airplane ride was on a dinky plane that shook for at least half of the hour long ride (according to Rob, who thought we were going to die).  I was asleep most of the trip, although I was awoken a couple of times by the very very rude man in front of me who did not pay any heed to the pilot's orders regarding the shutting off of cell phones.  This man's phone kept ringing!  He would pick it up, lost connection, and the person kept calling back.  In all seriousness, it happened eight to ten times.  Suffice it to say, he was not very popular on the plane.  

              Groggy and thirsty, we arrived in Luxor around 7 in the morning (after a nice little delay in Cairo).  We took a cab into the city, and immediately realized the difference in air quality.  Namely, Paul didn't have difficulty seeing through his contacts.  We walked along the Nile for a bit, the entire time getting accosted by Taxis and carriage drivers.  After exchanging some money, we found our way to our hostel, New Everest Hostel, which allowed us to check in at 9.  So we sat around in the lobby, again being offered by the staff plenty of guided ($€$€--it's all the same to them!) tours of the different sites in Luxor.  We declined, confident we could find our way with our handy travel guide.  Knowing we had plenty of time to see the city, we used our first day there to catch up on sleep.  After we woke from our naps, we decided to meander around the city, eventually making our way into the bazaar.  If you are ever feeling friendless, just make your way to Luxor and head down this narrow street.  "My friend, my friend, special price.  Only 5 Egyptian Pounds!  Where are you from my friend?" (Following look of bewilderment)  "¡Mi amigo!" (Continued confused look)  "Mein Freund! (which actually means "boyfriend" in German).   They have enough knowledge of the languages of the most frequently visiting tourists to invite you into their stores.  You may think I am exaggerating, but there must have been 70 shops, all with keepers eager for our patronage.  All claiming us to be their friends. :)  We found this terribly amusing.  As much as a gift from Egypt would be cool to give, I just never found anything with a good quality that I would ever want to purchase.  We did find another papyrus shop which Georgio wanted to check out.  The prices here were incredibly cheap compared to the other shop in Cairo.  We told the guy we would come back again before we left, while Georgio wanted to wait to see how much money he had left before we left Luxor...and boy, would we come back!---->continued foreshadowing!

             As we were approaching the end of the tunnel, so to speak, we heard a couple fighting off the vendors, auf Deutsch!  So, we struck up conversation with them as we looped back...but not through the bazaar.  I was impressed we were able to understand them.  They were a couple from Switzerland, and the Germans maintain, that Swiss German is not actual German.  Probably like someone in New York might say someone down in Dixie can't speak real English.  Either way, I was happy to be able to understand them.  On our walk, I

 serendipitously ran into the one and only (I think) Catholic church in Luxor.   I looked before we left to figure out where I could go to mass on Sunday, but had no idea where it actually was, so it was really nice a near the hostel.  There was a nice statue of the Blessed Virgin outside, along with a cool mosaic of Baby Jesus and Mary on a Donkey and Joseph leaving for Egypt.  :)

           That night we ate at an outdoor restaurant.  We all ordered pizzas, and midway through our meal, we were accosted by cats.  There were cats all over Luxor (and later, Alexandria)!  It was at this point that my bowels were starting to have a difficult time with the food in Egypt.  At last, the (pardon the crudeness, but this was the best name we could come up for it) Cairo Craps had struck... We made a pit stop at the McDonald's, where Paul got a shake, so I could use the facilities.  (Thanks again, Paul.)  After that, we went to go sit in the park-like area outside the Luxor Temple, which is a main fixture across the street from the Nile.   I think it is at the center of the city, at least from what I gathered by our location.  A mosque was built right alongside/partially on top of it.  We made our way toward the mosque, and were invited in by

a man who gave a neat little tour in German, giving us the opportunity to take a few cool snapshots of the temple from up close.  Some of the walls in the mosque were actually walls from the temple.  After the tour, he conveniently led us to a corner, seemingly to offer us another opportunity to photograph the temple.  Then he asked us to give him some money...for the mosque...claiming any amount would be helpful, noting we should give what we thought, from the bottoms of our hearts.  I told him I only had big bills (not really seeing this as something that deserved a tip, noting he graciously invited us in to give us a tour), Georgio gave him something and walked away, Paul offered in 20 pounds, and Rob offered him his four 50 cent bills, also because he had nothing else small.  The guy looked at us, puzzled and said what we were giving was too small...explaining to Rob his amount was too small.  Rob explained that was all he had, so the man asked if he had any Euros!  It was at that point, I left, and Paul and Rob soon followed.  That was a very awkward and weird experience.  We went back to the park-like plaza and sat on one of the grassy areas.  We sat and talked for a good hour, planning out our next couple of days.  We headed back to the hostel, and along the route, found a man selling big bottles of water for only two Egyptian Pounds (roughly ¢40), which was the best deal we had found (and we frequented his stand)   We made plans to visit the Karnak Temple the next day and arranged a felucca boat ride with the hostel for the evening.  We were all set with plans...we just needed some sleep.