September 27, 2007 Luxor, to Cairo

McCall Barrick
Brother Ludlow

Friday, September 27, 2007 Journal Entry
We started off the day today by splitting into groups of four and riding in horse-drawn carriages to the Karnak Temple. How often to you get to say that? It was really fun. The Karnak Temple is huge! Brother Ludlow described it as being three times the size of temple square. There was so much to see there that we probably spent two hours there and just scratched the surface. It’s truly amazing to see the kind of architecture the ancient Egyptians were able to achieve without the complex machinery we use today. Our guide, Hassan, led us around the temple, teaching us about much of the history of the temple and explaining to us what some of the drawings meant. He knew a lot and it was really good to have a guide as knowledgeable as him. The only thing that made our trip to the Karnak Temple was the intense heat. It was really hot outside and I don’t think any of us are used to that kind of heat. Other than that though, the Karnak Temple was really amazing.
From the Karnak Temple we took the carriages to the Luxor Temple. It was not nearly as big as the Karnak Temple, but it was still really incredible and interesting. We spent about an hour touring there and then we were given the rest of the afternoon off. Most people spent at least part of that time in the pool cooling off. The game of choice was keep away, which was really fun. Don’t worry, the girls won. A lot of people also spent the afternoon shopping in the shops near our hotel. There were some really fun things to buy and everyone felt good about their purchases.
Dinner was a pool-side buffet, which was a lot of fun. The food was good and we were all grateful to eat after our long day. Meals are always interesting in Egypt, because we have to be so careful about what we eat because we don’t want to get sick. Most of us stuck to eating meat, rice, potatoes, and cooked vegetables, though a few were more adventurous and tried the fruit and desserts. Hopefully no one gets sick from what they ate.
After dinner we left to catch a late-night flight back to Cairo. The flight was surprisingly short, which was nice. However, the descent was a little rough because we descended so quickly. A few of us got somewhat motion sick from it and were grateful when we were back on solid ground. We were all tired, so we just went to our hotel and fell almost immediately asleep.