at long last... Luxor...

Some places are just special. I don't really think I knew Luxor was one of those places till we rolled in sometime between 11 and midnight. It was familiar and exciting. I wanted to see if I could find the hotel I stayed at six years ago without any help... and I ALMOST did. (Or I did with a wee little help...) It was a great little hotel and had only improved (without being too improved..) we stayed there... the Nefertiti... with its green walls and the loveliest roof top overlooking the Nile, the west bank, and the sphinxes of the Luxor temple.



We spent a long, good day at the Karnak Temple... where there were tons of tourists, tons and tons and tons... It was rather overwhelming but over the course of the day, they waxed and waned... and we were able to find the less traveled corners of the temple and enjoy just being there in that ancient space. I always wonder what life was like when places like that were in their hay day... Who was roaming around, what they were thinking and doing. Were the ins and outs of life all that different?




Oh that cute little kitty... into everything.



Such a good, beautiful time.

Two days, two nights... and a long day train ride back to Cairo... racing around like headless chickens to have a fun dinner... meet up with my homestay sister, Heidi, get packed up and fly out at 3:00 in the morning.

And then it was over. Two long flights, dinner with friends in DC and a car ride, and I'm back in Baltimore. Back to reality. With a horrid thud. But now its been about a month... well, a month since I got back I suppose... and Egypt all seems rather far away. But there is plenty of goodness and beauty to be found in these parts too....