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Egypt food guide
Some tourist attractions are so iconic that they’ve become synonymous with the country they’re in. In Egypt, that one iconic attraction will always be the Great Pyramid of Giza. Thanks to the pyramids, Egypt is a bucket list destination for many travelers, like myself. However, the one draw that’s often overlooked is Egyptian food. I always love to try the traditional cuisine in the countries I visit. Being my first time in Egypt, I was very excited to taste as many dishes as I can. I put together an Egypt food guide in case you too are concerned about what to eat during your upcoming vacation in the Land of…
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Alexandria
If you read my post about my volunteering opportunity, you should already know that between trips I stayed in Alexandria. It was my home for five weeks. It was the place where I would come to get some proper sleep and wash my clothes in between travels. I was sharing an apartment with two other Tunisian girls, also on AIESEC projects. The accommodation was actually quite nice and was located in a 20 story building in the Miami district. I would only spend a few days a week in Alexandria so I didn’t get to know the city all that well. However, I did see the main attractions and I…
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Egypt Do’s & Don’ts
Is Egypt safe? You may wonder, and specially for a female solo traveler. I say solo because, even though I went there through AIESEC and kept in touch with the people from the organization during my stay, it kind of felt I was on my own. So, to answer that question, I am going to say YES. However, I suffered a culture shock as soon as I arrived in Alexandria. Moreover, being my first time in Egypt, or any Arabic country for that matter, I had quite a few preconceptions about it. But even if some of it is true, my experience was actually better, and I felt safer, than…
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Volunteering with AIESEC
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Cairo & The Pyramids of Giza
The last trip in our volunteering program was the one to Cairo and the prestigious Pyramids of Giza. However, if you are looking for lesser known attractions in Egypt, you should check out the Black & White Desert. Most of our trips started from Cairo. So, by the time we visited it, I had already gotten a glimpse of the city. Cairo Cairo, the capital of Egypt, located on the Nile River, has a population of around 10 million people. It has long been a center of political and cultural life. It is also titled “the city of a thousand minarets” because of its Islamic architecture. At its heart is…
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Black & White Desert
Just a few days after the exhausting South Sinai trip, we were already on the way to the next destination on the itinerary: The Black & White Desert. We started our journey early morning from Cairo, and we arrived around noon in the Bahariya Oasis. From there we began our safari with 4x4s in probably the most unusual part of the Sahara Desert. The Black Desert Our first stop was The Black Desert, a region of volcano-shaped and widely spaced mounds. The Black Desert of Egypt dunes were at some point regular sand dunes. But millions of years ago they were covered by the remnants of volcanic eruptions that happened…
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South Sinai
Here comes our third trip of this journey. All the way to the south of Sinai Peninsula, we visited Sharm El-Sheikh, Dahab and Saint Catherine. Make sure to check out the trip to Siwa Oasis and the one to Aswan and Luxor, if you haven’t already. The Sinai Peninsula is the only part of the country located in Asia. It was occupied by Israeli forces during the Six-Day War of June 1967. It was then returned to Egypt in 1982 under the terms of the peace treaty concluded in 1979. Even though the north is not open to tourists for safety reasons, South Sinai is quite a popular touristic destination.…
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Luxor – World’s greatest open air museum
I ended my last post with the arrival in Luxor, the last destination on out Nile River Cruise. Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The modern city includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Waset, also known to the Greeks as Thebes. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the “world’s greatest open-air museum”. The ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor stand within the modern city. Immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the west bank Necropolis. They include the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Temple of Luxor We…
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Nile River Cruise
The second trip of my AIESEC project was a cruise down the Nile River, from Aswan to Luxor. If you want to read about the first one to Siwa Oasis, click here. So this trip started with a not-so-fun 15 hour train ride from Cairo to Aswan. The AC was turned to the max and we barely got any sleep (I forgot to say we traveled by night). However, we were pretty excited about what was coming. Prior to this trip we had to choose between two accommodation options. The first one was staying at different hotels and commuting between them with cars. The other meant cruising on a ship…
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Siwa Oasis
As part of the my project (see here how I applied), me and the other participants were supposed to visit eight cities of Egypt. Siwa Oasis, a very small community near the border of Libya, was not one of them. After searching on the internet about the place, I decided to go. However, I had to pay an additional fee of 1800 EGP (100 euros). I am so glad I did that though because it was totally worth it. And I am going to tell you exactly why. Siwa’s Salt Lakes After spending the entire night on the bus to Siwa, we arrived in the village just in time for…
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Volunteering with AIESEC
So, if you read the “about me” page, you must wonder how exactly did I get to spend six weeks in Egypt. This post is going to cover the whole process about volunteering with AIESEC. From the moment I first opened the AIESEC web site, until I landed on the Borg El-Arab Airport in Alexandria. What is AIESEC? I should start with explaining what AIESEC actually is. Well, originally Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales, is an international youth-run, non-governmental organization that provides young people with leadership development, cross-cultural internships, and global volunteer exchange experiences. The organization focuses on empowering young people to make a progressive social…
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Egypt Do’s & Don’ts
