MissTick
Thingish Things

After spending one day in pyramids of Giza, an overnight train took us all way up the map of Egypt, to the Upper Egypt. The name refers to the location according to the flow of the Nile river. Upper Egypt is the land upstream.

If Cairo is a "City that never sleeps", Upper Egypt is the "place that never rushes". There is that marvelous laid-back atmosphere in the area!We arrived in Aswan – the southern-most city in Egypt, early in the morning. Found our hotel and – a nice surprise – hotel manager arranged for us visits to all the places, we had on our list. So, literally, we leaped from the train and into the boat straight away!

St.Simeon
The captain of our felucca, Mustafa, very nice Nubian young man, took us first to the West bank of the Nile – we were going to see the St.Simeon Monastery. West bank in Aswan – it’s a desert, that starts literally off the Nile. And I mean – we jumped off the felucca straight into the scorching mass of sand, and from that point there was nothing else but the sand further off the shore. From there my hb took a camel ride through the desert and I chose the option of sailing to the same place and then – walking up the hill, to the gorgeous ruins of St.Simeon. (No, despite of my sincere friendliness to the animals, no camel, nor I didn’t find a mutual interest in each other and we both voted for alternative route – camel – by yelling, me – by running back to the boat).

Anyway, once we moored to the bank, I’ve discovered that if anything, I forgot to cover my head from the deadly hottest sun. And as it was about midday – the most challenging time, things didn’t look hopeful for me. Fortunately, there was a tiny local market there and before I realised, what’s going on, an old Nubian came to me and skilfully bound a scarf around my head, saying that now I look like The Queen Of Sheba (I thought, it was more like a Bedouin?), so naturally I paid him for that white scarf (which proved to be very useful indeed in all my later travels too)…hmmmm…and for his compliment too.

St.Simeon was built in 7 century. Strangely it recollects more of a fortress, then a monk’s house. It surprised me how well it was preserved. We walked around courtyards and galleries, saw stone beds, where monks slept and remnants of amazing paintings on ceilings and walls of galleries and caves. I couldn’t help, but thought about how lonesome a life should’ve been for the monk when he was sitting there, by the narrow loophole –instead of the window…and the only view he could see – an endless sands of a desert… The word that comes to mind in St.Simeon – asceticism…

Felucca Ride
After monastery we returned to our boat and sailed off to the islands.
I must say a few words about the Nile. It is an amazing river! I never expected it to be so blue, and so clear, and so beautiful! But she is - all that and much much more...

Nile in Aswan is dotted with islands. And it was a pleasure to watch them floating by while our leisurely felucca took its course to the Elephantine Island – where Aswan museum and Nubian village awaited us.

Nubian Village
There, in Aswan museum, we’ve "met" mummies for the first time (we kind of got used to them by the end of our journey, as there are plenty of such things everywhere in Egypt). I didn’t like Aswan museum much. It was poorly presented, very few artefacts and very annoying guides. But Nubian village was fun. Our captain introduced us to the village chief who then took us on a tour around village. The village is not a museum – people do live there normal life. Although many tourists guides like to bring their groups here. I’d say it was well worth to see. Unbelievably narrow streets, cute little houses, painted in various bright colours – just like a postcard!

The chief invited us into his house and we discovered that most of the houses in Upper Egypt don’t have a roof. (And why you would need one, I wonder, if on the coolest winter day the temperature is about +22C!) Chief told us that they sleep on the roof during the summer, but go indoors in winter (what?! +22 and they think its freezing cold?!). In the end chief attempted to sell to us few Nubian souvenirs – some wooden craft. He was funny, as this was obviously something not completely legal to do and once we eventually pick up a little wooden crocodile, he asked me to put it in my bag, instead of carrying in the open. (Hmmm, I wonder, what would’ve his fellow villagers say, if they find out the pathetic chief-theft?! Lol)

Anyway, overall this day was an unforgettable experience. And thanks to Mustafa we managed to see so much in just one day! After felucca we went to the Nubian museum and liked it very much. I would even compare it with Cairo museum. And while in Cairo the artefacts could be much more valuable, the museum organization in Aswan has been way better!

In the evening we ventured to the local market, which was a bit of fun to walk with all the sellers, so damn nice, greeting us, inviting for a tea, offering bargains…I like to be treated like this – feels like you valuable and favourite customer (well, in a sense, you are indeed ;-) ) Try to walk into department store in Oxford and see if anyone notices you there! Better yet – ask for a bargain and start haggling. See what happens ;-)