Katie and Kyle Kuric Updates from Their Trip to Egypt
May 19, 2010 | Men's Basketball
May 19, 2010
Photo Gallery - Katie and Kyle Kuric in Eqypt in 2010
Louisville women's soccer goalkeeper Katie Kuric and her brother, Kyle Kuric of the Cardinals' men's basketball team, are visiting Egypt this month and Katie will be providing updates from the trip here at UofLSports.com. Check back daily for news and notes from their experiences.
Ahlen (hello) from Cairo Egypt!
My brother, Kyle, and I arrived in Cairo on May 14 after some pretty long flights. We unfortunately got here one day later than we were supposed to because our flight from Louisville was cancelled, but the good thing is we got here! Kyle and I are staying with some good friends over here, Ahmed and Sara Awadallah and their amazing mother Amira. After landing and seeing the city, we both are very glad to be here with people who know the city and speak the language otherwise we'd be completely confused and probably wouldn't get to see the city in a way that not many people get to.
My first impression of the city was HOT, busy and a lot of people. Cairo is a very large city with a population of around 18 million - that's a lot of people! On our ride to Sara and Ahmed's house, we learned an invaluable lesson that has been constant since that day; there are NO rules on the road. Yes there are lanes painted on the road, but they mean nothing, and turn signals aren't even a thought. I even recently saw a car backing up on the highway - It was nuts! Many people, including me, believe this city looks a bit aged, but I think it should considering it is one of the oldest cities in the world established in 3100 B.C. In my opinion, that's part of the selling point for Egypt. Not many other places in the world can claim the type of history that they can.
The first whole day, Saturday, was a very busy one. We visited The Carnivale, which is a dessert shop, because Sara claims that the U.S. can't make desserts compared to Egyptians and while I don't think I can wholeheartedly agree, they definitely had some good stuff. After that, we visited Al Hossain, a historic Mosque surrounded by many merchant shops. It smelled of roasted kabobs and spices and was very busy and active. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed because the merchants are everywhere constantly talking to you and trying to sell you their wares, but Sara told me I wasn't allowed to talk to them or even smile at them because she would bargain for me. :-) After a bit of exploring, we went into a shop, they had some really great items that I can't wait to show everyone back home! Once we were done, we went to eat with one of Sara's friends, Michael, on a boat called the Blue Nile ON the Nile River, where we ate at Asia Bar, which was a very nice place! It was amazing to me that we not only saw the Nile, but actually ate on it because the Nile is the reason Egypt was founded where it was and was the backbone of the work it made throughout history, including the pyramids.
Unfortunately, we haven't adjusted very well to the different time zone here because we keep waking up around 3 p.m, which is 8 a.m. back home. We're going to have to fix that soon if we want to go see the pyramids and Cairo museum during the day. So after waking up at 3 p.m., on Sunday, we went to the gym which was very crowded and busy. It was located on the top floor of the building with the pool on the roof. The view from it was absolutely gorgeous. After working out, we cleaned up, picked up Kyle and Ahmed and went to the pyramids for the sound and light show. We saw the pyramids and the sphinx!! Once I saw them, it kind of hit me that I was actually in Egypt; weird maybe since we'd been in Egypt for a few days but to me the pyramids are a big part of Egypt and made me realize I'm actually looking at one of the wonders of the world! They were amazing to look at and a privilege to see a piece of history that had survived thousands of years and had been a central piece of life and death to their culture. After the sound and light, show we drove back into town to the Nile towers to see Iron Man II. During the movie, there was a 15 minute break in the middle of the movie which I thought was a bit different until Sara explained that it allowed people to get up and grab some refreshments. While in the bathroom, this women came up to me and said to be careful because while she was in the bathroom a man came in and she chased him out with a taser. I almost didn't believe her until she pulled out the taser! I couldn't believe it because I thought you could only get those on the black market, but man she was funny when she pulled it out and started explaining how she used it! After the movie, we went to eat at a place that Sara claims makes her proud to be an Egyptian, Thomas Pizza... she was right, it was pretty good.
On Monday, we just kind of chilled around the house planning the rest of the trip and when we would do the rest of our activities on our Egypt bucket list. I'm not going to tell you all those plans as you'll find out about them soon! That night, we went to this really great Egyptian restaurant called Sequoia down on the Nile. It was in a white tent with all white furnishings and was very nice and looked exactly as I imagined an Egyptian restaurant would look. The food was awesome and it was a great night to relax and just enjoy our surroundings with some amazing people. We've had three pretty great days that I'm very thankful for and can't wait for the next few!
Well that's it for now.
Salem (good bye)!
