My conference ended at noon on Friday. After, we packed up, checked out and hopped in the car to drive 350 miles to Los Angeles to attend Emily & Tim's rehearsal dinner!
I actually think Hampton Inn is THE JAM. Check out the situation in the breakfast nook in the morning: They have a fridge filled with microwavable baggies with numbers on them.
The contents of the numbered bags correspond to the food items in these numbered pictures! Just throw a bag in the microwave, press the button on the microwave that corresponds to the number on the bag you selected and- SHAZAM - your breakfast is cooked perfectly a couple seconds later and all it took was the press of a single button. Whoever designed this for them is a genius. For seriously.
A little after 2am I arrived back at my hotel room and I was so tired I could barely walk! I hit the bed and hoped I wouldn't be too sick the next day to enjoy my last day in Egypt!
After I'd finished eating, I ended up getting a small room at a hostel that catered to (mostly) Australian divers called Auski Camp. This place was awesome! I had a great private room, comfy bed and shared toilet and shower for 30 EP (around $5.40 USD) a night! If you're looking for an clean, inexpensive place to stay in Dahab, I highly recommend them!
Five and half BUMPY hours later, I arrived in Hurghada and got a taxi to take me to one of the few hotels listed in my book that looked like it'd still be open - a place called Al Arosa. I checked in a little after 1am, got a decent room that was WAY overpriced (100 EP!). Here's my best "Get a load of THIS room" face. You can tell the room is totally embarrassed by me calling it out.
Check out the atmosphere in the hotel dining room! I felt like a character in a Mahfouz novel as I sat at my quaint, colonial table for one and tried to figure a plan for the next day or two.
I decided to hire a car for the day, and drive outside of Cairo to visit three different sites: Saqqara, home of the oldest stone monument in human history; Dahshur, home to Snofru's Red Pyramid and Snofru's Bent Pyramid (I swear I'm not even making guy's name up!) and (ancient Egyptian city of) Memphis, home to the Colossus of Ramses II!
