If you drink from the Nile, then you'll have to return

In truth, the Nile is highly polluted and if you drink from it, you'll get very sick. Nonetheless, potential travelers to Egypt should not be put off by the advisory not to drink the water (though drink the water they definitely should not).

The Egypt trip was one of those truly last-minute adventures. A friend called on Thursday afternoon, claiming to want to travel before starting a new job in a week and a half. Essentially, that meant that from the first talk of the trip to the time that we got on the bus from our city to Cairo, only about three days passed. We were on the bus by 10 AM on Sunday. It's a $15 trip, 14 hours across some of the most boring strip of desert that you can imagine. South-central Sinai isn't so interesting, it turns out and you pass none of the interesting landmarks such as St. Catherine's Monastery.

Nonetheless, apart from the dull trips back and forth, Egypt itself is an experience that I recommend to anyone with a healthy interest in history. Whether it's a visit to the Pyramids or the Egyptian Museum (or, ideally, both) or a slow evening smoking shisha (which is just flavored tobacco, nothing more) out on the Nile, Egypt is an incredibly fun place to visit.

On top of that, Cairo is one of the most modern, urban, and international cities that I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Almost every American brand I remember from childhood is there - McDonalds, KFC, Gold's Gym, T.G.I Friday's, Chili's...if you can name it, it's probably there. This makes Cairo a very interesting cross between what one might call "traditional" and "modern." These, of course, are imperfect terms, but I use them for lack of more appropriate ones.