In March 2018 I got on a plane to Budapest and had booked a room at the famouse Gellért Hotel and Spa. I was a bit surprised that the hotel was as run- down as it was and was expecting something more spectacullare, but the location of Gellért was perfect and the staff was really good. I used the spa when I was there and had a great full body massage and pedicure (super cheap!), I really recommend a visit to the spa, the surroundings are great! 

Gellért Hotel and Spa Surprisingly enough I had a friend (with more friends) visiting Budapest at the same time and I was able to hang with them during the evenings. We had some great meals out in Budapest and it was really cheap to eat and drink in the city. Really recomment Mazel Tov and Kárpátia Étterem és Söröző. Budapest was incredibly beautiful and if you like history and architechture, it’s the perfect place to go. I was mesmorized by all the wonderful buildings and bridges in the city and I took a city tour to get more information about the area and the history of Budapest. 

Liberty Bridge Szentendre and Esztergom When in Budapest I wanted to explore more of the Hungaryan country and went on a day trip to Szentendre and Esztergom. The day trip also entitled a short visit to Storovo in Slovakia.  The city of Szentendre is an artist city with a lot of crealive minds and the city was super cute and there was so many things to look at. I really recommend a visit in this village if you have the opportunity while in the area. 

I have been writing so much about the Medina, but what is a Medina? A medina quarter ”the old city” is a distinct city section found in a number of North African and Maltese cities. A medina is typically walled, with many narrow and maze-like streets.  The word “Medina” itself simply means “city” or “town” in modern-day Arabic.

Medina quarters often contain historical fountains, palaces, mosques and sometimes churches. Because of the very narrow streets, medinas are generally free from car traffic. The streets can be less than a metre wide. This makes them unique among highly populated urban centres. In 1985 the Medina of Marrakech was declared a UNESCO World Meritage site.

Before I booked my trip I had decided that I wanted to stay at a Riad and so I did. I stayed at Riad Sable Chaud, that was really beautiful and a real traditional Riad. But what is a Riad? A riad is a traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard often situated in the Medina. The Riad is the Moroccan traditional house, normally with two or more storeys around an Andalusian-style courtyard that contained a fountain. Riads were the stately city homes of the wealthiest citizens such as merchants and courtiers.

The sunrise from the roof of my Riad. 

From inside the Riad I was staying at.  

Marrakech (French spelling) or Marrakesh is the fourth largest city in Morocco around one million inhabitants. The region around Marrakech has been inhabited by Berber farmers since a couple of thousand years BC, but the actual city was founded in 1062. In the 12th century, the Almoravids built many madrasas, which is Koranic schools and mosques in Marrakech. The red walls of the city, built in 1122–1123, and various buildings constructed in red sandstone during this period, have given the city the nickname of the ”Red City” or ”Ochre City”.

 The first day I had planned to meet up a local named Sarah to experience Marrakech. I had this booked by a local agency, so it wasn’t just a random person. I’m very happy I booked this, because finding my way through the Marrakech Medina is really a challenge. I’m glad I wasn’t walking around by myself and I could actually enjoy the surroundings, since I had Sarah showing me the way. I got to walk around in the narrow streets of the Medina and experience all the colors and smells of the city.

 We visited the Koutoubia Mosque built during 1184- 1199, it has a great garden surrounding the mosque and if you look to the east you can see the Atlas Mountains rise. The mosque is situated very close to the Jemaa El Fna souk, one of 18 souks in Marrakech and the main square of the city. In this square you can find everything between heaven and earth and especially during nighttime it lives up even more. Something I had heard before my trip was to avoid the snake charmers, which are really persistent and wants you to give them money. Me and Sarah stopped at one of the juice stands and took a juice in the warm afternoon instead of charming snakes.

 Look at the Atlas Mountains in the background!

We then took a walk to Mellah, which is the old Jewish quarter in Marrakech, the home of the main spice market and gold souks.

Sarah in Mellah 

Just me having a juice in the middle of Jemaa El Fna souk. 

Me and Sarah infront of Koutoubia Mosque.

The Giza pyramid complex

The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops) constructed c. 2580–2560 BC, is the oldest and largest of the pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex. It is the oldest of the Seven wonders of the Ancient World and the only one to remain largely intact. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3 800 years. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface, which you can still see around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid’s construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. That’s what I call work!

The main part of the Giza complex is a setting of pyramids that include two mortuary temples in honour of Khufu, three smaller pyramids for Khufu’s wives, an even smaller ”satellite” pyramid and a small mastaba tomb surrounding the pyramid for nobles. In total, there are 9 pyramids in this area. To get a good view of all of the nine pyramids, we took a horse carriage to the panorama point where I shot some nice pictures of the area. From this angle, you could also see how close the area is to Cairo, with houses sticking up behind. Quite remarkable driving out of Cairo and all a sudden the pyramids rise from the ground, very spectacular!

It’s really hard to imagine all the man-power it took to build these pyramids in a course of 20 years’ time, the work must have been so tough. The blocks of stone were larger than I had thought before and it was a mighty feeling to be surrounded by these complexes. Standing in front of the pyramid of Cheops, I became my own tourist attraction due to my blonde hair. A girl came up to us asking to touch my hair and to have a photo with me. It ended up with her bringing her whole family joining me in a photo. I was a bit surprised about the fascination of the blonde hair and light skin. I mean, this has happened to me before, but in South east Asia, like 18 years ago. I thought the fascination had cooled off due to the increase of tourists, but I was wrong. I became the mid-point of many gazing eyes and photographs on my trip to Egypt.  

The Great Sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a laying sphinx, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. It measures 73 m long from paw to tail, 20.21 m high from the base to the top of the head and 19 m wide at its rear hips. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the Pharaoh Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BC). 

It’s a remarkable structure and an impressive backdrop with the pyramids. You wonder what happened to the nose, but the scientists aren’t in agreement of the history of the nose. 

The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, is an ancient funerary shrine close to Luxor. Built for the 18^th dynasty Pharaoh Hatshepsut, it is located beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari, near the Valley of the Kings. It’s considered one of the ”incomparable monuments of ancient Egypt”. The Polish Academy of Science is responsible for the study and restoration of the three levels of the temple and they have a building close by where they work. 

The relief sculpture within Hatshepsut’s temple recites the tale of the divine birth of a female pharaoh – the first of its kind. Unfortunately, many of the statues and ornamentation have been stolen or destroyed, the temple once was home to many sculptures of the Queen in different attitudes – standing, sitting, or kneeling. Many of these portraits were destroyed at the order of her stepson Thutmose III after her death.

Hatshepsut lived from 1507 to 1458 BC, she was the fifth pharaoh of the 18^th dynasty of Egypt and the second historically confirmed female pharaoh. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an Egyptian dynasty. She showed persistence in demanding her Godly right to rule as pharaoh even though she was a woman. When in Egypt, she became somewhat of an idol for me and an important person in history claiming the rights of women. 

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display for public. You need an extra ticket to see the mummy room, but otherwise everything else is open for public on a regular ticket. The current museum was built in 1902, placed in the Tahrir Square in the middle of Cairo. There’s a new museum being built in Giza, but the project has been delayed a couple of times and now it’s scheduled to open in May 2018.

The museum has so much impressive content, it’s hard to imagine they have found so much artefacts still intact and in such great shape as they have, it’s remarkable. I bought an extra ticket to be able to photograph in the museum, this was around 100 Egyptian pounds (5 EUR), well worth it! We took a guided tour in the museum, otherwise you can spend a couple of days in the museum. We got shown the most important antiquities, which was really great. The most impressive things we got to see was the burial mask of Tutankhamun and all of the other things found in his intact tomb in Valley of the Kings. 

The burial mask of Tutankhamun

The cow cries when her child starves due to the humans taking her milk