Date of Visit: May 2016
Karl Pilkington is partly to blame for my travel habit. Watching him wander around the world in An Idiot Abroad – the Great Wall, Tokyo, the Pyramids – I found myself quietly building a checklist of my own. And bit by bit, I’ve been ticking them off.
Seeing the Pyramids in real life was wild. Massive, surreal, and a bit intimidating when you’re actually inside one – those steep climbs aren’t a joke. I saw the Sphinx up close, visited my first mosque, and the architecture across Cairo was something else. But honestly? The markets were my favourite part. The noise, the movement, the energy… exactly like the films, just real this time.
It was also my first time in a Muslim-majority country, and I don’t think I’d ever felt more welcomed. People called me “brother”, invited me in, offered tea – yeah, some of it is sales patter, but the warmth felt genuine underneath. It stayed with me.
And then Alexandria – the city named by and after Alexander the Great. Beautiful in its own way. More great architecture, a different pace, and worth the trip if you’re ever nearby.
An amazing experience. Glad I went.
