On the 17th January I flew to Egypt for a month of holidays. I won the trip as the Australian representative in a competition involving more than 100 people from all around the world.
I stayed at the military-owned hotel where the competition took place, and took in the exciting historic sites around.
To get near the wondrous pyramids, I travelled for one hour from the city. Then to actually get to the pyramids themselves I travelled by horse through the Sahara Desert.
Cairo is a great city with lots of people. There are good shopping centres called Ruksi, Ataba and Huseniya and a large number of mosques.
The competition involved reciting passages from the Koran (the holy book of Islam) and went for only six days. After I won a prize of $US300, I went to stay with my cousin. He lives in Aashir, a new suburb of Cairo. Most of Cairo's buildings are apartments.
I came back from Cairo on 19th February. I wished I could have stayed longer, but I had to return to Banksia.
Hassan Abdullahi 10B
Star Students