COVID-19 Vaccine – What Common Side Effects You Can Feel | Pfizer Covid Vaccine Side Effects

What are some common side effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Covid vaccine?

I just received my first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday on May 08, 2021. I was not sure what to expect, as different people react to any kind of vaccine differently.  

Disclosure: This article represents my personal experiences and yours may be very different. I am not a medical professional. This is not a suggestion or recommendation for any products or anything else. I am only sharing my own experiences. If you have any questions or concerns, please consult your own physician.

The whole process was seamless and pleasant. I would like to thank the City of Toronto and the Ministry of Health for the good job they did.  My appointment was at 7:00 PM and I was done in 10 minutes. After that, I had to stay for 15 minutes in case some reactions appeared.

The nurse was really good, as I didn’t feel the needle and it was fast. I thanked her for her good work. I came home walking and even picked up a Tim Horton’s coffee on my way.

Later at night, I started feeling tired. I was on the Toronto Island for my Project Soundscapes video recording, so I was not even sure if I felt tired because I was outdoors all day or from the vaccine.

I slept well at night. In the morning, I felt slight pain at the injection spot on my left arm. There was a pain if I tried to lift my arm, but it was very negligible. I also had a coarse voice with fever and runny nose. However, the slight fever was on and off throughout the day. I also felt tired on and off.

Overall, the effects were not bad at all. They didn’t stop me doing my regular activities and there was nothing on the heavy side. My 2nd dose is scheduled for August and I’m looking forward to completing it.

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Exploring the Temple of Luxor| Where the God Amon Experienced Rebirth

After leaving the Karnak Temple, we headed to the Luxor Temple, which was a mile south. In ancient days, Karnak and Luxor temple were joined by an avenue. There were two rows of sphinxes, who had human heads, guarding both sides of the avenues. To this day, this avenue has survived and is visible outside the entrance of the Luxor Temple.

Located in the heart of Luxor, the Luxor Temple was built over 100s of years by the New Kingdom pharaohs Amenhotep III, Ramses II, Tutankhamun, and other pharaohs.

Known as “the place of the First Occasion,” this is where, during the pharaoh’s annually re-enacted coronation ceremony, the god Amon experienced rebirth.

The vast Luxor Temple complex has a colossal Great Colonnade Hall, which is 61 meters long, with 28 twenty-one-foot-high columns. You will see thousands of sandstone fragments with carved and painted details of hieroglyphic texts and temple ritual scenes. Lots of the statuary and carvings you would see feature Ramses II.

The gigantic statues and columns were so big and high that I felt tiny when I was taking pictures standing next to them. The first huge 24m-high Ramses II pylon had reliefs of his military exploits on it. This pylon originally had six (four sitting and two standing) colossal statues of Ramses II. But to this day, only two of the seated figures and one standing figure remain.

Some striking anomalies can be seen in the complex. The temple’s hypostyle hall was converted into a Christian church, and then a Coptic church during the Christian era. Then after thousands of years, a 14th century mosque of Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj was built on the southern wall. To this day, this mosque is carefully preserved and active for praying. There is an entrance leading to the mosque from outside, without entering through the main temple complex.

This was the first time we visited a temple at night. I guessed the tour company arranged to visit at night because of Luxor Temple’s famous night spectacles when the lights lit up. Starting from the sunset till when it’s all dark, the Luxor Temple turned into an eerie spectacle of shadows and lights playing off the reliefs, colonnades, gigantic statues and the whole complex. I had no regrets that I didn’t visit this place in the daytime.

From here, we would go back to our Lotus Luxor hotel and then go out for dinner.

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Exploring the Temples of Karnak | The Largest Religious Building Ever Constructed on Earth

After leaving the Lotus Luxor hotel, we drove through Aswan city to reach the Karnak Temple complex. The first thing you notice at the complex is that it is simply huge. Karnak Temple, so far, was the most grand ancient temple we had seen in Egypt.

Located on the east bank of the Nile River in Luxor and covering 200 acres or 1.5X0.8 km, Karnak Temple is the largest religious building ever constructed on Earth. It is a huge, complicated site with four courtyards, ten pylons, many buildings, and a sacred lake.

Construction started 4,000 years ago and continued until 2,000 years ago when the Romans took over Egypt. Each Egyptian ruler left his own architectural mark by adding a new piece to the temple.

Karnak Temple has three main sacred areas honouring three gods. The central part taking the largest space of the temple is dedicated to Amun-Ra, the chief god of Thebes. Then there is one part for the goddess Mut, wife of Amun and another section for Montu, an ancient local warrior god.

The Great Temple of Amun is Karnak's main temple building, where most visitors spend the most time. Colossal columns, mammoth statues, and oversized stonework covered in a dizzying amount of intricate carvings are just a few of the things that make the Great Temple of Amun the world's most stunning man-made structure.

I can’t describe the full complex, it would be like writing a book, so in very brief here are some of the sections you will find in The Great Temple of Amun. Each section is like a separate building and has its own awe-inspiring elements.

- First Pylon
- Great Court
- Temple of Ramses III
- Second Pylon
- The Great Hypostyle Hall and the Triumphal Inscription
- Third Pylon
- Central Court
- Fourth Pylon
- Fifth and Sixth Pylon
- First Hall of Records
- Court
- Second Hall of Records
- Great Festival Temple of Tuthmosis III
- Botanic Garden
- Seventh Pylon
- Eighth Pylon

Beyond the main temple building of The Great Temple of Amun, there are other sections, each one a separate temple or entity in the complex.

Northern Section from the main Great Temple of Amun

- Kiosk of Sesostris
- Temple of Ptah
- Temple of Montu

Eastern Section from the main Great Temple of Amun

- Temple of Ramses II
- Temple of Osiris
- East Gate

Southern Section from the main Great Temple of Amun

- Sacred Lake
- Temple of Khonsu
- Temple of Osiris and Opet
- Temple of Mut

If we had to see the full complex A to Z, I believe we would require 1-3 days at a slow pace. We completed our tour in only 1:30 to 2 hours, so it had to be fast. We concentrated mainly on the main temple building and had a glimpse of the rest.

From here, we would go to the Luxor Temple, which offers spectacular night views.

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After leaving the Temple of Edfu, we drove through the local markets, along the rail tracks, mountains, and then the Nile to reach our hotel. I saw lots of ruins of half-constructed homes and totally abandoned homes along the way. This area was also close the mountains.

The Lotus Luxor hotel seemed to be very old. The building was a 6-7 storey building with 58 guest rooms. Its lobby was dark and unimpressive. However, the hotel had the advantage of offering a breathtaking view. If you pass the lobby and go through the glass door, there was a big open lounge facing the mountain range over the swimming pools and then the Nile.

The 2 outdoor pools looked like they were sitting right next to the Nile with the views they offered. The open lounge was on the first floor. The ground floor had nice sitting areas in the garden and next to the pools.

My room was a basic double bed room. There was a chair and a small TV on the wall. It was nothing to be excited about. The only feature of my room I liked a lot was the balcony.

The balcony was small. Half of its view was blocked by the wall, but the other half offered a view of the swimming pool area down below, overlooking the Nile and the mountains.

After my shower, I took pictures and videos of the hotel complex. I visited the balcony many times during my stay.

We would leave before evening to see the Karnak Temple and then the Luxor Temple.

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The Temple of Edfu | The Best-Preserved Ancient Egyptian Sanctuary

After leaving the tent café we drove for a while, cutting through local markets in Edfu. Once we reached the temple complex, I saw lots of street vendors before entering the temple. The vendors were loud, trying to sell their merchandise to tourists, so we had to maneuver to pass through.

The Temple of Horus at Edfu was built during the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 BC and 57 BC and is possibly the best preserved of the Ancient Egyptian structures. This is due to the fact that it was buried under almost 40 feet (12 metres) of desert sand for almost 200 years. The silt from the Nile probably helped to conserve to its near-perfect form.

The Temple of Horus was dedicated to Horus, the falcon-headed sky god. Horus was considered the protector of the pharaohs.

The temple of Edfu complex was huge. The first thing you see is the grand temple entrance gate. You will see stone reliefs on both sides of the symmetrical gate praising the Ptolemy King Neos Dionysos and stone sentinels of the falcon-headed god Horus watching over the Great Pylon.

Once you pass the gate, you face a colossal courtyard surrounded by 32 towering columns on three sides. The whole temple is like a book opening up in front of you chapter by chapter.

The columns and stone walls are richly decorated with floral and palm capitals, reliefs picturing the gods Horus and his wife Hathor.

The inner temples have 12 columns topped with elaborate floral capitals. After that, there is a doorway leading to the Hypostyle Hall. The roof of this hall is supported by 12 columns and there are two small chambers leading to the inner passage around the temple.

There were also two antechambers and then the Room of God. This is where the gold cult statue of Horus once stood upon a granite shrine. The wooden barque that used to carry the statue during festivals at present day is a replica of the original. It kind of looked like a canoe made of gold. The original wooden barque is now on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

From here, we would go to the Lotus Hotel in Luxor.