Cairo

We finished packing up at the last minute as always. So, we left our little home in Balat at 11am on about 4 hours of sleep. As we walked out of our neighborhood with backpacks on it was sad, surreal, and exciting. We had walked the same streets so many times at this point, we knew the people who we passed, and it had taken quite a bit of time for some of them to treat us as people who lived in the neighborhood and not strange foreigners. If fact some never did accept us so it made it so much more important when people did.

We got to the airport on time and got on the plane. On the plane we both tried to get some sleep so that we would have the energy to navigate once we arrived in Cairo, where we did not have a clue as to where we were going or how to get there.

On the plane we had a wonderful meal; every-time we fly on this side of the world even if for two hours we have received a wonderful meal. It will be hard to return to the states and get just the snacks.

As we got close to the top of Africa, we could see the Nile flood plain, a triangular green outline surrounded by a Sea of water on one side and a Sea of sand (if you will) on the other, each stretching as far and one could see. We flew in lower and lower passing over the city so that we could circle in for the landing. As we passed over the city and approached the desert we could see the Pyramid complex in Giza! Eric and I were glued to the window, looking and the city and its shape and the river Nile and the pyramids. Then, I realized that everyone else in the plane was as well, every window the lenght of the plane had a head or two leaning to look out the window. The whole plane was filled with a feeling that I had never felt in a plane before, flying into a City with one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world looming over it from the edge of the desert. Eric and I, along with some others were a little caught off guard, it was quite an experience.

When we got of the plane we bought our visas, got our stamps, and walked out to be hassled by taxi and shuttle drivers who would take use into town or find us a hotel etc. however, the taxis and shuttles were about 10-12 dollars or 50-60 Egyptian Pounds(EGP). So we asked about the city bus and how to get Downtown. Everyone asked what hotel and we looked at each other and said we don’t know. Then they would ask, which part of downtown and we would smile because again we did not know. We had both read in our research that there were hotels and hostels in downtown Cairo, and somehow we had neglected to find out which part and what bus. Still, slowly we were pointed in the right direction and finally we found someone who spoke enough English that we were put on the right bus headed for the downtown station, and it was only 4 EGP, or $0.71 or $0.36 each!

We rode for about 45 minutes and then got off at the main bus station. As we exited the bus we saw two other tourists with a guide book and we asked them their advice. The pointed in a general direction and told us to look up the buildings as the hotels were not to be found on the first floor. We started walking and after about three blocks we looked over at a building and as we did so a man walked into our view. For one moment we thought he thought we were staring directly at him and we started to explain that we were looking past him. Then he asked us if we were looking for anything in particular, then he offered to show us his hotel (we had just walked past it one block ago but had not seen the sign for it) and so we did. Thus we found our hotel for the first 5 days of our trip.