So today is my travel day. Needless to say, it has been a really, really long day. I woke up at around 10am pacific time and spent the morning packing while watching the end of the Hunt for the Red October. After lunch my dad and I ran out to the store to buy a few last minute items (med kit, etc). After throwing in the last few items it was off to the airport.
My first leg of the flight was from San Jose to Phoenix where I had a family of four sitting behind me in three seats. The mother and the 2 or 3 year old son where directly behind me and I got the brunt of his kicking and screaming in the small of my back. This went on for two hours… None-the-less I got some Arabic studying in and read some in the Science fiction book I am reading, Earth by Isaac Assimov.
The next part of the trip was the long one. Nine hours from Phoenix to London Heathrow. The Flight wasn’t very crowded so I had an entire row to myself. There was a French school trip sharing the plane with me. A good group of people. Sang and kept the rest of us entertained throughout a good portion of the flight. A good selection of in-flight movies to keep myself preoccupied. I watched X-Men Origins, I Love You Man, and Monsters vs Aliens. Tried to sleep as well but woke up after an hour and did some reading instead.
Once in Heathrow I had to go through security again and got chosen to be the random bag and body check. Got frisked by a 60 year old guy…. Anywho I spent the next four hours waiting for the last leg of my journey. Tried to sleep but was to worried I’d miss the plane.
Heathrow to Cairo was a four and a half hour flight. I sat next to an Egyptian business man and talked about Cairo and Ramadan with him. Also saw Star Trek. Still good after seeing it three times.. Took another short nap.
Finally, after what seemed like forever I arrived in Cairo at 11:45 PM local time. Stepping off the plane brought me into another world. As an American in Cairo I felt like I was being thrown to the wolves. Egyptians love Americans…. Because they are gullible and/or have money. This isn’t to say that they aren’t nice but many will try to take advantage of the fact you are foreign. I payed for my visa and went to pick up my bags where I was assaulted by 10-15 cab/limo drivers who wanted to be the ones driving me to my hotel.
As tired as I was I decided to give in and take the offer and get it out of the way. I payed 15 American dollars for a ride to my hotel located near downtown. I feel this was probably a bit expensive however I was too exhausted to argue. I got in the taxi and got ready for the ride of my life. Drivers, especially taxi drivers are insane in Egypt. There are no lanes and nobody follows the traffic rules. The rules of the road seemed to be honk allot and drive as fast as possible. It actually reminded me of walking through the halls at Valley during high school. Very crowded with lots of pushing.
After a few stops to ask the locals for directions the driver found my hotel and dropped me off. I was able to find my way inside and Evan was waiting near the front desk. The hostel is small but has all the necessary accommodations. Additionally the staff seems very friendly. The manager’s name is Mohamed and was very warm and helpful upon my arrival.
Once my bags where in the room Evan and I went out and hit the streets. Evan showed me around the immediate vicinity and we stopped at one of the local shops to get some of the fruit juice. It was amazing. We tried the Mango juice which is really think, and very fresh. I have no better way of describing it then to say it reminded me of a smoothie but better. After walking around for awhile we returned to the hostel at around 2:30. I took a cold shower which felt wonderful given the outside temperature of 71. After my shower I got my first real sleep in 32 hours.
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