Day 1 Egypt Travel Day Istanbul to Cairo

Sunday March 20^th

I was up at 5:15 to eat my rice pudding and grapefruit breakfast and finish packing. Down to the lobby for a 6:00 am pickup, but it came and went apparently without coming into the hotel to get me. So, my hotel called a cab for me and charged it the company that was supposed to pick me up. The drive to the airport was about forty minutes along mostly deserted early morning streets.

The flight was about half full and uneventful. It was another cloudy drizzly day, so visibility was zero from up in the air. Arrived in Cairo by 1:00 after a two hour flight. Getting the visa was no problem, $15, but I can't change the last of my Turkish money, about $35. I was met at the airport by an Intrepid representative and we had to wait for a half hour for the company van to come and collect us.

I had a good talk with the rep. We talked about the vote yesterday on the constitution changes and about the strife between Christians and Muslims after the Christian church was burned. He thinks it's going to get much worse. He also told me he is Christian and showed me two small cross tattoos he has on his right hand. I think he was telling me that all Christians have to have them! I'm going to check into that, because that is scary.

When the van did arrive we were teamed up with another teacher from Vancouver who is starting a different Intrepid trip and staying at a different hotel. Nice guy and we had a good talk about travel for the hour long ride to our hotels. He is very jealous of the 4 over 5 plan I am on, as his board doesn't offer it.

Arrived at the hotel and they told me there was a man there this morning who was trying to give me a package but wouldn't leave it to anyone else. Of course my new hat!! Had the hotel call him back and he is going to bring it round at 7:00. If you remember I lost the hat that Ken, Dorothy and my Toronto friends gave me as a send off at the beginning of my trip. Unfortunately it blew off my head in Cappadocia. Ken heard about it, knows how much I appreciated and how much I wore it, and offered to get me another. He bought it in Toronto and had it delivered to my hotel here in Cairo! Thank you very much Ken and Dorothy. I will get you a picture of me wearing it in front of the pyramids tomorrow.

This city is enormous, 23 million, congested, noisy, and dirty. Doesn't help that it is a grey overcast day, but it certainly is not attractive. After checking into my room, (I'm on the eighth floor and have a Nile River view, from a very old tired hotel), I went for a short walk to see the Nile up close and to buy some water. Three things happened in fairly quick succession. I got to a roundabout and when traffic stopped a man got out of his driver's seat and came across the road and put some money into an old hunched over woman who was walking down the street. She looked taken aback but kept it. Then as I was trying to figure that out, an older man walked up to the same roundabout and just keeled over. His things fell on the ground and he lay sprawled on the sidewalk with his head at an awkward angle on the road. I honestly thought he'd died. He lay there for a bit before a crowd gathered and sat him up, but couldn't revive him. Then a lady came over and sprayed him in the face with some perfumed thing. That woke him up, and he seemed totally confused. After watching that for a bit I continued walking. I was met by a man who started talking to me and asking where I was from, my name, how I liked Cairo, all that stuff. He showed me a couple of shops in the area where I could buy water or fruit and then told me to follow him so he could show me a market. I hate this shit and I'm suspicious as hell, but he seemed really nice and told me he'd lived in Montreal for a bit. Anyway, you guessed it, he led me to his “market” where he wanted to show me his art. I told him I wasn't buying anything but I looked at his stuff. He became more insistent and trying to pressure me, so I decided to clear out, and had to push past him to get out the door. Welcome to Cairo.

As I am typing this on my eighth floor balcony I just watched a rowing team go down the Nile. Two two man skulls and an eight man one. Not exactly dragon boats because they are rowing not paddling. I hope you know the difference Carol, or you'll be going the wrong way!

When I came back from my walk, the delivery guy had come early and dropped off my hat (so much for only giving it to me!). So, thanks Ken, I now have a new lid. Very much appreciated!

At 6:00 we had our group meeting. The group consists of Sam (Hossam) our Egyptian guide, two English sisters, Clara (a dentist) and Sara (a dietician) and me. Means I get my own room for the whole tour! Sam gave us the talk about responsible tourism, the itinerary and some info on the revolution.

Then we went our for dinner. I had a special kind of pizza that Sam recommended. It's got a thin pastry on the top and bottom, kind of a pizza pie. Very good. Then I went to the internet cafe, because there is no wi-fi here. Then to bed to get ready to see the pyramids tomorrow!