Egypt by Mo: Welcome to Cairo! New friends, strange places, where to now?

Wow! Longest days of travel ever. I left Albuquerque to Atlanta at 8:20am on July 3rd and after Atlanta it was on to New York for the last dose of the United States I would have for a month. I left NY at 11pm on the same day, and from there it was a non-stop 11 hour flight to Cairo. Surprisingly as long as that flight seems, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. After eating a late dinner on the plane at about 12am NY time, watching a bad movie (17 Again, don’t recommend it), reading a bit before falling asleep, I awoke to the announcement that we were about an hour outside of Cairo. They fed us one last meal on the plane at 4pm Cairo time, which they called breakfast to really confuse my already messed up body clock and we landed on the dusty runway on July 4th at 5pm. Cairo is 9 hours ahead of Albuquerque (MDT).

I found out quick that lines don’t really exist when trying to get through customs. It was crazy, but not so much from the crowd, more so from the lack of direction I got from the flight crew to anyone else in the airport. I did however have some good advice, thanks Andrew (more on him later) prior to arrival and it was spot on and made it much easier to navigate. So, I just followed the rest of the “cattle” and got my visa, some Egyptian Pounds (money), and luggage and I was on my way after about an hour to try and find my ride.

My ride Amhed, guide and now friend, is cousin to Andrew who I mentioned above. Andrew works with my uncle in Tampa, FL and has advised me and answered a lot of my questions the last couple days while in the States as well as set me up with his cousins in Cairo. I am thankful to both of these guys for making my transition very easy, welcoming and feeling safe throughout arriving at my destination.

Many of you have asked where I will be staying, and in true, last minute planning fashion the answer to that was unknown upon arriving in Cairo. I had an idea, but after multiple emails not being returned by the hotel and a possibility of getting an apartment, there was nothing set in stone, so when Ahmed picked me up all I had was an address to the hotel and we were on our way.

If you have ever been to Mexico City, Manhattan, or probably any other massively populated, condensed metro area you have probably seen bad traffic where not all rules apply and there is really no need for signage or lanes in the street, however this place puts the afore mentioned places to shame! There was people walking in the streets dodging traffic while cars where whizzing by at 30mph. Horns were steadily honking and three lane streets were about five cars wide. There were a couple times when I could have reached in to the car next to me and put my arm around the driver in the next car. I’ve never been to a NASCAR event and we were not going that fast, but there was definitely some bumping and rubbing going on from both cars and peoples body parts as we drove on.

Finally, after stopping a couple times to ask for directions we just picked up a police officer off the street and let him ride in the back of car like a human GPS. Very efficient tool because a couple of turns and we rolled up on the hotel to see if I really did have a reservations.

Well I didn’t have reservations, and I guess they never received any of my emails, but not a problem. The New Garden Palace was very accommodating and actually writing this post now the morning after I have yet to pay or negotiate a rate for my room, so that will be an experience today, but like everything else besides the traffic it’s a pretty relaxed atmosphere. Getting back to the action Ahmed and I inspected the room and off we were to experience the culture and my first night.

Till next time,
Mike

P.S. Sincere special thanks to all my friends who kept me up until about 4am the morning I was suppose to leave, you know who you are, it helped me sleep pretty much the whole time on all three flights.

P.S.S. Still figuring this blog stuff out so thats the reason the pictures are in a long string.