Cairo
We talked about it for months and the day had arrived at last. Leah and I sat in the Etihad travel agency trying to book the best trip at the best price. We settled with a red eye flight – departing at 1am and arriving at 3am, 2 nights in Cairo, and 3 nights in Alexandria. We were a bit nervous; neither of us had ever taken a trip like this before. We would occasionally look at each other and giggle—we couldn’t believe we were actually going to take a real live, grown-up vacation—alone! No parents, no spouses, just us girls, er, I mean ladies.
Sure, we read a little background information about the main sites to visit when in Egypt, but time wouldn’t allow us to hit everything. We really just wanted to see the Great Pyramids of Giza. That was it—only one goal. We didn’t plan for any other tours but that one. We didn’t want our vacation to be rushed packing up here and running there—trying to see all the main sites, waking up at 4am rushing from bus to train ….. We wanted to be able to relax and enjoy the experience. We also wanted to be able to enjoy the Mediterranean. We didn’t know what to expect, but we ended up having a great adventure
Cairo-Day One
I'm sitting on my balcony looking at a not so favorable view of Cairo--unless, that is, I lean over the balcony and get dizzy from vertigo. Then I can see the Nile. The smell and smoke from exhaust and the sounds of cars honking their horns floods the air---short snappy toots and long sustained honks; sounds like a few drivers are even honking a tune. Old Fiats, Mercedes Benzes, motorcycles, and...hey, was that an Opel?
The honking is constant, kind of like the sound of seagulls one would hear on the shore, or geese on a lake. Buses and taxis line the streets and sirens can be heard almost every fifteen minutes. I'm in Cairo, the largest city on the continent of Africa. Yea, I finally made it to Egypt.We arrived around 3am at Cairo airport where we were greeted by a hotel guide waiting for us holding up our names on signs. Monika Maxwell and Leah Foster. There was a small gift shop near the smoking den which had an odd array of merchandise. I noted there were, among the usual souvenirs, dust busters and other small appliances. Strange, I thought. The men were staring at us so intently, I think because Leah has long sandy hair--a rarity in the Arab world-- and I've been told I look like an Arab and I was not covered, so I assume that this was some cause for concern.
We had to wait until 8am before we could check into our hotel room. We're at the Semiramis Intercontinental which is located across the street from the Nile River. We waited around in the lobby for hours, unable to fall asleep because we were so pumped about being in Egypt--one of the top ten places I have always wanted to visit ( I can check that off my bucket list). We were finally both able to take intermittent cat naps. Once we got checked in we went to our room, we were excited to find that we had a balcony with two chairs and a table. The view, however, as previously noted, was somewhat of a let-down. The buildings in our area are very old and some of the rooftops look like rubble after a bombing. Still—it was new and different and electrifying. Cairo truly is a city that never sleeps.
After we got settled in we went back downstairs to have breakfast. What an amazing buffet. Sweet breads from various countries--croissant, German Stollen, English fruit bread, fresh French bread, wheat rolls, toast (but no biscuits), cheeses, lunch meats, fruits-figs, apricots, oranges-peeled and sliced, melons, falafel, chicken sausages, beef balls, roasted tomatoes, homemade yogurts, and a knockout omelet bar. We sat near the window overlooking the Nile and ate, drank good coffee, sipped fresh orange juice and laughed and laughed and laughed. You know, the kind of laughing you do when you're so tired that everything tickles your funny bone. And, we were also giddy about the idea of just being here. We joked about the fact that all the servers here are men--tall, dark, handsome men--some of them with such strong Egyptian features that they looked like they just walked off an ancient wall of hieroglyphics.
The hotel was decorated for Christmas. There was garland hanging from the stairways, poinsettias positioned here and there, a few small Christmas trees, and one large Christmas tree in the lobby made solely from live poinsettia plants. It was about 40 feet tall and it was spectacular.
After breakfast we decided we would take a relaxing swim and hit the Jacuzzi. Mmmmmm. The pool was beautiful and surrounded by palm trees and loungers with large fresh towels awaiting us. There was an attendant when we entered the pool area who told us that the pool was heated. When I dipped my foot in to check the temperature, it felt like bath water. Warm and inviting. The deep end was 8 feet, so I dived in. I swam a few laps and we tried touching the bottom. We floated. We talked. We laughed. We moaned. It was so relaxing. When we had our fill we left and went to the jacuzzi. The jacuzzi “room” had a very large jacuzzi and a plunge pool, along with a sauna and steam room, showers and changing rooms. It was exquisite. We sat in the hot tub for as long as we could take it—it was extremely hot. Then we jumped into the plunge pool—it was freezing! Leah jumped in once, but I hit that sucker three times. It was exhilarating. We rinsed off and headed back to our rooms.
We were on the 11th floor and we had three security guards—one by the elevator in the middle of the floor and one on each end. We felt pretty safe and thought it was like this on every floor. While we were walking to our room we saw coming in towards us a group of men, some of them in military uniforms, others in suits, and one or two in traditional dress. We figured they were dignitaries of some sort. They had a room a few doors down from ours. We later learned that the 11th and 12th floors were designated for VIP. Cool. We’re VIP
We took a nap, got dressed and headed for dinner. By this time it was already 9pm. We had seen
a billboard sign for the Hard Rock Café, so we asked the concierge how to get there. Since we didn’t want to get lost on our first night in Cairo, we took a taxi. When we arrived, there were very few people there, but the atmosphere was classic Hard Rock Café: guitars and other memorabilia covered the walls. We ordered a large plate of fries with ketchup and mayonnaise (it was too late to eat anything too heavy). They were yummy. Then the people started piling in. They start late here in Cairo. Our waiter told us that once the music starts people will start arriving and dance until 5am. A large screen slowly lowered on the dance floor and the DJ started to play some house music, so we decided to stay and dance a bit, but we didn’t stick around till 5am. We couldn’t hang. We danced with each other mostly. Leah could have danced all night, but I was beginning to tire, so we headed out and grabbed a taxi. The driver told us it would cost us 50 Egyptian pounds to get us back to our hotel—which was only 2 blocks away. “What? It only took us 12 pounds to get here.” We scoffed at him and started to get out of the taxi --hoping he would stop us and offer a more reasonable price, but he didn’t. We were committed then, so we hopped on out of the taxi and started to walk towards the street. We grabbed another taxi once we got the main road and he got us safely and cheaply back to our hotel. We settled in for the night, checking emails and facebook, and then we were lulled to sleep by the sounds of honks, sirens, and an occasional barking dog.
This ends our first night in Cairo. There are, of course, other things I can and will write about our experience that day and the days that follow, but they will fall under other headings. Check back in for the chapters on “Security”, “Dude, Where’s My …”, and “You Look Like an Egyptian”.
