Travelling

Sunday, August 20th –

We finished packing/organizing/moving our stuff in the house – thanks to Pat, we managed to keep our king size mattress in storage. Jack and I had “disagreed” frequently about this. I won. 🙂

We had an outstanding dinner at one our favorite restaurants – Harvest Vine. Many plates of tapas (Sardine fillets, stuffed piquillo peppers with salt cod, calamari with squid ink icecream [YES, icecream], chorizo, and the most OUTSTANDING venison) a lovely bottle of the wine that we drank during our wedding ceremony and espresso. What a delightful way to end our Seattle life for our Cairo adventure. We went back to the pub for a last drink before going to the airport – it was sad to leave, but a really great send off.

Monday, August 21st

SeaTac airport at 1am is pretty deserted. We drank port from paper cups (thank you Mark Alpen) and waited for the desk to open. Check-in was uneventful, I wish I could say the same for security.

Apparently, having a one-way ticket to Egypt gets one “extra attention” from security. We and our carry-ons got a FULL inspection. After that, however, the flight to Philly was wonderful. As I have said earlier, thanks to my mother we flew to Philly first class, and to Frankfurt in Business/Envoy class. The flight to Philly was lovely and comfortable.

We only had about an hour in Philly, so we found our gate (about as far from our arrival gate as possible) and waited briefly to board the flight to Frankfurt.

Being served mimosa as soon as one sits in thier seat on the plane is soooo civilized!! I wish I could fly that way all the time. Our Philly to Frankfurt leg was positively luxurious! I slept REALLY WELL on the plane – a couple of glasses of wine, headphones, a “sleep mask” and a seat that nearly fully reclines also help.

Tuesday, August 22nd

We arrived in Frankfurt as rested as any traveller could. It was early/late/who knows. It was mid-morning, Frankfurt time. We found our departure gate and had 8 hours to spend in the airport. We had received complimentary passes to the Lufthansa lounge while in Envoy class, so we headed there. The “Gold” lounge said that they would not honor the passes, but Jack was wise and suggested we try to use them at the Business class lounge next door. We wiled away the hours in the lounge – free wi-fi access, free snacks and beverages, showers, etc. That really made the lay-over manageable.

On our flight to Cairo we were back in coach, but it was a relatively short flight. Jack offered to trade his diminished hearing for my lack of sense of smell during the flight!

As we flew over the Mediterranean, I began to realize what we were doing. I began to feel slightly nauseated. My blood pressure went up. As we descended into Cairo, the pilot approached from the southwest, which gave us a loop around the Pyramids at Giza. When I saw them for the first time, at about 6:45pm local time, I could not breathe. I cried and yet could not take my eyes off the Pyramids.

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

What have I done? There is no going back. I said I wanted to do this, and now look! Here I am, and I am scared!

Sheer stubbornness made me regain my composure before we landed.

As we walked off the plane, we joked about whether or not there would be an AUC representative there to meet us. Relief and joy are pale representations of my feelings when we saw Abdul with the AUC sign with my name on it.

Abdul was picking up another faculty member as well as me and Jack, and a load of students, so it took a while to get everyone together, give Abdul the passports for immigration clearance and find bags. Think herding cats – Abdul must know Bastet.

We got everyone together, and on to customs. As far as I can tell, customs was one guy, waving the lot of us with ALL OUR BAGGAGE thru a side gate and out of the area! The students left with one driver and Jack, the other faculty member and I waited for our driver. While waiting, Jack decided to wander around just a bit (cue ominous music here).

The driver arrived, the bags were loaded, and there was no sign of Jack! I went back into the terminal to look for him, but could not find him. I must admit, this was the first time I have wished for a cell phone. I began to panic. Where could he have gotten off to in such a short period of time? We’ve only been on the ground for about an hour! Just about the time I was about to completely freak out, he arrived, victorious, from Duty Free. His comment to me, “You will be so happy when you see what I got.”

The drive into Cairo from the airport gave me a glimpse into why it is that most people I’ve talked to say never to drive in Cairo. More on driving later.

We dropped off the other faculty member at her housing complex and then it was our turn at the AUC Hostel in Zamalek. Two men met us at the curb and brought all our bags up to the apartment. Nabil was waiting for us at the apartment to show us around and give us the keys.

FINALLY we have arrived! As we took out the laptops to check the internet connections, Jack pulled out his “suprise” from Duty Free. Sherry wood aged single malt scotch! I did a little happy dance as we sipped nice scotch in our new home in Cairo.