Arrival in Cairo - the 1st day

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The plane ride from NY, NY to Cairo, Egypt ended up taking less than 11 hours, so our arrival into Cairo's airport was around 5:15 am EST and 1215 in Egypt. Some people were able to sleep on the plane ride over - I was not one of them. The better part of almost two hours was spent unloading the plane, getting luggage, and getting the group to the bus in order for us to be transported across town to our hotel.

After getting loaded onto the bus, we met our tour guide Mahmoud, who would be with us during our entire journey through Egypt (or as he corrected us Misr). During our bus ride to the hotel, the Le Meridien Pyramids in Cairo, we were given some basic information about Egypt from Mahmoud.

For starters, Egypt is not what the country is called - it is what other countries call it. I always find this interesting, because it just doesn't make any sense why we have to translate actual names of places, especially if there is a Germanic or Romantic language equivalent. It is called Misr. The pronunciation of that is close to how it looks, but there is a short "a" sound at the end.

A few other pieces of language that were going to be vital to our success in Egypt was the word, "La" - which means "no". Especially in the markets or when people would try to offer you a "present" and then turn around and ask for a handout, it was best to say "la" or "la shukrum" (spelling is debatable) - which meant "no, thank you." "Alwa" means "yes".

Mahmoud told us that the first language of the country is Arabic, the second language is English, and the third is French, but that because of the tourism that exists in the country, many Egyptian people know more languages than that.

He told us about the religious practices in Egypt, explaining that basically all Egyptians were either Suni Muslims (about 85%) or Coptic Christians (15%). Coptic Christians are the Egyptian Orthodox sect of Christianity.

He also taught us about the exchange of Egyptian pounds, and how it is the preferred method and the government wants only Egyptian pound currency exchanged, but it doesn't seem highly enforced in the markets. The Egyptian Pound is denoted by an L.E. symbol (compare it our dollar sign - $), and the exchange rate went something along the lines of the following:

10 L.E. = $2.00
50 piasters = $.10
20 L.E. = $3.50

The exchange rate while we were on our tour was approximately $.16 = 1 L.E.

After arriving at the hotel, we basically spent the evening unpacking and resting up for our first of many long days touring the country. The day was mostly a travel day, and we certainly traveled a lot!

The hotel we stayed at was so close to the Great Pyramids of Giza that they were clearly visible from the front entrance of the hotel. It's surreal, and it hasn't really hit me yet, but we're headed there tomorrow!

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Photos

Egypt Air
Our airplane that took us across the Atlantic.

Cairo Airport
It was an absolute mess (at least it felt that way) waiting for our baggage and trying to find our luggage. So many people brought so much stuff!

The View from the Hotel
Seriously - it was amazing that the pyramids were right there when you walked out of the hotel.

The View from the Hotel
Each morning we left the hotel, we saw these huge pieces of history right in front of us.

The Hotel Room
On the ceiling of every room was a big arrow, which pointed the way to Mecca.

The Hotel Room
The bathrooms were interesting, where the showers only had a "door" basically wide enough for your body - many of us never figured out how to prevent getting water on the floor when we showered.