Day 15: Chillin Out in Cairo


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Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo
April 21st 2013
Published: April 22nd 2013
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Ah we had such a good sleep last night! We hit the sack at 10pm at the latest and slept through till 9.30 this am! So good to not have an alarm set at the crack of dawn! We threw some clothes on and went down for our last breakie in Egypt. Had some croissants and waffles and some amazing pineapple juice, then headed back to our room to skype home! We tried Bens parents but it just rang and rang! So we missed you! 😞 But managed to get a call with nanny, gramps, mum and dad all in one call which was so lovely as we havent really had any wifi all week so was good to catch up with them. This took us till about 11.30. We got our togs on even though it wasnt that warm today (maybe 18 deg?) and pretty cloudy which surprised me as we havent really seen any clouds at all all week! But we had paid for wifi for 24 hours and had lots of admin and catch up to do! 😊 So thought we may as well do it in the sun. The boys on our tour were down by the pool having sundaes in the sun so we hung out with them till their transfer picked them up and then we spent the arvo lying in the sun, typing blogs, uploading pics, buying a postcard and some papryus', packing our bags and eating icecream in the sun! Was a good day and really relaxing which is what we wanted but we didnt get anywhere near as much done as we had hoped!

We got picked up at 7.30pm for the airport and had a guy call the driver part way there and ask to speak to Ben but didnt understand what he was saying. Something about what airline we were flying?? We sped through Cairo like a race car driver. Best to just shut your eyes and not watch it occurring! Better for the ol heart! And as soon as we got to the airport the circus started! The area to check in for Saudi Airlines was full and I mean full of cloaked men and women in white and Ben and I were literally the only westerners! There was no order, no rules and it was absolute chaos! Just to get to our check in we had to show our flight details and passport twice and put our bags through security all with everyone around us staring, pointing, laughing and taking photos of the 2 of us! We finally got to the check in and the guy behind the counter was lovely and excited to hear about our long trip ahead and lots of diff flights. Ben was told to get his trousers on as apparently shorts weren't acceptable!

A guy came and told us to go through passport control immediately as there was a giant group of clothed Saudi Arabians travelling behind us and we would get swamped if we didnt move quickly! So we did just that and still were getting pushed and shoved from behind! But we got through and breathed a sigh of relief as we did. We had about 2 hours to kill and it didnt look as though there was much to eat or do on the other side so we wandered through the airport a bit looking for dinner and trying to keep warm as the aircon was blasting like crazy times! We managed to find a food hall sign which didnt really tell us very clearly where it was but we eventually found it in a totally dead new area of the airport. And there was a maccas so I was so excited cos had been hungry for about 3 hours now! We ordered and they even understood my 'no onions in the quarter pounder please!' which was a minor miracle! The guy behind the counter was lovely telling us that they were open 24/7 and that there was free wifi up there. Double whammy! There was no one up there at all so our dinner weas completely made fresh and both of us claimed that it was potentially the best maccas we have ever had! Now thats a big call! We were very content as we hoed into our meals and continued to upload our cinque terre album on facebook with no one staring and taking pics of us!

We headed down to our gate about 20 mins before boarding and it was a bloody mad house again. Pushing and shoving and men with 4 wives scurrying along not following any rules! We felt like animals at the zoo being poked and stared at and felt completely uncomfortable until our friendly guy from check in came and found us and told us he had upgraded us to BUSINESS CLASS!! We were so exciited! We think he just felt sorry for us! But we were stoked. After finally getting into the plane, which proved chaotic and pretty difficult once again we got lead into our spacious area of the plane. We were pretty excited even though this flight was only 2 hours max! They bought around fresh juices and we both had strawberry which was absolutely incredible! No idea how they made it but yummmm! That was followed by a weird fresh date dipped in caramel and arabic coffee, both of which I didnt try and Ben said was very below average tasting! But when in business class...😊 They then proceeded to serve us another dinner of steak and veges (our option). I took one look at it and was so so full from my maccas I couldnt eat anything but Ben did a good job cleaning up maybe half his plate and a bit of mine so my tray didnt look so sad and un touched. We converted our seats back into sleeper seats and I fell asleep for 20mins while Ben typed up a blog! I had just got into a peaceful sleep when Ben tapped me and told me we had landed. My seat was fully back, arm rest up – def not in the safety positions for landing! It was after midnight at this point which means the rest is in tomorrows blog!!

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