Egypt - Day 1: Arrival in Cairo

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After about 30 hours of flying I have finally made it to Egypt!

It has been a very long day! I left New Zealand on about 1.5 hours of sleep and didn’t manage to get much more rest after that. The whole trip was actually very cruisy. Had a girl next to me on the plane from Wellington to Auckland who suffered from quite bad travel anxiety, in particular, flying. We ended up holding hands about three times because there was turbulence or the engines slowed down a bit and she panicked. I felt pretty sorry for her, especially when she told me she had to fly again a few days later! I also stupidly didn’t even organize my visas for Australia and Abu Dhabi. I’ve spent nearly two decades in New Zealand now, and sometimes I forget I’m still a foreigner, hehe. Luckily, the lady at the counter was extremely helpful, and I didn’t need visas, anyway, because I would only be at those airports for a couple of hours. Phewf! Then, on my flight from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, I met an English girl called Elaine. She’s was on her way home to visit her family. We luckily had a seat empty between us so we took turns having the extra space to sleep. We spent a couple of hours together at Abu Dhabi Airport before I had to catch my flight to Egypt. Here I had the joy of sitting next to a man who spoke no English (understandably) and who thought he had broken his entertainment screen. Turns out he was just pushing the wrong buttons...After I showed him how to use it, he proceeded to watch an Arab TV Show in fast forward mode. I just left him to it, haha. There was also a guy in front of me who refused to listen to anything any of the stewardesses were telling him, and he also thought it was a great idea to grab his guitar from the luggage compartment as we were about to descend for landing. It was, however, really nice to listen to him praying/singing.

Once I arrived at Cairo Airport I was greeted by Rico. I was a bit confused when he introduced himself because I was meant to be picked up by someone called "Tarek". I tried to check his name badge but couldn’t read it because it was all Arabic, so I just didn’t use his name for a little while, hahaha. Turned out they swapped him with Tarek because Tarek had something else on, so I never got to meet him. We had to wait for my luggage for a wee while because they have about five flights’ worth of luggage coming out on the conveyor belt at once, but it showed up eventually. I had mine wrapped up so I thought I would recognize it easily…turned out a lot of other people had the same idea! Rico very kindly organized my visa for Egypt, and once we finished that we headed out to the car that was waiting for us. There were a lot of people just standing around. It was nothing like New Zealand, at all! I’m kind of grateful I went with the tour company because there is no way I would have been able to get out of there on my own! Rico ended up handing me over to Islam, and KFC, our taxi driver who looks like the colonel, and we said our goodbyes. The drive into the city was pretty crazy; I have never seen anything like it in my life! They have road markings and traffic lights but no one really uses them or abides to any rules, hehe. The only way I can describe their driving is that it is snake-like. They just slide through any gaps they can find, and surprisingly, I felt extremely safe, safer than I do when driving around in Dunedin, so that is saying something! There is literally traffic everywhere, people cut others off, there is constant beeping, but somehow there is still some kind of system to it and no one seems to get angry at anyone. It’s pretty cool, actually.

The hotel I’m staying at for the next couple of days is the Fairmont Nile City. My room is kitted out with a King bed, rain shower, and a small spa bath. I definitely feel very spoiled! I also have the most amazing view of the Nile from the 19^th floor. It is seriously a treat. You can see all the houses surrounding the other hotel buildings below as well. The houses here are very plain, brown, and very old/worn- looking. It looks quite poor from the outside, but I have no idea what the inside is like. They could be palaces for all I know, but probably not, hehe. From what I saw of Cairo on my way in, it has very similar looking apartment buildings everywhere. It is very different from New Zealand, but at the same time, very beautiful in its own way, too. I am really excited to see more of this place tomorrow!

Things I learned on day 1:


Pre-order your vegetarian meals on your flight! I ended up hungry on the 5-hour flight from Auckland to Melbourne and the air hostess told me she would find me something to eat but never returned. I only just survived that flight…just...

Which brings me to the next thing: bring more snacks. I was so paranoid about getting in trouble for taking “illegal” things with me that I didn’t take anything at all. Luckily, Elaine had some muesli bars with her and saved the day. Thank you so much!

Tissues. This was one of my biggest regrets as I got sick two days before my flight. I mean, why would my body choose any other time of the year to do this than right before the trip of my life?! Hahaha! I spent a big part of my flight trying to stop water from dripping out of my nose onto my clothes. I also didn’t want to be “that” person on the plane – the sniffer, so make sure you pack some because they might become your best friend.

Lastly, take a pocket mirror with you. I’m no Narcissus, but I was pretty keen to freshen up a bit at Abu Dhabi Airport, but seven other women there had the same plan, so there was no space in front of the bathroom mirror. The lighting at the hotel room is also not natural, so it can be hard if you want to do your make-up.

And now, time for some much needed rest…Till next time xox

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Photos

Boarding passes
Melbourne, Abu Dhabi, and Cairo.

Etihad Flight
Melbourne to Abu Dhabi - 14 hours

Abu Dhabi Airport
Camel toy stall