Sunday - Arrival in Cairo

 
We left the hotel for the airport at about 6 AM. Traffic was the lightest we had experienced since our arrival in Dubai. That was also reflected in the taxi fare. It was quite a bit less than the initial trip from the airport to the hotel. We took a taxi most everywhere in Dubai as they were priced reasonably and we didn’t have to worry about how to get some where driving ourselves.

The flight to Cairo was pretty uneventful. That’s the way I like all of my flights to be. Did talk the the gate check-in person about our return flight and she said I should call Emirates as they will put up up for the night. Have to do that yet. The flight left on time and arrived on time and the food was quite good as airline food goes. The temperature when we left Dubai was already over 100 F at 9 in the morning. When we got to Cairo the temp was in the upper 70s F, a very pleasant change. Getting through passport control took a long time or seemed like it. The administration at the Cairo airport doesn’t seem to work very well.

Nardeen, her dad, and her fiancé (Ehab) were there to meet us. It was a wonderful reunion with many hugs. They brought each of us flowers to welcome us to Egypt. Getting the luggage to the cars was a chore all in itself. Traffic and parking in Egypt is just pure chaos. If you ever come here and I do recommend it, don’t even consider renting a car unless you are very, very adventurous and have nerves of steel and companions that don’t frighten easily.

We thought we were going to go to Port Said and I was prepared for a long ride. But the plans had changed and we would spend the next few days in Cairo doing some sight seeing. The actual ride to the house was uneventful and took about 45 minutes or so. This place has an elevator so we didn’t have to carry our luggage up a number of flights. That was a very nice addition.

When we go up to the house Susan and Samia had been preparing “lunch”, that’s dinner in Alaska. Lunch is the main meal of the day and is usually eaten sometime between 4 and 8 PM depending on the activities of the day. Dinner is eaten between 10 and 11:30 PM usually. There obviously is much flexibility when the meals are eaten. Once again there was a reunion with Susan, Samiad, Suzie. Suzie we had not met before. She is one of Nana’s (Nardeen) many cousins. We visited for some time and got the luggage to the proper rooms and then ate lunch.

The meal was incredible. Probably 7 different dishes were served ranging from bread to roast chicken. There were stuffed grape leaves, salads of many types, A meat and pastry disk that is wonderful. I can’t even remember all of the other things. But I know there was more food than twice as many people could eat. The meals were as amazing as I remembered from the last time we were here.

After lunch we helped clear the table and once again caught up on where things were today with the families and what the schedule would be for the week. Bonnie and I were very tired and we were encouraged to take a nap so that’s what we did. I’m pretty sure Melanie and Megan did the same. Three hours laster we awoke from our slumber and came back to the land of the living. We had some tea and the conversation turned to the evenings activities. None had been previously scheduled.

Nana and here parents finally decided to take us to a market in an older area of Cairo and to a cafe they had been to before. The market was very similar to the markets in Dubai but there were many types of vendors. It was devoted to spice or textiles or gold. It was interesting but we didn’t stop to make any purchases.

After going through the market the quest was to find the cafe, The House of Oud (Bait El Oud). After many inquiries for directions we finally arrived. I think we were the only Westerners in the whole place but I had no problem with then and neither did anyone else. We order tea that was excellent and Nana ordered some treats called Zalpia, that can best be described as donut wholes only 100 times better. They were lighter in texture and delicious all by themselves. They could be ordered with many types of topping. We got white chocolate, honey, powered sugar, and others. May favorite was the honey topped one but I are some of each, very delicious.

There was live music at the cafe as well. Three different people sang and even though we didn’t know what the songs were about they were still entertaining. We were at the cafe for a couple of hours and then it was time to return home.

We had parked in a parking garage on arrival and when we tried to fine the exit it was challenging. It turns out there as only one we could get to at the time of night and it went onto a street that took us in the wrong direction. Let’s just say that we took the “scenic route” and arrive home well after the folks that took the cab.

It was a fun day and left us anticipating the wonders of tomorrow.