In mid-November, I traveled to Canada and then to Cairo for work. I was only in Canada for a day, and spent most of my time either working at a site or in my hotel room.
After my trip to Canada, I headed back to the Detroit Metro airport, where I boarded a Lufthansa flight that would take me to Frankfurt. I had a six hour layover in Frankfurt before heading to Cairo.
I arrived in Cairo on a Saturday afternoon - I left Detroit on a Friday afternoon. Feeling as disgusting as I always do after an overseas flight, as soon as the greeter from the hotel met me and my co-workers who also took the Frankfurt to Cairo flight, we obtained our Egyptian visas. We then proceeded to get our luggage. Of course, everyone was waiting on me, as my luggage was the last to come off of the plane.
After we received our luggage, we were taken to our driver, who drove us to the Four Seasons Hotel on Nile Plaza. The hotel, as the name suggests, overlooks the Nile. I was fortunate enough to have a hotel room that overlooked the Nile, so I was able to view the Nile both at night and during the day.
The first night was a cocktail event where I was able to try different appetizers. I went back to my hotel room following the event and tried to fall asleep. While I was very exhausted, I was not sleepy, so I was stuck watching the movie "My Girl 2" (a terrible movie - how on earth did I like it when I was little?) and then finally getting a few hours of sleep.
The next night there was a group dinner, where we had courses like "Grilled Sea Bass Fillet, Lemon Risotto and Chunky Tomato Dressing" and "Consumme of Quail with Ginseng Root". Dessert was a Chocolate Mousse Dome with a Passion Fruit Center and Blackberry Ice Cream Sherbet.
The Monday night was another group dinner - this time with some Egyptian entertainment. An Egyptian band played while different dancers performed, including a whirling dirvish. The whirling dirvish twirled for a long time - it seemed like several minutes. One of my co-workers tried to do the same, but it was very difficult. He also said that the fabric was much heavier than it looked. The menu was similar to the Sunday night dinner menu.
On Tuesday morning, like Sunday and Monday, I attended work meetings. Tuesday afternoon, however, was a group trip to the Giza pyramids. We left the hotel in a bus that took us to the pyramids, through Cairo. Traveling to Cairo can definitely give you some perspective. There is a huge disparity, like in similar countries, between the wealthy and poor. Many of the buildings are not finished because if construction on a building is not finished, then the building residents do not have to pay taxes. Trash collects in rivers and on roads, and most people get by on a fraction of an average U.S. worker's salary.
Driving up to the pyramids, you can begin to see them while you are still in Cairo. By the time that we were at the pyramids, I was shocked by the size. When you consider the time during which the pyramids were built, the fact that there are openings inside and the fact that they are still standing, it is pretty amazing. The three large pyramids were built for a Grandfather (the largest pyramid - the Great Pyramid), Father (the middle pyramid) and Son (the smallest pyramid).
Our group was able to actually go inside the largest of the pyramids. There was a fairly small opening, wide enough for two people to walk without touching, but not much larger. The height at the entrance was tall enough for the average person to walk through, but soon it became much smaller, and you had to bend down to climb up a ramp. The ramp was not as wide as the entryway, meaning that lines of tourists could easily build up. The ramp is slippery, but there are slabs of wood intended to function as steps. Once you reach the top of the ramp, you climb some more stairs and bend down to get through until you reach a room with an empty granite tomb. I do not recommend that anyone with claustrophobic tendencies go through the pyramid path, but I am glad that I did it.
The bus then drove our group to a place for taking photos and purchasing souvenirs. Since I am typically not interested in souvenirs, I went straight for the photo area.
When everyone was done, we drove over to see the Sphinx. While the pyramids were larger than I had imagined, the Sphinx was smaller than I had expected. You were not able to stand directly in front of the Sphinx, but you were able to get fairly close to it.
Following the visit to the Sphinx, our group was able to see a short papyrus demonstration. After that, we went back to the hotel.
I had a couple of hours during the next day where I was able to get out to see the Egyptian museum. The museum holds over 120,000 objects. I took a taxi and walked through in less than an hour. The Tutankhamen exhibit was particularly interesting, but the sheer amount of artifacts and information is very overwhelming, especially when you are not there on vacation. I've never been the type to read every artifact description, so I was satisfied with the time I spent at the museum. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside, so I could only take photos of the museum's garden area. If Josh and I ever have the opportunity to come to Cairo together, we'll definitely go to the museum.
Following the museum visit, I ended up walking by myself back to the hotel. The traffic situation in Cairo certainly induced some cultural shock in me - there was no stopping for pedestrians, nor was there often a passage for pedestrians to get through. I did my best to watch the traffic patterns and quickly walk across when
the traffic calmed down, but the traffic situation definitely made me uneasy. Additionally, since with blonde hair and blue eyes, I do look significantly different from the typical Egyptian, I got a lot of stares, some honking horns and a couple comments (from a distance) from drivers. Needless to say, I was relieved when I got
back to the hotel and could get back to work.
Since my flight back was around 5 am, and I had to leave time to get to the airport and go through ticketing / security, I ended up leaving at 1:30 am. I slept for a little over an hour on Wednesday night. Once I got to the airport, I was in line for a long time before I got my ticket. Once I did get on the plane for the flight to Frankfurt, I slept the entire way. I woke up toward the end of the flight, and started getting my belongings ready for landing. Unfortunately, I spilled my orange juice all over my pants. I was very glad that the spill only affected me, and not the person next to me... but smelling like orange juice was no picnic, particularly with an hour layover in Frankfurt (not the smallest airport) and all of my extra pairs of pants packed in my checked baggage.
I was very glad that the plane from Cairo arrived in Frankfurt on time, because it took me much longer than I had expected to walk to the departure gate for my flight to Houston. When I finally got to the gate and handed them my ticket, I was spoken to in German. Flying on Lufthansa, with a stop in Frankfurt, and a German last name - it's obvious why the Lufthansa personnel would always start to speak with me in German. Too bad I don't understand more than a couple of words! I was very grateful to get on the flight. Since I was flying on Thanksgiving, the plane looked empty. I prepared for the long flight back, only to start feeling sick after take-off. Only after I returned home that afternoon did I feel better. Thanksgiving dinner (real food) at my parents' house must have made the difference!
Since the trip to Egypt is my last huge trip for the foreseeable future, I did feel relieved not only to be back, but also have a little break from the large travel. With the extra time, I started writing this blog, which I plan on continuing to do in the following year.
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