Turkish Airlines… wow! Our flight path took us Boston-Istanbul-Cairo, which meant a 10-hr flight for the first leg. That was to be my first new experience, and something I was a bit nervous about. However, it was far better than any other air travel experience I have had. Everything was on time and our luggage arrived in Cairo with no problems.
When we got on the plane we found a little care package with an eye mask, ear plugs, toothbrush/toothpaste, socks, and more. There were blankets, pillows and slippers, too!
Shortly after takeoff the flight attendants brought us hot towels and Turkish Delight. Dinner followed and it was actually good! I got very dehydrated even though I was drinking a lot of water, but I slept for a good portion of the overnight flight, thankfully (though it took a couple of hours of excitingly talking about all things dance and travel with my traveling companion before we could calm down), and woke up wirh just an hour or so left of that leg.
The airport in Istanbul was nice but not especially different from any other… except for the mosque signs and variety of dress on all the people! Also: the food court was awesome. When is that ever the case?! I couldn’t resist stopping at the MAC counter on rhe way to the gate so now I have a liiiiitle bit of Istanbul make-up. 🙂
It was dark for our 2-hour flight into Cairo but I had a window seat so I could see the Nile, minarets, fireworks from above, and all the city lights stretching on forever. This is a city of 20 million people!
Upon landing we bought our entry visas ($25 US cash) at one of the bank windows before standing in the loooong looks good customs. That went smoothly, and then we were officially visitors to Egypt! After about 5 more passport stops we emerged into WARM night air… imagine that, coming from a winter of record snow and freezing temperatures! Our driver was waiting, led us through lots of parking lots, and our first Cairo traffic experience commenced!
It is perhaps best not to think too hard or watch too closely. So many close calls and seemingly chaotic traffic behavior. Lanes? Who needs em? But we tried to just take a clue from our incredibly chill driver and all was well.
At one point we stopped at a random median maybe 30 minutes into the drive and picked up an apparent stranger… who then received a phone call on his cell and handed it to Amity, saying that Leila was on the line. Ahhh, Cairo!
Eventually we arrived at our hotel in Giza, the Cataract Pyramids Resort, where we all immediately connected to wifi (lobby only, but free! All counter to what the website said, but hey!). We found our rooms after wandering down a lovely palm tree-lined path, turned on the room lights by inserting our key cards into a slot in the wall, oohed over our balcony, and crashed before long. The next day would be a visit to Khan el Khalili!
Grace Notes Blog 