Egypt: Day Zero

We have less than 3 hours before we land in Cairo, Egypt.. and I have hardly slept a wink. I just haven’t been able to get comfortable on planes lately, and that’s beyond frustrating. So, I figured I’d type this out for y’all instead of getting more irritated that I can’t fall asleep and stay that way.

Mom was so surprised at her birthday dinner, everything went mostly as planned. My best friends, Lauren, Sarah, and Brittany helped me. Brit got me from the airport and I got ready at her house. She also got the balloons and flowers for mom for me, AND she baked her a cake that everyone loved!

Lauren met us at Brit’s house and Sarah and her husband Kyle met us at the restaurant. We all hid until Mom, Uncle Keith, Aunt Kathy, Michael, Aunt Shannon, and Uncle Robert were seated. Then, Sarah and Kyle walked up, pretending like they just happened to be there and saw everyone.. as they were chatting, we followed.

Mom was so shocked! It was an absolute blast!
I spent the next couple weeks at home, catching up and seeing friends and family. I got my favorite Italian food-better than I remember.. and then on 10/30, Andrea and her mom, Terri flew in. They stayed the night and the following afternoon we were back at the airport, flying to JFK in New York City.

We landed at 6:30pm and made our way to the TWA hotel.. a really cool hotel with so much architectural beauty. It’s decorated in the 50s style and is based off of Trans World Airlines, an airline from back then. They even have one of the old planes, “The Connie” out back that you can walk into and have extremely overpriced drinks at. The whole concept is really cool. I will say-the rooms were nothing special, I think the La Quinta Inn that Marquis called bougie back in California was technically nicer than this room, had more amenities, and was quite literally $300 less per night. Anyway.

We unloaded our luggage and went exploring the hotel. We didn’t have a drink in the Connie-because they were $22 for a glass of wine, and I was wanting an espresso martini-which they didn’t have the ingredients for. Bummer. I’d have paid a stupid amount for one, just because. But, no none else in our group was feeling it either-all of us were exhausted, especially Andrea and Terri-they’ve had to do a ton of traveling in the last several days.

We went to the restaurant at the hotel and immediately regretted it. The menu had $40 chicken breasts and $31 fish and chips. No one came over within the 10 minutes we sat and looked over everything, so, it was a sign it wasn’t meant to be. We ended up eating downstairs in the hotel’s “food hall.” We got paninis and fries and were all left somewhat disappointed. Oh well. What can you do? I really pray our Egypt accommodations and meals aren’t as lackluster as this has been.

I didn’t sleep well, although the bed and pillows were very comfortable. I think I’m just too exited to get to Cairo and see what’s in store for us. We got to our gate early, had some Starbucks, and waited around. Once we boarded and got up in the air-we were served a dinner plate. Yall! It was better than anything I’ve eaten in the last 24 hours! I’m legitimately impressed! Maybe they’ll feed us “breakfast” before we land. One can hope.

Anywho. The itinerary is roughly as follows: 17 days in Egypt: Cairo, Aswan, Nile River Cruise, Luxor, White Desert, Sharm el Sheikh. Then, Andrea and Terri head over to Paris (thank you so much Margot for the recs!) and mom and I head to Jordan.. there we’ll go to Amman, the Dead Sea, Petra, and Wadi Rum. We fly to Istanbul, Turkey together, for a short overnight, then mom flies back to Atlanta, and I fly to Mauritania.

There, I’ll ride the Iron Ore Train across the Sahara desert and also have a good solid tour of the main cities-all lasting 8ish days there, total. From Mauritania, I go to Morocco-which I have a tour there as well, but they’re currently causing some issues about getting me from the airport and getting me to the tour group-even though I’ve already paid for the airport transfer-I’m a bit anxious over it and hoping we’ll have this figured out before I get there. Fingers crossed!

From Morocco I spend 3 nights in Lisbon, Portugal before flying home the night before my birthday. I think this is going to be an incredible trip-though I don’t know if any trip can top the one mom and I took last year to Europe. I don’t mind trying to find one to top it though! Ha!

Alright. That’s about all the rambling I can do for now. We land at a silly time, like 3 or 4am in Cairo-soooo-I’m a bit anxious about our guide being there and then having something for us to do until normal hours. He mentioned hanging out and relaxing at the pool until we can check in, knowing today will be a recovery day-I guess we’ll find out! See ya later!