Egypt Day 1

We landed around 3am in Cairo. It wasn’t chaotic or difficult to find our way through the airport, all of the signs were in both English and Arabic. Our guide wasn’t there right when we landed, and we had a feeling he wouldn’t be, since our flight was supposed to come in at 4:20, not 3:10.. big difference when you’re sleeping!

Some of our breakfast


We got our visa sticker from the teller in the window for $25 USD, filled out our immigration form, then went through customs. The man put the visa sticker in our passports and stamped them-the best of both worlds! Ha! Then we went and stood with everyone else to wait for our luggage. That’s when Hassan, our airport transfer guy found us.


A hour later, we finally had our luggage. Instead of waiting in a huge line to have our things checked, Hassan walked us right through a different gate. The agent checked one passport and that was it! Everyone else was in line to put their luggage through the security scanner again.. not us! Off we went! Hassan got us to our van, and introduced us to our actual guide, Dr. Sherif (said like cher-reef). He’s an Egyptologist and absolutely hysterical.


Sherif and our driver took us to a restaurant that I swear looked closed. They went and talked with the guys out front, and the next thing we knew, we were sitting at a table outside and being served entirely too much food: falafels, local Arabic bread, omelets, fava beans, grilled veggies.. it was incredibly good and so filling! I was in Heaven. I often base countries off of their breakfasts if I could live there or not-I could eat this breakfast everyday. For sure.


We got to the hotel, The Steigenberger Pyramids Hotel, and we were all absolutely beat. We hung out in a lobby seating area and Sherif worked on getting us in our rooms early. I was shocked when we were in before 8am! They’d never do that at home. But the hour and a half or so hanging around was also enjoyable. Sherif entertained us with stories and lots of laughs. Everyone had some coffee, mom toured the pool on her own for some pictures. It was a good time.


Once we were in our rooms, we tried to take a nap.. mom and I fussed some because the room was hot and we were both flipping around in these beds awhile before we could get comfortable and fall asleep. We were supposed to get up at noon-to help with the jet lag.. only 3 hours after noon did we budge. Dammit!


So, at 3:15pm I finally got up and went to find Andrea by the pool. Our hotel is nice and the pool is great, you can see two of the pyramids in the distance, which is pretty neat. Mom came out too, and she and Terri hung out in lounge chairs and Andrea and I swam. It started getting dark by 5pm, which I don’t think we were expecting. Terri and I walked through the restaurant in the hotel and checked out what they had (and maybe got to sample a couple things from the chef, talk about hospitality) and then we met the other two back in our rooms.


Terri and Andrea did as we were supposed to, and stayed up-so they were now headed to sleep. Mom and I were wide eyed and a little bored, so we got ready and went to dinner. The food was laid out buffet style and while some things were odd, everything I tried was delicious. I got several varieties of chicken, some pasta, bread and soup, and several things that I have no clue what they even were. Pastries and red wine rounded out the meal perfectly.

We are now back in the room, not even 8pm, and we’re both getting ready for bed. I’m still worn out! Jet lag is no joke. We have to be ready to leave the hotel with Sherif at 9am tomorrow, after breakfast, to go on our first day of exploration: the pyramids, the sphinx, and several other places are listed on their itinerary for us.


So. Off to sleep I go! I don’t think I’ll have trouble this time 😉 goodnight!

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!