Today we travelled to Cairo for the start of our Egyptian adventure! We had an early breakfast and then caught the Metro to the airport. Steve's parents headed out with us too even though they were actually on a later flight.
Check in went smoothly (for once) but we had other drama to entertain us. When we were waiting in the Metro, Steve received a text message from AAMI saying that our house insurance had expired on the 28th of September. We were both stunned as we have family checking our mail and if the bill had arrived, they would have taken care of it for us.
We called our families to see if they had seen any letters but they both said no. We couldn't do anything about it until we arived at the airport but luckily there was free wifi in the Athens airport so we looked up the AAMI number and Skyped them. Turns out that it was our investment property insurance that had expired but we had a seven day grace period so we were still covered. Crisis averted!
Our flight to Egypt was good but long as the flight was slightly delayed departing and then we had to circle for an extra half hour in Cairo airport. On the upside, we met a really nice guy named Sam who was returning to his studies in Alexandria after spending a few months in Greece with his dad. We mentioned to Sam that we weren't sure what the deal was when we landed in Cairo and if the airport transfer would be there so he kindly offered to help us if things didn't work out. We landed, changed some money and purchased our visas to enter Egypt before going through to the baggage area where we found a representative from the tour company waiting for us. Hooray for a smooth transfer!
His name was Mina, he was pretty cool. We got our luggage and headed to our hotel in Cairo, The President Hotel in Zamalek. Cairo traffic is crazy, completely crazy. There are no rules, no lanes, no nothing. There are traffic lights but they're pretty much a decoration. Along the way Mina gave us information about Cairo and its inhabitants, interesting Cairo sites and some background information on the tour. We stopped along the way to do a changeover where we met Mohammed who would be helping us check in to the hotel and who would be accompanying us later this evening for our sound and light show at the pyramids.
We arrived at the hotel where Steve and I got to sit around in the lobby while they did everything for us. It was quite weird but we weren't sure what else to do... Once we were checked in we farewelled Mohammed until later and followed the Valet up to our room.
The hotel was really weird in that the floors had funny numbering. We were on the "fourth floor" which was actually in reality the thirtheenth floor of the building. The elevator only went up to the "third" floor and then there was a staircase leading up to the "fourth" floor. The first thing we did was turn on the airconditioning in our room as it was HOT! I think it was in the high 30's when we landed. Apparently this time of year should be around the low thirties but there had been a heat wave that pushed the temperatures back up again.
We grabbed our hats and went for a walk around the area to check things out, find some snacks for Steve and to buy some water. We found an awesome little hole in the wall shop around the corner from the hotel and then walked around the waterfront looking for a little takeaway or something. Having failed dismally, we went into another hole in the wall so that Steve could pick up a packet of chips to munch on.
On our way back to the hotel there was a construction site where a kid and some of the workers were kicking around a soccer ball. We walked past and Steve kind of looked longingly in their direction. An old guy who was just sitting there watching them noticed us and invited Steve to join in so in 35+ degree heat, Steve was kicking a soccer ball around. It was pretty funny because there were cars parked everywhere so they were playing in the middle of the street which meant each time a car came around the corner they would all have to scatter and the kid was pretty unco so he kept kicking the ball up onto cars, setting of their car alarms.
Eventually the little kid went back home with the ball so it was game over. You can all imagine just how gross Steve was after kicking the ball around in the sun...
We went back to the hotel via the first hole in the wall to buy some more water and then cooled off in the room before heading downstairs to meet Mohammed to go to the sound and light show. We reunited with Steve's parents and then headed off. We worked our way through to the crazy crazy traffic where we arrived at Giza early so we sat down and had a quick bite and drink at a local restaurant before we headed in.
The sound and light show was cool. A bit corny at times but cool. It was held just outside the area with the Sphinx and the three large pyramids so it was very atmospheric. There was a big sign saying "No Flash" as we walked in but obviously nobody had paid attentio as there were flashes going off everywhere.
We drove back to the hotel and made our third trip of the day to the hole in the wall with Steve's parents and then came back and called it a night as the tour began in earnest tomorrow.
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