We had (well, I had) fretted and feared over whether or not we would be able to actually depart Sarajevo at all with the frequent fog-outs at the airport, but luckily we woke up Friday (12/22) morning to a sunny sky. We used a private driver to get to the airport (at 30KM one way) versus taxi because while the taxi ride to the airport might have been slightly cheaper (needing 2 taxis at approximately 12 KM each), the return would have been way more expensive (2 taxis at 25KM each). This worked out well and we gave the driver our return information and he was waiting inside for our return. Definitely recommend that.
Indira was here to watch the dogs and see us off. That could have worked wonderfully, but unfortunately while we were gone there were two nights of fireworks that apparently freaked them out and then Maya got sick with some type of intestinal thing. Both events caused Indira a great deal of stress and she says that she worried and cried for most of the time that we were gone. That's no good so we're now searching for someone new to be available periodically.
Our flight to Istanbul was uneventful (my favorite word when it comes to travel) and we arrived at a wonderful modern airport that is more like a mall than anything else. Reminds me the most of Washington Dulles airport by comparison. We had 6 hours to kill (our flight not leaving until 11 p.m.) and we spent the majority of that time ensconced in the comfy-chairs at Starbucks. We took turns browsing in the stores and getting our frappuccinos so that we couldn't lose those wonderful seats that had the added bonus of being close to the bathrooms.
We arrived in Cairo at a little after 1 o'clock in the morning - tired but excited. We got outside with our luggage to be greeted by chaos instead of a taxi queue. I have no idea what we should have paid, but we ended up paying 60 egyptian pounds ($11) for a ride to our Hilton (Ramses on the Nile) which was about ½ hour away. I will say that our driver was very interesting and made a wonderful introduction for us to the city. The Ramses Hilton was adequate http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/CAIRHTW-Ramses-Hilton/index.do (more on the Hilton chain of hotels later) but I was immediately put off by the front desk clerk raising the price on me. We had made an internet booking through Hilton's own website at $140 per night for two nights. He informed me (this is now about 2:15 a.m., mind you) that the second night would be $150 per night instead. I showed him my reservation confirmation and he just smiled. What is there to do at 2 o'clock in the morning but grin and bear it and be glad it wasn't worse. It could be worse, much worse, as I was to find out during my next Hilton experience. At that point I was thankfully naïve. The breakfast buffet was very nice and it actually allows you to come before it's open if you have an early flight which served us well the 2nd day. I did get a thrill to walk out on my balcony overlooking the Nile and be able to squeal "Jeff, we're in Egypt!"
The Ramses Hilton is located immediately across the street from the Egyptian museum. Carl and Jeff decided to check that out first thing the next morning while Shelby and I rested up for our afternoon sightseeing trip. Word to the wise - when you arrange an individual sightseeing trip, make sure that you've clarified with your guide what your expectations are beforehand. Our tour was arranged through Queen Tours Egypt www.queentours-eg.com. The price was $40 per person for a private tour to see the Citadel of Saladin, the Mohamed Ali Mosque, the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Our guide, Mr. Hasan, was very personable and friendly, but not particularly patient for our style of sightseeing. I enjoy walking around and looking at something and allowing the beauty and history of it to kind of sink in by osmosis while Jeff enjoys walking around and looking for interesting camera angles to reflect that beauty. Mr. Hasan is more from the "this is the Mosque, take your picture from here, let's move on" school of sightseeing. To be fair, I hadn't clarified our style ahead of time but any attempts to do so on the fly were not enthusiastically greeted.
We went first to the Citadel of Saladin http://www.ask-aladdin.com/saladin.htm where the Mosque of Mohamed Ali is located. http://ask-aladdin.com/mohamedali.html We didn’t have the opportunity to find out how much of the Citadel could be explored as we walked straight to the Mosque. The Mosque is incredibly gorgeous and ornate and our guide explained to us that it is not a typical mosque in Egypt but rather one that tourists would visit and that it is of Turkish design. From here there is also a wonderful view of the city of Cairo.
Then we went to a shakedown - I mean, a papyrus store. Even though I knew that our guide had brought us here as a form of entrapment, I was actually very interested in how papyrus is created. It's very ingenious. http://www.lib.umich.edu/pap/k12/manufacture.html
All of us except Jeff purchased a picture painted on papyrus, with Carl actually choosing two.
Then we headed for the pyramids. I had been told that they're right in the city, so I expected to see them surrounded by buildings or something but they're actually placed more on the edge of Giza with desert extending past them. I don't know that I had any real expectations in mind and our guide moved us along so quickly that it was hard for me to really breathe and take them in. I did get to climb up to have my picture taken with Carl/Shelby, so that was nice. There weren't nearly as many vendors and camel drivers as I expected, either. Jeff and I wanted to walk around and probably could have spent hours there but our guide hurried us into the car so he could take us to an overlook. Along the way Jeff yelled STOP because he had perfect light/perfect view/perfect shot, but he was ignored L The overlook was nice, but Jeff's disappointment at missing the shot he wanted was pretty strong. By this point I was starting to resent our guide but it's always hard in a foreign country to know how hard to push things - at least it is for us.
After we left the overlook we went to get a shot of the Sphinx. I hadn't realized that it's right there at the pyramids, and in fact is kind of like the gateway to the pyramids. Jeff wanted a profile shot of the Sphinx and while he set that up, against our guide's "better shot from the front" objections, I attempted to placate our guide by rushing along with him and Carl. While I was gone Shelby got the first of what was to be many marriage proposals. She was asked if she was Jeff's wife and when she said no, his daughter, Jeff was offered 200 camels for her. It's hard to know how much of that was just being funny for the obvious tourists, but since this became a constant theme of our whole visit to Egypt, I started to wonder.
No comments:
Post a Comment