Trip of a Life Time - Day one and two - Egypt Chapter 1

*whoosh whoosh*
That's me dusting off  my own little space of the internetz and getting some memories documented.  Sure, I've put some stuff on Facebook, but when I was cramming the pics on, I was on slow, sometimes spotty internet service and let's face it, I wasn't great at referring to all my notes.  Now I'm sidelined with a bad shoulder and there isn't much I can do other than write and make sure I get all my memories down before I forget some.

It all started in January of 2017.  Mom had just lost her husband Papa John and then within two weeks, her sister Nedra died.  Poor gal, she was double whammied,  First her husband, and then sister.  Crapville.  We were riding down together to St George for Nedra's funeral services when the talk about a tour of the Holy Land came up.  She's been doing tours with Fun 4 Less with her husband for years and always wanted to do the Holy Land tour.  Unfortunately, John's health was never good enough to allow them to go together.  She was musing that now that he was gone, perhaps she should go before she wasn't healthy enough.  She's a spry 73 year old  :)

As she was telling me about the tour and what would be involved, I got kind of excited.  I offered to go with her, she jumped at the chance and once I cleared it with the Splenda Daddy, we were booked and I started saving my pennies!

Cut to October 19, 2017 and the time was here!  I got my shots, new luggage, packed for every contingency and the next thing I knew, my niece was taking us to the airport.

(my partner in crime)

We had a long 13 hour flight to Paris.  We got there mid morning of the next day. Our layover was only 4 hours, so it enough time to stretch legs, get a drink, and try to catch up. 

There was minimal sleeping and it seems like even just sitting on a plane, it's exhausting.  We then caught a flight to Cairo, Egypt where we met some people for the tour, got out bags, loaded a bus and headed to our hotel.

They had us booked in 5 star hotels and this was a beautiful one!

(the hallway leading to our room)

We found our room, got settled and then went to find food.  Our restaurant was hooked to a huge mall.  We were told that for the next day we would be visiting the Citadel and a Mosque and needed head scarves.    The mall was overwhelming.  So many halls, and I can't even tell you how many times we got lost.  Each store had their own armed security guard standing outside the entrance which was really intimidating.    Of note, we also had police escorts and armed guards on our buses.  I felt totally safe but it sure was different than what we were used to at home.

We found a shop with the scarves we needed, had a salesperson show us how to wrap our heads and once we purchased, we started looking for food.  After skipping the food court, we found a restaurant and sat down.  I immediately discovered that I didn't have my bag with my scarf with me!  What the crap!  I thought of  my last steps in my head and decided that I would retrace my way back to the store and see if I could find it.

Well, that was an adventure!  I got lost.  More lost.  Asked directions but every person told me something else.  Got lost some more and then accidentally stumbled upon the store that we had been at, and I had set it down there.  They had it behind the counter for me!  Yay!!  While it wasn't expensive, I wanted the one I had chosen and I didn't want to waste money!  Now the trick was to find my way back to the restaurant.    I got lost.  More lost.  Asked directions.  More lost and then accidentally stumbled my way into the place where Mom was wondering what had become of me.  A nice meal, a lot of yawning and then the adventure of finding our way BACK to the hotel.  Repeat all the getting lost, before finally ending up in the right corridor.

We were exhausted and ready to lay down and SLEEP!  Mom set an alarm, I washed my face and brushed my teeth,  Got in touch with my family to let them know I arrived safe and called it a day.  As my thoughts were swirling in my head as I was trying to wind down, I had to really pinch myself!  I was in freaking EGYPT!  I have never been out the United States and here I was in EGYPT!  If I wasn't so physically exhausted, I would have never slept with the sheer excitement of what we were doing.  So much to look forward to over the next two weeks.