Egypt

I spent the night sleeping on the floor of the airport in Rome. The chairs were made of steel and had arm rests built in to each one, so the floor was the only option. I looked around for a place with some kind of carpeting, but all I could find was tile. With my heavy jacket and the blanket I still carried around from my Delta flight to Dublin, I fashioned a makeshift matress thatcovered my upper body, and I put my sweater on to keep from getting cold. My head rested on my backpack, and I slept on my side holding everything else in my arms. I knew I wasn't going to get a whole lot of sleep, but I was happy to find that I did get some (about 3 hours), and at about 7:00am I packed myself back up and got some breakfast from one of the vendors nearby.

As I was sitting at the gate waiting for my flight, low and behold, the girl from before came stolling by and sat down a few rows in front of me. I waited till we caught glances, and then I walked over and sat next to her. She asked me if I had a good sleep, and I told her that corner over there was quite accomodating. She broke forth a small chuckle, and the small talk commenced. Her name's Flo, and it turns out she's from Australia originally (of which I was imediately embarrassed for thinking she was British, I do that a lot for some reason) but she lives in London and runs a pub. Apparently the reason I didn't see her last night was because we had just passed eachother when she had discovered the steel chairs and cold tile floor, she went back and found someplace that had carpeting. As we boarded she asked where I was seated. 10C it said on my ticket, and she showed me hers: 10A. "It must be fate" I said, and she smiled. On the plane we talked a bit more, I got her email address so we could stay in touch, and when we got off the terminal at Cairo someone from her tour was there to pick her up.

I went the opposite way to go buy my visa to get through customs, which I did pretty easily and on the other side I looked for some kind of brochure and map of the city. Before I got halfway to the other side of the room a man in a pale yellow suit caught my eye. I must have looked a little lost, which was a mistake in this country, they don't like to see that here. The man pulled me aside and asked me where I was staying, to which I replied "I haven't found a place yet, Do you know where I can find a map?". He told me to come with him, and lead me into a back room and small corridor. This was it, I thought, He's probably going to take me into the backroom and just execute me. He brought me to a tiny room with a man on the other side of a desk. They said something to eachother in Arabic and he told me to have a seat. He told me he wanted to help me find a place to stay, and a good tour to get hooked up with. All of this was good news to me, so I told him how long I was staying, and what I wanted to see while I was here. He asked if I wanted a four star, or three star hotel, and I told him the three star would be fine. He planned out my agenda for the next 3 days: Light and sound show tonight, pyramids and markets tomorrow, and museums and monuments the next day, and lodging, transportation, and some meals included. He added up the cost and said it would be about 2,760 Egyptian Pounds (about 800 US Dollars), I said great and I pulled out my credit card. He shook his head, "No, no we only can take cash." It was all of the sudden very sketchy, and I told him I couldn't withdrawl that much cash from my account, and he said that's ok, I just give him what I can now and pay the rest later, and he got a couple more guys and told them to drive me to the hotel ATM. Before I knew it, I was in the back of a car with 3 strange Egyptian men wearing suits. Needless to say, I was freaking out, but I tried hard not to show it. I did one smart thing far later than I should have, however. As we were pulling away from the airport, I told them I didn't mean to be rude, but I asked if I could see a business card proving that they do in fact work for the airport, and that we are in fact going to the hotel. Of which they laughed and said of course, and they showed me their business card, which seemed legit enough, but I was still not completely at ease. When we got to the hotel I was able to pull out about 1,000 Egyptian pounds and I felt even more sketched out handing the driver a wad of cash on the street. But they got me situated at my hotel, and I asked them a bunch of questions and talked with them about their tour service and they showed me a bunch of other people doing the same thing, so it's not just me being driven around by strange men. It turns out that I actually stumbled onto a pretty cool thing by being stupid and just getting lucky. What they do is give you a driver, and a guide that just stays with you every day from 9am to 5pm and shows you what you want to see and makes sure you don't get yourself hurt. So in talking to these guys tonight I actually made some pretty cool friends. Hussein (pronounced Hen) is my guide. He calls me Mr. Tyler David which sounds very funny in his severely broken english. He says he will always remember me because "all da time you are smealey" (smiling). He wants me to come back again one day and find him again because he says, "We are now very good friends."

I feel much safer here now despite the fact that it very much looks like the front page of the world news. The streets here are like a superbowl talegate party that went on about 3,000 years too long. Every guard (including simple traffic cops) have an AK47 strapped to their arm. This is a different world entirely.

Tonight I got to see a light show on the great pyramids. The feeling of standing next to them in the middle of the desert is indescribable. I can't even begin to tell you what I felt when I looked up at the stars tonight and saw Orion in the sky (a constellation I've stared at many times at the beach house back home) hovering over top of the pyramids of Egypt. And the vast, ancient desert all around me glowing with the setting sun. It was a sight I know I will never forget. I've seen the pyramids of egypt, and the sphinx in front. I know what the Egyptian desert at sunset smells like. I now have what very few people do.
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