Sunday, April 2 and Monday, April 3, 2006

The Longest Day.

Mike drove us to the airport for 3:00. We checked in, went through customs, then sat and waited for about two hours.

We boarded the plane at 6:10 p.m. and took off at 7:10. Take off was not so bad. Our path took up up the St. Laurence and over Quebec and Newfoundland. We were no sooner in the air then dinner was served. We ate our meal and watched "Chronicals of Narnia". After the movie we tried to sleep, no good, we each got maybe a half hour. By this time it was time to wake up anyway and a small breakfast type of snack was served. Then the plane started to descend in Paris. I must say, I was worried about take off, but descent is much, much worse, especially after just eating. We landed in Paris at just after 8:00 in the morning their time. We got off the plane and onto a sardine packed bus which took us to the terminal for the transfer desk. We went from there to another bus, and yet another bus which took us to the gate and customs. Customs was much more difficult than in Canada, Julie got "felt up" and I had my fanny pack checked. Then we were off to the gate. After a short wait we were on the plane. We were half an hour late in taking off because another plane was late. Take off this time was not good, it was very bumpy and turbulent, we dropped a bit as we were taking off which was freaky. As with before, once we were n the air we were given our meal and then finally dozed off for a bit. We landed in Cairo at 3:15 p.m. (9:15 a.m. to us) got our Visa which was a lot easier than I thought, and our bags, and left the airport. We met up with Yasser and his friend, Rashwan, outside and started the drive "home" which is in the district of Zamalek (an island in the Nile). Driving in Egypt is scary! Cario reminds me of New York City, lots of cars, lots of people, and tonnes of horns honking.

We saw quite a few sights on the way back (no pyramids yet, however).

We made it to the "flat" at around 5:oo and settled in. We called home and showered and finally fell asleep at about 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. at home - that's 30 hours awake on 3 hours sleep). It's noisy outside (the city that never sleeps) and quite chilly in the evening, and our beds and pillows are pretty hard. I managed to fall asleep only out of shear exhaustion.