DAY of HELL

After a long and arduous journey on the fairy, everyone was fairly tired (especially since we'd been going to bed at truly decent times every night). So, we get to Athens, and take a bus directly to the Airport. It is now 3 am. We do not catch our flight until 2pm. WE can't check in, so we are stuck in the airport right at the check in...sucky.

SO, we try really hard to sleep. I just read. No way I'm gonna sleep, but I think that Bradley might have caught a few minutes, and Beth a few seconds of genuine rest.

Around 7 am, we are tired and sore and groggy, and we all have headaches from lack of sleep and these Three strange guys come up to us and sit down in the chairs across from us. They clearly speak another Language, which we think is french.

Now, often when you speak a language that the other person doesn't speak, you might be tempted to try a conversation, but it'll be short and sweet...mainly because it's a lot of work, and especially when you just slept on a boat and in the airport, it's about all the effort you want to put in. Well, these guys, had none of that. They wanted a full fledged friend making session. They asked us in tremendously broken English where we were from, then made a joke in french about the Quebecois, and then asked our names and several other things...but it was more like this:

"uh, name?"

"Talia...and you?"

"mich-i-ael".

"OK. NIce to meet you"

"Ah, blahahahahahah, like, writing?"

"Like, am I in school"

"Yea, school...School."

"um, yes.

"Blha ahahahlahlahlahlah adBlabla...like ah, (and here he would offer a can of beer).

"no. No thanks"

"No (and here he would pretend to drink)?"

"no. not really."

then he offered us cigarettes, and then more beer...and then more cigarettes, and then asked if we like to do drugs outside with friends and then sleep (we think...?)

Very odd. And they wouldn't drop it, even if it took twenty minutes to figure out one phrase. Ridiculous! And, one of them took Bradleys hat and wore it (thus bending it) and they made us take a picture of them (which you'll see on Photo night!) very odd.

Anyway, we finally decided it was breakfast time and we made our leave. Thank-goodness.

So, we hung out in the airport, doing things to pass the time like walking around and playing cards, finishing books, and eating...well, not a lot of money, so more like drinking water.

Around noon we went to check in. Well, first thing I noticed was how pushy the guys in the Egyptian air line up were. It's like they wanted people to think that they were to ignorant to follow a line. And then when they were told about the line up and that they had to go to the bac, they'd get angry, and still were pushy, but they'd finally go. I personally would not want someone to think I was to stupi to understand a line-up...but clearly here they do.

Anyway, we get to the check in desk, and we find out that Bradley and Bethany were booked and expected, and Talia, she was not. Nope. No ticket could be found...no ticket for Talia. :(

So, we ran downstairs to the business office and paid a fotrune for ten minutes on the internet so we could print off the confirmation - which was a mess because we couldn't remember expedia passwords and whose account it was under - anyway, we finally got in, and COULDN'T FIND THE RESERVATION! We booked them on the same day, so something had gone awry and we don't know what yet...we'll have to figure out if I was overcharged and stuff...big mess.

Anyway, we now had no way for me to get to Cairo. SHoot. So I had to fork out a bunch of money for an emergency ticket. Which stinks. That was money for gifts for all of you find people. So now, no high expectations ok?!

Anyway, finally finally we got on the plane, all together. We arrived in Cairo. We had to go through this area right at the door where we needed to fill out health cards to say if we needed quarentine or not. But everyone, like 60 people were crammed into this tiny little area to fill in their cards before they could get into the airport. We were like crammed cattle, trying to fil thigns in, adn stay together, and hand in your sheets to the right guy. Then we still had to wait in line before we got in, because we had to go through some scanner, infared thing, to proove we weren't ill (though I still don't know what they were looking for), and then finaly got into the actually doorway into the airport. Next, we waited in a line. A long long line. We waited for about 20 mintues, got to the window, and were told we had to uy Visa's! WE we obviously knew we had to purchase a visa, but there are NO signs to let you know where to do this. Then, he directed us to the money exchange. The money exchange is where you buy visa's. I would have never guessed that and there aren't any signs, so we bought the visa's and then we had no choice but to stand in line again. Poop.

So, finally we are picked up by our guide, and he seems nice, and we get to the hostel and all is well, and we go to an ATM and try and take out money, and Bethany's card won't work, and I can't get out more than 1000 egyption pounds (200 bucks). Crap. So, we wait.

We are directed to the inhouse tour planner and he basically sits us down and helps us plan our time here. It's a little expensive, but we get to see Luxor, and we get free pick-ups and drop-off's from everywhere and tour guides for all the days and we see the Oasis, so the plan sounds ok. we then have to pay, and no one can get money out except Bradley. So he takes out a TON! So he can pay for everything. Now, it seems that Brad is out of money, and no one else has access to theirs. Shoot, but we pay for the trip.

WE are left nervous and anxious about money, but glad to be safe and together at our next destination. Hurray Cairo!