"Khalas" means finished in Arabic and that is what I am! I have experienced every kind of culture shock there is, but I never thought I could experience it so often in a single country! This is what I felt upon arriving back in Cairo...it's such a varied country that coming from the relaxed Sinai back to the big city was difficult to adjust to. In any case, I had a lengthy to-do list now that I was back in Cairo, but lacked the energy to do most of it. Bree was also staying a few extra days and we tried to see if our lists matched up at all. I was so happy to say goodbye to the majority of the people on my tour as I had reached the point of complete annoyance with all of them. I was tired of the Swedes shoving their way past me to be first for everything; the Canadian boyfriend who constantly ignored his girlfriend and had to try at every turn to make her look stupid and himself the king; blah blah blah. I was even annoyed with myself at this point!
Anyways, Bree and I made our way to the infamous Khan a Khalili market to pick up last minute souvenirs. It is a crazy maze of stall after stall selling everything you need! I, of course, got us lost in the back alleys of the market. Once we made our way out, I was done with it all and just wanted to relax back at the hotel. That night I went to a lovely café with my tour leader for a proper latte. It was so strange to be in this different atmosphere of what appeared to be Egyptian university students-speaking English even though they were all Egyptian.
The final day was a mix of annoyance, anxiety, exhaustion, etc. Bree really wanted to return to the papyrus institute in Giza and I wanted to go to the Citadel. So we set off early in the morning to the American University in Cairo where I picked up my Arabic dictionary. Then, since the papyrus thing was her deal, Bree was to lead and I was to follow. I saw the sign for the Metro and thought it'd be cool to give it a try. It was cheap, easy to use and clean (unlike our New York subways that smell of piss year round). I had heard the stories of the sardine conditions of the subway, but wrote it off. Well, it was true! It was so uncomfortable and I had nothing to hold on to. Apparently, neither did two men next to me as they each decided to hold on to my ass for the one-stop journey....where I lept off immediately. We made our way to the women-only compartment and it was heaven! It was basically empty and much more comfortable. So we got off at the Giza stop and I told Bree "okay, you lead." I could have killed her when she admitted that she had but a street name for the shop and well, that was about it! I was beyond pissed. But she assured me she'd recognize the streets and get us there. She hailed a taxi and said "sphinx." After about 10 minutes I started to recognize things all around us and well, I figured out that we were heading in the wrong direction-back to our hotel! I showed the driver a picture of the sphinx on my camera and after some yelling he turned around. So we wasted about 30 minutes on that error. We get to the sphinx and Bree hasn't a clue where we are. We wandered the streets for about 2 hours and that meant less and less time to go to the Citadel. I finally gave her an ultimatum and hailed a taxi and said I was going to the Citadel and she could do what she wanted. She jumped in with me. Note to self: This is EXACTLY why I prefer to travel alone.
Anyways, we made it to the Citadel with an hour to spare. It was very relaxing to wander the complex of high walls and mosques. The central mosque of Mohammed Ali was nice and had a massive terrace where you could see all of Cairo! You could even see the Pyramids quite clearly. So it was a nice end to the trip. But even more nice was our decision to splurge and dine at the Hard Rock Café. It was the best cheeseburger and fries I'd ever had! And not to mention the yummy sundae for dessert! And as luck would have it, as we walked along the Nile Bree spotted a papyrus shop still open. I guess it was fate. So she finally got her damn papyrus.
We both had early flights and decided to share a taxi. Do not do what I did and try to use all of your LE and save just what you needed for the taxi ride. No one told us that there were two different airports and it was going to cost extra for the driver to go to the two destinations as Bree and I were in different airports. After some yelling and haggling we were on our way. I almost lost it when the Air France man told me that since I didn't have paper tickets I could not get on the flight. It is very uncommon to get paper tickets these days, I think I've been flying on e-tickets for years now. In fact, I didn't even have the option to have paper tickets when I purchased my flight! The tears began to pour down my cheeks and the guy took pity and let me on the flight. And a few hours later I left the land of the pharaohs.
| 
Cairo Hotels
1 vote 
