Ugh. And so it goes. I missed my flight today. That's what I get for diligently checking the flight status beforehand. So my flight was delayed from 12:30pm to 2pm, and when I saw that online I decided to just stay here at the hostel a bit longer. I arrived at the airport at 11:30am and was promptly told that the gate for my flight was closed...despite the flight delay they had processed it at the original time. So there I was, and they refused to let me on even though the flight wasn't leaving for 2.5 more hours! They must have already given my seat away.
So for the first time in months I began crying, and I'm never the type of girl able to turn on the water show when she wants something. But even my beautiful tears of sorrow failed to sway the hunch-backed Delta man from getting me on the plane.
Because Delta only offers one flight to NYC a day, and no other flights in North America, the flight was booked until the 10th. So I could either wait another five days and sight see some more, or pay $233 for the emergency seat tomorrow.
Flight delays on your way home are one of those events that so gleefully mess with your emotions. Even yesterday, if I knew I had the option to extend another five days I would have jumped at it. But today, having psyched myself up for "finally going home" it was such a blow - "not just a later flight today but in five more days ?!!" So I took the option of paying to fly home tomorrow. Either way I'd have spent the same amount of money.
When I finally arrived back at my hostel (via an hour and a half taxi ride through the ghettos of Cairo when it should normally takes 30 minutes) I told one of the hostel workers what had happened. I told him I had cried and still I wasn't able to get on and now was going to pay for a flight tomorrow. He asked me increduously, "You mean youi didn't try and pay the man to get you in?!"
Another lesson learned in Cairo: money not tears my friend, money not tears. I should have known bribery was the best option....silly American.
In any case, I now have one more day/night to eat my favorite Ta'mayya (falafel) and rice pudding while inhaling the black Cairo air. Life is still good.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
My last Day of Travel: Seeing Everything in Cairo in ONE DAY....
I finally arrived in Cairo after pulling myself out of the quicksand of Dahab, giving me exactly one full day in the tourist treasure of Cairo.
I began this morning at 7:30am with the Great Pyramids of Giza. They truly define awesome. I got haggled into a camel ride by a man named Sallah and his camel Mickey Mouse, which ended up being a blast as he was all about helping me get my requisite jumping photos in front of the Sphinx and the Pyramid. And in the end he had Mickey Mouse lie down adn I stood on him for a bunch of rather amusing photos.
After eating my breakfast i'd taken from my hostel consisting of hotdog buns and fig jam, I caught a taxi to Khan-al-Khalili, the famous Cairo market. I wandered through the Islamic quarter where the locals buy their undergarments, spices, toiletries etc., and continued into the tourist quarter full of Egyptian purses, jewlery and shoes. I sat at a famous little alley cafe that has been open supposedly for 200 years while I sipped mint tea and smelled the wafting aroma of apple sheesha being smoked by local men and people-watched. I made a stop at a traditional pasteries, fruits and nuts store and bought some delicious Persian yellow raisins and amazing peanuts coated with honey and sesame seeds, before catching a third taxi to the Egyptian Museum.
Entering the Egyptian Museum is like finding the door to an immense mansion attic full of someone's life treasures: the museum is covered with sarcophagi, vessels, mummies, jewelry and a million other things, many of which are left uncovered/unprotected and look like they were simply dropped off by the movers and never properly put away. My favorites were the animal mummification room, the Royal Mummy room which houses the best preserved mummies in the world frmo the Valley of the Kings and all other famous locations in Egypt, and the King Toot ankh amoon (my Egyptian friend's spelling) wing which houses the most famous death mask, largest sarcophagi, most extensive jewelry etc - all for a king who ruled for just nine years!
Next I decided to wander around the downtown area, since my hostel is only a ten minute walk from the Egyptian Museum and the main dowtown streets of Tarir Haab and El Nile are so close and full of the latest Egyptian fashion. I wandered and window shopeed, and stopped for a refreshing lemon juice, and wandered some mroe...before finally returning to the hostel for a much needed shower.
There are a million things I did not see today, least of all the Citadel, Islamic Cairo, and the Saqqara step pyramid. But this [rovides me with yet another great excuse to return. Tonight my plan is to see a Sufi dance and to go on a sunset falluqua (traditional Nile sailboat) ride on the Nile, since I wasn't able to do a 2-3 day Nile river trip.
It is so hard to believe my time traveling is up. I feel that for me, life is most in perspective when I am traveling. And I feel uncomfortabel not knowing when the next time is that I will leave the States again - although I know it will likely be less than 6 months (fingers crossed). While I am not ready to be done traveling, I am very excited to be back home in the most beautiful location off all the travels I have ever done: my hometown of Missoula, Montana. I have been dreaming of sitting on my back porch, gazing out at my mom's incredible flower garden while sipping on Sangria that my dad and I make. And I am equally excited to begin my last year in my master's program so I can begin compiling the qualitative and quantitative data from my three months in Ghana, and hopefully get the findings published before I graduate.
I feel at a loss of elequent words to summarize my experiences, thoughts and emotions over the past 100 days. Suffice it to say I am thankful for the amazing experiences I have had and everything I have learned, and I hope that it will all contribute to some small change for the better as I continue my work in public health.
I began this morning at 7:30am with the Great Pyramids of Giza. They truly define awesome. I got haggled into a camel ride by a man named Sallah and his camel Mickey Mouse, which ended up being a blast as he was all about helping me get my requisite jumping photos in front of the Sphinx and the Pyramid. And in the end he had Mickey Mouse lie down adn I stood on him for a bunch of rather amusing photos.
After eating my breakfast i'd taken from my hostel consisting of hotdog buns and fig jam, I caught a taxi to Khan-al-Khalili, the famous Cairo market. I wandered through the Islamic quarter where the locals buy their undergarments, spices, toiletries etc., and continued into the tourist quarter full of Egyptian purses, jewlery and shoes. I sat at a famous little alley cafe that has been open supposedly for 200 years while I sipped mint tea and smelled the wafting aroma of apple sheesha being smoked by local men and people-watched. I made a stop at a traditional pasteries, fruits and nuts store and bought some delicious Persian yellow raisins and amazing peanuts coated with honey and sesame seeds, before catching a third taxi to the Egyptian Museum.
Entering the Egyptian Museum is like finding the door to an immense mansion attic full of someone's life treasures: the museum is covered with sarcophagi, vessels, mummies, jewelry and a million other things, many of which are left uncovered/unprotected and look like they were simply dropped off by the movers and never properly put away. My favorites were the animal mummification room, the Royal Mummy room which houses the best preserved mummies in the world frmo the Valley of the Kings and all other famous locations in Egypt, and the King Toot ankh amoon (my Egyptian friend's spelling) wing which houses the most famous death mask, largest sarcophagi, most extensive jewelry etc - all for a king who ruled for just nine years!
Next I decided to wander around the downtown area, since my hostel is only a ten minute walk from the Egyptian Museum and the main dowtown streets of Tarir Haab and El Nile are so close and full of the latest Egyptian fashion. I wandered and window shopeed, and stopped for a refreshing lemon juice, and wandered some mroe...before finally returning to the hostel for a much needed shower.
There are a million things I did not see today, least of all the Citadel, Islamic Cairo, and the Saqqara step pyramid. But this [rovides me with yet another great excuse to return. Tonight my plan is to see a Sufi dance and to go on a sunset falluqua (traditional Nile sailboat) ride on the Nile, since I wasn't able to do a 2-3 day Nile river trip.
It is so hard to believe my time traveling is up. I feel that for me, life is most in perspective when I am traveling. And I feel uncomfortabel not knowing when the next time is that I will leave the States again - although I know it will likely be less than 6 months (fingers crossed). While I am not ready to be done traveling, I am very excited to be back home in the most beautiful location off all the travels I have ever done: my hometown of Missoula, Montana. I have been dreaming of sitting on my back porch, gazing out at my mom's incredible flower garden while sipping on Sangria that my dad and I make. And I am equally excited to begin my last year in my master's program so I can begin compiling the qualitative and quantitative data from my three months in Ghana, and hopefully get the findings published before I graduate.
I feel at a loss of elequent words to summarize my experiences, thoughts and emotions over the past 100 days. Suffice it to say I am thankful for the amazing experiences I have had and everything I have learned, and I hope that it will all contribute to some small change for the better as I continue my work in public health.
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