Saturday December 27, 2008

I slept in as I knew I wouldn't be etting a lot of sleep. Willow woke me up to huge hugs (the suck) she's so smart, she knows I'm leaving her. I did some basic housework and checked the airport forcast all day as it was yellow meaning a possible weather delay, it was rather foggy out. I left home at around 4:30, getting to the airport for 6:00 pm.

Take off was a little delayed, 9:15 instead of 8:30, but not due to the weather, because a transferring flight was delayed.

The flight was smooth, I watched "The Dark Knight" and slept for a bit.

Air Canada ROCKS!!!!

Sunday December 28, 2008

We arrived in Paris at 10:15am, now for the hard part, the transfer from Air Canada to Air France. Not just the average transfer, I had to go to a completely different terminal. I asked one person who said "exit and go right, yo will see a sign for the shuttle" so there I waited for a few minutes. It was freezing out, so I went back inside and asked someone else who said that it's just a five minute walk away. Once I got going the right way it was easy.

The second flight was just as smooth as the first. I watched "Hancock" with lunch (which was a really good lunch), then tried to get a bit of sleep. We landed in Cairo at 7:00 pm. I met up with Mohab, we went and checked into the hotel. Then went and got some dinner... Egyptian Pizza of course. Then headed to bed.

Monday December 29, 2008

A lazy day. We slept in, lazed around for a while, then went to visit his cousin.

After the visit with the cousins we went to see his parents. Of course mama was very happy.

Tuesday December 30, 2008

We went to Islamic Cairo to Beit-al-Sahaymi which is a beautiful old house built in 1648 and the other half in 1796.

We also went to Beit Khatoun which was built in 1486 and to Beit al-Harawi built in 1731.

After that we shopped at Khan-al-Khalili, had dinner, did more shopping, then headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday December 31, 2008

We got up fairly early and spent the day at Giza wandering around all three pyramids, going into tombs and Queen's pyramids as well as the Sphinx complex and Boat House. Then we watched the sunset over the pyramids from the cafe across the street. It was the perfect day!






















For New Years we went to the Greek Club for dinner.

Thursday January 1, 2009

We spent the day at his place getting ready for our trip to Aswan.

The train left the station at 9:30pm. We had a meal and went to sleep, on beds!

I must say, it's way better than the last train we took to Aswan (even the bathrooms) more tourists perhaps, or just a different class of travellers.

Friday January 2, 2009

We got to Aswan at noon and checked into the hotel.

We spent the afternoon on Elepantine Island and the Nilometre. Lots and lots of temples and other ancient sites all located in the same area.

We had coffee on the hotel rooftop while watching the sunset.

Then did some shopping in the evening and had Egyptian McDonald's for dinner, which actually is different than Canadian McDonald's.

Typical Egyptian spice market.

Saturday January 3, 2009

We got up early and took the bus to Abu Simbel.

We spent the day wandering around and in the evening stayed for the sound and light show.

At the end of the show I headed for the washroom before the long trip back to Aswan, Mohab stayed outside. When I came out he was gone, but I spotted him over by the shops so I headed that way. A man walked in front of me and asked what I was looking for (to sell me something). I said "my husband". He said "come with me, maybe I have my husband in my shop". I laughed and said "I don't think so, he's right there!".

We got a mini bus back to Aswan, the trip took forever.

When we got to the hotel we had a little buddy on the bed.

Sunday January 4, 2009

We got up early to take the train to Luxor. The regular train is just as bad as I remember... smelly, uncomfortable, you name it.

We checked into Lotus Hotel, then headed for lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing.

In the evening we headed for a walk and dinner. We had Chinese food, but it's way different from ours.

We headed to bed early as we had to get up early for the hot air balloon ride... ACK!!!

Monday January 5, 2009

We got up at five a.m. for the balloon ride. I must admit I was petrified. I knew that we would soar to at least 2500 feet in nothing more than a basket.

They picked us up at the hotel at six a.m. and we took a bus to the river. We were taken to a boat and waited for a bit having tea or coffee (of course I didn't because I knew if I did I would have to hit the washroom). We sailed over the Nile toward the West bank and took another bus to the site. By this time it was already fully light out (they had advertised seeing the sunrise), so I wasn't completely happy with that.

When I saw the balloon we were going to go in I almost turned around.

We got into the basket, five of us in our part (the people we were on the bus with and Wally who we met at the hotel, who was just as scared as I was). There were four parts to the basket, with four to six people per part.

They showed us the position we had to take for landing (the crash position) and a few minutes later took off. It was so smooth we didn't even know it until we were about 50 feet up. We went up to about 900 ft and floated for a while, then increased to 2700 ft. Once up all the fear went away, it was such a relaxing experience.

We stayed up for about 40 minutes and landed far south from where we started. I was a little disappointed that we didn't travel over Hatshepsut's Temple, I would have really liked to have seen that from the air.

They bused us back to the hotel where we had breakfast, checked out, and headed for the bus station.

We took the bus to Hurghada which should have only taken about four hours, but because our driver stopped four times it took more than five. Every stop we made had only squat toilets, I had to go so bad I gave in and bowed down to business - not fun, would be great for the hoverers among us.

We got to Mohab's brother's in Hurghada and just relaxed for the evening.

** Videos from the balloon ride can be found here.

Tuesday January 6 - Thursday January 8, 2009

Hurghada

Spent the days relaxing in the sun and going to dinner and spending evenings with Mizo, Fati,

and Adam.

Friday January 9, 2009

We spent the morning relaxing by the pool and then took the afternoon bus back to Cairo.

We went to his place for dinner and loaded the pics onto the computer, got last minute shopping done, etc.

Saturday January 10, 2009

Mohab had to go to the immigration doctor so I spent the day packing up and relaxing. When he got back we went to the koshari place for dinner then for coffee.

We went back to the hotel for a couple of hours, then off to the airport.

Sunday January 11, 2009

The plane took off at two a.m. and we landed in Paris at six a.m. I found out that I had done the transfer wrong the first time. Instead of checking out and walking to the other terminal there was a transfer shuttle that took you straight to the other gate.

The wait in the airport was six hours, I was exhausted because I just couldn't sleep.

The plane took off at 12:30 p.m. It was a smooth flight, I tried to sleep, but again it was difficult. I watched "Burn After Reading" and "Ghost Town" on the flight home.

We landed in Toronto at 2:20 p.m. I waited forever for the shuttle to come for pickup, it was absolutely freezing as I was used to 23 degrees and not -5 degrees. I got my car, hit Tim Horton's, and headed home.