Vacation of a lifetime...thanks to THESON!

My good buddy theRuss, took me to the airport to set off on the journey of a lifetime, on Tuesday the 6th @ 2:50 pm. The flights were broken up between Washington, D.C., Frankfurt, Germany and into Cairo, Egypt. I have never been one to actually sleep in any moving vehicle...I may get drowsy but never really sleep, so after many hours of flying time I made it to Cairo on time, a little after 2 pm Wednesday (Cairo time - 7 hours ahead of our time). I tried to upgrade to Business Class on Lufthansa in Frankfurt, but a blatant NO was the answer. They actually turned up their noses when I replied that I would be putting the additional charge on my credit card...guess cold hard cash works for them. (Silly asses - the American dollar is almost worthless these days on the global market.)

Theson had taken a half day off to meet me at the airport with his driver Emad. Driving from the airport to his apartment was a great initiation into the driving (or non-driving) habits of the Egyptians. Cairo looks relatively modern with lines painted on the roads to designate LANES - but in reality they mean NOTHING!! Crazy drivers rely on their horns and lights to weave into and out of lanes or just make their own way straddling "lanes." Stoplights are there...all blinking yellow and trust me, there is no caution involved whatsoever. We stopped at a fruit market and got so much fresh produce (strawberries, peaches and cantaloupe) and theson stopped at another market and got Diet Dr. Pepper for me and of course some beer for him.

Theson let me take a couple hour nap, before we headed off to dinner with his co-workers, Ken, John and Ed at the Red Onion. Delicious steaks - I was impressed. John is engaged to an Egyptian girl, Basma, and she also was with us for dinner. Since we had time to kill before theson headed back to the airport to pick up theJay and theRachel, we went to the "Far East" bar. I had visions of this place before stepping in the door as they told me it was known for some rowdy fights at times...I was not far off in my impression. You walk into a very nice restaurant area (no patrons) and head to the back of the building - where all the action takes place, bar, pool tables and comely girls to attend to your needs. Basma worked at this place before becoming engaged to John. We only stayed about an hour or so, before heading home as I was super tired and needed to sleep.

I must also say, one suitcase did not make it to Cairo with me...but I was guaranteed it would be at the apartment by 3:30 am. Surprise - it was!!! Minus quite a few items though. I was pissed. Not a lot of value to the missing items, just the principle. Damn TSA - says you can't lock your luggage anymore, therefore the baggage handlers make a killing on stolen loot. Assholes!

When we all woke up on Thursday morning, Emad was making breakfast for everyone before we headed to the Egyptian Museum. (Weekends for theson are Thursday and Friday - most of Egyptians, also.) My comments on the Egyptian Museum are not all that great. For a country with such ancient history and artifacts...it is not displayed well or in any great order. From what I have read though, not a lot has been updated in the past century, other than displays relating to King Tut and recent finds. Since no cameras were allowed in the museum, this is a pic of me and theson in front of museum.

Afterwards, we headed to Khan el Khalilli, the Egyptian bazaar. Some of the shopping areas are real tourist traps, but we managed to get off the beaten path and found an interesting art studio (see Nomadic Tendencies blog.) Theson rather succinctly covers the trip, and if you go to the link to his site...it will save me time in repeating the events.

I will be back to add more soon, but am trying to relax after 2 days in a row of baseball games. We just got home from one and now have to feed the little critter at 7 pm. I cleaned my back deck this morning into early afternoon and am ready to put some meat on the grill for a cookout tomorrow. I may only have one person here or I could have more - I never know.

Everyone enjoy this Memorial Day holiday weekend! TTFN