Egypt, Day 13

Day 13: Day 13 we woke up in Cairo after a very uncomfortable and cold bus ride. We got all of our stuff off the bus and looked for a taxi to take us to our hostel. We were staying at the Juliana Hostel because our Egyptian Nights hostel that we had stayed in when we were previously in Cairo was booked. So when we got to the hostel they told us that we couldn’t check in until noon. It was currently about 8 am. They said that we could leave our luggage there but that we couldn’t use the rooms yet. Though it was very hard, we tried to be understanding about this, but we were soooo tired. So we left our luggage and decided to just go walk around downtown and try to find something for breakfast. We were all getting on the crabby side just because were sleep deprived, sun burnt, and hungry. We found a bakery and ordered a pastry and a cup of tea and we just sat at the table trying to kill time. It got to the point were almost all 5 of us were asleep on the table…good thing it was a big place. Then around 11 we got up and went to a pharmacy to get some medicine for Michaela because she had gotten kind of sick the day before and then we headed back to the hostel.

As soon as well got into our rooms our attitude totally switched and we actually became nicer people. But then it took us about 2 minutes for all of us to fall asleep. We woke up to a tapping on the door so we all just yelled come in not knowing who it was. It was our Carmina!!! our 6th friend that was joining us for our last couple days in Egypt. She had spent the first part of her Spring Break in Italy and Greece and then come to Cairo for a couple days. So when she got there we got up and showered and then we went to go talk to the hostel people about getting our camel and Pyramid tour set up for the morning. When doing that he told us that we could also go on this Nile Dinner Cruise tonight if we wanted. He said it would be dinner and entertainment on a big boat that would go around on the Nile in downtown Cairo. Carmina, Catherine, and I decided we wanted to do that…Michaela was still sick so she stayed, Ish stayed with Michaela, and Joy also wasn’t feeling to good either, so the three of them stayed behind.

The hostel got a driver to drive us to the river. This guy was quite interesting…and of course began hitting on Mona (aka me) from minute one. We got in the car and introduced ourselves and then he said well Mona you look like my ex-wife but wayyyy more beautiful. What do you say to that?.....Yeah I don’t know either. He then went on to tell me that he had 100 camels in his trunk that he would buy me with. The three of us girls just laughed and tried to ignore his weirdness. Getting in the car he pumped up his Egyptian music quite loudly and was driving like a maniac. During the ride Carmina yelled up front to him saying “So when I need to puke because of your crazy driving where do you want me to do it?” He then said ohhh should I slow down? We all shook our heads yes. The Dinner Cruise was pretty fun…the food was good and the entertainment was decent. They had two guys to some dance stuff and they were very funny but then they had a girl belly dancer come out that wasn’t wearing enough clothes and she acted like she hated her job. So it wasn’t very entertaining…though every guy on the boat seemed to enjoy it….they all got out their cameras really fast as soon as she hit the floor. Then when she was almost out she came out in the crowd to grab someone to come dance with her….of course she came to our table and tried grabbing Carmina. Carmina refused and so she tried grabbing me and I said no as well, but apparently she didn’t care and pulled me out of my seat and pushed me to the middle dance floor. She tried getting me to dance but all I did was stand there laughing thinking are you kidding me? Melinda dance?….not a chance. She then came up behind me and tried getting me to shake my hips and dance so I finally just did it so basically I could sit down. Belly dancing will never become a hobby of mine haha.

While we were there we met this guy from Canada that sat by us at dinner. He was quite the character. We asked him why he was in Egypt and he said “Ohh just want to check it off the list”….the three of us girls didn’t really know how to respond to that one. He then went on to tell us that he travels a lot. And so Carmina asked him where his favorite place is that he has traveled to and he said “Well I have been to 35 countries so it’s really hard to slim that down”…..He basically turned into this very proud guy who seemed to just travel so he could tell people he has done so and not for the experience of traveling. He was very into himself and all that he has done and so lets just say we weren’t sad to say goodbye at the end of the night. Driving home our driver again tried to convince my friends that they should trade me for 100 camels that he was trying to convince us he had. Catherine kept telling him that I was worth way more than 100 camels so it wasn’t going to work out. The funniest thing about this guy though, was that he thought he was absolutely hilarious so after anything he said he would laugh with this most ridiculous laugh. His laugh was so hilarious that Catherine and I were almost crying we were laughing so hard at his laugh, but he thought we were laughing at “jokes” so he just kept on going. It was a funny ride home for sure. Once we got back to the hostel we hit the hay because we had to be up at 3:30 for our day of camels and pyramids!!!