The journey to Egypt.....

London is big.

The tangle of tube lines is even bigger.

I left plenty of time to get the train from where I kissed goodbye to my friends. Murphys Law: - I was rushing up the escalator and asking every person I passed was I in the correct terminal. (Heathrow is big as well). Unfortunately no-one knew which terminal EgyptAir flew from, so I ran around rucksack on my back, panicing, wondering if my costly travel insurance covered missing flights.

Of course once I set down in the airport I ran to the Burger King and stuffed my eager face with big burgers, floppy chips and tonnes of tomato sauce - as I had been doing for the previous 2 months in Dublin - swallowed down with copious amounts of beers - (Sure I wouldn't be seeing either foodstuffs for months and months and months)- twas all to be bananas from now on. Maybe if I was feeling risqué I'd try the local delicacies: rice, felafel and lemonade.

Eventually I found myself peering over towel-headed Arabs (my knowledge of the Muslim culture quite basic at that time) at the check-in area to find Andrea - my fellow blonde Caucasian female traveller. She had cut all her blonde hair off and had it neatly tied up in a ponytail - a sign of greasiness to come. She wore the clean flashy combats, which each of the 3 of us had purchased in ex-army stores (different colours), sparkling new boots and the almighty fleece. We hugged and nervously turned towards the desk and presented our tickets and full brimming rucksacks to the exotic hostess.

The plane was huge. Hollywood's films and books depict Ireland as a quaint backward place. It is true we do not have the though-traffic to necessitate large aircrafts and anyway we are only a stones throw away from that pulsing polluted tangled hub of London from where we can go anywhere in the world.

Now I fancied myself as having travelled quite a bit, all over Europe and America. But this plane was huge. There were Televisions on the bottom and on the front so we could see a captains-eye view of the runway and then the land below when we were safely airborne - an expense which is not necessary in my view but which entertained us immensely. Our fellow Arab passengers took it quite coolly and did not respond to our ohs and ahs awe-struckm from this modern technology!

Landing in Egypt
(and absolutely hating the first night)

   1 IR     = 5.3 Egyptian Pounds

   1 US$    = 3.4 Egyptian Pounds

VISAS
The cost of a visa into Egypt is $15, available on arrival at the airport.

I absolutely hated my first night in Cairo - the first night of the 'big trip'. I remember hovering over the toilet watching a huge upside- down cockroach wriggling to get upright. I crushed it with my heavy boot which did not manage to drown the clattering crunch of the exoskeleton. No toilet roll of course and my thighs were shaking from this hovering position. I tried to sooth myself by saying at least it was a western toilet not a hole in the ground. But what is the good of that when it is so filthy that you can't sit on the bloody thing! I wandered down the kippy hallway back to our three-bedded room. It was hot and heavy and mosquitoes buzzed and hovered all night. I just wanted to go home and spent the night thinking of excuses for going home. I could get my parents to lie and say someone in the family was sick - I wouldn't lose face- but I might lose a journey of a lifetime. I hated it and I didn't see how things could improve. Sure - I'd see the pyramids and the many wonders of the world - I could lie on barren beaches and meet interesting people, but I would still have to sleep in flea ridden beds, and eat crappy food, and journey in collapsing cages - and those activities would take up at least 60% of each day!! I was miserable, thoroughly wretched.

It is amazing how the sunlight and time changes our perceptions and how we become accustomed to things. I can honestly say I have experienced living in the most awful situations, lepers have clung on to me, I have been bitten from head to toe by every type of insect, I have lived on the most basics of foodstuffs and have travelled on routes and in vehicles that I know my mother would shriek and chain me to my homestead, if she knew.

But I have also seen the most splendid sites in the world and experienced the wonderous divergence of cultures and these make up for the difficulties a zillion times over!

Here is a synopsis of places I have been to and recommendations for others wanting to travel. It is quite a formal approach. If you want a continutation of the thoughts and emotions then you'll have to wait for my book (yep, like every other traveller I am writing a book - How unoriginal).

> more on Egypt

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© Catherine Wilson 97-99