Day one was exhausting. Genevieve and I disembarked from JFK at 6:30pm on Friday and arrived in Cairo at 12:30pm on Saturday. We were guided through the airport by our Contiki representative who was extremely helpful. We had to purchase our visas in the airport, which turned out to effectively be a way for the Egyptian government to generate income more than anything else. Once we got our visas and picked up our bags, we hopped in the shuttle bus and headed off to our first hotel, the Victoria.
Once we arrived at the hotel, we got our room key and hopped in the elevator. The bellhop grabbed our bags and showed us to our room. He felt the need to turn on and off each light in the room, as if to teach us how they worked. This was our first introduction to the overused open upturned palm followed by "money?" As I'm sure I will talk about later, tipping is a way of life in Egypt and no one is shy about asking for money.
Once we gave the bellhop some cash, we both immediately fell asleep for about four hours. I slept for about an hour on the plane and Genevieve did not sleep at all, so we were running on fumes. We then woke up and ran downstairs to meet the rest of the tour group and our tour guide, Sherif. First, let me not overstate how incredible Sherif was. He did everything from tell us where to eat, what to buy, where to buy it, and how much to pay. He was amazing! Anyway, back to the first night. Sherif made us all introduce ourselves and gave us the option of four different places to eat that night. Nine of us went to Gad, which is similar to an Arabian fast food diner. I was the only male, which made for an interesting walk home through the busy streets of Cairo.
On the walk back, we decided to stop off at a gas station grocery market. However, the walk there was filled of loud horns, near hit-and-runs, and cat calls at the eight girls I was walking with. Welcome to Egypt! We all ended up getting bits and bobs from the grocery market and miraculously found our way back to the hotel. Genevieve and I went directly to sleep because Sunday's wakeup was 6am!
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