On the move
Istanbul, Turkey
June 02, 2013
Leaving Istanbul & arriving in Cairo...
So, as those of us who know Bill well, know that he is delicate flower, so it is no surprise to you that he was up a good portion of the night praying to the porcelain god. I felt fine, so it is hard to believe that it was food poisoning from our previous dinner, but we can not come up with any other explanation...
I was up at 7:00 and let Bill sleep in for a bit. It had rained over night and was still sprinkling. We went down for another delicious breakfast. I really enjoyed the honey comb and would love to have that on toast with cheese every morning. I also enjoyed the traditional pastry and cheese dish that I had. Bill managed to have a good breakfast and kept it all down!
The rain had let up, so we walked to the Old City Wall that was beside our hotel. There was a path between the wall and a park. It was so quiet that we did not realize that the park was constructed over a highway and exit ramps. What a great way to conceal something that is typically so unappealing and noisy.
We went back to the room and Bill had a nap and packed while I worked on the blog. Our driver picked us up at 11:00 without our guide. He told us that our guide is sick today. Bill is wondering if he was one of the 1,000 protestors that were arrested yesterday.
We went through security twice at the airport. We went through with all of our luggage before the gate, then again after passport control. We had a few good chuckles at the airport. As always, there were some major challenges for our fellow travellers and their luggage.
We thoroughly enjoyed the family that had their entire luggage contents in grocery bags that were reinforced with airport security tape. We were laughing at the one father who wisely moved his toddler away from people wrestling with three luggage carts, by placing him onto his wheeled carryon bag which then of course immediately flipped forward, luckily the child was grabbed before he did a face plant. We saw three ladies in the most unusual dresses. I wish we had taken a photo because they are very difficult to describe. They were very traditional looking with decorative tops and black velvet skirts. It looked like they had small hula hoops at the waist of the skirts. I was convinced that they were each smuggling two children onboard. And the winner of the traveler who made us laugh the most? The father who was using his child's carryon luggage to wheel her through the queue at the passport line. Sounds like a good idea unless you want to take her as fast as you can which causes the luggage to veer and crash her into the metal and plexiglass barriers.
After we checked in we had a leisurely lunch at Kitchenette. Bill's meatballs were really good. The halloumi in my salad was good, but the lettuce was just so so.
It was around 2:00 when we boarded, next time you hear from us, we will be in Cairo!