The R7lah (Journey) to the West

My journey from Alexandria to the Cairo Airport was nothing if not eventful. I purchased a ticket for a bus directly to the airport, and was advised to account for a decent amount of traffic, so I bought at 9:30 AM ticket for my 5:30 PM plane. Little did I know when I reached the bus that it would be the beginning of quite a journey. It was smooth sailing for about the first forty minutes, and all of a sudden the driver pulled over. Thinking he had to pray or smoke, I really didn’t mind. However after half an hour went by I knew something was amiss, and inquired about the problem. I saw that the gas tank was LOWER than zero (uh oh), and additionally I heard that there were issues with the battery of the car. I did my best to keep calm, and started planning for worst-case scenario possible (missing the plane). Initially, the women were sitting in the over heated bus while the men stood outside in the fresh air, I got impatient and decided that committing a cultural faux pas was better than heat stroke, and climbed out of the bus. Then I saw, that people were slowly starting to collect their luggage from under the bus. Oh dear. What in the WORLD could this mean? Originally the driver had said another car was going to come and we would get some gas from him until we made it to the nearest gas station, but apparently that plan got nixed and instead a whole new bus was coming…from Alexandria…now an hour away with the increase in traffic. After waiting about an hour longer (telling myself this would probably be the WORST place to have a panic attack), and being constantly told the bus was coming in “ten minutes”, I decided to take action. I would NOT miss my flight to western civilization because I was standing on the side of the road. So I stuck my hand out and flagged down a microbus (called mashro3 in Alexandria.)
I know Mom, you are holding your breath and really angry with me, and I am SURE everyone is assuming I just wasn’t thinking. But I was. This was, in my humble opinion, the best thing to do at the time, given the circumstances.
For those who don’t know, microbuses are a phenomenon I have only seen in Egypt and Morocco (and I know they are all over the Middle East.) They are basically large vans that have an unofficial route and you just flag them down, as you would a taxi, and they tell you the direction they are headed. In Alexandria, they are really the best way to get around, and are totally safe. However, the side of the road between Alex and Cairo may not be the safest place to pick one up…but I figured a) they stopped for me, so they are clearly okay with me, a foreign woman, on their bus and b) there was another woman on the bus. My plan was, take the bus to wherever it would end up in Cairo, and then jump in a cab.
The microbus was 100% the best cultural and linguistic experience I have had in Egypt. I definitely got skeptical looks from people as they first entered the bus and saw me, but the others would explain the story about how they picked me up off the side of the road, and how I needed to get to the airport. I talked about America, and my time in Egypt, and they told me about their lives and their service in the army. At one point a man in his seventies who worked as a technician in Vienna for a year in the 1980’s sat next to me, I knew he had lived abroad cause the other men in the bus kept their distance by giving me my own row. I felt extremely comfortable and safe with them, and they were very respectful of me, asking about my life but not prying in any way. The driver kept pulling up to tour busses and asking if they were headed to the airport, in attempt to find me a direct ride, and eventually we found one…it was a new bus, but the same one I had been on originally!
So patience has never been my strong suit, and in this circumstance it may have done me good to just wait a little longer on the side of the road. But in Egypt, you really never know. If someone says ten minutes, it could be three hours! We made it to the airport at 3:30PM…it was definitely a journey.
I honestly experienced some culture shock at the airport. Everything was so clean, and nobody bothered me as I just walked around the shops and food areas. If anything, the plane was even more of a culture shock. The flight was five hours, and I got to watch movies…in English! The flight went smoothly, and when I got out of the plane at Heathrow I couldn’t contain my excitement… I think I was the most enthusiastic person the customs officer had seen all day.
I took the Heathrow Express to central London and then the tube to where I stayed, and met my friend from high school, Emily Macleod, who is studying abroad in London. Seeing Emily for the first time in two years was great, and we had fun catching up.
I unfortunately came to London in a span of time when almost everyone was traveling. The girls I was staying with left early Wednesday morning, and my other friends weren’t getting back until late Wednesday night. I decided to use this opportunity to take the Eurostar to Brussels! My friend Sarah is studying in Leuven and met me in Brussels (a twenty minute train ride away). I will write all about my time in Belgium in my next post!