Welcome Back to Egypt?

Two tube lines were down on my way to the airport, and all I could think was that traveling is never simple, even in western civilization. Otherwise, my flight went very well! It was five hours, and I landed at 8:45 PM Cairo time (seven hours ahead of EST). I promptly went to the bus station, and got on the next bus to Alexandria.
I felt refreshed after my time away, and actually excited to be back in Egypt. All of the people at the airport were surprised I was speaking Arabic, and I was happy that I still felt very comfortable in the language, even after ten days away!
I got on the bus at a little before 10PM, and took a Tylonel PM, figuring the journey would be long, but I could sleep through it. My BlackBerry had very little life left, so I turned it off, and prepared for a long nap.
Unfortunately, this was not what transpired. By 11:00 PM we were still in Cairo. The bus broke down in the middle of the city (what is with me and broken busses?), and the driver didn’t seem to be doing anything to fix it. I stayed calm for the first hour, trying not to fall asleep standing on the side of the road. A woman and her brother, as well as a businessman who was fluent in English, befriended me, and we worked together to decide what should be done. We missed all of the other buses to Alexandria, the trains stop running at midnight, and a taxi is too dangerous. We ended up waiting on the side of the road until 1:00AM, when the new bus came.
I finally called my mom from my Egyptian phone to let her know I was on a bus. I started to cry. I was exhausted, and they Tylonel PM in my system wasn’t helping, and I realized that for the first time in Egypt I had actually been frightened. Rationally, I knew nothing would happen to me. But being a twenty-year-old girl standing on the side of the street in Cairo after midnight is not the safest thing, and i could no longer ignore the lump in my throat that was present throughout the entire wait.
I pretended I was asleep, but the other passengers gave me some water and told me to have my own row to myself. I passed out on top of all of my stuff, as I hadn’t allowed the driver to put my suitcase under the bus, and woke up in Alexandria at 4:00 AM. The woman and her brother wouldn’t let me take a cab alone, and they dropped me off at my dorm. Once in my room, I was pretty wired, so I unpacked and did some laundry before passing out until 1 PM the next day.
Did I expect smooth sailing on the trip from Cairo to Alex? No. I have also learned, by now, to be prepared for anything. However that bus experience was worse than expected, and worse than the way to the airport because it was at night. Despite the experience, I am going make sure I get the most out of the next three weeks.