Lifestyle Blog – Page 39

DESTINATIONS, International, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Baalbak Lebenese Restaurant in the Sonasta Hotel

August 2, 2017May 17, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: EASTER LUNCH WITH FAMILY

In this particular blog, I’m going to rave about our niece Maggie, but please understand, there is no way we could have had such a great trip if not for all of our wonderful nieces and nephews. I’ve already told you how glad we were to see Mirette and Ayman at the airport and how our trip was enhanced by Steven and his traveling companion. The list goes on, but Maggie was my rock. She guided me through the challenges of gift-buying and what to wear for the wedding and what to pack for everything else. Her English is perfect, so she’s easy for me to chat with. She’s also the one who pulled together a perfect Easter Lunch for all the families on the day before the wedding. Kudos to this sweet, bright, beautiful lady!

Egyptian Customs

I’ll have a lot more to say about this when we actually get to the wedding, but they don’t do marriages exactly like we do. Rehearsal dinners are not a thing there, for instance, but Maggie wanted an opportunity for all of the family to get together, so from her home in Michigan, she planned a delightful luncheon for the whole group, including a car to deliver us from the Fairmont to the Sonasta Hotel where the luncheon was.

Egyptians don’t do lunch like us either. My lunch juices start flowing about noon, but Egyptians don’t start thinking about lunch until around 2 and a midnight dinner is nothing too far out of the ordinary, but it’s usually more like nine-ish. Which brings me to my dining schedule while I was there.

As I’ve mentioned, we usually had a huge buffet for breakfast and according to what we were doing that day, it could be anywhere from very early to nearly 11 AM. Whatever time breakfast happened, I needed to load up. If we had an early breakfast, chances are I wouldn’t see food again until late afternoon and that afternoon luncheon might or might not be the final meal of the day.

If we had a later breakfast, it really became brunch, and I’d try to avoid a mid-day meal and hold out until that late dinner. From time to time that meant the application of a little chocolate to my thighs via my mouth, and I tried to keep that to a minimum, but I had plenty of chocolates, thanks to the Ghaly’s beautiful gift.

Most days I was able to keep my intake to two meals, but then something would happen and I found myself eating three feasts in one day, along with some snacks forced on me by an eager hostess. That I only gained five pounds on this trip really was a miracle.

Lunch at Baalak

Baalak, is a lovely restaurant in the Sonesta Hotel featuring regional specialties – kofta, grilled veggies, stuffed grape leaves, eggplant casserole, macaroni in bechamel, rice, potatoes, grilled chicken – all the good stuff. However, they only serve dinner. As I have mentioned, Maggie planned this incredible feast long distance and it was a doozy.

When we arrived I gave the traditional two kiss greeting to everyone and while I wished I could have completed the gifting then and there, this event was to honor the bride and groom, so all I had was their gifts. The balance of the afternoon was spend around the table enjoying one of the most congenial and delicious afternoons you can imagine.

We are an international family. We’re spread out throughout Canada, the US and Egypt, but I’ve heard of relatives in Paris and as far away as Australia. The careers represented range from medical doctor, to teacher, to investor, to stay-at-home-mom, to laundromat entrepreneur, to financier and the list goes on. The children are beautiful, precocious and indulged. We are very interesting to ourselves, but probably not to you.

The next day was the wedding, but we’re not there yet! Come back next week for more family fun.

DESTINATIONS, International, TRAVEL

Living on Plan B

July 26, 2017May 17, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: GOING WITH THE FLOW IS JUST PART OF THE JOURNEY

Last week I admitted how much I loved the neat little packages called hours, because they keep my days in order. I’m also fairly fond of making a plan and then executing it. As you’ll see as we travel along, I had a plan for Egypt and much of it came to fruition, but having the ability to just go along with whatever happens is really a skill you need to develop, if you want to truly enjoy Egypt. Being married to Bill has given me a head start on this ability and I’m glad I had it to pull out of my kit.

Plan B
So, Plan A had gone awry and we had a choice. Welcome to Egypt!

Bassem could drop us off at Mona’s (Bill’s sister/Bassem’s Mom) or we could go with him to Mariam’s (his fiancee). This caused a slight frisson for me. All that hurried gift fritzing was immediately rendered useless. The five gift bags settled around my feet in the car would do me no good. To boot, I’d have to continue carrying them around until I could deliver them to the appropriate recipients.

I also had another dilemma. Egyptian protocol suggests the appropriate moment for gift-giving is the first time you see the donee. You get a pass at the airport with those who pick you up, but after that you should greet people with their gift the first time you see them. I desperately wanted to run back into the hotel and trade my Mirette family gifts for whichever would be right for wherever we ended up going. That wasn’t possible, because we were already out on the street and even by the measure of Egyptian time, we needed to hustle.

The time crunch was creeping up on us, because the Easter Luncheon was scheduled before too long. So it was decided we’d go to Mariam’s and save Bassem from having to stop by his parent’s house to drop us off and then pick us back up.
So, off we went!

I wasn’t too worried about the gifting thing. I would have preferred to show up with something, but we’d hosted the Ghaly’s at Christmas and exchanged wonderful gifts. I sort of had a deposit of goodwill in the Egyptian gifting bank with them. I want you to know they are delightfully gracious people who would not have cared whether we ever gave them a gift at all, but I was trying my best not to drop any Egyptian balls.

The Excitement Builds

Going to Egypt under any circumstances is a pretty exciting adventure, but going for a wedding explodes the thrill factor. Seeing Bassem having his mani/pedi got the wedding juices flowing, but arriving at the bride’s family’s apartment turned that flow into a gushing fountain.

The bride’s parents were thrilled to see us and in true Egyptian fashion starting bringing out food. Homemade cheesecake, cookies from a wedding shower, various pastries, cupcakes, you name it – even though we were saying, “No thank you. We had a late breakfast. No thank you. We’re only here for a minute. No thank you. We don’t want you to go to any trouble,” the whole time.

Also appearing in the Ghaly living room was the bride, a huge pink bag full of wedding dress and luggage for the honeymoon. As I feared, we were presented with a beautiful gift, a spray of decorated chocolates adorned with Easter decorations. Her parents insisted that they were treating us to a dinner boat cruise later in the trip and as we headed out the door, we were forced to take the decorated wedding cookies from the shower. I love Egyptians!

One side note. The TV was on in the apartment, not that anyone was paying it any attention. Since I volunteer with Global Heart Ministries and they create Christian programming for satellite broadcast in Central Asia and the Middle East, I couldn’t help peeking to see what they were watching. Sure enough, the tv was tuned to one of the channels which airs our programs. We are not broadcast in Egypt, because our shows aren’t produced in Arabic (yet), but I was thrilled to see the Ghaly’s were watching our channel.

We loaded up and headed to the hotel. That time in the car with the wedding dress in my lap, the undelivered gifts around my feet and my armload of chocolates from the Ghaly’s is one favorite memories of the trip. It perfectly captured my time in Egypt – running late on Egyptian time and executing Plan B, but loving every minute of it.

Back at the hotel I had to hustle. I had all of about half an hour to fluff myself up and get ready for the next event. That meant shuffling more gifts. Since the party was honoring the bride and groom, I couldn’t deliver any of the other presents, but I did need to get the wedding gift ready. A driver was scheduled to pick us up and while the rest of the country might be on Egyptian time, the drivers were prompt.

I’ve rambled on for long enough now. Come back next week for the Bridal Luncheon.

DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

What’s Planned vs. What Happens

July 19, 2017May 17, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: LIVING ON EGYPTIAN TIME

Time is both my ally and my enemy. I like having something that divides my day into neat little pieces. If I look at my clock at 3:30 AM then I know I can go back to sleep. If I arrive at a destination at the appropriate time, it’s a little victory I can savor in this world of frustrations. However, those neat little pieces don’t always fit the crazy life I live. I sit down at the computer to write and a day is gone before I even realize it and rarely have I accomplished what I hoped. In Egypt the concept of time is a whole ‘nother matter>

The Plan

One of my priorities at this point in the trip was to quit carrying around all the gifts and get them to their appropriate recipients. The last thing I wanted was for something to get lost, broken or otherwise damaged, before I put it in the hands of the donee – especially those all important bottles of scotch.

As I mentioned last week, Bassem was going to pick up his bride, and suggested we spend some time with family over at Mirette’s. That would reduce my load by five presents. I was glad for the opportunity to do that, but I was also looking forward to meeting her twins – teenagers who have been my friends on Facebook for a long time, but I’d never met in person.

So after we saw Bassem in the salon, I hurried back to the room to fix up the gift bags for Mirette’s family. That took more fritzing around than it sounds like it should, since I had to unpack everything, sort through it, match it up to the gift bag it was meant for and adorn it with tissue and bows. Though it made us a little behind schedule, it was only by a few minutes and we were on Egyptian time.

Egyptian Time

If an Egyptian tells you he’ll meet you at 9 AM, I suggest you ask him if that is real time or Egyptian time. If it’s Egyptian time, then you might be cooling your heels for a couple hours or you might actually have to wait until bokra (tomorrow). Don’t be afraid to ask. They know how they are. And here’s a further warning, like the Mexican manana, there’s a silent “or maybe never” inferred in the word.

So, while I was a few American minutes late to the lobby with my bags of gifts, I was right on time by Egyptian standards, but this is also the point where the plans went awry. It seems Mirette was not home, because she had been recruited for a final wedding errand.

Kudos to Bassem’s sisters Mirette and Maggie. Without them there would have been no wedding. A wedding coordinator was hired, but titles can be a fluid thing in Egypt and she was more of a florist, so Mirette and Maggie filled the gap. Just to make things more interesting, it was a holiday weekend and the wedding coordinator/florist was out of town. We were left to the whims of the people she had convinced to stand in for her. Every other moment she was calling and delegating yet another wedding errand to the bride and groom, who in turn found someone else, usually Mirette or Maggie to take care of it. That Bassem actually got married rather than murdered is a kind of miracle.

My first few hours in Egypt I had managed to stay on American time, but before they served me my first lunch, that was over. I was now on Egyptian time. Set you clocks for next week and join me for a little fun with the bride and groom.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, International, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Good Morning Cairo

July 12, 2017May 16, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: MY FAVORITE THING AT THE FAIRMONT HELIOPOLIS

My favorite thing at the Fairmont wasn’t a thing at all. It was Ahmed, the waiter in the Le Marche Cafe. Le Marche was my favorite place for breakfast during the whole trip. Having to face down a buffet every morning actually gets pretty old. Le Marche was a little a la carte cafe and while the food was good, Ahmed was marvelous!

Breakfast Not Included

Breakfast-included is kind of an Egyptian thing, but since the Fairmont is so Americanized, you could make breakfast-excluded reservations. And this is a good place to tell you, it is very Americanized. Except for a few decor items and the over-abundance of Arab-looking staff you could be in a hotel in Middle America for all you could tell from the interior surroundings.

For some folks that’s a recommendation, but not so much for me. I love my American creature comforts, but I also like them to come in an exotic package if at all possible. Our next hotel will do just that, but let’s get back to breakfast.

Before we headed downstairs, I dutifully perused one of those huge leather-covered tomes I’d hidden away from us the night before. With it I got a feel for breakfast possibilities. Here’s a rundown from the hotel’s website:

Dining choices at Fairmont Heliopolis are truly endless that varies from Lebanese favorites at Al Dabké, genuine Egyptian cuisine at Egyptian Night, authentic Thai delicacies at Lan Tania, modern Chinese specialties at Noble House, authentic Mexican cuisine and fantastic margarita’s at Maria’s, classic Italian cuisine with a modern twist at Leonardo, All-day dining at My Kind of Place, the freshest sushi and sashimi at Saki Sushi Lounge, Indian cuisine at Raj, chill-out outdoor venue at Pizza bar, contemporary international cuisine at Aqua E Luce, French patisserie at Le Marché, fast dining style at Marilyn and pool bar serving light snacks at Blue Lagoon Bar.

My reading told me we’d end up at Le Marche, but we were having a lazy, late morning, so I wasn’t opposed to browsing the lobby. We walked past Le Marche and saw My Kind of Place, which had a sign announcing, “Breakfast Performing Here.” I certainly wasn’t looking for dancing eggs and the sight of a buffet didn’t seem tempting. Price being one barrier and the number of upcoming breakfast buffets being the next.

Marilyn’s was a Marilyn-Monroe-Themed cafe, but it looked closed right then. We saw the Thai restaurant, the Mexican Restaurant, the Italian Place and some of the others, all waiting for dinner time. Continuing through the lobby we happened on Aqua E Luce on the Towers side of the hotel. They didn’t have a sign telling us breakfast was performing, but there was a buffet, which by the way did seem a little more inviting than the one over in My Kind of Place, if you are ever interested.

We kept on walking and found the Towers Pool. It had a Pizza Bar and lots of hookah equipment. Before I left Egypt, I also discovered it was the location for their Egyptian Night, but that story is for another day. We began to re-trace our steps and found our way to Le Marche, just as I had anticipated, but I hadn’t imagined there would be an Ahmed!

Le Marche Cafe

Le Marche has a pastry counter filled with delectable treats and we were salivating over them when we were approached by Ahmed. We confessed to be overwhelmed by our breakfast choices and Bill asked him if there was a menu. Ahmed and Bill were soon swapping stories in Arabic as I drooled on my own. Ahmed ushered us to a seat and continued his banter with Bill.

Bill suggested we share one of the croissant sandwiches with turkey and while I really wanted one of those humongous pastries, I acquiesced and asked for the bonus of a Coke Zero. Bill isn’t much of buying beverages in restaurants, but we had come down without our water bottle, so I got my Coke Zero. This was treat, not only because it was a splurge to get a restaurant soda, but because most of Egypt has Diet Coke, not Coke Zero and while I’d prefer a Diet Dr Pepper, I prefer Coke Zero to Diet Coke.

Ahmed was polite, solicitous and not at all inappropriate, but he should have just set down at our table. He and Bill became fast friends in about two minutes. The two of them chatted throughout the meal. When we got the croissant sandwich it was delicious and plenty for two. The conversation was so friendly I was concerned that I might be sitting most of the day.

The Rest of the Hotel

When breakfast was over, we headed out to check out the balance of the hotel. We found the gift shop, laundry and offices. Then we found out way out to the primary pool complex, which was extensive. There were a number of pools, a hookah cafe, indoor squash court and clay tennis courts. We found a pretty nice playground and gave the fitness center and spa a thorough inspection. High marks on all counts, including the friendly staff.

We looked at our watches and realized time was flying. Bill contacted the groom, who was in the salon getting a mani/pedi. He was about to head over to his bride’s home to transport her to the hotel, but he offered to drop us off at his sister’s place. That sounded good to me, because I was ready to quit carrying around gifts and start delivering them.

Come back next week for the fun!

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

The Complimentary Cookie

June 28, 2017May 16, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: SWANKY HOTEL, BUT NOT A SIZABLE ROOM

As long as we were in the lobby, I loved the Fairmont. The place was beautiful. The service was great. We were Mr.- and- Mrs.- Sadek-ed to death. What’s not to like?

Gracious Service and Simple Perks

After check-in, we were escorted to our room. By then it was the middle of the night, but our courteous bellman showed us around our room as if we’d arrived midday. It wasn’t really necessary since the room was quite small, but he behaved as if he was showing us the Taj Mahal. Moments later the luggage arrived and we figured out just how small.

A nice touch was a plate of cookies hermetically sealed on a plate for our snacking pleasure. They also generously provided a bottle of water for each of us, each day of our stay. Bottled water is important in Egypt. You cannot drink what comes out of the tap, even if the best hotels. You’re not even supposed to wash your mouth out when you brush your teeth. You’ll find yourself searching out the ubiquitous little street-side kiosks, which sell beverages and snacks, but the daily bottle from the good hotels is helpful.

My handsome traveling companions, Bill, John and Steven

It’s Complimentary!

So now I have to tell you about my nephew Steven, who had a language-challenged introduction to his room. He’s American, like me, and he traveled from California with a buddy for the wedding. His very blonde wife, with two small, active blonde boys, just couldn’t see facing the risk of Egypt in these dangerous times, especially when their rambunctious boys are both too young to really appreciate what they are seeing. Steven’s very close to the groom, so there was no way he was missing the wedding. You’ll be seeing a lot of Steven and his friend, John, in our pictures.

Upon arrival they’d been presented with the hermetically sealed cookies provided by the Fairmont – round tubes of dough with a stuffing. At first glance you’re not sure if what you’re looking at is savory or sweet. The bellman handed the plate to Steven with a flourish, saying, “With our compliments.”

Steven asked, “What is it?”

The answer? “They’re free.”

“I understand,” Steven replied, “but what is it?”

“They’re complimentary. They are free. You don’t have to pay for them,” the bellman explained, wondering why this American didn’t understand his own language. Steven realized he wasn’t going to get the answer he was looking for, so he gave up.

The Language Barrier

I’d like to make a little disclaimer here. English is my only language and I speak it with such a Texas drawl that some people in the US can’t even understand me and Brits are baffled. Twenty-three years with an Egyptian husband and I recognize maybe 10 words of Arabic. At least five of those words mean OK, but I’m still unsure which one you use for what.

There’s something that sounds like “mish” and another that sounds like “tamim” and a selection of others which indicate to me, when I hear them, that the conversation is progressing in the right direction. “Urubbie” is an exclamation like “WOW” and if you want to emphasis something you add “owie,” which means very – but you don’t say “owie urubbie,” even if that’s what you’re thinking. “Shay” is tea, “shokrun” is thank you and “masalama” is good-bye. I tried to conquer the phrase for “you’re welcome” this time, but could never nail it. Thank goodness for nods and smiles.

In the Egyptian hospitality world, everyone from the manager of the hotel to the maid speaks multiple languages and they’re pretty darned good at it. Arabic, English, French, Russian – you name it and they’ll chat away. They may not have all the idioms down 100%, but they usually understand what you want and they can give you an answer. While I’m in awe of their command of languages, it’s still fun to enjoy the outtakes.

Steven is not an adventurous eater, so he didn’t try his complimentary treat until he’d checked with his uncle to find out what it was. You can understand his concern. It might have had a vegetable in it or something, right? 🙂

I didn’t have a cookie at all, but not in fear of vegetables. In spite of all the temptations, I avoided gratuitous calories and focused my intake on the magnificent meals offered at every turn. I still came home with an extra five pounds, but it could have easily been ten or fifteen. (BTW,I was a good girl and the extra pounds were gone in a week.)

In spite of the cookies and immaculate hospitality, I can’t say the Fairmont was my favorite hotel. Come back next week and I’ll tell you why – at least part of the reason.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning

Welcome to the Fairmont Heliopolis

June 21, 2017May 16, 2017 Jane Sadek

Crystal Chandeliers in the Fairmont Lobby

TRAVEL THERE: MY LUXURY VACATION BEGINS

If you read this blog with any regularity then you’re well aware that I don’t spend a lot of time in swanky hotels. I’m more the quaint bed & breakfast type, when I can find it, or I’m bragging about the huge discount I found on Expedia. However, on this trip we were in top hotels all the way. In Cairo, we checked into the Fairmont Heliopolis.

Leaving the Airport

One of the things I remembered from my previous trip to Egypt was the wide open spaces between the airport and Heliopolis. Once we had dealt with the absence of our luggage on that trip, I’d sat the backseat of a car wondering just how far we were going to drive before we got to anything.

It’s not that way anymore. It’s like the stretch of LBJ between I-35 and DFW Airport. While it used to be out in the middle of nowhere, it’s now chock-a-block with restaurants, hotels and other buildings. Outside the Cairo Airport was the same thing. What’s more, I barely blinked before we were entering the main thoroughfare of Heliopolis and almost immediately we arrived at the Fairmont. So the first thing you might want to know about the Fairmont is that it’s close to the airport.

The Security Routine

Here’s the drill for most hotel properties in Egypt. (The Cecil in Alexandria and the Dahab Paradise were exceptions to the rule, but pretty much anyplace else put you through this.) The properties are all fenced and gated. You pull up to a guard house with a barrier across the driveway. Your car is thoroughly checked.

First they get the ID of the driver and question him. Then he has to fill in a log. Then they do a physical check of the exterior of the car which includes looking under it with a mirror. Some places also had sniffer dogs. The driver opens the trunk and the dogs and/or metal detectors are used to check out the contents. There are usually a group of guards and after they’ve conferred with one another, the barrier is lifted and you drive through. Someone is usually standing nearby with a machine gun. Some kind of welcome, huh?

Ayman, our niece’s husband, assumed we were in the newer part of the hotel and drove through the older portico to deliver us to the Towers. Only we weren’t in the Towers. The bags were pulled out by the bell staff and Ayman drove away, but once inside we were directed across the way to the original part of the lobby. It was late and I was ready for bed.

Now the reason we were staying at the Fairmont is that we were part of the wedding party and that’s where they were staying. We like to keep our accommodations in two digits if we can, but we were splurging. I have to confess that I was glad we stayed in the older part of the hotel. The new part had that edgy clean look, but I’m a sucker for crystal chandeliers and other gaudy looking hotel lobby decor, like the replica of a pharaonic boat in the Fairmont lobby.

The check-in hasn’t even begun, but I’ve already run out of words, so come back next week to see how we liked our room.

DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

The Airport Adventure Continues

June 14, 2017May 31, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: WHERE’S AYMAN?

Now that I’m home, I’ve tried to educate myself about the pilgrims who crowded into the Cairo Airport the same night I arrived. I shared some of the answers last week, but I left Bill and I standing with our niece in a huge, noisy crowd. At first there was the initial small talk of arrival, but soon it was apparent Mirette thought it was high time for Ayman to rescue us from our perch among the milling pilgrims.

Looking for Ayman

After a few minutes of chatting, Mirette began to scan the passing cars for her husband, with the international expression of, “where is he?” Soon she was describing the car Ayman was driving to Bill. Then they began to discuss how far away the car had been parked. When they moved the conversation into Arabic, I got worried.

Then Ayman himself hurried up, but on foot, not in the car, which was perplexing in and of itself. He explained the crowds became too large, so the police shut down one of the roads. He’d found another parking spot as close as he could get, but we still had to walk some.

Midnight Rambles

Even though the time was nearing midnight, walking didn’t sound like a problem, as long as we had a cart for the luggage. Then we came to a set of stairs and I wasn’t really happy about that. The collapsing handle on one of the bags quit working before we ever left Dallas and would have to be carried. The condition of the sidewalks and streets suggested rolling the checked bags would also be a challenge, but I saw no other alternative.

Each of the girls grabbed a carry-on bag, leaving the larger bags to the men. Then, at the bottom of the stairs, I found a cart! Either someone had left it or God had deposited there for my benefit. Either way we were saved. We loaded up the new cart and continued on our way.

Ayman and Bill pushed the luggage-laden cart through the obstacle course. A few feet along the sidewalk and then down a curb. Then a good long haul through parking areas, weaving in-between cars when necessary. Up a curb, over a sidewalk, down a curb, across a street, up a curb and finally we could see the car.

Halting the cart, each of the fellows picked up a bag to put in the trunk. While their backs were turned, the cart took off like a rocket. I shouted and ran after the careening cart, but my shouts were lost in the other noises around us. The cart skewed off the sidewalk, fell to its side and dumped the bags into the street.

A couple of pilgrims watched from afar. You’d have thought they were watching moss grow on a stone for all the reaction the cart and I got. Bill and Ayman looked at me as if the bags strewn in the middle of the street were somehow my fault. All I could think of was the bottles of scotch. You do remember the scotch, don’t you? Would my suitcases be full of glass shards and alcohol-soaked clothes?

We’ll find out together. Come back next week for my first impressions of Cairo outside the airport.

DESTINATIONS, International, TRAVEL

Lost in a Sea of Pilgrims

June 7, 2017May 31, 2017 Jane Sadek

Will we ever make it out of the airport?

TRAVEL THERE: AIRPORT ANXIETY

So, we’ve landed at the Cairo Airport. We’ve been through Customs and found all our luggage in baggage claim. We should be fine right? Well, I certainly would have guessed that to be true, but instead Bill and I are standing outside the terminal, in a huge crowd of people, many of whom look like they are dressed in togas. I’m wondering where the riot squad is. Were all my security fears going to come true in the first hour I was in Egypt?

Dismay and Distress

There Bill and I stood, trying to stay connected to each other and to our luggage cart, while being knocked about by the press of the crowd. Part of me was worried about mundane things like pickpockets, but another part was trying to understand what was going on. The toga-dressed people and their friends didn’t actually seem threatening, but I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

What if we inadvertently angered someone? Would the crowd turn on us? And where were Mirette and Ayman? Had Bill given them the right information and confirmed they’d be there? Had something happened to prevent them coming?

Bill has a gift for appearing calm in a crisis, even when he’s exploding inside. Like me he’d missed the crowd at first, but he’d continued to overlook it until we were in the middle of it. Had I realized how worried he was, I would have been even more concerned. Just when I was ready to hail a cab, our family members found us.

Instant Relief

I’m not quite sure where they came from but suddenly my niece and her husband were there. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so glad to see anyone, with the exception, perhaps, of Bill the two times he came home from Iraq. Once they had located us, Ayman headed off to get the car. We were still being jostled, but we’d been found, so things didn’t seem quite so threatening.

While we waited, I tried asking Mirette what was going on with all the white outfits. She said they were pilgrims on Hajj as if that explained everything, but it didn’t. Even I knew the Hajj was taken to Mecca, which is in Saudi Arabia, not Egypt. Something was getting lost in translation.

Why would people on a plane from Saudi Arabia be coming TO Egypt for the Hajj at Easter time? No one could ever tell me. They just kept patiently explaining the pilgrims were on Hajj, as if that was the definitive answer. Once I got home, I tried Google and Wikipedia, but could find no straight-forward answers.

I’m probably on some watch list by now. Not only was I in Egypt while this pilgrimage was going on, I was also there for the Pope’s visit. Since I got back, I’ve been googling every question I could think of to figure it all out.

I educated myself on traditional ihram clothing, which is the toga-like outfit worn by the pilgrims. I satisfied myself April was not the date for Hajj this year or for any of the major Muslim holidays, for that matter. I found out pilgrimages taken at times other than Hajj are something called Umrah and I finally found some Umrah locations in Egypt. Most of what I found when I Googled were travel packages available for Hajj and Umrah, but all of them that I read sounded like a travelogue for people who already know why they are going. Nothing there to explain exactly what was going on.

So come back next week and find out our other adventures at the Cairo Airport. Since I’m here writing this blog post we obviously made it out, but not until after a little more craziness.

DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Touchdown in Cairo

May 31, 2017May 16, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: LET THE CRAZINESS BEGIN

It was a late night arrival in Cairo, so the activity inside the terminal was actually pretty calm. A flight arrived from Saudi Arabia about the same time as ours, but otherwise customs and baggage claim was empty. Preoccupied with my own arrival I wasn’t really focused on other passengers, but it was clear we were in the Middle East.

What’s With the Guys Wearing Towels?

In the terminal, hajibs and galabeyas were more frequent than blue jeans and yoga pants, but one guy really got my attention. To my uninformed eye, it looked as if he were dressed for a toga party. His white garment came to about mid-calf and had been torn all the way around the bottom. The texture was towel-like and it appeared one shoulder might be bare. Something like a a shawl was pinned around his other shoulder. He was definitely wearing shower shoes, but whatever the reason for his outfit, staring would be rude, so I kept my eyes down.

If there had only been one guy like that, I might have forgotten about it in the hustle and bustle, but I began to realize there were a lot of men wearing variations of the same thing. Some ‘togas’ were longer than others. Some men had both shoulders wrapped. One hem would look freshly torn with ratty looking strings hanging around the bottom, while another hem would be so smooth I wondered whether it were torn at all.

There were also variations in the textures of the garments. The first ‘toga’ I had spied looked like a laundry mistake. If you’ve ever washed a few towels and then discovered them still in the washer several days later – damp, wrinkled and soured – then you know what I mean. I didn’t get close enough to smell him, of course, but that’s what it looked like. He was the anomaly in the crowd, but there were other subtle differences. While some had the lush looped-terry of a luxury hotel’s complimentary robe, a few had the even more exclusive look of a waffle-woven linen hand-towel No loops there.

Please understand, I’m making all these observations out of the corner of my eye or from under lowered eyelids. I didn’t want to appear to be a gawking tourist, even if that was exactly what I was. I started trying to figure out if this was totally a male thing and I was able to ascertain very quickly it was. The women wore traditional galabeyas and hajibs, and most were of the gloved, head-to-toe, black variety mentioned in my initial blog about this trip. Days later, I would begin to realize there were women dressed in simple white variations of this head-to-toe manner, traveling with some of the men, but if they were at the airport I missed them.

I kept quiet and kept my eyes to myself as much as I could, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the deal was. Did an entire group of conventioneers get their luggage stolen and this was the best the hotel could offer? Your imagination does weird things in a vacuum of information.

Where are Mirette and Ayman?

Step-by-step we made it through customs and retrieved our luggage. We were almost out of the terminal, but with the exception of professional drivers holding signs, we hadn’t seen anyone greeting our fellow arrivals. Just outside the sidewalk was busy with people cuing up for cabs.

Have you ever looked around a place, trying to get your bearings and missed the most obvious thing. I was looking so hard to find my niece or her husband, that I missed a wild cacophony right in front of me. When I finally got my bearings, I started to wonder if I was about to get caught up in a riot.

On the other side of a thoroughfare filled with cabs was a huge crowd. Many of the men had on the togas I had noticed inside the terminal. Bill headed across the street and I followed him, wondering if he’d even noticed the rowdy crowd. They weren’t rowdy in a soccer fan kind of way, it was more purposeful and less emotional, but nonetheless quite loud. What a kaleidoscope of sight and sound to begin our sojourn in Egypt!

I’ll tell you about it next week.

DESTINATIONS, International, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, Shopping, TRAVEL

Happy at Heathrow

May 24, 2017May 16, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A DEFINITELY DELIGHTFUL LAYOVER

No matter how pleasant an Atlantic-crossing flight may be, I need a break when it’s over. Hanging out in an airport may not be the most fun I can have, but it can be some fun – and this time it was. It had been a while since I’d been to Heathrow and I have nothing but nice things to say about it.

Welcome to Heathrow

Our bags were checked through to Cairo, which was a blessing, but we had to change terminals. That’s never fun. At Heathrow that means you take a bus to the first terminal, follow the purple signs forever, take another bus to the other terminal and get delivered to a skillfully-organized dime-dropping opportunity.

After our brisk walk following the purple signs, I was ready for lunch. We arrived in the departure lounge and were a bit overwhelmed. This place is a shopper’s paradise and they have some pretty good food, too. After checking out the possibilities at the terminal map, we made our way to a place that sounded sort of pub-ish.

Hungry at Huxley’s

One nice thing about Heathrow was their choice of restaurants. You weren’t stuck with your usual food court choices. I was craving authentic fish and chips, so we made our way to Huxley’s, described on the Heathrow website this way:

“With its handsome dark-wood chequerboard floor and leather banquette seating, Huxleys could pass for a new-wave gastropub, but the menu has no such pretensions. Expect simple compilations of the best ingredients: slow cooked pork belly, old English pork sausages and 21 day aged steak. Thick-cut sandwiches, pie and mash, all-day breakfasts, beer battered fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding continue the British theme. “

I had to look no further than front and center on the menu to figure out what I wanted and Huxley’s did not disappoint. The British Classic was everything my taste buds had been craving – and the minted peas? Marvelous! Bill had some sort of sandwich and a beer. I wanted a beer, but I opted for a diet soda instead. I was still trying to watch my weight at that point and I was busting the calorie budget with my beer-battered fish.

As we waited for our food to be served we observed what others were having and admired something called an Eton Mess as it was delivered to another table. Fresh strawberries, crushed meringue, whipped cream and ice cream. What was there not to like? We toyed with the idea of finishing our meal with the same, but there was no room in the tummy after I inhaled all the gorgeous fish and chips.

Let’s Go Shopping

To me, the star of the shopping mall was Harrod’s. Not only is it a British classic, the space it occupied was spectacular. I saw at least six things that I wanted to come home with me before I even entered the shop.

Bill was attracted to the duty-free shopping. That’s where he discovered that I had been right about the Jack Black Scotch. We could have bought it for a great price at the airport and not had to sacrifice pounds in our luggage.

There was another little shop that represented another brand now associated with all things British. I’m not a Hogwart fan, but I had to take this picture for Hannah Beth. We were able to enjoy both floors of the Heathrow Terminal 5 shopping opportunity before they posted our gate on the departure monitors, but we managed to keep the credit cards in our pockets.

I caught up on my travel journal – it’s always quite detailed in the beginning, but by the end of the trip I’m not such a faithful diarist. I wandered around a bit, trying to take advantage of this chance to stretch my legs. I also made my pre-boarding potty stop. That’s when I found this guy biding me farewell and I couldn’t resist capturing him for you.

Our flight was called and we boarded. Come back next week for our exciting arrival in Cairo!

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