We're Back in Cairo

We arrived back in Cairo after a full day's travel from Minneapolis.  The trip deserves it's own post which I will save for later.

This year we flew via Chicago and Paris.  Chicago offered the most interesting view from the aircraft window.


We had our bags in hand here by about 9 p.m., local time.  As always, there were plenty of people willing to find us a ride from the airport across town to our apartment.  Linda was thinking of a conventional metered taxi, but of course, I opted for the stranger who offered to get me a "good deal."  He's a professional "finder" who works inside the baggage claim area.  He handed us over to the "pricer" with whom we negotiated a fee.  He in turn took us to our driver, who loaded up our baggage and we were off.  (Warning!  Don't try this at home, say, in Chicago.)

Our driver loaded and unloaded the baggage.  Our building's bawab took it all up to our floor.  Linda had done a near-perfect job of packing the three checked bags to 48, 49 and 50 pounds (it's a 50 pound limit on Delta for international flights) and it was nice to have help.  I had the driver wait while we put the bags inside and then take us up the road to the supermarket to pick up a few groceries.  We always say, "everything is different" in Egypt.  For example, take bacon and eggs:

Notice that the bacon is beef and the eggs package contains ten eggs.


Today we went out and picked up two Internet connections.  That is also worth its own post, later.  Along the way, just down our street, this building development has sprung from the ground since we left in April.  Usually, these projects are much slower in our neighborhood.  Someone has a crack crew on the job.

Note the building bawab performing security duty on the second floor.  It was chilly, around 60 degrees today, so he had a nice fire going there next to the television.  He also had a jacket and stocking cap on.

After buying our way onto the Internet, we stopped to pick up a freshly roasted chicken with salads and bread at our favorite take-away restaurant.  That set us back a bit over five bucks.

Life is different here.