EGYPT  2001:

Our group of 20 people left from Ohare airport on May 30, 2001.  This was the first time I have ever crossed the ocean or been on a plane for a very long time.  Alitalia Airlines has a very aggravating policy that no other airline has.  They do not allow CD players to be used at anytime on the flight.  I was rudely told by a male stuardess with his nose in the air that my CD player would cause the plane to crash into the ocean.  I do not recommend anyone fly on such a dangerous airline where something as simple as a personal CD player would cause an airplane to crash.  Nine hours later we arrived in Milan Italy looking like a pack of zombies.  I was especially tired because I have trouble sleeping on airplanes.  If I fall asleep, I wake up ten minutes later with an aching neck.  We eventually hopped on another airplane and arrived in Cairo in about another four hours.

One thing I noticed from looking out the window of the airplane was that once we flew over Egypt, everything looked brown and sand colored.  The sight was not beautiful at all.  Alitalia provided the roughest landing I have ever felt where carry on compartment doors popped open from the impact.  Six bounces later we were finally safe from the dangers of Alitalia and on the ground in Cairo.  Once we all passed through customs, I was amazed at how packed together the people were.  I think our whole group was worried about thieves and pick-pockets so we all turned our backpacks around to the front and put wallets in our front pockets.  We gave our big bags to some guys to load on the bus and we were soon on our way to the hotel.

Below are some pictures of airports, airplanes, the trip to the hotel, the view from the hotel window, inside the hotel, and the streets of Cairo.  As you can see from the pictures, Cairo is not a very pretty place in general.  Our hotel was a very nice five star, complete with a foot washer in the bathroom for the Islamic guests.  I believe the second from the last picture is the Bazaar in Cairo, but I may be wrong.  It is a good representation of how packed Cairo is with people and honking cars.