Walk Like an Egyptian

Jen and I could not have gotten more lucky! When I told my dad how much I wanted to go to Egypt he nearly freaked out and pretty much said over his dead body. That was until he talked to Afaf, a lady who works at his company who has family in Egypt. She immediately volunteered her family in Cairo to be our hosts! She said her sister in-law had two kids, and her "big" nephew and his friend would be our guides. So we immediately jumped at the oppurtunity!

When we got to the airport in cairo we were extremely thrown by how different Cairo was and were a little unnerved. What with having to exchange currency (we had gotten pretty acclamated to the euro by now) and buying a visa (apparently it's required by all foreigners?) we had to locate Ashraf and Sameh at 3am in the morning. We did not expect nearly the large crowd that there was at that late (early?) but on the other side of customs there was a huge throng of people. We felt like idiots holding up our little sign (that we had made decorated and fancy on the flight, another contributing flight to our idiocity) looking for them. Jen told me that when she first saw Ashraf she was really intimidated...by "big", Afaf had meant BIG! He owns a gym and looking at him you would definitely know it. Before he smiled he seemed almost scary, but the second he got that teddy bear smile we were so siked to be in Cairo. Sameh spoke perfect English and both boys were extremely hospitible and inviting. They offered to carry our bags and we were off to Ashraf's family's apartment.

I think staying with local Egyptians and spending time with Ashraf and Sameh was the biggest reason why our experience was so fantastic! We were given a bedroom to ourselves to use while we were there, they showed us every site possible that we wanted, and...they cooked for us! Like, the best food ever and tons of it! We became addicted to ful, falafel, and Egyptian pita! More important than the hospitable elements they offered us while were there was the fantastic amazing wonderful friendships we left Cairo with. I know much of the love I have for Egypt arose because of them. They showed us the real Egypt...including sheesha, halabasa, Egyptian beer, and the scary looking chicken giblets at one meal! Truly fantastic!