Cairo: Shopping day

We arrived in Cairo yesterday where we proceeded to sleep the whole afternoon - defeating the purpose of arriving early before the tour begins. Since I was up for 36 hours prior to departure - the 10 hours flight from JFK to Cairo was a breeze. I slept 8 hours of the 10, only to wake up for meals.

We arrived in Cairo and welcomed the dry warm breeze as we exited the plane and boarded the transit bus. If only we knew how harsh Egyptian "winter/spring" was - we wouldn't have "welcomed" such breeze.

Our hotel is located 45-minutes outside of Cairo - in the Giza part of town less than 10 minutes from the Giza pyramids. The drive from the airport to the hotel introduced us to the sand, sun, and what do you know --- we can see the Giza pyramids just off the highway! And people thought one had to drive out into the desert to see the pyramids.

Oh no! The desert is Cairo's and pretty much Egypt's backyard. We spent our first night enjoying the night in our hotel - dinner by the pool, and this time - a cool breeze lingers. And I savored their mango juice. It was heaven! It was literally a mango crushed and pour into a glass. A sip would include small pieces of the fruit. I loved it! 

The next day, the 22nd - we had breakfast at 9am and caught the free shuttle bus to downtown Cairo. It dropped us in front of the Cairo Museum. We spent of our day in that area - shopping. We bought papyrus, cartouches and perfume oils. We finished buying the essentials for souvenirs because we knew we wouldn't have time later on. So shopping we did - and just as easy as that - there goes my $300. At the end of the day - we were sweating from the Egyptian sun, dusty and sticky from all our sweat. We couldn't wait to return to our hotel for a shower. And that seems to what preoccupied my mind (and my sister) the whole trip to Egypt: taking a shower!

We met the members of the tour group later. Had dinner and enjoyed some shisha. That was the first and last shisha I did in Egypt. Just had to try it, you know?