October 9, 2019 - Cairo, our last day

I fell asleep last night sitting up with the computer in my lap!  I think the trip is finally catching up with me!  Still, I awoke at 4:45 and hurried through the morning routine to be able to go up to the roof for sunrise!  Juan is as early a riser as I and he has his tablet, ready for the show!

Early morning Cairo is quiet and the breeze is soft and tender.  So lovely!

I’ve locked Marilyn in the room, because there only other option is to leave the room unlocked.  If she gets up before I get back, she trapped in there!  :)  I go back down before she awakens to discover what I’ve done!

Presently we both go back up to our sanctuary to have coffee and “work”, until Juan and Ginger join us for breakfast.  There is always something new to sample and today’s joy comes from the fried eggplant!  Soft in the middle, crispy on the edges, delicious all over!  Breakfast is a leisurely affair.  The pigeons are cooing, the parakeets are tweeting (no computers for them, though) and the breeze is still stirring the bougainvillea blossoms.  The internet is working well and all’s right with the world.

This says so much about Cairo

There's a girls' school thirteen floors below us, preparing for a field trip to the square.

Parakeets in cages and pigeons flying free.  Cooing and tweeting all day!

After a bit, Juan and Ginger take a walk down to the Nile, Marilyn goes back to the room, and I remain glued to my seat, computer at hand and coffee cup near by.  I could stay here for ever.

After a bit, one of the charming and attentive young men comes to check on me.  We communicate pretty well and I say how nice it is to be quiet after all the hurrying.  He asks if I would like some slow music!  Oh, my, yes - that’s the most intoxicating sound, with the slow, driving drum and the gentle melody.  I’m never leaving!

Another of the adorable wait staff comes over with that feather-foot pigeon in his hand for me to hold and fondle!  He isn’t too wild about the fondling, so I release him and he only flies a few feet away to another table.

Marilyn is still feeling the effects of her lemonade last night and stays downstairs for a while. Eventually she What’s Apps me and asks if it’s hot up here.  I haven’t noticed if it is!!  She comes back up with her computer and soon Juan and Ginger return from their adventure, walking and taking a taxi to and from the Nile.  One of the guys from the hotel was concerned about them and chased them down to give them a card with the hotel’s name and address to show to a cabbie!  I love the place!

Juan goes down to their room to rest and play with his computer.  We girls stay up on the roof and nibble chips and peas and peanuts and Ommar’s chips.  Dinner isn’t until seven and this is lunch, or something!  The best part is the tin of baklava treats that Omar gave us as we were leaving Jordan!  We try to share equally;  but I claim the tin when it’s empty!

Ginger’s gone downstairs for a nap;  but I’m not good at that, so I’m reveling in the fact that I’m all caught up!!  I just need to transfer photos to Ginger and to Marilyn.

Tonight we’ll enjoy dinner on a boat on the Nile, then return to the Osiris for. Bit before heading to the airport at one in the morning.  Our Alitalia flight either leaves at 3:30 or 4:55, depending on whose computer you’re using!!  We’re erring of the side of caution!

Well, I thought that was all I needed to write - then dinner happened!  The car is downstairs early, so we go ahead and pay Carlos at the reception desk. He really likes American dollars, so we scourge up a hundred bucks in greenbacks and are assured that our transport will get us there and back.  We thought the time frame was seven to nine.  There is also some question about how the floating restaurant will know we’ve paid, since we don’t have a ticket or receipt or anything.  There’s lots of backing and frothing, with Juan speaking Spanish to Miguel in the back set and to Carlos on the phone.  Finally is appears that our driver will escort us onto the boat and get everything organized!

We settle into the van, with another passenger, Miguel, from the hotel, and go out to play in the traffic.  And what traffic!!  We thought we knew how insane Cairo is;  but we had no idea!  Our adorable young driver speaks basically no English;  but we have a ball laughing at the crazy drivers!  There is a tuk-tuk coming at us on the wrong side of the road!  And there’s a horse and wagon mixed up with all the cars, and no one seems to pay any attention to a single rule of the road!  Our driver speaks Arabic into his phone and Siri tries to tell us what he is showing us.  We see part of the Nile that has been relocated, and the oldest part of the city, and the street with all the pottery and sculpture studios and stores. 

They have a machine, like the tortilla makers in Mexico!

This is some sort of demonstration because some important person's child was arrested.  I think.

It's hard to know if this is graffiti or an advertisement.

Now THIS is an advertisement!

We’ve been driving for nearly forty minutes!  The river is only about six blocks from the hotel.  Hmmm.  Finally we pull into a parking area and walk down the steps to the gangplank of the Nile Smart Boat.  There are a couple of p[zza boxes on the reception counter and that looks pretty ominous!  Then we’re herded up a couple of flights of stairs and appointed a table.  People are lined up for a buffet, so we figure we’ll need to do that, too, as soon as we order bottles of water.

The food looks pretty tempting and when we begin eating it lives up to its billing.  Maybe it’s okay that we rode forever and paid twenty-five bucks, when we could have eaten on the roof.  After the plates are cleared there’s a really good singer and that’s fun.  There are two girls sitting near us that are really into the music!  Like me!  There is a birthday group and the singer does “Happy Birthday” and then something else that is really long but seems traditional.  The husband feeds the birthday girl a bite of cake and later she feeds a bite to each of the other ladies who are celebrating with her.  They all look very stylish in their head scarves,

The boat seems to be moving after all!  We go upstairs to watch the river bank go by and feel the wind in our faces.  Our driver appears!  We’re so glad to know he’s here with us!  He shows me the hospital and teaches me the Arabic for sun (shams).  Juan hears bely dancing music and he and Ginger go back downstairs to investigate and when they don’t come back, we go down, too.

The belly dancer in her white, pearl encrusted costume is just finishing and then goes from table to table, posing for photos.  Next comes a gentleman in an ugly mask and very tall hat.  He has a brass censor which he swings in circles around people’s heads.  And he stays around for the whirling dervish, who is very impressive!  He also works the room, posing for photos.

Next comes a group of three men with sticks which they twirl for just a bit before the belly dancer returns after her costume change.  She performs with the three men and then goes into her final number.  Altogether satisfying!  She is really good and she is accompanied by three drummers, a singer, and recorded music.

When she is finished, it’s about ten and time for us to go home.  Our driver has been keeping track of us and guides us back to the van, where he has a good-natured laugh at the old lady who can shimmy!

The trip back is much quicker!!  Not nearly as much traffic on the roads;  but what there is, is noisier!  We get back to the Osiris in record time and go back up to reception on the twelfth floor.  We discuss our departure with Carlos and he assures us that twelve thirty will be just fine.  That gives us a little down time, and we’re back in the lobby by about twelve fifteen.

Presently our transport arrives and we stuff most of the luggage into the trunk and hold the rest on our laps.  Mine is just the right height for sleeping!  Our driver asks which terminal and we hope we’re right when we say Terminal Two.  It seems that’s the one we used to go to Amman.  And we’re right!  Yay us!

There is next to no one in the airport!  We put our bags through the pre-screening, then go to the Alitalia check-in counters.  Piece of cake!  Of course, the departure time of 4:55 was the right one; but never mind.  We’re here and so far everything is going great! We stop and fill out our immigration cards and slip through passport control and security with no hiccups, and head for our gate, E04.  It seems a few other people thought it was a 3:30 departure, too.  No other reason to be here!~  Ginger is working on her quilt for Randy and Amy.  She’s been doing handwork every chance she got, and is nearly finished!  I’m finishing up this blog entry and Juan is catching a few ZZZs, and Marilyn is on her phone.  The time should go quickly and then we’ll be in Rome with a slightly shorter layover.  But we don’t have to claim our bags and go through customs until we get to Atlanta!  Such a treat!!  Since it’s now tomorrow, I think I’ll stop here!  Bye-Bye Cairo!!  Yala yala, on to Rome!