What follows is the first of hopefully a number of “retro blogs”. This one is of Michelle and I’s trip to Egypt and Greece for our honeymoon in May and June of 1994. I’ll be presenting the text of both our journals as faithfully as possible (with only omissions for stuff that is better left untyped). Michelle’s journal spans the entire trip while mine peters out about half-way through. You’ll notice that our writing styles are very different, hers a “just the facts m’am” and mine a bit more detailed. You’ll be glad when mine finally ends! I’ll also be scanning in pictures and such as well for inclusion.
Michelle writes:
I am writing this from the honeymoon suite in the Cairo Sheraton. Just to catch up, we did a lot of shopping on Thursday. Bought a new duffel. But we still hadn’t packed. About 1 or 1:30a we were looking thru the tickets and realized that the Athens to Cairo leg was missing. Friday when we called our travel agent was on vacation but another lady there happened to find them. So we packed with about an hour to spare. Adrianne took us to the airport (about 1:30p on Friday). Our plane left about 3:30p. It was a propeller plane – pretty small. This flight took us to Washington / Dulles. At W/D we rode out to this little island terminal. We waited about 2 hours. We were in one of the hump planes (has a lounge). We were in the middle seats. Sister Act II was the movie. We got into Paris about 8a. I felt a little sick. Left for Athens. In Athens it was a little worrisome. We had to transfer to Olympic Airlines and to a different terminal. The lay over was about 4 hours. Brian couldn’t keep awake. The airbus took us to Cairo. Agent met us at the gate.
We got through customs very quickly. Our bags made it! We exchanged some money. Another couple was being picked up at the same time. They were from Arizona. It was 11 by the time we got back to the hotel. The hotel is very nice. We got the honeymoon suite. Mohammed is our Naggar [ed – the travel agency in Egypt] representative.
Brian writes:
I am writing this, my account of my first two days-packed-into-one of our Egyptian honeymoon from the (thankfully) air-conditioned Olympic Airlines terminal in Athens, Greece [ed – Aha! I wasn’t asleep the whole time!]. We are waiting for something which we are not aware of simply because a person told us to sit in a corner of the terminal and wait… and wait. The travel books had warned us of this – time is eternal when dealing with Mediterranean bureaucracies, and Greece and Egypt are not to be excepted!
Woke up at about 7:10a Friday to the Big Show (on the Radio!). Rolled around in bed before finally getting up and showering by 8a. Call Travel Agents International, they tell me to come in and they will research the missing Olympic Air Tickets. Get there, they found them! Yeah. Get back, leave soon thereafter to get photocopies of passports and drop the Playmaker’s stuff off at Rosalind’s. Get back about 9:30a. Pack clothes, etc. until 10:45a. 10:45a – 11:45a: go to McDonald’s for lunch, she gets a McRib, I a two cheeseburger value meal, super-sized for the Flinstones movie!
11:45a – 12:50p: TV, last minute checking, pet Jessica [ed – our cat at the time], etc. 12:50p – 1:30p: Adrianne drives us to the airport (RDU). Check in with United, there is a snotty woman there who pisses us off because she is flying “first-class”. You see, there were a few people ahead of her and us, and when the dude said next please she stepped up. A woman in front protested, but she said, “I’m first-class”. Man at counter says he’ll make sure luggage gets to Cairo, including the United – Olympic transfer in Athens. In Raleigh visited some store, bought mineral water for the trip, two bottles. Left Raleigh on one of those crappy prop planes at 3:15p – Michelle had not been on one and was nervous when the captain did not start the right side prop until taxiing on the runway. No leg room, I have aisle seat. Get to Dulles about 4p, saw Chesapeake Bay. In Dulles (which was a dump and had a stupid fountain placed in the middle of the walkway and was not aesthetically pleasing in the least) just sat around and waited for our flight at about 7p to Paris’ Charles-de-Gaulle airport. Got off the ground at 7:00, it was a huge humped-back 747 [ed – omitted is a charming picture of the front of the craft with an arrow to the hump labeled “real good seats” and an arrow to the lower area labeled “our crappy seats!”]. We sat in crappy middle seats [ed – another picture, a 2-4-2 seat configuration with Michelle to my left in the middle section of the plane in the 2nd seat, me in the 3rd, of that section] right over the wing. Saw some news, Cheers, and travel show with crappy audio. The Cheers had Cliff touched by Sam’s black book and he goes, “I can see, I can walk”! Very clever! [ed – ugh, I wrote everything down!] Movie was Sister Act II – shitty and predictable! Enough said. Dinner was chicken cordon-bleu, breakfast was not memorable. ~8:00st, in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, in a satellite international terminal, one of several that surrounded the main terminal [ed – another picture, I’ll spare you from the description]. Needed to use bathroom bad, but stupid French janitor was exercising probably the most power he’s ever had in his life by stopping us until the floor was totally dry [ed – awww, did he say “non non” to my need to “oui oui”?]. The toilet was reasonably tame compared to my experience with French / Swiss toilets in July 1988. Only interesting thing was the flusher was on the left side of the stall at foot level and away from toilet.
Left France at 10:50st, on to Athens. Saw (from the plane) the amazing Alps, which had several glaciers and were mostly snow-capped! They rose steeply from the plateau and had little villages nestled within [ed – a picture of a comma-shaped lake, labeled “saw lake”, I guess I intended to later try and figure out what it was]. Next saw beautiful azure waters of the Mediterranean and the French & Italian riviera. Passed by Pisa, the quarries where Michelangelo got stone, later went over Florence and across boot of Italy. Saw lake near sea [ed – with yet another picture]. Fell asleep several times, realized this was my first truly international flight. Woke up over Greece, saw lake – [ed – a picture] next to sea. Saw long gulf between Greece and Peloponnesia. Had chicken wrapped in weird stuff!
Landed in Athens, which reminds me a lot of Phoenix but with a beautiful blue Aegean Sea coast. In that it is like Phoenix, AZ due to sandy hills and scrub (no cacti, though) upon them. Lots of white houses, apartments. Got to Athens at 2pm st and waited… and waited. First a woman took our tickets and told us to sit nearby. Though she had nothing else to do, it took 30 minutes for her to decide to move us from the international terminal to the Olympic terminal (by bus driver by dude [ed – what?!]. Greek sounds a lot like Russian, is neat to see printed – one of the words looks like [ed – crude attempt to replicate the word]. Next got to sit for about an hour in an empty lobby (see beginning note) for boarding passes (which we already had!) Then, go to the international terminal, which has duty-free shops and saw a Conan and Mickey Mouse in Greek! Everbody seems to smoke. Saw a little girl in traditional Greek (?) costume. White robe and red cap. Kept on falling asleep, slobbering on self [ed – Sheesh, Michelle was right! And I promised to keep this as close to the original text as possible, quit looking at me like that!].
Leave Athens at 6:50p st or so, 2 and 1/2 hour flight to Egypt – I sleep during much of it. Wake upon approach to Cairo – huge, endless lights!!! 16 million people of the area’s 57 million live here, and with the suburbs almost 1/3 to 1/2 people. Land at ~9:00, earlier than expected. Tense moments as we pray dude will meet us before getting to customs. They do! Two guys, one very small, one very large – Ihab is his name. They tell us to go through Egyptians’ line of customs, nothing to declare, they tell us not to worry about registering camera though I am a little wary of that! Get baggage, takes a long while to come out! Talked to Ihab, who is also a lawyer, about America – marriage, crime, etc. Talked about why there are poor, etc. He says he is amazed by female – male casual relationships, not like that at all in Egypt. I am real young to be married, usually in later twenties – to thirties, arranged [ed – that’s Ihab talking].
Leave there, meet Mohammed, our travel guide. Ride on a small bus with another couple, the Harts. The driver is an older man. Driving is crazy! Horns beeping constantly, Mohammed says rush hour is CONSTANT (it is!). Pedestrians dart in front of cars like they are not there, donkey-drawn carts do not yield to faster traffic. Though the roads are two lanes each way, it is not unusual to see three or four lanes of traffic! Mohammed says the white lines are largely disregarded, and the only law is to drive on the right, though even that is broken. There is not even a requirement for headlights at night! The Harts are OK, he and she are ~70, he was in the army air corps over Britain, Africa and visited Egypt in 1943. Talked some about history, changes in itinerary, and our Egyptologist Sahar. Narrowly avoided lots of accidents, saw Jeep Cherokees! Made it to the Cairo Sheraton at ~11:00pm, got a honeymoon suite, Rm. 1373.
Mohammed greets friends with kiss on each cheek, lots of back-slapping! Oh, changed $300 to 1011.30LBE [ed – pounds Egyptian] at bank at airport. Got to bed after get to great room (beautiful view of Nile, river, neat traffic square) ~11:30. My headache had come back. Oh, toilet flushes in at the top of the toilet, pull up on it!