Kevin and I wake up and for some reason he wants to go to the airport and wait till 5 to catch our plane to Egypt. I am thinking how boring it sounds to sit around that long so I convince him to see one of the things on my must see list that I made back at home. So we figure out that we can see Plaza de Castillo and make it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We got some great pics like the one above ( I will post more when I can hook up my camera) we then stopped for a Churro (it was awesome covered in chocolate) and we headed over to a deli for lunch. Well after we figued out what Jamon was and I remembered the Zimmerman show about Madrid I ordered the jamon Sandwich, and while I can´t rightly remembered how he described it I will give you my description.
The Jamon Sandwich
This meat is served on a rather hard chewy roll which if you let it over powers the meat, I actually ripped the bottom half off the roll and used that as my bread since the top of the roll was too big and hard for my tastes. While the sandwhich was a good combination of meat and bread the meat by itself was a little umm odd. I took a piece of the meat out and chewed it alone, while the meat tastes like bacon there is a ton of fat on the meat and when you eat it by its self it tends to turn to liquid fat that runs down the back of your throat for an oddly discomforting feeling that you may immediatly have a heart attack and not make it to you next bite let alone out of the store. All in all even with my seemingly bad review I would recommend that you try it. It did have amazing flavor and when eaten with bread it was excellent.
After lunch we roamed around the streets near the Plaza De Castillo and found a dollar store for Monica (insert picture). We went in hoping to find the illusive cheap watch in Madrid only to be disappointed again. With our roaming done we headed back to the airport to wait for our flight.
Our first flight landed in Rome for a 2 hour layover and while there we decided to have a small meal so I tried a Crasso sandwhich which is something like baloney with I don´t know either fat or cheese pressed in the meat on something like panini bread, It was good but nothing to jump up and down about.
We then boarded the next plane for Cairo and they served the worst thing I think I have ever eaten (again not that I was especially hungry I was just thinking hey its free). I guess here in Europe you can actally get loaves of bread witht he crust cut off. I am not sure why we don´t do that in the US but here is it is common place, anyway the sandwhich they served on the plane (labeled in italian) was three slices of white bread no crust, with white cheese and green olive pate.. absolutely horrible, needless to say I didn´t get it on the flight back.
Cairo is really where this story begins well at least the interesting part that is..
When I boarded the plane to Cairo I felt a little odd I realized that we were the only Americans on the flight and it really didn´t dawn on me until that time that perhaps where I was going was a little bit dangerous. And it REALLY didn´t dawn on me until I got off the plane in Cairo. The place was a disaster, I mean I have been in some dirty places but this, this was unreal. Everything was a mess, Everything covered in dirt and grime the like of which I cannot decribe to you, I hope the pictures show it well.
After we got through customs (15 dollar visa) we were immediatly stopped by a pleasent looking man in a suit who asked us where we headed (and since he was dressed ten times better then the rest of the population) I answered that I needed to get to terminal 1 for our connecting flight. So me thinking the guy works for the airport follow him out past the armed gaurds past the hugh crowd of chanting (beggers, taxi cab drivers and people meeting people at the airport) and into a little office, again I am thinking hey this guy is legit he works for the airport. Well it turns out that is kinda like a taxi broker. We pay him 20us to get us over to the other terminal (which before the ride I was thinking hey.. you can´t charge to show us how to get to the next terminal) he introduces us to a guy he calls our driver, well he speaks to him in arabic and obvoiusly he doesn´t want our fare so he says wait, this is your driver and he introduces us to another guy who we start to follow and then he says wait.. You need this boy to come with you, mohammad follow them and their driver so.. A young boy who happens to speak some english is now along for the ride. We start to walk down the sidewalk around a bend and then across a street when the "our driver" takes off and goes to the left while we are being hurded down a dark flight of stairs and are joined by another man who starts talking to our boy. At the bottom of the nearly pitch black flight of stairs an Armed Police man gruffly asks the boy "Where are you taking them.." in which the boy replies in Arabic something.. I am assuming he tells him "to kill them over there near that pile of garbage".
Let me break the story for a minute to describe the scene.. First it is the middle of the night, I am in a country that is Muslim and not really kind to white christians especially from the US, did I mention it was dark not well lit? and there are hardly words to describe the area that we were in, it was what I guess you could refer to as a parking lot, there were lots of beat up cars that they call taxis but the area around the cars was like right out of a war movie it looked like we were in a war zone, there were destroyed parts of buildings debris everywhere, garbage everywhere, really the only words that come to my mind is freshly bombed.
Needless to say I was scared, I had no idea why I had to be lead outside to "terminal 1" I had no idea why I needed a freaking driver or an assitant and I especially had no idea why a big armed police man was concerned where this kid was taking me. So follow the kid to the first beatup car/van thing and the kid asks the man standing outside something in arbic and the guy points to the two asians that he has near the rear of the car and then we walk a little further past more beatup cars to a white van with curtians over the windows. They take our packs throw them in the trunk and the kid hands the driver a piece of paper (again which I assume says kill them and dump the bodies in the Nile) then the kid asks for a tip.. so feeling suckered I give him 2us and then he says.. what about my friend.. so I give him two bucks I am not really sure what he did for me but oh well I want to keep them smiling... At this poing I am a little less worried because well I still have my wallet and I am only out so far 24 dollars and I since I am not dead yet it is a good thing. The kid slams the door shut, Kevin obviously not as comfortable as I with the whole "happy just to be alive feeling" screams with a somewhat paniced voice hey... "are we going to terminal one?" "hey wait... Terminal 1, Terminal 1???" the panic was growing in him you could tell so he turns to the driver, "Terminal 1???" again "Terminal 1??" at this point I am seeing that he is getting scared so I say, Kevin he doesn´t know what you are saying, just relax he has the paper from the office (the one the guy in the suit wrote) so I think he knows where to go.
(In the back of my mind I was wondering if what was written on the peice of paper was "take these american fools around the airport a couple of times then drop them back off at the door and tell them they are at terminal one" or "Take these to Infadels to the local leader of radical muslim sect who will take them to the desert and behead them" but I have to hope for the best and just believe that we are going to terminal one.
As we pull out of the war zone parking lot we pass loads of police and security and all the time I thinking hey just jump now they can help you.. but I couldn´t leave Kevin... Anyway we drive through 3 or 4 security check points (in less then 1/2 mile) all along the way Kevin is freaking out, when we pass a sign in english that says terminal 1 pointing in the opposite direction of the way we are going again Kevin really starts freaking out.. But luckily for us we see another sign that also says terminal 1 and it just happens to be pointing in the direction we are heading so at this point I start to calm down and just go with it. We go through another security check point and the gaurd looks in the back seat and speaks to the driver in arabic something and smiles, I get a little worried but I think I am starting to understand a little better what is happening.. We are being scammed for what ends up being 30us to be driven across the parking lot (less travel then the 6 euros to cross the street in Madrid the day before) so we get to the front of a building that says clearly terminal 1 and before the guy stops Kevin and I are out of the van on the sidewalk ready to leave our bags in the back of the car. The driver is happy with the tip and I am Happy to be alive.
We walk inside and let me tell you the fun is not over. We are confronted by a seemingly disinterested security card who after we get his attention sends our bags through the metal detector and pats us down. We walk into an area about 1000 Sq foot that houses the ticket booths we get our ticket to Hurghada and again have to put our bags in a second metal detector and then the guy looks over our tickets and passports and lets us in to the waiting area for the plane.
At this point Kevin and I both had to go to the bathroom, so we start to walk in and yep you guessed it.. We are followed into the bathroom by a man who looks like a bum so I immediatly assume that we are going to mugged. I am not sure if you know what male bathroom ettiqute is (actually I think it is unwritten law) but when you use a Urinal and there are many of them on the wall and you are first to get there you have to use the urinal that is way in the corner, then the second person comes they use either the one way in the corner or at least many urinals away from the first guy then as more and more people show up you slowly fill in the gaps keeping as many empty urinals inbetween each other as humanly possible.. so you see men really don´t want other men near them when they pee. So back to the bum... While Kevin and I (one empty urinal a part) are peeing the guy walks right up behind us and places a towel on the devider between the urinals (breach of bathroom protocol for sure) and then proceeds to wait for us at the door, so we quick finish, wash and nearly knock the guy over to get out of the bathroom.. I am assuming now looking back that he was not a bum but an employee and he was trying to be nice.. All I can say is.. creepy..
Just when you thought this day would end we did have one more noteworthy experience.. While in the waiting room for the plane we get to sit next to what looks like a a guy who is dressed like a Saudi royal family member and his wife. I would like to say that his wife was beautiful but I am not sure if enough of her face was showing for me to be right in saying that. I will say that she did have amazing henna tattoos all over her hands and feet. And when I say all over, I mean they where covered in an amazing design that must have taken hours to do.. We didn´t really sleep this night but I will say this is the end of day 3.
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