Mrach 15th, 2010

Reda's Birthday

Today was my husband's birthday and we decided to celebrate by heading to the nearby city of Tanta.  After completing some necessary business, we headed to our favorite local haunt: Paccino's Coffee Shop.

We discovered this cafe during my visit last November. 

Free wireless internet and a drink menu which includes everything from lattes to smoothies to hot cider. You just gotta love it.

Our favorite table is in the back corner looking out toward the rest of the cafe...

...and up at the legends of rock and roll.

Our usual fare: two lattes and a water.

Scenes from Tanta:

The Tanta Bus Station:

Yours truly waiting for a bus back to Basyoun.  Words are insufficient to explain how glad I am to have Reda to navigate the maelstrom of the Egyptian public bus system for me.  To put it short, there are too many people, too few buses and too much of a "survival of the fittest" attitude towards obtaining a seat on one of them.  Imagine the chaos of 50 people pushing and shoving to try and get onto a bus that seats 15.  The pictures below are a case in point.

Fortunately, with a little patience, foresight and luck it is possible to avoid the worst of the crowds and get a seat with a minimum amount of fuss.  However, both Reda and I will be very very glad when we can get a car of our own and these bus-capades are far behind us.

March 12 to 13, 2010

Although I was able to find a fabulous deal on roundtrip airfare from Cairo to New York, the short, one-way trip from Syracuse to JFK was going to run half again as much.  (Grrrrrr).  Thus the morning of my departure found yours truly heading south on Route 81 in a rental car.  I snapped this photo just before I left New York State.

Despite some fog and rain the trip down to JFK was going very well.  I was excited to be returning to Egypt to see my husband, I had a nice tall cup of hot coffee, some rockin' tunes on the radio and no one to make those awful faces when I sang along.  Then I passed into New Jersey and saw this sign advertising that the Land of Make Believe could be found at the next right.  Huh.  I guess there really is a place for everything.  Of course, the fact that it was just past the sign for Buttsville had to be a coincidence...right?

This view at a New Jersey overlook was worth the leg stretch.

Bridges are cool.  Eight dollar tolls to cross them one way are not.  Welcome to New York City.

I made it to JFK without a hitch though.  The drive was very nice and I will definitely be doing it again.  As I waited at the gate it was comforting to know that our plane was here and that they had plenty of time to load the luggage and food.  EgyptAir has a remarkable amount of leg room in economy class which makes for an easy transatlantic flight.  No weird, lighthouse/gamma ray burst hallucinations this time!

We had heavy clouds for the whole trip and even our descent into Cairo was obscured.  But...it did make my heart glad to see the green of the Nile delta emerge at last.

The contrast between delta and desert is very sharp here.  Blink and you'll miss it.

Touchdown!!!

Reunited at last:)

I am always amazed at the hodepodge of vehicles here in Egypt.  The motorcycle/wagon combo two cars ahead is an excellent case in point.

It was nice to feel a wave of nostalgia as we drove through Cairo on our way north...

...and of course to be reminded once again why no one here drives a convertible.