Worst Of a Great Trip - the Flight Home

Early on Monday morning, 3 a.m., we started our trek home after one very educational trip to Egypt. How can it not be educational with all of its amazing history and very different culture?

We left our hostel at 3:30 a.m. and it took about an hour to get to the airport. We knew our driver as we had used him when we started our trip and he was interested to know how our trip had gone.

The Cairo airport is all pretty modern but the process to get through was hectic. Foreigners couldn’t get their booking passes or book seats online because passports had to be checked in person, etc. So we had to wait in line, but we had time. We went through 4 security checks with pat downs and luggage inspection. I guess that all those young, conscripted army guys needed to be working.

The plane was absolutely full but it left on time. It was a small plane and not very comfortable. No food was served as it was a 5 hour flight and rules have changed re when food is served. No food unless over 5 hours now. We had brought a few things to eat though.

Heathrow was a zoo and the service people didn’t move very fast. Once again we had to go through security checks and our luggage went through scanners. It all seemed very disorganized and chaotic. Even though we had a 1 1/2 hour layover, we almost missed our connecting flight home. We were the very last people to board. Getting to the gate was our workout for the day.

The baggage check people said that I had liquid in my bag. Something very, very small. Could they find it? No. Could I? No. It was either my mascara or a tiny bit of hand sanitizer. They were removing everyone’s makeup and putting it in a little clear bag so the lineup for this check point was long. I kept telling them that our plane was taking off in 5 minutes but they said don’t worry and continued to work pretty casually.

In the meantime, Chris lost one hearing aid in the craziness. An employee actually spent time helping him look for it and of course it ended up being in Chris’ pocket, haha.

We ran. Thanks heavens we had backpacks that weren’t very heavy. Down some stairs, along a hallway to a slow elevator to go down 2 floors, caught a subway to another area, rain up the elevator and to our gate. Everyone had already boarded and we ended up being the last ones to board. We were so thankful not to have missed the plane home.

At least we got some exercise to put it mildly. We felt pretty cramped for the next 7 hours but al least we got fed about 4 hours into the flight. By then we were pretty hungry. We had counted on time to grab some food before boarding but not a chance. We were offered lots to drink though and the meal was okay.

Toronto was a zoo too. For some reason, immigration was checking everyone who got off the plane. Once that was done we moved on to getting our declaration of goods pass. Several of the machines were not working and it took us 1/2 hour to get our papers.

Finally, we were through. Thank heavens we didn’t have to collect luggage!

The best part of the whole experience was the Red Car service to take us home. The driver was right there in 5 minutes and we were the only ones in the van. He originally was from Poland and offered us his house if we ever go there! He gave us his WhatsApp number and said that he’d give us ideas of where we could go in the cheap parts of Europe and where to get a cheap car rental. He even offered us his house!

When we got home at 5 pm, everything was so nice and clean. Except us. For some reason all of our clothes stunk. I did a load of laundry immediately and we had a quick dinner. Our neighbour had picked up a few things for us from the grocery store. She’s the best.

We tried to stay up until 9 pm but didn’t quite make it. So of course, we were up at 3 a.m. for a couple of hours. But we were okay because we had had a good sleep up until then. We were able to sleep a little longer later in the day.

It is so quiet here. No honking horns, donkeys, people talking on the street, etc. But … a big spider was hiding in the sheets of our bed. What a greeting!Baca lagi