Leaving Egypt

Our flight leaving Cairo was scheduled at 5:00am Sunday, December 18. We arrived at the airport by 9:00pm the night before hoping to use the VIP lounge until check in time with Aitalia. The VIP lounge is  located behind the security and passport control gate. Unfortunately we could not check-in and go through security because the Alitalia desk did not open until a few hours before departure.   We had no choice but to wait for four hours in the airport terminal until Alitalia opened for business.


Waiting for Alitalia to open for business.


After checking in, we were able to use the VIP lounge.  The lounge has food and drinks and comfortable chairs to use while waiting for our flight out of Cairo.  The flight was on time and we made it to Rome with time to spend in the lounge and Duty Free stores.
Our trip went smoothly and we thoroughly enjoyed everything we've seen. Thanks to Kurt's experience of being in Egypt before, (the Sinai Peninsula and Cairo), we could have not done any better planning. We had the right amount of time at each city to see what we had on our itinerary. All hotels we stayed are budget hotels that were nice and clean, with good locations and English speaking staff. A group of four traveling together has the best deal when renting cars, taxis and other transportation.

Some fun and fond memories:
 - From the locals: Kurt is: Alibaba & Paul is Mustache.
 - From the street vendors: "You NEED a hat/a scarf" (whether or not you wear one!) .
 - From the store keepers: "Lady, don't know what you want, but I will have it!. Come (in ), look, look".
 - At a restaurant, we asked the waiter about a chicken dish: "Is it (chicken) a fillet?". The answer is: "Yes"..
   We're (still) not sure, again we asked : "Is it fillet (or) with bone?". The answer is (still) "Yes". 

Alibaba and Mustache