Woke at six feeling pretty shit from drinking cheap (but expensive) Israeli beer. Prayed that we would be able to leave the hostel well before the girl from the bar or, even worse, the girl from the bar and her boyfriend, emerged from their dormitories. Fortunately we did, and I will never find out what I had to say to her in my drunken stupor.
We made the mistake, however, of assuming that we would be travelling on an Israeli bus from Tel Aviv to Cairo, so turned up well in time for an 8.00 departure. It turned out that we were travelling on an Egyptian bus, so we waited outside the bus in the pouring rain until 8.25.
I managed to offload some monopoly money on the bus, much to my relief. Apparently there is a departure tax from Israel so the Jew who travelled up to the border with us asked us all for $22 each. I paid 2 twenties and a five for both of us and there were no problems. Better still, I managed to buy $10 worth of Egyptian pounds at the bank at passport control. I have to take my hat off to the people who printed this stuff! I had planned to keep my toy money well away from banks, but we had no real money and we needed Egyptian money to enter the country and to get to the airport.
The next excitement was seeing large ships sail through the Suez Canal.
We arrived at the Sinai Terminal near Abbasaya Square at 8.45 and took a taxi from there to the airport. The driver attempted to charge us $20 for the trip, but we explained that we had been to Cairo before and would pay only twenty Egyptian pounds. We bartered aggressively for a while and settled on thirty Egyptian pounds. Still way over a fair price, but we had to get rid of all our Egyptian currency somehow! I think that two English girls who were on our bus paid $25 just to get to Tahrih Square, but what do they expect telling the driver to take them to the Nile Hilton?
Once through customs etc at Cairo I found myself sitting on hard plastic chairs in the departure lounge at gone midnight. After the 13-hour bus journey all I could think about was my lovely, firm bed and clean duvet at home. The aeroplane seat would have to do, though.
We made the mistake, however, of assuming that we would be travelling on an Israeli bus from Tel Aviv to Cairo, so turned up well in time for an 8.00 departure. It turned out that we were travelling on an Egyptian bus, so we waited outside the bus in the pouring rain until 8.25.
I managed to offload some monopoly money on the bus, much to my relief. Apparently there is a departure tax from Israel so the Jew who travelled up to the border with us asked us all for $22 each. I paid 2 twenties and a five for both of us and there were no problems. Better still, I managed to buy $10 worth of Egyptian pounds at the bank at passport control. I have to take my hat off to the people who printed this stuff! I had planned to keep my toy money well away from banks, but we had no real money and we needed Egyptian money to enter the country and to get to the airport.
The next excitement was seeing large ships sail through the Suez Canal.
We arrived at the Sinai Terminal near Abbasaya Square at 8.45 and took a taxi from there to the airport. The driver attempted to charge us $20 for the trip, but we explained that we had been to Cairo before and would pay only twenty Egyptian pounds. We bartered aggressively for a while and settled on thirty Egyptian pounds. Still way over a fair price, but we had to get rid of all our Egyptian currency somehow! I think that two English girls who were on our bus paid $25 just to get to Tahrih Square, but what do they expect telling the driver to take them to the Nile Hilton?
Once through customs etc at Cairo I found myself sitting on hard plastic chairs in the departure lounge at gone midnight. After the 13-hour bus journey all I could think about was my lovely, firm bed and clean duvet at home. The aeroplane seat would have to do, though.
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