Nothing Like a Little Flying

Remember the insanity of my rush to the airport for my flight to Jeddah? Well, this time Sherif was involved.. so it was 10x worse!!

Since our flight was on a Wednesday, it meant I had to go in for work in the morning. Not work work, mind you,  but our weekly team breakfast at Fudruckers. And I never miss breakfast at Fuds. mmm… bacon. (That’s BEEF bacon you fools! This is still Saudi)

I got back from work 30 min before I had to leave for the airport. Just in time to start packing! And ready I was, I even remembered to pack an extra set of underwear! Sherif, though, was held up by compound security coming to my place. This meant we would leave 30 min later than we needed to.

Of course THAT meant I had to drive like a madman again. And I did. Gladly.

1/50s @ 200mm (Canon 70-200mm), f/4 ISO200

Arriving at the airport, we found this little birdy waiting in the departure lounge!

1/20s @ 24mm (Sigma 24-70mm), f/4 ISO200

I generally wouldn’t walk around a plane with my camera out, but for some reason I felt I could this time round. Sherif unloads his baggage in the first compartment he finds.

It always amuses me to watch other travelers. Usually, its the kids bugging parents that brings a smile to you, but this time, we found a family bringing in a dozen boxes (yes that makes it a total of 12×12 = 144 donuts… dont you love math?) of Krispy Kreme. Maybe they don’t have donuts in Egypt?

1/500s @ 20mm (Sigma 10-20mm), f/9 ISO100

And we’re off! Saudi Arabia’s deserts are littered with these tiny camps, which are usually oil prospecting or refining stations.

1/50s @ 10mm (Sigma 10-20mm), f/4 ISO400

It can get really boring up in the air! Me and Sherif create some drama by making our dissatisfaction known. Unbeknownst to us, there was a creepy man behind us adding his own band of drama… 0_0

1/30s @ 14mm (Sigma 10-20mm), f/4 ISO400

What is about crappy food 30,000 feet in the air that suddenly makes it palatable? You give me this stuff at sea level and I’d shoot you. On a plane, though, mmmm this is fine dining!

Wait what? Oh, so just because I’m brown the only reason you think I got in here was by stabbing somebody?

Where’s My Ride?

Sherif, being the celebrity comedian and all, would have a car waiting for him as we walked out of the airport.

Sherif calling ahead to make sure we had our car ready

While I act like tourist-bait and hold signs that attract ‘friendly’ taxi drivers to me… and then shooting them down heh heh

The car arrived and we got in as it drove us through the crowded streets of Cairo, which somehow reminded me of Karachi… with one key difference… in Karachi cars drive slow. In Cairo, you have cars zipping across highways at insane speeds with pedestrians running from lane to lane… its like that really old game Frogger, only with fatal consequences!

We finally made it to our hotel, the Semiramis Intercontinental on the banks of the river Nile. The view from up here was amazing…

Tripod Mounted/Remote Shuttered, 4.0s @ 20mm (Sigma 10-20mm), f/8 ISO100

The view from our hotel room was amazing. Across the river, you can see the Cairo Tower, one of Cairo’s most godawfully useless tourist attractions.

Not really tired, but with literally nothing to do, Sherif and I would visit the Cairo tower, have dinner and then fall asleep, ready for out big days tomorrow.

Sherif had a lot of preparation to do for his performance. I was going to fulfill a lifelong dream… and in the process get harassed by 14 year old girls… more on this next post

Click here for other posts on my Egypt trip!

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