road to alex

it was an hour before my flight to cairo and they were finally announcing the gate.  that's the way they roll in heathrow.  also they only give you 45 minutes of free wifi.  also there are hardly any plug ins.  pff.  but anyways it was gate 25.  i saw it and i got a rush of adrenaline and butterflies.  i was on the last leg of my journey.  soon i'd be in the ancient land of egypt.  soon i'd be with him, my ejjjgyptian.  52 slow poke days of counting down were suddenly at 0.  i shoved my laptop back into my red rolly suitcase and headed down to gate 25.  i was one of the first people there.  i did all the things you have to do, got a new boarding pass from egypt air, and entered the waiting area and looked around for a washroom.  i had a whole fresh new outfit planned for my first meeting with egypt/egjjyptian.  but there was no washroom.  i went back to the nice ladies and asked about a washroom and if i was allowed to leave and they kindly pointed me in the direction and just had me leave my boarding pass at the desk.  so i rushed off to the washroom, and in the stall transformed myself from weary frumpy traveler to shiny girl in love.  

when i arrived back at the gate and got my boarding pass i could go directly onto the plane.  i felt like i was beaming my anticipation to everyone.  i felt like the other passengers must know that something special was happening with me.  "oh there's another shiny girl in love", they say to themselves, and then go on to flick through the on-flight movies.  i had another window seat and this time the seat beside me was empty, which was nice.  there were some foreigner women, sounded like from australia, ahead of me keeping up some convo with an egyptian across the aisle.  sometimes they talked about how they would never marry an egyptian.  sometimes the egyptian brought them tea.

for the inflight meal, i chose chicken.  then i spilled some on my skirt.  ack!, not my habibi outfit! i exclaim inside my head. wipe it off as best i can and hope it is not noticeable. i watched a romantic movie with zac efron called the lucky one.  i may have watched frozen too.  i may have slept a little. i may have stared at the lights of italy and greece below and tried to imagine what it was i was actually looking at.  i may have listened to opra music.  eventually we were flying over egypt.  eventually i was watching it's lights (never ending) eventually i was watching cars on egyptian highways.  eventually i was watching us land.

then came the time you have to be patient when the plane taxis to it's stop, when everyone is getting their baggage down, when you are slowly trailing out of the air craft (my shiny in love feet were puffy), when you are suddenly in a current of people streaming down hallways, following signs, heading to the same place... another line another check point.  i was carried along with it.  some foreigners stopped at a bank.  i kept going and lined up with everyone else.  when i got to the guy and gave him my passport, he told me i had to go get my visa at the bank and sent me back.  so i got my 25 dollar visa, and got back in the longer line.  i watched the different families and people around me.  everyone was very quiet and serious.

i had wondered what questions they would ask me.  where will you stay?  who will you meet here?  what is your relationship?  what is his address and phone number?  how long will you stay?....i was asked nothing. not even spoken to.  it was that easy.  after my passport was stamped i went and picked up my black suitcase from the baggage claim area.  i hooked my red rolly onto it (a nice trick i picked up from the fun couple on last year's cruise), and i rolled out towards the doors where i could see so many people packed in and waiting.  my heart was going thumpa thumpa.  i didn't see bashir in any of their faces.  i didn't think he would wait right there in the thick crowd anyways.  then i turned and saw him standing off to the side, big goofy grin on his face.  my face split into the same silly grin.  i think i said something like "hiiiiii!"  we hugged.  and then we walked arm and arm out of the airport into the warm egyptian night.  i don't remember much of what we said.  just that bashir kept saying "laura! you are here!"  and just that we both couldn't stop smiling the biggest smiles. and suddenly we were together and it was just like we had always been together.

when we got to bashir's car, zooba, we found her blocked by three men and a car.  "welcome to egypt!" they said.  as they moved for us.  it was the first of many such greetings i was to receive.  i felt it was impossible to get out of the willy nilly airport parking lot.  everyone was coming and going in different directions, parked in weird spots and ways.  but this is an every day situation in egypt and soon we were out on the highway.  

bashir had many surprises for me. 

first: he played me a cool happy birthday song.

second: he had a box of yummy birthday cakes and treats that we shared as we drove along. (and juice)

third: he handed me a black bag.  my birthday present.  i knew it was probably perfume because we joked about him giving me perfume at the airport when i told him my respite boy (5 years old) told me i smelled like rotten yogurt).  it was perfume.  2 perfumes!  both so pretty.  they have become the scents of egypt to me. 

i don't want to bring you to my aunt's yet, confessed my egjjyptian to me.  i'm not tired, i reassured him, so we drove around cairo and he pointed out places to me and he held my hand, and we were so giddy and happy and my eyes were big with everything i was seeing. so somewhere on that tour of cairo after midnight we decided to drive to alex(andria) that night.  but we had to stop at the aunt's because bashir had her only key.  so we drove to giza.  

a couple of days before leaving for egypt bashir told me about how we could stay at his aunt's instead of me staying at a hostel and him at his flat.  the day before i left he told me his concerns.  i don't know if you should stay here, he said.  the neigbhourhood isn't nice.  all the buildings are close together and the streets are dirty and crowded.  that's ok, i said.  she lives on the 5th floor and the stairs are narrow.  he said.  it's ok, i said.  she has no ac, he told me, and sometimes there is water and sometimes there isn't.  i had to reassure him a number of times that it was ok with me.  and i'm so glad i did.  it was one of the best things staying with his aunt.  aunt nadia and merfat his cousin.  but aannyways.  to my surprise the streets around his aunt's place were still alive.  people and shops and cars still going.  it was long after midnight.  maybe around 2am.  there was so much to watch and see.  i love her neighbourhood.

to get to her apartment, first you have to travel down a very busy road. then you do a u turn to get to the other side. then you turn down a very narrow jumbled busy side dirt road.  then off of that a short narrow dirt road.  her apartment is the one with the iron gate.  bashir dumped me and my luggage at the iron door gate and had me wait for him there while he parked the car... then came the 5 flights of stairs.  yes they were narrow and they were dark and some of the steps were uneven and the wall was very low.  those stairs...i got somewhat better with them over time, but those stairs took a lot out of me every time.  :)

i felt sure aunt nadia and merfat would be asleep when we arrived.  it was after 2 in the morning!  but no they were up.  and they had pizza for us and kind of pastry, pie thing with ground meat in it.  bashir ate one bite of his pizza and that was it.  the truth is, and i have to confess it and let the chips fall where they may, he's a bit of a princess when it comes to food.  only likes things hot and fresh etc etc.  you'll see what i mean.  after our middle of the night meal, we grabbed our cameras and got ready to hit the road.  bashir borrowed his bestie's point and shoot camera.  this was my first meeting with it.  later we became very very acquainted.  thanks machmad.  'preshiate chya. 

this is me in my room!  hi i'm in egypt!! (please note behind my head the all important dial to turn on the fan.  the fan kept me sane.  thank the lord for the fan)

 and here is my egjjyptian with his mucley arms.  muscley.  arms that have muscles.  yah, i made it up. what of it.

 my bed!  please note the bag of toilet paper on my bed.  my sweet egjjyptian bought it just for me.  they don't really use tp in egypt.  they just use the water that sprays off their bums when you reach down beside the toilet and turn a knob.  being a water newbie, i used both just to be sure.  aaanyways i slept with my head at the other end because it was closest to the open window.  aaand i just slept on top because it was haaawt.

 hi. i'm happy and giddy and in egypt in my bedroom.

 and so we left on our first adventure.  bashir says the best time to travel in egypt is in the middle of the night because that is the only time the traffic isn't crazy.  i think by the time we left it was around 4am.  i'm not sure if that's right or only if that is what machmad's camera says.  who knows, his camera may be a liar.

after a while we left cairo and headed towards alex on the desert road.  that's what it's called, the desert road.  the dark desert road is where it happened.  our first stolen kisses while we drove.

then suddenly the sun was rising.

this is the man i love.  i think he is beautiful.

this one below is my favourite one.

i love little bits of him, like his side burns.  you know the part, where it seems to end and there is a space and then another little patch?  i love that.  and i love his profile.  i'm just totally crazy about him as you can see.

all along the side of the highway there were stands like this one.

and piles and piles of watermelon to sell everywhere.

this guy wanted me to take his pic, so i did.

we stopped so bashir could pee. "what are those weird things?" i asked him.  "what weird things?" he answered.  "those!" i said pointing, thinking it was very obvious.  "bird houses!" he said like it was also very obvious.  after this i saw these giant bird houses everywhere.

i gave him my little banged up coppery heart ring.  i love this pic.  i love his hands.  so much.

when we got here i thought we were entering alexandria, but not really there was still a ways to go.  notice how we are driving into oncoming traffic.  whaaat. ever!  no big deal! this is egjypt!

yah.  this is normal in egjjypt.  i can count at least 21 visible men.  obviously there are more on the other side.  these guys enjoyed haveing their pic taken and waved at me.

now that i've spent 2 weeks in egjjypt, the weird thing about this photo is that there is hardly any traffic.  that's just because it's early in the morning.

bashir was obstinately fond of the unflattering angle of down pointed up.  this was my first experience of it.  there are many more.  

this is how they drive in egjjypt.  and he is driving.  the car is moving.

a study of a tuk tuk!

the tuk tuk driver is wearing a galabaya!

i like this one because it shows the dusty egypt, the movement and a typicalish apartment building.

this part of the trip took a while because bashir started sleep driving which was at a very slow speed.  and i kept hitting, tickling poking him to keep him awake.  i paid a price for this, but it was worth it.

and this was our first night together, giddy and so happy to be together and off on our first adventure.