Made my initial trip to Egypt in 1994 – the 3rd leg of my first frequent flyer “score'”. I had miles on American and somehow I got a buy-one-get-one-free promotion on TWA. I don’t remember the specifics but we flew from Washington – Rome on American, took a ferry to Greece, flew a local airline from Athens to Cairo, and then flew from Cairo to NYC on TWA with a stop somewhere to refuel. Then took a different flight from NYC to Washington. Total cost for airfare was less than $300 for both of us plus whatever frequent flyer miles I used.
With our 15 lb statue we purchased two weeks before in Rome, we flew from Athens to meet up with friends in Cairo that were working in Saudi Arabia, did all the tourist traps –
- Giza Pyramids
- Egyptian museum
- Various carpet and perfume markets
- Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha
- And a couple of casinos
The most memorable part was the camel ride at the Giza Pyramids, the price was “whatever we thought was fair”. So we knew the going price should be about $20 each. So after the ride, we said we didn’t want to go to the perfume and carpet markets – of course we got sucked in. When departing, we gave him $80 and he threw a fit – wanted a lot more (can’t remember now) and my buddy who had been working in the middle east a couple of years (and had a low tolerance for BS at this point) said “then it will be zero” and we quickly hopped in a taxi.
The other memorable part – the Giza Pyramids were on the edge of the city – the slums when right up to the edge. Not expected to me at the time.
Cairo was the final stop – we loaded up everything and took the longest flight I have ever been on – 18 hours from Cairo to NYC with a refueling stop somewhere I can’t remember.
(This was written during the Great Shutdown of 2020. My memory isn’t this good, used internet searches to fill in a lot of holes. If there’s huge fat foot below me, it not my fault – that an advertisement I can’t control).
Leave a Reply