ok, so we had the tickets; and the luggages; and good will; and we were in the airport;
you'd say that would be enough;
but it was a bumpy ride to there:
first, we were told that getting here is a definite "maybe" (so to speak). we arrived at the airport and were told off, because we had israel visas on the passport; we had to wait for some egyptian man to come (45 minutes later) and approve our visas so we could get on the plane.
fourty five minutes, a caramel chreme and two sandwitches later, we got our boarding approved and were on the way to the plane.
that's one, solved.
second, we were late. we had to switch planes in cairo, which turned to be a new experience:
our plane was late ten minutes;
then we had to choose between two queues to get into cairo with a visa and a queue to an empty desk for transits. since we were in a hurry, we chose one queue (at least something was happening there), and got sent to the transfer (still empty) desk. then we waited for someone to get there, then after he did, he sent us to get visas and go by one of the queues back.
we finally passed the visa checking, went to get our luggage (the only one left on the band) and, with 15 minutes 'till the second plane was due to leave started searching for the new terminal.
turns out the new terminal was like 300 metres down the street. running with 20kgs in scuba gear and two backpacks down the street is no fun.
we finally got past the security checks and here we were, waiting for the bus to pick us up. if we only knew, we'd have gone at a pace.
well ... after that it was smooth sailing (errr ... plane riding ... flying! whatever it was).
so kids, when doing transfers between two planes, make sure you have at least one hour between them; if you're flying through cairo, that means two or three hours between flights.
this concludes our lesson for today!
(no homework assigned)
2 comments:
Just wondering, who was the one who held you for 45 minutes to check if you were able to be admitted to Egypt if you have an Israeli visa?
I also have traveled more than the average person, and I know about the Israeli boycott. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, and others refuse entry not just to Israelis, but also to foreigners who have evidence that they entered Israel in their passport. But Egypt is one Arab country that does not participate in the boycott, together with Jordan, and Morocco, I think. So who was the ignorant person that held you?
When I was in Vienna, flying to Rome, someone from Alitalia questioned me, apparently, he doesn't know that Schengen visa, which I have, is applicable in both Austria and Italy.
it was the luggage check-in lady; she told us she couldn't accept them becuase she didn't know if we'd be able to get past egyptian borders.
i also knew Egypt didn't participate in the boycott (having been to Cairo before) but all she said was she had to check.
When the egyptian guy came to check he looked for a long time to our passports and double-checked we were going to Sharm instead of Cairo; Then, he insisted that we should know that Sharm is still a part of Egypt (must have been a case of national ... pride? ego? don't know really).
Maybe it's some new regulation thing :\
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