Cairo to Skopje: May 2, 2012

This is our last morning in Zamalek.  Zamalek is such an oasis of calm in Cairo.  It is lovely, tree lined, filled with great restaurants and shops and generally gentrified.  It is just across the river from the turmoil of Tahrir Square but it has remained tranquil.

Our hotel, Hotel Longchamps, was very gracious.  They did not charge us for our first night--the one we were forced to spend in Istanbul.  They did not charge us for the driver's trip to meet our missed flight.  Gabby, the day desk clerk, pursued our lost luggage like a pit bull.  She was as happy to see it delivered as we were.  Their driver took us back to the airport.

It took over an hour to get to the Cairo Airport.  Traffic in Cairo has always been bad, but it is much worse post-revolution.  One cause of today's slow traffic was an altercation in front of the Defense Ministry between protestors and people initially described as "unknown assailants."  According to news reports, many of the protesters were "hardline Salafi Islamists" upset that their presidential candidate was disqualified.  Protestors were also concerned that the military would not bow out after the president was chosen.  By the time we drove past the scene, the fires were dying down but several people had already been reported dead.  We were on an elevated road and we could see spectators lining the adjacent elevated highway watching the scene below.

At the Cairo airport all went well.  We boarded a beautiful, seemingly new Egypt Air airbus, and found that our seats were in the premium coach cabin.  What a luxury to have room for our knees and legs.  After all passengers were on board, the pilot announced that we would need to delay our departure because the air traffic in Istanbul was jammed.  We left 30 minutes late.  Once in the sky over Istanbul, we circled for about 30 minutes because again the airport was too busy to receive us.  Fortunately, we had two hours between connections.  Aboard Turkish Air for our flight to Skopje, the plane left late--of course, it was Turkish Air and we were flying out of Istanbul.  How can they say they are "The best airline in Europe."  Who voted for them?

In Skopje, all our worries and setting in place a Plan B for Kali Cat were unnecessary.  At immigration, the officer asked me how many times I had been to Macedonia.  I answered "twice." Dan said "three times."  We were stamped in.  I guess the computer system isn't so good at catching illegal aliens.  And, our baggage arrived with us on the same plane.

Detour to Istanbul: April 27, 2012

Last night we made our way to Macedonia's Alexander the Great Airport for our flight to Cairo.  It was actually two flights: Skopje-Istanbul and Istanbul-Cairo.  We had about 90 minutes between flights and they were both Turkish Air so we didn't anticipate any problems.  How silly of us!  Our Turkish Air flight to Istanbul left very late because the Turkish Air flight we were to take arrived in Skopje very late.  We arrived in Istanbul after 12:30 a.m. which was after our connecting flight had already left.

The Turkish Air Transit Desk was overwhelmed with passengers with the same problem--missed connections to all parts of the world.  When we finally got our turn, we gave the Turkish Air employee our information; she told us to take a seat across the terminal from her desk.  We waited and waited, and we watched new waves of disgruntled passengers queue up or usually just mob the Turkish Air Transit Desk.  Finally, feeling forgotten, we got back in line.  After quite a bit of waiting, we were finally rebooked on an afternoon flight and sent to Turkish Air's Hotel Desk.  To get to the Hotel Desk, we had to buy a visa ($20 each) so we could leave the airport.  At the Hotel Desk, we waited some more with other delayed passengers.  Finally, our names were called, and we boarded a shuttle bus to a "5-star hotel" somewhere in greater Istanbul.

Around 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. we arrived at our hotel which was at least 45 minutes from the airport.  We checked in, and I asked for and was given a toothbrush and toothpaste.  Because our carry-on bags consist of camera equipment and our laptop, we had no other toiletries or clothing other than what was on our backs.

This morning we woke to a beautiful view of the Sea of Marmara.  Our room was very nice and the bed was two king sized beds.  We have no idea where we were.

Turkish Air told us a shuttle bus would pick us up at 11:00 for our 2:00 flight.  We waited.  The shuttle bus finally showed up about 11:30, but it was a van not a bus.  Once the other passengers got in with their bags, there was no room for us.  The driver said he'd call another van for us.  Again, we waited.  Finally fearing that we would miss yet another plane, we took a taxi to the airport.  Our flight was left late so our worries were for naught.

Our baggage did not arrive with us at the Cairo Airport.  Egypt Air filled out reports for the missing luggage and they paid us a "baggage delay" allowance of 200 EGP ($33 USD).

One thing that did work well was our Cairo hotel, the Hotel Longchamps.  We asked for a driver to meet us at the airport, and he was there with a sign.  He had a nice car with air conditioning and whisked us to the hotel.  Our room was serene and quiet.  After checking in we went in search of a change of clothing.  It was lovely to be back in Zamalek.

We each bought a shirt and I found a pair of denim capris.  After dinner at Abou El Cid Restaurant, we found The Body Shop recently opened in Zamalek on 26th July, and I bought makeup.  Interestingly,  there are several new shops in Zamalek opened post revolution.  There is a fancy cupcake shop (Nola's Cupcakes) on Brazil St and a Gourmet Food Shop with Australian beef and Norwegian Salmon.  And, some of the old shops have remodeled their old spaces.