Egypt update

Day 1 Cairo, Egypt

So, I made it to Egypt! Got up at 1.30am to go to Heathrow after practically no sleep. My bags weigh an absolute ton, but so far I haven't had to carry them... they have trolley pushers and porters in Egypt :) and apparently I look like I need help. The shops at Heathrow were all shut when I got there and the lights were off so I didn't get a bag I was counting on getting, will have to gind one here. The transfer was okay, no problems except having to throw my just purchased water away when I transferred at Vienna. Was pleasantly surprised by both BMI and Austrian Airlines - got meals on both - breakfast was with BMI and then lunch with Austrian which consisted of a lovely pasta bake with chicken and potatoes plus freshly baked warm bread (which was offered round 3 times!), unlimited refills of orange juice or 4 glasses of wine as my neighbour chose and a cake/crumble with apricots. I slept through most of both flights only waking for food or a few minutes. Arrived in Cairo and waited for another couple who would be sharing the car, they were really nice. We dropped them outside their hotel first which was surreal, loads of random sheep and goats in the middle of the street. We then went on to my hotel, they said there was already a girl in my room. She's also 18 and has been travelling for 4 months or so with about the same time remaining. Oh yeah, she's remarkably like Mikki - she's very brave and independent. We had our trip meeting at 8pm and met a few of the 45 people (only 15 were at this meeting). They're quite a bit older, well I think the nearest to my age is 22 but they're all really nice. The tour leader is really nice, very knowledgable and funny and very helpful. We went out for a walk in Cairo after the trip meeting which was at about 11pm. Everywhere was still bustling and alive. Crossing the road was quite an experience, three of us went out with the tour leader, Rafi, and he made us all hold hands as we dodged the traffic. Apparently, despite the eratic driving and what appears to be no rules of the road, the accident rate is extremnely low and most are just scrapes - so it helps if everyone drives like a nut :P When we went back up to sleep we ended up staying awake for ages just chatting. Oh yeah, at the trip meeting we all got offered the opportunity to upgrade to a 4 day Nile cruise. This would mean that we still get the overnight bus down to Aswan but rather than making our way back up by bus, we would cruise back up the Nile. It meant that we would get to see extra excursions as well as everything we would have seen plus we wouldn't have to pay money for some excursions which weren't included before but would be now, oh and all meals would be included for those 4 days. It was 80GBP extra so Molly and I said we would do it and turns out every other person upgraded too! Taking in to account the total saved and the total extra spent, it works out as about 4GBP over the original budget. It's a 4star cruiser with a pool on the top deck and evening entertainment :).
BYE.x