48 Hours in Egypt

I read about Egypt in the Bible and school, and The Great Pyramid is/was one of the Wonders of the World, so this country was on my 30before30 list of places to visit. With my deep love for travel, especially as a form of education, my flexible lifestyle, and an upcoming free 4 days in my schedule, I decided to book the trip! A week before the trip Lufthansa Airlines pilots were on strike, but I didn't get too concerned because typically those strikes clear up in a couple days. Two days before we were set to depart for Egypt, a Russian plane blew up. At the time there was a lot of speculation, however my friends and I still decided to go. We flew on American Airlines to Frankfurt, Germany. From Germany, we flew on Lufthansa to Cairo, Egypt. Upon arrival in Egypt, we had to pay $25 USD cash for a visa. If we didn't have USD cash, they wasn't going to let us in..simple. The only nearby ATMs in the airport dispensed Egyptian currency, but luckily my friend had USD so we were good. That's when I learned the importance of keeping some USD cash on me while traveling internationally. We arrived late in the evening so it was dark outside. During the taxi ride to our hotel we noticed the streets were flooded. Apparently it rained the day prior which was very rare especially during this time of year. Egypt typically on has 14 days a year of rainfall; the climate is usually dry. Once we arrived at our 5-star hotel, Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel & Spa (now closed), concierge greeted us checked us in and gave us a few tips before exploring the city. The most important thing was not to disclose we were American; if anyone asked where we were from, say another country. My friends and I decided we would be from England for the rest of our trip. During our trip, local Egyptian people certainly engaged in conversation with us, asked us where we were from, then attempted to continue in conversation; someone picked up on our American accents and called it out that we didn't sound British. In fact, they said we sounded American, so we lied and said we studied in America for a short period but that was it. 

During the 48-hour trip we rode ATV's, saw the pyramids, the Sphinx, toured the historical site, watched Egyptian dance performances, explored the gift shops for souvenirs, hit the hotel pool and hot tub. Our hotel service was great and we enjoyed the restaurants. 

We decided to end our trip early because we didn't feel safe enough for comfort and we saw the main things we wanted to see. We flew out on Lufthansa and American Airlines to get back to the States. The moment we landed back in the USA it was confirmed the Russian plane that blew up two days before our trip, was bombed in Egypt as an act of terror "in response to Russian air strikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land" (according to BBC). Lufthansa employees went on strike again, resulting in the airline canceling about 1000 flights because the employees walked out.