Today, my journey begins. I am sitting in Philadelphia Airport after a relatively uneventful plane ride from Albany airport. The gentleman I sat next to was a jovial, rosy-checked, rotund man (think North Pole). He had a deep hearty laugh and we chatted for most of the ride. Victor was a kind man from Wisconsin on his way back home after working on some water treatment plants in Cobleskill, NY (the town I basically grew up in).
There was one small issue before I boarded the plan: I was never issued a ticket, only a boarding pass. Luckily, everything was cleared up, a few people given coupons for free flights, and we were off in the tiniest, most crowded plane I’ve been on!
Later…
I had a few hours to kill in Philadelphia airport, so I walked around the airport a bit. Considered buying something to eat, but decided against it. I wasn’t hungry anyway, and there would be food on the plane. Time seemed to creep slowly by, but the flight was announced and I got in line to board. I started tearing up a little, knowing this would be the last time I would be in the U.S. until I came back. Adventure! Let’s go!
The flight to Frankfort was about 7 hours, but I had longer rides than this in a car. I watched the movie “Date Night.” The lights remained on for about four hours as the flight attendants moved up and down the aisles first giving a snack, then a drink, then dinner, then a drink, and this and that. They didn’t seem to stop until they had delivered all the promised goods. I was thankful when they did stop. I wanted to sleep! I slept in fits for the remaining of the flight. Thankfully, the plane was relatively empty and I had two seats to myself.
I arrived in Frankfurt at 9AM and the screen at the gate stated my next flight took of in 25 minutes. I rushed to get to the correct concourse. In the Philadelphia airport and the Frankfurt airport, people were transported between concourses on buses that ran along the tarmac. I had never experienced this before. So I arrived at the correct concourse to discover my plane did not leave until 10AM as it had stated on my ticket. So I sat and waited a little bit before boarding.
I sat next to a nice Egyptian man, but we did not talk at all. I just wanted to sleep! Before I knew it we were preparing to land in Cairo. I looked out the window and saw the dessert below, jagged with buildings rising from the ground. There was the Nile River, flowing and bending between buildings and sand. There were patches of green, fields of crops, but so few.
I am here! In Cairo! I’m excited for a grand adventure.
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