So being the “hawagea” (foreigner – implied “not so smart”), I did not know about Eid el Fetr – the celebration/vacation at the end of the month of Ramadan. WOW, we get a week off because Ramadan has ended? That’s kinda nice.
THEN we found out that EVERYONE travels for Eid. Cairo nearly shuts down during this week, as everyone goes to the beach, or to visit relatives, or just to holiday somewhere else. We found this out about half way thru Ramadan. The Egyptians had their bookings for all kinds of exotic places, the old-timers had their bookings for all kinds of exotic places, Jack and I were just figuring out that ?maybe? we should travel.
Just about that time, we see a flyer/poster in the Hostel advertising for a 5day/4night trip to Morocco. Two nights each in Casablanca and Marrakech – sounds exotic! It is affordable. WTH – how bad could it be? [insert foreshadowing music here]
I spend about 4 days trying to track down information about the trip – and with a bit of trepidation about the organization of the trip, we put down our deposit. We are committed.
There are other small snafus. Jack has not received his “Residence Visa” yet. I have mine, but his was messed up because we have different last names. He extends his “Tourist Visa” and gets “Re-entry” permission and that seems to be fixed. Only took a week and about 4 visits to various offices – we’re making progress.
We “insist” on getting the flight numbers and itinerary, so that we can look at the flights, etc. We decided (with slight feelings of not being a “team” player (which we got over)) to get our own airport clearance and a car/driver for our return.
In case I haven’t mentioned it in previous posts – airport clearance is a GODSEND. A “fixer” meets you inside customs and immigration to collect your passport. He goes straight to the head of the line and gets you processed in about 3 minutes – NO LINE. He then gets your baggage and “escorts” you thru customs – no hassles, easy as pie. It would be (as Jack says) “Cheap at twice the price”
The day before we leave (our departure is 9:30pm on Sunday October 22nd, from the hostel – flight at just past midnight!) we pack, pull out all the possible paperwork that we could need and we are READY FOR MOROCCO!
On Sunday – we head downstairs about 30 minutes before we are due to depart. There is CHAOS in the lobby. Students leaving for holiday. Students arriving for the tour. People visiting. Cats prowling. We eventually find our way onto a mini-bus for the trip to the airport. In general, the trip to the airport was uneventful. We were obviously the old people on our bus (by about 2 decades)! We resigned ourselves to that fate and decided to have fun.
Checking in was as chaotic as any check in usually is – especially with 30+ people, all traveling on “grouped” tickets. We were all checked in, and waiting in the boarding area 20 or so minutes prior to boarding. By this time it is past midnight, I’m fading fast. When we finally boarded the flight, it didn’t even matter that I was in a middle seat in coach! I was ready to check out for the majority of the flight.
Ready – yes! Did I? No. I spend a large portion of the flight talking with one of the AUC Housing staff who was coordinating the trip. It was a pleasant conversation, but eventually both of us needed sleep. I woke up just as we were landing in Barcelona for a “quick stop” before going on to Madrid.
er … Madrid???