Tracy's Journey

I think now that I am finally out of Egypt I can write about it.  The day I arrived back in Cairo from the White Desert things were calm. They told me that there had been some protests the day before but things were Ok now. So I rested for about 5 hours in a hostel room they provided for me until it was time for me to catch my train at 9:00 pm. I was actually right there in the square across from the Egyptian museum at a hostel called Museum View Hotel. It just seems crazy to me now because I see people on the news standing on their roof throwing firebombs. I really lucked out that I wasn’t there when it started. So I had a very long train ride of 13 hours in a sitting train to Aswan, but I was so tired from lack of sleep I was able to sleep most of the time. I have become pretty good at sleeping sitting up. I arrived in Aswan around noon and then visited the Philae Temple and the High Dam. My tour guide mentioned that there would be some protests later that day.  But when we got back from the tour, everything seemed peaceful and it all seemed to be over.  So since I hadn’t had a real meal in about two days, I decided to join a few people I met on the tour to get something to eat.  There is a huge square in the city center and our hotel was on one side and we walked to the other side to a restaurant. As soon as our food came to the table and we started eating, people started running down the street screaming and holding the mouths and eyes. Some even ran into the open-air restaurant, and then our throats started burning and eyes started running also. Tear gas bombs were being shot down the street we were on. So not knowing what to do or where it would be safe to go, we threw our money at the waiter without eating our meal and started running down a side street. Luckily, we saw a girl standing outside her hotel so we went inside her lobby to get out of the street. So now we were stuck on the other side of the square from our hotel with protests going on and tear gas bombs being shot off every 10 minutes. After about two hours, it seemed like things had calmed so I tied my sweatshirt around my face and we made a run for it. It was not fun. My eyes and throat were burning so bad it hurt, but we finally made it back to our hotel. Now that I look back on it, I don’t think I was really in any real danger. But at the time, you just don’t know how bad it will get, if people will start throwing firebombs through the windows. It was pretty scary. So we went to bed that night not knowing what things would be like in the morning and if we would be able to go to Abu Simbel or not. When we woke, things were back to normal and we were going. Then later that afternoon we were transferred to our felucca for a two-day cruise down the Nile. The first afternoon was a little restless and we couldn’t stop thinking about what happened the day before and discussing what our options would be when we get to Luxor – should I continue with my tour or should I try to leave early? Finally, after a good night sleep on the felucca lying on the deck, I felt better and was able to enjoy the peaceful, calm Nile. It seemed like we were in a different world. We had a really nice day of sailing, perfect amount of wind. We only had one close call. A cruise ship almost hit us! It came within about 2 feet of running us over. Our captain was very upset and we all just wondered what in the world else is going to happen to us!

When we arrived in Luxor, things seem to be calm and we continued on with our sightseeing tours of temples and tombs. They are so amazing! After you think, this one is the most impressive, and then there is another one that is even bigger and better. The Egyptians were such amazing sculptors and artists.  So I am still now trying to decide what to do about continuing my tour because I am about ready to get on a 16-hour bus ride to Dahab. Everyone says Dahab would be safe because it is mainly tourists there, but I am not for sure it will be safe to travel that far by bus. Later that day, my decision was made for me because the government was not allowing the buses and trains to run; trying to stop people coming from outside Cairo to the protests. So I called my travel agency to get my ticket changed to leave the next day.

For an extra $560, I am able to fly out of Luxor back to Cairo to catch a connection for my next stop, India. This is when more problems started to occur. My flight from Luxor was set to leave at 9:00 am but due to the curfew in Cairo no planes were being sent to Luxor until later that day. Luckily, after waiting for 7 hours, I was able to get on the first flight to Cairo. We arrived about 3:30 pm, which, of course, by then I have missed my connection. After being sent all over the place, between different terminals and airline offices no one would honor my ticket and put me on a new flight. Something about it being issued by Jet Airways, operated by Gulf Air, and somehow Egypt Air was also involved they kept saying I had to change it with Jet Airways. But there is no Jet Airways office in the airport. So I tried calling my travel agency, but for some reason my phone hasn’t been working very often so I couldn’t get thru. Then luckily, the Internet was back up and I talked to Mom so she called the travel agency for me. They said there is no reason for them not to honor my ticket because they are all in partnership.  Also all bookings for the Cairo airport were closed off to outside agencies, so now my travel agency can’t even book me a ticket. But by then, for me to go back and argue with them, all offices had closed due to the curfew. So now I am very frustrated and thinking I was going to have to spend the night in the overcrowded airport and not knowing how I was going to get out. Then I saw people in red shirts walking around with the American flag, so I went to see what I could find out. They were from the American Embassy and said they were helping people evacuate. It was nice and calming too talk to American people, after trying to communicate and deal with the Egyptian airline people. At first, they said they had a plane going that night to Frankfurt but by the time we made it to their terminal it was already gone. So they put some of us up in a really nice hotel at their expense for the night. We were to meet at 8:00 in the morning to go back to the airport for hopefully a noon flight. We ended up waiting until about 5:00 pm before starting boarding. Then once we were on the plane, we were delayed for 5 hours. There were 5 families that were having problems with documentation and the Egyptian government would not let them leave. So now they have to unload all the luggage for over 300 people and take it back into the terminal to get their luggage back. We finally took off at 9:30 pm for a 4 ½ -hour ride to Frankfort. Most of the people being evacuated seem to be families who lived in Egypt and decided it was time to leave. Most of them were families. There were so many children. I really felt sorry for them having to just lock up their house and leave, not knowing when they will be able to come back. Everyone involved with the evacuation process with the American Embassy were very nice and helpful. There were a lot of young people, I’d say in their twenties. They really tried to keep everyone calm and understood how stressed out everyone was. Even on the Frankfurt side, they had over 40 people stationed to help us all out with hotel and air flights. When we arrived, we had a huge welcoming with applause. I am now staying in a way too expensive hotel in the airport until I can get a new ticket hopefully for tomorrow to Chennai, India. I will also have, who knows how much, bill from the American Embassy for my flight. They had us sign a promissory note that we will repay the cost of the flight in 90 days. But, of course, they couldn’t tell us how much it will be. I guess it doesn’t matter, I am safe and out of that crazy place. But, boy, Egypt has been a source of problems for me and has cost me a lot of extra money, including the fiasco I had when I connected there in October on my way to Ethiopia.  But I was one of the lucky tourists who got to do almost everything I planned. The most important to me was the pyramids. A lot of tourists didn’t get to do them because they were closed off once the protests started. The only things I didn’t get to do were Dahab and Mt. Sinai.

While I was waiting in the hotel lobby to leave for the airport, a really nice guy named Terry came up to me and was talking and was wanting to know my story. It turns out he was a news anchor from CBS. He asked if he could interview me on camera but I turned him down, since everyone knows how camera shy I am. But Nicole sent me a link, I still seemed to make it in the footage.

The link below will take you to the page, then on the right side choose "Americans At Risk In Egypt".