Our Egypt Adventures Start with a Bang!!

22nd December 2008

We are at Heathrow and our trip to Egypt has started with a BANG! All these months leading up to our trip we've kept a close eye on Alitalia, and today on the day of our trip, when we reached the airport we found out... our flight has been cancelled as the company is on STRIKE... yet again!! We got here at 2pm and have been standing in a never ending ticketing line to see if we can get ourselves transfered to another flight... as soon as we reach Cairo, we need to be on a train to Alexandria! Please pray this line moves... as it's been still for almost an hour now. There are a few more people in line for Egypt, rest all are for Rome... Alitalia staff informs us, rather we've all been playing chinese whispers with the information... all flights are booked, we will not be transfered to any other flight today or tomorrow, so I guess our trip is being threatened!!  

I am sick of standing and sitting in this still line and I am now looking forward to going home eating and setting my butt on the couch!... Our fellow travelers Bebeji & Mamu (who are heading to Cairo from India) have been informed and even they are praying for something to work out! (fingers crossed)

Finally I heard someone yell, passengers for Egypt please come forward...RUN Sunny RUN!!!!!! There are about 10 of us and they've taken our passports... we are being transferred to Egypt Air... we have hope of getting seats there... we wait a bit more and we get boarding passes... Yipeeeeeeeee!! We are finally heading to Egypt :o) Luckily we get a direct flight as compared to our long halt flight via Rome... and we'll still be in time to make it to our train to Alexandria... phew!... that was a close call... Have always seen people on the news, sitting on the floor and on  their trolleys at the airport, especially during holiday season with cancelled flights, airports shut downs due to bad weather... and today we experienced it too.

Finally! Sunny and I are sitting on a plane for Cairo - Egypt Air seats 40A & 40C, the first two emergency seats in our section with lots of leg room... one big YIPEEEE!! from both of us after a long day of standing in line after line wondering if this trip would ever start! After numerous lines at different counters, enquiries, phone calls etc etc... we are finally on our way in an ancient Egypt Air plane to an ancient land! Mummy land here we come :o)