Check out was supposed to be at 11:30am and the bus to the airport at 7pm. Since we had no desire to spend Saturday in the hotel lobby sitting on our luggage, the convenience travellers as we are, we had booked the late check out and could use the room until 8pm. During our trip to wifi I found an empty picture frame in lobby "Guest of the Day". For a second I thought that we should go and have our picture taken with the frame, but then remembered how we raised no issue having to change our door card three times a day, or when they closed the beach at 5pm, or how the quality of the food was more like a roadside motel one than Hilton and was certain that they'll bring out the "Guest of the Week" anytime soon too.
For the lunch we decided to choose fresh pasta form a la Counter. We had the choice of two sauces: red tomato sauce and white, sorry transparent, probably no-fat milk sauce. There were also different veggies, you could add to your sauce, like tomato, onion, parsley, garlic. And without even having to ask, every portion got two generous tablespoons of oil. One to heat the sauce and the other one as garnish on the ready food. The pasta was already cooked and right before serving they threw the portion into boiling water again and mixed with the sauce after that. Considering my impressive reaction time I got away with just half a tablespoon of oil and the pasta ended up pretty good.
We spent some more time on our balcony, napped a little and at around 6pm made our way to the lobby to spend some time in wifi, check out and wait for the bus. As planned, the bus arrived at 6:45pm, but not as planned, one of the couples was still in the Italian restaurant. Probably enjoying the creamless Creme Brulee. At 7pm we finally were ready to leave.
After we had picked up the rest of the tourists, the drive to the airport started. On the way there our tour guide introduced us the local traditions. Apparently they have this "beautiful tradition" here to tip the bus driver. And to make it really easy for the tourist, who wants to throw money left and right, the jar is right next to the exit door. We thought that there must be more beautiful traditions in the world and didn't follow this one.
First document and ticket check was on the entrance to airport, because no-one without the ticket should be able to get in. We showed our passport and ticket, got in and took a place in the waiting line for the first security inspection. According to the best practice of the Islam country they had different security checks for men and women. And since there were 3 for men and only one for women, the waiting line was dragging like the slobber of a cow on a hot summer day out of a bottleneck. At some point it seemed that we can start moving to our check, when a guy stopped us to see our passport. Probably to double-check the gender. After that it was straight to our checkpoint. Bag and shoes on the scanner belt, myself through the detector. The lady patted me down, asked to remove the belt and walk through again. Next time it was my watch that had to be removed and through the detector again. It seemed that now I had removed all the dangerous items, the lady touched me more thoroughly than the newlywed spouse his wife on the wedding night last century and I could start collecting my stuff. The security guy yelled in Russian that we have to bring the boxes back. Since Helena replied that he can do it himself, thank you very much, she was called aside and could unpack all of her luggage for the Ahmeds to inspect. Luckily my Russian skills are lacking, so I didn't bother responding and walked away.
We collected our boarding passes in check in and could move to the next step. Right before passport control we had to fill our a form with our name and nationality and few more things. Passport check, got our passports stamped and on the way to the final security check. However, before that, right 5 meters after the passport check, there was a guy standing, who, what a surprise! wanted to see our passports. Next security check, bag, shoes, belt and watch on the scanner belt, another rehearsal of the wedding night of the 19th century, the security guy yelling to put the boxes back and already we were in the waiting hall.
Luckily we had grabbed few bananas from the hotel, because the second biggest airport in Egypt had to offer one waiting hall, a smoke corner without walls and two bakery joints, where you could choose croissants or slices of very sad looking pizza for 5 euros. No wifi. But at least the passport control was up to the standards and we could fly out from the second biggest airport...
Boarding started, we took our seats and looked around very pleased seeing all those empty seats in our row, because the steward had just announced boarding being completed, everyone's onboard and we can close the doors and take off. Lovely, we can use all three seats again and have a decent nap. And then, the other steward told that half the passengers are missing. Damn, had the pilot been a bit quicker, we'd have had so much more space on the way home. Anyway, I was slightly puzzled on what were all those people still doing in that amazing airport. Chewing on those stale pizza slices? Anyway, we still managed to take off before official departure time and turned out that some passengers were somewhat confused regarding the type of the vehicle. Namely they had decided to stand in the aisle during the whole flight, like it was a tram in rush hour. We made it home an hour earlier than scheduled.
For the lunch we decided to choose fresh pasta form a la Counter. We had the choice of two sauces: red tomato sauce and white, sorry transparent, probably no-fat milk sauce. There were also different veggies, you could add to your sauce, like tomato, onion, parsley, garlic. And without even having to ask, every portion got two generous tablespoons of oil. One to heat the sauce and the other one as garnish on the ready food. The pasta was already cooked and right before serving they threw the portion into boiling water again and mixed with the sauce after that. Considering my impressive reaction time I got away with just half a tablespoon of oil and the pasta ended up pretty good.
We spent some more time on our balcony, napped a little and at around 6pm made our way to the lobby to spend some time in wifi, check out and wait for the bus. As planned, the bus arrived at 6:45pm, but not as planned, one of the couples was still in the Italian restaurant. Probably enjoying the creamless Creme Brulee. At 7pm we finally were ready to leave.
After we had picked up the rest of the tourists, the drive to the airport started. On the way there our tour guide introduced us the local traditions. Apparently they have this "beautiful tradition" here to tip the bus driver. And to make it really easy for the tourist, who wants to throw money left and right, the jar is right next to the exit door. We thought that there must be more beautiful traditions in the world and didn't follow this one.
First document and ticket check was on the entrance to airport, because no-one without the ticket should be able to get in. We showed our passport and ticket, got in and took a place in the waiting line for the first security inspection. According to the best practice of the Islam country they had different security checks for men and women. And since there were 3 for men and only one for women, the waiting line was dragging like the slobber of a cow on a hot summer day out of a bottleneck. At some point it seemed that we can start moving to our check, when a guy stopped us to see our passport. Probably to double-check the gender. After that it was straight to our checkpoint. Bag and shoes on the scanner belt, myself through the detector. The lady patted me down, asked to remove the belt and walk through again. Next time it was my watch that had to be removed and through the detector again. It seemed that now I had removed all the dangerous items, the lady touched me more thoroughly than the newlywed spouse his wife on the wedding night last century and I could start collecting my stuff. The security guy yelled in Russian that we have to bring the boxes back. Since Helena replied that he can do it himself, thank you very much, she was called aside and could unpack all of her luggage for the Ahmeds to inspect. Luckily my Russian skills are lacking, so I didn't bother responding and walked away.
We collected our boarding passes in check in and could move to the next step. Right before passport control we had to fill our a form with our name and nationality and few more things. Passport check, got our passports stamped and on the way to the final security check. However, before that, right 5 meters after the passport check, there was a guy standing, who, what a surprise! wanted to see our passports. Next security check, bag, shoes, belt and watch on the scanner belt, another rehearsal of the wedding night of the 19th century, the security guy yelling to put the boxes back and already we were in the waiting hall.
Luckily we had grabbed few bananas from the hotel, because the second biggest airport in Egypt had to offer one waiting hall, a smoke corner without walls and two bakery joints, where you could choose croissants or slices of very sad looking pizza for 5 euros. No wifi. But at least the passport control was up to the standards and we could fly out from the second biggest airport...
Boarding started, we took our seats and looked around very pleased seeing all those empty seats in our row, because the steward had just announced boarding being completed, everyone's onboard and we can close the doors and take off. Lovely, we can use all three seats again and have a decent nap. And then, the other steward told that half the passengers are missing. Damn, had the pilot been a bit quicker, we'd have had so much more space on the way home. Anyway, I was slightly puzzled on what were all those people still doing in that amazing airport. Chewing on those stale pizza slices? Anyway, we still managed to take off before official departure time and turned out that some passengers were somewhat confused regarding the type of the vehicle. Namely they had decided to stand in the aisle during the whole flight, like it was a tram in rush hour. We made it home an hour earlier than scheduled.
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