Day 2: Cairo, Egypt

We landed, walked down the ladder stairs onto the runway, were greeted by Mohammed our driver holding a sign reading "Newbold," got a cool-looking visa and an even cooler stamp in our passports, and drove through the foggy 4 a.m. air of Cairo. When we got to my aunt and uncle's apartment, I asked Mohammed what their apartment number was. He didn't know. Nice. Minor detail. I didn't know either. Luckily I had their phone number. But my phone didn't have service. Mandy did have service, but now that we were in Egypt she couldn't call my uncle's US phone number.

There were only six floors and one apartment per floor, so for Plan D, we went from door to door trying to figure out what door looked like their door. The 2nd floor had a dog, so that narrowed it down to five other choices. I thought it was the 4th floor because there were two pieces of paper taped up; once said 4 in English and the other said 4 in Arabic. Only foreigners would do that, right? But Mohammed didn't think we should wake anyone up since they'd probably get mad. We went back outside and started yelling on the count of three, "Uncles James!" (Which very could've easily made the neighbors mad too.) No luck. Then Mandy remembered she could text (for a small fee), and she texted Nate my little bro. No response from Nate, so she texted Heather to ask her to call and wake-up my uncle. A couple minutes later my uncle came out of the elevator! Heather, you deserve some sort of reward, like a trip to Egypt to meet up with us in a week or at least some sand from Egypt. We made it inside safely, and my uncle explained that he'd told the taxi service to call him when we got to his house. No big deal. We love challenges (adventures!). I hope for your sakes that we have more of them so that this blog doesn't get boring!