The Journey to Cairo

The first leg of my flight was from Calgary to Toronto. This was my second time ever flying, and my second time not getting any food during the flight. I guess they switched planes at the last minute and somehow the food didn’t make it on or something. While on this flight, I had the responsibility of manning the emergency exit. I felt pretty important. This flight had 12 different TV/Movie channels.

The Toronto airport was pretty crazy. I had to go OUTSIDE of the airport and get onto a bus to get to the portion of the airport I was supposed to be at. Nobody prepared me for this. I figured the airport personnel were getting together and playing a prank on me or something. “Let’s get that newbie flyer to miss his next flight!” Well anyways, I got on a bus, and although I’m pretty sure it just went in a circle, I somehow ended up at the right place. Those crazy Torontonians are pranksters, I tell ya!

Next up was the Toronto to London (England) flight. During this flight, we were actually fed! It was kind of weird at first. I was so used to never getting fed on planes that I assumed the food was only for the people in first class. Out on nowhere, though, a stewardess came up to me and asked “Chicken or salmon?” I wasn’t sure if she was calling me names or what, so I coolly responded, “Chicken?” with a confused look on my face. Then out of nowhere she pulls out this freshly prepared chicken feast for me! After eating I kept waiting for the bill, but it never came. Sometimes you just get lucky! Then again, a few minutes later I was informed that we were going to have to make an emergency landing because one of the passengers was “unwell”. So yeah, we landed in St. John’s, Newfoundland, an ambulance came and picked someone up, we got some more fuel, and then a couple hours later we were flying again. This flight had 33 different TV/Movie channels.

The last portion of my journey to Cairo was the London to Cairo flight. For some reason I expected this flight to be long and treacherous, but it was actually only 4 hours long! There was a pretty nifty channel on the TV that allowed you to view a real-time map of where we were. It even showed which direction the plane was pointed! Pretty cool stuff. I was watching this channel when the plane took off, and I noticed that we were pointed North when we took off. I’m not a geography buff, but I was smart enough to know that Cairo is probably not North of London. I was thinking of knocking on the door of the cockpit and helping these poor Brits out with navigating, but the fasten seatbelt sign was still on. By the time the seatbelt sign went out, they figured out which direction to fly. This flight also had 33 TV/Movie channels and a number of enjoyable audio channels as well, not to mention food. I had lamb. I think I like chicken better, but hey, it was interesting.

I would like to point out one more thing: Throughout all those flights, I still don’t think I’ve been through customs. I’m in Cairo now, and I’m pretty sure I’m out of the airport, and yet I still don’t recall going through this dreaded “customs” everyone always talks about. I simply picked up my luggage and left. I wonder if I took a wrong turn or something… oops.