Egypt Day 1

On Monday May 21st, we flew to Cairo to celebrate my first birthday. As the plane was landing, we got a bird's eye view of the Great Pyramids. It was so incredible, breath-taking, awesome, glorious... Everyone must experience this before they die! We arrived at Hotel Movenpick at 6PM. Before entering our hotel, we got sniffed by bomb dogs and had to walk through a medal detector. Over the course of our Egyptian vacation this became common practice before entering any public place. We weren't sure whether this level of security made us feel safe or nervous. Once we checked into our hotel, we had a half hour to freshen up and be back down in the lobby to depart for a Nile River Dinner Cruise. Eating and drinking in Egypt can cause "gastrointestinal distress" (fancy way of saying "explosive diarrhea") to visitors because our bodies are not accustomed to Egypt's "different" water (that's putting it nicely!). Drinking water or anything with ice is a definite NO and eating anything washed with water (fruits and vegetables) may also pose a risk. In preparation for this trip, our doctor prescribed antibiotics for us and Mom packed a whole suitcase filled with canned fruits and vegetables and every snack you can imagine (we nicknamed this suitcase "snack city"). Mom and Dad also had to wash my bottles with bottled water. We still sampled the Egyptian cuisine but with caution. We ate lots of bread, cheese, chicken, and rice. The cruise down the Nile was a perfect kick off to our 8 day Egyptian adventure. As we ate dinner overlooking the Nile, a belly dancer and a weird spinning guy dancer entertained and fascinated us.