Cairo (Day Two)

I travel on a tight budget for many of the same reasons that I travel alone: my only other option is to stay home and I've been doing it for so long that I've grown to like it. Travelling without money forces one to be creative and crafty: to walk through unsavory neighborhoods instead of taking taxis, to stay in unglamorous hotels, to brave youth hostels and long-distance bus rides. It builds character and gives you lots of good stories to tell.

There was a time in my life, not too long ago, when I would have wondered why anyone would WANT to travel in any other way. Those snobs in fancy hotels and gleaming tour buses were missing out on all the fun, I told myself. Who needs a guide when you have a Lonely Planet map? Better to hunt one's own hotel and meals and amenities like a desperate animal, day after day, than to have it all prepackaged and handed to you in luxury.

Today, I realized that that time in my life is definitely over. I am ready for the luxury, the convenience, and for my travel to be more like a vacation. But until I make enough money to pay for it, I will probably be doomed to more days like today.

My original plan for today:

1) Pack bag
2) Check out of Hotel Luna
3) Taxi to the train station
4) Store bag at train station
5) Quick cafe lunch
6) Tour Egyptian Museum
7) Cafe dinner
8) Internet/E-mail check
9) Taxi to the train station
10) Retrieve bag
11) Overnight train to Luxor

The plan needed to be modified in light of the loss of my ATM card. The expensive Egyptian Museum had to be postponed until Tuesday, when I will swing back through Cairo on my way to either Jordan or Israel. I decided to switch out the museum with either a movie or some time at an Internet cafe/coffee shop.

The actual day went something like this:
1) Pack bag
2) Check out of hotel
3) Taxi to location within sight of, but still far from, train station
4 Loooong walk with heavy bag to train station
5) Wander train station for 10 minutes looking for luggage check/Trying to walk as fast as I can with a "stay away" expression on my face to shake the 8 taxi touts who followed me through the train station trying to help me go everywhere but where I was trying to go
6) Argument with bag check official about why I shouldn't have to present a copy of my passport (which I didn't have) in order to check my bag. He rationed calmly in Arabic, I gesticulated wildly in an angry combination of shrieking and interpretive dance.
7) Discussion with bag check official indicating my displeasure in having to take my bag on the 5-block trek to the nearest copy place.
8) Impassioned discussion with in-station tourist police officers/information office officials about the necessity of obtaining a passport photocopy
9) Wait while trying to avoid the gaze of the 15 taxi touts who offered various forms of assistance while the kind tourist police officers used their fax machine to make a copy of my passport
10) Stored bag, collected bag ticket
11) Wandered neighborhood around train station looking for bank to change money, giving up
12) Subway to neighborhood where I remembered seeing banks yesterday
13) Wandering neighborhood looking for open bank, giving up
14) Taxi to Hilton hotel
15) Changed money, danced with joy
16) 20-minute argument with good-natured, non-English speaking taxi driver and 5 of his colleagues to convince him to take me to a coffee shop near the American University in Cairo (he was not sure that the place I wanted to go exactly matched the address in the guidebook and, therefore, did not want to risk taking me there).
17) 15 minute taxi ride around Cairo, to the place taxi driver thought I should want to go, rather than the place where I actually wanted to go
18) 5-minute "conversation" with taxi driver in universally-understood language, vocal pitch, and hand gestures that convinced him to get the cab moving IMMEDIATELY directly to the address I had given him.
19) 15-minute taxi ride to the place where I actually wanted to go
20) Shwarma lunch at local lunch counter
21) One hour of blissful relaxation and Internet use at Starbucks-style coffee shop
22) Walk to cinema
23) One hour of blissful relaxation and Internet use at McDonald's next to cinema
24) Great movie (Pelham 1-2-3)
25) Taxi ride to train station
26) Wandering train station looking for train
27) Panicked discussion with ticket counter official about the fact that while my ticket said my train was leaving from that station, it was actually leaving from a completely different station about 15 miles away
28) Run through station to subway entrance while 10 taxi touts ran next to me screaming "Taxi?"
29) 20-minute subway ride
30) Run through subway station to train station entrance
31) 5-minute discussion with tourist police officer who refused to let me through the gate until he had had a chance to ask me "Where are you from?" and all about my family (or lack thereof)
32) 30-minute wait for overnight train to Luxor
33) Locking the door of my cabin, hiding under the covers, and hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.