A REALLY long 36 hours (or so)

Day one: the participants on the first flight out had their plane delayed three hours due to a late arrival the night before at BUF. The crew had to take a mandatory rest break. About half of those went on an a complimentary, but very short, tour of NYC. The rest hung out at JFK's Terminal #4. The flights for the other two groups were on time. Lead chaperones stayed in touch via texting. Everyone met up at the gate about 90 minutes before the flight.

The Egyptair flight took off 90 minutes late and arrived 45 minutes late. It was a fairly full flight. The food was pretty good and every seat on the 777 had a sizable personal TV & game system.

We all met up after getting off the plane and went to get our tourist visas and also exchanged money. Two gentlemen helping out our tour directors met us where visas are obtained and walked us through the process. Then, we went to baggage and everyone's bag made it with them to Cairo.

We met our tour directors, took a large group picture, and split up into our two buses.

Since we were delayed, and also tired, we decided to eat dinner early and then head to the hotel.

We ate at a floating restaurant on the Nile. It was cool and very good. There was an unfortunate incident involving a dead cow that was floating on the Nile - one of the first things we saw when we entered the boat - but it was good other than that!

After, we made our way to the hotel and were able to see two of the three Great Pyramids in the distance.

Impressions so far: Every Egyptian we have met so far has been very nice! There is a lot of sprawl and many many, many unfinished construction projects litter the landscape. There seem to be no traffic rules AT ALL! It's every person for him/herself & cars are constantly honking their horns!

Pyramids Avenue in Giza

View on the way to our hotel near Giza