Egypt Day 8 & Turkey Day 1

Saturday, July 31st
We finally arrived back to Cairo. A week of historic temples and tombs, along with a lot of sweat, was coming to an end. Dan, Billy, and I found our way back to the hostel by walking and the metro, since now for the second time they did not pick me up. Oh well, 0 for 2. A final walk around the area and then into the cab and onto the airport. It needs to be mentioned though, that our cab driver was a bit crazy. Zooming in and out of traffic, he made the trip go by in an instant. And if anyone got it our way, he had a series of horn options that duplicated police horns and sirens.

On the plane I met Amelia (Canadian living in Ireland) and Natasha (Australian), fresh off of their Kon Tiki Adventures tour of Egypt. Natasha was continuing hers with a trip through Turkey, so she had to meet the crew, however Amelia had less than 24 hrs before she would have to go. We all grabbed a cab together and Amelia was luckily able to get one of the last beds in the Bahaus hostel. We quickly got sorted and made our way down to the water, where tons of Turkish men, and no women at all, were sunbathing and swimming off of the rocks. Wandering around a bit, we eventually moved back uphill to Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque. At this point, it was too late to enter, but the vibe of the crowd out and about between them, along with the view, kept us happy for a while.

We had corn on the cob on our return back to the hostel, where Amelia decided to get some rest in the hopes of rallying for the evening. I was hungry and anxious to explore, so I went back out for a wander. Soon realizing that I was thick in the center of the expensive, touristy area, I moved a bit farther off course and eventually found the Doy Doy restaurant. A huge place, the first few floors were empty, but I eventually made it to the rooftop. It was beautiful, as the sun went down and the lights of the mosque were turned on.

Back at the hostel, I went right up to the rooftop, where a crowd was sipping beers and enjoying the mingling of travel stories. As my luck would have it, since it was Saturday night, there would be a hostel sponsored pub crawl heading out at midnight. I sat down with a couple of American guys from my dorm room and soon Amelia joined us. We met Mary and Katie (OZ/Greece), some more Aussies, and a group of five guys from Florence. With another guy named Johnny as their vocal leader, it promised to be a good night.

At just past midnight we all piled into a Bahaus van. Oh, and I mean piled in! One of those 15 passenger vans, we probably fit in almost double that, with Johnny, Giacomo, and I standing up in the back, behind the last row of seats.

I think it was a bit later than expected, so we skipped the chill pub to begin with. Our first destination was a pretty cool, but empty bar that had a live band. A Turkish cover band with a hot singer, they played songs (sadly I can't remember which) that I would never imagine being covered at a bar. I ordered a beer and started to dance and most of the crew joined in. It got hot pretty quickly, so we soon had to head outside to their huge back patio. But before that happened, an Australian named Dave came up to me with a big mug of beer in his hands. He looked at my small goblet, laughed, and asked why I didn't get the large. With a smile on my face, I knew Dave would be a fun person to hang out with. Minutes later, with my mug in hand, I found him again. But, as I'm sure it's not a surprise, I was shown up again, as he now had two mugs. Yes, he was "double parked", but he was happy.

The next place, just down the street, was a club named "She". It was pretty crowded and the music was great. It was a mix of normal western tunes, remixed western tunes, and awesome Turkish songs that I had not heard before. After having one beer, Mary and I went back to the bar for another, but to our shock and disappointment, they were OUT OF BEER! They literally ran out of bottles and said that they were in the process of getting more...in an hour or so. Oh well, on to cocktails.

The dancing and sweating continued. And then we found the holy alter that was the raised dance floor with a big, pumping AC in the corner. Our group now resorted to dancing in front of the AC and it was amazing. Oh, and I think it was at full blast even though it was only set at about 30 degrees. I can't even guess how hot it was in that club. Definitely over 40 though. The night, or should I say morning, came to a close as we grabbed a cab, making it back to the hostel at about 4:30ish.