DaY 1 - Athens to Cairo

Before we left for the airport, Fofi and Dimy made a big brunch for everyone including homemade cinnamon rolls, which made me feel like I was back in the states for a few minutes. As we left the Artemis, we could see fresh snow on the mountain tops, which seemed crazy because it was hardly cold in Porto Rafti (plus we were headed to the desert with the hot weather!). We went through security (I was body searched for some unknown reason), checked our bags, and grabbed some McDonalds before heading out...I can say that it was honestly the first time I was happy to see the Golden Arches! I mean, the food here is amazing but I had been missing the really bad for you, totally greasy and fried fast food. The take off of the plane was a little sketchy but the landing was absolutely crazy!! First of all, you could look out the windows of one side of the plane and see dark green, very fertile land. However on the other side, it was golden yellow...solid sand for miles. Now the landing...We slammed into the ground and fishtailed (thats right, FISHTAILED in a PLANE) ! People were screaming and crying and basically freaking out! But after a few minutes the pilot got the plane undercontrol. We are all so glad the McLovin caught it all on tape (illegally of course). Sami, the head travel agent guy, helped us get all of our luggage and he took us to his apartment for PapaJohns pizza and birthday cake (for John). We met Sami and Osman's families and had a devotional with singing and a prayer. It was so sweet to see Nabill, Osman's 11 year old son, singing the songs with us. Joseph, another one of his sons, has his mom sing "Father God" to him every night as a lullaby. We left the apartment and settled into our extremely nice hotel/resort. I was actually expecting to stay in hotels like Super 8 or whatever, but Harding has actually shelled out the money for us.
Lesson for the day: No driving rules in Egypt. Thats right. No lanes, speed limits, etc. Everyone honks for pretty much any reason: "You go first" "Watch out" "I'm here" "Congrats to Just married" and for other exclamations I'm not going to say. Also, It is bumper to bumper traffic in a lot of places and people are daring to cross the street, dashing in front of cars and almost getting hit. I couldn't imagine trying to function in a place like that but I guess they are used to it!

(pictures are not uploading right now...don't worry, they are coming!)