The last morning it rained in Athens, but we managed to get out and do a little shopping. Then it was time to start the second leg of our trip.
Here's Ma on the EgyptAir plane we took to Cairo. Naturally, everything was in Arabic. Surprisingly though, everything was also prominently displayed in English. And since we were going from a Greek speaking country to an Arabic speaking country, they made all the announcements three times: Arabic, Greek, and English. How nice!!!
The flight from Chicago to Atlanta took two hours and they barely had time to serve us drinks and peanuts. The flight from Athens to Cairo took exactly the same amount of time and they had two separate drink services and a full meal. Amazing! Our flight attendant was very friendly. He kept pouring different exotic fruit drinks to see if I liked any of them. I think I tried mango and guava, although I couldn't really tell. It seemed very important to him that we were enjoying ourselves. And we were! I also think he liked trying out his English and getting attention from two American ladies.
We landed in Cairo and steeled ourselves against what the guidebooks had warned us about. We were pleased to find that the new EgyptAir terminal (Terminal 3) was very clean and modern.The security in the Athens airport let us take food and water on the flight. We threw away our grapes before hitting customs in Cairo, but even if we had kept them, I don't think they would have stopped us.
Here's a picture of the baggage claim area: plenty of seating and lots of space to move around. No litter or filth in sight. If you look closely, you can see the Arabic numeral alongside the Western numeral on the column. They had great signage in multiple languages. We had no problem getting around knowing just English.TRAVELERS' TIP: If you get the opportunity to fly EgyptAir into Cairo, I strongly recommend it. Not only do you get great service in the air, but you also get to land at Terminal 3. I'm told it is so much better than the older Terminals 1 and 2. All of the Star Alliance airlines (like United, Turkish Airlines, and others) will eventually be using Terminal 3.
ANOTHER TRAVELERS' TIP: You can buy your visa ($15) from any of the banks that are clustered around the passport control area. You'll need U.S. Dollars and exact change.