Marinas, Mosques and Mussels: Welcome to Hurghada, Egypt

We decided to go to Egypt because the timing couldn’t have lined up more perfectly. We had to leave Türkiye, needed to kill a few more days before reentering Europe, and the temperature had dropped a few notches to utter pleasantness in Egypt. Plus, it only took four days and 6+ hours worth of fun-filled evening phone dates to Chase Travel Rewards and Pegasus Airlines, to finally arrive with a confirmed ticket to the Antalya airport.

Unfortunately, Pegasus Airlines changed our flight so we would have had a completely unattainable layover of 25 minutes in Istanbul (including customs!) even though when we had asked them about this five weeks prior, they said “it wouldn’t be a problem.” We were very doubtful about this statement, but we let it go. Mistake. Sure enough, four days before our flight, Chase called us regarding a “problem with our flight” which took them the aforementioned time, at least six representatives and finally a bloody supervisor on the phone with us, for them to resolve. This is what we get for two free flights to Egypt. (27,000 points or a $340 value total.) A bit maddening, but yay!!

Finally! Our assigned flight awaits!

Thanks to this change, we arrived to Istanbul Airport from Antalya with not a 25-minute layover, but an 8-hour one. Fine by us. This was a fantastic opportunity to tuck ourselves into the Plaza Premium Lounge courtesy of our Capital One Venture Credit Card! With this card, we get two complimentary lounge visits per year. It’s one of our two favorite travel cards with a terrific sign-up bonus. If you are Canadian or American, let us know if you’re interested!

And here we were again….faced with more opportunities for overindulgence! Were we on “vacation” or what?

And yes, the wine was included as well. And this time, unlike the resort, it was Cappadocian and quite quaffable. The food was also substantial and scrumptious!

Cheers to getting the flight AND the lounge!

Travel tip…if your bags are packed to the max for your airline, buy something in Duty-Free to spread out your stuff and make it more manageable. (This is really helpful on Pegasus, which stupidly only allows you one bag-TOTAL-on board.) Or, if you really wanna be sneaky, just pull out a duty-free bag from your backpack (which you always save!) to rearrange once you get past security.

By the way, did you catch the fact that we’re in Istanbul?! Naturally, we had to fly north in order to go straight south.

After four hours, our time had elapsed in our rich people lounge and we had to go back out with the peasants. We noticed a sign for a different airport lounge where you can sleep, watch Netflix, shower and get free wifi for 8€. Probably an hourly rate, but still that’s decently reasonable!? Since we only had two hours left, we opted to enjoy the scenery.

Seriously, we love airports. Must be that Explorer Gene thing because not sure everyone feels this way. One notion we love about airports, particularly this airport, is all the chatter in dozens of different languages. Also, we love people watching and seeing all the variety of culture and dress. But the best part? In this gateway to the Middle East and Central Asia, we love peeking at the departure board to swoon over all the exotic places we still have yet to go! Speaking of which, we were shortly off to a new one for both of us….!

The flight to Hurghada was surprisingly brief…only a bit over two hours to traverse all of Türkiye, the Mediterranean, and half of Egypt. The only reason we flew to Hurghada specifically was that it was significantly less flight points than other places in Egypt.

When we landed at 12:30 am, we were bright-eyed and chipper to stand in line for our 30-day Egyptian visa on arrival ($50 total paid only in cash dollars or euros), go through customs where we encountered the cheeriest customs officials, (maybe ever), and collect 6,000 Egyptian pounds from Charles Schwab at the ATM. We then fetched our one checked bag and proceeded to get scammed.

Yes, while standing in the security line to exit the airport, a man came up to us saying he was from our hotel, (which was actually feasible since we were waiting for someone). In our 1:30 am stupor, we: A. realized it was impossible for him to be on this side of security and B. failed to ask the name of the hotel. And, before we knew it, he’d whisked our bag to the front of the security scanners, which was completely unfair to all the others waiting in line, and demanded baksheesh (a tip.) Welcome to Egypt! 😅🙄

After scolding him for his dishonesty, we exited the airport to meet Mickal, our actual driver who was bearing an obvious sign with Greg’s name on it.

After Mickal checked us in to our full apartment, we were relieved to topple onto our springy mattress (with two pillows in one) at 3 am to try and get a few hours of zzzz’s. Despite this, the Charbel Apartments were a good value for a full place at $24/night.

It even featured our first comfortable couch in months.

When we awoke at 8, we peeked at the view from our balcony. It revealed…a tiny sliver of dry and barren land! We’re in Egypt!

And a tiny sliver of the Red Sea…

But when we wandered up to the upper terrace, we were greeted with far more than a sliver.

And a pool as well! Such a lovely view….

And the pillow made for two. Fortunately, this wasn’t a trend in Egypt.

Exploring Hurghada

At no point in our lives had we uttered that we wanted to visit Hurghada. So it’s always interesting when your journey takes you to places you wouldn’t normally see thanks to cheap airfares. This beach resort town, seemingly Euro Cancun, minus the overpriced tacos and Americans saying quesa-dill-a, stretches some 40k along the turquoise crystalline waters of the Red Sea. It is blanketed with tourists, who pop down for a warm and sunny getaway and is well known for scuba diving and boat tours. For us, it was a quick jumping-off point for our time in the country, which we appreciated for its gorgeous marina and opportunity to instead dive into our first sea of Egyptian Baba Ghanouj.

The Hurghada Marina is undoubtedly the glittering gem of the city. It was about a 20-minute walk from our apartment. There is no fee to visit, although you do have to go through security scanners to enter. Apparently, this is normal protocol in the country, which is a good thing!

And there is a LOT of money floating around here.

With its soaring double minarets, Al Mina Mosque is one of the top attractions in the city, and the only mosque tourists can enter.

This mosque, built in 2012, is at the heart of the city and is a ravishing example of Islamic architecture. It cost 200 million Egyptian pounds to build (8.6 million dollars.)

If you’re looking for a local experience, head into the nearby bustling Hurghada Fish Market for an extensive assortment of fresh and colorful local fish and other critters from the Red Sea.

The fishy fragrance was a bit overpowering, but not one person hawked although a couple welcomed us! This guy even let me take his photo! No baksheesh!!

Actually, taking photos was not a problem. These were easily the most vibrant fish we’d ever seen at a market.

Not to mention the mussels and crabs!

The entrance to the market buzzing with activity. We loved that it was still an original market designed for fishermen and locals, but it seems they’ll be renovating it soon to create more of a tourist attraction. So many men…

Tradition meets the west…love the look of the jellabiya with the baseball cap. Jellabiyas are Egyptian man dresses popular amongst men of the Nile, typically farmers. (Women also have a version.) The jellabiya differs from the Arabic thawb as it has a wider cut, no collar, and longer, wider sleeves. Also, there are often pockets for money, tobacco or probably cell phones 🤣 (Wikipedia)

Heading down to the marina, we decided to splash out at a tourist restaurant called L’Imperatore so we could have a lunchtime view of the sea. Plus, Mandy wanted to sit under this irresistible mushroom umbrella.

First mint tea in Egypt. Mmm…now this is better.

A fun umbrella, fantastic view…

…and meh food. It definitely wasn’t the baba ghanouj and hummus we’d been vying months for. Instead, it was very chunky and lacked flavor. Baba Ghanouj is one of our favorite Arabic dips and is made of roasted eggplant. Its name translates to Pampered Daddy and is a perfect meal accompaniment for all the dads that “deserve it.”

A dose of local life in Hurghada.

A dose of tourist life in Hurghada.

The blushing facades produced a brilliant contrast with the shimmering water and towering candles from the mosque.

So considering this color, why is the Red Sea called the Red Sea? A popular hypothesis about the origins of the Red Sea’s name is that it contains cyanobacteria called Trichodesmium erythraeum, which turns the normally blue-green water a reddish-brown in some areas. (Britannica)

Other Red Sea facts:

-it’s the world’s most northern tropical sea.

-it was mentioned heavily in the biblical book of Exodus when Moses parted it

-it has been used as a trade route since ancient times and even more since the 1869 development of the Suez Canal.

-is approximately 35% saltier than most other seas, which gives it unique health benefits.

-it is filled with shipwrecks

-it exhibits some of the most first class diving in the world. (Source: Radissonblu)

An Egyptian license plate. This is all interesting, fine and dandy until you call an Uber. Then, your spouse will be saying to you…”ok, we’re looking for a squiggly ‘E,’ backwards meat hook, and a couple dots.” 🤣 We have to admit…we’re missing Turkish!

From the marina, we walked about 25 minutes further north to the Go Bus station because we wanted to buy our tickets for the following day. Walk?!?! What?! Are you insane? Taxi! Taxi!! Taxi!!! Good price! Good price! Of course, we weren’t the only ones walking. We were accompanied by many other Euro-looking people🤣 The traffic was surprisingly quite light, although it still seemed every other one was honking for no apparent reason.

One of the splashy resorts from the streetside. By the way, beachfront resorts start at around $35/night if that’s what you’re into… All-inclusive options are $55 and up.

There’s a Turkish-sized meat spit. And then there’s an Egyptian-sized meat spit. Getting meat sweats just looking at it 😅

An Average Mo mosque (like average Joe, but with Mohammed…was that clear? 🤣) Speaking of which, so far the call to prayers seemed much more subdued in Egypt than in Turkey.

After walking along unpleasant concrete-ness for 15 minutes, we arrived at a satisfying stretch of park, which guided us the rest of the way to the station.

But not without a water break, and a standard guessing game on chip flavors.

Catching a beautiful sunset over the mountains from our rooftop terrace. The sun sets very early at 5:05. This suits us greatly because it also rises before 6! Hasta mañana! Or however you say this in Arabic…

From Hurghada, we got two tickets (350 Egyptian Pounds or $15) on GoBus, which is supposedly the most “luxurious” and reliable bus line in Egypt. It wasn’t especially luxurious, particularly when it broke down, but it did have A/C and reclining seats. 😁👍🏻

The good news is, a new bus was fetched and we only had to wait about an hour for this to happen. In the meantime, we got ripped off for the second time in Egypt! We were learning fast 🤣

Normally the bus ride from Hurghada to Luxor takes 4-5 hours. Since we got two lucky bonus hours, we were extra glad we had chosen the best seats on the bus! Travel tip: the best seats (in our humble opinion) are behind the rear door. They have the most leg room and no one can recline their chair into your lap.

The barren land of Egypt begins.

This GoBus Station south of Hurghada is where we waited for our new bus, and also learned that it’s perfectly normal for Egyptians not to give change.

While Greg waited on the bus, Mandy bought two tiny falafel wraps and only had a 50 Egyptian pound note ($2.16). She knew the price should have been 10 Egyptian pounds ($.43) because the person in front of her (also a foreigner, but a man) ordered the exact same thing with a 10-pound note. When she nicely asked for her change, the vendor only smiled and shrugged. She then demanded, “pounds!” and held out her hand. The vendor, with a smile, dropped into a lip pucker, reluctantly stuffed two more falafel wraps, two pieces of bread and some pickled veggies in her bag, instead of at least giving her the 10-pound note she had just watched him receive. So…lessons learned. Always use exact change in Egypt. 🤣 Second lesson, (possibly, though still untested), let the man pay if you have one. He’s less likely to get ripped off?

We also ran into this at a grocery store later when we paid with a 200-pound note and our bill was 170. The cashier gave him a receipt and no change. When Greg held out his hand and said “change please,” he was given it right away, but he had to ask.

Continuing on in a functioning bus, the terrain gets a bit more interesting.

Rest stop along the way

As we approached the Nile, the barren desert faded and the greenery began to explode. It’s certainly easy to see why it’s known as the River of Life.

Pausing at the bus station in Qena, a town north of Luxor on the Nile, a man helped with luggage. This reminded us of Oman when Greg got scolded for “making” Mandy carry her own bag. Perhaps since Egypt is more of a tourist destination she’ll have to bear her own weight here 🤣