Today we fly domestic from Cappadocia to Istanbul and then from Istanbul to Cairo. Armed with our masks, wipes and bottles of hand sanitizer, we head to the airport. Nevsehir is a small airport that serves the region. We are all a little on edge having to traverse 3 airports and 2 flights but nothing else we can do but try to drown ourselves in hand sanitizer, wipe every surface in site and never, ever take off the face mask.

Kyle knows this is getting bad as the NBA has indefinitely suspended the season after one the players tested positive. The NBA is a money printing machine so this is a big deal. Spain has joined in Italy in a countrywide quarantine lock down. 

There are currently 145K and the number of non-China cases is closing in on the 80K China cases. Meanwhile, back on the home front, the US only has 2.1K cases but during the day, we learn than Trump has declared a US national emergency. Universities are kicking students off campus too to combat the virus. Boy we are happy not to be home in a sense.  

Kyle keeps pushing the Albanian Tour Company on the cancellation policy. The latest he received back is “those countries have not closed any of their borders and the situation looks under control and means the tour can be operated. In case of changes, we will do the maximum to support you based on the circumstances that may be faced.” Umm, maximum support does not seem to equal refund for the remainder of the trip which is a deal-breaker requirement. 

While Eastern Europe might not quite replace the aura of a Spain, Italy and Switzerland, we do know there’s plenty of historical sites in these areas well worth exploring. “You know you always wanted to go to Bulgaria, Leanne!” Says Kyle. “Ummm, yeah, right up there,” she deadpans. Big Sauce Tours John the history bluff starts getting super excited for more post-Communism study. 

The flight from Istanbul to Cairo is pretty full so people are not being deterred from flying in any significant way in this part of the world. As we step off the plane in Cairo, we have to go through the temperature screening process.  We have a thermometer and did temperature checks on all 7 of us this morning so we are feeling reasonably confident but you never know when it could give a false positive. 

We make it through the quarantine line without incident and have now officially accomplished our goal of hitting all 7 continents! If we can pull of South Eastern Europe and then maybe head to the Oceanic islands after the Greece sailing trip, the goal of 60 countries remains a twinkle in Kyle’s eye. 

Leanne points out that we’ve been in 5 continents in the last 2 weeks trying to outrun the damned Coronavirus.  Wow!  Kyle is shocked to realize this.  Yes, from Mexico (North America) to Brazil (South America) to Istanbul (Both Europe and Asia) to Egypt (Africa). 

We are met at the airport by our local tour organizer Reem.  She is very sweet but a little new to guiding with just 1.5 years as a tour guide.  She is working her way up in the guiding world. Her only real job today is to fetch us from the airport, deliver to the hotel and go over the plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be visiting the Pyramids of Giza and Egyptian Museum.  She says that there a couple optional add-ons for dinner including a sunset cruise and the sound and light show at the pyramids. So she guides and upsells, but she is incredibly sweet which wins our hearts immediately.

“No way on the dinner cruise! Those things are floating cesspools of Coronavirus just waiting to explode. We’re not risking getting stuck on one of those,” Kyle emphatically states.  Reem starts to counter with points but smartly switches tact and convinces us to book the sound and light show. 

We get our fair share of glances with our masked faces as we enter through hotel security. The hotel is upscale but we still ensure that we keep our social distance between us and the rest of the hotel, staff and guests.   On the way to the hotel we notice huge pools of waters as Cairo has just experienced days of uncharacteristic torrential rain and now flooding. Even this Le Meridien couldn’t escape Mother Nature’s wrath. Huge areas of the hotel are being dried out with floor dryers as ornamental rugs were flooded and still drenched. In our pursuit to avoid a water-borne potentially-fatal illness, our stress meter is up even within the confines of a hotel. We have deemed the beautiful outdoor pool overlooking the pyramids completely off-limits — too risky for the crew. We Lysol the rooms down as soon as we enter and pop on the “Do Not Disturb” signs. Travel hazards have increased more every day as we look at even hotels differently now in light of the virus. Hotels used to be relaxing places to rest our traveling souls but now they have become a source of concern.

Such is life in this new age just dawning on the world.