Racing the sun.... literally

Last Friday, four friends and I had the delightful opportunity to spend the day at the beach. Our friend O works for the Embassy, an extremely handy circumstance since he has a car, a snazzy apartment, and access to a beach which he insists he owns. A somewhat unbelievable point that I will address later....

By the way, the work week is Sunday to Thursday here, so spending Friday at the beach is not like, "We are all terrible people and ditched work this Friday." Just to clarify.

We started out the morning by stopping by the Embassy grocery store. An absolute wonderland, I must say. We picked up all kinds of nice little treats that our local "Metro" grocery store lacks. The never-ending wine selection, endless options of potato chips, copies of The Economist and Vogue (who says my interests aren't varied?) in English, and generally American-y things completely captivated me.

After we stocked up for our beach barbecue, we hopped in the car for about an hour long ride to this unknown beach of O's, supposedly on the Red Sea. As we neared the beach, O tells us to start looking for the place to turn. So we say, "O, buddy, how are we supposed to know where to turn?" And he replies, "Just look for a group of palm trees that look like they are out of place." Hmm. Keep in mind, we have been driving for an hour with nothing but the desert around us. So as palm trees are starting to appear, I am sitting there thinking, "We are in the middle of the desert. EVERY palm tree looks out of place, and yet this is our ONLY form of description to find this place?! REALLY?"

Eventually after a bit of driving back and forth, O managed to recognize the specific group of palm trees that looked just perfectly out of place. Thank goodness. A wonderful day at the Red Sea ensued, complete with burgers, Corona (compliments of the Embassy shop, since it is SO not available in most of Egypt), and some classic country music.

On our drive home, we turned up the music and just enjoyed the ride. However, we experienced a small element of urgency because in order to be within Embassy rules, O cannot be outside the city limits of Cairo after dark. We packed up our things around 4pm to make sure we arrived home in time, but that sun is not always the most predictable thing. (Ok, so it DOES rise and set every day, but the exact moment? Not always the same). As we drove, the sun seemed to be determined to go down quite quickly. And we all felt a bit concerned about making it in time. But the sunset itself was BEAUTIFUL. Not one of those pinks and purples and floaty clouds kind of sunsets, which are very magical indeed. This sunset felt very bold - just this enormous orange-yellow round sun, sinking deeper and deeper into the desert as we sped toward it. Although I was quite convinced that the sun was going to win and O might be in big trouble, it did feel very poetic. Us against the sun.

You will be pleased to know that, despite all indications, we actually did beat the sun. Not only did we make it inside the city limits just as night fell, but we also enjoyed one of the loveliest sunsets I have ever seen. So I guess we won two times over...