The Great Train Heist

I went to Cairo this weekend with several friends, and we got to the train station and waited for our train. When the train pulled up at 6:15PM, we all heard an announcement saying that this train was the 5:30PM train and that they were running late. Too bad for us, we all heard it passively and didn't listen actively, so we could recall that we heard it later but we didn't heed it.

We all got on the train, and when I got to my seat there was someone in it. I showed him my ticket, and he told me that we weren't on the right train. We had to move through two cars to get to the platform, and people were still piling in behind us, so getting off was fun. Not everyone in our group understood what was happening so telling them to get off the train through two cars while the train started moving was kind of a trip. We finally jumped off a moving train (not as exciting as it sounds, since it was going maybe a mile per hour, but it was lurching to a stop with the train employee behind me yelling at us to move it and quickly the whole time). We remembered then that we weren't all in the same car, so we frantically called Valerie to tell her to get off, which was great since we didn't all have her number or credit to call her.

Now that we were all regrouped and happy with the success of our adventure, we drew quite a crowd of people that wanted to talk to the strange foreigners that were too dumb to listen to the announcement and got on the wrong train. One comment in particular that stood out was when a lady singled out Laura and told her several times that she's "pretty like honey". Then another train pulled up and some women pulled out their cell phones to take pictures of us. I smiled at them and they realized that I saw them and got really embarrassed and put their phones away. I told them to take pictures, that I was from Alexandria, and that inspired a whole new crowd to come and scrutinize me to see if my claim was true. They asked my name, and thinking quickly I said, "Mohammad". One of the little kids said, "Mohammad what?" so I said, "Mohammad Ibrahim". Upon being asked my last name, I said "Wahaba". So Mohammad Ibrahim and Mohammad Wahaba got the shout out. Convinced for the moment, the kids settled down, but an old lady still had doubts. She asked me for some of my water, so I handed her my bottle and she looked uncertain. She took a drink, then gave it back and told the crowd, "I just wanted to see if he would understand me." I eventually told them I was from America, that it was ok to take pictures of me, and our train finally showed up and took us to the middle of nowhere and stopped so we could watch cows, donkeys, and goats pass us.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you can't be an awesome adventurer like me if you don't go on adventures.