So husband and I managed to sneak in 2 weeks vaca for a honeymoon despite the fact that I had taken off almost 3 weeks for the wedding and husband just started work (thank you French benefits system). It was the first time I had ever taken time off without knowing where I was going.
I wanted to go on safari in Africa but unfortunately this proved very expensive and we had just paid the bill for our wedding amidst French tax season (le ouch). Maldives was reasonable but I could probably only stare at beautiful waters for one week and not two. Greece seemed a good compromise but dodgy due to the euro zone crisis. Busy at work and suffering still from organization fatigue from the wedding husband and I decided we would just wait till something interesting came up on lastminute.com.
My plan actually was to really wait till the last minute to get something amazing at like a fraction of the cost. But turns out I’m not that kind of person who can wait one week before the date of departure before booking a trip so at the one month mark when I saw a deal to add a one week cruise on the Nile on to one week all inclusive resort at the red sea for 1 euro more, we booked.
Relieved to finally have a destination for my vacation, I woke up the next day to the news of anti-American protestors attacking U.S. diplomatic compounds in Libya and Egypt resulting in the death of the U.S. ambassador in Libya along with 4 other Americans due to an obscure low budget YouTube video mocking the Muslim prophet. Angry mobs with signs like “Death to Americans” plastered across the news.
Thinking perhaps that we should cancel, husband made the point that I didn’t exact look “American” and that we would be coming from France and not the United States. I agreed to wait and see and registered Egypt in my STEP program account.
The next day I got a warning message from the department of state for... wait for it... France. Yes not a peep from the Egypt listserv but apparently French Muslims were getting rowdy (to the department of state'se credit, there were demonstrations at the U.S. embassy in Paris the next day).
About a week later French magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed enraging Muslims worldwide. Now was definitely not the time to be French American newly-weds in Egypt.
We had to decide what to do. I checked the department of state website on travel warnings. If you put a red dot on regions that are off limits, the map of northern Africa/middle east resembled the last 10 seconds of a game of sink your battleship: Libya – travel warning. Sudan – travel warnings. Israel – travel warnings. Sinai – travel warnings. Rest of Egypt – exercise caution.
We went anyways. Life is a risk.
I wanted to go on safari in Africa but unfortunately this proved very expensive and we had just paid the bill for our wedding amidst French tax season (le ouch). Maldives was reasonable but I could probably only stare at beautiful waters for one week and not two. Greece seemed a good compromise but dodgy due to the euro zone crisis. Busy at work and suffering still from organization fatigue from the wedding husband and I decided we would just wait till something interesting came up on lastminute.com.
My plan actually was to really wait till the last minute to get something amazing at like a fraction of the cost. But turns out I’m not that kind of person who can wait one week before the date of departure before booking a trip so at the one month mark when I saw a deal to add a one week cruise on the Nile on to one week all inclusive resort at the red sea for 1 euro more, we booked.
Relieved to finally have a destination for my vacation, I woke up the next day to the news of anti-American protestors attacking U.S. diplomatic compounds in Libya and Egypt resulting in the death of the U.S. ambassador in Libya along with 4 other Americans due to an obscure low budget YouTube video mocking the Muslim prophet. Angry mobs with signs like “Death to Americans” plastered across the news.
Thinking perhaps that we should cancel, husband made the point that I didn’t exact look “American” and that we would be coming from France and not the United States. I agreed to wait and see and registered Egypt in my STEP program account.
The next day I got a warning message from the department of state for... wait for it... France. Yes not a peep from the Egypt listserv but apparently French Muslims were getting rowdy (to the department of state'se credit, there were demonstrations at the U.S. embassy in Paris the next day).
About a week later French magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed enraging Muslims worldwide. Now was definitely not the time to be French American newly-weds in Egypt.
We had to decide what to do. I checked the department of state website on travel warnings. If you put a red dot on regions that are off limits, the map of northern Africa/middle east resembled the last 10 seconds of a game of sink your battleship: Libya – travel warning. Sudan – travel warnings. Israel – travel warnings. Sinai – travel warnings. Rest of Egypt – exercise caution.
We went anyways. Life is a risk.
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