I am Iron Girl

It's the middle of the night and I'm trying to get out of Israel. Meg and I need to get into Egypt tonight so that we can catch our plane out of Cairo tomorrow afternoon.

Here's the thing about Egypt though, you can't enter without a visa. Fine, no problem. I have a month-long visa that I got a few weeks ago when I flew into Cairo. I have another week left on that visa.

I get up to the guard and he looks at my passport, "Visa's not valid."

"What, yes it is. My visa is valid for a month." I point at the visa, see it says it right there!

Looking at me, he says "I closed it last week when you told me you weren't coming back to Egypt."

I'm starting to get a little agitated, a little loud, and pretty darn nervous. I really try to avoid scenes - especially at borders in the Middle East - but I can feel the panic rising in me and I'm getting that fluttering in my tummy.

ME: Why in the world would I have said that. My flight is out of Cairo! I never would have said that I wasn't returning to Egypt!

GUARD: No ma'am, I remember you. You said you wanted it closed.

ME: [Angry] You remember me. Me specifically?!?

Now I'm yelling...and crying, like ugly crying. I need to get out of Israel - tonight!

ME: [Losing my mind] How can you say that? How many hundreds of people come through this border and you remember me! That I told you I wasn't coming back and to close my visa. That makes absolutely no sense. I would never say that unless I was absolutely crazy or out of my mind.

Guard: No ma'am, I remember you. You're the Iron girl.

You've got to be kidding me - he did remember me. As he sees my recognition, he starts smiling. I'm not.

I came through this border over a week ago and the metal detector showed a big metal block in my rucksack. I had no idea what it was at the time but I agreed, it did look pretty suspicious. Honestly, I would have stopped myself too if I was them.

I promised that I didn't have anything in my bag but metal detectors don't lie so we had to take my bag apart - not an easy feat. Everything that I had was out on a conveyor belt for everyone to see. Three months of luggage! My dirty laundry, literally. Dirty and smelly from wearing the same thing day after day in the desert.

Everything was out and there was no metal to be seen. The guard doesn't know what to do so he starts running every one of my items through the detector to find the elusive metal block.

Finally, he pushes through my multi-vitamins. There was the metal block on the screen - the iron in my vitamins.

So yeah, he remembered me. I am the Iron girl.

I'm weeping now. It's like 10 at night so it's pretty quiet right now at the border but I must be looking pretty pathetic because they decide to escort me into a private room. They probably want me out of sight. Between gasps I cry "I--have--to--get--a --visa!"

"There's no visa agent here tonight. You will have to wait till morning."

I keep pleading. One of the guards feels bad for me and calls the visa agent at his home. He's all the way in Elam. The visa agent agrees to come back to the border to issue me a new visa. I can tell what's being said and I start yelling "thank you, thank you, thank you" loudly at the phone hoping the visa agent can hear me. I'm able to stop crying a bit and relax with Meg and the guards for a while.

Finally, the visa agent arrives. I'm beyond happy to see him.

He starts filling out the paperwork.

Visa Agent: Where are you going in the Sinai?

Me: I'm not sure yet, we don't have a place booked.

Visa Agent: We need an actual address. You can't go into the Sinai without a destination.

Me: [Getting a sense of foreboding] Can you just put down any Red Sea hotel address?

Visa Agent: [Chuckles] No, that's not possible. You can't get the visa without a real destination.

Me: [Ugly crying, yet again] This can't be happening.

The guards are ready to be done with me. They start making calls to hotels, they are all full. The visa agent tells us that he has a friend that owns a Red Sea Resort and that he would make a call. He gets on the phone and starts talking. In the background, I'm right by the visa agent telling him "I don't have much money but tell him I will sleep in a broom closet if they have one or on the floor in the lobby."

The visa agent gets off the phone and laughs. "You're lucky, he has a broom closet available and they are sending someone to the border to pick you up."

Ok, obviously, this isn't great. To all those travelers out there, I suggest you do your best to avoid these types of situations. You should always be cautious of getting in a random car in the middle of the night when in a foreign country - actually, even your own country. I would normally weigh my options but there were zero options. If I didn't go, I would miss my plane back to Greece.

"...Okay, thank you."

As the car pulls up, I thank everyone at the border for their combined efforts to get me out of there!

After about 15 minutes of wondering whether we were actually heading to a hotel, we arrived at an amazing resort. The resort is way beyond my expectations, which were - you know - pretty low so that isn't saying much. When I check in, the receptionist laughs when I say my name. Yup, I'm that girl.

I tell him, "I appreciate you giving us a room." He responds, "yes, very spacious broom closet, follow me." He brings us into an amazing suite! Definitely the best room we've been in for months. It even has TV and a movie channel!

What an amazing way to end a stressful experience.

The next day we woke up to breakfast with a view of the Red Sea and our transportation to Cairo all set. We went up to check out and noticed that we were only charged for an overnight in a 'broom closet", not a suite.

I guess all's well that ends well. Good-bye, Sinai.

Breakfast Table at the Red Sea Resort