Train travel in Egypt is very special. If you’re lucky, you’ll witness a motley crew of men laying new train tracks using a rope and brute force at Ramses Station. The men will be wearing sandals. Once you get on the train, you may notice that it looks like a living room in upstate New York circa 1979. A steward will make you Nescafe that he foams with a tiny tool, served in a clear glass marked “Ernst.” It will somehow be delicious. The ticket man at Ramses will have told you that your return train is a super-fast train and that is why it costs 30 LE more than your trip there, but in reality the return train takes just as long, maybe longer.
