Recently, well not so recent but recent enough, I had the pleasure of accompanying my good friend Samira on her pilgrimage to Mecca. We had been planning our travels for quite some time, making sure to see everything, do everything, and just try to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience. When she initially asked me to go, I stereotypically was hesitant. A foreign destination, desert climate, and little-to-no caffeine kind of made me think twice about the whole thing. But I knew I couldn’t miss this opportunity, especially since not everyone is able to make the holy pilgrimage.

I may have mentioned it before, but I seem to have a little problem at airports, especially with airport security. I wasn’t trying to bring anything out of the ordinary this time. Samira made me pack two weeks before we had to go. Maybe one of them saw one of my posts on this blog or something, but the guy just started laughing at me. I was pretty embarrassed. Samira just pushed my through the machine to try and get me moving, but I was literally crying, in public of all places. It was horrible.

But after nearly an 18-hour flight, we finally arrived at our first destination Medina, the City of the Prophet. It was a little warm when we arrived. I had been cramped up for too long on the plane over the pond, and just wanted to see it all! Samira had been there before, so she kind of took me on the grand tour of the city. We went to the Starbucks, and McDonald’s, the Grand Mosque and even a Denny’s. It was a great time.

I can’t really remember what else we did in Medina; we were only there for a few days. I have a bad short-term memory. So I’ll move on to our next stop, Mina, just outside of Mecca. It was fascinating to see everyone sleeping in basically what was a large tent city. There was no air conditioning in this place. (Ha Ha?)

Tent City

As the trip progressed from Mina into Mecca, something really started bothering me. I promised Samira I wouldn’t say anything, but I can’t get it out of my head. This guy just wouldn’t leave us alone! Everywhere we went, there he was. He was like a shadow that wouldn’t go away. He was at the airport, in the men’s room; he even had the nerve to stay with us a few nights. Samira started feeling bad for him, so whenever we left the hotel, she would always say ‘Remember to bring Shahid,’ if I didn’t tell him we were leaving. It honestly kind of got to be a headache, especially after we had to keep telling people who he was. It wasn’t my fault that her husband wanted to tag along.

Our Luggage Tags!

I had to explain to Shahid where he was supposed to eat.

Mecca

Us in Medina!

Link to previous Post: Love at First Sight

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