Port Said, Egypt (Cairo)
Our next port was Port Said, Egypt. It was very eye opening to say the least. As we exited the cruise terminal, we were immediately met with vendors all trying to sell their stuff to us. We had been told ahead of time if you make eye contact or talk to them, they will follow you. It's true. It's hard because it's not in our nature to just ignore someone when they talk to you, but even a 'no' or 'no thank you' opens the door for the vendors.
We met up with our tour guide and got loaded on the bus. A caravan of buses were lined up with police escorts in front and behind. Driving in Egypt is something else. Dad made sure to get the spot at the front so he could get the full effect. There is a lot of honking, weaving, and cutting off. Lanes lines are considered decoration, otherwise completely ignored. Our bus at one point made a U-turn in the middle of a 3 lane road (starting from the far lane). Crazy Chaos!
Our first stop was the Egyptian Museum. Our guide was pretty funny. They wanted all the groups to have headphones and the guide to wear the microphone, but the line to get them was 30 minutes long so the guide just took us in and talked loud. The museum people came and asked why he wasn't using the headphones, then brought some for our group and told him we had to use them. Well, he still spoke loud enough to hear him and then his microphone broke. Bottom line, no headphones were used :). At the end of the tour a museum employee spent 10 minutes talking about and trying to sell a DVD of all the museum pieces. The entire time I was thinking who in the world would actually buy this. Well, Dad would. Log and him should be travel buddies.
After the museum we had lunch on the Nile at TGI Fridays. Our guide said they used to go somewhere else, but had people get sick.
The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx
Next we stopped at the Great Pyramid. As we unloaded the bus, vendors come to try to sell you things or offering camel rides or pictures with the camel. We had been told ahead of time to wait for the second pyramids stop where the vendor are a little more honest. We climbed up the pyramids as far as allowed. From above it was fun to watch the vendors/tourist interact below. At one point a boy roughly 8 yrs old started yelling and throwing rocks at another boy the same age. It's sad that they are taught from such a young age to be so aggressive.
The second pyramids stop is where you can get nice pictures of the pyramids and do a camel ride. Not doing a camel ride is one of my regrets of the trip. It was just $15 and a once in a life time experience that I missed out on. Oh well.
The last stop was the Sphinx. It's actually a lot smaller than the pyramids which surprised me. Walking back to the bus we passed a number of vendors, but since I didn't want them to follow me (as there were with others) I just kept walking. Then one that we passed came up to the bus and was selling these baskets through our guide. Just 1 dollar for the platter and 2 dollars for the basket. Sold. So actually did buy something from Egypt :).
Our bus barely made it back the ship on time (it's about a 3hr drive from the Pyramids to the port of call). Walking from the bus to the cruise ship we had to walk the gauntlet to vendors right up to where you sanitize your hand before boarding the ship. That was a crazy end to day 1 in Egypt.
Alexandria, Egypt
Our day in port was a short one. We started off with a visit to the catacombs. You go down a spiral staircase, then maneuver in small quarters (filled with other tour groups) and then can walk on planks around where bodies would have been stored. Pretty interesting. Sadly, my camera didn't take very good pictures down there.
Pompey's Pillar
I don't remember a lot about this pillar, but I did find it interesting to watch the window washer on the tall buildings use a hand crank on either side of their platform to go up and down. Not a job I would ever want. Wikipedia says this Roman triumphal column is: "the largest of its type constructed outside of the imperial capitals of Rome and Constantinople."
The new library of Alexandria is the largest library in the world with 8 million plus books. After a short tour we were able to wander about the library on our own. I had a girl about 16 yrs old come up and ask to take a picture with me which was fine. When I asked her why she said it was because I was beautiful.
As we drove, I found it fascinating to see all the food items sold on the side of the streets. I wish we didn't have to worry about sanitation so I could actually try some of it out.
Egypt was interesting and I'm glad I had the chance to experience, but at the same time I think it totally ruined me for how to treat vendors in the future. I now assume that all street vendors will leech on if you show any type of interest of communication. I was also amazed that people would hand off their cameras to the aggressive vendors to have them take picture (for a fee of course) or open their wallet and show them how much money they had. The vendors will shout, '1 dollar, 1 dollar, 1 dollar.' So if you go there, makes sure to come prepared with a wad of 1 dollar bills.
Rome
After the cruise , we still had one more day to spend in Rome before flying home. A friends from our tour group, Tania (Australian and traveling alone), joined us since her flight didn't leave till late then night. I love Rome. It it a great walkable city with lot of people to watch.
The one thing left that I really wanted to do was a underground tour of the Colosseum. 22 Euros per person later we had done just that (yeah, way pricier than I had anticipated). While the use of the Colosseum is rather gory and makes my stomach turn if I think too much about it, I did love hearing about how everything actually worked. The trap doors that opened up with animals in them which hand been cranked up by a crew of men using a pulley system. I think there were 60 plus doors. Can you imagine being the person in charge trying to run the 'backstage' of the event without a walkie talkie? In additional to going down, we also got to go up to the 3rd level which had amazing views.
Our expensive ticket also got us into two other tourist sites, but they closed early, we'd already been sightseeing for 2 weeks and we were all ready for some food.
Gelato and Pizza
Craving some good gelato, we made our way back to the place that had the dollop of whipped cream on top. Still delicious. We also wanted to peek into another recommended gelato shop around the corner. It didn't look very good and was way expensive (Rick Steves is usually good with eating places, but not this time). What we did find is an even better looking place. I think it must be newer. It had peanut butter ice cream (this is huge). It is just down the road from the Pantheon and you get more if you get it in a cone instead of a cup.
After 2 cones of gelato, we were all still in the mood for some actual food. We ended up stopping at a fun little place. Notice in the picture below that our table is out in the road of narrow street. This is pretty normal here. I had an good margarita pizza (we've decided this is our staple to try when we travel), however it wasn't nearly as good as the pizza place we went to the first night.
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