Either we are getting better at this or we are learning to roll with the punches better. I bet on the later.
All went well with the flights. A few delays but nothing crazy. We did make quite a site sleeping on benches in the Rome airport, which, by the way, is not nearly as nice as you would expect. That is what you do, though, when you arrive at the equivalent of 2am after having only slept in fits and spurts on the plane.
As ususal, we cannot do the normal thing so we didn't take a taxi from the airport. We had read about a bus and were determined to take it. By miracle or good kharma (we paid the $15 visa fee for a Brit that did not have Egyptian or American dollars) we found it and took an amazingly long and harrowing ride into downtown Cairo. That's when it got crazy. Actually, that's when it got normal crazy because, of course, we went the exact opposite direction from the bus station and ended up at the Nile (but that is better than spattered all over the road, which is highly likely considering the CRAZY drivers here.)
Many kind people helped us and, again, by miracle or good kharma, we found out hostel. What a welcome site four beds and a hot shower were! If we were in the US we would have refused the room, but when traveling on the cheap, this was a good place.
This morning we set out to buy our train tickets. We left the hotel at 11 and set off for the train station. We made it only two blocks before being shangheied by a perfume salesman. All of a sudden we found ourselves sitting in his shop drinking tea and smelling bottles of oil. We payed the 20LE ($4) ransom (I bought a small bottle to get us out of there) and learned a valuable lesson. From there we easily found the metro station. Bless cities with metros. They are so easy and I understand them. Tickets are 1LE (20cents) and we were off to the train station.
That's when it all went downhill fast. Of course, we went to the wrong building, but we are so used to that by now that it doesn't even phase us anymore. When we did get there, the sleeper trains were sold out until Feb 24. Not a shock. I had heard that could happen. But when we were sent to buy tickets for the seated night train we could not get anyone to give us straight answers. We were sent to several different ticket windows and were given a different story by each one. I don't think it was their fault. Just a very, very badly organized train system. While this was going on it was utter chaios around us. I got into a conversation with an older british gentleman who had been there four times in four days trying to get tickets. This story is very long so I will sum up to say that we did get four tickets, but not on the day we wanted and not out of the station we wanted. I think we bribed someone to get them, but we are not sure. The brits did not get their tickets but when he saw that we had some he went back to the desk. I just hope we actually did get tickets and not worthless pieces of paper that we paid $130 for.
After that little adventure we had to regroup so had some tea in a cafe. At this time the kids were bored and annoying and begging to come home but once we ate they calmed down and now that I think about it, they handled it all suprisingly well. We left the train station at 2pm
We took the metro to Coptic Cairo at this point and wandered around a very touristy area. Old churches, Roman ruins, etc. That made Tate happy. He likes to be where things make sense to hime. They got to experience squatty potties though and they did not like that at all. Overall, the day turned out OK. We are in the hostel for the night but tomorrow we have hired a driver for the day to go to Saqqara, Dahshur, and Giza. Lots of pyramids. That should make them happy.
All went well with the flights. A few delays but nothing crazy. We did make quite a site sleeping on benches in the Rome airport, which, by the way, is not nearly as nice as you would expect. That is what you do, though, when you arrive at the equivalent of 2am after having only slept in fits and spurts on the plane.
As ususal, we cannot do the normal thing so we didn't take a taxi from the airport. We had read about a bus and were determined to take it. By miracle or good kharma (we paid the $15 visa fee for a Brit that did not have Egyptian or American dollars) we found it and took an amazingly long and harrowing ride into downtown Cairo. That's when it got crazy. Actually, that's when it got normal crazy because, of course, we went the exact opposite direction from the bus station and ended up at the Nile (but that is better than spattered all over the road, which is highly likely considering the CRAZY drivers here.)
Many kind people helped us and, again, by miracle or good kharma, we found out hostel. What a welcome site four beds and a hot shower were! If we were in the US we would have refused the room, but when traveling on the cheap, this was a good place.
This morning we set out to buy our train tickets. We left the hotel at 11 and set off for the train station. We made it only two blocks before being shangheied by a perfume salesman. All of a sudden we found ourselves sitting in his shop drinking tea and smelling bottles of oil. We payed the 20LE ($4) ransom (I bought a small bottle to get us out of there) and learned a valuable lesson. From there we easily found the metro station. Bless cities with metros. They are so easy and I understand them. Tickets are 1LE (20cents) and we were off to the train station.
That's when it all went downhill fast. Of course, we went to the wrong building, but we are so used to that by now that it doesn't even phase us anymore. When we did get there, the sleeper trains were sold out until Feb 24. Not a shock. I had heard that could happen. But when we were sent to buy tickets for the seated night train we could not get anyone to give us straight answers. We were sent to several different ticket windows and were given a different story by each one. I don't think it was their fault. Just a very, very badly organized train system. While this was going on it was utter chaios around us. I got into a conversation with an older british gentleman who had been there four times in four days trying to get tickets. This story is very long so I will sum up to say that we did get four tickets, but not on the day we wanted and not out of the station we wanted. I think we bribed someone to get them, but we are not sure. The brits did not get their tickets but when he saw that we had some he went back to the desk. I just hope we actually did get tickets and not worthless pieces of paper that we paid $130 for.
After that little adventure we had to regroup so had some tea in a cafe. At this time the kids were bored and annoying and begging to come home but once we ate they calmed down and now that I think about it, they handled it all suprisingly well. We left the train station at 2pm
We took the metro to Coptic Cairo at this point and wandered around a very touristy area. Old churches, Roman ruins, etc. That made Tate happy. He likes to be where things make sense to hime. They got to experience squatty potties though and they did not like that at all. Overall, the day turned out OK. We are in the hostel for the night but tomorrow we have hired a driver for the day to go to Saqqara, Dahshur, and Giza. Lots of pyramids. That should make them happy.
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