egypt, and la barcelona

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and so this was my egyptian adventure
egypt is africa, people always trying to rip u off.
im really struggling to find an appropriate introduction for this entry so i will just get right down to it.
we flew out of athens, landed in cairo and boom, straight away guys coming upto us, can i help u, u need a taxi dont u, come stay at my hotel, let me wipe ur ass and all for just a tiny wincy tip hey.
got picked up from the airport by a private car, a sign that had my name on it that reminded me of the limo episode of seinfeld.
cairo is one hell of a city, 22 million people and wat looked like 22 million cars, (with a few donkeys here and there to.) it is fucking crazy, people dont use the lanes they just beep and go. driving or even being in a car in the streets of cairo is like racing in formula one and as a result of this constant hooting must be one of the nosiest cities in the world.
as soon as we got to the hostel we were sat down and told wat we had to do, little did we know that the prices we got quoted did not include endless amounts of extra costs, entry fees mandatory tips and the works. but i guess it was worth it coz without this we would have had to organise everything ourselves in a country with a totally foreign language, very little english and people hungry to screw over tourists.
so first day of our whirlwind tour, the pyramids.
wat people dont know is that the pyramids are on a sandy mountain reserve and its huge. 7km between all the different things like the pyramids, the sphinx, the tombs, so u need to get a camel or horse ride to propely see it all. but once again was worth it, they took us up to this hill where all the pyramids line up, there are three huge ones and then another six mini pyramids. so we finished our pyrmaidal pilgriamige and headed back to the hostel. that night i had a streetside kebab that would go on to play a leading role in my food poisoning to critical acclaim.
then at 10 pm we boarded a night train to luxor, probably the worst nights sleep ive had in my life. the seats only reclined about 5 degrees and so i woke up twisted in half with back muscles resembling pretzels. we went to our 3 star hotel that we were conned into paying for and lounged around our room and the upstairs pool overlooking the nile until the afternoon.
picked up by our private driver (we had private drivers and tour guides that took us everywhere) we were taken to the temple at karnak, a huge egyptian temple with gigantic statues and masses of hyrogliphic carvings. we were there til twilight and made our way to the temple of luxor, another massive temple with twin statues and wat were twin obelisks sitting outside but one was given to napoleon as a "gift." going to the temple in the dark was phenomenal because it was lit up by 100s of spotlights that cast it in a golden glaze worthy of its grandeur.
that was also the point of the night where i started to feel a little queezy.
so we went back to our hostel, i had spaghetti bolognese for dinner, had a shower and then went to bed.
to bed though, not to sleep. suffice it to say that by morningtime, the pasta was blocking up the sink with a slightly altered consistency and one hell of a smell that had been added to at two hourly intervals through the night. i had food poisoning from wat i think was the kebab and i felt like shit.
so i missed that day of touring but chad went to see hatshepsuts temple and the valleys of the kings and queens. i didnt leave the hotel bar for a trip to the pharmacy where they insisted that i need antibiotics even though i knew i didnt. so i waited it out, leaving luxor that night on a comfier night train and by the morning i felt a fine.
last day in cairo started off with the citadel, a hill with a few mosques (but we had just come from much more impressive ones in turkey) and the police and military museum. this museum was included in the ticket price so we decided to have a look. its amazing how one sided history can be.
not one mention of israel in the entire military museum.
apparently according to this museum the egyptian army was on hiadus, just chilling during 1948.
they did mobilize in 1956 and 1973 but apparently this museum didnt know who it was against.
they even had the tail of an israeli plain the egyptian air force had shot down but no accompanying placard explaining said event or even saying which country the tail was from.
next on the agenda, the egyptian museum, the final, final resting place of everything that used to be in all the excavated tombs and pyramids just stuffed into a 3 story warehouse. highlight though was the stuff from tutankahmens tomb and lots of yummy mummys.
last night at the hostel, met a few cool guys from canada, mexico and chile, went out for some drinks and a nag. we sit down for wat appeared to be a cheep nag and then got told that we had to order a drink and there was a minimum charge per person. so grudgingly we ordered drinks. 6 drinks, we got 4 and 2 were wrong. so we ask for the bill and not only did they charge all the drings, they charged more. we showed them the errors and they corrected the bill so we payed and got up, about to leave when the waiter popped the question, "you´re not giving me a tip?"
we laughed, walked away leaving the waiter very annoyed and went to sleep to board our flight the next day. get to the airport, show the guy my ticket and he said to my in no nice way "this wrong day..."
FUCK
somehow i had got the date of the flight wrong and we were a day late. not only had we missed our flight but we were at risk of missing our connecting flight to barcelona.
but the problem was solvered, we went to the ticket office, payed a quick 100 euros and got on the next flight and all worked out well. overnight in athens and then we were in barcelona the next day.
now barcelona, my favourite city in europe and up there with best cities in the world.
a city of 1.65 million people that exhibits the buzzing ambience of a new york whilst retaining the open spaces and chilled out lifestyle of perth. street performers, buskers, markets, hustlers and amazing architecture from the dude called gaudi. not to mention 1 euro litres of wine, free entry to clubs with the hostel we were staying at and some of the coolest people we have met on our trip. these hustlers were incredible to watch, they were a co ordinated group of six people that ran a gambling hustle with a ball under three cups tht they would shuffle and then take bets on. every five minutes they would disband and wander around to avoid attention and then start the same routine. one guy starts shuffling and showing the ball really fast while 3 people started madly placing bets as if they had been playing for hours whilst two people circled watching. tourists came to look at the ruccus and see these people winning me, betting 50 euros at a time and doubling every win. naturally u think, this is easy i can make money. the tourist is hooked and watching, thinks he can guess without paying. the 2 on the outside move and and tell him, but wait sir, you have to show ur 50 euros before u can guess. so the eager tourist pulls out the crisp bill, watches a shuffle, gets asked the ultimate question, which one is it? believe it or not, every time, the tourist loses. that shuffler dude must have some mad skills, whether its misdirection or slick hands i dont know but they were making money.
whether it was walking down las ramblas to the beach or standing in with our jaws dropped in awe staring at la sagrada familia, barcelona was a blast.
a guy did attempt to pickpocket us, we were wandering back to our hostel at 4 am after a night at a beach side club that actually had an area of the club on the sand out in the open when a guy comes up and introduces himself. he starts talking to us, pretending to want to help us, said he wanted to party and dance. he then puts his arm around me, hooks his leg with mine and starts jumping up and down. i immediately shoved my hands in my pockets and backed away so no harm done. just got a free dance. later we found out that this is a common technique attempted on tourists. after then i was so scared and paranoid that when chad played a joke on me and tried to steal my camera i jumped out of my skin.
but despite its reputation for petty theft and pickpocketing i felt safe in barcelona and i absolutely loved it.
tomorrow we are going to madrid and then lisbon before we make our way up north.
adios amigos, mucos gracias

Dylan

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