Last Days in Egypt (Days 13-15)

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DAY 13

Today we said goodbye to those of us that were left from the tour. I then headed off to Alexandrina by bus where I met a friendly local who lived by my hotel and thus help me to get there from the bus station. I think though he may just have been after a free taxi ride home but what I can I say it worked in both of our favours. I don't get lost or ripped off and he gets a free lift it just goes to show that there are some none sleazy, yet helpful men here in Egypt!! Once I got into my hotel I found out that they weren't expecting me and that Shady my tour leader wasn’t contactable as he had booked this hotel for me. Anyway they were going to let me stay but charge me $80 US a night I told them to stuff it and said that I was told it would only cost $30 US so I said I would go find another hotel. However they decided to agree to $30 US a night of I stayed there which was still hugely over priced but at least I knew that it is respectable as the tour company uses it. However the toilet in my room had a broken button, the TV had no remote and no channel changing button so I had to stick my key in there to change the channel and the tablecloths in the restaurant weren’t clean. I did actually expect more for a 3 star hotel.
That night I had an early one and planned my for my next day.

DAY 14

Today I had a range of things to do with my first priority organising my trip to the airport early the next morning. To do this I first asked at the reception and he said that he’d be able to get one of the bell boys to organise a ticket for me. Perfect all done! So with that good news I headed off to the famous Alexandrina Bibliotheca (it's a library) on foot it took me about ½ hour to get there. To get to it though I needed to cross a road with six lanes of crazy traffic going in both directions. I was standing there for a while when a local can up to me and asked if I wanted a hand I accepted gratefully and hence did not get smooched by a car in the process! He then lead me straight to the ticket window for the library.
Inside it was huge and I visited the Antiques Museum from the original library and the Manuscripts Museum. Besides this the Library wasn’t too exciting at all. I did though, get free use of a computer for an hour however I couldn’t access my email only facebook because it was strictly for library use only. I’m not sure how facebook fits in here though??
From there I headed to the Citadel of Qaitbay, which took me an hour to walk to. This was rather nice as the weather was lovely. What was disappointing though was to see the coast littered with piles of rubbish with the only clear patches being set aside for tourists. Then the rest was covered in concrete blocks. During my walk some creepy gut started talking to me but no matter how much I ignored him he kept walking with me eventually he nicked off after I made it bluntly obvious that I didn’t want him anywhere near me. Anyway the Citadel was actually a fort which was 3 storeys high giving a lovely view of the ocean. I was given a tour by one of the local policemen who of course wanted tips for his efforts. He also took a few photos with me in them which was rather helpful. He showed me the old styled toilets, the kitchens and where the Sultan, his wife and their children would have slept.
After leaving the Citadel I was approached yet again by I guy. I must say that I looked horrible my hair wasn’t done and all over the place, I was wearing jeans and had on a long baggy t-shirt nothing attractive about me at all. Hence all the guys are only interested because I’m a foreigner not because I’m looking good or flirting as some have accused me of. Anyway he wanted to go for tisha which I declined and said I was looking for a taxi which he helped me get. I ended up with a horse and cart for 25 LE to get me to the Catacombs of Komel Shoafa. These Catacombs were pretty plain except for one which most probably belonged to the Pharaoh and his wife. There are approximately 300 graves in total and they were found completely by mistake by a donkey and cart falling down a shaft.
Once I was finished here I took the horse and cart again as he had refused to take my money saying he would wait. From what I understood because he wouldn’t state a price but kept saying all fine, all fine, same, same I assumed he meant that it would be the same price for me to get back to my hotel. On the way I realised not only did this guy speak barely any English he couldn’t read Arabic and need to ask someone to read my hotel address to him. Really I should have declined and gone in a normal taxi which would have been the smartest thing. Because once I finally made it back to my hotel he started arguing about how much I had to pay him and wouldn’t take my money. In the end I couldn’t understand him and asked someone nearby to translate. We finally settled on 70 LE. I must say never again way too much stress than it was worth!!!
Upon reaching my hotel I picked up what I thought was my bus ticket and headed straight to my room. I was still kicking myself about the taxi ride that I forgot to check out my ticket. Meanwhile the waiter came up asking if I wanted a free drink on him and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So he bought me a lemon juice and returned with the courage to ask me is I wanted to go out with him after his shift that night. I promptly said I’m sorry I can’t because I’m married. The poor guy was so embarrassed and didn’t know what to do with himself and kept apologising.
After this incident I decided to check out my bus ticket only to find that my money was still inside. Panicking I headed downstairs to find out why. It turned out there wasn’t going to be a bus that would get me to the airport in time for my flight. However after a local intervened he said that yes there is one so a different bell boy was sent out and got me my bus ticket. Thank goodness as I was getting rather worried. After all this stress I ate and packed my bag so that I would be ready to leave at 5.30am the next morning.

DAY 15

I woke up at 3am today. Which I think was because I was so scared I’d miss the bus and hence my flight and all I wanted was to get into an English speaking country again. I was very over the hand gesturing and disjointed English. Anyway I made my bus and hence my plane flight with no problems or guys trying to pick me up. It took me all day though to get to Ireland but I’m so happy I’m here now.

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Comments

[andy]

vickster you shouldve been more careful! firstly, i think you stayed at the same hotel as me in alexandria, and u got dodged hardcore! those 6 lanes of crazy traffic,.. there are underpasses to go under the road every kilometer or so, which you should've used as we saw (and heard, uggh) a local get hit by a taxi going like 100 km/hr on that road! did you go to any seafood restaurants in alexandria?

[VickiG]

Andy
Yeah I thought that I had!! It was bullshit the hotel anyway and |Shady never called back so I couldn't do anything about it really. Oh well shit happens. No I didn't I completly forgot to ask where it was silly me.....