Day 25

SUNDAY 3rd JANUARY

Synopsis of day: Hurghada Day Two.

Highlight of the day: Swimming in the Red Sea

Lowlight of the day: John was not working at the cafe that day. However, our Italian restaurant friends beamed when they saw us. Kerri's particular friend Ramadan also seemed to be delighted to see us once more. Ick.

Toilet ratings: Nothing new.

Favourite quote/word: “I've swum in the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galileeeeee, and now I need to swim in the Med Sea.”

“You from England? You sisters? What's your names? See, Erin.. Kerri... they the same!”

Favourite photo:

The waiters love us here.

Cultural-shock moment: Taxi ride and crossing the main street of Hurghada at 9pm. Psychotic.
New food consumed: Pretty much the same as the day before, however I am developing an enormous love for cabbage. Go cabbage.

Favourite purchase: Accessed an ATM for the first time in Egypt. There would have been a charge, but it was worth it.

The thing I lost today: Clearly we all lost our brains by getting in that taxi and the associated adventures that followed.

Random act of crazy: Possibly the Irish dancers, or the ad-libbers with Lion King costumes, an amazingly unfunny comedy sketch involving men falling off chairs, or simply the main street of Hurghada, or the condition of taxis, or the number of full taxis that stopped and were willing to carry all seven of us, or the fact that the post office was open at 9pm but didn't accept parcels to be posted, or quite possibly Kerri's particular friend Ramadan, or the gyrating skills of the Animation team at the pool, or the children wearing thongs (not the feet kind) or the little grumpy girl who came out of the men's toilet dancing like an Egyptian. I am stumped about which trumps.

What Arthur did next: Stayed away from us again. Tops.

Something I want to remember: My random act of crazy day. Ripper.

Number of times I've been mistaken for an American: Less than the number of times I've been mistaken for a Briton. They can't seem to pick our accent.



Most of the day was spent lazing around at Hurghada. We went into the waters of the Red Sea but spent more time in the large heated pool. We also spent more time on our laptops overlooking the water which seemed to be a talking point for some of the waiters and service people who remembered us and kept telling us not to work, it was a time for a holiday! We also got to watch Prince Caspian once more, this time in Russian (or at least we thought it was). Kerri is utterly convinced I am obsessed with this movie, and she's pretty right. I was entertained that she even let me watch it seeing as how I was quoting it too often.



In the evening we met up with the others and Carlos, our guide. We crossed the road opposite our hotel and watched with some bemusement and horror as the procession of taxis drove past with almost every one of them (whether they were full or not) stopping to pick us up We ended up getting in a very rackety van, and the ride itself was quite memorable because of how completely dodgy the vehicle was, the noises and sights outside the vehicle, and the cacophony of noises that emanated from it. Honking the horn seems to be a national pastime and it even seemed like some of the cars were honking out tunes in which they shared the melodies. Every few seconds another beep would go.
 When we got into the city, there were some recognisable signs (and a KFC delivery motorcycle!) but mostly everything was Arabic or badly spelled English. The place was jammed with people and it reminded me of Surfers Paradise. In fact the Hurghada experience has been like us staying in the Sheraton or something else quite upmarket for most of the time, and then venturing out into a place completely different and far busier and hectic. We had a few errands to do among the group and Kerri and I were very pleased to be able to access an ATM (they seem to be quite rare here). We walked around some of the side streets for about twenty minutes and saw a man making sand art, and had a number of men trying to interest us in their shops (you don't see any women doing this at all, and we haven't seen any female staff at the hotel except for some Western girls on the Animation (Leisure Activities) team).



Kerri and Mary really didn't enjoy this experience, especially the driving, but I was in my element up the back of the van, watching it all fly by. It was just so completely foreign, and totally third world and I was relishing it. When we returned, to add to the unusual elements of the day, there appeared to be a talent or variety show on in one of the bars, and we saw some various forms of dancing, of which the Irish Dancing in almost belly dancing like clothing was a highlight. We took ourselves to bed after the smoking became too much, and watched some seriously crazy and highly multiculturally diverse shows on the tv as we packed our bags to leave.