Well, we're finally in Rome, safe and sound, but a little the worse for wear after an epic twenty-four hour journey that was action packed even by our standards!
In an attempt to avoid another nine hours on the public bus back to Cairo, we had asked our friend Jimmy in Dahab to look into other options for us. On the last day, he found two more people to travel with us, and arranged a minibus, which he assured us would be much quicker and more convenient as the driver would pick us up at our hostel and drop us right at the airport. More pricey than the public bus, but we figured it was worth it.
The day started out rather inauspiciously when the minibus picked us up thirty minutes late, then returned to the Penguin Hotel, where we sat for almost another half an hour. During this time, more and more backpackers appeared, until the minibus was completely full. This obviously made Jimmy very happy, but us less so, as two people now wanted to be dropped in Taba on the border with Israel, which would add an hour and a half to our journey time. To make matters worse, we discovered that the new arrivals had paid significantly less than we had! Jeremy did manage to negotiate a partial refund, but having now almost completely lost the time advantage, we were wondering whether the public bus might have been a better plan after all.
Still, things started to look up as we got underway. The van was a brand new Toyota, and unlike the death trap we rode to Mount Sinai, it had very comfortable seats, great air conditioning, and a nice smooth ride. Rachael even commented that the driving seemed relatively sedate as we headed out of Dahab.
As the journey progressed, however, things went rapidly downhill. The coastal road to Taba wound through a series of small villages, but instead of slowing down for other traffic and pedestrians, the driver was going faster and faster. Soon we were careening erratically around corners, passing everything in sight, and almost hitting our heads on the roof on every bump. We started having flashbacks to a similar nightmare journey four months ago in Thailand! The nice, relaxing public bus was sounding very appealing right now, but at this point we were committed, so all we could do was tighten our seat belts, close our eyes, and hope that perhaps we could sleep through the insanity.
No such luck. Suddenly we were thrown forward in our seats and there was an earsplitting screeching as the driver attempted an emergency stop. We opened our eyes to watch in horror as we skidded past the van in front of us and narrowly avoided a crowd of children, only to plow into a herd of goats crossing the road. There was a sickening thud as we finally came to an abrupt stop. The driver pulled over and jumped out, whereupon a loud argument erupted between him, the driver of the other van, the owner of the goats, and pretty much everyone else that was in the general vicinity. We have no idea exactly what was said, but our driver was yelling the loudest, clearly adamant that it was all someone else's fault, and a minute or two later, he was back in his seat and heading off down the road as though nothing had happened. We don't know what happened to the goat, but at the next rest stop, the blood was washed off the front of the vehicle and everything looked good as new.
This was when we discovered that the French man sitting next to us spoke fluent Arabic. He decided it was time to ask the driver to slow down a bit, pointing out that we were in no hurry, and were actually finding his driving just a little bit scary. To our relief, this seemed to do the trick, at least long enough for us to reach Taba, and turn west onto the road across the desert, which was a nice straight highway with fewer obstacles. Unfortunately, however, this seemed to be an invitation for the driver to resume his high speeds, and we were soon bouncing up and down in our seats again. Strangely enough, the van's speedometer needle was stuck at zero, but Rachael timed the mile-markers and calculated an average over a ten kilometer stretch of 150 km/h! On the bright side, we were covering the miles very quickly, so it wasn't long before the Suez tunnel was in sight, and to our relief, we made it out of the Sinai without further incident.
Of course, the road into the city brought new anxiety as we found ourselves in increasingly heavy traffic, and Cairo driving rules kicked in. Basically this meant that the entire three lane highway became a racetrack, with the marked lanes completely ignored, and the main objective being to swerve in front of anyone attempting to pass you, and then preferably throw them off your tail by diving through a tiny gap between a bus and an eighteen-wheeler truck. In the event that someone did manage to outwit you and sneak past, your mission was then to chase them down, using the shoulder if necessary, and return the favor by cutting them off at the first available opportunity!
Needless to say, we were very relieved to finally reach the airport! Unfortunately, the driver seemed to have no idea what to do when he got there. After circling aimlessly for fifteen minutes, he dropped us somewhere near Terminal 3 arrivals, even though we were actually looking for Terminal 2 departures. But by now, we were just grateful to get out of the van, and assured him that he had in fact dropped us at the perfect spot!
In fact, it would have been great if we were flying out of Terminal 3, as this is the new high-tech complex with great restaurants and shops and – as we discovered previously – free wireless internet throughout. But as we rode the free shuttle bus to our assigned departure terminal, we were reminded that we had drawn the short straw, flying with one of the few international carriers that had yet to be relocated from the shabby old Terminal 2. Inside we found the place completely understaffed, with a loud and chaotic mass of travelers being funneled through one functioning baggage scanner, reminiscent of scenes from Nepal! Early for our flight, we were told we'd have to wait several hours before we'd be allowed through, but desperate to get to the air conditioning on the other side, we pleaded with the security staff, and they eventually relented. The following couple of hours were spent sitting on a row of plastic seats in an empty hall, waiting for the check-in staff to arrive, but fortunately we had books, snacks and water with us, so we passed the time reasonably comfortably.
When our bags were finally checked and we reached the gate area, we were amused to find the entire airport staff gathered in huge crowds around each of the overhead television screens, eagerly awaiting the start of the evening's Confederations Cup soccer match. As luck would have it, this was Egypt vs USA, and the atmosphere was alive with anticipation, as it was assumed this would be an easy win for Egypt, taking them through to the semi-finals. And we were happy to root for the Pharaohs, having been caught up in the excitement of their recent successes, particularly their surprise win over Italy two days earlier. But as you will now have heard, things did not go according to plan. Disappointment at the USA's first clumsy goal and their keeper's head injury quickly changed to despair as they went two goals down and the US was clearly dominating the game. When the ball went into the net for the third time, all but sealing Egypt's fate, tempers started to fray, and we decided it was time to make a quick exit to our plane!
By now it was midnight, but alas, we were only halfway through our journey! Due to the limitations of our round-the-world tickets, we had purchased the Italy leg separately, finding a cheap flight out of Madrid. So we were spending the night traveling to Spain and then back to Rome! Aboard the first plane, we weren't quite sure whether we were more tired or hungry, but forced ourselves to stay awake until dinner was served at 1 am. After wolfing the food down, the kids managed to get a few hours' sleep, while the parents tossed and turned in incredibly uncomfortable seats with virtually no legroom. Bleary-eyed we stumbled off the plane in the middle of the night, to discover that we were at Madrid's “Terminal 4 Satellite” which was apparently in the middle of nowhere. After a long train ride to the main terminal building, we collected our baggage, only to discover we had another bus ride along several motorways to our departure terminal. We arrived there to find the building virtually deserted and not a luggage cart in sight. With no time to remove our packs from their duffles, Jeremy became the packhorse, loading three of the bags onto his back to lug them along endless walkways and escalators to the check-in desks. Looking about ready to have a heart attack, he dumped the bags and collapsed in a heap on the floor.
We made it to the gate with minutes to spare, and took off to a beautiful sunrise over the Madrid skyline. In spite of much more comfortable seats on this plane, it was difficult to get ourselves back to sleep, so we landed in Italy a couple of hours later looking like the living dead. Excited to finally be in Rome, Rachael was acting annoyingly perky, but was relatively unsuccessful at eliciting more than occasional incoherent grunts from any of her travel companions! Well prepared with directions, though, she managed to guide us to the rail station, where we boarded a train just about to depart for the city center. Arriving at Roma Termini around 10 in the morning, we shuffled the final two blocks to our hostel, The Beehive, hardly able to believe we had finally reached our destination!
Having only vague recollections of making the reservation months before, Rachael wasn't sure what to expect at the hostel, but we were delighted to be greeted by wonderfully welcoming and organized staff, and to find the building newly decorated, with cozy common areas, a vegetarian cafe, large, bright dorm rooms and bathrooms, and a friendly old cat. There was even free internet and a free phone! (Of course, when we tracked down a copy of the latest Lonely Planet guide, we discovered that travel goddess Rachael had in fact unknowingly booked us into their top recommendation!) After dumping our packs, we collapsed into the comfy seats in the den, for our first taste of Italian pastries, and a brief rest before heading out to explore the city.
