23/05/09
After a well deserved good night sleep I woke up around 9:30 and headed out to see Rome. My camera ran out of memory since I had over 200 pictures on it so I have no pictures from this day but I did see a lot of cool things. I started at the Castel S. Angelo. This building was once used as a castle for the rich and powerful, had a prison, and was also used as a fortress. It was an amazing building filled with interesting artifacts and had a beautiful views of the city of Rome. I then went to the Vila Borghese which was a park filled with museums and many people. I walked through the Kings once private gardens (which were huge, well maintained, and looked like something out of a movie) checked out some monuments, and relaxed by a pond. I then grabbed a slice of pizza for 3 Euros. The cool thing about Italy is you can by pizza, they will cut it off, weigh it like its deli meat and then charge you for it. I got sausage, cheese, and mushroom, but there was no sauce on it. That is the cheapest way to eat. I then did a ton of walking while just looking around and taking in the town and then went to the Musei Capitolini which is the oldest public museum. It is in a building from the 1500's and I feel like the building was a piece of history itself and didn't need to house precious artifacts. The ceilings were covered in paintings from famous artists and the whole building seemed to have a story to tell. I have noticed through my trips in Europe that ceiling were a lot more important back in the day; covered in art and detail. Not anymore apparently. I then went outside and took a nap outside the colliseum and next to some ancient ruins that have recently been discovered on a bench under a tree since the sun was still beating down on me. After doing some more walking I headed back to the hostel to pick up my journal and upload my photos so I could continue using my camera. I then took a walk and grabbed banana, mango, and coconut gelato and sat outside writing. All flavors were so delicious. I then grabbed a beer and relaxed as the sun set over Rome. After that, we headed out for the spanish steps pub crawl, which started on the Spanish Steps which are a huge group of steps that lead to a church. We went to 4 bars and then out with some cool Italian guys. Many people have said that Rome is a dangerous city, but I never felt endangered. I did watch a lady get her bags robbed but that was because she was an idiot. If you put your bags down in the middle of a crowded street and not watch them, they are obviously going to get stolen. In any big city that you encounter. I will definitely return back to rome on another day. I will put up some pictures of Rome now that I have a few. These are all at night, but some of the sights look magnificent at night. I put up two pictures, one is of the Vittori Emmanuele II Monument, and the second is of the Spanish Steps

20/05/09
We woke up a little later due to our late night the night before and got ready to leave the southern part of France. I really enjoyed it immensely. We got on a train and headed to Monaco. Monaco is its own small country and just FILLED with rich people. We got in and realized that something was going on.....the Grand Prix was the next day! All the roads were set up with barriers and there were seats on all the streets. It was once again swarming with people on an extremely hot day. We once again went to a grocery store to get food and I got chips, swiss cheese, and a sausage that I was fairly sure needed to be cooked before eating. We sat by the water on a street where the Grand Prix would take place the following days. After food, we walked around the city of Monaco and checked out the sites. Basically the sites of Monaco consist of viewing the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. I went to the bathroom in a five star hotel. Don't know how they allowed me to walk in and use their facilities but it was interesting! As we walked down the streets we saw Bentleys and Ferraris on the streets like it was no big deal. Literally 1 in every 10 cars was a 100K car. We rode the bus through the city and got a view of everything we could. There were rolex dealers, ferrari dealers, designer clothes dealers, and just anything that was upper class you could buy. We then headed to the beach. This beach was a gravel beach and sort of hurt my feet, but it was ok. Once again I swam in my underwear and am completely sunburned. Visiting this city made me realize that I have to purchase a yacht and summer in Monaco. The set-up of the Grand Prix in Monaco was so cool. Especially as we rode the bus and took the hairpin turns around the soon to be track. It reminded me of the videogames! We then got on a train and headed to Pisa. Getting into Italy is my new goal for the night. To make it cheap you have to take trains that just cross the border. After just crossing the border you can get on a train that is owned by that certain country and that way it won't cost you too much money. That is what I learned from my Eurrail adventures. So we got on the train and got to a city right over the border and then transferred trains to get into Pisa. We got into Pisa around 2:30 AM in the morning with no idea where we were going to stay. We found a HOTEL, yes a HOTEL. This hotel was pretty ghetto tho with the bathroom outside of the room. We were satisifed with the fact that it costed 25 Euros a piece so we booked it.

21/05/09
So we woke up at 9:00 AM and headed out after 5 hours a sleep. The theme for this trip, like every other theme of all my trips is "you can sleep when you die. I once again was sleep deprived the whole trip but it was worth it. So we headed out and took a quick picture at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I can not post it because I currently do not have the picture, but I will put it up when I get it. We took the cliche picture where it looks like you are holding up the tower and then we took off for Cinque Terre. It was an hour and a half ride into Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre basically means 5 cities and is exactly that; five cities along the sea and up in the mountains. Known for its beautiful views and hiking trails. We started hiking and ran into time trials for a cycling event called "Giro D'Italia". Apparently Lance Armstrong was there, but we didn't see him exactly. These cyclists were literally going 40 MPH down these winding hilly streets. We continued our hike and Alex took us off the beaten path and we got stuck in an extremely mountainous terrain where they were farming something I had no idea what it was; it looked like wine or something along those lines. We then had a troubled time getting back to the trail but we did it. We then took my advice and headed along this trail up a huge mountain; we had to stop a few times to catch our breath and took a look behind us to see where we came from. We finally got to the top where there was a city and we asked for directions in broken English/French/Spanish. We walked along a trail that had to be about 4 miles that took us through forests into an opening where we were basically on top of the world. We could see forever down the sea and little towns below us. It was quite breathtaking. It took us over 2 hours to conquer this trail and we barely ever saw people. It was a quiet very relaxing walk where you were able to think about life. It was very mind clearing on some trails where one false move would lead to a 100 ft tumble down a sure death fall. I am not even joking about this, there were times where it was extremely scary and you literally needed to hold on to trees to cross parts. I won't lie and say that my heart wasn't racing at times. Finally we made it to the next city tired and ready to swim. There wasn't any beaches in this town so we hopped on the train and went to the next town on the line. Waiting for the train we met some people from Chicago who had children that actually went to the same Highschool as I did! Such a small world. We found the sea and went swimming. We jumped into the chilly water and swam around. Alex got scared because we saw a baby Octopus swimming around by us. I won't lie it scared me as well. We found a cliff and climbed up and did some cliff diving which was cool too. We then grabbed a bottle of white wine that was made in Cinque Terre and grabbed a bite to eat. I had stuffed Mussels which were delicious, but small for the price we paid. So Italy, as well as France, is expensive. We then headed back to our hotel from the night before at 10:00 PM to pick up our bags. Alex was extremely tired and suggested we stay at the hotel and I said NOPE were going to Rome. We found the next train to be at 2:30 AM. So we went to the train station Alex slept a bit and I stayed awake too scared to close my eyes with all of our luggage around. So we get on this train at 2:30 AM which sure beats paying for sleeping arrangements and head for Rome.

22/05/09
We got on to a completely packed train. Like I explained before 6 seats facing each other, but the problem was all these seats were taken so we had to sleep sitting up. I got about 45 minutes of sleep and we got into Rome at about 5:30 AM. I had only slept a bit but I was wide awake. Pulling into the city of Rome was the craziest feeling ever. I couldn't belive I was going to a city that I have heard so much about. Alex went to get ready in the train bathroom while I waited once again. We then headed to the Vatican Museum around 8:00 and got into a HUGE line. Luckily we got into line early because if we were an hour later or so we would have been waiting all day. The Vatican City is a wall enclosed city within Rome. It has its own currency and post office. I am not exactly sure if people live there. The museum had a plethora of statues and art work. We then headed to the Sistine Chapel which is where the popes are elected. You have to be quiet in there and you aren't allowed to take photos, but I did sneak a photo of the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. Which is once again not with me currently. Thats the famous two hands touching painting. It is on the ceiling and I was in awe when I saw it. Literally my mouth dropped and i went "OOOOOOO." I then split up with Alex to get some alone time and headed to St. Peter's Basilica. It began construction in 1506 and finished in 1626 and this thing is massive and is able to hold about 60,000 people. It is considered one of the holiest sites in the Christian religion. I was going to go to the top but the line was a few hours long and I didn't feel like doing it. So I walked around, prayed a little bit, which is a lot to say to a man who isn't that religious. It gave me chills to stand in that church, the atmosphere was that strong. So I started to wonder aimlessly through the city of Rome. It was once again an extremely hot and sweaty day. I went into another church (the name is on my pictures!!!!) and then asked some Americans (cause Rome is filled with them) where I should go. They pointed me in the direction of the Vittorio Emmanuele II Monument. It was made to honor the first king of a united Italy and I couldn't believe that this was just a monument. The beauty and detail of this monument is comparable to none other. Not to mention it was HUGE; probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. So I climbed to the top and looked around and spotted the Colliseum also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre because it was built by the Flavian family (or their slaves) in 70 AD. Seeing that site gave me chills once again. So after all this touring, sweating, no eating, and no sleeping I figured it was break time. I hopped on a random bus, and got of in a place that looked cool. I walked around forever looking for the right place to stop. Saw some sights on the way and finally found my place with 3 Euro beers and snacks! Ate a pretty subpar tuna sandwich and had a beer and met some lady from Canada. Her name was Ana and she was a 35 worker of the Canadian government. She had been there a few days and agreed to show me around. She first took me to the Pantheon which was built for all the gods and refurbished in 126 AD. It is unknown how they created such a huge dome so early. There was a opening right in the middle where the sun could come in. Very cool. We then went to the Fontana di Trevi which is the largest baroque fountain in the city and was also stunning. We did the tradition tourist thing and threw money over our shoulder into the fountain as a promise to return to Rome. Rome finds a way to steal money from me in every which way. We then hung out in a plaza and watched people go by. The plazas are decorated nicely with beautiful churches, monuments, and fountains. I then met up with Alex in the train station and we left to find where we were sleeping. It turned out that there was a very big soccer game going on in Rome so it was hard to find cheap rooms. We met some guys who were pushing a barcrawl and they had connections with hostels. They made some calls and found us a sweet hostel for 25 euros a night. We shared a room with 6 other people who did not speak english, french, or italian! After that I took a desperately needed shower and then we headed out to dinner. I had clams with spaghetti and then calamari. After dinner I passed out immediately. That was the most packed day I have ever encountered. They say Rome is an extremely huge city, but I was able to take down the majority of it in one day. I felt confident in my navigational skills.

I don't currently have the pictures to articulate what we did for the first part of our trip, but I want to write what we did while it is still fresh in my mind.

17/05/09
We got up early in Marseille, France and headed out. We grabbed breakfast at McDonalds and walked to the Basilique de Notre Dame de la Garde. This was a huge church on top of a hill that overlooked the whole city of Marseille. There were many islands surrounding the huge city. The views were amazing. We then walked to Fort St. Nicholas which was from the French Revolution. Sadly the whole thing was not open because they were doing construction. We then stopped for a beer on the street and met some ladies from the United States who were on the same type of adventure that we were; going from town to town on the trains. We then went to Cathedrale La Major. We then went to another church. It was an extremely hot day so we decided to get on the bus and head to the beach called Plage Du Prophete. The beach was small but beautiful and surrounded by mountains. I didn't have my swimsuit on me so I stripped down to my underwear (which is normal apparently) and took a dip in the fresh water. We then took a nap. We then headed back on the bus. What I have learned from the south of France is that it is extremely expensive. We bought dinner at the grocery store because we did not want to spend money on a dinner. It was still expensive; I bought a can of ravioli for 1.50 Euros which was a subpar dinner. After getting back to the hostel Alex took a nap and I continued to walk around the city. I love hearing the sounds of the bustling city and not being able to understand anything anyone says. I walked to another huge church and then headed back to the hostel. I woke Alex up and we went and drank a beer purchased at the Supermarket with our feet in the Mediterranean Sea. We then walked around the city. We met some guys that spoke some English. These guys were definitely on drugs. Their names were Jamelski, Fayce, and Vladmir. Jamelski had lived in New York for some time and was in France to start a rap career. He wasn't really a good rapper but he was an interesting cracked out character. We hung out outside and had a beer with these guys and just chatted it up while we watched them rap battle eachother in French. It was quite cool. We then headed back to the hostel to call it an early night. We had another early day ahead of us. My overall thoughts on Marseille were that it is a beautiful city with really nice people. I have learned through my travels that the people can make or break the city that you visit. The atmosphere was also a little on the shady side.

18/05/09
Alex got up at 6:30 and I got up 10 mins before we needed to leave. We finally left the hostel at 7:45. We got on a 8:29 train and headed to Cannes. The thing I didn't know is that I needed to make a reservation with my Eurrail pass, which I did not do, so that ended up costing me a little bit of money. We arrived at Cannes and took the walking tour (which was basically a path highlighted on a map). Our first stop was, once again, a church on a hill where we saw a panorama of Cannes. Cannes is definitely a smaller city then Marseille, but you can tell that it is filled with money. Huge yachts are docked, red carpets are rolled out all over the place, and people are dressed to impress. They had a ton of shopping, but it was a little out of our price range, and I wasn't on this trip to do shopping anyways. We then walked along the waterfront where million dollar yachts were docked. They had bigger televisions on their boat then we have in our house. These boats were from all over the world and just looked made of money. We then walked down a beautiful beach and Alex grabbed some food. We then split up so Alex could shop and I stopped at the grocery store in hopes of finding cheap food. I picked up the cheapest bag of chips which turned out to be peanut butter flavored, and a thing of meat and cheese. Which also turned out to be expensive; impossible to make it a cheap trip when you NEED to eat. We got lucky and were in Cannes during the film festival so this little city was bustling with people all on their cell phones, and all looking like they had money. I have never seen prettier girls and more fashionable men. You see Ferraris and Lamborghinis driving down the street and it is no big deal. We then found a red carpet and tried to enter to see some movie premieres, but you need a ticket to enter and they are impossible to come by. We then found a beach that was right next to the film festival. The beaches there were relatively topless which made it an interesting walk. I brought a swimsuit this time so we changed and jumped in the water and once again took a short nap on the beach. After, I realized that I was completely sunburned from the day before and this day. It was once again around middle 90s outside so we were sweating. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and looked out of place. We then found that a pretty popular movie was going to get premiered so we waited for that to occur. We watched them roll out the red carpet and then an hour later escort cars started pulling up and famous people got out of the back. These people were dressed even better then the people we saw on the streets. We saw the kid from Slumdog Millionaire, Clint Eastwood, and Hillary Swank. I wasn't too impressed with seeing these people, but Alex loved it. We then got on the train and headed towards Nice. The ride was about an hour long to Nice. We found a Hostel that was in Alex's book and it was sort of like a frat house. It was beautiful on the outside and had tons of rooms. We shared a room with two random Canadians. We then went out for dinner at a restaurant where no one spoke English, so I just pointed at things and ended up having a dinner of Chicken in a wine sauce, and some vegetables which was really good. We then headed back to the hostel and went to bed to start our day off early.

19/05/09
We woke up around 9:30 and ate breakfast, which was included, at the hostel. We then took off to explore Nice. They had a really cool old square where you could go shop and of course I ended up waiting while Alex spent more money on a dress and a few rings. We then climbed a hill where we could get another panorama of the city. The city was pretty small, but not as small as Cannes. We walked to a waterfall and then headed down and walked through the city and decided to head to Antibe. Antibe is where a lot of the movie stars stay while they are spending time at the Cannes Film Festival. Antibe was an extremely small beachtown that once again had a ton of million dollar yachts. We grabbed some beers and went to the beach. We drank and took a dip in the water and enjoyed the beach. This beach was pretty small, but completely packed with people. I then met some Australian guys who were playing frisbee and I joined in playing with them. After, we talked and they were all in Antibe looking for work. Apparently there are thousands of huge yachts that need deckhands to wash the boat and take care of it for the millionaires that own them. Would not be a bad lifestyle to hang out on a huge boat in paradise all day. We then headed back to Nice on the train where I had a Doner Kebab. After we drank a little at our hostel and met some people from Finland who had just finished Film School. We then went to an Americanized bar called Wayne's and had a drink and talked to people. There were a bunch of people dressed up so we started talking to them. These adults were in Nice for a Coal Convention. We talked to them and made friends with all of them. We walked home to the birds chirping and went to bed. My opinion of Nice is that it is a pretty big town with a Suburban feeling. I never felt in danger once while I was there and I realized that I really didn't see any homeless people. I would love to visit Nice another time.

I am going to open up with the fact that I finally made it home. After traveling for about 30 hours straight and trying to sleep on a train one night, and a marble airport floor the next my bed felt great. But the point of this post is to explain my 14 day trip of insanity through France and Italy. So I will start from the beginning.

15/05/09
I had woken up that morning and checked my book to see that I could catch a train at 10:00 PM to get into Barcelona in the morning. We had a closing session for school at 5 that night. So I went to lunch with my house mom and walked her to work. We said our goodbyes, and some tears followed. She was my mother for 5 months and saw me everyday during those 5 months, it was hard not to cry. We had a connection to each other. So I got on the metro at like 3:30 to go book my train before I went to the ceremony. I had all my luggage and got the station and asked them about the train to Barcelona which they seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. So I moved to my next option. Is there any way that I can get to Barcelona by tomorrow morning. The lady did some typing on her computer and found a train into a town called Burgos where I could then transfer to a train to Barcelona.....the problem was the train was leaving in 10 minutes. I said book it, called my friends and told them goodbye, I will not be at the ceremony. With this change came some unexpected costs. I had to book a ticket in first class on a train that was leaving at 2 AM from Burgos. So I was out of Bilbao for the rest of my life, but my heart will always remain there. I can not thank my parents enough for allowing me to do the experience of study abroad. Not only did I learn so much about the culture, the language, the people, and the continent of Europe; I also learned so much about myself. So I get on this train to Burgos and get a call from my buddy who is angry at me cause I seemed to have pulled off the best grades out of all of our friends (4 As and a B, but I am not bragging). I get into Burgos around 7 PM and notice there is an earlier train and go talk to someone about this problem. I solve my problem of the expensive first class ticket on a 2 AM train by purchasing a second class ticket on a train that is 2 hours earlier. I am quite the problem solver. So I get on this train which is a night train. On night trains they have 6 seats facing eachother in this small room. The seats can pull out all the way to make a bed. I am in the room with some random girl and another guy, so we all sprawl out and fall asleep........I don't because I am too excited and full of emotion. This lasts an hour as the train makes a stop in another town and more people enter. So we get woken up by a family who is in our car.

16/05/09 (Since it is now after Midnight)

I change seats and sit next to the girl so that the family can sit together. We get to talking and I make a new friend named Yaiza from Galicia. She doesn't speak ANY english besides Hello and a few random words like Butter. We have an interesting conversation and we watch the sun rise as we pull into Barcelona; this watching the sun rise while I pull into cities becomes a normality on this trip. So I get off the train and I have no credit on my phone to get into contact with my travelling partner, Alex, but luckily Yaiza was nice enough to let me use her phone. We call Alex, I meet her up and we say our goodbyes. Me and Alex drop off the bags we are not travelling with and head out to check out Barcelona for a few hours before our train to Marseille. We had a coffee, since we both haven't slept and went to the open air market to grab some food and then went to the Segrada Familia. We then catch a train, I found out you can travel for free if you do short distances. So we go from Barcelona to Cerbere, France which is right on the border of Spain and France. We then caught a train to Narbonne and finally Marseille. These train rides were so beautiful since we literally followed the Meditteranean sea the whole time. There were times where it was the train, ocean, and then swamp on the other side. I felt like I was travelling through Louisiana. At this point on the train we have no idea where we are going to stay or even if we will make it to Marseille, but we do make it to Marseille and start walking around looking for Hostels. I walk into everyone looking for the cheapest price. I find one for 15 euro and say book it. This hostel was extremely dirty with a non functioning elevator. Its about 10 minutes away from the train station and in an area that is extremely Arabic, but we are fine. So we walked around a little bit, grabbed a glass of wine, and had a bite to eat. We head to beat early and thats the start of our Europe trip!

Time is winding down here, and I completely loved my experience abroad. Not only have I learned so much about the culture, the language, and the people, but I also learned soooo much about myself. I am writing this post because I am going to post a picture of my senora and I. Also here is my schedule for next weeks Eurrail trip:
5/16 to 5/29
Marseille, Nice, Cannes, Cinque Terra, Monaco, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan!!!!

15/04/09
Today we woke up in the Jump Inn Sharm and headed to the Sea Club all inclusive hotel. We all got there a little tired from our travels and headed to the beach on the Red Sea. We snorkeled a bit in the coral right off of the beach and saw some extremely colorful small fish. We then caught a few more rays of the sun and swam around in the water. There was a pier where you could jump into 20 ft of water and it opened later on in the day. We all jumped in and realized we were SURROUNDED by jellyfish. We all freaked out and swam back to the pier and got out of the water. That was the last time we went in there. We then played Bocci Ball with a few old Italian guys and then got ready for dinner. This hotel made me feel like I was in Cancun; just with a much prettier view. We were all still tired after dinner and knew we had a long day ahead of us so we finished our night off laying on the beach and looking at the stars.

16/04/09
We woke up in the morning and headed out to go snorkeling. We got to a dock where we found out that Pat's uncle had gotten us our own private boat. We sailed for about 45 minutes where we stopped at a huge coral reef. We all jumped in and snorkeled for about a half hour. We saw some of the craziest colored fish we have ever seen. Bright greens, turquoise, pink, and bright yellow were some of the colors of these fish. We then got on the boat and sailed for another half hour to see some more coral. Once again, extremely beautiful I dove to look into a cove; I saw some beautiful fish but got burned by fire coral on my arm. We then had lunch on the boat. We had some fish that was literally the freshest fish I have ever eaten. It melted in my mouth. We then snorkeled/swam a little bit more in some open water and headed back to the dock. We got into the bus and headed back to the hotel where we ate dinner and decided our plans for the night. We were offered to go to a club, but it was 30 Euros, and we didn't have that type of money. We went out on our own and caught a bus to the city of Sharm. This bus was a local bus that drives people home from work. We got us 7 into this mini bus and when we got there the driver wanted 30 egyptian pounds. Pat worked his magic once again and got it down to 15 egyptian pounds which is roughly 3 bucks. Yes, a 20 min ride for a total of 3 bucks. When we got to downtown Sharm some people decided to go to the casino; I once again didn't have money so a few of us went to the Hard Rock Cafe. We hung out there for about an hour and then went to Panorama which is a bar that overlooks all of Sharm. We hung out for one beer and then headed back to the hotel. When we got back, those that had gone to the casino were all depressed. Thats their fault. When we were in Sharm I realized how much Muslims hate Americans. Everytime I told someone I was American they had a wise comment like "Oh where is your horse?" or "Where is your gun. Are you in the mafia?" I finally realized that I could not tell people I was from America anymore and started telling people I was from Spain. It stopped people from trying to sell me things because when I spoke Spanish they didn't understand and just forgot about me. I am an itelligent one......remember that.

17/04/09
After about 2 hours of sleep, we hopped on a plane to Cairo. 45 minutes later we are grabbing our bags and heading to the city. We got to our hotel which was right on the Nile. Once again a thanks to Pat's uncle. We put down our bags and met up with Pat's uncle at his office. We had a traditional Egyptian coffee which was a lot thicker then American coffee. Walking through the streets during lunchtime was insane. People were literally ON the streets praying as loudspeakers blasted prayers in Arabic. People could not drive down some streets. We then went out to lunch.....to McDonald's. The menu was in English and in Arabic and it was quite funny to get McDonalds in Egypt. It tasted the same. After lunch we went to the Cairo museum where we saw many artifacts that were discovered in tombs; many of the artifacts were from King Tut. The luxury and detail that these artifacts had from about 5000 years ago. I can't believe some of the things these people brought with them to the afterlife. We then went to a street market where people tried to sell us a ton of stuff. I did not have the bargaining skills nor the money that Pat had so I didn't purchase anything. Pat got a bunch of gold and silver things for his family for pretty cheap prices, but I didn't see anything I liked.....seriously. I am a horrible shopper, I needed a girl with me, preferably my mom. She would have LOVED it. It was fun walking around there and just watching all the people. It was the coolest type of people watching I have ever seen. We then went back to the hotel and headed out to go to Chilli's for dinner. It was good, once again tasted the same, but Pat LOVED it. It was in a huge mall; bigger then Woodfield. 7 floors and quite the hoppin place. This mall made me feel that Egypt wasn't third world. We then got into 2 cabs and rode home. These cabbies were friends and were quite speedy. Weaving in and out of traffic. I said earlier that driving in Egypt is crazy. Its even crazier when your in the car that when it passes you your like "OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT DRIVER THINKING." We all held on for dear life as we made it back to our hotel in half the time it took us to get to Chilli's. After getting back to the hotel I laid in my bed and listened to the bustling Cairo city and went to bed.

18/04/09
I woke up earlier then everyone extremely thirsty. We could not drink the faucet water so I went out for a walk to purchase water. I walked to the Nile and found a vender who sold me a huge water. I then walked back to the hotel to wake everyone up and we headed out to Giza to see the pyramids. Giza is about 30 mins out of Cairo. We got to the pyramids and went into the Great Pyramid. Seeing the pyramids was breathtaking and going inside the pyramid was a little claustrophobic. There wasn't much to see inside but it was just cool climbing sideways to the center of the pyramid. We then took camels to the panorama where you could see the city of Egypt and all 3 pyramids. We stayed there for about 15 minutes learning about the history behind the pyramids and then we took the bus back to Pat's other uncle's house. This uncle is EXTREMELY rich. Pat says he is one of the top 25 most rich people in Egypt. He owns the largest steel company in Egypt. His house was 7 floors overlooking the pyramids. It has its own pool, basketball court, soccer court, tennis court, garden, animals that they kill to eat, a guest house, a pool house, and 8 full time servants. So we had a huge meal, literally 15 plates filled with all different types of food; liver, veal, salad, soup, sausage, and anything else you could think of. His aunt and uncle were not eating due to the fact that they were fasting. We then went to their roof and watched the sun set on the pyramids. One of the most amazing views of my life. The sky was a beautiful orange and the sun set RIGHT over the pyramids. We then played a game of basketball and swam a little. We talked to his uncle and around 10 at night we headed back to the hotel. We went out in Cairo that night to a local club.

19/04/09
I woke up and headed to the airport. I travelled from Egypt through Frankfort to Madrid. I then caught a bus back to Bilbao. 18 hours later I was back home in Bilbao. This trip was a trip of a lifetime.......... I can never experience anything like I just did ever again. A lot of these stories are just the straight facts. Once again I am doing this for the majority of me remembering what happened. There is a lot of further explanation I can give on the status of Egypt, my feelings for the people, their economy, the history I learned, and the things I saw. There just isn't enough time to write down everything.........
That is all, please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments!

13/04/09 Luxor, Egypt.
We once again woke up around 6:30 AM and headed to the Valley of the Kings. We got there around 9 AM and I would say it was already 100 degrees out; literally I had already undressed myself down to my undershirt and had my other shirt over my head to block the sun. The Valley of the Kings is an area where 63 tombs of old kings have been found. They literally just found the 63rd one and believe there to be a ton more in the valley. It is a mountainous region that had tombs dug into the mountain; how anyone found it I will never know. Our pass allowed us to see 3 tombs, so our guide took us through a bunch of the King Ramses tombs (there were like 10 King Ramses')
Sidenote: All of these excursions that we took costed me half price. Before I came to study abroad my parents intelligently bought me an ISIC (International Student Identification Card) and that was the only type of identification they took for students pretty much.... Also the Egyptians are extremely racist against other cultures. While I was paying 30 egyptian pounds (like 6 bucks), normal people were paying 60 egyptian pounds (like 12 bucks), Tannous, an egyptian citizen was paying 4 egyptian pounds (less than a dollar).
So we finished visiting the tombs and hopped on the bus to go to Al-Deir/Al-Bahari Temple. This temple was a long HOT walk away. By this time it was like 11:30 and ATLEAST 110 degrees out. So hot that our tour guide didn't walk to the temple with us and went back to the bus. We went, walked through the temple, took a few pictures and went back to the bus. We then headed back to the bus. As we drove back to our Cruise Ship we passes many small villages. People were swimming in the small river that we were driving alongside, and houses look liked they probably didn't have running water. I am willing to argue with anyone that Egypt IS a third world country.
We got back to the boat and laid on the deck for awhile. We were still docked in Luxor and we saw a guy baithing his horse in the Nile. Tannous loves animals and I really wanted to swim in the Nile so we headed down to talk to this guy. I asked the cruise boat manager if I could jump in the Nile, and he told me it was strictly forbidden to swim in it due to the fact that it is so polluted. I was extremely saddened by this fact, but realized I did not want to end up in the hospital that night so I took his words of advice. We went and talked to this man and Tannous spoke to him in Arabic explaining our situation; I sneakily put my foot in the river. I can now say that I have "been" in the Nile (cross it off the list). This man was dressed in nothing but his "Gap" white underwear so I considered him to be a poor man, but he told us he owned a Felluka boat and was willing to take us out on it that night no charge. So we go out with him on his boat and he takes us to a small island. We go on the island and sample some bananas that were picked right off the tree behind us; these bananas were probably the most delicious bananas I have ever tasted. I never thought I could use the word juicy to describe a banana......but I just did. This man was extremely nice and invited us to come back to his village. We agreed and went back to his village to play a game of soccer. His friends vs. Us..... Egypt vs. The United States if you may. We walk through his town as all the kids, who know absolutely no English, scream "Hello!" to us. I know immediately I was safe in this village as I watched 6-10 year olds outside playing makeshift games of soccer and running around on the sandy roads. We walked to the local YMCA and started a game of soccer. We had no shoes, so we played barefoot on this cementlike surface outside with the lights shining on our game. We ended up losing 2-1 but it was a great time playing a game of soccer against Egyptians. We then went back to a local watering hole, had some Fantas and relaxed while Hassan's wife cooked us dinner. After, we went back to his house to eat. We were not allowed to see his wife because it is against Muslim culture. So we sat down and ate his wife's cooking; delicious whole chicken, potatos in a red sauce, cucumber and tomato salad, and bread. We ate until we were stuffed and then relaxed on his roof drinking tea.

14/04/09
We packed up and got ready to check out of the cruise, but before we completely left Luxor we went to the Karnak Temple. We went solo, without a guide and got there. Just so you know I am not lying about the temperature a message board read 42.5 degrees celcius at about noon when we headed to the temple. So we get there and we only have an hour to spare because Tannous has an earlier flight then us. We pay for our tickets and some guy offers us his guide services for 100 egyptian pounds. We say no and he goes down to 50 pounds. Thats under 10 bucks for 6 people so we decided to go with it. This guide was amazing, knowing we had to go fast, he took us through the temple within an hour pointing out amazing things. He explained the reason that the faces were messed up on all the statues was due to the fact that when the Christians came, they thought that the spirits of the God's in the statues were still alive and looking at them. So they scratched off their eyes, ears, and nose so they couldn't hear, smell, or see the people. He also showed us how they put color to their images using sandstone that was in the tomb itself. We then went back to the ship. Tannous took off and we waited a few hours to leave for our flight. Around 4, we caught a cab to go to the airport, checked in and got on a plane towards Sharm El Sheikh. This was probably the bumpiest flight I had ever been on and as I calmly looked around at all my wide eyed friends, I realized that I have no problems with travelling. I think that comes from my dad. Anyways, 45 minutes later we are landing in Sharm El Sheikh. We get to the "Jump Inn Sharm" a hostel I booked and Tannous had already talked to his Uncle. We are not going to stay here all three nights, but only one. The next two nights will be spent in an all inclusive hotel right on the beach of the Red Sea for about the same price. Once again, Pat's uncle has hooked us up. We check out the streets of Sharm El Sheikh which remind me of Cancun. There are a ton of bars and restaurants all wanting your business and people will stop at nothing to try and get that business. We ate a bit and headed back early, ready for another long day tomorrow.

The first picture is of our 5-star cruise boat. Presidential Nile Cruises (TELL YOUR FRIENDS) I know what your thinking. That doesn't look like a 5-star cruise ship. Please remember that the Nile River is a lot smaller then what a normal cruise boat would be on. Believe me, the food, service, and adventures we had on that boat make it a five star cruise boat. Pat was hungry one night and walked to the kitchen at 2 AM. They served him. We were royalty on that boat. No doubt.
The Second picture is sort of an action shot of us walking down a street in the village of Luxor with Hassan. Notice the kids outside, the sand road, and the lack of neon signs.
The third picture is of us all on the small boat heading to the island with Hassan.
The fourth picture is of the sun setting while we were on the island. Look how picturesque that sunset is!