We left our nice hotel to leave for
Aswan today. We ate our breakfast with Andrew, the funny old British man, and
then we hopped in a taxi and went to the train station. We decided to go third
class- cheaper. As we waited the train finally came, as we went on it (or the
one we thought was our train) a policeman said this wasn’t our train. We were a
bit confused, because we thought we heard on the PA system “Aswan”.
The
train didn’t leave for a while, and as we waited I still felt like this was our
train. It looked third class to me. Finally we asked another man and he said
that this was indeed the third class train to Aswan, but our train was coming
soon. We asked him what he meant. He said the second and first class train was
coming. We opted for the (cheaper) third class train and boarded. We found 2
bench seats, one for our huge bags and one for us. It definitely was “third
class”- dirty, smelly, crowed, extremely hot, and cheap.
We
were on the train for about 3 ½ hours. We had the window open but it almost wasn’t
worth it, the air was so hot. We passed pasture lands, crops, green fields and
dry desert areas. Many people on the train used the floor as their garbage and
spitting area. At one point a boy selling cotton candy came rushing into our
car and a man (not sure if he has a mental disability or if he was drunk) came
running after the boy. A fight broke out. Thankfully we were facing the other
way, so we just heard that yelling and other people trying to break it up. Soon
the man rushed out of the car into another one. That was the end of fight!
Thankfully.
We
arrived in Aswan and an eager taxi driver took us to the hotel; a young engaged
couple runs it. They too have been experiencing the hardships since the
revolution but they are hopeful that once a new (and hopefully good) President
is elected in two months that tourists will start to come again.
We
have a clean room, and a big bed!! We don’t have to sleep in separate beds
tonight J We have a really old air conditioner,
but least it’s better than nothing.
We
went for a walk through the market, got some drinks, bread, and bananas for
lunch. We ended up at a little park; I needed so sit down. I didn’t drink much
on the train for I didn’t want to have to use the toilet- which I did once- and
it was nasty. So I was a bit dehydrated and the sun was killing me- so hot! A
young man stopped to talk to us. He has a Russian wife in Russia. His mom is
from Aswan and is a Christian; his dad is from Sudan and is a Muslim. The young
man told us he is a Christian three days a week and a Muslim three days a week.
Not quite sure how that works!
Anyways,
we headed back to the hotel; I needed to get out of the sun. We bought some
water and headed back. We had some creepy guys ask us if we wanted “hashish”-
marijuana. We boldly told them no and kept walking. I had a really cold bath-
it was quite effective in cooling me down. Later we will go out for dinner near
our hotel.
For
dinner we went to this place that was literally on the water. We were able to
catch the sunset as we waited for a meal. I had spaghetti and Spencer had
“hamburger” and fries. It was just 5 ultra thin patties. He used the pita to
make a mock burger. It was okay. We walked along the Nile back to the hotel.
Many people were out since the temperature wasn’t as hot. We had an early night
and went to be early. The sun just drains you here.
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