Port Stops: Sicily and Cairo by Nate and Gavin

 
 
 
 
(Gavin) On the cruise my least and most favorite stops were:

The least: Catacombs in Sicily….the most scariest place I have ever been to .. a graveyard. PS It  
was Weezie’s birthday when we went there.

The Most: The Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt. I mean real pyramids, not the 6’5” little pyramids. I mean the look up stone-by-stone, into the sky pyramids.

First, let’s start with my least favorite to get it over with. We walked in the Catacombs not really knowing what it was going to be. Dad and I thought it was going to be at least less scary than London Dungeon (but that’s a whole different story).  We walked in about 50 feet and there were swinging doors. We walked in and saw our worst nightmare. Da a dum…  We saw skeletons hanging on the walls and graves at our feet, real live skeletons…that were dead. First we thought they were fake and then Mom read us a part that said there were REALLLLLL.  We were very freaked out but I kind of studied them… a little bit. The skeletons were very small and some of them were wearing clothes and I felt so sad for a little girl.  After Mom read that part, we raced out of there as fast as we could but Dad stayed behind because he is a dark, dark man.  A VERRRRRY DARK MAN!

(My Mom made me make the picture below really small because she is still freaked out by it.)

 

Now, the pyramids… one of the most awesome things I saw. We docked the ship for two days in Egypt. One of the reasons I didn’t want to go to Cairo was because we had to take a three hour drive each way from Alexandria. We took that long, long drive and then we came to one of the Pyramids… The Pyramid of Giza. It was so cool but everyone was saying “oh can you please buy this… one euro, okay 50 cents” but we ignored them all. Finally, we walked there and, oh my gosh, that was so cool. That was the first time I ever realized that inside the pyramid must be hollow inside. How do they do it? It is really a Wonder of the World!

We saw the Sphyinx. It was very cool. It was made out of rock but the texture was really cool. I didn’t get to touch it, though. It did look kind of like a lion-headed man. I thought it was going to be a lot bigger but it was actually small.

 

We went inside of one tomb. Before I didn’t notice anything and then I realized there were hyrogliphics carved into the stone and some of them were even painted. I wonder how they got them so high up since they didn’t have the same ladders back then.

Well, that was partof  Egypt. Nate will tell you about the rest.

 
(NATE)  So, after we saw the tombs, we took about a 40 minute bus ride to ride jeeps  and camels.  The jeep ride is a sand ride that we went on that takes you to all the camels in the middle of the desert. It was the best part because it was like going down a roller coaster on the sand. You would never be allowed to do that in the USA. The reason why it was so fun was because you went down the sand so fast you felt like you were going the speed of light. We had a race with all the other jeep drivers and we saw the dessert and a bunch of pyramids with the sun setting behind them.  There was one sand dune we tried to go up but we didn’t get to the top so the driver tried again but then had to go around. Brock loved this ride. He was standing up pretending he was surfing.

The jeep dropped us off at the camel rides. Brock’s camel was named Mickey Mouse. Then we learned that they were all named that except Dad’s was Michael Jackson. And, guess what, there were 18 other Michael Jacksons.  We rode the camels for about 30 minutes.

 

 A camel ride is different  than a horseback ride because the camels are taller and bumpier so if you fall you would get more hurt but less because you are on sand dunes. Future reference: when you get on the camel lean way back because if you lean forward you fall off.  

I really liked Cairo. The camel ride, the pyramids and the jeep ride were my favorite part of the day but, honestly, we were excited to get back on the cruise and play with our new friends.  

 

Comments

[Jeanne Antrim]

Missed you all at Christmas Tree Day! What an unforgettable and life-changing thing you are doing....BRAVO! Joyeux Noel, Felix Navidid, Merry Christmas.

[Crystal Brown]

Per Mike - I was supposed to make this comment "public" so you can all say what you really want to say about this frickin boondoggle of a trip!!!....

We just got back from LA for xmas break. Gearing back up for new years and this think called school, your kids may recall what it was like to have to get up at the ass crack of dawn and sit and learn lame stuff they really don't need to know. I mean why study history if you can just "cruise" on over to a frickin pyramid. And no need for religious studies, lets just go to the epicenter of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And what better way to appreciate those that are homeless, than to just become homeless yourself!!!

And now that you mention it...lets be honest - who really needs that much family bonding - I mean its like some form of "Into the Wild" to spend every waking minute talking to my kids - lets just hope you guys get out before its too late!!!

Happy New Year!!!