Contiki III - Greece and Egypt

Well, it seems like so long since Rome! What's that? It is, and I'm a slacker for not updating? Well, you try blogging when you're in Egypt, geting up before dawn and going to bed after 10pm! The pace was absolutely hectic, but it was awesome. Anyway, I'm geting ahead of myself again.

We drove from Rome to Greece, stopping in Pompeii for a little tour. It was cool, though not as fabulous as I had imagined. Probably because we had a tour guide who was all information and no free time. I think it really makes it when you get a chance to sit down and absorb the atmposphere, letting your imagination fill in the full picture of what it was like then. We drove past Naples, which I think is a good thing!

From there we caught the ferry to Corfu, an island off the Greek mainland, near the border with Albania (if that tells anyone anyhing!). I got some beautiful pictures of the sunrise over the coast from the ferry. We had a toga party one night we were there, which was fun until I got tired and went to bed early. I am so old! Hehe.

Corfu is a typification of Europe in one way. It has two forts on the island. One is called the new fort, and the other is called, imaginatively enough, the old fort.
The new fort was built in 1538. That is older than my country! Real new.
The old fort was was built in 2000BC.
What can you say?

The next day, still on Corfu, we did the infamous "George's Boat" cruise. I was great fun - I went parasailing! It was basically just a relaxing day on the water - apart from the parasailing, of course :p

We arrived in Athens, did a quick tour of the Acropolis (Parthenon, Charybdids etc. - cool but covered in scaffolding), then we were off to Egypt!

The Charybdids, on the Acropolis in Athens

I found Egypt to be much like a cleaner, friendlier, richer India. I enjoyed it immensely. Highlights were the sandstorm that blew in a window of the museum we were in ('What was that? Terrorists? A vandal? No, a sandsorm! Cool!'), going INSIDE the second pyramid (!), seeing the pyramids after the sandstorm stopped, having my butt touched by my 15 year old camel guide (ew!), getting an actual good deal in the markets in Aswan (you knew there had to be shopping!), flying in a rust-bucket aeroplane to see Abu Simbel (temple with colossi - pretty sweet), taking an early morning hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings in Luxor (more dead dudes - also cool) and going out on a yacht / launch thingy for the day on the Red Sea off the resort town called Hurghada.

I'm in Egypt! At Abu Simbel

Something else worth mentioning is the armed escort we had to and from Hurghada. If you remember, they had some trouble with exploding people there recently-ish, so to reassure the tourists they make heavily armed police babysit busloads of us. If you ask me, five coaches of tourists with an escort with outmoded weapons and a fixed, publicly available time to leave makes a better target than one coach. Eh, luckily I'm pretty sanguine about these things *vacant happy smile*.

Early morning balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings (with the tombs and stuff). No head-turning required - thanks Gus!

We got back to Athens and I caught the last six laps of the MotoGP, which was a highlight of the week for me, if not for you! I'm now waving the Casey Stoner banner as well as the Valentino Rossi one. "Vale" will always be my favourite though. ^^

We are now in Kavala, and tomorrow we see Troy and then camp out (in the loosest sense of the word: no fire, no caming equipment or tents, no alcohol - just a sleeping bag and your toilet roll) to wait for the dawn service at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli. Awesome.

In other news, I am well; I finally got rid of that cold, at least for now, and no Delhi-belly in Egypt. The only problem is I am going stir-crazy! The scenery and culture and stuff is amazing, but I'm geting homesick for meaningful work which occupies my mind! I've been through so many books, but I really miss using my brain. I found a New Scientist at a magazine shop today (don't ask how much it cost - all English language reading materials are vastly expensive here) so hopefully that will keep my brain occupied for a while.

I hope everyone is well. Hugs to all, and do write or comment - keep me up to date!