Most of the time the McBrides and the Payns spent in Dahab was occupied by random bouts of shopping, relaxing and eating. There were no other serious cases of food poisoning and we found a good restaurant. The Funny Mummy. We really enjoyed the company of the Payns, regardless of how short their time was in Dahab. The staff at the New Sphinx Hotel were great and friendly. Just do not leave any valuables in your room. One especially noteworthy aspect of Dahab is its restaurant with free movies that play every night. No purchase is expected of you but it would be appreciated. One day we did a short day trip out of Dahab all the way to Saint Catherines Monastery. Most of the Monastery is closed to the public but the main chapel area is open along with a small antiquities museum. That apparently had an extra entrance fee that was surprisingly not included in the entrance fee to enter Saint Catherines. One of the staff who worked at our hotel wanted to come along with us because he had never seen the Monastery before. Unfortunately he was turned down by the infamous security personnel of Egypt. We had the option of climbing Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the 10 commandments, but it looked high and there was no escalator. Only days later we sped off in our van toward Sharm El Sheikh where the airport is. The airport there is shaped like a circus tent. From Sharm we flew to Cairo where we stayed 1 night before we flew to Milan in Italy. Italy is like nothing we have experienced for 8 months… Like home… Our hopes were high for being picked up by some modelling agency but obviously we were not stylish or beautiful enough. At least we tried. The hotel we stayed at in Milan was a hostel by the name of Hotel Sara. In Milan it seems as if every 20th person is Italian in ancestry. The architecture in Milan is amazingly old. There are very few modern looking buildings there. The main tourist attraction in Milan is the Duomo, a very large cathedral in downtown. We all had a good laugh since it had the same name as a cheap toaster that we bought in Bangkok. Just recently we have been to Venice. What a beautiful city. We rented a small apartment through a guy named Bruno who spoke 0 English. In my opinion, there are no individual attractions in Venice. The city itself is the attraction. All the winding lanes and canals. But never once did I hear a gondolleer sing one of those songs you always hear. My Grandpa Barney had visited Venice many times in his lifetime. We visited the Hotel he stayed in. We snuck in because we were kids. Welcome to the Danieli, Sir. Everyone’s got their standards. The train is probably the easiest way to get around Europe. We put the system to real good use. We took the train to Genova. We are staying is the Hotel Argentina. The internet cafe where I typed this is the best one on the entire trip. Hooray for infrastructure! Soon we will take the train to Nice, France where our rented apartment awaits.
2 months ago