Barcelona

Forget my last post, as the wireless password was found!  Below is my thoughts on the last night in Barcelona.  Since my previous post, we visited Barcelona for two days and this was the last day.  Sorry that I do not have the pictures ready.  I did just download Google's Picasa, so I can organize pictures without internet access.  So, hopefully, I will have pictures the next time I have internet access.  

Blog:

We woke up this morning with the goal of getting into the Familia Sangrada.  After standing in line for about 15 minutes, we realized that they would not accept a credit card and we were almost out of Euros and the line was barely moving and I predicted a two hour wait time.  We decided to head to the Gothic quarter and check out some of the old streets and buildings.  We ended up spending the rest of the day her until we had to catch the bus.  Pictures posted: to come!!

We caught the bus to Girona and I was excited to see the country side.  However, like majority of the time when I travel, I feel asleep through most of it.  I did get to see some of the country side before falling asleep.  We opted to take the bus to Girona and fly cheap through RyanAir back to Madrid.  However, a cheap RyanAir flight turned expensive when we realized that we had to pay for our baggage when we checked in online.  Who would have known.  We ended up paying a ton to get out baggage checked.  However, it was still cheaper than taking the fast train back to Madrid. 

We landed in Madrid at 10:30 pm and thought we could check our bags through and sleep in the terminal.  Wrong.  The ticket agents were closed for the night, so we couldn’t get our bags checked until the morning.  With our flight leaving at 6:30 am, we didn’t think it was smart to pay for a hotel as the closest one was 15 minutes away.  Message to Hilton Hotels, there is a huge opportunity in Madrid for a airport hotel.  There was probably 200 other people camping out for their morning flights along with us.  We tried to sleep next to an electrical outlet to charge our electronics, but it was too cold on the floor and there was a huge crowd being noisy.  We noticed a few people sleeping the baggage conveyer belts at the ticket counters.  So we joined in and made bed on an airport conveyer belt.  What a great nights sleep!  Yeah right, but not a bad option for being free.  I enjoyed the feeling of being homeless, at least for one night.

 Video on our Spain experience: (To come)

We then flew two hours to Frankfurt to then fly to Cairo.  Not the best way to fly, but the most economical for some reason.  Wish someone could explain that to me.  Good flight, slept some more and felt good arriving in Cairo.

Arriving in Cairo, I was a bit nervous.  It definitely felt like a third world country.  Check out the pictures and you will see what I mean.  We were dropped off at the Giza train station to wait three hours for our over night train.  We were both in shock.  It felt like we were way out of place.  A few moments after the Egpytologists left, a French man approached me and asked me about the train.  He, his wife, and four kids were on the same overnight train.  We were what seemed to be the only eight tourists at the stop.  We all set up at the back of the outdoor café and played cards.  Separately that is as he was the only one who knew English.  Kind of fun watching a French family play Uno.  We drank bottled water and played cards to pass the time. 

The overnight train was not bad.  Not good either.  We both were able to sleep, so that is all we could ask.  Check out the video: