So day two of Egypt we decided to head out on our own in Alexandria. When we were driving back to the port the night before we notice a lot of shopping just blocks away from our ship. We had been talking to many people on the ship and they all said that they went out to Alexandria the day before and turned back after about 15 minutes. We didn't fully understand why but off we went. As soon as we left the safety of the port gates we were bombarded by people trying to get us to take their buggy rides, or their taxi, or others still offering to take us here or there and show us around town. They were very persistent. We kept saying no but they don't go away. We had one guy that just started walking with us and talking to us like we were friends. We couldn't shake him. At one point we decided to cross the street to look at stores on the other side. This guy took it upon himself to run out in the crazy traffic and stop it for us. At this point we all just kind of realized he was never going to leave us alone and we might as well accept his help. 
Another man came upon us and told us where we could get some cartouche necklaces. (Cartouche is your name in hieroglyphs) We proceeded to follow him (Our first helper again stopped traffic for us and continued following us) to his store which was down several different alleyways near some mosque that we could hear the call to prayer. Pretty daring don't you think? We picked out the necklaces and bargained for a price of 6 cartouches and chains for 45 euros. We sat and waited for about 30 minutes while they went somewhere to make them. When the cartouches came back the man then told us it was 45 euros for the cartouches and another 45 euros for the chains. We were quite upset about this we had made sure that the price included the chains and the man had assured us, yes that was the price. Brent proceeded to argue about it with him for about 10 minutes. Finally, our friend Mark just paid him his portion of the price and told Brent, "Here we are in some back alley in a muslim country that has many people who hate us and here you are arguing over price?" So we paid the man and left. We decided we were done with Alexandria and headed back to the ship. It was very comforting to get back into the safety of the gates.
What a hassle. Nothing like getting ripped off in Egypt. A story for a lifetime.
1 comment:
So do you all wear the cartouches? They sound cool. If I were visiting I think it would have to be with a time-travel button. Isn't Alexandria the location of an ancient massive library? Too bad it burned down.
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