Egypt summer 2011, SHARM EL SHEIKH

After sleeping around three hours we woke up, packed our things and headed to find a taxi. We got the taxi immediatelly and it was this truck of which back space we climbed with our backpags. We had found out that some bus was supposed to leave for Sharm El Sheikh at 10 am. We got to the bus station and saw this one bus taking of when it stopped and some guy hopped out and asked where we were going. It happened to be this earlier bus to Sharm and they took us in. We were really lucky since we didn't have to wait at all and the payment was really small. The bus ride took 1,5 hours and we got off in the middle of nowhere!

Sharm was supposed to be this total tourist location and there was only this long road and nothing beside it! We started walking and taxis after another tried to offer us a ride for CRAZY prices!!! We just kept on walking and walking until I negotiated the price down with one of the taxi drivers. Turned out that the driver didn't understand anything! We had searhed online one hostel (it was the only one in Sharm we could find!) and I remembered some coordinates how to get there. At one point I was sure we should get out but the driver told that he knows better. He took us in front of these big gates from which the tourist area started and of course that wasn't the place where our hostel was supposed to be.. Little hangover, tired, hungry and thirsty (only one big hot water bottle with us) we started walking backwards towards the hostel called Griss Resort in the blazing sunshine. When we finally got there after walking 15-20 minutes, we took our backpacks off and the reception guy asked us if he could help us. We told him that we wanted two beds and he replied to us that they were full. Great! We didn't have any plan B. He told us to go to the near by hotel to ask them if they had room for us. We walked there and they had beds for sure but at what prices! We had gotten used to paying max 7 euros per night per head and they asked around 80 euros! It was all included but we didn't want someone to order the food for us or pay that much! That hotel had a computer at the reception so I asked if I could use it. They answered that sure but you can only play solitaire with it since it doesn't have internet. Thanks, that's excatly what I wanted to do!

We walked back to the big gates to the tourist area and decided to go inside and find some internet cafe to look for cheap hotels. There definitely weren't any other backpackers there! Only basic tourists with all included holidays. The area was so made! If someones been there and seriously tells that has seen Egypt, that's just wrong. There was nothing real Egypt there. The prices were so much more than in anywhere else! For ex. some similar bracelet that I had bought from some small bazaar, I had paid for 3 pounds and they asked 15 or more!?! The water, food, everything was much more than what we had gotten used to! The prices could be 10 times more than in somewhere else in Egypt. The streets were made and no cars were allowed inside the gates. I absolutely hated it! Never want to go there again. No offence, for someone it's the perfect place to relax but for us it was really weird being threated like real tourists. It felt like someother places in Egypt we had been quests for the locals and even became friends with them. In Sharm we were tourists with money.

Well, we walked around 90 minutes before we found an internet cafe! At some point I really felt like fainting so I took my backpack off and sat down in the middle of this shopping mall and one of its corridors to drink pepsi and eat bread and nutella to get some energy. The internet cafe wasn't helpful at all since we didn't know where all the hotels were located, didn't want to walk much anymore and most of them were full or couldn't be booked by two persons only. We paid over three times more for using the net than anywhere else before.

Finally at the hotel, Saija doing business.

We decided to just walk to the nearest hotel and ask for prices. We went to this really expensive looking Camel hotel and I asked for the prices. We wanted the cheapest room and at first the price was 50€ /night /head. And I asked really angrily from this shy boy that was that really the cheapest room in the hotel. After a while he told that oh, there is one cheaper but it doens't have a balcony! Argh. Well we took it and Saija handled everything which was usually my job but I was just too tired. We paid 30€/head/night for our room, the price included breakfast. We went to our room and as soon as my head touched the pillow I fell asleep and we slept for 3 hours!

Our hotel room

The hotel was popular among divers doing their PADI- courses or something like that. The hotel pool was also used practising the first dives. After waking up from our nap we took showers and headed to walk around in the tourist area. People trying to get us to eat places or trying to sell us something. We went to eat at this place where my friend had been and recommended that place. The food was okey but the price was higher than we had gotten used to. We just walked around and soon called it a night and went to our room to take it easy and hang around watching tv. Only a few nights ago we had laughed about how we both kind of hate scary movies and can't even watch the movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer".. I opened up the tv and the movie comes from there!! :D We were brave enough to watch it..

Different short things we had written down to our notebook:

• In Dahab we saw this 10 year old buy who was a total businessman! He spoke perfect english, russia and arabic! He tried to get us buy something from his shop and he also told us that he was learning to speak some other languages. He had all the same lines that the adults in Egypt had and it was so funny that we just laughed to him. He was cute but we didn't buy anything from his shop.

• Some men trying to hit us with the worts hit lines ever. Said to Saija who isn't that good of a swimmer.. : "You're a good swimmer" or said to me while having my hair like a mess and some stupid cap on upside down: " You have a beautiful hat."

• The best selling lines in Finnish that separated them from the other sellers: "Sika halpa" and one guy could sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider in Finnish.

• The lines we heard thousands of times: Where are you from? ; Nokia, Nokia ; Terve terve mitä kuuluu? ; Can you write this for me in Finnish?

• More arabic: Habibi = my love, Yalla = Come on /Let's go

On 19th of June we woke up at 9 to get ready for the breakfast which was great! Totally worth the money. The hotel also had a wifi-connection so I could use the internet for free from my phone. That way we didn't have to pay to use the net even though my phone was a bit slow sometimes. We had slept for 13 hours so we were energetic and were ready to start our final whole day in Egypt. We headed to the hotel's private beach: Viva Beach. We got towels from the hotel and some beach cards. The beach was small and there was nothing to do but to enjoy the sun and once in a while go to swim in this marked area on the water. Not much tourists there. Then we decided to go spent time by our hotel's pool. It was relaxing, there were only us there. I've always liked more swimming pools than beaches. I don't know why, maybe because when I was young we spent more time on the swimming pool in Greece than at beaches because I had said that the sea water hurts eyes and skin when it smarts. Anyway, I don't know the reason. I just like them better, not that much people to watch you or something. 

Then again it was a nap time and after that getting ready to hit the night or at least the evening. We went to eat and afterwards walk around on the streets. Two local boys tried to hit on us and they were really really annoying and even started to follow us. There was no danger since it was a public narrow path with restaurants, hotels and tourists walking next to us. I really had to raise my voice for the boys to get the message through. This older Irish couple watched to show and came to talk and walk with us. They were so cute and nice people! We talked with them at least 10-15 minutes while walking along the paths. They told us to have fun and to enjoy our lives and our travels! :) We separated from them and went to sit at this coffee/bar place where we ordered some last lemon shisha, fruit drinks and ice cream. :) It was our last night but we decided not to go out to find some club to party. We were at bed around 11pm. 

Kiwi, strawberry and mango non-alcohol drink :)