Trains, Tantrums and Pyramids

OK, so I had a nice one all written out here but it got deleted

when the comp crashed in Amman, so this is the cliff notes version.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake....

Checked out and walked to the train station, had to take a cab to get

dollars, foriegners can only pay euros or dollars for wagonlit travel,

who knew. Then walked back to old hotel. "Doorman" hailed us a cab to

the Intercontinental, driver said he knew where he was going, didn't.

Drove us all over the place for hours, asked EVERYBODY for directions

and then ignored them all. Finally said I drive (to somewhere) and then

finished, done. So we said no, take us to the 4 Seasons down the

street. He did, saying pay 150 Egyptian pounds. Well Cook handed him a

fifty and walked away and he started jumping up and down screaming and

running up to people like a crazy person. All this in front of the Four

Seasons mind you. The Four Seasons doorman comes up to Cook and says

"ma'm you just gave him a fifty cent note". See their  change is

in bills and she'd grabbed the wrong one. The doormen said to just give

him 10 and that's all so we did and he left. Then got a cab that

actually knew where it was going and after waiting forever because it

was now rush hour we arrived at the hotel. It had heat and hot mater,

scalding hot water in fact, anf a pool and resturaunts and a zoo. Ate

dinner at a Lebanese resturaunt, oh excellent hummos. Then went to bed

at like 7:30, missed the Invitations Christmas party, regretfully, we

were just so tired.

On Christmas Eve all I had to offer Santa was some gum, which I

dutifully left. In return we got cards and presents, yay! Opened our

gifts then went to breakfast, they were playing Christmas carols and

everything was all decorated cute. Then we went to the Pyramids, oh my

God they are amazing. More people there than we expected but not bad.

Everyone kept saying "oh, too far to walk between them, you'll be very

tired" but they are all really close. Anyway went inside the Great

Pyramid, there are no pictures or reliefs or anything but it is just

amazing that people did that, and it was incredible. Hot inside and a

bit steep at times but way beyond worth it. You can hear the different

sounds it makes. Walked around outside but I will admit that there a

couple things that sully the experience. 1 is the trash everywhere, and

most of it does not come from tourists, 2 is all the camel/horse/donkey

ride guys who follow you forever and are more annoying then flies

buzzing about your head and 3 is all the poo their critters leave

behind. We walked all over and the coolest part was that the guards let

us walk all alone through the site after it was closed so we could get

over by the Sphinx for the sound and lightshow. It was great all we

heard was the sound of birds and the call to prayer. After that killed

time till the sound and lightshow started, no English tonight so

watched it in German, not at all what we'd expected, more a history

lesson with the Pyramids and some colored lights as a backdrop. Then

cab back to the hotel where we had Christmas dinner delivered to our

room, but honestly the room service kinda sucked. It was a completely

different Christmas and at times didn't feel like Christmas at all

since we were not with the family but it was awesome in it's own way.