Port Said, Egypt

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

                             

It is amazing how easy it is to sleep after a three mile walk yesterday.  The intercom woke us at 8:00 this morning and we were surprised it was so late.  We were docked, and immigration was already on board. 

The port was very different from what we remembered from 2001.  At that time we were tied to piers in the harbor and we were connected to the dock by a series of floating pontoons.  We had arrived after dark in 2001 so we don’t have much recollection of the city.  In the middle of that night the winds started to howl and we watched from our balcony as our ship, The Royal Princess, in extremely strong winds blew into a partially off-loaded container ship.  The alarms rang and we all had to scurry to our muster stations.  (Just imagine what sleeping gear or lack thereof looks like under a bright orange life vests).  Two ladies, looking rather sheepishly, showed up without life jackets – they had run out of room in their closet so they stuffed their life jackets into their suitcases and sent them down to the luggage hold.  Two of our tablemates at the time got in to quite an argument when Jack told Gail that he couldn’t find “HER” life jacket.  Barney put his name on both of our jackets once we returned to the cabin, just in case.  The experience was frightening but now it seems like just a good story.  The ship was safe although it did sustain quite a bit of damage to the exterior and one propeller.  When we returned from our shore excursion the broken windows were boarded up, the scrapes were painted over and the damaged decks were cordoned off.  The  propeller couldn’t be fixed and we “limped” along on the rest of the cruise since we were in the Mediterranean and didn’t have many days left. 

From what we remembered of Port Said, we weren’t even sure if we would get off the ship, but while having breakfast on the Lido deck we saw a wonderful fleet of fishing vessels and a beautiful Mosque towering over the city so we decided to set out on our own.  We think that Wednesday must be laundry day here in Port Said as nearly every building was flying the laundry like flags. 

  

                

The traffic and hawkers were much more tolerable here than in Alexandria.  The port area was filled with men and their wares and once we exited the gates through immigration, we were met by the carriage drivers.  A polite “NO” handled most of them as we explained that we just wanted to walk and experience the city.   

    

A few blocks from the ship we heard loud moaning sounds as if they were coming over a loud speaker.  We soon discovered a Memorial had been set up in honor of the young men and women from Port Said who had given their lives in the Cairo uprisings.  It was extremely moving – sorrow and grief are the same in any language.  One Egyptian man talked to us for a long time discussing the conflict and encouraged us to take pictures.  He wanted to share his cup of coffee with us (that is the custom) but we politely declined. 

   

We continued our walk through the city and were greeted enthusiastically by the Egyptian people.   The ship had given us a list of Egyptian Culture and Customs in hopes that none of us would set off an international incident.  The suggestion: “Always use your right hand instead of your left hand when gesturing, eating and greeting.” did give me a bit of a challenge – my camera was always in my right hand.

  

  

The call to prayer lead us directly to one of the many Mosques.  The detail, both inside and out was very impressive.

       

  

As we were nearing the ship we walked by a lot of local people who had come to the pier to see the ship.  One local family wanted to talk and asked if we wanted to take their picture.  They encouraged me to join in with their family.  Mohammed explained that his English wasn’t very good, but Barney explained it was better than our Arabic.  They laughed.  It wasn’t long until a young man came up and wanted to “talk to the Americans”.  He was a college graduate, but couldn’t find a job, and he wanted to debate our political involvement all over the world.  Barney was very tactful, but I don’t think either mind was swayed. 

    

We spent a relaxing afternoon in the cabin and even took time to watch “Cairo Time” a flick that was showing on the ship’s TV.  We slipped out on the verandah occasionally to watch the northbound convoy of freighters exit the Suez canal.   We’re planning for another relaxing dinner (steaks grilled to order) on the Lido Deck and then early to bed.

We meet the immigration officials at 6:30 tomorrow morning in preparation for our day long journey to Jerusalem from Ashdod.  We set our clocks ahead tonight (for the eighth time) so our early meeting will seem even earlier.  We just found out that the tour we are scheduled for in Haifa will not be able to enter most of the places that had been scheduled since it is Good Friday.  We are quickly trying to line up a private tour for there now, as we think we will have a better chance of visiting the sites if we are not on a tour bus…wish us well. 

The blog for both of those days may have to wait until our sea day on April 23rd.  Until then, know that all of you will be in our hearts as we visit these wonderful holy sights on these holiest of holy days.