Stalking Paul in Europe part 3

Third Location: Naples and Rome, Italy

Naples is built at the place of Potsuola, the port where Paul docked on his way to Rome. Paul sailed to Rome as a prisoner and spent two years under house arrest from 61-63 AD. During this time he wrote the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Some of the books were written with Timothy, a young man who eventually became the Bishop of Ephesus. After his release in 63 A.D., Paul wrote the books of Hebrews, Titus, First Timothy, and Second Timothy.

The ancient city of Pompeii near Naples

Mount Vesuvius view from Pompeii

The famous Colosseum

The Vatican and St. Peter’s Church

Roman Forum

The Amalfi Coast, south of Naples

My Final thoughts:

I thought this trip was amazing! With America having a limited amount of history compared to Europe, traveling there was an unforgettable experience. I regret not paying attention in high school history…History to me has always been such a bore. But after traveling here, I truly began to appreciate the story behind each building and landmark. Stalking Paul and visiting the places that he went to really made him seem more...and this is going to sound corny...real. I always knew he existed but it was always through books, history classes, and Sunday school. It was blessing to have gone on this trip, I loved every minute of it!

My favorite country was Italy, hands down. Most of the famous historic buildings were built during the Roman Empire days and some even before that (ancient Pompeii!). One would need at least a month to explore all of Italy. I also really liked Greece. There’s a strong Roman influence in the structure of most of the buildings but the Greek islands are absolutely gorgeous. The beaches are pristine and it’s very tourist friendly. The Greek islands are known to be the vacation hot spot for many European celebrities, especially the Greek island of Mykonos.

Egypt

"I'll buy you for 12,000 Camels!"
This is the line that a woman will hear from a male merchant when she goes to Egypt. I heard this line being used a couple of times towards women tourists while touring the pyramids. Oddly enough, the guys would increase/decrease the number of camels according to the particular woman they were looking at. My magic number was 12,000. I didn’t know if I should have said thanks or that’s it!?! Instead my answer was, "That’s nice but I’m married…to that big guy over there with the tattoos. He just got out of jail and he’s so excited to be here. Would you like to meet him?"

Ooh, Egypt. This is the country that developed the first paper (papyrus) and holds one of the great wonders of the world, the Great Pyramid in Giza. With such a rich history that started around 3000 BC, it’s almost forgivable that male merchants harass women. I say that because I did go "Ugly American" on a few merchants who harassed and cheated my grandparents onto riding a camel. This story gives me high blood pressure so I will try to make it quick and short.

First off, if you don’t know what "Ugly American" means I’ll define it for you…Straight from wikipedia. Ugly American is a stereotypical offensive American: a loud, boorish, nationalistic American, especially one traveling abroad, who is regarded as conforming to a stereotype that gives Americans a bad reputation.

I only really went "Ugly American" once in my whole life before Egypt. It was in Australia when a Taxi cab driver cheated my roommate and me and told us to pay 5x as much because he thought we were stupid tourists that didn’t know our way around Sydney. Boy, was he wrong…But anyways, that’s another story for another blog.

Back to Egypt…My grandpa was basically coerced to sit on a camel and then they wouldn’t let him down unless we paid them some outrageous price in American dollars. My grandma was so scared; she panicked and took out her traveling passport/wallet that she hid underneath her clothes (Oh, grandma. Let me remind you that my grandma has post traumatic stress from the Vietnam War). They spotted her wads of $20 bills and had a group huddled around her and they started pointing at the money. I ran over there with my Big ugly American mouth and started saying random things about "being an American tourist harassed and taken advantaged by Egyptian merchants….yada yada…This is outrageous…blah, blah, blah…I’ll break your camel’s neck." I honestly don’t remember what I said. I just know that I was pissed and my BP was sky rocketing. Needless to say, things were settled for $5 and he was let down. My poor granny stayed on the tour bus for the rest of the day and missed out on many stops following that. She was paranoid that someone was going to kidnap her. As for my grandpa, he was oblivious that people were taking advantage of him. It was hilarious, actually. After the whole episode, he came up to me and said "did you get a chance to take any pictures of me on the camel?"

The answer was YES.

Three pyramid pictures

The sphinx and pyramid at Giza

(Granny on the right looks all nervous and she's tugging on her passport holder)

Other than that experience, I enjoyed the pyramids and the sphinx. In our visit, we were also able to visit the first pyramid ever built, the step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. We then visited the tomb exhibition of the Pharaoh Ramsey II and ended with a quick glance at the Nile River. We finally finished and made a few stops in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria (named after Alexandria the Great).

Step Pyramid

A tomb statue from Ramsey II

Cairo view of the Great Pyramid

Final thoughts:

To me, Egypt has pyramids, the sphinx, and the Nile River. Once you’ve seen them, you stand in awe, snap a picture, and then you move on.

So, would I go back to Egypt? Maybe…I'd only go back if I am married to a big man with tattoos who just got out of jail. :)