HOLY CRAP
and you have no idea how much frustration and stress was just thrown into that 'Holy Crap'.
We went to go to Israel but got denied because, wait for it,
Renee had a page somehow missing out of her passport. They treated us like criminals, literally. They emptied my bags completely, went through all my things, asked all these questions like "are we carrying weapons of any kind etc?". Then after a few hours of interrorgation they said we will be sent back to Egypt and not allowed into Israel.
So at 2 in the morning we were sent back over the border, and we had to grab a taxi for a 3 hour drive back to Dahab, where we were staying.
Ok. This was all easy compared to what followed.
At Dahab we decided to head back to Cairo early so we could get this passport sorted as we were leaving to Berlin in 2 days.
It turns out that for an emergency passport it takes at least 48 hours to process, not to mention a copy of your birth certificate needing to be officially signed and sent via fax and new passport photos to be taken which also need to be verified by (in this case) an Australian citizen who has known Renee for 6 months or more. We also needed to head to some shithole government building to get a new visa where all they do is tell you to sit and wait AND THAT IS IT! We waited for hours only to be sent back to the embassy because we didnt have the right documents.
We have had to change our flights to Berlin, stay longer at the hotel where we are (which, by the way, means it takes us 1 hour of driving just to get into central Cairo where all this stuff has to occur), and muck around for 4 days trying to get this sorted.
Every taxi driver we get wants to charge us as much as he possibly can because he sees us as white foreigners with lots of money and if we pay what we know is the proper amount they ask for more and try to beat you up. We have had to go to 2 different photo labs and get 24 passport photos taken becuase apparently 23 of them werent good enough and go back and forth between A to B to C to D but finally we have the stupid thing. You have no idea the stress that has happened to us in these last 4 days. Add to that these bloody taxi drivers, the insane choatic transport issue around here, the constant tooting of horns and the stifling heat and you really get pushed to your breaking point. No one knows english fully enough to be able to converse with us on a proper level and tell us exactly what is going on.
And all this for a stupid page ripped out of a passport. We have figured out that it has happened when we handed a passport into a hotel reception for them to do their standard photocopying and the page got ripped out on the photocopier as it was the very page next to the photo ID. If I could grab the guy that did it by his melon head there is no telling what I would do.
So let this be a lesson to everyone that I have had to endure on behalf of you. LOOK AFTER YOUR FRIGGEN PASSPORTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dont let anyone handle them inappropriately. NOT ANYONE - IT IS YOUR PASSPORT AND YOUR PROPERTY AND YOU ARE LITERALLY STUFFED IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO IT. If you have to get an ID copied, give them your drivers licence or something because all of this simply isnt worth it.
It has cost us about $1000 (between us) to sort this whole thing out not to mention the money I may have to give to a psychiatrist to help me get over it all. It was good also that we didnt have to cancel all our flights and hostels as that would have been significatnyl more money lost - more like $3000
................................................
So apart from that everything once we get to Berlin should be sorted. We have 2 days in Berlin, then get a train to Prague and spend a day there before heading back to UK. We originally had 3 days at each place but due to this whole thing means we have shorter stays
I just want to leave this country now. It was good up until this debarcle.
And no, I am not talking out of proportion here. If only words could describe properly the series of events we had to go through.
