Exterior of the Colosseum
Interior of the Colosseum. This made me want to watch Gladiator...which I did when I returned to Cairo.
The Arch of Constantine, located just outside the Colosseum
Later on, Amy and I went out to dinner at a restaurant called "Est! Est!! Est!!!" and I had the best pizza of my life - of the Four Cheese variety - and a delicious house wine.
To cap off our long day (all of these posts from Rome were from the same day!), we went to an Irish sports bar about ten minutes away from the hostel to watch El Clasico, the FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid soccer match. I wore my cheap Barca jersey from Chile and soon after we got to the bar, a few Spanish fans of Barca filed in. In the end there were about four or five Barca fans and one Madrid fan.
El Clasico is usually a tightly-contested match (they play twice a year, once in each city), no matter how each team had been playing for the past few games. So despite the fact that Barca was clear ahead of the table and Madrid was sitting slightly above the middle of the pack and struggling, no one was anticipating an easy win for the good guys. It turned out to be a defensive game for the most part, with a few good chances here and there, but it wasn't until seven minutes remaining in the game that Samuel Eto'o wobbled in a cross to the back of the net to put Barca up 1-0.
Leo Messi followed this with a beautiful chip over the goalie in injury time to get to the final score of 2-0 for Barca.
The next day I got on the train to the airport and flew back to Cairo. I had an amazing trip, even if the Egyptian Pound - Euro conversion rate robbed me throughout the trip. I had the opportunity to catch up with three friends I see more of outside the U.S. than I do in it, including two I hadn't seen in two and a half years. I also got a brief visit with relatives in Lyon. It was a much needed breath of fresh air from the pollution and waste of Cairo.
This is a view of my island from the plane. I marked where I live. It's good to be home...sort of.
1 comment:
That Madrid fan was also the most fanatic one! And I supported Madrid as well of course :-D Barca were just lucky that Real selected Drenthe.
And why are your pictures so much more beautiful than mine? ;-)
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