The tourist bitches from hell

Maybe it is us, we think sometimes, walking around
being impatient, unfriendly and demanding but then we
think if that was the case why did we not have these
problems before?

Today an argument with the car hire people who could
not give us back the large deposit we had left them
just a few hours before and because they were trying
to get us to pay for more petrol which we actually
used - lucrative when it is a whopping EUR 2.10 a
litre! (We begin to understand why they want to
charge USD 800 for a 700 km trip in a Land Cruiser to
Assab).

This scene was followed by us walking out of the
restaurant we normally eat at because the waitress
was so unfriendly and rude when cleaning the table and
giving (well throwing) us the menu. I don't think she
really understood WHY we left, bnut maybe one day she
will. Just hope the poor girl doesn't get the sack
though.

On the other hand, we DO have a great time with the
girls in the bar and restaurant of the Khartoum Hotel
every evening and this has sort of become the
highlight of the day for us!

Anyway, we took a car out of teh city, south to
Dekemhare, as it boasted the name of Naples of Italy
(see Naples and die?), with beautiful countryside,
favoured by artists and local wines and fruit
produce.
We found a dusty market town set amonst some rather
scrappy dry-ish looking countryside. Good for a few
photos of the colourful market and a good
cappuccino, but not much else. Not sure what happened
to the old Italian villas we were supposed to have
found.

Got to go now... to get that deposit back with as few
tears and stamping around as possible.

______________________________

As it happened, all went well, deposit returned and over dinner we had a laugh at ourselves for acting like a couple of spoilt brats. We reckon we have had good reason to get fustrated but really Eritrea has more important things to do than make life easy for us two. And despite the setbacks, we have encountered enough friendliness and kindness for this to have been a positive experience overall, and we wait with baited breath for what the rest of Africa has to offer.